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Think you need to see a therapist? Nah. Make a short film. I remember showing this short to some people and I'd always preface it by saying. "This is loosely based on my personal experiences", but after rewatching this short I can definitely say that I was absolutely fooling myself back then. Dear Lord, this was about me all the way. Watch then read below. I purposely made Alex's dream nebulous. I didn't want it to be something specific, because everyone's dreams are not my own. Not everyone wants to be a writer or a storyteller. I wanted this short to connect with the audience on the level of having a dream to be something else. And all 31 people that watched it on YouTube probably got that message. David Pollard (Alex) and Ashton Moore (Earl) were great and awesome to work with. You probably saw that brief cameo by my friend, David Ian Lee. We always like working together and the location of the movie theater is no longer in existence. Torn down for another building. This was also one of the first productions where I didn't edit the final cut. Have I mentioned I'm not a fan of being an editor? I'm also a bit unsure of my choice to have a non-linear storyline. I think it works, but I wonder if having it more linear would've been better. I believe I was afraid of their conversation in the coffee shop being too long for the audience. That might've been a mistake. Can't shy away from long scenes. Sometimes, cutting back and forth harms more than helps. But I made the choice back then to go non-linear, so I'll stay with it now. Brief Description Imagine your life as a road. One lane consists of everything you need for a happy life. Family, friends, a stable job. Now imagine the other lane is full of dreams, wants and desires. Can you change lanes so easily? The problem with that tagline is the assumption that the second lane, the one full of "dreams, wants and desires" would not lead to a happy life. That's probably my biggest issue with this short. There isn't two lanes. Up until I made "Running in Place", I always viewed my need to tell stories and my reality of my life as two opposing forces. No wonder I was running in place. (Get it? Oh yeah! Thick as molasses, that title is) The real message of this short is to get off your ass and create. Tell stories. Make choices. Fail. Fail. Fail. Learn and fail again. After that short, I created two web series, published a book, wrote several screenplays and have countless other projects in the on deck circle ready for their at-bat. (baseball metaphor) I also had three children (not right after the short, more like throughout), worked a job, made a home with my family, apparently started running a shelter for animals (I have 3 dogs and 2 rabbits) and currently about halfway through a graduate degree in Interactive Media. Stop blaming others. Start creating. Stop making excuses. Start creating. If you have a dream, go for it. If you want to do something else with your life, work towards that goal. Yes, having a family is a responsibility, but it's not an excuse to not create. All those meetings and phone calls you have with friends and it ends with "We should do something together", stop hanging up the phone and start saying: "Yes! Let's go! Let's create!" #runninginplace #shortfilm #indiefilm #michaelfield #writing #amwriting #scriptchat

Happy Veteran's Day! Hug a vet. The image above is President Eisenhower signing a bill that changes Armistice Day to Veteran's Day. Why November 11th? Well, Armistice Day was the day WWI ended, thus bringing us this memorable date in time. Today is also my friend's birthday. He's way older than me, like a full year which makes me happy to think that because I'm a bit of a jerk. Happy Birthday, Fred! Hug a Fred! #createcontent #content #VeteransDay

This video is 9 years old, but that doesn't matter. It's pretty great. I want to think this way. I have thought this way. My why is telling stories. I want to share, tell, inspire, make people laugh, cry, etc, etc. That's my why. What's yours? #SimonSinek #TEDTalk

My last post was about short films and how much I like making them. How much I think of them and what they could offer. Why not show you a pretty remarkable one from filmmaker Chris Preksta? This is called Echo Torch and it's pretty good. Quick Synopsis: An inventor creates an electrical torch that reveals a hidden world layered upon our own - filled with beautiful spirits, strange creatures, and dangerous phantoms. Watch it. Be inspired. Make a short film. #shortfilm #indiefilm #ChrisPreksta #MercuryMen #EchoTorch

I like short films. I know they're out of style for some. When the age of relatively low-cost digital tech arrived and the general ease it is now to shoot, edit and post on-line content, the advent of the web series was a great draw for many, including me. Obviously. Just check out my stuff. The chance for episodic storytelling was huge, but at the expense of the short film. (Technically, they're not films, but the name stuck and calling them "short movies" or "shorts" doesn't really do it for me.) But why the hate for short films? I've previously blogged about two of my earlier works which were shorts and what struck me was that they were completed works. Smaller in scale and in story, but brought to a completion. Web series are great and fun to do, but how many times do you watch one and it's not fully completed? Whether it's not enough money for another season or it's a one episode and done kind of thing. This is not a referendum on people making short films. Many people do make short films, but because of lack of interest and lack of funds, these short films are no very good. Short films may be considered less-than by some when compared to features, but in reality they are far from that. Short films are stories just the same as features and I know a few features that would've worked much better as a short film. The short film genre is misunderstood by many. I wrote a short film script - "Kiddo" - and I showed it to a few people with the help of my partner in crime, Adrian, and the response we'd get was: "I like it, but I can get you money easier if it was a feature and not a short." So, of course, I wrote it out as a feature, but the story of an underground Nazi spy ring in New York City circa 1940 starts to out-price one's budget and I didn't even mention the final shoot-out atop of the Empire State Building. (Excerpt from script, if interested) Needless to say, we did not make that movie. But the short would've been great. I often wonder, even though I love the script, that perhaps I missed out on a chance to make something special. I have another short film script. "22 Miles From Trenton". The title refers to the distance of the town of Grover's Mill, NJ from Princeton, as it was referenced in the 1938 War of the World's broadcast. This story is about 20 pages and it tells the story of two sisters, who reside near Grover's Mill, dealing with the reality that the broadcast is in fact real and they are in danger. I culled real-life stories from that time period and shaped a story out of them. Could I make that into a feature? Sure. But I don't want to. I think it would work lovely as a short film. And again, we showed this to someone and got the same general response. "It's great. But it's a short? Why make a short?" I actually understand that thinking. Most people are creating content in hopes of getting paid to create bigger content, but when you do that, you're chasing the dream and not living it. Short films were good enough for these directors: Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Christopher Nolan, Martine Scorcese - Shouldn't they be good enough for you. #shortfilm #indiefilm #indiefilm #shortfilm #Kiddo #22MilesfromTrenton #MichaelField #writer

The story of two lost souls and a fruit pie. That was the tagline for the short movie, "One Up", which we shot in November 2004. This was after we had finished our feature film, "Save the Forest", a year earlier. That movie drained all who were involved. Making a movie is tough. It takes a lot of moving parts to get a movie done and sometimes it becomes a slog to the finish line. After we made "Save the Forest", I hadn't shot anything for a full year and I was getting antsy. I was writing, of course. I'm always writing. But I wanted to put something on screen. I had worked with David Ian Lee in "Save the Forest" and I wanted to work with him again. (I've since worked with him on a few other projects.) David's a great actor and really great guy and I wrote "One Up" with him in mind. With David's help, we were able to cast the equally talented Marnye Young as our Abby and we were off to the races. It was a one night, all night shoot. The convenience store we used also doubled as our craft services. I basically told the cast and crew that anything they want to eat or drink, to tell the clerk at the counter and I'd settle the bill at the end of our shoot. The split screen we utilized was tricky. Obviously, we shot each character's walk through the store separately and matched it up. To this day, I still can't tell if the opening of the fridge doors matches up and I really don't want to delve too deeply into that because they probably don't match up and I'll shame myself for the lack of filmmaking concentration on that scene. No one needs that. It was a cold night in November so David and Marnye shivering in their outdoor scenes was no acting job. They were cold. I was cold. The crew was cold. After watching this short again a few things you may notice, as I did. First, the quality is super-standard. In this day and age of HD, you will keep looking for that gear button to find the 720p version. It's not there. In fact, I don't know if it ever was there. You may also think the short is about 2 minutes too long. I agree. But Michael the Writer was so in love with his own dialogue that he overruled Michael the Director, which should never happen. You'd think that Michael the Editor would've corrected this, but no. He's dumb. Overwriting is a bugaboo that many writers battle. That being said, David and Marnye were great. They had great chemistry and were a joy to work with. When I look back at these earlier works, sure I'm always struck by the low-quality of the videos, but again the story is what comes through. While I admit the short runs a bit long, I still think it works and that's a testament to the story everyone involved set out to tell. As a member of the "One Up" team, that's all you can ask for. Funny side note: I wrote a sequel to this short. (I told you. I'm always writing) It takes place eight months after the meeting in the convenience store and we learn that not everything in the first movie was exactly the truth. It would've been fun to do and it was a holiday short as well! #OneUp #shortfilm #indiefilm #DavidIanLee #MarnyeYoung #writing #directing #story #romcom #comedy #dialogue #Triggerstreet

Many years ago. (Actually, 14 years ago) Holy crap. That was 14 years ago!? Anyway, 14 years ago I ventured to make a short film with our awesome HD camera. Can you imagine how awesome it would look? Spoiler: Not as awesome as it would look today. Now, I wish I had some great tale about how I came upon the story of "The Hero", but I can't remember where it came from. I wanted to do a "Damsel in Distress" story, but modernized. I also wanted to do something with a bit more action. I also should stop saying "I", because I wasn't the only one who wanted to do these things. My best friend and cinematographer, Adrian Correia, also wanted to do something with a bit more dramatic flair and action-based. Of course, none of the footage ever made it to his reel but I can't blame him. It simply doesn't compare to what's out there today and the advancements in technology. "The Hero" was shot in 2002. I think. Again, it's all fuzzy. It was before Up on the Roof productions (at the time) went on to do the feature movie, "Save the Forest". I know that for sure. Woo! I remembered something! Actually, I remember some stuff from the shoot. The car that bad guys are driving actually belonged to our lead actor. (They damaged the gear shift because no one knew how to manually shift - Jeez. Some bad guys they are, right?) Someone called the cops on us because they saw someone running around the neighborhood in pajamas. The fact that I had my godchild learn a few new curse words and probably scarred her for life. But this shoot is infamously known as the place where I had to go behind a bush near the train tracks and make. Let that sink in. Not my proudest moment, but then again, it was. We were shooting that finale and nothing was going to stop us. I'm proud of this story. It's got a great music theme. The action, while it could stand to be cut down a of couple minutes and we were limited to what we could budget-wise, plays well. All the actors were great. They were able to perform with just a look at times, which is usually better than any crummy dialogue I could've written. When I rewatched it a few days ago, of course all of the choices I made or didn't make came to the forefront for me. I'm never going to watch something I make and not see the issues, but screw that. You shouldn't ignore what didn't work. Just learn from it and keep moving forward. So here we go. Grab a drink. Sit back. Relax. Enjoy the awesome theme music by Steven Gutheinz. Marvel at that old technology that "executives" and "professionals" shun as if it never existed! (It did! Own it, fools!) And curl up to the hero you don't necessarily need or deserve, but he's the one that happens to be there at the time. Feel free to drop a comment. Share the post! I like sharing. And if you were involved in this production, let me hear from you. Tell everyone what you remember from "The Hero". #TheHero #Shortfilm #indiefilm #writing #filmmaking #StevenGutheinz #UpontheRoof #MichaelField

“World Building. Ugh. I hate it.” That’s my usual response. But that’s not fair, because I don’t hate it. I actually like world building. I love the nuances of a universe that contains all the same stories. It’s nothing new in the world of literature, television or cinema. So I should rephrase… “World Building. Ugh. I hate it when it’s done wrong.” That’s much better. And boy, is it done wrong sometimes. That’s not to say that the people doing the building are wrong…wait. I’m trying to be nice. And you can tell that last sentence trying to be nice felt forced, right? Kind of like Thor taking a time-traveling bath in the middle of Avengers: Age of Ultron or perhaps it felt forced like having to see Dr. Wu boarding a helicopter with samples of Dino DNA in the middle of the climax of Jurassic World. I know, I know. I’m being mean. I’m nit picking. I watch too many movies. I know, I know, I know. Again, I like world building, but when it comes at the sacrifice of the story I’m being told then a step back is in order and reevaluation of what you’re trying to do, as a storyteller, should be examined. We all survived the original Star Wars trilogy without winks and nods to future installments. We handled the first Back to the Future without having strange time-traveling portals opening up revealing something from the later films. (And 2 and 3 don’t count. They were written at the same time and shot back-to-back) Could you imagine if Raiders of the Lost Ark (I will not call it Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) came out this year and the filmmakers decided to spin it off into different franchises? Could you? Could you? I did. (You might need to click and blow it up) I'm not going to lie. I'd probably watch them all. Damn you, world building exercise. You win. #IndianaJones #WorldBuilding #writing #filmmaking #Indiefilm

Editor's Note: I posted this a year and seven days ago on the old Up on the Roof Blog, but it still holds true today. Enjoy. Actors. I know, right? Just kidding. Actors get a bad rap. I'm speaking mostly in the indie world. When you check out the indies that get into the festivals or those VOD movies that magically appear on Netflix and your In-Demand menu, you go into them knowing your journey for the next two hours could be a treacherous one fraught with plot holes, bad dialogue and incomprehensible motivations. The natural reaction when this happens is to ridicule what you see on screen, which is typically the actor or actress. We've all done it and while there are times when the strength of the thespian on screen is an issue, it's unfair for them to catch the brunt of our disbelief and frustration with the failings of a movie. Actors only represent a culmination of the mistakes leading up to what's on the screen. They are not to blame. In fact, I admire actors quite a bit. They are out there. Constantly facing rejection. Dealing with people who are not so kind and have no problem dismissing actors for their looks or style. It is a business, but it can be personal. And I know a tough skin is a necessity in this creative world, but you'd have to be a robot to not let it get to you at times. I salute actors for taking a chance on indie movies, web series, industrials, commercials, student films all for the experience and the hope of those roles leading to their goal. Unfortunately, if those projects are lacking in other aspects of the productions, the actors are the ones on the front line taking the heat for others failures. And that sucks. You want someone to blame? Blame the Writer When I write characters, I definitely pour a lot of background into the character. That's the job of a writer. Create a well-rounded character for the audience to either fall in love with, relate to, absolutely detest, etc. Writers are creating the blueprint to the story. I've talked about how the screenplay is the foundation to the house that is a movie. The writer(s) is responsible for that. When a writer fails on that task, there's no one there to fix it. Unless another writer is brought in to correct those mistakes, that flawed script moves forward to the hands of the director and actor. Now, let's say this movie that's being made has a director at the helm who's more interested in the pretty images of the script. They're not going to focus on the characters. In comes the actor to make the most of a character that's saddled with bad dialogue, unclear motivations and actions that contradict major aspects of the plot. What's an actor to do? Even the best can only do so much. So now our actor is on an island trying to fashion some kind of character from a papier-mâché like framework created by a terrible writer. I mean, come on! That's not fair in the slightest. And what you see on screen is an actor working with crap and creating something that's noticeably flawed. And the actor's reward for doing the best they could is ridicule. It's an audience who rips that actor for performing badly. I hate that. I hate watching a movie where I know the writing is inferior and having to watch an actor suffer for it. Shame on that writer. You failed your character and the actor. Blame Casting A casting agent, a good one, should be finding the right fit for your script. There is a push for casting to become a category for an Academy Award and I say, why not? Yes, directors have the final say, but they're not out there discovering those diamonds in the rough. They're being handed diamonds in the rough on a platter for them to say yes or no. Congrats, egoists, you make decisions. Now get over yourself and give credit where credit is due. A good casting agent gives you the strongest pieces for your characters. They know their actors. They know the strengths and weaknesses. A bad casting agent doesn't read the script. They just grab a sheet of actors listed by look, age, range, etc and send that off to an indie production. This isn't to say that the actors on that list are not great at their craft. Not at all. But they may not be the right fit for a role. They may not have the right tools for the character that they're up for and that's not fair to them. They're being set up to fail. Even before they meet the director and work on the role, they're behind the eight-ball. Sure, they may be able to get around that and provide a performance to remember, but the more likely scenario is that they come up lacking and wanting for a better outcome. Blame the Director An actor needs direction. Even the greatest. A good director doesn't stand on a stool, with a mega-phone, and instruct his actors how to emote. A good director works with an actor to find the role. They help guide their actor to a space where the character represents what both participants are looking for in the role. A bad director pays no attention to these things. They say things like "Make it your own" and then retreat to hit on an extra. They tell the actors that their performances are "fine" and "good" and then run behind the monitor to see how great their shot looks. (Any actors I've worked with in the past are reading this going, Is that why he always apologizes for saying "fine"? Yes. Yes, it is.) Directors are not just the people that put their hands and fingers up in a giant "U" to show everyone that they're directing. Yeah, that's great. Your image is going to be framed real well. How about the people inside the image?! Some directors are more focused on what's on screen rather than what's being performed on screen to the detriment of their story. Honestly, it's not the death knell for their movie because we're always enamored with image over performance. But that's a conversation for another time. As I mentioned briefly before, it's a director's job to guide an actor. As a director, it's your job to help shape the character along with the actor. That's why you hired the actor, is it not? You're not Hitchcock. Actors are not cattle. And even though Hitchcock is the master of suspense, his thoughts on actors are wrong. I don't want an actor to not have any questions about a role. They should be pushing to find something that maybe I missed. The actor needs to make the character their own. Even if we're tackling a real-life person, there's always an aspect to the role that needs to come from the experiences of an actor. Without a piece of that actor in the role, that role becomes just a copy. It's just emotion from the page and not from a person. This isn't to say that sometimes I have to just say "no" to an idea brought forth by an actor. Not at all. At the end of the day, I have a vision for the piece. It may not be clear for everyone, so even if it the idea from the actor is a good one, it might not fit what we're trying to do with the story. And usually, I'll explain that. Being transparent about the focus of the story is effective for the working relationship between actor and director. And sometimes, an idea from an actor may come from a place to make the actor comfortable in the scene like if they wanted to be eating a cookie or reading a newspaper. And that's completely fine with me. Unless it's a Macadamia Nut cookie. I HATE those! :) Blame the Producer Why not? We're blaming everyone else. * * * I'm sorry, actors. You work too hard to have to deal with the failings of others. Shame on them. Am I saying that everything I've ever done in my indie career has been fantastic and the equivalent of rainbows shooting out of a unicorn's ass? No. Trust me. No way. I know this business is tough. I know this business is full of shysters and selfish people who only care about their own careers. I get that. And while we all accept that as a fact of this business, that doesn't mean any of us should accept it as the norm of the business. Because it's not. Just remember auteurs, you make mistakes, like all of us. And when your mistakes are on-screen for the world to see and people start ripping into your actors, you might want to say your sorry to your actors for not being strong enough help them succeed at bringing your characters to life. Actors, you guys and gals are okay in my book. Always. #actors #indiefilm #directing #writing #producing #TransCandidate #ScenesfromtheMovies

Recently, as of January, I enrolled into a local university to obtain a Masters Degree in Communication. More specifically, the program is known as Interactive Media and my concentration is in Multimedia Production. So far, it's been enjoyable. I'm the geek that enjoys learning. There was a stretch from high school into my first few years of college where I leaned towards the lazy side of things, rather than working hard on my studies. But I was able to turn that trend around and here we are today...18 years later. Getting a degree. Both of my classes, surprisingly, are dealing with big data and infographics in our current lesson. And might I say, I'm completely digging the idea of big data. I love the statistical breakdown of life. Again, big geek who likes to learn. So why the word cloud? Why not? If you go to WordItOut.com, and enter in your own blog or any other website with an RSS or Atom feed, you can find out your world cloud. Now, the blog for this website has not been utilized as much, but thankfully I still have most of my content up a the old Up on the Roof LLC blog, so I used that as my sample. Couple things that jump out for me is the "good story book" area. Clearly I wrote a lot about the Adam Parker book. But I always talk about story, don't I? And there it is. I know we're all shocked that "movie" is huge. I never talk about movies. Some of the words just signify my incessant use of them like "well" or "really". My only surprise is how big "people" is in this cloud. I'm not a fan of people too much. I'm not a misanthrope, more like a low tolerance for the disingenuous. Well, really...the proof is in the word cloud. #wordcloud #bigdata #writing #movie #story

This post is coming at you 2 hours and 37 minutes away from first pitch of a baseball team I've followed since I was young lad in the early 80s. The New York Mets came so close last year and the bad guys won the World Series. I'm not one of those appreciative-of-good-baseball fans. My team lost last year and it was upsetting. Not as upsetting when Carlos Beltran watched that curveball for strike three from Adam Wainwright during Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. No. That was horrible. The TV went off and stunned silence controlled the room for a good ten minutes after that awful ending. Enough bad vibes. The baseball season starts tonight! Why aren't you excited? Is it because you like movies and not sports? Why not both? There's some really good baseball movies out there. Major League. The Natural. Eight Men Out. Field of Dreams. (Yes, all dudes cry at that ending) I even have a little affinity for Little Big League. But in honor of opening day, I thought it would best to share a scene from arguably the best baseball movie. Bull Durham. (If you haven't seen this movie. Go see it.) Enjoy! (Curse word alert) #OpeningDay #Baseball #NewYorkMets #BullDurham #Costner

Like seriously. It's hard. You can't possibly think that every writer you've met or seen or heard talk about the process of writing has some kind of magical formula that makes writing easy. It's not. It's a constant struggle to fight against all the self-hate, self-doubt, self-everything. Honestly, a writer is their own worst enemy. If you ever meet a writer that says it's easy to writer, than I'll show you a terrible writer. Shocking as this may sound, not every single writer is a great grammatical writer. That's why the Lord created editors. Writers are first and foremost, storytellers. Their focus is on getting the audience from point A to B to C to Z. And those travels between the points are laden with misspellings, bad uses of "than" and overall terrible sentence structure. And that's okay. Again. Editors. No matter the medium. Screenplays, novels, novellas, poems, "Best of" lists, instructional information on how to install a hard drive. It's all difficult. But it's always worth it. #writing #amwriting #scriptchat #novels #authors