SHORT: "On the Boulevard" production diary

It’s incredible how film festivals are still around; one significant positive for the industry.

I FINALLY got around to checking this out. Watching anything that’s more than 1-2 minutes is very difficult for me but I focused.

Although I'm not the target audience for this type of humor/talking, I think I saw the term here somewhere a few months ago, it came out nice, and congrats on the win and all of the acceptances!
 
NorBro said:
It’s incredible how film festivals are still around; one significant positive for the industry.

I FINALLY got around to checking this out. Watching anything that’s more than 1-2 minutes is very difficult for me but I focused.

Although I'm not the target audience for this type of humor/talking, I think I saw the term here somewhere a few months ago, it came out nice, and congrats on the win and all of the acceptances!
Click to expand...
Thank you for pushing through it!

re: festivals...there are hundreds (thousands?!) I think FilmFreeway has revolutionized that end of the industry and allowed for many more small festivals to pop up and become funded. It's a bit overwhelming honestly!
 
Ok Mr. Papert, here is my review that all have been breathlessly waiting for, first off we all know you’re a top level craftsman that probably none of us here will ever reach. I liked your movie and the quality was excellent. My only real critique I have (and I feel this about Tarantino too, so you’re in good company, plus i want to offer some criticism otherwise I’m just slapping you on the back and that’s worthless) is it feels like it’s made by someone immersed in movies and the history of cinema, and I ultimately want to feel something beyond that from a filmmaker. An extra dose of Charlie Kaufman and a smidge less Tarantino. That’s just my taste…for whatever that’s worth. Thank you for sharing and consistently bringing wisdom to this corner of the web. What’s next?
 
Appreciate your take, Matt, and I'd like to hear more. Can you give me a more concrete example, or suggestion? Such as, where did it not push as far as it could have.

I don't know if I included a concise mission statement in the previous pages, but the goal was to a) make a comedy and b) give a nod to the genre and the history of the location. While I've seen a certain amount of film noirs, it's not necessarily a favored genre of mine, so I had to crash-course it a bit. Mostly I just wanted to set up a reasonably tight recreation of a 1940's film, which then gave me the freedom to break out of that for comedic purposes. I think of Kaufman's setups as being kind of mind-bending, quirky and high concept, while the style of my film is just meant as a setup for jokes, like pho broth is the delivery medium for the noodles.
 
I just want to reiterate that your craftsmanship is superb and my critique is simply based on my preference and really nothing to do with the quality of your work. That being said, to elaborate a bit, I enjoy a Tarantino movie more than most filmmakers, he’s one of a handful that I’ll go to the theater to see, but his films leave me feeling like he’s a person who is so consumed in cinema and it’s brief history, and he’s now too caught up in genre with all the cool tricks of the trade, that I lose sight of his humanity and what he might be grappling with as a person. On the other hand, PT Anderson is just as knowledgeable about filmmaking but his films feel more personal to me, he seems to have interests beyond film history and incorporates that into his work, which leads to more humanity in his films. I agree that Charlie Kaufman films are exceptionally quirky, but you take a movie like ‘Adaptation’ or ‘Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind’ and I can feel the life issues that Kaufman is grappling with through his work…or so I think. So to bring it around to your film, I wonder what you, Charles Papert, are grappling with in your life, because i can’t glean what that is based off your movie, which i must reiterate, that I liked, and is superbly crafted. Thanks again for sharing, m-
 
Appreciate that elaboration.

There's room in a comedy to make people think or feel as well as laugh. That's a little tougher to pack into a 10 minute short, especially with the framework of film noir around it. This one was intended as straight comedy, my primary exercise I set myself was to get as many laughs as possible. As far as what I'm currently grappling with--well, the collapse of film industry in LA is just the start. Making this film was in some ways an escape from all of that. More of a bon-bon than a statement. I have made other films that had more depth, but honestly, they've never been as rewarding for me as the experience of sitting in the theatre hearing people laugh at this one.
 
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