Week In Review

Mid-week edition.

Have not touched GOH since re-exporting it. Taking a break.

After hearing that Andrew guy talk about Blender all the time, I figured why not download it and take a look? I'm not sure why, as I own 3Dmax and Maya. Have used 3Dmax lightly since 1998 when it was affordable, but never tried Maya. Tinkered with Lightwave back in the day.

So I'm not a noob to modelling programs. But Jesus, could Blender be any more complicated and user-unfriendly? Holy shit, I spent about an hour just messing around and really couldn't do anything of note. I had downloaded a dinosaur just to play with, and it was all I could do just to figure out little things.

I don't know why I bother...should really spend more time digging deeper into After Effects, since I'm always using it.

Also want to get back to two screenplays I've been working on for 3 years. I NEED to finish them, and maybe shoot one dirt cheap next year on my T2i. I've been quietly acquiring stuff for it, from lenses to a nice carry bag to a Pico mini-dolly to an LED adjustable light to a mini-monitor.

My buddy Luke has a T2i now, so I could technically shoot some 2 camera setups if I wanted to.

So I should buckle down and get to work on those screenplays...except Battlefield 3 just came out, and it's REAL good...damn...

Still, have had time to knock some off the Halloween-watch list:
Trick R Treat - Like I thought, it's better now that I have lost the expectations I had when I first saw it. Man, it's a beautiful movie too. Full of gorgeous shots and great art direction.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow: Watched my Blu Ray of it. Still really dig it. The music still gets to me.
Cast A Deadly Spell -- Tried to watch it. Got bored.

Ones I will for sure get to: Halloween 2 blu and Pumpkinhead. The others may not get seen.

And hey, look how collectible my movies are! This is right from Amazon who, at the moment, are out of my movie, but I just sent them 10 more. For now, though, you will not get yourself a copy on Amazon for less than $998. Wtf?

Halloween Approaches

Too quickly. I'm not watching what I'd like to watch, not enough. There's too much regular TV to keep up with...

Wednesday night I went to a local premiere of a buddy's horror movie. Saw a lot of people I don't see a lot of, which was cool. Enjoyed the flick more than I figured I would, as I'm not typically a fan of campy-type horror.

Afterwards went to the after party(makes sense). I knew the other most famous filmmaker from GB was going, so I knew there would be drinking. I got one of my actors to drive me up there, since he only lives like a mile away from me, and he was going. Told him I'd buy his ticket and some drinks.

And man, was there drinking. My bar tab was $150 at the end of the night. There was some crazy stuff going on too.

Had a good time, came home and got sex-attacked by my wife.(I think she's testing to see if I got any nookie out...like, if I can't get it up, I must have just fucked someone...but the joke's on her--and you'd think she'd know this by now--I can ALWAYS get it up. So this way, if I actually DID cheat, it's like BONUS sex!)

Woke up once to puke, then didn't wake up again until 4pm. Feeling like hell. Tried to eat, didn't take. Kind of lazed around.

On the other hand, have re-exported the entire movie again now which should be the pretty-goddamn-close to the final cut. Have to send it to the composer, and hopefully he'll get right on it when he gets back from Tokyo.

Watched I Was A Teenage Werewolf last night. I guess I can see why I liked it as a 10 year old, but man, Michael Landon plays the world's most unlikeable protagonist...and the movie's ultimately pretty weak.

Broke down and got Dark Night of the Scarecrow on Blu Ray. I WILL watch it before Halloween.

Wife's having a pumpkin party tonight. Kind of a last-minute decision.

The Haps

Okay, after a marathon 20-hour session of editing, I have inserted about 95% of all the looped audio I recorded on GOH. Much of it works so good that I actually thought I hadn't muted the original track...

Am using every trick in the book to get it in there so the audience never knows how much work was involved.

Now I just need the exterior audio from 2 actors, and then the foley work for the scenes I've looped. Still a lot of work, but I've knocked a big chunk from it.

Have also added shake to the screen when "the Servant" storms around, to give the impression he's very heavy. But you gotta basically keyframe every footstep which gets tedious. (and also add the sound of his footstep)

The movie got a little tighter too, which normally would suck, as I sent the composer his copy already. But he's in Tokyo right now, so I'm gonna export him in a new copy and have it waiting for him when he gets home.

Movies Watched:
Species: Hadn't seen it in 10 years. Man, Natasha Henstridge is SO hot...how had I forgotten? Good God, if she really was an alien, it would be worth the death to bang her.

The Midnight Hour: A TV movie set on Halloween night that I had heard good things about. It started and I immediately recognized the director's name: Jack Bender. Guy has directed a TON of TV, most notably like 70% of the episodes of Lost. The movie is campy, goofy fun, and features people like Kevin McCarthy, "Bitches Leave" Robocop guy, and Levar Burton and Shari Belafonte both playing high schoolers even though they were 27 and 31 respectively at the time.

Most notable, that a bunch of undead suddenly break into a dance routine and music video at a party. Funny stuff.

I Am Number Four: Pretty forgettable but not atrocious-like-I-heard teen movie.

Last Man Standing: I remember seeing this when it first came out and was pretty disappointed in it. In retrospect it's not horrible. Not great either, but not as bad as I remember.

The Four Musketeers: I was a big fan of The Three Musketeers as a kid...I thought. I vaguely remembered it, and then when I recently tried to rewatch it I found it boring. I thought, no way did I like this as a kid. Turns out, it was the FOUR Musketeers, which is the same cast, which is the confusion. This was definitely the better movie.

Coogan's Bluff: Had never seen it. Watching Clint Eastwood be tough is always fun. Not a bad flick, but not on the level of the better Dirty Harry movies.

The Music

Hey, let's go off topic. Too early for a best-of the year list? I don't think so.

Here's some of my favorite albums I've been listening to this year. I think, once again, my taste in music will surprise you.

First off, love the Maroon 5 album, "Hands All Over". It's very hard to pin down my favorite track, as there's some great stuff there. If I had to say, it would be this:
http://youtu.be/BBiPHTtMV2Q

followed by:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h03pDooOJc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5muc2axezlM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP1PsqBmbvM

But really, the whole album is very solid. Only downside is it doesn't have the super-catchy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRsxpoAc5w

Okay, on to stuff you might actually picture me listening to. The new KMFDM album "WTF?!" is actually pretty good too. I guess for me the standouts are:
Lynch Mob: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyYQCl9WxAQ
Krank: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4-sJX58S-o
Take It Like A Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0VO9sg-cYs
But they're all pretty good.

Honorable mention to Cobra Starship's "Night Shades" album. Not only do they sound like they're making music with my old Atari 800XL, they've got one song that's like if Erasure and New Order had sex and cranked this out(wait 'til you get to the chorus):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=png6lqxsqI8

Let's do random super-catchy tunes.

First off is this one that manages to be rather upbeat despite the talk of random school violence. If I had a nickel for every time I thought these lyrics back in high school, I'd probably have ten bucks.
Pumped Up Kicks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3ldsF65cLM

This is a new poppy, happy kind of song that I don't wanna like but I do anyway:
Faster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPuqA94-qCo

Digging the guitar in this song a lot. Funny aside, I talked to their agent about using a song or two in my new flick, but apparently $150 per song is not enough for them(that's what I offered). You ever heard of kidneythieves? Yeah, didn't think so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q5e7d7GKw0
Also, the KMFDM remix of their song "Spank" is pretty cool.


This is an unsigned group I'm thinking about using some stuff from. This is their best song. Very "Front Line Assembly" like, which I dig. The video sucks though...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-r0gjSfmIk

Anyway, there's your off-topic post for the year.

Young People Fucking

Did you know there's a movie called that? I just found out. Movie probably sucks, but that's a catchy name.

I happened to be watching the Night of the Demons remake, and was looking up some of the actresses in it, and one of them is in YPF.

Anyway, yep, that's one of my Halloween movies to watch that I've never seen. Saw the original, but not this one.

Also of possible interest to you, you know the hot chick from Serenity and V? She's naked in a movie called "Love and Death", just in case you cared. I wouldn't waste your time with the movie; just watch the first 10 minutes if you wanna see her knockers. You're welcome.

On the GOH front, I have only 3 more actors to loop, and the looping will be done. (Done, not inserted into the film yet)

We continue to work on the treatment for the flick we'd like to do next year. We looked at a warehouse that's probably not going to work for what we need.

Six Million Dollar Innuendo

So I just started watching the first couple of episodes of the Six Million Dollar Man. I need something in the background that I don't have to pay attention to while I work.

I loved this show as a kid. It thrilled me that my middle name was Lee, and that was the main actor's name(Lee Majors).

Anyway, the first two episodes are almost unwatchable now. The third and fourth episodes are part 1 and 2 of a two-part story.

And man, there's some crazy innuendo going on that's pretty funny now. Never would have caught it when I was 9 years old...

Steve Austin is on a boat. To escape, he ties up a woman, then rips out the porthole of the room they're in, punches his way through the wall, and before he dives out into the ocean says, "Sorry I had to violate your porthole." I'm not kidding, that is word for word what he said.

Later, the same woman after seeing him rip off his metal bonds says, "In Russia we heard all American men were soft and weak." He smirks at her and says, "Well, we rise to the occasion."

Funny, too, to note just how much stock footage is in the show.

Also watched Fearless Vampire Killers last night. I imagine it didn't age well. I didn't like it much, but it's hard to judge something that old from today's perspective.

TV show wise, Breaking Bad continues to be not just the best-written show on TV, but best directed. Man, gonna be a long wait between this season and next season...

The Halloween Begins

October's here, and this Halloween I'm gonna enjoy it. I was locked in production of GOH last year, so it went by without me watching a single horror movie.

Anyway, have started a list of movies I intend to watch this October, and it looks like this:
critters
tremors
dark night scarecrow
pumpkinhead
aliens blu
dont be afraid of dark(orig)
cast deadly spell
i was teenage werewolf
the midnight hour
trick r treat
starship troopers
walking dead season 1
7
night of the demons remake(only 'cause I haven't seen it and it's a halloween movie)
halloween 2 new blu
mimic director's blu
Species

Well, it used to look like that. I looped an actor yesterday, and afterwards watched the Mimic Director's Cut with Luke and Nelly. It's an okay movie, but it's been so long since I saw it that I have no idea what's different between the regular cut and this one.

Interesting that Rob Bottin designed the creature though. Also not sure why there are Screen Story By and a Screen Play By credits, when they're both by the same two guys...

Most of the flicks on that list I have seen at one time or another, and I watched Walking Dead on TV while it was on, but I was working on GOH at the time so couldn't pay 100% attention to it.

Here's a nicely-shot if predictable little short:
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/blog/2011/10/03/frightfully-good-cutting/