7_27_08

Oh my blog!

I love reading other people’s blogs. They are so much smarter than me! They have so much more fun!

Check out the blogs on the right there, some fun stuff!

Answers – zero, Questions – many

So I left off with a quandary last time I wrote. Then a bunch of craziness happened.
I spent a good amount of time on my online reel of production work.
(http://adventuretimetheatre.com/eric.html) Check it out!

I also worked a bit on finishing the feature I am producing - Diantha’s Crossing. There’s a bunch of loose ends and finishing that needs to take place.

I am also trying to find a good audio mixer for my short film Dirt. Once we do a sweetening of the audio, we will submit the film into several festivals. Our goal is to get into Sundance next year.

So what have I decided? What path have I chosen?
I don’t know!!! It has seriously plagued me since I wrote the different choices.
I really want to do B because that would afford me some really great experience and it will help me learn more about the biz. I also want to try C because I have always thought that I could make it on my own.
I am definitely not choosing D. No way.

My plan is to submit a bunch of resumes to companies in LA and see what will happen.

The Choices:

A- Stay around here for a while and try and find work in the local industry (which isn’t always a guarantee for work, especially during the fall)?

B- Go to LA and work as an assistant for free for a period of a couple of months before I can really land a good job?

C- Stay around here and try and establish my own company and try and make money with video production or some other business (which is extremely risky, especially with today’s economy)?

D- Get a job doing something that is not what I want and flounder in the world of unfulfilled dreams?

CLOSAT

C- A creepy old man with beady eyes and large-framed glasses. Arms and legs chained together, wearing a pale orange suit.

L- A quiet suburban street at dusk with rain pouring down.

O- A dark green plastic cup, not full of water - (sad…)

S- Searching online for information and getting more and more lost in the world of the internet (and consequently further away from the original search).

A- “Flipping” a home. Taking a cheap home that needs a lot of work, putting in some repairs, then selling it for a higher price.

T- All things can be resolved over a bowl of ice cream.

Producing Tips

Producing Tip #4: Be flexible – For the most part, you want to make all of your plans solid and perfectly calculated, but there are many times when your plans will not work how you want them to. This is when you need to adapt and be flexible. This also requires some quick thinking on your feet. It is a good idea to have backup plans to your backup plans.

I once got to plan “F” before a certain location worked out for us on a shoot.

These are the sort of things that can go wrong:
Actor schedule changes
Location falls through
Hostile environments (including people) near location
Crewmembers not showing up
Food showing up too early or too late (usually because the production is too slow or too fast)
Frustrations on set (people not getting along)
Budget concerns
Things burning, breaking, blowing up on accident

Etc., etc.

Last Two Movies seen in Theaters:

Journey to the Center of the Earth (in 3D!)

You may laugh, but this was actually an exciting and fun experience. The glasses were uncomfortable over my regular glasses, and they kind of made me motion sick a few times, but it was way worth it!

The film’s plot is very basic – A geologist goes searching for the secret of his brother’s disappearance in Iceland. He takes along his nephew who was visiting and a beautiful mountain guide. They stumble upon the entrance to the center of the Earth and go on a non-stop thrill-ride of discovery and adventure!

The dialogue leaves us something to be desired, and the plot is less than plausible. But the film was downright fun. I was not sorry to part with my $9.50 to see the film.

I give this film three and a half out of five floating 3-D glasses.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

For all of you who were not fans of the original show, there were times when they would break away from the mythology/continuing story of Mulder and Scully and go for a stand-alone story. Sometimes these stories would involve freaky medical oddities.

Number one: I hate medical stories. I get freaked out talking about stitches, let alone something way massive like removing body parts.

Number two: when the least popular episodes of the show are when you break away from the main flow of the plot, don’t go and make a film that is like those episodes!

I really wanted to enjoy the film because of the first film they made. That movie kicks trash! This film was very slow moving and less exciting. We get some insights into the psychology of the two characters of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, but some things introduced in the film did not pay off.

Overall I wasn’t too happy coming out of the theater. I wanted either more action or more connection to the overall story of the X-files. (and less medical oddities…)

I give the film two out of five "I want to believe" posters.

Cell Phone Picture of the Day!

This huge moth flew into our windshield and got stuck in our wiper. I put a quarter next to it so you can see just how humongous this dude was. We left him there to see if he would fly away. The next morning he was gone (it’s possible a bird got to him).