No Baby Yet

Grandma April arrived on Monday evening. On Tuesday the doctor stripped my membranes, we went on an hour long walk, ate a "labor inducing" salad from Caiote's Pizza Co. in Studio City, took a hot bath, but still no baby! I am scheduled to go into the hospital for an induction on Thursday evening. Until then, I'll keep working on starting naturally. As soon as we have pics we'll post. We'll also let everyone know the name!

Thanks for all your support and concern.

Bye Mia!

Today In Treatment said goodbye to Mia Wasikowska the wonderful actress that plays the role of Sophie in the show. Mia is such a terrific kid, last week we did 8 straight hours of ADR (automated dialogue replacement) together at Warner Brothers and she was a total trooper, lots of fun, tons of energy, and a great sense of humor about it, even in the last hour when I started adding cues "just to be safe."

Mia is from Australia and so she has lived with her Mom in a little house in Culver City all summer while shooting. She has been acting for four years so she's still pretty new which just makes her that much more impressive. In Treatment is probably the biggest things she's done, she's made a huge impact on the show and everyone working on it. Her performances have been so consistent and so magnificent. She is one to keep an eye on in the future! Tomorrow she flys to Europe to start a feature about children in World War II. I wish her good luck, I hope my kids are as nice and as well adjusted when they are 17!

Pictures taken on the set of the show.

Picking Baby Names

I love baby name books - where do they come up with these names?

Here are some of my favorites!

Theron - means hunter

Names Having to do with Rocks:
Safwan
Urvang (mountain)
Topper
Sutcliff or Stancliff or Stanbury
Steinar (rock warrior)

Wolf Names (Wolf Hunter - get it!)
Ulrich
Udolf
Ulf

Just Plain Funny Names:
Lutardo
Gundelberto
Didier
Pardulfo

As of yet, we have not found a name that means second son of a filmmaker - but when we do!! Watch out.

Bergman

Last Monday Ingmar Bergman past away, while this was not unexpected it was still a big loss for the film community. I know that I am not alone in having watched his films many times, both as a viewer enthralled with the stories and as a filmmaker seeking understanding of what he did, and looking for ways to improve what I do when making a film. The New York Times has run two articles about Bergman in the past two weeks, this weekend's piece was written by Woody Allen who remarked that Bergman's films are philosophical and challenging. This got me thinking, why is it that film viewers of the 1960's and 70's were willing to be challenged by films that were emotionally so complex, and at times delved into philosophical and intellectual realms? Certainly to film viewers and filmmakers today words like "philosophical" and "Intellectual" are considered pejorative. In fact in an interview last month the EP / Director of In Treatment (the show I'm currently working on), Rodrigo Garcia (son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) said that In Treatment "is not intellectual, it's a soap opera on steroids." Now, he may have been saying what he thought needed to be said about the show in order to get viewer's interested in a show about therapy but I thought it was too bad that he said it was not intellectual because on one level it is, and that's part of what makes it a good show. So anyway, philosophical cinema or TV can be a very good thing and I hope that in the near future it won't be considered a bad idea to challenge viewers, to encourage the kind of fascination that comes when we are invited to both think and feel when watching a film. Bergman's work stands as a reminder of how exciting film can be when the focus is on emotions and the mind.

Some of my Fav. Bergman films:
Persona
Wild Strawberries
The Passions of Anna
Shame
Cries and Whispers

Telecine!

HA-HA!! good news. Had the telecine session last night and the film looks great. Its always a nervous time when you have your film in the can but have not seen it yet. Well last night I went to Technicolor Hollywood and had the footage transferred to video. We had a great bay and a great colorist.( he is the guy that does the color for CSI Miami.) I really don't like living in LA but there is something to be said for having access to the best production and post production resources in the world for my little film. Any way, its official the dailies look good and the audio sounds good, time to get into high gear with editing!