Alumni Fest '09

If you happen to be in the Monterey area tomorrow, the CSUMB Alumni Showcase will be occurring on campus at the Alumni and Visitor's Center (Bldg. 97) from 2:00 - 4:00 pm.

I was able to submit a copy of my Television Commercial for Gizdich Ranch, which should be airing this fall on KSBW, to the alumni event.  On a spontaneous run, I may even attend...

Commercial Update

News from Gizdich Ranch today! Slightly bittersweet, but an overall positive outlook. I say bittersweet because the commercial has yet to air. However, this is not because it didn't work; in fact, what is great is that its MiniDV format ended up being perfectly acceptable by the station, KSBW, in place of a BetaSP tape. The reason it hasn't aired yet is that the ranch determined the commercial would be best to start airing in the fall.

So, it's merely postponed. Heck, it might even be airing around the time of the Mill Valley Film Fest! We'll update again on this topic once more news is heard!

Soundtrack Listed

'Tis official: now listed at the IMDb page for At the Core are the soundtrack credits for Michael Neverisky!

His credits appear as such:

• "Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine"
  Arranged & Performed by Michael Neverisky
  Courtesy of Michael Neverisky
  

What I still haven't been successful yet at for the creation of this new IMDb credit is actually making an individual page representing Mr. Neverisky. I guess a "mere" soundtrack listing alone won't do it... Perhaps giving him an additional Special Thanks credit might do the trick.

With Withoutabox

At current, I'm in the midst of filling out all of the bits and pieces of required info & suggested info at Withoutabox.com for entering At the Core into the Mill Valley Film Festival (and possibly any other). It's great in that it saves a ton of paper, making the only things necessary to send are the actual videos (DVDs, tapes, etc.). But, it's a nuisance as well because there's a ton to fill out!

One such thing it suggested to complete was a trailer! So, there you go: a new trailer for At the Core!

Other things to include are not one but THREE separate synopses, each of different length, and a bleepload of technical details... So much more to write!

The First Fest

It's official: At the Core (2006) is soon to be entered into the 2009 Mill Valley Film Festival! Early entry deadline is May 15, and the festival itself is in mid October.

No clips of it are online yet, as I want to make sure doing this wouldn't prevent any sort of festival "world premiere" attributes. Nonetheless, there are several stills and production photos that hold up just fine for now.

BTW, I simply couldn't believe that The Last Kiss (2000) had never been embedded in a News Blog entry before this one! Tada!

BTW#2, The Dog of Pompeii (1999) has now reached 2,000 views on YouTube!

Core Photography

In what is the 2nd GPicturama entry of 2009, the official production photos from At the Core (2006) have been posted!

There were actually quite a bit more photos taken, but most did not symbolize or represent that a movie was in production. Instead, they were nice shots of a ranch! So I had to choose wisely, and these were the results.

Soon enough, they'll be viewable from the Media Layer of the movie's page as well, in a scrollable format first introduced by the page for The Nightmare (2007).

They Liked It!

This past Saturday, I presented my fine cut of the latest Gizdich Ranch Television Commercial at an appointment scheduled at the very ranch in Watsonville. Vince Gizdich himself was a fellow viewer of the commercial. All viewers were unanimously pleased!

Vince Gizdich and Staci Caccioppi in At the Core (2006).

Now, the TV station KSBW is going to be contacted, and we'll see where this takes us in a few weeks!

BTW, the Demo Reel is shown again here because more than 4 News Blog entries exist since the last time it appeared, and I still want it on the front page.

Ollalieberry Bliss

As things have finally returned to normal, following my attendance of a family funeral and my receival of an appendectomy, I've been able to step things up a notch. This past weekend, the fine cut of my television commercial for Gizdich Ranch was completed!

It took awhile to whittle down, but making the best selections for a 28-second piece when you have more than an hour's worth of footage is quite difficult, especially when there are four different segments of the ranch requested to be a part of the commercial. The shots shown here were from '07's Tour of the Juicery.

Now to call up the ranch to announce this, and to [learn where and how to] transfer the finished piece onto Beta SP!

Nine for '09

Starting this exciting month, when the worst president in U.S. history is finally dethrowned, is the new year of 2009! Accordingly, it would be good if there were some New Year's Resolutions made. These advantageous commitments, which there could be nine of for the year, could be for anything: movies, site, and other related goodies. Here are some possibilities for the year (in random sequence, only numerical for counting purpose):

1. Complete TV Commercial for Gizdich Ranch
2. Begin Production for Hitchcock Road
3. Upload More Projects to YouTube
4. Finish Web Hosting Transfer Project
5. Submit At the Core to Film Festival
6. Submit The Nightmare to Film Festival
7. Begin Production for Everyone and Their Mother
8. Create and/or Complete Web Pages for Remaining Films
9. Finish Remaining Demo Reels for Cinematography and VFX
   

There are probably a few other things, including the logical idea of making each Thomas Productions logo on each page actually link back to the home page... But, that's minor. Happy New Year!

Digital Revolution

During the past weekend, I was taught quite a bit through the usage of this feller:

And it's not merely the filming at Gizdich Ranch that taught things (although it was extremely nice to film in HD).  I'm talking about Firewire capabilities!  When I was a college student, the university had an editing lab with a MiniDV deck that was controllable from the computers Macs in there.  This made using features such as "Batch Capture" (for digitizing video) much simpler and more automated.

Meanwhile, if I ever would need to import video at home, since the dawn of time, I've be using any of several composite video boards, in part because I believed that was all my personal camera was capable of.  WRONG!

I knew my camera had a DV wire slot, but I learned this weekend that in using it, my personal camera also becomes a controllable device by my computer.  Sweet!

Thar's a nice li'l novella for ya...  Now shoo!

New Site Entry

Despite being completed last year, there was no site page for Gizdich Ranch: Tour of the Juicery... until now.

It's now there, so check it out! Now, I must do the same for Cannery Row Documentary, which we didn't produce, but I was the cinematographer for. Kinda like with my positions in The Perfect Lie and El Despertamiento, it will be more for resumé purposes to document my involvement. Hrm... Maybe the layout of the site could include another category... Just a thought.

TV Commercial!

Remember the last 2 times Thomas Productions has created projects for Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville, CA?

Well, third time's the charm!  Got the call this weekend from their ranch to soon help create for them an updated television commercial!

Very excited.

Oh yeah, and now this News Blog is housed @ directorG2.com, since it seems to be taking up a lot of space.

Frames From Nervous Breakdown

Here are some newly added frames from Man Facing Nervous Breakdown, starring Hector Serrato and Vanessa Henry:

See the official page of the film for the remainder, plus storyboard images! Also working on adding the same for Gizdich Ranch's Tour of the Juicery. More to come!