Wrapping another Court TV week

Finishing up my fourth week here at Precision Post on this Court TV-rebranding-to-truTV reel. The producer I'm working with has twice mentioned that this will be invaluable to have on both our reels. It's a historic moment for Court TV and will show that we took part in fashioning the look of the new network. Plus it'll be instrumental in furthering our careers. Not to sound egotistical, but after hearing all this crap I thought to myself 'let me show you MY reel first and then tell me whether I'll need this to get work'...uuuhhh, not really, no. Court TV continues through most of next week, which is good work wise and money wise since I'm only doing this for the bucks. Not sure what will happen after that. Although The Cannery called a few days ago stating there were quite a number of projects coming in all at once. Hopefully I'll be heading over there once this finishes.

I called Craig Murray Productions regarding that staff editor position they contacted me about. Still nothing yet. The hoping and praying continues.

I'm now ready to start burning updated copies of my reel and printing resumes for another burst to 20 plus post houses, most of them trailer. Again, with the two new trailers on there from KO Creative I should be catching their eye a bit more now.

The New Maine Workshops Student On Campus

In much happier news...Allen is up in Maine right now attending the New DV Filmmaker course at the International Film & Television Workshops. I'm really proud of you, Allen! You're following your dreams and there's nothing stopping you!

I'm really glad I attended nine years ago and am sure you're probably meeting a lot of cool aspiring filmmakers and learning some great career building techniques and abilities. Go, My Son and be successful!!!

Another reason to hate Entertainment Weekly

This weeks issue of Entertainment Weekly has a still from Britney Spears' VMA performance of the cover with the tag "Oh The Horror!". They have a four page spread dissecting everything about her fall from grace, the attending audience reaction, as well as the bad industry buzz about whether her career can recover. All with little arrows and sidebars. STOP IT! DON'T WE HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO WITH OUR TIME?!

They even go so far as to comment on how upsurd it is that everyone is taking so much time picking this whole thing apart...while they're doing that very same thing!!! Oh but wait, this is not a total bash fest, as it should and normally would be. In the end they start showing sympathy for her and go so far as to point out that her new album has some good songs...gosh! Golly gee! They're fun!

Fuck you, EW!

This, the magazine that always sucks you in with comments about movies, actors, music, and bands by saying something like 'we love those films so much' or 'these guys are a classic pop group we can't get enough of'. Then turn right around and finish by jabbing '...if you can get past the aweful CHEESE of it all' or '...you'll be bouncing along to those classical STUPID lyrics'. Why did I have a subscription to this magazine for 10 years?! They even sent me a 'we'd like to have you back' promotional letter saying I can get a whole year worth of EW for just $10! Yeah that's nice. Give it to some other guy or gal who loves having dump trucks of pretentiousness sucker punching them.

No thanks! Disclaimer: If you guys out there enjoy reading Entertainment Weekly, that's cool. I just can't take the ride anymore.

But hey, Chris Crocker, whose wildly popular "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" video on YouTube, has gained him so much industry attention that he's in the works to get his own reality series. Which once again shows the far reaching power of YouTube. Now there's something I support!

Work is work while you're waiting for the next big gig

I'm glad this week from semi-hell is over. Tuesday was just hellacious what with trying to get to KO Creative to pick up my check and all. It's only 4.7 miles from Precision but still took me over an hour and a half to get there, pick it up, drive to the bank, cash the check, then get back to work.

I'll be continuing here at Precision next week as well. One more week of this really tiresome Court TV project. Fucking ugh! Hey, I'm glad to be working and hope to get a call from Craig Murray Productions shortly for an interview regarding that staff position. I love Precision for a lot of reasons...one of which is there timeliness with invoice checks. Most places have it for you within 30 days, sometimes later. Here it's always fresh and prompt! I already received checks for the first two weeks on this project and I only started three weeks ago! YAY!

LA rain tip: you don't have to drive like it's snowing

It's raining now for the first time in five months here. Just a drizzle...but just enough to snarl traffic during rush hour which is reaching one of it's peaks at this moment. People out here tend to interpret rain like most of us from the Northeast interpret snow:

- OH MY GOD!!! Let's drive really, really slow so we don't skid off the road!
- Are the rain plows coming soon?!
- I have to get to Whole Foods and stock up on food and toilet paper!
- Gee, I sure hope we don't all wash away!

Strange, but true.

Kick their ass!

A court is helping Peter Jackson bring the heat to New Line Cinema's door for income he was cheated out of. Looks like it's time to pay up. Fuckers! With "LOTR" he single handedly puts New Line into high status and financial heaven and this is how they repay him. No one else should do "The Hobbit" except Jackson...and even Sam Raimi knows that!

Call from a MAJOR trailer house!

Received a call yesterday from Craig Murray Productions, a top studio trailer house! They wanted to know what my availability was and if I was working permanently anywhere. Thinking they were hoping to get me in the door for a project very soon, I told them I'd be finishing up my current project by end of week and would be free after that.

Turns out one of their staff editors is leaving the company to move to Australia. So they're now looking to fill that position and had my reel and resume from my May mailing in front of them! Holy Shit!!! She asked if I could send them an updated copy of my reel and resume which I hurridly polished off last night and hand delivered today. I was up until 2am to finalize the DVD after a day from hell which I'll explain in the next post. I am told it will be given to one of the post supervisors for review and then I'd get a call from them.

I'd sent continuous updated reels and resumes to Craig Murray for more than 5 years. However due to the fact that two years ago they responded by saying my experience was not quite up to their standards, I didn't forward one to them last year. Just waiting to get some real trailers to impress more with. Up until now I knew they'd been a major studio trailer house. However since I've been out of touch a few things have changed.

Another trailer house I've been trying to get into since 2002 is mOcean. As a matter of fact they were one of the initial referrals my friend and producer Elisabeth in NYC pointed me towards. I've interviewed with them twice so far but getting in the actual door has been elusive. Now it turns out that Craig Murray and mOcean have joined forces and both companies are under the CMP roof. Very cool! Also...Craig Murray has branched out into the home entertainment market. They now produce top studio DVD special features...which led to why I was contacted in the first place. The major difference however between May and now is I have two more trailers I cut at KO Creative on the reel; "The Wizard of Gore" and "Provoked". This boosts my trailer experience and will certainly get more attention when they have a look.

If hired I would be working in the Burbank office of Craig Murray which primarily handles the home entertainment department. Working on DVD stuff for CMP would be fantastic! Plus the ratio of DVD to trailer work is more evenly matched than at New Wave Entertainment, who have paired back their trailer production during the past couple of years. Certainly I'd still love to get back into New Wave, but CMP is definitely more of a one stop shopping post house for what I ultimately want to do with my career.

Two trailer houses I've been trying to get into for five years and now they're interested in bringing me on full time right out of the gate! No extended permalance first. Of course this does not mean I have the job...since I'm sure they've contacted other available editors. Check out the link to their websites because there is a lot of very cool stuff to check out! There is a direct link to mOcean from the Craig Murray site as well.

This will be a major career move if it happens so ALL FINGERS ARE NOW CROSSED AND MAJOR PRAYERS ARE BEING SAID! The time is right...let's do this!

AFI 40 Event: SOLD OUT!

AFI's 40th Anniversary event at The Arclight I was hoping to attend sold out very quickly, as tickets went on sale last night at midnight. Of course I wanted to see the original "Star Wars" introduced by George Lucas. But it became apparent that my attempts to get in and buy seats would be in vain. This morning everything was gone.

Certainly a lot of the AFI members had first dibs which is probably why all screenings went so quickly. I did everything in my power so I'm not too bummed about it. Disappointed, yes. Since there has been several AFI sponsored film series I've wanted to see over the past year and a half, it would be wise for me to finally join and get all those great benefits they list on the official site! I'll be doing that shortly.

Thanks go to Crystal as well as Allen for alerting me to this event. Thank you, girl and guy (as opposed to 'guys')!

Hunt for a new place to live...again

Well it's that time again. The lease for my apartment is up on November 4 and if I plan to move I would need to give my notice by October 5. That gives me three weeks to find something. Needless to say I'm feeling the preasure of that ticking second hand on the clock.

Still in the market for a house to rent, hopefully something a little cheaper than what I'm paying now. Closer to all the places I work for would be nice, but ultimately I need to feel at home, comfortable, and secure. I've said it before...the LA area is like a deck of cards that's been shuffled; the good, the bad, and the ugly are all intermingled. Don't get me wrong, Woodland Hills is certainly very nice. The bottom line is I'm feeling pretty positive about finding something better. I spend a little time each day on westsiderentals.com and craigslist.org checking the listings.

That one great card is out there, hiding in the deck. I'll find it.

Court TV...BLAH!

Finished out the week at Precision Post working on a pitch reel for Tru TV, the new branding name for Court TV. This really is just a junk project to me. No interest in the content whatsoever, In it for the paycheck only. The unfortunate thing is I just received a call from The Cannery yesterday asking about my availability. They'd mentioned a few weeks back that a new "Super Friends" DVD project would be surfacing soon. The start date now is this coming Monday.

I'll be cutting this stupid Court TV thing for the next week and therefore unable to work for them. That really sucks. Not that I was anxious to work on "Super Friends" (still fun though) but that would have been such a better gig than what I'm doing now. These are the risks you take when you freelance.

"Saving Grace" season one recap now online

The four minute season one rapid recap I cut at Precision Post last week is now on the official TNT.tv site. Check it out.

New Look!

And now...LA Filmcutter...as you've never seen it before! New digitally remastered <-widescreen-> edition! Choked full of bonus features! Over 80 hours of additional footage! 80 hours?! Shit, start making the sandwiches now!!!!

I was actually inspired by the layout of several movie news sites to expand a little, not only in size but in content. Plus there's more room for me to put up some posters, add a few more bookshelves, bring in a couple of plastic palm trees, and maybe build an extra room off the back porch!

I am currently in the process of consolidating my Flickr photo pages so that everything (hopefully) will be in one place. Right now there's just one link to your left with my MINI pics. And yes I didn't forgotten all those cool Comic-Con photos I haven't had time to go through and post yet. It's coming! There's also a link to my YouTube page, as well as a rundown of my favorite movie news sites. Those will expand as I discover more.

Hope you like the new look!

BTW, please give Mr. Walken up top some love as well. He's got a fever...and the only prescription is your vote.

"Saving Grace" recap

For the last week I've been working at Precision Post on a season one recap of the new TNT series "Saving Grace" starring Holly Hunter. Shortly this four minute piece will appear on the official TNT site. In and around that I've been cutting a 7 minute sales reel for CourtTV which is becoming TruTV. Big Yawn. This project is just for the money.

I'm almost finished with the update to my reel so I can get that next round out the door to post houses. Trying to reconnect with Sparkhill where I've not been since about a year ago. They certainly have several choice projects coming up including "Live Free Or Die Hard" and "Iron Man"...yes, "Iron Man". Plus a number of other Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount major releases.

Britney's too fat...

Looks like she won't be able to fit in her MINI anymore...thank you, bye, bye...too bad. Oh My God, I can't sleep at night until Britney loses some goddamn weight...JEEZ!!!

First "Iron Man" teaser now online!

Here it is! 85 percent of this was included in the Comic-Con version. There are a few shots added as well and clarifies more of the origin for the casual viewer.



GOD BLESS IT!!! How long is it until May 2008? Come on, faster!!