rubberblog

Separated at birth

2011-12-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

Ha, a teaser for the upcoming blog post about something special. But, seriously... this.

Money Shot

2011-04-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

I have just begun pre-production on another short entitled "Money Shot." I've created a Facebook page where I will updating the steps along the way. Like the page to keep in the loop.

Matt Wilkinson, producer of "The Bet," has agreed to help with the producing duties. Chris Smith, co-writer of "The Bet," is currently rewriting the script. Francis George is on board to serve as director of photography.

The script is based on the short story "Green Eyes" - available in the collection Suffer. The story is about a retired adult film star forced to rethink his decision to leave the porn business when a mysterious stalker attacks him with questions... and a nail gun.

The teaser poster has also been created. Click to embiggen (open a new window).

Writeaholic?

2011-03-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm 75% through Beautiful (for the second time) and revisiting Detox to see if there's a way to punch it up and get it sold. And I'm toying with an idea that could maybe be a feasible next short. And by "could" and "maybe" I mean "if I can figure out a way to do it with minimal cash investment." It technically shouldn't be much bigger of a budget than "The Bet," but I used up all my favors to get that one made. I'm gonna have to put my cash where my ideas are this time out.

Not giving up on it yet. I'll write the script while procrastinating writing (or rewriting) the others. And then, find something else to write. Lord knows there are plenty of ideas scratching to get out. Writing is, luckily, free.

Lucky number 7

2010-12-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

This weekend I got my 7th tattoo. It was a sorta last-minute thing. We had planned a weekend trip to San Francisco mainly to get away to celebrate our 15th anniversary and my two-score birthday by going to Alcatraz (fitting, i know). (side note, Mythbusters is doing Alcatraz escapes). I've been jonesing for a tattoo for the past three years or so, and my wife, when planning the SF excursion, found Black Heart tattoo and made an appointment. I'm Mr Controlling with the tattoos, but decided, after seeing the old school (Sailor Jerry-style) tats the artist I was booked with did, decided to get a very Vegas-y tattoo. Born and raised in Vegas and working in the casino industry, I thought it would be a nice marriage of career and passion by getting an old-school tattoo that might have been stabbed into some guy who just won $100 on the slots in 1958 on his way back to the military. So, I pretty much just told the artist (Nick Rodin) that I was a Vegas native, worked in Vegas-style industry and wanted old-school ink to reflect that. Dice, slots, a showgirl, whatever.

When he was done, the artist said, "bet you were thinking, 'he's trying to make it show up on the other side'" because he was pushing so hard. True. I've never had that kind of pain with a tattoo.

Ow.

It's also my first color tattoo. And I like it. Wrong dice numbering and color and all.

By the way, this was taken at the Alcatraz waiting line.

Diversity Champion

2010-11-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

As part of my new corporate life, I was required to attend a two-day Diversity Workshop - basically a team building leadership experience. I was, from the onset, opposed to the very idea of it. There were some comments from people that really freaked me out ("spooked the herd" as they say).

I'm not a very social person - especially in new situations. I take a long time to warm up to people - at least as far as they know. And I refuse to reveal what's inside for even longer. So, in two days...? You're getting nothing.

What sucks is that the second day, they challenged us to really give it everything we had. I was tired. I was over it. But, had I listened... I definitely would have - as they promised - gotten a lot more from it. There were so many times when my instincts (possibly persuaded by the constant mantras) were deafening in my head, but I was hesitant to act. I knew what I felt was right, but I didn't want to stand out. I now know how wrong I was to keep it inside.

Am I going to change? I can't help but. Big sweeping changes? No. But I kept a little memento as a reminder of a promise to myself (and made a promise to someone else). I made good (a bit) on the first promise. I hope to make good on the second (cos it's a lot more fun!).

Prom Night

2010-10-24T20:17:00.001-07:00

Apparently I wasn't a Jamie Lee Curtis Fan Boy. Despite my horror geekiness spawned in the mid-'80s, i'd never seen seen terror train, nor prom night - the two big post-Halloween, Curtis starrers. Well, I've finally seen Prom Night, and, well... meh. I know had I been on the bandwagon then, I'd have followed the progression, but my parents wouldn't let me watch "those movies," nor could i blame them since, at 10, these 1981 slasher films caused them as many sleepless night as i had. but this entry is, at least from a nostalgic-friendly, modern-aware review, at best, meh.

what's your favorite horror film...

2010-10-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

Or horror film moment, or most terrifying moment? When, while watching a horror film did you think, "oh, crap, i can't do this anymore!" what made you jump after watching a horror film. basically, share your horror film experiences as they encroached into the real world.
For weeks after seeing The Blair Witch Project, my wife and I... hallucintated. We saw shit that wasn't there, like walking up to the house and she turned to me after i thought i'd seen something in the front window and said, "you saw it, too?"
That sort of thing.

Wicked Little Things

2010-10-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

Not a bad film. Definitely nice looking. But I can't stand Scout Taylor-Compton. Had a few decent scares, some blood. It just lacked that certain something.

budgets

2010-10-18T20:58:00.001-07:00

After Paranormal Activity (which had a budget of about $11,000) raked in over $100 million, Paramount looked into launching an indie arm to produce and distribute under-$100k films. Ummm, the sequel to PA has a budget of $2.75 million. If even the sequel to the film that started that idea doesn't fit into the plan (much like The Blair Witch Project 2), you gotta understand there's something to us "on the fringe" filmmakers. Could I make a feature for $1 million? Hell yes. Would I give up the rights to Beautiful for $1k? Nope.

Friday the 13th Part II

2010-10-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to stick with films I hadn't seen before, but Netflix is skimpy on the instant films, and I was jonesing. Plus, after watching The Prowler, this one was stuck in my head. Still one of my faves of the franchise. And this is one of the films in this year's lame Fear Fest lineup on AMC, so I figured I'd watch it (relatively) uncut rather than catch it on basic cable.

Nine Dead

2010-10-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

I should be nice, after all this had some promise. Had there not been a little-seen film called Saw, and had the actors here been convincing, this could have been a nice little thriller. All said, this film ain't horrible - the end, yes - but the rest not so bad. A bit repetitive, a bit over-dramatic, a lot overwrought (if you have 10 minutes before someone in the room dies, why the dramatic retelling of a story that helps no one but the plot?). A not-so-cheap film (IMDb gives $2,000,000 as the budget) that felt cheap. Makes me both mad and inspired. Maybe I should try my hand at the microbudget indie rather than something that'd likely cost twice what this film did.

Witchboard

2010-10-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

I can still remember seeing this in the theatre and it makes me kinda sad that going to see a film - especially a horror film - in the theatre is nothing like it used to be. Used to be a lot more audience participation. Now, people sit there (all 3 of them) and text. Anyway, this was one of my high school classics. It hasn't aged all that well (nor has Tawny Kitaen!), but it's a film that has a very special place in my heart.

Case 29

2010-10-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ugh. What a wannabe thriller with a puffy, sweaty crack whore in the lead. She should have stuck with the level of fame Texas Chainsaw Massacre-The Next Generation would have afforded her. And Jodelle Ferland needs to leave the business altogether. A failed attempt in Silent Hill, Tideland, everything, pretty much...

Fail.

Though if spiders had come out of Bradley Cooper's eyes and ears, my ass would've been outta there.

Happy Birthday to Me

2010-10-08T22:56:00.000-07:00

Another one I've already seen, but not for a really long time. I still think it's funny that the poster gives every kill away. Not great by any means, but I have to think this is one that played on HBO back when we got HBO through an antenna because I remember having seen this one a bunch.

Dreamscape

2010-10-07T06:05:00.000-07:00

Oh, Nostalgia, you flittering tease. This was one of my go-to films as a teen. This and The Clash of the Titans were my gold statuette gods. I can still hear the HBO Feature Presentation music playing moments before this started.

I couldn't stop thinking Kate Capshaw is married to Steven Spielberg, and Dennis Quaid looks so young. Despite the really crappy FX (both visual [Peter Kuran] and makeup [Craig Reardon]) there were moments of charm and moments I cringed where it hadn't aged so well. And an (already-known) observation that Inception is a crude knockoff with better FX.

Terror Train

2010-10-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

LAME!
I can't even describe how pissed off I was at this film - another I had managed to never see, despite watching some horrocious dreck. Two words: David Copperfield. I think he still does the same lame flourishes now. I wanted to punch him the way I want to punch Criss Angel. Douche.
Besides that, I had no idea whee these people were in the train, where they were going, why the train was "checked," but they just walked past the drapped sleeping area; why the conductor had to be a magic 'tard, it all just felt so lame. I wanted to punch myself for watching it. Maybe it was good in the salad days of the slasher and Jamie Lee Curtis, but barely. If this had been my first slasher film, thing could have been a lot different.

The Prowler

2010-10-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

This is a toughy. A slow start with the newsreel footage and endless reading of the "Dear John" letter. But finally some good gore with the pitchfork kill of two young and sexy folks - which made me think, "Gee, I wish they hadn't cut down the spear to the back of the making-out couple in Friday the 13th Part 2.

Then we meet our lead, the Final Girl (obviously), and I think, "She looks so much like Amy Steel, the Final Girl, Ginni, from Friday the 13th Part 2.

Some bad acting and some good FX (thanks to Tom Savini) later, and Amy-wannabe is under a bed, hiding from the killer and a rat comes up to her (just like in Friday the 13th Part 2 - though the weeing part isn't here; makes me think a spy didn't get to see the second unit of the pee scene). Anyway, there's the obvious twist, which I still don't understand. A final showdown (with a broken pitchfork that Final Girl uses to defend herself, just like Friday the 13th Part 2). Lots of blood. And it was a great timewaster.

Survival of the Dead

2010-10-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

Couldn't sleep. Decided to watch a horror film. Today's flick was Survival of the Dead, the latest George A. Romero's "of the dead" film. Some gooey effects, but not much else. It wasn't bad enough to put me back to sleep, but I wish it had. Gonna be dead tired today.

Horror Movie a Day

2010-10-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

It's October - the month of my favorite holiday - and i decided to watch a horror film every day, hoping to watch films i hadn't seen before or had seen once a long time ago. This is coinciding with my "wear a different horror-themed shirt to work all month" mission.

Well, I fucked up on day one and watched nothing. Day two gave me Fright Night which was a pleasant blast from the '80s - and a nice intro for my elder son who watched the scary bits from behind his hand.

Today I planned on watching Borderland, an After Dark film (and I love the After Dark films), but my computer A is too old to accept Netflix's tech, my PS3 played some random Spanish film and my laptop had a font issue. Fuck it. So I ended up watching Kalifornia, which is an old favorite though I haven't watched it for some odd years. My wife came down, and I said "What do you say?" It took a second, but finaly she recognized the film and said, "You look good with a gun, Brian!" in the best Juliette Lewis drawl. One of our catchphrases. Don't judge. I still think Bojan Bazelli is a god.

Yesterday, I was hoping to assist on a short film shoot (had helped a few weeks ago), but was doing some freelance that bled over into the shooting schedule and couldn't make it. Hoping there's at least one more day of shooting so I can get out there. Some phenomenal shot from still photog Marcus (see photo at left). Made me even more jealous I wasn't there.

So, we'll see if I can squeeze in the HMaD (Horror Movie a Day). Maybe if The Sci-Fi Center was next door, I'd be all up in some awesome horror shit. As it is, I'm getting my ass up early to watch what Netflix can play. Anyone got some interesting choices? Thank to Mat Planet & his lovely sidekick, Troll and Troll 2 are in the program as a double feature as soon as I have that much time to devote.

Another IMDb update (now with links)

2010-08-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

Everyone is up (or less down) than last time. Included links to each page (opens a new window). I also "liked" each of the entries through Facebook. Except John's. I got an error. poop.

"The Bet": down 5%
Michael Dunn: up 381%
Chris Smith: down 54%
Matt Wilkinson: up 150%
Kurt Rauf: up 11%
Lou Diamond: up 17%
Courtney Gardner: down 25%
Walt Turner: up 4%
Mat Planet: down 20%
Shannon Sarver: down 40%
John McClain: up 4%
Rachel Bellinsky: up 41%
Drew Marvick: up 36%
Mike Minnick: down 42%
"An Uncommon Wager: The Making of 'The Bet'": up 42%

Feedback from Slamdance Script Competition

2010-07-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

PLEASE COMMENT!

I submitted both the short version of "Beautiful" as well as Detox to the Slamdance Script Competition. I paid for coverage on Detox and just left the "brief feedback" do for "Beautiful."

First the short (and sorta sweet) part. For "Beautiful," the one-sentence feedback was: "Interesting idea. Title really doesn’t work for me for this short, first of all. I think the first half moves a bit slower than necessary, but still interesting." Not entirely horrible. Like I told Chris, at least the one sentence wasn't: "Quit writing."

For Detox, they were more in-depth (since I paid a chunk extra, I hope so). Some highlights: "a story that at times teeters on commercial greatness." Of course, that's selective editing. The full comment is: "Inconsistent characters make for a schizophrenic tone. The ending kills a highly original concept, and a story that at times teeters on commercial greatness."

Well, there's promise there at least.

Since no one (aside from a select few) knows the details of Detox, here's their logline: "A young man kidnaps his ex-girlfriend in a demented, misguided attempt to get her off heroin." Fair enough. A few of the comments:

"Blake Snyder would call a “Monster in the House” film. As a writer, there’s nothing more challenging than filling 100 pages with a story that really only takes place in one setting. But, when done correctly, these stories are often the source of box office and critical success. Detox has the potential to garner both. The premise is highly original and so simple... Just get to that first plot point sooner."

Well, here's the thing - and I'm no expert, believe me - there are milestones in a script. you've got plot points that are supposed to hit at certain places (page 17 is a doozy). So we structured it that way. Moving that plot point up goes against the expected standard format. That'll take some thinking.

"Kidnapping an ex to get her sober is a pretty big sell to an exec, so drop a couple clearer hints about Mat’s condition at the outset."

Okay, this is helpful. Not an easy fix granted. But definitely something I can see working.

"(Basically from the beginning of the second act) the pacing is stellar. There’s literally never a dull moment. Again, crafting a compelling narrative within the confines of one setting is an extremely difficult task, but it is done to near perfection in the second act of Detox."

SCORE! So we've got the 2nd act nailed - that's 1/2 of the script. Although they had some issues with a number of elements. Julia (the girlfriend being forced to detox) hallucinates. This is supposed to create tension and give an outlet for some horror elements. They didn't like that. For example:

"I would trim the scenes in which Julia is hallucinating. While I liked the writing, and the scenes almost play as B story, ultimately the (hallucination) detracts from the credibility of your characters and story and makes for an uneven tone. I thought it clashed with the scenes in which Julia is lucid."

Question... Do you understand what they are saying? There's supposed to be a contrast. In the story she is given a sedative (used to treat both heroin withdrawal and bipolar disorder - which our lead, Mat, has) to calm her from the withdrawal. At times, he uses ketamine which is a hallucinogenic and also a stronger fix during heroin withdrawal. When she gets the ketamine, she hallucinates. Most of the scenes, she's either jonesing or hallucinating. There's really no lucidity. Which makes me wonder about the next comment:

"For the most part she’s very calm, and rational throughout the ordeal, and that’s far more endearing as she really needs something to redeem her."

This is where I heard the needle scratch across the record. Crap. She's not a redeeming character. Later, they say "Mat and Julia, are fairly unsavory characters" Zowie. The two leads are "unsavory." I think we fucked up big time. And yet, the feedback suggests it's an okay thing. That if we were to fly with that and embrace that, the script would be better for it. "It’s great to craft flawed leads, but their flaws should endear us to them, not repulse us." Not sure where to go with this.

"Reggie (who is the nosy neighbor that keeps coming over at the worst time) is a phenomenal supporting character, and such a vital cog to your story. He’s the perfect obstacle for Mat to overcome and he’s used to subtly layer in back story and advance plot. Great job."

I love Reggie. I'm glad they do, too. He grew into a major player in the last draft. At least we got something right.

"The scripts ultimate downfall is the tone. To say it’s uneven and inconsistent is a huge understatement."

This could be a factor of Chris and me tossing the thing back and forth and not sitting down and working on it together. There are definitely "me" parts - the darker stuff, and "chris" parts - the lighter stuff. They each, according to this coverage, have their merits and downfalls. And parts where I don't know where I end and he begins.

"The ending is something out of a Hallmark movie."

Ouch. The ending has gone through so much discussion and rewriting that I don't even know what the original ending was. Oh, wait, I do. Reggie was beheaded. I don't think that's the way to go.

Then, there was this comment (after calling him "unsavory"):

"Mat (the lead) is a character straight out of a Hitchcock movie. He’s wonderful because you’re always wondering is he a complete lunatic, or does he just have the biggest heart in the world? Is this a demented, misguided, self serving attempt to get back with his lost love? Or is this the ultimate act of altruism?"

I have no idea what to make of any of this. There are flaws, yes. Everything they pointed out will be thought about and talked about and addressed in some manner. But I think the stuff we think is good that they didn't like will stay... in some fashion.

David Peoples

2010-06-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Can I get a w00tw00t for this guy. I just watched for the first time (sadly) "Le Jetee" and was wow'd how 12 Monkeys spawned from that. So I look up the screenwriter for 12 Monkeys - which I love - and found out he also co-penned the screenplay for Blade Runner, oh and a spec script for some film called Unforgiven - which he wrote in 1976.

IMDb updates

2010-06-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm blogging this update because it's easy. Shut it.

The Bet: up 4%
Michael Dunn: up 119%
Chris Smith: down 64%
Matt Wilkinson: down 34%
Kurt Rauf: up 69%
Lou Diamond: down 31%
Courtney Gardner: down 40%
Walt Turner: down 82%
Mat Planet: down 59%
Shannon Sarver: down 70%
John McClain: down 57%
Rachel Bellinsky: down 21%
Drew Marvick: up 1%
Mike Minnick: down 71%

IMDb updates

2010-06-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

Full disclosure: My bookmark to IMDb goes to The Bet's page. Why? I like to see how the fickle "MOVIEmeter" ranks the film and those associated with it. It updates every week, and I thought it would be fun to share what it says about the film (i'm sure my snooping skews the percentages) and its particpants (and other random tidbits I find).

The Bet: up 4%
Michael Dunn: up 29%
Chris Smith: up 57%
Matt Wilkinson: down 17%
Kurt Rauf: down 9%
Lou Diamond: up 58%
Courtney Gardener: up 6%
Walt Turner: down 66%
Mat Planet: down 23%
Shannon Sarver: down 41%
John McClain: down 36%
Rachel BellinskY: up 25%
Drew Marvick: up 167%
Mike Minnick: down 43

So that's who i'll be tracking. For no reason other than, um, posterity. I do, of course, also check on "An Uncommon Wager" and "Foreplay" on occasion... but we'll stick to the above.

WINNER!

2010-05-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

"Hallway," the theme from "The Bet," performed by Justine Bellinsky and written by Rachel Bellinsky, won the award for audience favorite music video at the 1st Annual PollyGrind Film Festival. How cool is that?!?!

Detox screenplay complete

2010-05-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

After over 25 drafts back and forth between me and my co-writer, Chris Smith, Detox is in it's final form - at least until it's sold and rewritten. HA! Hmmm, not funny.

Schmitty, McFunkle & Stump

2010-05-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

So, a bunch of guys I know and/or have worked with got this crazy shit going on that's airing on Comedy Central at odd wee hours and will soon explode into awesomeness the likes of South Park. Love it now. Be one of the first.

And visit the official site here: smands.com

Another fest for "The Bet"

2010-04-14T04:06:00.000-07:00

A new screening (and look) for "The Bet." PollyGrind will premiere the "Midnight Movie" version of "The Bet" AND the music video for the song from the film "Hallway." Check out the full lineup here: PollyGrind.

Rubbersquare Fan Page Is Live

2010-04-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Rubbersquare Fan Page on Facebook is live - facebook.com/rubbersquare.

Become a fan.

Awesome, but disappointing

2010-04-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

How's that for a title?

I got an email today from the Vice President of Acquisitions for After Dark Films (yes, that is part of the awesome), asking what the status was of "The Bet" and if a screener was available (second part of the awesome). I already knew what was going to come of this, knowing that After Dark Films are the creators of the awesome "Films to Die for" events and subsequent DVD releases. Clive Barker's Dread is in their latest collection, and I'm dying to see it.

The "disappointing" bit comes because (and I knew this) they only distribute features. Grrr. This isn't the first time I've had to reply to an email and say it's "only" a short. But that's how it goes. And it sucks to have to say "only." I both wish shorts were more respected and viable distribution specimens and that we'd had the money to produce a feature.

Well, so it goes. One day the title will be just "Awesome" without the disclaimer.

Clash of the Titans (2010) vs Clash of the Titans (1981)

2010-04-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

I don't know how to review this. So, let's just have fun with it.

for simplicity we'll just use the year.

BUBO
1981: an annoying replacement for a lost helmet
2010: an inside joke
ADVANTAGE: 2010 (barely)
This was one of my biggest complaints about the original. Bubo is the Jar Jar of Clash of the Titans. The reason for the "barely" win is the "it might be on the cutting room floor" appearance of the metal fucktoid in the remake.

THE SCORPIONS
1981: After Medusa is decapitated, her blood spills through Perseus' cloak to create large scorpions the survivors must battle.
2010: In the remake, it's Calibos' blood that creates the scorpions which Perseus runs after to defeat, killing some of the team and raising the question of his loyalty to the team.
ADVANTAGE: TIE
I couldn't decide. I loved how, after having defeated Medusa, she had one more trick up her sleeve when her blood creates the scorpions, but I loved how the battle played out in the remake. Had they followed the original's story 2010 would have won. (Both my sons, aged 9 and 13, said the fight with the scorpions was their favorite part of the remake - I felt it was too early in the film, that it would have been better as placed in the original)

CALIBOS
1981: Son of - Thetis, Calibos is destined to marry Andromeda. But he is cruel and kills all the flying horse except Pegasus. As punishment, Zeus makes him a hideous creature. No man can marry Andromeda without solving a riddle.
2010: Zeus impregnates the wife of a king (which results in the birth Perseus) and he (the king - in a flashback - revolts by tossing his wife and bastard child off a cliff to perish. This action is punished as Zeus shoots lighting from the heavens and fries the king (barely describing the lackluster makeup) who then goes into hiding in his destroyed kingdom under the new name Calibos. Hades appears to infuse Calibos with superpowers so he can find and kill Perseus so Hades can overthrow Zeus, whom Calibos hates for impregnating his wife.
ADVANTAGE: 1981
The remake was WAY confusing. Maybe having seen the original the gods know how many times allowed me to work out what was going on beyond the woo and the wow, but the remake was just weird and convoluted and (ironically) too easy. I missed the late night abductions that took Andromeda into the swamp to learn the new riddle. I missed the head of Maggie Smith falling down off the statue to decree the sacrifice of Andromeda to save Joppa/Argos. Besides, he was kind of an afterthought in the remake where in the original he was integral. Bad makeup, bad story and no "Love Is a Battlefield" connection.

THE KRAKEN
1981: The destructo-minion of Poseidon released at Zeus' wish.
2010: The destruct0-minon of Hades released at Zeus' wish.
ADVANTAGE: 1981
A tough call. I had the Kraken action figure as a kid. With it's (in the film) non-jointed bendy arms and bad water effects, the original is a bit wonky. However, blessed with the Anything-Is-Possible technology of today, the Kraken is a lot of show, without any presence. Plus, already knowing its fate made it tough to even care. The overblown religious freak who burns his hand made the build up that much more annoying.

THE GODS
1981: The Love Boat on Mount Olympus, but you at least got to know something about them, but you really can't get over the showboating.
2010: The Who's Who in B-List Hollywood, and you really cant get over the showboating.
ADVANTAGE: TIE
As a kid, I hated the gods in the original, not understand what the fuck they were talking about and all the blahblahblah. As An adult, I appreciate it, but could do without it. As far as the remake, aside from the cool Earth centerpiece of their throne room, I still couldn't give a crap and kept thinking of Dynasty whenever Zeus' sparkly armor was onscreen.

AMMON/IO
1981: Burgess Meredith serves as the mentor/explainer.
2010: Io is the hot guardian/love interest.
ADVTANGE: 2010
Pete Postlethwaite was as cloying as Burgess Meredith in the original, to the point I kept wondering if that was the role he would eventually play. And as annoying as the ever-present Io became, anything is better than Burgess Meredith. Sorry. (Burgess tainted what might have been an okay performance - though I thought Perseus' mother had survived and this old man was doinking her). But at least Io was fun to look at, even though, in the remake, Perseus is basically fucking an old man. Think about that.

THE STORY
1981: simple
2010: simple
ADVANTAGE: 1981
In 1981, a blah story was easily overshadowed by the wow of special effects. Nowadays, even retrofitted 3D and IMAX (which CotT wasn't in IMAX) can't help a dull script. Back then, the bastardization of mythology was okay. Now, the bastardization of a classic that bastardized mythology is criminal. It's easy. Just like Friday the 13th, but they fucked that one up, too.

THE STYGIAN WITCHES
1981: Three blinds who hold the secret of how to defeat the Kraken.
2010: Ditto.
ADVANTAGE: 1981
Though they were both very similar (and the presence of Bubo in the original and the charwood people in the remake cancel each other out), the remake was too similar, nothing new, nothing fresh, and the makeup sucked. It actually was annoying in the way the remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was annoying because this was one of the few places I kept thinking, "Oh that's kinda like the original, but not quite and this is annoying."

DIOSKILOS
1981: The two-headed oversized dog-thing that guards Medusa's temple.
2010: Um, not there.
ADVANTAGE: 1981
Duh. How can you ignore this scene? So awesome. Bad remake. Bad.

CHARON
1981: A creepy skeleton in a creept bone boat with crunchy fingers which close around its payment coin.
2010: A seemingly non-sentient almost part of the dumb-looking boat that ferries the cast to the Isle of the Dead.
ADVANTAGE: 1981
The remake had a moment of "wow" when the two dead bodies rose to the surface of the water, pulling the boat on chains behind them. But, overall, Charon was scenery and not a character in the remake. And Io's "training session" felt oddly Avatar-ish, though I'm not sure why. I keep seeing Zoe Saldana in that scene. It's weird. At least there was no fireplace.

MEDUSA
And, to be fair, this was the one element that regardless of the rest of the film, would have one the whole banana
1981: a stiff-tailed, reptilian archer whose gaze turns its onlookers into stone.
2010: a CGI'd, reptilian archer whose gaze turns its onlookers into stone.
Any modern audience watching the original would probably laugh, but I, a reluctant embracer of CGI dismissed the even-faker-looking iteration in the remake. Plus, the laugh was no replacement for the kikikikikiki of the original's tail rattle. Even the I'm-beautiful-until-you-look-at-me morph was lame when mixed with the Steve Miller Band-esque beams from her eyes. The whole scene sucked. Really. It did. I missed the rattle sound; I missed the tempura-blood-from-the-neck-after-scratching-the-column-death. It was dull, boring, rote, nothing new. CGI-fakeness vs. stop-motion-fakeness... Harryhausen wins because, while fake, his creation had a soul.
ADVANTAGE: 1981

WIN: 1981. Both were cheesy, fake and overwrought, but while the remake was shot anamorphically (a fetish of mine), the original had soul. I said it before: It's not a tough thing to do, remaking such an easy film, but somehow they keep fucking it up.

Rubberblog moved

2010-03-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

At least, hopefully. Blogger will discontinue FTP publishing for blogs. Rubberblog (should) now be available at blog.rubbersquare.com. If there are any issues, let me know.

All blogs, including the Rubbersquare News and Detox blogs have been consolidated into this new blog.

Quentin Tarantino has "Thought Disorder"

2010-03-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

Researching a character for a script, I came across a Wikipedia article on Thought Disorder and was surprised to find how many of the symptoms actually show up in Tarantino's scripts' dialogue:

Thought is revealed through speech. Thus, observation of patterns of thought naturally involves close observation of the speech of the individual being considered. Although it is normal to exhibit some of the following, especially at times of stress, it is the degree and the resulting functional impairment that leads to the conclusion that the person being observed has a thought disorder.

Blocking - Interruption of train of speech before completion. e.g. "Am I early?", "No, you're just about on-" This is commonly seen when a joke is being told and the speaker forgets the punchline. At an extreme degree, after blocking occurs, the speaker does not recall the topic he or she was discussing.

Circumferential speech - Speech that is very delayed at reaching its goal. Speaking about many concepts related to the point of the conversation before eventually returning to the point and concluding the thought. Excessive long-windedness. e.g. "What is your name?" "Well, sometimes when people ask me that I have to think about whether or not I will answer because some people think it's an odd name even though I don't really because my mom gave it to me and I think my dad helped but it's as good a name as any in my opinion but yeah it's Tom."

Clanging - Sounds, rather than meaningful relationships, appear to govern words or topics. Excessive rhyming. e.g. "I'm not trying to make noise. I'm trying to make sense. If you can't make sense out of nonsense, well, have fun." "I heard the bell. Well, hell, I heard the bell."

Derailment (also Loose Association and Knight's Move thinking) - Ideas slip off the topic's track on to another which is obliquely related or unrelated. e.g. "The next day when I'd be going out you know, I took control, like uh, I put bleach on my hair in California."

Distractible speech - During mid speech, the subject is changed in response to a stimulus. e.g. "Then I left San Francisco and moved to... where did you get that tie?"

Echolalia - Echoing of one's or other people's speech that may only be committed once, or may be continuous in repetition. This may involve repeating only the last few words or last word of the examiner's sentences. This can be a symptom of Tourette's Syndrome. e.g. "What would you like for dinner?", "That's a good question. That's a good question. That's a good question. That's a good question."

Evasive Interaction - Attempts to annunciate ideas and/or feelings about another individual comes out as evasive or in a diluted form. e.g. "I... er ah... you are uh... I think you have... uh-- acceptable erm... uh... hair."

Flight of Ideas - A sequence of loose associations or extreme tangentiality where the speaker goes quickly from one idea to another seemingly unrelated idea. To the listener, the ideas seem unrelated and do not seem to repeat. Often pressured speech is also present. e.g. "My hand is five cigars. I've been to Havana. She rose out of the water, bikini. Mushrooms clouds, Wow. You're God."

Illogicality - Conclusions are reached that do not follow logically (non-sequiturs or faulty inferences). e.g. "Do you think this will fit in the box?" draws a reply like "Well duh; it's brown isn't it?"

Incoherence (word salad) - Speech that is unintelligible because, though the individual words are real words, the manner in which they are strung together results in incoherent gibberish, e.g. the question "Why do people comb their hair?" elicits a response like "Because it makes a twirl in life, my box is broken help me blue elephant. Isn't lettuce brave? I like electrons. Hello, beautiful."

Loss of goal - Failure to show a train of thought to a natural conclusion. e.g. "Why does my computer keep crashing?", "Well, you live in a stucco house, so the pair of scissors needs to be in another drawer."

Neologisms - New word formations. These may also involve elisions of two words that are similar in meaning or in sound. e.g. "I got so angry I picked up a dish and threw it at the geshinker."

Perseveration - Persistent repetition of words or ideas. e.g. "It's great to be here in Nevada, Nevada, Nevada, Nevada, Nevada." This may also involve repeatedly giving the same answer to different questions. e.g. "Is your name Mary? Yes. Are you in the hospital? Yes. Are you a table? Yes."

Phonemic paraphasia - Mispronunciation; syllables out of sequence. e.g. "I slipped on the lice and broke my arm."

Pressure of speech - An increase in the amount of spontaneous speech compared to what is considered customary. This may also include an increase in the rate of speech. Alternatively it may be difficult to interrupt the speaker; the speaker may continue speaking even when a direct question is asked.

Self-reference - Patient repeatedly and inappropriately refers back to self. e.g. "What's the time?", "It's 7 o'clock. That's my problem."

Semantic paraphasia - Substitution of inappropriate word. e.g. "I slipped on the coat, on the ice I mean, and broke my book."

Stilted speech - Speech excessively stilted and formal. e.g. "The attorney comported himself indecorously."

Tangentiality - Replying to questions in an oblique, tangential or irrelevant manner. e.g:

Q: "What city are you from?"
A: "Well, that's a hard question. I'm from Iowa. I really don't know where my relatives came from, so I don't know if I'm Irish or French."

Word approximations - Old words used in a new and unconventional way. e.g. "His boss was a seeover."

Sabi

2010-03-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Sabi Pictures are in the beginning stages of planning a theatrical tour of event-screenings in August 2010 for White Knuckles and Heart of Now. Simply add yourself to their fan map and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. If the demand is there, they’ll bring a Sabi Pictures event to your town. C'mon Vegas people! Let's get them here!

Goodbye to '09

2009-12-31T07:01:00.000-08:00

Can't say it was a bad year. Wasn't a great year. Definitely an interesting one.

Laid off and out of work for four months before getting hired at MGM MIRAGE - funny thing about that being is that i used to be the ad guy, now i'm the corporate guy. you know the song "triangle man" by they might be giants? well, after i started i kept singing in my head: "agency man, agency man, agency man hates corporate man, they have a fight, corporate wins, corporate man."

Most exciting thing that's happened is an opportunity to do a campaign for the las vegas-based cirque du soleil shows. whatever comes of it, it's been fun to do some advertising again - with chris, no less. he does some freelance every now and then.

Speaking of freelance, i've had a couple projects come my way which have been a nice addition to my bank account - and a fresh client for my portfolio.

Also got addicted to LittleBigPlanet. love it. i could spend forever playing. there's something so amazing about the style, like a little crafty, handmade stage. love it.

During my hiatus, i took my first solo road trip and visited my good pal rachel in san diego. crashed on her couch (and thankfully not on the freeway). petted her dog non-stop (that's not a euphemism). had fun, chatted and chilled. (and was introduced to agave nectar).

Wrote a horror film while i was unemployed. it pretty much sucked, but was fun to write. Also finally got feedback on Detox - positive, no less. We'll wrap that one up shortly. Also working on plotting Beautiful and hope to have it moving along to get feedback early next year.

Also decided to work on the next DVXUser scriptfest (whatever it may be). I have less than a week to write one for the current fest (BetryalFest), but if i can bust out a feature in a week, i hope i can bang out 6 pages for a short. Definitely no lack of things to be working on. Just not much time to work on them.

That's my goal going into the new year. More time on the stuff that matters.

It's a thought.

"Detox" receives coverage

2009-12-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

After finishing draft 14 and spending nearly 3 years working on it, Chris and I decided to send Detox for coverage. Script coverage is, according to Wikianswers, a filmmaking term for the analysis and grading of screenplays, often within the "script development" department of a production company. While coverage may remain entirely verbal, it usually takes the form of a written report, guided by a rubric that varies from company to company. Criteria includes, but is not limited to:

* IDENTIFICATION: Title, Author, Type of Material, Locale, Genre.
* LOGLINE: A one sentence summary.
* COMMENT SUMMARY: A paragraph summary of the analysis.
* GRADE: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor for categories that include characterization, premise, storyline, production values, dialogue and more.
* SYNOPSIS: Summary of plot: 1-3 pages depending on script quality.
* BUDGET: The script reader's estimated budget.
* ANALYSIS.

In our case, the "grade" was either a pass, consider or recommend.

We got our coverage through ScriptShark. Chris ordered the 3-reader pack to get a variety of feedback since it's all so subjective anyway. The first issue was length, which somehow the script ballooned the past few drafts and we never went back to trim it down. This also lead to some comments about pacing. Both fairly easy fixes. There was also an across-the-board comment on the characters. They wanted them to more fully developed. Even so, there were comments that the characters were something top talent might be interested in. We knew all of this before sending the script in, but it was good to hear from an objective party that we knew what we were doing wrong with some concrete ideas on how to fix it.

They did, however, very much like the dialogue. This was an area Chris was nervous, but I always thought our dialogue was good. Natural, but cinematic. My concern was two of the main characters might have been too similar, but they thought the dialogue defined and differentiated the characters.

Then there were a couple of characters they felt weren't necessary. They felt there was padding to keep the plot points in their proper places. Various stuff like that. In all, though, the comments were positive - or at least constructive.

As for grade, we got a "Pass," a "Reluctant Pass" and a "Consider." Getting a consider made our script eligible for their scouting services to agents, producers, etc. We have until about April to refine the script to be submitted to that service. Pretty good news.

When I sent in Under as a trial run, knowing it was pretty bad, they tore it apart, so I knew they were capable of being heartless and cruel. And hearing their comments on Detox made us really re-evaluate what we were trying to do and say with the script. t made us a lot more focused. So we think the next draft should be pretty damn good.

Funding has begun for "Beautiful"

2009-10-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

Funding for the new short film "Beautiful//The Janssen Twins" has begun. The official budget hasn't been sorted completely, but we've set $10,000 as the initial goal. Besides funding through IndieGoGo, a couple of other fundraising events are being discussed, including special screenings and other events.

Stay tuned. You can go to beautiful.rubbersquare.com for updates or, as always, send an email to updates +at+ rubbersquare.com to subscribe to the mailing list.

A new short script

2009-09-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

Last week I finished the first draft of a new short script entitled "Beautiful // The Janssen Twins." Yes, the // is part of the title and, actually, a symbolic element of the script. It's an idea I've been knocking around for a long time. Something Chris Smith (co-writer of "The Bet") has been fascinated with as well. And when I sent him my draft, his response was that it was "remarkable and touching." He's too nice. By the end of the weekend, I'll have a 2nd draft done which will address Chris' comments and some things I knew needed noodling. After that...

My hope is that I haven't written something beyond a budget I can muster. It seems doable, but I never know. I pretty much used up all my favors on "The Bet," so there'll be no freebies this time. So, well, here's hoping it can get made.

I haven't said anything about the plot, have I? Well, intentionally so. The 'tubes have not been my ally lately. Once the thing's been registered and copyrighted, maybe I'll share a little more, but I can say this: In my interview with ShortEnd Magazine, I said that I didn't see my style really changing much, that with "The Bet" I had made a film I wanted to see, that I thought matched my "vision" - this one, at least on paper, does that, too. It's dark, it's controversial, but, as Chris said, it's touching. A combination I find fascinating.

Go to beautiful.rubbersquare.com for the tease and, as always, there's the (spam-laden) forum. Or follow me on Twitter or join the Facebook fan page.

The Wicked Blood

2009-09-13T14:34:00.001-07:00

At the end of the school year, my son, Spencer, got all of his various papers and projects sent home with him. He had just finished second grade. This is one of the papers he brought home. Click it to make it bigger (opens in a new window).

May the pants be with you.

2009-09-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

I can't get this one outta my head. I love the word pants, as do apparently many others. And I love Star Wars. So, thanks to Mat Planet, I want to hear your best pantsing of Star Wars (if you have a better name for it, let me know). Basically, replace a word from dialogue in any of the Star Wars films with "pants" :

These aren't the pants you're looking for.
You want to go home and rethink your pants.
Blast, this is why I hate pants.

Go. Comment. Pants.

um

2009-08-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

yelling upstairs.

took forever to load this fucking thing.

my life is hell.

suck it.

A new chapter

2009-08-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

So, I got a job. I won't go into details, but it was a very odd process. Basically, the interview was with people who knew everything that was in my portfolio because it was for their company. I applied and had to take a drug test. About a week later, on a Friday, I was 30 minutes late for the HR processing (I got lost). Then was told to go to where I was going to be working. There I was told "See you monday." It wasn't a "Here's the job, do you accept?" I guess, I pretty much stated that at the interview? Still, it's a job, so I really can't complain (though I compain about everything).

It's been tough, actually. Having a 4-month hiatus and suddenly getting launched back into a 9-5... well, let's just say it's like the grieving process. I just left the denial phase.

In other news, I am trying desperately to get at least one thing shot for DVXUser's MonsterFest. I could, with a small bit of money and a shitload of effort on my part, get a music video shot that should qualify. Chris (my co-writer extraordinaire) has an idea that could be doable as well. I can submit 2 films max, though I'd be thrilled with one. It's driving me insane not having shot something, knowing how awesome of an experience it is. I just gotta get over the drain the new job is taking and get back into the groove.

I've been very nostalgic lately (yes, changing the subject again). Partly because at this time of year I can feel summer dying and giving way to a melancholy sort of... existence. It makes me both creative and sad.

I'm not making any sense.

"The Bet" Digital Download for $1.99

2009-07-23T11:11:00.001-07:00

Finally! You can now download a digital copy of "The Bet" for $1.99 through Payloadz. Simply go to RUBBERSHOP or directly to the PAYLOADZ page. Either link opens a new page.

Get "The Bet" for only $9.99 ($3 off!)

2009-07-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

For a limited time (until August 31, 2009), use coupon code RUBBERSQUARE for $3.00 off "The Bet" DVD from FilmBaby - LINK OPENS NEW WINDOW.

The DVD includes over 4 hours of Special Features, including Commentaries, Making-Of Featurettes, Alternate and Extended Endings, "Hallway" Music Video, Trailers, Bloopers, Storyboards, the Short Film "Foreplay" and MORE.

Hurry, the offer expires August 31, 2009!

A fail and a retry

2009-07-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

Funny thing about criticism - at least with me - is that I'll try to rationalize why I did whatever it is for whatever reason, but eventually that nagging feeling they were right will weigh me down and I'll buckle and give in. I sent Under, the latest script, for paid coverage - yes, I know, it's not the best way of doing it, but it was a test run for Detox which very, very, very badly needs an objective, professional opinion. Anyway, they pretty much bashed every aspect of it. At first, I wasn't too miffed since I knew it wasn't the best script - it's a simple monster film. And I couldn't get mad since I knew they were right in everything they said. What stung was that it could have been said about nearly any script about monsters of late: Cloverfield, The Descent, etc. But I think I can see where I went wrong.

I didn't realize how much the criticism had affected me until the next day when I found myself in quite the funk. I had figured out how to get one of the more slippery scripts to work, but didn't want to touch it. Why? What's the point? It's gonna suck. Yeah, it was one of those kinds of days.

Then, this morning I got an email from FilmBaby who sells "The Bet" online saying that due to a lack of warehouse space and lack of sales on "The Bet," they are ready to return all but one DVD which - according to them - is a 2-3 month supply. I have until mid-August to prove them wrong. My main reason (other than pride) for wanting to have a larger inventory with them is that it's expensive to ship DVDs and if I sell that one, I'll need to ship more. Commerce sucks.

So, clearly it has not been the most promising week where my future in filmmaking is concerned. Not to mention I'm on the verge of returning to work which makes these past few months feel like they've been wasted with nothing to show for them besides a 13th draft of Detox and a failed attempt at another script. I'm a bit under the gun.

So, I'm not giving up. I'm giving that slippery script another chance to come out. It's certainly not my last idea or hope. In a few weeks, we'll be submitting Detox for coverage. I think that's where my fear is. If that is completely bashed...

Update

2009-07-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

We have decided to forgo further contests due to a lack of funds for entry fees. Instead, we are polishing the latest and final draft which will be sent for a paid critique (yeah, I said we had a lack of funds) and then we will be packaging it up for presentation to a producer whom we know through a friend. It's doubtful he will toss out a wad of cash to produce the film (we are also submitting the recently finished Under to him as well), but our hope is he might know someone who would be interested in tossing out a wad of cash.

Pretty much all we are doing (and by "we," I mean "Chris," since he's working on the latest draft while I banged out Under) is tightening up the characters' motivations/arc/etc. That's the one thing I felt was missing. And now we've got a handle on it. Otherwise, we (Chris and I) both think it's a rockin' awesome script.

New Feature Script "Under" Completed

2009-07-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

Michael Dunn has just finished the script for a horror feature entitled Under. The script follows seven college friends who are stranded in an abandoned town under which horrific creatures dwell.

QR Codes hit America

2009-07-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

This poster for 9 - the Tim Burton/Timur Bekmambetov-produced, Shane Acker-directed CG film - features the (in other countries, at least) ubiquitous QR Code - also seen in the header of this blog (and as an Easter Egg on "The Bet" DVD leading to other goodies). I love the QR Codes (for more reasons than that they're squares made up of smaller squares). And am very jealous I wasn't the first to prominently feature the device.

QR Codes (according to Wikipedia) are

a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan, where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes. Moreover, most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera.

At any rate, it's cool to see this form of marketing here in the US. How well it'll be received... ?

Effects artist directs the undead

2009-07-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

As a favor for a fellow filmmaker, I am linking the press release for the zombie film Haunting Kira. Take a read (opens a new window) HERE.

Not supposed to do it

2009-07-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

My best friend and co-writer of "The Bet" and Detox, Chris Smith said that when you tell people that you're working on something it takes the wind out of the sails. This blog is mostly just my own diary that I have decided for whatever reason to make public, so I don't really think I'm "telling people" much if I tell it here - for all you, oh, 3 readers. Anyway. I've gotten 50 pages into a script (which translates to 50 minutes of screen time) that is a full-on horror script. Blood, fun and mayhem. And, yes, boobies. I'm hoping to be done with the first draft by the end of this fourth of July weekend (family vacations and fireworks are impeding my progress). At any rate, this one is A) low budget, B) fun and scary (the way "popular" horror films are) and C) as my producer friend mentioned - serializable. Yes, this could have sequels. And yes, it's fun. And yes, there's boobies - another genre favourite.

So, challenging my dear Smitty's advice, I think there's something good here.

The Verizon guy, Chad and why I love comments.

2009-07-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

In response to an article about the verizon guy and that chad guy (i swear he's the "O face" dude from Office Space) for alltel, i found this:

When I was in high school, I worked at the local K-Mart.

That's right. Jealous much?

I was a cashier...then I was promoted to the Books/Stationary section. And in the summer months, I also covered Lawn and Garden. Outdoor duty...sweetness.

My most reflected upon memory of that glorious time, was one day, talking with an employee from another dept - like children's apparel or something.

I can't remember her name, but I remember our conversation crystal clearly.

I was 17. She was maybe, MAYBE, a year older. And she was so supremely happy with her lot in life.

She was engaged to a fella who wanted to be a cop. (Wasn't a cop, wasn't in cop school, but wanted to be a cop.) She LOVED working at K-mart. Loved the discount. Loved working with children's clothes. Couldn't wait to get married. Couldn't wait to have kids.

I asked her about college or travel or seeking anything outside her current realm.

Complete disinterest. She had what she felt was everything. A job she enjoyed. A man she loved. Plans for marriage and a little place to raise rugrats.

Part of me was completely aghast at her. No other goals than to be married and kid-ridden before she was even legal to drink.

But another part of me, and I remember this as such a strong reaction, was kinda envious. While I have my doubts about her contentedness lasting for decades to come, I had never met anyone so happily satisfied with their state of being.

It was like talking to a Martian. A really pleasant Martian.

Maybe Chad is content with his lot.

Or maybe he's just a Martian.

p.s. "You're still a ding dong." does make me laugh. It doesn't make me want to buy into Alltell, but it does make me laugh.

I love the comments section.

Lock down - UPDATE!

2009-06-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

So, apparently there are multiple males (that's what the cop people say) living in the house. And one of these males was holding multiple females hostage (which is sometimes okay - well if you can pull it off, it's awesome) and the cops were getting the chicks out one-by-one, save the last one which is when they retreated. Even when they blew in the door with EXPLOSIVES! the dude still wouldn't give up. So they sent in the K9 unit which made him his chewtoy (the dog may have also anally raped him, too, but nobody will corroborate that). Then he gave up and came out and got TAZED (wow, dog fucked and tazed, that's a bad night). My question is, how'd the dog know who to chomp on? And, apparently, they are renting the house. Yay. I want to move. No, I want everyone else to move. To space. Or really far away. And let me swim naked without worrying about the cops showing up to bust some dick with harem issues. Oh, and, if you're the cause of the commotion, and the cops fuck up your shit (tires and door and all that - yes, they shanked his tires) insurance WILL NOT cover it. Lesson learned.

Lock down!

2009-06-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

Had an interesting night last night. At 10:45, Michelle and I went upstairs to go to bed and we were looking for something for one of the kids when BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG on the door. I figured it was kids joking around. Then a few seconds later, again, BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG! So I went downstairs and tried to look out the peephole - our porch light is broken - thinking if I opened it, someone was gonna push their way in or some sort of home invasion scenario was going to unfold. But I could hear what sounded like intercoms. So I opened the door a crack, fighting to keep the dogs back.

"It's the police. Stay in your house. We have a situation across the street."

So, I ran upstairs to peek outside. By now, both kids were awake, and Michelle and I were being not so sly spying out the upstairs window. There was a police truck just off to the right of our house in the middle of the street. And a few cops hiding in various places. Even a K9 unit was there. I could hear voices, so I figured there were cops down by our garage below us, just like I could see cops back against the garage door across the street. Then I saw more cops - with guns drawn - in the garage of the house to the left of the one across from us.

Interesting. So, we kept watching, wondering what might be going on. Michelle works for Metro and suspected there was someone who had locked themselves inside. A few minutes later, a cop rushed a woman in handcuffs away from the house and then about seven more cops followed. Now there were even more of them on the street, maybe 20 or so. Then they pulled out one of those bullet-proof shields you see SWAT guys use and the cops that came out of the house lined up behind it and backed away carefully. They were doing the hand signals like you see in the movies. Seemed surreal.

Michelle called 311 and all they would tell us was that someone had barricaded themselves in the house. She tried to get hold of one of her co-workers as i was pulling out the camera when another BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG. I answered the door and the cop said that we needed to evacuate. All things considered, we most likely would have been fine, but the kids were freaking out. Michelle knew that if a barricade didn't end in a few minutes, it usually lasted hours and there was no way any of us was going to sleep until it was over. So we decided to bail and go sleep at her mom's house.

So we piled into the truck in the garage and headed out the back way - which was blocked by every assortment of vehicle imaginable. Cop cars. SWAT trucks. A police/fire trailer that Michelle thought might have robots (cool!). Laptops setup in the back of pickups. Police tape blocking the street. Dozens of people in all sorts of uniforms. Even a negotiator (which was also cool). We had to wait for them to clear the road so we could get through and saw the woman who'd been taken out in handcuffs walking with a police officer (no longer handcuffed).

When we came back this morning, the front door of the barricade house was lying on the ground and the front window was shattered. The back tires of all the cars there were flat. Out next-door neighbor was outside and told us what he'd seen (he hadn't bailed). He said a SWAT truck pulled up in front of the car on the street and then they flattened all the tires. They threw in smoke bombs and flash bombs. And then set up a charge on the front door, ran a line out to the street and blew it open. No battering ram. EXPLOSIVES. The blast shattered the front window. Finally, they got the guy out - who was drunk as hell, staggering around and swinging his bottle of whatever. Apparently they tazed him and that was pretty much the end of it.

EXPLOSIVES! Damn, I wish we'd stayed. Dazed and tazed. Still not sure exactly what was going on. Our suspicion is a domestic violence call. The cops said they hadn't had problems with them before. We also thought it might be drug-related since there have been some people coming and going that don't look familiar. Whatever it was, the chick is back and the door and windows have just finished being boarded up. Fun!

Road trip

2009-06-02T17:45:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend I took my first solo recreational road trip. I went to San Diego to visit my friend Rachel (who wrote the song "Hallway" for "The Bet." After I'd gotten laid off, she kept bugging me to come and visit. So I did. I was a bit nervous driving out there on my own - especially since my car is having issues. But I took it in, got it checked and dropped $920 to get some repairs. Still freaky on certain roads, but it was fine for the trip.

It was a nice ride, no traffic to speak of, and once I neared SD it was overcast and foggy. And great break from the 100-degree weather here. I watched as the temp dropped from 98 to 88 to 78 to 52.

I got there about 3pm. Rachel had told me we were going to ride in Critical Mass that night. I was up for it. Until I saw the bike I was borrowing was a townie, not a bmx. BIG difference. I was way wobbly on it and was suddenly very nervous. Not to mention it was in the lowest gear and a bitch to pedal uphill. But I figured I'd driven all this way, I might as well give it a go. As Rachel said, we'd jumped out of a plane together; this was nothing.

As hundreds of bikers gathered around the fountain in a park, waiting to go, there was a thud. Some guy who'd been standing about 15 feet from me passed out. While one of our group ran over to the cop car nearby, he came to, then went out again and I was sure he had just died. But he came to again and seemed fine. An ambulance came and took him away. Not what I needed to calm my nerves. Rachel and I decided we'd bail on the whole event and head back. I was plenty exhausted anyway from the drive and all, so I was all too happy to call it a night.

The next day we went to Salton Sea. I'd never heard of it, but it seemed like a pretty interesting place. Apparently the algae is so thick that it robs all oxygen so when fish get to a certain size they suffocate and float to the surface. Fun! It took nearly three hours to drive out there and the misty overcast skies gave way to sun and heat. When we got there, the smell was so overwhelming we nearly just turned around. But decided to do some exploring.

We'd hoped to find some of the abandoned buildings and such that we'd heard about, but the shore that we were one really held nothing but dead fish. Lots and lots of dead fish. And ground up fish bones. And stink. We'd had enough of the heat and smell and headed back.

That night we went to So Say We All, a Moth-style storytelling event that some of Rachel's friends were in. The theme was "It seemed like a good idea at the time" - which could have described our two pseudo-adventures. After that, we were both dead tired. I was leaving in the morning and wanted to get some sleep, not looking forward to the long drive back.

It may not have been everything we'd hoped, but I was with a good friend so the misadventures were simply adventures. And her dog, Agent Cooper, is probably the cutest damn dog I've ever met. Plus, now that my road trip cherry has been popped (Rachel's words), I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Lots of stuff in the past much days

2009-05-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

Still unemployed, though not poor enough to start whining. I'm getting scarily accustomed to not having a job. Finding a new schedule comprised of family-centric tasks. Odd.
Really studied script structure over the past few weeks - thanks largely to Michael Hauge's 6-stage Script Structure and this one. Helped to rewrite the first act of Detox, and - soon - the rest of the script.
May have figured out the key to the new script - which will be called a "weapon of mass depravity."
Getting a handle on the photography thing. Got my terms sorted and my focus pulled. Just need some interesting subjects. And some lights. And a meter. And a Lens Baby. ... kidding. The gadgets are all nice and fine, but I really love being able to shoot in natural light, which is so unlike my usual aesthetic. Maybe because I don't have all the gadgets.
Finally getting my car serviced. 8000+ miles after his last checkup was due. And two more new tires. That means...
Road trip is imminent. Gonna head out to see my uber friend Rachel - hopefully - May 29th. I'm gonna be shooting a video for her song "Virgins" as soon as money doesn't suck and maybe get in a less expensive one (or two) on the way. Because...
I got a Steadicam Merlin. Borrowed it from a friend and it kills the jello effect of the D90. So I can actually shoot handheld video that doesn't make you wanna puke. I just gotta learn how to fly it. You can see a comparison of with and without the Merlin HERE.
Besides all that, I'm really starting to see myself as a person, rather than an employee. Weird thing, that. No one is my boss. And that's making me become my own boss. And that means I'm slowly - very slowly - becoming more aware of what I'm doing and why. And what to change and how. And what I like about myself. Sadly, the last of those is tougher to solve. But I'm getting better. And I've lost 9 pounds. Just another 40 to go. I think I need to actually exercise to get there, though.

Wil Wheaton is, well, cool

2009-04-28T22:35:00.001-07:00

Unemployment FTW

2009-04-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

Don't cry for me, I'm not without income. But I am without schedule, sadly something I was really, oddly, addicted to. It'll be 1:45 and I try to tell myself I need to eat, but I don't know what to eat and spend the next 20 minutes and realize I need to go to the shower and pick up my elder son son from school (my life is now governed by half-hours - half-hour to shower, half-hour to get kid, half-hour to eat, etc).

The job I was really hoping to get was given to some other... someone. Um, yeah. Fuck it.

Did I mention I blew a tire, my battery decided to fuck off and my tires, in some sort of odd mutiny - one of my few consistent comrades, BAT BOY, is even giving up on me - decided to enhance my daily fatigue -by getting out of alignment or balance or whatever makes him shimmy and shake and swerve across the freeway. Now, that I realized the damn guy's out of warranty. Maybe it's his lack of bathing got him, BB, on edge.

Today I watched the end of Donkey Punch, a fair thriller, though it was tough to hear what they were saying in subdued tones late at night with their Leeds accent (and only got to watch the last half hour with the sound up). Then watched, in stops and starts (those half-hours again), what may be the best film I've seen in... years: The Orphanage. It's like a remake of Poltergeist without copping to the remake fuckery and actually one-upping the original. I called them out, then nearly cried, then nearly cried, then was haunted by then film the rest of the day.

As far as what I'm doing? I've revamped the Rubbersquare site, spent much time understanding script structure to where I can finally understand it (and watch The Orphanage and absolutely love it and recommend it and recognize the script structure (and Poltergeist-ness of it), and am rewriting Detox and making sure the new script follows it (which oddly they both already do to a large extent). There's the Detox novelization and a really exciting Mother's Day gift which just emerged today and got me more excited than I've been in weeks.

Rubbershop Opens

2009-04-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

To create a centralized location for Rubbersquare merchandise (as well as that of others who have a relationship with Rubbersquare), Rubbersquare has opened the online retail outlet Rubbershop. The site, located at shop.rubbersquare.com, pulls merchandise from specialty vendors, such as POD-based Lulu.com, as well as Rubbershop exclusives like Donnie and Maree t-shirts and autographed merchandise.

New site is LIVE

2009-04-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

The newly revamped Rubbersquare site is now live. Go ahead, check it out (opens in a new window).

Some of the cool stuff you'll find are information about all of Rubbersquare's projects, like "The Bet" and Detox. There's also the music video for "Hallway" and the short film "Foreplay" - both of which you can watch on the site. There's a news section which connects to the brand-new Rubbersquare News Blog with an option to subscribe. And links to the Rubbersquare network, including this blog, Rubbershop and Rubberforum.

Now that the hard part of designing it is done, it should be easy to add new content and keep the news current.

Why are you still reading? Go check it out.

I re-redid the Rubbersquare site

2009-04-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm a bit... insane, bored, pick your own adjective. Just don't share. But I completely revamped the revamped Rubbersquare site. Why? Because I want something a bit lighter. And I figured out how to get a text feed into Flash whilst keeping the formatting. No, it's not a live update from the soon to be awesome Rubbersquare blog - different from the rubberblog in that the Rubbersquare blog will be press releases, verses the random rants of my head on rubberblog... but anyway. The new BETA site is live at rubbersquare/beta and would appreciate feedback if you are so willing.

Some things to keep in mind, though, are that at this juncture, only the "The Bet" and "Suffer" buttons will produce content. But like the previous revamp, the "Hallway" and "Foreplay" buttons will eventually, before the wide release, give you what you're looking for. I decided to emphasize revenue-generating links first. Call me arrogant. Call me unemployed. Blah. Also, the news feed is temporarily feeding from random "see if it works" content, but will - eventually - feed from the very newly created Rubbersquare news blog. I am retrofitting that beast as we/I speak.

In the meantime, let me know what you think. Fail, win, etc. I am thick-skinned and can take (and actually hope for) criticism.

Suffer Published

2009-04-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

Rubbersquare is proud to announce the publication of Suffer - Collected Works by Michael Dunn.

Whether the setting is a desolate apartment building, the set of a porno or an everyday high school, it’s still a world from the imagination of Michael Dunn. His characters, often struggling to survive even an ordinary life, are thrust into unusually grim situations which test their ability to adapt.

The short stories and poems included in this anthology are dark and disturbing, but – at times – funny and insightful.

The 288-page book is available in hardcover format for $39.50.

Sneak Peek

2009-04-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

Get a sneak peek look at the in-progress, revamped Rubbersquare site at http://www.rubbersquare.com/beta

Just a taste of what's coming, it's all still in flux, little tweaks, little bugs, and possibly a revamp of the revamp. Nothing is set in stonepixels. SO, your feedback is very much appreciated. Sound off!

The economy sucks

2009-03-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

I got laid off today. One of 9 people who got laid off (in a 30-employee company). Everyone else got a pay cut. Did it matter I was there for 8 years? Well, apparently it did, since 2 others who were there nearly as long were also laid off. Who stayed? The ones with the least time there - probably the lowest paid in each department. Know what pisses me off the most? I had 187 hours of vacation. I never took it. And I didn't get anything for it. That's over 4 weeks of time off I should have taken - and didn't because we were, by management, fought taking any scheduled time off, and was trying to look like a good employee and not take any time off. I'm the fool on that one. Apparently, performance had nothing to do with it. Which - and the bitterness leaks out - what I did for the company and no one else could do or had no idea about, hopefully now they'll stammer and fumble and fail. An empty hope, I know, but wutev.

I got laid off. Right now, all I care about is keeping the kids oblivious (other than the "why are you home so early?" and subsequent "why aren't you going to work?") and keeping the income coming in before I have to tell them why all their channels aren't working.

Happy Birthday, Scott

2009-03-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

I miss ya.

My so-called criminal past - part 2

2009-03-15T15:17:00.001-07:00

So, I finally found (I think) a way to get "The Bet" torrent removed from at least one torrent site. I sent them an email following their instructions, and it should be removed in a couple of days. We'll see.

I also asked (though I'm sure I will get no response) if they had any information about how the incorrect and slanderous biography became attached to the film.

Part of me isn't all that concerned that it's being downloaded illegally - it's getting seen - but it is wrong and I need to fight, I guess. I would have less of an issue if any of the 100+ downloaders, including the two that posted positive comments about the film (if they're real), would take the time to actually purchase the DVD with extras legally. But, then, that's just the way I would do it. It's not like I ever got paid for making the film. I paid to make the film. And recouping the $5000 or so put into making it would go a long way to alleviating the frustration.

I have an interesting past

2009-03-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

I got spam on my Vimeo account which, oddly enough, led to a torrent of "The Bet." I know nothing about torrents. Except that it pisses me off people can download the film without paying - and paying me. Anyone who knows how to get torrents deleted, please let me know.

Anyway, what was particularly interesting is the Director's Biography they have for me:

Con-turned-filmmaker Michael Dunn (*22 November 1970, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) directed The Bet. Convicted of several rape crimes in 1995, and sentenced to 5 years in prison, Dunn continued his work as screenwriter. Texas prison proved to be harsh, but he survived. There, he wrote a biography about himself, in it, explaining some of the issues he has with women. At Sundance, Hollywood Producer Mischa Barton, stated in 2008: "He's not a bad filmmaker, but as a woman, and knowing about his past, I would always stay at least half a mile away from this guy...." Dunn is currently working on another short film, again, about violence against women.

I may use this as my bio from now on.

I have no idea where they got that info - it's clearly not true - and it's not like they just stuck some random info in there (unless they have a template that replaces specific info). It's my birthday and hometown the have listed. Just. Weird.

Very odd

2009-03-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

We have "The Bet" for sell at Amazon, has been available there for quite awhile. That isn't the odd part. What's odd is that it shows there are 4 in stock, and in the breakdown of what's available it shows: 2 new, 2 used. At first I thought it was strange that the used copies are selling for over double the cost of the new copies, over $32. Then I realized that they should have in stock 4 new copies. Any used ones should be in addition to those 4. The reason this bothers me is that, technically, if it's being listed as used, it must have been sold, and if it's been sold, I should have been paid for it. However, the seller, "any_book," which has nearly half a million counts on its feedback, is somehow selling (at over twice the retail price) a used copy of a DVD they don't even seem to technically own. Something's fishy here. It's almost as if Amazon is using this "any_book" name to get more money from customers (not that 55% of my sale is enough).

Hybrid Moments

2009-03-05T21:18:00.000-08:00

My wonderful friend Rachel Bellinsky (who wrote the song "Hallway" for "The Bet" and liked to disturb me by eating crackers like a hamster when we worked together) has another awesome video. Her previous video for "Salt of the Sea" was directed by Thomas Barndt. This one was directed by Lexington Wolfcraft. Hopefully, soon, I'll join these amazing guys as a director for her videos (soon, I swear).

You can buy the CD, The Secret Life of Spiders - which kicks ass - HERE.

My good friend and creative giant, Lexington Wolfcraft, has created this video for Switchyard's version of "Hybrid Moments." I think you will find that I have never looked better.

Fuck

2009-03-05T21:16:00.000-08:00

I was so happy that no film had been made (at least according to IMDb) with the title Detox. Until now. Sure, it's a totally different story. Yes, it only cost $10,000 to make. Okay, everyone involved has really only been involved in this one film. But still. Really?!

Fuck.

D90

2009-02-26T13:33:00.000-08:00

It arrived. Actually, it got here on Tuesday, but I've been too slammed with work to really mess with it other than quick point and shoot tests. I still haven't really had time to do much with it, but I've been devouring the manual and testing various things. Hopefully this weekend I'll have some time to shoot some test videos and see how the editing goes.

I'll be posting stuff on my VIMEO PAGE. There's already some stuff up there now, like commercials, shorts and a music video. Take a look. It's fun.

Finally

2009-02-21T21:14:00.000-08:00

I did it. I bit the bullet and defied the recession and bought a Nikon D90.
What sucks is that I'd planned on going to a store and getting it and spending the weekend getting to know it. But, as my luk would hold, they were sold out at all Best Buys. No other local outlets were kind enough to devulge stock levels through the interwebs, so I ordered it and had it shipped. I got a memory card, too.
I am already overwhelmed. I downloaded, for the second time, the user manual, and can't even begin to grasp that which is photography. I've tried for so long to understand it and hope that once I spend endless hours on this fucker I'll begin to get it.

In the meantime, I can't wait to go through the pains of understanding.

I've seen 157 of 239 films

2009-02-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(o) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(o) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
(o) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(o) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total: 6

(x) The Princess Bride
(x) Anchorman
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
(x) Saw
(x) Saw II
(x) White Noise
(o) White Oleander
(o) Anger Management
(o) 50 First Dates
(o) The Princess Diaries
(o) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 13

(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
(x) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
(x) Scary Movie 2
(x) Scary Movie 3
(x) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(o) American Pie 2
(o) American Wedding
(o) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 20

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
(x) Resident Evil 1
(x) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
(o) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 29

(x) Finding Nemo
(o) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
(o) White Chicks
(x) Butterfly Effect
(o) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
(x) Robots
Total so far: 37

(o) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(x) Universal Soldier
(o) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(o) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
(o) Kingpin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(o) Meet the Fockers
(o) Eight Crazy Nights
(o) Joe Dirt
(x) King Kong
Total so far: 42

(o) A Cinderella Story
(o) The Terminal
(o) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
(o) Passport to Paris
(o) Dumb & Dumber
(o) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
(x) Final Destination 2
(x) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
(x) The Ring 2
(o) Surviving Christmas
(x) Flubber
Total so far: 49

(o) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
(x) Ghost Ship
(x) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
(x) Secret Window
(x) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
(o) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 57

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
(x) Child's Play
(o) Seed of Chucky
(o) Bride of Chucky
(o) Ten Things I Hate About You
(o) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
(o) Remember the Titans
(o) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
(x) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
(o) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 65

(o) Bad Boys
(o) Bad Boys 2
(x) Joy Ride
(o) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean's Eleven
(o) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremecy
(o) Lone Star
(o) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
(x) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
(x) Curious George
Total so far: 75

(x) Independence Day
(x) Cujo
(o) A Bronx Tale
(x) Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
(x) Children of the Corn
(o) My Boss' Daughter
(o) Maid in Manhattan
(x) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 84

(o) Best Bet
(o) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(o) She's All That
(o) Calendar Girls
(o) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
(o) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 92

(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
(x) Sky High
(x) Jeepers Creepers
(o) Jeepers Creepers 2
(o) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
(o) Reign of Fire
(o) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
(o) Cruel Intentions 2
(o) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 104

(o) Swimfan
(x) Miracle on 34th street
(x) Old School
(o) The Notebook
(o) K-Pax
(o) Krippendorf's Tribe
(o) A Walk to Remember
(o) Ice Castles
(x) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 108

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(x) Basketball Diaries
(x) Hostel
(o) Waiting for Guffman
(x) House of 1000 Corpses
(x) Devils Rejects
(o) Elf
(x) Highlander
(x) Mothman Prophecies
(o) American History X
(o) Three
Total so far: 120

(x) The Jacket
(o) Kung Fu Hustle
(o) Shaolin Soccer
(x) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
(o) Willard
Total so far: 126

(x) High Tension
(o) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(x) 28 days
(o) Orgazmo
(x) Phantasm
(o) Waterworld
Total so far: 133

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
(o) Mortal Kombat
(x) Wolf Creek
(o) Kingdom of Heaven
(x) The Hills Have Eyes
(x) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
(o) The Last House on the Left
(x) Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 140

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
(o) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
(x) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 147

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
(x) Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead 2
(o) Team America: World Police
(x) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
(x) Hannibal
Grand total: 157

My take on AFI's Top 100

2009-02-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

I've seen 49 of the Top 100 according to AFI. What I hate about these lists is that I really don't care to see a lot of "important" films and have only seen the bulk of these because of film classes. To me, films are entertainment, they're an escape. When it comes to the "scholarly" films, I'll read about them or watch the pertinent scene(s) or analyze them rather than watch them.

By the way, the Friday the 13th remake comes out Friday!

(x) 1 CITIZEN KANE (1941)
(x) 2 GODFATHER, THE (1972)
(x) 3 CASABLANCA (1942)
(o) 4 RAGING BULL (1980)
(o) 5 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)
(o) 6 GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
(o) 7 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
(x) 8 SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)
(x) 9 VERTIGO (1958)
(x) 10 WIZARD OF OZ, THE (1939)
(o) 11 CITY LIGHTS (1931)
(o) 12 SEARCHERS, THE (1956)
(x) 13 STAR WARS (1977)
(x) 14 PSYCHO (1960)
(x) 15 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
(o) 16 SUNSET BLVD. (1950)
(x) 17 GRADUATE, THE (1967)
(o) 18 GENERAL, THE (1927)
(x) 19 ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
(x) 20 IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
(x) 21 CHINATOWN (1974)
(o) 22 SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
(o) 23 GRAPES OF WRATH, THE (1940)
(x) 24 E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
(x) 25 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
First 25 Total: 15

(o) 26 MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
(o) 27 HIGH NOON (1952)
(o) 28 ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
(x) 29 DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
(x) 30 APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
(o) 31 MALTESE FALCON, THE (1941)
(o) 32 GODFATHER PART II, THE (1974)
(x) 33 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)
(x) 34 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
(x) 35 ANNIE HALL (1977)
(o) 36 BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, THE (1957)
(o) 37 BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, THE (1946)
(o) 38 TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, THE (1948)
(x) 39 DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
(x) 40 SOUND OF MUSIC, THE (1965)
(o) 41 KING KONG (1933)
(x) 42 BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
(x) 43 MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
(o) 44 PHILADELPHIA STORY, THE (1940)
(x) 45 SHANE (1953)
(o) 46 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
(x) 47 STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, A (1951)
(x) 48 REAR WINDOW (1954)
(o) 49 INTOLERANCE (1916)
(x) 50 LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE (2001)
Second 25 Total: 13

(x) 51 WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
(x) 52 TAXI DRIVER (1976)
(x) 53 DEER HUNTER, THE (1978)
(o) 54 M*A*S*H (1970)
(x) 55 NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
(x) 56 JAWS (1975)
(x) 57 ROCKY (1976)
(o) 58 GOLD RUSH, THE (1925)
(o) 59 NASHVILLE (1975)
(o) 60 DUCK SOUP (1933)
(o) 61 SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941)
(o) 62 AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
(o) 63 CABARET (1972)
(o) 64 NETWORK (1976)
(x) 65 AFRICAN QUEEN, THE (1951)
(x) 66 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
(o) 67 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)
(o) 68 UNFORGIVEN (1992)
(x) 69 TOOTSIE (1982)
(x) 70 CLOCKWORK ORANGE, A (1971)
(o) 71 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)
(x) 72 SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE (1994)
(o) 73 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
(x) 74 SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE (1991)
(o) 75 IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)
Third 25 Total: 12

(x) 76 FORREST GUMP (1994)
(o) 77 ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976)
(o) 78 MODERN TIMES (1936)
(x) 79 WILD BUNCH, THE (1969)
(o) 80 APARTMENT, THE (1960)
(o) 81 SPARTACUS (1960)
(o) 82 SUNRISE (1927)
(x) 83 TITANIC (1997)
(o) 84 EASY RIDER (1969)
(o) 85 NIGHT AT THE OPERA, A (1935)
(x) 86 PLATOON (1986)
(o) 87 12 ANGRY MEN (1957)
(o) 88 BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
(x) 89 SIXTH SENSE, THE (1999)
(o) 90 SWING TIME (1936)
(x) 91 SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982)
(o) 92 GOODFELLAS (1990)
(o) 93 FRENCH CONNECTION, THE (1971)
(x) 94 PULP FICTION (1994)
(o) 95 LAST PICTURE SHOW, THE (1971)
(o) 96 DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)
(x) 97 BLADE RUNNER (1982)
(o) 98 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)
(x) 99 TOY STORY (1995)
(o) 100 BEN-HUR (1959)
Fourth 25 Total: 9

Nikon D90

2009-02-07T19:03:00.000-08:00

I just watched the most interesting and inspiring video created from stills shot on the Nikon D90 - which makes me even more desperate to buy the fucking thing. Just. Wow. Using the 4.5 fps still shooting mode and putting that together with Twixtor, just created the most amazing display. Someone had mentioned shooting with a (sorry I forget which one, but one that shot still as at 13-or-so fps -- maybe a D30?) and then running it through Twixtor.

I told the kids yesterday, when one of them made a comment about shooting video on their phone, that soon they would be the subject of many-a-video to which he was rather silent.

But, still, I tried to take a picture of the clouds crawling over our mountains (we have yet to name them, but they're ours) and was pissed that the crappy little 5MP wasn't cutting it. I have been spending a lot of time researching a lot about photography, f-stops, ISOs, the difference between fixed and variable lenses, the meter range or lenses, all that photo stuff to get ready for the (hopefully soon) d90 purchase.

ok. too drunk to continue.

Rough draft of "setup"

2009-02-06T12:59:00.001-08:00

I just sent the rough draft of the setup - mentioned in the last entry - to Matt Wilkinson. As I said before, this lays the groundwork for the rest of the film. It clocked in at 24 pages, just shy of my 30-page goal, which translates to about the first half hour of the film. Since it's rough, there's a lot of "cheating" where the dialogue isn't as good as it could be, where some character development is foggy (or non-existent), but, as it is, it's not a bad bit of writing. There's sex and humor, suspense and terror, blood and nudity. Still vague, I know. Hopefully Matt will be intrigued and we'll move forward with it. Then I'll be able to shed a little more light.

Matt's finishing up a location scout and said he'd read it later tonight.

In Detox news, I'm contemplating whether or not to send it in for a critique. The place I'm looking at, ScriptCoach, charges $295 for a complete analysis with about 7-10 pages of notes on how to improve all elements of the script. Plus, it covers 10 pitches at Virtual Pitchfest. I think, once I get through the last few minor changes (and if we get enough back on our tax return), I might do it.

Something new

2009-02-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

Long time, no blog.

Believe me, I haven't spent all this time sitting around playing Left 4 Dead (if only!) The something potentially awesome that I had in the works seems to have fallen through, so it really wouldn't even mean much to relay what that was - though it could have been pretty awesome.

I know not many people read this, so what I tap out here is more for my sake than anything else, a way to track what I was working on and when and what became of it. So, I figure, since I'm about to head off down another, hopefully not futile, path I should log it - or blog it.

I have, for the past many months, been trying to concoct something to shoot for a feature film. I'd hoped it would be Detox, but that one is proving too expensive without investors. I'd thought, naively, that a short film would be enough of a proof of concept to generate interest for a feature. Apparently it no longer works that way. So, I've decided an actual feature may be a better proof of concept to, hopefully, get funding for Detox. The problem I kept running into was that every idea I had ended up being even more expensive to shoot.

So I went back to the basics.

What I've got cooking now, I think, as of now, will be cheap enough to self-finance - or at least need little investment money - and still be something I would be proud to be credited as "A Michael Dunn Film." This "something" has yet to be scripted. See, that's where the new thinking comes in. I've spent quite a lot of time researching how to make a microbudget feature. There've been some people that have offered some good advice - despite being dickheads - and some who've given what seemed bad advice and proved to be decent guys. I've been taking it all in and have a plan that - hopefully - will work and will result in being able to have a finished feature-length film under my (and my collaborators') belt without affecting the day job.

Suffice to say, the biggest piece of advice, at least in the scripting stage, is to write around a location. Our biggest expense on "The Bet" was building the sets - in money and time - so, if Matt Wilkinson (producer of "The Bet") is onboard past the initial "You interested?" stage (which he's already mostly onboard at this stage) - basically after he reads the setup - then we'll move on and scout locations which will be factored into the script.

From there, with a finished script, we'll move ahead to breaking it down and budgeting to see how much the whole shebangy will cost. And, if feasible, make a feature.

Stay tuned.

I've Been Pirated, Attention Indie Filmmakers

2009-01-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

I was Googling "The Bet" - hey, don't judge - and saw it listed for sale at a new website. A lot of sites pull from Amazon, so I wasn't freaked out. Until I saw that it was listed for a price lower than Amazon AND that they had 317 copies in stock (which no one but me has more than 20).

So I sent them a letter asking how they had permission to sell the film and how they had so many copies. They responded by saying (lack of caps is theirs):

thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

We will have the entry removed asap.

I will send you another confirmation notice, once removal has occurred.

Which makes me wonder if other films are being sold there illegally.

It's entirely possible someone had bought the DVD and then sent it to them as their own. As quickly as they pulled it, though, without question or proof of my ownership of copyright, makes me suspicious.

Really? You have to rip off the little guy? Shit pisses me off.

Detox Fail #2

2009-01-14T16:19:00.001-08:00

Well, Cinequest just sent a rejection letter (which, I must say, as much as a rejection letter sucks, it's better than not hearing anything and just assuming you didn't make it). We didn't make it into the top ten finalists. Which kinda sucks because the top ten get feedback to make changes for resubmission into the finals. I'm dying for feedback on this thing. I think it's good. Chris thinks it's good. Kurt thinks it's good. Oh well.

So, I'm now going in and breaking down the script to see how much it would take to shoot it ourselves. Not that we'd be able to get the cash, but, if it were doable at $200,000, then, well... maybe. But I can't see that happening. Still, with a budget breakdown and a business plan, who knows.

Still waiting to hear from Wildsound, but after two rounds with no feedback from them, I think it's a lost cause (and a lost $40).

Fail #2

2009-01-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

My Top Ten Favorite Horror Films

2009-01-12T21:10:00.000-08:00

This is a list of my favorite horror films. Maybe not the best, but my faves.

10. Session 9

This one was actually not in my first round of the Top Ten. When I came back to the list after letting it gestate a while, I was shocked I hadn't included it and actually bumped the number one film on the list (Eraserhead) to make room for it. This film creeped me the fuck out. The warped audio. Where Simon lives. And the echoes of The Shining. And Brad Anderson's awesomeness (The Machinist was thisclose to getting on the list, and I'm scouring the listings to find Transiberian).

9. Angel Heart

This was one of the few films we saw multiple times in the theatre, and the first unrated video I ever bought. This came at a time when I worshipped the pages of Fangoria and couldn't wait to see the images from those pages brought to life on screen. And the images they didn't show are some of the most amazing moments in film. The entire atmosphere, the acting, the music, that solemn sax and whisper. The fans, the elevator. The sex scene between Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet was imagination Viagra to me then, and still is. This film marked me.

8. The Blair Witch Project

You'd laugh at me if I told you for months, literally, after seeing this in the theatre, my wife and I had hallucinations. Go ahead and laugh. This is one of the few, very few, films, I had to continually remind myself - in the case of this one whenever it got dark - that it was only a movie. Combine that with a truly brilliant marketing campaign - the SciFi Channel bit, the "Missing" posters, the website - and I was sold before I ever got into the theatre. This has long-lingered at my #2 spot of all-time favorite films, slowly slipping.

7. The Shining

There's a scene in this film, a scne you'd have to be really familiar with the film to know without watching it again to look for it, that still makes me shudder. When Danny goes up to get a toy under his mother's caution not to disturb Jack, he walks in and there's a shot where Jack slowly turns just his head to look over at his son. I swear, that's worse than the twin girls echoing "Come pla with us, Danny" and blood-barfing elevators. I can't imagine a more perfect descent into isolation hell than this slow-burning, haunting, visually visceral delight. I. Love. This. Film.

6. 切肤之爱 Audition

I still can't watch the climactic torture scene of this film without cowering now and then into my clasped hands. But that's not why it's on the list. Gore isn't scary. Hostel isn't scary. What is terrifying about this film is how slowly the relationship builds between the sad widow and the (seemingly) innocent actress. It's a perfect play on the secrets people have. There are shocks galore throughout this film, but the patheticness of Asami. It's the characters here that engage and disturb. Something few films (or filmmakers) can grasp. Show me an eye getting gouged out, I'll cringe and laugh. Make me care about someone for an hour and then hurt them, and I'll never be the same.

5. Videodrome

This was another Fangoria favorite. Long before I actually saw the film, I was aware of all of Rick Baker's awesomeness with the splitting body and intestine-spewing TV. I didn't quite grasp the idea of th story the first (or third) time I saw it, just marvelled at the FX. I didn't understand how disturbing the Videodrome broadcast was, with it's sadomsochism and suggested snuff film, until a good friend (who was also, ironically, a Japanese exchange student) had to leave while we were watching it to collect herself. In fact, I never really appreciated this film until I realized how much it had permeated my stories and ideas.

4. Hellraiser

There seems to be a prevelance of sex mixed into the horror on this list. For that, I thank Clive Barker. His short stories were often lined with some element of sexuality, if not downright about sex. And the dark side of sex. Not the huggy, touchy-feely sex. The sex he wrote about hurt. And Hellraiser put it on the screen. As cheesy as it is at moments (the drunk-scratched opticals are horrid), I am reluctant to see this remade. It's a classic, even with its badness, and the only film I saw two nights in a row at the theatre. Clive is a master, and this is a masterpiece.

3. うろつき童子 Urotsukidoji

I saw stills from this in some horror mag just before I left for college. Wouldn't you know I ended up with two roommates who were exchange students from Japan. As much as they tried to appease my thirst to learn about and see (and understand) what I'd come to know as hentai, they did their best to steer me toward the lighter side of anime. Still, like losing your virginity, the first time watching this film is absolutely memorable, even without subtitles or dubbing. I watched it twice before I convinced one of my Japanese friends (not my roommates) to watch through the whole thing and translate it. And I was, if not before, hooked. Wow. A mixture of fantasy, horror and hardcore sex. So many moments in this film have become iconic to me that I can't imagine daily life without referencing something from conciously or not. Wow. Just, wow.

2. Jacob's Ladder

I saw Jacob's Ladder three times in the theatre, once each with two friends and once with my girlfriend (now wife). The first time I saw it, I was literally pressed back into the seat, scared to move. The second time, I knew (mostly) what was going to happen, but still got chills at certain points (the reflection of Jezzie in the mirror and the running of her fingernails down Jake's back still give me the willies). When I finally saw it with my wife, I was more into her reaction, to get me the high back, despite still loving it myself. And what's not to love. Adrian Lyne's take on the demons (which introduced me to my now-favorite photographer, Joel-Peter Witkin - who holds a special place for inspiring Scott - and painter, Francis Bacon, who is so awesome it hurts. Plus, the film was a huge inspiration for the Silent Hill games, which have also been a huge inspiration of mine... lots of inspiration here. Lots of awesome.

1. Texas Chain Saw Massacre

I saw this film for the first time when I was just really starting to get into horror. I thought horror meant blood and guts, and if something wasn't gushing red, it couldn't be scary. So I dismissed this film. No blood. Not scary. What sucks about a lot of horror films is that they have limited replay value. Maybe you watch it for the gore or the performances, but after the first few times, the scares don't scare you. The jumps don't make you jump. You become immune and comfortable with it. For me, quite the opposite happened with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Every time I watched it, I was more and more horrified, more disturbed, more emotionally devasted. I suddenly realised what sucked about remakes (after actually liking The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). I started to understand that fear wasn't only blood, that horror wasn't just guts, and that I was only just scratching the surface of what a good horror film could be.

Again, agree or disagree, these are my choices. My favorites. But feel free to comment.

"The Bet" script published

2008-12-29T19:31:00.001-08:00

After too much tinkering, you can finally own "The Bet" - The Screenplay and Original Short Story from Rubbershop (which also has lots of other goodies) or directly from Lulu. You can also get a 24" x 36" print of either "The Bet" poster or the Detox teaser poster, as well.

The screenplay for “The Bet” by Michael Dunn & Chris Smith, available for the first time, is presented with the original short story by Michael Dunn. Together, they provide a unique insight into a moral tale, different in each medium, yet both with a strikingly powerful message.

In the hallway of a derelict building, a young woman is dumped and left. She is bound and gagged. Alone. The door on the opposite side of the hallway opens. Another man drags her away and into his room.

One minute. That’s the rule. One minute in each room.

As each of the two men wait for the minute to pass, biding their time in their unique way, they reveal more about the truth behind the game. And, slowly, the young woman will understand where she is and why she’s there.

Lulu is a print-on-demand service, but the entire book was laid out by me (yay, control freak) and looks pretty awesome. It's a 72-page paperback and has a bunch of photos.

At some point (hopefully in the next few months), there'll also be the Deluxe version, an 8.5" square paperback with color photos, annotations on the script and story, storyboards, and whatever else I can pack into it to get the demons out and close the book (so to speak) on this chapter (another unintended pun) of my life. Well, at least until I get the soundtrack done. THEN I'll be done with it.

So buy a copy now - or wait for the deluxe edition (which'll be quite a bit more expensive) or, hey, buy both!

"The Bet" Screenplay Published

2008-12-28T12:43:00.000-08:00

Rubbersquare is proud to announce the publication of "The Bet" - The Screenplay and Original Short Story.

The 72-page paperback includes the complete screenplay by co-writers Michael Dunn & Chris Smith and the original short story upon which the script was based by Michael Dunn as it was published in the October 2005 edition of Thirteen. Also included are a number of black and white images - some exclusive to this piece.

The book is available for $15.95.

Detox Fail #1

2008-12-26T22:49:00.001-08:00

The Movie Deal (which we would have passed on HAD we won) has announced their finalists. Not us. Not even a finalist, though... that kinda stings.

Meh.

Also, Wildsound has fucked us for the second time, still not sending feedback, despite our payment for such.

Beginning to think this is a cursed project.

Ok, not really. It's too awesome for that kind of stigma.

FAIL #1

2008-12-26T22:46:00.000-08:00

3 degrees from Kevin Bacon

2008-12-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

I was playing around tonite, after my kid was worried that the "long-haired guy in the red shirt) in Tremors was gonna die. And I said, "Kevin Bacon won't die!" Which prompted my son to ask who is Kevin Bacon. Which prompted me to tell him about the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Which led me to this site which will connect any two actors. And while I didn't come up in the search (bastards!), Walt Turner did with a degree of 2 (he was in Vegas: Based on a True Story with Nancy La Scala who was in In the Cut with Kevin Bacon. And since I was in "An Uncommon Wager: The Making of 'The Bet'" with Walt, that puts me 3 degrees from Kevin Bacon. That's kinda cool. And it puts me higher than Kaleigh who has a Bacon Number of 4 - yes, it took a long time to find someone higher than me. Fuck it.

I miss writing

2008-12-14T11:58:00.001-08:00

It's been an amazingly long time since I've written a story (screenplays don't count). I was just starting to get that little whisper of inspiration, the feeling like a nicotine craving or being horny that compels me to put words on a page (and not blogging).

Hopefully something will churn up. Now that I know it can be published (ok, publish on demand is good enough for me). Maybe the fucking novel will finally come out.

Show Me Your Indies

2008-11-25T11:43:00.000-08:00

IndieFlix, an On-Demand DVD site where you can buy a standard edition of "The Bet" without specials features for $5.95, has a special site called "Show Me Your Indies." As part of that, they are highlighting filmmakers with films for sale with a "What the heck are IndieFlix filmmakers up to?" blog. Mine is up now. They asked 10 questions. My responses are at the link (opens a new window).

Forward on draft 11

2008-11-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

With Kurt's notes - which Chris Smith just went through and agreed he and I are on the same page - I am moving ahead to draft 11. No major changes, just a bit of fleshing out the characters with some revised action and dialogue. Possibly going to re-incorporate some stuff dropped from previous versions and tighten up artifacts from those previous versions.

Also, I've been breaking down the script to get a bead on what we'd be looking at budget-wise. It's an odd beast. It could easily be made for $100,000, but would feel like a no budget film. I think at about $1 million it would be substantially awesome, on par with a film that costs five times as much, simply because of clever filmmaking tricks. That extra money would feed into the actors, obviously, but also one of the most overlooked elements in low budget films: production design.

Still, at this point, even $1,000 is beyond our means. So, I'll keep working on the business plan.

Sometimes technology is better than people

2008-11-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

Hello the man in the planet, We at BLOODY-DISGUSTING.COM would like to wish you a happy bloody birthday!

'nuff said.

First feedback on "Detox"

2008-11-15T10:56:00.000-08:00

Kurt Rauf gave feedback on the latest draft of Detox. Kurt was the DP on "The Bet" and many other films, including My Name Is Bruce with his buddy Bruce Campbell. Kurt's leaving to go to Michigan next week to catch the tour of MNIB. But he managed to get through the latest draft and make notes.

It'd be pretty much impossible to go into any kind of detail regarding the notes and have it make sense without having first read the script. So I won't - at least not yet. What I will say is Kurt said we went from a mediocre script (draft 4) to a pretty damn good one. He agreed it was a drama that has horrific elements and thriller trappings, but it's not a horror film, nor a thriller. He had absolutely no problems with the story/plot; his comments were mainly on dialogue (we were a bit wordy), artifacts of plot devices removed from previous drafts and some suggestions to punch up the characters a bit.

Still waiting for other responses, but so far, not too drastic of changes.

Oh, and today is the notification date for The Movie Deal. They haven't posted the winners yet, but, based on previous experience, I'd say we'd have known by now if we won.

First feedback

2008-11-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

Horror

2008-11-09T10:26:00.001-08:00

I just blogged about the first script pitch for Detox over at the Detox blog HERE. And at the end I mentioned wanting to write a horror script that couldn't construed as anything BUT horror. You'd think that'd be easy. And, I guess, it would. But maybe my brain is just not wired that way. I set out for Detox to be classifiably horror as a reaction to "The Bet" not being perceived as horror. Now, I am looking to write something else that's horror since Detox isn't perceived that way.

Anyhoo. I think the problem I keep running into is that, for the most part, horror films are stupid. They're good, but there's usually not much to them storywise. And if there is, they start to move into other genres. Slasher films are undeniably horror and their scripts are usually pretty lame. Group of unsuspecting people trapped somewhere isolated and picked off one-by-one. Sure, a film like Wolf Creek follows that, but front loads with a lot of character development and was unapologetically brutal. A Nightmare on Elm Street mixed things up by adding fantasy elements. The Thing added sc-fi elements. Maybe I just don't know what horror is.

Actually, I do. I recently was going nuts trying to come up with a short film idea. I had ideas with horrific elements, but they didn't feel like horror. According to Wikipedia, "Horror films are movies that strive to elicit fear, horror and terror responses from viewers." Seems pretty simple. And by that definition, "The Bet" is a horror film. It may not have worked for everyone and may have been very light in the fear arena, favoring other darker emotions, but it did "strive to elicit fear."

I think what I'm expecting out of myself is something more traditionally horror. Something with blood and monsters and screaming. The new idea I've got cooking is definitely looking good in the blood department. It might not be the best way to write a script, but going in I'm determined to get a lot of blood, a lot of sex, a lot of nudity, a lot of screaming, a lot of death. I'm sure it will somehow, in the process, skew off into a more heady direction - and that's fine. I'll just make sure to keep the blood flowing on the screen.

First pitch.

2008-11-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

On Friday, I came across a post from the Director of Development of a production company asking for scripts to be pitched. I sent him an email asking if they were buying the script outright or if they were willing to allow me to develop it for them as the director. They said they were open to all options. So, I figured it wouldn't to give it a shot.

The problem was I had never pitched a script before. And everything I could find about techniques on pitching spent a lot of time covering how to look, how to present yourself and how to interact with the person to whom your pitching. Obviously I wasn't actually meeting them, so all that advice wasn't doing me any good.

I looked through the company's site, saw the kinds of films they had been making. Then looked those films up on IMDb. They had requested low-budget horror/sci-fi/fantasy scripts. What they had done were very low budget horror films. And not something that was straddling genres the way Detox does. There was no doubt these were horror films.

I had already decided they were going to pass on the script, so I didn't feel any kind of pressure writing something up and sending it to them. I decided to approach it more as a proposal in a business plan than an actual script pitch. I didn't want to go through the entire thing, scene-by-scene, and waste their time, when I was pretty sure this wasn't their cup of tea. Instead, I wrote out an introduction, a logline, the theme, a synopsis and then a list of selling points, such as the character of Miss Northrup being an ideal cameo option for a well-known star. The selling points also explained why we would be a good choice to create the film ourselves.

I sent it off last night. This morning I got their response.

Thanks for the very detailed pitch (really like your style of pitching), but we're going to pass on reading the script. Feel free to pitch me any other completed scripts you have.

Like I said, I didn't expect them to go with it, so it's not a letdown. And the comment about liking the style of pitching could be B.S., but it might not.

The whole thing, though, has really reinforced the need to write a straight-up horror script. No questions horror. Not a psychological thriller. Not an enigmatic drama. A horror film. I've got one in mind. All it takes is to get it on the page. Maybe that is what will eventually allow Detox to get made.

Obama. FTW!

2008-11-04T20:51:00.000-08:00

Thank you.
Let's hope change really does come.
Cos we need it.

And thank you, especially, to Shannon. She made me want to vote. And if she made ME vote, she made others (and I know she did). And, considering the number of new voters, there were a lot of Shannons out there.

I just hope America's vote for change is real.
Cos we need it.

It's almost Halloween.

2008-10-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

yay. woot. and who gives a fuck.

if you've been around since last halloween, you'll know how sucky it was last year. AND if you've been around since last halloween, why haven't we had drinks?

i'm not looking forward to it (and it's funny that i took a vacation during last halloween as well - though then i was finishing up the DVD for "The Bet" and this time i was supposed to be doing a website for someone who failed to provide any materials to do so, so I've been left to my own devices for the past three days) because i'm afraid i won't see any return on investment - the decorating and all that, only to have 15 kids show up. not sure how to fix that. but i hope it's better this year. or i'm putting razor blades in the apples next year (kidding).

there's been shit for horror on tv this year. and i failed to plan ahead with a stockpile of DVDs. ugh. And, since my wife is working swing and my older son is out of school around 2, there's really only a 4-hour window where i'm alone. meh.

we'll see how this halloween goes. if nothing else, it's not gonna be as good, because halloween last year was still surrounded by cool stuff with "the bet" - shooting interviews, a screening at shockerfest, the imminent DVD release, etc. this year... nothing. BUT, stay tuned for something that MIGHT be cool.

Super 8

2008-10-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

I just bought a Super 8 camera off eBay (which means it may not work). It's a Kodak Instamatic M26. And it was $3.99. I don't know anything about Super 8 cameras except that I love the look they produce (hence the faked 8mm look of "The Bet" on the DVD - or was it faked 16mm? either way). I checked, and they actually still make 8mm film (though I have no idea if it's the same film this camera uses). Basically, I bought something I might not be able to use. But if I can, then, well... how awesome.

This is the first of what will (hopefully) become an arsenal of "looks," if only to use as a reference to fake with stuff shot digitally. As I mentioned before, I'm also getting the Nikon D90 (as soon as the money comes in) and a Holga. I think I may also get a Polaroid of some sort - there are a number of instant picture cameras available.

We'll see how this whole adventure pans out.

Would like to add some other cameras as options, like a Kodak M8 Instamatic which has auto/manual zoom and a range of frame rates. Could geek out some more. But I'll stop.

If only I were 10 years younger and embarking on this journey.

I hate the world

2008-10-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

or maybe just america, i don't know. it could just be vegas.
i don't like to hate. i really don't. i feel better as a person and have a better day when i don't hate people. but i'm really, really starting to hate them. and for very personal reasons that would affect no one else, so you might as well stop reading now. this is just a vent. a hate vent.

i hate people who think the government should control their right to have an abortion, but not their right to have a gun. even though the second amendment is called "the right to bear arms." it actually states "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." so, is my dad, who is a retired police officer, part of a regulated militia? he has guns.

full disclosure: i have shot guns. many guns. and i never liked it. i shot them as a kid at targets. my dad said i aimed with the wrong eye. but i had amazing aim. i went on hunting trips with my family. i refused to eat what they shot. i'm not a vegetarian, but i won't eat food that looks like an animal. i can't eat ribs or chicken wings, but a burger or chicken fingers are fine. my mom killed a rabbit on a fluke one hunting excursion. i remember that, and that i had fun in the camper playing with paper dolls. no i'm not gay. and i remember my aunt saying to my mom i was at an age where bed meant sleep. i was. it took a few more years before i understood what she meant. i. forget. nothing.

traffic in vegas is the worst. we have too many people from too many places with too many ways of driving. ten years ago it was shocking water cooler discussion if there was an accident on the freeway. now, it's noteworthy if you don't see one (and if ou're not stuck in traffic for an hour because the looky-loos wanna see the expected gore). people treat the freeways like a raceway, jockeying for pole position. just drive on the freeway for at least 10 minutes, pick a car - any car- and count how many times they change lanes.

people are impatient. they have to be the first on the freeway while yapping on their mobile phone (i don't doubt a starbucks over-caffeinated something-or-other is in their cup holder and their kids are zoned out on an LCD screen somewhere in the cavernous transport that sucks more gas in a day than i use in a week. but you shop at fresh & easy, so it's okay. and you recycle your US weekly after you discover how stars are just like you.

ok. this is getting to the boiling point.

i hate the world. it hates me. it's a dysfunctional relationship. maybe one day it won't be this way. my only fear is that that "one day" is when i'm living off 13¢ a day and mailing bombs to people.

Three contests

2008-10-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

A few months ago we submitted an in-progress draft of Detox to the Wildsound Screenplay Contest as they provide feedback on every script submitted - whether or not it "wins" and is given a live reading with live feedback. I never heard anything back from them and contacted them to check on the status. Their records showed feedback had been sent; however, I never received anything. So they said to resubmit, and it would go through the process again. So I did and, not knowing exactly which version of the script I'd sent through before, I sent the final version. That was a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully in about a month we'll hear something.

We also submitted the script to two other contests. The first is The Movie Deal. Their grand prize is getting the script produced. By them. Not exactly my favorite option as I want to direct the film myself, but, if it does win, we have the option of not accepting the offer. So why enter? They can also offer a cash prize in lieu of a production deal. And, really, if it did happen to win, at least we know it's good. Winners will be announced November 15th.

The third contest is the Cinequest Screenplay contest. That one's a bit more appealing. The grand prize is $5000, a consultation with a "seasoned" producer and a physical award (cool!). The top ten finalists (including the grand prize) get a roundtable with producers, agents and experts on the business of writing and some other cool little things. The top ten finalists are notified mid-January and have a month or so to polish the script based on feedback from the judges before final judging.

Fingers crossed on all of the above.

The script has also been sent off to a couple of friends (Kurt Rauf and Dan Kauppi) to get feedback from them as well.

Until we get some outside notes, we're taking a break from working on it and from submitting it to any other contests. Chris and I both think the story is rock-solid, and only anticipate issues with the characters' arcs, motivations, etc. But you never know.

Sign a petition for 24fps in the Canon 5D Mark II

2008-10-22T12:21:00.001-07:00

I don't know if these things actually work, but it doesn't hurt to try. Yes?

Canon is releasing the 5D Mark II in November. It's a great still camera and one of the first to shoot video. However, it only shoots 30fps. There is no option for 24fps. If you don't know, 30fps is a video frame rate while 24fps is a film frame rate. It's why a soap opera and a motion picture look so different (well, aside from lighting and all that). As a filmmaker, I can't shoot 30fps and pass it off as "film." "The Bet" was shot digitally at 24fps and people assumed it was shot on 35mm film.

Anyway, even if you don't know why it needs to be there, many people do, and we want the choice of shooting 24fps. Go HERE to petitiononline.com to request the feature.

My geek is showing

2008-10-12T19:24:00.001-07:00

Okay. So I spent about 6 hours this weekend building a Steampunk aircraft out of LEGOs. So what. And yeah, sure, maybe I went to Fresh 'n' Easy with my goggles on. SO?!?!?