Out Of My Hands

It's out of my hands now.

All of the deliverables for the upcoming national release of MAGDALENA'S BRAIN are out the door. Well... there's still some paperwork, releases and stuff. But all of the DVD content is done. I have to admit it was fun going back into the movie and pulling some material. It was neat to go through raw tapes and find some bit I'd never seen or forgotten.

Below find a list of the extras that will be on the disc:

-Scene specific commentary with writers, producer and director, Marty Langford and Warren Amerman.

-3 behind the scenes featurettes:
-“Just Cool It With The Bowling”
-“The Drilling of Andrew”
-“The Chase”

-“The Players” Music Video

-“A Day in the Life…” Video Diary

-4 Deleted Scenes:
-“Cosmo and Cosmo”
-“Park Nailing”
-“Pulling the Wings off Flies”
-“Arthur Whacking: Aftermath”

Some of these extras are quite substantial, while others are piddling affairs. The commentary is pretty good, and a couple of the deleted scenes are interseting. Atom and Jim's featurettes and docus are all kick ass.

July 25th can't come quickly enough.

Golden Slumbers

Wow.

Surfing around and caught a look at this amazing clip on IFILM. Chris Bliss puts on the single most amazing piece of juggling I have ever seen. Beautiful.

Check out the clip named, "The Big Finale" on his webpage here: http://www.chrisbliss.com/videopresskit.html

Barry Bonds

BONDS ADMITS STEROID USE; QUITS BASEBALL

(AP)

SANFRANSISCO, Ca -- In a stunning announcement today, San Fransisco left fielder Barry Bonds came clean. In an early morning press conference, ostensibly scheduled to discuss the aging slugger's knee problems, Bonds surprised the room, and the world, with the admission.

"It's true. I used. I'm using... still am, actually. The book, they got it right. For the most part they got it right," Bonds stated, his eyes downcast; his shoulders slumped.

Rampant speculation, most recently brought to a fever pitch with the impending publication of "Game of Shadows" co-authored by San Fransisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, has finally led to conclusive proof. From the Giant's own mouth.

"I couldn't keep away from the book, from the truth. It's easy to lie. I've gotten real good at it," Bonds continued at 9:14am this morning, "...real good."

Bonds said that on Thursday of last week, he began "scanning" the book excerpt in the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated.

"I just thought I'd see what they had on me, you know? And my eyes... as they looked at the pages, at the dates, at the names... it was clear that they had me.... and my eyes... I just broke down. I thought about the work I'd have to do, the heavy lifting in trying to talk my way out of it. And I thought about the truth... about telling the truth... and man, it looked so much easier to do that. To tell the truth."

And with that, Bonds announced his retirement, and in taking potential pressure away from baseball commissioner Bud Selig, he finished his brief statement with, "so I'm done. I retire. And the numbers, the records... I don't want 'em. Ignore me, disregard me... at the very least use that asterisk. Because I cheated. I cheated. And it's not fair to baseball, to the fans... to let that stand."

He then rose from the table, ignoring the flurry of questions from reporters, and started to walk off stage.

He stopped, though, and returned to microphone. Leaning in he finished:

"I'm sorry."

And then, he walked off for good.

A short list of people I hate...

-Eli Roth
-Richard Kelly
-Drew McWeeny ("Moriarty" of AICN fame, screenwriter for Showtime's"Masters of Horror"
-Quentin Tarantino
-Kevin Smith

Why do I hate them? Simple.

They're doing it.

It. What I want to be doing. And with the possible exception of Tarantino, I think I could pretty much do it better than them. But they've got that thing, right? That combination of talent, luck, ambition and fearlessness that one needs to get to to be where they are. (That's almost three consecutive 'to's... a grammatical impossibilty!).

I'd love to know what that equation is, what the percentage of ambition vs. talent; luck vs. fearlessness is. I was recently reading the new book The Mind of the Modern Moviemaker, and I found myself alternating between resenting and being impressed with the various ways in which these disparate filmmakers conceived, executed and shilled their respective films. One thing is clear (to me, anyway): Brett Ratner is an absolute ass, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are my heroes, the Weitz brothers have got their shit together, I feel sorry for McG, and Richard Kelly is the luckiest guy in the world. It's a fascinating and quick read w/ a pretty amazing range of modern moviemakers.

I'm constantly questioning my own attributes as a filmmaker... am I good enough, prolific enough, ambitious enough... ? The truth of the matter though -- and I'm working on this, believe me -- is that I don't and may never have the answers to the these questions. I guess if the answers are yes, I'll become a successful and self-sufficient filmmaker; and if the answers are no, I won't. I suspect the answer is neither, and I've just got to come to terms with that... with who I am and what kind of tools I have. I'm definitely competent. I'm definitely smart. And I'm definitely somewhat ambitious. But smart, competent, somewhat ambitious filmmakers ain't gonna set the world on fire.

What I'm just beginning to realize is that these guys both got lucky and took huge risks... risks I don't think I'm willing to take.

That's OK.

I'm sure they have it pretty good now, but the work and sacrifices they made to get to where they are constitute an effort that's either not within me, or an effort that's simply not worth it to me. Again, that's OK. Or rather I should say, I'm getting to the place where it will be OK.

And that's OK.

I'm not willing to give up my lifelong dream of being a successful filmmaker. But I certainly am willing to compromise a bit on the scope of that success if I can continue to be a good husband, a good father, a good brother, a good son, and still be a pretty good person.

I don't really hate the guys above. In fact, I kinda like them, their work, and their successes. Good for them, right?

And good for me for starting to accept that.

I love the sound of my own voice...

This is cool. As I write this, I'm listening to the audio commentary track for our film, MAGDALENA'S BRAIN.

Commentary tracks fascinate and frustrate me. I'm in love with the idea of them, but in reality, I've only listened to three of them: THE EVIL DEAD 2, RUNNING TIME, and... hmmm, maybe there's only two -- I've always told people that there's three, I'll have to rethink that. And you'll notice that both of those movies feature Bruce Campbell, the king of the commentary. Me? Not so much. Though, to be honest, I'm kind of digging our first time out.

We tried to keep the track interesting, with a minimum of irritating little personal stories, and as I listen 48 minutes into the track, we were kind of successful. We wanted to treat it as an informative track for burgeoning filmmakers, but also a somewhat anecdodal one to keep it interesting. I think we pulled it off.

On July 25, you'll be able to judge yourself.

F NBC

Ideas.

Remember that thing I said about always wanting to reinvent a genre. ALways wanting a unique idea upon which to develop story. About how important it is that an idea be new, be interesting?

NBC
Series Premiere
March 22, 2006
HEIST

Goddamnit.