Filmmaker – Artist – Dreamer
Dapo Torimiro is one of the subjects in my documentary, I HAVE DREAMS DAMMIT!, a film about the realities of the pursuit of dreams. He just experienced a dream milestone marker this week and I was happy to be there to share it with him!
Don’t ask your friends for the “hook-up” when it comes to their businesses!! SUPPORT THEIR BUSINESS by paying full-price! Help them build their empire!
Now that I’m not working in an office full-time, I am going to try to record more blogs for MY YouTube Channel and I promise I will try to keep them shorter than this one! LOL Insanity. I give a basic update, show you my new camera (Canon Vixia HV40), and my favorite topic: Advice!
Check out my new INTERNET LIVE SHOW intro!! Click here to subscribe. <-- to be notified via email when I go live!
Fear. Excitement. Euphoria. Fear. Peace. Bliss. Numbness. <-- those are all things that I've been going through in the past few weeks!
This is a quick blog because it’s been a busy week preparing to leave Paramount. I hope to see you Sunday when I go LIVE on BlogTV at 2pm EST.
Yep, I’m leaving my job at Paramount so I can finish my documentary and pursue my dreams. I LOVED my time there, love the people I met there, and I learned sooooo much about the “real world” of the film industry and I’m happy to say that I’m STILL going to go for it!! haha
Do you give people positive feedback? When you experience exceptional customer service, do you let the management know? Do the people in your life (co-workers, friends, family) know that you like their laugh, smile, food, personality, ability to speak up for themselves, their love of the environment, whatever??? I challenge you for today and through the weekend to be look for what you LIKE in people and situations and let them know! Don’t be corny about it, be genuine. Really think about it and have it come from your heart, even if it’s as simple as, “I really appreciate how fast you return my phone calls”. Watch my video below and then come back and leave a comment telling me what you did and how it made you feel. Good luck!! YOU are AMAZING!
Are you following me on Twitter? www.twitter.com/lisamurray I LOVE Twitter! 
Today I hung out with the director of the documentary, BUTTERFLIES. She is fun and crazy! Subscribe to her YouTube channel by clicking here. Subscribe to Butterflies’ YouTube channel by clicking here.
As part of my weekly blog on the 5AwesomeOptimists channel on YouTube, today I talked about my favorite quote (you’ll have to watch the video to find out what it is!) and reminding you (and me!) to LIVE YOUR ADVENTURE! Are you subscribed to that channel? If not, click on the link to do so RIGHT NOW! Are you subscribed to MY channel? Click here to do subscribe RIGHT NOW!
EVERYONE is going to have an opinion about your dream. People you know will have criticisms. People you DON’T KNOW will have criticisms. When going for your dreams, you have to be able to tune those people out and just listen to YOURSELF. I know it’s hard, believe me!
Tonight I had a work dinner in Beverly Hills and I just got home. My boss picked me up in her Mercedes and we drove through the canyon to get there. Aside from getting slightly car sick from all the twists and turns of Mullholland Drive, it was a nice drive. And as we were driving through the twists and turns of the canyon roads, something occurred to me. Even though I’ve lived here for several years, I haven’t really EXPERIENCED living here. I have had tunnel vision. I used to have a goodie bag business, I worked at a record label where I would go out to various clubs/bars to watch our artists perform live, I’ve worked a million film festivals and premieres and I have been to many high-profile events, but when I was at the events, I was WORKING. I was either working working, like for a company or working in the way of making contacts for my film career. So tonight, I really looked around as we drove through the restaurant and shop-lined streets. It was amazing! It’s so beautiful down there! I must get this secret out about this place called “Beverly Hills”. Does anybody know this is a beautiful place? (I’m kidding, geesh.) The restaurant was great! The conversation with my awesome vendors and boss was great! (Obama’s awesomeness, how they got their start in the business and all of the current work stuff going on.) The food and service was …. yep, great! (It was INCREDIBLE actually!) I even had 1996 Dom Perignon for the first time! (Better than “great”!) So now I have the Mercedes, the canyon, the 1996 Dom Perignon, the restaurants and shops of Beverly Hills and the mansions (big-ass, two-story, vintage Spanish villas w/the kick-ass wrought-iron gates, just how I like my mansions!) all swirling around in my brain and my dream muscles are working overtime tonight! But that will have to give way to sleep because I have to be at work at 9:00 AM tomorrow. Dream OVER. Or is it? (dum dum dummmmmM!!!!!) I’m a DREAM OR DIE chick. So no worries. My dreams will never die! Goodnight friend.
I can’t readily remember a movie that has evoked more gut-level emotion from me than Revolutionary Road. The first time I saw it, it was for a work screening (QCing Latin Spanish subtitles) and I only saw the first three reels and then had to go back to my office job and then at the end of my work day, screen the final three reels. And since we were trying to make a shipment, and we were dealing with a film lab’s availability and schedule, I screened the last three reels – unarguably the most intense part of the movie – out of order. Nonetheless, I was still profoundly affected. I cried during the screening, I cried as I walked out to my car, and once in my car, I lost it and cried hysterically all the way home on the bumper-to-bumper 101 Freeway. The intense level crying continued until late that night.
Just now, I was able to watch Revolutionary Road in its entirety, with no interruptions, and in order. I am still wiping away my tears as I write this. But this is the first time I can write about it as the other time I screened it was pre-release. Now that the movie is in theaters, I can be open with my thoughts and share them with you.
I can’t get over the writing. And the directing. And the acting! And the cinematography. And the score. And the production design.
The typical Hollywood movie, the typical yet well-done Hollywood movie, rips the scab of daily existence off and exposes our core to the elements – for a brief moment – and then, gently covers the open wound with dressing in the form of a forced Hollywood happy ending and off we go back to the parking lot to our cars and then our mundane lives. It all happens so fast, you’re almost not entirely sure you have just experienced it. But this movie will rip the scab off, hold your arms behind your back – and force you to sit with that feeling for an uncertain period of time. When you think you’ve had all you can take, an intense, golden light will pour over your open wound. If there were any parts that were out of view, they are no longer.
All the while your dark, inner secrets are being forcibly exposed to the part of you that is out there living life, there is a piano softly playing in the background. It isn’t the soothing type of piano either, it’s the type of piano that is constant and repetitive, which can either affect you like a lullaby or a psychotic chant. It chants it’s tune to remind us of that voice that lives inside of us, that Truth that keeps knawing at the door that we have shut on it. Sometimes the piano strikes chords that are reminiscent of the out of control feeling inside. And you sit with the core of YOU open to the world, and you FEEL in that moment – a moment which feels like eternity. And and you feel. And feel. And feel. Until you go deeper and deeper into the core of You. If reading this evokes discomfort or anger in you then I know one thing about you: You are afraid to face your true self and chances are, you won’t like this movie very much. If, however, you appreciate the opportunity to get in touch with the deeper part that lives inside of you, the part that you have perhaps gotten really good at ignoring, then this movie is a must-see for you – as it was for me.
To help paint a better picture of why this movie had such a profound affect on me that morning at the lab, let me explain the circumstances that lead up to it. I had just worked the Benjamin Button premiere the night before. My job at the premiere after-party was to “guard” the Paramount Execs’ table (basically, not let anybody who wasn’t supposed to be there be there – a real no brainer.) Well, I ended up standing next to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for a long time as they hung out at that table and not at their designated VIP section. I was thrilled to be so close to two of the biggest Hollywood stars in the business. It’s one thing to see pictures of stars, or watch televised interviews, or watch edited films, but it’s another to stand next to them watching them talk with all kinds of people, live. I watched how they interacted with people, and each other. At first I was like, “oh wow, this is cool” but that was quickly replaced with something on a deeper level. I saw my unlived life in their faces, in their smiles. I stood there guarding that table well into the night. I was cold. My feet hurt. My soul hurt. And I knew I had the 8:30 screening the next morning. I just felt invisible and in pain.
The next morning I watched the first three reels of Rev Road as I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. I was blown away. The writing…. it’s… me. It’s like someone reached into my core, the core that I don’t tell ANYBODY about, and put it in a glass jar and then poured the contents of that jar over film emulsion and then projected that back to me in the dark screening room in Hollywood that morning. What a strange feeling to have your Self projected back to you in way of a work screening. I am there to check the print for scratches, hits, digs, water marks or the like. But how could I? How could I notice ONE THING wrong with this film when all I knew was what I felt inside and what I felt inside was telling me to get up and walk out of there and never go back to another J-O-B again in my life. But I didn’t and that made me just as sad as I felt at the end of that movie. I couldn’t help but think about how many missed opportunities there have been in my life. The affect this movie has had on me will last a very long time, perhaps forever. I’m still digesting my feelings from it but this is where they stand as of screening #2. I’m sure I’ll have more to post about this later.
Golden Globes and Oscars.
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio
Best Actress: Kate Winslet
Best Director: Sam Mindes
Best Cinematography
Best Production Design
Best Score
This movie plays out more like a stage play than a film. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe” was referenced more than once when talking about this movie. It is a dialogue-driven, character-driven movie – my favorite! I will see this movie many more times I’m sure. And a dream of mine would be to write something as profound as this movie (I’m now reading the book), to work with Kate Winslet (she’s my favorite actress) and Leonardo DiCaprio (my favorite actor) and to live my life from my heart. This is what sticks with me from this story: LIVE YOUR TRUTH. LIVE YOUR TRUTH. LIVE YOUR TRUTH.
Yay Obama! Boo Prop 8!!!
I am so excited Obama will be our next President. I was BALLING and screaming and dancing when they announced it! I am going to be making a video blog soon about why I love him so much. In the meantime, feel free to send me your election day experience to post on my SkyLifeProductions website and a picture of your newspapers the day after the election. I’m getting some amazing pics from around the world! Click here to see all the pics submitted so far. Submit yours! Life is good, isn’t it?
I have to mention that I am very disappointed that Prop 8 passed. Some say that it was confusing on the ballot and people thought by voting “Yes” they were voting in favor of gay marriage but in fact if you voted “Yes” on Prop 8, you were voting in favor of taking away a gay person’s right to marriage. You cannot take away someone’s Constitutional Rights!!! The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gay Marriage. I am confident this will be overturned. Religion has no place in politics. The separation of Church & State is the reason we created this country. We have to keep it separate so that people’s RIGHTS are not confused with one group’s religious view of someone’s rights because then you get into “who’s right” and “who’s wrong”. Everyone has a right to his or her religious beliefs, but don’t tell me or anyone else what to believe – that is each person’s right to decide for themselves. In the meantime, let’s respect each other’s Constitutional Rights. Sign the California petition to overturn this. I’ll post a link to the online petition soon. Email me if you would like to sign it and you don’t see a link. WE SHALL OVERCOME!! (It’s the sign of the times!)
Click here to sign the petition to reopen Prop 8 for California: http://www.petitiononline.com/seg5130/petition.html
TwitPics
SkyLife Productions FeedCopyright © 2010 Lisa Murray All rights reserved. Site managed by SkyLife Productions.
