Merry Christmas!!!

To everyone on the East and West Coasts who stops by to share in my adventures...

Have The Best And Merriest Christmas Of All!

Albany for the holidays

Well here I am in Albany for the next two weeks. Getting the tree up and looking forward to all the trimmings that this season has to offer. But on the flip side am anxious to get the last of my stuff out to LA. Ready to settle into the new apartment and make it home...at last!

Right now...BRING ON RALPHIE!!!

Last day of work today, Albany tomorrow

Finishing up working on three projects today; episode recaps for "The Closer" and "Saving Grace" that will be posted on the TNT site, and another version of the truTV piece for the affiliates. Those TNT shows will be finalized before I leave but truTV may be hanging out into January possibly. At least that's what the producer I'm working with says. So I could conceivably be back on the project right when return on January 4. Wouldn't mind that from a paycheck stand point.

Tonight it's time to finish packing for my 2:20pm flight to Albany tomorrow for some Christmas bliss! That holiday mood hasn't completely hit me yet but I'm sure it will when I start seeing the snow fly like it's doing today in The Northeast. Yay!

Rain in LA on "Blade Runner" Day

How appropriate that it's raining here today...the very day the Final Cut of "Blade Runner" is released on DVD. Of course it only rains in Southern California for maybe four days all year, total. So you get what I mean.

Stopped in to Best Buy before work to pick up my copy of Deckard's Briefcase. Then took it out of the bag when I got back in my car to gaze at the glory of The Precious. The words on the front of the case, 'Harrison Ford, Blade Runner', glistened in the morning light. I listened to the soundtrack as I drove to work in a steady drizzle of rain...

Deckard's Briefcase...at last!

Get out your wallet, Mr. Burke! The long, long, long awaited special edition of "Blade Runner" comes out on DVD today!

Of course the boxed set of choice for all of us is Deckard's Briefcase, containing 5 discs of the movie with all four versions of the film plus a bonus work print. First thing this morning when Best Buy opens at 8am I'll be right there to pick up my coveted prize.

It's official: work next week, staying put

As I suspected, the two projects I'm working on will now be stretching into next week for a few days. Producer Scott will be picking up the tab on my flight to Albany. The other half is already taken care of by my free Rapid Rewards ticket.

Sounds like they'll have enough for me to do up until and including Wednesday. That works just fine because all Southwest flights are sold out after Thursday, the latest I would need to leave. I was really looking forward to heading back Tomorrow but am really thankful for the extra work. Yay work! By end of day today I'll finaize the deal for Scott to buy my ticket for next Thursday.

Work into next week?! Uuuuhhh...

After fine tuning the two projects I've been working on this week at Precision for truTV and TNT's "The Closer", it seems very likely that there may be a need for me next week.

truTV sent more footage plus a new show to include in this piece. So of course all of that had to be gone through and cut. Neither of these pieces have been shown to the client yet and we haven't even started on the promo for "Saving Grace" which was also suppose to happen by week's end. Changes are inevitable from both and I let Scott (the producer I'm working with) know that if I needed to change my free round trip plane tickets from Saturday to later in the week, it would cost me around $370. An amount I can't really come up with at the moment due to the recent shortage in work.

He actually offered to pay for my plane ticket to keep me on the project. Of course there may be another editor at Precision who can take up the slack next week. However the word I get from them is that he may not be available. At any rate, I can really use the work right now. Yet I won't know anything solid until Scott and I have a phone conversation about this tomorrow. He's at home in North Carolina now and has been directing the project from there, watching cuts we've been posting to his client website. He use to live in LA but directs his company from there, taking occasional trips to the West Coast for specific projects. His brother David lives here and I mostly worked with him throughout the fall on the truTV project.

So we'll see what tomorrow brings and whether I head back to Albany on Saturday or perhaps several days into next week.

MINI in the shop

My MINI is at the dealership once again. I say that because last week I'd brought her in to have a coolant leak checked out. The temperature gauge went yellow and then red while I was driving to the "Saturday Night Fever" screening. Luckily I was almost there at that point and could replenish the coolant after the show right down the street. Got an appointment two days later to have her looked at. They found the problem to be a burned out sensor and replaced it. A couple of days later I came out of a store and noticed a pool of coolant under the car. Clearly they hadn't fixed the right thing.

So this Wednesday I brought her in to Bob Smith again. Now well into the second day, I called the service guy for an update. He told me they have to replace the radiator. Wow. It was ordered today to arrive overnight for installation. Told him I was leaving on Saturday for the Holidays and he said it would be done tomorrow. Talk about the 11th hour before my exodus to Albany.

A nice, fat, full week

Looks like I just might be working a full week. Had an e-mail forwarded to me from the post coordinator at Precision Post from the producer I'm working with. It says in between working on the CourtTV project I'll be cutting a couple of episode catch-up promos ('in case you missed the last few episodes of...') for "Saving Grace" and "The Closer".

This is great (!) and will certainly help bridge the gap in paychecks I'll be feeling come January. Thank The Maker!

O.K. so work isn't finished yet.

Got a call from the producer I was working with on the CourtTV thing. The last piece I did on that was an affiliates version. The previous being for the sponsers.

After a week and a half of not hearing anything from Precision Post about coming in, I assumed the two groups in New York who were viewing my cut had approved it. Turns out one of the groups has some rearranging they want to do. He asked if I could come in and work on it this coming week. Yay! I absolutely need the work and have moved my Albany flight to Saturday, two days later. I may not be working the entire week, but it sounds like it could be several days. It's a paycheck I'll certainly need once January comes.

"Close Encounters Of The Third Kind": The 30th Anniversary

God has it really been 30 years! Stop the clock, somebody! Just picked up the new DVD boxed set that includes all three versions of the film; original theatrical, special edition, and current director's cut that was released in 2000.

Here is the original 1977 trailer for the film. Notice how it plays more like a behind the scenes promotional piece, keeping the story and imagery of the movie somewhat enigmatic and mysterious, focusing instead on the people who brought the project together.



Inspired by this anniverary, I'm putting Devil's Tower on my list of movie sites I want to visit in 2008. I always knew that someday I would get there and next Spring / Summer seems a good a time as any.

End of work for 2007

I think it's safe to assume at this point that there will be no more work this year. We're now into the holiday slow down period. Last year was a boom because I started working for The Cannery in October and continued all the way through the holidays and into March. Hopefully there will be something coming along when I get back from my annual Christmas trip to Albany. Even though I hated the CourtTV project, it certainly kept me going for a full 10 weeks. So in the long run I'm thankful for that.

Feeling pretty positive that New Wave will bring me in again, and for a long haul, once the new year gets started. Getting that coveted staff position with them would be a major career high for me.

A week from tomorrow I'll be heading back East for the holidays. Sor here's to Christmas trees, brightly colored lights, Rudolph, The Grinch, Frosty, Santa Claus, Charlie Brown, and of course Ralphie! Plus lunches with Sheila, Bill, Allen, and Pete! Not to mention brownies and M&M's in abundance. However I don't want to break the scale later on, so I'll be abundantly munching on goodies...responsibly.

YEAH, RIGHT!

Today's 'For No Apparent Reason' Video: "High-Five Hollywood"

O.K. this is just TOO FUCKING FUNNY! And there's no point to it which, of course, I'm a HUGE fan of! Also watch for some cool cameos.



Also check out the original, "High-Five Montage". This reminds me of the "Ryan VS. Dorkman" lightsaber duel shorts. They made the first one, then an obscene amount of people loved it so much they had to make an even bigger sequel. Just without all the special effects.

"Saturday Night Fever" 30th Anniversary Academy Screening

During my conversation with one of the guys waiting outside the Ricardo Montalban Theater to get Eric Idle's autograph, we talked about the sold out Academy screening of "Star Wars" back in April. Because tickets went so quickly (indicated by the big SOLD OUT notice on the official site), I was left with a very missed opportunity to enjoy a 30th Anniversary screening that was extremely important to me. No one else, not even the Star Wars Celebration IV, had such a screening as we approached the actual anniversary date in May. This was very disappointing and very frustrating.

This guy told me to basically ignore the words SOLD OUT, go to the theater on event night, and wait in the standby line for tickets. I'd mentioned the "Saturday Night Fever" screening and he said 'DO IT!'. So I decided to take his advice...I am SO, SO glad I did!

When I called the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre to verify (where these Academy screenings take place) I was told to arrive around 5pm where I'd be given a number. When I got there I was the 12th person in line. They wait until 15 minutes before showtime to hand out those standby tickets. However a short time later a man came by and asked if I wanted to buy his extra ticket. SCORE! It was only $5 (the regular ticket price), so I snatched it up and headed in to to get my seat.

Once inside the theater, which is very posh and very 'Academy' BTW, I noticed the forward center section was roped off for family members of the cast who would be attending the panel discussion after the film. The Academy website said John Travolta was the special guest (too cool!) but when I began to read the program, handed to me as I entered the auditorium, I saw that Joseph Cali ('Joey'), Paul Pape, ('Double J.'), Barry Miller, ('Bobby C.'), and Donna Pescow ('Annette') would also be part of the panel discussion. WOW, BONUS!!

I'd actually met a "Fever" fan outside the theater who also scored a ticket. We talked quite a bit before heading in and ended up sitting together for the movie. Sid Ganis, President of the Academy, intro'd the evening flanked by two towering Oscar statues. As the movie unspooled the audience was amazing! Everyone was respectfully audible and in tune with every iconic image and line of dialogue. When that first shot of Travolta walking down the street came on and the camera panned up to his face, people went 'WOOOO!'. At the end of his big solo dance number to The Bee Gees "You Should Be Dancing" everyone applauded enthusiastically. It just kicked the shit out of the other anniversary screenings I'd attended over at The Arclight. Don't get me wrong, those are still great. This was just a complete and total lovefest.

After the film ended, John Travolta and company (who were all sitting in that roped off area of the auditorium as well) took the stage with the panel moderator, Newsweek critic David Ansen. Some interesting 30 year observances followed ending with the entire group signing autographs for people who approached the stage. I kept thinking to myself 'man, I am so glad I listened to that guy at Eric Idle's play!'. Did not manage to meet Travolta because he was pretty swamped, but I did get near
Paul Pape, Barry Miller, and Donna Pescow. What a fantastic evening!

Up next at The Goldwyn was the Academy's 25th Anniversary of "E.T." with a cast and crew reunion. And I certainly was NOT going to miss that. Details in the next post...