After Con Report

 

 Went to the con early Friday morning. The drive was a breeze, only took me about an hour ten minutes. I finished my Slurpee about 10 minutes before pulling into the lot, so that worked out. I got my room immediately and put my stuff there, and headed to the show.

Everyone seemed excited and in a good mood. There weren't that many people there, so it wasn't crowded but sometimes that's just the way it goes on Fridays. I didn't have a table, so didn't care.

I wandered the vendor and celeb room, talking to people I know and hanging out. I ate some mediocre chicken tenders from the hotel for dinner and then tried to figure out what I would do. There was a live commentary for Children of the Corn with the director and two actors that sounded interesting. It was cool that there's a movie theater about 500 yards away from the hotel where they'd be having it.

But the theater also has a movie I've been wanting to see, so I was also thinking about just going to that. Seemed kind of lame to go to a con and then just go see a movie, but I thought about it.

I went over to the theater to see how busy it was, and there was still plenty of seats for the Corn showing so I got some popcorn and a soda and sat down. It was pretty interesting for the most part, other than some long gaps where I guess they ran out of stuff to say.

Back to the hotel at about midnight and it's a ghost town. The bar is closed. NOBODY is out front, and there's like 6 people hanging around chatting(I know one of them). So I chatted with them for a little while before just going up to bed. Thought it was weird, but maybe Saturday would be better.

Saturday was not better. Stewie came up and crashed in my room. I got a photo with Ted Raimi, who was very cool, but all in all it was kind of a boring day. 

We went out to dinner with an old actor friend named Joe and his crew--I asked Joe if he wanted to go to dinner with Stewie and I, and all of a sudden he invites more people. We ended up with a table for 8.

The food was fuckin bad, man. It was a steakhouse and I got the filet mignon, and it was horrible.

Afterward back at the con, I chatted with some people I don't see often, but most of the regulars were a no-show, and that continued into the night. The bar stayed open a little later, but nobody was hanging around chatting in the lobby like normal. 

NOBODY outside at the firepit or just hanging out. I talked with a few friends late into the night but it was weak.

Sunday I just did a last minute walk, saying bye to people and made the easy ride home. 

It's weird, because the last time they had this show it was the most-fun I've ever had at a con. This time, pretty weak. Not sure if it's the Covid fear thing or what. Wondering whether anybody's going to come out for Monstermania next month. I hope so.

 

Oddities

 

 Another week of work, though the first two days had me doing literally nothing but sitting around waiting for stuff  to come to me. While I wait, I've been reading some additional material about some of the processes used in these sorts of things, so it's not a complete waste of time.

Got a strange message via FB this week. This was the message:

If you need investors for terror 3 I might be interested. I fell in love with 1 and 2 and they have become a Halloween tradition. I truly believe that this could be a trilogy that become a cult classic trilogy for Halloween. My name is REMOVED feel free to contact me REMOVED PHONE. Your idea here is spectacular. I really believe you have something for a trilogy here I hope you follow through with a 3rd somehow.

 So that's weird, huh? I have no mutual friends with this person, but their profile seems legit. (there's pictures of her with her son at various horror conventions, and other people are commenting like they know her in real life)

I replied that I wasn't looking for funding at this moment, as T3 is up in the air, but was curious  whether she invested in other horror flicks and whatnot. I have no guesses on what T3 would cost, and won't until the script's done--update, I'm on page 11, with another 10 pages of notes past that. I'm going to have to work hard to keep this under 60 pages in order to get some segments in. Would be pretty weird to end my anthology series with a non-anthology entry, right?

I'm going to have to reach out to some of the actors involved to see if they're even interested in coming back. The big worry is Laura, who played the main girl in T1, and is the focus of the story in the third. If she won't come back, do I recast her? I fucking hate when movies do that. Still bothers me in BTF.

I bet she would come back, just depends how much money is involved. Can I shoot this whole wrap in 6 days? I sort of doubt it, but we could try. Again, it's all conjecture until the script is done.

--

That convention is this weekend. I talked to the guy who's excited to have an original painting from FOC in the auction. I'm pretty sure it's the first painting I've ever let go from the movie, though two of the paintings are still at Luke's house, hanging on the walls where we put them for the GOH shoot nearly ten years ago.

I figured, they're probably safer there than in my basement, and he tells me to take them any time so I know he knows they're not his.

Anyway, some other guy on FB posts a snarky reply to one of this convention's posts. This guy is a horror personality I've heard of. I reach out to him--we're apparently friends--and ask him what the deal is. Apparently the convention has been completely ignoring him for some reason, and he can't figure out why. He has a pretty big following and does live shows and other stuff--would be free publicity for the guy, so I'm not sure why he'd ignore it either.

So I reach out to the convention guy about it, and he ignores me. (I say that because every other time I've emailed him, I hear back within a day. I emailed him Sunday, and it's now Wednesday and not a peep)

Seems weird to turn down free publicity, especially when your guest list isn't exactly a-MAY-zing.

 

 

 

Another Weekend's Here

 

 I can already see the night creeping in earlier each day. I used to like it, but now it just reminds me that mutherfucking winter is on the way.

I'm in this weird zone right now, because my wife and kid have been down at the beach house for 28 of the last 30 days. She's got her parents down there, so she's taking care of them while also doing therapy for her arm. Can't remember if I mentioned it on here, but she ripped the tendon off the bone, had surgery, a hard cast, now she has a bionic looking brace and does therapy at the doc at the beach.

So me, I'm home every day. Working 9-5ish, just like old Dolly sang about. Then I eat some dinner, get me a Slurpee, come back and play video games or do a little writing/editing, or more likely, I do both.

The weekend comes along, and as long as I don't have a big auction I get a weekend off. Haven't done much on most of them other than veg out. 

Next weekend is another convention. I had offered to let them have an original mold or two from the first two FOC movies, but the guy kept acting weird about it because one was a mold of a naked woman. It's a MOLD. It's nothing to be wigged out about. Everybody at a horror convention has seen naked women anyway--even the kids who love Freddy and Jason--they've watched the movies, they've seen boobs.

But like I said, it's a MOLD anyway. There's no boobs, it's the NEGATIVE of boobs. Basiclly, they're belly buttons until you pour in latex and make the prosthetic.

Either way, the guy asked for a picture and I was like, Fuck it, I don't need the hassle. Thing weighs 50 pounds anyway, and I'm gonna drag this out, load it in the car, carry it into the con, after all the hassle I'm getting? And I'm doing this for SOMEONE else?

I told the guy to forget it. He apologized and stuff, but whatever. I've offered him one of the original paintings from FOC, so I think that's what we're going with. Much easier to carry in and less controversial.

---

In other distrib news, T2 continues to annihilate on Tubi. If these earnings are accurate, the movie may make its budget back in 3-4 months on Tubi. (and it's already made its budget back on Azon, so basically we're now in profit territory)

FOC2 also passed with the new, fixed upload so now all my actual films are available to be picked up. Tubi picked up the first FOC, though it's not up yet. I want them to get the first Ttory and FOC2 and then we're talking.

 

 

Weekends Are Too Short

 

 Return of Friday fun--just a couple of us to start, me Zig and Stewie. I left work early, knowing I could make up the hours on Saturday. Traffic sucked, as usual.

We ended up watching Jason Lives.  Before that I watched a bit of the '76 Kong with commentary. Pretty interesting, and I've always liked that movie ever since I first saw it at a drive-in when I was little.

Then Saturday rolls around, so I put in a couple of hours testing. Kept running into problems, and nobody in OPS is around to help fix anything, so not sure how much valuable stuff I got accomplished.

--

Exported and uploaded and submitted the new FOC2, so fingers crossed that it passes. Then I edited a video for Stewie. Started it exporting and then called my parents to see if they wanted me to go out to dinner.

We went out to a local restaurant called Bubbas.My brother Mike and his girlfriend came too, and the food was good, but my mom isn't a fan of the very loud music. Makes it hard to talk.

They were pretty surprised when I picked up everybody's check. I guess it sort of shocks them that I'm finally getting my life in order at age 50. I admit, it's a hard thing to get used to.

--

Man, the days are going by fast. All the people counting down the time to Halloween again. I love Halloween and all, but it just reminds me that winter's coming too, and I just can't fucking stand winter. 

--

Okay, so I'm trying to prioritize some things. Currently the tops are:

• Finish the VFX for that indie flick
• Start smashing T3 script
• Try one last thing to fix the T1/T2 blu I'd tried creating a year ago.
  
• Really try to start writing that novel that's become a mind-obsession
• Cut the trailers for my other Making Ofs so I can upload them

If I was feeling up to it, I was thinking about maybe trying to get the T3 short shot over the fall. This is the one I already tried to do, but it fell through because of lack of locations mostly, not being able to get access to a couple of houses I'd need.

Then, if the T3 script is ready to shoot by next spring, maybe try that. THAT is going to be a challenge. How much will it cost? I'll definitely have to crowd fund it, because even if I'm making money now, I'm not making the kind of money where I have a spare $15-$20K laying around.

Let's say, at that point I have one segment and then the biggest part of the movie shot. I'd need another two segments(I'd guess) to fill the rest, and right now I don't have any individual ideas that are formed so maybe I reach back out to Malf or maybe even some other horror writers I've met over the past couple of years. Who knows whether they'd be interested.

That's basically where I'm at.

 

Know What I Wanted To Do Tonight?

 

 Watch FOC2 for the 10,000 time in my life.

See, I may have found a fix for it via something called detelecine. It appears to have worked, but there's some audio artifacts that got introduced somewhere, so I'm fixing those. To do that, I have to watch the whole goddamn movie again.

Honestly, it's a bit frustrating though, not because I hate it--it's a bit of the opposite. Frankly, I think I did a lot of things right with it, and I think the story is pretty good. However, I hear from a lot of people who think the first one is better, and that makes me want to murder.

The other interesting thing is that the process seems to have crispened(might be wrong word) the picture a bit. I had heard that it might, though people are hard to explain why that is. Will be nice if I export a new version now and it passes. Only duplicate frames will be the slow motion shots.

---

Went to a going away party over the weekend for one of my wife's relatives. He's lived here his whole life, came to all the family functions, but recently his wife got caught fucking his best friend. Then his sister died--that's the other cousin a mentioned about a year ago dying. 

Other than his son, he's got nothing here, and as he said, he wants a new start. He's moving to Florida because he has friends down there and wants to live on the beach.

The party was okay, but I didn't know that many people so I got to stand around while my brother in law got ridiculously drunk, then listen to him say stupid stuff. 

---

Work is work. Good days, bad days. I keep spending money, as Stewie can attest by looking at his affiliate link. 

Tomorrow I have the regular job, then an auction afterward. One of them 11 hour days.

 

More Stuff

 

 Man, work has been sucking. Not sure I mentioned, but in the past three weeks I have literally done two tests. That's it. There's over twenty tests stuck in my lane that can't be tested because of a piece that doesn't work, and won't work without a ton of setup.

The developers are trying to set it up, but they're still working on other stuff, so in the meanwhile I sit around twiddling my thumbs.

Been watching a lot of Fantasy Island and Buck Rogers, and it's weird how one day I'm watching one show and Ray Walston will show up, and then I go to the other show and there he is also. Same thing happened where "Tiger Man" from Buck was in an episode, then he's a pirate on Fantasy Island.

T2 continues to smash it on Tubi. I don't want to get too excited until I see earnings, but if those are comparable to the estimates they're giving me, I may have to REALLY get down to knocking out the T3 main story and then figure out what other segments I'll be doing. Maybe try to shoot it next Spring or Fall. (no summer. Fuck that.)

---

Did a podcast last night. Had met this girl at a convention like ten years ago, and had seen her a couple of times since then at shows. She'd asked me if I'd ever do one, and I'd said sure, but she never tried to set a date until a few weeks ago.

http://tobtr.com/11981459

Had a good time. I never know what to say, and I try not to repeat myself too much but you never know what people have heard. Turns out she hadn't heard about the serial killer thing. It's funny, one of the hosts of that other podcast that I did called in to say hi. He's a super nice guy.

---

Remember my FOC2 problem? The duplicate frames thing? I went back and took a look at whether I could even DO that, remove every fifth frame. It's tedious, and when you speed the audio up by 20%(because that's how much of the movie you lose when you cut 1 out of every 5 frames), it gets a bit distorted. (because you tell it not to change the pitch, otherwise everybody would sound like chipmunks)

So that's not really going to work. Apparently there's a couple of programs that will auto takeout frames, but again, will have the same audio problem. 

However, I found a program that can take a duplicate frame and blend it with the next frame, which would essentially fix the problem by keeping the movie the same length, and the frame would no longer be exactly the same. I have to figure if it will work for sure before I drop the $50 for it.

Honestly, it would be nice if I could remove all the duplicate frames, as that's definitely what causes that weird issue where pans look stuttery. At this point, though, I'd just like to get it up there with the other flicks.

 

 

Con Over, Back To Regular Life

 

 The con was fun. Got there Thursday night and stayed in a cheap motel, since the host hotel was sold out by the time I made plans. Friday we headed over to the con hotel and set up, then went to eat at a surprisingly-good diner. 

Being in VA, we were both a little surprised at how few people were wearing masks.

We went back to the con, where pretty much everybody was. Friday was slow, but I didn't care too much. That night we hung out for a while, but called it fairly early.

Saturday the con was in full swing. There were a lot of people, but not many people were buying things. I heard the guests were pretty pissed it was so dead, that so many people just sort of came by to talk to them without buying anything.

I get it though. Stop asking for $40-$60 an autograph. One guest even wanted TWICE the price to sign Zig's dvd case as to sign a glossy that was on their table. Explain that logic.

We did so so, still hadn't made table. Zig and I went out to a local restaurant and had some mediocre food for dinner. We'd had hotel food twice by that point, and honestly, it was better than this restaurant.

Came back afterward and saw the costume contest and met up with some friends we hadn't seen in a while, then had a very illuminating conversation about drugs with our friends. It was pretty funny, because at one point I said very loudly in reference to the conversation, "You know, babies are actually surprisingly hard to kill", and the guy going into the bathroom near us stopped and looked back at us with a strange expression, part shock and part horror and part confusion.

I was drinking vodka, plus I'd had a nice edible, so was feeling good. Hung out with various people, because Zig and Stewie both went to bed early. I got back to the room about 3:30am, and was definitely not getting up for the show at 10am. 11am sounded better.

Anyway, Sunday was slow but not as slow as usual. We made table plus a little, and I got to meet some people who enjoyed my flicks. Sold a couple of books, but not as many as I'd wanted to. (funny part, just put one on eBay before I left, and it sold before I got back)

All in all, was nice to get back to that convention atmosphere. 

--

Back now, and I gotta tell you, still not used to having to get up every morning at 8:45am and do the work thing. Will I ever get used to it? Doubtful. 

I CAN get used to the checks though.