News Flash: Quentin Tarantino has agreed to introduce the 12:01 am Dome show on Thursday night for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.

I logged into the theaters website and bought 2 of the less than 10 seats still remaining. Having heard rumors of this film for the last decade and considering myself to be a pretty big fan of QT’s work I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Even if the movie didn’t start until about 2 hours after I usually go to bed. Yeah, I’m getting pretty close to 40 and I’m usually in bed by 10pm most nights. So?

Dani and I stopped at a grocery store Thursday night and loaded up on junk food for the screening. Dani was worried that her overflowing purse would be suspicious.  On the drive into Hollywood I was thinking about the Quentin moments I’ve had over the last 15 years or so.

I remembered trying and failing to climb a local peak back in Alaska. Must have been 95? My friend Mark and I tried for two days in bad weather with too much gear. Finally on the morning of the third day we high tailed it down, and went strait to the theater to see Pulp Fiction. I don’t think we even went home to shower first. We must have smelled pretty bad in the theater but it was a weekday and mostly empty. Like most people that movie blew my mind. Left me reeling. I returned and saw it several more times on the big screen and bought it strait away when it came out on VHS.

When I moved to Hollywood I remember the first time I saw Quentin. I remember the day. I had auditioned for the lead role in a little independent feature. They liked me, but I “wasn’t right for the part.” So they gave me one of the smallest roles in the move just to have me involved. I was thrilled of course. I remember getting up early on a Saturday to drive all the way to Tustin (about 50 miles) for the first table read before shooting started the next week. I stopped at Starbucks on Franklin and Highland to get a coffee for the road. I walk in and there was Quentin, in the corner with a woman, pouring over headshot’s. I remember specifically, Quentin saying he liked a certain actor because of his facial expressions. “I like expressive actors” he said. I just tried not to stare. I was 26. I took it as a good sign. Here I was, on the way to a table read for my first feature film and I run into one of my favorite directors of all time. I am admittedly more than a little superstitious. Superstitious isn’t the exact right word but its close enough. Anyway, the film turned out to be a disaster and I don’t think it was ever finished. I never saw a frame of my 2 or 3 lines of dialogue. But i do use it as filler on my acting resume.

The next time I saw Quentin was maybe 5 or 6  months later at work. I worked as a doorman at the House of Blues for the first year I lived here. Metallica did a secret show at one point and there were a zillion celebrity’s that came, including Quentin. The show was sponsored by a beer company and I remember Quentin in the VIP room getting very drunk with about 4 of the Beer company’s promotion girls. He was very soft spoken and very polite. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about that, there were a lot of vary famous, very drunk people there that night. But it was the night that a few hours later I saw my first dead guy.

The next time I saw Quentin was an April morning in 2002. We passed in the parking lot of a Coffee Bean. I was going in, he was coming out, on the way to the dusty dented Volvo station wagon he used to drive. I was stopping for coffee before the long drive to San Francisco to start work on a movie that ended up being one of the coolest experiences of my life. I still get a check in the mail for that movie, a couple times a year.

A couple years later Quentin was across the street at the Virgin Mega store to sign copies of the Kill Bill Soundtrack. I put Azure in her backpack and we walked about a half mile from our little West Hollywood apartment to get there. We were almost last in the long line that spilled out of the store and around the block. I think Azure was the only toddler in line. When it was our turn at the table Quentin complimented the “Calamity Jane jacket” she was wearing. A little leather fringed and beaded jacket made by my mother when Azure was about a year old. Quentin signed the sleeve of the vinyl soundtrack to: Ben and Zure W/ love. It’s hanging over the desk as I write this post.

When I see a QT film, it’s love I see. Real love. Love on the screen. In every frame. You see it and you feel it. And there’s a lot of directors I admire, respect and love. But I can’t really say I see love on the screen the way I do when I see a QT film.

Thursday night at the Dome, Quentin came out like a rockstar to a standing ovation. He spoke for about a minute, profane and loud and excited. He called the audience, “Thursday night baddasses”, not the “Friday Faggotts.” Then he slammed down the mic and was gone. I loved the movie. I’ll see a matinee again this week. I’ll pick a middle seat in the back of the theater at a more respectable hour.

This morning I met a recording artist in Hollywood to discuss directing a music video for her. She’s an MTV, VMA winning artist. Extremely talented with an amazing voice and deep lyrics. The song is awesome. But she spoke of having her creativity stifled by the industry of music and I can certainly relate in my parallel pursuit of a career in motion pictures. It’s hard out there. Hard enough to just get by, let alone make adequate commerce from your art. the walls are high and heavily guarded.

It’s people like Quentin that give me hope. His movies are food for my soul. Fuel for the engine that drives my own creative train. His movies are unlike anything I would or could ever make and yet they absolutely inspire me in the purest way. Love.

All I have to say is what I said to him when he signed the Kill Bill record almost 6 years ago… Thanks for the movies dude.

- Staley Out

A couple years ago some of Dani & I’s friends made a fun little movie and gave us each a cameo. It’s good to have friends like that. I was over at our buddy James house the other day (he was the producer)and he gave me a DVD copy and mentioned it’s now available on NETFLIX. I think the only reason James hired me in the first place is because about 30 seconds after the moment above he thoroughly kicks my ass in the movie. James also played one of the lead characters.

Anyways, it’s not a cinematic masterpiece, but it is a good way to waste a weeknight and a sixpack. And yes, both the reviews on Netflix are 100% accurate in every regard, except Dani & I’s acting. “Wink, wink”

- Staley Out

I’d rather be a jack of all trades than a master of one. But make no mistake, I have a deep respect for devotion and mastery of a singular craft. Artists and artisans who spend a lifetime perfecting their vocation as if they can do nothing else. As if they were chosen by the gods. Indeed you can see their eternal soul reflected in their work. But that’s not me. I’m not a master of anything. I get bored easily. In situations where I have a creative stake I’m a bit of a control freak. Not “out of control”, but enough to where it’s often easier to do much of the work myself. I fully recognize this as a personalty defect. I’m working on it.

So anyways, on to the story at hand. I was hired to shoot several music videos for a young director a couple years ago. When I say young I mean like 10 years younger than me. Over 10 years younger than me actually, if you count the months. But this kid was talented, smart, collaborative, and awesome to work for. I hadn’t known him before he hired me and I had no reason to ever mention that I also worked in front of the camera. Dan is the kind of guy where when he asks you to be involved in something you always want to be. In any capacity. His work is always quality. There is no drama. And it’s always been fun.

So imagine my surprise and delight when he called last year and started asking me if I had ever acted. I can’t rememeber exactly how the conversation started. I think I must have been a little suspicious at first. But scripts were emailed, plans were made, and then I was out of town for most of the rest of the year. I sortof forgot about it, wrote it off as a missed roadstop on the interstate of life. There have been many.

But in December he sent me a new and improved script. I am to play the lead character “Brody”, described on page one as a “Middle aged fatherly type”. I mentioned to Dan that he must have only cast me because I was the oldest person he knew. He only smiled nervously. I was just happy to have the job. The piece is called, “The Walk of Shame” and my character is forced to change his name and start a new life after an embarrassing misunderstanding ruins his career as a city planner. So he goes back to college and try’s desperately to fit in with people half his age. Yes, people in college are now half my age. Yay.

We finished shooting last weekend. I had a blast and have high hopes for the project. It felt good. It’s been a long time since I got to stretch like that on camera. Working so much on the other side has taken me away from the place I started. Acting. Over the last several years my friends have cast me in small rolls here and there and I have cast myself. But I think they and I have a little box I’m put in with a tag on it that says what kind of rolls I can do. So to have Dan come in and put me in his piece, largely unproven and without really having any idea of what I had done before was awesome. Especially since he knew me first as his DP. There is a joy and a freedom in acting. Especially for me, seeing the dozen or so crew people moving around, adjusting lights and equipment. And I didn’t have to worry about any of it. Just trust them and do my job. It felt like such a luxury. I felt very lucky.

You just try and get better, at everything you do. Work, play, relationships. You try and do them better as you go. Try and learn from your mistakes. You try not to judge or put people in boxes. You try not to get jaded. You try and make the right choices and you try real hard not to hurt anyone. You try and live a full life doing what you love to do.

You can be one thing and also be another thing at the same time. It’s nice when people realize that.

- Staley Out

Sunday I shaved and worked in front of the camera on the first day of shooting for a project I am very excited about. Cool script. Cool director. Cool people involved. I’ll be writing more on this in the next month. We don’t finish shooting until March first. I’ve already seen some footage and it’s glorious.

I’ve said it before but I’l say it again. It’s good to be back in LA and back in the game, instead of freezing our ass off with the Christian Taliban in Ida-Hell…

Well, last year JM finally got financing for this movie and low and behold asked me to be the camera guy. I was flattered to say the least but since I have reputation as a shrewed negotiator to uphold I agreed on the condition that I also be able to play the role of DREAMER #2.

You see, after reading the script, and pouring over the dozens of great roles in this very dialog heavy piece, It was my estimation that the six words entrusted to Dreamer #2 were the best in the entire script.

To my surprise and delight, JM agreed and the rest is history. The little video below is every take I did. No one has EVER called me One-Take-Staley.

Why is this notable you ask? Well some friends of mine made this movie and I’m in it. For like 3 seconds. And I gotta say, the 12 minutes and 14 seconds it took to film my 3 second part of the movie were about the most fun I’ve ever had in a movie ever. Second only to the “Heather Locklear Experience.” But that’s another story for another time. Right now we’re talking about zombies.

Yes Zombies. We all love zombie movies right? OK. If you don’t like zombie movies then why don’t you just stop reading and never come back to this blog, okay. If you don’t like zombie movies then you aren’t welcome here.

Now… Since you are still reading you must like zombie moves. So go rent Zombie Wars HERE. Its not the best zombie movie ever. It’s not even a very good zombie movie, but I guarantee, if you rent this, get a half rack of PBR (second thought, better make it a case), invite over your most degenerate friends, neighbors, and fellow zombie movie lovers, well, your at least in for an entertaining Wednesday night.

Here’s a little trailer.

This bucket of guts was written and directed by David Prior and if your not familiar with him then I encourage you to check out some of his other work. Especially THIS! David has actually written and directed a crapload of movies and has quite the cult following.

Anyways, back to Zombies. Folks, my point of all this is, if you ever have a chance to play a zombie in a movie… DO IT! It’s an incredibly liberating, fun experience and I highly recommend it.

-Staley Out