"Obsession" Poster Design

I had some time on my hands today and I decided to design a poster for Amin's new film "Obsession." The paper and the flower picture were purchased at Istockphoto and work really well in adding to the design.



Comments welcome

and I finally meet the Legendary Walter Murch

After 159 days from moving to Los Angeles to persue a career in post production I get to meet a true legend in the world of film. Walter Murch, one of the world's most prominent editors and sound mixers. His filmography includes but is not limited to most recently editing "Jarhead", "Cold mountain", " The English Patient","Talented Mr. Ripley", " The Godfather" and many many more.
What makes Murch such a great person is his view on things, and how he approaches editing. His book "In the Blink of an Eye" is a must read for any avid film fan or professional, and to get to know more about how he thinks and operates " Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain" is an excellent window into the legend of modern film editing.

I'm excited that i finally got to meet Walter Murch, the number one person on my "must meet"
list.

Here is a pic of me with Murch

Amin Matalqa's "Obsession"

For the past two days I have been on the set of Amin Matalqa's new film "Obsession," which is his first cycle film at the American Film Institute in Hollywood, CA.
I was the set photographer and I also doubled as the boom operator. Please check some of the moments that were captured on set.

New pics from Jordan

Bedouin in Wadi Rum



Vegetable Market-Downtown Amman


Man on Balcony- First Circle- Amman


Man selling Ramadan Drinks-Downtown Amman


Man Selling Jameed ( Dried Youghrt)- Downtown Amman


Homless man-Downtown Amman


Man Selling vegetables- Downtown Amman


Traffic Police officer-Downtown Amman

View from my room Fajer time

View from room Fajer time
Originally uploaded by Fata Al-Janoob.

Woke up for Fajer and I had to capture this view from my room in Amman.

A week in Amman

I kinda feel wierd not having written by now since i have been in Amman for about a week. I came to extend my visa and also have some business meetings which have taken so much of my time. I am glad that i got to meet some of the jordan planet members at Wild Jordan the other day, it was interesting to hear the voices behind the blogs i enjoy reading.

Amman in many ways has changed, one being the traffic, which i don't even encounter in Los Angeles. I never thought i'd be stuck in a tunnel bumper to bumper. Eveyrwhere you go there is a new bridge our tunnel that have appeared from nowhere. Its been about a year and 3 months since i have last been in amman.

The first day i came i atteneded a screening for an argentinan film which was sponsored by the Royal Film Commission and the Spanish Cultural Center. I was close to committing suicide, the film which was a little bit less than 2 hours long, should have been at the most no longer than 30 minutes.

The day after that Suffi Suffi played before another film, and I got the chance to tell the audience a bit about it.

In other news, i attempted to get a taxi the other day from in front of the University of Jordan, and what an experience it was. I have never seen a street with more taxis, but it took me more than half an hour to get a ^&%$#* taxi. Every female on the street got a taxi, even if she was just showing part of her toenail. AKHHH...since when does the taxi driver get to pick and choose...Allah yir7am ayam ma kanoo yitmanoo yitla3 7ad ma3ahom. I feel really sorry for the male students of UJ who try and get a taxi home every day.

The other night i also attended screenings for 4 new films by Yahia Abdallah who is going to france to persue his Masters in film, one of them was about a taxi driver, so i found a good connection with it.

Today i head out to Karak , for a couple of screenings, crossroads is one of the films going to be screened. Then after that Iftar at my aunt's house there.

Over and Out

Editing Seminars

The beauty of L.A. is that there is always something that is film related going on somewhere, whether it is people filming, premiers, screenings you name it. The latest thing I got to attend was two editing seminars that are part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s series on The Art of Editing. I read about this event happening and I knew that I had to make sure I attended at least one of the four seminars. This was my window of opportunity to hear my heroes of the trade speak and discuss their works.
The first seminar I attended was titled “ The Editor/Director Relationship.” The panel included John Singelton (boyz in the hood, four brothers, 2fast 2 furious) and his editor Bruce Cannon. The two other members of the panel were Garry Marhsall ( pretty woman, runaway bride, princess diaries) and his editor Bruce Green.
The seminar was very insightful and was able to explain the importance of the editor/director relationship, the importance of trust , and as gary marshall said, the importance of eating the same food so you can order from the same place.
All of this is important considering the fact that after shooting the film, ( which takes about 30-50 days….depending on size) the director retreats to the editing room and he is there alone with the editor in this dark room for the next couple of months, shaping the film they thought they had shot. So you can imagine the importance of this relationship in one of the last stages of making a film. Many directors start working with an editor and establish this strong bond and keep on working with them for as long as they can. Some partnerships are now famous and have proved their effectiveness. Scorcese and Thelma Shoonmaker, Spielberg and Kahn, Minghella and Murch,Tarrantino and Sally Menke , Marc Forester and Matt Chesse. So one can see that this could be one of the more important relationships a director has to establish and most probably maintain.
The seminar was full of anecdotes and stories of the cutting room. The guests also showed some clips and talked about their decisions and approaches.

The next seminar was just a treat for us, the guests were amazing, the line up included Anne Coates ( lawrence of arabia), a legend in the art of editing, Alan Heim, Neil Travis and Michael Tronick.
The title of the seminar was Anatomy of a Cut. The editors shoed some of their favorite moments and discussed them in a detailed fashion, focusing on decisions and how they feel the cuts contributed to the whole movie. It would just be too much to start discussing all of this here, but I can say that it was an incredible learning experience for me to hear these editors speak, these invisible warriors as someone called them. All of this is preparation for when I get my chance to cut a feature film one day.

Viva L.A….and the academy.