Some Guy Ruined My Xmas

So I was set to enjoy the extra time off work, maybe get caught up on some movie watching, and possibly get to the screenwriting, re-writing that has been awaiting me. Nope, that was not in the cards for your faithful narrator. As has become the norm, some guy from my past had to swoop in with ultimatums and needs and take away the relaxation and peace in the world of Boo.

It started with an email, and then after that, another email. After panicked phone calls, it was time to take action. On Christmas Eve, I was asked to do an emergency edit on this guy’s TV show that needs to go out on the 26^th with all expediency. So I bailed on My Sexy Fiancé Veronica’s ™ family gather on the Eve, and awaited the beta tapes so I could start the work. And I waited. Then more waiting. Finally I called the guy back, and he said he wouldn’t be able to get it to me until Christmas morning. So I bailed on the rest of the family activities on Christmas day, and then awaited a phone call that came at 7:30PM. By then, I and the lovely woman had gone to Champps for our annual Xmas homage to American Consumerism. Plus, our entire house was in disarray as we re-arrange, trying to prepare for the new breakfast nook, etc.

I didn’t get the footage in my hands until 9:30PM. By then, we were knee deep in the re-arrangement of our entire first floor and basement. Furniture has been released into the wild, and let go. Desks have been moved from one floor to another, and very little is left undisturbed. I will miss being able to see sunlight, as my laptop and desk has been reallocated to the basement. The upside is the increased security for my DVD collection and computer equipment since the basement has a decent lock, aside from the new security systems for getting into the condo these days. It is a sacrifice, giving up a window and sunlight to the woman, but I’m more or less trading to get the kitchen back. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica’s ™ desk and computer setup was moved into the kitchen some months ago and we have not had a table or chairs to eat at for over 6 months.

Lately, I’ve been cooking a LOT more than I used to and there’s no place to eat. I’ve been eating over the sink or stove, or in front of a computer screen. I hate it. It’s like being perpetually at work unless you go out to eat, which has taken its toll on my bank account. If I had a ton more money, as in a spare $1,000 lying around, I would have bought an actual restaurant booth for our kitchen. They look so cool and it would be like going out to eat in our own house every time I cook.

I’m about to start work on this project that ruined my Xmas. I am charging this yahoo through the roof for wasting my time and pissing me off. He seems pretty cool though, as he tried to pay me via credit card on Xmas eve, but I don’t take credit card. I’m a person, not a company; even Sonnyboo Productions is a façade, not real.

At least I didn’t stuff myself with holiday meals, although I am still a bit hungry… Where are my holiday buckeyes?

Peace.

PJR

My Daily Varieties of Hollywood Reports

This blog is dedicated to some of the goings on of big Hollywood movies, not the lowly indie or micro stuff I usually write about.



First off, because it’s the most personally significant – BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT. BLADE RUNNER is my favorite film of all time. I don’t make movies like this, nor do I even aspire to on some levels, but this remains my favorite movie. The density, depth, intellect, and all the things that a movie should have – this has. I went HD-DVD in the high definition wars so that I could afford to see this movie in HD. I was content to wait for the end of the wars, but this single film pushed me over the edge. I was NOT going to be buying a 5 disc set twice. That’s too much money. One way or another, I wanted it in HD and I wanted to see it in HD. Last night this dream came true.

At work, my Amazon.com order ($27 including shipping) arrived with a 5 disc set, 5 versions of the movie on 3 HD-DVD’s and 2 more standard DVD’s filling over 9 hours of documentaries, behind the scenes, deleted scenes, and all the things a fan-boy like me could ever desire. One thing omitted was a UK famous documentary called “On the Edge of Blade Runner” which was the most comprehensive documentary and history of the movie made – never officially released in the United States for rights reasons – and missing interviews with star Harrison Ford – who both hates the movie, his performance, and director Ridley Scott. The key word in that sentence is “was”. The new, nearly 4 hour long documentary made for this DVD blows that UK one away. DANGEROUS DAYS combines outtake footage, rare 16mm promo footage, even video taped clips, and puts all of it together with newly made videos – including Harrison Ford, to air out some laundry of my Seminole 1982 favorite.




I haven’t even put in the other 3 versions of the movie or listened to a commentary track (of which there are many), or even the other extras disc. Last night was a religious experience of watching the movie in HD with surround sound and turning the phones off. I was struck by the beauty, depth and look in HD-DVD, but I was equally shocked by how similar the movie was to all prior versions. It wasn’t drastic changes, all very small, subtle ones. A few lines of dialogue were changed or added, some small shots inserted here and there, but overall it’s the same as the 1992 “director’s cut” which was not endorsed by the Director, Ridley Scott.

What I love in the movie is the cinematography, lighting, set design, and performances. Harrison plays an unlikable protagonist, and does so with range, unlike most of his characters. Rutger Hauer steals the entire movie away with an incredibly diverse, deep character with many lines improvised, but done so well. I like that the movie, like the best science fiction, presents complex ideas, and ideals, and lets the audience deal with them. The dialogue is always underrated because it doesn’t treat the viewer like an imbecile. The main concept relates to how man-made people, androids/Replicants, are “born” as adults, and can’t handle the complexities of emotions that come with the human form. They have a 4 year life span as a safety net when they inevitably go wacko, so to me the idea of thinking how well most 4 year olds deal with their emotions – translates to how these Replicants act on screen. Brilliant how they make me do some work to think about what I’m watching, but they don’t do it by cheap gimmicks or bad filmmaking technique – just old fashioned narrative.

I can’t wait to finish watching what else is on here. Best $27 ever spent on this one. $27 for probably 20 hours of content – a definite bargain.



IMAX – I AM LEGEND/DARK KNIGHT IMAX TRAILER

Now I saw someone’s cell phone bootleg of the new BATMAN BEGINS 2 – THE DARK KNIGHT trailer online. Now this was not even truly a “trailer”, as that one officially came out Sunday in HD online and it was okay, didn’t do much for me. I’m not a huge Batman (or even DC Comics) fan. I like the movies, but don’t love them. I watch them, might rent, but never on the “must own” list.

I saw BATMAN BEGINS, liked it, but didn’t convert me to a Batman fan. I feel blasé about the new movie enough to watch the trailers, which for movies I’m looking forward to – I tend to try to avoid any reviews, spoiler news, trailers, etc. So for this, I watched because I’m not that excited and had 6 minutes to kill. The IMAX only trailer, which was shot in IMAX no less, even in poor quality blew me away.



When it came time to see I AM LEGEND, I paid the almost double admission price to see it in IMAX, not even to see that movie in IMAX – but this Batman trailer. That alone was worth $12. It was amazing, not only the picture quality, sound, whatever – the whole scene from the upcoming Batman movie – freakin’ SWWEEEEEEETTT. The music and scene were like a clip straight out of HEAT (1995, dir:Michael Mann). No hint of this being a comic-book movie. Even more so that BATMAN BEGINS, the concept being “realism”, they are taking this one even more into that arena. Even with an outrageous comic book villain like THE JOKER, they have a grounding in reality – no CGI, nothing too comic book-y, just straight on story. Wow.

Then I watched I AM LEGEND. Good movie, liked it, but what a mistake putting that trailer BEFORE the movie. I AM LEGEND is not a face paced movie, and I liked that. It wasn’t a balls to the walls action movie.



PETER JACKSON will be involved in THE HOBBIT movies. His plan to do 2 movies is a go, and he is officially and completely signed to EXECUTIVE PRODUCE the movies. Will this be a hands on or “in name only” Executive Producer job? Could it be like Spielberg ghost-directing POLTERGEIST and 100% controlling post production without the figurehead director? Or will it be Tim Burton “producing” BATMAN FOREVER, where the name was attached but he wasn’t there and there ain’t a fingerprint on the movie from him?



The plan is to break THE HOBBIT book into 2 movies by also adding a ton of prequel material for LORD OF THE RINGS onto it. There are chances to make this tie very well into LORD OF THE RINGS. In THE HOBBIT, the character of LEGOLAS does not appear, but he could easily be written into it as a cameo. His character’s father plays a major role, so adding him into the scenes into the movies make sense, plus there’d be better continuity than the books even had.

I hope PJ directs. Fingers crossed – PJ I hope you bring this home to the world that wants your magic back in 2010 and 2011.


Peace,
Peter John Ross

Aristocrats in the Kitchen

I grow weary. Very weary, my acolytes. It seems the work never stops for the Boo. I have piled work loads upon my shoulders and there are not enough hours in the day to do them all. I will endeavor to do so, but it has taken its toll on your faithful narrator. He has need of peace and rest, but there is none to be had in the foreseeable future.

As I'm putting the touches on edits of high school football championship games at night (after the edits of the Derek's ETERNAL), I found the time to write and shoot a new article/video for VIDEOMAKER magazine, and all of this is on top of the daily grind of working Monday thru Friday.

The latest article was something of a challenge since I did not write it to suit something I already had, so I had to create the content as well as the most painful part – shooting myself introducing the video.



I am not comfortable in front of the camera. I prefer being behind the camera. I can't memorize lines and anything rehearsed becomes a painful effort. I pity those who have had to shoot me doing anything like this. Doing an interview is on thing, as that is spontaneous and more like being in front of people, which I have no problems with, albeit it's not the most enjoyable thing for me. I know I'll never be an actor because of how terrible I am in videos like this. I have never had the inkling to act, and seeing the footage makes me even surer that's a good thing.

I had TJ shoot for me on this for both the interviews and also the demonstration videos. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica -- got her friend Rhoda Cronenbach to help and TJ pulled in local actor Bryan Michael Block into the mix. Everyone did some good work for me. I used my new Canon HV20 for the entire thing, trying out the HD in 24P 1920x1080 mode. Overall, I dig this little camera. It's got a good look to it for a consumer grade camera with some big time features.

The article and video for this one is intended for the March 2008 issue. My first article/video is due out in January 2008, so I can't wait to see how that turns out. Having a regular article series in an international publication is no small feat. I am kind of floored by the whole thing. I would like to parlay this into something else. It definitely establishes a lot of credibility to be an acknowledged writer for a magazine in your field.




I do love TUBEMOGUL. What a great way to keep up with all my sites and videos. It simplifies so much of what I'm doing to market my movies. Being able to keep track of all these sites from one single location makes analyzing easier. From this vantage point, I can see what movies of mine do people like, not like and if changing search key words/metatags changes the views, etc.

Sonnyboo Stats as they are today December 15^th, 2007:

CRACKLE.COM 21,643,442 total views

YAHOO VIDEO 161,910 total views

YOUTUBE 65,829 total views

METACAFE 57,306 total views

plus several other sites that are under 5,000 total views

On some sites, I average hundreds of views a day and others, 2-3 views a day. The marketplace has become convoluted with video sites and content. YouTube acts as the dumping ground for every half witted attempt at home videos and Jack-Ass rip-offs, or worse – meaningless skate boarding videos. I'm surprised YouTube has garnered any views for Sonnyboo, but my subscriptions are constantly on the rise, and none of them are fake accounts I made up to increase my stature! Sony Picture's CRACKLE.COM so far has gotten me the most views thanks to support in their main team. It is true, it's who you know. Thankfully, someone on their programming team has been a Sonnyboo fan for a while and they really dig my movies. 25 awards out of 58 videos ain't bad, and I think it's cool. Many of my old movies find new life on Crackle.com.



Thinking of a time before the Internet, I can't imagine there being a way to get thousands of people to see your short film. Imagine a land before time, the ancient era known as "the 1980's" when VHS was king and metal bands roamed the earth. If you made a short film – who would see it and where? The obscure film festival perhaps, but beyond that who would see such a thing? There was no digital projection, as there was very little on the planet with "digital". In today's world, we can make a movie and within minutes have it uploaded to the Internet where anyone can see it with a click of a button. We must never lose site of the changing world we live in. I am grateful for these new opportunities as the industry warps and bends to the new technology.

There are people with feature films that never get 50,000 people to see it. So having a few movies that have several MILLION views, can only make me proud of what I've done. Anywho, time to get back to the amazing world of High School Football games….and then editing on a video for VIDEOMAKER. This is supposed to be my "day off". Maybe I can pop in an HD-DVD during my longer render times.


Peace,
Peter John Ross

An Oligarchy in Place of Supercilious Skullduggery

No rest for the wicked. I am ensconced with post production work. I took on some extra projects this weekend because I now need to recoup a heavy loss this week. On Thursday morning, I awoke to the sensation of cold. First my hand froze, and then the rest of me started to go quite freezing. I awoke at 7:45AM and went downstairs to see what was happening. The thermostat read a warm 51 degrees. I felt the vents and cold air was blowing from them.

I attempted to see the pilot light, but to no avail. I called the service that read the most reputable and this guy came out within an hour and proceeded to spend the next several hours fixing our furnace. Two units had fried in it and I got stiffed with a $600 bill. It could have been worse in terms of cost – we might have had to replace the whole heating unit, but as is – a chunk of change I had not wanted to part with just blew away. It was 34 degrees in the house when the hot air started blowing again. I lost almost an entire day's worth of work helping this guy work on the furnace and of course the cats looked at me like I'm some kind of sadistic bastard for torturing them in the cold all day.



My cold has faded, at least the part that disorients you and makes you woozy. I can still produce record amounts of mucous, and that means spending more money on tissues. All this money keeps disappearing. I keep making it and it keeps going away. This is life. That is the grind, isn't it? Ce La Vie, as the French might say.

My HD-DVD's started arriving, as in the free ones as a rebate on the player. I now have 4 of the special edition High Definition Stanley Kubrick movies. 2001, CLOCKWORK ORANGE, THE SHINING, and EYES WIDE SHUT are now in my collection. I started going through a lot of the extras and special features. There are documentaries galore. I had only recently seen the 2+ hour documentary "A LIFE IN PICTURES", and I subsequently bought it as a separate DVD from a used seller on AMAZON.COM. Some of the documentaries are even in HD.

One of the things that I have been contemplating as I watch a lot of these newly made MAKING OF's and BEHIND THE SCENES is that Stanley Kubrick would hate them. I think Stanley must be churning around in the ground. He detested any kind of commentary or theories or extras on the movies before. Kubrick was of the mindset that the movies were the movies – your own interpretation is what it means. Whatever the film meant to you is what it means. The End. To see film critics giving their opinion on an official DVD of Kubrick's movie somehow endorses these interpretations or validates them; Stanley would have hated that, at least that was his pattern for the past 45 years.

Now for those out there that know how much I love extras and even have made my own "peak behind the curtain" type videos – I am not Kubrick, nor do I aspire to be him. I appreciate all these insights into one of cinemas greatest minds, but I am not trying to imitate Kubrick, either in practice or theory. I can disagree with methods and technique with someone I truly respect and love. After seeing Vivian Kubrick's documentary last year on the making of THE SHINING, I decided I would never behave the way Kubrick did on that set. It was something that completely demystified Kubrick and made me completely believe you can find your own way to direct.

The only similarities I might have with Stanley Kubrick is in the form of a feline assistant editor.



There ends the similarities between me and Kubrick.




Peace to my homies in North Compton. Word.

- PJ

Amazonian Illness and the Sweetness of Demons (in High Definition)

Acolytes of Boo, your faithful narrator has been ill. The last several days have been a flurry of mucus and imbalance. I lost 2 days worth of work, so some of my recent extracurricular paid work is now filling the gap of everyday responsibility.

I have written my 2nd paid article for VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE. Now I have to shoot an accompanying video. Luckily, my new job has afforded me my own HD camera to shoot with. I am the proud new owner of a Canon HV20 camcorder. It's my new home VCR for MiniDV, but also a decent enough "B" camera for several types of HD shooting. I can do true 24P 1920x1080 HD shooting with this and it even includes HDMI output. I will shoot the newest VIDEOMAKER video solely with this camera to put it through the ringer and really try it out.

The Canon HV20 is pretty much a consumer camera, but the 24P mode in full HD as well as the "CineMode" color that makes that more cinematic look – all conspire to make this camera a well sought after, sub-$1,000 acquisition. I've been aware of this camera for over 8 months. I debated over getting another $159 camcorder to use solely as a VCR at home since my last $159 camcorder was stolen. I did not want to spend the same money for the same thing. Fate intertwined with my decision and I was able to get the Canon HV20 for $699 and a huge part of it was picked up by the new job.



The camera came in last night, so I hooked it up, shot some very quick footage and also digitized it. The techie stuff to say is that I'm using the Cineform Aspect HD codec with Adobe Premiere for my High Definition projects. I had to use the 1080i 60i settings because of the 3:2 pulldown, but I have no delusions about ever going to a film print, so I don't care about the extra frames. I'll have more to say about the camera when I do more than aim the lens at "V" and "Cousette".



I got my HD-DVD player in last Monday. Two DVD's were in the box, 300 and the Bourne Identity. I went to Microcenter to buy an HDMI to DVI cable; it was $50. I specifically asked the salesperson – will this work going in an unorthodox direction? My 30" does NOT have HDMI input – only component, S-video, composite, and computer DVI. I was going to go HDMI out of the HD-DVD player and DVI input on the monitor. He said it would work – I get home, hook it up and NO it does not work. Depressingly, I plug the component red, green, blue analog cables in. I was expecting this to basically be the same or very slightly better than a regular DVD player. HELL NO. The 30" monitor immediately registered a 1080i signal coming in and I got to see color, detail, and depth I've never seen on my own monitor before. I was floored. Damn, this looks good. I immediately upgraded my Netflix account to take HD-DVD's and ordered a few titles to see in style.

Futurama Returned. The DVD of Bender's Big Score hit and I am in heaven. All of the original voices and writers are back. I always felt it was unfair that Family Guy got renewed, but Futurama did not, even though both shows were neck to neck in the ratings when they moved over to Cartoon Networks Adult Swim. It seems the "jokes per minute" has slowed down slightly from the original series – but you know what? It was extremely high, so the new pace works fine. It's now in widescreen and also – playing it via my HD-DVD player in full surround sound looked freakin' amazing on the big screen. I can't imagine and HD version of this looking any better since there was no artifacting or loss in detail.



I'm finishing off my first edition copy of Stephen Colbert's "I AM AMERICA, AND SO CAN YOU!" which makes me chuckle a lot. I think you have to have a certain sense of humor to go through a few hundred pages of sarcasm, but I certainly love it.

Nothing much new to report on the new features. I'm in a holding pattern while I try to carve out the time to work on screenplays. Being sick does not help. It gives me time, but unfocused, irrational, needy, and dehydrated – not conducive to trying to work out bugs in a script.

Editing progresses on ETERNAL. The Derek has made his way over to Rossdonia to check up on a few scenes and give some input. Mostly, I want to get the assembly completed ASAP. Then we can narrow down our focus to The Derek and me working to fine tune and finesse the whole thing together. We're no where near that point yet. ETERNAL is one of the best looking HD features I've seen so far. Alex Esber, Adam White, and Aaron Smith did some exceptional work.

I can't focus. Being sick sucks. I used to love it when I was a kid because it meant I'd be home watching TV or movies all day. Now, I hate it because I love what I do, so work isn't a bad thing. The one thing of interest about being sick today is that my little terrorist, "V", has been doting on me. He knows I'm not well, and he looks after me. He curls up at my feet like he's protecting me. Vster sleeps on my legs all night and sometimes burrows in on my shoulder to make sure I'm okay. Cousette basically stays away from me when I'm sick, much like My Sexy Fiancé Veronica --, who got me sick by the way.