Live Twitter during Oscars

Come next Sunday you can follow my predictions and reactions to the Academy Awards as I will be tweeting throughout the event.

You can follow me here: http://twitter.com/#!/Garbus_film

3 To See At Home Now

I started this segment a while ago and intend to do this on a regular basis. Here are three movies to see at home now.

The Darjeeling Limited: Wes Anderson's best film since "The Royal Tenenbaums." Emotionally endearing, funny, and full of great performances. Also, nothing beats Anderson's signature visual style. There's also a nice short film, "Hotel Chevalier" that is before the movie that is available to be viewed for free from youtube.

To stream from Amazon.com click here.

The short film "Hotel Chevalier":

The Squid and The Whale: Wes Anderson protege Noah Baumbach directed and wrote this film about a recently divorced family. The script was up for an Oscar when it came out in 2005 and the film was found on many top ten lists. A must watch.

To stream from Amazon.com click here.

The Big Lebowski: A Coen Brothers masterpiece and my favorite comedy of all time. The film is about The Dude (Jeff Bridges) and his adventures after his carpet is pissed on.

To stream from Amazon.com click here.

Future Plans

I'm pleased to announce the submission of both "Dormanine" and "In Therapy" to various film festivals throughout the country. It would be awesome if just one of these films is lucky enough to be accepted into any of these festivals. These festivals include The Westport Youth Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, The National Film Festival For Talented Youth, The Columbia University National Undergraduate film festival, and many others. An acceptance into these festivals would allow the film(s) to be shown to a mass audience in the manner it was supposed to be viewed, in a theatre. Also, acceptance into these festivals could provide the opportunity for me to make connections, both with aspiring filmmakers like myself as well as with industry professionals. If any one of the films gets into any of these festivals I will give the dates and location for the viewings of the film, hopefully enabling you to support these films. (Little side note, the cut of "Dormanine" for these festivals is not the same as the one online currently. It's tighter and slightly shorter.)

On another note, I finished the first draft of the script for my latest film, which is very different from anything else I've written before. As I've stated previously I hope to begin filming this film in May and have it finished in June, just before I graduate. I have come up with a title for the film (for now anyways). It is "Tracks."

As always stay tuned for more updates about my previous films now being submitted for film festivals, as well as upcoming films of my own.

New Film

Ok so I haven't posted recently for a variety of reasons, none of which I need to specifically state. However, with the first semester of senior year coming to a close and the final semester of high school just around the corner, I hope to find time to begin work on my newest script and hopefully go into production this late spring. This will hopefully be my final film as a high school student. That said you may be asking what is it about? Well without giving too much away, the film is a character study of a neurotic high school student who is in fact, a dick. The film examines his relationships with his friends, his family, and people in general. I hope to really dive into some deep character build up with this film, in the vein of recent films such as "The Social Network," and "Up In The Air." I hope to examine with the film the reasons behind peoples behaviors and a lesson the character learns at the end of the film. It's a dark comedy, but I intend to have drama a big element as well. So far there is no title and no one has been cast yet. I decided to make this announcement in the wake of several festival submissions for both "Dormanine," and "In Therapy," which I hope to find success in the festival circuit. Keep checking back for updates on this new film.

Dormanine

Dormanine is now available for viewing. Watch it here.

Dormanine from Andrew Garbus on Vimeo.

Dormanine Update

Production wrapped up for Dormanine a couple days ago. The production process went smoothly for the most part. We faced many challenges such as filming in a car, creating a smokey hallway, figuring out how to make water fall from the ceiling, and several re-shoots. We conquered these challenges though with what I believe to be good results. During the production period I have also been editing, which has also gone smoothly for the most part. Other good news is that I have screened the film for a few of my friends and the film has gotten very positive reviews. Here they are:

Rajiv Desikan on Dormanine: "Dormanine is to AJ Garbus as is The Revolutionary War was to George Washington. Both define these men."

David Nassirian on Dormanine: "Dormanine is a thrilling journey that penetrates deep into your mind and leaves you with thoughts you will never forget. Its elaborate and unpredictable plot makes itself AJ Garbus's best film yet."

Bradford Greaves on Dormanine: "Your best film yet."

Now though comes a challenge that I've been fearing since the writing of the script. The original script was 13 pages. The typical rule in film is that every page equals a minute. I had hoped that this film would've not applied to that rule, but unfortunately it has. As of now the film has a running time of 12:36. This would not be a big deal except that this film is going to be my NYU portfolio film, and the NYU application specifically states that a film should not have a running time over ten minutes. Also this is going to be my submission to the National Foundation For Advancement In The Arts Young Arts film festival, which also requires a time limit of 10 minutes. Now the challenge is how to cut two minutes and thirty six seconds from my film without disrupting the story, emotion, tone, and natural flow of the film. Im hoping I can conquer this challenge just as I have the others, but this is the most difficult obstacle of the film process for me thus far. I hope that at the end of all this, a great product will come out that people will enjoy and get me into film school. As always check out the blog daily for updates as well as my twitter.

DORMANINE POSTER #2

The new poster for my film Dormanine. Check it out for free here on 10/25/10