"Southern Comfort" was the hardest picture I ever did. We started on the Monday after Thanksgiving and went until the 21st of March with 2 weeks off for Christmas. We were in the water every day save for the last 2 weeks when we shot the Boucherie scene on dry land. It's cold in Texas in the winter. the prop men would rake the ice that formed over night out of the shot. Walter and Andy would walk out into the swamp that bordered the road where we had the trucks looking for the day's location, sometimes it was 100 yds sometimes 300 yds. Everything the camera dept. used had to be carried and then propped up on Cyprus knees. The actors wore wet suits under their fatigues, we wore waders which weren't insulated against the cold, all of us wore them so we were all in the same boat as it were. We virtually emptied the camera truck every day. That was my second picture with Walter, I did "The Long Riders" with him as well, he was a wonderful director to work with. "Southern Comfort" pushed all of us to our limits and was anything but comfortable, then again compared to VN it was a piece of cake. I haven't looked at the IMDB in very many years, it was just getting started when I last looked at it and it had missed about 2/3 of the films that I had worked on, I probably ought to go in and adjust the record now that I'm retired. You probably saw a lot of my work, I think I worked on over 50 pictures, I loved the energy of collaborating with so many really brilliant people on one thing, we were all focused on making the best possible picture that we could, it was magical, but then you know that.
That's what I thought you'd say about that movie. Every time someone I know tells me about what's going on in Duh Biz, I thank my lucky stars I'm out. All the stuff I used to hate is all the stuff that goes on these days. I used to go to the movies every Friday, to see what was new. Before the Pandemic, I think I had seen a total of ten movies in a theater over the 15 years before. Sorry, I gave up comic books when I was 10 - movies for pre-pubescent boys don't interest me. Thank god for Turner and the Criterion Collection.
When I lived in LA prior to 2005 I would often go to screenings at the DGA which I thought had the best screen in town until maybe the old cinerama reopened. I don't know who they are making movies for today but it sure isn't me. Apple released last year a film about a destroyer commander in the North Atlantic escorting convoys during WWII. They shot it in either 6K or 8K and released it in 4K, it was beautifully photographed and looked great on my home theatre but the sound sucked, maybe it was my mix, it would have never gotten off a studio lot sounding like that, I know for sure. Springsteen released a film about making a new album at his home studio with the E Street Band that was tasty and sounded very good, Too many drone shots for my taste but the B&W reminded me of the 30's and 40's when the master cinematographers were working. God help us but there really isn't much to get excited about. Oh, "The Irishman" was very good as well. I have a buddy that's been working on the TCM shows for 20 or more years, he does all of the crane moves. Robert loved his energy so much tat he made him basically un-fireable which is a trick with Turner because they eat people, I'll tell him how much you like the show, he'll like that.
Yeah, Greyhound (the destroyer movie) looked good, for shooting on a tincan tied up to a dock in N'Awlins. And yes, the sound sucked here., too. My old writing mentor, Wendell Mayes, wrote "The Enemy Below," which is still the best of that kind of movie.
Lookin' forward to the Sopranos prequel in October.
Stuff for people like us is now done on streaming channels, which from what I read about the work is a step down from working for Corman, situation-wise, but like the good stuff of Corman because you get to do stories *about* something.
Corman, considering that he ran a film factory ended up starting a lot of great careers. You are right, stories are what our lives are about and that is what the best films have always been about. I wasn't aware of the Sopranos prequel, I will want to see it, I saw every episode of the series when it was fresh out of the can. It was good but I would put it up against "Deadwood" which my old friend Walter Hill was the motivating force for, both of those shows were made for adults. If you haven't seen the Springsteen film you should, it was all about the creative process of making an album with people he hadn't worked with in years, who were all our age for the most part, and how they managed to put together 2 songs a day, with total respect for each other and mastery of their craft. It was the best thing I've seen this year, it doesn't hurt that I like his music, but it was really about the creative process.
As to Corman, when I look at the list of fellow graduates of the Roger Corman Film School (I even got to get one of the jackets), I'm just glad to be there on the list.
I have a very funny story about how The Terror Within got created and made (and turned into his biggest-grossing hit ever). Maybe I'll tell it sometime here and put in a link to the movie, which can be found on YouTube nowadays (I'll link the one that hasn't been cut)
The Sopranos sequel is "The Many Saints of Newark". the central characters is Christopher's legendary father Dickie, its about a "war" he fights around the 1967 Newark riots. A teenage Tony Soprano is played by Gandolfini's son. First air date on HBOMax is October 1.
Well, just looked you up in the IMDb. I've seen and liked your work. "Southern Comfort" must have been damn hard.
"Southern Comfort" was the hardest picture I ever did. We started on the Monday after Thanksgiving and went until the 21st of March with 2 weeks off for Christmas. We were in the water every day save for the last 2 weeks when we shot the Boucherie scene on dry land. It's cold in Texas in the winter. the prop men would rake the ice that formed over night out of the shot. Walter and Andy would walk out into the swamp that bordered the road where we had the trucks looking for the day's location, sometimes it was 100 yds sometimes 300 yds. Everything the camera dept. used had to be carried and then propped up on Cyprus knees. The actors wore wet suits under their fatigues, we wore waders which weren't insulated against the cold, all of us wore them so we were all in the same boat as it were. We virtually emptied the camera truck every day. That was my second picture with Walter, I did "The Long Riders" with him as well, he was a wonderful director to work with. "Southern Comfort" pushed all of us to our limits and was anything but comfortable, then again compared to VN it was a piece of cake. I haven't looked at the IMDB in very many years, it was just getting started when I last looked at it and it had missed about 2/3 of the films that I had worked on, I probably ought to go in and adjust the record now that I'm retired. You probably saw a lot of my work, I think I worked on over 50 pictures, I loved the energy of collaborating with so many really brilliant people on one thing, we were all focused on making the best possible picture that we could, it was magical, but then you know that.
That's what I thought you'd say about that movie. Every time someone I know tells me about what's going on in Duh Biz, I thank my lucky stars I'm out. All the stuff I used to hate is all the stuff that goes on these days. I used to go to the movies every Friday, to see what was new. Before the Pandemic, I think I had seen a total of ten movies in a theater over the 15 years before. Sorry, I gave up comic books when I was 10 - movies for pre-pubescent boys don't interest me. Thank god for Turner and the Criterion Collection.
When I lived in LA prior to 2005 I would often go to screenings at the DGA which I thought had the best screen in town until maybe the old cinerama reopened. I don't know who they are making movies for today but it sure isn't me. Apple released last year a film about a destroyer commander in the North Atlantic escorting convoys during WWII. They shot it in either 6K or 8K and released it in 4K, it was beautifully photographed and looked great on my home theatre but the sound sucked, maybe it was my mix, it would have never gotten off a studio lot sounding like that, I know for sure. Springsteen released a film about making a new album at his home studio with the E Street Band that was tasty and sounded very good, Too many drone shots for my taste but the B&W reminded me of the 30's and 40's when the master cinematographers were working. God help us but there really isn't much to get excited about. Oh, "The Irishman" was very good as well. I have a buddy that's been working on the TCM shows for 20 or more years, he does all of the crane moves. Robert loved his energy so much tat he made him basically un-fireable which is a trick with Turner because they eat people, I'll tell him how much you like the show, he'll like that.
Yeah, Greyhound (the destroyer movie) looked good, for shooting on a tincan tied up to a dock in N'Awlins. And yes, the sound sucked here., too. My old writing mentor, Wendell Mayes, wrote "The Enemy Below," which is still the best of that kind of movie.
Lookin' forward to the Sopranos prequel in October.
Stuff for people like us is now done on streaming channels, which from what I read about the work is a step down from working for Corman, situation-wise, but like the good stuff of Corman because you get to do stories *about* something.
Corman, considering that he ran a film factory ended up starting a lot of great careers. You are right, stories are what our lives are about and that is what the best films have always been about. I wasn't aware of the Sopranos prequel, I will want to see it, I saw every episode of the series when it was fresh out of the can. It was good but I would put it up against "Deadwood" which my old friend Walter Hill was the motivating force for, both of those shows were made for adults. If you haven't seen the Springsteen film you should, it was all about the creative process of making an album with people he hadn't worked with in years, who were all our age for the most part, and how they managed to put together 2 songs a day, with total respect for each other and mastery of their craft. It was the best thing I've seen this year, it doesn't hurt that I like his music, but it was really about the creative process.
Also, I loved Deadwood. Best western ever.
As to Corman, when I look at the list of fellow graduates of the Roger Corman Film School (I even got to get one of the jackets), I'm just glad to be there on the list.
I have a very funny story about how The Terror Within got created and made (and turned into his biggest-grossing hit ever). Maybe I'll tell it sometime here and put in a link to the movie, which can be found on YouTube nowadays (I'll link the one that hasn't been cut)
The Sopranos sequel is "The Many Saints of Newark". the central characters is Christopher's legendary father Dickie, its about a "war" he fights around the 1967 Newark riots. A teenage Tony Soprano is played by Gandolfini's son. First air date on HBOMax is October 1.