Author: Lee Hurtado

On Breaking Bad, or: Who Runs When A Bad Man Goes To War?

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I’m sure I’m not the only one who heard the concept and first thought “black comedy”.

A chemistry teacher, beaten down by the myriad sticks and stones of his life, discovers that he’s dying.  Worried for his family’s future, he decides to put his time and skills to use in providing for them after he’s gone… by cooking and selling crystal meth.

In and of itself, the tale of Walter White doesn’t necessary reach out and grab you.  It could be very good.  It could be very bad.  It could be somewhere in the middle.  And so the middle was where I stood for those early episodes.  It wasn’t until late in the second season that I committed to watching it.

What I saw when I did was something far more than a two-sentence logline.  Something that defied, even transcended, the bounds of genre.  Something that, for me, redefined what was possible in scripted television.

What I saw was Breaking Bad. Continue reading →

Not Bad For A Mad Man With A Box

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That I love Doctor Who really isn’t much of a secret – when you wear a Vote Saxon T-shirt to local film events, you’re pretty much earning a reputation for yourself.  And I’m sure you’re wondering why I haven’t written more posts about the show (that one with the Steven Moffat quote doesn’t count, since it just used his thoughts to reflect on my own growth as a writer, with the fringe benefit of earning quite a few page hits for my blog). Continue reading →

Cinema’s Last Great Moralist

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While the goal of all movies is to entertain, the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and sets the mental juices flowing.

– Sidney Lumet (as quoted in his New York Times obituary)

At PDP, we have a reading list of essential books about the art, craft, and business of entertainment.  A couple of years ago, during our Scene From Both Sides class, Nikki and I updated it for the students, and have kept up with it ever since.

I take that list pretty seriously.  And when we were preparing it for that class, I knew that there was one book that had to be on it, the one book that for me is not merely essential, but necessary for everyone who’s serious about film: Making Movies, by Sidney Lumet. Continue reading →

So These Kids Walk Into A Comedy Club…

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One of the great things about Stone Oak Youth Theatre is its commitment, the commitment of everyone who works there, to introduce their students to the full arts experience.  Just visit that website and you’ll find programs for drama, programs for musical theatre, programs for improv, programs for film acting (which will start up again tomorrow), programs all about the art, craft, and business of show.

This spring, SOYT added stand-up comedy to the list, with a class called Punchline.  The class was designed to teach kids the ins and outs of being comedians.; it was a great idea for SOYT, and a great opportunity for the kids. Continue reading →

In Which I Find Myself A Tourist In My Own Hometown

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“Nowadays when a person lives somewhere, in a neighborhood, the place is not certified for him. More than likely he will lie there sadly and the emptiness which is inside him will expand until it evacuates the entire neighborhood. But if he sees a movie which shows his very neighborhood, it becomes possible for him to live, for a time at least, as a person who is Somewhere and not Anywhere.”

– Binx Bolling’s theory of “certification”, from Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer

It’s not a little sobering when you realize how little you truly know the place where you were born.  Granted, I’m not the most well-travelled of men, but having lived in San Antonio most of my life, I’d have preferred to believe that I don’t need to have it certified, made “real”, by seeing it onscreen.

But as my old catchphrase goes, I learn something new every day… Continue reading →

A Fool And His Honey, or: On The Hazards Of Sitting In The Front Row When One Of Your Best Friends Is The Star

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It’s likely an obvious statement I’m about to make, especially if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, but one of the things I love about my job is getting to follow, chart, even influence the evolution of a creative work.  When the film premieres, when the play opens, that’s the beginning for the audience, but for those of us on the other side of those seats, it’s just one more step in a process that never really ends.

And when you’re in on that process from the beginning, you know that from conception to reception, the slightest change can make all the difference.  Which brings us to the Cameo Theatre.

Continue reading →

Three Yellow Roses, Day 2: Shop Talk

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Given the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey nature of production schedules, it’s pretty standard for effect to precede cause when you’re putting a story on film.  The cast, crew, and locations you need for Scene 3 might only be available before those you need for Scenes 1 and 2, so it’s often a necessity to work out of sequence.  So it’s been with Three Yellow Roses.

Having filmed a steak dinner on our first day of production, Tuesday evening brought us to Green Fields Market to film the shopping trip before said dinner, and another trip taking place some time after it.  Given that one of the themes of the film is the relationship between past, present and future, it seems fitting that our production schedule brings them together as it does. Continue reading →

Three Yellow Roses, Day 1: Slating & Plating

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In the tongue of our trade, the last set-up is known as the Martini Shot.  When we were working on La Vida de Noche, as Pete and Wes were setting up our first shot, I wondered if there was a similar name for that first set-up.

After last night, I may have to start calling it the Steak Shot.

Continue reading →

The Road To “Action”

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The slate we’ll be using on our next film is a really nice affair.  It’s a dry-erase clapboard (very like the one you’ll see to your left) that Nikki picked up at MPS Studios in Dallas as a birthday present in 2009.

And tonight we’ll be using it to call “action” on one of our projects for the first time. Continue reading →