Monthly Archives: January 2011

Sundance Wrap-Up and What’s Up for February

We are BACK!

Sundance was amazing this year and incredibly busy!  This is where I apologize for not keeping up with the daily blogging – but if you were paying attention to my Twitter Feed then you had a pretty good idea of what was going on.  If not, here’s the brief rundown in bullet points:

  • Arrived and enjoyed some of Park City’s finest beers and Mexican food.
  • Went to a LOT of industry mixers and mixed with some of our favorite, & new favorite, industry people.
  • Saw mostly good movies (Brick Novax’s Diary, Babyland, Benavides Born, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of Toynbee Tiles & Here) & one crappy one (Vampire.  Seriously, avoid this one.).
  • Found out I’m still pretty famous in Utah form just 2 things: Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Mary-Kate & Ashley Olson’s Winning London.
  • Missed a party that I really think I would have enjoyed, but happy that we didn’t get the food poisoning that a few of the attendees got.
  • Left Park City on one of the most beautiful days of the trip.

I was also introduced to a new production tool called doddle.  It’s a program and app that helps production run smoother – specifically when you need a call sheet.  Check out the link above to see a demo, but I’ll be writing up about it more on the Wiggy Blog.

As far as what’s coming up in February – it’s all production and Wiggy Webs!

We’re getting into the filming part of our documentary and that is VERY exciting, but as far as things you can watch you’ll have to check out Wiggy Webs!  Feb. 7th will launch the first of the new programs on our channel so I hope you’ll check that out.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under business, making movies, sundance '11, Wiggy VonSchtick, wiggy webs

Mobile Blog: Sundance 2011: Day 1

Travel days are always a bit stressful, especially when you're traveling on about three hours of sleep, but this year's trip started off pretty well. Once we were actually awake & on our way, there were no delays & we even had time to get breakfast at the airport – which was surprisingly good!

The flight was quick, left on time & arrived on time & all of our luggage was safe & showed up in the same place we did!

Even though we failed to make a reservation for a shuttle from the airport, we were able to get one with no hassle and even the trip between Salt Lake & Park City seemed to go by faster.

The only real hiccup was when we tried to get our credentials, but that was totally on us for not reading our confirmation. Once we were in the right building we were served quickly and well.

We've had great conversations with locals, volunteers & other film makers and have had some great food!

If the rest of the trip stays this good we might not be able to come next year for fear of it not living up to this trip!

Here's hoping.

See you tomorrow!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

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Mobile Blog: So Much to Do… So Much to Do…

House ready for house sitter – Check!

Laundry done – Check!

Printing confirmations – Being done.

Being in production & planning for a trip is a lot of work. It's good work, but it is exhausting. My creativity has been utilized in ways that I'm not totally used to now putting out fires & managing time lines versus making up stories & managing plots. It has changed how I relate to time.

I have had a lot of conversations in varying degrees of seriousness with people older than me where we've talked about how the way one perceives time as you get older changes with your level of responsibility & number of commitments. I feel like I am starting to really experience this – & time is flying!

I need to go now, more shit to do.

See you tomorrow!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

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Mobile Blog: Less Blogging As I Gear Up For More Blogging

I realize that I haven't had daily posts and that some of my posts have been less than thought out or complete. I've been spreading my thoughts a little too thin as I gear all of our current projects up.

That being said, Rene & my annual trip to the Sundance Film Festival is coming up & even though we are going to be very busy seeing movies, going to parties & networking I am committed to both LIVE TWEETING & on-site blogging – probably more Mobile Blogs than written on the computer blogs. Pictures will come as they come, & if I'm really focused I'll pop up a video blog or two!

In the mean time I'm still going to make an effort to blog for the few days between now & then & to answer the people who have been asking, no the Sundance Beard project is dead. It'll have to wait until next year.

See you tomorrow!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

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Perspective

I was listening to my podcasts in the car, as I’m want to do, enjoying Matt Fraction, the current writer of “The Invincible Iron Man”, on Word Balloon hosted by John Siuntres.  The interview was mostly comics and pop culture, but Mr. Fraction mentioned something while talking about… geez, I don’t even remember the subject, but that’s not the important part… he said, “when you realize nothing matters you realize everything matters.”  It’s a very simple way to say that we are a very small part of this universe with a very short time in it.  In the end our actions have very little effect in the overall result of all things, but for that reason, if for no other reason, we should take advantage of all the time that we have to do the things that we are driven to do and enjoy that time to the highest degree.

I think that’s a good thing.

Unfortunately I’ve now run into a bit of a problem since I remember I started this post with a larger point and now I can’t seem to articulate it.  I’m blaming it on exhaustion and calling it a night.

See you tomorrow!

P.S. The Venus statue above is made of white chocolate.

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Filed under general, happiness

Mobile Blog: The Joys (/sarcasm) of Editing

I'm sitting in the editing bay, not even really editing, just converting videos to new file types.

It's a pain in the ass!

Editing always feels like it's going to be easy: you shoot something, you have a vision of what you want it to look like in your head when it's all done & so it should be easy to just take the shots & put them in the right order, right?

No! And I'm not even talking about the art of editing, it is definitely more complex than just sticking shots together, I can appreciate the art & the amount of time it requires – you go into the process expecting that – but the technology! Gah! It is SO frustrating & almost guarantees to double your required work time!

The only reason I have time to write this right now is because the machine goofed & I had to restart the program.

I'm also grouchy because I'm hungry. I should probably eat before I attack the machine.

See you tomorrow!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

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Creativity and Time

I can safely call myself a producer now. For a long time I believe I was an actor who was producing, but now my time is definitely spent more in a producer role than as an actor. There are pros and cons to this, most I don’t really want to go into right now, but the biggest change that I’ve noticed, especially the last couple days, is that I don’t have the time to solve the creative problems that have been popping up.

I guess “problems” is the wrong word, they’re more like “issues.”  Things with CMD!, the documentary, the other development projects and Wiggy Webs are really starting to push forward, but as things ramp up the time that I feel comfortable dedicating to the creative side keeps shrinking.  There’s just too much business to do.  I find myself excited when I have to go to the store because it means I don’t have to review another invoice or re-do a budget.  Don’t get me wrong, people pray for my problems but I miss the days of sitting in front of this computer and just making up stories whether good or bad.

I think that, once a few of the current projects get far enough along I’ll be able to dedicate myself to the creative more, but in the mean time I’ll be negotiating with myself about when I’m going to pull out a CMD! re-write and review a new script or two.

These are such first world problems.  I suddenly feel very guilty even writing about it.

See you tomorrow!  Warts and all!

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Filed under business, cheerleaders must die, doctor who, projects, Wiggy VonSchtick, wiggy webs

Mobile Blog: Blogging From Bed

Today has been a very full day. Got a lot done. Now I'm tired and I'm lazy and I'm blogging from bed. Jersey Shore is on and I'm surprisingly involved.

I think it's funny that I can only enjoy shows like Jersey when I'm exhausted, but when I am I love them! Is it that I try to over think these shows when I'm fully awake…

…Sorry I got distracted by drunk fighting. Anyhow, I'm going to take the dog for a walk and hit the sack.

See you tomorrow!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

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Mobile Blog: Good Bye Sundance Beard

I'll keep it short, I have an audition tomorrow so Sundance Beard is getting shaved.

Even Rene is sad about it.

I'll post pictures tomorrow.

I'm going to let it grow out again, but this has been about 6 weeks of growth & there's no way that I'll be able to get to this length again before the festival.

I better book this commercial tomorrow!

See you tomorrow!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

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Starting the Year Off with Advocacy!

Here is a great 10 minute movie about the history of pit bulls.  History, stigma and real profiles of real dogs.  Check it out and comment.

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Filed under advocate, causes, Frankie, pit bulls