Are you watching

Grande Con Carne the Web Series is up and running and doing great. We're pushing them on Funny or Die because I think the community is better there as well as the video compression they use.

The links for episodes 3 and 4 are here:

I'd embed them, but the frame seems to overlap in blogger. There doesn't appear to be a way to make it fit well.

Episode 3 http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4857f81dcc

Episode 4 http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c2cf5dfdcb


RJ

Deliberating over when to repost

What's the half-life of a web series. On TV - a new episode per/ week - but shout I post more than that of my Webisodes? It's frustrating because currently we have 5 in the can, but I don't want to blow them out. Then again - the first is doing well and I don't want to lose that momentum.

Sigh... maybe I'll post it.

I just feel like I should wait.

Grande Con Carne: The Web Series

So my web series, by the same name, is up and running and doing quite well on Funny or Die. I have it up on YouTube and MySpace as well, but the video quality on those two sites sucks donkey balls, so I'm directing people over to FoD. Here it is and PLEASE VOTE FUNNY, even if you have no sense of humor (I know, don't insult the viewers before they watch it - that's a good creed).

Quarterlife

So being invested in this whole idea of webisodes, I decided to take a look at Quarterlife.

But then I decided that if I ever want to actually work for anyone, or with anyone involved in that show, I probably SHOULD NOT blog about it.

'nuf said.

The Oscars

So I didn't watch the Oscars last night and apparently I didn't miss much. I started watching but realized, after Stewart's monologue, where he broke exciting new ground by making jokes (I'm assuming they were jokes) about Jack Nicholson, that my time might be better served by actually working on some of my own stuff, which I did, and reading the list of winners (none of which I've actually seen) this morning.

I think, after a brief but frustrating struggle with LiveType, that I might have a finished rough cut of my first webisode ready. What the hell is a finished rough cut? Well, basically, it's a cut that's not so rough, but it's not yet finished in my mind - is anything ever?

Webisodes

So for those of you who may not know, I'm working on some webisodes - little comedy shorts that string together as a series. It's like a sitcom in 3 1/2 minute episodes. Which - if you think about - with commercial breaks, isn't that far off.

We shot last week - small crew - bigger cast - fantastic people - and I'm doing retroactive script notes now.

Published!!!

Some of you may know that a few years ago I wrote a short novel The Girl Who Tried to Catch the Man, that takes place at Burning Man (most of you probably don't). I made copies of it and gave it out to my Burning Man campmates and a few other people as a playa gift. I kind of thought that's where it would end, but not so. Wild Shore Press, a small press over on the other coast has published it. It's available on their website right now as an e-book download or as a regular printed up book.

Now, those of you unfamiliar with Burning Man may find it a bit mystifying - although you may not - I don't know. I did kind of write it with the idea that non-burners might read it. It also gets a touch racy at points, so those of you with delicate eyeballs may want to hold out for the Reader's Digest version.

I also want to take a brief moment to thank my good friend Joel Miller for the excellent work he did in helping me with this. (I could have waited for the inevitable award show to do that, but I have a feeling he'd prefer I do it now rather than wait weeks or months like I did with the swag I promised him.)

Oh and just in case anyone is interested, the movie rights are still available. You know, just in case.

I'm pretty excited about this, though I'm not sure if I should buy that Bentley just yet.

RJ

Third Video Up

Well, our third video is up. This whole YouTube thing is frustrating in a way because there's really no rhyme or reason to what scores big numbers. But we're plugging away. There are a few more videos left to upload and then we have three more scripts to shoot, plus starting a series which I think is going to be important. I think if anything is going to take on the big boys, that will be where it starts.

Here's the vid.

Shaver Spot up

I have the second of the "sexy" spots up on YouTube. It's here




Hopefully we can get a little viewer action and rocket this sucker up and out of the ballpark.

A director goes to jail

I don't love all his movies, but I have to admit, the dude has done some good work.

The government's investigation of Anthony Pellicano yielded the first prison term for a major Hollywood figure Monday when a federal judge ordered director John McTiernan to spend four months behind bars for lying to the FBI about hiring the indicted private investigator.

Check the rest out here.

First Deek Video up

This is the first video we made a viral. We've changed it a bit - taken out the logos and all and put it up on YouTube - go for it.

Posting some videos

I have a music video up on YouTube. It's one I did a couple of years ago for a group called The Deep Eynde. They're a goth rock (or I've seen them called horror punk - which is a new phrase as far as I'm concerned.) Anyway, I'm going to try to embed it here - haven't done that before.

Revver Link

The link to the first video up on Revver is:

Here.


Go watch.

Revver

I'm getting ready to upload our stuff to Revver. I'll probably do YouTube also and maybe one or two other of the video sharing sites. I like Revver because I think we'll be able to upload the stuff uncut - which really only matters for two of the spots - but you never know. Also, the possibility of making money with Revver is exciting too, though I doubt we'll get rich.

I'll put up a link when I have some things up.

Interesting Development

I've sent off the site Deek Viral to a few people and I've gotten back an interesting response. It's essentially a site to demo our work - every production company out there has one - but people seem to think of it as a YouTube kind of thing where people can post their own videos. My suspicion is that's because we don't have a front page -but present the video on the front page. I may change that. As you look at the sire - your eye is drawn toward the words, Sexy, Silly, Scandalous - and you see the videos. I don't think you see the masthead and I think the catch phrase - "between YouTube and The Tube" is confusing people.

Is there anybody out there

I wonder if anyone is still out there. It's been so dang long since I posted anything, I'm sure I've lost whatever I might have had.

It's been a busy year for me and I hope to make the rest of it busier and I hope to write about it here.

Back

Wow. It’s been a ridiculously long time since I posted here, but I’m back and ready to ROCK!!!

This year has been weird, weird, weird and freaking weird. It started out well, I was editing for HBO This Just In. and then suddenly that stopped (well, I wasn’t always available, so I can’t really blame them and then once you’re not in the chair it’s hard to get back) and then I was shooting and editing a bunch (you can see things here and then that all stopped and I’ve been twiddling my frigging thumbs. Well, not exactly. I’ve actually been working my ass off but of course it’s not been for money, but to start something new and that something is….

Deek Viral.

My partner, Steve Vernon and I have started this to do low cost, web ads that get some attention. Silly, Sexy, Scandalous – that’s our thing. Also – between YouTube and The Tube – meaning that we’re doing spots with some actual creativity as opposed to a great deal of the crap that appears on YouTube, but also spots that are a little too edgy for actual television. And yes, that’s got to be the 5th time I’ve used some version of the word “actual.” If you check it out be aware that there are two spots on the site with NUDITY and one spot with almost nudity (and let me tell you that the girl in that one is great in ANY kind of nudity or not nudity).

A Nice Movie

I watched a nice little movie last night. It was called, The World's Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins. I've had it on the Netflix list for a while but given that my Netflix list tends to be fairly long it sometimes takes me a while to get to things. But I finally got it and saw it and really liked it. It's a nice little movie and I have no memory of it being in theaters. I wonder how it did and if it was able to make it's money back on DVD. The Indian in question is actually a motorcycle, though there is an actual Indian that's not what it's about. Anyway - check it out. Anthony Hopkins does a good job, though his Kiwi accent sounds oddly like his English accent.

Can't Find My Way Home

It's funny the way things pop into my head. I was driving to Target last night around 9:30 listening to the radio and "Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith came on. It's a beautiful, haunting song and it always reminds me of what is probably one of my all time favorite movies (because it's in the movie.) It's a movie that got me all misty when I first saw it - a movie that has inspired and awed me - a movie that...

What is it? Hang on - I'll bet it's one that very few of you have heard of. It stars - are you ready - Kevin Costner, Judd Nelson and Sam Robards and was directed by Kevin Reynolds. It also stars Marvin J. Mc Intyre.

Now - before I give this one away - let me first point out that Kevin and Kevin are the pair responsible for Waterworld as well as Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.

Curious?

Here's another hint - it was produced by Amblin Entertainment - Steven Spielberg's company.

Give up?

It's called Fandango. And if you do anything else this weekend go out and rent this movie. You will be floored - well, that's if you're a guy. I think it's a guy film. Almost every guy I've ever watched this movie with gets blown away by it while the female reaction is somewhat more tepid.

Anyway - as I was driving along listening to Blind Faith, I kind of had a realization and it troubled me. Fandango is a movie we're unlikely to see again. That is to say, under our current tent-pole driven, multiplex-hogging studio system, it's a film we're unlikely to see again. It's stars were not really stars at the time (Judd Nelson had fallen from his Brat Pack high and Costner was an unknown.) It doesn't fall into an easily exploited genre and it's emotional rather that action-packed. So it's not a studio film. It isn't controversial and it isn't deeply introspective to the point of confusion so it's not one the indie players would likely grab hold of either. It probably would not play well on the festival circuit (though I think it would be an audience favorite) because most programmers wouldn't be attracted to it and it wouldn't get shown. Yet it is an emotionally powerful and uplifting film about a group of guys on the cusp of adulthood going to dig up a long lost "friend." It's the kind of film that anyone who sees it would say, "that's the kind of film I want to make." And yet today - it appears unmakeable.

And it occurred to me last night as I was driving in my car that maybe movies really are dying as an art form - as George Lucas has recently declared (though after the last three Star Wars "epics" I understand why he might think so.) But maybe not. Maybe - as I've said before - things are just changing.

I read an interesting article in Reason Online a few weeks ago about beer in America (Reason is a libertarian magazine - and for those of you who don't understand what that means, it's about free minds and free markets (something which I'm not really sure the movie industry is all about.)) Here's a quote from it - see if you can make the connection:

In 1980, good American beer was on the brink of extinction. Our most popular brands—Bud, Miller, Coors—were the laughingstocks of the world. Our brewing heritage had been all but stamped out, with hundreds of formerly thriving regional breweries gone. There were a few pockets of resistance, such as Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, but the days of decent American beer seemed to be over.

Sound familiar? The point of the article was that while the economies of scale had driven the small breweries out of business and beer into a bland, tasteless funk, there was still a taste - a desire - in this country for beer that was well made - for beer that had body and taste and quality and thus - the American micro brew explosion happened.

And so it occurred to me last night as I was listening to "Can't Find My Way Home" that we might be in those dark ages of post-prohibition America when beer was watery, tasteless and lacking substance. It occurred to me that we might be at the beginning of a microbrew - micro-film - explosion and I wondered where it would come from. Who would make the films is obvious but who would fund them, who would distribute them? Maybe YouTube is the answer, maybe it's a MySpace thing, maybe - just maybe - Apple will open up iTunes to people with little films to sell - to people like all those friends I made at film festivals with wonderful little films - the kinds of films that are seen by people - the kinds of films that cause them to say - now why don't they make films like these anymore?

24 hours of TV for THAT????

Granted I'm a little slow on the uptake here but my wife and I just spent a few weeks watching the entire first season of 24. And I'm pissed, though it may be a symptom of watching a whole television series like it was a movie.

Now, first let me say that I really liked most of the series. It seems to fall somewhere between a James Bond movie and the X-Files. I'm not a big fan of Bond, but I was of X, and I have to say were it not for the season finale of 24 Season 1 - I would be of this.

Here's my problem (and in case you're as remedial as I am in your television watching, consider this a SPOILER alert. ) The season runs it's course, Jack's family is in danger, they're out of danger, Jack's going to kill Senator Palmer, he saves senator Palmer, Jack's family is BACK in danger, Jack's still going to kill Senator Palmer... Up, down, up down, suspense, suspense, suspense, minor resolution, more suspense, more suspense, more suspense. They did a pretty good job of it. Sure there were a few things that strained credulity, but what the hell, it a TV show.

Then they get to the last episode and we're on a roller coaster ride to a happy ending.

Then they kill Jack's wife - OFF CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean WTF????????????? Number one, they killed a sympathetic character. Number two it was the story telling version of being raped. (Hey, we've gotten you this far, 24 hours of edge of your seat television down the road and just when you've fallen in love with these characters and just when you thought it was going to turn out well, F.U. I mean if we were writing it, Luke Skywalker wouldn't have blown up the Death Star and Leia would have been killed by Chewbacca. ) AND They did it off camera. God damnit. Talk about an anti-climax.

Then again, it could turn out to be like the moment Bruce Wayne's family is killed thus turning him into Batman.

I'll probably watch Season 2.

Sigh.

Posting Has Been Slow

Posting has been slow of late, not, I realize, that it's ever been brisk. But having a new child along with all the other things I do that keep me in the lavish lifestyle I'm used to living have taken it's toll on my writing time. And it's taken it's toll on my thinking time - which is what leads to writing.

Actually, I've been wanting to blog about a TV series - long canceled that I'd heard about and Netflixed on DVD called Wonderfalls. It was great - really a nice little quirky series that was well done but alas didn't fit into the current reality/cop/lawyer/doctor show that fills television these day.

I'm also watching the first season of 24 which I was resistant to watch though now I'm hooked.

I sent out a couple of DVDs the other day and they vanished in the mail. It's not the first time this has happened, though this time the envelope and cover letter actually made to the addressee, just the DVDs were missing.

Sleep, sleep, I need sleep

Sleep... new baby in the house - need sleep... arrgghhhh...

The Conversation I'm hearing

I've always been an eavesdropper. I love to listen to conversations in public places. I've always been like this every before my play writing teacher in college told us this was a good way to learn dialogue - to learn how people talk.

So right now I'm in a coffee shop - my favorite coffee shop - a WRITER'S coffee shop (if the number of people I see in here writing screenplays is any indication,) and I'm listening to a conversation at the next table. Actually I'm trying to avoid listening, but they are fairly loud and I keep hearing words like "enema"(made even weirder because one of them is gorgeous.) Turns out they are two midwives and they are chatting about their weekly cases. It's fascinating to hear the words that they use and the way they use them - their professional banter. I'm sure I'll get to use it sometime but who knows when.

By the way - TWO MORE friends are leaving. My neighbor, who is a camera assistant, is packing it in and heading home and a friend of mine who has been trying to produce for the last few years is moving to San Francisco, though that may be a lateral move. Certainly it'll be more interesting than L.A. In any case, two more bite the dust.

Should this make me feel better???

The other night I was flipping channels, actually, since we have Directv I was paging through the guide and I saw a tantalizing entry on Showtime. Actually, it might not have been Showtime itself, it might have been The Movie Channel, but given that they are part of one cuddly media conglomerate I'm going to lump them together.

Now - a little backstory. Back when I finished my first film I decided it would be a good idea to head up to Sundance and press the flesh a little. So as I'm riding the shuttle up from SLC, I start chatting up one of my fellow passengers and it turns out he's the acquisitions guy for Showtime and he asks about my film. I tell him and he says, "We love William Katt," (who is in my film) "send it to me," he says.

So I did. Months later I was given a call by someone's assistant's assistant and was told that they were passing. No explanation, just a pass. Thanks, but no thanks. (did I mention I'd received this call after months of calling them (after a suitable waiting period?))

Then comes the other night and I'm flipping around as I mentioned and come across this tantalizing entry:

The Witches of Breastwick.

Now given that I tend, on occasion, to write with my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek, I should pause for a moment to explain that NO that is NOT a JOKE.

Well, there was no way I could let a film like that pass without at least taking a gander at it. You know? And so I did.

Now I understand porn - BELIEVE me, I understand porn. And I understand that there's a place for porn (soft core) on Showtime - heck - I think that's where my 2nd film wound up. I understand porn. But this was - - uh - - it was - - uh - -

Look - let me put it this way. I've watched some serious crap in my life because there was some naked on screen. (I mean I've actually sat through the dialogue of Dr. Penetration (mmm, this is worth three more dollars...for those of you who know - you know...)) But... well, I think I finished the remained of the hour watching Good Eats on the Food Network.

So my question is, should it make me feel better or worse that this network turned down my film?

Another Friend Has Hit The Road

It seems like one by one all my friends from my first years in Hollywood are packing it in and heading out of town. Though the story with this one is a little different in that he's kept a job here that he's going to try to wrangle long-distance, the song remains, essentially the same. Worked at it for years, struggling, trying, making an OK living and striving for something greater only to sit back and realize you're getting to that point where you start to worry that if you haven't made it yet, you're never going to make it.

I kind of reel like the old man in "Ran" watching his sons, get swept up in their own ambitions and leave him in that burning tower in the fortress. All right, fine, it's not a perfect parallel, in fact it's a pretty weak one at best, BUT it just shows where my mind is at. Here I am thinking about, pondering about the great beyond (so to speak) and I'm seeing Japanese Films in my head.

Speaking of what a film geek I am, I watched "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" and could help feeling that it was a rip off of "Star Wars" (which of course got me thinking about "Hidden Fortress " which is the Akira Kurosawa (who also directed Ran, which is why I thought of this now) movie they say Lucas ripped off for Star Wars, though I've seen it and DON'T know what the fuck THEY are talking about) Harry Potter and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. The irony of course is that the Chronicles of Narnia predate all of those, except for Lord of the Rings which was actually contemporary (CS and JRR were amigos) to it. And really what that got me thinking about was Joseph Campbell (who I was introduced to by another friend who hit the road (and is doing rather well, actually)) and "The Hero With A Thousand Faces," (also another alleged inspiration for Star Wars, though I think this one actually makes a lot of sense.) Which I've decided, given my current script writing pains, I need to read again.

Also - I found out that the Maltese Falcon was a REMAKE. Apparently nothing was ever sacred.