HAPPY NEW YEAR!

by Gina Sestak

No, I'm not completely crazy.  I'm just acknowledging the fact that, for the first few decades of our lives, we are trained to believe that the year begins on the first day of school.  Right around Labor Day.

I'm a grown-up now, I know.   I run on adult time.  I celebrate on January 1.  I think about the year as coinciding with the date.   Still, a part of me can't help getting excited and looking forward to new things each time September rolls around.

And so, I'd like to take this opportunity to assess the year so far.  How am I doing with those five non-resolutions I proposed to follow in my January post?

In case you've forgotten, here they are:

1.   Watch movies.  I love movies in general, but I've developed an unquenchable addiction to Bollywood films in general and those starring Shah Rukh Khan in particular.   He's the world's greatest actor, and that's no lie.

I haven't changed my opinion of Mr. Khan one bit.  In fact, now that I've completed another acting for the camera class at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, I'm more impressed with him than ever.

Watch this trailer for My Name is Khan, a film in which he plays a Muslim immigrant with Asperger's Syndrome, coping with life in the US after 9/11.  It's a film I recommend to everyone, particularly at this time of the year:

My fondness for Hindi films has developed into a full-blown addiction - if you don't believe me, see below for proof.

But now, back to the non-resolutions:

2.   Dance.  Folk dancing is a long-time passion (maybe one reason I like Bollywood so much).  I'm clumsy by nature, but once I get into the flow, the music carries me.  And it's such a treat to be moving in unison with other people for a change, in contrast to my usual sense of being a square peg in a round world.

I had been folk dancing almost every week up until three weeks ago, when I injured my left leg somehow.  I'm not sure exactly what went wrong, but the pain's well-nigh unbearable.  I'm getting treatment and it feels much better now than it did last week, so I'm hopeful.  Still, I didn't bother signing up for the mid-September dance camp I usually go to.  Bummer.

3.   Learn.  I bit the bullet and registered for two more courses at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  As I've mentioned in past posts, Filmmakers' classes tend to be labor intensive, requiring many hours of outside work.  And the Acting for the Camera course I took last semester turned out to be one of the most terrifying things I've ever done, stripping down self image and exposing all the flaws, not only in surface appearance but in my very way of being in the world.  So I signed up for the follow up class, and for a short writing course on Screenplay Character Development.  I figure that can't hurt. 

Those classes are over now and, yes, that Advanced Acting for the Camera class was pretty scary.  For the first time in a few years, though, I haven't registered for a Pittsburgh Filmmakers class this semester.  I am auditing an undergraduate film class at Pitt - Bollywood and Indian Cinema.  [See what I mean about addiction?  Can't get enough of it.]  I'm also taking a short course on Favorite Foreign Films through Pitt's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, although I have it on good authority that no Bollywood films will be included.  [My good authority is Dave Shifren, the instructor, who's not as enthralled with Indian cinema as I am.]  Oh, and Nancy Martin's on-line course on Subtext.  This is in addition to the cd-based Hindi lessons I've been doing for a half-hour every morning for the past few months.  I really want to be able to enjoy the films without being so dependent on the subtitles!

4.   Write.  The other day, when I mentioned the screenplays, etc. I've been working on, a friend said, "You have so much self-discipline!"  I had to correct her.  It would take more discipline than I possess to make myself stop writing.  I did more collaborative writing last year, on three of the screenplays, and that's a special kind of fun, even when nobody provides a special cake.  [See my December 20, 2010 post for details.]  Maybe that's one of the things I like about filmmaking - it takes a village to make a movie, and just being part of such a creative process is incredibly energizing.

I've started working on another screenplay with Michael Lies of Alcyone Pictures, as well as continuing to revise some of my unpublished manuscripts.  

5.   Try things I've never done before.  To that end, I'm pitching a class to a Pitt program on a subject near and dear to my heart - more on that later, once I find out if it flies or not. 

I pitched the class and taught it through Pitt's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.  The subject?  You can probably guess.  It was  King of Bollywood: The Films of Shah Rukh Khan.  Need I say more?

How has your year been progressing?  Have you been keeping resolutions?  Developing addictions?   Are you ready for the school year to begin?  Inquiring minds want to know.

TRYING SOMETHING NEW

by Gina Sestak

I mentioned a few months back that I might be trying something new this summer.  I promised to let you know if it came through.  So far, so good.  It's starting to look like it will come to pass.

What the @#$!&*@ is she talking about? you may be wondering.  Well, I'll tell you.  Remember when I started posting here I used to write about the dozens of jobs I've held?  Wall painter, movie extra, lawyer, waitress, writer, salesclerk, etc., etc. - sometimes it seems as if I've done almost everything.  One notable exception to the list of trades was teacher.  It's not that I've never taught.  It's just that my teaching experience is limited to a few adult education courses many years ago on boring-sounding topics like "How to Incorporate Yourself."

Not that I haven't seen a lot of teaching from the far side of the lecturn.  Kindergarten, grade school, college, law school, dozens of adult education classes, and my current foray into film school.  I know what teaching looks like.  And I know what kind of courses I like to take.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and pitched a course myself, to the University of Pittsburgh's Osher Life Learning Institute.  OLLI is a special program for students who are fifty years of age or older.  For a reasonable flat fee ($225 per year, less for shorter memberships) you can take as many OLLI courses as you want, plus audit up to two undergraduate classes per semester.  It's an amazing bargain for those of us who like to learn, but don't take my word for it.  Take a look at the catalogue.  Over the past few years, I've taken classes on dozens of subjects that piqued my interest - mostly related to writing, film and music - and gone on day trips to places like the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and the Lucy and Desi Museum.

This summer, if all goes according to plan, I'll be teaching a three-day course on one of my favorite topics, Bollywood movies.

If you've been following my posts, you know Indian cinema has become an obsession of sorts.  [BTW, the Silk Screen Film Festival is going on right now in Pittsburgh, featuring dozens of Asian and Asian-American films, including a few from India.]  My course will focus on the work of a particular actor, Shah Rukh Khan.  

I've seen more than 60 of his films, and his acting shines in every one.  Romance, drama, action, comedy.  This guy can do it all.  OLLI wouldn't let me show dozens of movies, though.  I'll be showing three and, because the films are long (averaging 3-4 hours), the classes will be split - half a movie in the morning, the rest of the movie in the afternoon.  Luckily, the three I plan to show come with built in intermissions.

I took a Bollywood film course through OLLI last year and the instructor - who was much more knowledgeable on the subject than I will ever be - was reduced to showing part of a film one week and the rest a week later.  I didn't want to do that.  You lose too much by breaking a film up that way.

Anyway, I thought I'd give you a taste of the films I'll be offering.  It was really hard to choose.  I had to by-pass some of my favorites to come up with a selection.  I decided to choose based upon a variety of time periods in which the films are set.   Dilwale Duhenia Le Jayenge is relatively contemporary;  Devdas is set about a hundred years ago; and Asoka takes place in the 3rd Century BCE.  Every one of this films is worth seeing - and they're not just about romance.  There are serious themes in there.

Dilwale Dulhenia Le Jeyenge (released in 1995) begins with London-raised Raj and Simran meeting on a tour of Europe.  They fall in love, but Simran's father has arranged her marriage to a man in India.  Raj follows and tries to break up the match.

Based upon an early 20th Century novel, Devdas (2002) tells the story of a London-educated young man who bows to family pressure to give up the woman he loves, only to sink into alcoholism and despair.

Asoka (2001) is based on the true story of a man who built an empire with his sword then, overwhelmed by the horror of the destruction he had caused, forswore violence and became instrumental in the early spread of Buddhism.

All good movies.

So, wish me luck, OK?  It will be an adventure.

MURDER YOUR DARLINGS

by Gina Sestak

"Murder your darlings."  We've heard that command before.  It generally refers to slaughtering our favorite words and phrases.  I'm using it in a different sense today.  I'm talking about killing off our characters.

Don't think for a minute this is easy.  Characters are real to us.  They live within our minds, offer guidance on our plots, let us know their innermost desires.  Killing them can be traumatic for the writer.

Let me back up a little and explain why I'm writing about this on a rainy Monday morning.  I'm not in the process of disposing of anyone in my WIP, thank goodness.  That's hard enough.  No.  Today I'm finishing up another kind of project.

I've mentioned before that I've been taking classes at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  I've just completed a short course on Screenplay Character Development and am in the process of finishing up the final project for Advanced Acting for the Camera.   That's where the murdering comes in.

Let me back up even further.  Last year I took an Acting for the Camera class.  It was a horrifying experience, not only because I look so utterly dreadful on screen, but because the camera picks up and emphasizes every flaw in a performance, no matter how minor.  It's frightening to watch.  That class required a final on-screen monologue, lifted from a real movie.  The idea wasn't to imitate the actor who'd originally done the scene, but to do it as if you had been cast in the part.  I chose to take my scene from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the section where the old witch (played brilliantly by Geraldine McEwan in the original) warns the Sheriff of Nottingham about what the future might hold and tells him the truth about his background.   It worked out fine.  I got an "A" in the class.

For the present class, students were required to pick a particular actor to study.   Of course, as those of you who have been reading my posts about my Bollywood addiction might suspect, my first choice was Shah Rukh Khan.

The instructor wouldn't let me use him.  His films aren't in English, for one thing, although he does have some spectacular monologues in Hindi.  I had to find somebody else.  I thought about another favorite, Alan Rickman,

but he doesn't have that many monologues to choose from and I didn't think I could get away with spending three minutes on screen looking shifty-eyed.   I finally settled on Emma Thompson.

Which brings me back to the topic of this post.  The obvious choice of monologue would have been the scene from Sense and Sensibility when Elinor reveals to Marianne that she really does have feelings. I didn't make the obvious choice because another scene was calling out to me, a scene from Stranger Than Fiction.  Has everybody seen that film?  It's brilliant.  Emma Thompson plays a writer, Karen Eiffel, who ---   But let's just watch the trailer:

See the connection?  For my final project, I will be performing a monologue about trying to figure out the best way to kill off Harold Crick, a scene we can all identify with.

Wish me luck, okay?

INTO THE FUTURE

by Gina Sestak

OK, I admit it.  I'm a bit behind the times.  Ten days, to be exact.  That's no reason not to celebrate, though, is it?

I didn't go out on New Year's Eve - stayed home and drank pomegranate juice instead of champagne, getting high on antioxidents.

I don't have anything against drinking alcohol.  It just tends to make me sleepy, and I'm tired enough already that I don't need help from chemicals.

I started this year with no expectations.  I'm not anticipating finally getting a novel published.  I don't have any WIP I need to finish.  I'm crossing my fingers on those Steeltown Entertainment Project entries, but not holding my breath.  As for the two feature-length screenplays, I'm still doing everything I can to get them made into movies.  At this point, that's a money issue, best left to folks who know about that kind of thing, but believe me, if I hit the Powerball, I know what I'll be doing with my millions!

I haven't made any resolutions, but my plan for this year is to do things that are fun.  So here's my top five list of things I plan to do this year just for my own amusement:

1.   Watch movies.  I love movies in general, but I've developed an unquenchable addiction to Bollywood films in general and those starring Shah Rukh Khan in particular.   He's the world's greatest actor, and that's no lie.



2.   Dance.  Folk dancing is a long-time passion (maybe one reason I like Bollywood so much).  I'm clumsy by nature, but once I get into the flow, the music carries me.  And it's such a treat to be moving in unison with other people for a change, in contrast to my usual sense of being a square peg in a round world.

3.   Learn.  I bit the bullet and registered for two more courses at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  As I've mentioned in past posts, Filmmakers' classes tend to be labor intensive, requiring many hours of outside work.  And the Acting for the Camera course I took last semester turned out to be one of the most terrifying things I've ever done, stripping down self image and exposing all the flaws, not only in surface appearance but in my very way of being in the world.  So I signed up for the follow up class, and for a short writing course on Screenplay Character Development.  I figure that can't hurt.

4.   Write.  The other day, when I mentioned the screenplays, etc. I've been working on, a friend said, "You have so much self-discipline!"  I had to correct her.  It would take more discipline than I possess to make myself stop writing.  I did more collaborative writing last year, on three of the screenplays, and that's a special kind of fun, even when nobody provides a special cake.  [See my December 20, 2010 post for details.]  Maybe that's one of the things I like about filmmaking - it takes a village to make a movie, and just being part of such a creative process is incredibly energizing.

5.   Try things I've never done before.  To that end, I'm pitching a class to a Pitt program on a subject near and dear to my heart - more on that later, once I find out if it flies or not.

I don't think these can count as resolutions.  Resolutions for me have always boiled down to: Stop being the way I am and start being the way I'm not.  These are different.  They're more along the line of:  Start being the way I really am.  Have fun.

How about you?  What are your plans for 2011?

SING! DANCE! ACT!

by Gina Sestak

The theme of the month is things for which we are thankful.

Everyone who's been reading my posts for the last few years knows I love movies, so it's a no-brainer that I'm thankful for cinema magic.  What you may not know is that my very favorite form of film is the musical, so I guess I'm thankful for those most of all.

Huh?  you may ask.  Aren't musicals kind of silly?  I mean, people breaking into song in public places, suddenly dancing in the street and wearing fancy costumes.  That's not realistic!

So who said movies have to be realistic?  The characters on film change size from tiny little ants seen from a high-set window to massive faces speaking at us from the screen.  They travel in a matter of seconds from LA to London or the jungles of Vietnam or the deserts of North Africa.  One person can age 30 years in minutes, be born, grow up and die before we finish eating half that tub of popcorn.

Movies are not realistic.  They are works of art, and musical sequences add a subtext of emotion that may be difficult, if not impossible, to express solely through dialogue.

[Unfortunately, I had trouble importing youtube videos into this post, so you'll have to click on the links to view the musical interludes mentioned below.]

I first realized I loved musicals when I saw Oliver!, the song-and-dance version of Oliver Twist.  Watch how this scene captures the young orphan's wonder at the bustle of London life, while keeping Dickens' focus on the contrast between poverty and wealth.  Spectacular, isn't it?  Can you imagine replacing it with dialogue?
       Oliver:    It's nice to wake up in a clean room instead of with those other kids at Fagin's.
       Servant:  Just look out the window.  [Scene of people hawking wares in street.]
       Oliver:    Wow.  Having money really makes a difference, even though there are a few things money can't buy.
Doesn't have the same magic, does it?

My favorite film of all time is Reefer Madness - The Movie Musical.   No kidding.  This version of the 1930s anti-drug movie is a hilarious satire that questions both the dictates of a misinformed government and the power of manipulated peer pressure.  Not to mention featuring one of the most extreme reactions to a toke imaginable, when innocent high school student Jimmy is lured to the reefer den with the promise of a dance lesson.  Watch this.  [Warning - it's a bit risque, with near nudity and sexual content.  If you think you'd be offended, please ignore this link.]  If you really want to be offended, watch this one, too.  If you prefer something tame and literary, or would like to see what Jimmy was like before encountering the evil weed, try this.

Then there's Mamma Mia, the story of a woman who comes face to face with her past when old friends and lovers come to attend her daughter's wedding.  Here's a sample, full of infectious exuberance.  [Oops.  That's kind of risque, too, but only a little.  Blink when Christine Baranski takes the red flower out of the vase and you'll miss it.]  Who would have thought Julie Walters (Ron's mom in the Harry Potter films) could move like that?  Or Meryl Streep?

Lately, I've been getting into Bollywood films, one of the more extreme versions of the movie musical.  The incomprehensibility of the lyrics bothers a word-oriented English-speaker like myself, but the amazing dancing more than makes up for that.  Witness the following sequence from Dil Se, a serious movie in which a radio reporter (played by Shah Rukh Khan, the guy in the red jacket) falls in love with a mysterious woman who has a dangerous secret.  I originally saw this video playing on a screen in an Indian restaurant, and didn't realize it was from a film.  My first thought was, "Those people are out of their minds!"

My current favorite Bollywood film is Om Shanti Om (click this link to watch the trailer), which pokes fun at films and stardom but has a wonderful (albeit strange) story line of love and loss, murder and justice, death and rebirth.  It was hard to pick something from it to link to - I like it all.  There's a long party scene in which many of the stars of Indian cinema make cameo appearances, and a hilarious music video called The Pain of Disco.  I finally decided to include this sequence, in which a Bollywood bit player (Shah Rukh Khan again), who has a major crush on a superstar, imagines himself in her latest movie.  I really like this silly stuff.

What's all this got to do with writing? you've probably been wondering.  A lot.  There's more to writing than putting words down on a page, or crafting an accurate description.  We have to convey emotion, too, and make our words do the work of the performers in these videos.  Our words have to sing and dance and act upon the emotions of the reader.  That's what separates well-written prose from a traffic report, in my humble opinion.

So, how do you feel about musicals?  Love them?  Hate them?  Please comment below and, if you like musical movies, what is your favorite?  Why?