“Are you sitting down? You got the part!!” - A journey through the brutal and barbaric world of an actor.
Over the last few months, leading up to the release of my brand spankin’ new film ‘Insidious’, I’ve given a lot of interviews. Not ‘Tom Cruise’ lots, but a lot. Nine times out of ten I am paired in the interviews with my good friend and directing cohort James Wan. One thing we’ve noticed is that journalists from Texas to Tokyo all ask the same questions. It has made me retrospectively realize that when I was on the other side of the camera, as a ‘reporter’ working for an Australian TV show back in the day, the questions that I had thought were so original were probably just the same questions everyone else was asking.
Read more...Big, cuddly metal.
This past weekend, thousands of metalheads got together to watch a milestone event (if your idea of a milestone is four metal bands who held vague grudges against each other in the 80s deciding to finally go on tour together, that is). Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth. The so-called Big Four. Playing a few hours from my house. And I wasn't there. I missed it. My excuse is so lame I can't even really recall it - something to do with a friends birthday, I think. I badly wish I had been there though.
Read more...The Blind Snide
The following story is true. One night in the not-too-distant past, my beautiful wife Corbett and I went out to a restaurant called Opaque. Our favorite thing to do is to go on date nights to restaurants we've never been to before, and it's even better if the restaurant is notable in some kitschy and/or quirky way. This particular establishment was 'notable' for its total lack of light. It was literally pitch black inside - an illogical hook for a restaurant given that seeing what you're eating is half the fun. I do not jest when I say that you could not see your own hand in front of your face - so yes, that lobster bisque I ordered could have been goat sperm mixed with orphan snot and I wouldn't have really known (save for instantly recognizing the salty texture of goat sperm, of course). The waiters in the restaurant were blind (I'm serious) and I can only hope the same didn't go for the chef. Not that blind people don't make good chefs, it's just...forget it.
Read more...Seizing the future at SXSW
This blog is hungry. I am starving it. Obviously I know that are not a great deal of people out there who care what or when I write in this thing, but to anyone who does, I apologize for the radio silence of late. It feels frivolous to muse about the goings on in my life when there is an entire country sifting through the rubble of their shattered lives and the horrific images coming out of Japan are blazing across TV screens 24-7. I suppose the best you can do is help out in any way you can, even with a small donation, whilst remembering that potential disaster lurks around the corner for all of us on this speck of cosmic dust, so try to do some good while the going is good.
Read more...The Lost Art Of The Opening Title Sequence
So James and I are now in Chicago and we're going through another round of interviews. The strange art of promotion is in full effect. So far all the interviews have been great and it's all going swimmingly. I'll post some musings about it in the very near future. Until then, I will digress with a shorter piece about something I've been thinking about for...oh, the last hour or so. One particular interviewer asked us about the title sequence for 'Insidious', which I love. I've always been a huge fan of the Saul Bass opening title sequences from 'Psycho', 'The Birds' and 'Goodfellas', but as attention spans get shorter and advertising in movie theatres gets longer, the opening title sequence has started to disappear from films. And it's a dang shame.
Read more...New York, you guys know how to rock! Goodnight!!
Imagine being a guitarist on tour with Van Halen in 1982, but without any of the playing shows at big venues or groupies or hard drinking or private planes or screaming fans waiting outside the hotel or autographs or roadies. That's what it's like to tour around America promoting a film. James and I have done this before - in September of 2004 we hot-footed it around the country, doing interview after interview about our (then) little underdog horror film.
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