Slamdance Rejection

I received my Slamdance rejection email today.

There's no good to tell you. I could rehash the most volatile moments of the final programming meetings, recounting the gallant attempts to get your film in. I could remind you of the incredibly high number of submissions for the very few amount of slots. Finally, I could offer solidarity, revealing that I got a rejection myself yesterday and another on Friday. But I can assume none of this really matters.

This year Slamdance received more narrative features than we ever have before. We saw such an eclectic mix of films. Thank you so much for submitting to Slamdance. I sincerely hope you will continue to send us any future projects. I wish you the best with your ongoing festival applications.

Congratulations on making a film!

Warm Regards,
Sarah Diamond

--
Sarah Diamond
Director of Programming
Slamdance Film Festival



This simply means that at least one other person has seen it since my last rejection!

I'm very happy about that. Honestly I really am.

It is no secret that I have been creatively dry lately but today I think I might have hit upon a idea that would develop very quickly into a script. A full length script.

Deja vu.

I've done this before.

A Win!

And second place overall to go with it!
With Marvin Harrison scoring on a 80 yard play from scrimage he got me 12 points! He had over 125 yards total receiving so that added points as well for a grand total of 70 for the Predators!

That gave me a payday this week as first overall had 73.

Not bad for a team who could barely score double digits in the beginning of the season.

I almost feel like I'm on auto pilot this morning. I know that I'll drive the same route to go to the quick shop to get my coffee and get my coffee card stamped.

It's Tuesday.

DVD Tuesday. I'll probably look over a couple of new releases at lunch and then head back to work again.

I've done this before.

Deja vu.

Week 12 Update

I'm a TD down. I lead nearly all of yesterday by a sizeable amount until my weekly matchup went off with a outstanding Seattle performance.

Donte Stallworth came through to put me at 5 points down to winning my weekly matchup. I have Marvin Harrison tonight. I trail 55 to 60.

The other team is done. If Marvin scores one TD I win 61-60 and collect a weekly payday at probably second place overall for the week.

Overall I feel that Marvin will come through for me. Things are working well right now, even with Locker. I have a plan B if plan A doesn't happen this week.

Hopefully plan A happens though!

Week 12

I have a good start on week 12 so far. I started Keyshawn Thanksgiving Day and he got a score!

I think I'm in good shape overall. I started the Bengals D over the Steelers D purely on a matchup.
I believe that Cinncy will have a better time against a poor Baltimore Offense rather than the Pittsburgh D vs. the explosive Indy Offense on Monday night.

We'll see!

Pretty Good Weekend So Far!

Thanksgiving was good.

I didn't even think about getting out on Black Friday.

Picked up some DVDs today and some lunch since I finished off the last of the leftovers today.

King Kong finally came out on DVD this past week. Yes the original. The glorious 1933 original! If you watch this movie today you will see some amazing technical achievements that to this day are fun to watch. I can't get enough of this movie! Son of Kong was great and really expanded upon the potential of Kong and Mighty Joe Young was an improvement on that story wise.

All of them had one thing in common though they inspired Ray Harryhausen: Genius.

I have spent hours upon hours watching in amazement as his creations lumbered, crawled, flew, and danced across the screen. Battling everything from Elephants to San Francisco. Mr. Harryhausen's contribution to filmmaking can never be overstated.

Now to Locker news. My new opening is going to work, however the .AVI file of the credits is showing up blank for some reason now. I can't tell you how frustrating this is for me.

I was supposed to have copies done and sent out two weeks ago but these tiny technical glitches keep holding up production.

It will get done.

One Of The Best Ever!

Last night I watched Gonzaga beat Michigan State in triple overtime! That was one of the best college games I have ever had the had the privlege to watch!

It makes me hope that this will be an amazing season for college hoops and that the next game the Zags play, is better! They play the third ranked Conneticut Huskies in the Maui Invitational tonight in the final!

The semi-final had everything you could ask for in a game. Heart, determination, a will to win, and plenty of toughness! Honestly you could not ask for more!

Anybody who knows me knows that I am a big fan of the USBL and particually the Storm. I have seen some amazing games because it is minor league. These guys don't know what it is like to play for millions of dollars and know that if they are going to play for a NBA team they need to prove that they have the game it takes.

The USBL is the league of opportunity. Players who aren't drafted come to this league to develop their style and game to a higher level. If you want to see basketball in its purest pro form catch a game. You won't be sorry you did.

You will know that every player out there is making what you make a week or less but are playing for the future. They aren't rich and they aren't famous. They play for you, the fan, and they give all that they have.

How could you ask for more?

A Win!

Yes my friends, The Predators rolled to a victory yesterday and have a shot at third place overall this week!

That puts me in the money for the week!

That is nice but I have to be honest right now and tell you all that I just don't have a shootable idea right now and I'm very frustrated about it.

I have written down a few ideas but there just isn't much that is coming together for me right now.

I am not the kind that just waits for inspiration to hit me and try to write something anyway but the ideas I am writing just aren't working right now.

Week 11

I have a good shot at starting my winning streak again this week. The Predators will be full strength and I have some favorable matchups.

Of course we'll see how things wind up tonight since I don't have any players going tomorrow night but I feel good!

I have some laundry to do heading into this short holiday week. This is a good thing, I can use a four day weekend right about now. Hopefully the duplication problems will be solved tomorrow or Tuesday and I can use those extra days to roll out as many copies as I need to send out!

I have promised a lot of people copies and have yet to be able to fulfill those promises. I will fulfill them though.

December is nearly here and so is 2006. I have a great feeling about December and the upcoming year! I feel a lot of changes around the corner and heading my way.

Locker News

There has been a huge problem in making the ISO file in which we duplicate the DVD copies I am going to send out to the cast and distributors.

Well my producer is working on the problem and has ordered a new firewire card which should solve things and get them rolling!

He has worked very hard on this project and even pulled a all nighter for it. I can't thank him enough.

This has been a long week for me, lots of emotional ups and downs, I do believe the next couple of months will hold what I've been working towards for a long time now! Everything looks bright and I can't wait to get there!

Just As I Thought

My first loss was at hand, breaking a nice winning streak.

Unless Keyshawn can score about 30 points by himself tonight I will be at .500.

I cut Mewelde Moore and picked up Duce Staley. I hate the RB by committee situation but I needed a RB that was going to carry a larger part of the load than Moore.

In other news, this is the final day of my first four day weekend in the next couple of weeks!

Yes I get another four day weekend over Thanksgiving!
I love this time of year but Novembers tend to be hard on me. One of my good friends has gone back to Korea after a very nice visit but he'll be back in February! I'm looking forward to working on his fan film project! He really has some good ideas on the potential of a fan film and especially this fan film.

The best is yet to come my friends!

Locker News

After a lot of work, Locker is now able to be duplicated!

Yeah I was planning on last week for that to happen but I'm happy that it took a little bit longer to look better.

I am hoping to be able to start sending out the copies to the distributors and my cast within days now!

Yeah I know I've said that before but this time is different, there is something to ship!

Fantasy news is this, I'm predicting my winning streak to end this weekend, I have two questionable RBs and both of my QBs are on bye weeks. I might make a pick up if someone is there I can use for a week while Carson Palmer is off but we'll see.

Saw II.....Same Movie Higher Body Count

Yes it has more of a budget and it even had more cast members minus the expendable and stupid plot device of Danny Glover.

Saw II was essentially the same movie. It had lots of quick cuts to disguise the lack of action on screen. They really tired me out after awhile and I was yawning about half way though the devious devices that the writers conjured up for the new group of victims.

The best aspect of this was seeing a New Kid get what was coming to him:)

Anytime that happens I'm a happy camper! First Jordan Knight makes a idiot of himself on Surreal Life and next Donny gets a lackluster film career:) Life is good!

5-4 The Predators Are Rolling!

Yes!

My team took second place in the league this week. For the first time this season they scored over 50 points and are riding a nice winning streak. I'm probably going to have to replace Dom Davis though, I believe he could be injured for the duration. We'll see.

Anyway second place is in the money and they are starting to earn their keep....just a little bit.

blugill: year one

Yes my friends it has been one year since I started writing my blog. I started writing in one of the worst months in my life and didn't put a lot of what was really going on in my original Crossroads post.

However it is time to take stock of my surroundings and to see where I've come and where I'm going. I've shared a lot of things that I couldn't or wouldn't share without the anonymous nature of the net with a lot of strangers who will either never meet me or could care less about meeting me and quit reading after only a post or two.

For those of you who have stuck with reading my trite ramblings, a sincere heartfelt thank you. For those of you who are new, welcome! I hope you enjoy reading about my personal and public life such as it is.

Alright, anyone who knows me knows that my nick is blugill, no "e". I made that up myself and here is the story behind it for my one year anniversary story.

Way back in the mid 90's when the net was expensive and 33.6 was brand new along with the new Intel 200 mhz processor I got my first pc. I had a friend who had a pc for a little while and he was telling what to do and stuff to do online. So he was telling me about this chat software called Pirch and then he spelled it for me so that I would know what to look for. Me being a newly minted newb had no idea what he was talking about and misunderstood. I thought he was telling me his name in some obscure chat room and that his nick was Pirch.

So I thought long and hard and came up with my own fish name and modified it without the "e" so that he would recognize me in this obscure chatroom that never existed since I misunderstood the whole thing from the get go.

So I made it up while my newly customized pc, complete with 16 megs of ram and my 2 gig hard drive was being built.

blugill or blu, the trendy way to pronounce it has become my nick and my alternate online personality.

Not quite as glamourous as it sounds I know and sort of a let down, I'm sorry to say.

I have it on ICQ and if you doubt me, my blugill number is lower than any imposter blugill out there....yeah I've actually run across a few people out there who have used the name or registered it on some app or some game. No big deal, afterall I'm the originator and I know who thought of what:)

Now here is some surprise good news!

I have a DVD copy of Locker sitting right beside me!

Saturday was a big day! My producer and I finished the cover and made a ISO copy of the finished version!

What does that mean?

Well it means that now I will have the much promised DVD copies to send out this week! A couple of tweaks on the cover and we can start duplicating them and the DVD itself!

And then my very hardworking cast will get their real copies that they have been so very patiently awaiting! I can't thank them enough for their patience and I hope they will be very happy with their performances cause it is going out to a few distributors who showed interest in the movie as well as the film festivals that it has been sent to!

So after this past year am I better off now than when I started writing my blog?

I'm a work in progress and it isn't as relative a question or as simple as I would like it to be....I don't know when I could answer that question and I don't know if I should. I can tell you that this past year had some very hard things to go through and some things I accomplished that I never thought I could.

I think that if this past year was any indication, anyone who is around me and can bear to be around me for long is in for a wild ride in year two!

Am I writing a new project? Nothing I have worked on so far on paper is really working yet but something will....and that will be my new project which will be better than Locker, I promise....and I hope you will be with me during every step like you were for Locker and all of the other musings I have posted:)

So....let's get started!

The Second Best Internet Only Show

The Dan and Scott show. Who?

Dan Schulz and Scott Wirkus, the comedy show duo who pioneered uncensored comedy radio. They started with Radiofun.com, moved to Talkspot.com, which also hosted the best internet only show, the Karen Kay show, I just don't have any archives from her show to post but I am on her yahoo group email list:) Then the boys moved to Hitthebeach.com which was a diaster before landing finally at eyada.com.

Eyada and Talkspot were tragic and before their time. When 56K was standard and ISDN was broadband but very expensive.

Today when broadband is commonplace and very inexpensive interactive web shows would do very well.

First of all allow me to explain what these shows were. Uncensored and unleashed, they are the First Amendment in all of its glory. Freedom of speech never had it so good!

The government could do nothing to fine or censor these networks, much like Sirius or XM. The only difference was that this was interactive!

You had a web cam on the host while there was a chat room that the fans and the hosts were in as well. You as a fan had some bearing on the direction of the show.

So the context of this would be that years before Sirius hired Howard Stern and made a huge deal about uncensored radio, these shows ruled the net! Unfortunately only though dialup which lead to lagging bandwidth problems and connectivity.

Podcasts are good but not interactive. Chat rooms are cool but after a while they can bore you a bit. Webcams are fun but they are like chat rooms after a while. Add all three together and you had magic!

I have over a hundred Dan and Scott shows which I have uploaded to a third party site called Rapidupload.com and I feel that it is a good time to post these links to share the magic that was....and maybe inspire another company to take a chance and take interactive radio to the next step!

I personally feel that the dialup timing was bad and coupled with a lack of marketing, these networks just never found the audience and never fulfilled the potential that is still there!

I hope you enjoy the shows, some of the files are large, around 300 megs but they are worth it!

D&S1
D&S2
D&S3
D&S4
D&S 5
D&S 6
D&S 7
D&S 8
D&S Final

Wow....I'm Tired!

Today started off like any other normal day around my shop. Well everything except one bizarre thing that has been happening lately....my supervisor who I've written about before has turned over a Dr. Jeckyll leaf lately.

He has gone out of his way to be nice to everyone. Don't know what is up but the last time he was this way he was in the middle of a divorce. Don't know what is up this time but we'll see. He is still as hyper as ever and really has problems keeping a train of thought longer than three seconds.

Anyway, there I am at work. I brought my PSP and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 game to work because I knew it was going to be slow.

Well it seemed like it until I got home and it hit me.

I had done a ton of shop work and did some outside work. I did all of that and played multiple games of Star Wars and really got the hang of it after getting it only yesterday:)

I'm tired! I was in a good mood all day long and the day went quickly:)

Then the power went out! Yeppers my friends, the power went out at work! Which gave me about another half hour of on the clock PSP time!

Not a bad day at all!

Well I Won!!!!

Yes the Predators came through last night!

I won my heads up match 52-51 and took third place this week in the league! That means I won my weekly fee back!

This moves me to .500 this season and moving up the ranks.

Locker news? Yeah a little bit!

I have contacted some distribution companies and have heard back from a few of them requesting screeners!

I am feverishly working to get a screener ready to start sending!