Adrian Santiago: Back Online! Plus, all-new 100% Free Pro Wrestling Channel
Technical Difficulties! Or: "What the Fucking Fuck?"
Hello. Well, it's been about 3 years since I last had to do it, but this past week I went through and reformatted my PC to reinstall a fresh copy of Windows XP. Due to Microsoft's pristine engineering team, XP had managed to gather so much extra dust that I could no longer view my website from my desktop computer.
My iPod touch? Yes. Laptops? Yes. Other PCs around the world? Yes. My own machine located in my room in front of an open window that I periodically sit nude and type in front of? No... and that's a problem.
Anyway: Continuing.
Texas Independent Wrestling - Digital Archive Project
Although I am actually hard at work on a new feature-length script, the main video project I'm working on right now is the "Texas Independent Wrestling Channel". Basically, I've rehashed some of my past in order to dig up old 8mm and Hi-8 cassettes of Independent Wrestling shows I worked as camera guy for. Some of these tapes are 6-8 years old, but they were done during the time period where wrestling promotions and wrestlers themselves were going to great lengths and putting their bodies in great risk to make a buck: We're talking barbed wire, thumbtacks, gallons of real blood and true-to-life injuries.
It's a work in progress at the moment, but by the end of the month I hope to have a solid block of around 24 hours worth of 100% free, uncensored content online. Right now? There's around 5, and by the end of this week I hope to at least double that. Some of the videos encoded for the web are originals that were made by myself, some of them are promotion-submitted (those who wanted their older shows to be a part of the project), and some are fan-submitted video tapes. All tapes are 100% complete, that is, no fancy editing or things like that done. As a matter of fact, in many cases, you will see previously unaired footage including interviews and promos, as well as behind the scenes content that nobody has seen before.
All of the videos in the channel will have a 5-minute preview of the event, and if it looks like your kind of show, you are free to download the complete event to your computer to watch whenever you like!
When the channel's ready for a full launch, I will have banner ads, button ads and such if you'd like to add/embed the wrestling content to your fansites, websites, myspace pages and so on. Whee, huh? I'm also considering doing a similar channel for Backyard Wrestling content, but who knows if that'll work or not: Last I checked, Backyard Wrestling wasn't as hot as it was back when I personally used to do it almost 10 years ago.
Busy busy busy! Dammit all I've been busy! I went out to Dubai with Adagio Productions and took center stage of "The American HD Filmmaking Workshop"... then I came home. Then, two days later, we started to move homes... a long, messy process. When it all came together, the internet died! It has just barely come back online this afternoon... but it's scheduled to go back down tomorrow when the geniuses over at Time Warner Cable come back out tomorrow to start Day 2 of the "repair work".
During the weeks the internet was down, I helped out my buddy Motubu in his crusade against the corruption in the Andalusian world, producing some slick graphics for his next video exposé. I met up with SAG Actor Dennis O'Neill and another gentleman who didn't come across to me as the type of professional a guy like Dennis should be working with... I walked away not knowing this guy's name, not knowing the name of his project, and with a brisk "So lemme know if you wanna work on this short film" kinda thing while he fluttered away to a Starbucks down the road. I also spoke with some fellas in East Texas about their prospective reality TV show, and I'm also trying to get in touch with yet ANOTHER individual about helping him finish his feature-length script.
...all the while, I'm juggling which of my own 3 feature-length projects to start writing. After seeing Dennis again, the choice became clear: I'm currently about 20 pages through on a rough draft of "Dario's Will"... an extension of my On The Lot short film, "Andolini's Office". This time will be a fair bit different, however: We don't have a 5 minute time limit, and we don't have to be "PG-13 or less" as far as content goes... with the number of F-Bombs I've dropped in the first 20% of the script or so, I'd say I'm sitting comfortably in R-Rated territory.
---SITE AFFILIATES---
I'm looking for folks with cool crap on the web who would like to join my Site Affiliates section! Requirements are simple... you either have some cool thing to trade with me, or you have to be able to draw a lot of hits to my website in return for me sending hits your way! Anybody interested? E-mail evilprojectblack@gmail.com
---SKYPE ME!---
Internet telephone! It's free, all you need is a microphone and you can virtually dial me up from anywhere on the planet... and if I'm online (which I will try to be as often as I can... with this internet right now, who knows?), I can pick up the call and we'll shoot the shit.
Yeah, it's like that. Either click the Skype Me button on the left-hand side of the site, or just add "project.black.studios" in your little Skype contacts list! It's free software, adds no spyware or ads to your system or anything! Get connected, foo!
---AND AN ORDER OF FRIES---
Busy... so busy. Still writing this screenplay, so lemme get back to that. Skype Me, AIM, MSN... whatever. Add me on Myspace. E-mail me. If I'm not busy with one of the ton of things I've touched on, then I'll gladly chat :)
Alright, so here's the big announcement: Adrian Santiago has been hired by a multimedia company in Dallas, TX to co-instruct the American HD Filmmaking Workshop. This is a pretty big deal, because it starts by sending me overseas to work with the people who live in "The Las Vegas of the Middle East", Dubai, UAE. Dubai is a tremendously wealthy nation, and it's coming to life with the world's only 7-star hotel, the world's largest indoor ice-skiing resort (in the desert!), the upcoming #1 and #2 tallest buildings in the world, the world's largest theme park (twice the size of Disney world)... and a lot more.
Anyway, more on why I'll be out there: The people of Dubai are going to get a "One-Two" punch of filmmaking experience. They will learn about the basics of breaking into the business with world famous film guru Dov S-S Simmons (if you haven't seen the man work, google him!), and then they will come to me to learn to physically make the movies happen! Full hands on experience in set design, dramatic lighting, cinematography, directing, and all of the good stuff that "Everyone knows, but not everyone knows how to do it".
What's in it for me? Well... quite a bit actually. First of all, the killer 28-hour travel time will be awesome! It's a trip that'll take me from Dallas to London to Bahrain to Dubai, where I will be until July 1st. While there, I'll get my hands on the super badass Sony F900 Camera (a $150,000 HD Camera used to shoot Star Wars Episode III and Sin City, for those keeping tabs at home), as well as a range of other cameras. I'll also be networking on a level you can't imagine... remember all of the details on how wealthy the country is? Enough said!
...and then, the glamorous 30 return trip. That will look like Dubai to Bahrain to Paris all the way home to Dallas, TX. If all goes well, I should be "home" in time for dinner on July 2nd: Just in time to take a day to nap, and then get out there, buy a buttload of fireworks and beef, and have my killer Fourth of July party... uh, in a place I've never been to: Because we may be moving out of our home while I'm away. We'll still be in Arlington, but you know... different house.
Very interesting times are ahead of us! When we come back from Dubai, we'll be hitting Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and then onward to the east and west coasts... full schedule to be announced later, but it all begins about a week from now, on Sunday June 22nd 2008.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
The cell phone number hasn't changed, but it's staying here in the United States. Leave voice mails... it's all the rage these days. I'll have internet access where I'm at, so if there's any urgent business, you can hit me at evilprojectblack@gmail.com - Dubai is (I believe) 9 hours ahead of Central Time in America (ex: 12:00pm noon = 9:00pm Dubai). So... y'know. Take that to the bank.
Catch ya later! Pictures and all that to come... :)
Desire / Deserving The result of our 24 Hour Video Race run in 2008: "Desire / Deserving". A collaborative effort between Project Black Studios and Mystic Media Productions... we started at Midnight and finished around 6:30pm the following day... just enough time for a team nap, celebratory dinner at Bennigan's, and a casual stroll through Dallas, TX... having our picture taken, waiting for the "finish line" to officially go live at 10:00pm.
Team BlackMyst's entry into the Dallas 24 Hour Video Race in 2008. Drama. Shot with the Canon XHA1. Short film was completed at 6:30pm during the day of the competition. Collaborative effort between Project Black Studios and Mystic Media Productions.
"Desire / Deserving" is a short film about a single man who hires a prostitute to play his wife so he can participate in a wife swapping activity at a hotel. Twist of fate and all of that.
Written/Shot/Edited by Adrian Santiago. Produced by Daniel Patterson. Special Effects by Garrett Wilkerson. Starring Pattie Hart, Scott A. Mollette, Cassandra Scott, Ciro Faienza.
FROM THE DALLAS 24 HOUR VIDEO RACE WEBSITE: The 24 Hour Video Race is a fun filmmaking competition in which teams of videomakers have 24 hours to write, shoot, edit and score an original short film.
THE VIDEO RACE IS OVER...
AND THE THEME WAS.... TWIST OF FATE
AND THE PROP WAS.... A KEY
AND THE LOCATION WAS.... ANYWHERE A SPORT IS PLAYED.
AND THE LINE OF DIALOGUE WAS "HOW MUCH IS (OR WHAT'S) THIS GOING TO COST ME?"
The Video Race finished at 12:03 am (allowing for a late start). Of 96 teams that started the Race, 64 finished on time and another 11 turned in late and will screen out of competition. The rest of the Teams went missing in action--but hopefully will show up safe and sound at the screenings.
The 24-Hour Video Race begins at the Magnolia Lounge in Fair Park at 11:59PM on Friday, May 16th with a theme, prop, location and line of dialogue assignment for the film and concludes 24 hours later with a race to the finish line. All of the films that make it by the 12-midnight deadline will be screened and compete for awards and bragging rights. The winning videos will be screened at the 21th Annual Dallas Video Festival and also on Frame of Mind, a television program on KERA Ch. 13.
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip (100% Free Album Download)
So, check this action out... Trent Reznor, for whatever silly reason, has decided to release the latest Nine Inch Nails album 100% free of charge to his friends and foes on the world wide web... and not in grainy, craptastically compressed real audio format with commercial advertisements for http://www.lovelocke.com either: Real deal badass high definition audio formats are available as well, not to mention the totally rad "Apple Lossless" format for folks smart enough to use iTunes, or who own their very own iPod.
From Trent Reznor himself: "(thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me)
as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.
the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.
for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.
I wonder if his Shift Key is broken or something... anyway: Good man, good man. It's amazing to see artists "giving" on the internet that has gotten the negative reputation for "taking" from the artists. We are not owed, but it's certainly nice to be given such a tremendous gift from such a creative talent! Yes!
The Canon XHA1 is a high-definition video solution for filmmakers everywhere! When I originally saw some of the sample videos, I couldn't believe how close to "the real thing" it got in some instances, and when we ended up with one of these beautiful cameras: I couldn't believe the results that I got shooting in a wide variety of conditions: Low light, fast motion, daylight and so on.
We've used this camera on two short films and one corporate DVD to date, but the DVD was just for business purposes (no deep creativity required, only deadlines to be met) and for the two short films, I didn't get to sit behind the camera in either event... so: One day I just took the camera out, said "This is what Adrian Santiago can do behind his bad boy" and hit record.
There were no special tricks involved, no post production trickery either: As a matter of fact, this video is bare naked as far as editing goes. Aside from a couple of transitions, no adjustments were made to the image's brightness, contrast, color settings or anything like that. The only problem? Due to video compression, the overall color richness isn't 100% represented... I'd say that the full-size download version shows better color, of course, but that even that version of the video's got roughly 80% of the color and clarity of the actual original we got on tape... it's that gorgeous! Congratulations to Canon for making such a badass video camera!
Forgive the relatively poor quality of this "Myspace" version of this video: I have also uploaded a full, 1080 resolution version of the video which you can freely download! TO DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO, CLICK ON THE "DOWNLOADS" LINK ON OUR NAVIGATION MENU!
Questions and comments are always welcome... send em along to evilprojectblack@gmail.com! Thanks much!
-Adrian
We met with the folks at Dread Central during the 2007 Texas Fear Fest. Dread Central is one of those "fan journalism" sites that deal in reviewing all things horror from all ages! They have a large internet and horror community following, so it was interesting and fun to have a talk with them, even if they were mainly interested in getting a free copy of the movie rather than talking with the guy who made it.
Appropriately, the horror effects guys (Bill and Eddie! Yes!) got their special nods... with their expertise and creative drive, the zombies and general pervasive blood and gore wouldn't have people cringing every time I show off key scenes of the movie.
Dread Central also did well to mention young star Audrey Evans... young actresses like Audrey give me hope for the future of female acting: And I'd like to see her do more than one movie every two years... but at her age, she's got her whole life to get around to it.
Nothing in particular about the look of the movie, no special mention for me, the movie's DP: But that kind of thing goes with the territory. A lot of credit for a movie's visual look goes to the Director, and not the mysterious "Director of Photography"... most people who don't know what a DP is tend to ask me "Did you take all of the behind the scenes photos? I want to be a DP too... I've got this sweet Kodak digital camera with a printing dock..."
However, in all fairness, perhaps the following could be taken as a compliment towards my work:
"It’s the little touches like that can make all the difference in an indie flick’s appeal. In a world where it seems many are lazy when rushing out their low budget zombie pics, this one feels like something that was made by people who loved what they were making."
It was a lot of fun making Bubba's Chili Parlor for the guys... I remember I was first approached to make the movie with "We want something visually that looks like a cheap, crappy, corny amatuerish b-grade student film": And because I'm pretty committed to NOT shooting cheap, crappy, corny, and otherwise "intentionally bad" stuff, they ended up with something that I think surprised them... and myself as well. I'm always proud of what we did on Bubba's, and it's one of the best examples of my shoot style I've got so far to show off to the people I meet with every week.
This past month alone I've met with 6 different entities and have 3 projects lined up, including the possibility of another feature-length film: And while I can't really say I "owe it all to Bubba's Chili Parlor", I can say that I am happy I took on the job and the responsibility and stuck it out to the end, because it really was one of the best times I spent making a movie... and the more people that have seen it, the better it seems to be!
The 2008 Academy Awards are here! Whoopie! A famous comedian, whose name I cannot recall (and who will undoubtedly NOT be attending the Awards show tonight) once likened this day to "Super Bowl Sunday for Queers"... and I always laugh at that, because in a way it's true: However, for myself... it's more like observing the benchmark for "What counts" in the past year, and as a predictor for what's ahead in the year to come.
Yes, I'm aware that's a heinously long sentence, but I'm pretty okay with it's structure, so... y'know... don't bother me about it. On with the picks!
"Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role"
George Clooney in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
(DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah” (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises” (Focus Features)
Adrian's Pick: Daniel Day-Lewis Oscar Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis
Having not seen George Clooney or Johnny Depp in their respective features, I cannot predict if either of these two men stand to take the award or not: Though I do not doubt their presence on the list of nominees. Viggo Mortensen's acting chops were evident even in the trailer for Eastern Promises, another movie I unfortunately missed: However, to be fair, it seems the big buzz puts the REAL competition between Clooney and Daniel Day-Lewis: The latter a personal favorite to take home the award. His performance in "There Will Be Blood" instantly became iconic, and was every bit as mesmerizing as it was memorable.
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War” (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild” (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Adrian's Pick: Javier Bardem Oscar Winner: Javier Bardem
Is there any real competition here? I wasn't aware of who Javier Bardem was before I saw him in this role, and after, I will never forget him. Even if the part wasn't tailor made for him (as so many parts are often made for a specific actor these days), he found a way to fill every inch of it with his immense talents. Grand fucking show, and if he doesn't walk away with the honor, I have a feeling it certainly won't be the last time we see this man at the Awards.
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal)
Julie Christie in “Away from Her” (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in “The Savages” (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in “Juno” (Fox Searchlight)
Adrian's Pick: Ellen Page Oscar Winner: Marion Cotillard
It's time to get real here: Aside from perhaps "La Vie en Rose", how many people flooded to theaters to see "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"? How about "The Savages" or "Away With Her"? If Ellen Page wins the Academy Award here, it's because everyone went to see "Juno" in theaters, making it another "Independent" film costing a modest few million dollars that ballooned into a cash cow bigger than Juno's belly in the story.
If Ellen Page wins the award, then certainly it is because she deserves it: She is a talented actress, and it's for her performance in Juno (A movie I didn't particularly care for... everyone spoke EXACTLY the same, it was like a stand-up act that optioned to have 12 people taking turns to tell the same jokes) that she is nominated. I like Ellen Page a lot, but I do feel that if any of the other actresses mentioned take home the prize, then it would probably be "more fair", and maybe even say that "the pop culture doesn't always win"... for once.
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
“Persepolis” (Sony Pictures Classics) Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Brad Bird
“Surf's Up” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ash Brannon and Chris Buck
Adrian's Pick: Persepolis Oscar Winner: Ratatouille
...it won't win. I want it to win, but it won't. I was blown away by Persepolis more than any other animated film this year, and it's definitely one of the 5 best of the year: A movie so strong, so smart, that you are stuck on it from beginning to end. Hell, it even made me want to cry, and the last movie that made me do that was the equally well made "Children of Men".
That said, Persepolis won't win... not when there's a Pixar film on the ballot. As much as I loved Ratatouille, and I really did, I would say that there would be no shame in losing the award for "Best Picture" to a movie like Persepolis... if I were in Brad Bird's VERY talented shoes, and they called out "that other French cartoon" instead of my own, I would be first on my feet to applaud.
Achievement in Directing
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Julian Schnabel
“Juno” (Fox Searchlight) Jason Reitman
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.) Tony Gilroy
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Paul Thomas Anderson
Adrian's Pick: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen Oscar Winner: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
No Country for Old Men is an example of a movie that was expertly made: Expertly acted, expertly written, expertly shot, expertly edited, and above all things, expertly directed. As much as I enjoyed "There Will Be Blood", I will favor the Coen brothers and No Country for Old Men for being able to pull together a much tighter program than their fellow nominees this year. I can't imagine a single thing about their show that I would change, they've really done a wonderful job putting it all together.
Best Motion Picture of the Year “Atonement” (Focus Features)
A Working Title Production Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers “Juno” (Fox Searchlight)
A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
A Clayton Productions, LLC Production Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers
Adrian's Pick: No Country for Old Men Oscar Winner: No Country for Old Men
While I firmly believe that Daniel Day Lewis has the best performance of the year, and as a result, "There Will Be Blood" is one of the must-see films of the year, there is no denying that "No Country For Old Men" is a spectacular film: Very strong, extreme dark and light, and utterly undeniably great. A win for this movie wouldn't be one of those things were, 10 years from now, people look back at it and say "One of the most over-hyped wins ever), this is one of those movies that'll top people's lists of favorites from now until the end of time.
The movie has a life all of it's own (And if you live in Texas like myself and most of the actors in this film, then you even feel "at home" while watching it: So it is a movie-going experience that is particularly penetrating, not only as an "Introspective" for the audience, but also as just a shining example of great filmmaking, and the one thing lacking from so many of the films released last year: STORY.
The end. I will watch the Academy Awards tonight with my lovely girlfriend, and have a cookout... hot dogs and hamburgers. Hell, it IS like Superbowl Sunday in more ways than you think, at least, if you are a filmmaker or just a big fan of film in general.
As always: You're welcome to shoot me an e-mail at adrian@projectblack.com with your comments and the like!
As you may have noticed, we had quite a spam problem in our comments sections of our articles. We also noticed this problem, and have taken extra steps to keep the cocksucking bastards out of our site.
If you're a spammer and are reading this, know that if we see ANY spam messages from your account, ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE, you will be deleted and blackballed from this site FOREVER. If in the unlikely event that your account gets hacked, you too will face the same fate. If you were hacked, you will have to beg for us to let you back into the fold...we'll be fair with you.
It's a shame that we've come to this crossroad, but spammers will not be tolerated. We have to crack down on this problem because the sites that they linked to gave you a free virus, and we don't want that happening to you. So to wrap it all up, don't spam our site or you will end up like this group of lowlifes:
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Abuse Contact
Folby177
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Why am I supplying this info to you? So that you can complain to the people who own these IP addresses so that they can put a stop to the spammers from the source!
Wow, man... wow. From a filmmaker standpoint, I'm just taken aback at this news story. Of all places, I first heard about Heath Ledger's death in city chat while playing World of Warcraft... at first I thought it was another "lol George W. died in a plane crash" piece of crap, but I just casually clicked over to CNN.com and saw the front page news... and again: Wow.
You have your established Hollywood legends... guys like Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and so on: And then you've got your future Hollywood heavyweights in the making, which looks like Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Eric Bana... and so on. Looking at the extremely bright career ahead of him, it's hard to believe that Heath Ledger was taken out so early, both in his career and in life in general. 28 year old man, the guy was younger than my older brother! I think that's what got me first... how young he was, y'know? Some people are 28 and still bumming around in College looking for their life plan, and it seemed like he had his penned out already.
"I had such great hope for him, he was just taking off, and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family." -Mel Gibson, who played Ledger's father in "The Patriot," in a statement.
Today, 24 hours later, people aren't 100% sure of what "did him in". There's a description about an open pill bottle... over-the-counter sleep medication. I don't want people to jump out and say "He overdosed on sleeping pills" because of a similar news story that broke last year about an NFL football player. In that case, "An Empty Pill Bottle" was found by the guy... and a few hours later when he woke up in the hospital, he said "I didn't swallow the whole bottle... I just took the last pills left in the bottle". Media outlets everywhere made fools of themselves for following initial gossip.
In Ledger's case, if it WAS indeed a suicide, there was no note left behind. He stars in the upcoming "The Dark Knight", the new Batman film directed by Christopher Nolan.
Taken from CNN.com:
The role disturbed him, according to The Associated Press. He called The Joker a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."
"Last week, I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told The New York Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going."
He said prescription sleeping pills didn't help, according to AP.
"It was a very great challenge for Heath," director Christopher Nolan told AP. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."
That, I can believe. Actor Anthony Hopkins often made the comment that after playing the role of Hannibal Lecter, he had to take a month or two on vacation in some small peaceful area... away from press and people and interviews to "rid himself of the demon".
Considering the "legitimate" evil that Ledger embodied to play THIS version of the Joker, as opposed to whimsical "zany, cartoony" versions depicted by actors of the past, Hopkins' tale seems to take on a broader meaning.
Hey alright! The very first teaser trailer for Bubba's Chili Parlor is online now on the movie's official myspace page! This is the movie that took up most of my time over the summer (I was Director of Photography) and resulted in sporadic updates here on the website... but, I'm totally stoked to see new updates on it when they become available!
Bubba's Chili Parlor was shot in 21 days in the city of Wills Point, TX (If you're using Google Maps' Satellite View, YES, it DOES look like a field of grass with a couple of roads thrown in). It cost $15,000 to make, and was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival (which, from what I hear, they didn't accept.)
Fear not! I've also heard that 2008's going to be a hell of a year for the film: This past November, we sold out the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, TX... holding an event that brought in close to $7,000 for the theater (and a little for us too... some of that money paid for BetaSP transfers of the film): Plus, there's phenomenal Internet Hype for the film... so: Look for it to appear at a film festival near you! Vote five! Give it a thumbs up! If you see me... ask me to take a picture with you or something... I will most likely say "Alriiiiiiiiiiiiiiight"!
Wow, man... wow. From a filmmaker standpoint, I'm just taken aback at this news story. Of all places, I first heard about Heath Ledger's death in city chat while playing World of Warcraft... at first I thought it was another "lol George W. died in a plane crash" piece of crap, but I just casually clicked over to CNN.com and saw the front page news... and again: Wow.
Taken from CNN.com: