Yet another movie idea
Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 11:23 AM
I don't know why I've been having so many great and detailed dreams lately, but last night I had another. I woke up at 5 in the morning unable to get back to sleep because I was working out the dream I just had into a tangible story. I just finished writing up a 7 page outline of the story and I'd have to say that if I could turn this into a script within the next month, I would much rather work on this than my original idea. That's not to say that I'm jumping from idea to idea because I can't decide what I want to do. It's just the fact that for my delirium short to work I'm going to need a lot of things, like locations and props that I don't know how to get. My second short idea seems interesting too, only takes place in one location, but requires a fuck load of special effects that I don't know how to do.

This story takes place in a town not unlike Beardstown or Virginia or wherever (small town), but also calls for shots in Chicago, Las Vegas and a smaller type city (Springfield); all of which are absolutely doable. Outside of a few gun shots and two squibs, there really isn't anything difficult with the story that couldn't be pulled off on a small budge. In the end, that is what I'm mostly concerned with. I'm probably going to have to pay for all of this, so I really want to make sure I can keep my monetary needs as low as I can. While I know I've asked Tom to produce whatever it is I'm going to make, I don't know how apt he'll be at scaring up money to do this thing. Also, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve if I can sweet talk my way into a few things. Mwa-ha-ha-ha!!

Well, enough about that. I guess I'll have to wait and see. Oh and I FINALLY got my tax return! Now let's see how fast it disappears!

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |   ( 3.7 / 19 )
See ya later, aligator!
Monday, April 5, 2010, 05:13 PM
I just did a recent count of my beer collection. I have 496 unique bottles of beer. I don't remember how many cans I have as I haven't displayed them in a year, but I pulled them back out to use the case they were in to box up my 12 oz bottles. That's right, I've cleared out all the 12 oz bottles from my cabinet and have made room for future volumes of beer. Before I boxed them up, I took pictures (video, actually) of all 496 bottles. I'm going to put them up on my YouTube account pretty soon. Outside of a few final episodes of Talkin' Beer and an explanation on what is going on, that will be the end of that series. It's silly for me to point out how most of the beer I've had isn't all that great, especially when I haven't had some of them for a couple of years and don't really remember anything about them.

Still haven't gotten our income tax return yet, but it should be arriving this week. Sariah and I cleaned the house a bit today and I've been working on editing together compilation videos of my favorite scenes from MST3k for my new YouTube channel. It's under the name MostvaluablePrimate because that was the only thing I could think of that actually cleared. I'm just coming off being sick, which was pretty much my entire weekend. I still feel kind of shitty, but nothing that will keep me from work. Over the weekend I wrote another outline for a script. I figure as long as the ideas keep coming I'll jot down outlines and potentially develop them independently in the future. It's not bad, but it's kind of formulaic and would require quite a bit of special effects work to pull off. Outside of that, it's not bad.

I guess I'm going to get back to cutting together more videos. I don't really feel like doing much else other than that right now. Tried a Dark Horse Perkulator Coffee Dopplebock. Yes, it's as nasty as it sounds. I've got a bomber of Avery IPA in the fridge I might tear into, but I'm not entirely sure as of yet. My throat is still giving me some shit. One thing I do know is that I'm going to do my best to just sample new beers instead of get shitfaced on them. I'm getting rid of my Xbox Live account and finishing up the beer video stuff to concentrate on this one thing. If I can make this work, perhaps in a year or so I'll have this whole thing under control and will be able to venture out into the world as a reasonably normal person again.

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |   ( 2.9 / 14 )
Still waiting.....
Saturday, April 3, 2010, 10:38 AM
Where in the hell is our federal tax return? It should have been deposited by now!

It's 10:16 AM Saturday morning and I'm not really sure what I want to do today, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up doing nothing. My throat is all fucked up now, adding to both my back and tooth pain. Things just keep getting better. Sariah has been a bitch to me for the past couple of days and I'm not sure why. I guess she doesn't believe me when I tell her I feel like shit, even though she says all the time that I'm a horrible liar. She just doesn't care.

It rained all night last night and from what I've seen so far, it looks like it could rain again. I've got some stuff I could watch on Netflix; one of the last things I'm going to watch, but it would consume my entire day. I could get out and go to the park. I might do that. I've still got the 7D, so I could get out and shoot some nature crap or something. Tom's probably got phantom limb going without the 7D for a weekend. I swear since we got it he's taken it home every weekend since. I'm probably going to have to put an end to that because he had a lens in his truck and didn't even know it. That spells disaster later down the road if he actually loses something.

I know the feeling of excitement one gets when they get a new toy, but for me, that excitement fades pretty fast. I can't believe Tom still gets energized by using the 7D. Personally, I don't ever use the thing until I have a reason to. I need a plan of action before I start moving on something. It's just the way my mind works now. I should be location scouting for my movie, but since it's pretty much all interior shots, that's going to be somewhat difficult. Tom's been sick for the past few weeks, so I'm not sure how into this idea he is. I think he's mostly thinking that I'm just going to lose interest in the idea like I did my last script idea, but this is different. This is a complete short story and although I want to refine it still, the base of the story is intact, just as the outline has been for quite a while.

I'll learn more in the coming weeks, but my gut reaction is that my initial fears were true and that Tom will not be as engaged in a project he's not calling the shots on, which makes him more of a liability than an asset. For the process to work, he has to be personally dedicated to the project. I can't spend any of my time worrying about whether or not Tom's into things or not. I guess I don't really know why I feel I need a partner in any of this, but I do. Not so much for feeling more legitimate, but more for support. I need someone who will support the process and care about it as much as I do. Lately, all I get from Tom is that if he doesn't get his say in the matter, he's not going to be much of a help.

This is all gut feelings though. Ask me again in a couple of weeks how I feel about Tom's engagement to the project and I'll probably be singing his praises. The fact of the matter is that I haven't discussed this fully with Tom as of yet. It's pretty much up to me to get the ball rolling, but I kind of feel funny about it at the same time. I don't know. Maybe that's what I'll do today. It couldn't hurt.

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |   ( 3 / 21 )
Death rattle
Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 09:28 AM
I've been checking out prices online and it looks like I can get a decent deal on 3 Mb DSL through Verizon for what I was paying for cable broadband before. As soon as we get our tax return I'm going to make the switch. Goodbye Mediacom! You suck and I hope you get run out of town soon!

I know there has been talk of Cass potentially opening up wireless internet services to Jacksonville. Our techs are laying fiber to Jacksonville right now with the idea that in the next year or so they'll be able to tie the Carrollton/Jerseyville system into our main system. If they can open up wireless internet in Jacksonville, I'll be a happy, happy man.

My tooth is infected again and I'm in a butt load of pain. I've got so much to do today that I'm just going to have to deal with it. I really need to contact Andy about the capital city cage wars stuff. I forgot what I was even going to ask him. Damn!

[ 2 comments ] ( 6 views )   |  permalink  |   ( 3 / 22 )
Goodbye cruel world!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 10:34 PM
I've decided that I've had enough...of my beard. It's gone now, but it will be back before I realize. I still need to get a hair cut, but I have to wait til after I get paid before I can do that. Tomorrow I have to go to a meeting with Laymon and J.R. Blair of West Central Bank. I also have some Roger Jennings spots to start on. Sariah is watching The Dark Crystal right now.

Last night I got drunk and had a super long phone conversation with Payne. Sariah said I was babbling nonsense in my sleep again last night, but the only difference was that while I was babbling, I was groping her breast as well. I just don't know anymore.

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |   ( 3 / 18 )
Notes on paper
Monday, March 29, 2010, 08:11 AM
My script is finished. I'm going to review it over the course of the next few weeks and revise it as needed. I already know of some changes that I'll be making right off the bat, but other than that I want to ensure I stay fairly true to my original idea. Sariah and I talked about it last night and she expressed a lot of interest in it and told me that she feels this story is one that sounds like it will be really good and she wants me to take it seriously. That meant a lot to me because she usually isn't interested in anything I've written.

I am taking this seriously, however the main problem I'm having now is describing the movie. This problem became apparent Friday when I was trying to explain the whole concept to Tom and he wasn't getting it. It's going to be hard for me to get people interested in this movie if I can't even explain to them what I'm going for. So that is pretty high on my list of things to do during them month of April. I need to make sure it stays true to my original concept, but revise a few things here and there or add some more dialog here and there, depending. While I'm doing this I have to develop an extremely short synopsis of the story that will make sense to anyone I tell it to.

My main concern is still securing locations, but last night I also thought that since I'm going to be using one location that Tom has used in the past few months, I imagine people closest to Tom will think that this is just some off-shoot, long-form byproduct of his video, when it was the other way around. I'm not saying Tom took my idea and made his own thing of it, I'm just saying that I had the outline for this movie written up before Tom came up with the idea for shooting the Doctor video.

This may actually impact my ability to cast the movie as one of the front runners for the lead role was the doctor in the doctor video. That's just a little too much similarity for me to feel comfortable with it.

Crap, I've got to go!

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |   ( 3.1 / 19 )
One last item of business
Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 07:45 PM
FUCK JUSTIN BIEBER!
I'm tired of seeing this fucking kid everywhere I turn. This country should be nuked and nuked hard for allowing this little fuck to plague every media resource with his nonsense. I mean, for fucks sake you can see the strings plain as day!

[ 6 comments ] ( 21 views )   |  permalink  |   ( 2.9 / 23 )
Sonofabitch!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 05:23 PM
It's 4:15 PM. I've been awake for almost 20 hours now. I'm nauseous and have a strong discomfort in my sternum. About an hour ago Sariah thought I was running a fever because I was cold. Whatever.

I'm 12 pages into the first draft of my script and it's coming along as planned in the outline, however I think I might have to add a little more to it once I'm finished with the outline as the outline is going to come up a bit short for time. I'm shooting for 30 minutes and being at page 12 roughly translates to around 15 minutes of the movie. I've got an action sequence coming up immediately and after that is pretty much the end of my initial outline. That's a maximum of 5 pages of material!

I've been telling the story from the guys perspective, but I think I'm going to save a bunch of the reality for a second recap telling in which the audience is shown the same scenario only from the perspective of the woman. That should allow me to pad out the movie for at least another 6-7 pages. All in all it should turn out okay. I will definitely have the first draft finished by the end of this week. I was hoping to go over it with Tom to polish it a bit, but I think he's fully booked.

Payne's been calling me. I'm assuming it has something to do with his script, but I don't know why. Either he's giving up on the initial idea or he's stuck on something and can't move forward. Either way I'm going to have to talk to him before anything happens on that front. I'm re-watching Salt Creek County again. I figured after watching Hampshire yesterday I should give it another try to see if I can extract anything more out of it that I was too stubborn to see the first time around.

I remember thinking the whole time I was watching Hampshire that in the same amount of time it took Chris to tell his story, Tom Snyder and Adam Galassi made a movie that told a far broader story, involved a much larger cast and seemed to keep an entertaining pace throughout. I mean, Salt Creek County is by no means a masterpiece, but it's lighthearted and perhaps it's easier to forgive for that reason alone.

I don't know. I had to take a break and help Sariah upholster a table with clear vinyl. In exchange she's picking me up some sleep insurance (beer). Back to the movie now.

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |   ( 3.1 / 26 )
A "while-I'm-watching-it" movie review plus RANT!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 12:16 AM
I'm watching the long-awaited (by me) Hampshire: A Ghost Story. It's a movie made by Christopher Kelley from Quincy. I learned of Chris through work because he makes commercials for Shottenkirk Quincy and a few other places. The acting is pretty bad, he loves extreme close-ups and shaky hand-held camerawork and even though I'm about 10 minutes into the movie, I can't discern any real plot, other than a haunted restaurant. Bad dialog too. Other than that, it looks pretty nice.

After seeing a few trailers for this movie I thought it might be interesting to see the movie. I wanted to see if he had the chops to possibly shoot a movie with me. I know! Why would I have someone else shoot my movie when I'm perfectly capable of shooting it myself? Well, if I'm going to be directing, I really need to stay focused on the delivery and the acting rather than try to juggle both responsibilities at once. Technically I could do it, but it would be so frustrating to attempt and more than likely I'll mess up shots or miss stilted performances.

Anyway, He gets some good shots, but he also depends greatly on high contrast shots, which for the purpose of what I'm hoping to shoot would work out just fine. I just don't know if he's intending to get these shots from the outset, or if he's just doing it in post. I don't know. I'm kind of posting all of this while watching it, so it's hard for me to tell.

I'm 30 minutes in and there's still no real point to any of this. Ooh, there's snakes and spiders in the food! Okay, it's just randomness at this point. It's easy to tell that this movie is the work of someone more interested in the photography/editing process than anything else. Well, I will give him one thing in that the sound is really good. Music is handled really well to the point you'd think the movie was actually scored. Still, when the movie is just a combination of random scenes, I guess it would be easy to make any string piece fit.

Okay, the "actor" in the movie, named Greg Ellery (who was in The Room, believe it or not) is now doing improv with two twins and delving into really bad stereotypes of the Chinese and telling bad jokes. Man the acting is really bad. Something happens in the movie like someone walks by and one of the actors will say "hey, I think I just saw someone walk by". Oh no! Some guy standing in a hallway made The Room guy scream like a girl!

Oh yeah, Chris also loves Magic Bullet and After Effects. For the past 10 minutes I've been watching what apparently is a flashback, but there's some stupid film damage effect on the whole thing illustrating that "it's the past". Sorry, I have a real problem with stuff like that. I'd have to say that so far, there's nothing remotely scary or creepy about this movie and being 45 minutes in with 36 minutes to go and still no plot, I'm pretty disappointed.

28 minutes of flashback! That means a third of the movie has that stupid film damage effect on it! Oh noes! All the car alarms are going off as the guy walks past the them! How creepy! Maybe I'm being a little too hard on the movie, but why should I be sympathetic to something I don't consider to be any good? Seriously! The movie has become nothing more than Chris Kelley's "look what I know how to do in After Effects" showcase!

Okay, so one hour into an 80 minute movie and the plot becomes clear that the guy from The Room is cursed and everywhere he goes he's being followed by evil spirits that either kill people or spook them or something. What should have happened a half an hour ago is finally happening. More bad dialog.

Restaurant Owner: "Why is this happening?"
Guy from The Room: "Because it is."

Give me a break! No offense, but I could write better dialog in my sleep. Even my atrocious Max Bley script has better dialog than this.
Barely lit people covered in fake blood does not a scary movie make. Oh no! I think the guy from The Room is going to start chanting. Nope, he kills one of the twins. Putting twins in your movie for creepiness is as silly as putting a dwarf in a dream sequence.

Okay, so the guy from The Room is dead now for some unknown reason. Yeah, the soundtrack doesn't really fit anymore. Oh god! Not another fucking flashback! Okay, so everyone dies. I guess that's supposed to mean something...or not. I don't care anymore. God damn twins! Why can't they just stay dead! Oh! Now it all makes sense. The couple from the beginning are back and eating in the restaurant again, only this time they're covered in blood. Yeah, that makes a lot of fucking sense!

It's over and what better way than to the strains of some Marilyn Manson rip-off group. What a disappointment! I mean, it has some nice looking stuff for a little bit and the sound was pretty good, but that doesn't make up for horrible dialog, lack of plot and abuse of digital effects throughout. I know, I know. Big man I am ragging on someone's movie when I haven't even made one myself. Well, the whole reason I haven't made a movie is because I don't want it turning into something like this. I think once I finally get to it, the movie I make will be one that I can most certainly be proud of.

I walked away from the Doctor video disappointed because of the amount of shortcuts we took to get to the end even though it's more visually diverse and at some points more aesthetically pleasing than Hampshire. I can be proud in the sense that it's my first time working with another director where the end result was at least good, as opposed to Chick Magnet that just turned out to be terrible. What does any of this have to do with the movie I just watched? A lot, actually.

The often overlooked, yet principal aspect of shooting any picture is knowledge. Knowing the camera, knowing how to achieve certain types of shot and especially knowing how to light a scene and achieve a shot capable of exposing the most information to the frame as possible in order to better manipulate it in post, if required. Most indie filmmakers shoot for the end product in camera, limiting their ability to alter the look of the footage in post. Having watched this from start to finish, I'd say that's exactly what Chris Kelley does.

I needed to know that because I can't very well depend on a cinematographer who is shooting everything "their way" and end up with a bunch of footage that is what it is. I'd say his inherent visual style is better suited to music videos than indie films, yet he has one under his belt already now doesn't he? Like I said before, I'm familiar with his TV commercials and most times they have the same visual representation of low-light, high contrast shots emphasizing a colder, more stern look, even when the commercial is meant to be a higher energy or up-tempo.

While his most recent commercials have shown that he is developing his skills beyond what he's done before, he's still got a way to go before I think he'll be where he needs to be to actually do serious work for others as a cinematographer. Of course, I'm not going to fully judge the dude on his work alone. I think I would need to meet with him in person and get a general feel for his behavior before I knew for sure whether or not he would be right for the job. After all, this movie is a few years old, so there's no question he's grown since then and working with clients should have had a positive affect on his ability to take direction, though I can't say for sure yet.

The movie I'm wanting to do is a short based on an alcoholic unknowingly in the thralls of delirium tremens, experiencing his reaction in a first person kind of way, but through a third-person, cinematic style. Kind of like a dream in a way. I only have an outline so far, but it's not going to be very dialog heavy and will more focus on action, but not in a action movie sense. I'm going to work on the script this weekend and from there run it by Tom to get his take on it. I kind of want him to produce the thing for me because I really feel he does good in that role, but it's up to him to decide whether or not he'll serve a role in that capacity or not.

I'll probably shoot in June/July. I really need to find locations before I start casting. I think I can get Austin Boylen on-board to help out with dolly and jib work as he has experience with both and I'd like to work with him again on something that will see the light of day. I might watch this thing again and ignore the horrible dialog and shitty film damage effect as much as possible to focus more on the photography.

I truly feel like his stark visuals are exactly what I want for this short so why spend a bunch of time trying to duplicate it myself when there's a guy out there capable of achieving those shots naturally? I just have to make sure he's open to direction. That's the most critical aspect of the operation. I don't need someone fighting my every decision, especially on the set. First and foremost, I need a script.

So anyway, Hampshire: A Ghost Story is too long and has terrible dialog, bad (or non-existent) acting and a patchwork story that is light on chill factor and places more of an emphasis on Chris's editing and post work than anything else. It's bad. Hey, I'm not going to fluff the guy just because I want to work with him. That's not my style.



[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |   ( 3 / 27 )
What happened to March?
Monday, March 22, 2010, 05:10 AM
I can't believe this month is nearly over. I thought February would never end, but this month has just flown by.

Well, it's Monday morning...5 AM to be precise and I've been at work for an hour already. Again, I can't sleep. My back was killing me and I just couldn't find a comfortable position, so I decided to go for a walk. That got my back feeling somewhat better, but I didn't want to see if I could finally get to sleep with so little time left before work. So, I'm at work getting some stuff taken care of that I didn't get to last week due to conflicts in scheduling and having to leave early to get the car to Sariah.

One thing I've realized over this weekend is that I am horribly out of shape and that I need to stop playing Modern Warfare 2 completely. I've been away from it for so long now that I just suck at it and it always seems like I only want to play it when I'm drunk, which means I'm even worse at the game than normal. This is the precursor to ending my Xbox live account as well as my Netflix account. The only thing left after that will be my internet proper.

Another thing that had occurred to me over this past weekend is how miserable I would be without the internet at home. Had I only movies and single-player video games to keep me entertained while being trapped at home without transportation, I think I would have gone stir crazy. Still, I could probably get more work done on my Talkin' Beer videos as well as script writing if I didn't have YouTube and other distractions in my life.

I'm still weighing that decision and have 6 more weeks before the season cinco finale of Tim and Eric to decide the fate of my internet. What will suck the most is that I will be losing my instant access to information whenever I need it. Not to mention, whenever I use PTO I'll have to call work from that point on instead of just emailing. Hmmmm..the more I think about it, perhaps I'm being a bit foolish. Well, there's still the option of getting DSL for simple things like email and looking up info. I just won't be able to watch videos and play online games. I might go that route, I just won't be saving as much money as I would like.

Well, back to work. By the time noon rolls around, I'll be tired as hell. Hopefully nothing crazy happens between 8 and noon forcing me to stay later.

[ add comment ]   |  permalink  |   ( 2.9 / 26 )

Back Next