MY CAPS LOCK IS ON

Heh. This is kinda cool.

I love romantic illusions as much as the next guy, but c’mon! Learn the damned craft and THEN wax poetic about it. Jeez.

Who’da thunk a short film about grandma f*cking would enrapture an audience? Certainly not me. When the brave souls who attended the screening last week of our latest 48-Hour Film endeavor reported back the great reception our film got, well, needless to say I was relieved and kind of astounded.

This is LA. Film capital of the world and possibly more important

Film School

capital of the world. My sights were set on making a decent enough short that I’d be happy to show on Youtube. We’d done that but actually PLACING? Wow. We won the Audience award for best film in our group. There are six groups in all. 72 teams or so! The top 6 audience winners go on to play at a special Best of screening on July 2nd… details below. Having not seen the other audience winners I have no idea what our competition is like. Word on the street most of the 72 teams made it in on time and so odds aren’t really in our favor so it’s back to scratching heads and patting backs.

It’s kind of nice to know we can still put together a good flick down here, even with limited resources. The ol’ GadZook mantra of “Story first, production value second” really played through. I hope to get the video online ASAP but have been having technical issues formatting the HDV down to SD correctly. I think it has something to do with how all the footage was originally captured into the system… but hopefully I’ll be able to work it out soon.

On that technical note, I’ve accomplished two goals that were rare among the Mac crowd. I replaced the hard-drive on my Macbook Pro myself and installed Windows XP Media Center Edition using Boot Camp. I learned how to create Photoshop actions at work as well making last week one of the most technologically advancing for me.

Here are the details for our screening on July 2nd. Take heart that these are, according to judges, the BEST OF THE BEST in LA. You shouldn’t be sitting through too much crap. If you can make it, lemme know!

“Best of Los Angeles 2008″ Screening and Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, July 2, 8:00 pm
Fairfax Theater
7907 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

I totally should be reading the umpteenth page of James Bond text (in Português of course), but I thought my time might be better spent talking to you fine folks.

So this last weekend was the 48-Hour Film Project in LA. I never thought I’d do this outside of Seattle but I’m so glad I did. I had a merry band of actor/writers picked out and even a camera (Canon HV20, my old nemesis, whom I now consider a friend). We lacked a crew. I’m not just saying this to make my Seattle homeboys feel special, but the old saying is true: You can never appreciate something until it’s gone. Not having a DP, sound, editor attached made me extremely nervous. I know I could edit in a pinch but could I edit fast enough for this fest? I’m no good with lights and hell, we didn’t even have enough money to rent them. And sound?? Good luck.

Well, here’s how it went down. My friend Don Early, of Dead Gentlemen fame, agreed to help me out and direct this thing. Matt Vancil, also of DG fame, agreed to come out and be our head writer. I knew we’d be in good hands. The script came out in no time flat and it was a doozy. Horribly wrong in all the right places.

Come Saturday we got up early and set about getting the first shots ready. The sound was atrocious. The on-camera mic on the HV20 is just awful. As this was a talk heavy script I knew sound was going to need to be our utmost concern. We ended up rigging a voice-over mic (the Shure SM7B for you tech-heads) on a boom stand with an XLR-mini plug adapter into the camera. It worked! Not fantastically, but if you could get the mic close enough to the actors it worked pretty well.

By 7pm or so we had wrapped and began editing. Forgetting EVERYTHING I learned the last time I worked with HDV footage, I proceeded to clunk my way through a learning curve. By 5am Sunday morning we (Don, Brian and I) had managed to edit 1/7th of the movie. Yikes. We slept for two hours and got back to it. Things went faster, we were making good time, the footage was coming together. Whatever I didn’t know I learned via the lovely internet. I actually ENJOYED myself this time.

Then came trouble. I had been playing with fire - working with the HDV codec but never bringing it into an SD timeline, etc. When we had to output (with a good 2.5 hours to spare) we quickly realized things were not going well. In the end I hastily through an unknown codec at the computer and got a version of the film on DVD for Brian to rush to the dropoff). It looks… awful. Horrible. Only after I sent it did I remember a conversation I had with krk last year about this very thing. Argh. Anyway, we made it on time and the screening is tomorrow.

I’d invite folks, but let me tell you the whole thing will be better viewed on Youtube in a couple weeks. Better quality video, etc.

Anyway, I’m quite proud of this little movie. If nothing else it showed me that I had the very limited tools necessary to make a short film here without spending an arm and a leg. But I do hope to find a solid DP & sound person for future shoots.

Onward and upward, as they say.

Just for fun… read this and uh… comment back what you think. Or send me an e-mail. I’ll be waiting.

This is why I moved here. Not for the weather. Not for the lifestyle. Not for the stargazing. But for the work. After about 6 months of searching I’ve finally landed a job in the film industry! Not to sound cliché but I honestly feel this is the start of something big.

So here’s the deal: through my friend Mark (thanks Mark!) and through the assistance of Craigslist, I found a job at 1k Studios as a Quality Control Technician. What does that mean? Well, I’m the one who ensures all of the assets that get placed on a DVD work correctly. When you hit Play Movie it should play the movie. That kinda stuff. A lot of my job is dealing with the creative elements like the motion menus, scene descriptions, and similar things. It’s an entry level job but it’s about a 75 cent raise from what I was making at the UW and, well, a significant boost from my previous job at 2k.

Yes, the irony is not lost on me: I went from 2k to 1k at a loss of 1000 points of resolution! The really cool thing about his job is that they also produce some of the bonus content on DVDs and with the advent of BluRay there’s more of this now than actual movie! They mentioned at one of the interviews that the company was getting more into this side of things and productions are growing in complexity and necessity. So there’s room to grow into production. For now I’m just very happy and excited to do ANYTHING involved in film. This is a great step for me. Technical but creative.

The big bonus is the fact that the job is only 5 miles away from my house. My job at 2k was a lovely 30 miles. In LA traffic and with gas at $4/gallon, this meant I was shelling out about $50/week for gas!! My poor budget couldn’t take that. So I should be back on the ball in a couple months. I also get a nice bennie package. But the biggest bonus will be working with cool, creative folks making DVDs of movies and TV shows I love. Yep, it’s true. You know the Deadwood DVD set that I am often seen letting the menu loop with? They did it. Carnivale? That was them, too. Rome? Uh-huh. Oh yeah, I am back to the ol’ 9-5, too! I’m no longer going to be a vampire.

Not just TV shows either, but big huge major effin’ movies, too. And they have Rock Band in the break area! This is seriously an awesome job and I’m really, really ecstatic that I got it and I can’t help but realize that a job like this would almost never, ever have come up in Seattle. For good reason, there’s just no reason for a job like this up there. This isn’t meant to sleight Seattle by any means, but this was my primary reason for moving and I’m glad the risk is finally paying off.

Anyway, thanks for all your well-wishes and support these last few months. I’ve needed every last bit of good tidings. I’ll let you know how the first day goes and fill you in on other life news as it becomes a little more clear (the grainy haze of the future leaves things even out of my range of vision).

They’re all the rage these days. Friends at my nightjob have ‘em. Friends in my daylife have ‘em. Why not? So, I’ve been thinking about adding a podcast here to talk about filmmaking, being a filmmaker, the rise to the top (or wherever) and whatever floats my boat.

What I’ve decided it won’t be:
No movie reviews beyond a capsule recap at best. Yep… the dreaded capsule recap/review. Honestly I can’t imagine talking about making movies without at least casually mentioning both old and new, indie and studio releases to some degree.

No Hollywood gossip. Again, I think some gossip is unavoidable and I take great pleasure in highlighting stupid humans. But this ain’t Perez Hilton.

No more than 15 minutes long.

What I’ve decided it could be:
Tips and tricks, trials and tribulations. Not a be all end all of how to make a movie, but some anecdotal experience and a healthy discussion on what helps make good movies.

Experiences from someone in the trench who is, so far, unadulterated by a fat paycheck. You have Robert Rodriguez or Kevin Smith explaining how to make an indie film and while they are both talented in their own right, their ideas of indie films are gonna be different than what many of us are capable of. So I’ll be focusing on issues that plague the sub-$10,000 filmmaker.

What do you think? Is this already out there in full force? Are there a plethora of indie filmmakers hosting podcasts (video podcasts!) that aren’t just ads for their own movies (which I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t do as well)? Do tell.

In production news I’m slowly working with some peeps on a Moments of Hilarity web-series (yup, I’m web obsessed). Some of you may recall the first and so far only MoH was wrapper around our short “Hook Her“. Expect more from the Man in the Smoking Jacket…

P.S. Did I tell you how excited I am for the new Indy movie? No? I am. But I’m trying to hold back for fear of epic devastation.

You know when you see movies ads that say “Now playing in New York and Los Angeles”? I LIVE IN LOS ANGELES! I could totally see them!

If I had a life and money.

In the meantime, see how I’m spending my free time:

An aside to you editors I’ve worked with - THANK YOU. I’ve learned a lot from you guys and well, let’s just say I can’t wait to work with any and all of you again in the near future. The final installment in this three-part series should be up by this evening. Stay tuned!

More of these videos to come in the next couple of days. View it, rate it, share it!

Well. I’ve been hesitant to post anything here until I had some solid news to regale you with, dear reader. But truth is I don’t really know where to start.

I could post a tale about planning for such a big move in one’s life. I could counter that with a post on the ineffectiveness of planning at all when one is pursuing a dream. I could write about the Writer’s Strike (yes, I capitalized that bad boy), the weather, the video game industry, the denizens of Glendale, CA or a multitude of other juicy LA tidbits.

I’ll attempt to wrap this up quickly though as I have editing to do. LA is everything I expected and prepared for. And it’s also a lot of things I wasn’t ready to experience. Some old hats may pull out the “I told ya so!” card, but they’d be wrong. Nothing in LA has surprised me - not the traffic, not the gas prices, not the assholes, not the many great people who live here, not the rain, and certainly not the difficulty in getting work.

So what wasn’t I ready to experience? The sheer magnitude of dream jobs compared to Seattle. Every week it seems ‘m applying for one or two jobs that could be dream jobs. I was seeing jobs like that in Seattle maybe once or twice a year! I was meant to move to LA and the struggle, while shamefully awkward and pitiful, will be worth it.

What AM I doing to pay the bills (when I can pay them)? Testing video games, of course! At night! Ah, sweet mystery of life. Sounds great, but you’ve gotta believe me when I say otherwise. A bonus is I’m working with some cool people, many of whom either want to be or are peripherally involved in the film industry. I just wish I were 10 years younger like most of them. Never thought I’d say that…

Anyway, I hate feeding into the concept of people who thought they were big shots in Seattle (which I wasn’t) moving to LA thinking they’re owed something and then not having it pan out. I moved to LA because I needed to learn more about my job, plain and simple. And I’m doing it. It’s just slightly more costly.

Stay true to yourself, that’s where true peace lies.

Do me a favor: Check out this video I shot and rate it. Send it to your friends. Especially send it to anyone in the LA area who enjoys comic books, pop culture, etc. If this video (and the two more videos that will be attached to it in the next week) does well, there’s a chance I’ll get to do more and that means actually getting paid to produce. Wizard World LA 2008 - Gorilla

I just sent in a resume to what could be a dream job and the start of something very cool. I’ll detail more once I know more.

But aside from that, so far my LA experience has been sitting on my ass scrolling through page after page of employment sites looking for work. I can’t even contemplate working for free just to get some experience because I need to eat and pay for this roof over my head. So I’m in a bit of a bind. Mental note… save more money.

Other than work woes, I’ve been settling in. Due to the money situation I’ve kept to myself entirely too much. So I’m hoping to change that soon. I NEED a job by next week to continue to afford things. That’s not a good feeling. I’m practicing on the CBEST to maybe become a substitute teacher. Anything and everything.

Anyway, thanks for the well wishes you guys have sent me privately and otherwise. Much appreciated! Till next time… cheers!