Sometimes I Don't Mind Spoons...

Another birthday came & went. I am 36 years old.... Still young because 40 is death. For the first time I feel older, but not old. I don’t know if I can eloquently describe what I am thinking on the subject. I guess, I don’t have to face maturity anytime soon and I have no intention of it.



The best birthday presents are the ones you don’t expect. Mine was My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica™’s verbal slip up, which happens to be the name of this blog. In the game of chess that is dating her, getting her to admit to things like this are a treasure trove of endless teasing and reminders. I need to invest in a portable MP3 audio recording device so I can relive these magical moments over and over again.

We had a little poker party the day after my birthday. It was low key and fun. A few friends and others came. I barely played myself. I won the first few hands of the “practice” rounds, got some change, and then never made it back to the table. Scott cleaned up though. I’m glad he made it out to have a good time.

“V” was being himself and I realized he had never had to cope with more than 3-4 people in the house at one time. It was a new & terrifying experience for him. He wasn’t too bad, but at the end of the night, he started getting very bad when there was only 2-3 people left. I mentioned that I wanted to do some kind of video project featuring this barrel full of personality, and actually 2 different people gave me an idea that I might just wind up using. If I can be so inclined, as well as fate granting me more time to work at home as opposed to the studio, then “V” might become an online icon of feline adventure.



Last night in the car, on my way home, I was hit with an old idea that somehow never got written down. I have a text file of several ideas for movies, shorts, dialogue, and just whatever. It’s something I go to when the well is dry. Usually, everything, even the bad ideas, makes their way on this list. Sometimes the initial idea and the final product don’t resemble one another, but it did originate here from this list. I originally tried to give this idea to someone else for their project, but eventually that whole thing died and my bit was never used. Now, I can convert it to a pseudo sequel to the HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEMARKETERS shorts…

I’ve been struggling to come up with less ambitious shorts to try to do to not only get myself back in shape as a director, but also to fill the void left by the writer’s strike. I don’t think it’s an accident my overall views on all sites has gone up exponentially in the last 3-4 months. People are tuning away from TV and reality show hell and finding their entertainment online.

So it looks like HD-DVD is dead meat. With Warner Brothers defecting to Blu-Ray only, and Universal & Paramount’s exclusivity deals ending – Sony finally gets to win a technology war. Too bad it puts me off, but I’m not going to shell out $399 for a cheap Blu-Ray player. I happily concede that Blu-Ray is a superior format with 50 gigs per disc versus HD-DVD’s 30 gigs per disc, but I don’t want to pay $250 more to see it. I don’t get into the gaming systems, so a PLAYSTATION 3 is not a bargain to me. So the war may be over, but as I said before – the consumer lost more than any conglomerate of corporations.



That’s it I’m working up some projects in my head and fermenting the ideas before getting camera and crew together to hammer out anything in the real world. Life’s stresses are calming down and returning to normalcy. Maybe I can hone in and focus some of these ideas into real projects.

Peace,
Peter John Ross

INVETERATE INTEREST IN INGENUES

Something weird happens. On Yahoo Video ™ every now and then, my views just skyrocket. Thanks to TUBEMOGUL.COM, I can look over a compilation of stats from 12 different sites at any one time. Me likes that. I’m just confounded by the numbers. With CRACKLE.COM, I can understand because I can trace a spike in views to being featured on their main page or getting an “Editor’s Choice Award”. With Yahoo Video, I have no discernable reason why one day I go from hundreds of views a day to suddenly thousands of views. Sure I added a video of my cousin Ian playing guitar , but that wasn’t it. This past Thursday, my views spiked and it wasn’t a single video, it was 20 of them just went BAMM! And I had a lot of people watching a lot of my movies.



Could this be in response to the writer’s strike and how people are turning to the Internet even MORE than they were for entertainment?



My opinion on the writer’s strike going on in the U.S. is this: The WGA is over compensating for their bad negotiation for DVD rights a few years ago. They know they screwed up that deal big time because NO ONE anticipated that TV on DVD would be such an enormous profit making machine. Now that everyone is aware that the Internet is the future, they are over compensating for the potential lucrative opportunities on the web that aren’t there….. yet but they will be. Of course, the greedy producers and companies don’t want to share more than they have to.



So I’m of course siding with the writer’s on this, but the real problem this will cause, at least in my hypothesis is this: They will both lose. The mob is fickle, brother. The majority of people won’t know or care about the strike or who’s right and who’s wrong. They want their empty minds filled. They will get satisfaction one way or another. The Internet and the YouTubes out there already carve a giant hole into the 18-35 year old demographic. Where will they go now when the regular shows and movies aren’t available? People like me are itching to fill in that gap and we will. The old business model of TV shows and movies will only degrade at an accelerated rate thanks to the strike.



Anywho…



I got my crane in, so I can do some cool jib-like shots whenever I feel like it. I loaned my HD camera to my boss as he goes to New York City for the weekend. He’ll get some HD shots of the city with my Canon HV20 and we can use it or not use it as needed. I love having a tiny camera that catches such amazing images.



I’m trying to formulate my production schedule for the year. We’re still posting ETERNAL here, plus I’ve decided to push for a final sound mix on GOODNIGHT CLEVELAND by the end of February so it can be considered “done” and we can move on. My Obsessive Compulsive Disorder demands that project be finished, my work kept and friends satiated. Aside from that, I’m trying to budget and time out production on at least 3 slightly more ambitious shorts and also a feature. I want to return to my workaholic ways as well as start working out on my new gym membership. I need stamina to keep up with the plans I have.



Using the new Adobe CS3 suite has some minor challenges. I miss the way I could make a DVD straight off the timeline. That was handy, now it has to be exported to Encore to make a folder. Other than that, it’s handy and cool. I toyed with After Effects a bit using the 3D environment that’s been around for years, but I stopped creating title sequences several years ago, so now this was of interest to me to have it so easily done.



The great and powerful Johnny Wu is stopping in this Tuesday afternoon. I love hanging with my friend Johnny. He doesn’t come to Columbus as often as I go to Cleveland, so this will be fun. His movie RAPTURE is skedded for a premiere in the not too distant future.



To celebrate the breakfast nook now with new cushions, as well as My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™’s now completed remodeled bathroom, we’re having a party for my birthday this week. I’ve been anti-social for some time. I don’t think this will change much overall, but at least for this, I’ll entertain some of my pals as we play poker upstairs and perhaps some HD-DVD will play downstairs.







I have My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™ addicted to TWIN PEAKS. This show, from 1990-1991, aged very well. It’s not as out of date as I thought it would be. Mark Frost and David Lynch did something historic with this show. They each complimented each other’s style. Their respective voices can be clearly differentiated via the two lead characters, Kyle MacLachlan’s Agent Cooper and Michael Ontkean’s Sheriff Harry S. Truman. Lynch used Cooper to translate his esoteric, often abstract ideas into English as he explained it to Frost’s Sheriff Truman who needed to understand, as did the audience, how a midget, a giant, and a guy named Bob somehow relate to a normal thought process. Two bits of trivia often not associated with TWIN PEAKS, #1. two of the lead actors were the two lead actors in the film version of WEST SIDE STORY, and #2 there are at least 4 actors who later had recurring roles on SEINFELD.



Off to work I am. As much as it chagrins poor “V” who wants to play fetch like a dog….



- Ross

HOW I WANT MY FUNERAL

Life goes on. I don’t know why, but it does. There are good days and there are bad days. Sometimes the days a dull, others are filled to the brim with excitement and adventure. Who knows what causes the patterns?



I’m contemplative these days. The death of someone you know can cause a reflection on many things. For me, I know I want to make it clear and public how I want my post-mortem activities to be.

#1. No church service. It would be hypocritical. I have beliefs, hardly agnostic, but I’m not officially a member of the Bahai faith, so even then, I doubt it would be 100% appropriate. If, god forbid, my family has a say – let them know it’s WRONG. It’s not in any way what I wish for. A funeral service for me should be at a movie theatre, not a church. I worked at a movie theatre when I was 16 and I was a manager until I was 22. In the past few years, my relationship with movie theatres is either as a patron or filmmaker, and surprisingly more and more often exhibiting something I made.

#2. No tears or sadness. My funeral should be a good time. I’d want people to talk and drink and have a great time. Meet new people; hang out for hours just talking and telling stories. That’s what I would want for the people that know me to do. There's time enough for tears.

#3. Telling stories about me is essential. I would want everyone to get up; even the shy people and I’d want them to tell one good story and one bad story about me. I’d want to be remembered as I really am – flawed. I don’t want to be idealized as a saint or good person. Like every human being, I’m not perfect and I’d rather be thought of as I really am (or was if I am dead at that point).

#4. I’d want my body cremated. No need to have expensive caskets or some plot in the ground.

#5. My earthly possessions should be dispersed at the funeral as a Yankee Swap kind of giveaway or possibly via a movie trivia game show type scenario where people win my DVD’s if they answer the Star Wars trivia correctly, and the grand prize being the rights to my screenplays as yet unproduced or my pillow. I don’t know which one I value more at this point.

Death does not have to be morbid and for me, I’d much rather make my funeral a fun event in which many people walk away with cool prizes and a smile on their face. I don't mean to be calloused, but I think that the death would be sad enough without memorializing mine with a depressing and sad service even though I'd still be the center of the show. When I take the center stage, it's more my style to try to have a good time. Why should my funeral be any different?

PRECOCIOUS PREPARATIONS

I feel like 2008 will be the year I get back on my game. Like an ice melting, my creativity has begun to open up some. I have already begun to lay out plans for quite a busy year. I know I have vowed, in this very blog series no less, to never make a short again. That has been broken twice before with ALWAYS LATE and HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEMARKETERS, but the latter has taught me an important lesson; you have to practice to keep the skill-set up.







On deck this year, before I make another feature, I want to get my game on. So if weather permits, I have a snow necessary short that I have ALWAYS said I would make if I got the right amount of snow and could pull it off. After that, I have 2 more shorts I’ll do in the spring when the weather warms up. One is a period piece, but even more difficult than World War II – Medieval times with a castle. CGI is a wonderful tool, but I can’t make up costumes and suits of armor. After that (or before that mayhap) is a contemporary piece that’s actually an intro to a feature I intended to write & produce, but not direct. I can use it as a stand alone piece either as promotional ala HORRORS OF WAR, or it can just be the end all total piece. I built too much on the Horror genre with connections to ignore it since the next feature will be a comedy to let the genre lie.



My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™ has been developing her own feature and I have been solely acting as an advisor. In May, we’re going to go to Vermont to tape in HD an interview with the author of the book she’s adapting. It’s a true story of a Holocaust survivor and I had the idea of getting some longer form interviews with her about her experience together. We can make a nice 15 minute documentary to start, let her take it to film festivals and use that to garner interest in a narrative movie based on the book. Not ever movie should have a sample scene or trailer shot of it. Since this is a true story and we can ask the person who experienced it, to me it will be more compelling to focus on the real person. The interviews can be compiled to a feature length documentary later, but we’ll focus in on a 15-20 minute segment to really hook people.

So there’s short #3 or #4 for 2008 before my next feature.



We’ve already started taping video blogs of My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™’s journey writing her screenplay. They start hitting online soon.



I purchased a new microphone, a crane, a poor man’s steadicam, and even my new 24P HD camcorder so that even my BEHIND THE SCENES will be HD in the New Year and everything will be a little better in quality than my previous work. I’ve been idle too long. The stagnation of working, even as an editor, has stiffened my joints.







All else is well in Rossdonia ®. “V” wanted to participate in the taping of My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™’s video blogs, so he even made the cut. I often wondered how he would perform on camera. I’d like to do something for web video with “V”, but I’m not sure what. I don’t want to do something retarded like adding a human voice to him, nor do I want to do some generic “hey look at my cat being cute” video, so who knows? I can’t think of anything, so I’ll just let him be himself on camera with other projects.



Peter John Ross, Esquire

my first Videomaker Magazine article

My first article I've written for VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE has come out. You can see it online HERE (click here). There is an accompanying video which worked well, although I sold al rights to it to VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE when I did it.


Having a column in print and being a professional writer for a video magazine feels good. I can't complain. I like it a lot. It's a resume builder, but also fun to do. This cannot hurt when talking to investors and distributors to say, "Oh and I've written some articles for VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE." Validation and professional recognition all serve the higher purpose of making the movies and telling the stories I want to make.



We've got the new bathroom 95% done. And my half of the kitchen is nearly done. I got a new pantry since the condo lacks sufficient storage for our needs. Since the Xmas Eve gig paid out, I went ahead and ordered the navy blue cushions for the breakfast nook. Not sure why it takes over a month to deliver them when the website says "in stock", but it does. I have a place to eat again that is not either over the stove or sink, nor is it on a desk in front of a computer monitor. Once again, there is a kitchen table and chairs. I've already had one script meeting at the new table and I'm minutes away from a second.

Life doesn't suck, although I'm still distraught and sending out empathy to Scott. It's one of life's reminders that time can be precious. I've spoken to Scott a few times and I hope he realizes how much people care about him. Everyone who's heard about his tragedy has offered whatever help that he might need. Very classy, people can be sometimes.

That's all I gots at this time.

Peace O' Readers of the Blog,
Peter John Ross, Esquire

all these moments will be lost in time like tears in rain

Acolytes of Boo, I have dreadful news. Scott Spears (www.scottspears.net), the cinematographer on half fof HORRORS OF WAR has tragedy hit. His wife Tracy passed away last night. No one is sure yet what happened, but my heart goes out to Scott and Tracy's families. She seemed to have passed peacefully at home. She was barely 42 years old.

I have been asked to take over the business, Production Partners Media in the interim while Scott deals with this. I am happy to do this for him, as there is little else I can do. These tragic events never allow for people around them to be affected, and left helpless to do anything about it. At least I can contribute in some small way by filling in at work, doing some of Scott's work for him, and keeping the business running.

For those not in the know, Scott has been hiring me so much in the last year that he has provided over 90% of my annual income in 2007. He rescued me from poverty. That's what Scott is like. He's more generous and helping than anyone else I've ever known. I can think of no one that deserves this less. Scott is a great guy, and I don't mean that in the generic, he's really just okay kind of way - I mean Scott redefines generosity and even mindedness. It tears me apart to hear him so distraught.

My thoughts go to the families. For anyone wanting to send flowers or cards for Scott, send them to his attention here at the studio:

Production Partners Media
520 Enterprise Dr
Suite C
Lewis Center, Ohio 43035

Hold on to someone or something precious. You never know when you might lose it.

Peace,
Ross