Oscar off to work... [news]

On my way to work in Hollywood the other day,

I caught Oscar on his way to work as well.
Finally, a good use for my cell phone camera.

Duuuuh! [news]

I'm not very politically savvy, but this was clear even to me early on in Dubya's first term:

"What didn't he touch? It's almost like there was almost nothing too trivial for the vice president to handle," said New York University professor Paul Light, an expert in the bureaucracy of the executive branch.

"The details suggest Cheney was almost a deputy president with a shadow operation. He had his own source of advice. He had his own source of access. He was making his own decisions," Light said.

[Read the full story here] • [via Huffingtonpost.com]

~~~

Time-Suck [news]

So, a couple years ago, my very good friend Mike (who I've been friends with since about our sophomore year of high school) decided he'd get me an X-Box as a birthday present. Along with the game unit he gave me several games. I was quickly addicted (the reason I had not bought one for myself in the first place). He had sent the original "Splinter Cell" along and I loved it, even more than I liked Halo (which is saying a lot).


I have some friends from film school that create computer animation and one friend that worked his way up to becoming a big-wig at a company that makes games for the Playstation; so I have some appreciation of what goes into the work (each game can take years to create). So, besides the game-play, I was impressed by the animation that the artists at UbiSoft put together.

Anyway . . . I've played all of the Splinter Cell series and been constantly impressed by the evolution in storylines, game-play and animation. The latest installment, "Splinter Cell: Double Agent" is no different. I'm playing on the older, black X-Box, but I hear that the game is even more amazing on the new X-Box 360. If you have the 360, it will play the older games as well.

I've only just begun to play the new game (for those who care, I'm still breaking out of prison), but already I can see some cool improvements in the game-play. So, as if I don't already have a procrastination problem, I now have this calling to me, tempting me away from my work. It's my own fault; I bought the game, but as I said, I'm addicted. Even though it is a potential time-suck, I think the whole series is great and I recommend them all.

As a matter of fact, before you run out and get the latest one ("Double Agent"), I'd suggest that you start with the second installment (if not the very first) and work your way forward. That way you'll get to enjoy the improvements from installment to installment.

The saga starts with "Splinter Cell," next is "Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow," then "Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory," and lastly "Splinter Cell: Double Agent." Check them out. But don't say I didn't warn you!

~~~

I'm Back... [news]

Whew, it's been a while. I've been pretty busy, plus I had some computer madness. The picture you see up there is one you don't want to see in your own life. That's the image that comes up on your screen when the internal hard drive fails. Not good.

On the positive side, I had backed-up my Avid editing projects and a DVD authoring project -- good habits saved me there. On the not-so-positive side, I hadn't backed-up my laptop for over a month.

Long story short, the hard drive and labor were covered by Apple Care (extended warranty) and I was able to recover all the data. The downside is that it took three weeks at the shop to get the new drive installed and the data recovered. It then took me over a day to get my applications running properly again -- that's a whole other {boring} story. In the end, I couldn't get my Dreamweaver and Fireworks applications to run (even after going back to OS 10.3.4). I guess it worked before because I had updated the OS from 10.2.8 to 10.3.4 and whatever components it needed were still there. So, it was just the push I needed to upgrade.

I'm now the happy father of a whole bundle of new applications. I'm already enjoying lots of the new features in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver and I'm beginning to become familiar with Adobe's "Bridge," "Version Cue," and Acrobat-Pro applications. Plus, the access to stock photos is so useful. The bundle is a great deal. Here's what it includes:

Adobe Creative Suite 2.3 Premium
• Adobe Photoshop CS2
• Adobe Illustrator CS2
• Adobe InDesign CS2
• Adobe GoLive CS2
• Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
• Version Cue CS2
• Adobe Bridge
• Adobe Stock Photos

Macromedia Studio 8
• Dreamweaver 8
• Flash Professional 8
• Fireworks 8
• Contribute 3
• FlashPaper 2

And of course, I'm all about backing-up now. You should too (benefit from my sad tale of misfortune!). It's not that expensive for a 120 GB drive. The backup software comes with the drive (well, at least the brand I buy) and is really easy to use. The drive can connect either with USB or Firewire (IEEE 1394). Here's a link to the Seagate drives I have been using lately. They come with a stand so they can sit like you see in the picture, or you can stack them horizontally without using the stand, which is what I do (and don't you want to be just like me?). I've got four of them now of varying capacities.

Of the four Seagate drives I have, the newest is a 750GB drive to backup the media and graphics files for current editing projects. I also dug out an older 200GB drive to backup my laptop files in a second place. Yep, I have one drive to backup my old G3 and my laptop and a second drive just for my laptop. I'm not taking any chances again! :-) My friend Ron, who's helped me with my computer questions for years and has often lent a helping hand, also recommends backing-up important files on a remote server. I'll have to look into that.

Also, I found a shareware application called SMARTreporter that monitors ATA and SATA drives, so hopefully I'll be warned before any future failures. You can find it here. I haven't found an application that does this for Firewire drives yet.

So, that's it for now.
Updates on The McPassion, Movies Are Better and more coming soon.

~~~

Farts Are Always Funny [find]

From

Don't let this happen to you...

~~~

"My name in print....Things are going to start happening to me now!" [news]

First, can you name the film the quote above comes from?
Answer below.

I got a couple calls from friends, telling me that the latest Disc Makers catalogue had a quote from me in there. Of course I had to check it out.

I downloaded the catalogue in electronic form (PDF); and sure enough, there on page 20 was a quote taken from what I had written to them after receiving the DVDs of The McPassion. So, I decided to have some fun with it, trying out some of my new Photoshop plug-ins from a company called Alien Skin.


Click the small image below to view a larger image and read my kiss-ass quote (they really did do a great job by the way, and I do recommend them) and to also see those Alien Skin plug-ins in action.

If anyone out there actually cares, I cut the section out using the lasso tool to make the rough edge. Then I used the Alien Skin "Crumple" set on a very low amount. Then I decided to try the Alien Skin "Burnt Edges." I set the burn color to about 50% grey and made it not too extreme. Then I selected just the edge and added a bit of a Gaussian blur. And as the final touch, I added the requisite drop shadow. Exciting, huh? Can you contain yourself?

A: The Jerk (Directed by Carl Reiner).
Navin R. Johnson (Steve Martin) utters that line when he sees his name in print –– in the phonebook. This immediately precedes the scene in which a crazed gunman starts shooting at him while he's working at the gas station.

~~~

Hmmmm.... Looks good on you though [opinion]

My latest rant:

I think those bluetooth ear-phone things look ridiculous.
If you just have to use one,
"Hey Mr. Spock,
TAKE IT OFF WHEN YOU'RE NOT ACTUALLY TALKING TO ANYONE!"
Ahhhh, these rants DO feel good. I feel much better now, thanks.

~~~

"Please, Just Go Away!" Entry #1 [opinion]

In an effort to add some rants to my blog, here's my first entry. And since I'm not the best writer on the planet, I've heard tell that "a picture is worth a thousand words." I think this says it all:

Here's just one more reason
to have this sentiment.

~~~

Long time no see . . . [news]

Hi Beth (what would I do without you Beth?).... and anyone else that stumbles here.

So, it has been some time since my last entry into cyber space. Let's see, what has been going on...?

Ok, first, The McPassion concluded its 40 day and 40 night Internet run. Rather than copy and paste, I'll point anyone that cares to my wrap-up and final thoughts (as well as Rik's) at The McPassion web site: http://TheMcPassion.com -- you'll have to click on the button along the bottom that says "Discussion," and from there it's pretty clear . . .

The McPassion screened twice at The Newport Beach International Film Festival in April. I had a short film in their festival last year too (Movies Are Better), but I wasn't able to get down there. This year I really wanted to go. Heck, it's only about an hour or so from L.A. So, Rik and I decided to head down there to see the film for the first time with an actual audience. I invited my friend Eric whom I'd met on Rik's film The Least of These some years ago, and whom I have later worked with on several projects in varying capacities, including Eric helping me out when I was doing casting on The McPassion. The guy has produced a feature film, but he's not above helping out when and where he can. He's a good guy.

We got a later start than I had hoped, due to me finishing an editing job a little later than I had expected that morning and I had to drop it off at the boutique post facility in Hollywood I have been working with for some time now. Consequently, we got down to Newport Beach too late to see one of the documentary films we had hoped to catch. That was OK too because we were all very hungry at that point. So, the festival staff pointed us to a few different restaurants. We decided on a burger place called Red Robin. We stuffed our faces and planned our attack for the rest of the day (our film screened at 9pm).

Nothing was really grabbing out attention, so we decided to watch a mainstream film, Thank You For Smoking. I joked, "nothing like driving all this was to see a film we could have seen in Burbank!" But it was a good film, and a far side better than any of the festival films we could have seen. If the festival films were free, we'd have probably gone to see one, but they only gave us one festival pass, being that we were just a short film. I enjoyed the film, as did Eric. Rik on the other hand fell asleep! It was a bit slowly paced, but it was good. That killed some time and we went and had a beer while we waited for the next festival film we thought we'd like to see. We then caught a feature film shot on DV that had some good acting but no story. It was a road-trip film that really went nowhere (on many levels). But we survived.

Then it was back to The Red Robin for some beers and appetizers while we waited for the 9:00pm screening. While we hung-out, I saw that there was a McDonald's in the complex. So, I got Eric to grab his cell phone and head over with me to grab some snaps with The McPassion DVD box. When Eric sends me the pics, I'll post them here.

The McPassion had screened two nights previous as part of a shorts program titled "Sofa King Funny Shorts" -- all comedies. It would have been nice to see how it faired amongst other comedies, especially since we closed that program. This night we were in a program called "The Mix Tape." As it turned out, we were the only comedy! We were the 3rd film to screen in the line-up and we followed a very slowly paced, but really well shot and emotionally engaging short film called Now You See Me. Now You Don't with a very Sixth Sense feel and twist at the end (the film went on to win the award at the festival for Best Short Film Director). So, Rik and I are shaking our heads, jabbing each other in the sides with our elbows, trying not to laugh too hard at our misfortune, lamenting that our irreverent comedy was going to follow this amazingly emotional film . . . . yikes!

So, The McPassion starts . . . there's a couple laughs right off the bat at the intro quote, some people are getting that it's a comedy right away -- good . . . then Bill's great voice-over boomed throughout the large theater. I held my breath . . . the meal box is revealed and there's a good amount of laughter. . . . thank goodness. I wish I had brought a tape recorder to capture where the laughs (and gasps) came throughout the film. Overall, the reaction was pretty good and Eric was really pumped by the audience response (he told us afterward).

Rik and I breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed the remaining short films. All of the films were really well done and had budgets much, much larger than ours. One film that I thought was really well done (in addition to Now You See Me. Now You Don't) was Rose. It was incredibly well shot and art-directed, and the leads were engaging. It had a very Jean-Pierre Jeunet feel to it -- like he did with Amelie -- but even moreso. It also incorporated some CGI. I want to get in touch with the filmmaker and see if I can get a copy of it, as well as see his previous films.

After the screening we joined the other filmmakers up front for a Q & A session. I was waiting to get slammed by someone in the audience, but luckily that never came. The best was when I was asked, "Why did you make this film?" And I just pointed and said, "'Cause Rik asked if I'd direct it." But Rik answered, touching on the incarnation of the film. Many thought the fim was funny and the moderator said he really wanted to know when the hammers would be on the market, because he really wanted one. Afterward we talked with one of the other fimmakers and a couple of the film festival staff, including our program moderator. Rik had thought to bring some DVD copies of the film along, so I gave them each a copy before we headed back to L.A.

Ok . . . that's a pretty good update for now. I'm sure you're bored to tears if you actually made it this far; and I have an episode of The Sopranos to watch in a few minutes. So, I'll add more later!

~~~

The McPassion hits the net [news]

(Graphics coming soon. It seems that Blogger isn't taking them at the moment)


First, a big hello to Beth who actually reads this stuff! And now for our regularly scheduled program:

Wow . . . what a crazy last ten days this has been. We launched The McPassion on the Internet and all H-E-double-toothpicks broke loose. Lets see if I can get it all in order without missing the major points.

So, its February 28th. There’s been some buzzing around the site by friends and people intrigued by the countdown clock – maybe a couple hundred at most. As I sit noodling on my laptop while listening to The Sopranos on TV in the background (refreshing my memory of the storylines before the 6th season starts in a few days), I decide I don’t want to stay up until midnight to launch the pages that link to the movie, so I figure, “well, it’ll be March 1st (Ash Wednesday) in New York…” and at 9:00pm (PST) I launch the film live on Ash Wednesday (EST). Meanwhile, Rik is walking around town wondering if this will mark the end of his career!

You see, Rik is a “Religioso.” That’s a term I came up with, to simply define anyone who is more religious than . . . well . . . me. The definition of a Religioso begins with someone who goes to Church on Sunday and is pretty serious about their faith. And more than likely they are involved in some organization that deals with faith (of any flavor). The definition then ranges upward to . . . The Pope I guess. So, if you fall within that broad spectrum, you're a Religioso in my book ("Not that there's anything wrong with that").

Rik is a student of religion. He knows more about Judaism than I do. See, I’m half Jewish and half something that’s not Jewish . . . Lutheran maybe? I mean my family celebrates Christmas, though my sister enjoys putting a Menorah on the mantle too -- I think it’s really just a way for her to put out more candles, honestly.

I do believe in God, I just have some serious questions/issues when it comes to organized religion in general on a variety of topics (but that's a very different blog). I think I was heavily influenced by watching The PTL Club when I was in Junior High School. Why did I watch it, you ask? Well, my Social Studies teacher assigned us to watch the news and report on current events. A convenient time for me to watch was in the morning, before my mom would drop me off at school (hard to imagine a time before driving myself everywhere) So, I liked to watch The Today Show on NBC. Back then Jane Pauley and Tom Brokaw were the hosts. Anyway, at the crack of dawn, I’d tune in. And before The Today Show started...yep, you guessed it: The PTL Club was on. Even my 13 year old brain knew something just wasn’t right with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker with their pleas for donations and their disingenuous tone. . . not to mention her makeup job. Look, I know that they don’t represent all those of faith, but it sure instilled a great deal of cynicism in me. And it sure was no surprise to me when Jim and Tammy ended up in hot water some years later (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bakker).

Yikes, what a tangent. I was talking about my definition of “Religioso.” I came up with this word not as a negative term, but as shorthand with Rik so I could quickly be up to speed on the people he was meeting and making deals with: some being Religiosos and others not. Usually I’d ask, “Now which investment group that’s interested in your scripts is this one again? Is it the Religiosos?” OK, you get the idea.

So, as I said, Rik is a Religioso; and even though he came up with the idea for The McPassion and wrote the early drafts of the script, he was pretty nervous about the reaction of people in religious circles. Can you blame the guy?

By 9:05pm (PST) on Feb 28th The McPassion was on the Internet....with very little fanfare. But the next day, an interview with Rik was published online by ChristianityToday.com (http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/interviews/rikswartzwelder.html), and the flood gates opened. At first the majority of visitors were coming from CT.com, and then one by one it started to spread. We watched the visitors arrive by the droves on the statistics page I had set-up. We were amazed. We’d count to five, refresh the page, and there were 5 or 6 new visitors. Basically this represents a good portion of the day, watching more and more visitors arrive, seeing that they came from this site and that . . . going to the site or blog to see what had been written about the film . . . Wash. Rinse. Repeat. . . . Poof, a day had gone by!

By the end of Day #1 we had almost 6,000 visitors. We couldn’t believe it. Day #2 was a copy of Day #1, except we did our best not to get sucked into the time-wasting-black-hole of watching the stats and get some other work done.

Late on day #3 I set about uploading more files to help with the demand, and hopefully help visitors to be able to view the film faster. So, on Day #4 we were ready. And the visitors made good use of those extra files. They were also making good use of the feedback form I had provided. The comments were coming in, and so were contest entries. We’ll post the contest entries after April 15th and also announce the winner(s).

We’ve been posting all the comments we receive, both positive and negative. It has been bolstering to see that the vast majority of responses have been positive. And the cool thing is that many of the positive responses are from Pastors and other Religiosos. We started looking at all the blog entries. A good portion were Religioso blogs, and there were discussions going at many of them. And these were more than just the average teenager critiquing the film with a “LMAO” or “Meh.” These were actual debates: some seeing the point of the film and laughing, others declaring blasphemy. Either way it was great; this little four minute film was forcing dialogue.

Things continued along well for several days with the number of visitors increasing. I saw that someone had ripped the film and uploaded it to a site called MilkAndCookies.com. I was familiar with the site already. I’d visited there myself in the past to see if I could find some old Ambiguously Gay Duo short cartoons from SNL (did you know that Steven Colbert was one of the voices? I didn’t either until I saw them again and recognized his voice from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report). So, I sent a friendly email to MilkAndCookies.com explaining why we’d like to keep the film from being on another site. Jaxon was immediately cool and said not only would he remove the film, but he’d redirect visitors from his site to ours. Little did I realize how many visitors he’d funnel our way!

All was good. Overnight, a site in the Netherlands had linked to ours and visitors were arriving like crazy. Later, while I was at work, I got an email from our web host saying that since we were streaming the film, rather than offering it for download, visitors to our site were using up all the ports to the server we are on and making it impossible for people to get to the other sites on that same server. So . . . they had to put a clamp on us. Ahhh, now what?! We didn’t want to have the film be downloaded to try and make sure that visitors had the opportunity to read the press release and the Discussion page at the site. In addition, I still have hopes that with a limited Internet run, we’ll still be eligible for inclusion in film festivals after the film is off the net (we’ve been selected by 3 so far).

Who did I think of first for help? Jaxon. Maybe he’ll keep us on the web until we can get a more permanent solution set-up. Long-story-short, Jaxon was a stand-up guy and provided the film for a few days, so we just instructed visitors to see the film at his site.

In the meantime, I posted an S.O.S. saying that we were looking for bandwidth. The first person to respond was Pastor Tim Thompson of The Church Works, a Theology and Culture think tank (that means really smart Religiosos). He said he’d help us. I asked, “Have you seen the film?!” While I waited for his email response, I was contacted by Mike at Ebaums-World-dot-com saying they might be able to help, but he needed to see a copy of the film to review it. I agreed, letting him know that the film was generating a good deal of controversy and possibly they wouldn’t be comfortable with hosting the film. I made it clear that if they were OK with the content that we’d discuss the arangement further and strike some type of agreement.

I don’t hear back from him. The next day, later in the day, I get an email from a visitor to TheMcPassion.com asking if we allowed Ebaums-World-dot-com to put their brand name on our film and put it on their site. Whoops . . . possible misunderstanding. I contact Mike and apologize if there was a misunderstanding, but that until we had come to an agreement I wanted the film taken down. He assured me it would be. This went back and forth for a couple days, each time with him saying, “No problem, we’ll take care of it soon…within the next 24 hours.” I even sent Mike and their legal department a more formal email, stating clearly I wanted it taken down and citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act….and I Cc’d my attorney.

I had given him the benefit of the doubt (my mistake). I thought, maybe they needed to take care of it overnight when they were doing server maintenance or something. Now, that brings us up to today (3/14/06).

I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was check EBW.com. Nope . . . The McPassion was still posted there. I had stuff to do so I programmed Mike’s number into my cell phone and took off. I kept calling throughout the morning. I guess they don’t open the office there at EBW.com until noon. At 9:10am (PST) I finally had Mike on the phone and I told him I was upset that my film was still on his site. Again he assured me he would have it dealt with that day. Flash-forward: a couple hours go by and I’m back home. It’s 11:15am . . . and the film’s still up there. My head explodes. I call and speak with the receptionist and ask for the legal department. She asks, “What for?” And I tell her I’m pretty angry, and tired of Mike and his runaround, and I want the film down immediately. She said everyone was in a staff meeting, but she’d poke her head in and see what she could do. She’d have someone call me. Then I decided to eat some lunch before I fell over. At noon I check EBW.com and lo-and-behold the film was off their site. They need 24 hours my ass. So now, because of them, and the fact that they purposefully made the film downloadable, there are low-grade versions of the film floating around with their crappy EBW.com logo stuck on them. Oh, and they haven't called me . . .

I found a site (too late) called http://www.ebaumsworldsucks.com. It would appear that EBW.com has a history of ripping people off and ignoring requests to have content removed, even by the copyright holder. The flash animation there is pretty funny. Check it out.

In the end, everything worked out great with Tim at The Church Works. He really gets what the film is saying, in addition to finding it funny. He hooked us up big-time with bandwidth. What a great guy. And we’re back on the net, even better than before.

Also in the mix: we got a call from the Bravo Network, saying they saw the film and thought it was, “Frikkin’ hilarious,” and wanted to see if we’d be interested in having it air as part of their show that features viral/Internet videos. We’ll see what that’s all about in due time . . .

Ok, this is waaaay long enough for a catch-up entry. I’m off to get some rest. Tomorrow is another McDay.

~~~

The McPassion:The countdown has begun [news]

Well, here we go.

The DVDs have been sent out, we've emailed many of our friends and associates, and the web site is ready. In just a few hours the film will make its Internet debut.

Tomorrow, the Christianity Today web site will run an interview with writer-producer Rik Swartzwelder. They responded to our advance DVD mailing. So, that should really help to spread the word (no pun intended). And we did an interview this afternoon with The Washington Post which may decide to run a story . . . we'll see.

The web site is already going crazy. The number of visitors is increasing exponentially by the hour. I wonder what will happen when the film goes online?

This project, even though just 4 minutes in its finished length, was a good deal of work. First because I was dividing my time between work and the film . . . and finding time for laundry, grocery shopping, and Xbox. Second, Rik was out of town on various jobs for the majority of preproduction but we were continually honing the script and discussing the props and casting when we could. I've been making graphics for weeks: creating props for the film and graphics for the film, DVD and web site. Thank goodness I had the help of some talented artists too, to create the artwork for the meals and games, as well as the 3D toy. And the original music is perfect. Composer John Carta nailed it. What a great group of people we were lucky to work with to make this little film. I got to work once again with my grad school friend Brian Hoodenpyle, who is always a pleasure to work with. And some years ago, Brian introduced me to Nick Kitinski, a sound man, who I've enjoyed working with on several projects, and I'm glad he could help this one come to life. Many good friends chipped-in their valuable time and energy. Thanks to all of you!

The editing went well on my Avid Xpress Pro system. Amazingly, we didn't cut anything from the script. Instead, we ended-up adding several things. Rik's brain was constantly churning and he came up with some great additions during post production, which we refined together.

Then it was an effort to get the film into its DVD form, juggling my work with getting the DVD menu created and the bonus materials put together. Luckily, Jade Productions was willing to do the DVD authoring for us, and DiscMakers.com did a great job putting it all together.

It was all worth it. The film is truly as funny as it is shocking. And the fact that it also makes a comment on commercialism makes the film more than just a funny premise.

I'm looking forward to getting another project going. A producer friend of mine and I have been developing an entertaining and funny documentary and I'm pitching a few cool unscripted tv show ideas.

Don't forget to stop by the McPassion web site before the film goes offline on April 15th. Let us know what you think!

More later gang.

~~~

A friend to the end

I directed and edited a documentary a few years ago called The Bronx Boys. It was a great testament to friendship, as this group of men have been friends since kindergarten. When I was shooting the film, they were celebrating their 70th birthdays. One of the great quotes from the film is:

“Make friends and keep them. Because even though you wind up in a love relationship, and a family relationship, there's nothing like the old shoes. And your old shoe that's comfortable is your old buddy.”
– Jim Roth

I think that's a great sentiment. Today, Mike (my longest friend, from high school), a guy I think of as a brother, sent me a funny poem that really gets to the heart of what it is to be a friend.

True Friendship

1. When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and
plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.

2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever
is choking you.

3. When you smile -- I will know you finally got laid.

4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it
every chance I get.

5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible
stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.

7. When you are sick -- Stay the hell away from me until
you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your
clumsy ass.

9. This is my oath..... I pledge it to the end. "Why?"
you may ask; "because you are my friend".

10. Remember:
A good friend will help you move.
A REALLY good friend will help you move a body.
Let me know if you ever need me to bring a shovel.

--- Thanks Mike. I love you too Bro.

~~~

"Jane Bond" where are you? [find]

Another great find from

It's good being a kid . . .

~~~

The film is about to hit the fan [news]

Hi Beth (my one faithful reader) and all those that stumble upon my blog. It's 1:00 a.m. and the first wave of mailings of The McPassion are set to go out later this morning.

The night started when I got to my office at 7pm, after sitting in front of an Avid all day, editing in Hollywood. First on the docket was to sign-off on the press release that Rik and I had been honing via email for the last week, tweaking it to the N-th degree. Yep, all his last little tweaks were good ones.

That was quickly done and then it was off to Staples to buy more padded envelopes. I had bought a ton over the weekend, but I had misjudged Rik's bulging rolodex file and we had to get there before the store closed at 8pm. Luckily the store was only a few blocks away.

We bought so many packages, the other shoppers were giving us strange looks. At five minutes to 8 we were out the door and off to grab a quick dinner. Our tummies full, off we went to Kinko's Copy Center to Xerox a gazillion copies of the press release. Rik is a master of the copy machine, having Xeroxed countless press releases and scripts of his own. So, I set about stacking the warm copies in nice, neat piles.

400 copies later we were out the door and back to my office to start the assembly process. Earlier I had created a spreadsheet for all the names and addresses as well as a custom label in another program. Over the weekend I had figured out how to do a merge of the two documents in order to automate the process -- Much better than hand writing all of these things.

While I got the merge working and sent off to the printer. Rik started folding the press releases.

Soon we were labeling and stuffing, stuffing and labeling . . . "Hey, let's send two to Harry Knowles. He's a cool guy" (no pun intended). We worked for quite some time, building-up stacks of envelopes to be sealed. Then it was back and forth for me. Rik stuffed in a DVD, a release and a postcard or two. I ran between the printer, getting the latest label sheet to be spit out, then sticking them onto waiting envelopes and later yanking the envelope's strip-thing off to reveal the adhesive and sealing the little packages up. Whew...tedious. If Rik wasn't stuffing, he was ripping and sealing. If I wasn't labling I was ripping and sealing. But we tore through a ton of 'em tonight. Tomorrow we'll do about 1/2 of what we did tonight . . . A piece of cake!

Ok, I have to go to bed now gang. I have to edit in the morning.

Thanks for coming by my blog. We'll see what happens in the next few days.

Be sure to Stop by the site...

~~~

Rarified Air [news/opinion]

My friends Christopher and Bob are making a movie in Mexico right now called The Air I Breathe. Jieho Lee is directing, Bob co-wrote the script with Jieho, and Christopher is one of the Exec. Producers. The cast includes Sarah Michelle Gellar, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Bacon, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, and Emile Hirsch.

Jieho is obviously pretty busy directing the film at the moment -- a bit too busy to be blogging. But, Bob has some time to post updates -- in between suffering from Montezuma's Revenge and being slammed into by Sarah Michelle Gellar. You'll just have to check out Bob's blog to get the full details.

God and Monsters... [find]

My latest enjoyable find from

Click here to visit FoundMagazine.com
(opens in a new window)