Housekeeping

Since more and more duties keep being assigned, I am going to try and arrange a list of tasks (and dates, if there are any specific deadlines) for the upcoming months, for all those related to Thomas Productions:

1. Submit Journey of the Mind to a Withoutabox-correlated festival => Garners invitation from IMDb for film
2. Make copy of Journey of the Mind (and possibly At the Core?) for airing on local television broadcast
3. Complete editing Alex and Mike's Alaskan Cruise by late December
4. Send copy of Journey of the Mind to Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California
5. Touch up The Nightmare to make ready for Big Bear Int'l Film Festival submission in January, which would also make this project IMDb-capable
6. Start Preproduction for Everyone and Their Mother, so it can be filmed in December/January, then ready for CurrentTV come Mother's Day, 2010
7. Finish reediting newly digitized footage of Brave New World for eventual uploading on YouTube
8. Create VFX Demo Reel

You may notice that The Nightmare "snuck back" into the list. I certainly haven't forgotten about that project! I fully intend to do at least as much festivalwise for it as with Journey of the Mind, because it was a fully scripted drama, not a documentary!

You may also notice that Hitchcock Road was NOT mentioned. I do still intend for its production, but with so much currently on my plate (and these duties aren't my only ones, mind you), I think it's better to try and see the horizon before things get lost in oblivion. In time, in time...

Web Journey

In this small window of free time today, I've completed the creation of the web page for Journey of the Mind here at directorG.com! It includes still frames, a synopsis, and credits. Video may come in time.

Soon, I hope to be able to do two things: 1) Send a copy to the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California out of thanks for their kind permission to film at their Living With Epilepsy event during October, and 2) Submit this film to a film festival recognized by Withoutabox.com in order to get this project listed on IMDb!

One-Two Punch

In each of the past two weeks, a movie was completed by Thomas Productions! Two weeks ago, it was Journey of the Mind, and now this past week, it was a private wedding video for a friend. Lots of work now off my shoulders - whew!

However, there's still more to come! There was also an associated video project with the wedding video that was a travel video. I've thus far produced a trailer for it that has been approved for YouTube by its parties, and it's what you see above. I hope to have that project completed by Christmas.

THEN, I still intend to create Everyone and Their Mother... We'll see if Hitchcock Road ever resurfaces in 2010. I also plan to retouch The Nightmare up a bit for festival entry, not to mention a second fest for Journey of the Mind!! Entering those in fests through Withoutabox will help put more movies on IMDb. This is all not forgetting about remastering Brave New World... So much to do!

Online Speculations

Unless there is reason to be misled tomorrow (Tuesday), when contained films of this year's MVFF are to be listed to the public, there is speculation that At the Core sadly did not get accepted.  However, this now makes it possible to show online!

Through both IMDb and YouTube, it becomes entirely possible not to hide this documentary from the public anymore.  It needs to be rendered again with the new credits, which will be altered for the music rights, and compressed for uploading, but that should make things possible!

Initially, I didn't think uploading video to IMDb was all that possible, but by submitting At the Core through Withoutabox, that allows me a connection to IMDb that includes uploading videos!  That's how the film's trailer was uploaded there already...  Updates on this soon!

Win Some, Lose Some

"Filmmakers will be notified via email of entry status by approximately September 4th."

-http://www.cafilm.org/mvff/c4e.html

Though I am yet to receive any such email about Mill Valley, I am to assume At the Core (2009) did not make it into the festival based on the Submission Status shown at Withoutabox. That claims to have been notified on September 2nd, and the decision was "Not Accepted."  Sigh...

And still, this day remains pleasant because some of the footage from Brave New World (2002) has now been digitized (it's all already been transferred from Hi8 to MiniDV, thus saved), and it's begun to be edited. I'm not going to upload the movie to YouTube until it's entirely reedited, which may need to wait during a paid video editing job. However, above, I posted a few Brave New Outtakes from the opening scene. I'm sure more are to follow, so I called it "Part 1." Enjoy!

Plans of Big Bear Lake

Entering any festival can be tedious with all the paperwork to fill out, but by using Withoutabox to do all of that for At the Core, it was ten times easier than it could have been. Also because of it, Thomas Productions has another entry at IMDb.

As such, I've been planning out future movies that, too, could be "festivized" through Withoutabox... One that I'm still hoping to retouch a bit is The Nightmare. It's generally okay in terms of editing, but I'd like to work some more on the visual effects and the musical score. Once that's completed, I'd like to send that to the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival for 2010!

I wouldn't have to enter it any sooner than January, so I have some time to work on it. Big Bear is significant to me because it's the town in which I was born, but never really lived beyond the first six months of my life... It's time to revisit.

3rd Time's the Charm

Wow, that was fast! It was supposedly not going to be posted for "two to four weeks," but it's already up only one week after filling out the online invitation forms from Withoutabox!

What I'm referring to, of course, is the IMDb entry for At the Core (2009), which was recently submitted to this year's Mill Valley Film Festival! Now, the entry is not yet complete on IMDb's website, so I'm assuming they meant having the entry complete in two to four weeks.

It's our 3rd movie to exist on IMDb, after The Dog of Pompeii (1999) and The Last Kiss (2000). Quite a time distance exists between The Last Kiss and At the Core, but that's what THIS site is for!

Anyhow, here's the new IMDb link for At the Core:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442006/

Invitation

Quick li'l note here: the MVFF officially received our entry of At the Core a few days ago.

This is good for 2 reasons, aside from it being a relief that it's been received: 1) It is now listed on Withoutabox with a blue checkmark instead of a red dot, and 2) It was automatically invited to become a part of IMDb.com (Internet Movie Database) in result!

Deed is Done

Wahoo! At the Core, reedited for 2009, has officially been submitted to the MVFF, DVD & all. The online entry through Withoutabox occurred a few days ago, and the DVD screener was sent today!

What a relief! And now, a glimpse of what's in store:

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!