Monthly Archives: June 2008

Beloved Land…..

Beloved Land…..

The time is here, the time is now,
to rejoice in prayer for our beloved land.
Birthing an idea, not time to recompense,
a place of freedom, no lines in the sand.

An unheard of ideology many dared to wonder,
if this great land would ever be set free.
Loyalists prospered, enjoyed life as it was,
then there were others with new ideas you see.

Being looked down upon for traveling so far,
tired of taxes growing larger each day.
Private meetings were held in a tavern nearby,
a chosen few were anointed to find a new way.

In the dead of night through the Palace Green,
many Patriots quietly scurried about.
Beware of Loyalists, who might speak your plans,
those in the Governor’s Palace stood tall and stout.

Lexington and Concord the most notable battle,
where it all began are marked statues at best.
Colonial Williamsburg should be on your list,
next to Washington D.C., it is better than the rest.

A quaint working village taking you back,
to a place in time, costumed people, you meet.
The past comes alive right before your eyes,
Fife and Drum, Merchants, on shore a fleet.

Rich with history, illuminating our past,
a place for the young and the young at heart.
Enjoy your barbeques, parties and yes, fireworks,
remember for it to remain we must all do our part.

Happy July 4th!

Published in:
“Inside Out, Upside Down and Backwards!”
Written by: Karen Palumbo
6/28/2007 (c) All Rights Reserved

My Ultimate 'Turning Point' For Success

At age 30, I had directed two feature films. One I financed by going into debt and one I was hired to do, that gave me a salary, but no sharing in the profits when it became a hit. The credit for writing and directing “Death Machines” was more important. But now it was two years later and even though I tried, I couldn’t get another feature film going, only some independent TV directing.

I had written a great action script. A script that had all the swashbuckling action stunts in it that I had loved as a kid watching Errol Flynn on TV. A great story with a big cast and lots of martial arts in it.

The script was lying on my sofa as I stood over it. I thought, “I just have to do this even though it would probably not sell, or the distributor would not pay once they took it.” Would I, or should I continue with this?

I had financed and used investors on my first feature, “Drawn Swords”. It was a long “drawn out” production, that caused me endless hassles, large debts, many disappointments, and no income from the minor distribution it had. I had worked six months to pay back most of the debts, but still wasn’t completely out of it. Did I want to go through all that again? Was this another sword fight epic that would get me much deeper into debt and end my dubious film career?

But I loved the story so much and wanted to use all the martial artists that I had met on my previous movie, (and I loved samurai movies, and Chinese sword fight movies), that I had to risk it.

I had seen most of the guys that were in the San Francisco State University film department drop out and get regular jobs, so I was alone with my dream. I had noticed that they all started giving up at exactly age 26. Why that age I wondered? But the answer came quickly. It was 4 years after graduating. They gave it a shot, but then girlfriends, wives, and even parents started to put the pressure on them to quick. After all, age 26 was getting pretty old to continue with an impossible dream. Why had they given up so soon?

That answer came when I saw a joke sign in a store window that read, “I feel so good now that I’ve given up all hope.” I understood right away. Yes, give up and there won’t be any more struggle or disappointments from money men that promise financing and then don’t deliver after wasting 6 months with them. Funny, I never even knew giving up was an optioin. That’s how movie crazy I was. But If I could just do this one more movie, I would be satisfied if I was finacially forced to give up.

So looking down at that white script on the green sofa, I decided right there and then that I would make the movie entitled, “The Last Adventure”.

Finally I said to myself, “I don’t care. Even if this movie bombs, even if I can’t sell it, I will still have the movie. It will be made. And this was my dream movie. The one that I really want to make. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was more of an “artist” than a film businessman, because completing that particular movie was more important to me for self expression than doing someone else’s project (which there were none) or working my way up in the Hollywood system (which there were no open doors). So I said, “What the hell”, to myself, picked up the script off of the sofa, and began preparing a schedule and budget.

The next week I anounced my project to my friends in the martial arts business and attracted some first investors. I set the start date for six weeks later and went ahead with casting, costumes and securing locations. As there was a large cast, many of them invested in the project. Six weeks later, I had enough money to be out on location filming in Panavision with Technicolor Labs doing the processing.

As I had always included myself in the cast of my 16mm movies and first feature, I wrote a character for myself. I mostly wanted to do as sword fight scene and a couple of stunts that I saw Douglas Fairbanks do. I wasn’t worried about directing myself as I used one of the crew to stand in for me as I staged the scenes, and then took his place for the shot. Besides I was only in a third of the movie because of all the characters. I was a little worried that some might think I was not a serious director by also being in the film. But since I figured it might be my last movie, I decided to play out all my dreams.

Only my cameraman objected to me being in the movie. Two days before filming started he complained, “What do you want to be an actor or director.” Should Bond fight a worker over this? So I decided not to act in it. However, with only two days before the shoot and being so busy, I couldn’t spend the time to find someone to replace my character, so I was stuck with me. But acting and doing my planned stunts in this movie has been the greatest satisfaction for me. Years later, it’s not so much the fact that I directed it that people mention when they see it, it’s the fact that I was in it. So after that, I never listen to anyone who tries to talk me out of my dreams. That’s “fighting without fighting,”

Bond style.

When I drove out to the location, many of the people had arrived and were in costume. I could see the swordwoman with their shinny blue Chinese costumes and the fifty extras all wearing black as I had told them to do. The cameramen were setting up. Make-up was already happening. Actors had flown up from Los Angeles. They were all here 40 miles from San Francisco in my hometown hills that I had used for filming my 16mm action movies when I was in college.

“This is fantastic,” I thought. “What an opportunity to make something really good.” I came to the instant conclusion to not just shoot a few master scenes. I would use the necessary film to get all the coverage I needed to make a cinematic film. And if I went a little over budget, I would make up the difference by selling part of my percentage in the movie. It would be worth it.

Six weeks after that I was finished filming. The post-production money came slowing, but that didn’t matter as editing took little money by doing the work in my own apartment. I finished the editing working by myself for 6 months and loved every minute. I did the final 16 track mix at Fantasy Films in Berkeley that had a state of the art mixing room.

The film was picked up by an independent distributor and broke a house record for attendance at a New York theater. With three feature under my belt I was on my way to three more and then discovered I had a talent for novels and success teaching and expanded into “the comunication business” instead of just the film business.

This finally lead me to direct my movie heroes, Rod Taylor, Robert Culp, Russ Tamblyn, and George Chakiris, Nancy Kwan and others, in my two novels turned into audio-books “Rock Star Rising” and “McKnight’s Memory”, with the latter being turned into a feature now, while currently producing “Jumping Tracks” for Victory Studios.

Looking back I realize that age 26 was too young for my film school friends to give up. Age 30 was too young for me to consider maybe not doing the next movie. And now I know, any age is “too young” to give up on anything.

Don’t let anyone talk you out of your dreams.

Directing 'West Side Story"s George Chakiris

Of course, everyone discovered George Chakiris in “West Side Story” in which he received the academy award for Best Supporting Actor. Rita Moreno says of George, “There are only two elegant dancers I can think of, Fred Astair and George.” I had not thought of him to play the part of a Puerto Rican loan shark in for my audio-book “Rock Star Rising”. I just didn’t make the connection when I first thought about Russ Tamblyn to play the lead in it. This was probably because it was too much of a stretch to dream that big, that it never entered my head.

But by chance the two of them appeared at a photo signing convention and then idea clicked. And if I could pull it off, not only would he be perfect for the part, I’d be making movie history, of a sort, by putting these two actors together for the first time since they both got stabbed and killed below that highway, so many years ago. A sort of resurrection for Riff and Bernardo. Too much to dream? Probably. Russ got the script to George and, after a weeks wait, he told my agent he would do it.

Out of the blue, I got a call from George saying that he would like to make some changes to the script and wondered how I felt about it. I told him that the overall story was of more concern to me than each individual word, so it would be fine. And of course, I wanted each actor to make the part his own, thusly putting more of them into my project then just showing up and performing what was on the page. George asked where could we meet. Using what I had learned from my “James Bond Lifestyle” techniques I asked him if there were a big five star hotel near where he lived, as they would always have a comfortable lounge where we could talk with beverages available. He said the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, and we set the time and date.

I got there early and checked the place out. The lounge looked like a scene from a badly designed movie about Hollywood. A set too much “in character” to be believed. It was beautiful with three connecting lounges with a bar in the middle one. Seated at tables were men with laptops and talking over the cell phones about about making script changes. I picked an a comfortable sofa with a chair and table next to it for George to sit in when he arrived, ordered avian water from the bar tender and opened my script on the table. George arrived right on time and I stood. I told him people had recently said, I looked like Michael Caine, so he recognized me right away. He looked just like Bernardo and still definitely in shape as he trains at a gym daily and still does dance exercises.

I warmed him up talking about the fact the we were both Greek decedents. His parents coming from Greece, both sets of my grandparents coming from Greece. We talked about some of his movies like “Diamond Head”. He said he is still friends with James Darren from that movie. I didn’t know then that James Darren would end up in the project, and not through George. Then we went to work on the script. Basically his changes were more of the editing nature. Condensing longer speeches into more concise dialogue between him and Russ’ character, for whom he had most of his scenes with, besides the character of his sister.

At one point, George started to act out his dialogue and from the corner of my eye I notice people turning and looking at him and then me. Normally, being basically a shy person, this would have bothered me, but being it was academy award winning George Chakiris that I was working with, I didn’t bother me at all. In fact, surrounded all by all those “in” Hollywood types, I felt like that I was “in” with them. But I only thought about that for a second and then put my mind back on the script. Two hours later, and after some more movie talk, both George and I were satisfied with his dialogue. At the recording studio, Russ and George sat facing each other, and did all there twenty or so scenes together. We would record each scene one by one talking a break between them to analyze and prepare for the next one.

We first ran the scene where Russ’ Puerto Rican girlfriend introduces him to her brother, so it was a three mike set up and we got it in one take, with the actress sounding like Rozie Perez. Then she took a break and Russ and George continued with scenes they had to do alone. Once in a while they would stop and have to go over what they had agreed to do, and the changes that George had made only with me. I had typed up and copied the changes, which I had ready for both of them if need, but they preferred to work off their own scripts. It was great to hear the two of them set up what they would say before the start of each scene.

After two hours, their scenes together were done. Next George had to do his remaining scenes with the actress playing the part of his sister. It was great to hear the two of them, in character, argue about what was happening in the story. When George had finished all his scenes, I had Russ back in the booth continuing on with his scenes. I was happy to see that, even though finished, George sat in the back on a sofa with his “sister” and talked and enjoyed the atmosphere. It turned out they were both cat lovers and George told her that he would design a special piece of jewelry for her. I love it when the cast gets along.

Finally during a break, George said his farewells. I shook my hand and said, “It was a pleasure working with you.” I replied, “I’ll always remember The Four Seasons. It was very productive.” After he left Russ turned to me and said, “You know Paul, these days, George hardly does anything, but after meeting you, he decided to do this.” I replied, “I’m really happy about that.” I turned out that he had not been 100% sure about doing the project until after our first meeting. Now as I write this with a photo of Riff and Bernardo knife fighting on my PC table in front of me, both signed by Russ and George.

I still can’t believe that I have their performances on tape. The great thing that comes to mind is that when they finally hear the project on CD, they will really be surprised at the sound design, the music, and how the overall story plays. And most of all, they didn’t (nor did I) know of all the other name actors that would join this project based on the fact that the two of them had already recorded their parts. Rod Taylor was to follow, then Robert Culp recording with James Darren and Kevin McCarthy. I can’t wait to thank them for their believe in the project, when I send them their copies of the CD. And can’t wait for their reactions!

Striking Out: An Online Serial Comedy

Writers and Readers,

Hello! Like many of you out there, I am a writer struggling to get my name and work out into the world. One method I’ve devised to this end is to freely present my work online.

I invite you to visit strikingout-story.blogspot.com to read my serial novella, Striking Out. The story is about a young married man named Patrick who falls for Susan, a beautiful coworker, and deludes himself into thinking he is not pursuing her when in fact he has no idea what he’s doing!

Despite the ostensibly solemn subject matter – that of an affair – I hope I have succeeded in my goal of producing a light, fun read. So if you feel like laughing, please come visit.

Enjoy!

-Matt Bloom

Four Short Poems

Dripping, Tripping, Slipping
Kitchen faucet’s
Dripping, dripping
While my mind is
Tripping, tripping
Every drop drills through my brain
Plumber must come out again
Puddles causing
Slipping, slipping
While the tap is dripping, dripping

Diamond Ditty
I want lots of diamonds, diamond rings.
I need to be surrounded by beautiful things.
When I see fine jewels my heart sings.
I simply cannot help it; I just love those blings
Cover me with diamonds, shower me with gold
Fill my home with presents, whether new or old.
But most of all remember above all things
I want a lot of diamonds, diamond rings

Untitled Haikus
A garden of life,
Filled with oranges so sweet
Replete, I enjoy.

Bird, perched on a branch
Calls its mate, beseechingly
Telling of food found