My kids love acting

The Wizard of Oz

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Goofed around with the kids one day. They loved this and actually knew the lines between each other before ever showing me. Went to my mom's house the weekend prior and she put them in these costumes and they said the lines to each other. I just had to put them where I wanted. I can say without a doubt, they are better kids than any parent deserves. I mean, like two good friends with you all the time.

Nothing like moving to get you moving

Feeling good. Posted call for actors and crew. Already got two people on board who I worked with on the 48hour film. Both great people. One has a crane. Crane shots I wrote will work, and he's another awesome photographer. A few good looking leads on actors, especially the bad guy. No female leads yet. No male leads. Have guy who says he'll play him, but he's not an actor. Fits the look and has the desire. Sometimes wanting to do something is more an asset than knowing how to do something. But I plan on waiting about two to three weeks to do auditions. I'm pleased at the response. Anyway, tonight I storyboard. But first, dinner and kid-time.

I've got a fever, and the only thing that can cure it...more cowbell.

That's how it's been. Only without cowbell, instead, shooting.

Spend one night filmming (videoing) DonJuan. I fucking love it! This shit. All of it.
Scheduled the shooting of Watering Stones. Posted listings for free actors on craigslist and myspace and vpa. I want to get this shit rolling.

Still have a ton to do with it. Locations. Locations. Locations. Fighting with a couple of philosophies. Use easily accessable locations to give me time to focus on technical stuff and learning set design and creative producing? Or find a visually killer location that might be remote, without electric, schedule destructive or restrictive just for the sake of a nuturally stunning visual? I think either has merit. Leaning towards the easy location - but worried about investing so much other energy on a location that doesn't meet my visual, well, vision.

And the shop is looking tight. Heather decked out the place with a round of fresh photos. Officially rolled out a lunch special that could rock the block. Gotta give food away in peanut town to stay in business. Gimp suits tight, but I can still look good in it.

DonJuan, Take Juan

Great days. Alex (my little boy and best bud) turned 5. I swear. I'm so thankful (though sometimes I forget) for my kids. I think about how soon they'll be a man and a woman and won't have that soft little voice and how my son won't let me kiss him someday. I can't imagine the assholes that run off and leave those little voices behind. I already miss them, and they're not even gone yet.

On the filmmaking front:

Starting our little shoot of DonJuan DeMantis at the house tonight. Still need to tweak the mantises. They look more like grasshoppers. Need lobster claws to paint. Or crab legs. Anyway, small detail. The humor will buy us out of realism. Hopefully.

Finished continuity breakdown of "Watering Stones" a 12 minute short and should be ready to shoot it in September. October would be cool too, but the energy's in my small crew NOW. Waiting could mean calling on volunteers who I don't know. Either way, my goal is to have editing taking place in October. I'm focusing my attention on sound. I feel that small gains in sound knowledge could result in huge results in the product. But still learning everything. I can take pictures, and God my wife's a killer photographer, so between us, the pictures will work. I'm working on shot flow for these fine pictures, but my brains wrapping around that okay. It's the sound shit, that's buggin' me out. I'm not a master of frequencies and such, and my equipment is a little rustic. Nonetheless, excited to be breaking down the scenes and working out the logistics. Gives you a real sense of your story and the look and what you'll be able to accomplish given your own particular circumstances. Would love to have it done by Halloween (Java's 4 year anniversary). God, where has my life gone? I mean, yay!

On the Restaurant front:
First day back after losing appendix. People in this town still don't appreciate a cafe. Should've opened on Granby. But then I'd have tunnel traffic. All considered. Not so bad in Suffolk. It's a retirement plan, or an early grave.

Don JuanDemantis

Just a little post to stay in the habit, and to get out of writing anything scriptwise.

Working on a goofy short with friends to get the juices flowing. It's called:

DonJuan DeMantis

The greatest lover mantisdom has ever seen. The greatest thing I've learned with it so far is how to rationalize spending money making styrophome mantises for a film project. Get your kids involved. My daughter's making the jewelery for the lady mantises, and we'll all make mantises tonight after dinner. My little girl is the sweetest. She's stringing beads for the necklaces and she turns and asks me, "Daddy, is this a very important movie." Of course I said yes, and explained how this is something we're all trying to learn. And I can see her brain going. Asking me questions like, "How is the mantis going to talk?" "How will it look like he's talking?" We walked around Walmart for an hour and a half and she helped me get things to make mantises. Initially we're looking for these plastic crap mantises and they only had one. It looked shitty, and the project would have been a waste of time. But we headed over to the craft section and she starts throwing ideas out--GOOD IDEAS. Not to sound condescending, but I was so amazed to see her actually working the problems out. How to make it work. She could see it. And we ended up coming up with a better project and something we all could work on. So short story long, spent a hundred bucks on mantis making materials, but turned it into a family project. Got a feeling that hundred bucks will pay off.

Anyway, DonJuan is the only mantis who doesn't get eaten by his lover. The rest is a secret.

Ps...anyone know how to put video on this thing?

I've always wanted to be a Socialist

One of my dreams came true today! No, didn't win any awards or find an already scratched 5.00 lotto winner tickets. I became a socialist! Well, I joined a union. I didn't feel like a communist when I left, although I tried finding my Che Guevera shirt to wear after, but I think it got paint on it from real estate renovation. True commie I am.

No, it was pretty alright. There were too others being baptised or inducted, and they tried talking us out of it, telling us how little work there was on the horizon for virginia crew members, how there might be the dark days of va filmmaking, how I might end up on a cheezy commercial or some other low pay gig. But these jokers never ran a cafe in a small southern peanut town! I've lived in hell baby. Everything else is just a hot tub from here. I'm sure I'll eat those words one day, but these days they're true.

So the next step is to call and try getting on as a day player in Baltimore on a disney-notdisney production up there that's going on. I have about two-four weeks before I can lift anything heavier than a laptop, but then I'll be ready. Walking around Richmond to find lunch was hard enough. Don't want to make my debut and have my guts spill out.

I broke down Watering Stones, despite being scriptless. And I need a church for a location. Problem is, the story's about a sicko pastor. Do I need to divulge that when asking for location? Should I lie, to a church? Tell them it's about a teenaged girls love for a radically aged alter boy? I've tried imagining ways of filming without using a church, but I'm worried it'll come off fake. But I'll work on it.

Anyone know where I can get a few pews?

Layed up

Funny. I've wished and wished and wished for time off from work to lay around and write or school myself in editing. I've spent days making coffee and samiches for Suffukians leaning against the counter trying to write between lattes just thinking, "If I could just sit at home for a week, I'd finish this first draft ("House Boy" - a thrilling little piece of Southern Gothic that I've had a good time writing but have gotten sidetracked on for other cool things) and set it aside and begin a Redmoon rewrite. Then my appendix swells enough to get me out of work!

Prayer answered, write. I mean right?

Aside from fool around with my editing system, I've writen almost nothing. Well, not true. I turned a short story into a short script, got half of it trapped in my laptop before it crashed and wrote the other half freehand. I wanted to begin breaking the short down to shoot, but, well, you see the pieces aren't together and I have to have a clean script in front of me with all my tools and it's just the way. So I'm kept from that.

I could finish House Boy. I really could. But I've gotten so motivated with the short that it's all I can think about. Shots. Angles. Looks. Style.

What a complainer! Maybe my brains mushed from all the percaset.

On the practical front, I have a meeting in Richmond to join the local 487 (thanks again Ray). I just pray for work that takes me away from "Would you like whip cream on that?" and brings me to "How do I tie a bullnose torcowatcha knot?" I've been working towards a sort of self motivated film degree - with no cool diploma at the end, just hopefully a career of any sort tangetially related to the dream. I have two cool diplomas already, both of which are lost somewhere in my desk drawers - and no career to show for them - only a coffee shop. Neither one was business. But I figure, if I can work on sets to pay the bills and meet people like me striving for the dream, write and make shorts - I'll be happy. Right? Will I be satisfied then? Or will I have to win an Oscar?

Been tagged

Been tagged by David. New at this. Here goes.





1. I meditate in the shower in the morning. Cannot turn the hot water off for at least 30 minutes until I visualize the day, its difficulties, and what I have going for me in any upcoming conflict situations. Kind of plan my attack for the day. I've tried getting out of the shower sooner than that. Doesn't work. Heather always thinks I'm playing with myself. But I hate doing that in the shower.





2. I hate needles. Not a unique one, but I mean, I HATE NEEDLES. Just got my apendix taken out today, and the worst part...not the idea of having my stomach sliced open...not having my ass sticking out of that cute gown that I looked so manly in...not pissing in a water bottle to have the nurse document the color and amount...not telling six nurses and two doctors in my town that I smoke pot, but the worst part...the fucking IV. I mean. I turned white, my eyes rolled in the back of my head, and I almost melted. But then the morphene kicked in. And I was delicious.





3. I used to think that if I flushed the toilet while I sat on it, I'd get sucked into the pipes. It was a long time ago. I swear.





4. I have a secret desire (only really Heather knows) to be a gansta rapper. Seriously. Just ain't got the street cred. Yet;)





5. I won't share my milk with anyone...not even my wife or kids. Just something about the opacity of that white cow juice. Flashback to my big brother's room, circa 1990. I'm clipping my toe nails across the room. He's watching sports center on his bed, drinking a cool glass of whole milk. I'm clipping. Clipping. Letting the slivers drop into his rug because I'm his little brother and I knew it would drive him nuts. He looks at me. "You're not leaving those in the rug." I say, "I'll pick em up." A few minutes go by. He gets to the bottom of his now luke warm glass and what does he find? Believe it! A toe nail! He chased me for hours around the house until we both busted out laughing. Nevertheless, don't touch my milk.





6. I multitask way too much. Always have. I've always thought it made me well rounded. But now I think, it's just killing me. But I can't stop. I just love doing many different things.





7. My wife Heather is by far my best friend. Not a lie. Not writing it because she could see it. She knows it's true. I mean, I listen to guys complain about their wives like, "It's a guy thing to do." Like we're supposed to think of her as a ball and chain. But, she's my favorite person to be with, whether it's at dinner, at a baseball game, in a strip bar, or making a film. She's talented, artistic, true, and beautiful. Sometimes I don't understand what she sees in me.





8. I've never made a single cent writing anything, except a menu.





9. Religion gives me the creeps, but I love God.





10. Got more ideas for stories and poems at baseball practice than anywhere else. May be the reason I didn't get much PT in college.



Not sure who to tag

Mr. Bootles - because he posted something about a Flannery O'Conner adaptation...I've written a feature length adaptation to one of her stories and I'm fascinated to know which one he had the rights too.

Could you describe the Ruckus? - because his blog looks sharp, and LAID (what I could glean from the blog) intrigues me.

two's all I can do. Apendix hurts.

Screening

Went up to Richmond to see our 48 hour film screened. Not as big a rush as I'd hoped. I don't know whether it's because it wasn't "my" project or because I was disappointed in the way the film actually turned out or whether I've learned so much from the process that the screening took on a position of irrelevence. Either way, sat there with the wife and kids and watched these films, our being 9th in a line of 14. Ours was below average compared to the rest. Sound too low. Story too big. Lighting inconsistant. Looked like a student film, which it was. Not even actually, most of us weren't even film students. Whatever comes of it, I'm working on another short with my friends, writing it now-putting off writing it to hit this blog. It's a short story I wrote as a grad student and would make a tight short film. (shooting for under ten minutes) But seeing my pictures on the big screen only showed me how much more I needed to learn, especially set between some really amazing short films. I love how every step towards it - shows me how many more steps I'll have to take. But the journey never seems unspanable.

Also, got brief notes back on Redmoon from the Virginia Screenwriter's Competition. Bumped in the first round, but the notes pointed to problems I knew were there and are easily fixed. (I think). The reader even indicated that with only a few more revisions, he or she believes it has a chance to win. I really just want the feedback. It's a feature I really think could be shot for cheap and has a great twist on the typical horror genre - a genre that really needs some shaking up in my opinion. But anyway...enough stalling. Back to writing.