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!

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.



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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.

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It's Crying Time Again
Saturday, March 20, 2010, 07:32 PM
I've been trapped at home all day and decided that I had finally had enough. I walked the dogs around the block, then brought them home. I was surprised by how sore my ankles were by doing this since I had planned to walk to where Sariah works and pick up the car. Ha! I haven't walked that far in nearly two years. Which got me thinking; I really, really, really, really, REALLY need to start walking again. Even if it's without the dogs, I need to start walking in the morning again.

Well, after resting my ankles a bit, I headed out once again, only this time my destination was Morton Avenue. I figured that if I have to be trapped at home, I might as well have some beers in the process. About 3/4 of the way to Morton, my ankles are burning and I don't even think I can make it there, let alone back to the house. So I decide to go to Jimmy John's to grab something to eat and rest my ankles a bit. I ordered a veggie sub and a water then sat there till my ankles healed.

From there I picked up a 12-pack of Keystone Light and made my way back home, only this time my ankles didn't start hurting bad until Water street. I'm going to make it a point to walk tomorrow to and hopefully if things go right tomorrow night, I'll get to bed early and wake up early enough Monday morning to get a walk in. Once I get my energy back, I'll evaluate my situation and decide whether or not it's worth moving forward on other methods of exercise.

I definitely need to stick to this and make it work.

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Cycles
Thursday, March 18, 2010, 11:05 AM
Okay, I re-read my Max Bley script last night and now I remember why I gave it up. It's boring as hell and full of really bad dialog. I don't think I can salvage it, nor do I want to try. I want to work on something on a smaller scale so I can shoot it myself, but I also want to write up my alternate idea for the idea Payne and I were working on, assuming I don't hear back from him. I didn't contact him yesterday, but I might try tonight. It seems like he's in a different mood every day. All I know is that I'm not going to carry him through the process. He either wants to do this or he doesn't.

Last night I started packing up my beer collection. I'm taking out all the beer I've already done videos on and boxing them away. I'm hoping that the urge to drink will diminish when I don't have to look at a large array of beer bottles every time I walk through my dining room. I've stalled out a bit on editing together the videos since I don't have a car, it's difficult for me to find the time to do it now. I may get some editing in on it today, but I don't know for sure yet.

Episode 2 didn't get as many views as the first one. I guess I should expect that, it's not like I'm writing this stuff out or anything. It's basically just my honest impression of the beer. Still, I'm going to finish this thing as it's not so much for anyone else as much as it is for me.

the urge to drink is so great now I can barely stand it. I'm in my 5th day now and it's very hard to imagine I'll make it past this evening. Last night was like torture and I'm sure tonight will be equally as horrible. Tomorrow night I'm supposed to go to Tom's house for a little get-together, so I don't know how I'm going to manage pulling that off without drinking. I really hate being an alcoholic!

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Writing a script isn't easy
Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 09:55 AM
I guess I'm going to need to call Payne in the next couple of days to figure out what is going on with the script. Speaking of scripts, I've been thinking about going back to my Max Bley script and re-reading it. If memory serves, the fundamentals of the story would make it very easy to shoot and I'm already 70 pages into it. I might as well revisit it with fresh eyes and see if I can still make it work.

I'm kind of in this mood where I want to really work on something, but am not very comfortable with my current options. I stopped working on the Max Bley story because I felt I kind of lost touch with the story after a while and after re-reading it, I may find that is truly the case. I don't want to make a movie that spends 90 minutes talking about shit, but not saying a thing and that might be exactly where that story ended up.

In any case, I'm moving forward. I've got enough stuff shot for the Talkin' Beer series to keep it going for a few more episodes before I actually have to record more. This means I'll be less tempted to drink, which I'm hoping will stick for a while because I really want to kick this drinking at home bullshit. At the same time, I don't want to go back to drinking and driving either.

I need to get in touch with Paul and see what he wants. I really need to get that $100 from him. Maybe I can accomplish that today. We shall see!

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