Saturday, March 05, 2005

Tapping the Vein

The following is from Entertainment Weekly:


The Un-Oscars

The DVD Exclusive Awards are the Un-Oscars -- Jennifer Tilly and Mark Hamill were the big dogs at the February awards show

by Gregory Kirschling

Even movies that go straight to DVD deserve some love — and the DVD Exclusive Awards (held Feb. 8 in L.A.) make sure they get it. ''My friend e-mailed me and he said, 'Congratulations, you're nominated for your movie Relative Evil,' and I was like, 'Relative Evil, what's that?''' said Jennifer Tilly on the DVDX red carpet. ''I looked it up on the Internet, and I deduced from Jonathan Tucker and David Strathairn being in it that it was Ball in the House, a movie I made five years ago.''

If, as some posit, DVDs are the future of the movies, could this celebration of straight-to-DVD cinema be the future of the awards show? Probably not, but at least the DVDX's are ''the way the Academy Awards used to be — when it was at a lovely hotel ballroom and it was just among friends,'' insists Family Ties' Michael Gross, a Best Actor nominee for Tremors 4. Indeed, the chicken was warm, the venue was freezing, and the glitches were really blessings in disguise: Hilary Duff won a special ''Triple Threat'' award, but — honest to God — they forgot to give it to her before she left.

''I'm enamored with the DVD format because I think you can make quirky niche movies, like what B movies were in the '30s and '40s,'' says the evening's big dog, Mark Hamill, whose Comic Book: The Movie beat Tremors 4, Species III, Bring It On Again, and Relative Evil for Best Live-Action DVD Premiere Movie. And Tilly was the belle of the ball after her Best Actress acceptance speech. ''I'm really hoping,'' she said, ''that this award will translate into many more straight-to-DVD roles for Ms. Tilly.''

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This is the awards show I wrote for DVD Exclusive magazine. Great job for the money. Two weeks of no sleep, coffee for breakfast/lunch/dinner, and tons of email back and forth to all those involved.

But what Hamill says above is true. You can do a lot with D2DVD movies. More than they are doing now. The good thing writing D2DVD movies (and the awards show after) is that if you write it - it gets made. Not a lot of money involved, but you get to see your work onscreen - fast. That suits this pulp writer just fine. I don't have the attention span necessary to stay on one project for a year. I think it would be boring, and ultimately drain the creative vein dry.

Until next time, this "Nomad" says...

Stay tuned.

1 comment:

Cunningham said...

Oh, I'm sure she earns every penny, buddy.