Oh Boy

Okay, busy stuff going on. Some of you know I have owned a comic store for 16 years. Have decided to close it.

So I'm trying to go through a ton of stuff--will be blowing everything out in the next 2 months. I'm not bringing much home, as my house is already overstuffed with junk.

Have finished the rough cut of GOH and am going through my 2nd pass. Man, I really don't like the first 25 minutes of this movie. We just didn't achieve what we wanted, and I think it shows. Will work on it.

So today I get this from my rep at the distributor who is putting out Bounty:
We have BOUNTY going out as a World Premiere on VOD beginning 6/12/11 through 8/11/11. So far it would be on Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Charter, Brighthouse. So far we don’t have the DVD release schedule, but I’m sure Joe is working on finding the right plan for that.

I hope they can get Comcast on board also. Then they send me the art they're using to sell the movie.

Let me tell you, I was speechless. I will not put it up...frankly, I hope it never sees the light of day. If you've seen Bounty, you know what it's about and what it's not about. Some people are calling it a zombie movie, but it's really more of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers kind of thing.

And let me tell you, on this poster is a zombie zombie in what looks like a policeman's outfit. A full-out Walking Dead kind of zombie. Yes, a zombie that bears no resemblance to anything in my movie.

So people are going to order the movie on VOD or buy it on DVD, and watch a movie that does not contain any of the people on the cover, or any zombies for that matter. And they are going to take to the internet, and who are they gonna bash?

Me. As if I had anything to do with the one-sheet.

And I have no say in that. You sign that away with a typical contract.

I'm torn though--I SEE why they did that. They want the zombie money that's out there. The craze that is the Walking Dead. BUT this is just downright deceptive. Yeah, there's some cannibalism going on in my flick. If they had blown that surprise I would probably have been more forgiving...

It's a tough sell without blowing JUST what my movie is about...but still...full out KNB zombies?

Man...

From Chance Shirley's blog:

http://scanyourfilm.com/ScanYourFilm__Revolutionary_Motion_Picture_Film_Scanning.html

The thing is, back when we shot a promo trailer to raise money for "FOC", I shot footage on my Bolex and on a video camera. The video stuff came out okay, so I just cut that into a trailer. The 500 feet of film went into my refrigerator, where it still sits.

Just never had the disposable money to get it transferred, since I don't really need it. But man...it's like a time capsule...what did we get? What's it look like on film?

And now, it appears that it's pretty cheap to get transferred.

Hell, for that matter, maybe I should get HH re-transferred at Best Light(remember, the final version out on DVD features a one-Light transfer, which is why it looks so shitty)...

Prep the HH for its 15 year anniversary! (I'll have the rights back by then...)

ROUGH CUT DONE

Are you seeing a pattern here? Me love 'em big boobies...

Sweet! Rough cut of GOH finished on 4/18/11. Will go back to the beginning and start working on fixing and laying in audio to see just how fucked I am.

But hey, back to Vegas...

Coming back from the bathroom, you had to push your way across the dancing bodies. It was packed tightly. I led the wife across the floor, following a couple of hot girls--people tend to move out of their way to be polite.

They cut through a path between tables--a tall guy letting them through. But as I get there he steps in front of me.

"No more," he says in a thick Russian accent. "You go 'round."

He's like three inches taller than me, dressed sharp, with some other snappy dressers. I'm thinking, Russian mafia or something. Probably not, but that was my first impression. He's probably early thirties.

But I'm already pretty drunk, and if you've read my blog you know I'm not afraid to throw fists.

"Get out of my way," I said to him. The whole thing was awkward because the music was so loud, we had to lean in toward each other to understand. So if one of us swung, it was probably gonna connect before the other even knew it was thrown.

"I let you through, everybody go through," he says. "I do business here."

I don't give a shit, and I don't stop to think about what the hell he's talking about. I say, "I'm coming through", and I shove him and move forward, pulling the wife behind me. He tried to step into my way and I shoulder-checked him out of the aisle.

There was moment where I tensed to see if he'd hit me in the back of the head, but nothing happened. My wife asked me when we got back to our spot what happened. I told her, and I think she was suitably impressed.

I dunno, seemed much easier to get into fights back when I was in college.

On a side note, the DJ was insane--he'd play, and I'm not exaggerating, about 15 seconds of a song and go on to the next one. He must have played about 1000 songs while we were there, but I have no idea how you could dance to that.

One of my wife's friends named Susan was getting hit on by a twenty-three year old. Susan's like 48 years old. For some reason I thought it would be funny to call the guy Chad: Cougar Hunter. I'm not sure that was his name. She was making out with him and all, but she ditched him.

We stayed at the bar until about 4am--the great thing about Vegas bars--they never close...then took two cabs back to the hotel. (there was 8 of us)

Got up the next morning with a hellacious headache, took an excedrin and drank some water, and went back to bed until about 1pm. Then we got up and roamed around the city some more, then came back to get ready to go get remarried by Elvis...

81 Cuts in 56 Seconds

That's the scene I'm currently working on. I told you this movie was gonna be flashy in the edits...and I'm totally proving it now. I'm pulling out all the crazy time remapping, level-flashing, jump-cut editing I've learned over the years.

I'm on a scene where it REALLY fits in...some of the others scenes...not so much. But the MTV crowd is gonna eat it up.

The ADHD fucks...

Back From Vegas

Me, with my new big-breasted love at Margaritaville...
she's a mermaid, but I love her anyway...

-----------------

Okay, the quick rundown.

No sleep, 'cause our flight left at 6am...we arrive there at 9am Vegas time. Technically we can't check into our hotel until 3pm, but we head there anyway, hoping to drop off our luggage and wander.

Turns out, the hotel has open rooms, so they let us in right away. I want nothing more than to go to sleep for a few hours, 'cause we got plans to go out that night.

But, we were hungry, so we ventured out. The hotel had a shuttle to the strip, so me and the woman took it into town. Did I mention that it's 50 freakin degrees? And I didn't bring a coat...isn't this mutherfuckin' Vegas? Last time I was here it was 104 degrees...

We stumbled into Margaritaville--had some good music and the menu looked cool. Had lunch, and it was surprisingly good. Had a frozen Margarita that was also very good.

Headed back to the hotel and crashed for a few hours, then got up and got dressed to go to Pure--it's the super hip, trendy club at Caesar's Palace. Cover charge for us was $100. No shit.

We go in. The crowd is weird. Very rich, snobby, our-shit-don't-stink-'cause-we're-loaded kind of people. And then there's our group, which is pretty down-to-earth, kind of red-necky people.

Anyway--I go in and have to piss, and see a problem right away: There's only 1 bathroom INSIDE the club. To get to it, you actually have to cross the dance floor. The VERY crowded dance floor.

Otherwise, you have to leave the club, go into the hotel lobby, then come back and get in a re-admit line...

We get drinks, and quickly discover that mixed drinks are $12 while domestic beers are $10. Painful. I have luckily polished off 2 large vodka-cranberries before we left, so I have a buzz.

But the problem is, that buzz kinda leaves me open to ordering things like lemon-drop shooters(VERY good), toasted almond(tasted like shit), vodka cranberry(horrible), and a sweet tart(good). I did buy a few drinks for my wife's friend and her fiance, who were getting married on Sunday...so my bar bill was $180.

Fuuuuuck.

On a side note, two of the hottest women I have ever seen were at one of the areas cordoned off--you could pay $1000 for up to 8 people, plus like another couple hundred in gratuity, and have your own little area.

Which, if I had the cash, would be great. Because that place was PACKED.

Fun started when me and the wife went to the restroom. Really, it happened when we were returning...will get into it tomorrow.

You can see a quick vid from the next day here--it's from Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden where you can see dolphins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPZ7WQL6-W8

Crisis Averted

Was rocking along on the rough cut of GOH and came across a scene with no audio, scene 57. It was a small scene, and I just figured it was misplaced.

Then got to scene 95 and I only have half of the scene's audio takes. Weird.

I go check...we only have one full audio tape from that night. The first half of that scene. And then I remember that we shot scene 57 right after scene 95...

...which means we're missing an audio tape.

Inside I wig out. Scene 95 is a super-intense emotional scene. I'm going to have to take the actors back to the Cloisters and try to loop their audio...

I spent a day scouring everywhere I think the tape could have gotten lost. Finally, I search the bookcase where I stacked the tapes every night. I would have searched there first, but it didn't look like there was room for a tape anywhere.

I moved a stack of books and hear a slight thump behind them. And holy shit, it's the tape.

The relief is immense.

Anyway, will finish the GOH rough cut next week when I get back from Vegas. I'm leaving Friday morning and will come back Monday. Will tell ya more about it when I get back, and probably have some pics.

No Sympathy

So my wife's cousin is a journalist. I only vaguely know him because he comes to the family Christmas dinners with his big-breasted girlfriend. She always shows a lot of cleavage, and us guys sit around and chat about it.

Anyway, he frequently goes to dangerous places and photographs stuff.

Well, on the news last night they did a story because apparently he went to Libya and got captured by soldiers, maybe killed.

And when my wife tells me about this, I have to hold my tongue. I have no sympathy for these douchebags who go to foreign countries where there's war. Then they get captured and expect the U.S. to spend money and time trying to bail them out.

Are you kidding me?

Just stay the fuck out of those countries. Problem solved.