I'm a Country Music fan - I think

Wow,

So I just got back from Las Vegas where I was shooting some behind-the-scenes-kind-of of video at the Country Music Awards. I was in a big room with a ton of radio stations set up and for two days the stars came in and walked from station to station doing interviews - and I shot it. Now, having listened to country music on a few car trips - when it was pretty much all you could get on radio - and knowing virtually no one in county music before I did this I have to say I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I had a fantastic time. The stars were wonderful - and actually looked like they were really happy to be there. And man were they working the room. There were big names who talked to 40 radio stations in about 4 hours. It was amazing. They were friendly, nice, no attitudes and no - for the most part - people. That's right - there were fairly big names cruising around with no entourages. Heck, I was standing in line at Starbucks in the MGM Grand and there were country music stars in line with me - ordering their own coffee. Astounding.

I - and a friend - spent a few minutes chatting with Brad Paisley (who's a big name in Country) about the Sci Fi show "Ghost Hunters."

So then when I got home I watched the actual award show and I have to say there was some pretty damn good music. I even downloaded a song from iTunes (Boondocks - by Little Big Town) and I'm looking for a few others.

Yee-haw!

Deep into the Re-write

I had a great meeting yesterday with the assistant of a manager I've been trying to get in touch with. She was really nice and we got along great. I'm hoping the door stays open.

In other news I'm deep into this re-write. It's funny because the more I get into it the tougher it is - not because I'm finding more problems, quite the opposite in fact, I'm finding more opportunities. This script started out with a great story and great characters and as I dug in and added structure and re-wrote dialogue the characters felt like they were jumping off the page and trying to write the thing themselves - which to me is fantastic - the hard part is containing them. The hard part is keeping them on track toward the actual end of the story. They want to spin off in their own direction, which, if I were writing from scratch would be great - but since there's an ending I have to get to with them, I have to keep them - and myself - focused.

More later.

What's up with the Brokeback Mafia?

I don't really have any comment here, but I've been watching the Sopranos and the Brokeback Mafia thing popped into my head.

The Re-Write

Wow - I'm working on a re-write. It's a first for me - not re-writing a script - I re-write mine all the time, but re-writing someone else's script. It's wild - a whole different experience but I'm really excited about it. It was written by a friend of mine and it's his true story, but he's not a writer, so while it's a great story it needs a bit of structure and some dialogue and character development. Though it's interesting because all of that's in the story already it just isn't in the script, if you understand what I mean. Or maybe I'm reading all of that into it.

Anyway it's a challenge, but a fun one. In a way I'm breaking down the script as a director would and then putting it back together with needle and thread. The big dilemma I had in starting was do I attack the actual file and cut and paste it in shape or just start out with a whole new blank page and re-type some stuff as I re-write others.

Hmmm.

The Firefox Spot Redux

So the Firefox spot is finally up.



Click on the pic to navigate to it. It's funny because I'm not sure how many people actually get the joke. They used to have comments on the posts but they seem to have removed that. Anyway - enjoy.