scanning Craigslist for LARPers right now...

._.

It's 1984 in 2006.

Sausage Fest recap

hey all. Blogger's been acting all funny lately. Maybe it caught my cold.(

Let's recap!



FAGfest happened again, this time in Jersey at Pappy's house, which by sheer floor space (or lack thereof) should not support a sausage fest of this magnitude. The first night I slept kind of crooked on a loveseat with my legs thrown over the high arms. Virt, Devon, Derux and I passed out sometime around 4am to a hearty game of "what am I thinking of?"



The next day we watched Rez, then Joe, then Rez play an assortment of videogames, including Doom, FF12 (freaking badass bunny-klingon girl), and the undistributed, cheesy but cool-looking Altered Beast remake. Shael and I took on The Rez in some Doom deathmatches, which was awesome. I'd only ever DM'd my uncle Bernard in those lonely days before the WWW was launched..it really brought me back! THEN some more remeniscing happened, courtesy of Pappy's awesome anime collection. I threw on Dominion: Tank Police and remembered fondly my Middle School days, getting into anime, watching it at my good friend Josh's place and getting really excited about Robotech and role-playing. I can't remember how we met, him and me, but we had some excellent times.

Tank Police rocked. Shael and some others couldn't stand it, but I was really wrapped up in the nostalgia. Catgirls with missle launchers, a deep story with crazy humor thrown in there for the crap of it, - it blew me away. I wish they had continued the storyline from the OVAs, but like Berserk, there's no way in hell that'll happen. I'll have to download the manga, maybe. maybe.

Against my moaning and wailing, Papster threw on "Sailor and the Seven Balls", THE ABSOLUTE WORST HENTAI, EVER. It has 2D and 3D animation, all horribly mishmashing together, terrible Japanese dubbing, and a plot so terribly convoluted that you'd swear the entire thing was cooked up by some highschooler's dirty fanfic. The sheer amount of characters from different animes becomes a kind of "guess who" towards the end, as each pair of mismatched love monkeys humps with 2 frames repeated faster and faster. A man could write a book dissecting Sat7B, piece by sticky piece, coming to logical conclusions as to "why the author thought this would be funny" or "what obscure reference makes this OK".
On the bright side, if it weren't so godawful, it wouldn't be entertaining.



The reunited team of Rez + Chad = Team BIGGAMECOCK wasn't enough to take down Devon and Virt, who outshined us with a hilarious Prozzak song set to Army of Darkness. We had all planned to do Disney's Robin Hood, which I've had my editing eye on for a looong time, but the DVDs were infused with pixie dust or some crap and wouldn't rip properly. Seriously though, their video kicked ass. I feel vindicated in my loss, finally.



HEY, REZ, if you're out there, i wanna see you edit AoD to that song you liked! Do it, bra!

games people, like me, play

i'm excited about ff12. I wanna max out the Klingon-Bunny-Girl, I want to save the world, I want to fight through a book full of pretty boys and arrive at a satisfying ending involving some sort of throw-back to the old days of RPGs.

First, Disgaea. I'm disappointed that I won't be spending more time fully exploring that game...it's a shame. I read an FAQ about some of its deep secrets and the author admitted that even he hadn't defeated the final, final, final, final optional Final Boss. You can level your characters up to level 1300, give them every technique/magic in the game, and increase their awesomeness to a place where few RPGs dare to go.

...where Guitar Wolf left off?

you don't have to understand Japanese to get what's going on here.

POLYSICS - Electric Surfin' Go Go!

Why is it that the most creative stuff we've ever seen is all imported?

wooo-oo!

I can do THIS now. ph33r my l33t t-sh1rt sk1llz, circa 2001.


ps, GRAFFITI!

mod

graffiti and stuff from week 1 of
PS I <3 You

Olbermann's synopsis

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101906L.shtml


A basic synopsis of the newly signed Military Law if you were too busy working to realize what the hell has been going on. Like me.

!!!!! !

FUCK THIS! ! ! !!

Aside from Habeus Corpus being destroyed yesterday, this just stings like grapefruit in the eye+)!@#

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/10/20/entertainment/e110452D84.DTL

Is there no limit to what big $$ corporations can do to our nation?? Now they've infected the one true thing that I honestly believe in, the good brotherhood of Boy Scouts. The next thing you know they'll start branding political nonsense into the Scout Oath or some crap.


Does anybody reading this understand where our nation is headed? With all our rights being written over, and the political machine (+ the army) going so far as to air racist propoganda to serve their needs, it's like the US has regressed 50 years! How can people be so deluded or outright stupid that they would put this kind of evil in power? How/!?


...



Alright, rant over. Now really, who will take this new merit badge seriously? Is there a Scout alive today who doesn't download music illegally? This taints the LA Scouts, or at least their leadership.

I first learned, through the Cub Scouts, the dangers of drugs and smoking, and have yet to bow to any vice because of this. Cigarettes, weed, coffee, energy drinks - they're all the same, all vices that corrupt your body while giving a temporary high. This was the lesson the Scouts taught me, a rule that defines who I am. Later I learned about leadership, budgeting, comrodery...important things, none of them trivial. To hear that a new merit badge is based around the need to 'educate kids' about the dangers of not paying the RIAA money really enrages me, and I don't get mad at the drop of a hat. This is just ridiculous, and I sincerely hope that NOBODY goes for it.

ps

watch MsDewey fret.

!@ PS I <3 U day 1

So . .



Today was Day 1 of filming in New York for the film PS I Love You. I was a bit nervous because it has the biggest budget I've ever worked on. My assistant manager wanted me there super early, the manager-manager let me take the train in later, what if I wasn't good enough, what if some problem exposed some kind of weakness... ...it gave me butterflies. Pre-first-day jitters. Happens to everyone, even my assistant manager, who is a kook.



Let me tell you, viewers, readers, and all who have yet to work on a $20 million dollar film: it is like a well-greased PIGBOT. Jeff explained it like this: "On all the movies you've worked on up until now, all the desicions have been budget-based. They try to figure out the best way to do everything - while keeping in consideration the bottom line. You can't make any decision without consulting the UPM or a Producer and having somebody run the numbers. On big budget flicks, there's no need to worry about that. The cushion is always there. No need to worry about if it's possible to spend the money, everyone just ASSUMES that you WILL spend the money, someone just has to figure out if it is absolutely necessarry to spend the money." - to paraphrase.

The one catch is that overtime is a big deal - big enough that I worked a 13 hour day today. THIRTEEN HOURS. Getting a better rate with potential overtime / double days, working with better people that get it done more efficiently. Ladies and gentlemen, this is indeed the Big Time. Most people on this film worked on Spiderman 3. I am officially the youngest person on set - everyone is old, married with kids and does big budgets in a union, forever - and now I see how that is possible.

With my free time tonight, I'm going to spend my time just like I did when I stayed home sick from school . . . I'm gonna watch a movie.

PS I <3 you, week 0

z: so, how was your week?

me: . . . there's so many stories... too many stories. There's so many stories that already I can't recall them at will.




This happens every single week. After 15-20 hour days working on a film set, my brain shuts down and my body continues to function in Zombie Mode. I've been getting better/used to it lately, feeling less tired after a 5-hour night, but there is at least one crazy story that happens every day of production that I couldn't for the life of me tell to you right now, regardless of how interesting it is.


Enter Copykat.



I was hanging out in Forbidden Planet, waiting on Shael to show so I could accompany him on a spamming run, when I came across issue #1 of Copykat. Already holding a few selections that I knew would be good wrap gifts for my buds on TSFM, I was used to skimming titles/artwork and picking out the gems in the 'Non-Superhero' section. When my eyes beholdeth Copykat, I was bewildered. Like most indy comics, the pages turn quick and the price is not justified, but the artwork was VERY. INSPIRING.

The backgrounds are, for the most part, real pictures that have an overexposed photocopy look to them. The characters are cartoony, but...why couldn't I use a similar technique with real people? (see: I can't draw, pg.10) The thought entered my head: what if I serialized my production stories? What if I used the actual locations, actual people, actual quotes? All I lack is a giant stapler...yeah, why not??! I've got time! (or none) Serialized Life, here I come!!


(being a Locations PA again, I just might have time to plan out some stories from the last year. or not.)


pps, MAGFEST 2k7 !!!!!

VERB! that's what's happ-en-in

! Got a random call from Brenden, MAGfest chair, and careened over to some giant videogame expo happening just three blocks away from the PS office! Virt, Shael, the Empire and all the local vgcrowd were there to represent, even if the event was mainly corporatey. Inside the giant convention center on 11th there were literally a hundred different businesses hocking their shit, which just happened to include EA, SquareEnix, Nintendo, and others. That's how it felt to me. The videogame companies were standing side by side with other electronic gadget makers. Blah.

notable: Isiah 'Triforce' Johnson complained that the ghost AI in the PacMan booth was revamped from the old machines. The PacMan peeps (all wearing fluffy yellow PacMan helmets) denied this, but he was firm. I'll believe any man who can best most people in the world at obscure 70s arcade games, but then again he placed 2nd in the tournament, twice...


I put my hands on a Wii controller! It rejected me! ! 6

SOmething was wrong with the calibration on the thing, and the cursor (I was trying to play Electrobits) was shaky and uncontrollable. Still, I had my first experience with the nunchuk, trying aimlessly to get it to point in the right direction. I just hope, like the jagged edges on the FFXII demo, that it delivers correctly in the home version. On my TV. In my apartment. Dammit.

end, begin!

TSFM is rapidly coming to an end. You might say that for me, it is already over.


I have one last day on TSFM, and as luck would have it, I have a postition on the upcoming film PS I Love You, yet -another- romantic comedy shot in scenic lower Manhattan. As for the last week, it's been a stretch of long hours and second meals, but I feel strangely used to it - not winded and mindless like I did on my first films.





anybody going to see the Ghost Rider movie? After watching the trailer I am inclined to believe that anybody, and I mean ANYBODY could make the lines come off of this script better than Nick Cage. "I'm Ghost Rider." has to be one of the most disconnected lines I've heard all year. Why was he cast?

4 legged chicken

yet another sign of the coming apocolypse

hanpanda

Watch this video if you want to live.


The creatures are called 'Hanpanda', half panda and half something else, created specifically for the video by Nagi Noda. @ the hanpanda site it looks like the buzz might not end with just one video, however...my guess is that it'll be a year before we see hanpandas in your local Hot Topic.

around Astoria

Z and I do a thing called 'Letterboxing'. It's a pretty cool thing...feels like being in a secret society of sorts when we're out in the field doing it. In an urban setting, there's an added element of stealth that you have to maintain while searching out the letterbox, too - which is freaking awesome.



One of the boxes was actually a magnetic keybox that was attached underneath a phone booth on 1st Ave. After we steathily removed and stamped it (a block away), we returned to find a cop was positioned not 15 feet away! We had to improv a little, I grabbed the phone and pretended to dial, blocking his view. while while Z put the keybox back in its original position. You just don't get that kind of excitement searching out a box in the middle of a State Park, where you're mostly alone and nobody gives a crap. I guess in NYC nobody gives a crap either, which we had going for us.



We did 4 out of 4 letterboxes today, a Chad+Z record!!



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As for TSFM this week, it was pretty chill. There were some stressful moments where I had to shut down noisy construction sites with nothing but my kind words and a face that makes the ladies go "you're such a nice young man!" Bay Ridge, Brooklyn...it's a pretty chill place, even though there were 7 or more construction sites in a 3-block radius.

At one point props had a hose hooked up to a fire hydrant and made it rain HARD outside a set window. The sunlight reflected off of passing cars, however, indicating that past the 10 feet where it was pouring there was nothing but sunshine. We did a lot of takes.



Check the IMAGE DUMP for some awesome graffiti, including this natural gem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0ljmbJOfaE


President Bush and Co. are trying to pass a bill that would give retroactive immunity to their people for torture.

on holding traffic in NYC...

Today I got shat on by busy (and obviously important) locals in cars who were either pulling out of the driveways we were parked next to or just held up by our TCD officer. Either way the PAs and I had to go calm them down (to get them to stop beeping their horns during takes). Thus began many a conversation that goes something like this:

THEM: I HAVE THINGS TO DO AUGG I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE, I IMPORTANT MOVE NOWW!!!

US: I am very sorry, we are shooting-

THEM: MOVE OR HONK! I YELL AT YOU! AHHHH STRESS NO PATIENCE GO!!!!

In every case the end result is the same. We give our schpeel about 'please wait' and that it'll only take a minute, and either get anger/insults or anger that turns to complacency. It's 50/50. After one minute of these people fuming with world-shattering anger, our officer releases traffic, and they burn out at 30 MPH to show their displeasure at being held up for 60 seconds. My question is, why is everybody not chill in NYC? What is it that makes people in cars SO IMPATIENT that they'll honk their horn at you as soon as the light turns green?


Actual quotes from Actual Asshats:

ME: "I am very sorry, sir, but..."
OLD MAN: "You're not ACTUALLY sorry! You're just trying to be nice!"
ME: "I AM very sorry that this is not going smoothly, ..."
OLD MAN: (motioning to radio) "I'm listening to this, I can't hear you."

OLD WOMAN: "Do you know what today is???!"
ME: "...Yom Kippur?"
OLD WOMAN: "Yom Kippur!"
ME: "Well, our movie is actually Jewish.."
OLD WOMAN: "I don't give a damn WHAT it is!"

My problem is that I can't really give them a piece of my mind, or even voice my real opinion on the matter. I have to instead give them a heartfelt smile, absorb their horrible insults, and helpfully tell them that they'll be moving soon. In all fairness, we take the edge off of the TCD officer who is the end-all traffic blocker closer to set. Would they talk that same way to a cop? Some DO.

I think my revenge on these people, besides not supporting negative people in any way, will be to give them a real piece of where I feel they can stick that "hurry-go-important" attitude when I'm not on the job.