I am trying

I know at least 2 people read my insane ramblings here.
that doesn't bother me.
i have been doing everything i can to learn about filmmaking. reading blogs, watching commentaries, listening to podcasts, reading about the rule of thirds, discussing marketing, about every imaginable way i can even attemt to begin to get a clue about how to make awesome film i have been trying, begging, pleading, learning, researching... i want to know.

and i am getting there.

slowly.
sadly.
earnestly.

but powerfully. i am not an idiot. i am not a fool. i know what i like and i know that if i stick to what i like, even if others hate it, some will love it - i know that what i do will be appreciated by a small subset, and the smaller the subset the more powerful, i just pray the more vocal - i know the films i am making: this bizarre genre-bending world somewhere betweeen horror and thriller and drama that accepts comedy that isn't defensibly dark but would be called such - or relevant my films (though i neve expect to be relevant) - the more popular i will become.

i'd so much rather be the weirdo who steps up while kathy griffin is doing an acadamey awards red carpet arrival breakdown for E! and jumping up and commenting with her on whom people are wearing (which is sick in the fact that they are NOT ACTUALLY WEARING CALVIN KLEIN'S FLESH) and bitch like the fag i'm not, but the artist i am) than i would be the moron who checks the sales of his DVD every morning in hopes he could convince or impress those that went into the venture with him or who are perpetually surprised when they get a royalty check on "The Bet" DVD sales.

meh.

Possibly the most (or 2nd or 3rd) awesome photo ever

TERRIFYING

Not really sure what to do with that.

I rarely covet...

Okay, calling my own bullshit. I covet damn near everything. But this I am just absolutely insane over. Like, I would trade one of my kids (the bad one) for it. Okay, not really. But damn near close. This is like the uber-cute, snuggly version of the one I sold in a garage sale too many years ago. This is, like, unbelievable. As is my need to have it. Yes, it costs about 2 festival submissions. Yes, it costs about 3 DVD's. Yes, I have NO money right now. But fuck, i WAAANNNT this.

And on the subject, I should probably just have a default to buy any and every Kubrick ever released. Like an auto-buy. It's released; I buy. I don't even have to know it exists until it shows up in the mail. damn, i wish i was a gansta. or at least had some disposable income. Hmmm, if I sold about 10 DVD's of "The Bet" I could SO afford it. C'mon people. Buy this for me.

Oh yeah, click for the make big.

James goes to Italy

Below is Walt Turner (in blinding blonde hair) to promote Vegas: Based on a True Story at the Venice Film Festival on September 1st. How exciting! Walt played James in "The Bet." He took copies of the DVD to pass out as his reel - wouldn't hurt if it landed in a VIP's hands, that's for sure.

(L-R) Actor Mark Greenfield, Iranian director Amir Naderi, actors Zack Thomas, Walter Turner and actress Nancy La Scala pose during a red carpet event at Venice Film Festival September 1, 2008. The movie "Vegas: based on a true story" by director Naderi is shown in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Interwebs interactivity

Attempting to create a way of making it easier to get updates on all the stuff that I am working on, whether it's a new review of "The Bet" or an update on Detox, or something else that happens to be in the works. Not that anyone reads these blogs... but I can pretend.

What I've got now is a feed into the new Detox blog (set to launch next month), and not much else. I am doing the best I can in the few days I have between work and side projects (and film stuff, of course), but got Feedburner going for rubberblog and tried to get the Detox feed updated on its Facebook page. I've got the rubberblog feeding to "The Bet" Facebook page. Just crazy how disjointed everything is:

Personal MySpace page
"The Bet" Myspace page
"The Bet" Soundtrack MySpace page
Detox MySpace page
Personal Facebook page
Rubbersquare Fan Club on Facebook
"The Bet" Facebook page
Detox Facebook page
rubberblog
Detox movie blog
Rubbersquare forum
Rubbersquare site
"The Bet" official website
Detox official website

Not to mention the built-in aspects at IMDb, Amazon, Film Baby, and soon IndieFlix for "The Bet" - and the RSS feeds from the blogs...

GAH!

Final Detox teaser poster

Here it is.

As always, clicking makes it bigger.

Thanks to Francis George and Francis R Baytan for another excellent photoshoot and Leana Hildebrand for another awesome model.

Why is there a poster if there's no film yet? I wanted to promote the script with the same level of promotion I would give a film. I figure, if you don't advertise, no one will know about it. And I want people to know about it. So I am promoting it.

Why the religious imagery? Firstly, it was my gut response when imagining the syringe on the poster. Secondly, I am a huge fan of religious imagery. Third, it makes a weird kind of sense of how an addict would feel. And finally, it's a bit controversial - and controversy can be a good thing when you want attention.

The Farting Scientologist

No idea how long this will stay alive on the internets. I'm working on a longer version.



And, I just realised this isn't the first farting scientologist video out there. When Shannon was playing with the Whoopie Cushion widget over Tom Cruise's weird ass video, I nearly died and we thought it'd be great to do to him what other had done with the Farting Preacher. Well, as I've learned (with both Detox and Beautiful) there's no such thing as an original idea.

Death sucks

While roaming the user films section at DVXUser, I came across a post that shocked me. It mentioned that an actor named Chase Korte had died in a car accident early last year. Don't know him? Most people probably don't. I did.

I have this morbid joke about how, when I'm developing a script, I'll mentally cast people to help develop the characters - some of those actors have been: Heath Ledger, Brandon Lee and Brad Renfro - I think you get the punchline.

I did a spot for a local hospital a few years ago (I didn't direct, I work for the ad agency that developed the spot based on my idea) and, during casting, immediately was drawn to Chase's audition. He really stood out. As rarely happens, there was no second-guessing his casting from the agency nor the client. And he was great to work with. So great, I tried to contact him to see if he'd be interested in playing James in "The Bet." He was even one of my mental notes when working on Detox (as was Brad Renfro).

It's a shame there's so little of him in the final commercial, but I'm including it in the post anyway. He's the one who starts it off with "It's hard to explain the feeling..." Hard indeed.