Atlanta Nights, the movie!

You know that big announcement that I've been talking about?

This is it.  I've purchased the film rights to Atlanta Nights, and am making the movie.  The worst book ever written will now become the worst movie ever made!

It's a big step for me in terms of film making - I've worked on plenty of features before, but this is the first time helming up a whole project.  It's nerve wracking, exhilarating, and pretty much any other word you can imagine that describes a roller coaster ride.

For the basic info about the project itself:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1603898280/atlanta-nights-the-movie


It's nearly all I can talk or think about at the moment, so if you guys have any questions at all, do post them in the comments, and I'll be happy to answer them!

New music video

http://filmmakeriq.com/groups/screening-room/forum/topic/music-video/#post-7096

I shot this some time ago (as evinced by the lack of snow), the final product appeared today!

Secret proejct

I've been spending a ton of time working toward putting together a film project - more news soon.

The bright spot in a really lousy week - life imitating art.

My week, and weekend so far, have sucked massive donkey...ears.

Started out well enough, I got a last minute call for some video work which was a wonderous little cash infusion in a usually completely dry month.

The first phone call came - a mutual friend of the other shooter and I had died due to cancer complications. Meh.

When I got home from the job, I found out that a college buddy's mother had passed away.  Then, I found out again.  Yep.  Two different friends, two different mothers, all in one week.

Two of the funerals took place on the same day, at nearly the same time.  It has been a long time since I've had a dilemma of this particular nature, and am not looking forward to experiencing it again.

I have about six million things that I'm obligated to work on, and can't concentrate on a single one.  (This blog has taken over an hour.)

To ice the crap cake, someone tore the rear bumper off my car last night.  

The one bright, and more than a bit surreal moment in an otherwise miserable chain of events:

As the officer I had filed the report with began to drive away, a woman poked her head out of the window of the apartment building that overlooked the parking lot.  

"I seen it! I seen the whole thing!"

I didn't even know anyone lived in that building. (Well, I knew, but in that vague, diaphanous sort of way, like 'the building isn't falling down and there are curtains in the window', but I had never seen anyone come in or out.)

A spark of hope?  Hanging onto that idea like a monkey with the last banana on Earth, I clumsily encouraged her to tell the story.  Luckily for me, she was more than happy to talk.  With the occasional 'shaddup' to some small creature at her side, we got an approximate time.  I felt like the MC of a mystery movie, where a 'deux ex machina' character pops out of nowhere to drop key pieces of evidence.  That bit was pretty cool.  Alas, no license plate number.  I do however, feel better about the neighborhood, and amused that there actually are people who spend the evening peering out of windows.  I totally would, except the sole window of my apartment looks over the HVAC systems in the middle of the building.

Being the brilliant (if someone hits me over the head with it, I'll notice) detective that I am, I didn't think to extend the conversation - but I did pick up a piece of the perp's car, left next to my dead bumper.

Hopefully, some light will appear at the end of this tunnel.

Happy New Year!

I hope your holidays were marvelous!  I was down for the count with a head cold that left me as a prime contender for the role of Reagan in the remake of Exorsist.

My first job of the new year involved creating a time lapse video of  the building of a windmill for a Christmas tree farm.  In four feet of snow.

You can read the details of the adventure here:

http://filmmakeriq.com/groups/screening-room/forum/topic/trying-out-this-time-lapse-thing/#post-new

Confessions of a literary voyeur

I love reading other people's blogs - mostly informational blogs: GalleyCat, ERECsite, Miss Snark, The Evil Editor

Sometimes, it'll be things like Forgotten New York, or the tidbits of obscure history from Cracked.com - interesting pieces of history and the human condition that may spark stories of my own, or introduce me to places that I can actually go visit and find out more about on my own.

Lately, most of my online reading has been personal blogs and anecdotes from complete strangers.  It's as though a million characters have opened their windows in this immense apartment building, graciously allowing the peeping tom outside a peek into some pastiche of their life.  More than allowing, I suppose.  They set out the fine silver and china, for many, painting ideological portraits of memories.  Others bring out the heavy metal posters and toss the mattress onto the floor (which you suspect was perfectly well made only moments ago) and sensationalize some event until it has all the believability of a morning talk show guest.

The ones that get my attention the best are a balance.  They don't so much sugar coat events as find that soft spot that makes us still love crazy Uncle Jemmy (not a real person) even though he pours Bud Light over his corn flakes every morning.  The trials and frightening parts of life are matter of fact, often responded to and written about with the wry humor of a survivor.

When writing fiction, it seems part of the difficulty is making the story compelling and human.  Creating fully dimensional characters with strengths, weaknesses, talents and foibles.  The more information you have to draw from, the easier this becomes.  Writing convincing fiction is difficult from a vacuum.

Don't plagiarize,  but do open your eyes and ears to all different kinds of stories, from all sorts of people.  The only way to make your imaginary characters feel real, is to make them 'real'.

Bo's Cafe Life

The art of the simple web comic.  I think this particular creator has drawn six panels or so - ever.

And it's a great comic!

Click on the blog title for the link