Dog Days

[This is my Max. You can tell he is asleep because he is not licking my hand. Or arm. Or foot.]

The last 24 hours or so have really sucked and it is both sucking my motivation to get movie-related things done and propelling me towards doing just that. I seem to do the best, and the bulk, of my work at night when no one can bother me. And since it is Halloween and everyone will be out, my phone should not be ringing and I should be able to get some stuff done. I was supposed to go to a party tonight (and last night, for that matter), but I am just not up to it.

It all started Thursday afternoon, and I am not going to get into the details of it, but work at my day job is really stressing me out, to the point that I couldn't get to sleep until almost 4:00am that night. Too much to explain, but one way or another, I am probably going to be out of a job, AND my apartment, by the end of January. Basically I am trying not to get myself fired before I get myself laid off. But they aren't making that easy.

So Friday morning I hand to have a confrontation with a few people. I had already had this confrontation two months ago, on the phone. This time it was in writing. It seems to have quieted down for the moment. We'll see.

Then in the afternoon I was googling to see how much word is out there about "Smalltimore". The good thing was, there is a lot, and it is popping up on other people's sites and pages and that's great. But also I stumbled across a review by someone who saw it at a festival, and this person ripped it apart, though they at least conceded that the production values were good. And I do agree with that person that the credits are too long and I am going to try to speed them up. But still, it was really brutal and it further soured my mood. This review was followed by someone else's review who saw it at the same festival, and that one was quite the opposite, that person loved it, so that was nice to read. But the wind was still sucked out of my sails. It is to be expected, not everyone likes everything. There are some movies out there that people go on and on about that I despise. Part of the game. Whatever.

What else... I thought my bulk shipment of DVDs and cases would have come in yesterday, and it is still not here. This is worrying me.

I was supposed to go to a costume party last night but didn't have a costume. I don't really like dressing in costume but I think it is also lame to go to a costume party without a costume. Turns out the decision was made for me. I was cat-sitting for my friend Greg (Greg generously loaned his house to "Smalltimore," it was Tony's house in the movie). I went over there to make sure Buddha had food and hang out with him for a bit. When I got there he seemed out of it, and long story short, I called Greg and ended up taking Buddha to the emergency vet. He didn't improve and they had to euthanize him this morning. Greg just lost his other cat a couple months ago, and the whole thing really sucks, though I am glad I was there to take care of Buddha.

So I get home from that ordeal and I find a man sitting in the dark in a parked car in my parking lot. I asked if I could help him and he got belligerent with me immediately. Which, of course, was EXACTLY what I needed to be coming home to at this point. He lied to me and said he was a driver for a guest at the inn. I knew this wasn't true and told him, "You need to leave, now." He replied, "YOU need to leave!" The only reason I was sure this guy wasn't TWELVE YEARS OLD was because he was a behemoth. So yea, that all makes sense, right? Park on someone else's property, and when a woman half your size who informs you she is the manager of the property asks you why you are there, become threatening. Makes perfect sense. Then I said I was calling the police. He said go ahead, call the police. Then he said HE was going to call the police. Then, I called the police. Then I called my neighbor to come over and wait with me for the police, because I just realized the guy may be nuts as well as being an asshole. The police came, and told the guy to get off the property. Sometimes I just hate people. Seriously, this guy had to be close to 50 years old and acting like that. WTF?

I'm just exhausted. Just been going non-stop for weeks now. I just need a couple nights to myself, to get things in motion for the December 9th screening, and to finish organizing the Poconos short that we are doing a week from Monday. I am not going anywhere tonight. Well, I am going across the street to help my neighbor Philip do his make-up before he goes to the party I was supposed to go to. But then I am hibernating and getting stuff done here. Just not in the mood to talk to people.

Which is why I posted this picture of Max. Max and my other Yorkie, Timmy (both can be seen in the opening scene of "Smalltimore"!), keep me sane through these kind of days. A little dog-snuggling goes a long way. Excuse me now, I need to get back to doing exactly that.

In the Catbird Seat

Happy New Year, everyone!

I have lots of reasons to be happy, and to look forward to this year, but at the moment I am happiest about one thing: I actually SLEPT last night! What a relief. I have not been able to do that properly (i.e., without the assistance of cold medicine or a few drinks) for almost a month now, and it was making me a bit crazy, and probably a bit cranky also. Hopefully I am back on track now.

Another thing making me happy, or at least, it was, is that the trailer for Smalltimore is nearing 1,000 hits on YouTube. It has been up for 3 weeks today, so I thought that was good, considering the initial trailer has been up for almost a year and has had a little over 1,200 hits. But then today I got on YouTube to check the stats, and one of the videos that popped up when I signed on had a "talking cat", so I checked it out. Just a cat curled up in a sink and some lady holding the camera and screaming at the cat, "Buster! Say hi, Buster! Buster! Look at me, Buster! Say hi to Lydia, Buster! Buster! BUSTER!!!" You get the idea. And so did SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND people who have watched it.

Looking at the sidebar with "related videos", there are dozens tagged "talking cat", and I didn't see any with less than 6-digit number of views. Really? Talking cats? None of whom (that I saw) actually talk. As in, English.

I also Googled some of the tags I had put on the video just to see where (and if) it came up. In addition to some friends and actors who have embedded it on their Facebook and MySpace pages (and if you haven't yet, what are you waiting for?), I found it on some really weird websites that had scores of seemingly unrelated videos. One of them had mostly sex videos on it, and then mine. I think perhaps because of the tags "Steel, Corset" for Steel Corset Productions. Cheryl Scungio (who plays the lead, Gracie) first pointed this out to me, that on YouTube, when you watch the Smalltimore trailer, the related videos are almost always all fetish related. So mine must show up sometimes as a related video when people are surfing for smut! What a lovely surprise, and a brilliant marketing tactic that I will certainly implement (on purpose) in the future.

Anyway... I am still feeling a bit run-down, decompressing from all the pressure leading up to the screening, and the holidays, and not sleeping or eating right. All of my out-of-town friends who have been visiting are gone now, and I need to simmer down and get back to work. I have a boatload of music to listen to, CDs from local bands and artists who want to be involved on the soundtrack, then I need to watch the movie a few more times and figure out which song goes where, shuffle a few scenes around, make some more cuts, color correct, etc... My brain has been subconsciously processing a lot of information in this week since the screening, so I have some of my attack plan sketched out in my head.

I knew that screening a rough cut was a little risky, I didn't want anyone to be disappointed or to think that this was the final version, so I took a few minutes before the screening to really emphasize that. At the reception afterwards, and in emails and phone calls since, a lot of people have given me their two cents on what they think I should change. Kellie said, "You need longer pauses! People were laughing over the lines and missing things!" Drew said, "You can cut out 5 minutes just by shortening the pauses! But don't cut any dialogue!" Sean says, "There is too much expositional dialogue! Cut it out!" Michelle says, "You need to cut together some more B-roll and establishing shots between scenes so the transition isn't too quick!" and Eric says, "I think you can cut out a lot of the establishing shots. They took up too much time."

This actually sounds more confusing then it is. They are all right, I just need to pick and choose where to apply their suggestions. Some pauses are too long. Some are too short. Some dialogue definitely needs to go. Most of it doesn't, and some of the expositional stuff is mixed in with stuff I need to keep, so that's the really tough part. Some transitions happen too quickly. Other locations are well-established and I don't need to spend so much time showing exterior shots every time the scene changes location.

I'm not worried, though. I trust my own instincts, and based on the feedback I received for the rough cut, I am that much more excited to bring people the final version as soon as possible. It is important to have a thick skin and be able to evaluate each piece of criticism, and not to immediately dismiss it. Not always easy, to consider all these conflicting opinions. For my own work flow, that is why these pauses in (perceived) productivity are important, to let my brain sift through it all while I am busy with other things. My brain gets back with me when it is ready to go, and it is about ready. Moving on!