"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."
Mood:  loud
Now Playing: U2's "All Because of You"

that quote, the title of this entry, is a direct quote from Batman Begins, which i took in last night. great movie. amazing movie. the best "origin tale" to date. Kelly (my fiance) thinks its the best superhero movie to date, though Spider-Man 2 still holds that position in my opinion, just because i like it better. but that line, that quote up there, is something Bats says near the end of the flick and it's stuck with me ever since, because it's so true.

people are always complaining "people don't see me for who i am, who i am underneath all this, who i am down here," but you are what you do. maybe that sounds too much like defining yourself by your job, but that's not what i'm talking about. if you mistreat people, or if you're a jerk or if you're the quitest, meekest person on earth, that is YOU. if you're not happy with the way people perceive you, then be the person you want to be! embrace who you are and be the person you were born to be!

it just had a profound effect on me, i guess because it was coming from a guy in black rubber. who knows.

if you haven't seen BB (not Black Beauty), see it. see it now. turn off your computer, get up, grab your keys and wallet, get to the theatre, and go see it. now.

Holy Sculpted Rubber Suits, Batman!
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: John Ottman's score for "X-Men 2"
sign it's gonna be a good day #1: you walk into work and your boss apologizes for biting your head off yesterday for a mistake you didn't make, he made and he's now realized it was his mistake and is taking responsibility. -sniff, sniff- they grow up so fast . . .

sign it's gonna be a good day #2: a Christopher Nolan film starring Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Katie Holmes, and Michael Caine opens that also just so happens to be an adaptation of one of the best comic book heroes of all time.

to mark the Batman resurrection (after Schumacher killed it and continued to beat the poor dead horse -- seriously, have you seen Batman & Robin? i know it's easy to make fun of it, but my goodness that movie is bad! and i love Schumacher's work! Phantom of the Opera? Phonebooth? what happened man?) , i have decided to write a mini-column on everything superheroes have ever taught me.

Batman

we'll start with Bats because it's his big day. the message that Batman brings to us is a very simple one, in my opinion. because he has no superpowers, Batman really comes to represent who you or i could become. maybe we don't have Wayne manor or Wayne Enterprises and the millions of dollars it brings Bruce, but the point is Bruce uses what natural resources he has to be the best he can be. the Bible would call him a good steward. me and you, we have things at our disposal that we can use to better the lives of those around us. that's what the caped and cowled crusader taught me.

Superman

might as well talk about the other DC character i know and love before i move back to my home territory of Marvel characters. Superman has a special place in my heart because his was the first movie i remember seeing and the first movie i watched so many times i wore out the VHS tape and could quote the entire movie (soon to be followed by Return of the Jedi). the cynic in me looks at Superman and scoffs that he's just the commercialization of Jesus Christ, but there's something to the "Boy Scout" that i still love and admire, and if nothing else, it's his convictions. different writers have done different things to him, sometimes poking fun of his "truth, justice, and the American way" of doing things, some have really painted him hokey. but here is what is basically a demigod who refuses to kill. who refuses to use his powers for his own personal gain. the man in practically invincible, but does he have plans for world domination? nope. he just wants to be himself, live a life with Lois, and help those in need. that's who he has always been and who he continues to this day. sticking to what you believe in, while still allowing room for growth, is something we could all use a little more of.

X-Men

here's a book i have to admit i've always loved but never read. i've been reading the Ultimate book and loving it and i've recently begun reading the Astonishing line (yay Joss Whedon!) and i absolutely loved the movies. that being said, there's also so many muties running around the X-Men universe that it is absolutely impossible to count them all. out of any comic book series, the X-books are probably the most convoluted and hardest series to break into. you practically have to know their entire history to understand any one of their stories. very frustrating. that being said, what i dig about the X-books is the team unity, how they all work together, how they each have such diverse powers but combine them to work together for good. we (like the X-Men) are born with unique abilities (maybe you can't shoot an optic beam out of your eyes or maybe you can, i don't know) that we can use anyway we want. how will you use the abilities God has given you? selfish gain, for His kingdom or for the betterment of man? it's your choice.

Spider-Man

Superman might have captured my imagination but Spider-Man sculpted it. if Superman is a Greek god, Spider-Man is a Greek tragedy. it would be easy for me to simply quote "with great power comes great responsibility," as that is the main theme of both the books and and the movies, but there's something else in the Spider-books that keeps me coming back (for those of you only vaguely aware of my life, Spider-Man is my all time favorite). i love his sense of humour. i love that's he's just a regular shmoe. but as a character, what i love about him most is his perseverance. even when his Uncle Ben is killed or Gwen Stacy is killed, he perseveres. he keeps fighting the good fight, because he has been given these powers, and he has a responsibility that he must uphold.

then, of course, are the little side lessons: blondes are cool but will sleep with your arch-nemesis, spawning super-powered children who will try to kill you and/or have sex with you. redheads are infinitely cooler (or hotter, depending on your personal jargon) than blondes. if your best friend's father tries to kill you, chances are, your best friend will end up wanting to kill you too.

All The Others . . .

i could go on and talk about the folks of Sin City, talk about Daredevil, DangerGirl, Wonder Woman, the Crow, Captain America, the Hulk, Darkhawk, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the new superheroes on the the block (or are they just rip-offs?), The Incredibles, but you get the idea. i've always believed you can learn something from anything, and there is much to learn in this world.

but i should go now. i think my boss is going to start wondering why so little is getting done in my office this morning.

Excelsior!

Life as a Mouse
Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: Sara Groves' "Roll To The Middle"

good news: i'm catcher for the office's softball team.
bad news: we're the Fertility Center Inseminators.

good news: we won last night's game.
bad news: it was because of "the two sweetest words in the English language! DE-FAULT! DE-FAULT!"

the other team only had four people show up, so we got dolled up for nothin'. oh well. we're doing pretty good. we've only lost one game thus far. we're in one league right now, which ends either here at the end of June or at the beginning of July, and then we roll over into the Collegedale League, we'll see how we hold up over there.

wrote a script for the 5th Commandment yesterday that turned out pretty well, if i do say so myself. wrote it with Brittney Wearner in mind, so i'm going by her place tonight to give her the script, to see if she wants to come aboard.

developed about six rolls of black and white film last night, in what was the most expensive development process ever but was also a wonderful experiment in composition, lighting, and black and white film for me. my models were: Kelly, Brittney, Michelle and Kristi. with a couple of cameos by Rachel. most of them turned out real well, but Kristi's roll for some reason, really sucked. good pictures, but i messed them up in the development (i developed the negatives by hand and took the negatives to Wolf Camera for the prints). so only have a handful out of the Kristi pictures that look any good. sorry Kristi.

David Rodney (a local talent agent) is hooking me up with an actor, which is exciting. i'm supposed to hear from the guy sometime this week.

shooting pre-production video with Morgan this evening. we're meeting at the Spalding Gym at 6pm.

after seeing the success of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," i have decided to write a similar, if not eerily parallel book called "If You Give a Man Some Nookie."

publishers are standing by.

The Weekend That Was
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: Frou Frou's "Let Go"

i have a new office!

at least, it seems that way. i have a new desk and it takes up about at least twice as much space as my old desk did, which means my laptop actually has room on the desktop and doesn't have to halfway hang over the side as it vies for space with the G5. i don't know what i'm going to do with all this space! maybe it's time to whip out the ol' action figures and stage a galactic civil war . . .

that wouldn't be unprofessional of me, would it?

one of the best weekend i've had in a while. Friday was a blast, i always enjoy photo shoots. Saturday was amazing. i spent the afternoon with Kelly, laughing, talking and eventually napping. Saturday night saw us at the Rave, the cinema in town as we took in "Mr & Mrs Smith", which was a purely and thoroughly enjoyable flick. i highly recommend it. great diaolouge, great chemistry, great action, great comedy, and a nice, subtle refrence to "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid".

Kelli and Matt's wedding was like a big camp renunion. it was beautiful, touching, and got me excited about mine in December (the 18th! Mark your calender!).

the shoot with Morgan didn't happen, we had a schedule conflict pop up, so we'll be doing that little bit of pre-production Tuesday night. it's all good.

this blog needs a montage!

i love sharing pictures here, but it makes me sad that i have to shrink them down so much and reduce them from 300ppi to 72ppi. you just lose so much. oh well. enjoy!

Richard Linklater and My Busy, Busy Weekend
Mood:  cheeky
Now Playing: Lazlo Bane's "I'm No Superman"
watched the Richard Linklater film "Waking Life" last night. thoroughly enjoyed it, though i was a bit restless for the final ten minutes or so. very interesting. i like Linklater's work, especially his independent stuff. his films tend to be very dialouge driven, and i dig that. if you've never seen one of his films are are curious, i'd recommend "Before Sunrise". though i'm sure most of you have seen "School of Rock," which is actually very different than any of his other work. very dissimilar from his independent work, especially.

it's Friday, and i'm all TGIFin', but not for the usual "yay rest and relaxation" reasons. i have a very, very busy weekend ahead of me.

i have a photo shoot with Rachel Kelly (and her band) this afternoon. she's an up and coming singer/songwriter who, in my personal opinion, is absolutely the most amazing thing to listen to. if she doesn't make it big, it'll be the crime of the century.

Mister and Misses Smith opens this weekend. what's not to like? Brad Pitt? Vince Vaughn? Angelina Jolie? Directed by Doug Liman? i'm predestined to enjoy this flick.

i am conducting the preliminary video shoot of Morgan's routine on sunday. which, as i've said before, me and my DP will review and construct our storyboards around.

Kelli Reeves and Matt Higgens are getting married on sunday. i have to attend and support fellow camp staffers because (A) they're my friends and (B) too many people poo-poo summer camp love and this is the second wedding i've attended of people who have met and fallen in love at summer camp (if all goes according to plan, my own wedding will be the third).

my weekend will be non-stop and i'm looking forward to it!

i'll be back on Monday with some pictures to share, i'm sure.

Will Film For Food
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: Part 1: Bon Jovi's "Born To Be My Baby" Part 2: Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life"

because you're reeeeally special, The Realm's first two-part blog!

Part 1:


one hour and thirteen minutes until lunch . . .

i'm sitting in my office, staring at a cluster of exposed wiring, wondering what my chances are of being electrocuted as i keep half an eye on the video i'm capturing.

two weekends ago, a friend of mine's daughter got married and he asked me to video the service. "no problem," i thought and said. then his daughter called me. she wanted the rehearsal videoed, too. and the reception. and she wanted them edited nicely together, with a kickin' soundtrack. oh, and if i could transfer the raw footage from mini-DV to DVD that would be sweet, too.

so my day started at 9am (the ceremony began at 6pm), when they wanted me to show up at their house and video the girls doing their make-up and getting dressed. i was one of three men in a house filled with, what, twenty women? if i wasn't engaged, i might like those odds even more.

the morning was fun and fairly stress-free, but as it continued, i began to realize how big and momentous the day was and was becoming. how could i possibly capture such a day with my puny little XL-1? how could i do the third biggest day in anyone's life (first biggest day being birth, the second being baptism) any kind of justice?

i calmed myself by telling myself that i was film graduate. i knew what i was doing. and, because these people aren't film people, their standards and what they're expecting are probably much lower than me. i mean, seriously, somebody had to make Napoleon Dynamite popular.

the day went off without a hitch (except the expected one -- you know, the bride and groom) but the absolute funniest moment was when the mother of the bride grabbed me and pulled me into the dressing room, as she wanted video of her daughter getting into her dress. "Just don't look," she said.

"You want me to video blindly?"

"No, well . . ."

"You do realize, I'll be editing this later, right?"

"Um . . ."

"But if you want me to, I can point the camera in one direction and look the other. Or if you want, I can give you the camera."

"Oh, just come in."

so there's the bride in her skivvies and i'm videoing her as she blushes and squeezes into her wedding dress. everyone's comfortable with this until the photographer comes in and starts shooting her, telling her to strike "sexy" poses (as she's not in her dress quite yet, just her underwear corset). and that's when the mom gets uncomfortable.

ah, fun was had by all.

and i have the video to prove it! Mu-wah-ha-ha-ha!!

on a side note, it made me want to create a bumper sticker and t-shirt line that reads "Yes, This is my Camera. Yes, I Have Access to Final Cut Pro. No, I Won't Shoot Your Memorable Event."

fifty-seven minutes until lunch . . .


Part 2:

thirty-one minutes until i go home for the day . . .

having tested the wires, i can't get electrocuted. the video i had been capturing is now taking its dear sweet time to burn to DVD. i'll be quite happy when this whole wedding ordeal is behind me (don't tell the Murrays i said that, of course).

a couple of friends (who don't visit this site, as their time is "too precious") have asked me about the art i have on my main page. and so i have created a small presentation to tell the vivid history of this picture.

it began with a script for a film called "Happy Valley" that i was going to shoot this summer (2005, for the time capsule), but had to pull the plug on due to budget and time constraints. but that didn't stop me from going out and doing a photo shoot. i was going to play the pivotal (but ultimately supporting) role of CS and Amie Barnhardt was going to play Rebecca, CS' girlfriend. since none of the rest of the cast was cast, and i wanted promotional material to make a website out of, i grabbed Amie and we went out and took a slew of pictures. the one i liked the most had the both us in it, in character (a slight trick of gettings the settings right, putting the timer on, and quickly getting into place).

part of the marketing of this doomed project was going to be the focus on how diverse the characters were and how ecclectic even the script was. it bounced between drama and comedy pretty fluidly. so i sent the picture to Joe Pekar, a comic book artist i met on the internet and had comissioned a Spider-Man picture from a couple of months previous to the shoot. then he created the picture.

he sent me every step of the process and now the finished products (the black & white and the colour) are waiting to be framed and hung beside my Spider-Man & MJ picture (which i might share with you at a later date). anyway, here's the process:

the real picture is much bigger and has a much higher resolution. i had to downsize everything, otherwise it would take a year and a half for you to view it.

the script for "Happy Valley" has been sent to a screenwriting competition. we'll see if there's still some life in the ol' girl.

thirteen minutes until i go home for the day . . .

I'm Walking On Sunshine Whoooooooooooa-Yeah!
Mood:  on fire
Now Playing: Joan Osborne's "What if God Was One of Us?"
it came in today!

the other came in on Monday, and that was kickin', but IT came in today!

and i'm talking about Ripple's Panasonic DVX! i know, i know, it's not top of the line anymore. the new cameras record straight to flash drives on HD, but dude, the things i can pull off with this DVX is going to be AMAZING!!

like all these short films i keep talking about.

people (film people, mainly) roll their eyes at digital photgraphy, but i'm all about it. i really look up to George Lucas and Robert Rodriguez, who have pretty much pioneered digital photography for movies. i'm a poor college grad who can't afford to shoot movies on film (more precisely, i can't afford to develop the film i shoot the movies on). but mini-DV tapes? that i can afford. they're like, "oh, but it's not film, you can tell. look at the way it looks."

if you go into a digital movie, expecting the look of film, you will be disappointed. but don't expect film and you won't be. it would be like painting with water colours and wondering why it doesn't look like your friend's acryllic painting. they are two separate mediums, and i embrace the digital. i give it a big Irish bear hug. the freedom, the stresslessness of shooting on mini-DV is unexplainable. yes, there are some con's to this, but there's con's in everything. people who think film is absolutely the best thing to shoot are are delusional, as there are A LOT of things that can go wrong on film that will simply never happen digitally. i could rant on this all day, but you're already bored and scanning down to my other blogs for language, nudity, violence, sex, and explicit adult situations.

so i'll shut up now.

just let me say this in closing:

Command 1: Respect
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Elton John's "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters"
Pre-Production has officially began on "Respect," the first in a series of ten short films exploring human relations and what place the Ten Commandments have in the lives of people today, some five-thousand years after they were written.

For the curious, i'm going to share the shooting script, so you can read what i'm up to. DISCLAIMER: this is copyrighted material, so please read and enjoy it, even comment on it, but should i attend a film festival where i see this script on screen (and it's not directed by me), i'll have to look at you, wax on a Georgian accent and say, "what an ugly thing to say. I abhor ugliness. Does this mean we're not friends anymore? You know [insert your name here], if I didn't think you were my friend, I don't think I could bare it." then i'd sue you.

nothing personal, mind you. i just have to look out for me and mine. but if you like what you read and would like to talk to me about writing something, then do contact me. i'm always looking for something else to do and/or write.

i talked with Morgan last night and we're going to be getting together later this week or early next week (depending on when the gym is available) to go over her routine.

going to meet with DR Fraley on Thursday night about a mutual trade of services and to discuss what actors and models he represents and hope to cast the Coach out of his acting pool. or i might get my dad to do it, that way i could have not one single actor in the cast (he looks the part, and the script's not exactly Shakespeare).

anyway. back to work!

And It Was Goooooooooood . . .
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone"
i imagine the sixth day of creation ended something like this: "And He created the air conditioning unit and set it in the backyard. The air did flow through the ventilation shafts and did cool the entire house to a respectable 71 degrees Farenheit. He sat back and saw that the air conditioning was good. And there was sunrise and sunset -- the sixth day."

my landlord (one Mister Ted Summitt) showed up and rest the breaker box and the air conditioner kicked on. it was beautiful.

no more sitting on my living room floor, playing "Halo 2" and feeling sweat roll down in the middle of my back! In the words of Anakin Skywalker, "yipppppeeeeeeeeeee!"

Ode to A Maple Leaf
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: Alan Silvestri's "Forrest Gump Suite"
thanks to this blog and WAYN, I have just reconnected with a blast from my past.

her name is Amy Lambros. she is from Canada -- Windsor, actually. and we met in Bedford, Kentucky, at a little place we liked to call "the compound". it was here (or there) that we were trained to become good, proper missionaries. i headed off to Dublin, Ireland and she headed off to Seoul, Korea. but for that insanely intense month, we (along with Dannon, Nathia, and Eugene) were thick as thieves. when we weren't forced into manual labour, we were avoiding manual labour -- which would result in a lecture on responsiblity, a water fight, a lecture the evils of "the bridge," me being pulled into the pastor's office and asked to play mediator or a combination of any two of these.

it was quite possibly the most stressful time of my life, and yet it also holds what i consider some of the most fun times i've ever had. it was all we could do to survive.

that's Amy on the left, me shocked in the middle, and Nathia on the right. it's okay to be jealous. you're not me.

and it's good to be me.