Sunday, November 28, 2004

Skin, four letter words and the FCC

The MNF skit that was the talk of the town two weeks ago would have kept going if only my Pacers didn't jump into the stands in Detroit and kick the crap out of the worst fans I've ever seen. But both have something in common and the hypocritcal response which is covered by the media. If the Monday Night Football skit was the lowest point in television and the Pacers-Pistons brawl was the worst thing that happened to basketball, then why did every news outlet, from local news, to CNN to ESPN, play the footage from each over and over and over. I just had to laugh at the sight of whichever American Family whatever group talking about the decline of television and our society because of this and how it has scarred their child forever as the footage is looped five or six times over them talking. It's because we love this stuff! Why was the Janet Jackson boob flash the most Tivo'd moment ever? Was it because America was so disgusted, don't be ridiculous. Whichever ABC producer was in charge of that skit, is a brilliant entertainer. They knew it would cause controversy but were careful not to actually show anything but a woman's back therefore avoid fines, but get your two shows "Desperate Housewives" and "MNF" mentioned thousands of times every hour on every channell. When will the family coalition groups learn that what anyone promoting a show or book or movie would love more than anything is to get the family coalitions to rampage against them. It's free advertising at its best.

Turkey day is over, back to work

We promised ourselves we would not fall behind on keeping the updates flowing. Well we are liars and horrible people, what can we say. We had a big weekend of filming Nov. 13th & 14th and canned some great footage. Six scenes in total over the two days, the cast and crew were working overtime, and big props to Maslonka for pulling himself out of bed with a bad case of something I hope I never get and getting through a whole day on Sunday. Trooper award goes to him. Gold star once again goes to Givani for nailing two big scenes on Saturday, one is basically a 6 page dialogue, and she was flawless. We had a great collection of supporting cast this weekend also. Denny LaDue, Kevin Pufall, Virginia Kincaid, Meg Noyes, Elizabeth Jurchens, and our good friends from ITK, Fred Kracke and Cory Lesley.

Last weekend it was a trip down to K.C. for fill shots and also an excuse to catch the Monday Night Football game at Arrowhead Stadium which was crazy. Horrible people I know, mixing work with play. And my Indiana Pacers got in a huge brawl and we lost three guys to suspension so with injuries we're down to like seven guys, but they'll keep winning, we don't need them. See I just lost everyone's attention, because your screaming "I don't care". This is why I limit my postings. Anyways...

I usually leave this board to Scotty C, because his posts are less boring, but for detailed overly technical film nerd accounts of each day, my production journals will be up on the behind the scenes page this week along with two character shorts and a bunch of other fun stuff. WE PROMISE!

Friday, November 12, 2004

What's going on in Ohio

I'm going to put down some rumors going around and maybe raise some as well. There is a ton of conspiracies circulating around the internet about Florida and Ohio vote fraud. I'm not going to fuel any, but I will put some facts out there. First the quelling, it appears Florida didn't screw up its vote too bad this year, at least not enough to think Bush didn't actually win. The conspiracy here is that 20+ Florida counties that have like 70% registered democrats but voted 70% for Bush should raise a red flag. I thought this at first too, but realized its the South and there is nothing normal about that place. Southern Democrats or dixiecrats or (insert non-intelligent deragatory word here) are old school like Zell Miller, who aren't really on the left but still share the title. You see dixicrats vote Democrat at the local levels, even though I'm guessing a local Democrat and a local Republican look and talk the same, but vote for Republicans on the national level. This has been going on for a long time, especially since the shift during the civil rights movement. So its not just in Florida, but if you look at many democrat majority counties in the South, they probably all went for Bush. Just a quick side note to Democrats, give up on the South, they are never going to vote for a Democratic President and the kind they would vote for we're not going to want in the rest of the country, trust me. Kerry was one state away from the Oval Office, and that state is nearer to Canada then the gulf, and it was Ohio.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Get Ready

I know the pundits yesterday were just suffering from extreme sleep deprivation when they spent way too much time contemplating whether this country would unite itself again now that the election is over. Let me be the first to absolutely crush anyone's hope out there with that idea. Now I only drank (heavily) yesterday, and didn't start to assess the situation until late tonight, because I soaked in the news, heard the commentators and guests and things have never been more clear. The next four years will be the scariest, violent, and devisive political environment our generation has seen. And we will be right in the middle of it all. We are the future and the issues that are now upon us need our say. Everything the left fought tooth and nail for don't just end because we lost the election, this is a democracy and our voice will continue to be heard. I heard pundits talk about how historic a victory Dubya had surpassing Reagan's record 54 million popular votes mark, giving Bush a clear mandate to build on the red states and turn the whole country bright red eliminating the loser liberals of the blue. Are we to forget the 55 million people that voted for this liberal Kerry guy, he historically passed Reagan's mark as well. President Bush's press conference was one of the most disheartening things I've watched on television. Phrases like "I've earned political capital in this election and I intend to spend it", "mandate" and the administrations new crackdown on that damn pesky free press which they limited to one question per reporter and no followups. Which the President repeatedly reminded them when several slipped up and tried to get him to clarify his statement, they were immediately punished and sent to the corner of the room. "No followups, I have the will of the people and you need to start respecting that". Also the media is getting their courage and integrity sandblasted right off their bodies by the right, it was so sad to see these reporters timidly stand up to ask their questions in shaky voices like peasants asking for bread from their king. It was downright scary, folks. If you don't believe this is exactly how it played out, watch it for yourself. I took my battling boots off yesterday because my feet hurt from the two year fight that we lost and now the powers that be are telling us they are dominately in charge and we need to just go quietly into the night. I'm lacing my boots back up as we speak.

Round 2 (beaten to the punch)

Should have known Dan would've hit this topic before I did, but here goes (and I apologize in advance for any cathartic statements, while self-indulgent, catharsis has it's place)... This post will probably land squarely on my Dem friends, but I see it as tough love. Tuesday came, we voted. Wednesday came, we lost. Four more years, yada, yada, yada (last Seinfeld reference).

What was more troubling than the result of the election (btw, voted for Kerry *feigned shock*), was the response of many Dems around the nation. "Well, we're screwed now." "I might as well move to Canada." I chalked this up to a post-election hangover, but this gloom followed people around for several days. Frankly, it's starting to annoy me. We lost (or they won, however you want to look at it), fine. This has got to be the starter's gun now. The election was round 1, not the whole chimichanga. There's still round 2 and 3 and 4 and so on. Election day was a fairly resounding loss for the Dems (not to go out on a limb there), it knocked a lot of us out of our chairs. They knocked us down, fine. Their bad. But three days later, I was still seeing segments about people crying over election results on CNN. Three days later, and there are still people lying on the mat! GET OFF THE MAT, PEOPLE!!! Three days becomes three months becomes three years... We lost and will keep losing unless we do something! The mainstream media has even brought into question the durability of the democratic party! The Liberal Media is questioning the durability of the "Liberal" Party! (There's irony in there somewhere.) The party has no leadership, the party is in disarray.

The party is getting out politicked. I read something a while back, I'd like to think it was Fineman in Newsweek, I'd cite it if I could remember. It was something about how the majority of people agree with positions held by the democratic party, but the republican party did a much better job at convincing people they had the better candidate. The gist was this, Dems sit back and hope their issues will win elections. Voter don't pick issues, they pick people. My first pass at this post got erased (Blogger *shakes fist*), so I'm losing the fire of my first pass, which I will add was the greatest blog entry ever written. Think of this as a tribute. Bottom line: Bush won, so what.

Senate is still "cloture-proof" (no 60 member majority), so extreme appointments (Supreme Court and other wise), will get some resistance. Resistance assuming dem senators do their duty and protect the thoughts and ideas of the minority party. I urge you, if your state has a dem senator to remind him/her of this duty. Nebraska has one (paradoxically), so I may have to drop Senator Ben a line. I urge you to do the same.

While President Bush received the most votes since Reagan, it was also the closest race won by an incumbant since Woodrow Wilson. Hardly a mandate, despite what any one says. (I guess if you compare it to how close Bush's first "victory" was, it is a mandate. //michael moore)

A lot of young people got involved in the election and politics in general over the past couple years. This isn't the end of your career! You got a taste now go back for seconds! Hell, run for school board, or city council, or state legislature. Some of the most important issues are decided on the most local of levels.

The majority of people think the country is going in the wrong direction. The majority of the people think the president did not do a good job in his first term. There's wiggle room there, folks. We need to keep wiggling.

I'm out. sc.

-originally posted by "scotty c"

Another recollection of another weekend of shooting...

Set the way back machine for the weekend of October 22-24. Here are my impressions of how the shooting went.

Oct. 22, 2004
location- Iske Cabin in Cedar Creek, NE

This was the night that we shot a huge party scene for episode 1. We did a great job of getting extras as we actually shot a party with more than 4 extras!!! (grand total was around 15 or 20, huge thanks to our friends who helped out that night) The first part of the evening was spent on a dialogue scene between Givani, Branden, and Joe Boro (an SEP virgin until that night, oh what a night). The rest of the night was spent doing our Scorsese Goodfellas homage with a 2 minute "steadicam" shot (James held the camera with two hands) of a party. We got several takes and think we nailed it. After the one-shot, we shot another scene with Joe and Branden at the end of the night. I don't know which take will be used, but listen closely for snorting laughter off screen (that was me). Funny stuff, folks, that's all I'll say.


Oct. 23, 2004
location: various outside locations

A lot of walking shots were filmed today. First a shout-out to Jeremy who came up all the way from Lincoln for a quick scene with Lara and Martin. You rock, dude. Totally knocked it out of the park. Next we shot a scene with Givani and Martin, where Deana and Tate catch up after Tate's sudden reappearance in Deana's life. There may have been more scenes there, but the way-back machine is foggy... The last scene of the day was the opening of ep3 where the core 6 are walking (of course) outside (of course x2) across the overpass of a busy street. What I have seen looks good. I would also like to thank the traffic on Dodge Street for honking while we were shooting. Not only did it add realism, but it also annoyed the eff out of us. Thank you.



Oct. 24, 2004
location: Downtown (the bar). Lincoln, NE.

Sunday night was a trip back to Lincoln to shoot at the Downtown (my new favorite bar). There were scenes from ep 2 and 3 shot that night. We had a scene with Givani and Bill Wassem which was just spectacular, both actors just ate up the scene. Next was a scene between Givani and Ehren Parks (playing "The Munson," perhaps my favorite ever side character), more comedy gold. The night was ended with a shot of our heroes getting startling news that will change the future of EvansAmerica forever. OK, maybe not, but a little hype never hurt anything. A shout-out to the owners and employees of the Downtown for making this day rock extra hard. There was not a hitch anywhere and the shooting went smoothly and the footage was terrific. You guys rock.

With that I'm running out of fuel in the way-back machine. Coming up, we're looking to finish principal photography on episode 1 and begin post, with wrapping eps 2 and 3 shortly after that.

56 days until the revolution is real... be ready.

sc.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Enough is enough

It's over, all over, fair and square this time, John Kerry and the Democrats got their asses handed to them on the well shined FU Republican platter yet again. Its not the Presidential race that really has me sleepless, its the congress and senate. Democrats are not only losing seats but their being replaced by radical right wing candidates like James Coburn of Oklahoma and Jim Demint of South Carolina who said that gays and lesbians should be barred from teaching in our schools, and when asked if he meant that said "of course, but I forgot to include unwed pregnant women too, they should be barred also". Are you kidding me, this is 2004, how does someone get away with openly and proudly saying something like this? Before I continue, I should clarify to those surfing through that my views are my own and do not reflect the nature of our cast, crew and show which is a serious and I think as you'll see rather even look at changing the political system and process as a whole. That said, let's have a little heated exchange fun on this board to keep things interesting. Sound good? Let's rock. The old circle of the Democratic party is through, I'm talking about the advisers, consultants, advisers and especially you Terry McAuliffe, you are worthless, you make my head hurt and I'm on your side. Change is needed. What is going wrong and where does the party go: 1. For god sakes stand for something with full passion. Your losing anyways, you might as well go down in flames with some dignity. 2. There's one way to fight, straight on. The democrats have been ducking and jiving yet still end up getting TKO'd with a lucky hook by the right. They need to stand toe to toe, go right at the issues Republicans are strongest on and want to talk about. That's right I'm crazy. We take the punches, fall back against the ropes like Ali, absorb what they have and then get ready to pounce. I'm talking gay marriage, gun control, god, taxes, deficits and military. Define that "moral values" isn't a monopoly for only one side. You don't like abortions, then how bout we let these nice same sex couples have legal rights and be able to adopt and provide good home alternatives. You want help keeping violent video games out of your home, we want to keep REAL guns out of your home and schools. You want to keep crime down, how about more after school programs and better daycare help, from yes the government to help keep kids off the wrong path early. "But Dan, parents should raise kids, not the government". Well how about we give these parents some god damn help then, both parents working two jobs because minimum wage is too low, doesn't leave a whole lot of quality time with the little ones. Not everyone is blessed with the well to do life you might have.

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