I would be perfectly happy if I lived a solitary existence. Just me, my computer and an endless supply of tapes to edit. Is that wrong? Maybe. All I know is I'm happy. I don't think there is one facet of making movies that I don't enjoy. Okay I take that back. Raising money is a big pain in the ass. I was raised to not go begging people for money so it really goes against my grain to do that. Which is why I always end up paying for a lot of stuff, which is why I'm poor. Let's change the subject now before I start depressing myself! Back to editing.

I spent the past couple of weekends holed up in my office going through the 6+ tapes that we shot a couple of weekends ago with Heidi. I came out only briefly for bathroom breaks and food. I'm always so, so tempted to call in sick to work Monday so I can spend another day at it.

My poor daughter, barely sees me. Complains that there's no food in the house, the dishes, the laundry and house cleaning need to be done. What is she my mother?! We have this joke that when she leaves, everything will go to hell and one day they'll find my lifeless body half eaten by my cats. Ewww! Maybe that's not so funny. It could happen.

Back to editing again. It's just too much fun. Putting together all the pieces of the puzzle, creating one big picture. Last weekend I was working on Lily and Jack's stuff. The scene is coming together beautifully. One problem we're running into frequently though is the light switches and wall outlets through out the town. They just keep popping up in the back ground. It's nearly impossible not to get them in one shot or another. I mean what can we do. Tell the actor's to keep perfectly still because if they move one inch to the left one of those modern nuisances will appear. Hey if people want to complain let them. If they're paying more attention to the light sockets than to the people in the scene then I must not be a very good film maker. We can only do so much!

I'm getting a lot better at color correction too. That was one of the complaints from For-ever Dead. The color correction kinda sucked. In spite of white balancing both cameras in the same lighting I still find color differences. You'd think there wouldn't be so much difference between an XL-1 and a GL-2 but there is. Thank god for Color Corrector 3-way. Audio is still a problem too. Fortunately with using two cameras I'm able to get decent audio off of at least one of them. Syncing is a lot of fun too (feel the sarcasm). Yes I do enjoy editing. I enjoy a good challenge. Maybe it's because I know I can fix every-thing whereas the rest of my life is not quite so easy to fix. In my office I am in control. Which is why I don't like to venture out much. Last time I did that my daughter came home with a new tattoo. "Forever Tony". Can't fix that!

Speaking of Forever Dead. Brain Damage sent me the new cover art for our DVD release! It's pretty damn cool! I'd love to let you guys see it but I'm sure they don't want it out yet. I'm pretty sure though that it will get people's attention and hopefully fly off the shelves, that is if it ends up on any shelves, which I hope it does. March 4th is the big day. I've been told it will be in Suncoast Video and we're setting up some PR stuff with them (DVD signing etc.) after the holidays.

That aside though, the whole look and feel of this film so far is so beautiful. I love doing a historical piece like this. I love the costumes. I love the characters. I love the town. I just love it all! I think I may do another one when we're done with this one. I've got all these period costumes. I can't let them go to waste! When I was younger I always felt like I didn't belong in this time, like I would be more comfortable in the past. I still feel that way. Still, spending an entire weekend in the old west feels like going home. No wonder I didn't want to leave.

Speaking of going home. I headed to the mountains for Thanksgiving this week. Seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some extra footage. One thing we haven't done with this town is give it a location. I'm thinking the mountains of NC would be a great place. My parents are just a stone's throw from the Blue Ridge Parkway. I got up bright and early Friday morning so I could capture one of those spectacular sunrises.




Setting it at this time of year fits too. All the leaves turning and falling off the trees. It's a transitional time and well the people in the movie are going through a few changes too. We'll be shooting most of our zombie footage in the winter which is perfect. Dead people, dead of winter, get the tie in? So early Friday morning when you were all dreaming about all those Thanksgiving leftovers. I was freezing my ass off on the side of some mountain. I had to drive a while to get a good shot. It was snowing for christ's sake! And I had to find my way out of the clouds to a clear spot before I could get some decent footage!




I also got some great shots coming down off the parkway of a creek and Looking Glass Falls. Then on the way home a bonus, a moon set which was beautiful. The footage is a little shaky but I'm hoping we can use some of it.




I think I might have mentioned FFOB is on break 'til after the holidays. We're having a half way party on December 1st at my house to celebrate the half way point. Technically we're actually past that. Of the 58 pages we've shot 32! We seem to be getting a lot more accomplished in our shoots than we did in Forever Dead. I think it's because we're a lot more organized this time and a lot more sure of what we're doing. It calls for a celebration. Anyone interested in being part of the latter half of FFOB is welcome to attend. Just drop me a line.

Although I will miss shooting over the next month and a half (we start back January 19th). I will be so busy editing I doubt I'll have too much time to dwell on it. I can't think of any way I'd rather spend the holidays than wrapped in a blanket in my small cozy of-fice in front of my computer immersing myself in the old west. Unless of course I get a Nintendo Game Cube in which case I may be distracted now and then to play the latest Zelda epic. God am I a nerd or what!

I also just got this great little freelance job working for a T.V. show that features the biographies of people that have passed on. I just can't get away from dead people I guess. So that will be keeping me busy as well. That will also be helping me get out from under my mountain of debt so I can have more money to sink into FFOB. A new camera would still be nice. Sigh.

So, that's what I've been up to and what I will be up to. If you guys don't hear from me for a while you know what I'll be doing...;-)