11.21.2006

RipFest is over

The screening was last night. I went to the earliest one, the 6:30, and subsequently spent about an hour nursing a beer at the nearly-empty afterparty before the rest of my crew arrived.

Personally I'd rate it as the weakest of the five in most respects, though we did get several solid laughs. People had very kind things to say to me and about working with me so that massaged the ego a bit. I passed out a few copies of my reel.

I'm still not sure if I'm glad I did it, but I did meet a few good people and that's always positive.

I'm still tired.

11.14.2006

RipFest Update 2

The movie is titled "The Finalists" as of right now. For a summary of events to date I will copy below the email I sent out to the filmmaking team:

Hey, folks. Just thought I'd keep you all up to speed with what's happening.

Ignore the timestamp on this email; no, I didn't work 'til 1:00 in the morning (I'm saving that for later in the week). But I did get all of the footage logged and digitized into the Avid. It really looks great, so kudos to the camera team for their work. It's clear that everyone on the set was working very hard because it comes through on the tapes.

Tomorrow I'm going to put together an assembly edit so I'll have something you can see which will give those who dare to look a very rough outline of what the finished movie might be like. Jodi's [the director] planning to drop in in the evening to see how things are going and steer me in the proper direction.


Watch this space for future updates.



From what I've seen so far I think there's a fun little movie in there somewhere.

This is typed with tightly crossed fingers (can't you tell?), but it appears that "Belly Danza", the Don Omar video (feat. Beenie Man), is actually finished. I handed off the master tape to the director today, so barring any negativity from the label it will be on air (if I can believe Don Omar's manager) as soon as humanly possible. I just showed the final version to my roommates and they all reacted positively so I have some faith that it will entertain. I would link to it here, but I hesitate to do so before it officially premieres. However, I'm sure super special sekrit peepul can find it somewhere relatively nearby.


Tonight's Daily Show and Colbert Report seemed particularly energetic, so perhaps they've received a bit of a post-election jolt. I have faith it will continue for a while.

As I said to a friend today, I have an awful lot to criticize about Heroes warning: sound but I seem to keep watching it. As such I thought I'd point out some of the good things about tonight's episode.
I thought the murder of the new Super Memory character was cleverly executed, especially presaging it with the violent opening of the tomato paste can. The brief closeup of the dripping blood was, subsequently, all that was required to conjure the horror. I appreciated that we've encountered what is probably Hiro's moment of hubris.
Um... well, those were the things that stood out. On balance, though, I'd say this most recent episode was a bit better than average. I'm worrying that it's acquiring Lostish strokes but perhaps once I'm seduced into embracing the over-the-topness I won't mind.

NBC clearly believes they're building a new Thursday night comedy machine, and I'm pretty confident they're right. My current favorite (non-animated) show is 30 Rock ('cause as you all know, Metalocalypse is my favorite new show PERIOD) and NBC has moved it to Thursday to join with their version of The Office. I have finally seen an episode of the American version of The Office and I was quite happy to see that it managed to retain the stylistic elements of the BBC original without feeling like it was simply aping them. It's funny, too. If, y'know, you like comedy.


I realize I haven't said anything about the elections yet. I'm sure something will come to me eventually.

11.09.2006

RipFest update

Okay, tickets for RipFest 9 are on sale now. Since you all love me I expect you to spend money.
Seriously, though, it should be a fun time.
The screening / festival is on Monday, Nov. 20 at 6:30, 8:00 & 9:30PM and the program will run about an hour and ten minutes or so. Apparently this thing sells out (probably largely because we, the participants, are not allowed to comp anyone) so BUY NOW.

Also, BUY.

11.04.2006

RipFest #9, part 1

Today was the first production meeting for Raw Impressions RipFest #9 and I think this is going to be a lot of fun.

The whole group gathered for mass introductions and business type things, and then we found out in which of the five groups we'd be working. From there we repaired to a local diner (by the way... trying to seat 11 people at a diner in midtown on Marathon Weekend is not terribly easy) to get to know one another and go over logistics. We are off and running.

The writers begin now, and write through the coming week. Then the production is shot over two days next weekend after which the tapes are turned over to me and I have five days to edit. The festival and screening of all the films is on Monday the 20th at the illustrious Anthology Film Archives and I strongly encourage you all to attend. As the program's director said, "get all your friends to buy tickets before they know what your film is about!". Tix are $15 (ticket website not up yet, I'll let you know) and all money goes to support this fun, nonprofit collaborative arts collective.

11.03.2006

and on and on

Peanut Butter Wolf

Last night I went out to B.B. King's (the local club franchise, not the man's house) to catch the Stones Throw Records Chrome Children tour featuring Madlib, J. Rocc Percee P and others.

It was quite the time, though I can't say the half-hour wait in line to get my crap back from coat check was a selling point.

Here's Madlib's first song of the evening:


The original, shot on my digital still camera, looks quite a bit better so hopefully I can upload a nicer version later on.