Sunday, November 08, 2015

Directing Reel and Resume of Richard Martini

I thought I'd put up some of my resume and reel for those who are interested in this sort of thing.

Here's my Resume:



Richard Martini

Film
Flipside: A Tourist’s Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife. Wrote, Directed, Produced Documentary based on the book (2013) Distributed by Gaiam TV.
Earhart’s Electra – Eyewitness Reports of what happened to Amelia Earhart’s plane. Documentary (2012) Wrote, Directed and Produced this documentary available at Amazon.
Someone to Call My Own – A ten year look at a musical love story. Wrote, Produced and Directed this Documentary available at Amazon.com (2011)
Salt - 2010 - Creative consultant, curated content, created flashback sequences, Associate to Mr. Noyce. Sony. Angelina Jolie, Liev Schrieber. Phillip Noyce directed thriller.
Amelia - 2009 - Curated content, Researcher. Fox 2000. Hilary Swank, Richard Gere. The aviatrix's journey from 1928-1937.
My Bollywood Bride – 2006 – Co-Writer, Associate Producer. DreamTeam Pictures. Jason Lewis, Kashmira Shah, Sanjay Suri, Golshen Grover. Hollywood meets Bollywood in a romantic comedy.
The DeMedicis – 2004 – Writer. HBO developed this mini-series with Tony To Producing (Band of Brothers, The Pacific).
Cowboy Up - Second Unit Dir. DGA 2000 Xavier Koller, Kiefer Sutherland, Daryl Hannah. Orchid Prods. Championship Bull Riding.
Camera – Dogme #15 – Director, Writer. Odyssey Pictures Prod. 2001 Carol Alt, Angie Everhart, Rebecca Broussard. Designated Dogme #15 by the Danish film group.
Cannes Man (film) - Director, Co-Writer, Music. Rocket Pictures. 1997. Tom Coleman Prod. Seymour Cassel, Francesco Quinn. Guest appearances by Johnny Depp, John Malkovich. (“Hilarious” Hollywood Rep. “Fast, furious, fun satire” NY Post)
Point of Betrayal - Director, Music. Trident/Dove International. 1996. Jonathan Krane Prod. Rod Taylor, Dina Merrill, Rebecca Broussard. Paramount Home Video (Rod Lurie - Buzz Magazine; “a terrific film” )
Limit Up - Writer/Director. MCEG. 1989 Jonathan Krane Prod. Nancy Allen, Dean Stockwell, Ray Charles. (Ent. Weekly - “Splendid, delightful, with good cast, good script, tidy direction.”)
You Can’t Hurry Love - Writer/Director. Vestron 1988 J.D. Krane Prod. Bridget Fonda, Charles Grodin. (`Three stars’ Chicago Sun Times.)
Three for the Road - Co-Writer, Story. Vista 1987 Charlie Sheen, Kerri Green. (“A jolly good time” NY Post “Charming” Newsday)
My Champion  - Writer. Chris Mitchum, Yoko Shimada. Directed by Gwen Arner.
Documentaries
Journey into Tibet - Director. Producer Tibet House NY. Trip around Mt. Kailash (2006)
Sister Cities“White City Windy City” Pilot. Director. Layalina Productions. Chicago and Casablanca. (2005)
Tibetan Refugee – Director, Producer Story of 50 new arrivals in Dharamsala. (2001)
Articles
Bio  
Richard Martini is an award-winning American film director, producer, screenwriter and freelance journalist. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Boston University with a degree in Humanities, attended USC Film School and has a Masters from USC (2008) the Professional Writing Program. He took improv classes at Second City in Chicago under Jo Forsberg, and with the Harvey Lembeck Workshop in L.A., and has taught filmmaking at “The Workshops,” in Maine, the Loyola Rome Center, and Loyola Marymount University’s school of Film and Television in Los Angeles.

Martini grew up in Northbrook, Illinois. His first documentary film "Special Olympians" won the 1980 Mexico City International Film Festival. He then made his feature film directorial debut with the “quintessential 80’s comedy” (TNT) "You Can't Hurry Love," which featured the debut of Bridget Fonda. Martini was a Humanities Major at Boston University, attended USC Film School. His student short film "Lost Angels” was the film debut of fellow Chicago native Daryl Hannah.

Martini left USC to work for writer/director Robert Towne ("Chinatown," “Mission Impossible” 4] wound up as an acting coach for Robert Evans on the original “The Two Jakes.” Martini wrote his first feature “My Champion” which starred Christopher (son of Robert) Mitchum and Yoko Shimada (Shogun). He wrote the Charlie Sheen comedy “Three For the Road” for Vista Films.

Martini directed a comedy short “Video Valentino” shot by fellow USC alum John Schwartzman (DP of “The Amazing Spider-Man”) and was produced by Jonathan D. Krane. The short led to a deal with Vestron Pictures, where he made "You Can’t Hurry Love" starring Bridget Fonda, Charles Grodin and Kristy McNichol based on the short.

Martini then co-wrote and directed two films for Producer Jonathan D. Krane ("Look Who's Talking", "Face/Off"): Chicago-set Faustian comedy “Limit Up," starring Nancy Allen and blues icon Ray Charles, and "Point of Betrayal," (Winner “Best Film” at the Palm Beach International Film Fest 1996) starring Dina Merrill, Rod Taylor and Rebecca Broussard. 

Martini then co-wrote and directed "Cannes Man" (released in 2010 on itunes.com) starring Francesco Quinn and Seymour Cassel, with appearances by Johnny Depp and the "cast of characters who inhabit the film festival each year." Martini also wrote and directed the Dogme 95 film "Camera – Dogme #15," (second US film designated “Dogme95”) it follows the life of a video camera.

He's also directed documentaries; "Tibetan Refugee" explores the Tibetan community in Dharamsala, "White City/Windy City" explores the relationship between Chicago and Casablanca in the Eisenhower "Sister Cities" program, and "Journey Into Tibet", follows Buddhist scholar and author Robert Thurman on a sacred journey around Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet.

He co-wrote and produced “My Bollywood Bride” starring Jason Lewis and Sanjay Suri (released as "My Faraway Bride.") Among Martini’s television credits include producing segments and appearing on the award-winning “Charles Grodin Show” on CNBC and writing an upcoming miniseries for HBO about the notorious House of Medici.  

He worked on the films "Amelia" and "Salt" as a digital media curator, pioneering a method of previsualizing a film online, film director Phillip Noyce hired him to work on both films.
He wrote the bestselling book (#1 at Amazon in all its genres twice) "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How To Navigate the Afterlife" and the documentary based on the book was picked up by Gaiam TV for distribution in 2014. His follow up books “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures In the Flipside” vols 1 and 2 have also been #1 in their Kindle genres. Martini was featured on George Noory’s “Coast to Coast” #1 radio program four times, and also appeared as a guest on Noory’s Gaiam TV in 2014.
  Filmography
·        Flipside: A Journey into the Afterlife - 2013 - Writer, Director, Producer. Amazon. A documentary that explores the work of Michael Newton with interviews of hypnotherapists, footage of past life regressions and life between life sessions.
·        Salt  - 2010 - Curated content, digital flashback sequences, Associate to Mr. Noyce. Sony. Angelina Jolie, Liev Schrieber. Phillip Noyce directed thriller.
·        Amelia (film)  - 2009 - Curated content, Researcher. Fox 2000. Hilary Swank, Richard Gere. The aviator's journey from 1928-1937.
·        My Bollywood Bride  – 2006 – Co-Writer, Associate Producer. DreamTeam Pictures. Jason Lewis, Kashmira Shah, Sanjay Suri, Golshen Grover. Hollywood meets Bollywood in a romantic comedy.
·        Cowboy Up - Second Unit Dir. 2000 Xavier Koller, Kiefer Sutherland, Daryl Hannah. Orchid Prods. Championship Bull Riding.
·        Camera – Dogme #15 – Director, Writer. Odyssey Pictures Prod. 2001 Carol Alt, Angie EverhartRebecca Broussard. Designated Dogme #15 by the Danish film group.
·        Cannes Man (film)  - Director, Co-Writer, Music. Rocket Pictures. 1997. Tom Coleman Prod. Seymour Cassel, Francesco Quinn. Guest appearances by Johnny Depp, John Malkovich. (“Hilarious” Hollywood Rep. “Fast, furious, fun satire” NY Post)
·        Point of Betrayal - Director, Music. Trident/Dove International. 1996. Jonathan Krane Prod. Rod Taylor, Dina Merrill, Rebecca Broussard. Paramount Home Video (Rod Lurie - Buzz Magazine; “a terrific film” – won Best Picture at the Palm Beach Intl Film Festival 1996.
·        Limit Up  - Writer/Director. MCEG. 1989 Jonathan Krane Prod. Nancy Allen, Dean Stockwell, Ray Charles. (Ent. Weekly - “Splendid, delightful, with good cast, good script, tidy direction.”)
·        You Can’t Hurry Love  - Writer/Director. Vestron 1988 J.D. Krane Prod. Bridget Fonda, Charles Grodin. (`Three stars’ Chicago Sun Times.)


·        Three for the Road - Co-Writer, Story. Vista 1987 Charlie Sheen, Kerri Green. (“A jolly good time” NY Post “Charming” Newsday)






Clips from various films





Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Howie Mandel gets hypnotized and Flipside book talk with Scott De Tamble and Jennifer Shaffer

My old friend Howie Mandel got "hypmotized" last night on "America's Got Talent."

A hypnotist Chris Jones put him "under" and the next thing we know, had convinced him to shake hands with people, contrary to a lifelong phobia of his about germs, related to his OCD.





Most doctor's think that phobia's are psychosomatic - however that doesn't stop them from prescribing meds that confuse the brain enough to not be terrified of the terrors they bring - not for a moment stopping to wonder if the side effects of the psychotropic drugs might be deleterious... but I digress.

Hey Howie!  I love you man!

We wrote a script together for Columbia pictures (along with Luana Anders) called "Watch Your Step."  Kind of a prescient title come to think of it.  Howie is hilarious, a funny, funny guy, and I believe is aware of his phobias and is suffering from them to some degree.

We no longer share a manager (I saw our old manager last week, he's great actually) so I don't have easy access to email this to Howie.  

So maybe the magic of the internet with its "tags" will somehow find its way to his people, or find its way to him.  Howie, I'm asking (through the internet, mind you, no germs here, except for all the keyboards on the planet) if you want to stop or end or understand this phobia without the benefit of drugs.  I can here you on the flipside of the screen saying "What? Martini? Seriously? Okay, go ahead, I'm listening."

I've been filming people under deep hypnosis for six years now.  Not the kind that you went through last night on the show - "stage hypnosis" which deals with a certain level of consciousness.  But six hour sessions, where the client determines what they'd like to visit and explore.

And I came upon the research that people could cure "psychosomatic" illnesses while under hypnosis. (I'd give you all the cites, but there are many, including Dr. Brian Weiss, Dr. Anita Moorjani and others).  People who during a consciousness altering event, were able to examine and "cure" their illnesses.

So let's begin there, shall we?  If that's possible, to cure, or alleviate symptoms of an illness - and we don't have a word for them, really, because psychosomatic implies being "made up" - but the symptoms are real, sweating, feeling nausea, etc.  Those events exist - it's just that medicine can't tell you what the problem is, so they "send you to a shrink."  Well, sometimes a hypnotist.

But like the words "healing" or "home" - we all have a different definition of those variations, and that includes hypnosis.  One hour session on a couch with someone who tries to convince you to not have fear is not guaranteed to work - but doing a session with a trained hypnotherapist who has done this hundreds of times before, you have a pretty good shot at asking yourself "So what's the genesis of this fear? Where does it come from? Does it come from this lifetime? Does it come from a previous lifetime?  And once I examine that, how can I help alleviate those symptoms?"

Case #1. Woman with aquaphobia.  She's a hypnotherapist in NYC, and has agreed to let me film her "between life" or LBL session.  She sees a lifetime where she drowned - was killed by drowning, thrown off a ship actually. She named the dates, place, other details that I could verify (and did so in the book and film "Flipside").  But when she goes to the end of that lifetime, past the drowning part, she sees that there's a reason why this happened. The man who killed her appears to say "You have no idea how hard that was to do to you in that lifetime."  She recognizes this man as her father in this life, and remembers how he saved her from drowning as a child.  In those moments, she cures herself of her phobia, and some months later, I filmed her swimming in the ocean.  She told me "her recurring nightmare" turned into a wonderful dream where she was swimming effortlessly.  No Doctor or drug could make this change, she made it herself. 
(Footage of this session is in the film "Flipside" and a transcript of the session is in the book "Flipside: a Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife.")

Case #2. A jaded Hollywood agent (mine) agrees to let me film him under hypnosis.  (also in the film "Flipside"). Unbeknownst to me, he's had a lifelong kidney ailment he's spent "millions of dollars" on finding a cure (sound familiar Howie?) that Doctors can't seem to cure.  During the session, with Scott De Tamble from Claremont, (see below) jaded agent sees a lifetime where his father stabbed him in the back.  In that moment he examines those details and the pain in his kidney goes away. Afterwards, he tells me "It's 95% gone, like an echo of what it once was." His Doctor even calls me to ask "what happened in that session?" because his "panels have returned to normal." (Footage of this event is in the documentary and in the book as well, as cited above).

Case #3. Woman with pretty severe Parkinson's is an old pal, agrees to do a session.  During her session, for about 5 hours, she explores previous lifetimes and examines various reasons for her current choice of a life and situation.  During this entire time, her symptoms disappear.  No shaking. Just her finger, rhythmically tapping as she speaks.  When she's "brought back to consciousness" her symptoms reappear.  The hypnotherapist didn't insist that her symptoms should go away - nor did she attempt to do so, rather she examined the "source" of her illnesses, and related it to a dramatic event that she'd kept private and secret since the event - and it was the start of her not giving her body the kind of care and nutrition she needed.  So whole she didn't "cure" herself of the illness, she did give herself a path to health. (A transcript of this session is in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures in the Flipside.")

So. Howie. Seriously. You want to explore your OCD and your phobia about germs?  You can.  It's not an illness, or an affliction.  It's just part of who you are as a human, and without ascribing any negativity to the choice you made to come to the planet and experience these things, it is something you can dramatically change "overnight."

Check it out for yourself.

I noted that after the hypnosis session you seemed particularly spiritual - of course the show is likely show out of sequence - but there was a moment where you said to the father who wrote the song about his son who had passed away "I can feel his presence in the room when you sing."  That would be accurate in terms of this research.

Hope this missive finds its way to you.  And I still have a copy of our script!

Meanwhile:

Something on topic, but a bit different.  This past weekend, I did a book talk for my second book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: further adventures in the Flipside" at the LA branch of iands, the international association of near death studies.  However this time, I brought along two pals, Jennifer Shaffer and Scott De Tamble.  Jennifer is a medium/intuitive who works with law enforcement nationwide to help with missing person cases and others, and Scott is a clinical hypnotherapist based in Claremont, CA, and has done 100's of cases.  I've filmed a number of them, and he appears often in "Flipside" and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."  I haven't posted the second part, which was a past life regression for all those present, out of respect for their privacy - but we did hear some really unusual tales, including someone from law enforcement who came to check it out, and saw themselves in a previous lifetime and could relate the trauma of that experience (3000 years ago) to a similar trauma that has taken place in this one.  

Time as they say, is relative.  (For me, a distant relative.)







And now for something completely different; "Its a Wonderful Afterlife" book talk with Clinical Hypnotherapist Scott De Tamble, Medium-intuitive Jennifer Shaffer, Bob Siress from iands.org comparing near death experiences to between life sessions, past life memories. 75 minutes which will pique your paradigm. Hang onto your coffee, "we're going in!" https://youtu.be/rUK4mfP_4Fs

Saturday, March 29, 2003

okay blogs. viddy well. so we've got bombs dropping in iraq. we have bombs dropping all over hollywood. i mean i'm talking the lack of imagination is deadly! but what's worse? reality on t.v.? or bad reality in the theater? how many of you saw a movie recently that you said "i gotta see that one again." I saw "Two Towers" twice. Loved it the first time. Slept the second. Citizen Kane was on t.v. last night. Last time I saw it was sitting in Paris at a theater where they run old US films. Wonder if they're running them now. Vivre le French. Friend of mine said 'did you notice who they gave the first post war Iraq contract to? Halliburton. Dick Cheney's old company. Wars not over and they've already got a 500 million dollar contract. But the frenchies hands are dirty too - huge contracts with Iraq, huge corporate biz, as well as the Russians - they're freaked they may have no oil from Iraq. So here we are in a Clancy novel - war with Iraq over oil. If you believe it's to liberate people, then China is next to liberate the Tibetans. I hope everyone comes home safe. But I know that if Iraqis came to our country, had bigger weapons than we do, we'd be doing ANYTHING to save our regime, our asses our whatever. I'm shocked! shocked! the Russians are suppying the Iraqis with arms. Hey, didn't we do that in Afghanistan? And all those Russian soldiers who died while we supplied the fedayeen with CIA weapons. Does anyone know a double standard when they seen one? Okay, that's it for today.

Friday, March 28, 2003

Welcome to the musings of Martini, a half mad, half crazed filmmaker, with grey hair who spends his waking hours wondering how he got here, and what circle of hell will he be going through to get out? Abandon all hope ye who enter here.