Vlog ep. 2: Vlog like there’s no tomorrow

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Personal Project Update

I’ve been blogging a lot lately about other people’s movies and music and such, and I feel it’s finally time to give an update about the projects that I’m working on!

I currently have one commission that I’m working on. It’s a video for my friend Jared, a high school band teacher whose jazz band concert this spring will be featuring footage of old movies projected along with the concert. It’s my job to put the old movie footage together. I think it’s a cute idea, and an opportunity to show high school kids the beauty of some of the old classics. Each song is going to cover a certain era in film, but it will all be pre-color. So we’ve got gangster movies, Noir movies, exotic location films, golden age (as in fred astaire and ginger rogers), one song devoted entirely to Casablanca, and then one devoted to Metropolis and German expressionist films (a la Murnau’s Nosferatu). Should be a lot of fun to edit as well, since I get to watch all of these films again to complete it!

I also have to paint two more paintings for O-Cha, the bubble tea place in Greenville that’s going to let me hang some stuff this June.

As far as I know, the shoot for this Sunday is still happening. I’m helping out a local filmmaker, and hopefully it will lead to some collaboration and help in the future with my own projects.

Now, onto my own personal film and screenwriting projects. I’ve got two scripts that I’m going to try to finish during Script Frenzy (which starts April 1st). If you don’t know what Script Frenzy is, it’s the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for screenplays and other script format writing. The goal is to write 100 pages in a month. I’m going to try to double that. I believe I can, as long as I get everything outlined before the 1st.

My two projects, you ask? Well, there’s “Ninth Wave,” which I’ve been tossing around for a while. All I can say about it is that it’s steampunk. And then there’s another, even more secret project. And I’m so excited about this that I can’t stand it. But I’m also very concerned that it could be an idea that others would like to get hold of, so no details until it’s protected!

Aside from that, I also have a super short film that I would like to enter into the Dragon Con film festival, among others. It would probably be no longer than five minutes. Super cute. But I’m having a bit of trouble with getting my friends to be extras for it. The only tough part of the shoot is that I need quite a few extras and they all need to be in historical costumes. So far, it’s looking like I’m going to have to go to craigslist to find participants.

So that’s an update about what I’ve been doing with myself. Lots to do. Less and less time to do it. Not to mention, if I get this job that I really am hoping for I will have even less time. But that’s the life of a pirate filmmaker I suppose. Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Wrastlin’

On the eve of a job interview I thought it was only appropriate to talk about something completely… inappropriate. And my topic of choice is the small town pro wrestling match I attended on Saturday. Yes, in all its glory. I can’t decide which was my favorite highlight. It could have been the octogenarian that was in attendance with her cane that she used to emphasize her dislike of certain wrestlers (It was eventually taken by one of the wrestlers who threatened his opponent with it).

It could have been my godson, who was sitting a few chairs away from me, eyes fixed to the action. He was actually rooting for “The Worm,” whose intro music was reggaeton, a genre of music that I am oddly attracted to. I think it’s the beat. But that was not my godson’s reason for rooting for “The Worm.” He liked “The Worm” because he was small and skinny, just like my godson is.

It could have been the fact that my mother came as well. It was her friend that invited us to come. I didn’t want to go, but I decided maybe I could give it a shot. I want to go back. I loved watching the wrestlers and I loved watching the crowd just as much. I could tell which members of the crowd believed what they were watching and which didn’t. And it really was a family event. No booze, just canned sodas, candy, hot dogs and fries.

Below you will find 48 pictures I took on my phone while I was there. I just couldn’t stop. This was one of the best events I’ve been to in a long time! I know what you’re thinking. That wrestling should be beneath me. But ever since it started becoming so popular within the sci-fi/fantasy world I’ve been wondering what the connection could possibly be. And did that mean, in fact, that I probably would enjoy it too?

Here’s the deal. I know it’s fake. In fact, I attended that night because I knew one of the wrestlers. He was a villain, by the way, which is, I feel, the only way to go. It’s no fun being the good guy wrestler.

Anyway, that night I realized that there is a very real and logical connection between geeks and pro wrestlers. Both groups love escapism. And wrestling is just one big LARP. You get the costume. You get the persona. You develop a backstory.

If you get a chance, you should totally go to a local pro wrestling match. Even over one of the big arena televised ones. I think there’s something more awesome about a random event in a random metal warehouse with folding chairs.

And now back to thinking about my interview tomorrow. I’ve escaped enough for today.