FIRST 2nd Unit CONTEST

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

paolo: "oh, say can you see (by the dawn's early light, etc., etc)" is the opening line to the US national anthem. "

Thanks! I didn't make the connection to the anthem.

[Jonathan Ames]

Actually, Meryem, we're not that far apart as the purpose of all film is to spur discussion. These boards foster that creatiove thinking so I don't think you're hijacking the thread or going against policy. We all have viewpoints and that's why we have this forum. We want to hear your opinions because without them we'd have, well we'd have just Reality TV spoon-fed to us!

www.2nd-unit.tv has a story I think you'll find interesting relative. It ran in the trades here in LA on our production so you can see, as can everyone else who's reading and commenting or just lurking here like I know the dozens of you do that e-mail me do, why I elected to do this picture. Believe me, there are alot of other things I could spend the $500k I have budgeted for it on (and that's WITH sponsorships from companies like Sony, AbelCine, Tiffen, Steadicam, Fujinon, Studio Direct Cosmetic and, hopefully as we're supposed to hear back from them this week Apple) but with a daughter that was just denied admission to my alma mater, I'm pretty close to the situation. And, as the co-producer says in the article, I think I did a prety fair job on the working script keeping my opinion down and objectivity up. That's what we do in documentary film and if we're good enough at it, our results speaks to the very soul of the issue through the people who are touched by it. Yeah, I take somepretty zen-like looks at things like balloons but then again it's served me well in my years of making films. Nothing great. Nothing earth-shattering. Hecktelevision pays the bills, not my documentaries. But this one...this one's different which is why it's not a documentary but a docudrama the I've left objectively open-ended becuase after the last line's spoken ... after the smoke has cleared and the last bullet lies lodged...I can't tell yo where 'cuz that'd give up the ending..., there's still a story to tell. The family, their struggles still go on. The DREAM Act and 100 others like it go on; acts that affect in one way or another depending which side of the fence you're on, everyone who walks the face of this earth. And I think it'll make for compelling television. I've met wonderful people while researching this movie and I've learned so much about people like you...and ironically people like me. I've sat and spoken with people who are 7 and people who are 77. I've visited...we'll I just found and am starting to visit places like

http://boards.immigrationportal.com/...play.php?f=230

http://dreamact.info/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

and I've listened and learned. So don't think you're the only one who risks hijacking threads or running afoul of the moderators. That's what free speech is all about and its why we make movies...to have our voices heard. I have another show in the works right now relative to the only true Americans we have here, the American Indians. And, with the DREAM Act at a critical point before Congress in November, I had to hold that one to make El Papel. So there's lots more where this came from and I for one am glad you shared your views and I welcome you to our forum. Again, the peoples' voices is what this industry is all about and if it wasn't for people like Jarred and Chris creating and maintaining these boards, the world would be a lot quieter place, like the old USSR. Remember, movie making and the discussions surrounding it are not simply technical in nature. It's personal. It's real. Perhaps the most personal and real profession left on the fact of this earth. So there you have it. Welcome. I'm truly, truly happy you're here with us. We have much left to discuss you and I and the rest of 2nd Unit. Welcome

[Jonathan Ames]

Originally Posted by Jaadgy Akanni

Jonathan, why is your working title "El Papel" or "The Paper. " What is that exactly an allusion with respect to the theme or plot?

El Papel is The Paper, in English, without which you have no life...no identity...no future. And it is the pursuit of El Papel or that Paper that this story reviolves around. I won't give away the whole storyline but think about having to beg, borrow or steal your way into a country and giving every ounce of yourself to two things; working a low paying, menaial job and making sure you don't get caught and deported. Now add to that the riggors of wanting and working for a better life through education to the point that you spend every waking hour studying to make it into a college. That means, as I found out last year, that your GPA needs, prior to admission, to be somewhere around 4.6, to make it into UCLA where I went. The bottom line is, if I thought I had it hard getting into college and making it through, try doing it the undocumented way. Now that's beating the odds. "El Papel" or "The Paper" is the story of a family whose partiarch was killed getting his family to America and now the mother is raising two teenagers; one about to graduate college knowing that because he is undocumented he can't make use of his hard-won diploma and the other 14 and being drawn to the gang and violence of the streets instead of the education his brother won. It's an eductional piece about the DREAM Act which is a bill in Congress right now as told through the eyes of a television drama and it's meant to educate as much as it is to entertain, a mixture I believe to be the next logical step in television. The production is close to me and again I urge you to read the story that's reprinted on our website 2nd-Unit.tv and the crew members we select for this venture are going to be involved in a film that's meant to be considered for an Emmy and submitted for consideration to the various film festivals with our supporter Sony entertainment. I wanted to mane it Paper Chase or something like that but that name was already used a decade ago for a tv series that chronicalled the pursuit of a lw degree.

[Bob Schneider]

"Brains & Borders"

Bob

[Meryem Ersoz]

jonathan, as a person who has sat on university selection committees, i can tell you first-hand that it can be a strange and arbitrary process and not one to be taken personally at all, any more than a rejection from a publisher or film festival is necessarily a reflection of the quality of the work. more like a reflection of biases, tastes, market forces, and hidden agendas....and i was personally responsible for rejecting applicants who were way (and i mean way!) more qualified than i was at the time i applied....the times are different in higher ed than when we were at that place in life...

but that's a whole 'nother documentary!

thanks fer the warm welcome to your neck of the dvinfo woods! (i'm a bit of a wildlife forum geek myself....)

[Greg Watts]

The Esoteric:

Rainbows At Midnight

Thematic:

Dreams and Diplomas
Dreams of Diplomas
Some variation therein.

[Jonathan Ames]

You guys are putting us to shame...and making us proud. These are great titles!

[Jaadgy Akanni]

"Illegal, But Stacked With Honors"

[Bob Schneider]

"Diploma Diplomacy"

Bob

[Jaadgy Akanni]

"Higher Education for Illegal Dreamers" or "An Illegal Existence In Higher Education"

[John Kang]

How about "Educated Am I?"

Without a comma, it makes it sound like a failure of the Amercian Education system, or does it?

Dang grammer and spelling, always getting in the way of free speach.

"Daydreaming in School - hope for a better education."
"Daydream Believer - A better education."
"ESL - Education's Secret Learners."

Just send me the package, no need to go on.

[Bob Schneider]

"Wet Diplomas"

Bob

[Jaadgy Akanni]

I smell a faux pas approaching...lol

[Bob Schneider]

Pardon the ignorance, whats a faux pas?

Bob

[Jaadgy Akanni]

Originally Posted by Bob Schneider

Pardon the ignorance, whats a faux pas?

Bob

A faux pas is a slip or blunder in etiquette or the utterance of something that might be considered offensive.