Accidental Art Video Blog - Collaborating on Screenplay

The Sonnyboo Intern Program 4

Passionately Preoccupied

These new video blogs are popular with people I know. Maybe it’s the slightly exaggerated “me” or maybe people like seeing cruel and unusual punishment towards an Intern, but they are growing in popularity as we go. Alex’s idea of doing this combined with our team writing coalesce into combination of promotion and humor.



I initially agreed to make 6 of these, but we only had outlined 3 of them, all of which are shot and edited and out there. When it came time to do the next few, I had no ideas. Alex pitched me several ideas, and life imitated art whereas I didn’t bite on any of them. It did lead to a healthy set of combo concepts. The idea of doing some kind of homage to famous movies struck a chord with me.

To be honest, I wasn’t that keen on doing any more, even though we’ve had some really good feedback. The new ideas got me reinvigorated. I cannot wait to shoot these and release them over the next few weeks. The video blogs are simple and not complex, so no need for a lot of flash to them. There are several subtle touches that we’re doing to the insiders; things like my lower 3rd having a ton of titles whereas Alex only has “intern” and the like.

My deal with Alex is this, if we get an average of 1,000 views for each video by January, we’ll make more of them. I’d have to be really really compelled to keep doing these. I have other projects in need of attention, but as long as we can keep the quality up, we’ll keep at it.

Accidental Art Video Blog - Caffeine Free

top 5 MAKING OF sites

MAKING OF
http://makingof.com/

Natalie Portman is one of the founders of this site with tons of great EPK videos of behind the scenes kind of things.

ART OF THE TITLE SEQUENCE
http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Art of the Title Sequence has great info and in depth interviews and videos on the title sequences and effects for the coolest opening or closing sequences of film from the earliest days to the latest craze.

SOUNDWORKS COLLECTION
http://soundworkscollection.com/

For sound design, sound mixing, film scores, and all things audio - these videos are amazing and insightful for one of the most under-appreciated aspects of filmmaking - sound.

JOHN AUGUST BLOG
http://johnaugust.com/

John August, the screenwriter behind BIG FISH, GO, and others, shares opinions and ideas.

DREW'S SCRIPTORAMA
http://www.script-o-rama.com/table.shtml

An old classic that still has and adds screenplays, even separating the "transcripts" from the "screenplays", where one is a transcription of what was in the final edit, the other is the WRITER's intent. Great reads, especially if you read unproduced drafts or early drafts of film classics. I still recommend reading THE GREN MILE or SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION for the art of effeciency in screenwriting and description.

a confounded nuisance

Friday night I interviewed a childhood hero, actor Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica (both versions). He was doing an acting seminar in Cincinnati and we wanted to do a story for FRAMELINES. He was a really down to earth, nice guy. It turns out we know a few of the same people and that was a nice ice breaker.


As fate would have it, I wrote a part with Richard Hatch specifically in mind for ACCIDENTAL ART, but we’ll see if he’s interested at all or if schedules work out when it comes time to shoot the movie. So many variables can conspire to make these things not work out. I have in mind several genre actors for this very non-genre movie. I love the idea of casting against type. Taking a science fiction or fantasy icon actor and putting them in a dark comedy has the appeal to their acting skills and because most people would only want them to play a variation of their past characters. I know I don’t want to be pigeon-holed into any one genre or style of film, so I can relate to an actor not wanting to only explore one type of character.

The new intern Blog videos seem to be doing well. A lot of people are positively commenting on the various sites. We’re shooting with the Canon T2i DSLR still cameras in 24P. They take about 30 minutes to shoot and a little over an hour to edit, do FX work, and finalize. I have in mind about 5-6 of these total, but we’ll see if there’s continued interest. There would have to be about 1,000 views each for this initial run before I’d consider doing more. Right now, they are purely promotional for the movie and the simple fundraising, as something to do and create that doesn’t take a lot of effort, but has some entertainment value. I am learning something, as in I am doing some very complex compositing work with 3D motion tracking on multiple planes of focus, etc. I am putting the focus on YouTube over Vimeo as an experiment with these.

I re-edited FRAMELINES pilot episode. My original running time was 29:00 minutes and PBS needs 26:46 which meant some serious trims. From feedback at screenings I wanted to add more clips from the films we are discussing, which meant even more interviews being trimmed. I finished and delivered Friday at 4:00PM what I believe is a vastly improved pilot episode. I’m considering some kind of screening or debut of an episode and then highlights in February, which is when we’re now set to premiere the show. It’s been over a year since I did any kind of screening.

Accidental Art Video Blog - Screenwriting

Bedevilment and Predation

So we put out the first video blog for ACCIDENTAL ART. I think the idea of taking a few potshots at myself and my reputation will make for a humorous thing. People have a certain perception of me and what working with me is like. I don’t mind make a slightly exaggerated parody of this.



I started making silly pictures of myself and opening this up on Facebook for people to make fun of me a bit. Why not? Apparently people want to take me down a peg or two, so now they can.

We’re going to do 5-6 more of these. We sketched out the plan, and now that I showed how easily it is to do the FX work, the ambition rises. Alex had this idea that we expanded on and have made into something that is already getting some really good feedback.

I’ve been in something of a social coma of late. I have strong antisocial feelings towards most of the people I normally have hung out with. I’m in this creative head space and I don’t want to be distracted by unimportant drama. Word still reaches my ears about this, that, and the other in terms of who is making what movies and the opinions of such. I’m out of it and I don’t care.



Some people can spend years making movies and not improve. So what? I honestly don’t care what other people do or don’t do. It’s none of my business and they have every right to make movies and suck or not suck.

I just want to work on my own projects and create things that I like. Come January 2011, when FRAMELINES hits PBS, we’ll see how much I can stay out of everyone else’s business…since the premise of the show is to go onset and talk to as many people as we can about their projects.

Bedevilment and Predation

The Sonnyboo Intern Program

Gesticulating the Syndicate

I am going to speak at Ohio State to some students about film soon. I used to let things like this get to my head, but doing a little homework, some of the students I’m speaking to have been on bigger sets than I have. One girl worked on THOR and met Natalie Portman, whom I am supposed to stay at least 50 yards from. I was a PA on Traffic over 10 years ago, but that’s not a big deal. I’m not some huge success, at least not by any definition I have set for myself.



I’m headed to Indianapolis for a film festival soon, but it’s for RELATIONSHIP CARD playing. I got the nicest phone call from the festival organizers saying it was a great movie and that they watched it frame by frame to see my inside jokes in all the graphics. I’m glad someone did because I took a lot of time to write out a lot of little inside bits for that.



Framelines is coming along. I have to re-edit the original pilot down from 28:59 to 26:46 running time. I got a great suggestion from Tiffany Arnold when we screened this at IndieClub a few months ago. She said we should show more clips from the movies we’re profiling, and she was right. So I need to trim out even more material to make room for more example clips. Looks like January will be the premiere and that will lead to a lot more exposure for everyone.

It’s official; I have avoided a lot of drama in the local film community. There is a big ado about some people’s work and how they are presenting it etc. and I have no part of it, nor really that much of an opinion. I’m so buried in my own work right now I wouldn’t know what anyone’s doing. I don’t have time to care about he said/she said.

Because of the fundraising, Alex and I came up with a quick bunch of shoots to do as promotion. I think these might be funny and they will be really really short. People will like getting a peek at what working with me is like.