On Academic Libraries
Wednesday, October 29th, 2025
I have now been a student of three higher education institutions over the years, and the thing that I miss most when I'm out of school is the access to an Academic library. What's so special about libraries at schools? At universities, especially the old ones, they have a responsibility to hold onto knowledge and weird stuff that local branch libraries don't. Things like home improvement magazines from the 1970s and ignorant history books by megalomaniacal explorers. I once found a DVD at UF's Library West (The best library I have personally visited) that was a locally-made action B-movie called "Karma to Burn" about a former Hare Krishna boy who gets mixed up in some contrived drug thing. It was weird and specific and I would never have found it if I didn't wander the aisles of the DVD section on the reg. I used to average two discs a week my freshman year, but I fell out of habit by my junior year. Now that I'm back in Miami where I have to drive anywhere (Lib West was walking distance when I dormed there), I really feel what I lost.
I am trying - really trying - to visit the library more often and check out stuff. Movies mostly but sometimes I check out books if I'm feeling particularly delusional.
Dear reader, recommend seeing if you can get a visitor pass to the closest university's library if you have that option. Pretty sure the public university ones are free to the public, there's this old guy who's always watching AI alien videos on one of the computers near the entrance of mine and I don't think he's a student or faculty. The atmosphere of study can really get to you if you're feeling lethargic. And if you check anything out, you can renew for ages, truly. You'll be the only person to even consider checking out that random book you found, guarantee it. Many classes have reserved material behind the counter and those are checked out often by the professor, those are difficult to deal with because they can't leave the library but anything on the shelves is fair game.
One thing I think we lost with the electronic catalogue is the sense of history when you check out a book and see that the last time it was taken off the shelf was in the 1980s. That's always a trippy feeling. You can be the reason that book gets revived. I've single-handledly caused the media library to replace the plastic covers on their audiobooks because I kept checking them out and the old covers would disintigrate into little clear fragments at the slightest touch and make a mess. If you check out two times in the same week you will get 'regular' status among the library staff, it's that easy. Give it a try!
Book Review: What They Don't Teach You at Film School
By Camille Landau and Tiare White
Sometime January 2025
My favorite book ever. It has so much practical wisdom even though it's from the time when people used film to make videos. It's my go-to book to recommend to anyone who is thinking about making videos even as a hobby because at the end of the day, whether you're making a million dollar feature or a five-minute short, the moment to moment actions on set are as fun as, in the book's words "helping someone move."
The chapters go over refining your idea and script, finding money to make the thing, and is a handy reference for wisdom in the thick of the production. The sections I return to most often are the ones on where and how to find actors and crew members. It provides an efficient and empathetic formula for auditioning talent that is desperately needed in the current age of employer-ghosting.
Oh, and can I say something about the quality of writing in this book? It's conversational and easy to read in a way that says "There's no secrets between us, I want you to know all the things I know." The writing is charming and at times funny. I've found many anxieties assuaged by the chipper tone of Landau and White's explanations.
Additional: This book review was written sometime in January 2025.
Movie Review: Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
Thursday, january 2nd, 2025
What's in a name?
I watched this Romanian realist-comedy-experimental hybrid genre film on a whim, largely because of the name and the description. "A teacher finds her career and reputation under threat after her sex tape is leaked. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, she refuses to surrender to their pressure. Cleverly placed graphics cover explicit content." The opening also grabbed me. The film starts with the sex tape itself, but most of it has a huge rainbow color-faded box with comic sans text giving wacky commentary and stating "censorship = money". In my brief research on the film after the fact it seems like the sex tape is not censored in the original film. Seems like censorship is money when it comes to releasing a film in the land of the free. The film is split into three chapters. The first is a realist portrait of what it's like to be a pedestrian in a Romanian city. Normally I get bored of those lengthy shots of city life as if we're documenting the lives of working people in the 1800s but I didn't know much about Romania other than the flag. I was never bored. The meandering camera in the opening showing us all the brands and shitty parking jobs of the city's residents paint a peculiar picture of a moment in time. An eastern european city of aged buildings invaded by western capitalism's billboards. An apathetic and stressed out citizenry that is fed up with each other.
It is a movie that did not make me happy. I kind of wish I hadn't seen it but I don't want to forget it.
The second part is called "dictionary" and is structured like an experimental film, presenting philosophical thoughts that are often simple, but not shallow. Yes, war turns alive children into dead soldiers, I hear cynical imdb commenters jeer. But artists have to keep saying it because no one seems to care. One definition that I enjoyed was for the word 'cinema.' The film recounted the story of Medusa, and how Perceus was given a polished shield to see Medusa without directly looking at her. The film defined cinema as Hera's shield, and that since we cannot directly face horror lest it paralyze us, we use cinema to view the horrors of reality through its reflection of the world.
The third part is labeled as the sitcom, and it is a comedy. I didn't laugh. It was the parent-teacher conference I'm sure any decent teacher has had to endure: dumbass parents who take out their ignorant frustrations on the educator for making their children see a world outside of dogma. It was painful because it was real. I know these people, here in the US. The antisemitism, the conspiracy theories, the antisemitic conspiracy theories all come out unapoligetically in a way that is both disgusting and halfway cathartic. Ultimately I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth like with most philosophy "All these ignorant people are ruining society; we should be enlightened people" movies. No solutions, only the problem, and resignation that the hateful, violent people are the ones that win. And they are for now, but it doesn't help anyone to be defeatist.
"Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" had an effect on me and that's all you can ask for, really. I cannot recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of boring thinky movies. If you are though, this might be a nice watch, it's on Hulu as of January 2nd, 2025.
Addition: This was originally written January 2nd, 2025, posted on October 29th, 2025.
Make Art, don't be an Artist
or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Day Job
Saturday, november 30th, 2024
All of my career role models were born in the 60s or the 1920s. Every filmmaker I looked up to when I was in school made their first feature before the advent of America Online. I've always been more interested in old movies that have held up than the films that are being released right now. When I finished school with my degree, this presented a challenge: I didn't know how (or even if) one creates a sustainable film career in the internet age. When I was a kid Netflix mailed DVDs, when I was a teen they were buying movies and shows like crazy, so much so that the animated sci-fi comedy show Rick and Morty has a joke that all of the teenagers at the high school have produced shows because "Netflix let's anyone make a show." Which brings us to present day, where I speak with filmmakers who spend around $50,000 or less (teeny weeny budget, I think SAG calls it Micro Budget) and are still unable to break even with what Netflix offers them. The internet brought a lot of hope that creative people could cut out the middlemen who intercept their money, but with Web 2.0 and the homogenization of where people go for their entertainment, we're back to having corporate gatekeepers.
So making movies doesn't make you rich, go figure. That's not why most of us do it anyways, I hope. I was taught in school that when pitching films to investors you should not give them any promise or indication that they will make a return on their investment because even if it does, and it probably won't, it would come years down the line. Investors should invest because they want your movie to exist. Take note that Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and many other amazing films, does not just make movies. Ever heard of Coppola wine? Coppola Hideaways Resorts? If this great filmmaking family doesn't rely on filmmaking for their living, what chance do us mere mortals? So how do we make a living? Enter: the day job. Unless you come from a great deal of money, in which case you aren't reading this blog post, you're investing your family's wealth and making films with the profits.
Many of the artists I know are educators in one way or another. Whether university professors or high school teachers or substitute teachers. The seasonal nature means you have summers free for more involved projects. People who work at higher education institutions also have their years broken up into Fall, Spring, and Summer for more flexibility. How feasible that actually is once you're full-time faculty I do not know but I know it happens. You also avoid a lot of the desperation of the freelance nature of the film industry. When I was post grad scrambling for work, I spent more time in pain and stress than I did working on my creative projects. And the brutal 14-hour days with long commutes would knock me out for two days for every day of work. And I wasn't even doing the art department jobs I wanted to, so what was I gaining? Wisdom I guess. The truth is, the brutal schedules and menial work of filmmaking never goes away, but when you do it for your own projects and your friend's projects, it's much more bearable.
The question remains: how do I make films, which is the most expensive medium second only to solid gold architecture, without the millions of dollars that most films are made with. For that, I recommend scrutinizing your assumptions about motion picture entertainment.
Do you have to make a feature length (90 minutes or more) film to tell your story? Can you make an impression with 30 minutes? 10 minutes? A bunch of 5-minute vinettes?
Is the goal to make money? or be famous? Have an impact on a stranger? Or is it pure expression regardless of external gratification?
If you're looking for local fame, then film festivals are the way to go. That's where people go to watch local films. Often the attendees of local films are the people who made the films and their close friends and family, which isn't a bad thing, getting to see your film on a big screen like that is very empowering and a unique experience I recommend. It's also much cheaper to pay a small entry fee for a festival rather than booking a private screening with a theater. The real end all be all of festival websites is filmfreeway.com by the way, organizers and filmmakers alike appreciate the convinience.
If you take something from this blog post, it's that we're in a new landscape of media and entertainment, and adapting to it can be incredibly freeing. Invent your own storytelling formats, make that travel vlog/scripted family drama 15-minute Youtube video. You don't need to have 2 million dollars to make something that will impact people and make them laugh, cry, or reel back in disgust! I didn't seriously consider this path, as most other paths are way flashier and sometimes appear easier. Focusing your creative energy on nights and weekends with the financial security of a steady job is an option. It's a boring option, but the rewards are sweet.
HyperText Markup Language
Friday, october 4th, 2024
There are so many tools to make websites but for me, nothing quite can replace manual typing, at least in this stage. All those hours of studying and watching videos don't really sink in for me if I use a template or chatGPT because I'm not internalizing the grammar and process that makes the website actually work.
That's my advice for anyone learning a new skill in the current age: when you're learning, do it inefficiently but thoroughly. The pros get to use the fancy tools because they understand what the new tools replaced.
The Start of Something Wordy
Thursday, october 3rd, 2024
Welcome to the new phase of Sour Cream Productions and its website! I'm working on a few projects. My main focus is Moon Rocks, a short animation I am writing and directing with my former classmates from University. In addition to that, I have an ongoing special effects study which will culminate in a webseries called Tank Battle League. I'd like to start blogging more on my home page and start growing my fiefdom on the internet.
I'll be updating the blog and website every month at least, mark my words!
