Hell Hath Frozen Over

Spielberg has edited two movies non-linear in a computer! He himself vowed never to do such a thing, but with TINTIN and also WAR HORSE, Steven has come over to the darkside. Now I understand TINTIN, as that is a CGI movie, but WAR HORSE is live action, shot on film.


Spielberg resisted the new school approach to editing, which is like comparing typing with a typewriter versus using a word processor. Your options become near limitless and takes so little time to edit with a computer versus editing with a work print, a moviola and some splice tape. For 40+ year of a career, this has been the only way Spielberg has edited, and now he has done two movies back to back in the computer.

At least he’s still using editor Michael Kahn. He has edited all of Spielberg’s movies except for 2, JAWS (Verna Fields) and E.T. (Carol Littleton, because Michael Kahn was editing POLTERGEIST for Spielberg superseding director Tobe Hooper).

Raucous Rapscallions

I’m doing some minor writing of late. Whether it’s scribbling on a notepad at work, typing in Google Docs on the laptop waiting on a render, what matters most is that words from my head are being committed to some form that others might see and eventually say/shoot.

I’ve got a few ideas tumbling over. One compels me because I have never attempted a process shot, that is a shot in a car that appears to be moving when it is in fact stationary. There is the “poor man’s process” which is to say it’s all done with lights rotating across the windshield and windows. That is an option. Next is rear-projection, which is to go out and shoot the street views ahead of time, then project them on a screen near the car to give the illusion that they are moving. You’ll still have to do the lights, but there is clearly a background of moving streets outside the windows. The benefit is that everything is in camera, no post production work on either of those. The last option is greenscreen, which is to “key” in the street scenes in the computer after the fact. This option doesn’t cause the same problems it did as little as 2-3 years ago since technology has improved so much.

I’ll pick one of those and that will be the core of this shoot. The rest of it will tackle some more adult themes, something I haven’t done much of. It will deal with sexuality in a way I do not usually put in film. There is no nudity, as I have not matured enough as a person or director to handle that yet, but since I turn 40 years old next month, maybe with the death of my youth I might gain some of that maturity I’ve heard so much about.



CLIP FRAMES and FRAMELINES continue to grow to other markets. Today I made over 60 DVD’s to send out to various channels throughout the state and in the neighboring West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. I am pleased to hear such positive responses from programmers about the show. In a few months time, there will be no escape from my marketing machine. Too long have I been idle and silent. The time to reawaken my inner marketing whore reveals itself to be nigh. Prepare thyself, Acolytes.

Irascible Rankery

Slowly the wheels turn. Already got 1 rejection and 5 confirmations of playing one of the two TV series in various markets. No offense to the Population 17,000 market, but Pittsburgh picking up FRAMELINES represents a gain of about 300,000. Pittsburgh is also a much bigger film town. We’re weeks away from a premiere in Pennsylvania, and possibly CLIP FRAMES as well.
I suspect that many of these packages I sent out for CLIP FRAMES and FRAMELINES will go unanswered, whether they play the shows or not. The shame is that if they play them, I have additional episodes and no way of knowing if they can use more of them. I have to assume rejection on the part of any no-responses. I will follow up in mid December to any with contact info.



I laid out two more episodes of CLIP FRAMES tonight. They are skeletons as I need about 10 minutes of material for each episode, but that puts me at 25 total episodes. I like to lay in new material as I have it, so so more FRAMELINES leftover content as well as Behind the Scenes from a few friends round out the shows. Since we have 2 more Roundtables to edit for FRAMELINES, that means I should have no trouble filling in these shows.

I’m formulating my plan on what projects to embark on in the interim before ACCIDENTAL ART, the feature film. I was planning on directing 2 more CELL PHONE MONOLOGUES, but it might be 3-4, depending on a few factors. A couple scripts started to cohere in a way I did not anticipate. I’m not much of a writer to be honest, so when something starts to work, I jump on it.

We’ll see what’s next soon enough.

Elucidating the Erudites

Elucidating the Erudite



After over $100 in shipping and over 50 packages, I suddenly find myself with less to do for the briefest of moments. I'm taking a weekend off, more or less. I spent today cleaning, and doing a major rearrangement of furniture in the mancave of Rossdonia.

I have many docs on my computer(s), usually transcribed from handwritten notes on one of several notepads. In it are many ideas from THINGS TO DO, to lines of dialogue to project ideas. Because contract negotiations with a key cast member do not permit me to shoot on my feature ACCIDENTAL ART for a few months, along with weather, I want to fill my time with some creative work.
I can’t stand be idle. It happens by the nature of doing something artistic (my own work may not be judged ‘art’ by some). Sometimes the muse just doesn’t visit. Other times, life distracts you from creating.

The already released CELL PHONE MONOLOGUES are an example of something I wanted to start, then become more of a producer for others to facilitate the making of more. The concept is simply to pair great actors with great cinematography to do the otherwise poorly shot acting monologue. There are two more of these that I would like to direct myself, then let others loose on writing, directing, shooting, and making others.

Now that I’ve been screening these, there is some interest by others to participate. That brings up two other similar ideas I have percolating. Well, one more idea that is meant to be done by others that I help with, and another is just a set of simple ideas I had to do.

Firstly, I wanted to do one or two of these other series, based on an old Peter Seller’s joke from the 1960’s, done as a short. I think it has legs in that the concept is modernizing and warping something from someone I idolize.

Secondly, I wanted to create some very short video blogs, but strangely make them quite cinematic. I have only a handful of ideas sketched out, but I think they could be very cool. These I have for myself, but if others want to take similar ideas and run with it, then by all means. I just think these will be far harder to keep up than the Monologues and my homage to 60’s humor.

I want to do the first few of these projects, set a tone, then let people go wild. Seek out some people to make other movies in the series, help provide gear, guidance, or hell even some degree of funding.

Yeah, because I’m not busy enough in life as it is. I feel it necessary to create another MOUNTAIN of work. I’m not providing broadcast content for PBS, Educable, and teaching a class, as well as working full time producing and editing.

Combine that with my antisocial tendencies of late and you might start to wonder why these ideas are pervading my mind.....

Waggery and Whimsy

Focus is the key. Staying on track and not letting things help you stray from your chosen path; this presents the most common mistake in getting lost. Even on a bad day right now, I still get a lot done. Whether it's for FRAMELINES or CLIP FRAMES, I digitize a tape, synchronize 4 cameras on a multicam timeline, or I edit. My nose presses firmly to the grindstone right now.

And I'm teaching.

Next week I get my own class for 11.5 months. That's a hefty responsibility, but one I look forward to. I don't know as much about the radio side of the course, but I have learned much and the support for radio is tremendous at the school. The Graduate Assistants seem to almost all have a forte in broadcast radio, so it will balance out.

I have over 50 packages to mail out. Thank god a big payday hit. Now I can afford to start the shipping. At least 20 are going out tomorrow, plus some film festival submissions and other opportunities.



I heard yet again today about someone seeing one of the shows on TV, this time CLIP FRAMES, and at a hospital. That was cool. It takes time to build an audience. In prior decades, shows took time to find their place. CHEERS was 87th out of 88 shows. SEINFELD was dead last in the ratings for their first entire season (all 4 episodes!). I have the luxury of not having to deal with ratings or fight for timeslots.

CLIP FRAMES is not wonting in terms of content or episodes. I have 23 half hour shows completed already. FRAMELINES' quality vastly outweighs CLIP FRAMES because it goes out to PBS and in HD. Of course, some FRAMELINES material is airing on CLIP FRAMES, but by the time it gets to the other show, the heavy lifting is way over and only represents a fraction of effort put into a single episode.

We've put together 6 "vignettes" as I call them from last year's 48 Hour Film Project. This is material that never made it to air on FRAMELINES, but makes perfect bonus DVD, web content, and filler for CLIP FRAMES. There was some minor ill will to this year's 48 in Columbus, so some videos reminding everyone about team spirit, good times, hard work, and pure enjoyment seem to fit the prescription. Being an unbiased outside party doesn't hurt either. So far, these web videos are the most popular clips we've put out there so far. The last two are due out over the next week.

Soon we'll get cracking on finalizing another episode of FRAMELINES. Thank god the Interns have been so incredibly helpful on these. It's been so much easier once we get a style established to follow it and I only have to do minor tweaks to the cuts, as opposed to the he

Engaging the Epithets

Acolytes of Boo, your faithful narrator has returned in more ways than one. As always, I have kept busy, but soon the results of which will be seen by many. A few bouts of insomnia along with some creative bursts of energy have propelled my endeavors to new heights.

My research has yielded some fruit in terms of distribution (of sorts) for the Education show CLIP FRAMES. I have completed and authored 23 half hour shows total including the latest Sonnyboo content and FRAMELINES overflow material, as well as contributions from other select people. To maximize the output and breadth of coverage, I did some homework and found 41 additional channels within the state to play this on. Of course, a decent percentage will turn it down, so I cannot expect them all to love my show as I do, but even if only half play it - that will be an enormous score for getting the work seen. Outside of Ohio, I plan to send to direct contacts to 17 more channels in Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Given a lack of funding for Education channels, 23 totally free episodes of television stands a decent chance of getting air time.

Too many people are extremists of one side or the other. I do believe the television business models are decaying, but they are not gone yet. People are still channel surfers. Getting your work seen is still more likely on cable TV than on the Internet because the web has so much content drowning it. I still think the Internet is the future, so why not hedge your bets and do both? I certainly won't write off any potential outlet for material.

I am making a substantial investment in DVD-R's, the delivery format Du'Jour. 23 episode x 41 channels = 943. Yikes. I'm starting off with the first 2 episodes only (82 DVD's) and sending those out to see which channels say YES and email me back. Then whoever accepts the show, starts the marathon burning sessions. Thank god we have 3 duplicators that can do 100 DVD's at a time. And they all 3 have disc printers no less.



At the same time, I am going to create retail DVD's of the FRAMELINES episodes on Amazon.com. This will allow the show to get on IMDB quicker, and also it will contain the bonus content not from broadcast like the extra interviews, extended episodes, roundtable outtakes, etc. There will be practically no profit to the discs as we want to just make them available to the schools that have requested copies.

Along with those, an updated INDIE FILM TIPS DVD will be available on AMAZON first in a few weeks, then a modified SONNYBOO HD SHORTS disc too. Then I'll retire some content like the MOVIEMAKING TECHNIQUES disc and the old Sonnyboo discs.

So many things wrapping up at the same time. Season 1 of Framelines, Cell Phone Monologues, Clip Frames show, and who knows what else. Clearing the decks for the next feature. Nothing left undone.

Back to work mein freunds.

Penurious Pessimist

I had a blast last weekend at the Colony Film Festival in Marietta. Saw some great movies, met some inspiring filmmakers, and just chilled out a lot. Without planning it deliberately, it seems every year I make a long drive in Ohio in October and see the amazing leaves changing colors. Now that I'm back to work, the list of things to get done seems somewhat more achievable.

Framelines trucks along. We're shooting 3 roundtables and 2 featured filmmakers in an attempt to wrap up the first season of 13 episodes. I still need to find another featured filmmaker to complete the set. These are for people with a body of work and a distinctive style. The roundtables will be interesting because I'm trying to populate them with people I don't know or at least don't know well at all.

Because of the psychology of the Internet Age, I'm finding uses for outtakes and extra bits we have shot to create more content either exclusive for online or to add to the cable show CLIP FRAMES. I have found that people like a consistent and steady stream of material to be a key to retaining online audiences. Both leftover from the television era of having a show once a week, as well as the plethora of content inundating people on the Internets.



The Framelines Roundtables tend to be anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour each. The run time of the segments tends to be anywhere from 3 minutes to 7 minutes which equates to a lot of good material that never makes it to air. The Roundtables, although generally considered to be the least polished segment of the show, do have incredibly useful information from a variety of people discussing topics. My pattern thus far has been to take 2 segments from the Roundtable for broadcast on Framelines, then come up with another 10-15 minutes of material from the outtakes to form something for the websites and Clip Frames.

For the two 48 Hour Film Project episodes of Framelines, we shot interviews at the drop off. Since we got not only 3 of the team members we followed, but also 3-4 other people too, I decided to make these vignettes on each of them. Giving face time online and on cable TV to these other filmmakers who struggled equally means a lot to me.

Over time, all this material from Framelines and Clip Frames will add up. With 22 episodes of Clip Frames and 13 episodes of Framelines covering material from close to 100 filmmakers from Ohio - combine all that with repeats and airings in 7-8 markets, and the independent film movement will, at the very least, be seen.

Inexplicable Idiosyncrasy

Last month when we found out the Ohio Channel was airing our show FRAMELINES, I predicted it might get seen a little. I was right. I keep hearing from people who see me on TV and especially from the people we interviewed on the show about how they keep getting told they were seen on the show. I am so glad FRAMELINES finally escaped into the public.

Now I have to finish 4 more episodes....



I'm 95% done with Episode 9. All it needs are my trademark transitions and music beds for 3 of the stories and BAMM! It will be finished. I get a bit euphoric when finishing an episode. To be honest, I dance a jig after every episode completes.

I'm lining up interviews, roundtables, and other items missing from the board for the show. Season 1 needs to finish and then we'll take a break for a while. Not sure how long, although we have plans for season 2 and stories we can cover, but I want to figure out how to best approach the future of Framelines.



I'm not as down, although I have no idea why not. Nothing has changed really. My money is being drained away just as fast as I can make some. The economy looks to not improve, which means possibly a lower income on the horizon. Roadblocks are in my filmmaking way.

And yet, I am happier of late. Not sure why. I'm getting more done and better. Along with Framelines, Clip Frames continues and airs on cable TV and both will expand to neighboring states. There is much strife in Rossdonia with Lorenzo Lamas Jones and Vladimir Jack Bauer not getting along at all (or "V" doesn't like Lorenzo at all would be more accurate a description). And yet I love them all and play with them every morning and night. I've still been purchasing titles at Half Price Books like and addict.

Who really cares "why" I'm happier. I just am. When the Rossman is happier, more gets done. A lot is getting done right now. 2 new Sonnyboo short films premiere this weekend.

Top 10 Reasons RETURN OF THE JEDI Sucks

I am a big fan of Star Wars, but I have never ever liked RETURN OF THE JEDI. Having just watched the Blu Ray, I'm gonna spout off a little about this. As I have said numerous times, I'm a much bigger fan of the MAKING OF these movies than I am of the movies themselves, so I will reference many things from various sources such as DVD (and obscure Laserdisc) commentaries, documentaries, out of print books (like John Preecher's THE MAKING OF RETURN OF THE JEDI from 1983), older screenplay drafts, and more.

SPOILER ALERT, if you're you know, Amish and have never seen the movie, this will ruin it.



10. LACK OF DRAMATIC TENSION PART 1 -In the scene with Leia and Han, right after Luke says, "Hey, you're my sister, even though we played tongue twister in the last movie", and the dramatic tension lasts almost 3 whole seconds before Han Solo, a well known scoundrel, gives up and apologizes right away. No waiting until they're in the battle and she gets shot to make up, thus creating some much needed drama. No consistency with character.

9. MATTE PAINTINGS - Okay, having just watched all 6 movies on Blu Ray, why are the matte paintings so blaringly obvious in this movie? In 1920x1080 High Definition video on a 42" monitor, the matte paintings of things like the Millenium Falcon in a hangar show way too much of the paint strokes and look incredibly fake.



8. BAD EFFECTS - In many ways the effects work in Return of the Jedi are STILL some of the best. Then why is some of the worst effects also in the same movie? There are several really poor blue screen shots, like when Han Solo and Lando are talking about permission to take the Millenium Falcon into battle, those shots are so terribly done, complete with the exact same horrendous matte paintings already mentioned. Throughout the movie, several of the blue screen composites rip me out of the movie because of how fake they looked. Sometimes followed immediately by some of the best of the 1980's FX work. See also the shot of Mongo's look alike mourning his dead Rancor, or Luke and Han on the skiff on Tatooine. There isn't a single shot in iV or V that compare to these 7-8 terrible FX debacles in JEDI.

7. DARTH VADER - Okay, even in the context of all 6 movies, When, where, and how did Luke sense some good in Vader? What actions were taken that demonstrate this innate sense of good? The hand cutting and torture in Empire Strikes Back? The killing of a few dozen defenseless children in Revenge of the Sith? Looking at just the original trilogy, there is absolutely NOTHING redeemable about Darth Vader. His newfound good side and thoughts, we have nothing but crappy dialogue to tell us about, is all we have to suddenly empathize with a character who has done terrible things. It rings quite hollow to me, and I am a big fan.

6. KILL LANDO - Also from Lawrence Kasden's draft, Lando was supposed to die and the Millenium Falcon did not actually make it out of the Deathstar II. There is no sense of sacrifice for the good guys in this film. With no sacrifice, there is a lot less honor. Since we the audience start to feel that the good guys aren't going to die, there isn't a lot of concern, or DRAMATIC TENSION. There it is again.



5. DEATH STAR, or LACK OF IMAGINATION - Why another Deathstar? I understand that in 1977's A NEW HOPE, George Lucas did not intend to do the whole Deathstar blowing up and trench run, but did because of studio pressure and thinking he would never get to play that card later. Still, come up with something NEW. Something imaginative. Rehashing a visual and just the exact same thing was kind of lame. Early drafts had not 1, but 2 Deathstars. That was twice as boring to me.

4. RELATIONSHIPS UNRESOLVED - This too plays into a lack of DRAMATIC TENSION, because when last Luke and Leia were seen together in Empire, she was taking care of her favorite idealist, but confessed to loving his best friend. By going back to a completely unused draft of Episode iV (the 2nd draft) where Luke and Leia were siblings, something OBVIOUSLY not adhered to in the previous 2 films. There was dramatic tension in a LOVE TRIANGLE. If Luke and Han are both suitors for Leia, then there might be a tear in their friendship. Even with the sibling reveal, there was an opportunity to play on this, but it gets dropped in favor of.... no tension.

3. HARRISON FORD - Harrison did not want to do this movie. He has repeatedly stated he did not want to play Han Solo again. Of all the principal actors, he was the only one NOT signed for this sequel. In the end he got a substantially better deal than the rest, but even monetary compensation did not inspire a watchable performance. Han Solo in this movie is unmotivated, poorly acted, and completely inconsistent with anything ever this guy has done in the 2 previous movies. Harrison weighed at least 20-25 pounds heavier and his hair looked like the stylist was Ray Charles in a dark closet. Sadly, Harrison was right in saying Han Solo should have died at the end of the first act to show some sacrifice and also to add some dramatic tension. Even Carrie Fisher, so blatantly coke'd out of her mind on every type of narcotic that existed in 1982, delivered a better performance than Harrison Ford in this movie.



2. EWOKS - No, I never liked the Ewoks. As I was all of 11 years old when Return of the Jedi came out and I found the pandering to be insulting to my age group. Having known for years this was intended to be Wookiees like Chewbacca, how on the hell are we supposed to accept these half sized, product placements as a substitute? I will say there was a single shot where two Ewoks get hit by laserfire, and one of them stays dead and the other one mourns him - that was deep. Now on Blu Ray, these things have iris' and they blink. Creepy, but more realistic. But way creepy. Seeing REVENGE OF THE SITH with a full on Wookiee battle, imagine what this COULD have been like...

1. LACK OF DRAMATIC TENSION PART II : FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW - Even as an 11 year old, I felt the Obi Wan Kenobi scene from Return of the Jedi to be a series low point. "What I told you was true... from a certain point of view"? Come on, that sucks. Why isn't Luke emotional? Why isn't he yelling at Obi Wan about NOT telling him who his father was? How does the moral ambiguity work for THIS, but not the Emperor or all the people who are drafted into the Imperial forces who die in the fight against the rebellion? The worst thing about this one is having read Lawrence Kasden's draft of this scene that George Lucas re-wrote. In Kasden's draft, Luke IS belligerent, asks angrily, "Why didn't you tell me Vader was my father?" and Obi Wan responds with, "We wanted to finish your training and prepare you for the burden but you left in such a hurry." Luke responds with "But I had to save my friends! They were in danger" and Obi Wan wisely retorts, "and in the end, didn't they end up saving YOU?" and that shuts Luke up and they have a civil conversation. DRAMA of the best kind. Never to be seen in this freakin' movie.

Journal of the Whills

I am a fan of Star Wars. The original 1977 version was the first film I ever saw on the big screen in my life when I was 5 years old. It opened my imagination because everything this fantastical existed only as animation, so this movie just widened the limitation of what could be done with a movie.

Now I just got the Blu Rays and we’ve been watching them one a night for the last week.



Strangely, Phantom Menace wasn’t as bad as I remember it. For the first time ever, I was thoroughly annoyed with the whole JarJar Binks thing. It was never good, but it never BOTHERED me until now. The kid was terrible, but then again the ‘direction’ of the script was all over the place. Whose point of view are we with here? Who is the main character and what are their themes? Overall, it looks great but the emotion wasn’t all there. In context of 6 movies, this one still sets up some story.

Attack of the Clones looked, sounded, and was a lot better than I recall. Memory has a funny way of shaping how things might have been, plus people (meaning myself) change over time. I liked it and it looked amazing on Blu.

Revenge of the Sith it turns out, I have only seen maybe 3-4 times before, the least by a large margin of any Star Wars movie, excluding ridiculous Ewok movies or animated stuff. Again, there was some horrendous dialogue at times, like the previous two movies, but this was much more enjoyable than I expected.

I have seen, what is now referred to as A New Hope, in the theater probably 100 times alone. I know it was over 30 times in 1977. Then again in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, and even made it out to few rare print screenings in the 1990’s. Then the 1997 special edition screenings, including a private only screening a friend of mine did the night before a press screening, where for my birthday, she arranged this for me all by myself without telling me what it was.

I guess I’m not too worried about ‘changes’. I kind of like having something new to see or hear in a movie I have seen literally over 100 times in my life. Still, A New Hope n Blu Ray was not nearly as impressive as the Star Wars Re-Revisited fan edit where some guys did way more than 1,000 changes and ‘fixes’. Having seen this Blu Ray of George’s changes, maybe he should have hired this team of unknowns because they did a lot more and better changes.

Funny how ‘fans’ like this guy making 1,000 changes then complain when George Lucas makes 10-20. I think people like the underdog.
I don’t care of George Lucas changes the movies forever. It’s not really that important, at least not to me. As much as I like the movies, I’m far more interested in the MAKING OF and BEHIND THE SCENES. What moved me was less that actual movies themselves, but rather the idea that whatever George Lucas saw in his head, he could put on a movie screen.

I’ve got several Laserdisc sets, not to covet the unaltered versions of the movies, but because they contain a lot of documentaries, commentaries, and amazing amounts of detail on HOW the movies were made. I don’t own a single novelization of Star Wars, but I have an extensive library of books on the behind the scenes.

We’ll get through EMPIRE and JEDI soon enough. It’s amazing how much I’m liking these movies now that I have no expectations and don’t really care about them as anything more than a movie.

Sonnyboo Podcast

('http://www.youtube.com/p/2EB857B2872A650D?version=3&hl=en_US',)

Perfunctory Preparation

Putting the final touches on my next article for a print issue of VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE tonight, shortly after finalizing the next two Sonnyboo short films that will premiere next month at the COLONY FILM FESTIVAL. Your narrator feels substantially more "up" of late, although not at the lofty heights of days past, but still...



Next month I will be the keynote speaker at this film festival where I attended in 2006, screening HORRORS OF WAR when their name was the "River City Film Festival". Five years later, and I am doing a seminar on big shoots, little shoots. I'm going to show ACCIDENTAL ART along with some behind the scenes footage, showing the bigger crew and comparing it to the new CELL PHONE MONOLOGUES, where the crews maxed out at 4 people. I have no behind the scenes for these shoots because there was no room or time for extra people. My point will be to use the amount of crew you need for the project at hand, not small just to make it small and not big just to have more people to boss around.

I'm pretty happy with the outcome of these two shorts, one of which has taken over a year to complete. I wish I could lay blame on the 2 FX heavy shots, but alas that would be untrue. Procrastination and a changing attitude about HOW to complete movies. I am something more of a perfectionist than I was before. The last 5 years have greatly transformed my attitudes about quality over quantity. My process has proven to be more about watching and re-watching an edit and making changes. Rather than demo this in the public eye, I am more selective about who sees my edits and when.

I let ideas fester and grow before making decisions. This takes a lot longer, but the results are more polished and I am less likely to release something, then make George Lucasian re-edits for years to come.

Clips of Frames within the Lines

Not only has your faithful narrator been busy, even more has happened in spite of his self. Several announcements to be made here. First and foremost, The Ohio Channel begins airing FRAMELINES on Monday, and 6 times a week no less. The Ohio Channel reaches every PBS station in the state of Ohio, over the air and on cable! The 2nd cousin to FRAMELINES, the cable show CLIP FRAMES, with short films and extra content from FRAMELINES started airing 7 times a week on Educable in Columbus for the last two weeks.

Oh, and I just got asked to be the keynote speaker at the Colony Theater Film Festival in October, where I will world premiere 2 new Sonnyboo short films!



FRAMELINES might actually start getting seen in Columbus (as well as other big cities in Ohio). The show now has a fighting chance. Getting some primetime slots means more eyeballs. 8 Episodes completed with show 9 in the pipe; FRAMELINES will end its first season with a bang methinks.

CLIP FRAMES is not nearly as polished a show. It's mostly material 5 years or even older, as in some 11 year old material is also included. Now that I've been teaching at an accredited college level for several months, I qualify to submit to Educable, and the material has a great deal of educational or student level content.

I still very much believe that at the moment, television is still the best way to reach an audience. The Internet has been very good to me, but TV and cable should not be underestimated. It's still the single most dominant source of audio/visual programming. Yes, it is starting to lose to the World Wide Web, but it ain't gone yet.

So a PBS show statewide and a cable show locally means I am providing over 7 hours of content on TV every week for a while! Granted, it's really 1 hour of content repeated 6 more times, but still that just means more chances for people to catch it.

I got a great call from the festival organizers and I'm going to world premiere the Cell Phone Monologues I and II at this festival, out of competition. Audio post production is in high gear. Scoring and final tweaks aside, I should have no problem meeting the deadline.

I needed this barrage of good news. I am a lot less depressed but we just rescued a kitten, then after a week of 4 cats in the house, fell in love with the little guy, then gave him away tonight. I can sleep easy knowing he's going to a loving home with someone I know and trust; he burrowed into my heart in such a short time. Our house is just a little emptier without him. Sleep well little booger.

Marvelous Legals

I just saw the trailer for the new AMAZING SPIDER-MAN due out next year. It was way too familiar for me. Seeing a reboot so soon after just starting the last series seems a bit odd. I felt similarly about BATMAN BEGINS and it has been 8 years since the last sequel (1997’s BATMAN AND ROBIN). In this case it will have only been 5 years since SPIDER-MAN 3 and 10 years since the last franchise even started.

As an audience, we psychologically make a commitment to the characters, which means continuity of actors is far more important than film companies believe. It’s also really annoying to see the same origin story over and over again.

Why would a company like Columbia (owned by Sony) do this? I will tell you why…



Sony has an “option” on the rights to the character from Marvel Comics. Sony has made over $2.5 billion on box office alone, excluding home video and television rights worldwide. This is big business. If Sony did not get into production on another SPIDER-MAN film and have it on screen in 2012, all rights to make a movie based on the character would revert back to Marvel.

Marvel Comics started their own film production company called Marvel Films. First they released IRON MAN in 2008 to huge success, and not so great success with PUNISHER WAR ZONE and THE INCREDIBLE HULK, but back to form with THOR, IRON MAN II, and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER. Next year’s THE AVENGERS looks to be an enormous movie event, meaning gobs and gobs of money.



Both IRON MAN movies were distributed by Paramount, THE INCREDIBLE HULK by Universal, but Marvel produced them. SPIDER-MAN was produced by Sony via Columbia Pictures, so they are taking the financial risks and also reaped the financial rewards for distribution.

Similarly, the X-MEN movies are at 20th Century Fox, and the reason they rushed X-MEN FIRST CLASS was because they tried to slip X-MEN ORIGINS WOLVERINE as a part of their contract with Marvel for X-Men films and it didn’t qualify. So now they could not wait for Bryan Singer’s schedule to open up to direct X-MEN FIRST CLASS and had to rush it into production as fast as possible – just to maintain the rights.

Marvel Films has now been scooped up by Disney. So all the studios that have the rights to Marvel comics characters are rebooting or launching a movie just to keep the rights in their company. So Columbia may not care that the audience could rebel against such a hasty reboot of Spider-man.

In the case of 20th Century Fox’s other Marvel franchise, the FANTASTIC FOUR, it has a history of rights changing hands in the 1980’s and 1990’s. At one point, B-Movie legend Roger Corman owned the rights. He made a $400,000 feature film without the intent to ever release it – just to keep the rights because they sold them later for $1.2 million.

Warner Brothers owns D.C. comics, so Green Lantern, Batman, Super-man, Wonder Woman et al already have a film/television home.

Business Buffoonery

Okay, time for a lesson on business side of “film business”. As many of my faithful readers know, I was a broker in the 1990’s which helped because I had to know and understand investment laws of what is and is not legal. I recently saw something so glaringly illegal and stupid it blew my mind.

Some complete idiot was soliciting investments in a video on YouTube. Now that alone is bad enough, nonetheless illegal. The Securities and Exchange Commission frowns on any kind of public request for funds, but a flat out sales pitch? Ridiculous! Kids, you cannot state you are looking for investors in any public forum without an Initial Stock Purchase, which is sanctioned and monitored by the SEC. Don’t be stupid.

It gets better. In this same video, the complete imbecile also GUARANTEES a return on investment. Investing 101 – there are no guarantees and it is illegal to promise money back. This can put you on the hook for their investment without the protection of a corporation or you can go to jail for fraud.

I have not researched this, but I would bet money this moron hasn’t even incorporated his film “company”. Now, we’ve all gone through these phases of making up a name and start using a production company name without the little technicality of actually forming a legal corporation with a Tax ID number. That’s where everyone starts. Once you turn 22-23 years old, that starts to wear thin and it’s time to grow up. Spend the $30 bucks and register a company name with your state, or Delaware as many corporations do (because they are very lean on lawsuits against Corps).

Now if you are asking for money for your film company and your company doesn’t legally exist or have the proper paperwork filed with the state treasurer or SEC for specific types of Limited Liability Corporations to sell shares; You are breaking the law. In this day and age of investment fraud being so rigorously investigated and all eyes are against people playing with money – DON’T DO IT. DON’T BE AN IDIOT.

Talk to an attorney. Set up your corporation properly and don’t ever ever ever ever ever promise or guarantee a return on investment. That is fraudulent and you will screw yourself over.

Placable and Patient

It is official; we did NOT win the Openfilm.com contest. I am not shocked, but I am a little disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? I did however have over six months to get used to the idea of NOT winning, so it all worked out.

Now they did announce the winner and it was Patrick Boivin. This guy is an amazing filmmaker. He made the IRON BABY trailer that was awesome. He also does a lot of innovative stop motion, like with a vintage AT-AT Star Wars toy as a puppy, or action figures having epic battles. He has millions of views for his movies on YouTube.

However, his entry into the contest was a French language zombie clown movie that sucked ass. The contest was supposed to be for a short film that can be made into a feature film. I’m trying to wrap my brain around the idea of the director of ON GOLDEN POND Mark Rydell or Robert Duvall voting for the zombie clown movie. Something stinks. I expected the movie from Katie Maholic with the kids to win or the other movie with the actor Kevin Durand (from LOST and X-MEN ORIGINS WOLVERINE) to win, because their actual movies were great, but without the millions of YouTube views, I guess they didn't really have a chance.



Because of that, I think it is unlikely this (or any online contest) was real. I think they already knew who they wanted to give the prize to and we were all just patsies who paid for the privilege to promote their website for a month to make the owners look good to their sponsors.

I had a friend, a standup comedian, who told me about his experience with contests. He said that they are almost always rigged. They already know who they want to win before they start and that all of the contestants and entry fees do nothing but promote and pay for the contests. I now believe he is 100% right.

Before anyone finds me to just be a bitter, sore loser, the truth is that if I were in their position; I’d have probably given Patrick the prize too. It makes business sense. He has millions of followers and fans. He has proven that he makes movies a lot of people want to see. Mr. Boivin will probably make a great film, so my only regret was wasting $75 and a month of my time.

Win some and lose some, they say. Business is business and I hope nothing but the best for a very talented filmmaker who deserves his shot to make a real feature film with decent money. Just don’t expect me to ever enter a contest like this ever again.

Considerable Commensuration

PROGRESS! As I may have mentioned, after Alex I increased our intern numbers to 3. My biggest trouble is coming up with enough work for everyone, at least work that is within their skillset and in the time I have along with my own duties. I thought handing them the Cell Phone Monologues was more an exercise, but instead they have some pretty solid fin cuts done on both of them.

I still have to do the final cuts, but the big part of the jobs is done. I love the collaboration. I like getting other people’s opinions and debating the merits of creative decisions. I respect people who just say what they think when it comes to the work. If I agree or disagree, I’d rather just be out with it in terms of what people think. It’s easy to take it when it comes to work. I guess some people are ultra sensitive about their movies, but I learned a long time ago that criticism of a movie is not criticism of the person.



Audio presents the greatest challenge on these. I’ll spend a few weeks in my spare time tweaking and playing with it. I don’t think there will be a score but sound fixes and sound design will be pretty in depth for 2-3 minute long short films.

Have you ever fallen asleep on your arm and then when you shook your arm it’s all tingly because it fell asleep? I may be experiencing that, but inside my entire soul. Or it’s just the last gasps of a great chasm of deep blackness. I’ll let you know in another blog or two.

Intemperance and Insinuation

This week I started teaching film and video at a school, as a new part time job. These first few days were more acclimating myself to their style and methods. I like teaching. I believe firmly in my methods but it is not for everyone. I try to impart that the “rules” are there as guides, but they are not gospel. They help establish the tenants of modern film and video, as they are less rules as much as methods and cinematic tricks that have been effective time and again for those who have been making movies all along.



Paid editing work ramps down in a week or so. That means getting caught up on FRAMELINES kicks in. Hopefully I can also get these two short films long since shot completed this month as well. Long overdue, getting these complete and out in the world will feel good.

I am not myself right now. I feel numb all over. Nothing excites me much. I don’t care about anything beyond some fleeting emotions. No matter what I do, there is no excitement or passion at the moment. I don’t have extremes of anger or happiness. It makes me somewhat of a bore. I’m still not fit for long social engagements.

Something will break soon with that. I just need a kickstart.

The Vaunting of Ventures

In my quest to be more productive, there have been some successes and failures on my part. I wanted to do editing on these short films and hour a day. That didn’t happen. I had goals in terms of editing on Framelines and Clip Frames and those have been accomplished, including some minor shoots and interviews.

What has been accomplished thus far is over 3.5 hours of content has been shot and edited for Framelines. For Clip Frames, taking a lot of pre-existing material and several short tidbits that needed to be created for the show, I have made a far more impressive 9.5 hours of shows total, and that has been in less than a month. My obsessive-compulsive side will never let it sit at 19 shows, so I’ll have to make one more half hour episode at some point; most likely when I complete these two short films, so it will make a nice excuse to create a show and get these pieces seen shortly after finishing them.

If only I could lower my standards for Framelines, alas that is not to be. I’m working on the two 48 Hour Film Project Episodes which completely break format for the show. These are unique episodes to the run because several of the segments are all in one. We did a roundtable to cover the interviews, featured filmmakers, and on location. The whole episodes are a “spotlight on” the 48 Hour Film Project. The only thing missing are tech tips, but we did shoot something simple with several filmmakers on their advice to people doing a movie in 48 hours, so we kinda DO have tech tips, but I don’t know if I’ll use them.

My quest to watch more movies is succeeding a bit more. My latest double feature was the Blu Ray Director’s Cut of ALIEN and the Special Edition of ALIENS. Aside from one blatant biological discrepancy between these two movies, the alternate versions of both movies are superior to their originals. I am trying to force myself to watch a movie at home or at the $1 Theater every other night. I have fallen out of the habit of watching films and that is something I don’t want to do.

That’s it for tonight my wonderful acolytes. Your faithful narrator must rest. I start a 2nd job next week teaching film and video at a school.

Tangible Tetris

The work never stops. Alex the Intern has left to spend the summer with family before starting his grad school film program, I’ve taken in 3 new interns. Training them will take time and then they’ll move on too. The circle of life I guess. I did get a lot done recently. I’ve been making DVD’s of the FRAMELINES shows as well as prepping a new product.

As I stated before, I have created a new education cable show called CLIP FRAMES to go along with FRAMELINES. I took the root of an old show but Alex the intern watched through a few of the pre-made episodes and begged me not to put them on the air as is because they sucked. So I took the plunge and started the re-editing process.

It’s not that bad, in that I already had 75% of the content as raw footage still and thanks to Adobe Premiere’s upgrades, you can drop a VOB file from a DVD straight on the timeline and edit out what you need. With all the raw footage being pre-edited segments; it’s like playing Tetris with the timelines in my editing software. The difference is still being subjectively creative whilst managing run times. There are certain ebb and flow I like to a show from one segment to the other. Again, CLIP FRAMES is nowhere near as polished as FRAMELINES. There’s no hosts, no exact segments, but it does have some worthwhile content, content I feel is worthy of attention and eyeballs.

The first few packages of DVD’s of the first 12 half hour shows of CLIP FRAMES are set to go out along with the first 6 episodes of FRAMELINES to outlying markets in neighboring states. I like the idea of getting short films out there with a nice Behind the Scenes look at how they were made, along with feature film Making Of segments, and other various educational bits. That’s 9 hours of programming, and I’m working on the next 7 episodes of FRAMELINES and another 8 episodes of CLIP FRAMES.

And I’ve been getting full time work too. In a few weeks we’re set to adopt another kitten and that means even less time for sleep.

Overt Obviation

My how time is not my friend, although we are coming to some terms. Lord knows I feel better being able to edit at home again. Doing the cuts then mastering at work on the tricked out machines makes a huge difference. Even after 8-10 hours cutting at work does not deter me from cutting at home afterwards.

The casualties to this are sleep and movie watching, although I am definitely going to rekindle my love affair with the 2nd run movie theater for $1 movies and $3 for 3D. I acquired 2 Blu Rays for my essential viewings which are ALIENS, the James Cameron film and SOM LIKE IT HOT, which to me is Billy Wilder’s masterpiece from 1959 with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

Today we shot some Behind the Scenes and interviews for the FRITZ THE NITE OWL show that happened to be using our greenscreen. I have never met Fritz before, but I loved his old midnight movie show on channel 10. One of my first memories moving back to Columbus from El Paso Texas was staying up way too late the night before my first day at a new high school watching the Alan Smithee version of DUNE until 4:00AM. The midnight movie hosts are mostly a thing of the past, but nostalgia has a way of swinging the pendulum of popular culture back around; As is evident by the popularity of Fritz on the screenings once a month at the Grandview theater.

For this new Education Channel show I’m working on, I wanted to get some new intro’s and behind the scenes for shorts I’ve made in the last 2-3 years. I almost always shoot “Making Of” footage on my shoots, with a notable exception on the last two. Since we were setup and lit for interviews, I thought it was ideal to just start shooting tomorrow…. And on the drive home I had some vague recollection of having shot these intros last year when I did something else, like the Accidental Art pitch video. I will have to check that footage toot-sweet when I get into work tomorrow.

Editing at home reinvigorated me, but now I need at least 2-3 Terabytes of portable hard drive storage so I can have everything in two places at once….

Ampersands and Ands

I noticed a strange screenwriting credit back in 1992 (yes, I am old) for LETHAL WEAPON 3 where they credited things as



screenplay by Jeffrey Boam and Jeffrey Boam & Robert Mark Kamen Story by Jeffrey Boam


which struck me as kind of weird.

From the WGA handbook:
Quote:

When credit is accorded to a team of writers, an ampersand (&) shall be used between the writers’ names in the credit to denote a writing team. Use of the word “and” between writers’ names in a credit indicates that the writers did their work separately, one usually rewriting the other. This distinction is well established in the industry through custom and practice.

So, this means that Jeffrey Boam came up withthe main plot points, then wrote a draft by himself, then did a collaborative draft writing WITH Robert Mark Kamen.

I highly recommend reading the WGA's Handbook on credits, CLICK HERE

Imperceptible Impressions

I am a big fat geek. I know it. I don’t mind it. I know this because I get excited by techie things that no one outside a small tiny circle of people could possibly care about, nonetheless comprehend. That doesn’t make me exceptional or anything, as much as weird and dorky. Matrox released a Codec to the public that used to be proprietary to their hardware, which is what we edit with at work. I haven’t been editing at home for close to 4 years now. This means I can do some basic editing at home, an “offline” edit then take it back to work to master it.

What this really means is that when my inspiration (read – OCD) hits at 3:22AM (just when an episode of Framelines will have ended on WOSU), I can edit or make changes on projects brought home on portable drives.

I have been without the ability to edit outside of work for some time. It made me more relaxed and less stressed on one hand, but a lot less prolific on the other. I want to get back to doing more projects, especially more artistic ones that have been started and left unfinished.



Already today, away from work, instead of surfing the web, meandering on meaningless sites or research on episodes of Dallas circa 1982, I was cutting on a long dormant short and even started to re-edit another 11 year old short, from the master tapes in a higher resolution than ever before, thanks to the newly released codec from Matrox.

This makes me feel more whole, more complete. Next week is lightening up, so I can get on some web work I have to do too. I’m still going to put in a long day tomorrow finishing another episode of FRAMELINES before I accomplish much more of anything. At least my Obsessive-Compulsive side still adheres to a high degree of responsibility.

I hate being torn between multiple projects. I like them all, but there always tends to be one that WANTS to supersede the others. It makes the work harder, longer but not insurmountable. My brain lights up at one project while I have to focus on another, or two or three. What I hate is that there are weeks and weeks where I don’t have that electricity and cavalcade of ideas. Then when the muse visits, I’m buried under a heap of existing projects. It can be frustrating.

At the same time, I LOVE when the creative energy flows like a river.

An Ostentatious Occasion

This past Saturday, I was a guest speaker at the Alliance for Community Media conference in Columbus. I have a passion for Public Access television. It’s something we have gone without for 9 years. In Columbus, we lost our Public Access. We still have the E and G channels from the PEG, meaning Education Access and the Government Access channels, but nothing for the masses. I was at the conference to speak to some issues for indie filmmaking, especially in terms of distribution.
And here I thought I was going to be the bearer of bad tidings.



It seems others share my view that within 10-15 years, cable TV and the Internet will merge into one entity. With that, things like Public Access might wither away, much to my chagrin. At least in the current form, people are far more likely to find content on public access television. Online, your voice will be drowned out by the tens of millions of meaningless YouTube videos… and if Net Neutrality is abolished, then you can expect even fewer people to hear your voice as it won’t be profitable for those paying for advertising to your internet provider.

These are dark times indeed, although the light has always found a way to puncture through. My crystal ball cannot see what else the future holds. All I know I put forth into the time that is given to me.

Framelines starts airing in more markets this week, including North East Ohio and Cleveland. By the end of June, we’ll be on pretty much every PBS in the state. Now, with these new fresh connections, the show may even start making it out of state as well…

Feel free and check out the FRAMELINES website, www.framelines.tv

Or check out the YouTube channel for Framelines

The Grandiloquent Guy

I have to tell you, folks. I am having one really really bizarre week. Doing this show FRAMELINES affects me in ways I could not anticipate. In the same day, because of this show, I reconciled two relationships that I had soured in the past.

I interviewed one person for the show that once came to my house to kick my ass. Then for a roundtable shoot for the show, I had two former partners on the panel, neither of which I thought would want to sit that close to me. I put any petty differences aside because I believe in this show. What I may have thought personally seems so distant and unimportant these days. It’s like someone has put Novocain in my soul, but at the same time what I care most about now is doing something bigger than myself. This show is meant to help grow the film community state-wide. It is bigger than me and my ego.

I had no idea what motivated me other than what I thought would make for a good show. I had genuinely good conversations with everyone off camera as well. I don’t see my social coma coming to an end aside from these excursions for the show; alas I am still not fit for long term friendships. I’m still rough around the edges. Baby steps, they say.

Now I’m wrapping up post production on episode 5 and immediately going into 6-8. I added an outline of show 9 to the board.

Ah, yes the experiment. Well, in 4 days I have over 1,100 views of my viral video of Vladimir Jack Bauer. This is what I made…



As you can see with the editing, the close ups, wrack focus, music, and title sequence – I could not make a “straight” pet video like the other ones that get 1,000,000 views. I HAD to do some editing and filmmaking. The edit is intentionally rough, and actually doing that bad was probably the hardest part. Not obsessing over it was not easy. I spent 11 minutes shooting it (6 minutes of raw footage), 22 minutes to edit, including titles and music, et al.

Will it get 100,000 views, which is my goal? I don’t know. It’s a combination of key words, spreading the video, and some mystical game of chance. Maybe in a month or two, someone influential on the pet video circuit will post it and repost it and it might spread to cat fanatics. Who knows? Maybe it will languish as one of the undiscovered movies, or maybe people just don’t find it funny.

We’ll see.

Cat vs Blu Ray Player

Empirical Experimentation

Tomorrow I intend to try something, something new. I want to make with total intention, a “viral video”. This one will not be narrative, as that has eluded me thus far. No, I will exploit that which is closest to my heart. My deepest apologies to My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™, but I am taking about Vladimir Jack Bauer. Tonight I brought home the trusty Canon T2i DSLR to see if I could make something with my little man.

I will admit, I love a good pet video. Whether it’s :20 seconds or 4-5 minutes, I’ll watch this hilarious romps of animals being animals online. I love them. At the same time, the analytical side of me made some notations.

First, the concept and title are simple. Nothing fancy, just the absolute most obvious aspect of the video is the name you use, like “Cat tries to figure out treadmill” or “Kittens beg for food”. From there, keep it short. Very short. In some ways, the shorter the video is, it almost guarantees views.

In my video, there will be some editing. Minor, but still it won’t just be raw footage as I so often see. I’m also going to add some music, licensed proper music, but music nonetheless. Shooting with the T2i means I used shallow depth of field too. I do some focus pulls and tried to get a decent exposure (but alas, I am NOT a D.P. and have not the greatest of skills with the camera itself).



I just cannot help but apply some filmmaking skills to anything I do. It’s something I cannot let go of.These are risks as they break the formula that has been tried and true. If this doesn’t work, then I’ll probably attempt to just upload raw footage later.

The experiment will take 3 months to allow the search engines to take in the video, process the key words/metatags, and also for the snowball to head down the mountainside. I cannot guarantee this will work. I am more curious if I can get the coveted hundred thousand views on something I spend little to no time on and quite frankly pander to the masses.

Tomorrow, be prepared to see my cat, Vladimir Jack Bauer make his Internet Video Debut…