A project enters puberty!

So… we're now beginning work on our next project. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not going into details about the concept or plot since I've had things "borrowed" in the past and recently… but, I will say it's a web-series.

What?

Yes, yes, but we're shooting 20 minute episodes with the idea of being more appealing to sponsors and more easily making the crossover to TV.

I'm close to having a draft of episode one ready to present to people for gutting. I've also got a very solid base for the first two seasons and the world of the series. (One would hope, right?)

Several roles are already cast. Cart before the horse? Nah.

Several key crew member roles already set too. As we get closer we hope to grab some more people we've worked with in the past.

More news soon!

 

An anniversary

The 12^th was the one year anniversary of "The Grover Complex". One year ago we fired up the RED One camera and spent the next 15 days shooting a feature film. Kick ass experience. At the time I wanted to die/thought I would die from various stomach ailments brought on by severe anxiety but what I've learned from the entire situation has been priceless. I've encountered so many people I can count on and I'm grateful for that.

On this anniversary we actually did have some pretty encouraging news. When and if I can post it I'll post it. I'm not making something up… I just can't talk about it because it isn't officially real yet. Get it?

The day was pretty slow because of Columbus Day. I forgot about the holiday, I used to love it because I confused the name of the holiday with the city Columbus, OH that I lived next to when I was a wee one.

Last night I had a fabulous dream about training a T-Rex to be an ultimate fighter. Before he went into battle I painted him with a tiny brush using the paint I used on my table-top models back in MN. The painting of my T-Rex helped to establish trust between us. I trusted that he would go into the ring and kill various foes put up against him. He was a very cuddly dinosaur and I hope he comes back tonight.

I then had a dream I was given a large two bedroom apartment for no charge. Down in the parking lot of this apartment was a moving truck full of wonderful things from my past, furniture I hadn't seen in years, couches I remember from a house I left when I was 7. I was thrilled.

I have a pretty good memory when I want to. I know old phone numbers and addresses from the several houses I've lived in. 11 places now I think? This includes my apartments and college dorms in the mix. It might be more than 11... To get to the point of my comments about my memory I recently found the first house I lived in on Google maps and it was beyond depressing. My parents put in fabulous gardens in this house along with a picture window, new driveway, this adorable crab apple tree and an orchard of apples and pears. ALL GONE TO SHIT. I was enraged until I realized I left this place 19 years ago. I'm 26 now, I'm not the 7 year old who got to enjoy all of this. The strange thing though is that sometimes this place pops into my head clearer than the apartment I lived in for 2 years in MN. Or, even the houses I lived in in MN. When I have dreams of my childhood they're either in Worthington or the first house we lived in on Park Street in Van Wert, OH or our house in Albion, MI. For the most part I've seemed to have Mr. Cleaned MN from my mind. It used to make me sad but now I simply think it's to make room for things that are happening here.

Sleeping pills

I had a really exciting dream last night where I had a new home in the sewer. For those Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 2 fans you may know of the wonders I speak of. This wasn't a home of putrid water and rats, it was a place of luxury. When I turned knobs and levers new rooms opened that I could explore; these rooms were already decorated with the finest discarded junk money would not want to buy.

I was happy there exploring my endless stretch of pipes. Before I went to bed I was playing a video game where I was clearing nasty beings from a sewer, I guess I was making it safe for the citizens of the town to truly enjoy it. I attribute this wonderful dream to the sleeping pills I took before bed. Tonight I am taking more.

Fernando and I are going to try some meditations to help us live to be 100. Also to block out negative energy, stress, you name it. I'm hoping for this invisible shield of meditation power that halts everything unpleasant.

To aid more in blocking out negatives, Fern and I left Facebook a while back. I do "re-activate" every now and then to update things with good news but so far I've been pretty happy to be off. Am I a hypocrite by still staying on Twitter? Eh, no? It doesn't feel like the same kind of self-love. I don't feel myself drawn in to checking up on people I don't really enjoy.

A Raw Food Diet book came to the apartment Saturday. I did in fact order it. I am thinking about it. My cousin, Jerome, swears by the diet. I am inclined to trust Jerome because we are genetically more similar than friends I have. I will probably leaf through the book a few more times, put it away for two weeks and then try it for two days in the future. I'm looking forward to that.

I've finished two more writing pieces: a short story and a personal essay. Tomorrow or the next day (a few days after) I will put them into the mail and then wait a long time to hopefully hear that they will appear in print in several months. I'm still waiting for the other pieces that were accepted to come out. The wait between acceptance and print sort of kills a bit of the joy from every piece I've had published. It makes me miss smaller newspapers where I could send in an opinion piece and see it in that week. We're slowly learning patience.

I think blogging is the only place where you can safely have "I" everywhere. I hope it is.

My mother pointed out some delicious karma the other day. Since I had no part in this person's misstep, that they are now trying to expunge from their record, I can sit back and enjoy it without guilt.

People can play and play the victim but that doesn't mean they're believable in their part.

Yes, that previous sentence is connected to the sentence before; I wanted them on different lines for the effect.

The sleeping pills have really been taking a position of authority in these last few minutes. Tonight I'm hoping for something like in-air dragon fights for the theatrics that play behind my closed eyes.

So... how's it going?

I like Twitter.  I was down on it for a bit a month ago until I actually figured out how it worked.  Imagine that.

People are friendly.  People are freindly on Twitter, people are friendly on Myspace.  Not so much Facebook.  Some people might disagree, go ahead.

Anyway, genuine interest for The Grover Complex and DTA has come from Twitter (and Myspace for Grover).  I figured I should update.

Grover has been doing well.  I say this after getting less than positive news from the monster festivals.  But, as it's been explained to us it's a teen comedy about a guy and his penis and it has no names... were we expecting a miracle?

Yes.

But we've moved on from help from the Divine.

We're now going towards smaller more appropriate festivals.  We've also been talking to publicists.  We've received requests from people to review the film which is exciting.  We're a little back and forth on whether or not we should do this yet before we actually premiere...  I will keep you updated.  I will definitely let you know when we're accepted.

Regardless, the support we've received from people has been exciting.  We do get down on days when it feels like no one cares but thankfully a day or two later we can count on a boost from some unexpected source.

Has what we want to happen happened yet?  No.  But we're learning a lot and we're happy for that, lame as that sounds.  I'm being sincere there.

Several people on Twitter have asked if there will be a second season of DTA.  No.  DTA was a fun project with a great cast and crew but there will not be a continuation.

I do have another web-show that I'm working on getting going.  YES, in my previous post I said I wasn't doing web.  Now I think it might actually be the way to go with this project.  There's been a push to have longer episodes for web-series and this one would work very well in the range of 15-20 minute episodes.

I will talk endlessly about it when it happens.

Thanks to everyone interested! Very appreciated. :)

Recent news

To start off with some pretty good news the web-series I created and wrote won two merit awards from the Accolade Competition.  It won for the series and for the writing.  I was told by the competition president that they have several web-series entering the competition but I only saw DTA as a winner in that category. Considering how people usually view web-series (not very seriously), I’m happy with the results.  That it won an award for the writing definitely makes me feel pretty happy.

Another positive is that the project should now be eligible to go up on IMDb. That concern might sound lame to some, hey, we’ve all got our priorities.  People like IMDb credits here; they use it to measure success/value/ are-you-worth-their-time/etc. I did projects for free in order to get IMDb credits… sadly they never panned out so all I pulled from them was experience.  EXPERIENCE, bleh. ;)  As I’ve applied for other jobs in entertainment I have gotten the question 95% of the time, “how many IMDb credits do you have?”  Is it sad that things seem to operate that way?  It’s life. 

Web-series are notoriously hard to get up on IMDb because IMDb is pretty wary of them. I’m mixed on this.  I’m well aware that the web is over-saturated with series that easily show why these people haven’t yet found jobs in tv or film.  There are, however, great series on the web where people put even more effort into them than short films/tv pilots that seem to go up so easily.  With so few competitions that judge web-series there’s sadly not an easy way for series to gain credibility. 

Some of the latest series that were picked up by web-series stations seemed to have been picked up solely for the number of hits.  I won’t use names and I’m well aware people can just say I’m jealous/bitter but a lot of them simply seem limited to crass humor/recycled gags.  There are great series out there!  Many, many great series where the cast and crew work their asses off but if they don’t get over 10,000 hits then forget about it, no station will be open to negotiating with you.  That’s unfortunate but I suppose that’s every other medium as well.  The web does feel a little bit more like a high school popularity contest than film or tv though. 

I’m glad DTA has received two awards and I’m glad to have learned from it as I begin work on my next few projects which won’t be web-related.  Do I sound prickly?  My apologies.  I did just sort of bitch for a paragraph because I failed to properly market a series. ;) 

For those wondering Fernando and I are hoping to begin pre-production on a feature length script of mine in spring by the latest. I’m also very set on a pilot for a television series I’ve plotted out.  This one we are sort of thinking of shooting in a way that would allow it to be converted to a web-series if it fails to get picked up.  I don't mean to diminish the web to fall-back status, I do think there is a future in web entertainment, I just haven’t figured out how to make it work for me yet.  For those who have, congrats!

Congrats to all the friends and acquaintances who’ve had luck with festivals and competitions lately. I don’t think people in independent film/web-tv/tv ever get the pat on the back that they deserve.  Too many people look at the arts and think “free-spirited slacker” instead of thinking about the 12+ hour days people pull out here.

P.S. A correction for the Accolade Awards on the awards page.  We were unfortunately labeled some unknown production company name of "T.G.L. Films". It should be Claire Wasmund/Moctod Entertainment (Director Karen Bullis' prod comp).  It should be fixed soon.

Best of luck to all!

Blip

I am a slacker.

There's been so much to distract me lately. The movie, future projects… the disrespect of our country's national anthem.

Yes.

The Star-Spangled Banner is not something for performers to show off on. It's not meant to be yelled and embellished by vocal trills that make it unrecognizable. It's not their song that they're covering and interpreting. It's the country's song that they're lucky enough to get to sing.

Respect it, please.