As of late, I've been doing a fair share of narrative work, but have shifted focus to the genre of documentary filmmaking. Surely, my focus will always be narrative, I really really started to enjoy documentary thanks to my Intro to Documentary course at SUNY Purchase's Film Conservatory.
This Sophomore year has been an eye-opening experience. I've had great opportunities to work with really inspirational individuals on very exciting projects. Sometimes I've acted, some times I've done mic booming, and most exciting of all has been my experiences as cinematographer for writer/director, Caleb Foss.
In the meantime, I've been putting some final touches on documentaries from last semester. The first is an eye-witness documentary on the NYC Zombie Crawl. The doc follows the volunteers who offer free make-up, zombie fanatics and the overwhelming 300-person zombie invasion of Time Square in September of 2009. The documentary is now available to watch in two parts on YouTube, Doug Sakmann's Blog, & the official NYC Zombie Crawl website! (BE SURE TO WATCH PART 2!)
The second is a 2 minute place film documentary called "Morgan Ave" on life in my neighborhood in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NYC, over the song "Sunny Afternoon" by The Kinks. The film was shot entirely on Super8 Black & White! It's also available to watch on YouTube.
 |
| A screen cap from Newt Jersey. |
And last, but not least is my most recent documentary about writer and cartoonist, Bryan Korn entitled "Newt Jersey", where I interviewed Bryan about his short comic strip of the same name. The film consists entirely of still-animation and featured comics from his website. Also available to watch on YouTube. And if you're interested in reading Bryan's comic strip, be sure to visit his blog!
In the meantime, I'm finishing the cuts in a recent adaptation of an unproduced script by Ben Ripley called "Source Code". The film is currently being directed by Duncan Jones, who's recent indie debut "Moon" scored him big with audiences and critics. The film follows a US soldier in Iraq (Colter Stevens) who suddenly wakes up on a New York commuter train without explanation. Soon enough, he discovers a bomb on the train. The train explodes and he re-awakens in a strange military isolation chamber, where he learns that aboard the train, he was actually inhabiting the body of another commuter aboard the train, the time of the explosion. So, without any choice, Colter is forced to be sent back in time again, and again, until he finds the terrorist responsible for the bombing. I was given the script in class to adapt for my directing workshop course and really enjoyed it. It was a choice between either this, "The Social Network" which is about Facebook, and which I'd rather see flushed down a toilet, and "Everything Must Go", which was a very interesting indie dark comedy script, which I believe Will Ferrel is currently attached to.
Anyway, in the meantime, keep an eye out for my adaptation of "Source Code" and another original interview doc that's still in the works entitled, "Impracticle.", where I interview a fellow colleague about the hardships and lightnesses of moving.
OOOH! Couple more things!:
1) The YouTube Channel has totally been re-organized. Now you can very easily find work in categories. "Short Narratives", "Short Documentaries", "2009 Reel", "Evil Film", "Early Works" and "Colleagues' Videos". (BE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE & COMMENT!!!)
2) Dancing Zombie Productions is now on Twitter.
3) My good friend Darius Weeden has recently featured my 2009 Reel on his channel as a special "Public Service Announcement". Be sure to check it out.
If you haven't already seen my 2009 Reel, here's the video:
ENJOY!
Raw Power,
John Morgan
