New Prez

No, I'm not talking about Obama this time... Actually, I'm referring to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscar giver-outers)! For the past 4 years, Sid Ganis held the title of President of that organization. As of yesterday, however, that title has been transitioned over to a new person: Tom Sherak.

Tom Hanks was elected as 1st Vice President, too, and other elected positions went to such names as Kathleen Kennedy and John Lasseter. I recognized all names but the new top dog, which means he must be a behind-the-scenes guy.

Sid Ganis was still responsible for creating the return of 10 Best Picture Nominees... Guess he won't still be in charge when it happens.

2NuGPixPgs!

Over the past 10 days, starting before my technical difficulties arose, I began incorporating Lytebox while creating two new GPicturama pages! It was about time, too, since there haven't been all that many pics pages yet this year.

The first one (for July 10th's entry) displays moments from a recent trip of mine to Marina State Beach with my girlfriend, Kory. It was during my extended visit at her place at some point during the July 4th weekend, but not actually on that date.

The second one (for July 20th's entry: today's) conveys two more Thomas Productions films unfolding! The Production Photos from both Abrupt (2005) and Scenes from Being John Malkovich (2006) are shown there. They don't yet reflect on those movies' official pages yet, but they're slowly comin' together in a world without GoLive. Check 'em all out!

3rd Site, Part I

As you may have noticed by now, if you're capable of reading this very text, our site has transferred both its Home Page and News Blog to a new site: directorG.uuuq.com. While the address is slightly longer, it was necessary for several reasons: 1) This News Blog takes up more space than you'd think -- at least 11 MB, 2) I needed a 3rd site that actually permitted FTPing files, which the 2nd site (jimthzz.bingodisk.com/public) simply wasn't capable of, 3) It was free, and 4) No Ads!

So, call it a celebration of sorts, as anything that's free (and means it) is a worthy cause. We'll see how well it works; it took nearly 2 weeks before it would let me register. Also, I'm having to put this main index page on there, too, so that I don't use an iFrame to insert the News Blog to another site's page (since it gets iFramed to the bottom of the main page regardless of where it's located...!).

The original links of directorG.com and directorG.com/news (for now, at least) will stay the same, and you'll get redirected to the new Zymic ones.

The Class

This Tuesday, I'll be sharing some movies of Thomas Productions with a middle school class of Mrs. Barg, who was my very first video production teacher! I took that six-week elective in the beginning of 1997, and it was for that class that both Tons of Sugar Cereal and My Teachers Are Aliens (the first projects of Thomas Productions) blossomed.

So, I'm developing a list of what to show the class. The catch is that it must be age-appropriate, and I'm finding that's actually somewhat difficult -- blasted college freedoms!

Actually, I could probably even include some behind-the-scenes vids & production photo slideshows, even if they belong to movies I cannot show!

Ahead of Schedule

Looking back on these first 5 months of 2009, remembering the resolutions made at the beginning, here's the entire list, with completed items in gold and in-progress items in indigo:

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
   

The year's not even half over (that occurs on the last day in June), but at least half of the list has been accomplished! YouTube uploads include movies and trailers/behind-the-scenes pieces. Even all of the Thomas Productions logo images were made links, so I'd say we're ahead of schedule.

I can't quite say the remaining Demo Reels are in true production, but I have started attempting to compose the next one's original score, like I did for the first. Also, depending on currently nonexistent extra money, I'm hoping that either Hitchcock Road or Everyone and Their Mother can achieve some footage in the upcoming summer months.