Underground Clown

I saw this while surfing through my morning's news-feeds and I couldn't resist passing it along. Somebody spotted a clown on the G train yesterday. Why am I never around when these things happen? I love a good clown. Even more, I love a bad clown. So what could be better than a subway panhandling street clown (follow the link for a fuzzy picture of the red-haired rascal)? Nothing, I tell you. Absolutely nothing.

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In other news, I submitted my script for the first challenge of the Screenwriting Championships 2008. Because I was in Philly on Saturday, I only had Sunday to work on it. Still, I got it done and submitted. I've uploaded it here for your reading pleasure. I called it "Old Man River". It seemed more or less apt and I was under the gun. The next challenge isn't until almost Thanksgiving. Wish me luck!

The Casting Call of the Wild

As they say in Hollywoodland, it's a wrap. Today's casting call is a done deal. Let me say this: I do not want to be a casting director. Do not want.

As an aspiring writer, I've been subject to the buyer's market in which writers are a dime a dozen and publications hold all (or most) of the cards. I had assumed actors were in the same general situation but, until today, I did not realize the extent. To see the number of actors with credits under their name come in to try out for a non-paying part shocked me. I'm still not over it. Attracting an actor looking for experience I expected but to see actors with plenty of experience, experience to spare in a few cases, I did not expect. There are some great actors out there looking for parts. And then there are the others.

First, I have much respect for someone making the time to come and perform cold in front of strangers with zero promise of pay. That being said, some of these folks were scarily bad, some hilariously bad, and some just awful. Easy for me to say, right? Yes, yes it is but no less true.

The coolest thing about this whole day was that I got to watch people act out my words. This stuff I had put to paper was here coming out of people's mouths, with their interpretations, emotions, and energy. My creation had come to life, unpredictable, sometimes great, sometimes not, life. It's alive! It's alive!

DIVX Returns from the Dead?

After spending the better part of last night waffling over whether to go to Philadelphia this morning, I went, somehow rousing myself up at five this morning to make a 7:00AM train. While I waiting at the station, I wandered into the Hudson News and was confronted by this display:

Disposable DVD rentals? Does this remind anyone of anything?

DIVX was a rental format variation on the DVD player in which a customer would buy a DIVX disc (similar to a DVD) for approximately $4 US, which was watchable for up to 48 hours from its initial viewing. After this period, the disc could be viewed by paying a continuation fee, typically $3.25.

(From Wikipedia)

The trick with DIVX was that it needed a dedicated player and involved internet connectivity for some extra-charge billing tomfoolery. It looks like this evolution (called Flexplay) works with ordinary DVD players. It also doesn't have any options for extended rentals or ownership. What's old is new, like bell-bottoms and moon-walking, or something.

Well, It's Friday

Time to play the theme for The Fall Guy because fall, or autumn as i like to call it, has arrived this week in force. The heat is on, the sweaters are out of the mothballs, and the cold weather lethargy has set in.

I mentioned earlier this week that my sister is currently filling out cast and crew for my Great American Short Film. This weekend she'll be conducting auditions. I'm tempted to roll down to Philly and take part but maybe it's better I don't. I'm torn. Plus, if I go down for the shoots the next two weekends, that would be three weekends in a row out of town and away from my brand new (awesome) couch. I need to break it in with some serious couching this weekend.

If I can tear myself away from the couch and away from Saints Row 2, Fable 2, and Little Big Planet, I do have a short story (sci-fi) that's been rattling around my brain for months that I need to get down onto virtual paper. Strike while the iron is hot, my grandmother always says.

In other furniture news, I still need some kind of coffee table. I really like this one but it's too pricey for me at the moment. Maybe if I get some floos (money) for Xmas, I'll pull the trigger. Unless I can find a cheaper version somewhere. Thus far I've had no luck.

It's been almost a week since I saw W.. I'll post some (more) complete thoughts later but for now, I'll say only that I enjoyed it. The performances across the board are excellent and really make the experience.

A couple of good-looking flicks open this weekend that I want to see. Of course I've said that before recently and not pulled the trigger to go see them. This weekend will be different! Probably. Maybe. Did I mention it's cold outside?

Delivered!

After some wrangling, the couch was successfully delivered. It took more doing than I had hoped for but we got it in. As I had feared, my calculations were off- not by much, but by just enough to make wedging the couch in impossible. However, I had a trump card: I had them bring the couch upstairs, around, and down. It was a gamble. I only have access upstairs in my walkup via an inside door that is usually locked... from the other side. However, today the door was unlocked so we were in business and got the couch in around down and through. I can now count myself amongst the couch-enabled.

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As a bonus, here's a bit of halloweenerie I spotted on my way to the subway, post couch delivery:

I don't like the way they looked at me.

An Apology for Laziness and Then... News!

For reasons of only pure, unadulterated laziness, I took the better part of ten days off. I have no excuse and I actually had a lot to say but somewhere between my brain and my keyboard, it all got lost. In order to absolve myself of guilt, I shall blame Saints Row 2 which I've been playing on my 360. Perhaps I should take Dr. Phil's Gaming Addictive Behavior Audit. Probably not.

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I'm home from work this morning because I am having a couch delivered. My speed at furnishing my apartment could be described as glacial but this is a big step. Actually, it's the first brand-new couch that I've ever bought. I am excited... provided they can get it into the buildings. I think I've mastered the arcane formulations and calculations of mass and space but I have my doubts. I shall soon see if the mind can really conquer matter.

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I've written two short screenplays (one inspired by the Brooklyn Film Race). My sister, an aspiring film director, is planning on filming both of them, beginning next week with the longer of the two (as yet untitled). Here are the cast and crew calls:

CAST

Untitled Student Project

The project is a dark comedic short that takes an offbeat look at climbing the corporate ladder. The project will be shot across two weekends in November in and around Philadelphia. Our budget is very limited, so we will not be able to offer compensation, but meals and a reel will be provided.

We are looking for hard-working volunteers who share our passion for excellence in filmmaking. We will be taking this short to the Cannes International Film Festival as well as others.

This is a great opportunity for anyone trying to expand their resume and their reel!

Format: miniDV
Compensation: Meals and Credit
Location: Philadelphia Area

Breakdown (age ranges are flexible):

ALEX-Lead / Male / All Ethnicities / age 25 - 35
Description: Strong-willed main character who challenges the status quo and is forced to fight for his survival. An ordinary man thrown into an extraordinary situation.

JOHN-Co-Star / Male / All Ethnicities / age 25 - 45
Description: Alex’s best friend at the office. Is faced with a dire situation when he is shown a possible successful future brutally taken away. Looking for a male who can easily cry.

SANDMAN-Featured / Male / All Ethnicities / age 25 - 45
Description: A character inspired by Logan's Run. Mysterious and intimidating man. Works for the corporation and functions as Alex’s antagonist for the majority of the film. Stunt experience a plus.

FELIX-Featured/ Male / All Ethnicities / age 25 - 45
Description: Slight and bitter maintenance man that works at the office building. He is tired of fixing the Sandman's damage around the office.

FLO-Featured / Female / All Ethnicities / age 25 - 45
Description: Discontent cleaning woman who doesn't feel like cleaning up anymore.

THULSA-Featured / Male / Caucasian / age 40 - 65
Description: CEO of the corporation. Imposing boss that is pulling all the strings behind the scenes.

THORGRIM-Featured / Male / Caucasian, Hispanic, Multi-Ethnic / age 25 - 35
Description: A character inspired by Conan the Barbarian and one of Thulsa’s bodyguards. Must be extremely well built and be willing to wear barbarian garb and wield a battle-ax.

REXOR-Featured / Male / Caucasian, Hispanic, Multi-Ethnic / age 25 - 35
Description: A character inspired by Conan the Barbarian and one of Thulsa’s bodyguards. Must be extremely well built and be willing to wear barbarian garb and wield a giant maul.

OFFICE EMPLOYEES-Cameo / Male or Female / All Ethnicities / age 20 - 65
Description: Employees who have been broken and tortured by the same means as John.

Auditions will be held by appointment only on Friday October 24th and Saturday October 25th at the University of Pennsylvania. Please email us your resume and availability to schedule an appointment and receive a set of sides. Please contact us no later than Thursday October 23rd.

Contact Information:

Name: Courtney Terwilliger
Email: championsfilms [at] gmail [dot] com

CREW

Untitled Student Project

The project is a dark comedic short that takes an offbeat look at climbing the corporate ladder. The project will be shot across two weekends in November in and around Philadelphia. Our budget is very limited, so we will not be able to offer compensation, but meals and a reel will be provided.

We are looking for hard-working volunteers who share our passion for excellence in filmmaking. We will be taking this short to the Cannes International Film Festival as well as others.

This is a great opportunity for anyone trying to expand their resume and their reel!

Format: miniDV
Compensation: Meals and Credit
Location: Philadelphia Area

Crew:
Director of Photography
Camera Operator
Gaffer
Sound Recorder/Mixer
Wardrobe
Makeup
Production Assistants

Interviews will be held by appointment only on Friday October 24th and Saturday October 25th at the University of Pennsylvania. Please email us your resume and availability to schedule an appointment no later than Thursday October 23rd.

Contact Information:

Name: Courtney Terwilliger
Email: championsfilms [at] gmail [dot] com

If you or someone you know is interested in participating, drop her a line.

More Halloweenery

It looks like the spirit of... spirits is catching on the block. Just two doors down from the first building to undergo a fiendish face-lift arises another makeover of malevolent intent. At this rate the entire 'hood will be transformed into Halloween-Town before you know it.

Beware the Oogie Boogie!

Invasion of the Spiders

My apartment, for reasons that a non-arachnid mind cannot hope to fathom, has become home to a league, a colony, a collective, of wiry, thin-limbed spiders.

In particular, my bathroom has become their adopted habitat. My trashcan, my radiator, my claw-foot tub have all become anchors for their silken demesnes. I watch them hang motionless from their perches and, I suppose, they also watch me.

My invasive neighbors withstanding, I live in a bug free space. It hadn't occurred to me precisely why it was bug free. I live in a ground floor garden apartment. I often open my windows (now with screens) and there must be numerous dark, hidden ways leading from the outside to the inside. Indeed, such ways had been used by probing, exploratory assaults by the warlike queens of both ants and termites in the spring. However, long ago did I slay their armies. As the pharaohs of old, I made them as those that exist not.

Which brings me back to the spiders: who are they? what do they want? I don't know. As predators of insects, I appreciate their silent guard of my domain. My domain, however, has rules. The bedroom, the kitchen, and attacks on my most eminent personage are all off limits. The penalty for any breach is death. My word is law. There is no appeal. I announced my decree this morning. They have been warned.

Getting Into the Halloween Spirit

It's October, it's getting cold, and Halloween is fast approaching. One spot on Washington Ave. got a head start on the decoration rush. I hope this is just the start of things to come.

Anyone want to bet on how fast they'll get their Thanksgiving decorations up? I'm betting it's the day after Halloween.

Random Detritus: Hump-Day Edition

The week seems to be moving apace. As I sit at lunch (well, waiting for lunch), I've got nothing to fill this empty space but a few random tidbits from yesterday.

First, there was the inflatable chicken-man that menaced the road from the subway to the safety of the office. Customarily, one or several papmhleteers stake out the fertile ground between the subway and the office. They hover, not unlike buzzards, seeking to prey on the unwary. The chicken-man, however, took things to another level.

I never knew the appeal of a giant chicken shilling for a chicken restaurant. I still don't.

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I allow myself to get signed up for various newsletters and e-flyers, generally because every blue moon they actually produce a useful coupon. I received one from Gamestop yesterday that included this gem:

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Kingdom

There's nothing like a legend of untold riches to start a frenzied race to find it, like in the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. With King's Bounty: The Legend, you can play in adventure mode or battle mode as a Warrior, Paladin or Mage as you search for the treasure under the big "W," but you won't be able to play as Buddy Hackett or Milton Berle. King's Bounty: The Legend is now available for PC. Order online or visit your local GameStop.

First, let me commend the copywriter on his reference to the classic film, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I, for one, appreciate it. However, I can't help but guess that the film, Buddy Hackett, and Milton Berle, are somehow beyond the ken of the forever coveted 18-25 year old male. This is 2008, Gamestop. Buddy Hackett? Milton Berle? Really? Could you not find any movie within the last... forty years to fit the theme?

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To stick a bit on the theme of videogames, I was in Kmart yesterday (I needed socks) when I saw these beauties:

Well, now I know what I want for Christmas. Or not. Somebody somewhere has gone too far. Too far, I say!

Hop Along

I saw the Ed Harris western, Appaloosa, with my sister in Philly. It is interesting in that it is a portrait of relationships that, in ways, turn the familiar Western tropes on their sides. I'm not sure though that it is ultimately successful though I did enjoy it.

When you've got Ed Harris and Viggo Mortenson at work, you know there's going to a basic high level of performance and it shows. Rene Zellwegger fills out the third point of this protagonistic triangle with Jeremy Irons playing the villain (why he's so villainous we never really know- though we do get hints at his motives).

While we at least get hints of why the men do what they do, Zellwegger's character's motivation is utterly puzzling to me. She is certainly complex but perhaps too complicated and too incomprehensible. It was difficult for me to sympathize with her when I can't figure out a motive to match her behavior.

Because much of the movie concerns itself with that behavior, and the results, this puzzlement can do nothing but detract from what the film is trying to do. Despite this weakness, there is a good western here.

In the Unforgiven vein, gunfights are short and sharp. The best gunmen aren't the strongest or fastest but the most heartless. Appaloosa is clearly striving to wonder what happens when the heart intrudes into heartless men. It doesn't wholly succeed but it is worth watching it try. Having personal fave Lance Henriksen in a small role doesn't hurt either.

When Families Collide

It's a funny, strange thing to meet family that you've never seen or heard of before. It's mostly impossible to guess what it'll be like, whether everyone will get along or if furtive glances will speak to pangs of deep misjudgment. Luckily, everyone got along just fine.

Having thus made first contact with the natives of this lost familial continent, I can now say this with pride: my uncle is Frederick Douglass. Okay, he's not precisely Frederick Douglass, he simply plays one, among other historical personages of import, as well as teaches middle school. In the tradition of all great uncles, he is funny and loquacious. My aunt has courageously battled back and recovered from Lupus related nastiness.

The only thing I've battled through is my cousin in a game of Madden (Jets 24, Colts 0 baby!), not exactly impressive in light of the achievements on display that night. I definitely have work to do.

I don't suppose there's a market for impersonating minor historical figures like say... a young Walter Mondale, is there?

... I really have work to do.

Random Detritus: Friday Edition

A Facebook comment inspired my mind to wander in the direction of '80s session super-group Toto, specifically the song Africa. Yet, somewhere along the way, I found myself confronted by the lyrics to that other '80s group, Asia and In the Heat of the Moment. I must confess that I dig the tune but I'd never actually paid much attention to the lyrics. There are some heavy, heavy words in there. Check out the last stanza:

And when your looks have gone and you're alone
How many nights you sit beside the phone
What were the things you wanted for yourself
Teenage ambitions you remember well

That, friends and Romans, is some deep thought, right there.

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In more uplifting news, I found, courtesy of NeoGAF, perhaps the finest GIF ever. EVER.

So help me, I can't stop looking at it. I can't. Who am I gonna call? Who am I gonna call!?!

Veni Vidi Vidi Vidi Vidi

I was on my way home from work today when I meandered past the movie poster for Saw V. That's the Roman V as in five. Five. Really? Do we really need another Saw film? What spare acre of rough acre in the Saw landscape can this film tread that has not already been tread?

In all fairness, I have not seen any of the Saw films. However, I read the reviews and talk to friends who have been friendly to the torture-porn series. Even so, by all accounts, this franchise has been heading steady downward since Saw II, fully three films ago. By all objective measures, this film should be a direct-to-video Frank Stallone vehicle. This is Uwe Boll material. No, this is beneath Uwe Boll material.

Yet, somehow, despite my righteous indignation, this film looks to come out "just in time for Halloween" as the movie pitchmen like to say. Just in time for me... to see something else.

BD-Dead

When all I have to talk about is my failure to download the hyped-on-the-box BD-Live feature from the Iron Man blu-ray, you know it's a slow week.

I wasted over two hours trying to download this feature that I really didn't even care about before I finally gave up on it. Luckily, I went to dinner during this dead time and didn't suffer overmuch.

Word comes via blu-ray.com that confirms Paramount had bandwidth issues regarding the download content:

The Iron Man Blu-ray went on sale Tuesday and... an unprecedented demand was placed on the BD-Live connection... As such, the heavy amount of traffic strained the servers due to so many people heading to the same destination.

Source: "Iron Man BD-Live Statement from Paramount" by Ben Williams

There you have it, from the horse's head itself. I still don't know if this "first of its kind BD-Live application" is worth the hassle (or any hassle). I'm guessing not but, if someone has seen this groin-grabbingly wonderful application, maybe you can tell me what it actually is.