Christopher Coppola

SUNDAY WISDOM Live by this credo: have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations. -- Red Skelton

SUNDAY WISDOM A leader must be a good listener. He must be willing to take counsel. He must show a genuine concern and love for those under his stewardship. -- James E. Faust

SUNDAY WISDOM We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know. -- W. H. Auden

Universe at Play, a 360 fairy tale. A few years ago I received a SFAI faculty grant to experiment with narrative 360 filmmaking. I worked with a professional N...okia Ozo team. Ozo is now extinct but I learned a lot i.e. you can't edit like film meaning shots have to at least 17" long before you can cut to another shot for the viewer to have time to re-adjust their view and if an actor is 10 feet away from the camera they appear to be 100 feet away. A few "special forces" SFAI film students also worked on this film. The viewing of this 360 film would be much better wearing VR googles and headsets that can play back 360 spatial sound. You can still have fun using your cursor and moving around the 360 world. See more

A little article on my 81 year old uncle. The last of the Coppola elders.

Sunday Wisdom First, eliminate who you are not and then you will be left with who you really are. -- Matthew McConaughey

A day in the life of CRC update: Out there doing what I can to make sure the kids are alright and keeping the spotlight on SFAI.

I am embracing the absurd with all my being to be ready for the Don Quixote production starting Oct. 22. My current San Francisco Art Institute art students, U...niversity of Redlands music students and Cuidad de Luz film production students in Spain will be engaged. I always look at my first 35mm short I made in 1992 over one crazy weekend after the complete collapse of my first large 8-million-dollar budget film Deadfall. It collapsed after Val Kilmer walked to act with Kim Bassinger in the Real McCoy for more money. I wrote this short film screenplay with a pencil drinking a full bottle of tequila while being driven late at night to the Joshua Tree desert to try to get my bearings. All I can say is I was completely deranged from the pain of a film production suddenly closing down. I became suddenly obsessed with working with the world's smallest man and friend of Michael Jackson using master surreal actor Crispin Glover's voice, two legendary 1950's television stars one with the classic hero white hat, the other with the classic villain black hat, a giant Swiss Miss lady and some Godzilla-like western henchmen. After I finished this surreal western, which was incredibly cathartic for me, I was able to focus and actually make Deadfall for 2.5 million in 18 days. I like this surreal short western way more. Unfortunately, it is a lo-res digital file. I am still looking for the 35mm print. My teacher, the legendary George Kuchar, approved of my reasons for making this film and felt I should embrace absurdity more; hence, my cult feature Palmer's Pick-up: An American Roadshow Odyssey and love of Don Quixote. Enjoy. See more

Sunday Wisdom Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who fe...els pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. -- Cesar Chávez Note: I saw this quote on a recent email from Dr. Tanya Chaldaris, my friend, extended family and a kindred spirit, who is working hard to help give the underserved, underprivileged, a voice for our disenfranchised youth. We will be working together very soon for the cause. Check out her non-profit Calliope Academy (www.calliopeacademy.org)

Our long time family friend Tilli Tills just released her second music video with my son Bailey Coppola. MTVrock reviewer gave her 5 stars. Bravo.

The Occasional Fun "Hollywood" Perk A long time ago when I was directing my film G-Men From Hell with Robert Goulet playing the devil my stunt coordinator Koich...i Sakamoto asked me to play a part for him. It turned out he was one of the top directors for the Power Rangers tv show. I wasn't really doing much acting, but my no. 1 son was a little Power Ranger fan, so I did it. It was a small cameo. The fun part is many years later my no. 2 son became a little Power Ranger fan. I showed him the episode I was in without telling him. When he saw me, he freaked out and didn't understand how I can be in Power Ranger episode. I enjoyed that. Later on, in my SFAI Art of Film Directing class Spring 2015 I discovered that many of my grad students were Power Ranger fans. Kind of bizarre actually. But I did the same thing and showed them the episode without telling them I was in it. They freaked as well and told me I was officially now a "cool" Professor. It took the Power Rangers to realize that. Like my SFAI mentor George Kuchar, I can be a weird "cool" Professor at times. Enjoy. See more

SUNDAY WISDOM You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. --Thomas Sankara

STATE OF MIND 10/3/2020 When I get really down on myself, which I currently am, I start having immense doubt about my ability to do anything, accomplish anythin...g meaningful. I start getting paranoid too, that others take advantage of these dark moments. I do suffer chemically from depression and panic disorder so that doesn't help either. Neither does the chaos in the world. I know I am not the only one who deals with this. It's times like this that we try to pick ourselves up by remembering the good things we actually did accomplish and to pick ourselves out of the mire. We should all try to do kind, good things whenever possible no matter how big or small. See more

Congratulations to fellow filmmaker SFAI alum Varda Bar-Kar who graduated around the same time I did. We have always remained friends. Besides being a talent in her own right she was often part of my professional film crews back in the day. Her very impressive documentary Fandango at the Wall was just picked up by HBO. Below is a FB link to her cyber red carpet premiere night. So very proud of you, dear Varda. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=389150945809924&ref=notif¬if_id=1601247720267012¬if_t=live_videopremiere