tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94211922024-02-18T17:58:42.658-08:00Philip Davetas [Screenwriter]The Bloggings of a ScreenwriterPhilip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-21441567149588058552011-11-27T04:34:00.000-08:002011-11-27T04:34:20.521-08:00FRIGHT NIGHT: It Didn't Mean to Suck, but It Did<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBf_rMraE32FqllSlV4DMQ-3BrcUyhPOmh6OVM8eRIMfLInn6CVeVvlE6z9q29rNb1RzAsYx9ctzTzSFkmXSThA0DBRLH2zEk1kZPHPqCyFhS_X2ak5j_5IcjjszV5jA2XID-/s1600/frightnightvegas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBf_rMraE32FqllSlV4DMQ-3BrcUyhPOmh6OVM8eRIMfLInn6CVeVvlE6z9q29rNb1RzAsYx9ctzTzSFkmXSThA0DBRLH2zEk1kZPHPqCyFhS_X2ak5j_5IcjjszV5jA2XID-/s1600/frightnightvegas.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd_mPzTsFhd-W_cbLdrGdZdeKT3swaI3l3LHbTNqS4e9jhSaiVWcbVttdSbiFr5K38mcrThzkX1xtrYggzPOPA7IDvvEa6Cry7joBoCYLrfpEVH44PWQ2tvI1j-ki5LyRrm8dW/s1600/frightnightvegas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">In the original Fright Night there are some bad things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Ragsdale’s Charlie Brewster is pretty much a frantic asshole especially to his friend Evil Ed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the years I accepted Chris Sarandon’s Jerry Dandridge and always thought he could’ve been scarier, but the fact that he wasn’t was part of the appeal because vampires were supposed to be scary monsters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But with all the bad, the good outweighed everything else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Roddy McDowall’s Peter Vincent brings so much heart and soul (even when he watches Evil Ed die) that makes you attached enough to care about these people surviving a horror flick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, there’s Fright Night Las Vegas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a few good things, but the bad far outweighs any good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYQrZ-yAromUCEdQao8f8MozQxt1I_8jqYfBoFj68ltqZHNHzqYMXKbYKs-QcJUVXCVHeyeERcRWQO7QVs4VmJxvMqcvy34PTntOZgNoQgPYv3as4UgSYLFNEE6tiibE5V5kl-/s1600/4dshadowing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYQrZ-yAromUCEdQao8f8MozQxt1I_8jqYfBoFj68ltqZHNHzqYMXKbYKs-QcJUVXCVHeyeERcRWQO7QVs4VmJxvMqcvy34PTntOZgNoQgPYv3as4UgSYLFNEE6tiibE5V5kl-/s1600/4dshadowing.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">I guess what bugs me the most is that it hardly feels like this has any personality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It feels like a standard genre piece with no mounting conflict.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just like things happen for the sake of happening because they have the structure of the original to tell them basically what to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For most of the film it does feel like there are a couple scenes that aren’t in the first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the tone is different in the sense it does try to be scary, but honestly are we really afraid of vampires?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially, blatant CGI-mouthed vampires?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are then you have every reason to be scared because Colin Farrel does have that child molester vibe that’s needed for this and pulls it off well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzRxtqntXaeEyhcX4pmkGvH1L2YDlhVjf81_SMGLF1xUFE1Zzx_QuBb0gE8nlhWu5nbZrae4lHFfU-Q4kUNZnrWyKliR8MB-TxKRDuVWxGFrlcW6_NKFyAO1di3RnKd9U6hK6D/s1600/poolpiss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzRxtqntXaeEyhcX4pmkGvH1L2YDlhVjf81_SMGLF1xUFE1Zzx_QuBb0gE8nlhWu5nbZrae4lHFfU-Q4kUNZnrWyKliR8MB-TxKRDuVWxGFrlcW6_NKFyAO1di3RnKd9U6hK6D/s1600/poolpiss.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">What probably could’ve been cut out was the Peter Vincent character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is nothing interesting or appealing about David Tennet’s character unless you just want to watch Dr. Who in a horror flick, but really why would Charlie Brewster need to visit Peter Vincent in the first place if he was doing his own research anyway?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, why would he try to go and visit him to ask him how to kill a vampire?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It kind of works in the original on account that William Ragsdale played it as more frantic and naïve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you’re trying to do a scarier and “smarter” Fright Night why would a big-ass Vegas celebrity give a shit about some kid?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only real piece of information that Peter Vincent provides is the alter that Jerry Dandrich has stashed in his house which leads him to believe Jerry is a 400 year-old warrior vampire—and a shitty one at that if he’s hunting teenagers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason the Peter and Charlie pairing works in the original is for one Roddy McDowall’s Peter Vincent is a failing local celebrity on late night public television show airing old horror flicks and needs the money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, he helps him at first just for the cash and then he realizes he’s in over his head then Peter must now fight the good fight no matter how frightened he is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s true that David Tennet’s Peter Vincent is coward as well, but there is like no life to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s a superficial celebrity with an even less interesting base character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no sense of build to really get invested in him and would’ve been best if during all Charlie’s “porn” research he just came across these Mediterranean vampires in some old book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would’ve eliminated the half-assed shoehorning of David Tennet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT22BNoH0DszPA4MqJ6fWRRwul50ogY7ZDS_jCB7ITgkHrAOe0VEJf8HEx21RU-UmqDs-hnDlSgDgRVh60wNbKcRQeMxjlCteAkE_Fdiopmu1KSIEVJOjd1AJc07yx_77pDx1l/s1600/blondeapp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT22BNoH0DszPA4MqJ6fWRRwul50ogY7ZDS_jCB7ITgkHrAOe0VEJf8HEx21RU-UmqDs-hnDlSgDgRVh60wNbKcRQeMxjlCteAkE_Fdiopmu1KSIEVJOjd1AJc07yx_77pDx1l/s1600/blondeapp.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Is it fair to compare two movies made 28 years apart?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, when Hollywood is asking for what few dollars we have in a shitty economy then I shouldn’t have to see a shittier version of the same movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I should just see a brand-new shitty movie that way I wouldn’t feel so ripped off. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX9S4Pq0pr4JsLl2YaYtzodfJ1u_S5Ece4sgj9dov8sPp2umHDSmTkysjIMnvNUVlOcPFZADZi5TYFL3zzo-yfSqqH2cOc8LlRsqkeknwVHyqiG0xs-ub0vcOJIga71U9WBGuM/s1600/douche4ever.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX9S4Pq0pr4JsLl2YaYtzodfJ1u_S5Ece4sgj9dov8sPp2umHDSmTkysjIMnvNUVlOcPFZADZi5TYFL3zzo-yfSqqH2cOc8LlRsqkeknwVHyqiG0xs-ub0vcOJIga71U9WBGuM/s1600/douche4ever.jpg" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/txgGhyjPZGg" width="560"></iframe> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And for those interested in the original...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/voacjL9JFy8" width="420"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-11590414738054022022011-10-13T02:11:00.000-07:002011-10-13T06:32:57.968-07:00WONDER WOMAN: Amazonian Fail<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnZ2C3bt7-qi_2Qaa9jnm8kx8-ZSC-p9FIMmfHUYa4tpgW55KXbE7PUHSi0ic66Sa6pGKeAY-wGbHf-3L_XlwBznXtrwyIYQrDaO2od2wtdIxdNyR37nFnLEokHaLY9p0skOAO/s1600/wonderbanner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnZ2C3bt7-qi_2Qaa9jnm8kx8-ZSC-p9FIMmfHUYa4tpgW55KXbE7PUHSi0ic66Sa6pGKeAY-wGbHf-3L_XlwBznXtrwyIYQrDaO2od2wtdIxdNyR37nFnLEokHaLY9p0skOAO/s400/wonderbanner.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo8ADIVSj0VO9G8qM1YyG7hXKnfwoNcKVSXAjE-Y3CKn5Yhbi9rIlg4kUoNH9RTFYV_ab3dDJGlVvR7uz5NZKiNXTIu9QfcS4MBvZz85kJOYhgAvwN0vxfScR4bCY9DFu5pjeF/s1600/wonderbanner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZA8R2v7pmPSFCMBPN8J8Bc_ha0QLqth73iETHi3meT9SWWOBAFS3DhdcSKc-UhiIjDPbzpUGy1MmVku_Ef1-OMCugvO9x4EeTJuixCnXEmri5VtRLy_VsZkZ7nmLBXsks6Og/s1600/Snap+-_2011-10-13-04h11m56s143.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> Well, this is as bad as it looks and as you’ve heard. Wonder Woman has no secret identity, but is the big boss of a company that manufactures Wonder Woman merchandise and everyone knows she’s a superhero. Wonder Woman is a mixed up character. She doesn’t want to make an action figure who sells her “tits and ass” as she puts it, but in the next scene not only does she wear the outfit, but says to some dude who won’t let her in a door, “Do you like my outfit? It opens doors for me.” Let’s not also forget that Diana Themyscira (the bosslady of this company) also designed this outfit. And Adrianne Palicki is just plain horrible in this. The only time she’s actually comfortable is when she’s playing another character named Diana Prince which makes no sense if she’s already Wonder Woman and Diana Themyscira. She plays Wonder Woman as an angry bitch and totally unlikable. I was kind of okay with that in the Nathan Fillion <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wonder Woman</i> because she was a consistent character, but this was a total missed mark because it seems like a full-on identity crisis—especially so for someone concerned about image. Perhaps it was just the way it was performed, but it came off all wrong. But to give an actor three roles to play may be a bit much at once especially when none of the characters are clearly thought out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83YW88CsK_gv0vZJ-N9p29hyxPv4IvXswZb8esDnYIOWEPwu5IEiEHe6jDKvaynCVe1R7MkZVI6BlzWanljicX_XeAGxWbnKslNwn0eI72DoCRiP4eJ8F4_tRKXDUNtK2T0F7/s1600/Snap+-_2011-10-13-04h11m09s178.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83YW88CsK_gv0vZJ-N9p29hyxPv4IvXswZb8esDnYIOWEPwu5IEiEHe6jDKvaynCVe1R7MkZVI6BlzWanljicX_XeAGxWbnKslNwn0eI72DoCRiP4eJ8F4_tRKXDUNtK2T0F7/s400/Snap+-_2011-10-13-04h11m09s178.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> Then there’s the action stuff. It’s hit and miss. The action is sped up sometimes and looks about as cheesey as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Six Million Dollar Man</i> bionic sound, but we’re not supposed to think it’s kitsch. Then there’s the bracelets and bullets stuff which actually looked a little cool, but maybe after so much lameness that it just came off as the only awesome thing in the entire run. But then there’s some weird stuff. There’s a moment during the action where she graphically impales a security guard in the throat with a metal pipe. Albeit he was shooting at her, but that’s kind of his job as an armed guard. It’s not like he was a goon or a henchman. In the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wonder Woman</i> 2009 cartoon, that might be acceptable because that Wonder Woman was new to the way things go, but this one is supposed to be more responsible and have a greater understanding of not just killing random working class dudes.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s either that David E. Kelley hated the fact that this could’ve been his cash cow and tried to sabotage it or he really doesn’t know anything about how to make a show like this work. I’ve never seen his shows, but I was a huge fan of <i>Lake Placid</i>. But it seems that anything that carries with it so much weight and history either calls for complete and utter faithfulness to the source material or full-on re-envisioning. Sometimes it hits, but this fails on 95% of its fronts.<br />
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In the meantime, while Hollywood tries to figure things out, this is the only Wonder Woman that matters until a new one comes along.<br />
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</div>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-56819435739518511912011-06-27T06:25:00.000-07:002011-06-27T11:32:47.104-07:00INSIDIOUS: A Full-on Creature Creamertorium<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://willmorecity.com/pix/insidioustitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://willmorecity.com/pix/insidioustitle.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I'd been really annoyed with horror movies as of late. For the longest time there were so many horror movies that didn't actually get the ball rolling until nearly an hour into the film and most of those were like only 90 minutes. Much like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Drag Me to Hell</i>, this at least makes no bones about letting you know what kind of film it is or even allowing you to see the face of some malevolent creature. Many horror movies seem to have characters that exist as if the genre had never been invented. It's like it's not part of their pop culture so the movie itself is treated as if you don't know anything about what you're about to watch. Then there's the other side of the coin where you have characters that are horrorholics, but still make the same dumbass mistakes. This at the very least assumes you know what kind of movie you're watching and a little something about it. It doesn't fuck around with you by watching doors open close without a reason. From the opening shot you know there's something fucked up sitting around and waiting. This something fucked up is what I like to call Tim Burton with a flashlight. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While this follows all the conventions of a horror flick it still manages to keep things happening all the time. You may not know all the reasons, but at least you're not bored. And that's the trick. Just have more of the creepout moments and spookout happen in more rapid succession instead of lingering on characters that we may not have time to care about in a 90-minute flick anyway. And that's what I hate about where modern horror was going for a while there. The time spent on attempting to make you care for characters that could be murdered. Most of the characters that occupy movies and the actors that play them are typically dull and uninteresting people to appeal to a wider audience. And it's certainly true here. At least you have Lin Shaye and Patrick Wilson, but you already know these actors and they're likable from other things you've seen. But of course, the real star of the show here is James Wan and all the creatures. But still. Don't ask me what Darth Maul was doing here. I guess this is where The Force shat his ass out. </span></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">You know who else is in this? Barbara Hershey. Not the Academy Award nominated actress, but the one who was ecto-raped in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Entity</i> and is geekly famous for that. Well, that and being Naveen Andrews sugar mama. But for the most part everyone else knows her as the Oscar-bate actress from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hoosiers, The Natural </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hannah and Her Sisters</i>. Watching her back in a genre flick was actually quite interesting. She helps serve a lot to one of the many creatures in one of her anecdotes about a creature in the corner of her grandson's room. </span></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But this flick is not without problems. There are moments where it's already established that the mom believes that there is at least one entity in the house, but when a child starts screaming, she doesn’t run or come to the aid as quickly as you would think. And it’s not like she’s scared. It’s more like, “Hey, I wonder what my kid is screaming at. I hope it’s not that creepy-ass voice on the baby monitor or my kid falling off a ladder in the attic and landing himself in a coma.” Many of the characters are in fact cutouts because what’s not import are the characters but the array of monsters, ghosts, beasts or whatever. And the biggest problem of the movie is when Lin Shaye arrives on the scene a la Zelda Rubinstein in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poltergeist</i> about 45 minutes into the flick and then proceeds to establish the mythology of the ghosts and what she calls The Further which is a dimension where all ghosts like to party and shit. Once she explains all the physics and how things work, you immediately know how the movie is going to end and what this is all about. I don’t expect to be fooled by a film’s twist ending. In fact, many of them are actually figured out beat for beat mainly because we’ve been down this road in countless stories. But if your movie is going to end on a twist that you can see five miles out, you might as well add another 10 minutes to deal with it. Otherwise it feels like the writer said, “Hey, I’ve got 90 pages and a lot of shit so far. Page 90. Fade out.” Sorry, Leigh Whannel. You needed another 10 pages. You didn’t have to put a pretty, little bow on it, but you didn’t have up look like you just up and quit. However, at least it wasn’t the other side of the coin where NOTHING fucking happens and then you’re forced into a shitty twist ending. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E1YbOMDI59k" width="560"></iframe></span></div>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-31763097245926999422010-10-12T01:45:00.000-07:002011-07-02T04:29:01.004-07:00THE CRACKERJACKS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeFPxQKsGpjDzmVy2wdiPlO-IPULiwI12o1UB4L3slYE2hHwvDFFxY3RsqlgjaL783u4IZgeAC5lhKwgBbElQ_9lyBJdVgn2M1d1s_2kQ7oFHT_ClJzwSEZwIL9r8XPrWdu_AC/s1600/crackerjacks+blog+banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeFPxQKsGpjDzmVy2wdiPlO-IPULiwI12o1UB4L3slYE2hHwvDFFxY3RsqlgjaL783u4IZgeAC5lhKwgBbElQ_9lyBJdVgn2M1d1s_2kQ7oFHT_ClJzwSEZwIL9r8XPrWdu_AC/s400/crackerjacks+blog+banner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I had just finished a 104-page draft of my latest action story which started with the basic idea of bounty hunter chicks who blow a lot of shit up. Typically, what starts out as something that simple and I start reading, researching and mapping out a plot, it usually evolves into something more complex. As a spec writer, it seems like we have to worry much more about character, structure and plot than what we finally see as a final product in movies these days. It’s not that everything out of Hollywood sucks, but scripts usually devolve into something more simplistic to appeal to a mass audience. I suppose it also helps that they have the millions of dollars in their arsenal and the external gimmick of action and effects will supersede everything that spec writers have to prove they can do on the page. It’s not like I don’t like simple action movies, but it just better be one kickass action flick if the structure and everything else is going to suffer. </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The tough part about writing an action script and trying to make it look exciting on the page is that you don’t have the visceral imagery to pull you in. Most of the time you have to pull back on how it would actually be shot or seen so you can minimize black pages because at this point in screenwriting you have to appease the readers who theoretically should be concerned about the basic 3-act structure because much of the time their knowledge on that is only limited to the Syd Field’s Screenplay 101 paradigm to every dotted I and crossed T. Unless we’re producing and directing our own projects, the struggle of a spec writer is writing something that can get past those underpaid readers. So, in some ways you have to convince them you know what you’re doing with the first page. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The plus side is that I can write whatever the fuck I want and the way I want.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">[ This was a like to download the first 30 pages, but since I'm redrafting the script, it's no longer available. Sorry, but will repost soon. ]</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Crackerjacks. At one time this was called The Collision Twins because originally it was about two women who were so similar in behavior and dialogue that they would seemingly be best friends, but just couldn’t stand each other at all and fumble through the plot. As a conceit as a spec writer I then realized that when readers would read the dialogue one of the responses I could get, “The dialogue between the two women are too similar that they seem like twins.” So, I did the buddy thing and decided to differentiate them in ways to make them separate entities. This also expanded my plot and more characters were added. With a wide array of characters who were all the best at what they do, the story became about all of them—the crackerjacks. </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Heroes:</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Caroline Gravenhurst. She was an ex-CID special agent who had been unjustly blamed for a slush fund conspiracy that got her kicked out of the military along with the resident villains (Uncle Brickface and Buck Naked) based on the false testimony of Colonel Charles Bruckner. The only line of work that she could remotely find that had anything to do with law was a fugitive recovery agent where she did well for herself.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sheena Bruckner. Originally named Betty Bruckner, but because of my disdain for Betty Draper on Mad Men, I changed it. So, you may see in my Facebook page a lot of art where Sheena is called Betty. But in the end, the script calls for her to be named Sheena. Anyway, she’s ex-Army Colonel Charles Bruckner’s daughter who has gotten mixed up in Whitley Bruckner’s (her brother) bail fiasco that was supposed to be kept out of the press, but when Caroline is hired to track down Whitley Bruckner, Sheena is a step ahead to try and keep her brother out of jail. Then Whitley goes missing Caroline and Sheena are forced together to track him down before the likes of Uncle Brickface gets to him.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Brunt Tabernacle. The young rookie who was originally used to communicate to the audience how the bounty hunting game works, but he became more useful as the plot started to develop. </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Villains:</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Uncle Brickface. Uncle Brickface was a character I wrote about before back in 1999 in a script called The Flies of MegaWatt Lounge, but I’ve retired that script as I realized it needed a major re-write especially how my writing style changed not to mention so many movies have come out that have either have completely similar scenes like the freeway chase in The Matrix Reloaded or the basic plots. He was a gangster who had stolen a lot of money from gangsters to become this criminal mastermind to rule all over other criminal entities. He’s not much different here this time around either. Only he’s stealing money from government slush funds to go after a corrupt colonel who used these funds for his illegal purposes.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Buck Naked. He was originally a subordinate character to Uncle Brickface, but as his character fleshed out he became much more of a reluctant villain as his family is held hostage to hunt down the son of the colonel that burned Uncle Brickface. </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Versus. She evolved as well. She was originally a sniper that accompanied Buck Naked and would take out undesirables from a distance if Buck Naked ever gave a certain signal. But then working her into the plot became much harder because of page count, I kept her close to Uncle Brickface’s security team.</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Stuff I Read and Researched While Preparing to Write The Crackerjacks</b></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I read Modern Bounty Hunting by Rex Venator and You Can Run But You Can’t Hide by Duane “Dog” Chapman. The Helicopter Pilot's Companion: A Manual for Helicopter Enthusiasts by Helen Krasner, Principles of Helicopter Flight by W. J. Wagtendonk and much of my research was done through articles on certain subjects online. I watched Family Bonds and a lot of Dog the Bounty Hunter. Also watched a lot of strange CID investigation videos that I happened to acquire while visiting their official website. </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-44610641095664414542010-03-06T06:17:00.001-08:002010-03-06T09:08:30.535-08:00STEPFATHER '09: Terry O'Quinn's Legendary Performances Didn't Need a Nip/Tuck<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta><meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"></meta><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CPHILPD%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CPHILPD%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CPHILPD%7E1%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"></link><style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPlf8Yx3H0boR48OUeiqrbON-JnAC2XPRYZR82y1ku-Xucfz-xMiYwewzsDCPPab9PHZ4axfzvKJK2lSbUwA8WuCXPWwFunzQBHJAH8tCHsxWawbrimVBM_wB3M7gaIKMHDrFX/s1600-h/stepfather1987.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPlf8Yx3H0boR48OUeiqrbON-JnAC2XPRYZR82y1ku-Xucfz-xMiYwewzsDCPPab9PHZ4axfzvKJK2lSbUwA8WuCXPWwFunzQBHJAH8tCHsxWawbrimVBM_wB3M7gaIKMHDrFX/s400/stepfather1987.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In the early 70's John List shot his mother, wife and 3 kids in the backs of their heads. I guess the oldest son was at a game or something, so he made himself lunch, drove out and picked up his son, brought him back to the house and then shot him in the back of the head as well. And then after his son "twitched" he shot him 10 more times. Then he informed everyone that the family would be out of town for a long time and he just ran off and sprouted up in several different states all over the US. The bodies weren’t found for about a month. This inspired crime novelist Donald E. Westlake (<i>The Hot Rock, The Hunter</i> , aka <i>Point Blank </i>with Lee Marvin, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><i>The Outfit,</i> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <i>Drowned Hopes</i>, etc.) to write a short story and screenplay that would be made into a 1987 movie called <i>The Stepfather</i> starring Terry O’Quinn.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When <i>The Stepfather</i> franchise began, it was right around the time when slasher films were out staying their welcome and something like this was a welcome change. I think I watched them all if there were only 3 of them (the third one minus Terry O'Quinn, but plus Priscilla Barnes) and they pretty much degraded in quality over the years. But now with the epic Hollywood movement of non-stop remakes and shit, here's <i>The Stepfather 2009</i> which starts out just like the first film--totally inspired by the images of the John List case and then just turns into dull a domestic drama. I say drama because there’s nothing really horrific or thrilling about this. It’s basically about a seemingly nice guy who enters a family’s life and is hiding something. That something of course is a mass murder, but for the stretch of the movie it’s just about a man trying to get along with the family, but not really succeeding. A lot of the movie veers off with a young teen couple who listen to would-be cool music to appeal to the kids in the audience much like <i>Disturbia</i> and lessening the tension of the thriller. I mean, that’s what I’m paying to see—the thriller not kids listening to music.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It’s hard to say where this went down. The script, the director or the producers with too much input. JS Cardone actually wrote one of my favorite horror movies of 2001 called <i>The Foresaken</i> and it would seem like he would be a good choice for this. But then he goes ahead and starts doing what he did with the<i> Prom Night</i> remake and that’s spending too much time trying to apply some sort of likability to the young cast which almost always chews up an hour of screen time (or 75 pages of screenplay)—a trend I’m disliking more and more over time. But just because they have young, pretty faces, doesn’t mean they’re engaging for that hour. At least have the plot cooking along to at least negotiate around the potential of having uninteresting actors. In this case, it’s not so much that the actors aren’t interesting, but they’re given very little to do. They mostly sit around in a pool, kiss each another and say stuff like, “Don’t you think my stepdad’s a little strange?” I’m sorry, you just can’t build tension sitting in a pool, sucking face unless said stepdad is tossing in buckets of starving piranhas and pouring sulfuric acid on your fingertips to prevent them from climbing out. That said, the pool is well shot. And that brings me to something else. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Yes, the movie is well shot. They got a decent DP for this. But a well shot movie is just the beginning. Interweaving even a half-decent plot isn’t all that easy, but at least keeping the tone and pace of the film should be priority. That is, of course, if the pacing is designed for teens that like to order pizza during the second act and only tune in at the last 10 minutes when people start screaming, then yes, it’s perfectly paced. But I for one actually like to watch movies. Like most people, I’m not often fooled by the outcome, but I do like to see how things progress dramatically. As much as I loved Terry O’Quinn’s performances in the franchise, at least there was something always moving along. The performance and the evolving story was just a cohesive meld. Dylan Walsh, whom I always remember as the dude with Amy the talking gorilla in<i> Congo</i>, does an okay job, but I think would’ve only benefitted with more mounting incidences along the way. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">So, should you watch <i>The Stepfather 2009</i>? Well, if you liked <i>When a Stranger Calls</i> with Camilla Belle and <i>Prom Night ‘08</i>, then you will love the shit out of <i>The Stepfather</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tSVmrqAMQZA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tSVmrqAMQZA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br />
<br />
Trailer for the 1987 Original<br />
<br />
<object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gg2YlWCZtLI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gg2YlWCZtLI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-2606820670129329012010-01-26T07:48:00.000-08:002010-01-29T15:01:34.031-08:00PG-PORN: The Motherfucking Deluxe Edition!Here is the run of 2008 and 2009's PG-Porn along with the IGN and uncensored episodes (which you may need to be logged into YouTube for) along with selected YouTube behind-the-scenes from James's Channel and from Spike's PG-Porn behind-the-scenes tab. I did the titles on all of them except for High Poon.<br />
<br />
<b>Spike.com/pgporn Episodes:</b><br />
<br />
These are the ones that were filtered through Spike's censors, but there are some great episodes here like the one with Alan Tudyk in High Poon (another favorite). <br />
<br />
<embed align="middle" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3041858&" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448"></embed> <br />
<a href="http://www.spike.com/video/pg-porn-pg-porn/3041858">PG PORN: Nailing Your Wife</a><br />
<br />
<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3157900" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div><br />
<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3209851" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div><br />
<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3101845" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div><br />
Helpful Bus (Censored Version)<br />
<br />
<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3130264" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div><br />
<br />
The IGN run. These were two episodes that started after the premiere of Nailing Your Wife, but before they started to air on Spike. A Very Peanus Christmas is probably absolute favorite of the bunch. I love them all, but I dig Christmas the most. <br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<b>The Uncensored Episodes:</b><br />
<br />
<b> </b><br />
You may have to sign in to YouTube to watch the uncensored episodes. Otherwise, you've already seen Helpful Bus above with some low-calorie censorship. <br />
<br />
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<br />
This was not only censored to shit, but was also taken down from Spike.com. I think James made the choice to take it down rather than to have it chopped up. <br />
<br />
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<br />
<b>Behind the Scenes from James's Channel:</b><br />
<br />
James Gunn and Michael Rosenbaum<br />
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<br />
James Gunn and Michael Rosenbaum's Horsecock<br />
<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VbP92qWAqf8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VbP92qWAqf8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
<br />
On the set of Helpful Bus<br />
<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qgRZsw6IOZY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qgRZsw6IOZY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
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Aria Giovanni watches herself on PG-Porn<br />
<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/N1yKZX9RX8Y&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/N1yKZX9RX8Y&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
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<b>Behind the Scenes from Spike.com:</b><br />
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<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3174153" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div>Go behind the scenes with Serenity's Alan Tudyk and Belladonna in the latest episode of James Gunn's PG Porn.<br />
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<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3142149" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div>Ride along with James Gunn and Bree Olson in an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Helpful Bus.<br />
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<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3112200" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div>Sasha Grey sits down with PG Porn creator James Gunn to talk about what it was like to work on "Roadside Ass-sistance."<br />
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<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3112201" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div>Get an exclusive look at Sasha Grey on the set of James Gunn's PG Porn. <br />
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<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3097539" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div>Get an exclusive look at the voluptuous Aria Giovanni behind the scenes of PG Porn.<br />
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<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3099924" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div>James Gunn works his magic behind the scenes of PG Porn. <br />
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<embed align="middle" allowfullscreen="true" bgcolor="000000" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3101180" height="365" name="efp" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="488"></embed> <br />
<div style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 3px 0pt; width: 448px;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/hub/pgporn" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">James Gunn's PG Porn</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;"></a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35;">SPIKE.com</a></div>Nathan Fillion prepares to nail Aria Giovanni in an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at PG Porn.Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-22247746684340510602010-01-20T08:45:00.000-08:002010-01-20T08:45:27.083-08:00The Long Beach Flood 2010Just recently, last summer actually, I returned to Long Beach to visit where I grew up. Took nearly 300 pix of where I hung out, went to school and eventually blogged about it. <a href="http://jettisonbrains.blogspot.com/2009/08/long-beach-returning-to-willmore-city.html">Long Beach: Returning to Willmore City After 18 Years</a>. The name Willmore City comes from William E. Willmore's failed farm community that would later become Long Beach. <br />
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All this week, SoCal has three storms coming in. Yesterday was the second with a tornado warning and the YouTubing started. A third one is on the way. Good luck to all my brohams in LBC.<br />
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Forgive some of these videos. I tried to pick short ones. I realize this isn't as tragic as say the war in Iraq, Haiti or all the other shit in the world, but this is a place where I grew up. I know these streets where these videos were taken. Even my old street Roswell and high school fell victim to the flood.<br />
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Here's one of a bag lady floating through the water. <br />
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Here's one of a dude canoeing through the streets. <br />
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kYr6Za_j_bs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kYr6Za_j_bs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
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Parking garage flooding<br />
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JPWy9S5bvtU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JPWy9S5bvtU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
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River flow of someone's apartment complex<br />
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eoAGxP6Z0zw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eoAGxP6Z0zw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
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A dude stops to show us how the flood as affected some.<br />
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ds6gudoyCSw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ds6gudoyCSw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
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My favorite place to eat, Casa Sanchez, was flooded.<br />
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Here are more pix from the street I grew up on. Once again, good luck out there.<br />
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<a href="http://www.lbreport.com/news/jan10/tornado.htm">http://www.lbreport.com/news/jan10/tornado.htm</a>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-7967058159628179662010-01-14T05:28:00.000-08:002012-01-26T03:10:15.841-08:00THE X-RAY EYE SOCIETY (Deluxe Edition)<div style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">
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<a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/THE%20X-RAY%20EYE%20SOCIETY/l_33688ff61f88f2abe3665074a4b9827e.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/THE%20X-RAY%20EYE%20SOCIETY/l_33688ff61f88f2abe3665074a4b9827e.png" /></a></div>
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This entry is a collection of blogs originally posted on <a class="url" href="http://www.myspace.com/xrayeye" title="">myspace.com/xrayeye</a> which also appear in the script as part of the plot. Keeping The X-ray Eye Society separate from some of the things I say, said, do and did on MySpace was important in the sense that it's a script designed for kids and ultimately family fare. The MySpace pages is loaded with tunes, games, gadgets and other childhood junk. But more importantly the story was embedded into social networks and was interactively part of the storyline. After I finished the script I more or less abandoned the page.<br />
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The flash movie below was resized by 25% from the original size. <br />
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So here are the blogs as they appeared on MySpace.</div>
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<b>The New X-RAY EYE SOCIETY Site is Up!</b> </div>
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Originally Posted: <i>Sunday, May 13, 2007</i></div>
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Well, it's sorta up. Here's the preview of the flash page that's featured at WillmoreCity.com. I've tried to keep everything contained in the flash seeing that MySpace has a funky way of linking. The script is complete and I've went from an 84-page rough draft, to a 98-page re-draft and after it was all said and done with all the trims and fixes, I ended up with a tight 88-page script. There will be excerpts soon. The excerpts page in the flash is disabled for now, but there's plenty of other stuff to look at.</div>
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I disabled the flash movie here because it plays music as this bog loads. If you want to check out the movie, you can check it out at The X-ray Eye Society page.<br />
http://willmorecity.com/xrayeye/<br />
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Originally Posted: <i>Wednesday, May 02, 2007 </i></div>
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<a href="http://a3.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/3/48b524fae687e4edbb2bf3557116568a/l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://a3.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/3/48b524fae687e4edbb2bf3557116568a/l.jpg" width="507" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">THE X-RAY EYE SOCIETY<br />
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</span>Okay, this is pretty much a copy and paste from the Ablazin' Devil Head blog. With some new stuff. The Ablazin' Devil Head will be my primary account, but I wanted a fresh account where I can talk about other things like tunes, toys, comics, TV, repressed childhood memories and snacks. Well, also to pimp the script. <br />
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There's plenty of pix in the gallery, so check 'em all out if you want.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Disclaimer<br />
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</span>If you celeb/exec-types are squeamish about copyright-violation consider this my poorman's release form. "I will not sue you or pursue legal action if you should come up with something similar". I believe that'll hold up, but everything below is sparce anyway. <br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Proceeding...</span><br />
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The new script is nearing completion. It's both unlike anything I've written and yet, it's kinda typical. The unusual part of this story is that it's a fun-for-the-whole-family kinda flick. Hard to say if it's a family flick, but it's certainly not a kid's flick. The kids range from 7-12 and the younger the kids the more evil they are--it's part of the plot.<br />
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Without getting into too much of the plot, the story's about a group of resourceful kids who solve mysteries and one day they come up against something huge. My attempt with this story was not to make something original, but to use something you've seen before and spin it into something unique. Where a lot of kid/family movies fail for me is when they purposely go out to make the adults dumber and goofier than they would really be. I think that's one of the failures of <span style="font-style: italic;">Holes</span>. While I do enjoy the movie, I coulda done without some of the cartoony adult performances. I tried to place everyone on an equal intellectual playing field. <br />
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Not only was this story designed as a mass appeal kinda thing, but also to bring back some creepiness. There's something about younger kids involved with the supernatural that adds a little more urgency. Whereas before I had written about kick-ass heroes that feared nothing but failure. Here, their friends and other kids' lives are at stake. <br />
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Oh, and before anybody asks, "No, it wasn't hard to keep the profanity outta the script."<br />
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Oh, here's one of the character designs: Luther Hoodwinkle.<br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">You all may or may not know, but there's an <a href="http://myspace.com/xrayeye" target="_self">X-ray Eye Society MySpace page</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">. Actually, you're already here. Not much is on it, but there's a few games, tunes, toys and shit. I'll be fixing it up little by little.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In Other News...<br />
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</span>Never heard back from Limp Bizkit or that other dude. So, <span style="font-style: italic;">Feeding Frenzy</span> is still on the shelf. <br />
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I'm outta the running for the 2006 Fade In Awards, but hey, I sure as shit got farther than I ever thought I would. <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">The Gibbon</span> project is comin' along a bit slow. A lot of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gibbon</span> was initially designed to be black and white, but the color just makes it look like I Ted Turnered <span style="font-style: italic;">Casablanca</span>. So, I'm having to re-do some of the art to make it more color-friendly instead of just black and a few flecks of color.<br />
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Oh, did a new design for that James Gunn character. You can score some of this stuff and more at <a href="http://cafepress.com/jgas" target="_self">the JGAS Store</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">. All proceeds go to <a href="http://www.roverrescue.com/" target="_self">Rover Rescue</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> and James will match every dollar. At least that's what he said.<br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><img src="http://willmorecity.com/jamesgunn/mrandmrsgrantTshirtsmall.png" /><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Anyway, later, folks. I'm hungry.</span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://x.myspace.com/images/spacer.gif" width="30" /> <br />
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<b><label id="pBlogSubject_178480026">The Case of Old Man Jeckle's Scarecrow</label></b> </div>
Originally Posted: <i>Tuesday, October 10, 2006 </i> <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> EXT. TREEHOUSE - DAY</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> A straggly, old mutt chases ECKS (10, male) and JAC (10,</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> female) up into their treehouse. The dog BARKS and SNARLS</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> daring them to come down.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> JAC</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> We're trapped up here now?</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> ECKS</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> He doesn't hang around for long.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> INT. TREEHOUSE H.Q. - NIGHT</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> They both look down in the dark pit of night seeing the dog's</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> eyes staring back at them.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Jac scowls at him as he CLEARS his throat looking over at Old</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Man Jeckle's backyard.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> ECKS</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> I can climb out to that branch that</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> hangs over Old Man Jeckle's</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> backyard, snatch an apple and</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> distract the dog.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> JAC</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> You mean with Scratch in the</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> backyard? </span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> In the backyard looms a creepy-looking scarecrow they call</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Scratch.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> ECKS</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Psh. That's just an urban legend.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> JAC</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> That's just the kinda talk that</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> gets people in trouble.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> But Ecks is spooked.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> EXT. TREE </span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks climbs along the branch that arches to the ground the</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> farther he goes out. The dog jumps and SNAPS at him seeing</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> the branch is too short.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> EXT. OLD MAN JECKLE'S BACKYARD</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks makes a flying leap over the fence as the dog SCRAPES at</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> the wooden fence. Ecks looks back at a knothole in the fence</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> seeing the evil dog staring back at him.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks runs across the yard, then drops to low-crawl under a</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> window that shows OLD MAN JECKLE's flickering silhouette</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> watching TV.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks looks back, as the dog's snout nuzzles its way under the</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> fence.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> INT. TREEHOUSE</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Jac sees the dog preoccupied with the fence that she climbs</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> down.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> EXT. OLD MAN JECKLE'S BACKYARD</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> The dog crawls under the fence chasing Ecks across the yard. </span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks finds refuge on Scratch's crucifix. The crucifix</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> trembles as Ecks hugs Scratch. Ecks is spooked. Ecks tries</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> to push away from Scratch as the post gets top heavy and</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> leans toward the dog. </span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks reaches for a ripe apple hanging off the tree that's</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> just out of reach. The post starts to lean getting him</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> closer to the apple, but budges it just enough that the apple</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> falls into his sleeve, rolls out the bottom of his shirt and</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> disappears somewhere on the lawn.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> The post inches toward the dog as Ecks is forced to hug</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Scratch to keep the dog from getting him. But the dog</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> WHIMPERS and backs away.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks sees the dog is spooked too. Ecks crawls down and holds</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> up his hands.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> ECKS</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Hey, you go your way and I'll go</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> mine, pooch. Call it square.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> The dog scurries off as the scarecrow tackles Ecks. Ecks</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> SCREAMS and wrestles his way out of Scratch's garb. He</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> notices the post just came loose. </span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> That's when Jac arrives and SPOOKS him holding up an apple.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> JAC</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Hey, I got an apple. You like</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> apples, right?</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> He looks at her for a moment.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> JAC (CONT'D)</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> While you were busy with the dog I</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> hopped outta the tree.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks picks up the scarecrow post and sloppily stands it back</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> up.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> ECKS</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Don't eat the apple.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> JAC</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Why? It's already picked.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> ECKS</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> We don't need it now. Just leave</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> it here.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> JAC</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Is this one of your arbitrary</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> morality moods?</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks storms off as it starts to rain.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> INT. JAC'S ROOM - NIGHT</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Rain BEATS against Jac's bedroom window when she shoots up</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> out of her sleep seeing Scratch's silhouette creeping past</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> the window, but it could be the tree outside. The apple sits</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> on her nightstand.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> The front door CREAKS open making her cringe. HEAVY</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> FOOTSTEPS come towards her room. She crawls under her bed as</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> the door opens -- lightning CRASHES. Shadows dance all over</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> the room. Jac shuts her eyes tight. She cracks one eye open</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> as the lightning settles. All clear. She takes a breath.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> She crawls back into bed seeing the apple missing and wet</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> footsteps leading out of the room. LIGHTNING CRASHES.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> She stares out her window seeing Scratch missing from his</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> post.</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> INT. ECKS' ROOM - NIGHT</span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><br style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;" /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> Ecks is asleep as Scratch leaves the apple on his nightstand.</span></span>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-59143041418375997632009-12-28T07:15:00.000-08:002009-12-28T08:32:55.664-08:00Christmas Island Macabre<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>ISLAND MACABRE Poster Art</b><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is the finished product I did for the girlfriend person. She said she wanted me to draw her something for xXxmas. She said anything, so I did this Island Macabre piece. This wasn't as easy as it should've been. Firstly, I wasn't working on my computer, but her scanner and Mac Mini which took days.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/ISLANDMACABREWidescreenv2c.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/ISLANDMACABREWidescreenv2c.png" /></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-RookeandOrionLineArt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-RookeandOrionLineArt.jpg" width="464" /></a><br />
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</div>#1. The line art. I drew Rooke and Orion on Strathmore 14" x 17" 400 series Bristol. Then scanned it in sections because the paper was bigger than the scanner bed and pieced them together in Photoshop. I cut them off at the legs because I knew they were going to be standing in kunai grass.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-TeachLineArt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-TeachLineArt.jpg" width="464" /></a><br />
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</div>#2. Line art of Teach. At first I wasn't going to add Teach because I wasn't sure I was going to have time to get it done by xXxmas. But it just didn't seem right to do an Island Macabre poster art without Teach. Whipped out more Bristol, drew, scanned in sections and collected all the pieces in Photoshop once again.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-RookeandOrionColor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-RookeandOrionColor.jpg" width="492" /></a><br />
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</div>#3. Coloring. I like more muted colors, but it wasn't jiving when printed for some reason especially when I wanted to do a more dynamic background.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-TeachColor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-TeachColor.jpg" width="492" /></a><br />
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</div>#4. Coloring Teach was a little different because he wasn't going to be in the foreground. So, many of his shadows didn't need much detail.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-TubewormLineArt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Island%20Macabre/IM-TubewormLineArt.jpg" width="464" /></a><br />
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</div>#5. Tubey the Tubeworm was less complicated and daunting because I didn't care about the quality as much seeing that it was more of a texture piece than the trio. I did it on regular 8 1/2 x 11 copy paper. Normally, I avoid copy paper because it bleeds a lot. In PS, I wrapped two images of Tubey around the trio so it looks like it rises in front of them and wraps around their backs.<br />
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#6. The rest of the titles, text, background and samurai were doctored in PS. I went to an on-line Japanese kanji translator to get the text and it translated "Island Macabre" into "The Island is Eerie".Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-18527743467375389532009-12-09T08:04:00.000-08:002009-12-09T09:11:38.103-08:00James Gunn and his Browncoat Mountain [Deluxe Edition]In my ongoing pursuit of transferring my MySpace shit, I've run across some fucking doozies. Here are a couple that I've consolidated into one considering the subject matter. Some of the comments left by people were blurred or left out entirely because I don't really have the necessary permissions. However, you can go visit the original blogs for comments if you really want.<br />
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Also, I couldn't resize the comments without making them too small. Just click on the images and you'll get to read them in all their illustrious glory. One of my favorites is when Jenna Fischer chimed in. <br />
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<b>James Gunn and His Browncoat Mountain </b><br />
<i>Originally posted on The Ablazin' Devil Head's Jizzeriffic Blog on Friday, September 22, 2006.</i> [<a href="http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=11969200&blogId=171193779">original link</a>]<br />
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I tried to embed this in <a href="http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=58119776&blogID=170754406&MyToken=f480c0d2-d7eb-418b-beee-de5f85a76d39">Sir James Gunn's blog</a>, but the fucker banned me from embeddin' shit. So, this is my response.<br />
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<div align="center"><object height="285" width="353"> <param name="movie" value="http://willmorecity.com/frankackerman/flash/brokedickmountain.swf"><embed src="http://willmorecity.com/frankackerman/flash/brokedickmountain.swf" width="353" height="285"> </embed></p></object><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/James%20Gunn/jennafischerandjamesgunn.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/James%20Gunn/jennafischerandjamesgunn.png" /></a><br />
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<b>James Gunn Finally Spoke to Me!</b> <br />
<i>Originally posted on Tuesday, August 15, 2006.</i> [<a href="http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=11969200&blogId=156071869">original link</a>]<br />
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It all started a few weeks ago when I stumbled on to LolliLove written and directed by James Gunn's wife, Jenna Fischer, on MySpace. Then I saw that her friend was James Gunn (aka Grant Grant). Then I asked him to be my friend and he added me and in a weird twisted thing, he posted a bulletin about Dumb Shit in Great Movies and I got re-routed to my own blog which had a review of The Specials. I'm like, "Fuckin' MySpace! How'd I get here?" Then it occurred to me that he fuckin' posted a bulletin and all of the sudden my MySpace traffic has been busy as shit. This is his bulletin that I immortalized.<br />
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But the problem was that he never spoke to me regardless of me frequenting his blog along with other nerdy regulars (who don't know as much about James Gunn as me). He responded AROUND my posts and stuff, but never to me directly. Don't know why, I'm pretty fuckin' likable and shit. But this weekend, I fuckin' charmed his ass so good and hard that he couldn't take it much longer and finally responded to me directly.<br />
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Yes, it's true. James Gunn FINALLY acknowledged my existence. Who wants to touch all over my naughty places now?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/James%20Gunn/jamesgunncommentonlemmyblog.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/James%20Gunn/jamesgunncommentonlemmyblog.png" /></a><br />
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Then of course there are these shout-outs on his MySpace blog and CHUD. Yes, he actually mentions me on CHUD. <a href="http://chud.com/articles/articles/7893/1/EXCLUSIVE-INTERVIEW-JAMES-GUNN-SLITHER-DVD/Page1.html">Exclusive Interview: James Gunn (SLiTHER DVD).</a><br />
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What I dig best about this mention is how I allegedly murdered Gregg Henry and how Michael Rooker didn't get in on the sex.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://willmorecity.com/frankackerman/horrorarcanum/pix/jg6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://willmorecity.com/frankackerman/horrorarcanum/pix/jg6.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-61098088684637890022009-12-06T16:18:00.000-08:002009-12-06T23:09:45.247-08:0013 Favorite X-mas Flicks [Media Edition]<span style="font-family:courier new;">Why? Because it's more than 10 and less than 15. This is not a list of which flick is better than another, but which ones put me in an xXxmas mood. Also, this was originally posted on my MySpace blog a few years ago, this just happens to be a media version. Some of the videos are trailers and some are music and some clips from the movie. In the case of The Ref, I couldn't find a trailer or decent clip, so I just posted The Asshole video.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >Lethal Weapon <span style="font-size:85%;">(Di</span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/Lethal_weapon_LRCD29580.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 193px; height: 166px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/Lethal_weapon_LRCD29580.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">rector's Cut)</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br />NR, (1987), 1</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >17 mins. Richard Do</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >nner.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">While the season is chockfull of yuletide cheer and shit, I d</span><span style="font-family:courier new;">ig a little blood. It's dark, depressing and yet still finds a little time for some heart with the Mur</span><span style="font-family:courier new;">taugh family. Sure, the movie </span><span style="font-family:courier new;">doesn't feel that Christmasy, but it's a Los Angeles X-mas. And the opening titles start with Jingle Bell Rock.</span><br /><br /><p align=center><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OXgj9WIMevM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OXgj9WIMevM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object></p><br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/diehard_l.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 181px; height: 242px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/diehard_l.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Die Hard</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >R, (1988), 131 mins. John McTiernan.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">I suppose this is obvious, but it's the heart-warming true story of terrorists taking over a Japanese skyscraper that makes us ask the question, "Did you get us with the bomb or did we get you with tape decks?"</span><br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-qxBXm7ZUTM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-qxBXm7ZUTM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/cobra.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 157px; height: 195px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/cobra.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >Cobra</span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br />R, (1986), 87 mins. George P. Cosmatos.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">Another Los Angeles X-mas yarn about some evil elves that want to take over the world and spread their disease and only one cop on the zombie squad is the cure. Yes, Marion Cobretti is back and he's got an attitude... but it's just a little one.</span><br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qWJhuHWzrqA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qWJhuHWzrqA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >L.A. Confidential</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/LAcon.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 209px; height: 233px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/LAcon.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >R, (1997), 138 mins. Curtis Hanson.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;"><br />Los Angeles is back with a vengeance loaded with police corruption and eccentric gangsters who wanna build freeways. Yes, these visionary Chris Cringles wanna contribute to the future that is the motherfuckin' Fuck-0-5.</span><br /><br /><p align=center><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BkJ8dT6iLeM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BkJ8dT6iLeM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object></p><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" > </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/batman89.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 322px; height: 224px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/batman89.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >Batman</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >PG-13, (1989), 126 mins. Tim Burton.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">Back in 1989 Batman came out on VHS around X-mas time and was available in every gas station from here to that other gas station down the street and was playing in every home on X-mas Eve. That's about it.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" > <br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9AdEHOta-Uc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9AdEHOta-Uc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br />Batman Returns</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/batmanreturns.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 198px; height: 298px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/batmanreturns.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >PG-13, (1992), 126 mins. Tim Burton.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">It looks Christmasy.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3_neOGeee9k&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3_neOGeee9k&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/The_Long_Kiss_Goodnight.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 194px; height: 243px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/The_Long_Kiss_Goodnight.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >The Long Kiss Goodnight</span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br />R, (1996), 120 mins. Renny Harlin.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">Yes, Shane Black is back because he loves blood on X-mas. This is the heart-warming true story of a simple school teacher who has amnesia and realizes her true calling—a world class grade-A assassin. Aided by Snakes on a Plane and the original Hannibal Lector.</span> <br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oDuma1M09B0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oDuma1M09B0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/jfloverape.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 401px; height: 305px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/jfloverape.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >Jack Frost</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >R, (1996), 89 mins. Michael Cooney.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">This low-budget attempt has one great moment. The snowman rapes Shannon Elizabeth with a carrot.</span> <br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ATMHIlXTUU4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ATMHIlXTUU4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/jf2.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 195px; height: 282px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/jf2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >Jack Frost 2: <span style="font-size:85%;">Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br />R, (2000), 91 mins. Michael Cooney.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">A motherfuckin' classic! He's icin' and slicin'<span style="font-weight: bold;">.<br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3lEveljrAjQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3lEveljrAjQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br /></span></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/gremlins2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 565px; height: 316px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/gremlins2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >Gremlins</span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br />PG, (1984), 106 mins. Joe Dante.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">Joe Dante directes this Christmas horror flick for the whole family. Contrary to popular belief this was NOT the first PG-13 movie, but it was one that pushed the envelope.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UaenMX8p04U&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UaenMX8p04U&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/theref.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 546px; height: 293px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/theref.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >The Ref</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >R, (1994), 93 mins. Ted Demme.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">Denis Leary plays a cat burglar who stumbles on a really fucked up family and is forced to play Dr. Wong, Marriage Counselor while the cops close in on him. Now, I don't have a clip from the movie, so, how about The Asshole video?</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br /><br /><p align=center><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JTVpxxzb2Dc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JTVpxxzb2Dc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object></p><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/scrooged.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 164px; height: 243px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/scrooged.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >Scrooged</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >PG-13, (1988), 101 mins. Richard Donner.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">Richard Donner, X-mas film alumni (Lethal Weapon), directs one of Bill Murray's last good films of the 80's. This is the story of a TV network CEO that is suddenly raped by the 3 ghosts of Christmas.</span><br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RK_xRPs2QqI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RK_xRPs2QqI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >A Christmas Story</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/christmas_story.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 246px; height: 373px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Xmas%20Flick%20Blog/christmas_story.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >PG, (1983), 94 mins. Bob Clark.</span></span> <span style="font-family:courier new;">This is a great story for kids that want a gun for Christmas.</span><br /><br /><p align=center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uvMLfSQrHKE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uvMLfSQrHKE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-72784136309433494592009-10-28T08:05:00.000-07:002009-12-04T08:53:32.527-08:00LAND OF THE LOST: The Reason Why It Needed to Bomb<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN9KjNyaQhfSA6KyHHrt6jv_BmnZgiIs_J6rK_Vw-Ye2PCtblPomZxjJZgnsN367Jr_mt_EoFbRycX9gg2drlWAt5JhhPqV0vWtIgfZzJFOAvriZb6ZPFZb9Pk9ZpNduVXWdLg/s1600-h/LandOfLost-Sleestak.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 306px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN9KjNyaQhfSA6KyHHrt6jv_BmnZgiIs_J6rK_Vw-Ye2PCtblPomZxjJZgnsN367Jr_mt_EoFbRycX9gg2drlWAt5JhhPqV0vWtIgfZzJFOAvriZb6ZPFZb9Pk9ZpNduVXWdLg/s400/LandOfLost-Sleestak.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397674186516324626" /></a><br /><br />Watched LAND OF THE LOST 2009 a couple days ago. I feel the same way about it that I did about other TV-to-feature-reboots like Brady Bunch and Starsky & Hutch. I realize that going back to the 70's sets up for some goofy laughs just because it was in an era that time forgot, but that's always treated as the key source for jokes. Could they have made a kick-ass gritty Starsky & Hutch? Fuck yeah. They didn't though. The Brady Bunch was a little bit harder because it's about boring family with boring situations. So, the idea was to make them into a freak family somehow living in the 90s. By fuck, would rather settle for another Munsters reboot if that was the case. Hell, even the 90's remake was funnier with the right tone. Charlie's Angels does it slightly different. It takes the one joke of models becoming private detectives and turning them into superheroes. But hell, even the original Angels took their stories a little bit more seriously. At least Charlie's Angels isn't full-on parody. But that's the point. It's all about how it's perceived on the surface. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8-Irs5qEncnFHOYr4P8JIQrmhrJZTSjRf_1bgphg1jv67qJliMbkImi3ZwX2e7lhnGOyI2yFYlU2urLQbWzF7hndIqqnmknkS4qMFEJBIuGxkIxlX727nOIpvuca5kX1N8Vk/s1600-h/land-lost-old-school.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 297px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8-Irs5qEncnFHOYr4P8JIQrmhrJZTSjRf_1bgphg1jv67qJliMbkImi3ZwX2e7lhnGOyI2yFYlU2urLQbWzF7hndIqqnmknkS4qMFEJBIuGxkIxlX727nOIpvuca5kX1N8Vk/s400/land-lost-old-school.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397676253758663810" /></a><br /><br />The Land of the Lost 2009 is another casualty of parodying the source material. I guess that's what the audience wants in a way. I have to say, as a comedy, it was funny. I did laugh at stuff regardless of how much they altered things. And a lot of the jokes were at the expense of many of the characters like Enik and Cha-ka, but you would have to know the original show to get them. Although, I'm kinda glad this flick bombed. It didn't just bomb, it bombed huge. They totally coulda made a serious or at least a fun adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones, but it seems they felt that their $100 mil would be best spent on a comedy. Yeah, after 14 years in development this is what they came up with--a Will Farrell vehicle. I like him enough, but shit, he's not the person I'd follow through I science fiction flick. Tim Allen in a flick called Galaxy Quest, I think so. At least he can bring a sense of urgency to the story and character no matter if it's a comedy. It's not that Ferrell can't bring drama to a role. Stranger than Fiction proved that, but it seems he just likes to fuck around with other people's time and money. "What? An adaptation of Land of the Lost? Where's my money bitch?"<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiktRbGEt-j4TFbc7zxRW7hWuCU-TaOZUJ65kKmh_8M8iEndl7KJyxb3igyxDZ8Q0CWcSmBrX8d6uQVmWvwEwmG82XHo-5N0CiZjGQCdLavez-AHdj3dF3D6AOzg9I8xnoVkrsM/s1600-h/kathy-coleman-land-of-the-lost.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 381px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiktRbGEt-j4TFbc7zxRW7hWuCU-TaOZUJ65kKmh_8M8iEndl7KJyxb3igyxDZ8Q0CWcSmBrX8d6uQVmWvwEwmG82XHo-5N0CiZjGQCdLavez-AHdj3dF3D6AOzg9I8xnoVkrsM/s400/kathy-coleman-land-of-the-lost.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397674956466501986" /></a><br /><br />The external stuff. Okay, going back to the original show will probably make most people laugh at the dated production value alone. But if you look at the stories and some of the philosophies that are embedded in most sci-fi flicks and shows, there's a lot in the first two seasons of Land of the Lost 1974. The complicated nature of why this parallel universe exits and the denizens of such creatures as Sleestaks and Pakuni run throughout the series and is totally absent from the flick. I'm guessing because it was made for a dumber audience. An audience that would seemingly be more entertained by the exterior aspects such as CG and the surface laughs of Will Ferrell. I grew up on Land of the Lost reruns and what I remember it was a smart show. In fact, I'd watched the series again recently and realized it was much smarter than I realized. The show's writing credits included Larry Niven, David Gerrold, William Keenan, Margaret Armen, Joyce Perry, hell even Walter Koenig wrote an episode. Yes, lots of Star Trek alumni. What's most interesting was that the original show was geared for kids and had such adult philosophies and the movie was envisioned for a broad, dumber audience and mostly adults. I guess dumber adults. But the interesting thing is that target audience didn't show up. So, I'm glad it bombed because it does leave me some hope that there's some brains and guts out there... somewhere. I just wish they were the ones working at the studios. <br /><br />If the school of Michael Bay taught us anything, we need to be much stupider in life. That way we can enjoy ourselves a lot more. Hell, he convinced Steven Spielberg to preach his gospel. <br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aj3ox_PXo1A&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aj3ox_PXo1A&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-81447943167821562142009-10-15T14:07:00.000-07:002009-12-04T06:53:44.890-08:00James Gunn's HUMANZEE! is Live on Blip.tv!That's right, folks. James Gunn and company went ahead and finally got HUMANZEE! up live on Blip.tv. While HUMANZEE! was a longtime coming, I was called in at the last minute. And I have to say this is my absolute fave of James's new media projects. When I first saw the trailer for this last fall, I thought, "Fuck! I wanna work on this one!" But I was tied up with PG-Porn, but now I'm working on it! Or worked on it. Past tense. And totally proud to present...<br /><br />You can also view this at <a href="http://blip.tv/file/2712890/">Blip.tv</a>!<br /><br /><embed src="http://blip.tv/play/hMRfgabmTAI%2Em4v" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="277" width="480"></embed>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-88863752761228668332009-08-31T13:00:00.000-07:002009-12-04T12:53:26.743-08:00Long Beach: Returning to Willmore City After 18 Years.<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/longbeachbanner.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/longbeachbanner.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">First of all this is one epic-ass blog.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Probably the most epicest that I’ve undertaken.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Not only is this epic, but it contains so much that I can’t even fit into this here single entry.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">This isn’t a historical account of <st1:city><st1:place>Long Beach</st1:place></st1:city>, but more of my relationship to it as a kid into adulthood before I left to pursue other things.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">However, there are some historical facts that include the opening titles of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Lethal Weapon</span><span style="font-size:100%;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fpa1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fpa1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fpa4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fpa4.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Let’s start out with the controversial stuff.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Yes, my mom worked for an abortion clinic.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Actually, she worked for quite a few in <st1:place><st1:placename>Orange</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>County</st1:placetype></st1:place> as well.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But they did a lot more than abort babies.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">They tried to prevent unwanted pregnancies with several birth control techniques.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But as a child, I didn’t really understand it.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">What I did know was that there were several rubber models of uteri lying around the house.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But after she ran the gambit paying for babysitters and day care, I was often left in the waiting room of FPA where I basically watched TV all day while coloring in my coloring books and playing with assorted toys.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I didn’t have much to do between <st1:time minute="0" hour="6">6AM</st1:time> and <st1:time minute="0" hour="18">6PM</st1:time>, but I just sat and drew pictures.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Caught up on all my </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Scooby-Doo, Brady Bunch, Charlie's Angels</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> and </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Wonder Woman</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. If you're traveling the Metro Blue Line and reach the Willow station, you will be able to see the back where I spent my days looking out at the train tracks. But this was before the Metro Blue Line was built, so it was just freight train tracks. So, just look up and wave. Maybe you'll see a ghost of a 5 year-old me.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fpa2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fpa2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/leathalwettings.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/leathalwettings.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In 1987 a little movie called </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Lethal Weapon</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> opened up and it opened on a building on <st1:place>Atlantic</st1:place> and Ocean.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The same building where Amanda Huntsacker snorted a line and plunged to her death.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">In that very building about 10 years earlier, a friend, Alam (aka Amir), and I were at a pool party.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We musta been like 3 or 4.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We were trying to find his apartment so we could pee.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Well, we’d forgotten what floor it was on and we just let it rip right there in the elevator.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Our logic was that we were already wet from the pool that no one would notice.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Of course we got our asses kicked.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Yes, it was perfectly legal to beat the shit outta your kid at the time.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">So, when ever I watch the opening of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Lethal Weapon</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> I can’t help, but grin a little thinkin, I totally pissed on every floor of that building. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/roswelland10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/roswelland10.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I think around the age of 7 I was allowed to stay home by myself.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We lived in a roach-infested apartment for 9 years on <st1:city><st1:place>Roswell</st1:place></st1:city> and 10<sup>th</sup>.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> We lived in the back where I had a nice view of the alley. That alley was my window to strange activities. That's where I saw plenty of women undressing in their bedrooms in apartments across the way. And where I saw two grown men beat the shit out of each other in an all-out fisticuffs. One dude got belted in the face with a gas can. Not sure what happened next because the next thing I knew, these dudes were shaking hands and limped off to their prospective first aid kits. I think one dude said, "See you next week." It was almost like that Warner Bros. cartoon where Wyle E. Coyote and that shaggy sheep dog would go at it and then clock out saying, "Good work today."<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/roswell1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/roswell1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Much of my time was seeing how I can sneak out the windows to play with all the other kids.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">My mom locked me in a lot, but I always found a way out.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The hard part was getting back into the house by a certain time without her being the wiser or finding out that she now had to put locks on the windows too.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">In the front yard of the complex was a wide open yard where we'd totally hang.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> It wasn't </span><span style="font-size:100%;"> fenced in like you see here.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/adventuretree.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/adventuretree.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">That scrawny-looking tree, which wasn't scrawny in its day, is what we called The Adventure Tree.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Each branch indicated a more dangerous level depending on the height.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">They were often named after popular martial arts movies and icons at the time.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The first was the Chuck Norris branch.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">If you climbed out there you’d hang there for a number of seconds and eventually drop to the ground.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Then there were </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Nine Deaths of the Ninja, Ninja III: Domination, Enter the Dragon, Eye for an Eye,</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Cliffhanger (no relation to the Stallone flick) and the pussiest of branches… </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >The Gymkata</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> branch.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/jacsapt.jpg" /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">It’s also this tree where </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >The X-ray Eye Society</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> HQ is.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The X-ray Eye kids could look out across the street to where Jac and her demonic brother were moving in.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">In reality, our friend Robin lived there.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">She was cool playing with us for a while, then when school started she joined her chick clique and then we were suddenly just the weird kids.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I didn’t think we were weird at the time, however, we loved to play in alleys.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">That’s usually where we found all the cool stuff people threw out and we’d build stuff with.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/dirtfield1.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/dirtfield3.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/dirtfield4.jpg" /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">One of the places we frequented was The Dirt Field on 8<sup>th</sup> and Termino.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It was a place where people in the neighborhood would just drop off their discarded junk.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">On one side was the mouth of the Dirt Field and on the other end was a frat house which looks like a regular old apartment now.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/dirtfield2.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">But one day on our way back from school, we’d come across a shopping cart full (and I mean FULL) of nudie mags.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">These were not </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Playboy</span><span style="font-size:100%;">s or </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Penthouse</span><span style="font-size:100%;">s.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">These were some bubblegum hardcore nasty mags.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Me and my friend, Brian, were trying to figure out how to get these into our houses without our moms finding out.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But there was one mag that I was particularly fascinated with which was a female motorcycle cop and a nun having full-on carnal knowledge of each other--with billie clubs and crucifixes. Today, they cleaned that place up and turned it into a historical landmark of some kind.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It was only historical for us for many reasons.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The Dirt Field as I remember it is how it’s featured in </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >The X-ray Eye Society</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. Although, it does look prettier now, it just doesn’t have the same character.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fremont1.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fremont3.jpg" /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I went to John C. Fremont.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">My best friend went to some other school.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But while I was at <st1:city><st1:place>Fremont</st1:place></st1:city>, I used to hang out with this kid Egbert where we’d have these fake stunt fights behind the baseball fence.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We were fans of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >The Fall Guy</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> and the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Rocky </span><span style="font-size:100%;">movies and we always practiced stunt fighting.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We fooled a few kids here and there, but we weren’t into tricking people.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Just practicing our moves.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Then one day we were told to break up the fake fights because it was too strange.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/fremont2.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/brewitt.jpg" /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">When I didn’t have anyone to hang with, I’d often find myself hanging at the library.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It was pretty killer actually.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Learned a lot about film and art through those books in their cinema section.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/jefferson.jpg" /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I guess when Junior High came around that’s when I became a flip book porn king entrepreneur.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I did lots of flip books of giant monster robots that would try and blow each other up.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Then one day a kid pulls me aside and says, “Can you do one with a guy fucking a girl in the ass?”</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">He handed me five bucks.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Then word got around that I was the flip book smut king.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">So, I made some cash.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">And where did we go when I had money? Either the Gold Mine arcade in the Long Beach Plaza, 7-11 or Casa Sanchez.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/casasanchez3.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/casasanchez2.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Yup Casa Sanchez is where we got our grub on.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The enchiladas a la carte are still amazing, but now they’re half the size.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The bean and cheese burrito is still ridiculously large, but the one I had yesterday wasn’t so great.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It really lacked cheese. But who knows?</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Maybe it was the good chef’s day off.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/enchilada.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/enchilada.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/marketplace.jpg" /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">And of course for entertainment there were two theaters in the 80’s kitty corner from each other. </span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The UA Marketplace and AMC Marina Pacifica.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Throughout the 80’s the Marina Pacifica Mall was becoming a graveyard of dead shops.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">In the late 70’s and early 80’s it thrived like any other mall.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But what made this mall special was that it was right on the water amid all the boats.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/marinapacifica.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">If you had a canoe you can row from your apartment and into Marina Pacifica.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> But little by little, more shops kept closing. So, while you were waiting for a movie, there wasn't really a whole lot to do. There was a B. Dalton's book store, but I think they closed that down too. Eventually, B&N, Best Buy and other stores opened up. But it looks more like a typical strip mall now.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The AMC theaters were nice, but they always showed crappy movies.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Before Orion Pictures went belly up in the 90s, there was a contract cut way back in the day that Marina Pacifica would get all the Universal and Disney movies, while the UA Marketplace got the Fox and Orion movies—which were all the genre flicks.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Including all the trashy movies where people got naked for no reason at all.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But unfortunately, the UA Marketplace was roach-ridden. In the late 80’s I turned 16 and started the counterfeiting stage of my life.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/marketplaceua.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">When I didn’t have money, I would make fake tickets that the usher totally believed.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">In the 80’s the R-rating wasn’t taken all that serious regardless of what cinemastorians would like you to believe.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But when a movie was controversial like </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Angel Heart </span><span style="font-size:100%;">or something, then the box office girls and ushers would pay more attention to our age and wondered where our adult guardians were.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> In those cases it was just forging a ticket for <span style="font-style: italic;">Like Father, Like Son </span><span>or something </span>and slipping into another flick.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/marketplaceua2.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">That’s when we’d start putting tape on the backs of the doors where we’d slip in and grab a seat before the usher came barreling down the aisle.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Then of course I got into more complex counterfeiting.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Partially, just to see if I could do it.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">And partially, I wanted to eat pizza instead of toast and salt sandwiches for lunch.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But I knew, by the time I’d turned 18 I had to go straight.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img style="width: 362px; height: 225px;" src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/Picture366-1.jpg" /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">One of the great things about <st1:place><st1:placename>Woodrow</st1:placename> <st1:placename>Wilson</st1:placename> <st1:placename>High School</st1:placename></st1:place> was this one class called Film Analysis.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">We’d watch movies and write papers on stuff like <span style="font-style: italic;">Citizen Kane, Aliens, Raiders of the Lost Ark</span> and stuff.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">This was the easiest class I ever had.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Not only did we write about movies, but we actually got to shoot several short films on 8MM.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I did a revenge flick called </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Rapid Rodneys </span><span style="font-size:100%;">just after the Rodney King beating about Rodney King and his buddy, King Rodney, who went around fucking up the cops that kicked Rodney King’s ass.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Man, I made a mess of that school.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I had one character, King Rodney I think, reach into Chuck Dearing’s throat, down into his chest and pull out his heart.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">And Dante Lewis, who played King Rodney, held an apple that we doused in BBQ sauce that we got from Del Taco and he pumped his fist around the apple as if it was still beating.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Then later, Dominic Arnold, who played Rodney King, smashed Eddie’s head against the concrete benches while BBQ sauce spread all over the place.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">And I think later someone was stabbed through the ear with a pencil and we used a shampoo bottle mixed with water and red paint to look like there was a huge bloody rupture spraying out of the dude’s ear.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I no longer am in possession of that film.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I think Miss Townley owns the film stock. Where ever she is dammit. Where ever she is.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/recpark.jpg" /><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">But because of that flick later me, Tommy LaRossa, Chad Hidalgo and Rick Rodriguez shot a movie off campus at Recreation Park (across from the school) which was an action-packed mad slasher movie about a homeless bum who tries to kill a skate punk, but it all just turns into a fable of who’s the real psychotic killer.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Because it turns out that Tommy LaRossa was actually the notorious newspaper killer who killed his victims with his daily periodicals.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">You’d have to see it to believe it.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Unfortunately, I lost that film somewhere between <st1:country-region><st1:place>South Korea</st1:place></st1:country-region> and <st1:city><st1:place>Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">If nothing at all, it’s probably still a funny fucking movie.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">And yes, I still had BBQ sauce left over from </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Rapid Rodneys</span><span style="font-size:100%;">.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">But it’s funny.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">My mom wondered where all the BBQ packets went.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I guess she thought I was eating them. And if you knew/know me, I hate BBQ sauce.<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Anyway, I didn’t stay in town much longer.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">I think I joined the Army around December of 1991 and then left for basic training in 1992.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Came back to Los Angeles in 1995, went to college, worked and a few things happened here and there. Of course, there's more to all these Long Beach adventures, but this barely scratches the surface.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Here are just additional pix from around the neighborhood.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/mothersbeach3.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/mothersbeach.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/boats.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/belmontshore.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/boatgraveyard.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/boatgraveyard2.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/coloradolagoon.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/coloradolagoon2.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/parkducks.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/parkducks2.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/whitebird.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/queenmary.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/lbperformingarts.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Where I saw my first symphony.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/lbconvntioncenter.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/marketplace2.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/oldmanjeckles.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/jacandhoodwinkle.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The X-ray Eye Society Visual Reference Points for PCH Chase.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/pchchase.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/pchchase2.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/pchchase3.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/pchchase4.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/pchchase5.jpg" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In 1987, we moved here. Right across the street from The Dirt Field.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img src="http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m326/bytproductions/800termino.jpg" /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-88943964097948281282009-08-07T14:53:00.000-07:002009-08-07T15:04:35.310-07:00G.I. JOE: Where Did All the Good Times Go?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdRsfg50qHs15kEbW5aywpObDWKkVxySSlrgYWGZh1CiZeeMAKgAKNojNLWfYHDa4NN3n6p3MHEifsieMLMK2fGPuGaNDRkQbMNXoCReq2JFkGBAjlBhGydf8fAG5zZbZjA50/s1600-h/baroness.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdRsfg50qHs15kEbW5aywpObDWKkVxySSlrgYWGZh1CiZeeMAKgAKNojNLWfYHDa4NN3n6p3MHEifsieMLMK2fGPuGaNDRkQbMNXoCReq2JFkGBAjlBhGydf8fAG5zZbZjA50/s400/baroness.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367345726888171682" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Sat through it today. I suppose there are a couple ways to look at this. After three years of reading one lame chunk of news and leaked art after another that there's no way this flick could be lower than my lowest expectations. I was hoping on that that at the very least it would be entertaining. I have to say it barely makes the mediocre mark. There are a few cool things in there, but ultimately, it was mildly entertaining. I think the major blow for me was that just about all the actors were a little embarrassing to watch. Blame the story, writers, producers or directors, but no matter what I should want to root for someone. Hell, I can't even root for the villains and their cool gadgets.<br /><br />It is true that what makes GI Joe is not really are the Joes themselves, but villains like Destro, The Baroness, Dr. Mindbender, The Crimson Twins (Tomax and Xamot), Storm Shadow, Zartan and his Dreadnocks and my personal fave Cobra Commander. Cobra always came up with the coolest gadgets and plans. Without these characters GI Joe wouldn't exist. Or at least not the GI Joe I grew up with in the 80s. And when you alter these characters to have the relationships they have in this movie it pretty much makes both the movie and the characters less interesting. Now, I already knew every story beat and character turn before watching so nothing was thrown. I was already dreading the Duke/Cobra Commander/Baroness relationship so I wasn't disappointed when the beats came up, but somehow it played out much worse than I expected and even LESS satisfying on a dumb fun scale.<br /><br />The Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow tie was cheapened. I suppose I understand that they wanted to make it more dramatically different so to offer something fresh to the fans who already know the background. The way I see it, their relationship is a complex one. Probably too complex for a 120-minute movie, but the TV series always did it right. They always hinted at a past relationship that you actually had to look up in the comics or some fan forum. This movie takes all that out. This is the one-stop shop in Origin Land. The be all, end all for any questions you may have about any character's absolute basics. I think we need to get rid of that shit and keep things secret sometimes just to have more time to deal with more plot-related issues and making what is on screen less pedestrian. That said, the flashbacks and origins don't last too long. They're trivialized to a bare minimum and spread out through the entire movie. There's a moment when Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow clash swords for the first time and a flashback is tossed in before the fight continues. Then later after the Joes' headquarters is blown up Snakes Eyes is just sitting around doing nothing while everyone else is repairing the damage and we take a more detailed journey to Flashbackville. At least Duke waits till he gets on a long plane ride before he foists a flashback on us. That way he doesn't look like a lazy fucking slug.<br /><br />And the action wasn't even that great. The much-loathed accelerator suits didn't play out all that bad, but it was actually the only good scene in the whole flick. Well, "good" is being too generous I think, but by that point in the flick something entertaining needed to happen and I guess that was it. And the one character I thought I was gonna dislike was the only character that I did like and that was Scarlett. She was never one of my favorite Joes. I was always either a Cover Girl or Lady Jaye fan. But with what very little Scarlett had to do here, she was okay.<br /><br />Marlon Wayans as Ripcord? I suppose we've talked about this in the past, but man, he's more uninteresting than ever. His big brother must pull some awesome strings for him because I don't see how he's got a career in anything. There are just some actors that rub me the wrong way every time and Marlon Wayans is one of them. But Damon Wayans? That's a funny motherfucker.<br /><br />Dennis Quaid as General Hawk. Well, at least he's more or less the same. Not a very interesting character nor was he interesting in any incarnation. But at least his rank is the same. Because what they did with Duke was made him an officer, a major at that, and that was in a flashback. At one point I believe they called him a captain. And that was BEFORE the flashback. So, that means he was demoted. But officers don't get demoted. They're kicked out. I may have to doublecheck my listening skills. I was a little disturbed that I thought they may have called Duke a captain once because he was always an EM--a sergeant. A totally different rank structure. On a second viewing I'll have to listen for that just to make sure. Because that shit's wrong in so many levels.<br /><br />Breaker. I guess Said took his acting classes from the school of Jerry Bruckheimer because he's one wooden motherfucker. But I will say, he does have one good moment, but he can probably thank Stephen Sommers for giving him one totally morbid gag. He lunges two spikes into a Cobra Neo-viper's brains trying to absorb the dead dude's memories.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaAWfjs8zw2cqShhYgoGv3zTHqN_EvgkRZjsKJlkaNtOCULRWfq_6_xTpDluTvo7mz20FoCv9LHNjwbY3NjLzv-Py5paeiekAHQz72-bAYRW4LL4x6w7d85tJWKuItkkdOg5-4/s1600-h/GI+Joe+-+Cobra+Commander.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 246px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaAWfjs8zw2cqShhYgoGv3zTHqN_EvgkRZjsKJlkaNtOCULRWfq_6_xTpDluTvo7mz20FoCv9LHNjwbY3NjLzv-Py5paeiekAHQz72-bAYRW4LL4x6w7d85tJWKuItkkdOg5-4/s400/GI+Joe+-+Cobra+Commander.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367345943127765202" border="0" /></a>Cobra Commander and the Cobra Soldiers. Eh. I suppose we all new Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be a dull Cobra Commander and he doesn't fail to not disappoint. Not only is his tie with Duke and The Baroness annoying, but he just doesn't bring the personality a villain should have in a flick like this. Hell, the voice actor who played Cobra Commander in the series had more zing. Man, even when Cobra Commander dons his face plate in the flick it looks like they just stole the prop from Jason X. Ya know what? Fuck the face plate. I'll settle for a hooded Cobra Commander any day.<br /><br />Alan Silvestri. It's better than the Van Helsing score. It's got some Silvestri-esque high points, but not his best.<br /><br />When it comes to doing movies like these, the blame falls on so many people. Not just the writers. The writers get part blame because they're nothing but underpaid hired hands because they have to appease the powers which are Hasbro and the studio. And after watching the flick, I would hope that this would be a great vehicle for a new line of toys. In fact, all the ships, cars, planes are all amazingly boring. You would think that Hasbro woulda cracked the whip and said, "More fucking toys, dickheads!" Or maybe they did and that's what they got.<br /><br />In the end, it does have moments, but most of them shine in comparison to how lifeless everything else is. These are the signs of the times. We will be getting more of these movies each summer. I don't mind flicks that are big and dumb, but come on, Hollywood. Fucking come on.Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-78805448231804902042009-07-27T14:30:00.000-07:002009-07-27T14:40:27.758-07:00Fade In Vs. The Wrap... and Me<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.filmbuffonline.com/FBOLNewsreel/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/screenplays.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 207px; height: 218px;" src="http://www.filmbuffonline.com/FBOLNewsreel/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/screenplays.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Part 1</span><br /><br />Okay. An interesting thing happened to me last week. I had just gotten back from Culver City and I got this phone call from Audrey Kelly of the Fade In Awards. She seemed a bit nervous and shaky so I didn’t know what she wanted at first. She mentioned something about MySpace and “something” I wrote or posted. It was like she was playing some game where I had to fill in the blanks. Then she went on and said something like, “Our lawyers were about to send you a letter, but I said, ‘Let me see if I can talk to him’”. Still wasn’t sure what she was getting at, because this went on for a few more moments. But to make the story short, it was in regards to a pair of <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/article/1812">The Wrap articles</a> that accused Fade In of taking spec writers for a ride. At first I thought she was talking about my blog where I posted the article and links to the continuing drama and I mention that I posted her response to the article just underneath. Then she was like, “But that’s in your blog. That’s fine. I’m talking about MySpace.” “Uh, MySpace…?” I thought. I hadn’t been on MySpace for a while. But she still didn’t get to the point so I talked her through it by asking questions like, “Are you asking me to delete it? Is that what you want?” She was like, “If you would or else we’d have to send you a letter.” I’m like, “Fuck if I care. I’m a big boy.” She sent me the URL to a post I posted in my forum. <br /><br />Then she goes on to tell me that they’ve been in business for 15 years. “Look at all the people we’ve helped,” she said. I was like, “Uh… what people? There’s no proof of that.” No response. She continued to talk to me about defamation and all sorts of silly things. Just a diversionary tactic to get me off the subject of my question, I assume. Or she didn’t want to get into it. The call ended cordially.<br /><br />Now, what was going on in my head was a certain key phrase. “We’ve been in business for 15 years.” “A business,” I kept thinking. Why a business? Why not, “We’ve been holding this contest for 15 years?” A Freudian slip maybe? I mean, after all, they do make lot of money off of us spec writers. But that’s the nature of the contest circuit. Every writer expects to lose something for the chance for something bigger. It’s almost like winning the lottery in that sense. It’s why we do this. So, fuck it. I go ahead and delete the post anyway, but it wouldn’t take right away. If you know those MySpace forums like I do, you know they can get glitchy. Which is one of the main reasons why I phased out of MySpace in the past months—tired of the glitches and spam. Fucking spam. But anyway, it looked like I deleted it so, I wrote this. Forgive me for having you read the whole thing, but I want this to be as fair and honest as possible.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Kelly,<br /> <br />I see what you're saying now. You're talking about the groups. At first I wasn't sure what you meant by just "MySpace". Anyway, I tried to delete it a few times, but it wouldn't take. You may wanna double check to make sure though. MySpace has several glitches in the forums and many other things which is why I've pretty much abandoned the site.<br /> <br />But just so you know, MySpace isn't the place you need to worry about seeing the mass exodus to Facebook. You need to worry about the private offices at American Zoetrope, The Writer's Building and Triggerstreet. That's where those articles get around. It may not show up on Google, but that's where the spec screenwriter core gather to get their news on things like this. <br /> <br />Later days,<br /> <br />Phil</span><br /><br />Her response…<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Hi Philip<br /><br />Thanks for checking back. You may want to contact MySpace directly then. Keep me posted.<br /><br />Audrey</span><br /><br />Now, I was already getting annoyed by having to do extra work for her. The way I saw it, I did her a solid by posting her response to The Wrap’s article which incidentally was only privy to her email newsletter as far as I know. And that newsletter goes out to all the entrants of the Fade In Awards which I was. I wondered, “why wasn’t this on The Wrap’s article’s several comments?” It woulda been best served there, not hidden to all the skeptics. It’s like it was only designed to service the people that paid into the contest. Not saying that’s the case, but it certainly felt like it. So, annoyed, I responded back with…<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Kelly,<br /> <br />That seems to be a bit much for me to delete an article which I didn’t even write that’s on a public forum. If it didn't work then so be it. MySpace is all yours.<br /> <br />Later days,<br /> <br />Phil</span><br /><br />Okay, I’m gonna have to paraphrase here because in her latest email to me said this at the bottom… “Information contained in this e-mail transmission is privileged, confidential and covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521.” None of her other emails had this, but this one does. Why is this suddenly private? But the gist of it was that she was disappointed by my annoyance of our correspondence and she was threatening me with legal action. The email was much longer, but that was pretty much what it was.<br /><br />I was at the point where this was actually starting to feel like harassment. I told her in a previous email that all she had to do was double check to make sure the post was deleted. She didn’t want to get off her lazy ass to check. By fuck, dude! What’s the deal here? So, does this mean she’s gonna take my word for it? “Hey, person, I deleted the post. Take my word for it. I promise.” And she’s NOT gonna follow up? Come on. Enough with the bullshit. No. This couldn’t stay where it was—an empty thread. It had to be an exchange of harassing threats for a post that no longer exists because someone was too lazy to check.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.govcentral.com/nfs/govcentral/attachment_images/0007/3875/HelpWantedScam_crop380w.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 380px; height: 250px;" src="http://www.govcentral.com/nfs/govcentral/attachment_images/0007/3875/HelpWantedScam_crop380w.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Part 2</span><br /><br />Scams. Okay, I’ve been dealing a lot with scams in the past couple months. Yes, times are tough. In fact, I’m back in LA because times are indeed tough. And that means people will lie, cheat and steal just to get some food in their bellies. But this also brings up a lot of things that have been in both the news and going on in my personal life lately. Not that I was in the news mind you, but situations that I’ve seen unfold and some things the news covered. <br /><br />Just recently, KCAL 9 did an undercover report where they busted a company that was promising government jobs to prospective job seekers. But you had to pay an outrageous fee. Something like $400. Don’t quote me on the price, but it was something ridiculous like that. <br /><br />Just recently, I was going to a job interview for a law enforcement affiliation in the Valley and they wanted $300 to take a test. And if I paid and passed the test, I’d get to work within the week. Then something as recent as last week, a friend and myself answered an ad in a local paper and as we arrived, we found that the joint was empty. We guessed that the place was shut down after grabbing everyone’s cash. Had we been there a day earlier, we most likely woulda been taken as well. <br /><br />And should I get on the whole Sherry Fine/Screenplay Agency fiasco again? Maybe next time. But recently, I had just gotten out of a weird contract with a very shady development company that wasn’t scamming me out of money, but out of intellectual property… and then eventually money if the movie was made. I can’t go into that because I signed a disclosure agreement not to post anything negative about them. But if you wanna know, email me. <br /><br />This segues into situations like the Fade In Awards. I’m not saying that they’re scam artists and have been getting away with it for 15 years, but you wonder, what have they done to help out all these people? The spec writing community is pretty small. We all know each other if not personally, electronically at least by name and the posts we post in the few screenwriting forums that are out there. And that includes a few of the winners of the Fade In Awards. Unfortunately, it does not bode well for the Fade In contest. I’m not saying that they’re deliberately scamming, but their prize-giving efforts seem to be begrudging—at least with the couple of the winners that I’ve talked with. This could be due to a couple of things. Maybe they’re so busy with other things such as the grand prize winner that they don’t pay much attention to the runner-ups or the category winners who also fall by the wayside. It seems that you do get paid if you ask or make a stink. Again, not saying that this is always true or fact in every case, but it seems that these allegations come up enough to warrant further investigation. It’s not just Fade In’s reputation that’s on the line, but our money. Money that should be going to bills, not to mention, paper, brads, ink cartridges and printer repairs. <br /><br />The problem with a lot of these contests is that you’re never sure if you’re stuff is even read. There’s no verification process like Triggerstreet where you have to answer questions to prove that it was read or at least skimmed. And there’s no critical feedback as some contests offer. So, even if you lose, you can say, “Ah, that’s why I lost. My characters weren’t fleshed out. My story dropped the ball on page 43.” Etcetera. But hey, that’s not what Fade In does. You send your script and money and they cash your check. Fine. That’s how it is. No big. We as spec writers have grown to accept that. But we don’t expect to be harassed and threatened with legal action. For what? Curiosity of the truth? Being fair and open? Arguing about a post that doesn’t exist? It’s our money that’s being paid out to the grand prize winner. At the very least, we should get some proof that these contests are legit. And we will not take Audrey Kelly’s word for it anymore… but I might believe KCAL 9. KCAL 9, you up for the challenge?<br /><br />The Ablazin’ Devil Head has spoken.Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-81940239623893667672009-05-11T03:16:00.000-07:002009-12-04T06:35:27.306-08:00WOLVERINE: Another Hollywood Anti-trust Scheme<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8zrxcz6VCiKQBcMTfJNSgF2GYltr9RXivr1Pc1bwPJza7scAKy5BPpXK-6bP0uaDi4hsNBMUQMeLz3VFitVNivDvz8-4Kjy97YsSa95kWDbD5DndprjJaaJM3-6lAogAVKc5O/s1600-h/707-wolverine_new.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8zrxcz6VCiKQBcMTfJNSgF2GYltr9RXivr1Pc1bwPJza7scAKy5BPpXK-6bP0uaDi4hsNBMUQMeLz3VFitVNivDvz8-4Kjy97YsSa95kWDbD5DndprjJaaJM3-6lAogAVKc5O/s400/707-wolverine_new.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334509773111053522" border="0" /></a>Okay, after reading all the bad press about the flick I'd have to say the few things that they pinpointed weren't as bad as I was expecting: The CGI claws, tearing up the old people's bathroom and the anti-aging of Patrick Stewart. I've never read Wolverine or X-men so I couldn't be disappointed by the characters which a lot of people seem to be. But for the flick itself, I can't say I was impressed at all. It's like they had all the beats to tell a story, just not an effective one. In a weird way, this flick reminded me a lot of Universal Soldier. Remember that flick? I'm not using that as a parallel of how bad it is, but what kind of story it was. Universal Soldier was a simple B-movie. And that's probably what Wolverine ended up as. It was very basic with very few turns along the way only it was backed by a $150-mil budget. When a budget gets that high, I always find myself wondering where the money went. I mean, hell, if you're gonna spend some cash, hire William Goldman or someone who knows how to make the mechanics of a story interesting. Or hire a director that's got a decent track record with directing decent action. But hey, it's cheaper to pick up some of the cheaper lesser-known guys like they did with Fantastic Four. I guess spending less on creative talent works for them. Where does the rest of the money go anyway? Hell, the writers are the cheapest talent as it is, but I think the studios and production companies really need to reach out more. But the box office is doing okay, so they don't see the same problem as the paying public does. We're thinking, "Man, this is bad." They're thinking, "This is great! We made $80-mil on opening weekend! They must love it! Let's make another!" By fuck. We have to see these movies because there's nothing else better. If there was more to choose from, I'd have seen something else (well, I saw Star Trek first), but Wolverine screenings flooded half the theater I went to. It was in 4 different theaters! The problem is that this has been going on for so long that it's becoming a standard.<br /><br />I remember the 80's were often thought of as where storytelling failed. By sheer comparison the 90's and the 00's make the 80's look like the fucking Renaissance. The stories were riskier. The characters had more depth. All which were accused of NOT having back in their day. The only way the 90's and 00's will ever seem like the new Renaissance if we've come to a simple blip on the screen. We pay $15 to see a still shot of Hugh Jackman brandishing steel claws for 5 seconds and the show's over. If people keep paying to see shit, the studios will continue to make shit. But you can't stop that. Everyone wants to go out. If they're cornered into watching Wolverine, they'll watch it because there's not much of a choice. It's almost like those old gangster flicks where the bad guys corner some guy in a dark alley and gun him down for not drinking at their speakeasy. Shit. Gunned down by Michael Bay. Only, I'll probably go up in a huge mushroom cloud.<br /><br />I guess I got off track there for a minute. But there's one thing that bugged me. Where's the science in how Wolverine loses his memory by getting shot with an atomantium bullet? Stryker makes reference to it when someone says, "That's not gonna kill him?" Stryker says, "No, but he won't remember anything." How does he know that? Because the first X-men movie said so?<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LPmbGzQaOCs&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LPmbGzQaOCs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-31290181974560084122009-04-28T01:33:00.000-07:002009-12-04T06:51:28.471-08:00PG-PORN: HIGH POONHere's our latest installment. This time starring the pilot from <span style="font-style: italic;">Firefly/Serenity</span> or the big, gay, German dude from <span style="font-style: italic;">28 Days </span>(no not the zombie flick), also Stryker, yes, LoveLine's Stryker. Also Belladonna's back.<br /><br />On this, I really didn't do anything. Most of my credit was carried over with the <span style="font-style: italic;">PG-Porn</span> title and iTunes. The credits were done by Pete Alton this time because they went with Roxy dancing during the credits. <br /><br /><embed width="320" height="240" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" quality="high" bgcolor="000000" name="efp" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3157900" allowfullscreen="true"></embed> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px; background-color: #000; width: 448px; padding: 3px 0; color: #fff;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/video/pg-porn-high-poon/3157900" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">PG PORN: High Poon</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/channel/girls" style="color: #ffcc35">Girls</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35">SPIKE.com</a></div>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-75924815238775302772009-04-15T12:21:00.000-07:002009-04-26T23:23:47.344-07:00JETWASH Makes the 13th Annual FADE IN AWARDS Quarter-Finals!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://willmorecity.com/jetwash/jetwashbanner2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 386px; height: 102px;" src="http://willmorecity.com/jetwash/jetwashbanner2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >JETWASH Makes the Quarter-Finals!</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />First of all, before I get started, I found this out Saturday afternoon, but I didn't blog about it because I was waiting for the website to update its info. They did, so here I am.<br /><br />For a while, you've probably read about me blogging vaguely about this space opera I've been working on for about a year and a half. I've also mentioned that I've been trying to write this script since 1995. Yeah, that's right 1995. The problem for me was that every time I attempted to commit the story to paper there was a movie that would come out with similar concepts, ideas and sometimes similar execution. So several times I've put the script away and worked on other things. Then finally, some time in 2007 after finishing my children's script I said, "Fuck it. I wanna do my space opera now!" So, I stuck with it for a year and a half while also finishing ISLAND MACABRE, BOULEVARD OF BROKEN FACES (aka THE BRUISE BOX). So, I closed out 2008 with three scripts under my belt. Not my personal best as far as quantity, BUT they're three scripts that I'm proud of as far as quality.<br /><br /><br /></span> <div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img style="width: 356px; height: 340px;" src="http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/80/l_64c4c22253518379302d6cb99bb81f7b.jpg" /><br /></span></div> <span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><br />JETWASH is essentially a story about a group of disbanded fighter pilots who run a salvage depot on one of Saturn's moons and uncover a conspiracy when a ship crashlands on their property. They head off to rescue any survivors of the ship, but only rescue one member of the crew. Soon, a group of privateers are sent in to recover the ship and are forced to confront the pilots. All this leads to is a 129-page adventure. If you're interested in reading the whole script, <a href="http://willmorecity.com/jetwash/JETWASH.pdf" target="_self">here it is for a limited time only!</a> In PDF form of course. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><br />To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate, The FADE IN AWARDS Controversy<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >I've been on the fence about how to feel about this contest the past couple of months. There was an article put out by The Wrap that got into some of the nuts and bolts about the contest and its winners </span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://www.thewrap.com/article/1812" target="_self">here</a></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >. I've also blogged about my thoughts on this previously. Just like any screenwriting contest, it's not the monetary award that matters, but trying to build a career as a writer. There aren't very many contest winners that we hear about that go on to great things. Most just win the contest and collect their cash never to be heard from again. So, after receiving the letter, I'll just chalk it up as an ego stroke until the semi-finals are announced.<br /><br />But I will say this. I think JETWASH has a better shot at winning the action genre portion of the contest this year at least. In 2006, DEAD MEAT made the quarter-finals of the very same contest, but didn't really stand a chance considering how dark and twisted the material was. JETWASH is more mainstream and more crowd-pleasing I guess. It has better odds.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Letter<br /><br /></span>All I can say is that I've gotten past the vanguard of writers that judged the first part. That's probably a good thing. The next part of this is the marketing aspect of the contest. Which is agents, managers and more writers. These are the people that are looking for people who could work in the industry. To me this is the more exciting part of the contest. But according to the letter, we won't find out until July.<br /><br /><br /><img style="width: 382px; height: 557px;" src="http://willmorecity.com/jetwash/JETWASH_Fadeinletter_small.jpg" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The 13th Annual FADE IN AWARDS Quarter-finalists</span><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><a href="http://fadeinonline.com/Contests/Fade_In_Awards/" target="_self">The Full List of the 13th Annual FADE IN AWARDS Quater-finalists</a><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >But here's my screen capture.</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><img style="width: 509px; height: 636px;" src="http://willmorecity.com/jetwash/13thfadein.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Epilogue<br /><br /></span>Thanks for reading.<br /><br />The Ablazin' Devil Head has spoken.<br /><br />Edit:<br /><br />Just got this in an email newsletter regarding The Wrap's article. It is interesting that The Wrap has never brought to light any real proof and people named in the article are refuting it in the article's comments.<br /><br /><b>AN IMPORTANT LETTER FROM FADE IN'S EDITOR IN CHIEF</b><br /><br />As many of you who've previously entered the contest know, we clearly state on our online contest page, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions link) and additionally in paragraph two of each and every notification letter contestants receive, who the contest judges are and who writes analysis on finalist's winning screenplays. We have never, nor would ever state that our Advisory Board members are the competition's judges or analysts. Of the approximate 200 finalists and Grand Prize winners we've selected over the last decade, until now, not one has ever accused us of this type of false advertising.<br /><br />This past December, I personally received several disturbing emails from a newly-named Fade In Awards finalist.<br /><br />The emails instructed me to immediately deliver to him $1,500 cash via Fed Ex in exchange for the name of an individual who had supposedly contacted him and made derogatory statements about our competition. When I refused, this individual threatened me personally, and specifically emailed me that he had my home address, had pulled my credit report and that he would do several things to me if I did not immediately meet his demands.<br /><br />The threats kept coming, so we went to the authorities. When we presented his emails to the police, they immediately suggested I file a police report and additionally attain a restraining order. We were then informed by law enforcement that this person was already under criminal investigation for this type of activity. It was more than apparent that, for the first time in the competition's history, we would have to disqualify a finalist.<br /><br />Last week, it became clear that he was starting to make good on his threats. In fact, as soon as this outrageous story broke, he took credit by writing on his online blog: "The town must be buzzing over this long known and even longer untold dirty secret—that was until Audrey Kelly fucked the wrong writer and [entertainment media company founder/COO's name omitted] and [company name omitted] took a stand." The vulgar, defamatory statements were removed after our magazine's lawyers sent him and Google cease and desist letters.<br /><br />"No good deed goes unpunished" is the expression that best describes our view as to the other disgruntled former contest finalist that took part in this story (we believe that the quotes from the two additional contestants were actually old quotes lifted off of a contest website by the reporter.) This finalist's claim was that we promised to introduce and promote her to producers and agents then did not and had refused to give her a first place cash prize of $750 until she took the magazine to small claims court. As anyone can ascertain by reading our application, website and advertisements, only the Grand Prize winner receives introductions to the entertainment community. As a courtesy and to be supportive, within a month of her turning in her rewrite based on our detailed notes, we did email her winning script out to a number of agents and managers. Even though we made several requests, she refused to turn in her W-9 tax form and instead went on a smear campaign. The form is required by the U.S. Government prior to disbursement of all prizes totaling over $600, and we are under a legal obligation to report all winnings received by contestants to the Internal Revenue Service at the conclusion of each year.<br /><br />Rather than meet with an agent who liked her script, remove her derogatory posts and simply turn in the tax form, this contestant continued with a smear campaign both online and in emails to fellow and former contestants, before finally filing a complaint against Fade In in small claims court. Ironically, she brought her signed W-9 tax form to court with her. Even more ironic, she apologized and said this was all probably a misunderstanding on her part and then requested a hug!<br /><br />In the published "story," Fade In is also accused of not paying finalist Powell Weaver. We have attached Mr. Weaver's cancelled check and signed certified mail receipt for same. We have not heard from Mr. Weaver since May of 2008.<br /><br />Although we also believe 2005 finalist Craig Berger's quote was lifted from a third party website for their story, we still find Berger's dissatisfaction puzzling. He alleges that we told him we would help him further by sending his winning script "Murder Girls" out to agents and managers but then failed to do so. Even though he was not a Grand Prize Winner and it was not our obligation, at his request we did in fact send his screenplay to agents and managers and also to New Line Cinema and MTV Films.<br /><br />Recently, Mr. Berger posted the following statement regarding the website's derogatory story on his blog...<br /><br />"A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a reporter for [the competitor's site]. The reporter wanted to know about my experiences with the Fade In screenwriting contest, as I had come in 2nd in the Comedy category in 2005. I agreed to talk with her. Probably my first mistake."<br /><br />"The reporter asked me if I was happy with my relationship with Fade In, as she [claimed she] had spoken to a number of people who had not received the prizes they were promised. I told her unequivocally that I had received everything that was promised to me. I also told her that the notes I got from [Fade In] were some of the best notes I had ever received, and that I had been a finalist or the winner in a number of contests and none of them had done more for me than Fade In."<br /><br />As is mentioned on our website, many of our competition winners have gone on to be signed by prominent talent agencies, including APA, CAA, Endeavor, ICM and William Morris, and to make successful feature films, including Blades of Glory, Clay Pigeons, Perfect Stranger, Preston Tylk and Taking Lives. This year promises to have releases of two contest winners' scripts; Javelina and Adam. Other winners are working steadily and have been hired to write or direct the upcoming feature films, The Art of Making Money, The Baster, Daggers and Need. We believe our competition's reputation for helping to launch the careers of very talented aspiring writers and directors speaks for itself.<br /><br />Fade In supplied this company's reporter and its COO/founder with the correct information prior to their publishing the false and defamatory allegations. We even pointed out our online FAQ (where the first question is, "Who judges the competition?"), our online contest page, which again clearly states who writes the analysis and advised them their sources were both unreliable and impeachable, yet they chose to ignore this information and publish inaccurate statements. I question the motivation of the company and the ethics of the writer when, for instance, in their newest March 15th post the reporter claims that Doug Amaturo could not be reached for comment, when Doug called and let me know he had spoken to the reporter twice over this past weekend and also received an email from her.<br /><br />"In just this past weekend, she called me a few times and we spoke. I relayed to her that I was very disappointed that she went ahead and used my name in this damaging article towards you and Fade In when she specifically told me she would not. I told her that I thought you created a great magazine and that if I could have done everything over I would have done more to continue working with you, as you were a very generous employer, not only to me but also to everyone who worked there. Unfortunately for her, I only said nice things about you. What she's trying to do is skew the information and rewrite the past. She wanted to ask me a few more questions so I told her to email me. I thought the questions she emailed were petty and her approach was a bit deceptive; fairly manipulative. In other words, she was fishing for too much for the sole purpose of molding the facts in her favor."<br /><br />As for the reporter's attempt to discredit us regarding our sponsors, we called our Apple entertainment marketing contact of thirteen years, Suzanne Lindberg, who told us she doesn't speak to reporters and has not spoken to any reporter, as it's Apple's policy not to speak to the media about its past sponsorships. She said they've been cutting all of their sponsorship deals lately. They're just not doing it anymore. She went on to say that she did get a note from Apple's PR department asking about the logo on our site and she advised them that she hadn't approved anything like that lately. That Apple has sponsored the Awards before but were unable to do it anymore. (Note: The logo is still on the Awards page of our site because we have not yet updated the page to the 2009 Awards, which launch in June.)<br /><br />As of this date, both the new media company and its COO/founder refuse to print retractions and continue to defame me personally by publishing bogus statements. The facts behind each of the allegations would have been easy to investigate if there was actually any interest by them in pursuing the truth. It is both unfortunate and pathetic that this emerging media entity believes that the only way it can attract attention to its new venture is to forego journalistic ethics and publish a negative story about one of its competitors.<br /><br />Nobody is above criticism and we are interested in any ideas on how we can improve both Fade In and our Awards but the claims disseminated by this new company are spurious. Fade In stands behind its screenwriting competition and its process. We felt it was important to bring the aforementioned facts and documentation to your attention and want to thank everyone for their emails and calls of support, including past and present contest finalists, our publication's contributing writers and artists, industry producers, executives, agents, publicists and, of course, our Board of Advisors.<br /><br />Audrey Kelly<br />Editor in Chief<br />FADE IN MAGAZINE<br /><br /><br />Then after this very letter the same The Wrap source wrote this in response <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnRoZXdyYXAuY29tL2FydGljbGUvMTg4Mw==">Fade In Demands Retraction</a>. I do find it odd that The Wrap is the only news source reporting on this.</span>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-19016447451241070682009-04-13T11:56:00.000-07:002009-04-13T12:16:34.101-07:00Amazon.com Gets the Asshole-of-the-Week Award!At lunchtime, the girlfriend person was telling me about <a href="http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/04/amazon-gay.html">this news story </a>that broke yesterday about Amazon.com reclassifying gay/lesbian books and content as "Adult material". Which means you couldn't rate adult material. But the children's book, Heather Has Two Mommies which is designed to teach young children about gay relationships is considered pornography. From what I understand Amazon.com is attempting to change this rating system. But Playboy magazine and Penthouse collections CAN be rated meaning that it's not considered pornography. Hustler is considered pornography therefore cannot be rated, BUT Larry Flynt's always pissed motherfuckers off. So, this could be just a political choice.<br /><br />But this is what's more fucked up. Look what happens when you type the words "homosexuality" into their search engine. Look at the content that comes up. Material that's supposed to prevent homosexuality. Shit like this goes against the very freedoms we'd like to enjoy about our country. But as time goes on, it seems like we're to be tarred and feathered for it first. While this is a passive aggressive way of dealing with this subject, I suppose it beats dropping them in water to see if they float.<br /><br />I guess Amazon is no longer where I do my online shopping.<br /><br />Edit: Apparently, this whole article may or my not be the workings of a hacker as posted at <a href="http://gawker.com/5210142/why-it-makes-sense-that-a-hackers-behind-amazons-big-gay-outrage">Gawker</a>.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5gkQyg6PzX5zZXcIM55uBGiupMlsjukKww2uiHdgYeWs-MTOCejpxDeK5VIOkXgxZVv0gW7aHsWWN7jXWqMRctljV-dlJZdhvzUQS_dMePyi9LwBFJYUHkAugcUq8TH4bvy-I/s1600-h/homo2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 345px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5gkQyg6PzX5zZXcIM55uBGiupMlsjukKww2uiHdgYeWs-MTOCejpxDeK5VIOkXgxZVv0gW7aHsWWN7jXWqMRctljV-dlJZdhvzUQS_dMePyi9LwBFJYUHkAugcUq8TH4bvy-I/s400/homo2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324252503766470306" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZ12SLmCxzbTy9c12_GusspbK60vOdoeJFmY3nP6x2hfHeYpSzJOv0tK5WiR3NjuwoLbX3WrO8FXlLknTCUwZOnjsScKGLCukB8tiUo8eCrgmfJszkiKWZD5fvWSLFIBUDFbC/s1600-h/homo1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZ12SLmCxzbTy9c12_GusspbK60vOdoeJFmY3nP6x2hfHeYpSzJOv0tK5WiR3NjuwoLbX3WrO8FXlLknTCUwZOnjsScKGLCukB8tiUo8eCrgmfJszkiKWZD5fvWSLFIBUDFbC/s400/homo1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324252261643765282" /></a>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-1763909722537478992009-04-05T17:46:00.001-07:002009-12-04T07:20:30.924-08:00My iTunes Album CoversI'm a huge fan of movie scores--especially the rare complete scores. Many times the complete, expanded or promo scores are harder to find and are often used for in-house promotional purposes thus making the covers look a little cheap. So, I'll go ahead and redesign them in a way that's more appealing to me. So, now I'm sharing them with you. These are only for your iTunes and iPod. They won't print out properly if you try to fit them on your CD covers.<br /><br />The challenge half the time was to try and make it look like the original covers and sometimes just to see if I could track and play with the fonts like <span style="font-style: italic;">The Matrix, Resident Evil</span>, etc. Other times, like in the case of <span style="font-style: italic;">Catwoman</span>, I didn't really like her costume, so I altered the cover entirely. Same with the <span style="font-style: italic;">Halloween</span> cover. Didn't care for it much, so I changed it. <span style="font-style: italic;">Freaks and Geeks</span> presented a different challenge--the label gun font. I didn't have it. But I had to make do and you will see the results for better or worse. On the <span style="font-style: italic;">King Kong</span> covers, I had to improvise a lot because there were no covers for the rejected scores by Howard Shore and Graeme Revell. Same with <span style="font-style: italic;">The Quick and the Dead</span>. Just have to wing it.<br /><br />Also, if you're squeamish about nudity, there is some amiss. As always, have fun.<br /><br />The Ablazin' Devil Head has spoken<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/america.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/blade.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/birth3.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/bloodrayne2%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/ateam%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/bubbahotep%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img style="width: 399px; height: 399px;" src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/catwoman%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/conpiracytheory%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/dawnfothedead%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/electric%20dreams%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/fg2%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/halloween%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/heroicactiontrailers%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/humanstain2%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/judgedreddcomplete%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/kingkong%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/kingkong2%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/lost2%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/lost3%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img style="width: 398px; height: 398px;" src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/murderby%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pearlharbor3psd%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pearlharborspots%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pearlharborexpanded%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/piratesex%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/preadator1%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/preadator2%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/rock%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/sd1%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/stepford3.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/thehunt%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/thinredline%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/thinredline3%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/trinityandbeyond%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/matrix%20bootleg.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/eyeswideshut.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/itunes%201.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/res2b%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/res2c%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/res3%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/thomascrown.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/walle%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/quickandthedead%20copy.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/supergirl.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/venusenvy.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/luxuryproblem copy.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/wonderwomanbluestar3.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pgpornshw.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pgppeanus.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pgppeanusscore.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pgpornnailing.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pgproadside.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pgpshw3.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://willmorecity.com/images/itunescovers/pgpshw2.jpg">Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-85306861235332114842009-03-17T03:43:00.001-07:002009-12-04T06:52:48.716-08:00PG-PORN: HELPFUL BUS Starring Craig Robinson of THE OFFICE<embed width="320" height="240" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" quality="high" bgcolor="000000" name="efp" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3130264" allowfullscreen="true"> </embed> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px; background-color: #000; width: 448px; padding: 3px 0; color: #fff;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/video/pg-porn-helpful-bus/3130264" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">PG PORN: Helpful Bus</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/channel/girls" style="color: #ffcc35">Girls</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35">SPIKE.com</a></div><br /><br />[Watch Squeal Happy Whores <a href="http://jettisonbrains.blogspot.com/2009/02/pg-porn-squeal-happy-whores.html">here</a>]Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-44181047245185907932009-03-15T13:49:00.000-07:002009-04-26T23:19:34.087-07:00FADE IN: Another Screenwriting Contest Gone Bad<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Fade In Awards</span><br /><br />The jury's still out on this. A couple years ago I made the quarter-finals in the 2006 Fade In Awards. I entered last year and awaiting the results now. Fade In has a pretty strong prestige seeing that it's a decent screenwriting magazine. But like all screenwriting mags, there's only so much you can learn. For 12 years, they've been running this contest that allowed for several opportunities for several different genres along with a grand prize for the whole thing. The monetary gain isn't so much, but it's the chance to have your work out and about in hopes to start your career.<br /><br />All writers are skeptical especially when it means shelling out cash for a contest that usually allows for only one winner. So, you're set up to lose from the get-go, but it's the hope and chance that might pay off in the long run. But rarely do you hear about the winners. Only a handful. And writing for contests is not like writing for a studio or even writing for yourself. You have to approach it with a mentality of a mass market script that has to appeal to a mundane audience. An audience that is decided by a handful of readers who may or may not be qualified to judge what a good script is.<br /><br />In this article, it goes into the allegedly fraudulent/negligent aspect of the Fade In Awards. A friend of mine won one of the genre portions of this very contest. She beat me out of the action/adventure genre a couple years ago. I won't answer for her, because I don't know what happened to her after the contest. I'll wait and see what she said about her win. All I know is that she's still hard at work on her own projects that she did on her own. While I'm at it, I'll pimp her new DVD, Ten Inch Hero, available on Amazon. It stars Jensen Ackles and punk rock legend John Doe--also VIII of James Gunn's The Specials.<br /><br />I have another friend who did some reading for one of the top five screenwriting contests. And the readers seem to be the problem there. No reader wants to read crap, but they're forced to wade through thousands of scripts. Even if you pay them, they really don't want to do it. And there comes a point after reading thousands of scripts that you can predict everything that's going to happen. Kinda like a movie or a TV show. Most of the scripts still go in the bin, but the contest will still cash your check. But at that stage it's not the contest that's corrupt, but the readers.<br /><br />And while I'm at it, let's talk about Sherry Fine. You can find one of her "agencies" <a href="http://www.thescreenplayagency.com/">The Screenplay Agency here</a>. I only posted the link so you can see it for yourself. Now, she has other clones like this only the colors of the sites are slightly different that target different kinds of writers like Christian writers, novelists, etc. Here's more on Sherry Fine and her several sister scams. <a href="http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20359">Absolutewrite.com/forums</a>. But the scam here is that you're re-routed to editing services that spin you into editing circles that gives you broad advice which you will pay for. If you find yourself involved with one of Sherry Fine's companies, you'll shell out quite a bit of cash and find yourself nowhere and wasting your time on your script based on broad critiques you could get at Zoetrope and Triggerstree for free. The other thing about Sherry Fine is there probably is no Sherry Fine. Just a fake name some dude in Florida uses. If you should ever find yourself receiving a contract from Miss Fine check the authoring properties on the contract. You'll see that it wasn't written on her computer, but someone that can be Googled and tracked to somewhere in Florida.<br /><br />But it's things like these that make it tough on us spec writers. It closes more doors and quashes more hope. We're told by professional screenwriters one the best ways to get discovered if you don't know anybody is to submit to contests. But if major contests like Fade In go bad, then what else is left? The Nicholl?<br /><br />From theWrap: A<a href="http://www.thewrap.com/article/1812?page=1">re Aspiring Writers Being Lured With Promises Fade In Can't Keep</a>?<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e356/SLiTHERGrant/MySpace%202/IMG_4709_2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 343px; height: 301px;" src="http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e356/SLiTHERGrant/MySpace%202/IMG_4709_2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PG-Porn: Helpful Bus</span><br /><br />While I'm at it, let's pimp PG-Porn: Helpful Bus. It's a spin on the Bang Bus porn you can check out <a href="http://bangbus.com/">here</a>. If you're unfamiliar with Bang Bus, you might want to check them out to get more acquainted with the style they are parodying. It stars Craig Robinson of The Office and Sean Gunn of The Gilmore Girls and any more would probably give away too much. But you will see some familiar faces. Remember, <a href="http://www.thescreenplayagency.com/">Spike.com/pgporn</a>. Anyway, the new ep premieres Tuesday the 17th which also happens to be on St. Patrick's Day!<br /><br />Anyway, The Ablazin' Devil Head has spoken.<br /><br /><br />Edit:<br /><br />Just got this in an email newsletter regarding The Wrap's article. It is interesting that The Wrap has never brought to light any real proof and people named in the article are refuting it in the article's comments.<br /><br /><b>AN IMPORTANT LETTER FROM FADE IN'S EDITOR IN CHIEF</b><br /><br />As many of you who've previously entered the contest know, we clearly state on our online contest page, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions link) and additionally in paragraph two of each and every notification letter contestants receive, who the contest judges are and who writes analysis on finalist's winning screenplays. We have never, nor would ever state that our Advisory Board members are the competition's judges or analysts. Of the approximate 200 finalists and Grand Prize winners we've selected over the last decade, until now, not one has ever accused us of this type of false advertising.<br /><br />This past December, I personally received several disturbing emails from a newly-named Fade In Awards finalist.<br /><br />The emails instructed me to immediately deliver to him $1,500 cash via Fed Ex in exchange for the name of an individual who had supposedly contacted him and made derogatory statements about our competition. When I refused, this individual threatened me personally, and specifically emailed me that he had my home address, had pulled my credit report and that he would do several things to me if I did not immediately meet his demands.<br /><br />The threats kept coming, so we went to the authorities. When we presented his emails to the police, they immediately suggested I file a police report and additionally attain a restraining order. We were then informed by law enforcement that this person was already under criminal investigation for this type of activity. It was more than apparent that, for the first time in the competition's history, we would have to disqualify a finalist.<br /><br />Last week, it became clear that he was starting to make good on his threats. In fact, as soon as this outrageous story broke, he took credit by writing on his online blog: "The town must be buzzing over this long known and even longer untold dirty secret—that was until Audrey Kelly fucked the wrong writer and [entertainment media company founder/COO's name omitted] and [company name omitted] took a stand." The vulgar, defamatory statements were removed after our magazine's lawyers sent him and Google cease and desist letters.<br /><br />"No good deed goes unpunished" is the expression that best describes our view as to the other disgruntled former contest finalist that took part in this story (we believe that the quotes from the two additional contestants were actually old quotes lifted off of a contest website by the reporter.) This finalist's claim was that we promised to introduce and promote her to producers and agents then did not and had refused to give her a first place cash prize of $750 until she took the magazine to small claims court. As anyone can ascertain by reading our application, website and advertisements, only the Grand Prize winner receives introductions to the entertainment community. As a courtesy and to be supportive, within a month of her turning in her rewrite based on our detailed notes, we did email her winning script out to a number of agents and managers. Even though we made several requests, she refused to turn in her W-9 tax form and instead went on a smear campaign. The form is required by the U.S. Government prior to disbursement of all prizes totaling over $600, and we are under a legal obligation to report all winnings received by contestants to the Internal Revenue Service at the conclusion of each year.<br /><br />Rather than meet with an agent who liked her script, remove her derogatory posts and simply turn in the tax form, this contestant continued with a smear campaign both online and in emails to fellow and former contestants, before finally filing a complaint against Fade In in small claims court. Ironically, she brought her signed W-9 tax form to court with her. Even more ironic, she apologized and said this was all probably a misunderstanding on her part and then requested a hug!<br /><br />In the published "story," Fade In is also accused of not paying finalist Powell Weaver. We have attached Mr. Weaver's cancelled check and signed certified mail receipt for same. We have not heard from Mr. Weaver since May of 2008.<br /><br />Although we also believe 2005 finalist Craig Berger's quote was lifted from a third party website for their story, we still find Berger's dissatisfaction puzzling. He alleges that we told him we would help him further by sending his winning script "Murder Girls" out to agents and managers but then failed to do so. Even though he was not a Grand Prize Winner and it was not our obligation, at his request we did in fact send his screenplay to agents and managers and also to New Line Cinema and MTV Films.<br /><br />Recently, Mr. Berger posted the following statement regarding the website's derogatory story on his blog...<br /><br />"A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a reporter for [the competitor's site]. The reporter wanted to know about my experiences with the Fade In screenwriting contest, as I had come in 2nd in the Comedy category in 2005. I agreed to talk with her. Probably my first mistake."<br /><br />"The reporter asked me if I was happy with my relationship with Fade In, as she [claimed she] had spoken to a number of people who had not received the prizes they were promised. I told her unequivocally that I had received everything that was promised to me. I also told her that the notes I got from [Fade In] were some of the best notes I had ever received, and that I had been a finalist or the winner in a number of contests and none of them had done more for me than Fade In."<br /><br />As is mentioned on our website, many of our competition winners have gone on to be signed by prominent talent agencies, including APA, CAA, Endeavor, ICM and William Morris, and to make successful feature films, including Blades of Glory, Clay Pigeons, Perfect Stranger, Preston Tylk and Taking Lives. This year promises to have releases of two contest winners' scripts; Javelina and Adam. Other winners are working steadily and have been hired to write or direct the upcoming feature films, The Art of Making Money, The Baster, Daggers and Need. We believe our competition's reputation for helping to launch the careers of very talented aspiring writers and directors speaks for itself.<br /><br />Fade In supplied this company's reporter and its COO/founder with the correct information prior to their publishing the false and defamatory allegations. We even pointed out our online FAQ (where the first question is, "Who judges the competition?"), our online contest page, which again clearly states who writes the analysis and advised them their sources were both unreliable and impeachable, yet they chose to ignore this information and publish inaccurate statements. I question the motivation of the company and the ethics of the writer when, for instance, in their newest March 15th post the reporter claims that Doug Amaturo could not be reached for comment, when Doug called and let me know he had spoken to the reporter twice over this past weekend and also received an email from her.<br /><br />"In just this past weekend, she called me a few times and we spoke. I relayed to her that I was very disappointed that she went ahead and used my name in this damaging article towards you and Fade In when she specifically told me she would not. I told her that I thought you created a great magazine and that if I could have done everything over I would have done more to continue working with you, as you were a very generous employer, not only to me but also to everyone who worked there. Unfortunately for her, I only said nice things about you. What she's trying to do is skew the information and rewrite the past. She wanted to ask me a few more questions so I told her to email me. I thought the questions she emailed were petty and her approach was a bit deceptive; fairly manipulative. In other words, she was fishing for too much for the sole purpose of molding the facts in her favor."<br /><br />As for the reporter's attempt to discredit us regarding our sponsors, we called our Apple entertainment marketing contact of thirteen years, Suzanne Lindberg, who told us she doesn't speak to reporters and has not spoken to any reporter, as it's Apple's policy not to speak to the media about its past sponsorships. She said they've been cutting all of their sponsorship deals lately. They're just not doing it anymore. She went on to say that she did get a note from Apple's PR department asking about the logo on our site and she advised them that she hadn't approved anything like that lately. That Apple has sponsored the Awards before but were unable to do it anymore. (Note: The logo is still on the Awards page of our site because we have not yet updated the page to the 2009 Awards, which launch in June.)<br /><br />As of this date, both the new media company and its COO/founder refuse to print retractions and continue to defame me personally by publishing bogus statements. The facts behind each of the allegations would have been easy to investigate if there was actually any interest by them in pursuing the truth. It is both unfortunate and pathetic that this emerging media entity believes that the only way it can attract attention to its new venture is to forego journalistic ethics and publish a negative story about one of its competitors.<br /><br />Nobody is above criticism and we are interested in any ideas on how we can improve both Fade In and our Awards but the claims disseminated by this new company are spurious. Fade In stands behind its screenwriting competition and its process. We felt it was important to bring the aforementioned facts and documentation to your attention and want to thank everyone for their emails and calls of support, including past and present contest finalists, our publication's contributing writers and artists, industry producers, executives, agents, publicists and, of course, our Board of Advisors.<br /><br />Audrey Kelly<br />Editor in Chief<br />FADE IN MAGAZINE<br /><br /><br />Then after this very letter the same The Wrap source wrote this in response <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnRoZXdyYXAuY29tL2FydGljbGUvMTg4Mw==">Fade In Demands Retraction</a>. I do find it odd that The Wrap is the only news source reporting on this.Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-38750589986693129122009-02-18T03:56:00.000-08:002009-12-04T07:15:13.443-08:00PG-PORN: SQUEAL HAPPY WHORES<embed src="http://www.spike.com/efp" quality="high" bgcolor="000000" name="efp" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="flvbaseclip=3114762" allowfullscreen="true" align="middle" width="320" height="240"></embed> <div style="padding: 3px 0pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 448px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.spike.com/video/pg-porn-squeal-happy/3114762" style="color: rgb(255, 204, 53); margin-left: 5px;">PG PORN: Squeal Happy Whores</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/channel/girls" style="color: rgb(255, 204, 53);">Girls</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: rgb(255, 204, 53);">SPIKE.com</a></div><br /><br /><br />After you allow PG-Porn: Squeal Happy Whores in your face check out music and songs from PG-Porn, by <span style="font-style: italic;">300/Watchmen/Dawn of the Dead</span> composer Tyler Bates, rockstar Terra Naomi and James Gunn, available for the first time on iTunes by cutting and pasting this link into your browser:<br /><br />itms://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa<br /><br />Later days, better lays,<br /><br />Phil<br /><br />Edit: Okay, since the premiere of SHW, Spike decided to ban it from their site. Most likely because of the language. What's funny is that they censored the word "fag" and yet they continued to brandish the word "whores" over everything. Also, a little trivia, the original title was <span style="font-style: italic;">Les Jizzerables</span>. They did, however, allow us to re-route it from JamesGunn.com. So, here it is once again.Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9421192.post-41372262260570823572009-01-26T04:58:00.000-08:002009-12-07T05:09:04.865-08:00Updates: My Rawhead and Bloodybones Project<!--- blog subject ---><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This entry was originally posted on MySpace on January 26, 2009.<br /><br /><p align=center><embed width='448' height='365' src='http://www.spike.com/efp' quality='high' bgcolor='000000' name='efp' align='middle' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' flashvars='flvbaseclip=3101845&'> </embed> <br /> <a href='http://www.spike.com/video/roadside-ass/3101845'>PG PORN: Roadside Ass-sistance</a></p><br /><br />If you haven't seen it yet, I think it's about time you did. Of course my role was the same as before. A carry-over credit from last spring. And it looks like The Good Boys have settled on a logo. And it's my fave next to the Flexoids' one. Which is The Good Boys [</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" >Used</span><span style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Condoms Edition]. And this just happens to be the censored version. James got scared and decided the uncensored version was too extreme for their sponsors. I tried to clean it up a bit and he hrmmed and said that might work. But I guess he went for my second fave which is the toy gun jolly roger. At one point they were toying around with the idea of using several different logos at the end of each episode, but possibly for consistancy they settled on the jolly roger. That's a-okay in my book. </span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img style="width: 422px; height: 593px;" src="http://willmorecity.com/jamesgunn/mpaa/goodboysrubbers2.png" /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img style="width: 444px; height: 468px;" src="http://willmorecity.com/jamesgunn/mpaa/goodboysjollyroger.jpg" /><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">In Other News...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">My manager seems pretty confident about putting <span style="font-style: italic;">Island Macabre</span> out on the market. I'm working on a new draft presently that expands a lot of characters and subplots. Originally, the script was 93 pages, but it looks like it's gonna be a big, fat, juicy 105. My original intention was to keep it as small as possible to post on Inktip. For those who don't know, Inktip is a little marketing site where you can post your script and hope to score a few interests and possibly sell your work. But the thing they DON'T tell you at Inktip, is that most of the producers there are small to micro-budget companies. So, if you have a big budget, high concept story, don't bother. Inktip just raised it's prices last year right in the middle of an economic crisis. That puts a pinch in a writer's pocket.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Holiday Break</span><br /><br />Not only was I doing some PG-Porn and some Sparky & Mikaela stuff, I was also working on a small film noir script over the holiday break. I cranked out an 85-page rough draft of a script called The Bruise Box that centers around one setting and a very small cast. The intention was to make it appealing to post on Inktip and to possibly shoot myself if I wanted. It still needs to be expanded a bit and some kinks worked out, but I'm pretty happy with it. It's a dark, complicated, psycho-thriller that uses a Rawhead and Bloodybones parallel to tell the story. Only Rawhead and Bloodybones in this case are cops. Yep. Did a lot of research on cops this past season. You'd probably seen me post a lot of police-related stuff on James's page. But this is the story about the bad guys who wind up being the good guys. And the police who end up being the bad guys.<br /><br /><img style="width: 239px; height: 275px;" src="http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/14/l_89da93730d1c4388bf15d1ac5710472c.jpg" /> <img style="width: 190px; height: 276px;" src="http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/30/l_6ea2265803dd476cb9c4be5a337a4155.jpg" /> <img style="width: 245px; height: 163px;" src="http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/27/l_f862a62eec4f4398b8fa67024913db51.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What's New?</span><br /><br />Doing research on a lot of bounty hunters. My next project will be a buddy story about hot bounty hunter chicks that go around snatching up bad guys and committing a lot of mayhem along the way. Been watching a lot of Dog The Bounty Hunter and up next is Family Bonds. This next project is gonna be fun. After writing something dark and twisted like The Bruise Box, I want to do something that's just plain fun.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><img style="width: 604px; height: 359px;" src="http://willmorecity.com/collisiontwins/collisiontwinslogo.jpg" /></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">One Last Thing...</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.thestream.tv/shows/filmnut/images/things/filmnut_e311_large.jpg" /><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">James is gonna be on Jeffnuts again this Wednesday so be sure to watch. If you miss it, don't sweat it. I'm sure they'll archive it nice and pretty. If you missed the last time he was on, check it out <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnRoZXN0cmVhbS50di93YXRjaC5waHA/dj04NDM=" target="_self">here</a>.<br /><br />And where the fuck are all the jiggas?! Where you folks at? It's gettin' lonely over at the JGAS boards. Got a bunch of stuff to chill about!<br /><br />Later days and have fun,<br /><br />The Ablazin' Devil Head has spoken</span>Philip Davetashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263744260400025364noreply@blogger.com0