EvansAmerica

New EA review on Film Threat

2005-11-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

I saw yesterday we were getting hits from filmthreat.com and checked it out to see a front page review of our show on there "online" section. We had sent the first webisode to them way back in January, but now is better than never. I wish the reviewer would have reviewed the show based on all the episodes and not just from the first because I think alot of his concerns were the same we were getting from other people which we corrected in the later episodes. But, oh well, it's not the most flattering review, but these types of reviews are the most constructive and help us make the show better. Scotty and I think it's a pretty big deal to get reviewed by Film Threat and so we're glad we got anything at all.

Here's the link to the review.

Update

2005-09-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, EvansAmerica is still alive, the cast and crew have just been busy as we get ready to finish up the season with the last two episodes. They will both launch this year followed by the release of the DVD box set of the first season which will include all seven webisodes, all six character shorts, two trailers, a blooper reel, behind the scenes interviews and documentaries and cast and crew commentaries for five of the webisodes. A five disk set in all, and will make for a great Christmas present to yourself don't you think?

Stay tuned.

Webisode #5 Now Available To Download

2005-08-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

It's up early as promised folks.

Click here to go to the download page.

The file is a little bigger than the others since the webisode clocked in at 49 minutes so expect it to take about 15-20 minutes to download.

Enjoy.

Webisode #5 Launches In One Week!

2005-08-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

The first season of EvansAmerica will finally continue next Friday, August 26th with the launch of an all new webisode. We're going to put the show up on the site a little earlier than usual, so by mid-afternoon it should be available to download.

To watch the BRAND NEW trailer for EvansAmerica, right click and "save target as" here, to download to your computer.

Webisode #5 "Class Warfare"
synopsis:
When the mayor of Kansas City announces he will unveil his new "poverty reforms" on a local nightly newcast, the group plans to disrupt his gameplan because they feel his proposals are disingenuous. During a weekend getaway put together by Dr. Vallone, they reveal to him the extracurricular activities the group partakes in, much to his surprise. He agrees to help however, and their complicated plan is put in motion, which involves Dee Dee seducing the mayor's son. Tate is none to happy about the arrangement and takes out his anger and jealousy on Deana. Meanwhile in New York, Nikki arrives home for a short visit with her parents only to realize she has really parted ways in her views she used to share with them and that she doesn't seem to fit in anymore.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2005

2005-08-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

To view the complete photo gallery click here.

Director's Journal:
Our last official production day on webisode #5. We still have a few insert shots to get, but those are always the easy stuff. We ventured out to Ginger Cove lake, about 10 miles outside Omaha to my Uncle's lake house. The location is great and his house is sweet, so I had been waiting to call in that favor and shoot there for a long time now. We had three scenes to shoot totaling 8 1/2 pages. And about six hours to do it in, no pressure, right? Luckily I had the veteran crew trio with me, James, Wendy and Tyson so we moved fluently in between setups. James rode with Chelsie on the way to the location with the camera and got our car shots we needed which saved us time. Our first scene was a pretty simple two page scene and we got through that quickly and moved to our big 4 page scene out on the deck. Great shots overlooking the lake, and the audio wasn't too bad as the boats were sporadic. It was a tough dialogue scene so we needed alot of rehearsal but Chelsie and Janell did a great job once we were rolling. We moved back inside for the last scene of the night and it took us a bit to get the lighting down in the kitchen. Beau had a lot of different little lights in the background which played well in the shots. The funniest story of the night was that Chelsie was getting voicemails from this guy she didn't know, so during a break, she called the guy back who was talking to her like he knew her, but she had no idea who he was or how he got her number. She finally told him to please stop calling, I know all of this because she had turned the speaker phone on so we could all hear, but when she hung up, she didn't actually hang up and we proceeded to make fun of the guy with the phone right there on the counter. I then mocked the anonymous guy when he asked "what are you doing", then in my best Chelsie voice, "oh just on set filming....and it's hot". When all of a sudden, the guy's voice broke through our laughter..."hello?" her phone was speaking! Oh shit, it's still on, he's been hearing everything we've been saying. Needless to say he probably won't be calling again or he will be calling even more because he's joined our neighbors in thinking we're making porn.

Behind the Scenes Video:

(Quicktime is needed to view movies, click here to download free version if you don't have it)

*Filming at Ginger Cove.

CNN making good on their promise

2005-08-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

Well CNN hasn't completely given up on sensational non-news stories like Natalee Holloway and the missing cruise guy, but after the Michael Jackson circus, CNN prez Johnathan Klein made an executive decision that his network would go back to actually doing hard hitting news and in depth journalism regardless of the ratings. We'll see how long it lasts, but I have to say he is actually following through on his pledge. Their coverage in general has been focused on politics, the shuttle mission and other worthy news. Anderson Cooper has really been the one to step up to the plate, he is in the country of Niger filing reports and spending his whole show devoted to what is happening in that country like it is in many other African countries.

Unlike Greta Van Sustren on FoxNews who is supposed to be the one liberal on that network has spent the last 50+ shows, all 60 minutes of each night in Aruba covering the Holloway story. Every second is devoted to this one unfortunate incident. Two to three babies were dying right during Cooper's segments before he could even finish the story. Dying from something that actually CAN be prevented given the resources. Nothing can be done for Holloway, she's dead, and I hope that Vandersloot kid gets life in jail, but come on, nothing has really developed in that story for weeks. It just goes to show that Fox doesn't really give a shit about anything but ratings, I hear Sean Hannity bitch and bitch about Iraq and how the war was worth is because we needed to help the people, and the mass graves. Hey Sean, there's lots and lots of mass graves in Africa, how about we go after that terrible figure, he's not Saddam, he's hunger and aids. Let's get fired up, wave that American flag and kick its ass, whatcha say Sean. Oh that's right, you don't give a shit, you really don't care about the people of Iraq, you just don't want the liberals to be right that the war was based on WMD lies. This is why I can't stand people that are such hypocrites like Hannity and others. If they truly did care they'd spend a segment talking about it, just one show about what people can do for those suffering in Africa. If Iraq is worth all these lives and money, surely other countries are as well.

So watch CNN, go to cnn.com for your news and read about what's going on in Africa. And most importantly visit a humanitarian site and pledge some money, it's money well spent, just a little bit even helps. I know this is sappy, but whatever, I don't care, it's too important, just please do it. UNICEF and CARE are very good organizations where you can trust your money will make a difference. Thank you.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Sunday, July 31, 2005

2005-08-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Director's Journal:
Today we were at the club "Shag" to film some bar scenes from the fifth webisode. I had never been there, Parks had scouted and negotiated the location, but I was very impressed, it's quite different and very colorful. Kind of a half vintage half upscale dance club mix that was quite unique. We picked the couch area I want to use as our main setup and off we went setting up the dolly and lights. Being in a bar setting, I was able to use some funky colors through combinations of gels, and we lit up the glass bar rack behind the action as well which looked very cool. It was an old school today as well as Melanie Connealy (formerly Gillis) from that old blockbuster "The Dean's Boys" made her debut in our show today. And it was fun to work with her again, probably quite a difference from the last time we worked together when she had to fake vomit to death and be carried around pretending to be dead being dropped and stuffed into closets. Newcomer Jeremy Holan also had his first day today and did just an excellent job as the Mayor's son who is the antagonist in this episode. Lara, Mel and Jeremy all worked together very well and scenes came off just as I wanted them too. I also was able to pull off my stylish little slo mo intro for the girls as well even though that needed the most rehearsal to get the dolly timing and their walking speed synced up. We wrapped, tore down and loaded up and as I was getting into the van to drive home, it was exactly 3:00pm which was our scheduled wrapped time. I'm going to say it again folks, it's getting scary how on the dot we're hitting our wrap times. I will say this, the whole cast and crew scheduled for today all arrived within 10 minutes of the 11:00am call time, I think that's a first. So gold stars for all.

More BTS photos found

2005-07-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Found a few more behind the scenes photos from our last shoot on Sunday. We will be on location filming this Sunday and Tuesday, after that Webisode #5 will be wrapped and we will head into the editing room for post-production. We will be launching the webisode Friday night, August 26th so mark the date on your calendar.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Sunday, July 17, 2005

2005-07-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

For the day's complete photo gallery, click here.

Behind the scenes videos:
(Quicktime is needed to view movies, click here to download free version if you don't have it)

*First shot of the day.

*Setting up the last scene of the weekend.

*Martin wrapped.

Director's Journal:
The final day of the crazy three day lake house weekend, where we were to complete the rest of our scenes at this location, 22 pages all together. That's pretty damn impressive if you ask me. We were a little late getting the first shot off, but once we finally did we were off and running until we wrapped a little after 10pm just as a thunderstorm rolled through. It was close, we were constantly barely getting shots in under the wire all day, it was chaotic, but God was on our side even if the dumbass people in Cedar Creek were not. Clouds rolled in about mid-afternoon for the first time in weeks, which was fine as we shot the first half of a scene outside, but then we had to wait for Lara to complete her transformation into whore-DeeDee. Not her fault, but the clouds appeared to be on their way out and I had to keep yelling inside that our scene was about to be effed, since it was the second half of the scene and it had to match what we had already shot. And Branden has already wrapped and went home so we could not reshoot the first part. Shit. We hurried Lara outside and shot two takes before the sun came out, but there appeared we were going to be saved by a few straggler in the distance. This gave us time to calm down and rehearse more and be ready to go when the sun went behind the clouds again and we were able to get a few more really good takes in before mr. sun came back out. Next was a rooftop sunrise scene being faked at sunset. We caught a wide sillouette shot right at the perfect moment, the sun literally set on screen during the shot. We had to pull out the 1ks after that to fake sunlight to get our closeups. We finished the day with a night scene I was looking forward too where Deana is sitting on the dock sipping a drink and is confronted by Tate and they have a heated conversation. Martin and Givani were just rock solid, I mean really good stuff. They only got one closeup each because of the approaching storm. The wind started to pick up as I jumped in the paddle boat with Tyson again and boated out a bit for our wide. Lightening was blasting in the sky in the distance and the wind was rocking the boat as they finished the take, we called a wrap and scramble to tear the lights down and get inside and loaded up just as the rain started. Literally as I turned the keys on head back to Omaha. Like, I said, that was close. Big props to the entire cast and crew that worked their ass off, dailies look just incredible and if the second half of the scenes go just as well, this will be by far a stellar webisode.

Lara Adkin's Cast Diary (Dee Dee):
Martin and I were supposed to meet at 11:30am in Omaha and drive out the cabin together, since everyone else was already out there and Martin wasn't sure of the way. However, in retrospect, it probably wasn't Director Dan's brightest idea to have the two people who are ALWAYS late drive together. Since at 11:35 I was just pulling out of my driveway, and when I called Martin to let him know I'd be late, he said he, too, had just left. So we got to the cabin at about 12:30 instead of noon like we were supposed too. But everyone did a great job and everything seemed to be going well, until it was time to shoot my whored-out scene. Apparently I took too long to get ready and Director Dan was getting quite testy. And then when I finally WAS ready I kept flubbing my lines or delivering them so badly that Dan felt the need to do a ten-minute one-on-one with me (note to self: do not be surprised if Dee is written out of the show soon). And then a car would stop and ask for directions. And then an airboat would scream by. And then scream by again two minutes later. And then it would be quiet and we'd start to shoot and the airboat would drive by again. But against all odds, we got it done. Barely. On the plus side, though, I had expected to be out there until 11pm, and I got done just after 9! Yay Dan!

BEHIND THE SCENES: Saturday, July 16, 2005

2005-07-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

For the day's complete photo gallery, click here.

Director's Journal:
Our first call wasn't until 5pm so everyone was able to catch up on sleep after the late night of filming. Our first scene was one half of a phone conversation with Bill Wassem who plays George Vallone. I crammed myself into the passenger seat backwards and Givani sat in the backseat and fed Bill her lines for him to play off of. We drove around town for about 1/2 hour shooting his dialogue before returning to base where I unkinked my body from that awful position. By that time the rest of the crew had arrived for their call time and we saddled up and headed back out to our lake house location on the river. We arrived about 7pm, just in time for the start of magic hour sunlight and squeezed in the other half of the phone conversation with Givani by the river as she talks on a headset. The light was perfect and in her closeup the river and sunset are framed perfectly in her sunglasses. While that was going on, Parks, JB and Tyson were setting up the dolly and lights in the back of the lake house where we were to shoot a good dialogue scene with Vallone and Paul as they smoked cigars. The spot was out of the sunlight so we had to fake the light with our 1ks and I must say we're getting really good at that. It was a scene I was looking forward to and Branden and Bill really nailed it. We ended the night before we lost all available light with another quick phone conversation with Givani. We improvised a water dolly out of a paddle boat as I rode with Tyson out onto the lake to get some cool shots with Givani talking on the dock as we slowly moved in on her. We finished just in time as our light ran out and wrapped rather early and kicked back with some cold ones and watch dailies.

Behind the scenes videos:
(Quicktime is needed to view movies, click here to download free version if you don't have it)

*Getting ready for Bill and Branden's scene.

*JB marking the dock scene.

*The water dolly in action.

*Steady as she goes.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Friday, July 15, 2005

2005-07-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

As promised.

Complete behind the scenes photo gallery click here.

Behind the scenes videos:
(Quicktime is needed to view movies, click here to download free version if you don't have it)

*Cast and crew loading up to head to the location.

*Bill and Givani running lines on the way to the set.

*Lara arriving on set.

*Sneak peek on set.

*Wrapped.

Director's Journal: Back to the ole grind here at EvansAmerica, after a 10 week break, we've hit the ground running with the resumption of production on webisode #5. Cast and crew met at my place about 6pm and loaded up into vehicles to make the trek out to the lake house location on the Platte River. A very hot night as the cast sat out back running lines as we worked for about two hours on our lighting setup inside. Which proved to be difficult because the sun was still up so we had to use some guess work in how it was going to look as we set the lights in place. We took our time, used all six of our lights, using up both light kits and we even lit some plants in the background with existing lamps. The setup turned out very good indeed, I was very pleased. About 9pm it was getting dark enough to start tweaking our colors and levels and we brought the cast in and went over blocking. After two run throughs we were ready to start rolling film and off we went. The cast was very solid, and didn't miss a beat, they seemed unaffected from the hiatus and got right back into their characters. We shot an impressive 7.5 pages of the script and wrapped about 1am, which was right on time. It took us about 45 minutes to tear down and about 2am we were loaded up and heading back to Omaha. A great start back, I don't think it could have gone any better.

Branden Maslonka's Cast Diary (Paul):
Ah yes, starting with the shooting again. It feels good to get back, and I think we all need to knock some rust off ourselves. It was nice having Bill on set for the first shoot because he really does bring an air of distinguished to the set. Everyone gets pumped when he's on set because we pretty much know that we are in for a money scene. Of course Bill was flawless (as usual) and the rest of us got into a groove after a while. The lighting for the scene was flawless, I honestly think it is one of Dan's bestest lighting jobs that I have seen. They did a really good job of recreating a sunset coming through the window. On another note it seems as though we are getting more and more hits on the website everyday, this is very exciting to me because that means that more and more girls are seeing my pretty pretty face. Seriously though, it is awesome that more people are seeing and being exposed to the message that we are trying to portray. So to all of you that read this I say thank you for supporting us, and continue to check the website for new episodes and behind the scene footage. If you have something to say, let your voice be heard on the blogs, nothing is out-of-bounds. We live in America right? You can supposedly say what you want in this great country without any consequences (we all know this is not true), but I promise that it is true on this website. Don't suppress your mind and opinions, let them be heard. Peace.

Production resumes

2005-07-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

At 6pm Friday night, production will resume on EvansAmerica and I think everyone on the cast and crew has enjoyed their break but is also excited about getting back to the webisodes. We will be filming scenes from webisode #5 and will continue with production through September when we will wrap up the season finale.

Like I said before, we are actually going to have a plethora of behind the scenes media for you to enjoy and follow along with our production. Photo galleries, cast diaries, production journals and our new video diaries. Check back on this blog Saturday afternoon for Friday's behind the scenes update and the following days likewise for Saturday and Sunday productions.

Going, going gone

2005-07-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

This could be my last chance to ever link this site in a timely way. Sheer brilliance.

And as much as I'd love to countdown the days to the Karl Rove farewell tour (re: What ever place they throw people found guilty of treason), I don't think that's on the immediate horizon.

Why, you ask? Because Karl Rove is an evil genius. Evil isn't quite the word I'm looking for, but it's the equivalent of Inspector Gadget finally breaking into the evil lair of Dr. Claw and finding the dummy hand connected to a bomb.

The guy won't get punished. There is no accountability in this administration. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he was G-dub's pick to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. That is the pattern, right? Some act of gross incompetence then a promotion? Granted, after playing Svengali to the President of the United States, Supreme Court justice is actually a demotion.

This is sounding a lot more venomous than I'm intending. I have to be clear. Karl Rove is a facinating character to me. Here's a guy, that doesn't really do anything except be a total dick, but still leave himself enough wiggle room to not have anything stick to him. He's like Lex Luthor. I'm not saying that anyone on the other side of the aisle is even Jimmy Olsen at this point, but Rovey is, in my mind, a super villian.

Don't get me wrong, I totally think harsh punishment is in line. I'm just not holding my breath while the powers that be are the powers that be. Whatever, it's still two-weeks off-message, which is two weeks closer to Lame Duck.
sc.

Bombing innocent people is so two years ago

2005-07-07T22:04:00.000-07:00

So those crazy bastards are at it again, bombing London this time. Good thing we have been fighting that two year war in Iraq over there so they we don't have to over here in our cities...oh wait...oops. I just have one question for the Islamic exremists, what is your end game? I mean WTF, you effing jerkfaces. You can blow people up, we get it.

But America went ahead and elected Bush because Kerry wouldn't know what to do in the aftermath of another terrorist attack, so what now? Do we just pick another random country to invade?

Two things really pissed me off today, first off the people who did this, you assholes, but I mean it's London, those people are tough as shit and have been through worse than this. The second and I don't usually do this, but the panel on Fox News 'Special Report with Brit Hume'. Their "fair and balanced" panelists were really struggling to hide their glee, it was sickening. They went on and on about how this attack was going to boost Bush's poll numbers and bring the public back around on Iraq and push the Patriot Act through and put an end to the nonsense of cracking down on global warming and combating aids, debt and poverty in Africa that was top on the agenda at the G8 Summit. Yes, good thing with one terrorist attack we quickly drop all the progress we had planned for the world. That's not letting the terrorists win at all.

On the horizon: Webisode #5

2005-07-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

Our six week hiatus from the show will come to and end on Tuesday after we enjoy blowing the shit out of stuff this Fourth of July weekend. That's right, the script is finished and we will start going through clean ups as part of our pre-production phase that begins churning once again. Casting, location scouting and storyboarding goes full steam ahead as we have a July 15th d-day date set for filming to start. We are going to have several new features for the website for people to follow along with production and this will be your spot to check in for behind the scenes photos, journals and our new video diaries, candid video on set with the cast and crew. The webisode has a late August/early September launch date planned, but of course we won't know specifics until that gets a lot closer. So have a safe holiday weekend and we'll see you on the flip side.

Join our Mailing List

2005-06-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

Did you know there's a great way to never miss current news about EvansAmerica.

Join our mailing list. What a concept.

Simply send an email to evansamerica@hotmail.com with the words "mailing list" in the subject line. That's it, and you'll be connected to the pipeline of knowledge.

Apparently gays need not apply

2005-06-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

Because America is the land of opportunity where matters of color, creed, and the like should not keep you from pursuing the so-called American dream, I was shocked and appalled when M to the DI told me about this.

The Texas House of Representatives passed a bill on to their Senate that bars homosexuals from having foster children. But... Oh wait, one more thing. Upon filling out a questionaire and going through all the rigamarole, Texas Child Sevices can still investigate the validity of your answers. If it turns out you did lie, about your private relationships they will take the child away.

So wait. Which country are we living in again?

-originally posted by "Scotty C"

New message board and stuff

2005-06-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to make it more hospitable for feedback we have launched our new message board:

Go here.

We are going to revamp the site hopefully by tomorrow to add the link to the main page and we will also be getting rid of the issues blog by combining it with the EA production blog under a new title. The online store link will also be on the "Suppurt the show" page. So stay tuned.

Maybe some communication would be in order

2005-06-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

So Veep Cheney last week in response to a question about the public's growing discontent with the Iraq war wanted to assure America that this whole mess was almost over, "the insurgency is in its last throes", he proclaimed. Whew, I mean I was really worried things were stalled, but if Cheney says not to worry then I can sleep better tonight. Wait...what's that, the top military Commanders were in front of Congress today to give their take. Read here. They say not only is the insurgency still strong but that and I'm quoting "their strength remains undiminished and there are actually more foreign fighters coming into Iraq today then there were six months ago". So I'm confused now, are the White House and the Commanders in Iraq not communitcating, we do have phones and radios and the internet and technology like that right? They have to be talking right? I mean how are those two statements so contradictory, Cheney wouldn't just pull something out of his ass based on no facts like "the insurgency is in its last throes" just to quiet the rumble would he? I'll let you be the judge of that. Top military officials have not been very quiet about contradicting the Vice President's statements either. Are we seeing a rift between the White House and the military? Are our commanders getting tired of the rosey optimism back here in the states when what they really need is more money, more troops, more actual success, not the make believe kind.

Here come the feds for the weed

2005-06-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

You knew this was next after the Supreme Court ruled two weeks ago that federal law overrules state law when it comes to medical marijuana provisions. Read here. The Bush Justice Department has been fighting for this in the courts since they took office back in 2001. Once again, the White House thinking it knows better than doctors who prescribe marijuana to patients who have chronic pain. I mean there's a whole argument on aren't all drugs addicting, don't we all have vices? Caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, viagra, or whatever else over and under the counter drugs the pharmaceutical industry kicks out. Don't we all fall back on some drug to help us relax, take the edge off, whatever the case and aren't they all a little addicting. Granted each has differences in long term side effects, but as we've seen with cigarettes, if the public knows the dangers then it's okay. I say this as the White House decided last week to settle a suit with Phillip Morris for way, way less than originally proposed. So we know it's not the White House looking out for the well being of its citizens. But, as we all know, this has nothing to do with medical treatment. The administration has seen the groups who want the total legalization of the natural herb being spearheaded on the successfully medicinal purpose push across the states, and where in 10 states the measure had passed and become law. So what is the purpose? Is it Corporate America not wanting a lethargic work force, they need the blue collar working class to be fully productive so the white collar class has more money to buy...oh I don't know, weed. I really don't know what the reasoning is, that's just my guess. I mean they don't believe in scientists and doctors so the reasoning can't be based on medical facts. Anyways, for all those patients who use medical marijuana to help with the chronic pains of cancer, hope you enjoy prison. Because the DEA has your files from doctors who prescribed it. Of course in court, it might be tricky convicting people who one day were smoking legally under state law, and the next their in handcuffs because of a change of rules. Might get sticky.

CNN...to do real news....what!?!?!

2005-06-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

This is an unbelievable story about CNN Prez Jonathan Klein saying now that Jacko's trial is over they are going to stop trying to compete with Fox by focusing on sensational stories i.e. Jacko trial, Martha Stewart trial, Robert Blake trial, Scott Peterson trial, Runaway bride, Afternoon police car chases, etc... and actually focus on hard hitting in depth journalism. Can you believe it? Finally! Of course what does it say about where we are at as a country today where we have to applaud a news network for doing....NEWS. Also Klein talks about scrapping Crossfire and Inside Politics which were just shows for surrogates to come on and spew their talking points. And mixing up their morning shows which played like local news rather than frickin CNN. I think CNN finally realized their audience isn't Fox's audience, their audience is educated and wanted news. I don't know how many emails I sent CNN asking them to spend more than 30 seconds covering an important news story. Apparently others did too and they finally listened. It is a must read story, of course I found this on MSNBC in the Newsweek section. Very strange. Read here.

EA story in the City Weekly

2005-06-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

The Omaha City Weekly has a very sweet write up about our show in its new issue. A nice, big two page spread with lots of pics and everything. It's by far the best article written about the show yet, and probably about any of my films ever. Scotty and I have a lot to live up to now because the story really makes the show seem really good. Big thanks to Mike Krainak at the Weekly, he's a very thorough and solid writer and he did a great job. He worked in an Emerson quote for the love of God, and did it beautifully.

Anyways, pick up a copy and enjoy!

EvansAmerica Season 1 Volume 1 DVD now available

2005-06-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

Our store is now up and for those of you wanting to help support the show or just get your hands on a uncompressed version of EvansAmerica may do so. Just go here. The volume 1 DVD has the umcompressed high quality version of the pilot webisode, series trailer and all six character shorts. There is also a cast and crew commentary track for the pilot, 5 behind the scenes videos, recommended reading and hidden videos. A must have for your DVD collection or just because you're nice and want to help the show out. All proceeds will either go to my drinking habit or into the budget of future webisodes, I haven't made up my mind yet. Either way, don't let that stop you from ordering now. We should have other merchandise up next week too. God why does this feel like a sellout post?

Webisode #4 now available to download

2005-05-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

The mass downloading may begin, just go here. Remember to right click and "save target as" to download to your desktop or other folder. Thanks to everyone who made it out to the launch, the episodes went over real well I thought, and for those of you who didn't show up, I hate you.

Writing on the last half of the season is continuing at a feverish pitch, and it looks like production will resume the last weekend of June, where we are going to test a new feature on the site, video journals. Candid behind the scenes footage and interviews of each day that will hopefully be up on the site a day or two after the actual filming day. We're going to try at least.

Thanks again for all your support, hope you enjoy webisode #4.

Apparently President Eisenhower Was Psychic

2005-05-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

This is awesome. Just plain awesome, no other words for it. In 1954, President Eisenhower wrote a letter to his brother. Following is an excerpt from that letter, word for word: Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid. Wow. Good thing we don't know any Texas oil millionaires who want to abolish social security...Apparently they would be stupid. Oh...wait... Shoot. (You can read more about it here.)

-originally posted by "Lara"

Webisode #4 Launches next friday night, MAY 27th.

2005-05-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

The fourth webisode of EvansAmerica will launch next friday night, May 27th and will be available for download starting at 7pm CST.

For those in the Omaha area, you are invited to a special Launch Party at MJ Java in the Old Market (13th & Farnam) on the same night, Friday May 27th. We will be having a special encore screening of the third webisode at 8pm, followed by the debut launch showing of Webisode #4 at 9pm.

Webisode #4 - "We're Here With The Protest" synopsis:
When "Free Traders For Peace With Asia" roll into town to hold their initial rally and seminar, the EvansAmerica crew plan to greet them with a raucus protest. However their protest runs into major roadblocks and the group is forced to improvise. Deana finds out just who Dr. George Vallone really is and confronts him about his silence on his past. Nikki struggles to complete a long and complicated book in under 48 hours to impress Paul. Haley struggles with her role in the group and with her boyfriend, Chris. And Tate makes Dee Dee pretend to be his girlfriend to fend off a crazed fan.

We're number one!

2005-05-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Omaha is number one! ....if you are an STD, that is. Numbers out this week show that Douglas County* has a 64% greater incidence of chlamydia than the national average, and a 94% greater incidence of gonorrhea. Why would that be? Omaha is a god-fearing, conservative red town (except for the heretics like us). No one has sex here, do they? At least not that they talk about, anyway. But wait! Could that be part of the problem? No one will talk about it, no one will teach about it in the schools...maybe if we weren't so focused on gay marriage and Nebraska football (Go Huskers!), we could educate our children on safe sex. * For those of you not familiar with Nebraska political geography (And why wouldn't you be? It's fascinating stuff!) Douglas County is the most populated county in Nebraska and home of our largest city.

-originally posted by "Lara"

Good for the judicial system

2005-05-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

Call it judiciary activism, at least there is one branch of government not taking its orders from the religious right. At least there's one branch of government that bases its judgements on legal fairness and not ideology. At least there's one branch of government who is looking out for all citizens, not just the few. A federal Judge strikes down Nebraska's ridiculous gay marriage ban known as 416. Now some of us voted against the amendment back in 2000 because well it was riddled with legal problems and because we choose not to hate people because they are different. So yay for Nebraska, well actually no cheers for us, because our state voted for it in the first place, but yay for judges. Too bad after next week's attempt to outlaw the filibuster in the Senate on judicial nominations our road to theocracy may be complete.

Liberalism

2005-05-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

As a rule, I generally try to stay away from Liberal blogs (used as a blanket term to represent the flame throwing left-handed internet screamers). I see as much value in these as I do in Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity, and Coulter. But this caught my eye. I read Alterman a lot more during the election, back when I was desparate for any sign that the President would lose the election, but I really haven't been back in a while.

It's a pretty good discussion. What does it mean to be a liberal thinker? What do liberals believe? If this were a message board I would say "discuss." But as this is a low-traffic blog, I will simply say "talk amongst yourselves," just so I'm not embarassed when my discussion thread falls flat.

laters, sc.

EDIT: Fixed the link. That must be why no one's talking... Really.

-originally posted by "Scotty C"

Last on the band wagon

2005-05-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

Most of you internet saavy out there have probably already seen this clip. But if you missed it, Omaha local Bright Eyes played Leno last week. I didn't watch, but I was surprised to hear he played the tune "When the President talks to God." I have a clip here. (Thanks to the Meat-Eating Leftist for the link.)

Crowd responded pretty well. I first heard this song a just after the election last year. It's a so-so song, but a good Bush-bashing always feels right.

So for your viewing pleasure... click the link above I guess. sc.

-originally posted by "Scotty C"

Director's Journal - May 1st, 2005

2005-05-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

Director's Journal - Sunday, May 1st, 2005

Our last day of production on Webisode 4! You bet your sweet ass we rock n' rolled on getting this webisode in the can. I'm very proud of the crew for this amazing accomplishment, we seem to really be gelling on set, and it especially showed through today, another 5-man crew day happened to be a large part of it, but things are looking good for where we'll be for production this summer on the 2nd half of the season. Scotty pretty much covered everything on his post below. Jackie Walker who guest starred on this episode did a great job and I think we captured alot of good stuff. It feels really good to be done with half of the first season, pretty much sums up my feelings right there. Thanks for the support from everyone out there in cyber-land for downloading the webisodes, I don't know who you are, but thank you. I hope this is just the beginning. Webisode #4 is set to launch Friday night, May 27th!

Director's Journal - April 24th, 2005

2005-05-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

With the wrap of production of Webisode 4, whatcha say we do some of these ole' production journals eh?

Director's Journal - Sunday, April 24th, 2005:

Day 2 of filming this fine weekend, sun out and indeed beautiful weather again. It was a rather light day on the production calendar. We started by welcoming back Ann and Ja'le back to the set after a long hiatus. They play Haley and Chris and hadn't shot together since September when we filmed all three of their scenes from the pilot during our first production week. Nevertheless we scraped off the rust and knocked out their three scenes. Got away with lighting with just the lowel kit, which was nice. And made Ann only force down a little bit of soggy cereal, we're on a tight budget people, we can't keep replacing the cereal in between takes, come on! We ended the day with an evening shoot with everybody's favorite, Mr. Bill Wassem who plays Dr. George Vallone who you'll learn a lot more about in the upcoming webisode. Bill and Givani rehearsed a bit on the porch because we were about to shoot our first car dialogue scene of EvansAmerica. We made a decision to stay away from these as much as possible, not because they are hard, they are actually the easiest thing to shoot and you don't have to worry about securing the location, you just throw the crew in the backseat and have the actors drive wherever they want. But, this can become a crutch and pretty soon, you notice a lot of driving around in the scripts. But since this was the first, I'm not worried and the setting O-town sun gave the scene nice light. We picked up some pickups in a nearby parking lot, ridiculously rushing in between takes to get all we could out of magic hour. And wrap.

Funniest quote ever

2005-05-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

George Lucas, one of the worst film directors, but successful movie industry profiteers of all time talking about the new film and the controversial (PG-13) rating:

“We’re getting a lot of flak from parents, a lot of people saying how can you do this? My children love these movies. Why can you not let them go see it?” Lucas told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “But I have to tell a story. I’m not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters. I’m making them because I’m telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended.”

Commence collective groan now.

Episode 4, in a word, WRAPPED

2005-05-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah dogs. Ep4 is totally in the can. After the long drawn out shooting schedule that was ep3 (we did start shooting it last September), we kicked out ep4 in short order.

Our final day of Ep4 shooting was done at the illustrious, if not amazing, Fremont High School. It was a little scene where DeeDee, Paul, and Tate try to get a permit for the protest they are planning. (Oh stuffing, kind of a spoiler there I guess.) They encounter the Permit Lady (played by SEP alumnus, Jackie Walker) and I'll just say that Hilarity ensues (I hope). The shoot went off without a hitch, as they usually do when you have a 5-person crew.

The day was finished up with a last scene from the finale of ep4. The highlight of this scene (aside from the terrific performances from Branden and Jackie), was the fact that Dan and I got to fulfill our fantasies and actually play God for an hour or so. To explain, last weekend when the majority of the party scene was shot, it was really sunny out. Today, it was not so much sunny. Armed with two of our 1K (re: really effing bright) lights we simulated the warm sunshine ("Let there be light!" We said. And there kinda was). Ask either actor and they will tell you it was not warm. It didn't show though. With that scene we finished principal photography on ep4. Look for it in a couple weeks.

I think Dan mentioned this earlier, but with the conclusion of ep4, we're going to take a short hiatus, to write the rest of the season. We hope to get shooting again in mid-June and finish off this first season of EA. Thanks for sticking around for the ride. We're just hitting our stride and it will only get better! Keep your eyes/ears/nose peeled as there will be much going on around here at evansamerica.com, even in our "absence."

late,
sc.

Webisode #3 Launches Friday Night

2005-04-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Listen up EA fans, the hiatus is over and the revolution will now continue. It has been about two months since we last left the crew at Leeden State College. Tomorrow night at about 6pm the new webisode will be up on the main home page and available to download and watch so tell your friends to stop by.

WEBISODE #3 SYNOPSIS:

We rejoin the crew as they brace themselves for the coming storm over the school's stem cell research program vote. Joshua Gordon's vigil against the program ends in dramatic fashion as several students are taken to the hospital after a clash with campus security. Deana takes charge and uses her resources to help the Student Government President Kyle Blankenship defend the school against attacks by conservative columnist Bonnie Rockwell who is inciting backlash to kill the vote. Tate and Dee Dee embark on a frustrating journey to get their towed van back and Nikki and Haley's disagreement on stem cell research boils over. Don't miss it!

Director's Journal - April 23rd, 2005

2005-04-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Could it be that I'm putting a director's journal up from this weekend, on....wait for it....THIS WEEKEND! It is true. Well we will be wrapped with webisode #4 this weekend, except for one scene rescheduled for next Sunday. Nonetheless, we were on our way early Saturday (well for us early, back off) to downtown for our first scenes of the day. The wind wasn't too bad on our audio, wind can always be the worst enemy for sound when you shoot exterior scenes. In this scene there is a crazy yet funny girl who's a fan of the site in the show who corners Tate who in return is forced to act like Dee Dee is his girlfriend to keep her at a distant. It's a funny scene and everyone did a great job. We watched the dailies late that night and the takes are just hilarious. Branden brought it on this day, we got served. His facial reactions are just money. Later that evening we changed up the script slightly to accomodate the lack of extras and not wanting to piss off my neighbors by lighting up our backyard like frickin Field of Dreams. So the crew is instead setting up for the eventual crazy protest party that will ensue. See how we think on our feet. I captured some awesome roofs shots as well as you can see from the photos. We wrapped at a decent 7:15pm just in time for me to catch my Pacers get the crap kicked out of them in Game 1 of the playoffs against the Celtics. Oh well.

Director's Journal - April 2nd, 2005

2005-04-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

What could be better than mixing poker with filmmaking? NOTHING. Come on, keep up. We had a very fun scene on the agenda today involving the group playing poker and deciding how they are going outwit their newest adversaries. We rehearsed the hell out of the scene so that it finally was coming off relaxed and fun like I wanted it to. We decided to add a bunch of smoke to the scene to give it a cool look, which Givani and Branden took great pride in with their cigarettes. It looks really sweet on the dailies, but the buildup of smoke almost killed us all. Wouldn't that have been terrible yet tragically funny at the same time. The police find the cast of EA dead in a garage/turned filming studio. A scene gone awry. When we finished the scene and opened the garage door, this huge plume of smoke went outside. With that our neighbors changed their bets that we were filming porn to the new Reefer Madness film. (shout out to chris for letting me watch some of that on his HD TV yesterday). I can't wait to edit this scene, the camera was always moving on the dolly so if it cuts well, wow, Dan will be happy.

Director's Journal - April 1st, 2005

2005-04-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Another one of these, about three weeks after the fact.

Big weekend of Webisode #4 production started off on Friday night with two scenes between Tate and Dee Dee. Fun scenes that Scotty and I wrote way back when and when I say write, I mean scribbled down in a notebook in a moment of sheer creative spontaneity. Apparently we had to teach Lara how to flirt on screen, what's that about? I'm not sure, but moving on, we had a lot of fun shooting the scenes. Scotty lost timecode about halfway through on the DAT, I yelled and bitched, but got over it and we marched ahead. The kitchen was a pain to light and took awhile, which is funny because we had just lit that kitchen two months earlier for Scotty's short film "New House". But this was at night so we needed a different scheme. It worked out and then we moved to the bedroom, oh yeah. Big props to Lara for the blushing type shots at the end of the night, she knows why, and you'll know why if you check out Webisode #4, launching May 13th. Look at that, shameless plug, I always manage to get those in.

Lara's bed cam. (and who are those handsome filmmakers?)

We have Pope, sir

2005-04-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

Soooo….new pope, eh? Be afraid. Be VERY afraid. Granted, this guy is only going to live another five or ten years, but just read the biography of him (from BBC Profiles): To some, he is the Catholic Church's intellectual salvation during a time of confusion and compromise. To others, he is an intimidating "Enforcer", punishing liberal thinkers, and keeping the Church in the Middle Ages. Certainly, in the world's largest Christian community the Pope's prefect of doctrine, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, cannot be overlooked. While many theologians strive for a Catholic Church that is more open and in touch with the world around it, Ratzinger's mission is to stamp out dissent, and curb the "wild excesses" of this more tolerant era. He wields the tools of his office with steely efficiency. By influencing diocese budgets, bishops' transfers and even excommunications, what an opponent calls "symbolic violence", Ratzinger has clamped down on the more radical contingent of the Church. Personally charming, quick-witted and fluent in four languages, the Cardinal is a convincing orator. Jesuit Father Thomas Reese calls him "a delightful dialogue partner", but adds that most of the Cardinal's fellow clergy would be too worried about the prospect of excommunication to enjoy talking to him. That's EXACTLY what we need for the Catholic Church in the 21st Century. A POPE WHO WANTS TO GO BACK TO THE MIDDLE AGES. Let's not look to the future or things that might be GOOD for the Church. Ooooh, no. Let's, instead, continue to keep whittling down the number of priests by not moving forward at all, keeping them single and sexless and forcing them to turn to alter boys for relief. Let's not let women take a larger role in the church. Let's not review our policy on contraceptives or gays. Hey! I have an idea! Let's just erase Vatican II completely! Let's pretend like it never happened. That will put us one step closer to how the church was in the Middle Ages and seems like a good start. I love that MOST OF HIS FELLOW CLERGY won't talk to him for fear of EXCOMMUNICATION. This is FANTASTIC! Hmmm…a "convincing orator" whose "mission is to stamp out dissent…" I know another guy like that. HITLER. ***UPDATE*** This is always great to see in a headline about the new leader of millions of people: "New Pope a Conservative Who Divided Germans." (Hmmm...Hitler did that too....) And in the article: But opinion about him remains deeply divided in Germany, a sharp contrast to John Paul, who was revered in his native Poland. A recent poll for Der Spiegel news weekly said Germans [who] opposed Ratzinger becoming pope outnumbered supporters 36 percent to 29 percent, with 17 percent having no preference. The poll of 1,000 people, taken April 5-7, gave no margin of error. Many blame Ratzinger for decrees from Rome barring Catholic priests from counseling pregnant teens on their options and blocking German Catholics from sharing communion with their Lutheran brethren at a joint gathering in 2003. YES! Again, score! I don't even have a comment on the pregnant teen thing I'm so TO'd about it. Because I'M SURE that those priests were probably forcing the girls to have abortions and not discussing, maybe, adoption. And let's also keep the Catholic Church COMPLETELY seperate from all other Christian groups. PERFECT.

-originally posted by "Lara"

Who says Nebraska doesn't have a film scene?

2005-04-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

I say "boo" to the nay sayers. This past Wednesday night I had the privilege to be the guest speaker at the NIFP meeting in Lincoln. It's a wonderful organization that supports local film of all kinds. And a great place to meet and mingle with fellow filmmakers, actors and screenwriters. I showed some EvansAmerica stuff, even though most had already been to the website and checked out the show and had a lively Q&A about how we are pulling off an ongoing webseries with 45-minute webisodes on "no-budget" in Nebraska no less. It was a fun discussion and it even made me think about some aspects I never had before. It seems like this runaway train of a show never stops to let me sit back and think about a lot of the aesthetics of the show. After the meeting was over and letting out, it was very rewarding to get such positive feedback from people who attended. We actually have some fans, ssshhh, don't tell anyone. And after the meeting I went out for some drinks at Old Chicago with a few of the NIFP regulars and we chatted away about all things film. Overall it was a very fun night and I met a lot of very cool people who love film and live in.....wait for it....Nebraska. Eff hollywood! I say this is where its at. Anyways thanks to the NIFP President Rhett for having me down, peace out.

My shout out to Scotty C

2005-04-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Not EvansAmerica related, BUT, as you may have read below, Scotty's short film "New House" was in an online film festival last week and they announced the winner today. You guessed it, first place baby! He is an award winning filmmaker now (note: his ego now combined with mine may explode this blog). So onwards and upwards. Anyways I'm proud of Scotty and the small band of EA cast and crew who worked hard on the project. Congrats everyone, let's drink!

New week, new stuff, why do all our titles seem to have the word "new" in them?

2005-04-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

New cast diary up, thanks to Branden Maslonka aka. "PAUL" click here. A few more Production Journals by Director Dan, click here for those. And some Behind the Scenes galleries from this year, click here to go there.

EvansAmerica Season 1 - Volume 1 DVDs go on sale soon. Help support the show.
Volume 1 will feature: The complete pilot webisode and all six character shorts. Cast and Crew commentary track. EA Trailer. 5 Behind the Scenes Videos. Hidden Videos and Recommended Reading.

And don't forget, Webisode #3 launches Friday night, April 29th!

The MinuteMan Project

2005-04-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

I am not quite sure what to think of this, it is a fascinating story, but in my mind very scary. It is called the MinuteMan Project, about 200 volunteers led by this retired guy Jim Gilchrist. Who are taking immigration control into their own hands by vowing to do border patrols along the Arizona/Mexico border themselves. Neither Bush nor Fox quite knows what to make of it, or what to do about it. Can you really stop a bunch of bitter old men from patroling the desert in their trucks. It's a real throw back to the wild west law enforcement, some are calling them vigilantes. They say they are just there as a deterent, and that illegal aliens will be scared to cross if the Minutemen are around. But what happens, when a group of immigrants decide, eff it, let's just go, they aren't U.S. officials? Do the minutemen stop them, kick the crap out of them, what? I'm asking, I want to know, who is responsible for them? And I really think the choice of name is tacky, come on, what they are doing in no way does justice to the historic U.S. group of heroes known as the "Minutemen" who were after all, IMMIGRANTS!

Hmm... Where's the socket... oh here... [PLUG]

2005-04-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

In unrealted-to-EA news:

Last February, I approached Director Dan with my first venture into directing. It's a little short called "New House." It was for an on-line contest that's, coincidentally, going on right now! My premiere day is today.

Because I'm such a good guy, I'll give you the link here.

There should be reviews and stuff there, so I suggest watching the movie before you are tainted by the overwhelmingly good reviews (or the overwhelmingly bad reviews).

It's about 10 minutes long and stars EA's own Chelsie "Hotness" Hartness and Lara "Flynn Boyle" Adkins. We've got Dan on the camera and Chris on the sound. "New House" also features music by the lovely and talented Givani.

So check it out. We had fun making it. You might have fun watching it.

Might.

later,
sc.

Director's Journal - March 26th, 2005

2005-04-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

There will still be archived production journal entries on the behind the scenes page, but it has been advised that we start blogging more here as to keep it fresh and new. Plus this is easier and we don't have to bug Wendy to update the site every night. Plus I learned more about pictures. Anyways, here we go.

Production Journal - Saturday, March 26th:

We invaded the very cool theater at Papio South High School. It invoked the cast and crew's own high school memories, which then quickly made us feel really old. Suck. Anyways, it was a 9am call time, which is always fun on a weekend, I'm sure everyone was thrilled with me. SEP veteran actors Diane Watson and Ron Moore were on set today for a scene I've been looking forward to for a while. The scene is a cable news political show called "Political Watchdog" that comes to the campus and Deana and Bonnie Rockwell (aka Ann Coulter-like) battle it out. Fun stuff. Everyone was really on today, it was weird seeing Diane play an antagonist. She's always played a nice character, so it was enjoyable to me having worked with Diane many times to see here play someone the audience is supposed to hate. We had plenty of space to light and we were even able to use some of the lighting and monitor equipment at the theater. Six hours later we were wrapping up. We did some cool stuff shot and sound wise that I think it going to cut together quite nicely. So Webisode 3 is in the bag, we have some fill stuff, but only post is left and it should be in cyberspace shortly. Here's some pics:

Tyson and Chris waiting for me to yell at them.

Big props to the Papio South girls who showed up and were fine extras. You guys rock!

This is a way you shoot a scene, shoot a scene, shoot a scene....(in best singing voice)

Yeah, there's that

And that.

Not about Dan's (crappy) computer

2005-04-04T03:09:00.000-07:00

We shot some more stuff for webisode 4 on Friday night. This time we were at Casa de la Nate, my current residence. We shot a crucial, mindblowing scene (were those adjectives too much?)between DeeDee and Tate that will forever change everything you ever thought about everything (Dan told me to hype these more, but it feels forced... anybody?).

And to capture this momentous scene/event we had the perfect crew consisting of... 2 people.

That's right. Dan and I crewed this scene. I think we had gotten use to our standard 4 person crew because it took us like 5 hours to shoot four pages. Granted some of the pages were distinctive dialogues written by Scott "I've-never-acted-a-day-in-my-life-but-insist-on-writing-horrendously-difficult-to-perform-dialogue-scenes" Coleman. Not to say that Martin and Lara weren't up to the task, they were. They, dare I say, Brought It?

After this dialogue scene we got a couple more scenes that I swear to you will blow your mind. The mood was also suprisingly light, given our lack of helping hands, and therefore, efficiency. There are a couple behind the scenes/outtakes that I'm afraid may make there way to an internet near you...

Not to be a tease or anything.

After shooting, we went back to Director Dan's place to celebrate the big deuce-deuce for Joseph "mother-effing" Boro (he plays Miles, for those unbaptized at the shrine of EvansAmerica). Happy birthday, big guy.

The rest of the weekend was spent shooting other stuff. But I wasn't there, so I can't really report on it. I mean, I could, but I don't think my summary would much match what really happened the last two days.

toodles,
Ess to the ceezie.

ps: it is really 3am when I'm posting this. I really do have to be at school tomorrow at 9am. Yes I really do hate myself.

Some good news mixed with bad news

2005-03-31T15:53:00.000-08:00

I have my computer back=good. The drive was shot in a fluke situation they had never seen before and the data was unrecoverable without sending it away to California and spending thousands of dollars=bad. I lost a lot of episode 3 progress=very bad. I'll be able to rebuild some scenes I had done earlier and saved on another disk and will re-edit the rest=sucky=miller time. All of this still looks doable for an April 15th launch. Though we will not release anything official yet.

The good news is we have a full slate of filming set for this weekend. That's right, three days of production on Webisode #4! Yay. I'm stoked. Actually everyone is very excited about getting back to the heart of the show, filming. The script is good and the cast and crew are pumped. That makes Dan smile. Production starts with a 7pm call time tomorrow night and will wrap Sunday at 5pm. Stay tuned for updates and pictures! We'll try to post something every night.

Gmac is down, I repeat gmac is down!

2005-03-28T14:14:00.000-08:00

Well this day went downhill fast, my beautiful new G5 editing computer was KO'd by something last night and the main drive is not responding anymore. Not good. I dropped it off at the local Apple gurus office, and when I told him the problem he said "well that's distressing". Not the type of thing you want to hear. Good news is it's still under warranty and he's fairly certain he can save all the data. Bad news is he's not 100% certain and I'm going to lose about 4 days of valuable editing time. Crap. This means in all estimates Webisode #3 launch date will probably be April 15th. Sorry everyone, but computers will be our mortal enemies from time to time.

New look and stuff

2005-03-27T13:57:00.000-08:00

We decided to change up the look of the blog because, well change is good...yeah, that's it. We wrapped filming on webisode #3 yesterday although we have a few fill shots to get this week. Hopefully we will have an announcement later this week of the launch date, it will either be April 8th or April 15th. Our EA store will be up online shortly as well, Volume 1 DVDs are done and we're working on t-shirts, buttons and stickers, so there's that. Stay tuned!

The White House Marketing Machine

2005-03-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

The political stream is one based on proposals, public mood and focusing points. To get your agenda passed, you need the support of your colleagues, the right timing, a built-in base support and a well organized campaign to win over at least a majority of the public. Winning public opinion for certain policies is a tough sell requiring many speeches, events, advertising, it's like selling a product. Sadly that's politics. And if you can't quite make the sell, it goes down in defeat like Clinton's Universal Healthcare, his first big proposal in office. But the Bush Administration is giving creativity and ingenuity a new name, "propaganda". That's a harsh word I know, but can you really call it anything other than that. First off are their infamous "town hall meetings" with the President traveling the country meeting with the "people", interacting to hear their concerns. Except that's not what it is at all, the forums are packed 100% with pre-screened supporters, and the average Americans up on stage are hand picked and go through rehearsals the day before. It's theater, the Bushies know what is best and rather than listening, they are going to put on a charade until you come around. Next is the paying of what are supposed to be independent "free press" journalists like Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher. Both pushed Bush agendas because they were paid to by your tax dollars, are you hearing the warning bells, yet? Let's continue. We can't forget the Gannon/Guckert White House correspondent fiasco, presumably planted to ask softball questions in briefings to bail out the press secretary. Gannon's credentials were incredibly shady at best and we all know now, that is putting in mildly, so how did he get in when others bloggers are continuing to be denied? And when all else fails, when the news isn't going your way, just make it yourself. That's right the various departments (Defense, State, Education, etc.) from the White House direction have producing their own news reports with fake actors, fake reporters and fake narration and making them available to local news stations to play as part of their local newscast! Can you hear Paul Revere coming down the street? This doesn't surprise me about the Bushies, but for a local television Producer to accept and program for free, a fake news report produced by our government, passing it off as news, is incomprehensible. Just some things to think about.

More SXSW Pics

2005-03-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

Wendy taught me html in five minutes so I have a basic photo gallery of the EA cast and crew fun in the sun in Austin. Lara's pics coming soon. We'll have the official link on the "behind the scenes" page in a bit, but for now to view the pics just click here.

SXSW wrap-up

2005-03-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

Back in O-Town, so sad, Austin again treated us so well, nobody wanted to leave, good times, hell great times. We saw about 25-30 movies during our 8 day stay, and alcohol consumption is still being tallied. I have some pics, Lara has way more, plus I'm still getting the hang of posting pics to the blog, so hang with me, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. We did some good promotion, and we have a big push coming in a few weeks to hype the two new episodes coming out in April so hopefully all goes well. I won't make my post too long because I have some pics so I'll just say these were my top five films, be on the lookout and try to see them if you get the chance:

1. The Edukators
2. The Education of Shelby Knox
3. Love Comes To The Executioner
4. Occupation Dreamland
5. The Puffy Chair

Dan and Al Franken.

And in EA related news...

2005-03-20T16:10:00.000-08:00

Some good news and bad news:

GOOD NEWS:
*Webisode 4 production is underway (see entry "EFF STARBUCKS").
*Got lots of good promotion for EA done in Austin, TX at SXSW when we were there.

BAD NEWS:
*There will not be a webisode released in March.

SANDBAGGED GOOD NEWS SO THIS ENTRY ENDS POSITIVELY:
*There will be two webisodes released in April.

We're just waiting on one scene for ep3 to be shot which should be done in the next week or so. The ep4 production calendar is out to everyone so we should have ep4 done by mid-April. Guaranteed.*

that is all.

sc.

*These are guarantees until further notice when we go back on our promises, but tell you about it first so we seem more trust-worthy.

Scott by Scottwest

2005-03-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

Lamest title evar, but whatev. Also as a side note, I was excited when I saw Dan's entry had three comments. Then I realized Givani had double posted a comment alledgedly after drinking, then I noticed Rick commented (Hi Rick) so that's something, right?

Still tired after rolling into the Big O at 3am this morning. Who'd have thought that leaving Austin at 10:30 am wasn't early enough still. GD TX/OK traffic at the Red River for leaving us at a standstill on the interstate for ONE AND ONE HALF HOURS. Oh well, we're back now.

Let's see... I got to Austin on Monday, so everyone else had a couple days on me. I made up for it with by catching a grand total of 20 films in 4.5 days. Luckily I kept my film journal so I could keep them straight.

Instead of going through them one by one, I'm just going to talk about my favorites. It will be here you notice the difference in tastes between Director Dan and myself. So here they are, my five-star movies (a dubious distinction, given others' view of my tastes):
(in no order)

1) The Fearless Freaks: Brad Beesley's portrait of the Flaming Lips. Really wasn't a huge fan of the band before the movie (I like "She Don't Use Jelly," like any blue-blooded american boy my age), but I found myself completely enthralled in this film. I'm not an expert in docs, but it seemed there was a very loose thesis, but what it lacked in focus, it more than made up for in great moments. This film is worth seeing if only for one scene, as someone in line told me (and I agree). As she said, I won't tell you what scene, but if you see this film, you'll know the scene when it comes. At any rate, to fulfill a blog cliche, I am currently rocking out to the Lips' "Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots."

2) Southern Belles: A comedy about two trailer park girls (neither being Hilary Swank) and their dreams of getting away to fulfill all of their dreams in that Southern Heaven, Atlanta. Initially went to this film because of warm feelings I have for actress Anna Faris (I hope she reads this...), but this was a hilarious film (and Anna rox). This film really reminded me of the lost art of sight gags. Again, Judah Friedlander brings it. This guy rocks, I just hope he doesn't get a sitcom someday, because his character work is bomb.

3) Hooligans: At first glance, this movie didn't really sound like something I would be into. An american lad goes to England and falls in with a gang of soccer fans. By gang I mean Gang. These guys could whoop a camel's ass. Some real brutal terrifically shot fight scenes. I actually like Elijah Wood in this movie (in comes the wrath of the Hobbits), but the heart of the film was Charlie Hunnam as Pete (watch for this guy, he's going to be huge). Funny, sad, and very powerful. As a side note, the film was directed by Lexi Alexander, while there is a big deal made about women directors, this chick rocks the house. The guy that introduced her said she "had balls." I agree. I have to. She's a champion kick-boxer. Seriously, though, great film. In the words of Joe Boro after the movie, "I wanna pick a fight now." That explains my black eye and ruptured duodenum.

4) The Devil and Daniel Johnston: Dan saw a lot of political docs, I stuck mainly to the music docs. Daniel Johnston is a singer-songwriter who did a lot of time in Austin, where he recorded most of his underground tapes. Arguably most famous for the cover of his "Hi How Are You" tape cover, which was reprinted on a t-shirt that Kurt Cobain wore everywhere, including on the MTV video music awards (the same year Krist Novoselic threw his bass in the air and clocked himself in the head). A truly tragic film that really deals with the things that kept Daniel Johnston from being that star that Kurt Cobain is now considered. Great film.

5) The Education of Shelby Knox: The only politcal doc I saw. Story of a high school girl (the aforementioned Shelby) and her struggle to change sex ed curriculm in the Lubbock, TX school district. Really captured the spirit of what Dan and I have been trying to do with EvansAmerica. This issue is also something that I had wanted to do something with someday for our own show (guest starring Shelby herself????). The Q&A was pretty cool as the filmmakers brought out Shelby herself to take questions. Shelby got more questions than the filmmakers did.

6) Kissing on the Mouth: This movie has really stuck with me. (I did only see it two days ago, but in a span of time where you see that many movies, that's something, right?) Largely improvised, it's the story of four post-college "friends" and their relationships. While this is a pedestrian-sounding premise, it was dealt with in such a realistic way that it really sets itself apart. The way in which the film was made is just as facinating. It was made by four friends/directors who served as cast and crew. Very DIY, very liberating to think about as a filmmaker. Terrific film, but if you do hear about it will most likely be for the graphic/realistic manner that sex is dealt with. It's a film about sex, but it manages to get beyond "gimmicks" such as full-frontal nudity and touch, albeit slightly inconsistently, real emotional truths.

7) Steven Tobolowsky's Birthday Party: A truly indescribable film. Filmmaker Robert Brinkmann decided to make a film about his friend actor Steven Tobolowsky (IMDB him, you know him), but instead of doing a documentary in which friends attribute to how cool of a guy Tobolowsky is, Brinkmann has Tobolowsky tell his favorite stories as he does things to prepare for his birthday party that night. A really great snapshot of who this man is and what he means to his friends.

Those were my top films. Other favorites:

-The Puffy Chair: An incredibly funny movie. Perhaps the funniest movie I saw that week.
-Dead Birds: The best-looking film we saw that week. I thought "May" was the best-shot horror film I'd ever seen. (May is a better overall movie, but that's another entry...) Oh, both were shot by Steve Yedlin, so that explains it.
-The Roost: Good homage to midnight movies of the late 70s/early 80s. The short "Dos Blokes" that preceded it was brilliant.

And others, but this entry's getting out of control, so I'm ending it here. I'm out. I'm sure Danny Boy will have some wrap-up as well.
late.
sc.

This is ridiculous

2005-03-18T20:32:00.000-08:00

Paul Wolfowitz can not, I repeat, CAN NOT, be head of the World Bank. Due your research if you don't believe me, but trust me, this man can not be in charge of the finances, loans and debt of the third world. Write you Senator or Congressman, this is unacceptable. Trust me.

SXSW Days 4-6

2005-03-16T02:07:00.000-08:00

Finally get a chance to blog again, it's about 4am here in Austin, most of the cast and crew are out in the Gazebo still drinking the night away and singing Irish pub songs they picked up. The last three days have been incredible, let me repeat, incredible! We've seen so many damn films it's ridiculous, we're spending about 10-12 hours a day in theaters. First EA promotion update and then some highlights of some of the films for those who care. Plenty more cards passed out, and a few more DVDs to some journalists we've met and normal folks who seem well connected, or at least say so trying to impress. The big news however is Dan's success in getting a copy of the show into the hands of Al Franken! He taped a live interview for Texas Public Televsion to promote the AirAmerica stations that are launching. I was nervous as hell to approach him and stick a dvd in his hand, but he was a really nice guy. He might just throw it in a pile never to be seen, but who knows, at least I got it there, and that's all I can do on my end, the rest is up to blind luck.

Onto the films, alot of these have recently been picked up for distribution, which means you should try your hardest to see some of these, well worth it, get out of the Hollywood rut.

*The Edukators - Wow. Just an incredible film, German or Austrian, I can remember at the moment. Reminded me of what were trying to accomplish, three friends who create political rebellious statements in rich suburbs when one goes terribly wrong. Flawless acting, cinematography, score, everything, it was all superb, across the board. I don't care if you like subtitles or not, you need to see this film!

*Occupation: Dreamland - One of two Iraq war documentaries at SXSW, and I must say it was not what I expected. I have not yet seen Gunner Palace but from the trailer this differs in alot of ways. Straight up cinematography, nothing fancy, just photo journalism at its basic level. Which is not bad at all, it worked, and it fit with the mood of the film. The most surprising however, it had no biased whatsoever. There was no manipulation with the editing, at all, truly an honest look, and I would know what a liberal documentary looks like, trust me. That being said it does nothing but crush your spirits for what lies ahead for our soldiers and the Iraqi people.

*Waterborne - Film I was really looking forward to and I wasn't dissapointed, really kick ass digital cinematography. Lot of post always help too, so props to the editors. The film is about several interwoven stories during a terrorist attack on the water supply of L.A. Great cast helped make the film seem way less low budget than I'm sure it was.

*Deadbirds - The midnight show we just saw a few hours ago, we were exhausted but decided to catch it and I'm so glad we did. Here's the scenario, a group of outcast Confederate soldiers during the Civil War rob a bank and then hide out in a big abandoned plantation house, and oh yeah it's haunted by these half man half werewolf skinned creatures. Yeah. Crazy. Frickin awesome though and fun as hell.

These were just the highlights, we've seen a lot of films it's hard to keep track right now cause I'm so tired. Scotty is keeping detailed notes for future reviews, though we split up today and went to different films and only met up for Deadbirds, but oh well.

One more blog coming on sunday probably to wrap up the trip, we're all wishing we would never have to leave, but the show must go on.

out.

SXSW Days 1-3

2005-03-13T01:06:00.000-08:00

Thursday & Friday: We left for Austin around 8pm and drove all night, (somwhere in Oklahoma, when Boro and Dan, the only two up, decided maybe the overnight trip wasn't the best idea). Rolled into Austin about 11am, got some sleep at our hotel and headed to The Wendall Baker Story premiere. Wilson brothers were there as well as mf'n Harry Dean Stanton. Well shot and very funny film, lots of fun cameos. Came back to the hotel and passed out from exhaustion.

Saturday: Refreshed and ready to go, passing our EA cards like crazy, and by that I mean plastering them on every wall and lightpost, Dan gave one to a cracked out homeless lady along with a dollar, and Givani gets the gold star for most passed out, (by handing out all the guys who hit on her).

Films we saw today:

*Max & Grace - Dark comedy by this first time director, great ensemble cast. Enjoyable.

*Cavite - Incredible film shot mostly in the Phillipines. Tense thriller that was able to capture the culture, poverty, and roots of terrorism.

*Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room - Absolutely incredible documentary. Beautifully shot, well edited, great drama. The amount of emotion it was able to bring out of the crowd was incredible. It really made you hate corporate america and the free market even more, and do something I didn't think was possible, make Gray Davis look decent. Amazing.

*Jesus is Magic: Sarah Silverman's standup, brutally funny, just no holds barred, she's not afraid of touching any subject. We have some good pics of Wendy and Lara with Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman and Brian Posehn as soon as I get them off my camera. Good times.

Talked with Adam Schwartz, one of the writers of My Big Fat Independent Movie for a while, good guy, shamelessly passed our cards out to him. Went over to 6th street to hit the bars, got our drink on and are now passing out one by one in the hotel. More to come.

What's new with EvansAmerica

2005-03-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe a year ago, EvansAmerica was just notes in Scotty's notebook, and through all the setbacks, working in the middle of the country on zero, I repeat, zero of a budget, this show is a reality. Not only is it a reality, but it's very alive and doing very well. We are off to a great start out of the gates, the character shorts and the first two webisodes are already up and traffic has been more than we hoped for the site only being up two short months. We have received a number of requests for DVDs of the first two webisodes from college groups around the country wanting to screen the show at their next respective meetings. They were just mailed out last week, so hopefully all goes well with that. We are spending March filming new webisodes and embarking on our second big publicity and marketing push. A group of the show's cast and crew are heading down to the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas this Thursday for 10 days of networking and promotion of the show, while catching some great films and hopefully finding some time to relax for once. We will continue to try and blog during the trip, granted all goes well with the internet situation. The site will be getting some updates very soon as well. New behind the scenes videos and pictures, production journals, cast diaries, the unveiling of a message board and much much more, all coming soon. Plus, to fill your fix. TWO ALL NEW WEBISODES OF EVANSAMERICA COMING IN APRIL! The saga continues. Thank you for your support.

EFF STARBUCKS

2005-03-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

This is going to be the most timely entry I will ever write. Unless somehow, we develop the technology to hook blogger.com up to my brain and allow me to blog as I think. People may get a different view of me as I would be unable to censor my thoughts. It would also out my Debbie (or is it "Deborah?") Gibson fetish.

...but I digress....

Today, we shot at MJ Java's in downtown Omaha. Re-read my title and you will see how much they rock in my eyes. Props to Darren and Christina (apologies for name misspellings) for hanging out and selling us coffee on your day off.

First we shot the opening scene from episode 3 with virtually the entire cast in a rare truly ensemble scene. Really got to see the EA chemistry in full effect. It's something that we don't get to see enough, but it really came through today. Ann, Chelsie, Lara, Givani, and Branden showed no rust, not that they would, but we haven't all shot together since maybe October(?). (EA needs a historian like View Askew has... If you want to be EA historian, send Dan an email. Pay's great, just ask anyone we've worked with.)

Shooting went on without any foolish beats. Thanks to our luxuriously large crew (FIVE people!! I kid not.) We had Director Dan on camera, Chris on sound, Greg on dolly, newbie Justin Brink on lights and yours truly on...

well...

Um... I watched the monitor. A lot. It was like a normal Sunday afternoon for me. I also ran slate. That's important I guess. Without me, they wouldn't have been able to know what scene and take number they were on. I swear I'm intregal to the production of this thing. I'm not just a pretty face.

The second half of the day was spent in the presence of the greatness that is Bill Wassem. I know this is kind of a mild spoiler, but bear with me. I can't just speak in vagarities the whole time, though I can speak in vulgarities a lot...

This post has been edited for content. And for being the WORST JOKE EVER.
thanks- Gods of the Internet.

So, anyways, Bill was there to shoot a scene from ep4 with Givani. Again, both people were prepared and brought it. Needless to say, the luxuriously large five-person crew got served (saw'd?).

LSS: Bill rocked. Givani rocked. I get lost in your eyes. Production of Ep4 has started.

Which brings me to my next point. Episode 4 is where shit really starts to happen. Eps1-3 have been good get-to-know-you eps, but now that we've established our players we can really get down to business. It's not cool to say because we're a good amount of time away from unleashing this baby (oh no, we're not merely releasing this one...) . The EA family has expanded with the addition of Tyson Sevier and Rick Pecararo to our massive stable of writers. Not to get pretentious, but it's like the first time new parents leave their kids with a sitter. (note: I'm totally the Dad in this analogy. Totally.) Only in my dreams could the script have turned out better. Anyways, before this gets sappy, I, for one, was really pleased with the way the script turned out, obviously.

Damn, I thought I could get six "appropriately" used commas into that sentence. Oh well. Next entry, I guess.

Anyways, if you're still with me at this point, thanks for reading. Tune in next time where I briefly write about EA and then blabber on about stupid crap out of the blue.

love,
scott
the electric youth

Politics and the Oscars

2005-02-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

I promised myself that since everyone else and their mom write about the oscars, I was going to let this one go, but after watching the show last night with some of the raucous EA crew, I couldn't resist. This blog is supposed to be about politics, but what more appropriate focusing point of all things political then the Academy Awards, right? I have to say I actually enjoyed the show this year, maybe because we filled in the snooze parts with our own banter ripping apart whichever Hollywood figure they cut too, but nonetheless. Scotty and I tied on our picks sheet, so no bragging rights for anyone this year. I haven't been able to listen to the radio talk shows today, but I'm sure the waves are in a frenzy about the hated Hollywood and their spectacle. They have plenty of ammunition, Chris Rock slamming Dubya while propping Moore, and apparently the now pro-euthanasia Million Dollar Baby winning best picture while Passion got the snub, if Jesus can't win a gold statue, Hollywood must be the root of all evil. Anyways, here are my gold stars and middle fingers for the evening: *CHRIS ROCK: (gold star) I thought Rock did a great job, whether the whole "is he going drop f-bombs" hype was a marketing thing or the work of actual concerned groups, Rock is a professional comedian, who put on a great show, I thought. The line about Jeremy Irons being a comedic genius was classic! *COUNTING CROWS GUITARIST: (gold star) not for the lame song, but for the "I LOVE SCARLETT" t-shirt he was wearing. What a great pick up move, hope it worked out at the after parties. *HILARY SWANK: (middle finger) for not only beating out Kate Winslett, but also for reminding us again that she grew up in trailer. But (gold star) for making Scott laugh harder than I've ever seen him laugh with the trailer line, because minutes earlier we finally pinpointed her accent as being not "southern" so much as "trailer park". *SEAN PENN: (middle finger) for just plain being an asshole. God forbid Rock actually take some fun shots at some of those in the acting community, don't take it so personally next time, Jude Law will get over it, I'm sure. *OSCAR PRODUCERS: (middle fingers all around) for a number of things, one being terribly blatant cut aways the whole night, "the motorcyle diaries song is playing quick cut to some of the well known Hispanic actors". And why did I see more than one cutaway of Jay-Z and P. Diddy? Unacceptable. Also, hitting the three hour mark was nice I must say, but making every award that wasn't in the top 8 categories feel like the handing out of participation ribbons at the end of your sixth grade YMCA basketball league, not cool. It's only documentaries, who cares about those, we couldn't cut down the commercial times at all could we? *JAMIE FOXX: (gold star) yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but come on that was good stuff. *SOUND MIXING AWARD: I don't know what to give this, because I almost would rather watch the technical achievement awards anyway, which is where this award belongs. Sound editing, okay, I understand, but I've done my share of sound mixing, it sucks, its hard, I know, but so is being a PA. When will they move this category where it belongs, and spend some more time on, oh I don't know, documentaries or something.

Webisode #2 Now Available

2005-02-19T10:43:00.000-08:00

The second webisode of EvansAmerica was officially launched last night and is now available to download and watch. Just Click Here. Right click where is says to and do a "save target as" or something silmiliar depending on your browser, choose your desktop or a downloads folder and click "save" and the download will begin, usually takes about 15 minutes. You'll also need quicktime to watch and can get a free version here if needed. Free stuff all around, god bless the internet. Enjoy.

Blogs vs The Media (buy your tickets now)

2005-02-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

I love it when we find ourselves in the midst of an historical battle of some kind. And we find ourselves in the midst of a blogs vs media battle royale. In the 90s it was just figuring out that unknown frontier known as the world wide web. And I still swear behind that one late night in the library back in my early college days when I saw a tall bearded man, who looked an awful lot like Al Gore go running out the front doors from the dimly lit basement where I had seen the figure all semester, screaming, "I've done it, I've done it!" Anyways, I will admit that I had only been introduced to the blogosphere last summer, when co-creator Scotty C told me that we should incorporate the angle of blogs into our show. Now, it is pretty clear to see we are heading into a very new world of information and the internet. And the most entertaining part of it all, is to watch the newsmedia's coverage of blogs go from quaint story to "oh shit, Houston we have a problem." The media, especially the cable news channels have finally become so lame and lacking of any true integrity any more, that thousands, by the day are turning to blogs for real journalism. Conservatives, liberals, and moderates are fed up with 24/7 coverage of the Michael Jackson trial, and are showing that they are craving actual stories with substance. And bloggers are starting to beat actual journalists to the punch on many stories. CNN is more frequently reporting stories that were first broken on blogs. The popularity of the Howard Dean campaign last year wasn't even known to the media for a long time, because his poll numbers were not showing his growing support on the internet. The CBS National Guard memo debacle and the recent "Jeff Gannon" soap opera, which is unbelievably entertaining and the fall of Eason Jordan after he made controversial comments were stories broken solely by the blogosphere before being picked up by the "media". As you peruse through the various top blogs and compare their posts with the days stories of say the New York Times, which is a fine newspaper, don't get me wrong, there's no contest. The blog articles have more passion, more facts, deeper insight, more complexities, and the biggest asset, they cut through the bullshit. So the question is, will blogs become dangerous for various reasons, "yes". There's no two ways about it, there really is no accountability to the bloggers, except by other blogs, but then it turns into a he said/she said drama. And the mainstream media will think it is too beneath them to keep in check the blogs because then they'd be admitting they are second tier. And most blogs do have either a right or left slant to them and as blog traffic grows, it will undoubtedly be tempting to try sway opinion rather than stick to the facts. Not to mention the fact that if more of us start turning to blogs for our news, we will be getting less and less of the full story behind each issue. Our only hope is that this blog phenomenon scares the hell out of the mainstream media to where they pick themselves up from their path of complacency and try and regain the trust and intrigue of the public. There are a lot of good reporters out there and they know who they are and they are trying, but editors are not in tune with their reporters, because the editors job is always on a string being held by the corporation that owns the outlet. It's tough, but the free market when it comes to news, which is finally being pulled back by the people will persevere.

Smoke and Mirrors

2005-02-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update, not a lot has been going on production-wise for EA, but here are a few nuggets that some people might find interesting.

1) Sunday night we grabbed a couple fill shots for episode 2, thus truly completing ep2 (my previous post was all hype). Parks portrayed Munson for the final time (in ep2, least mwa ha ha) as he confronted the front runner in the student government election. If you look closely, you'll see yours truly doing some bad ass acting (minus the "ass").

2) Took a run at a commentary for a potential DVD release, potentially available soon in the EA store (not to be a total capitalist, but the show doesn't make itself, folks). Cast and crew consisting of Givani, Joe Boro, Lara, Director Dan and myself hit record on the tape recorder and just started rambling. Now, I don't know how many people listen to commentaries out there (I love them, but I am a HUGE film geek), but the ones I really enjoy listening to are real loose, but still informative. I have a feeling our first run at a commentary will resemble not so much chaos. Maybe because of the beer, maybe because we were in an odd mood that night, maybe because we're bastard people. We'll let you decide. But the commentaries I like seem effortless and fun, but they're probably a bit more structured than "Hey let's watch our movie and talk about it. Oh yeah, and we'll drink a lot." I guess Hollywood has tricked me again into thinking things like this are easy. (You know, like in that movie about recording commentary tracks.)

Anyways, this is getting longer than I intended... there's a joke there somewhere, I swear, I'm just too lazy to look for it. Ep2 is premiering Friday, so go see it if you're able. I'll be at MJ Java in Omaha, so if you're a lonely, lovely lady, I'll be the one in the back. You'll know me by my excessive sweating, erratic pacing, and general unapproachableness (to think I spent Valentine's Day alone).

late,
sc.

Webisode 2 Launches on Feb. 18th

2005-02-08T17:51:00.000-08:00

Special Announcement:

Webisode 2 of EvansAmerica is set to launch on Friday Night, FEB. 18th.

There will also be two simultaneous launch parties that night for Nebraska folks:

*Omaha Launch Party at MJ JAVA (13th & Farnam) @ 7pm

*Lincoln Launch Party at The Downtown Bar (15th & O) @ 7pm

Admission is free for each! If you are interested in setting up a launch party viewing in your city, contact us at evansamerica@hotmail.com

Photos from Webisode #1 Omaha Launch Party

2005-02-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

We have a few pics from the pilot launch party to view click here.

There are more floating around out there somewhere and when we get them you will get them.

Webisode 2 Launch Announcement Tomorrow! Stay tuned.

EvansAmerica in the Daily Nebraskan

2005-01-26T22:04:00.000-08:00

Another fine piece of journalism in the Daily Nebraskan, (which is the University of Nebraska paper) about our little show here:
Click here to read.

Enjoy.

EvansAmerica in the Omaha Pulp

2005-01-26T10:06:00.000-08:00

Good article about the show in the Omaha Pulp:
Click here to read.

Enjoy.

One of these things first (For Real this time...)

2005-01-25T01:15:00.000-08:00

I did write this blog entry the other night, but the gremlins at Blogger (or in my computer) decided to give me the big error once I tried to post it. I was pretty frustrated and drained from writing it the first time that I gave up and cried myself to sleep.

That being said, this is not the greatest blog in the world. This is just a tribute.

First, the launch party. Last Wednesday was Launch Party #1 at The Rox. Much thanks to them for hosting a crew of the most well-behaved hooligans this side of Council Bluffs. Turnout was good. (Though I apologize to my Mom for making her have to tape "Lost" to come out and support this little thing we call a show.) The crowd seemed into it for the most part. The only exceptions were the gnarly dudes in back who seemed more focused on their billiards than any of the 17 screens that were playing episode one.

I spent most of the running time pacing around the room. This being the first showing of the first project that I had actual creative input (and my name) on, I made certain I chased my anxiety away with copious amounts of alcohol.

Needless to say the rest of the night was kind of a blur. I watched Joe Boro climb into the dancing cage and bust a move. We discovered the maximum number of people able to play Erotic Photo Hunt before our performance was impeded (if you're curious it's 7 plus or minus 2). I also found myself an uncontrollable slave to the rhythm and spent a good 4 to 5 minutes dancing like I've never danced before. I'm almost certain that there is footage of this, and, while trying not to get everyone's hopes up, it could turn up someday in the form of a behind the scenes.

I think nearly everyone enjoyed my dance moves, except God. Just when I was really getting my proverbial groove on, I was struck down in the most horrendous dancing accident happened (aside from the Delaware Twist Catastrophe of '56). It is a difficult story to tell, but injuries were involved. On the upside, it so happened that the always-lovely Chelsie ended up landing on me. So that's something, right? Anyways, the Doc said I should make a full recovery, so don't worry about sending flowers or cards.

So, long story short: Episode 1 is up and ready for downloadage. If you have downloaded it already, you rock. If you have not downloaded it, you probably have herpes. (NOTE: For those of you who had herpes before you downloaded it, you will not be cured. I'm sorry, but it's out of my hands.)

That brings us (me?) to Sunday. Sunday morning was spent shooting a few more scenes from episode 2 (oh yeah, we're not going away) at the Fedora Lounge in Omaha (big up to them for being cool). Chelsie and Patrick (who plays Brett in ep2) started the day with a couple scenes, the second of which was an intimate little scene where both parties acted their respective genitalia off. We shot a couple more scenes with Patrick before fate whisked him away from us. We were also graced with the dramatic stylings of producer Ehren Parks, who reprised his role as the enigmatic Munson. A blast as always. My apologies on the vagueness of this day, we shot a good 11 pages in 5 hours so it kind of blurs together.

Sunday night was spent shooting at our top secret location. Our latest victim was the very talented Eric (who plays Joshua in ep2). We got some crucial scenes shot with Eric before releasing him and then ended the night with a quick scene between Givani and Director Dan himself (the guy can't keep away from the lens side of a camera). Which means yours truly was the camera man du jour (only because I don't know the French word for "night" or "evening"). Strangely, I noticed that whenever I run camera, it's always the walk-backward-and-hold-the-camera-perfectly-still-while-holding-frame-and-focus shot. Fishy. In other non-Scott news, this scene marked the first walk-and-mic for soundman-in-training Chris. Congrats, buddy, you are now on a new level. Cherish it.

Take home message: Episode 2 is officially in the can. We could probably release it tomorrow, but we would rather tease it for another 3 or 4 weeks and torture all of you who faithfully read this (Hi Mom).

Next time: Finishing production on Ep3 and first drafts of ep4 script. I tell you what, you think you know what's in store for the crew of EA, ep4 is going to change everything. FOREVAR!

later--
sc.

Privatizing Foreign Aid Relief

2005-01-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

The terrible diseaster in southwest Asia that unfolded several weeks ago has been extensively covered by the media, which uncovers a few things. The US media actually covering a foreign tragedy for more than 48 hours, but it seems now is only still covering because of ratings, or some reason I don't believe is from the heart. Where is the spotlight on Africa where the numbers dying are horrific, or the Sudan where tens of thousands are being killed by radical muslim rebels. Where's the outrage? Where's the administration? How many times do we have to hear that the thousands of of US soldiers lost and the billions spent were to protect the people of Iraq, well what about the Sudan where the killing in greater numbers is now. It makes no sense. What kind of incoherent, pick and choose policy is this and who are they fooling besides the people who watch False...I mean FoxNews. There have been surprises both good and bad in our country in reaction to this event that happened so far away. One is the incredible private donations that Americans have given, it's something like 4 in 10 Americans pledged some kind of donation. But what is troubling is that our government decided to rely on the good faith of some of America and officialy pledged far less than we should. We are now privatizing foreign aid. No longer is America as a whole showing good will, just 1 in 3. Michael Savage who's an idiot summed it up best, "I don't want to give a dime to these people in Asia, diseasters will happen and if the bleeding heart liberals want to help, let them donate". Hence the White House pushing private donations, as to not piss off their supporters who would need that $100 donation for another share in the market tomorrow. I think I'd like to make funding the war in Iraq private now too, for those who wanted the war, that's fine, you pay for it.

News and Updates

2005-01-13T08:39:00.000-08:00

I have added several new production journal entries to the "behind the scenes" page and also Lara who plays Dee Dee has several new cast diary entries as well. Dee Dee's short is now up, Paul's will be up Friday night and Deana's launches Monday night. Don't forget the pilot launches next Friday with a sneak peek in Omaha, see my last post for information.

Dan

Special Pilot Launch Party Set

2005-01-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

The EvansAmerica Pilot will launch next friday night, Jan. 21st.

But for those in the Omaha/Lincoln area, you can catch a special sneak peek screening, next Wednesday night, Jan. 19th in Omaha at the Rox.

WHERE:
The Rox
(Southwest corner of 108th & Q St.)
Cocktails @ 7pm - Special Showing @ 8pm

Admission is Free!

Welcome to the Revolution

2005-01-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it is now 2005 and the revolution at EvansAmerica is underway. The Tate Character Short is now up and ready to download, absolutely free! Enjoy. The other five character shorts will launch periodically throughout the next three weeks, leading up to the much anticipated First Episode launching Friday night, January 21st.

M&Ms, Pacers and Politics

2004-12-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, well we had a wide variety for our first round of questions. And like I said, I'll answer them all: 1. Where did Blue M&Ms come from? They are always reinventing candy aren't' they? Updated wrappers, new colors, more caramel, its candy for Christ's sake. Is America on a desert diet, what's the deal? My guess is some drunk college students created it at a party, took a picture, found its way to the internet and was swooped up by Hershey's who cashed in. Joe and Bill at Michigan U. Are still waiting for their royalty checks. 2. Do the Pacers suck now? Alright, who took a cheap shot at my team? That's not cool at all. The Pacers held their own without their starting three, thank you very much, sometimes playing with only one guy on the bench and still won a few games with their third string. Once their rotation is back in swing, we'll be back on top. 3. Is Scott Coleman available to like date and stuff? Like he totally is. 4. And this week's gold star for the best question is if I could spend a large amount of money on just one issue, which would I pick? Great question, excellent. And it's simple, EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION! It all starts with the kids, we are all born into families by the luck of the draw, poor or rich, its a coin toss. Some are born into nice suburb homes with good parents, nice schools, everything they could ask for. Others in poorer rural communities, farms or tough inner cities. Kids have to overcome different circumstances, but differences in their education should not be one of them. All schools should be equal, because kids didn't ask to be born where they were, its a part of life, but it all starts with school. Some parents work two jobs and aren't around for their kids, so you know what, schools do have to help raise children, its a fact of life. We need better teachers, more after school programs, mentors, everything! Just think about a future where the next generation of kids no matter where they went to school had a top notch education rooted in knowledge, manners, responsibility and civic duty. A world where our brightest minds were teaching 9th grade math instead of private sector jobs. Instead some politicians want to decrease funding to schools by allowing a few of the selected to leave failing schools and go to suburban schools where the funding would increase, leaving School A with less funding until it got its test scores up which now becomes harder, because the overachieving kids just left. This is called the Voucher system under the ironically titled and deceiving, "No Child Left Behind" when actually the program is the exact opposite. This is a horrible system, and the one I feel the most strongly about. You might see an episode about this in the future, hint, hint. That's all gang, keep the questions flowing.

The Revolution Begins in 4 days

2004-12-28T09:52:00.000-08:00

EvansAmerica officially launches on New Year's Day 2005, "the year of the people". We hope you check out the show, especially on Jan. 19th when the pilot launches. All you need to do is download it at your convience. Our goal is to take a look at issues and get people interested in politics in our way, not their way. It's not a big Hollywood production, but it's from the heart, its fun and its truthful. Politics, entertainment and the media are now all run by a few big companies who tell you what to watch, what they think is news, what you should buy, and who you should vote for. The revolution is not just about politics in the show, but a new way to watch entertainment. No longer do you have to accept the reality television bullshit they cram down our throats, you can make a statement that you want to watch something with character and soul. Not something made on the coast by suits who care only about pushing products and having enough ratings for slick commercials. This is a show from the middle of the heartland, made by a group of artists on a shoestring budget, there's no suits, no commercials, just us and you. I'm pouring my heart out here, I know, but I'm damn proud of this show, and I hope you come along for the journey. Thank you and we hope you start tuning in every week starting this saturday, let your voice be heard!

Here we go

2004-12-20T09:58:00.000-08:00

Production on the pilot episode of Evans America is wrapped, and the final stages of the editing and musical mix are underway. The behind the scenes page is finally up so cruise over to that and enjoy. The series will launch on New Year's Day with the "Tate" character short followed by the other five leading up to the Pilot launch tentatively set for Wednesday night, Jan. 21st. Tell your friends, spread the word, yell it loud, the revolution is about to begin!

QUESTIONS

2004-12-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

We're starting a new thread here where you can post questions about issues, policies, history, whatever and we will try to answer them in new posts. Ask us our thoughts on anything you want to know. Whether it be our position on the Iraq War or Star Jones Wedding, its your blog, fire away. Either post your questions on the comments page of this thread or email to: evansamericaquestions@yahoo.com

Skin, four letter words and the FCC

2004-11-28T20:57:00.000-08:00

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

2004-11-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

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!

What's going on in Ohio

2004-11-12T20:57:00.000-08:00

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.

Get Ready

2004-11-05T21:08:00.000-08:00

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)

2004-11-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

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...

2004-11-05T13:36:00.001-08:00

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.

Enough is enough

2004-11-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

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.

Joining the assault weapons debate

2004-10-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I’m not as nice as Scotty C, so everyone will just have to get used to the good cop, bad cop routine. Warning: this will be very boring for anyone who doesn’t care, so don’t bother. The ban on assault weapons also known as “The Brady Bill” was passed in 1994 and expired last month because congress refused to renew it, Frist and Delay made it clear they would let it expire, and the Democrats, being the strong principled type people they are, were too scared of Nov. 2nd to do what they thought was right. It’s sad but true that the assault ban was watered down, because it had to be to get the thing to pass at all. But, to say it was just cosmetic so why have it anyway is like saying the war on drugs is losing so let’s just legalize everything. If it is not doing its job we should make the ban tougher so it actually works, not just get rid of it. Here are some of the gun control regulations that work or will work. Some of which have been passed, some still waiting in the wings for congress to act. All make sense and seem reasonable and do not even come close to trying to pry guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, yet the NRA has opposed all of them: Mandatory background checks and waiting periods for all gun purchases to assure felons can not purchase weapons for crimes. Licenses for all gun owners, that require safety courses and tests, after all we have to jump through hoops to drive a car, why not a weapon? All non-hunting firearms must be registered with the government to aid law enforcement officials in solving murders and cracking down on black market gun sales. Mandatory child safety locks on all new firearms and incentives to gun owners to install safety locks on existing registered guns. A ban on concealed fire arms in public, a gun in your nightstand to make you sleep safe is one thing, having one tucked away in your pants when you head out grocery shopping is something else. Six out of ten Americans are in favor of needed gun control and 71% favor bans on assault weapons because they know that nobody needs an AK47 to hunt. Yet Congress has been corrupted by the powerful gun lobby and has turned their back on the will of the people. Nobody is talking about taking away the 2nd Amendment, but our founders couldn’t have known that muskets would someday turn into AK47s and Tec-9s and instead of fending off the English would be used in extinguishing 30,000+ lives of its own citizens EVERY year, or they probably would have thought twice. In closing, the assault weapons ban will come to the floor in congress after the election, Senator Feinstein (D-CA) one of the creators of the original bill has already promised this. The only question is will it be a law that actually works by being tough, or will the gun lobby be able to buy favorable legislation again. No hunter needs a weapon with a 30 shot clip, to sit in a tree and spray the forest hoping to hit something. Assault weapons are called that for a reason and were created back in the early 1900s for two events, war and crime. Don’t take my word for it, the LA, NYC and Miami Police Commissioners and hundereds more in American cities support the assault weapons bans because they’re a threat to uniformed officers. Not sure I'm the one that needs some enlightenment on the issue. Out. dan

weekend in lincoln

2004-10-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the promised wrap-up of the shoot in Lincoln. It happened about a week ago so things might be a little fuzzy. Dan's got some detailed day-by-day stuff that he's prepared so there may be an influx of behind the scenes goodness coming soon.

We left Omaha for Lincoln at 8am on Saturday morning. We had slight delays picking a prop table and chairs for the day's shoot. The big delay on our trip to Lincoln was stopping that a gas station that "obviously" didn't have gas. We actually have this on behind the scenes, so stay tuned for that (next week or so, time permitting).

We arrive in Lincoln only slightly behind schedule, OK, maybe 35 minutes after we planned. At any rate, we should have arrived right at cast/crew call at 9:30-ish (note to young filmmakers: never put "ish" after your call time, it leaves things open to creative interpretation). ;) We get to our spot on campus, plop down our prop table and chairs and only one member of our ensemble is there (Givani gets the game ball that day). From that point on, phone calls started to filter in from everybody else about some weird thing that happened to them that caused the lateness. That's when Dan and I realized that maybe this wasn't the right weekend to shoot in Lincoln (somebody check if that rhymed).

Shooting got going around 11:00 (an hour later than we wanted). So Dan and I were a little intense about staying on schedule and getting everything done for the day. Maybe unpleasantly intense, but it was kind of a one-shot location. Everyone responded terrifically though and not only did we get everything shot, but we also managed to get back onto schedule by the end of the day. Not that our accelerated shooting schedule didn't effect the cast/crew as we had to cut a scene at the end of the night as everyone was exhausted from spending the whole day outside. Who knew you could get sunburnt in October (I did, but I really don't associate the two very often). Our supporting cast, Rose and Eric (sorry if you spell it the other way), showed up and gave great performances to round out a furious day of shooting.

We adjourned shooting for the day at around 6pm. After shooting, some of the crew went to the apartment of Dan's brother, James, to watch the Huskers get absolutely obliterated by the Red Raiders of Texas Tech. Upon the end of the game, we decided it was best to avoid sleeping on the couches and floor of James's apartment (though very nice) and stay at a hotel instead.

After working all of the kinks out of my body from sleeping on the rollaway from hell (the floor at James's would have been sweet relief), we found ourselves back on the campus of UNL for one more day of shooting. We knocked out a couple shots early, including the first "beautiful" shot of the Lincoln shoot and a confrontation scene in which Chelsie (I will spell your name as many ways as phonetically reasonable) had to call the entire student body "fucking sheep" as a tour bus of middle-aged/older adults unloaded and walked by. A scene was dropped due to a miscommunication and lack of personnel, so that afforded us the luxury of a lunch (whee!).

Fully recharged from food from the student union (*sarcasm*), we shot several more scenes producer Ehren Parks got in front of the camera for an amazing interpretation of one of the characters. *Pretentious insight* As a writer, I'm always amazed by some of the ways that people interpret the words on the page. Never in one million years would I have thought to read the Munson character the way Ehren did, yet it was completely sublime. *end pretentious insight* Sunday also marked the return of Bill Wassem (playing George Vallone) to an SEP production. We've worked with Bill before and today was no dissappointment.

After finishing Bill's scene, we wrapped the shoot and gathered all the equipment and headed eastward back to our home. The Lincoln shoot is done, which means episode 2 is almost completely shot. Not too bad for a couple days work, though I hope never to have such a solidly planned weekend ever again.

Why the pundits will be surprised again

2004-10-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

On election day 2000, we were in for quite a surprise when the race seemingly tightened in the last 24 hours of the vote, America who had leaned towards the new guy Bush, had entered the voting booths and as Fat Joe would say "leaned back" to the boring smart guy Al Gore. As results rolled in, Bush's two to three point lead in the polls had evaporated into a dead heat. The news networks quickly spiraled into chaos, calling states mere minutes after polls had closed, states that after recounts were decided by only hundreds of votes. Well, if you thought 2000 was a mess, wait three more weeks, and you'll have a front row seat to the sequel. The reason is the youth vote, the vote that always has been overlooked is being treated the same this year, but there is something different: Young People Care this time around! I thought most people my age just had passing opinions, but it's not the case, everyone I talk to is voting this year, kids who have never even thought about voting are saying "I'll be there". Whether it be rumors of the draft on the internets (couldn't pass that one up), the Howard Dean campaign, tuition costs, none of the jobs we were promised at the start of college and now that we're graduated that Starbucks cashier job is sadly starting to look tempting. It's all adding up. Only one problem, the polls are missing this magma of voters, they can hear the rumbling, but have no idea the mountain is about to erupt because they don't have the means to measure it. 18 year olds in high school don't get called by pollsters because their parents get passed these calls, college kids don't get called because their number changes every year and they never make it into a phone book, I lived five different places in my five years of college, new number each time. Post-grads like me aren't getting polled, because it's 2004 and we have cell phones now and don't need lan lines. "The Man" Joe Trippi is on the same page with me, posting yesterday about the exact same topic. He thinks there may be a 3 to 4 percentage point youth swing out there that is not getting picked up at all by any of the hundreds of polls. Its not that Brokaw and Russert don't care, they just don't know, but the look on their faces on Nov. 2nd when they can't figure out why the polling and the votes don't match should be priceless.

Out.

Chugging along

2004-10-03T23:01:00.000-07:00

First things first, much love to the recently married Adam and Laura (Officially married 29 hours as of post time). You guys rock. Congrats and all that.

...Now back to me (because that's the real reason all seven of you read this)

Sunday brought another day of shooting, our first day with the full ensemble. We were very pleased with the results. Everyone got along and the chemistry really came through on screen. Perhaps we all got along a little too well as a couple of scenes had to be postponed due to a lack of time. But the main thing is that everything we got was good.

Real Good.

I don't want to go out on my own horn here, but I'm starting to get excited about the final project (this is with about a fifth of the shooting for ep1 done). It's pretty lame of me to say this, because launch is so far off still (JANUARY 1st JANUARY 1st JANUARY 1st). But for my money it's going to be the best webseries filmed in Nebraska about idealistic twenty-somethings trying to overthrow a system that provides liberty and justice for a few.

But I might be biased.

More good news. We actually brought and used the behind the scenes camera today, so for all of you devoted fans out there (OK, for Dan and I), we might be able to cut together some BTS eventually, just so you too can experience what it's like to be on-set of EvansAmerica. It will be a sight to behold.

Anyways, enough of my yammering. Next weekend is the weekend. We're taking our crazy circus side show on the road all the way to Lincoln, NE for three days of fun in the sun, if spending all waking hours with Dan and I is your idea of fun (may God have mercy on your soul if it is). Should be an interesting weekend, hopefully there will be some war stories.

with that I'm out.
sc.

Your attitude is welcome welcome

2004-09-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, with the helpfull hand of Scotty C, I am officially a blogger. It is long overdue. The website is up and this web series of ours called EvansAmerica is now a reality. We just wrapped with our first block of shooting which consisted of a six day marathon of sure filmmaking genious. I will try to summarize as briefly as possible, for more in depth production journals for each day visit our "behind the scenes" page. Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better start, no hitches, and things are rolling along smoothly. The cast has been terrific and the crew is working together quite nicely. Two of our character shorts (Haley and Tate) should be up within a week or two to give everyone a peak into the show and a taste of what is to come. Take care and come back soon!

Dan

First Weekend of shooting!!!

2004-09-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

Can you feel the excitement through my excessive use of exclamation points? I hope so, otherwise I'd feel a little awkward...

Anyways, it was a big weekend in the growing history of EvansAmerica. Let me start with the official launch of www.evansamerica.com. Though, if you're reading this, it's probably through the link from the aformentioned website... so... um... If you haven't already bookmark that sumbitch and check back frequently as we will be sneaking on goodies (or baddies depending upon your opinions of us and our work).

Also I'm going to be joined on the blog space very soon here by none other than director/creator/exec producer/blah/blah/blah Daniel B. Iske himself!!! <--More excitement!

later,
scott.

three days and counting

2004-09-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well, technically minus one day and counting. Sunday was spent shooting promotional stills of the cast that will be available on the website (which should be up in the next week-- SPOILER: It looks good so far). The afternoon/evening of Sunday was spent shooting our first character short for the character of Tate (played by Martin Kenna).

Official production on Evans America begins on Thursday night (Whoo-hoo!), we are shooting Thursday through Monday. At last pre-production is coming to an end and production is here! Though this will be different than past project we've done, as we will always be in pre-prod for the next episode, it will be nice to actually be able to show our stuff off to people and have it be a "real" thing rather than just this hair-brained idea we have floating in our heads.

That's all for now. Come friday we'll be shooting!

I luv my gunn

2004-09-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

Today the assault weapon ban expires and inspite of all of the pleading of various police chiefs across the country, congress is not even scheduled to debate this. I understand that there is due process in the legislature and only so many issues can be addressed, but this seems to be a fairly hot button topic and the fact that it is not even being debated is deplorable. Say what you will about second amendment and crime reduction (I'm not well versed on either side of the issue, but I have a definite lean), but this is a debate that needs to be had. Once again we are faced with issues that have huge potential impact on society and the American People are served a good helping of Swift Boats, Purple Hearts, Forged Memos (alledgedly), and an E-bay-less Economy. Now I remember why I voted Nader four years ago.

-originally posted by "scotty c"

Inching closer

2004-09-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

Had our first group rehearsal last Monday. Dan and I split up and worked with cast members on separate scenes, so while I did not see the entire cast work together, I did get to see certain scenes played out.

And I was impressed. There were people I hadn't seen yet (stupid school/work/other stuff) who really rocked within the scenes I saw. Perhaps even more heartening than people reading lines well was the fact that everyone really got along well. With an ensemble piece, chemistry was going to be key and I think I was more than a little worried that people weren't going to "get" each other, but I think that was just an extraneous concern by a worry-wart (this will become more apparent in later posts).

So group rehearsal was last Monday. Several locations have been confirmed. And a couple days have even been scheduled. Translation: We are actually going to get out of this hell called pre-production!!! Whoo-hoo!

As for next week: More location work. We are in negotiations for a pretty big location which would be great if it worked out. So keep your fingers crossed for us(hell, toes too, you can never be too sure). We're also finalizing shooting scripts for ep's 1 through 3. Dan and I have also started work on ep's 4 and 5. Also we're going to start casting our guest characters next week (not really start, but we're really going to concentrate on it this coming week).

And the bad news? The bad news is there is no bad news!

Here's to keeping the ball rolling.

That's all for now
Scott.

Week One and Beyond

2004-08-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

Week one of pre-production has come and gone. It was a week spent meeting with our cast members individually and going over aspects of their respective characters. I, for one, was totally impressed by the level of preparedness that was brought to these meetings. It makes it a lot easier for me, working primarily as a writer, to put that much more effort into future episodes. The other thing that I found myself thinking more than once was how much I was anticipating getting all of these people in the same room working on scenes together and seeing the chemistry really happen.

The big news is that we've got our big seven as far as the cast goes. It's as follows:

CHARACTER- Actor:
DEANA EVANS- Givani Favara
PAUL BILTMORE- Branden Maslonka
NIKKI DIRISIO- Chelsi Hartness
HALEY SCHUERMAN- Ann van de Walle
TATE EVANS- Martin Kenna
DEEDEE ABRAMS- Lara Adkins
GEORGE VALLONE- Bill Wassem

We've also got much of our supporting cast, as far as the first three ep's go.
CHARACTER- Actor:
MILES MCLAIN- Joe Boro
CHRIS BENSON- Ja'le Youngblood
BONNIE ROCKWELL- Diane Watson
TESS TAYLOR- Michelle Schrage

That's a lot of news, so I hope I'm not letting it all go at once. Week 2 is going to be spent securing locations, polishing scripts, and setting up that all-important group rehearsal. We are also in the preliminary stages of designing www.evansamerica.com (don't go there yet, you'll just get an ad for web hosting), which will be our base camp where our soon-to-be viewers can watch the episodes and meet up with other viewers and discuss what they just saw.

I'm really looking forward to getting this all going and getting it out there to feel the love/wrath/cold indifference of the viewing public. Three weeks and counting!
scott.

This is just a test

2004-08-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Dan and I are just getting into the meat of pre-production. We're currently shoring up our cast and crew; securing locations; and, perhaps most importantly, hitting up local merchants for food so we can actually feed the people that become a part of the project.

Oh, I guess I could mention the project itself. We're trying something a little different than what we've done in the past. Rather than just a three-week shoot and eight-plus months of post to churn out a 90-minute feature, we're going for a episodic piece to be distributed solely by the internet. It's called "Evans' America" and it follows six idealistic post-college twenty somethings as they try to cut through the established system of governmental politics, preaching the "Politics of what really matters." It's something totally new for both of us and the challenges have been pretty cool thus far. This is very character-based and drawn from issues that are in the news and concern us personally.

Keep coming back and we'll keep posting !
Scott