10.30.2012

Books in 2012

Time To Murder And Create
Making Movies
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
In The Midst of Death
A Purple Place for Dying
Savages
The Dawn Patrol
So You Want To Be A Producer 
The Outfit
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Moviemakers' Master Class
The Great Gatsby
Game of Thrones
The Moviegoer
Crooked Little Vein
A Drink Before The War
Inside Out


Neutral Grounds - Outside Looking In - Episode 2

Second episode of the locally shot web series Neutral Grounds:

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10.29.2012

St. Brendan - Patron Saint of Sailors

St. Brendan's Prayer:

Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home?
Shall I turn my back on my native land, and turn my face towards the sea? 

Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy,
without silver, without a horse,
without fame, without honor?
Shall I throw myself wholly upon You,
without sword and shield, without food and drink,
without a bed to lie on?
Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Your yoke?

Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins and begging forgiveness,
tears streaming down my cheeks?
Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach,
a record of my final prayer in my native land? 

Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict?
Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean?
O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea? 

O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?

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10.28.2012

Baseball Field




Baseball field by our church we parked in front of today.

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Blue Sky

More playing around with my new iPhone and camera apps.




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10.27.2012

The Grey

One of the best scripts I have ever read. Up there with Quentin Tarantino and Rian Johnson scripts. Jack London updated for the modern world. Joe Carnahan needs to do more.

The poem from the movie:

Once more into the fray ...

Into the last good fight I'll ever know ...

Live and die on this day ...

Live and die on this day ...

The ending:



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10.22.2012

Another Pics Test





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New Pics Test

Some pics I took with my new iPhone.

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10.18.2012

Violence - No Knife

“Oh crap!”

Probably not a good idea to say that aloud with my hand back for my knife. But, I realized it wasn’t there. I took it out earlier when I was taking a nap. It kept jabbing me in my side. Like a knife. Yeah, I’m an idiot.

Of course that exclamation just encouraged him further to charge me. Why not hit me hard and take me down? He had at least fifty pounds and six inches on me.

The chest blow hurt some, but the real pain came when we (me) hit the floor. My air exploded out of my lungs, and my back felt like an instant bruise.

It didn’t help either of us that when he speared me he wrapped his arms around me. For me, it meant it felt like I had rocks in my lower back: Oh joy, more pain. For him, it meant his arms were trapped under me.

He squeezed hard, so there was still no air in my lungs. I knew what he was trying to do: slam me down again. I couldn’t beat him on strength for strength.

I looked around. Quickly. Needle nose pliers. Those would hurt.

I grabbed them and jabbed hard into that soft spot between the shoulder and the neck. I got lucky. Pretty sure I wouldn’t have done much if I hit hard bone since they were old and dull and a bit rusty.

I will take the luck.

Yanking them back out did it. He was done then. He recognized it, but still tried to stop the bleeding. It wasn’t going to stop. And I was damned if I was going to help him.

I kicked him hard in the face. Childish, but I said it out loud, “Sweet chin music.”

He dropped and bled out there.

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10.17.2012

Kim Boekbinder The Sky is Calling



Support her Kickstarter.

Also, check out her post on Warren Ellis' site.

And from the same piece, here is an explanation of the video from director Jim Batt:


The video is primarily made up of individual frames of raw data sent back from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, currently orbiting Saturn. The eerie monochrome glitch aesthetic is the result of various technical factors – data artefacts, exposure calibrations, environmental conditions, and cosmic rays hitting the sensors. The main exception is the stunning footage of the sun, which was captured by another spacecraft. 
NASA carefully clean up and calibrate their images before releasing them, but there’s an inherent beauty in the unfiltered footage, driven by the aesthetics of how this spacecraft watches the solar system. A machine-vision perspective on the cosmos. 
The overlays are diagrams of humanity’s attempts to understand the universe throughout history, from astrology to the astronomical calculations of Copernicus and Kepler: early attempts at flight to blueprints of the spacecraft that now enable us to reach the sky. 
For the final sequence I used footage of the Russian Soyuz capsule resupplying the International Space Station, largely because the Russians are damn good at making a rocket launch look starkly dramatic and appropriately science fictional.






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Rewriting Learning To Throw A Curve

Trying to rewrite a short story from memory. Because I can't find where my copy of the story is. Probably in storage. I so need a house with my own office again. Ugh. Frustrated. But, I am going to work on it. And you all wonder why I drink.

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10.16.2012

Warren Ellis on Marketing Gun Machine

From Warren Ellis' Machine Vision email:


With this and the social media, it is -- and I get that this isn't thrilling, but it is process, and it is what you have to think about -- a case of deciding which content goes to which service.  Or, put another way, which kind of content works best on each service.  Unfortunately, this kind of change at Facebook means that simple visual stuff is most likely to get into people's timelines. Which is no different from the sort of thing that gets the most reblogs on Tumblr.  So that's something to be considered.  You will watch me work this out, and drink more.
 Goes along with what I was saying the other day about film marketing.

And my friend Jo Custer added some thoughts to the whole indie film marketing thing as well:

I would add the importance of writing across the social media, of networking across the Internet and research. It's all well and good to try and piggyback on websites that provide video hosting and to get reviews from indie friendly venues that need content, but it's so incredibly valuable to flex your own writing muscles and find people who are willing let you guest blog and whatnot. It makes a difference, especially if you're looking for a niche audience.
Check out her short Hotcakes.

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10.15.2012

We Stopped Dreaming







Some of us are still dreaming.

And just a reminder:



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Random Thoughts on Marketing A Film Online

Social Media is not just Twitter and Facebook or even Google +.

From what I have seen, many producers and directors don’t understand the Internet and Social Media and how to use these tools as a way to market their films. They think sending out some messages on Twitter and having specific Twitter and Facebook account for their project is enough.

The problem is these are just two resources.

Google of course favors their own social media over all others. So it is important to have a Google + account. It is important to be on YouTube.

Also, many indie filmmakers and short filmmakers seem to prefer one video platform over another. This is wrong. Trailer and shorts should be made available on Vimeo and YouTube as well as Daily Motion and any other video platform.

Also, a there should be a dedicated webpage for a project or at the least for a production company.

Indie filmmakers also need to learn about film sites. Not sires that play films, but those that cover films. Sites such as AintItCool, SlashFilm, CHUD, BadassDigest, Bleeding Cool, The Playlist, Film School Rejects, Pajiba, etc, etc. You want to get writers and critics to be fans of a film so that they will advocate it to their readers and followers. These sites are the equivalent to what the magazines were in the 60’s and 70’s. Only now instead of competing to get in two a few magazines, filmmakers are competing to get seen by multiple sites.

Also, short filmmakers and no budget filmmakers need to work to get on IMDB. For low budget filmmakers, this should mean inviting out local press or doing whatever they need to do to get covered by the local press. This helps with getting a non studio feature on IMDB.

Producers and filmmakers need to learn that the random hit of their project can be helpful. Someone looking through a cast member or crew member’s IMDB page can lead to that person being interested in the project and then hunting for it online. This is also why it is important to have as much info and video out there about the project, in case someone is doing a search and their keywords bring up the project, this could lead to that person becoming interested as well.

There is no guarantee of success. But the more a project is out there, the better chance it has of becoming known or at the least leading to more projects. The key is to be found. Them ore eyes on a project the better.

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Neutral Grounds: Shrimp & Grits - Episode 1

First episode of the NOLA shot web series Neutral Grounds.

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10.08.2012

Neutral Ground Series Trailer

Books in 2012

Time To Murder And Create
Making Movies
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
In The Midst of Death
A Purple Place for Dying
Savages
The Dawn Patrol
So You Want To Be A Producer 
The Outfit
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Moviemakers' Master Class
The Great Gatsby
Game of Thrones
The Moviegoer
Crooked Little Vein
A Drink Before The War




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10.05.2012

Birthplace of Jazz- Congo Square




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J&M Recording Studio




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Live and Let Die - 800 Block of Chartres




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More of 1009 Bourbon




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10.04.2012

Skyfall Theme - Adele

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Silence in Leone's Western Duels - 1

For something I am thinking of writing about:







Also, research for a script I am writing.

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Parker Adaptation Trailers















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