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Cinema Studies, Cinematography, Motion Picture Production
-Focal Press Publisher- Click the cover to read the Foreword! Click the back cover to see production photos covering 50 years of cinematography read a review --------------- write/contribute a review Buy "Every Frame a Rembrant" from
World War II, Nazi Occupied Europe, Hungary 1926-47
-University Press Of America Publisher- Click the cover to read an excerpt! Click the photo page to see more! read a review --------------- write/ contribute a review Buy "Footnote To History" from
Rags to riches intrigue Seven-year-old Mikail Mozkvoczny, a refugee of WWII arrives in New York in 1947. He is quickly Americanized and when his mother dies, finds employment as a cook in a local Diner. He wins the jack-pot — though this might have been fixed — on The Twenty-Four-Thousand Dollar Question television show and an all expense paid vacation to Rome. There he meets a beautiful woman, a second rate French con-man, Monsieur D’Arcy and his partner, The Albanian Spider, and an unscrupulous young priest, Father Mario, and gets involved with them in an ambitious gold heist, which ends in disaster. Returning to the US, he buys the Diner, and marries his childhood classmate, Emma Horowitz. They raise a family and she helps him chase down a crooked lawyer, who mishandled Mike’s uncle’s estate, and reclaim and use a sizable inheritance to build a vast restaurant and food chain empire.
-PublishAmerica Publisher- Click the cover to read an excerpt! Click here for excerpt in Adobe PDF format read a review --------------- write/contribute a review Buy "The Seven Graces of God" from
Adventures around the world spanning 50 years of filmmaking
-ASC Press Publisher-
When the expression “It’s a Wrap” is heard at the end of a long day’s filming it is often a welcomed and anticipated phrase. When it is heard before lunch, it’s a shock and without doubt prefaced by a highly unusual occurrence. Despite months of meticulous planning by the most experienced and seasoned film industry professionals, the only thing that can be anticipated during the filming of any project is the totally unexpected. Production can be brought to a standstill by events as mundane as an incorrect weather report, or by the more dramatic, such as actors portraying criminals being mistaken by the police for real criminals, the accidental sinking of a friend’s million dollar yacht or "artistic disagreements" between key personnel.
From above the Artic Circle to Rainforests of the Amazon to the even more dangerous back lots of Hollywood Studios, "It's A Wrap" chronicles the surprising moments, some amusing others less so, that during my 50 year career altered the course of productions as well as my life.
If you would like to be notified when "It's A Wrap" will become available, please leave your email address and short message here.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FOREWORD FROM "IT'S A WRAP"
A thirteen year old fisherman’s apprentice, Masahiro, from
the islands of Shikoku, Japan, is shipwrecked by a Tai-fun. Two of his fellow
fishermen are killed by the storm, but he and three others spend six months on
Mujin-Shima, a small, barren, uninhabited island, surviving on birds Masahiro
catches, and eggs he collects from the nests. They are rescued by an American
whaling ship just before winter sets in and certain death on the island. They
are horrified by their rescuers, the “barbarians,” who they believe are going to
kill them. Instead, they are treated kindly and taken to Hawaii, from where they
are to be returned to their homeland. But in Hawaii they are advised that
returning to Japan, under the Shogunate’s policies would be dangerous, possibly
deadly. In spite of his master’s advice, Masahiro decides to stow away on the
American ship, but becomes ill in the chilly water while trying to find the ship
in the crowded harbor in the middle of the night. The Americans, especially the
ship’s captain, take a liking to him and nurse him back to health. During the subsequent six month voyage, Masahiro, now known
as John Mong—a name given him by the sailors—learns whaling, navigation, and
masters the English language. The trip to America is filled with many exciting
adventures; the King Neptune ceremony of crossing the equator; whaling; and
recovering dead castaways from a storm in the hostile waters below the South
American continent. He is traumatized by the loss of two of his close friends;
one, in a brawl in a whorehouse in Conception, the other in an unexpected,
severe ice storm that threatens to sink their ship, the Roger L. Leonard.
Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding, John Mong believes
he is being taken to America to be sold as a slave, but instead, he is taken
into Captain Higgins’ home in New Bedford, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
America, a big and rapidly developing country in the mid
eighteen hundreds, turns out to be fascinating for young John Mong. For the
first time, he is attending school; a strange experience, as after having become
a sailor, working on equal level with other sailors aboard ship, he finds
himself sitting at a tiny desk in a one room schoolhouse with six and seven year
olds. The children make fun of his looks and his lack of education, but he is
determined to excel. He becomes his teacher’s favorite. His rescuer and mentor,
Captain Higgins marries John’s teacher, and intends to adopt him, but the
adoption process runs into a snag of racial prejudice. Venomous opposition comes
from the Captain’s preacher, as well as from his long time friend and lawyer,
and the mother of the girl, Violet, John is in love with. John, the only
Japanese national living in the United States of America, realizes that no
matter what, he will always be singled out, as a foreigner of “color.”
When he accompanies his benefactor, Captain Higgins, to
testify before The Foreign Relations and Trade Committee in the United States
Senate about Japan’s isolationist policies, John is asked by one of the Senators
about his homeland. He is devastated to realize how little he knows about the
country of his birth. For the first time, as compared with life in the United
States of America, the hardships he lived under in his own country come to him
with force and clarity. Having had no education as an underprivileged child,
relegated him—as all under classes—to a hard life of oppression, fear and
poverty, without any hope for a better future. An idea germinates in his mind;
to return to the land of his birth someday and try to change all he now knows is
wrong in the country of his birth, the Japans. At the same time, John becomes more and more aware of
inequities even in the United States, his second country he has learned to love.
He is savagely attacked and brutally beaten, but recovers and goes on to
complete his education at the Phillips Academy at Exeter in New Hampshire, and
at the Institute of Advanced Mathematics, Navigation and Surveying in New Haven.
He sails around the world and is promoted to First Mate on the merchant ship,
The Franklin. He faces further racial prejudice aboard ship and has to fight a
racist bully to assert his equality and authority. He is forced to eat at a back
table in a restaurant in Charleston and travel in a cattle car with African
“coloreds.” His idea of leaving family and friends, and returning to
Japan matures in his mind, when he is contacted by his best friend and room-mate
at the Phillips Academy, a fun loving, romantic adventure seeker, who invites
John to go with him to seek their fortune in the goldfields of California.
Getting to California turns out to be burdened with obstacles but the two manage
to get to San Francisco, only to find that getting rich quickly, picking gold up
from the ground is not as it was believed. He meets a woman, Momma, the daughter of a Philadelphia
preacher, now a prostitute in the mushrooming port of San Francisco, whose pimp,
Mister Tudzin, arranges to get mining equipment and supplies, and joins John and
Mike as a partner in seeking gold. Surprisingly, they strike a modest amount of
gold, but as John planned, he decides to leave his friends and returns to San
Francisco after a month in the gold fields. He intends to go to Hawaii to look
for his fisherman companions, and in spite of the rumored dangers of harsh
treatment, possibly even death by the Japanese authorities, to return to Japan.
He is determined to bring all he has learned in the New World to the people of
Japan. He is convinced that the ancient ways and traditions the Japanese people
still live under, and Japan’s isolationist policies must be changed.
While he is arranging for his trip to Japan, news reaches
him that his friend Mike and his partner, Mr. Tudzin, were killed after striking
a rich vein of gold. But their gold reaches Momma who shares it with John. John
is able to acquire a derelict whaler, which, abandoned by her captain and crew
is about to be burned at sea to make room at the overcrowded port in San
Francisco. He sails the ship to Honolulu and finds his friends who agree to
return to Japan with him. On making landfall on the island of Kyushu in Japan, John
Mong and his expatriate friends are imprisoned, and tortured as “banjins”
(traitors). John’s books, charts, tools, all his possessions are confiscated by
the local Daimyo. But one little item, a daguerreotype photograph catches the
interest of Lord Nariakira, high lord and ruler of Kyushu, and an influential
member of the Shogunate. He befriends and learns to admire John Mong, who is
known as Masahiro again. Masahiro is able to convince the high lord of the
validity of all he came back to Japan to accomplish. With the help of his
benefactor, he learns to read and write the Japanese language and begins
translating his American books. His teacher, Michiko-san, a very beautiful lady
of Lord Nariakira’s household becomes his wife. Masahiro is appointed as the
high lord’s ‘consurataro,’ consultant, and is given the rank of Samurai. He
builds a school, allowing all, even the children of the low-born to attend. His
liberal activities and radical ideals of reform, all of which are in opposition
to the philosophies of the Bakufu, the ruling council of Japan, places him, as
well as his benefactor in great danger. He escapes an assassination attempt, and
just as he miraculously finds his elderly mother alive. She dies shortly after
seeing her son again after ten years of believing that he had perished in a
storm at sea. Masahiro, and his benefactor, Lord Nariakira are ordered to
Edo to explain the radical ideas they are advocating and instituting. In spite
of strong opposition by the Shogun and his ruling Bakufu, through clever
political maneuvering and intrigue, Lord Nariakira and Masahiro succeed in
bringing about the visit of Admiral Perry, and the opening of Japan. Masahiro is
appointed to the Imperial court as ‘Advisor’ and given a present, a most
beautiful woman, Katako-san, a Geisha from the oldest Teahouse in Kyoto, as his
personal consort. During the week long festivities, celebrating Commodore
Perry’s visit, Masahiro is relegated to the role of an unseen translator hidden
behind a screen, but eventually, on insistence by Commodore Perry, his identity
is revealed. After returning to his home on Kyushu, Masahiro sees his
son for the first time, born during his nearly one year absence, and finds his
wife near death. She dies shortly and less than a year later Lord Nariakira is
assassinated. Having lost his protector, Masahiro is imprisoned again by a
vengeful Shogun, who sees his days of glory waning because of the changes
Masahiro helped bring about. Eventually, news of his imprisonment reaches the
Imperial Court in Kyoto and his release is ordered. Years later, Masahiro marries his consort, Katako-san, who
bares him two more sons and a daughter. Masahiro, continues his reforms, builds
many more schools, including the Japanese Naval Academy, many libraries and
hospitals, starts newspapers and institutes the country’s modern banking system
with the aid of a fellow expatriate, whom he brings back to the new Japan.
In his old age he looks forward to a trip to the United
States, as part of a trade delegation, but by this time he learns that his
American parents, Captain Higgins and Miss Millie are dead, and most of the
people he loved so much in America, are infirm, or also passed away. Though for the rest of his life he is still shunned by some
of his own countrymen, as a Banjin, and never officially recognized for his part
in bringing about the monumental changes in the modernization of Japan, Masahiro
lived to see all that in the words of his teacher, Miss Millie, made his life
rewarding.
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