Dark Design Pictures

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to all! I can’t believe how quickly this years has gone by. Cup of Joe, and 7 episodes of 1-800-Tech-Support. I think that’s the most I’ve done in a year. 2009 should be interesting. My goal is 2 features and another season of 1-800, but right now I’m taking a three week break from filming. I have a lot of post production stuff to do. I really need to get an assistant. LOL Another 1-800 Teaser should be on it’s way along with a Trailer.

Till then, Happy Holidays everyone and have a safe New Year.

Okay as usual I’m running behind on my blogging. It’s been a busy and tiring week. Tuesday night I attended the Film San Antonio Holiday Reception. As always Drew Mayer-Oakes of the San Antonio Film Commission puts together a hell of a party. The attendance this year was very impressive. The first year I went was probably around 50+ people. Last years was around 100. This year was well over 300. Not sure how many were filmmakers/actors or party crashers. Either way, tt was a hell of a thing. I ran into a lot of people I haven’t seen in ages. Mike Roberts and Mark Darat being prime examples. Both really good actors.

I spent most of the night talking to Erik Bosse and Andy Miller. Toward the end of the night I managed to corner Nicki Young. I’ve been wanted to talk to her about what I can do to promote 1-800-Tech-Support. After the holidays are over and done with and I have some extra cash in January I’m going to hire PrimaDonna Productions to help promote 1-800. Wow I can’t believe this year is almost over. So much has gone on this year.

Last Thursday I went to Andy Miller’s Film Salon. It were the local filmmakers of San Antonio get together and show off their works in progress. The turnout was kind of low but I had a good time. It’s been a while since I had a chance to catch up with Andy. He is working on a new short film starting in December. I think it’s been a year since he has done anything. I finally had the opportunity to meet Wes Barlow of Park Creek. Mister Pete showed up and long with Carlos Pina. Meet showed off an animated intro piece for one of Wes’s short films. The rest of us had nothing. I would of brought something but I didn’t have the time to throw anything together. At around 9PM we all went our separate ways.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday night were all dedicated to filming 1-800-Tech-Support. It was a very stressful weekend but I got a lot done. Episode 4 is wrapped finally. I think I started it 3 months ago. Sometimes it is a real pain in the ass to get a lot of people together to shoot one episode ugh. I’ve made the painful decision to cut episode 8 because it requires so much of the cast to be present. December is going to be the last intense moth of filming 1-800. This should wrap episodes 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12. It sounds like a lot but I have most of 10 along with parts of 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 done.

Next weekend is going to be the Third Annual 48 Hour Film Challenge in San Antonio. This year I’m not going to be able to participate. Sorry Drew. I have to much shit going on with 1-800-Tech-Support. Plus I haven’t seen my wife much lately and she would appreciated if I spent so more time with here. I don’t blame here I haven’t been around much lately and I would like to remain married.

I just watched the trailer for J.J. Abrams rendition of Star Trek. All I have to say is Holly Shit, that was awesome!! I hope it live up to the trailer.

So tonight I to the San Antonio Local Film Festival. For the most part it was a beauty contest for films, but over all it wasn’t to bad. The top 3 winners deserved to be in the top 3. However I think Bryan Ortiz film should of won top billing. I kind of seemed like a cross between Cloverfield and The Happening, but with it sucking. There were only two films I could of done without Reve and Hope. Reve was suppose to be a horror movie. The only thing it had going for it is that it was very pretty and was edited very well. Sadly it was all style and no substance.

Then there was Hope. Hope was nothing more than a 5 minute Obama ad brought to you by Will Shipley. Personally I have an issue with blatant agenda pushing in my entertainment. I felt it had no place being screened at SAL, it wasn’t a film. And for the record I’m not a McCain supporter. Agenda pushing just annoys the shit out of me! You want to make a political piece, go to Jib Jab and get a clue. Now that’s entertainment! Okay, political rant over.

The intermission was nice. I got a chance to catch up with some people I haven’t seen in awhile. Mister Pete, Carlos Pina, Mark Morga, Nikki Young (who was looking rather hot I might add), as well many others. I also had a chance to meet Bryan Ortiz’s mother. She was very friendly. I left after the intermission. Tomorrow is another shooting day for 1-800-Tech-Support and I need to get some rest. Sadly I had to miss out on Organ Trail and Carlos’s film Blood Rivals. Ugh time for some sleep.

Well I’ve decided to go to SAL tomorrow night. Andy invited me to go make fun of him so I’ve decided to take him up on the offer. I wonder if it will be frowned upon to throw rotten fruit. LOL Okay not really but it’s a good opportunity for me to network with my fellow filmmakers. I float in and out of the community. It depends on what I’m doing.

Saturday and Sunday are big shoot days for 1-800-Tech-Support. So I hadn’t planed on going. And I’m kind of done with short films to boot. The only reason why I occasionally do them is to show support for the film community in San Antonio. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m to good to do them. I just want to do bigger projects and at some point make money at doing them. Bosse has put a lot of effort in getting the National 48HR film project here. Even though I can’t seem to get a film in on time, I’ll keep doing it. I’m a glutton for punishment I guess. LOL The same goes for Drew with the local 48HR Challenge. Support the community!

SAL on the other hand has no shortage of entries and I’m not going to go out of my way to do a short film for them even though it’s run by a couple of my good friends. I just know the type of films I do won’t be accepted. So why bother, plus there are a lot better filmmakers that deserve to have their stuff screened. LOL

Tonight I stayed up way to late to catch Bret’s latest film Shadow Rises. I have to say I really enjoyed it and I liked it more the Innocent Killers. Which I still think it should of been two movies, but that’s neither here nor there. However, Shadow Rises was a bit to long. The story is about the rise of the Shadow Dragon played by DeMarcus Young. I don’t want to go into to much details because I’m really fucking tired. But I would like to congratulate Brett on a job well done. The third installment of the Innocence Saga will be out in December.

This weekend the wife is going out of town with here sister, and nothing film related is going on. So leaves me with lots of free time to lounge around in my boxers, do some editing of 1-800-Tech-Support, catch up on some TV. Oh, update the web site. The blog is running and old ass version of WordPress. And the 1-800-Tech-Support web site has some issues with the skin. Menus, that would be nice! I’ve also had some promo ideas for 1-800 that I would like to start working on. So much filming so little time to do anything else. Well I guess now I do. Better not watch to much TV then.

While surfing the Video Copilot forum last night I came across this short film called Suddenly by Magnus Engsfors. It is a cool example of the neat things you can do with After Effect, Photoshop and still photography. I have to say it is an incredible short film. The music was well chosen and the effects are well done. Though I know the techniques that Magnus not 100% sure how he pulled it off. I’m guessing he used a green screen to get the photos of himself hanging and shot the background separately. I wish I was this creative. Very nicely done.

The IDE cable went bad and not the hard drive. I think I’m going to go backup my server now.!