cum stain

the Legalities of Pummeling Futility

sonnyboo — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:11:52 +0000

Yup. I'm still working a lot. I'm not even getting weekends off at all either. Not a lot of break in the routines. Last night I could have stopped working when I got home from the studio or I could finish the oft ignored ETERNAL teaser trailer for the Derek . I chose to work through it. I got 'er done. I just screened the full 1080 file to the Derek and he was pleased. It's just a teaser trailer, but I enjoyed the graphics work and some of the new FX work I put into it.

I purchased some software and tutorials from VideoCopilot.net and it has greatly modernized my After Effects work. I have not gone flare crazy with some of the specific elements, but I definitely got into the style of these because there are some graphics and animation styles I greatly admire and it's easier to do now. I highly recommend VideoCopilot.net for anyone doing animation or titles (or any basic after effects/compositing) work.

Well, each day my prediction for the economy starts to move eerily closer to being reality. With $5 a gallon gas being predicted by July and the job market puckering up like a buttocks holding roll of quarters in a fraternity pledge initiation – we can expect things have not yet bottomed out.

Yesterday I shot the behind the scenes interviews with George for UNCLE PETE . By some fluke I asked him during the questioning if he wanted to do more and he said yes. I'm the one that wants to retire UNCLE PETE and not do anymore, but one thing I wanted in the originals that we never did was a sidekick character. I really wanted a puppet co-host and there just wasn't the time to make that a reality. Now… that may be more possible than I thought, and in a way that will shake the foundations of the online movie world.

I stumbled on an idea that would take the UNCLE PETE series into a very very dark, scary place where most comedians won't tread. Maybe we'll do it, maybe we won't but I ordered a puppet online today, so maybe we will. This idea might get national attention, not all of it good, but what the hell. Why not? I'm deeply inspired by Family Guy and South Park, so going in the direction of those fearless steps; I just might go for it. Stay tuned and maybe you'll get wind of the new idea. Then again, I might not do it at all if something else enters my depth of field.

I have these two friends, Bret and Linda, who have always been on the cutting edge of discovering the new trends and obscure comedy, especially from the British Isles. One of the things they showed me from 2-3 years ago was GARTH MARENGHI's DARKPLACE. I stumbled on some YouTube vids of this and it got me through a long day of mundane editing this past weekend. I've GOT to get the DVD's of the whole series. It's the most perfect spoof of 1980's television I've ever seen. Classic, great humor. In the late 1990's and the last few years, UK television has been more accessible to US audiences, whereas in the 1980's and before that, it always seemed to be very niche and specific to colloquialisms and internal. With SPACED, THE OFFICE, SMOKING ROOM, and a few others, the universal humor has been cutting edge and very relatable.

The documentary looks to be finishing ahead of schedule in some areas, and a lot more work in others. I think we'll be shooting "dramatic re-enactments" for some of the holes created by the edit and to make the story more visual. TJ's animated stills in 3D are breathtaking. Even with over a hundred stills, it won't be nearly enough. I'm hoping to have a 3-4 minute version to demo for the author in the next month or so. We've already got music from Arya of Chopin and with the first few animated stills, I feel confident that we'll knock her socks off. I can feel the Emmy ™ in my hands within a year or so. Won't that be a hoot? So I'll be able to change my post script to Emmy™ Award Winning Filmmaker. I'm not a Cylon, but I still have a plan….I want an Emmy™ and I think I can get one for this project. I've already got a few thousand dollars invested in My Fiancé's project and I am producing it with her.

I worked in a viewing of the original RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. I wish they had never made any sequels to this. The first one was perfection. So many real locations, and when they were on a sound stage, Norman Reynolds added so much realism to the production design (nonetheless Dougie Slocombe's lighting of said stages). I have seen this movie hundreds of times (literally) and I only got "out" of the movie on one occasion where I realized how much they were cutting a scene months apart on 2 continents back and forth. It was seamless and perfect. I wish Hollywood would go more towards the "realism" of this first film and divert away from the overly fantastical elements like LARA CROFT or NATIONAL TREASURE crapfests.

I need some time off soon. If for nothing else than to relax and let my mind ease off the "work mode" of editing for other people. I'm not doing enough to keep my creativity alive. I have to start feeding the muse or she might starve. I have so much to write and prep, but I'm so convinced the economy is going to drop, that I keep putting it all off. Combine that with financially supporting my Sexy Fiancé, and that makes one hard workin' narrator. At least money isn't as much an issue as it once had been.

I'm still working and digitizing. I happened to have a break where one machine was burning DVD's and the other was capturing a 79 minute tape. So I was able to jot these thoughts and ideas down for a bloggy blog.

Peace my friends. And may the good news be yours!

Peter John Ross
Sweating in the heat

The Confederates Conspiring to Confiscate the Votes

sonnyboo — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:10:44 +0000

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