AN AFECTATION FOR ASSUMPTION

I have an idol. Without a doubt, Alan Shore, the fictional character from The Practice and Boston Legal created by David E. Kelley (married to Michelle Pfeiffer) represents everything I dig. I have been without an idol for a while. It all started last year on the way to Poland when the flight had Video on Demand. I watched THE DEPARTED and then gave an episode of BOSTON LEGAL a shot. I haven’t watched a David E. Kelley show since the first year or two of Ally McBeal. I loved that quirky sense of humor set in a law firm. Knowing that James Spader started this character on the drama THE PRACTICE, I didn’t really give this much of a chance.



When I saw this episode on the plane, I got very interested. It was the perfect blend of comedy and drama. It was reminiscent of the first thing David E. Kelley did which was a feature film FROM THE HIP with Judd Nelson in the 1980’s. I have since rented every season of BOSTON LEGAL on DVD, plus I recently acquired the entire last season of THE PRACTICE to see how this show was spun off from a purely dramatic premise.



I love James Spader’s performance. He plays off his 80’s John Hughes/Brat Pack acting of a kind of ass, but adding the heart of gold. The politics of the character also plays pretty much into my belief structure with precision. Combine that a character with a level of self loathing, arrogance, and a penchant for pissing off people with little to no effort, and let’s just say I relate to the character. All I need is a law degree and a Harvard education, and this might even be me. Also, I’d need my life scripted by David E. Kelley, but basically that’s it.

LOST this year has been consistently paying off. They may not have started with a plan (I highly doubt it), but they have mapped out the rest of the series. So far, I am very happy to see that they are going to stick to a plan. I prefer a storyline to fads. They used to react to fan discussions on their official website. How ridiculous!

Now we’re crewed up and ready to roll for the documentary shoot. I finished the non-fiction autobiography and we’ll be prepared for this. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ has all the ducks in a row, and I hired a cinematographer. We’re driving since SkyBus went out of business. I got my refund already, but that sucked.

Here’s something that happens a lot with online movies that are supposed to be “funny”. I’ve had some experience, albeit not as much as some, but more than others, so my opinion, not really an “expert” opinion is that shorter is better when it comes to funny videos on the Internet.

The empirical data clearly demonstrates this to be true. The videos that get the most views are the short ones. Generally under 2 minutes, rarely ever over 5 minute long clips get any kind of real play. The audience online has the shortest attention span in pop culture history.

What I see a lot of are either 20 minute epics that either aren’t funny, nor well made, and a ton of multi-part series that equate to about 30-40 minutes of material that would have been funny if it was 3-4 minutes of the only funny bits. Everyone thinks they are clever or funny, but only a handful really are. Those are the ones that are famous one way or another. I’m not one of those yet, but maybe I will be some day. I need to keep practicing and getting better.

I’m treading a fine line with my Uncle Pete series. Luckily, they are very short, as in under 2 minutes each or so. Total will be under 20 minutes, and I’m even considering dropping one of them entirely because it might be too similar to one that I already put out there. So far, I am disappointed in the numbers. I had well over 200,000 views for the TELEMARKETERS shorts, and I think the Uncle Pete series is vastly superior in a lot of ways. I may have already said this, but my hope will be that in time, these will catch on in a big way. I just don’t have the time I used to have to market and promote.

Well, another Uncle Pete will be coming out soon. I just have to edit it. I’m going to compile the outtakes into a “making of” and put that out too. In some ways, I’m looking most forward to. I’m still so busy with work. Commercials, industrial videos, documentaries, and other miscellaneous production work has me swamped. Luckily, I took the entire weekend off. I haven’t had a day off in a while. I’m rested and ready to tackle the week.

Peace Kids!
Peter John Ross

THRICE UPON THE DOOR

I have been busy again. I’ve been wrapping up a few projects, and nor Uncle Pete is on way hold for a short time while I finish up the paying work. Not the least of which placed upon hold will be the continuation of work on my next feature. We’re only a few weeks away from the big trip to do the documentary on the weighty subject of the Holocaust and a survivor’s story. I’ve been plugging away finishing off the non-fiction book and I can say I’m floored. I’m gripped and to hear the real life person tell her tale will put my best foot forward.



In the world of UNCLE PETE, the big news is that I got featured on the main page twice in one day on Will Ferrell’s FUNNY OR DIE, and then the next day I got my notice that the first installment will be featured on their Verizon VCAST on the mobile devices. These are big scores and a boon for a comedy short.

One of the stipulations for getting selected for the mobile devices was that there must be no cursing, which lead me to the real meat of this blog entry.



I tend to go against having cursing in most of my movies. Early on, I had a few scripts and then movies that had a lot of cursing, but in the years since, I tend to tone it down to the point of nonexistence. I curse like a horny sailor in New Orleans Parish in real life, but not so much in my scripts. If I allow a curse word, it had better be pretty intense or appropriate. I’m a stickler for making my movies not only accessible, but curse words are a weapon and they have to be used sparingly and to effect.

At the very least use of profanity had better be perfectly in character for the person saying them, or the potency of the language is lost to minutiae. Some people have a character swear up and down and so the power of those words becomes meaningless, and there was no reason for that character to even use the bad words.

How many times have we seen a movie or video online and the people swear… and swear, and then you realize it’s almost every other word? It’s numbing to the point that you wonder if they have any clue how much they are using profanity. If the choice of words doesn’t emphasize anything, then where do you go with the language?

I’m not against the use of profanity in movies, just against their OVERUSE. I cannot emphasize enough the potency of WORDS…



That leads to nudity in film. I have always maintained that at the stage where I’m at, and have been at, that it would be a failure if I had to resort to nudity to sell a movie I’m doing. Again, I’m not against nudity in film, and have no problem with other people using sex to sell their own movies. Anyone else can do whatever they want and my respect level doesn’t raise or lower – I can only put this mandate on myself and my own movies.

It was suggested in my first feature, HORRORS OF WAR in case you didn’t know the name, that we have a nude scene… in a World War II Sci-Fi-Horror-Action movie. Sure, that’s the kind of movie that has a gratuitous sex scene in it. This set my mind ablaze. I was dead set against it, but knew it might effect whether or not we get the money and distribution, so I decided I would give them their nudity and sex scene all right… but I made it a rape scene. The cliché in horror films is a gratuitous and plotless sex scene, so I made it a plot important, and unsexy, unappealing rape scene. No one will watch this and jerk off, and I placated the nudity mandate, and I got to deal with weighty, dramatic fodder. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever directed and the emotional repercussions weighed in on me.

Nudity in film is fine. I have no problems with it when other directors or films have them, but for myself, I can only use it if it’s truly essential to story, character, or plot. In movies like THE ENGLISH PATIENT or hell even PORKY’S, nudity and sex were used eloquently in their respective genres and films, but I’m not ready to make a film like that yet. Maybe, even soon perhaps, I might have a tasteful sex scene, or a shot of a naked person, but I’m still in the learning phase of filmmaking. I don’t want to use something like nudity as a crutch or titillating sellable element until I know it’s something I can control the situation and work very very very comfortably with the actors with a great deal of discretion, maturity, and sensitivity – none of which am I capable of yet.

Am I still raising the bar on myself as a filmmaker?

Both elements, cursing and nudity also relate directly to marketability. In the realm of short films, if I have a single curse word, or even the slightest edge of a nipple, I can kiss several opportunities for distribution or exhibition goodbye. There are several far “better”, or funnier shorts on FUNNYORDIE.COM, but why did Uncle Pete get selected to be on their Verizon VCAST? Because it was “clean”. I was aware of those elements as a producer, and as a director, I found it more challenging to make a dark, intense, very adult series without cursing. No one really wanted to see George nude, except maybe Micah, but still… I am making the choice to sparingly use profanity and not use nudity as artistic decisions, actually challenges to myself, but they have the side benefit for marketability.

I can’t speak for anyone else, nor am I passing judgment on anyone else’s films, choices. Believe me, I could not have made it through puberty without some of the finest Cinemax movies on after 11:00PM. God bless Shannon Tweed and Andrew Stevens!



Something should also be said about filmmakers waiving around Non Disclosure Agreements as if their ideas are sacred and have such value that they are desperate to keep a lid on it.... then have their cast/crew already telling everyone about specifics. It's a waste of time to do NDA's if you don't have any significant money involved in the process. Who will really be scared by a contract if the filmmakers can't afford to pay anyone $5 a day or $10 a day to participate? Then they obviously can't sue anyone and the NDA is worth less than the paper it was ink jet printed on.

Come on kids! If you aren’t investing money in an attorney to draft the specific Non Disclosure Agreement and you’re using the free one from SONNYBOO.COM (your source for free paperwork for filmmakers), then it’s very much the fodder for giggles behind your back. What can you do about it if someone breaches the contract? Write a blog about them? That’s about as intense as the retribution can possibly be when you have NO MONEY.

Seriously, if no one has ever paid you for your ideas or movies, then you can pretty much be assured, they aren’t actually worth anything… YET. That’s not to say that you won’t later need one, but not when making a DV short that has made no money and probably won’t. No reason to get ahead of yourself and pretend to be someone and somewhere you are not. When you have an investment that goes beyond buying people a few pizza’s to be on set, like maybe when you get beyond the tens of dollars and into the tens of thousands of dollars, the Non Disclosure Agreement might be a good idea, and make sure that a real attorney makes revisions specific to your needs. If you can’t afford an attorney, then do NOT waive a NDA in front of an actor with an ounce of experience and expect them to take it or you seriously.

The whole point of the Non Disclosure Agreement is that it represents consequences if the contract gets broken. If you can’t do anything to anyone that breaches the contract, then all you are doing is masturbating to your own ingenuity for having an NDA, but then everyone will blab anyway, long before your epic DV short gets on YouTube.

Who are you protecting the idea from? Other DV wannabes? Stop acting a fool! Get over yourself. Who are these idea thieves wanting the incredibly valuable movie ideas from unknown filmmakers that have never made anyone, anywhere a penny? If you can’t sell anyone the idea for your movie, then no one is stealing the idea and making it themselves. Spend these precious moments on an aspect of the film that might actually mean something… like investors, or a post production workflow, or casting or anything else that might be of more use than a Non Disclosure Agreement that has no teeth.

-=-=-=-=-=-=

Well my droogies, the Boo must rest. He hits the gym early in the A.M. I’m sustaining my 4 times a week at the gym and I haven’t failed to maintain, so I intend to keep at it. I only have 51 pounds to lose till I am happy. That sounds like a lot, but it’s really even more than it sounds. It feels more like 100 pounds, and looks like 150.

Peace and harmony, plus a side order of ham!
Peter John Ross

Things in the Category of “Never Thought THAT would happen”….

I held off on mentioning this before, but since it’s now happened THRICE, I feel comfortable saying so. I went to the gym. Thrice. This is something your narrator has never done before. I have gotten huge, and I’m definitely seeing a lot of weight on my personage. I’m long overdue in taking care of it. My obsessive compulsive disorder has prevented me from being more active physically because I would set goals and in the middle of trying to achieve them, I’d set some other goal thus perpetuating a situation where I never did anything.




I’ve cracked the nut. I found the one physical activity outside of sex that I enjoy and its swimming. Getting in the pool and swimming laps or even just getting under the water and swimming without a care in the world. I can’t stand jogging or even walking because I get bored, so that has never helped me. With swimming I don’t get bored, and even stranger I get a sense-memory flashback to a time when I spent my childhood at the Steiner Youth Recreation Center in Wadsworth Ohio like a fish all year round. Let’s face it; I’m in piss poor shape right now. I get worn out after a few short laps, but 5 nights a week of this I’ll be in better shape in no time.

The new UNCLE PETE short is done and online. It’s the 4th one of 8 and to me they get better as they go. My prediction? It may take 6 months, but these will pick up steam as they sit out there. Someone will discover them and send it to someone; they will send it to 3-4 someone’s; next thing you know it’ll go wide. The audiences are people in the 30’s with kids that hate children’s programming because they have to watch that crap all the time. There’s also the college crowd that appreciate the sarcasm. These are NOT for everyone. So far, the most unique responses were a group of liberals AND conservatives on one site that took the video series way too seriously. The other most unique one was this from AIN’T IT COOL NEWS:

Dude, I clicked on this with my 4 year old daughter standing behind me.

She was with Uncle Petey until he said Sharing was bad,

Then she had this look on her face like I just slapped her momma.

To which I was both horrified and equally amused. I have a few other marketing surprises once I get all 8 completed. I have an “in” with Stephen Colbert, so I’ll do what I can to get these in his hands. I have a few ideas of what that can do. Maybe I should send these to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O. to see if they’ll endorse Uncle Pete’s Play Time…



Someone recently called me a “fag”. I’m just curious, is this supposed to be an insult? Seems more like a lifestyle choice or something you’re born with, not really a tear down. I’m not a homosexual, but if I were, I’d be pretty open about my cocksucking or anal sex adventures with hairy men. I think my blog would have a different timbre, but basically the same. When I was in junior high, being called a “fag” seemed to carry more weight. In the world we live in today, it seems like some prejudice person calling me that says more about their own insecurities than it does insult me. I look at it as such a foreign thing that I liken it to saying “Hey, you like the color orange!” or “Hey you were born with blonde hair.” So I don’t find it to be insulting, just confusing.



Aside from these things, not much else to report. I’m behind on my edits for work. I’m still plugging away on a teaser trailer for ETERNAL, and I’m editing the stuff from Birmingham Alabama. FYI to those readers who want to know, Darell D-Day is a great cameraman. His stuff was exactly what I asked for, plus the other camera op named Hunter came through, so I have a good looking lot of footage.

My brain is fried and the body is taking a punishment it’s never had before. Three times to the gym in 4 days when you’ve never been to the gym before in your life has a pretty interesting set of side effects. I’m way sleepier at an earlier time. Meals seem more like a necessity rather than a fun, tasty thing to do. My arms are sore and it hurts to pick up simple objects like a pencil or a cable, or a Brandy-Weasel.

In the name of Allah, lick the lesbian love spot in the name of Sonnyboo,
Peter John Ross

The Confederates Conspiring to Confiscate the Votes

In life, there are ups and downs. Is the goal to spend more time up than down or to find as even a keel as possible? Without a doubt, I find myself riding the waves, undulating like a fat guy’s gut during turbulence.


Your faithful narrator inspires a lot of emotion in people. It seems I’m either loved or hated. What rarely happens is that I am ignored or causing an ambivalent “eh…” in most people. With some, I recognize that I am seen as some kind of antagonist, whether it be because of what little successes I’ve gotten or as some core principal that acts in the opposite of their beliefs. Either way, I don’t care too much, except when I get fascinated with the obsessive ones. I am staggered by their inability to see that their interest in me goes into a place of dementia that only the truly psychotic exist in.

When people take the amount of time it takes to write about me or post blogs, etc. I experience genuine awe. Lately, I’ve been buried in work so it’s less likely to hold my attention. I’d rather create than spend time on this other nonsense. I’ll let my work do its own thing.

On the flipside and what makes me even more fascinated are examples of the opposite. I received two emails with links that are far more compelling than anything negative said or done about me.

First, a film forum in Dallas/Fort Worth emailed me because a discussion was going on about me. When people talk about you like this:

Quote:

He seems to really care about the indie community unlike a lot of other directors out there.

I was invited to participate in their forum and post links, etc. When you make videos and have the intent to have them go “viral”, meaning get them out there and other people pass the links on and several other people pass the links on, etc. until it becomes a self perpetuating marketing. This is certainly true of my “moviemaking techniques” videos of last year. They do a lot of good and many people like them. The statistics don’t lie, and these are promoting themselves more than I am at this point. Everyday more links go to the videos and more and more requests come in for copies of the videos.

CLICK HERE TO READ THREAD

I’ve even been requested to make DVD’s for various film schools in at least 6 states so far, which leads me to the 2nd example. On INDIETALK.COM, a good online pal send me THIS LINK to a blog by Norman Hollyn, not only a professional editor by trade, but also the HEAD OF the University of Southern California’s (USC’s) Editing track at the School of Cinematic Arts. He quoted my article/book on “Editing Your Own Film”.

Now I’ve never been to film school, and I’m hardly a member of academia, nor did I ever make any significant grades at any level. How freakin’ cool is it that the head of the editing department at USC quoted me and my writing?

CLICK HERE TO READ BLOG ENTRY

It’s all humbling. It makes you wonder if you’re worthy of such praise. I don’t think I am. As much as I am accused of arrogance, I am not quite that full of myself. I am no where near where I want to be at. The only critic that truly matters to me is me. I haven’t satiated that one, so I still have the drive to try harder and harder every day.

I appreciate the praise, from the high and mighty to the most common variety. In the grand scheme of things, suddenly all these naysayers start to turn into static on a channel I can change in the click of a button.

A few weeks ago, I made a conscious decision to ignore the hate mongering and focus on the positives. Combine all the above with the recent Wikipedia interview, and your narrator has a lot to be proud of and no one can really affect that. All I can do is proceed with my plans and keep on succeeding, albeit in very small ways, but I feel great about what few things do go my way. Does anyone really believe they will make me feel bad? There are always fools.



CLICK HERE TO PLAY

Part 3 of the UNCLE PETE’S PLAY TIME is online now. As each one goes, they get raunchier and more politically incorrect. George dared to take this journey with me and his participating elevates what I had in mind. Combine that with the contributions of TJ Cooley on the backgrounds and my new found friend J.D. Larabee for character designs, and The Boo is quite pleased.

When I later reveal how these are a piece of a puzzle that won’t be grasped until nearly a year and half from now, it will be even more significant. Just when people I know expect me to zig, I then zag, and when I zag, the next move will invariably be a zog, just because I had no idea what I was supposed to do. These UNCLE PETE clips feel like a kind of homecoming for me in my filmmaking endeavors. I started with these kinds of movies and I’ve come back to doing them and it plays a part in my master plan for the next 24 moons.

This should be enough, Charles. Surely, I’ve made my point.

- Peter John Ross
Sometimes known as Sonnyboo

Wiki This and Somethin’ Else That

The big news of today? Wikipedia did an interview with me this past weekend and it’s already online. What an honor! I thought it was a big deal getting a Wikipedia entry at all, even though it’s on the verge of being removed for lack of relevance, but then they interview me. I love this kind of irony.





I haven’t even been doing much lately, and I certainly wasn’t trying to get an interview with Wikipedia, but hot damn! This rocks.

I’m finishing post on another Uncle Pete segment. J.D. Larabee did some art work for me and I’ve never even met the guy. Jason Morris said he was good and I emailed him on MySpace. He sent me some artwork and it was pretty much spot on from the git-go. I’m digging these bits. It’s some of the best writing I’ve done for satire.


Soon I will finish the latest one and get it online. Each one successively gets more out there. It’s nice to see the public reaction to these get better as each one comes out. I think the best is yet to come. Once I get 2-3 more put out, the real marketing can begin. I haven’t even started yet and I’m already at over 45,000 views on combined sites.

Until next time….

- PJR

Downtown Venus and the Statue of Vulcan

What a strange week it has been since your narrator last wrote to you. I’ve been to Birmingham Alabama for a shoot where I directed a pilot for a reality show. I don’t know which is more obtuse; the fact that I got sick 10 minutes after entering Alabama or that the Discovery Channel referred me for the job. Regardless, it was very difficult to work when my head was pounding and my sinuses acted like they were at the circus.



[[this week’s pics by Darell (D-)Day]]

We shot a lot with my HV20 underwater to get HD footage underwater since the housings and camera controls would be far simpler than the manual cameras. The footage is acceptable, but I think I have to get certified as a diver to be able to operate camera underwater for any future work like this.



I hired The Derek and D-Day to work on my crew and it’s always good to spread the wealth. I’m a big believer in trying to get the best people and when I’m making money, I want other people to make money too. People have done this for me, so I love continuing the good will. It’s like karma in that I feel that if I put money in other people’s pocket, others will continue to do the same for me, or maybe my payback will come in another form. Hording money and selfishness in that regard can only skew the way it’s all going to play out.



So I bought a new car, a nice new Ford Mustang. Let’s just say all the work I’ve been doing has paid off in spades. Success remains subjective, but in most people’s minds it relates to monetary compensation. I guess in other people’s view, I’m getting more and more successful, but why is it no where near enough for me? I don’t care too much about money for myself. I have modest needs and wants, but the "success" as defined by me lies in another realm, one that is purely creative and standards set forth by my own muse. I am not successful, nor do I ever feel I will attain the level I desire, but then again, that is why filmmaking will be a life long endeavor.

I love the fact that my sole income for the last 8 years has been from filmmaking and it took time, but it’s paying off. I am proud of what I have accomplished, even though it’s not enough to satiate my desire to get better and improve, but the comfort of a few luxuries and the security of regular income to make life a bit easier day to day. The trick is to not give up the artistic end for the profitable endeavors. I was able to find a balance during the busiest time of the year and slip in these new shorts.

UNCLE PETE’S PLAY TIME has started to be unveiled. For the most part people like it. As with all comedic films, some people don’t think it’s funny or take what you’re saying too seriously. I’m okay with that. That’s what happens with every joke or comedy – someone doesn’t think it’s funny. Get used to it. Negative comments or posts don’t really affect me. I’ve been reading that kind of stuff since January 2000 and you tune out the nonsense. I guess I get confused by the intent. Am I supposed to read "You suck!", then suddenly go "Oh my god, I thought this rocked, but now someone told me it doesn’t, and I should really quit! I know there was no intelligent discourse or reasonable criticism, but I suddenly changed my mind and my confidence is shaken so I should just delete this and never pick up a camera again. Thank you anonymous poster on the Internet, you just saved me a lot of hassle having to deal with criticism and putting effort into finding my audience. I’m done now…." I just don’t see that happening.

I have self confidence and I like something in every piece I’ve made. That’s not to say every single thing I’ve made is not flawed. I think I could probably write massive amounts of criticism of each movie I’ve ever been a part of, especially ones I wrote or directed. Being self critical allows you to handle when other people want to tear it apart. As my opinion stands, this is the line in the sand or the edge of the abyss. Time to look in and decide what kind of man or woman you are. Will you still love your art even though you recognize the flaws? Will you be swayed into disliking your art because many people, even the majority don’t like it? Are you going to stand tall in the face of adversity or cower under the weight of your own inadequacies?

I don’t fear these things. I believe in myself and what I’ve made. If people want to attack or tear down what I’ve done, I say do as you will. I’m just on my own path and climbing my own mountain. Nothing has deterred me yet, nor has anything even distracted me long enough to keep me from doing exactly what I’ve wanted to so far.



While in Alabama, we stayed at a Lake House the production secured for us and that was nice. The last day of the shoot, we had a mini-wrap party and chilled out with the Beer, darts, and Stewart/Colbert on the tube. I can say in all confidence there really is a thing called "Southern Hospitality" and that this is instilled into most citizens in the South. People were super cool and nothing like expected. I haven’t been to Alabama since the 1980’s, but it’s a cool place.

Before I left, I did some serious 12-14 hour days working on 3 projects. Now that I’m back home, I’ve got another 2 big projects staring me down, nonetheless post production on the Birmingham gig. I am looking to hire a few part time assistants. Not a permanent position, but kind of the A/V temp job as it were. Anyone interested in making some mediocre hourly to work on film/video production rather than delivering pizza?


Be at peace acolytes of Boo.
Peter John Ross

Uncle Pete's Play Time!

From Crackle: Uncle Pete's Playtime - SHARING

This is a clip from a Children's show I'm working on for Channel 19. I think it's more of a show for Bill O Reilly or Stephen Colbert would show to their kids. This one's theme is SHARING.

Patience for the Pleiad

Tomorrow I shoot another short. I've only waited around 5 years to get this one shot. I have to recast one nephew for another one because the original choice is too old now. I just have to tell the little guy "Tough Titty, it's the movie business, kid. Now get out of my shot. Maybe you can get the PA's some coffee. It's called show business, not show family. Scram."

We're inundated with the snow. Lots of it. A record breaking amount for Columbus Ohio. We beat the record set in 1910 for the most snow accumulated in one night by getting 20+ inches as opposed to the record 15+ inches 98 years ago. The snow covers up to 3 feet surrounding my car on 3 sides. It be ugly. Except that I needed this much snow to do a short I've had in mind for 5 long years. This was the only time I could count on snow being on the ground for at least 3 days. I hope to pull this off tomorrow.

Owning my own little "indie run-n-gun package" will pay off in spades tomorrow. My poor man's steadicam, the jib arm, the HD camera, and people owing me favors will come into play. Along with my parents being out of town so I can use their front lawn and house as a set. I bought the necessary props and equipment tonight, so I think we can pull this off.

Did I mention that I am finally getting some film work done again? Oh yeah. After the marathon shooting with George last weekend, this week I'll get this baby shot out and have a plethora of new Sonnyboo movies to infest the web, only they will all be mastered in HD and ready for the new HD outlets my distributors have let me know about.

This past Thursday I drove up to Cleveland to do a TV interview for Cox cable. It wasn't public access, but a cool On Demand show they have put together. The weather and roads were great on Thursday, and then Friday everything went to hell, if hell is actually freezing cold and full of high wind and constant snow. Actually that's just Ohio. In mid-March.

On the way up, I enjoyed a brief respite at the fabled Marie's Pizza. Twice in one week? Oh yeah, life is good. Real good it is. Wadsworth Ohio's pride and joy still delivers and I had leftovers for lunch the next day. I tell you, this pizza is worth the side trip on I-76 to and fro.

After the TV interview, I met up with Johnny Wu and friends for a nice dinner at an Indian place. I had Tandoori Chicken for the first time. Surprisingly, I loved it. I don't normally get into exotic foods, but this was fantastic. The company equally enjoyable.

Music score has started to arrive from Arya for my new project. More animated backgrounds and other goodies for the greenscreen extravaganza are also arriving daily. Ian Ross assures me that a theme song is imminent. They scheduled the studio time to record it Friday night, but then the storm swept through Ohio and all was cancelled. They rescheduled for tonight, so hopefully Cincinnati recovered as well as Columbus did.

My Fiancé and I spent the weekend cooped up in Rossdonia with the cats. I cooked a LOT. She did dishes, which is more of a tri-annual event, so I cooked more. I had inadvertently prepared for this weekend with several kinds of food, etc. so we didn't have repeats at all. We breaded chicken strips ourselves, always fun and tasty. My trick is to add minced onions into the breading for a more unique flavor. Marzetti's Honey Mustard rounds that dish out well.

Tonight I went to Meijer and got the most important element for tomorrow's shoot. Red fruit punch. It's crucial to the ending of this short piece. People will understand when this one gets done. I hope to be done early, but you can never tell with a shoot.

The world moves pretty fast and I hope to continue my rotations while the inspiration is strong.

As always, may you find what you are looking for, but hopefully it isn't just in this blog. Seek your answers elsewhere too.

Peter John Ross

Viagra of the Divine Muse

I recently shed a lot of inner turmoil. About 2 weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to focus on a few issues and not be worried about what may or may not affect me; let's only worry about what is in front of me, not hiding in the bushes nearby. One thing at a time, that's all I can care about. My time is getting more and more precious as I commit to gigs and projects. I don't have time to be worried about little things. Surprisingly, I have honored that commitment, plus the one to get off my lazy ass and get more physical in my daily routines.

I'm still on a high from this past Saturday's shoot. It was exhilarating to shoot. The execution matched the intent, and with George, it surpasses expectations. I haven't felt like this in a few years. Has it been that long? I guess so. I entrenched myself in HORRORS OF WAR for a time, then the marketing of it. Then for the past 12 months, I've been in money making mode more than personal storytelling endeavors with movies. As much as the itch was there, I could not scratch it. It feels as though the stars have realigned themselves and delivered unto me the will and the path to the future.

Sunday, as God's day, was a day of rest. I did nothing filmmaking related, besides all my footage was digitized on the computer at the office in a codec that is hard ware reliant with the Matrox RTX2 card & software. I cannot edit this on any machine without the same hardware and codec. My obsessive compulsive disorder has gone crazy, although not on Sunday. I watched CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND on Blu-Ray in the original theatrical cut of the film. Then I made out with my woman when she got home from work. It was a great follow up day to Saturday.



Yesterday, after completing my meager editorial jobs, I plunged headlong into the edits of my latest project. Now, the original intent was to edit all the greenscreen footage raw, and worry about post production and compositing until after I had final cut the picture. That makes sense. I can surmise what I need for each background, any character animations, and even make DVD's for the illustrious inner circle of people who will help me complete these mini-pieces of movie magic. This is the most efficient and logical way to do it.

So of course, I decide to go ahead and do an entire rough cut of the first piece, composite it with the test images I asked TJ to make, and then I added a temp music track along with a first pass at the title sequence. I chuckled to myself as I watched the semi-finished bit. My hopes and dreams are coming closer to being a reality with this.



Today, I had more edit jobs to do for work before I could start to tinker and play in the new world I'm creating. I diligently complete my tasks, complete with a spell check and verification on the 2 Suzuki spots I worked on, then I dived into the next clip. Again, TJ sends me backgrounds that match the piece I'm working on, so I composite and try to complete this 2nd one as well. Now I have 2 semi-finished clips.

Tomorrow, I intend to do the other 7 green screen clips and stick to the original plan. Edit for picture, composite and finalize later. I'm already in touch with a composer (Arya) for the score and my cousin Ian to do write and perform the theme song. Some of the remaining pieces will require character design and animation, so those will take longer to post. My impatience to want to share these ASAP kills my OCD, but it will be worth the wait for me to make them perfect before a public showing of any kind. It might take several weeks, but I don't want to put something sub par out there, not where these are concerned. I have to learn patience, especially where film work is involved. My passion for getting things seen sometimes supersedes completion of said work.

If this is any indication of how the rest of the feature will be, I'm in for one hell of a year…

I feel like I'm on fire again. It was a cold day, but the flames of inspiration kept me so jubilant that nothing can stop me. I'm on top of the world and I love the view. I'm not going to let myself get dragged down; besides, my freelance has quadrupled this month. With the Suzuki gig, some high school basketball championship games, my regular workload, and a shoot in Birmingham Alabama – your faithful narrator will have to finish these new movies in between cat naps on the paying work. I may be able to get a new Mustang. I love the 2005's and I found one used that I may snag up as the new Boo-mobile! If everything comes through, I will have made more in the month of March than I did in all of 2006.



I got another big royalty check on my short films today from cell phone distribution. That rocks. Whenever I get a check for over $1,000 for one quarter, I get blown away. I never planned on these things to make money when I made them. They were my self taught film school, nothing more. Now I'm raking in some extra dough from them and getting them seen by thousands of cell phone video watchers.

That's all I got for now, my friends. Peace be with you wherever you go.

Peter John Ross

Conjoined Epigraphs on the Nightstand

Yesterday kicked ass. I mean all kinds of ass, big ass, little ass, fat ass – ALL KINDS OF ASS was kicked. Knowing my friend George Caleodis was coming back to Columbus for a few days, I came up with an idea to shoot him on the greenscreen stage with a bit I have that is both for my upcoming feature film and can also stand on it's own for the web for now. It's not hard to shoot, as I planned on 2 cameras and no moving shots so the keying and tracking will be easy sleazy cover girl.

So all I needed to do was write something. I sketched out a few ideas and hand wrote the random assemblage of ideas as I wrote in a previous bloggy blog. Well, that's as far as I got. I scheduled everyone to be at the studio at 12 Noon. I got there at 11:15AM and STARTED to write the scripts for the day. I am generally not a procrastinator, but the writer's block has been a bitch, so I strangled her at got busy. When it rains, it pours, as they say and I got 4-5 new ideas as I furiously typed them out and proceeded to print them.



The shoot was skedded (using Daily Variety terminology) from Noon to 4:00 PM. We got started at 1:20PM and wrapped at 3:15PM. Everything was shot, we improvised ("we" meaning George) a few things at the tail that work out perfectly as interstitials, or opening teases. George is a professional improviser, currently teaching and directing at the Improv Olympics in LA. Working with George is effortless and simple. I ruined 2 takes by laughing out loud at some of his improv's that took my by surprise.



I have studied several forms of comedy as a hobby for many years. It's not an exact science by any stretch, and in the end all you can do is know what makes you laugh and what you personally find funny. There is so much intangible in the form of "comedy". Laughing is an unnatural act. Literally, laughing resembles a seizure and makes your body react in a form of involuntary convulsion – but in a good way. Making people laugh is probably one of the hardest things you can attempt to do, especially as a stand up comedian where all you have is your words, or in the case of Carrot Top, cheap props, which is why he's not the most respected comedian because he can't do his act without the crutches. Most stand ups are armed with words and wit, which feels kind of naked on a stage. Making a comedic film is not easy either, but you have tools and things that you can use, so it's more comforting. Sitting in an audience, lights dimmed and the flickering images and sounds emanating represent the truest test of a comedy film. Luckily, I have been in the audience when my own alleged comedies have succeeded and failed to cause the desired reaction of laughing. You learn a lot from the experience of being in a room full of strangers and as a filmmaker you attempt to manipulate the audience into the communal response. What bombs with one audience, may work well with another group of people. Sooner or later you just have to form your own opinion of what is funny and go with that, not worrying whether it plays in Peoria. Be true to your own sense of humor and be content if you find it funny.



I will never "master" this, but I hope to get better each time. That's all I can ever ask. At best, you can predict what you think is funny and hope that audiences agree. Strangely, I can say I found what we made yesterday to be very funny to me, if no one else. I haven't laughed this hard in many months. It was such a visceral release for me and I was even light headed by the end due to a lack of oxygen, which my Fiancé says is something I should be used to by now. George makes me laugh. My words, reinterpreted and improvised by George always play out better than what I come up with on my own. Yesterday was no exception. I think if I turn on the marketing machine in a way I haven't in a while, this could get George seen a lot. We'll see…



Now the post production end of things lies heavy on me. With footage of George and a sea of green nothing behind him, it will take a lot longer than usual to finish post on this project. So much of what we're doing with this one is in that green nothing. I will have to supervise a design, character creation, music, and sound design with a far more professional touch than my previous clips to date. I am not going to do it all myself. I love to collaborate with artisans that are far better than me so that the whole equals more than the parts. Since it's a green nothing, other people's contributions can shape the whole piece beyond my limited vision.

Immediately following the shoot, since we were way early, I started digitizing footage and got both cameras set before My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- arrived and we departed for the legendary MARIE's PIZZA in Wadsworth Ohio whence I came. My lifelong friend Maurice was in Ohio from Seattle for a funeral and since I have a fresh set of wheels, we drove up to have a nice dinner. My brother was already there and we waited out the extra long Saturday night dinner rush, but good conversation doesn't care if you're waiting in line or sitting at the table.



Since the day's shooting was so successful, I was on cloud 9. What I failed to realize is that by comparison to the last shoot I directed, this was a much more pleasant experience. I think I might have been demoralized by the overall experience of the last shoot. Some parts were good, some parts were disappointing, but mostly it was a bland experience as opposed to the excitement and energy I had almost universally experienced on ever previous shoot. What's even weirder was that this shoot had the smallest crew since my original BACK OFFICE days, as it was on a pre-lit greenscreen stage with wired mics and a mixer/video village already set up. Micah ran sound, slated, and also shot Behind the Scenes footage. The D.P. merely pressed record on the 2 JVC HD-110's and walked away since there can't be any camera movement. I still had a blast, and I don't have that ego of having too many people on set. I'd rather have what we need and I only care about the final product, not the way a set "should" be. Some of my dearest friends feel they have to have a big crew, but it feeds their egos more than the story at hand. I will never compare myself to Kubrick, but sometimes once the stage was lit, the mics were checked, and the camera was loaded, there was no one else on set but him and the actors as he operated the camera himself and kicked everyone else out entirely. What a hack! He must be a loser.

I just finished eating leftover Marie's Pizza and I am stuffed again. We got home late last night, but it was a fun time. I haven't seen Maurice since the Horrors of War screening in Seattle in 2006. I hadn't seen his nephew since 2003. Time flies and I'm in the vortex.

HD, HDV, HDMI, HV20 and 42 Inches of Acronyms

The past few nights I worked late on a moonlighting edit gig. I made some extra money, but they were some seriously long days. I took Friday off and I had one or two things in mind to do. Mostly I wanted to watch movies, but that didn’t really ever happen, which has been the norm for the past few months when I get free time. I had no Sexy Fiancé tonight, which is usually when I get to watch movies. She’s an actress who doesn’t like to watch TV or movies or plays. Weird.

I wanted to experiment with some HD footage and HD clips I have done in the past year and see what they look like coming out of the HDMI port of my camera, the Canon HV20. So I loaded up some footage on a timeline that was shot 1280x720 on the JVC HD110 camera. I needed to up-rez it to 1920x1080 because the Canon HV20 doesn’t take any form of the 1280x720 (aka 720P) variety of HD. I chose the Red Giant software called INSTANT HD and set it to the highest possible quality settings. It took 2 hours to convert all of 7 minute worth of footage.

The first clips were a title sequence to a new instructional video I did for a cable access show playing in Dayton, Cleveland, and soon to be Cincinnati. I used background shots from a recent trip to Manhattan by a friend who took my HV20. I have only ever played clips on a computer in HD, and usually highly compressed Windows Media Video (WMV) HD files. I wanted to see what the HDMI port from the camera did and how it looks.

Problem one came from the EXPORT TO TAPE when I tried to get my newly created 1920x1080 (aka 1080P) footage back out to tape. I use the CINEFORM ASPECT HD codec and plug in for Adobe Premiere Pro and it has worked flawlessly for me in the past, but today it just didn’t want to go out to tape. I had to convert them all to M2T files, the MPEG2 for HD file format. Then I used the HDLINK program to lay it out to tape.

So I finally got footage in HD (thought technically HDV) onto tape and it was now time to plug it in HDMI to the big screen and take a look….



WHOA. Staggering quality of images. It looked like the HD broadcasts I’m getting off the air it was so sharp, clear, and the text (my favorite part of high end HD footage) was crisp and perfect. This is why HD is the future. I love film and the grain of real celluloid, but this IS the future. It has arrived.

I made the right choice with this simple little camera, and I love my HV20. It will serve me well for the next few years as a BEHIND THE SCENES camera et al. The JVC HD110 camera footage up-rez’d to 1080 looked just as good. This is proof that a good piece of glass and manual controls in the right hands will create superior images.

If I had any doubts about what I am about to do with my shorts, going HD and the various formats, cameras, etc. – I do not have those doubts now.



A few other tidbits…

I judged another Dublin High School film festival last week. That was fun and the quality gets better every year. There was one standout short, one called “Delineation”. The two kids who made it knew who I was and had seen some of my stuff online. The best compliment I ever got as a judge came from them. They had had seminars and speakers all day and they told me they wished I had been one of them. They said I was the only “filmmaker” they had heard of in Columbus and that they weren’t interested in people from broadcast. That was high praise. I then proceeded to tell them that I make my real money from broadcast commercial work.



Sony Picture’s CRACKLE.COM™ came through with an interview they did with me for their site. That was cool. I love their site. They’re playing with some new things and I hope to ride their wave a bit. They did however do a server change and I lost 21 million views in the reset. It only reads 240,000 views. I never thought I would ever write “only 240,000 views” and sound disappointed. Surprisingly, YouTube™ has been the breadwinner in terms of stats. Although as I write this, Yahoo Video™ has brought me a spike of 37,000 views in one day yesterday, so maybe I shouldn’t pick a winner just yet…

I can’t think of anything else relevant to talk about. That’s all.

-= PJR

The Return to Normalcy

After my previous depressing post, I figured I’d take a swing back into the more positive realms. Tonight, the ice cracked enough that I got some real writing done. Knowing my actor buddy is coming back to Ohio from LA got me a bit excited about shooting something, an idea hit, and the wellspring gushed forth. I got 5-6 new ideas and when it rains it pours.

Knowing I have a bluescreen stage and HD cameras at my fingertips means I can get a lot done on short notice with minimal crew. We have the bluescreen pre-lit with the overhead lighting grid, so I unfettered by restraints and unable to come up with any procrastinations or obstacles. Making something with what you’ve got sure helps when you work at a production company with a studio, lighting grid, and plenty of C-stands and flags.

I bought a $10 antenna and I can now watch TV in full HD. It’s staggering the difference in image. I can even tolerate commercials. I haven’t seen a TV show whilst it was broadcast in nearly 4 years. In 2004 we gave up cable TV and I have had no regrets. I usually watch a show on the Internet or rent the DVD’s when the whole season comes out. Now, with this $10 ancient antenna and an ATSC tuner, I can get digital high definition versions of the local channels. I bought a $3 extension for the coaxial cable to run the antenna from on top of the bookshelves upstairs, but hot damn does the picture look sweeeeeeeeet.

As for a long awaited ROSSDONIA report, I have bad news. My little terrorist “V” caused quite a problem. The little bastard knocked down my 750 gig portable hard drive. It only contained EVERYTHING I’VE EVER DONE. Yes, it primarily acted as a backup, but there are many irreplaceable files and videos of my stuff. I learned my lesson a long time ago, so I do have tape backups of everything, but it becomes a horrible inconvenience to re-digitize everything and organize it all in folders, etc. and the frames won’t 100% match in existing timelines, etc. I was quite irate concerning the little guy, but by the next day, we were pals again. I have a hard time staying mad at the little bugger. He’s my baby boy. Cousette is another matter. She’s pure evil. Furry evil. She sheds on my clothes and I think she’s working on a plot to have me sent to the gallows.

HD-DVD is dead. All in one week Netflix, Best Buy, and Walmart have all gone BLU-RAY exclusive. What sucks is that the cheapest player is still $399. That’s too expensive. I don’t want to have to shell out that much for a freakin’ player, although the Fiancé wouldn’t mind a PlayStation 3. We’ll see. I have $100 in gift cards for Best Buy, but even $300 for a player is way too much. My HD-DVD player is now more like a high definition version of my laserdisc player.



I saw the new INDIANA JONES trailer. It doesn’t look great to me. The style seems to be a geriatric version of LARA CROFT and that’s in no way a good thing. I am not a fan of THE LAST CRUSADE, the previous INDY adventure. I love Sean Connery and there are some amazing moments in the film, but overall, it was more joke and no plausibility. The magic of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was the subtlety of the FX and the supernatural elements throughout, so that the big FX ending was more “realistic” or at the very least plausible. The fact that this movie ** SPOILER ALERT** is about aliens and Area 51 sucks. I’m ready to believe a 64 year old Indiana Jones can still swing on a whip; I’m willing to accept certain quasi-religious, physics defying objects can do something unrealistic; But I am not prepared to get into a form of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and flying saucers to be mixed with an Indiana Jones movie. That’s just too much. The FX in the 2 LARA CROFT/TOMB RAIDER movies was so over the top, unrealistic, that they made me near vomit in the theatre. The sole saving grace was the gravity defying breasts in tight outfits of Angelina Jolie Mrs. Pitt. The Indiana Jones one liners aren’t helping too much either. This will be a great movie to see once, at a midnight show with a packed audience, then soon forgotten. That’s my prediction.

Airline tickets are purchased. Cameras scheduled. Hotel and rental cars reserved. In May, I’m helping to shoot a documentary with a Holocaust survivor. This project represents a shift in my normal modes of interest as a filmmaker, but sometimes you are moved by a story and have to do something. I will give this project everything I’ve got. The Fiancé has put in years of research on this and we’re set to take care of business. I’m going to really throw down for her and make her project as good as it can be. This will take every ounce of skill I have acquired as a shooter and an editor, but maybe that’s why things have happened the way they have. I am prepared to do exactly this, so it’s as if fate intervenes and puts you on a path.



My 2nd Videomaker Magazine article is out and this time I was able to get a hard copy. I dig it. They are treating me well and I am proud to be writing for this mag. This gig has now lead to a few other side jobs, but it has really helped with sales of the book on Amazon.com so everybody wins.

The writer’s strike is over. 24, which had 8 completed episodes, is on hold until Jan 2009. Whether they scrap what they’ve shot and start over, or try to continue is in the air. Exec Producer Joel Surnow, the most republican producer in Hollywood, has left the show. As long as Jon Cassar is still with them, they have a chance. LOST has returned and they really do appear to have the next 3 seasons mapped out with a plan. The reveals, and flash-forwards are a rejuvenating experience compared to the inconsistencies of the earlier seasons as they tried to really figure out what they were doing. THE OFFICE looks to return in about 5-6 weeks. The writers got an increase for a bigger piece of the “new media” profits, and everything seems to be resolved. Like a trains slowly restarting after a respite, the industry may be able to correct itself. In June, I doubt SAG will strike. This was too painful as it was. That’s my prediction there.

Well my fellow conscripts, the master control program demands we get on our light cycles and out run the tanks.

End of Line.
HIGH SCORE - PJR

my new article in VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE

Transitioning Naturally, a piece on using the camera to get from one scene to another without pressing a button in the computer. It's in the March 2008 issue of the magazine in print but also online for free.

The article/video features actors Rhoda Cronebach, Bryan Michael Block, and Brandy Seymour. Camera work by TJ Cooley.

CLICK HERE to read article online

and

the video of it is here (CLICK HERE)

A Tale of Two Filmmakers

I surf the web a lot. I find myself becoming more of a lurker and less of a proponent of the bad aspects of online culture. Since I am a filmmaker, I tend to read a lot on filmmakers, even local ones, or local people who aspire to become filmmakers. Recently I came across two absolutely amazingly bad things that warrant a mention on the Sonnyboo Blog.

#1. A fundraising snafu from hell.

If you’re under 18 years old and make a blog entry or web page asking for money for your movie, it’s fairly forgivable for the ignorance of doing so. If you’re over 30 and claim to have all kinds of experience as a line producer, D.P., etc.; you look more like an idiot for not having the slightest clue.

It’s illegal to solicit any funds publicly. Even if you are making a documentary that won’t make a penny, it’s illegal. The sole exception is if you are a 501C3 designated non profit corporation, as in filed and approved by the state. If some cheese nut moron wants $25 and $100 investments, then he probably hasn’t gotten an attorney to set up the corporation, especially a 501C3 non profit, which is not an easy status to obtain.

What I love best are these poorly thought out ideas on how to best raise money. Why say that if you “invest” $25 you’ll get a free DVD? That immediately puts you in violation of more than one SEC (that’s the Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal organization) law. If you simply SELL the DVD’s for $25, you aren’t in violation of anything, except the obvious IRS tax evasion laws for not registering the money as income.

People who put in $100 or $250 are entitled to a free DVD of the finished movie! But wait, what if there isn’t enough money raised? What if the movie never gets finished? What happens to the money? If a percentage of it is spent in pre production, how much is returned to investors, if any?

I just can’t imagine anyone, even a family member thinking this is a good idea. For someone who claims to have successfully run several businesses, I find that to be as likely as having been a D.P. or line producer on $1 million dollar budgeted indie films. It takes near total incompetence to try to raise money this way.

#2. Hypocrisy, a perpetual state of being.

What I also enjoy is when other peoples in the film community alert me to the goings on of other local filmmakers. As if I am some conduit of information on everyone with a camcorder within a 20 mile radius. Of particular note, several of my colleagues sent me a link to a blog that was rife with irony and idiocy, an alliteration twofer.

You see, this particular poster has on several occasions criticized yours truly for writing articles with helpful tips for filmmakers based solely on my own experience. Of course, I get my book of articles published on Amazon.com, as well as with Film Threat, Internet Video Magazine, and get a job writing articles for Videomaker Magazine, but I guess the advice is not worthy of this person. That’s okay; I’m more concerned with the opinions of professionals, not amateurs with camcorders. I’ll try to hold my tears inside.

So the offending blog post is a list of tips for beginning filmmakers. It starts off pretty normal and good. Something about getting good audio is important, and then it just goes spiraling into ridiculously bad advice and even worse, just plain insults for no apparent reason.

Of particular note is he advice not to watch instructional videos or take advice from people who claim to know what they are doing… which kind of negates the entire list of filmmaking tips. Irony defined. Like many of the writings of this person, their list of filmmaking tips reads much more like the Uni-Bomber’s Manifesto and probably won’t be of much use to anyone not already under heavy medication, and definitely not for anyone serious about making movies.

I guess my one friend was right; this was more of a fan letter than anything. I guess this psycho really does want to be like me. Writing a bunch of tips for filmmakers when I’ve been doing that for years, and this person even has criticized me for writing things like this myself. Weird.

Combine this with the hypocrisy of criticizing filmmakers for calling themselves “award winning” and putting on his online profiles “won some awards”, going after people for “shameless self promotion” and his latest video has gratuitous cleavage shots of a girl. Put all this together and we’ve got ourselves a very confused, possibly psychotic individual.

Another wise friend of mine said it best. “Crazy people don’t know that they are crazy.” Indeed.

I guess there will always be psychos and morons in the filmmaking world no matter where you are. Just use your head a little bit and you can easily avoid being one of them. Unless of course, you are insane. In that case, take your meds and put on the nice jacked with extra long sleeves until the white van arrives.

Femine Hygiene Product

Your faithful narrator has calmed some in the last week, although there are still some bumps in the road. I’m still working a lot, but not as much as I was. This looks to be a very light week, and I have made personal headway on the Derek’s movie ETERNAL.



I’ve been working on a teaser trailer for the Derek, albeit several weeks past due. Thanks to the tutorials for After Effects from VIDEOCOPILOT.NET
, I’m reinvigorated on playing with motion graphics. I have not had an interest in doing anything new or fun with motion graphics in about 2 years, maybe more. Now I’m learning to play in 3D space, a feature that has been a part of the program for several versions, but not something I did much with. Now I’m tinkering, toying, and manipulating almost for fun, but with a distinctive deliberate look in mind. Since ETERNAL is a horror film, I’m going grungy with the titles I’m using. As is always true for me, I’ll spend 3 times as much time on sound design, music, and sound mix than I will with a picture edit on this trailer.

It’s very hard to focus though. When I spend all day editing, the last thing I want to do when I get home is edit more. My brain is fried and what little I have in the way of wits are whittled down to a brain dead weasel that solely wants to watch TV, which I generally fail to do because I feel I should be doing something more productive. I wind up pseudo working, writing something for publication, or something semi-productive. The zone I am in at this point hurts some and frustrates a lot.



Still, I manage to meander my way through doing some things creative. I feel as though my temporary reprieve from production will soon end and I will go full tilt boogie into several projects. Most of my ideas are awaiting better weather and a healthier budget than the usual $354 pieces of garbage that invade YouTube and online sites.

Let me take a moment to say I am constantly impressed with the generosity and mindset of someone like Sean McHenry in our local film scene. Here is a guy who imparts wisdom, loans equipment, helps out, and participates on every level with the filmmaking community. Often I learn something new from Sean, even though our aesthetics and likes in film are more often opposite than similar. This is someone leading by example. I’d follow someone like Sean. Even though his love is for more artsy films and prefers film over video, Sean seems to be very accepting of other points of view and just overall, a positive influence on the community as a whole. I barely know Sean, but I am impressed by his character more than anything. It’s people like that that influence me and remind me to be generous and giving to other filmmakers.

One thing I’ve got to give to the online forums and boards is that they often help me unintentionally. Someone asked a basic question about renting a theatre and my response has become my next paid article I’m writing for a new magazine. I had no intention of becoming a freelance writer, but sometimes you fall ass backwards into something good.

After my birthday party with the family, I was handed some blasts from the past. I had forgotten that I was a press whore even when I did music. If I had a clue, I would have exploited these press clippings into something. At the time, I was naïve enough to think that the snow ball would become the avalanche on its own. I didn’t even send a press release at the time, but I think I called someone on the phone. The press must have thought it was so cute that some kid wanted to have a story on them in the newspaper because they made a CD.



I don’t miss being a musician at all. My cousin has taken the mantle and run with it, and he is doing things far beyond what my skills could have ever allowed. Ian Ross plays guitar and writes songs very well. Sadly, I had achieved the simple goals I set for myself. With filmmaking, the goals are much loftier and possibly unreachable, but I shan’t give up.

The great Bob Dylan once said, “There must be some kind of way out of here.” I can only hope I’ve found my way out. I have. Suck on it, psychos.

- Peter John Ross

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