Farewell Sidney

This week has been filled with daily meetings with investors and media interviews with journalists interested in the aftermath of our hugely successful Sold Out run of 6 screenings at the Sarasota Film Festival. Thankfully, the fact that Beautiful Noise has struck an emotional chord with most everyone who has seen it so far has caught the attention of a lot people and has resulted in a continuing wave of excitement and anticipation for the film and the upcoming BN prequel, sequel, TV pilot and stage musical that's in development. The Beautiful Noise Franchise has liftoff! It's been a fun week and it sets the stage for our final Sarasota screening of the season on Friday, April 29th at the Riverview H.S. Performing Arts Center.

At the moment, it's 4:20 in the morning and I've been up all night watching the tribute to the late, great Director Sidney Lumet on TCM. Never having attended film school, I've learned more from watching and studying the work of master filmmakers like Mr. Lumet then most anything else that's informed my film work. Just sitting here banging out this quick blog post while watching Pacino do his thing in Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon is yet another opportunity to soak up the incredible artistry of one of my favorite Directors of all time. I just finished a Musical where the Soundtrack and Music Score means everything...and here I am watching a drama that is so well done that it has no music whatsoever holding it together. It's simply a masterpiece.

From Fail Safe to Twelve Angry Men, from Serpico to Network and so many more classics, Sidney Lumet stands with the Giants of the Film Industry. Trailblazing for other Directors like Woody Allen and Edward Burns who also call New York City home and who love to shoot their movies in that great city, Sidney Lumet has been an inspiration to me and countless other filmmakers over the years. I hope I can look back some day at the body of work I'll have shot on location here on the Suncoast and feel as good as I know Sidney felt about getting up every morning and making movies in the city he loved.

Like many of his contemporaries who have gone before, Sidney Lumet will be sorely missed.

I'm shutting down the engines and cooling the jets this holiday weekend. It's a time for reflection and appreciation of all that's transpired...and a time to get grounded again. I'll watch Gibson's Passion of the Christ again and melt into the meaning of this Easter weekend...then crank things back up come Monday.

Have a great holiday and check back in next week. This indie film adventure is really just getting started, so I'll keep posting my experiences in the hope that it makes for an interesting read for those following along and also helps inform other filmmakers just starting out.

ST