Two Things for Today

Mitch Gross on Cooke lenses. I will gladly accept a set of Cookes if you want to buy them for me. Really I only feel I need a 35mm (equivalent) 85 (or thereabouts or equivalent) and something really long. Oh, and a diopter for extreme closeup. Kthanksbie.

The Russian version of Android Insurrection.

Shane Hurlbut on lighting exteriors in daylight.

Alien Uprising Video Review

Maduka found this awesome video review of Alien Uprising from Totally Twisted Flix.

One day people will say that the movies are from Pandora Machine. But for now I have to admit it's a pretty fair review. The picture quality of this review is a bit wonky which, ironically, is basically what they say about us. ;-)

Alien Uprising on Amazon

Check it out, Alien Uprising on demand on Amazon. I'm guessing that link only works in North America. We don't actually make any more money if you download it or watch it online because our North American sale was a buy-out. But it's pretty cool that it's on there, no?

A few more sales

Solar Vengeance, Clonehunter, and Alien Uprising have sold to Thailand and to the Middle East. Not all of them to both markets but a mix of movies and markets. I'm guessing that we'll get a few $K net to our coffers once all is said and done with such and things and expenses on our end and paying our rep and such but I don't have the specifics.

What would be cool is if we finally pass the $50,000 mark on Alien Uprising and start paying people percentages out of that picture. I doubt that'll happen without a TV deal in North America but maybe after a half-dozen more small deals with the picture that's where we'll be? We'll see. Like I said, I don't have specific number yet.

Ivory Aquino

The darkly voiced and beautiful Ivory Aquino has her performance in Julius Cesar reviewed in the New York Times.

Ms. Aquino’s “Brutus is an honorable man” speech is so moving that I wish it could be the end of the play. (The soothsayer could just pop in quickly to tell us the conspirators’ fates.)

Ivory was in our Alien Uprising.

Today in the Pandora Machine

We've delivered the materials to make the trailer from in Day 2. Our distributor will be taking care of that. We've also updated all our licensing agreements with them so that they (and we) actually have contracts that haven't expired.

Also, I delivered surround mixes of Solar Vengeance and Alien Uprising for a buyer who actually wanted them. Very exciting.

We were scheduled to go into production in three days on Earthkiller but we've run into a snag regarding the sets. We're not exactly sure where they're going to end up, and it's going to take at least two more weeks to work that out. A good director would take this time to do another re-write of the screenplay. But I suck so I don't have to worry about that. Oh, OK. I'll work on it...

I have other scripts to read and work on and I just haven't got to them.

This is the latest version of the Tyrannosaurus Mouse logo. Our drummer, Lou Clark, is the official "mouse illustrator". The "T" came from Old Books.


I love my new amp. When I play with a band my timing mistakes seem like choices! ;-) This is a pretty straightforward recording. Les Paul into the Mutt, mono recording.

Today

The Pushkin cat obviously feels much better now that he's on the new drugs. He was harassing the kitten to play with him. I think he actually wore her out.

Today's to-do list includes

• Delivering surround mixes of Alien Uprising and Solar Vengeance.
• Delivering paperwork for Clonehunter.
• Delivering the materials to make a trailer for Day 2.

They're pretty much all due tomorrow.

So not only do I want a geared head, but I want a doorway dolly. And someone to push it. And love and peace throughout the world. I'm gonna get my wishes. Just you watch.

I bet that Matthews is better, but David Frey turned me on to Grippage Plus (through a Craigslist ad) and they have doorway dollys. Anybody ever used one? A used Matthews is probably better.

Building a paper mache wall (via Tim)

That's the latest test of the Mutt. Volumes are dimed, inputs are bridged. Les Paul Custom with bridge pickup.

Last Stop on the Crap Train

Lord, I love the reviews we get. Here's one by Scott Shoyer. He slags out the hatin' on Alien Uprising along with a Billy Zane picture and a NuImage movie in his "Shitty Sci-Fi Roundup". I'm still laughing at this quote:

"It was like watching a puppy swallowing lit firecrackers."

I really think we should put that as a pull-quote on the boxcover.

We scored 0 out of 10 skulls for gore, and 0 out of 5 brains for zombie mayhem.

(I always wonder with these things -- who are they talking about when they talk about "TERRIBLE acting"? I think, well it can't be Jeff Plunkett or Steve Deighan... and then I realize that no, it's just not a terribly sophisticated reviewer. It's the fact that none of the actors are famous that's the problem. This is an issue we're saddled with in getting a SyFy Channel deal -- because we don't have name actors, they aren't "good". Which is just silly. Oh well.)

On Unions, Overtime, and Business Plans

From a producer's perspective.

Way back in the olden days I got a job at Olympia Dukakis' Whole Theater in Montclair, NJ. I mixed sound for a musical (which actually went on to a long-ish run off-Broadway but I had nothing to do with it other than this one production).

We didn't get paid overtime (which AFAIK is just illegal on the face of it in the State of New Jersey, but it's the way things were). We lowly technicians just got paid a weekly rate ($250/week? Maybe? It was a while ago.) Whenever the band for the musical needed to do a put-in rehearsal, or anyone needed to do any damn thing on stage, I would get called in early to fire up the sound system so everyone could have monitoring and the intercoms would work, etc. I ended up doing a lot of "overtime" for free on that show.

My next job was at the New York Shakespeare Festival. My understanding was that a few years earlier some electricians and carpenters cornered the production manager at the end of a pier and demanded they be paid overtime -- so everyone was making overtime after (I think) 37.5 hours a week by the time I came on board.

I worked on a bunch of shows for the 9 months I was at the NYSF, including a couple musicals. And you know what? On the musicals when the band needed to do a rehearsal or when anybody needed to do anything on stage -- mysteriously -- I wasn't needed. They would have had to pay overtime to bring me in. It's like suddenly everyone found out how they could practice, rehearse, or whatever, without me.

It was like magic.

Well, no, it's not magic. The fact is that overtime forces the producer to be more efficient. If the producer can't go over 10 hours a day (or whatever) because they simply do not have the money, they will find ways that they don't have to go into overtime.

Having to pony up the real expense of overtime, the producer ends up being better organized. They have to. Otherwise the whole project is a wash. And you know what? As a smart producer you actually want to have a time guillotine hanging over your head each day -- a time after which you simply may not continue to work (or your head gets chopped off). Why? Because you will be better at your job. Your job is to deliver the picture on time and on budget. If you think you have an infinite amount of time in your day that you can work your crew, then you'll start working longer and longer hours - but not actually getting more done. You'll stop planning out the day and keeping everyone on schedule if you're not worried about overtime.

And you will make STUPID mistakes.

I've seen this happen a lot. Shoot is scheduled for 18 days. Days keep getting longer and longer as it gets less and less organized. By day 12, the crew hates you. You hate you. You're endangering the lives of everyone who rides in the van with the exhausted PA who's been working 20-hour days for two weeks straight. And you, the producer, are so tired that you don't understand what the locations manager just said to you when they told you that the cemetery you were supposed to shoot in on the last day fell through because suddenly they want five thousand dollars for you to show up there.

And then... and then you find yourself (and I've actually seen this happen) in the last couple days of the shoot... scouting for locations while the entire crew is waiting for you to figure out where the company move will be to finish off your day. (Which you can't do so you end up adding more days to the end of the shoot which eats into your post-production budget (specifically the dialog edit part of the budget) and you make a crappy film which, even though it's a horror film, can't even get direct-to-dvd distribution or even a freakin' IMDB credit).

But hey, there are some big-budget producers who schedule loads of overtime even though they have to pay it. Sure, they have the money but still I don't really see the point of 16-hour-days. You'll only get about 10 hours of work out of people so you may as well simply hire two shifts. Just like at the factory. Huh? You think that's a bad idea? You think it'll actually make a big difference if, after 8 hours of shooting, you switch out G&E, the camera and sound crews, and even Art, for another crew? It won't. And furthermore, if you're shooting 16-hour days you're shooting garbage most of the time. If not all the time. You're not shooting pictures, you're harvesting them, Brother. So just give up and swap out the crew after 8. Hell, hire 3 freakin' crews so they can be workin' round the clock. It. Will. Be. Cheaper. Than. Paying. Golden. Time.

You, as the producer, will be dead. But nobody will notice and it won't matter. The producer they replace you with? The one who can actually schedule? They'll get the movie back on budget and schedule by working shorter days.

If I were the head of a studio negotiating to the technical union, IATSE, I would tell them to put a provision in the contract that said if one of my producers on a feature film went to a 16-hour day more than once, or if they went to a 20-hour day even once, it would be legal for a grip to come to the producer's house and break the producer's legs with a hammer. Obviously the studio would pay the grip overtime for going out to the producer's house, which would be "golden time" if they continued right from the 20-hour-call. (Which is what? Triple-time pay?) Plus mileage.

And why would I do that? I'd do that because no producer would go to a 20-hour-day. They would magically discover how to produce and get me my movie in on-schedule and budget. No grips would come to their houses at three o'clock in the morning with sledgehammers. Again. And the movies they produce would be better for it.

Magic.

*****

OK, I'll give producers one break regarding overtime. Sometimes -- rarely -- but sometimes, something happens which is actually beyond your control. And I'm not talking about "We didn't know it was going to rain today!" or "Oh I just had no idea how long it was going to take to shoot that scene!" I mean actual things -- the camera breaks -- the camera crew gets food poisoning from yesterday's fish tacos -- whatever. So one day on the shoot you get to go into overtime.

But only for a couple hours.

And just that once.

*****

So what does this mean for my business plan? Not a whole heck of a lot, actually. I'd like to shoot 4 movies this year. I'd like to have an Aliens-type movie since our last one (Alien Uprising) seemed to do so well, and another 2012 post-apocalyptic movie. I'm just going to keep talking about these things over and over until they actually happen. Unless I'm talking about amplifiers.

New Alien Uprising Deals

Here. Look at this bunny. Don't read anything more in this post. Just don't. It'll keep me out of trouble.

See? Bunny butt. Now look at pictures of guitar amplifiers.

Goodbye!

(Look at the bunny.)

*****
O! I do hesitate so in putting details of deals on this blog. As a rule it makes the distributors less than cheery, that's for sure. Hopefully they're just looking at the bunny and not paying any attention. You know, this paranoia about "real numbers" in the movie business is one of the ways that nobody ends up knowing anything about the reality of financing in motion pictures.

Look. At the bunny.

So let me tell you about our last deal for another one of our movies. You will be guessing which is our last picture to get a deal for the market involved. This is for North America: $5K upfront and then the distributor takes something like $15K in expenses and then does an 80/20 split (in their favor) for the next $12K or so and then they split (after the direct costs of making the DVD's) everything thereafter or some such. What it really means is that we get $5K upfront and they get everything for the first $35,000 or so and then we start the 50/50 split (after direct expenses for making the DVD's).

To tell you the truth, the splits deal is so complicated that although I think I understood it for about 10 minutes it has now fizzled out of my wee brain. But it's something like what I've described above.

Are you looking at the bunny?

So what does it all mean? Well, it means we get to make another movie. Ha! No really. What it means is that I split the $5K with my producing partner and we whistle a merry tune while we walk away*. Well, OK, no -- it means we're not likely to make more money but if the movie did as well as Alien Uprising did we'd make a nice additional chunk of change and we'd certainly be paying out money to actors, writer, designers, etc.

*****
Speaking of Alien Uprising: we just got a small home video deal for Cyprus and the Middle East. For us that's less than a couple thousand bucks. But it does mean that Alien Uprising has earned at total of $40,370 including North American and suchly. I'm sure it made our distributor's distributor much more in N. America because of their spectacular Blockbuster deal, but still that puts us less than ten thousand dollars away from the $50K mark -- after which we actually dole out percentages to the "artistes" (which includes the writer, editor, effects, actors, etc., etc.) And it'll also make us feel good.

(Of course, if we're only, say, a thousand dollars over the $50K mark it could be embarrassing: "Uh, here's your check for, uh, fifteen dollars. Thanks!")

Look at the bunny.

*To make matters more complicated to talk about, but vastly cheaper at tax time, there are two separate companies involved -- Bloodmask LLC (which is owned by my partner), and Pandora Machine LLC (which is owned by me). Sole proprietorships pay hundreds of dollars less a year in "fees" to the State than LLC's with multiple members. Feh on the State then.

Our Man in LA

Our man Yanni Walker (who's moved back to LA) is in this ad. Give it an upvote!


Yanni was the first to die in Alien Uprising. That's the kind of giving guy he is!

This, That, and the Other Thing

Rotten Tomatoes has a link for Alien Uprising. No actual reviews are linked to it, though.

Ah, man, I'm stressed about our next movie. Our sales rep wants us to do a modern-day disaster picture where ordinary people are running around not knowing what's going on. Egads, I so don't want to do that. OK, maybe I have an idea. I'll work on it...

In the meantime I think we have rendered out the last of the hoverbike sequence in Clonehunter.

If you need special effects makeup you can't do a whole lot better than Brian Schiavo.

Still with spaceship

Sometimes I'm very happy with this composite from Clonehunter. That's the Venturer and Cain, Agent Durham, and Rachel. In the live plate I'm sure that's Brian's 1K blasting down on them. The model itself seems to have the wrong gamma but the compositing is pretty OK. Well, it looks better on a Mac. See how I'm backsliding?

Let's look at something else. Here are two pieces of key art for recent sci-fi pictures. I think Halcyon brilliantly added them together to create the key art for Clonehunter. It makes me think we might get domestic distribution on this one. But I don't wanna count any chickens afore they hatch.

Stop Loving Me So Much!

We got some reviews of the Japanese version of Alien Uprising. It's called "Alien Revenge" in Japan (or エイリアン・リベンジ if you prefer.)

Japanese is very difficult to translate properly. Safe to say, these reviewers absolutely loved the work and can't get enough of it!

Here's one from "La la la" (When copying text from Google translate, it seems to copy a whole bunch of both English and Japanese):

SF Alien's low-budget original video that is no shame in the work is not to revenge and revenge is not alien to the alien and not come in since.
基 本設定的には『エイリアン4』ぽいのでエイリアンのでないエイリアン4という感じですね、一応囚人惑星の囚人たちをある大企業が実験体にして囚人1人を不 死身の化け物にすることに成功しておりその彼が普通の人間の姿で顔にそれらしいマスクをかぶっただけで出来損ないのゴリラの物まねみたいな格好で襲ってく るだけの内容でした。 In the basic configuration is not Alien Alien 4 Alien 』Poi 4 because it is felt that the prisoner's body to test a large company of the planet prisoners and one prison一応able to make people immortal monster only the contents of the sweep was dressed like a poorly-made imitation of a gorilla wearing a mask only likely to face in the form of a man and his ordinary.
ちなみこれ一体だけです。 This is the only integrated Chinami.
この程度のことしかできないので大勢出すわけにはいかないのでしょう、舞台は明らかにどこかの貸倉庫という感じでした。 Can not put a lot because you can only do this around the reins, feeling that the stage was a clear field warehouse somewhere.
海兵隊員たちはヘルメットの両脇にペンライトを付けてるだけというお粗末な姿で歴戦の海兵隊員のはずなのに素人に言いように振り回されあっさり倒されたりします。 Marines will be swayed and brought down to simply say I should have been an amateur in his Marine veteran that just because they are poor on both sides of the helmet with a penlight.
CGを使う余裕は何ので70年代のSF映画のような光線や爆発合成をしております。 CG afford to use the SF 70's, so what we like and the synthesis of light and explosion of the film.
当 然俳優さんたちはへたくそばかりで吹き替えはいつもの子飼いのへたくそどもなのではっきり言って字幕でもても吹き替えで見ても目も当てられません、一番酷 いのは超低予算名ために襲ってるシーンやその後など病や仕切れないためかわざと見えにくくしており映像も最初から最後までぼやけており平気でライトの逆行 撮りをしたりとにかく詳細を見えないように撮影しており完全に逆光になってます。 Of course the actor who dubbed dub is just terrible to look at but not even seen it in a different language subtitles dub us so frankly trained from boyhood in the usual, I hit the scene for the most severe low-budget traveler sun is completely invisible and taken to the details or just taking in cold blood against the light and blurry footage from beginning to end what has been deliberately obscured so as not partition and subsequent disease and Masu.
はっきり言ってみる価値がないのでパッケージのデザインで借りないようにしてください Please design a package to借Rinai not worth it honestly

Another snarky review:

The original title is 'Alien Uprising'. 「 ターミネーター・プラネット 」のアンドリュー・ベルウェア監督によるSFアクションです。 "Planet Terminator," directed by Andrew Bell SF ware action.

連絡の途絶えた辺境の監獄惑星へ派遣された宇宙海兵隊の面々。 Surface of Space Marines were sent to prison on a frontier planet lost our contact. 囚人たちによる反乱かに思えたのだが、そこで彼らを待っていたのは異形の怪物だった…。 But you seemed to revolt by prisoners, where they had been waiting for a deformed monster ....

お話の方はこれまでの「エイリアン」シリーズをごちゃ混ぜにしたような感じ。 If this story is to "Alien" feels like a series of pell-mell. まぁお陰でこれまでのベルウェア監督作に比べると格段にストーリーが判りやすくなってました(w。これはやっと監督自身の脚本じゃなくなったというのもあるでしょう。 Temashita story is much easier to understand and work than ever thanks to Director wear Maa Bell (w. It is there that I was finally directed his own screenplay's not.

でも演出の方は全く進歩の跡無し! 相変わらず霞がかかった様なボンヤリ画面の中、誰がどこで何をやってるのかさっぱり判らない始末。 If the director is no evidence of any progress at all! Of the screen took a lazy haze like usual, refreshing Are you unsure how to dispose of anything that anyone anywhere. 会話シーンすらまともに見せられないくらいで、当然アクションシーンになると何がナンやら。 The scene even talking about not showing properly, and what will Yara Nan action scenes of course. おそらくは上手、下手の概念も判ってないんじゃないでしょうか。 Well, perhaps I do not think the concept of判Tsu not bad.

というか、根本的な問題なのが、怪物の正体は巨大企業が極秘裏に進めていた遺伝子操作実験によって誕生した生物兵器で、別にエイリアンじゃないって事! まぁ予算の都合か怪物全体の着ぐるみorCGを作れなかったようで、遠めにチラチラ、もしくは酸のよだれ(…)をダラッと垂らす顔の超どアップでしか見せられてないから余り関係無いんですけどね。 Or rather, the problem is a fundamental biological identity of the monster is born by the genetic experiments were carried out secretly the giant, another thing I'm not aliens! Wearing schedule or budget of the entire monster Maa Nor could they pull the whole orCG like, shimmering in the far Me, drool or acid (...) I'm not involved, but is only showing up about not being from the cheese and dribble Daratsu the face.

そんな感じで相変わらずの超駄作。 Still super trash like that. 良かったのは宇宙船や惑星の施設なんかをワイヤーフレームで見せてた事くらい。 The good thing is I was shown around the wire frame to something more spaceships and planets. でもこれにしたって、誰がどこで…みたいなのをちゃんと指し示してないから何の意味も無い、完全な宝の持ち腐れでした。 What was it, but who and where from did not mean anything ... not even seems like a decent point, sit on the shelf was full.

And then there are reviews from commenters "baked pudding", "genie erotic erotic great" and others:

Worth zero, is the worst picture, no story. 　レンタル代金返して欲しい！ Rental price I want it back! ！ ! こんな作品レンタルして欲しくない。 Do not want to rent this works. はっきり言ってエイリアンの名前を借りただましです。 The trick borrowed the name of the alien to be honest.

Disaster was the original manufacturer of transformers Even気Ga付Kanakatta released.
セットのチープさをごまかす為、画面を思いっきりボカす手法はこの会社が集めてくるC級映画に共通。 Cook for the cheap sets, restraint techniques Su Boca screen grabbing of the company's common to C grade movie.
また1枚無駄になりました。 The single one was wasted.

Sorry. つまらないです。 Is boring.
今までのエイリアンとはだいぶ違います。 Until now, much different and alien.
内容はありなのかもしれませんが、映画の映しかた？ Although there may be a content, reflecting the film How? 展開がものたりない・・・・・ Unsatisfactory deployment
エイリアンがよく画面で観ることができず、人ばかり映してあるので、恐ろしさが感じられなかった・・・・ Screen can not often be seen aliens, it just reflects that people did not feel the fear

Oh yeah - These guys are mass-produced culture is genetic, why are not born本元upstream from the movies a lot! 本家のエイリアンシリーズは４で今のところ終わっているが、パクリ作品が進化してむりやりプレデターとも融合し、いったい最後はどうなるのか？ Aliens of the upstream series of four so far have been done in combining work with the evolution of predator forcibly con man, the last is exactly what will happen?

Like I said -- it can be hard to translate properly. But who needs spoken language when there's this much love around? ;-)

More Than One Point

Another free, and presumably illegal, way to watch Alien Uprising.

Yawny kitten is from cuteoverload. Looks like Pushkin (as a kitten) but isn't.

This tutorial has some very sweet projection techniques in AfterEffects. More than that, it explains an effect called "Roughen Edges" which we might have a lot of use for.

Today we're uploading what we have of the hoverbike chase in Clonehunter. The reason we're doing this is that we've made some changes since we sent the hard drive to our sales rep, who's creating the trailer.

Just because, that's why.*

OK, I'll bite. Why are people having sex with dragons? Again.

Tonight Greg Bodine's play The Upper Birth was canceled due to... high winds.

High winds.

I've decided to nod knowingly and pretend that makes utter sense to me. Hopefully they'll re-mount the show soon.*

And I'm including this link to a Panasonic GH1 review just because I can.

Yes, I'm procrastinating because I don't want to work on a script.

Coming up: How Manhattan Theatresource jumped the shark.

*And because you were low on pictures of Claudia Schiffer tied up.
**Yes, it was to be played on a ship docked in the Hudson.

Track

Apparently it's proof that I'm a boy to say the following: "You know, Firefly the series was really much better than the Serenity the movie."

I like their spinning engine.

Get your special edition DVD of Hide and Creep.

Oh look -- another Alien Uprising review.

"...‘Alien Uprising’ is a better movie than both ‘Pandora Machine’ and ‘Millennium Crisis’ mainly because I was able to comprehend what was going on in this comparatively simple movie."

OK, so he doesn't mean that the good way but at least he saw our previous two movies:

"From where I’m sitting ‘Alien Uprising’ is better than it has any right to be but it is somewhat betrayed, over and over again, by its meager budget. If you can get past that you might like this movie just a little bit just like I did, but if you can’t… I not going to fault you for it."

*************

I'm trying to keep track of some characters and some dialog and other things. Nothing to see here:

Track the thigh holster

she's Omega team -- she's with omega team right? I mean, we're the only ones with androids, so if we don't know her she's gotta be Omega team

v6.22 might have a cleaner open. Look, into it.

Terran Special Forces vs Earth Alliance (until someone comes up with better names for the two groups).

Make that Alliance Airborne are the attackers and Terran Special Forces are the defenders. Track that.

MACH -- male
RAZE -- Corporal (One of the two Helen first hears) female
TENNYSON -- Private (One of the two Helen first hears)
TWENTY
THERIN
HYWEL
CARLYSLE

Sata Mina Helen and Raze are the only women (yeah -- we'll see about that.)

Alien Uprising Netflix Reviews

Since I'm not a member of Netflix (my austerity plan doesn't allow it) I hadn't seen the reviews posted by members of "Alien Uprising".

But first: apparently, someone at Netflix actually writes a capsule summary:

"When Earth loses contact with the planet that's housing its prisoners, the folks back home start to worry. Fearing an inmate revolt, a Marine crew races to the planet to gain control -- but from whom? The Marines soon learn that it's not the prisoners they need to fear but the slobbering alien that's killing them off. Now, prisoners and Marines must band together to survive in this sci-fi romp starring Rebecca Kush and Steve Deighan."

The top-rated review (by "jazza923") reads thusly:

"The special effectsThe murky and grainy cinematography give the movie a cheap and low budget look. The acting isn't bad, but the story is not particularly engrossing. The special effects lack spark. At least it has some imagination."

I'll give you that some stuff was murky. We're getting better at that. One thing that user reviews have become better at recently is recognizing the quality of the acting in our pictures (there's a very strong prejudice out there 'gainst actors who are unknown.) But I dunno -- I find the story engrossing.

The #2 review reads in part:

"Offering it up as a penance for past sins I kept watching."

Ha! Yes. And then:

"All I can say if this was NOT a Sci Fi channel movie, it should have been."

Which is, unfortunately, not a good thing... ;-)

To summarize the rest of the reviews would be something like "Not enuf bo0bies!" or some such thing. Me? I'm happy to have reviews which are analytical at all -- even if they're negative reviews.

As Far As I Know

Rumor has it that there are some Blockbusters with up to 7 copies of Alien Uprising in them. That means there sure will be a glut of them when this run is done. That's good, because they'll be cheaper used. I don't actually own a single copy yet. It doesn't matter directly to us if rentals and sales of the movie are made 'cause we took our $10K buyout for like 13 years for North America and ran. We still own broadcast TV rights though. Still, the better it does the more distributors will look at our future pictures.
**************
Inglourious Basterds is, as far as I know, an historically accurate depiction of the events leading up to the end of the second world war.

Did that movie use a different filmic style for each reel? My feeling is that's what they were going for. I can't tell you how much it cheered me when we got to the David Bowie section*. You think that's a spoiler? Ha! Just wait 'till you see it.

It's vitally important to get a good evil Nazi scumbag in a movie like this. Christophe Waltz apparently has done a little acting in his life.

I'm looking for a piece of music used in the last game of the movie The Comebacks by Christopher Lennertz. I know, I know, but I want it and can't find it. Apparently (and this will surprise you) they didn't release a soundtrack album.

*Maybe that's the DePalma section. I dunno.

Luna Love

Luna Lovegood.

Yesterday I got nothing done. I was supposed to set up my surround monitoring system so that I could begin mixing Clonehunter. I didn't.

Perhaps it's because Maduka brought me back some Läderach chocolate from Geneva.

It is simply amazing to me how many sites have streaming videos of Alien Uprising already up. So far the video quality has been terrible. I haven't got one of the divx sites to successfully download though.

Watch for Free

Oh look. It's Friday. Alien Uprising came out on Tuesday. And already there are at least a half-dozen places to watch the whole thing on line. Here's one. The compression looks so crappity than it makes one almost wonder if they don't serve as an advertisement for the DVD. Or maybe for those who hate the movie -- a detriment to anyone on the fence about renting or buying it. Here's a bunch of links from TubeZoom.

This amount of attention for this movie certainly suggests that we should be making sci-fi action pictures, not sci-fi erotic thrillers.