I'm Off Work Today!

Yes!

It is probably going to be a four day weekend!

I have scheduled my vehicle into the shop to have some work done to it. I don't think it will take long but work is very slow right now and they are encouraging us to take off.

You don't have to ask me twice!

So now I am enjoying a nice quiet morning at home. Tomorrow is payday so I am about to figure out my bills.

Which reminds me of this little dilemma!

Last Friday after work a few co-workers and myself stopped in to a local club for a drink. I tab out when my check card is rejected?!?!
Now I KNOW I have more than enough money to pay my tab which amounts to about fifteen dollars. So they save my tab until the next time I come in.

I get home and get my mail and I have a letter from my bank! Ah ha! (dramatic music)

It appears that the banks database has been compromised and all cards have been canceled and will be reissued. So now here it is Thursday and I STILL don't have my check card back! Those things are so handy to have! You just don't realize it until you don't have it!

So hopefully I'll have a replacement card today....

Fantasy Football Blues

Yeah....week 3 and my team has faltered. Since the injury to Javon Walker my team just doesn't seem to have the heart of its arm chair owner.

Apparantly Peyton Manning can't hear me when I tell them to throw deep to Marvin Harrison on every play and have a twelve touchdown day. Yeah I know he can't catch EVERY pass but if it hits his hands he NEEDS TO, and of course every catch needs to be converted into points for my team!

Don't they know that my fantasy football knowledge is at stake here?

I mean it isn't like THEY had to pay the franchise fee and the weekly entry fee!

Come on guys, you need to pick it up and think about scoring at least a little bit!

If not then I guess we will have to talk about a heart transfusion.

My First Rejection!

This is exciting!

Thank you for submitting your film, “Locker” to the 2005 Big Apple Film Festival. We thoroughly enjoyed viewing your film, however due to an overwhelming number of submissions we received this year we are unable to accept your film to screen at this year’s festival. We wish you continued success in your future endeavors and we look forward to viewing more of your work in the future.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Lipp
Big Apple Film Festival


One down, a lot more to go!

Wait...Why is this exciting you may be thinking?

Because good or bad, it has been seen, viewed, maybe even enjoyed or hated! The reaction matters not. The fact matters that it has been seen! Who cares if it was rejected or not! It isn't like Lucas or Speilberg hasn't made a flop before!

Locker has been seen!

Saturday Afternoon Poker

Well I played two tournaments at a friend's house. There was a 20 dollar entry fee for each and I placed first and third in that order:)

Not bad but in the second game I could have played a bit better.

I should have mowed today but I didn't. No big deal, I can do it tomorrow before kickoff!

Not much to report Locker wise. My photographer friend gave me some photo magazines to examine shooting style and composition. There are some pictures that really stand out for me that I'll have to ask her about.

She gave me some good criticism about the shots in Locker and how I could have improved them but I admit, some of it is still over my head right now....but I'm a quick study.

Time To Do Guy Things!

I don't know if I told you all or not but I am kind of handy around the house. Yes I hate mowing but some other things are kind of cool!

A leak developed above my washing machine so I got up on the roof without breaking anything and applied lots of black, gooey, tar stuff to patch up said leak! YES! I feel very manly now!

So I climbed back down to Mother Earth again without breaking anything, a job well done!

Did I tell you that I am a pretty decent cook?

Man, I'd make someone a good wife! Just kidding! Sheesh!!!!

Now I can't wait for it to rain to see just how the fix holds up!!!!

Week 2 Results

I have 34 points going into tonight. I dropped Javon Walker and picked up Keyshawn Johnson.

Dallas plays Washington tonight and hopefully Key will pick up at least one TD and maybe some bonus yards. for me.

I am looking to pick up Stephen Davis and drop one of my less productive RBs. First place this week has gone to the team who had McNabb and T.O. on the same team. He hung 73 points on the league this week!

Yesterday we had a fine send off for my friend who is moving away. The evening ended by a rousing Trivial Pursuit game after Manos: Hands of Fate and a few hours of socializing.

Wanna Know Something????

Locker really doesn't get good until you have seen it about 52 times like I have. Yes I'm making copies right now. It's a great way to spend a Saturday evening let me tell ya!

I have seen Locker so many times it doesn't hurt anymore, something calloused over I think. I hope it isn't my taste in movies.

I wanted to get the DVD copies done before my friend left for LA. I gave him a VHS copy so he would have something until they are done.

I discussed the cover with my photographer friend. She gave me some much better ideas than I had and improved what I did have.

Ben-Hur And Filmmaking

Ben-Hur, quite possibly the most epic of epics or at the least tied with The Ten Commandments in terms of golden era epic filmmaking. They just don't make movies like this anymore.

Yes you can say that The Lord of the Rings is probably the most epic of all time however I'm talking about pre-LOTR.

Don't even mention Titanic to me but you can include most David Lean films in the category of epic in this context.

Ben-Hur not only stands the test of time it might very well define time in the terms of film. I do favor The Ten Commandments as a better film and contains more pure star power though but Ben-Hur is probably larger in scope and depth.

I won't go into the story since most everyone is familiar with it so I'll start by saying that the new four DVD set is the best this film has ever looked and sounded!
Want to talk extras? How about the entire remastered silent version and two making of documentaries!

Ben-Hur is a film I really don't get tired of watching. Not really so much for the story but what went into making it. You can see that the stars were used to being treated as stars and you can just feel how they get into their roles. There is a bit of the over acting that was dominate of that era but it lends to the larger than life spectacle that is unfolding before your eyes. Make no mistake, this is pure spectacle. This is the three ring circus with a fair outside the gates which is down the street from a Rolling Stones concert.

Ben-Hur is much more that just that, it is human and could never be remade. Ben-Hur is a style of filmmaking that is dead now. No one takes the epic seriously anymore and they come up with dreck such as Troy, and Alexander.

Please, don't ruin this for me. Let Ben-Hur be Ben-Hur.

Well....My Team Tanked

Not only did the top four of my draft picks only score one TD but I lost Javon Walker for the year due to a torn ACL!!!!

Yeah my team tanked this weekend! However the bright spot is this, I am third on the waiver line. Meaning I can replace Javon with a top flight WR! There are three good ones left and I am practically guaranteed one of them!

So perhaps Javon won't hurt as much as I am hoping he won't hurt me.

In other news I mailed Locker to Tribeca today. I gave out one copy to one of my main actors last night! He is about ready to follow his dream and I can't wish him more!

This weekend my producer is planning a trip to pick up DVD supplies, I'm excited about this! I need to get some idea of cover art worked out and hopefully will be talking with my genius photographer friend about an idea or two cause I can't get a grasp of what it should look like. I keep thinking of "cold" colors like white and blue but then again maybe I need dark colors. I know I'm not good at this part!

I think I'm going to have about thirty copies made after all, that should cover almost everyone.

I'm excited! Things are working well right now:)

Kickoff!!!!

The glorious kickoff to the 2005 NFL season has just happened this past Thursday night!
My beloved Raiders fell to the devious Patriots of New England. I can't help but think that they should have invested some more money into the D.

The linebacking corp is thin while the line is suspect at best. I felt that they could have shut down the pass if Tom Brady hadn't been throwing against them. Dillon kept getting stronger as the game wore on.

I am in three leagues, well one serious league and two free Yahoo leagues. This is going to be a great season:)

In other news I think I'm going to have about 20 to 25 copies of Locker duplicated to give to the actors and the meat market where I filmed it and of course my family and friends. I think 25 should do it for sure.

I have some ideas about cover art but will run it by a couple of friends first who love doing that sort of thing. I know my photographer friend will have plenty of thoughts to talk about.

I saw Crash today. It is an ensemble movie with so many people in it that I won't even begin to list them. To be able to describe it would be to do it an injustice. What it really is about is gray.

All about gray.

It is about skin color. Attitudes, rational and irrational. Racism and perception. How good people aren't as good as they would like to be and how bad people aren't as bad as you would like for them to be.

I mean when you know what is right, good, and the path, you feel grounded and know what to think, right?

I mean how else do you know what is and what isn't?

Well when you start to see that gray area that happens to crop up every now and again it sometimes shows that things aren't always black and white. Yes sometimes things are that simple.

Sometimes they simply aren't.

Today: A Good Day

No one at work showed up but yours truly. We have this cool call in to work system and people generally take advantage of it:)

I had a respitory physical today and so who is there when I show up to the doctor? My partner in crime, Chris. There were a series of cool events like that today however I can't relay them since they were of a personal nature:)

It is Wednesday, one day before the official kickoff of the NFL!
My beloved Raiders will take on the Patriots of New England:) It is also one day after DVD Tuesday, I got Lost. You probably recall my distaste for network tv, instead I try to write and watch either news or cool channels like History or the shows on FX or HBO.

Well Lost is an amazing show! I'm thrilled, enthralled, and engrossed with this show!
It is addictive and has a really cool Scifi twist:)I can just feel a Twilight Zone influence with this show!

The Gorilla Syndrome And Filmmaking

You know what autopilot is don't you?

It is when you exist instead of live. When you fill the role of someone who is trading your time for a service and exchanging who you are for being able to scratch out a living. You start off on Monday morning and put up with self important people who seek any means necessary to justify their existence by being even MORE self important.

The Gorilla Syndrome. They (generally people such as my supervisor from work) will stand up taller and beat their chest a little bit harder so that their display will justify who they are to you and make them credible in your eyes. They take great pleasure in telling you how to do something no matter if it is right or wrong, it is the action of command that they relish and not the consequences.

It is more important to them to demonstrate authority than to learn. As a result they cease to learn and wind up on permanent autopilot. Well it really isn't autopilot, it is closer to intellectual death. They do gain knowledge in college but never learn from experiences.

Here is the disconnect though: I don't get it.

So it turns into being funny to me.

The more someone demonstrates being an alpha male the funnier it is to me. I can see their insecurity filling the air around them. It is very difficult to take them seriously. They crave respect and admiration while missing the whole point of humanity and compassion.

Greatness is never greatness when you have to tell others how great you really are.

What does this have to do with filmmaking? Well nothing to do with filmmaking but if you ever see a character demonstrating the Gorilla Syndrome in something I did just know that I'm probably laughing a lot and had a great time writing that character:)

Something Really Cool Happened!!!!

Hey,

Right on. Thanks for the props.

Kevin


What is special about those few lines?

Well allow me to supply some context:)

Well it is from none other than the brilliant and amazingly down to earth Indie Filmmaker Kevin Smith to yours truly.

I basically found his email on the web, thinking it probably isn't real I sent a Thank You for the inspiration email. Well when it didn't immediately come back, it made me think it is probably active but old. Well my jaw dropped to the floor when Mr. Smith actually wrote back!

Now what does that mean to a small town Oklahoma filmmaker? Nothing other than I sent Kevin Smith a Thank You email for pioneering some trails and took some arrows I won't have to.

It is just very cool and really made my day to read such a nice gesture:)

Thanks Kevin!

Just A Random Update

No really, honest.

Let me set this up, today Friday the second of September is an anomaly. It is payday Friday of a three day weekend.

It only happens a few times per year and it is a great day where I work!

It was a rough week at work, allow me to vent a little bit please:)

Our supervisor proved to be particularly incompetent this week. Allow me to set the stage. There are three people in my shop on days in my building. There are five others at the other shop in another building. All eight of us are classified as the same shop, we just work at different ends of the facility in different buildings.

Our lead went home after one hour the other day, leaving us with two people in our shop. Our super supervisor asked our lead what was pending before disregarding all of the answers and micromanaging all of our actions:)

First he asked our lead what he was going to have me and my co worker to do for the day. We had our assignment which was a mistake and our lead knew it, he was just testing our supervisor to see if he had actually learned anything during his nearly two year stint. He hadn't.

Here is what happened. Our lead knew that we couldn't do our job because the huge majority of what we had to was gone. I'll be a little more specific. I work around aircraft. He had to place pilot's names on the aircraft. No big deal right? Well they just happened to be flying and not present when we were to do this job as our supervisor should have been well aware. So we had no aircraft to put new names on.

Our supervisor jumped on our lead's suggestion of having my coworker and myself out on the flightline. He immediately ordered our lead to bring two people from the other shop down to cover our work load in the shop.

So now here is the result, within a half hour we had found every aircraft that happened to be not flying and changed the names, it amounted to four aircraft. The other two coworkers came down and proceeded to do exactly what our supervisor wanted them to do which was to do all of the shop work load and answer the phone...all day long:)

My coworker and I basically had the whole day free and taunted our other two coworkers with our lack of a work load:) This also proved for a deeper problem as their work load fell behind since they were two people short and two of them also had to go to another shop for a few hours which left one single lazy person in their shop who refused to do anything at all.

All in all a very funny day worthy of a Dilbert cartoon:)

I feel my IQ dropping when my supervisor is around me, like it is being sucked out of my head.

He is a walking talking black hole from which intelligence goes to die.

A Nice Finish!

I won a satellite tournament for entry into a 500,000 guaranteed tournament that took place today.
The battle began at 3:30 Sunday afternoon and I busted out at 7:30 in 199th place!

199???? That can't be good?!?!

Well it had over 3300 entrants in it and it paid me nearly 500 dollars, not good? If you divide it as an hourly wage, it is outstanding for four hours of work!

I was pretty happy with that finish! It was by far the largest tournament I was involved in.

Things are going well!!!! In a lot of different areas right now.
I can't help but think that this is the leading edge of a lot of good things yet to happen in the next few months:) I really honestly think a lot of good is going to come from Locker! Poker? Its a diversion:) A fun diversion but more or less a hobby:)

I just feel that I'm really honestly on my way to somewhere good right now. I don't know where or when but I do feel good about it:)

I Needed That!

I feel pretty good today!

Yesterday's draft went well, I think I have a very competetive team this year!
Dominick Davis
Deshaun Foster
Chris Brown are my RBs

Marvin Harrison
Javon Walker
Jerry Porter
Donte Stallworth are my very lethal WRs

Carson Palmer
Aaron Brooks fill out my QBs

The Pittsburgh and Cinncy D/STs
and Nate Kaeding and Rian Lindell my Kickers

We have a league member who lives in Lousiana which happens to be under the gun of Hurricane Katrina. It is headed towards New Orleans as a Category 5 Hurricane, possibly the strongest hurricane to hit Lousiana (winds are now sustained 175 mph). I doubt that any of it will reach here, but who knows, it might not turn to the North East.

I plan on relaxing today and staying in the house. I went to get groceries Friday so all I have to do is some laundry.

I've been reading Kevin Smith's blog lately. It is interesting. I would like to get to the point where I could pick and choose my projects for a living or if I had a great idea (and I do!) then I would have people jumping through hoops to get it going:)

Actually his blog is about his normal everyday life. He writes about normal things instead of a celebrity lifestyle. Yeah, even down to his bathroom breaks. Say what you wish about him, he does have a way of communicating, he is a natural storyteller.

I guess it is time to get my laundry started so I can get it done, its been a good weekend but I hope your weekends have been better than mine!

Draft Day!!!!

Yes my friends today is Draft Day, something that is familiar with every fantasy football player in the country!

The day that will create your team for an entire season! A day in which you will take players from teams you really don't care about just because they are the best player on the board! A day in which you put aside your NFL loyalties and are all about Team You!

Terrell Owens....never would touch him with a 10 foot pole but here it is, he is the best receiver on the board and you have your RBs....do you take TO? Do you take the baggage and balance that with the 14 TDs and 1500 yards? Yes my friends that is the kind of pulse pounding decision many will be faced with today and in the past few weeks up until this coming Thursday!!!!

Today is the day that you have been preparing for, you will either be king of the league or a donater.

My friends today is exactly what I need right now as well. For some reason I have been really....drained for the lack of a better word. Since I have sent out my screener copies of Locker I have had trouble sleeping, I've been extremely excited about the prospects!!!!

I'm going to have a hard time concentrating on the draft while I know that the past couple of days my screeners have been arriving at their destinations!!!!

My friends I am going to have some fun today, I need that right now. I had no idea that Locker would wear me down like this, not so much physically other than the restless sleep, but emotionally.

This is going to be a wild ride!

And He Rested

Yes my friends, tonight I decided to call it good for the evening and did something I dread instead.

I mowed my yard...after nearly two weeks....of rain.

It was like a 1000% humidity after work and I had just enough gas left to get 95% of my yard done, the rest will have to wait until the next time I mow or until I get some more gas.

I can't even get gas out of my vehicle since I drive a diesel. Yeah that would really gum up my mower fast!

I have been reading about different film festivals and looking at what their entry fees are. I'm going to let it rest for a few days, there isn't a fest I'm interested in right now however I am going to look at some Plan B fests. Yes and I have to review my copy of From Reel To Deal and find out the next step to this blueprint!

Believe me I'm not delusional at all. I know I have a movie but not a indication of my talent or ideas, just my budget! I am anxious to see what the first reactions are to Locker by unbiased people when I get it copied to DVD.

Criticize me all you wish but no one had better criticize the acting, these people spent almost nine hours in street clothes in 9 degree temperatures and trying to remember their lines! Believe me I was dressed for it but I wasn't on camera either!

Also keep in mind that I am not a great writer right now and I could have given them some better material to work with but with what I gave them and with what they accomplished in that environment in that time frame....I'm pretty happy with that part!

So if you watch Locker, keep in mind the context of what was happening behind the camera:)

This Is A Cool Update.....Read On

Yesterday afternoon I decided, for good or bad, to forego the music and add the end credits myself, without the rolling part.

I did not contact the local production company for the film look treatment and just go with it as is. We'll see how it is received as is, barebones and unplugged so to speak.

I have sent screener tapes to:
Sundance
Slamdance
The Documentary and Fiction International Film Festival in West Hollywood

At that point I ran out of screener tapes and now have to make two more to send to
The Big Apple Film Festival (I filled out the paperwork on this one already, just didn't have the extra tape to send as I had seen Locker five times already yesterday)

and possibly Script to Screen in Tulsa, undecided on this one.


There is a list of upcoming film fests that I need to take a close look at.

Final Bugs Ironed Out!!!!

Finally!

Yes, I can now honestly say that Locker is 99% complete!

I am going to contact the production studio tomorrow and see what it will take to put the film look filters on a completed project and the end rolling credits!!!!

I'm on the fence about music right now.

We'll see what the musician comes up with and go from there. If it is very gripping then I'll find a place for it.