LA Rob is back from hiatus and getting it done!---2014 is a year of solutions!

It's been a LONG TIME since I posted here.  Honestly its because I've been busy living life and doing things.  Time is a funny thing when your young, you can't wait to become and adult and when you become one your so busy you don't notice how fast it moves.  I am not at all bitter about the passage of time because that is normal.  I believe it is the little experiences that shape us into individuals.


Most importantly it is FAILURE that makes us succeed.  I still remember all the people telling me not to move to California and the challenges I faced living here but you know what I learned?

MAN UP----LIFE IS HARD!!!! Life is a strategy game and at best we have 80 years to get it right if we're lucky---because some day we will reach an age where time decides certain life goals are no longer options.

Making movies is something I fell into.  I never wanted to be a director I simply fancied seeing my stories in 3D with human beings inhabiting my characters and those characters serving as avatars for an audience.  Cinema to me is more than a hobby more than a source of entertainment for me a good film can change the way I perceive the world.

Living in Hollywood these past five years has showed me that they don't want  us "black people" to weld any kind of meaningful influence in the industry.  Which brings me to my previous thought MAN UP!!! It may be 2014 and we have a black president but step inside a Paramount LOT and you can clearly see there are very few African Americans calling the shots.

This realization was a shock at first but it drove me explore alternative means of getting my work out.  Basically be so good they can't ignore you!

MY SHORT FILM "PREAMBLE" WAS CREATED FOR THE 2014 CFC COMPETITION

MY SHORT FILM FROM COLLEGE "DEVIL'S BLUE" MADE IN 2004

Not looking for compliments just demonstrating that if you do something enough you will improve as long you work hard at it.

My goals for this year is to get another car and finally shoot "So Much Alike" watch the trailer and prepare for the second LA ROB renaissance!

MY TRAILER FOR "SO MUCH ALIKE"

The Last Fall 2013 Review B+

The Last Fall is a independent film directed by Matthew Cherry.  It is about a professional football player transitioning to life after the game.  Its allot like Love and Basketball meets Any Given Sunday.  I enjoyed the myth busting aspect of this movie with regards to a professional athletes actual salary. Unlike other professional sports football players don't get a guaranteed contract.  When Kyle Bishop (played by Lance Gross) is cut from his team the situation is very jarring for him.  He returns to his hometown embarrassed and broke, his friends are surprised to see him and they are shocked when he is asking for a job.

Directed by Matthew Cherry a former professional football player himself Cherry relocated to Los Angeles and reinvented himself as a filmmaker.  He enrolled in Streetlights a non-profit production assistant training program that teaches people of limited means to become production assistants.  Cherry began his career on the sets of The Game, Heroes and Girlfriends.  The Last Fall was his directorial debut and I find it impressive how Cherry was able to wrangle all these elements in a effective manner.  

Watching this movie I felt the protagonist was sympathetic enough for me to root for however I find the ending a bit of a letdown.  Spoiler alert the main character has to make a critical decision but the movie ends before he makes it.  I can appreciate an opened ended ending but I found it unsatisfying.  I would have preferred to see the main character make the tough decision to continue playing football or explore a new life with his college sweetheart.  This ending nullifies his previous struggle.  

For an independent movie it is unique in that it is largely devoid of racial stereotypes contains little if any profanity or drug use and no nudity.  As a first time director this film is a triumph of technique and cinematography.  I applaud any minority filmmaker that can get a good movie in the can.  I am grading The Last Fall a B+ I look forward to Cherry's next project. 

How to write a screenplay and get in your creative zone

Click the link below:

It will take you to my Word on the street movie review podcast where I do a show about screenwriting, it's very nuts and bolts I give you the foundation to writing a terrific screenplay.

http://wordonthestreet.podomatic.com/entry/2012-05-24T12_12_31-07_00