A tribute to Heath

Very rarely do I post editorials on my blog.. but I felt like this was a really great tribute to the late actor:

By Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight's film director)...

One night, as I'm standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for "The Dark Knight," a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I'd fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you'd asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn't know. That's real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That's what Heath had.

Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they'd really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It's tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there's plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they'd given him.

Those nights on the streets of Chicago were filled with stunts. These can be boring times for an actor, but Heath was fascinated, eagerly accepting our invitation to ride in the camera car as we chased vehicles through movie traffic—not just for the thrill ride, but to be a part of it. Of everything. He'd brought his laptop along in the car, and we had a high-speed screening of two of his works-in-progress: short films he'd made that were exciting and haunting. Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I've never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents. That night I made him an offer—knowing he wouldn't take me up on it—that he should feel free to come by the set when he had a night off so he could see what we were up to.

When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we'd have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we'd done with all that he'd given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.

Back on LaSalle Street, I turn to my assistant director and I tell him to clear the skateboarding kid out of my line of sight when I realize—it's Heath, woolly hat pulled low over his eyes, here on his night off to take me up on my offer. I can't help but smile.

And you thought your day was going badly...

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Donations to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund

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A note to VT alumni

Thanks leblang for passing this on...

A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO ALL ALUMNI OF VIRGINIA TECH

To our Virginia Tech alumni, I write the kind of message I never expected to have to write in my entire career serving the university. On Monday, the 16th of April, a campus resident senior student shot two students in Ambler Johnston residence hall and proceeded shortly thereafter to the other side of the Drillfield, entered Norris Hall and randomly shot more than 40 students and faculty in several classrooms. He then turned his gun on himself and took his own life. As I write this, 32 students and faculty who were among his victims have died. Others remain hospitalized. An ongoing investigation will answer so many facts and questions still unknown at this time.

This is the most horrific scene in the history of this or any university. Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the victims. Our hearts go out to the friends, classmates and others who witnessed this tragedy. A Memorial Convocation is scheduled today (Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time) and will be nationally televised. President and Mrs. George W. Bush are expected to attend, along with Virginia Governor and Mrs. Tim Kaine and other dignitaries.

This is a shocking crime with crime scenes that have attracted national and international press, all broadcasting their live news shows from the Holtzman Alumni Center. President Charles Steger, himself an alumnus, has personally expressed with utmost compassion his condolences to the families who have been notified and are still being notified. His leadership through this tragedy has been extraordinary. All of us at the university wish to demonstrate our compassion especially to our students who have experienced a kind of horror and tragedy that hopefully they never will again. We share in their deepest sorrow and grief.

Other universities and institutions across the country, and indeed around the world, have communicated with us to express their shock and sympathy. Many of our alumni have communicated with us and also with each other to share expressions of support as well as their personal grief. I am confident that Virginia Tech will heal from this in whatever time it may take, and will do so because of its strong support from a family of caring alumni numbering over 200,000, including our current students and all their families. The faculty, staff and entire surrounding community are committed to helping our students and faculty recover from this terrible, terrible event. Those who will follow them will continue to embrace the true meaning of our motto “That I May Serve,” that bonds the entire Hokie Nation.

The Alumni Association placed a single wreath in the Campus Chapel within hours of the tragedy, and the Corps of Cadets has posted an honor guard with it to symbolize a university honoring those it has lost so tragically. It is but one symbol of the enormous grief that an entire campus and family of alumni around the world must bear. Many have asked how they may send financial memorials… any memorial gifts, payable to the “Virginia Tech Foundation,” designated specifically for the “Virginia Tech Family Fund,” should be mailed to University Development, 902 Prices Fork Road (0336), Blacksburg, VA 24061.

Thank you for your genuine concern and expressions of support for all of us at the university. And please keep those who lost their lives and their grieving families in your thoughts and prayers.

Tom Tillar
Vice President for Alumni Relations

More information as it unfolds continues to be posted at www.vt.edu.

I used to live in a safe town

Blacksburg used to be the safest of towns.. I didn't think it had changed that much since I left.. here's the latest report on the shootings. I hope everyone's okay.

The little one is famous

Just click play and watch Vanissa, the brooklyn hipster, take her puppy 'Nikko' out on the town and set up for one of her collaborative gallery opening.

While you were out...

Justin and I went out to a huge bday dinner last night at 5 star Gary Danko. It was the most extravagant meal I've ever had.. foie gras, oysters, frog legs, lobster, crab cakes, squash soup, cheese plate, duck breast, filet mignon, apple break pudding and a chocolate souffle. Oh and a bottle of wine, coffee and tea. I was hallucinating at the end of night.

As our taxi pulled up to our block, we noticed that the front of our apt was blocked by a fire truck and a cop car. A fireman was busy hosing down the side walk and the side of the apartment that sat directly across from ours. We assumed that a little fire had started and didn't think much more, until this morning when our neighbor filled us in on the gory details...

Here is Karl's recap of the events that occurred last night while we were out...

"Mark and I were having beers in north beach—we came up the hill as a bunch of cop cars showed up on the scene---we walked over to look, and someone had been stabbed---the person was still there—on the ground—couldn’t see him really, but I don’t think he was in good shape, though he may have been alive

We thought initially he had been shot, because there were 4 or 5 different blood splatters on the wall—basically, the guy got stabbed and fell against the wall—and I guess as he fell he kept turning over and leaving different blood splotches—and a huge pool of blood on the sidewalk where he eventually fell

Anyway—it was quite brutal—very freaky

As for what happened-----one of the residents of the building next to us apparently heard someone scream and looked out---the stabee was hitting the wall and a tall, well-dressed (?) guy was running down Washington towards North Beach—this person called the cops and gave a statement, but….from what I gathered, it seemed like an argument began the whole thing (which would make it a targeted attack and not random)—in any case, the stab wound alone suggested it was something very intentional---the guy had been cut really badly—I would generally think a simple mugger would not really be hoping to kill someone and the stab wound looked lethal

i don’t know much more than that—people were just milling about, talking about it—cops were asking anyone if they had seen it but none had

one of the weirdest things was that they kept letting the cable cars through—so cars full of 40 or so tourists just kept going past this blood-stained wall—I don’t think I would want my kid to see that

I’ve not seen anything on the news—I don’t know if the one who was stabbed was a nearby resident or just in the area---mark and I watched the cops doing their thing from the rooftop, which was kind of interesting, and kind of scary as we realized that they had almost no chance of catching the person if it was random violence"