Pejorative Sagaciousness

I’m finally done sharing my cheer with the various families. I’m cranky and sleepy, but I’m going to party with some friends tonight. At least I have some new Blu-Ray’s and DVD’s to keep me company. I can finally see the extended cut of 24:REDEMPTION, the new Kevin Smith “A THREEVENING WITH KEVIN SMITH” which has been hilarious so far, and of course DEATH PROOF in HD along with INDIANA JONES and the inaugural Blu Ray CRITERION COLLECTION which is Wes Anderson’s BOTTLE ROCKET, which I cherish. The highlight is DR. HORRIBLE’S SING ALONG BLOG on DVD with “COMMENTARY: THE MUSICAL”. The sounds of Cannonball Adderly belting on the sax have set the tone for my weekend and I want to just take a day to myself and watch some movies in peace.

Once we get to January 2nd on through the rest of the year, I won’t have much time to rest or relax. Things will start to get busy rather fast. The wheels rotate ever onward and I’m ready. Several ideas ferment like a fine wine. Committing them to writing has been less and less cumbersome of late.



Some end of the year stats, as The Tale of Years in Rossdonia would not be complete.

The Cowtown Film Series was successful on many levels, including financial (although I need to still get a check from the theater… my bad). It was more work than I set out to do, but it was worth it. I feel good exhibiting the features and helping where I could with seeing some movies get completed that might not have otherwise. I am committing to doing another run of features in 2009, I just don’t know when yet. It won’t be 10 weeks, that’s for sure.

As already stated, I defeated my enemies. Those guys suck. Apparently, this statement in an earlier blog was taken out of context and ruffled feathers of people who fancy themselves my adversaries. I can think of nothing funnier than some guy I haven’t even taken into consideration or months got riled up, wrote blogs and then posted a multitude of comments all over my Funny or Die account because he so arrogantly thinks that I was talking about him. Imagine the arrogance it takes to read a blog and assume they are being addressed by capriciousness and vague notions.



Speaking of my blog, I average around 140 readers a day on all the various sites combined. That’s surprising. I only write these both as a cathartic expression and because I hate the impersonal sending of the same emails to friends and family of what I’m doing with a “cut and paste” function {CNTRL-C then CNTRL-V}. I have found that posting a blog and updating people via that conduit has been effective for the 10-15 people I intended to reach when I started. Now I had no clue so many other people were interested or reading. Even more confusing is the anguish and obsession it spurs in the few readers that are more akin to Lee Harvey Oswald than my more normal onlookers.

The UNCLE PETE videos were what I wanted them to be. I am pleased artistically and business-wise. They are in contract to be represented along with HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEMARKETERS via a Canadian-British agency that license short films for TV, web, cell phone, etc. I’ll give them a chance, as I’m still getting money from my old representation, but I’d like to see how different companies do. I’m thinking of dropping BIG FILM SHORTS as a distributor. They have been later and later on payments. Now they’re incommunicative at all, so I’ve stopped recommending them for representing short films. BLIP TV has been consistent and now matter how big or small, the checks come in quarterly and they always clear. I still made over $1,000 overall from short films for the year, and that’s just from my old material. Now that I have and will have more material as the 2009 goes on, I’m hoping to see an increase in income for shorts.

I’ve been working full time as a director/producer/editor for over 7 years as my sole income. Getting paid to do what you love to do has been one of my greatest accomplishments. It didn’t used to pay that well, but lately it has gotten better. I’m surprised the economy downturn hasn’t pinched my wallet as hard as I thought, but it has hit some and will continue to decline in ways for several months. I think more people would find their bliss if they could do what they want. My sincerest thanks to Scott Spears for making the last 2 years much more stable and reliable.

I can’t believe still that IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM is done. That’s something that was looming forever. I think subconsciously I was not giving my all into new projects or moving on until that was done. I promised myself it would get done. No one held my feet to the fire. Not many even cared I was doing it, but it meant something to me. Soon it will be on sale on AMAZON.COM (in a few days no less). Once I laid this puppy to tape the other day on a DVCAM master, it was like a release. I started deleting all the duplicate files on my internal and portable hard drives, knowing I’ll never have to need these again, and I was relieved. It was an invisible chip on my shoulder that needed released into the world.

GOODNIGHT CLEVELAND was another one of those albatrosses that needed to be taken away. We finished it, we screened it, and I deleted it. Seems like I have established a nice pattern for finishing feature length projects. This one was bittersweet in that the director wanted nothing to do with it, but so many other people involved were thrilled to see it complete. Giving Tim Lucas, an executive producer on the film, a DVD when he came to town was just as big a goal as screening the film. His closure meant as much to me as George’s.

The Cats of Rossdonia live on. My life with felines grows and develops into a strange and twisted tale that boggles the mind. I have learned much of unconditional love both for and from my little boy Vladimir Jack Bauer and his little black heart.



2008 was the year of shedding the past for me. Fulfilling all of my old promises, cutting loose the negativity, defeating my enemies (those guys suck), and moving on. I have plans. No one can stop me. 2009 will do it.

Conflagrations of Incendiary Individuals

I am so immature. Today My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ and I stopped off at McDonalds on the way to a Xmas family thingy. Whilst there I was getting a refill of my Orange Lava drink and a small 5 year old boy with both his parents was saying “I want a fruit drink! I want a fruit drink!” so I says to the kid “Oh yeah, well I HAVE a fruit drink….” And walked away. Moments later, as I sit back down with My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ I hear that same kid screaming at the top of his lungs in protest. Apparently he didn’t get his fruit flavored beverage. Well kid, it sucks to be you because I got another refill after that. I so rule and the only thing that kid did better than me was suck and go thirsty.


Last night I wrote four chapters of my new book. It’s a dissertation on multimedia today, how we got here, the affects of it all, and the influence of popular culture upon itself. I have thoughts, and I want to get this out there too. Some of my writing about television have been picked up and read. I was surprised to get a phone interview over a blog I wrote about the state of television today (several months ago) and it was printed in Media Biz’s last issue.

Speaking of which, several events in the world of Television need to be addressed. First off with NBC’s announcement that Jay Leno will move to prime time will have ripple effects on the traditional TV business model. A little backstory, a few years ago Jay Leno discussed with NBC a possible retirement date of Spring 2009. NBC, in the interest of saving money decided not to revisit the conversation with Jay to see if he was still going to leave and just pretended it was a done deal and announced it. Conan O’Brien is set to take over the Tonight Show as was pre-ordained. That is until Jay Leno decided he didn’t want to end his run.



Combine this with a completely altered landscape of network television. Execs fully acknowledge that the business model has been changed permanently. The Internet is not just a fad. If last year’s writer strike proved anything, it’s that people have a lot of alternatives to the old reliable network TV. DVR’s and Tivo ™ have also reshaped the landscape in a way that even VCR’s didn’t do with 90% saturation in the market in the United States from the 1980’s to the last few years.

Jay Leno is going to be Monday through Friday, but at 10:00PM, thus eliminating 5 hours of programming… and their production costs. One hour dramas, which typically play the 10:00PM timeslot and have for decades, these cost a lot of money, somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million per episode. In some cases, the shows are not owned by the network themselves, so DVD sales and syndication returns belong to someone else. Warner Brothers produced E.R., the 10:00PM slot holder for NBC for 15 years, and NBC (now NBC Universal) doesn’t see a penny from DVD boxed sets or the repeat airings on TNT, or whatever Turner cable network airs the syndicated episodes.

So what does this mean? NBC is cutting down their programming and annual production budget by a significant percentage next year. If they are successful, the other networks will follow. With the recession in full swing with little sign of let up anytime soon, expect cable networks to similarly cut back.



And now for some MORE bad news in Television. SAG, the Screen Actors Guild looks to be promoting the idea of a strike for all union actors in January-February 2009. Last year’s writer’s strike was crippling to the industry and it has not fully recovered from the aftershocks. One of the things it revealed is that the current crop of the most coveted demographic of 18-35 year olds are a fickle bunch. Take away the shows they like, they are more likely to replace them with something else than demand a settlement. Everyone loses.

So if SAG goes on strike, it’s my belief they might hurtle the television industry into a more permanent loss of viewership for the future. If shows like 24 or LOST get interrupted by a strike, the fan base might just hang up their spurs and call it a day. There is a chance that since the majority of the membership of SAG is day players and the people who need the minimum wage for union actors, the strike might not go through. These are the people who cannot survive the current economic climate without a regular payday and hopefully don’t want to cut off their nose to spite their face.



Everyone can lose in this scenario. It’s the wrong time SAG. I understand that they are fighting for revenues of the future, but they aren’t there with the Internet yet. Fight for them when everyone can afford the struggle, not now. The tactic of trying to squeeze right now won’t work and the studios deep pockets will get lean soon enough.

This isn’t even taking into account the basic idea that the entire system of television has been eroding for decades. Once advertisers figure out that they are not getting their money’s worth from commercials because less and less people are watching, but they are paying more and more money – watch out. Television’s business model is outdated and crumbling before us.

Disavowing Jurisprudence

When things move again, they move fast and mightily. On my plate already is post production on a quick green screen short I tossed together this past Thursday night. I wanted to make a commentary on the ever giant Wal-Mart and the media. I was greatly inspired by seeing a TV “news” segment that was glorifying and miraculously sponsored by a hospital during the 11:00 O’clock media coverage that used to be called journalism. This cynicism and sick sense of humor keyed off a new bit. I wrote it quick and called in some actors.

Today I shot the background plate for one section of this bit. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ has been tinkering with IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM documentary relentlessly since the screening a little over a week ago. She wanted to re-order all the scenes to make it flow better, plus we really agreed with most criticism from the screening which was that the Fly-On-The-Wall B-Roll segments were too long. They cause the overall pacing to drag and people lose interest. I think these sections could be equally effective in less than half the time.

The other thing needed was more on Post Production. I short-changed the entire process in the documentary that played. It was 3 minutes of montage with a quickie voice over to cover the entirety of post. Now we took some of the existing “educational” web docs and fashioned them into the movie proper. Sections on ADR, M&E Tracks, and why & how we deleted scenes fit into the scheme. The actual “editing” process is still skipped a bit, but on a DVD I can use the WebDocs of editing as bonus features.

Speaking of which, the goal is to sell DVD’s of this documentary and DVD as an educational tool. Many people who want to get into making a feature length film can get in depth with the process and really feel what it’s like to take the plunge. Creative and practical decisions with footage make for a demonstrative movie at a budget level more people can relate to as opposed to the huge multi-million dollar productions that are beyond more people’s grasp.

The final touches and clean ups for My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™’s edit are completed and we’re about to start the encoding for DVD process later tonight. Last night I worked on the DVD art and setting up the distribution with Amazon.com. My goal of 90 minutes has been met, and we’re even 3 minutes shorter than what played barely over a week ago at the Cowtown Film Series, and that’s with 14 minutes of new material ADDED to the movie. It’s another feature I produced, and that’s a goal met.



On the downside, I reviewed footage from much earlier in the year. I had always intended to do this short film but since it relied on snow, it was incredibly difficult to put together. I gave someone a shot at D.P. and after supervising the first few shots I gave over the reins and focused on working with my 7 year old actor. I digitized the footage shortly after that and was disappointed, but didn’t feel rushed to edit this piece. As we enter winter I wanted to re-examine it after not seeing a frame for months. Looking at it now, the footage was not as bad as I remember, but it still falls very far below the standards I am setting for myself for the future.

This puts me in a quandary. I will absolutely not use a frame of this footage and if this short is to be resurrected, it will be re-shot entirely. The stars may not ever align to make this happen again, but I would rather not release anything that is below my current standard of quality. I have to tell my nephew that this piece will never be done. That is not something I look forward to, but I can’t do it. I don’t even have enough footage to cut something together just for him. I don’t blame the D.P., as it was my shoot and making sure the shots I want are there is my job, no one else’s. Let’s just say that my trust of camerapersons understanding me has gone down. I will be absolutely sure I’m getting what I want for all my projects. This is a stinging reminder of my role with the camera as a director.



I’m hoping to get a sole music cue for my new little greenscreen experiment, and I have to create some graphics, plus key in the back ground and I will have a new piece on the market by the end of the week, if not sooner. I love having a greenscreen and studio I can just walk into and shoot on next to my edit suite. I don’t want to take these things for granted and not only let them inspire my creativity, but I need to ACT on these inspirations.



I love being burned in the flames of inspiration right now. 2009 looks to be quite a kick ass year; recession be damned. This year, I defeated my enemies, drank their blood, and sang the songs of victory to the lamentation of their women and children. Next year I conquer more worthy foes and loftier goals. My banner is raised, as are my standards. Let’s just watch as it all unfolds.

To my acolytes of Boo,
I wish you the best

Peter John Ross

Idyllic Permutations

My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ has been ill all night, making for little sleep. After the last month of various ills on my own behalf, I can now return the favor. Plans for chicken soup, bedtime stories, and the TLC enter my purview.

COWTOWN has officially ended. I delayed the final screening for various reasons, not the least of which was my inability to walk at the originally designated time. Combine that with factors that contributed to the delays on the documentary, and we had a recipe for postponement.



I did finish the feature length 92 minute documentary. I felt rushed and disinterested. So much of anything relating to that movie feels like it is “of the past”. I am a different filmmaker now. I see so many things I would do differently now and the helplessness of being unable to change them just creates a pool of disappointment, even though there are many things I am still proud of.

After the screening, as sitting with an audience with a movie for the first time will do, I was bequeathed many ideas and concepts for improvement. I was little motivated to act on them, but My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ has been, so she took over a massive re-edit of the documentary. So far, I would say it is greatly improved, but I had no intentions of screening this again. It was simply something I said I would do and I wanted to finish it. I keep my word. I promised to make this movie and it has less to do with anyone else’s expectations or interest as it was to placate my inner promise.

I do have the potential of releasing a DVD of the documentary, as more of an “educational” piece for indie filmmakers. It would be something I sell on the website or possible through AMAZON.COM. The idea of potentially sending it to a few small festivals has also been suggested. I’m not as enthused as I was, but the newer edit seems to have potential.

It’s amazing how you lose sight of things from your original intent to the final product. I had a “MAKING OF SCENE 6” documentary early in the film, even though it took place in post production, which is a major weakness of the overall documentary. We had little to no coverage of the post production process, so I threw together a small, short segment on it. I knew it was short changing the process, but My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™had the idea of placing in some of the educational Web Docs to tell more of the story of post production and I agree that it is a good idea, as long as we keep the running time around 90 minutes. That means major cuts to other aspects of the documentary, which generally is a good thing since the movie feels “long” and not in a good way.

The movie already has a massive re-ordering since the screening and the “B-Roll”, fly-on-the-wall segments are being chopped down to half the run time to avoid redundancies and a sense of being “boring”. All I wanted to capture was the sense of what it’s really like to be on set of an indie film and I think I achieved that, even in the “first draft” edit that screened.

I now feel free to move on though. I have a shoot this Thursday night for a new quick clip, something in the world I feel compelled to comment on. I need to get a few shots to finish off a short I started last March, although quite frankly, I’m disappointed in the footage shot, but it might be salvageable.



I’m writing a new book, I have several new small & large projects “in development”, meaning I really am working on creating a few shorts and planning the next year’s production schedule for what I want to get done. Now that I’m back on my feet (literally and figuratively), I want to get started on the next phase.

I met with an old Bank One buddy for lunch the other day. That sparked so many ideas. I realize that I don’t really know too many normal people anymore. Most people I spend time with are a bit Bohemian, not at all conducive to the writing about normalcy. To hear the names and remind myself of what the “normies” are like really help inspire me, both to write and tell stories about. Some people are made for mockery and others to be exalted.

And one last stain of vitriol to be addressed… I find it completely refreshing to see some of my worst enemies yet again palely following my footsteps. Nothing in life makes me feel more pleased than to see some of these people, who complain bitterly and loudly about how I do things, and then turn around and use these same methods of marketing and promotion for themselves. Sometimes my methods work, at least they work for me. For some to cry like babies that it’s shameless self promotion, and then do it themselves; perhaps they need to consult a mental health physician as the self loathing might be indicative of some real problems.

What can I say? Some people are followers no matter how original they think they are. It’s no wonder most people don’t waste any time taking them into any kind of consideration.

An Interesting Television Business Decision

Last year’s writer’s strike caused an interesting thing for FOX’s show 24, which I love dearly. Now, the reason I enjoy the show is because I immediately stop worrying about the concept being “24 hours” and “real time”. If realism will destroy your enjoyment of a fictional show, then this ain’t for you. I got into the show on DVD a few years ago because Scott Spears tipped me off that Buy.com had season one on sale for $15 including shipping and for a 6 disc set, that’s cheaper to buy than it is to rent, plus I could sell it for that amount at a used DVD store.

My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ and I were hooked right away and Netflix © kept us going until we caught up with the current seasons. I’ve liked Kiefer Sutherland since THE LOST BOYS and STAND BY ME in the 1980’s and his JACK BAUER character has been a source of acting challenges with range for him that I enjoy watching.



24 starts shooting like every other TV series in the fall even though none of their episodes begin airing until January. They do this because they feel that the show is much more effective with the audience to consistently get new material every single week with no breaks for all 24 episodes. This even affords them some double episode weeks and really gets the anticipation going from start to finish. Shows like LOST are emulating this model because shows that are highly serialized demand audience attention for continuity, etc.

Last year, 24 got off to a rough start. They had a highly publicized halt to their production. Supposedly, they were breaking their difficult show model and were going to do 24 hours, but not all in a row. So 6 hours in this city, then a week later, 6 hours in another city, etc. The original intent was going to be the first 6 hours taking place in & shot in AFRICA and the next 6 hours in Washington D.C. The writers & producers felt each year being in Los Angeles was limiting and they were right. The formula was getting a bit stale, so breaking it up and moving it out would have been better.



So, the problem became that FOX was deeply concerned about shooting in Africa for real and knew that the budget would skyrocket, so just as they were about to pack up and leave, FOX pulled the plug and told them all to re-think the season minus the Africa segments. Since the show doesn’t premiere until January, this wasn’t an emergency per se, but they did have a lot to catch up on and re-do to alter everything they intended. So they re-tooled, re-wrote and started off with the Washington D.C. segments and laid the Africa stuff as backstory that occurred off camera between.

They got 7 new episodes in the can before the writer’s strike kicked in for 2007-2008’s season, then the writer’s strike set in for months. Even when the strike was over, a show like this cannot catch up, nor can they do less than the “24” episodes that is the core of the show’s concept. Kiefer Sutherland also had to serve a jail sentence for drunk driving, and it all worked out.
The decision was to completely hold off any producing any new episodes until the 2008-2009 season.



So cut to the new season, FOX has already invested in 7 fully produced episodes and wants to continue where that left off. That means for the current season they have a surplus in their budget for 7 episodes and taking after another TV series, NBC-Universal’s Sci Fi Channel BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, they offered the producers a chance to make a one off 2 hour TV movie for 24 called REDEMPTION. They could use the majority of the 7 episode surplusmoney to produce it, and the writers/producers decided to dust off their scripts and ideas for the AFRICA storyline. NOW they get to produce the African storyline with even more budget, not conflict with the 24 hour real time aspects, and get the backstory for the new season as something we can visually see with high production values.



Still following the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA model, used to do their 2 hour movie RAZOR in 2007, this 24 movie REDEMPTION will also get released within a day or two of its airing on DVD in a longer, unrated producer’s cut. Since the new season doesn’t start until January, they can still satiate fans with new content in the fall with this made for TV movie. Given what neophiles and the compulsive nature of fandom, this idea has real brilliance. The buildup hype for the new season, using annual production budget surplus, and then offer it as a retail item immediately for the big cash return. It’s genius, if only because the product is good.

Next week I’ll be watching the broadcast, then probably renting the producer’s cut, and getting psyched for some Jack Bauer terrorist ass kicking since it’s been nearly 2 years. I love these ancillary products like the TV movie for things I’m into. It deepens the mythology of the stories I like, it creates alternative revenue for a dying industry, and it’s just feeding the fans desire for MORE of anything.

Electoral Pinings

Today, I voted. Seemingly this would be an innocuous feat, but I’m 36 years old and I have never voted before. In my youth, I vowed never to vote as a stand against several things; I hate the two party system which denigrates the entire concept of “democracy” as to me it becomes simply a less obvious and only slightly more voluntary monarchy of sorts. The second reason I never voted was because of the Electoral College. I find the entire concept, created in an era when it was blamed on technology as a way to supersede the real counting of ballots for such a large collection of supposedly free peoples.

I broke my vow because the last 8 years have sucked. Plain and simple, there has been suckage. I am a pragmatic anarchist in terms of how I view politics. The real problems of society and especially America at this point all revolve around a greater problem than pointing fingers at any one person or even small group of individuals. I also believe that one man/woman can make a difference to make a, forgive the cliché, change.



Unfortunately, this year looked to be a tough decision. In 2007 I started paying attention to the the maverick, John McCain. He looking into his past and his history, I would have really believed in him as a man to rebel against traditional Republican nasties, but still be conservative where it counted. Then the last 6 months have him undoing everything he used to believe in to cater to a Republican base. THE DAILY SHOW, unlike the formerly respectable media, actually showed a montage of things he said from 1999-2007 and played them back to back with Summer 2008 speeches of John McCain and he has gone 180 degrees the other way. He doesn’t believe in what he’s saying now or he changed his mind, either way, he’s not someone I would then trust in office, nor is that something I find respectable. He’s not evil, nor do I find him to be a bad person, but he’s not earning any respect, and now not my first vote.

What happened to the media being watchdogs? Why aren’t they really attacking some key, important issues? Why do I have to get a sense of justice from a comedy show? The “news” if they dare to be called that, has become “info-tainment”. Whole networks or individual shows now cater to specific points of view and warp facts & reality to the point of creating mistrust in the news. I can’t stand either polarizing side at this point. It appears that the Associated Press and Reuters are about all that’s left of news organizations that try to leave their politics and views out and just report facts, and even then they still fall prey to the sway of press releases and rumors, only not as often.

The state of the world today and how it affects me directly got me off my ass (the tubby one) and into the booth today. My goal was to get up and go to the polls between 9:30AM-11:00AM because by my logic, all the early go-to-workers will be done and I can beat the vote-at-lunch-crowd too. Also, I guessed the lines would be down because of all the early voting, that including My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ this past Sunday, who braved a 4+ hour line. Today we go to the polling place and I walk right in, no lines outside. They direct me to the 3 windows broken down alphabetically, and there’s no line for “R”, so I then go right up to one of the 20 voting machines, more than half of which empty await voters. I cast my votes and got on out of there. I guess this is NOT the experience of waiting that I was expecting. I had brought a book, some juice, and a mindset for waiting.



Even though the electoral way of voting seems futile and the unfairness of getting to only select one of two candidates chosen for me, I still felt it necessary to vote today. It seemed important and could make a significant difference to how things are going to go. I voted what I believe to be best for the future and to make the most impact in a positive light.

I’m inundated with editing work, all of which keeps me from working on the documentary now less than 2 weeks from playing in front of an audience. YIKES! Time is NOT my friend. I want to take a week to myself when COWTOWN is done. It won’t happen, but it’s what I would like.

Anyways….

- Peter John Ross on Election Day

Farcical Results

Week 7 is done for the COWTOWN FILM SERIES. Each week I get happier and more nervous. I’m still not done with my documentary, even though I’ve made some progress. I’m just looking forward to the end of the run. What the hell was I thinking? TEN WEEKS! What a dumbass I can be.

We had a technical glitch to start the show. I had bought John Whitney’s JVC deck that plays DVCAM tapes. I used it the week before for the main show and it worked flawlessly. This week, during the trailers, the audio was dropping in & out every other word. I waited until the trailer ended, then already had the other Sony DVCAM deck waiting on standby underneath it (as I don’t trust technology 100%). I got the S-video and audio cable switched out in less than a second, got the tape to eject no problem. I inserted the tape into the new deck and hit PLAY. After a second, it immediately powered off and showed me an ERROR MESSAGE – ERROR C32. I unplugged the deck and plugged it back in, holding down the EJECT button (an engineer’s trick I learned is that eject gets a priority if you are holding it down when the power comes up). Nope. No tape. I tried this 6 times and eventually it spit the tape out. Not eaten (thankfully). Pushed it back in and then it played flawlessly for the rest of the show.

Now that was in all about 3 minutes, but that is an ETERNITY with a live audience sitting in a dark theater staring at a black screen. Now, my backup is to have a DVD player on standby with the whole show on a DVD-R just in case I lose both decks, but that’s triple redundancy and NEVER a bad idea. People are paying MONEY ($) to see these movies, so I owe it to them, as well as the filmmakers, to ensure that their movies play, and look as good as they can. I’m not some wannabe punk that pretends to be a filmmaker; one day I want to be the real deal, so I try to present like the real movies as close as I can.

John Whitney’s MEASURED SACRIFICE got good reactions, as it’s a high end piece. I wish more of these pretend wannabe camcorder jockey’s could have seen this. It’s the kind of movie they think they’re making, but actually surpasses expectations. John has vision and skills. So few people actually understand and know what it is a DIRECTOR does. They are WRITER/PRODUCERS who think they are WRITER/DIRECTORS, but are completely clueless as to what DIRECTING actually is. In some ways they think just photographing the scene is enough, or worse that “cool shots” are what make a director. The INTENT and MEANING of the camera as a storytelling tool get wasted on these fools, and their “films” are little more than sad attempts. I only wish these types of beginners had a respect for seeing people’s work and being able to talk to them about HOW they achieve the same goals only at that much more professional level. We’re talking about similar budgets and yet one looks like a real movie and the other looks like a junior high talent show, yet they both strive to be “professional”. To have the opportunity to see these kinds of movies and then TALK to those filmmakers, and NOT do it seems to me to be as ludicrous as not learning from cinema history. Some people are ignorant, so what can you do? NOTHING, or blog about their ignorance.

Since we had a ton of SHORTS before THE FUNNY MAN from Mike McGraner, I played most of the TELEMARKTERS and UNCLE PETE’s and that’s the last any of these will play at the COWTOWN series. Again, UNCLE PETE killed, and the TELEMARKETER shorts played well, in fact the ending with the crying telemarketer got the first public reaction I wanted. It’s a risky ending with showing a cute (very very cute no less) Telemarketer crying her eyes out. This ending usually meets with silence as the audience doesn’t 100% know how to feel since we’ve been bashing these fairly off screen anonymous annoyers. This screening, after seeing most of those shorts play interspersed with other shorts and genres, the ending bit with the crying was met with laughter, but that specific guilty, almost politically incorrect “Oh Oh Ohhhh” laughter, and as I recently discussed – the laughter is infectious so more people joined in with those giggle-starters. I was complimented a lot on the UNCLE PETE shorts, as I didn’t take credit at any point or do any kind of Q&A for those. More and more people said they want to show people those online and spread the word. So my goals of going VIRAL may still happen, just taking even LONGER than I expected to occur.

I finally got rid of WINDOWS VISTA ™ on my basement computer. Unlike the last desktop that had that atrocity, this one was easy to remove with my XP discs. The last time, the Windows XP disc didn’t recognize the VISTA ™ partition and I had to get the hard drive manufacturers disc to format the drive and nuke the partition before I could install. I hate WINDOWS VISTA™. I think it’s a piece of Shiite and a waste. I do enough processor intensive work that I need a workhorse and I couldn’t care less how pretty the desktop is. I clear off any color, black background, with the most basic, unobtrusive work areas and I need every ounce of memory and resource to go towards my video and film work. On the same machine, my editing computer in the basement, with 2 gig of RAM, I saw over 1.5 gig of RAM being used just sitting there with WINDOWS VISTA ™, but the exact same machine using WINDOWS XP ™, it only uses 344 meg of RAM. That’s around 20% of the memory being used otherwise. The machine now runs literally 4x-8x’s faster depending on the process. Needless to say, SCREW VISTA™.

Now that some of the posters have started to come in and seeing how the designs look in print, I’m happy. We’re going to get some HORRORS OF WAR posters printed for the screening, but I had so much trouble with the IN THE TRENCHES poster, that I almost gave up. I wanted something classy and minimalist. Thanks to Photoshop ™, people tend to “over” design. Simple sometimes equates to elegance. There are so many people out there claiming to be graphic designers with no eye for composition or colors or just a general concept of aesthetic. I wish I could do more, but alas, I’m just not that interested. I only do what I have to do out of necessity.

My first attempt was mediocre to ugh.



This to me is precisely what I described above. Too busy for the same of being busy, like I have to use as many images as possible to get the idea across because I like each of the images individually. I was NOT happy with the design. It simply wasn’t what I wanted. I can’t explain it beyond the fringes of describing why you prefer one color over another or a flavor of ice cream. I didn’t think I’d have it in me to do what I wanted. As I have said, I am not a graphic designer, nor am I particularly proficient with Photoshop ™. Then I saw this DVD design that reminded me of some old MILES DAVIS album covers from the 1950’s and 1960’s, that I got deeply inspired and took a shot. Here it is:



And I came up with this because I was inspired by the truly elegant layout:


NOW I was happy. This was simple and what I feel is iconic for what the documentary is about. Neither John nor I are in the picture on the poster, but it’s not about ego. I wanted to show a photo that I felt encapsulated the idea of being “behind the scenes” of a low budget film. Jason Morris’ photo was perfect. To make it hold up to being poster sized, I chose to “stylize” the photo so that at its magnified level, it would have sharp, clean edges on everything. I dig it for its simplicity.

For the upcoming film ACCIDENTAL ART, I wanted very much to have a SAUL BASS style poster. In the year since that poster was made and designed, I’ve started to see posters that are similar and greatly inspired by Saul’s stylistic designs, IE BURN AFTER READING.



Styles and interests are cyclical. What goes around comes around, and this is true in popular culture over and over again. Geek becomes sheik at some point. The trick is riding the wave whilst being true to one’s self.

That’s all I got for now my dear readers.

Your faithful narrator,
Peter John Ross

Posters, Politics, and Pricing

Okay, so I’m getting ready (finally) to screen HORRORS OF WAR and IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM at Cowtown on November 13th. Part of what I am doing, and what I have asked the other filmmakers to do, was make and print posters. I decided I wanted a special edition poster for HORRORS OF WAR exclusive to this last and hopefully final exhibition. Since the film fits the “Grindhouse” style, we went with some grungy midnight movie style posters of yesteryear.



I wanted to give some tips on printing, as I’ve been doing posters for movies and screenings for 8 years. Now, some basic information people need to be aware of are as follows:

1. Movie Theater posters (called “one sheets”, not to be confused with the 8.5”x11” ONE SHEETS used in selling a film) are 27”x40” (length by height).
2. Real Movie Theater one sheets also have a reverse image on the back because they are usually illuminated from behind in poster cases outside and inside the theater.
3. An early, pre-release poster is called a “TEASER” or “TEASER ONE SHEET” with a simple design or concept style.
4. Smaller posters, especially reprints, are 23”x35” in size. These are what most posters you buy rolled up in bins (Spencer’s gifts anyone?).
5. 11”x17” legal sized posters are most often used to plaster walls and phone poles.

Getting your own poster printed can be a very pricey. I prefer to work with local printing companies. I feel like people give giant corporations enough money and there isn’t enough cash heading into the pockets of smaller, personal companies. So I am definitely willing to pay 10%-20% more for local work to the mom & pop shops. So in the past, when buying 27”x40” posters, they cost between $35-$45 each. Yikes, kind pricey. Today I was pricing those and shops were also trying to stiff me with a $25 one time “file” fee for having to deal with any kind of digital file from me. That means $60 for the first poster.



I have been using CAFEPRESS.COM for a while and without a doubt most of their products are greatly overpriced, and the quality of merchandise tends to be mediocre to poor. But they do offer a 23”x35” for only $17.99 and that’s a deal. The quality of the product looks amazing. I did a SONNYBOO poster, some earlier HORRORS OF WAR posters, etc. and the look pretty top notch. Paper quality, detail, and text all have very sharp properties. Their shipping is pricey, but they also tend to be fairly quick on turnaround too. I am going with them almost exclusively. I give them **********, the whole ten stars.

So lately, I’ve been collecting up posters for my own movies or movies I worked on. I’ve got the cool GOODNIGHT CLEVELAND poster because I like the color scheme and very simple design. I never dreamed when I was a kid, with the many STAR WARS one sheets on my walls that I’d ever own a movie poster with my name on it, especially a movie I either worked on, and even more unbelievably a movie I MADE. I frame my posters and it inspires me to keep working harder and get better as I make more movies.



Now, I’m struggling with the design for IN THE TRENCHES. I want simple and elegant, but my ideas keep getting too complex to quickly. I saw a CRITERION DVD cover art that might be a great inspiration for the aesthetic I have in mind. I’m also really into the BLUE NOTE RECORDS jazz LP designs from the 1950’s, and I like those color palettes and styles.

I do NOT consider myself a designer or particularly good with Photoshop or anything with print. This is not my forté so thankfully Phil Garrett stepped up to do the main designs for HORRORS OF WAR, but I’m stuck on the IN THE TRENCHES poster.

My Sexy Fiancé Veronica and I went with my father to see “W.” and it was okay. I agree 100% with most reviews that I don’t know who he made the movie for. It wasn’t scathing enough for liberals and it wasn’t flattering or sincere enough for conservatives. At the same time, it is a good film, but I’ll bet it suffered from the highly compressed shoot to post production schedule. As is usually the case with Ollie Stone, we can expect to see a “director’s cut” or special edition on DVD later when he has more time to comb through and make more informed decisions on the cut. Someone asked me why this film was put out at all if it won’t affect the election. My response was that it’s really meant for the opposite; the film benefits from the election, not the other way around. If they released this in January as George W. Bush left office, less people would care, and it will be less potent. It’s all about timing and they wanted to cash in on the box office of being the first film to take on a sitting president in 100 years.

Peace out my friends,
- Ross

Castigating the Clochards

Well now mister helper, THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TAD BARLOW broke our box office record for the COWTOWN FILM SERIES’ 6th week. It was several years in the making and obviously a labour of love for many involved. There are moments where one can vicariously feel the sense of accomplishment and the joys of screening a film for the first time. Todd Russell and David Ball’s Q&A (to which I felt no need to really participate and they went with it very naturally) was genuine and enthusiastic. I love being some small part of giving that gift to people, even when I don’t know them very well.



The after-party went on till the bar closed. Funnily enough people accused me of being “shit-faced” because my eyes were bloodshot and nasty, but that was from a lack of sleep. I cannot drink, and I don’t indulge. I used to drink and when I was particularly young, I had a problem with the bottle. These days being overweight and having gout prevent me from even having a sip.



It was great to see so many supporters out for the screening. I am most grateful to that core group of people who have been coming consistently from the first day. From some of the “newbies” on the scene to some of the professional/semi-professional filmmakers, there are some people, who I didn’t at the time know that well, that truly support the real filmmaking scene. I’m trying to show movies from the one notch or above amateur level material.







Yet again, the Uncle Pete shorts killed. It was risky this week because the audience had a lot more grey hair (as if mine isn’t pretty grey, but theirs matched an older demographic). These are risqué and an older, more mature crowd may not appreciate the irony.



I have a mathematical theory on comedy in a movie theater presentation. What happens is that the people who “get it” will laugh out loud once for sure, but they only give the laugh one more shot. If LESS people laugh on the second laugh, they feel self conscious and won’t laugh again. The other option, that thankfully happened for me this week, MORE people laugh; then the old axiom “Laughter is infectious” becomes somewhat viral and true. Basically, the few laughing make the rest of the audience feel it’s OKAY to laugh at the humor, or they feel like they are being informed what is and isn’t funny by the rest of the audience they are in.The amorphous audience can be swayed one direction or another by the collective vibe.



Equation:

If LAUGH 2 < LAUGH 1 = NO MORE LAUGHS, lame crowd and a “miss”

If LAUGH 1 > LAUGH 2 = MORE LAUGHS, hip crowd and a "hit"



This is the premise and art form of theatrical exhibition. Steven Spielberg made his whole early career on studying and practicing this art. I have followed this path with all the film festival screenings and my own presentations. It is the best way to learn the effectiveness of your INTENT versus REACTION of the audience. The more you can intuit the prediction of an audience reaction to something you write-direct-edit etc. the more effective you can become with the tools of the trade, IE moviemaking. This is why the so called “rules” of filmmaking can be such potent utensils. They work and have worked so well. This is also why film history becomes crucial TO ME. You have 100+ years of cinema history of what has and has not worked to study and use to your advantage. Never lose sight of the genuine emotional intent and try to please yourself as an artist, but if your goal is to also satisfy an audience, practice will make your efforts more on the ball.







I think my practice at these results in my events and screenings having decent attendance, especially in comparison to others I’ve been to. I have seen some pretty horrendous screenings and there are even some basic screening opportunities that could be so greatly enhanced with just a teeny bit of forethought, but some people are incapable of learning, or not interested in advancing this part of the filmmaking process. I guess that’s why they don’t get much better. Stagnation kills the growth of anything.



We shot the elements for the title sequence for IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM against Ye Olde Green Screen. I saw some of the results last night and I am pleased. Later today I’ll see the first pass of the title sequence. I had a very specific idea of what I wanted, but since I’m buried in editing still, I’ve asked TJ Cooley to do the actual title sequence, and if he adds some of his usual style to it, it might make a good demo reel piece as it is complex and cool. I wanted a :30 second JAMES BOND opener, not too long or anything as I just want to get to the meat of the movie.







We’re making a special ONE SHEET poster for the double feature screening. I like the idea of alternate poster designs, even if it’s only for my wall when it’s over. I’m amazed at how many people have an active interest in seeing HORRORS OF WAR November 13th. I get so blinded by my own being sick to death of it that people new on the film scene weren’t involved or got to know people who were and want to appreciate seeing what they’ve done. I’m far more excited about the documentary, if the still-procrastinating-in-progress-need-to-edit-attitude can be construed as “excited”.



There will be no Q&A for the HORRORS OF WAR double feature because the Documentary will cover pretty much most things anyone would ask. I have not done much to promote the screening yet, but since someone from the film didn’t know HORRORS OF WAR was even playing, I figure I might need to let people know.



Well, I’m going to see “W.” tonight with my father. He’s excited as hell because he’s an Ex-Republican and the real W. converted him. We haven’t had much chance to speak in the last few weeks so I want to talk to him about the economy etc. I never used to get jazzed to talk to my pops, but these days he’s become someone I like to spend time with. Life sometimes changes on you.



Peace out and don’t smoke crack – that’s a ghetto drug!



- Ross

Bilious & Brutish Interlopers

So we had a productive week here in the Columbus Film community. First off, the inaugural MOFA meeting, that’s Mid Ohio Filmmakers Association (imagine if it had been Mid Ohio Filmmakers Organization, it would have been MOFO). Now there speculation has begun that yours truly was behind this. I am not. All I did was take the several interested parties I knew of, who have dissatisfaction with the other film group, and put them in the same place at the same time. I have been asked my opinion on a few things, and gave said opinion, but the rest is on them. They did an amazing job putting together a meeting that, the Bar of Modern Art estimates, was over 70 people.

What an amazing contrast to the other Columbus film group! Their last meeting topped out at 11 people in attendance. Now, the two groups serve very different purposes. One is a social and networking opportunity, the other is basically a seminar and screening opportunity for first time or amateur filmmakers. Several people who are at more of a professional level needed a chance to meet and mingle with their peers and those transitioning beyond the confines of camcorder movies. I think both groups are important, and cater to a different audience entirely.



Strangely, one of the analysis I have come to reading people’s reactions is that it feels like, as it always does, people are drawing lines in the sand between the two groups. It always comes down to a kind of high school mentality for some people. It’s like we have the popular, good looking people forming one group, and the geeks and freaks in their kind of A/V club. Neither group is excluding anyone per se, but there are those feelings, whether self generated, or based on some tinge of reality, that cause people to feel cast out or unwelcome. I hope people overcome these mythical obstacles and just enjoy both groups for what they are.

Now the MOFA meeting was the night before the COWTOWN FILM SERIES week #5. I was afraid it would affect attendance, and it did, but we still hit our average of around 48-52 people in attendance for Johnny Wu’s THE RAPTURE. I was pleasantly surprised. Again, for the compare/contrast crowd, that was significantly more than the grand total for all combined screenings at a local film festival recently.



With less than 2 minutes before the end of the movie, the DVCAM deck seized up and stopped. I ran full tilt to the projection booth, saw the error message, so I unplugged the unit, plugged it back in, ejected the tape, expecting to see a devoured cassette unspooling, but it wasn’t. I pushed the tape back in & pressed play and it finished out fine. There’s nothing I hate more than poor presentation. I may have to switch over to DVCPRO and rent a deck if there are any more problems with this deck. I ran the head cleaner, but I don’t trust it. I have also put an offer out to purchase a deck that can play back DVCAM tapes, as a backup, but that cuts into the emergency funds and savings with the new Great Depression staring us in the face, but I am responsible singularly for the presentation at the COWTOWN FILM SERIES. I have to maintain the highest level of professional presentation. This is MY responsibility and I love other people’s movies enough to do whatever it takes, sacrifice something of my own, fall on the sword, to make someone else look as professional as I can make it.



Johnny always does an entertaining Q&A and he’s practiced at it, so I had very little to do or say. That was good, as I am getting burned out. After that show I realized I’m only at the HALFWAY mark. What the hell was I thinking? 10 weeks? This is a lot of work. I subconsciously knew what I was doing, but consciously, I have gotten older, more tired, and this is a massive undertaking. Is it worth it? Hell yes. I’m having a blast and so is the crowd. Even when the movie isn’t to the individuals liking, they still find merit or at least enjoy themselves at the after party.

Luckily, I got pretty far ahead on the work and the tapes. I have the next 4 Cowtown shows already completed and on tape…. Unless I have to convert them to DVCPRO, which will suck solely because of the time, but I will do what I have to do. As it is, I can just skate in, setup my system, and then we rock right into the pre-show. I have all the levels and connections all setup.

Today I’m buried “IN THE TRENCHES” trying to get this documentary finished. Finally my workload really is starting to drop off, which I thought would be a good thing, but it really isn’t. Business and freelance prospects are starting to feel the initial wave of the economy crash. In 3-4 months, we’ll all see the catastrophic effects of what’s happening with the stock markets. When the trickle down gets to “Main Street” (gotta love 24 hour news channel buzzwords), everything will dry up for a time. Expect Xmas to be dismal this year, but personally, I don’t get much into the season anyway.

Obviously, this blog is a minor form of procrastination preventing me from starting work on the documentary, so this is it.

Peace out,
Peter John Ross

PROGRESS, WITH A PARTICIPLE OF PARTYING

The stock market plummets, yet my stock goes up some. With the meager success of the COWTOWN FILM SERIES, along with it come the many people who either forgot me or just plain want something for nothing. This type of pattern belies the reality of our society here in the U.S. I no longer have harsh feelings, as it’s not personal, it just evolves that way. My absolute trust is something I don’t give away often. People play games and the expectation remains that people want you to play their games or you become some kind of pariah. I have no interest in the games. I actually mean exactly what I say and say exactly what I mean (without having to write it in a long winded, over bloated style).

Looks incredibly likely we’re going to set up a winter 2009 COWTOWN FILM SERIES. By then, several more features will be completed. It won’t hurt to have some new shorts from several people done by then too.



I actually got to edit last night on the documentary for November 13th. I forced myself into looking at it, doing some re-synching of audio, and that (as I knew it would) lead to me cutting stuff. I went into AVID and exported some raw footage to use as “B-Roll”, and to enhance some scenes I have. I actually cut the new OPENING of the whole documentary. It’s an interesting hodge-podge of stuff from one of the bigger days. Pacing for a feature length movie and a DVD-Extra are two radically different things. The old opening cannot be used as it’s not really apt, nor is a clip-highlight thing really apropos to what the overall theme.

I have decided to shoot something cool for the opening title sequence. Using the theme of “IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM”, I saw this technique that I want to apply using silhouettes and creating a virtual 3D trench. Where I’m going to find the time and inclination to shoot and create this, I don’t know, but hopefully there are enough gaps in my work schedule now to pull this off. I think I can. Power of positive thinking? Coming

The laundry list of things left to be done doesn’t seem as heavy now that I’m more or less coming up with my game plan on how to attack this and finish it on time. I may even replicate on DVD-9. I haven’t decided if I want to. Maybe when the movie is done I can say.



Something new in my mind is to utilize (with permission) some of the TV clips and interviews. It will help finish the “story” and explain a few things for us too. I realized nowhere at any time (other than on VIEWFINDER) do we address the whole TWO DIRECTORS, ONE FILM aspect. So that has to be inserted since we answered it eloquently together on that show (And the one of the only times John Whitney and I appeared together).

The hardest part is editing me? I hate looking at and even worse so, listening to me talk. I hear myself talk enough to other people, and now I have to hear me talking to myself? Ugh. I always understand other people’s hatred of me when I edit anything of me speaking.



I only procrastinate on something when I’m simply burned out. Anything to do with HORRORS OF WAR pretty much keeps me singed on the edges and crispy on the inside. I want to move past this movie, but this documentary is the last string attached. If I finish it, then screen it, and then it truly will be over. I can let it go away forever as more of a memory than this albatross.

The next phase is prepped and ready to go, but I cannot start until I keep my word and finish what I started. At least that motivates me to get ‘er done. This week I should be able to make even more headway on finishing the documentary. I plan on giving the project several more hours and whole days this week. If I can crack the nut, and get over the hump of initial work, then I can slide into home plate with a bit more ease.

Working on this makes “V” very happy. My being in his presence creates a sense of unbridled contention. As I type, he lays in a ball next to me, utterly decimating a box that he claimed as his mini-apartment that has lost 2 of its walls to his weight leaning against them. This guy makes me laugh. Cousette pretty much sleeps all the time now. She’s getting old. Poor girl.

We partied at Jessica’s Saturday night. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ and I had a blast, as did most people present. I missed being social. That’s not an issue these days. With every Thursday night after parties for COWTOWN, soon to be MOFA meetings (Mid-Ohio Filmmakers Association), rehearsals, and my day job, I have no problems being the little socialite. I see and talk to people a-plenty lately.

That’s all I got for now acolytes of Boo. The Boo his self has grown tired and must allocate some time for working.

Peace,
Peter John Ross

RETRIBUTION AND REVELATION

Week four of COWTOWN went extremely well. JOHNNY APPLEWEED from Johnny Cotugno and Tamara Reynolds played for a packed crowd of over 200 people. In the short film line up, I added the SAD KERMIT short from Backwards Slate’s Max Goah. Man oh man did that hit well with the audience, as I knew it would. I programmed it after the Uncle Pete and Telemarketer shorts; you have to ditch your ego and program what works best and that piece I knew was a home run.

 

During the trailers, I did something a bit different. Since several of the audience members are repeat viewers, I felt that the trailers start to get a bit grating being the same every week. So for HORRORS OF WAR, I decided I’d mix it up since I personally have several trailers. Since it was a comedy night, I played the Japanese DVD trailer, and just in case the joke was lost, I added a title at the end that said “Now in English” and thankfully it got laughs, big laughs no less. Even more cool was that about 6 people approached me to say that the thought the trailer was so kick ass, they want to see the movie again.



The great and powerful short film channel MOVIEOLA from the Great White North has approached me about showing the new short films. I had not been quite the marketing whore I once was in that I never submitted the Telemarketers or Uncle Petes to them. Since they bought a British TV network too, this is a bigger outlet than it once was. Thank god I have a connection and history with them as competition for air time is fierce these days.

The big SUZUKI push ended. I’m blitzed. Even though this was a smaller order, which only meant that I did more of the work myself instead of bringing in more people to help. Now that the economy has crashed, only a few weeks off from my earlier prediction of Mid-to-Late-August, we can expect a serious draught in work for many in the film & video realm.

I had an interesting discussion relating to the effects of the economy on filmmaking on various levels. The “indie film” will die a pretty immediate death, from the $1,000-$1,000,000 stages. Private investment has just left the building as everyone’s property and stocks have plummeted. The mini-majors in Hollywood will be the first ones to feel the squeeze as the banks pucker up the credit.



What most people don’t realize about a major Hollywood film is that they are financed not by investors in most cases, but low interest loans from banks. Warner Brothers, Sony, Fox, and Disney have assets and values so they can get a loan, as opposed to private investment. That means that now that there is less credit available to banks from bigger banks, there is less money for Hollywood, even though they are, in a general sense, profitable. Since virtually every single “indie” studio had been gobbled up by the big studios, there ain’t no money for Indies either.

So with private investment, studio deals, all out of the option window, what can we do? In a lot of cases, just wait it out. Practice. Make shorts. What else is there? We’re screwed for the time being.

The home video market had already been decimated by piracy, gluttony of product, and a lack of profitability thanks to Netflix, Video on Demand, and alternate sources. It seems the very same things that widen our audience diminish our chances of fiscal success.



The future is unwritten. We face various forms of uncertainty. My prediction remains positive, as the unknown is the future. I know that the next generation, the next wave will be in the unexpected, unpredictable new form.

- Peter John Ross

Procrastination Kills the Kitties of Creativity

My weekend filled with monotonous, but necessary works. I got ahead on our big commercial gig whilst simultaneously digitizing and working through a ton of material for The COWTOWN Film Series. From conforming video files from various sources to digitizing tapes and DVD’s, sorting through it, scheduling, and then timeline assembly, I did about 44 hours work from Friday to Sunday night for the COWTOWN Film Series, while still laying spots to Beta SP for broadcast throughout the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard.





Putting these shows together is by no means a small job, but quality assurance means a lot to me. I want to put on good shows. Because someone told me how cool the title sequences are that I did, that actually got me a little upset. I appreciate the compliment, but now I’m left wondering what I to do when by week 10 they get bored with those animations. So I spent my Friday night creating a whole new set of animations and graphics for the show intros for the remaining 7 weeks. So now I have a plethora of animation and title sequences for everything. I even added dates and show times to the trailers, an animation introducing the Q&A sessions, and a titler at the head of each show. I’m big into professional grade showmanship, although most of the animations I created are simply templates slightly altered from VideoCo-pilot.net (gotta give credit where credit is due and Andrew Kramer deserves most of the credit).



I even did all the PRE-SHOW timelines and exported them to MPEG files for the Compact Flash Video player I use for the loop. I love this cool handy device. No moving parts, just plug it in for power, connect the audio/video cables to the INPUT of the DVCAM deck, switch the deck over to LINE IN, and then pop in the COMPACT FLASH card with MPEG1 or MPEG2 files on it and away it goes, looping for an eternity. Running it through the deck saves me any additional hookups or switchers, plus I can manually control the volume levels on the deck for the LINE IN. I want the PRE-SHOW to be a much lower volume than the real show.



For the PRE-SHOW, I added a trailer for JIM LEO’s upcoming feature. Even though it isn’t a part of COWTOWN, he’s been attending every week. One other thing I added was a few new slides to the slide show. I’ve always had one for INDIECLUB COLUMBUS because they send out the notices about COWTOWN, so it’s the least I can do. I’m not particularly a fan of the local chapter, but hey scratch my back, I scratch yours. Business is business. I also added one more Paul Landis-made slide for a production company because supposedly there was a FACEBOOK notice about being “banned” from the COWTOWN Film Series. No one has been banned. It’s open to the public and anyone can attend. Who I chose to put in the PRE-SHOW is really up to me. Several people PAID to be sponsors; others generously donated time, support, word of mouth, or short films.



So someone I barely know tells me there was some FACEBOOK or something entry stating that their current status was “BANNED FROM COWTOWN because they weren’t getting a free slide. What the hell are they doing for the screenings? My understanding is that this same yahoo called me the devil and then wonders why I’m not feeling inclined to give them a free spotlight on the big screen in front of 50-100 people a week. Gee, I wonder. Whatever, I’ll put their slide into the shows. Sheesh.



My Sexy Fiance Veronica ™ could turn into Columbus’ own AIN’T IT COOL NEWS for Ohio movies. Since I prefer to watch the features for the first time on the big screen, she’s my beta tester when I lay off the timelines to tape. She watches for glitches and mistakes or even computer error (which has happened a few times) and the tapes stop, or the hard drives stop, or there’s skips in the program, etc. She sees all the movies, pre-show, and short films/trailers, and the features up to 3-6 weeks early. Since she works and can’t make it before 30-45 minutes into each COWTOWN Film Series, she loves getting the private screening. I suggested she blog about the movies before they screen and build a mini-web-spoiler thing going so Columbus could really be a mini-Hollywood. Like if the plot twist was the ultra-lame “she’s really the killer’s SISTER!” DUH-DUH DAHHHHHHH! Oh my god, it’s as if they saw HALLOWEEN iV! Maybe not. No one really cares.







As it is this week’s upcoming feature JOHNNY APPLEWEED kicks ass. It’s not a slapstick comedy or Cheech and Chong proportions. It’s got a bit more depth and seems more akin to the abstract-lite Richard Linklater films like WAKING LIFE or moments in SLACKER. Regardless, I think people are in for a treat with the short films too. When Max’s SAD KERMIT video plays, my belief is that people will be laughing so hard, I’ll get equal parts complaints and praise for programming it.



I have shows 1-9 (out of 10) pretty much complete, 1-5 are even on tape already. There are a few procrastinating or last minute tinkerers and slackers in my midst, but we have set deadlines. I shan’t be very forgiving of those who miss the deadline…. PHIL. These dates and times are not superficial, as I need to clear the decks so that I can put my OWN focus on completing the feature for November 13th. Obviously HORRORS OF WAR is done, but IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM is not. I’m debating that show order now and think the film itself should go first for those who haven’t seen the movie; the documentary goes second and doesn’t spoil anything.



Once I plug the holes in a few of the newer timelines (and secure some more blank DVCAM tapes), I’ll be set for the rest of the run of COWTOWN . I have placeholders and other things in the sequences, so everything in terms of mapping and planning has been completed. I wanted to get ahead, and now I have. I have two projects in post production to nail, one small, one huge, but neither insurmountable.



If I can just manage to get the day-job commercial work to tone down some more, then I’ll be in a position to get everything done in order. Thanks to the economy, that looks likely to be sooner rather than later. In the past year I’ve learned some amazing time saving tips and workflow short cuts with all my software that I so arrogantly thought I had mastered. Nay, I say unto thee. Someone can always teach you new tricks and cut corners.



I want to schedule two small shoots in the next few weeks. I guess, since my inspiration has returned I might as well kick the ignition and go for it, right? I mean when the divine muse gives you a gift or two, you should really pay attention and light the fire. I’m lit. I want to burn like a forest fire while the heat remains.







Happiness is a warm gun to some, but for me Happiness is a cold glass o’ Paul Newman’s Own lemonade. Here’s to ya Paul. Rest in Peace. I’ll have two gallons to support your charities every week.





- Peter John Ross