WOODY ON WRITING

"That's where 90 percent of everything fails, is in the writing. It usually doesn't fail in the acting, and it usually doesn't fail in the directing. It fails in the writing".

"First you write the script. Then you write it down".

NOTHING IS ORIGINAL

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to."

- Jim Jarmusch

MURMUR

I've been listening to this album non-stop recently. Ah, 1983...

THE BIRTHPLACE OF TAIWANESE NEW WAVE

I just watched Midnight in Paris this weekend - In one of my favorite scenes, Owen Wilson's character, having been magically transported to 1920's Paris, runs back one night to find that the same cafe he was just drinking with Ernest Hemingway at is now (in the present day), a laundromat.

Last week I was walking around Taipei with a friend, who pointed out the area where Edward Yang's family home used to be. Almost 30 years ago, this is where Edward and other notable directors of the Taiwanese New Wave (Hou Hsiao Hsien, Wu Nian Jen) used to hang out and watch movies together and talk about how they were going to change the Taiwanese film industry. Apparently after Edward passed away, a few people tried to get the government to preserve the building, a colonial Japanese-style home, for its significance in Taiwanese film history. The building was torn down anyway, and now in its place...an internet cafe.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Midnight in Paris finally opens in Taipei this weekend. I am giddy like a schoolgirl.

SILENT BOB RETIRES

Kevin Smith has apparently decided to retire from filmmaking at age 40, citing the fact that he's really never mastered the art of visual storytelling, and that for him to keep going would only result in diminishing returns. Also, it seems like he's got plenty of other interests (podcasts, comics, etc.) going on in his life that he wants to now focus on.

I haven't seen any Kevin Smith movies in a while, but I still remember during my junior year of a high school, one of my friends telling me about Clerks and how it was one of the funniest movies he'd ever seen. My buddies and I found a store that rented the VHS, and we must have watched it at least three times in one weekend. By the next week at school, we were all doing Jay impressions and talking about the independent contractors that died so needlessly on the Death Star.

ps - my favorite one is Chasing Amy.

LANE 256

I'm not sure why it took me three months to edit a 5 minute short film, but somehow it did.

We finished the color-correction today for Lane 256, a 5 minute short that will be part of a feature-length omnibus that premieres as the opening film of the Golden Horse Film Festival later this year. There will be twenty shorts in total, all of which are supposed to be exactly 5 minutes.

In a decision that was either really cool or kind of stupid, we shot the short on expired super 16mm film stock.