12 Films In 12 Months

Let me start by saying that though I am a child of the 80′s, my early adolescence was not shaped by the films of John Hughes (after all, I was only four when The Breakfast Club first hit theaters) that are so often referenced as generation-defining films.  My childhood certainly was marked with films he wrote (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Uncle Buck, etc.) and I have had the opportunity in more recent years to see and fall in love with many of his classic, often iconic, always quotable films.

Since his passing a little over a week ago, there have been a number of tributes posted online in various forms.  I’ve decided that rather then try to write pages of memories and remembrances about where I was when I saw which film, I’d link to a few of the favorite tributes I’ve seen over the last week.

One of the best (and from what I can tell, one of the most referred to) tributes is “Sincerely, John Hughes“.  I’ve seen several links and references to it on different sites over the last few days.  It’s a wonderful recounting of a series of letters written between the author (while she was a teenager) and Hughes between the years 1985 and 1987.

Hughes wrote the film, National Lampoon’s Vacation, and (and this was something I didn’t even know until a couple days ago) it was based on a short story he originally wrote for the National Lampoon magazine called, “Vacation ’58″.  If you’re interested in reading the original short story (and I definitely recommend that you do – it had me laughing out loud at several points), you can find it here.

Eric Hynes gives a wonderful commentary on both Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and why the proliferation of VCR’s in the 80′s made it possible for teenagers to embrace and own (both physically and metaphorically) John Hughes’ films to an even greater extent.

The Mystery Man on Film has posted a list with links to five of John Hughes screenplays including National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone.

Finally, what tribute collection would be complete without a tribute video.  To that end I leave you with this: a 1991 tribute video made for Hughes when he was named Producer of the Year by the National Association of Movie Theater Owners (having just produced Home Alone).

Christina and I are finalists in a contest for Lowes and we need your help (and votes) to win! This time the prize isn’t fame or glory, but rather something completely practical that we could definitely use: lawn equipment.

Here’s how it works: go to YouTube.com/Lowes, click on “Vote”, find our video (you can watch it below), and give it a “thumbs up”. There doesn’t seem to be any limit on how often you can vote or how many times, so vote early and often!  Thanks!

If you haven’t seen Susan Boyle’s performance from a recent “Britain’s Got Talent”, I recommend clicking here to check it out.  It is a remarkable and stunning clip.

I absolutely love Lisa Schwarzbaum’s commentary on it over on the Entertainment Weekly PopWatch blog:

In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging — the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts — the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms. Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace. She pierced my defenses. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective from time to time.

Thank you Susan Boyle for reordering the measure of beauty for us this week.

This is fantastic.  Someone somewhere came across a 125 page transcript of the story meeting between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Laurence Kasdan when they first sat down to brainstorm and create “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the character of Indiana Jones.  That same someone then scanned it all to a pdf and posted a link to it here, so that the rest of us could enjoy it.

I’m still working my way through it, but it is wonderful to be a virtual fly on the wall as Lucas & Spielberg dream and plot their way through the characters and story ideas that would become “Raiders” (as well as a bunch of ideas that got cut from “Raiders” and then used in the later Indiana Jones films).

For a few highlights from the transcript and a great analysis of it from a screenwriters perspective, check out this post from the Mystery Man on Film blog.

I saw this video a little while back & it came to mind this morning.  It’s beautiful, odd, playful, sad, & strangely tragic all at once.

A little post-Easter chocolate bunny video art for you:

I saw this wonderful stop motion mixed-media short in the collection of 50 Incredible Stop Motion Videos that I posted a while back.  I think it’s sweet and beautifully made:

Tom Pollard, who was part of several of my short films last year is one of five finalists in the “Sing In The Shower” contest put on by Garnier.  He needs your help to win!  To view the video of Tom performing Madonna’s “Material Girl” while being accompanied by himself &…himself, click here & then select the “Online Video Contest” (the “hot” shower handle on the left).  Be sure to vote for Thomas P.!  You can only vote once in the contest & if you do, you’ll be entered in a contest to win a 8GB iPod Nano!  So head on over and vote now!!!

This trailer is absolutely wonderful.  I’m very excited for this movie:

In celebration of today, here’s last April’s film, “April Fools Day”.  Now in HD! (click here & then click the “HD” button to watch the larger version)

I felt a subtle ring of truth as I watched this paradigm-shifting talk from author Elizabeth Gilbert about her study and thinking on the nature of creative genius.

ht to bob carlton