Kenneth Larson Blog

Foggy

2011-11-09T00:36:00.000-08:00

Combat Carl

2011-10-04T00:37:00.000-07:00

Night Drive Time Lapse

2011-09-24T00:52:00.000-07:00

All is quiet. Incredibly quiet. Every project I'm involved with (and there are few) is at some form of a roadblock. I've just barely started writing the second draft of This American Town, which is largely due to my lack of motivation. However, now that fall is rolling around, and I carry an immense disdain for cold temperatures, I'll have more initiative to bundle up in my warm room and get to it.

I'm one of those people who's constantly motivated to start a new project, only to abandon it and finally return sometime later. For example, I'm currently reading three books. In fact, it took me four years to read Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! I would read a large portion of it, lose interest, and return to read another large portion when the interest was renewed.

Presently, I'm reinvigorating my need to get out and shoot some time-lapse photography, which was all I ever wanted to do at the beginning of this year. The same goes for film photography, which lasted about a month. In doing so, I just shot this video of my friend and I taking a little drive about my community. I'd recommend watching it in 720p fullscreen.

Time-lapse is something that has always interested me; I can never get enough. No matter how many times I've seen the same things over and over again, I feel like there's always a small and unique detail worth picking out. I like to watch the needles on the dashboard here, or at the 42-second mark when it seems like we travel backwards for a block or two. Trippy.

I'm a little upset though since my camera sensor is starting to get stuck pixels, which is why you can see some white dots here and there. I'd love to upgrade to a full-frame DSLR sometime, but money is an issue, as it always is. My nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye lens, which I believe to be the vital lens for time-lapse photography, is only compatible on the small-frame DSLR's, which means I'd have to buy the nikkor 16mm fisheye lens atop of the full-frame body. In time.

I feel like there's a better way to end this post, but I have no desire to find out. Here's to hoping something interesting pops up that is "blog" worthy. I've already broken my "one-post-per-week" rule by nearly two months.

Subjectivity

2011-07-26T15:38:00.001-07:00

Recently, I decided to watch all of Andrei Tarkovsky's films (excluding Nostalghia). There is something about his films that I am drawn to, yet I can't explain why. I like films of all kinds, but slow films dealing with spiritual themes are the ones I seem to connect to the most. I like to unwind, forget about everything else, and let the film play itself out.

After watching his films, I checked out his book Sculpting in Time. In it, he chronicles his work while setting forth his ideologies in filmmaking. Within the first pages, a few things popped out that felt as if he'd read the first draft of This American Town and hit me over the head with it.

Going back to my post on the writing process, I talked about how awful the first draft of a screenplay usually is. See, my script suffers from something called a deus ex machina, where a character brings about insight with seemingly no motivation whatsoever. When I make a movie I hope it'll reach out to people in the most natural way possible. At this point in my life, that has been achieved (or hasn't) through a preconceived notion to which action is based around, rather than the action forming the idea. As in, I know what I want the movie to say, so I make scenes up to say that. Sometimes they are blatant, which happens a lot in the first draft of This American Town. Rather, I should be creating a scenario, the scenes that make up that scenario, and just let the meaning (whatever that may be) come about naturally through it's subjective nature.

Tarkovsky's words are from his own opinion, but I can't help but find significant truth in them. Ironically, my whole life I've been a fence sitter. My opinion of myself, people, polices, things, etc. have always been from a neutral stance with reasoning from both sides. When I read the first draft of my script I don't see that at all. I see myself trying to tell people how to be, which you just can't do.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm glad I stumbled upon these passages when I did. I'm going into writing the second draft with a new approach and a fresh mind to make a story that will hopefully be accepted by everyone.

Lake Blanche

2011-07-23T02:48:00.000-07:00

The First Draft

2011-07-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've finally completed the 97-paged first draft of This American Town. From this point, I begin chapter two in the making of this feature. At the moment, the script is in the hands of people whose opinions I value, and eventually we'll sit down for an afternoon to thoroughly talk it over. This is when collaboration kicks in and you get to watch your work get destroyed, but for good reason. If you're a filmmaker and you can't allow yourself to let go of your work and let it become a collaborative project, then there's really no point in doing what you're doing.

Nostalgia

2011-06-29T23:26:00.001-07:00

The universe is funny in the way it presents things to us. Maybe we're just unattentive, who knows.

While this blog is mainly dedicated to my ventures in film and photography, this post will not be. I feel there's a need to branch off every once in a while since nobody likes a one trick pony. However, there's some correlation between my film work in this post, like how a lot of what I talk about is the kind of stuff you have to think about when writing a character film, but that's besides the point.

This story begins with myself contemplating titles for the screenplay I'm currently writing. While listening to a song called "The Bank and Trust" by The Elected, a lyric struck me. Blake Sennett sings, "I'm stuck in this American town." This being a story that takes place in a small town community, I felt it only right to title it This American Town.

In my overprotective state, I went to imdb.com to see if this was an original title. The closest thing that registered was a short run show on Showtime called *This American Life. I didn't think much of it at the time, just that I'm sure somewhere down the road somebody would know about the show and probably think I copied/altered the title.

January 2011 rolled around and I found myself in a university class that analyzed the role of the natural world and the virtual world in both films and novels. In the first week my professor showed us a clip on YouTube about a man who formed an unconventional relationship with his bull, and when it dies, he has it cloned. The problem is that the clone is nothing like the original and frequently attacks the man, yet he still refuses to believe there's a difference.

This clip happened to be from a short run television program called This American Life.

I felt like this was a sign, so I hopped onto Netflix, added the show to my instant queue, and watched the first six episodes. I stopped watching for a while, but soon realized it was being pulled from instant availability and decided to finish the remaining episodes.

Before that, however, I'd been working at my job, which is filming various classes and events at my school. I just finished filming a youth theatre performance, which depressed me. Seeing a bunch of kids on stage having the time of their life reminded me of my earlier days and how much I miss them. Granted, I'm only 22 and have plenty of life ahead of me. Not to mention, I'm sure every person whose transitioned into adulthood has gone through what I'm going through, which is an immense sense of nostalgia. I would consider This American Town to be a love story to those days. Not necessarily from my own childhood experience, but just the overall experience of learning and being exposed to new things as you grow.

Well... I started going into deep thought about my childhood on the drive home and how, even though it felt like forever, I can only remember snippets of it. For example, in first grade our class was secluded from the main school. Our classes and lunchroom were in portables across the street and we even had our own playground. On this playground were metal bars that formed a steam locomotive, sort of in the likes of a wireframe model. During recess a friend and I would sit in the smoke stack (the second highest point of the playground) and commentate the soccer games some of the other kids played. We even had a good sized audience who'd sit around and listen.

But... why do I remember this, of all things, in a sea of forgotten memories?

Back to the idea of the universe and how funny it is. As soon as I got home I watched an episode of This American Life that seemed to be speaking directly to me. I'm unconvinced that this is all by chance...

(Watch first, then continue reading)

It's universal wanting to forget the bad moments of our lives and hold on to the good. How can we though when we're forgetting them? We take a camera with us on vacation to remind us of the trip, but when we're too occupied with finding the right angle, we don't experience the moment properly. It's okay that you won't remember that one historical item, and you don't need to prove to people you were there. I went through the Smithsonian once and can't remember the majority of things... but I remember how I felt. That's all that matters.
As someone who's interested in telling humanistic stories, I hold a life philosophy to always cherish the feeling of memories over the memories themselves, whether they're good or bad. How will I learn if I don't?
Forgetting the memories of the past is just a part of life, and it's okay. There's a parallel between feeling and memory, and while we may naturally forget how we felt in a memory, we're constantly changing the way we feel now to remind us what it is to be human. If I could push a button to remember all things, I wouldn't do it. I want to relive them through new experiences. Positive or not.
I think, in part, this is why so many people embrace films. They're a chance to relive a feeling through an experience they've never had before.
This is why I do what I do.
*I'm aware that This American Life is originally a radio show on NPR.

Red

2011-06-20T01:20:00.000-07:00

The Writing Process

2011-06-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

The image above is a puzzle that took months to solve. Every word or phrase was judiciously placed to represent a sequence, which was then written on a few properly formated pages to form a screenplay. At times, there were huge gaps between these words that, trying to fill, led to moments of frustration and self-degradation. It sounds harsh, I know.
Sometimes you tell people you want to make a career out of filmmaking and they look at you like you're an idiot. This is mainly because filmmaking is easy work and contributes nothing to society. It's really just an excuse to leave the hard work for everyone else while you're off having fun. We all know you aren't allowed to have any fun whilst contributing to society.
Okay that's not entirely true. Filmmaking is not easy, and it's something that can be extremely taxing both mentally and physically. For example, writing a screenplay. As far as it being a detriment to society? If you've ever watched a movie and you think that, you can shut up.
All ranting aside, I'm nearly finished writing the first draft of This American Town and it's been hard. If you're reading this and have no idea what that is, it's a feature film I plan to make in the coming years. Anyway, in the process of it's development, I've spent the past year in deep thought formulating, researching, and writing the story; and I still have many more months dedicated to rewriting it over and over again.
There have been periods of doubt on my writing and periods where I've found myself staring at the blinking cursor on the screen for hours on end. I've spent hours writing something and then deleting it all the next day. Not to mention, the many times where I've had no motivation to write at all.
I'm a perfectionist, which is my shortcoming. For example, I went a week without writing because I had no idea what kind of water pumps are used on a farms irrigation system and I couldn't find an answer. Eventually I told myself to just write "water pump" and figure out the logistics later.
Like an addict, this was the moment I finally realized I'd hit my all time low and needed to turn things around. There's some great advice I've been given many times, but in never really clicked until that moment. Simply, the first draft is always going to suck and you should just keep writing until you're done. If you're struggling to name a character and it's taking you more than two minutes, call him Mr. Poopy Pants and move on; you can change it later. In the end, you could have 30 pages of useless drivel, but one character or sentence from those 30 pages that can grow exponentially.
I apply this knowledge to Dory, that lovable fish from Finding Nemo, and her motto to "just keep swimming." The writing process is the moment you begin turning a thought into something tangible, which is what brings the self-conscious emotions. It's always nerve-racking to share something you've been working on with others as you never know how they'll react. Especially in my case since I write things that aren't as immature as I really am. Regardless, you have to push those thoughts aside and keep going. You have to get over yourself and realize you're not all you're cracked up to be.
The best scripts... the best novels... they all started somewhere below the threshold of mediocrity. If they didn't you're either a genius or you just got lucky. Also, I don't like you.

Innocence - Location Scout

2011-06-04T02:35:00.001-07:00

Matthew Haight and I did some location scouting for his short film Innocence, which I'm producing. We went up Yellow Fork Canyon near Herriman, Utah and found this great spot. Thanks to some record setting rainfall in the recent weeks, the area is green and lively.

The Best Bet Trailer

2011-05-31T00:17:00.000-07:00

An Update

2011-05-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

Now that the blog is underway, here's a little update to get you up to speed on the current projects I'm working on and where they're at in the development process.

The first thing is a short film I wrote, produced, and directed called The Best Bet. It's about a couple having issues with infertility and both being caught up in their own conflicting solutions that are tearing them apart. The only problem is that they aren't even there to see it happening. Oh yes! And somewhere along the lines comes some cockfighting. I just finished this after spending the past two years writing, drafting, filming, and editing it. I'm planning on having a premiere in my area near the end of June and then sending it off to various festivals to see how it fares in the circuit. At this point, you can expect the majority of my posts to be dealing with this.

Click here to visit the official website and here for the Facebook page.

I'm also producing a short film called Innocence that's being directed by Matthew Haight, a good friend of mine. The finishing touches have been applied to the script and the film has been casted. The goal is to get it filmed sometime in July, but that all depends on how quickly we can secure funds. Innocence is about a boy whose father takes him hunting and, after a freak accident, finds himself in a life or death situation.

The next project I'm helping with is Red Coral, a feature-film about Jack, whose guilt leads him on an expedition to find closure in a foreign land. I'm working as the first assistant director to writer/director Conor Long, who's also a good friend of mine. It's a pretty ambitious project based on a helluva good screenplay. It's all a matter of financing at this point, which to my knowledge has been secured and filming is set to take place in Taiwan sometime near the end of this year.

The last project is This American Town, which is a feature film I am currently writing and plan to make my directional debut in feature filmmaking. I'm keeping this one under wraps at the moment, but I can tell you that the next couple of years is going to be dedicated to this and I plan to blog about each step in getting it made.

The Best Bet Film Stills

2011-05-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

An Introduction

2011-05-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my blog. As I'm sure you've figured by now, my name is Kenneth Larson and I have an interest in filmmaking and photography. How I became interested in those is not really important.

This blog will operate as a work diary, but I use the term loosely since I'm not really a professional in either craft. This is simply a place where I will post photos I take and talk about films I'm working on. While a good portion will be about my own films, I will also partition plenty of discussion on the films of others.

I will be updating at least one time a week minimum.