the awesome/terrifying freedom

so here's a music video i directed just before i left the city, and recently finished editing on final cut.. enjoy!

i just had this exchange, spelling out an email address for, uh, someone.

me: it's blah blah blah dot biz.
her: it's dot what?
me: biz.
her: fizz?
me: biz. B - I - Z.
her: wait. (gets pen) ok.
me: "B"
her: "D"? as in dog?
me: no. "B." "B" as in blue.
her: ohhhhh.
me: B - I -
her: "I" as in "C?"

pause

me: uh.

what do you even do with that? 'i' as in 'C'? do you mean 'eye' as in 'see'? are you fucking kidding me? are you ancient egyptian or a developer of dingbat fonts? are you retarded?

i just spelled it again really fast. and pretended i didn't hear her.

btw: dreamgirls was fantastic.

lots of pics. went up the coast for tday.. saw matt, shoko, and wren..















this store was in carmel. i nearly died.












this pepper nearly took down the whole party.















in other news, on my way to work monday, a girl coming the opposite direction took a left turn directly into r2. definitely not the best way to start the week. everyone's fine, except for the impact points on both our cars. soo totally her fault. here's hoping the insurance companies agree on that. it's only my second accident ever - and both times, everything just slows down long enough for you to wish for the day you hoped to have, the uneventful one you were kind of dreading, but now realize would be blissful to have back.

the short i did with my dad, 'loaded,' has been accepted to the boulder film festival! woohoo! it's february 15-18.. anyone in boulder to come see it?

here i am getting the second to last shot..

i just want to take a quick moment to say a special thank you to azureus and bittorrent for making it possible for me to learn final cut pro, soundtrack pro, dvd studio pro, adobe after effects, and soon, motion. currently boning up for the soundtrack pro certification. the tutorial is so awesome.. learning to mix sound for suspense scenes and movie trailers..

there's a billboard for charles schwab i pass every day. it says 'wow. i'm 50,' and it freaks the hell out of me. i'm gonna wake up tomorrow saying those words. will i still be working for spoiled rich kids, looking for a break? or will i actually be out here, doing what i hope to be doing by the time i'm 50, which is making movies, making cool stuff with cool people? i know already that i'm never, ever going to retire. i may vacation, but the brain never retires.

i have to keep reminding myself why i moved here, why i made this huge, terrifying jump. i especially have to remind myself in those moments where i begin to feel comfortable, settled in - that the reason i'm here is because of the extreme discomfort and dissatisfaction i felt in new york. that i'm here because i want to put my energy in creative places that excite me.

aside from getting certified in all of the above programs, i have the usual litany of pending projects:

• finish editing requiem #6
• plan out and shoot the remaining requiem movies
• work with neal to complete a disastrously brilliant screenplay version of 'second.'
• shoot 'second.'
• get accepted to sundance
• become the next darren aronovsky.

that's all!

well, basically, just busy, and occupied! also, i let the batteries die in my camera, so even though i've had it on my person during several photo opportunities, it hasn't been functional. eh, i'm lazy. but it's all charged up now and ready to roll. fortunately, sam has been the shutterbug. we went to the newly refurbished and expanded griffith observatory last weekend.



but most of this last week has been spent on projects:

1. studying and getting certified as an apple pro user in final cut!
2. completing the edit on the short i shot with my dad over the summer, 'loaded.'
3. designing the postcard and website for a show john pinckard is producing in nyc, 'the sublet experiment.'

the final cut test was much harder than i expected - because there are three test levels, i figured level one questions would be extremely basic, and some of the were, but many were on key commands and keyboard modifiers, which i wasn't expecting. i was expecting it to be a hands-on, project style test, similar to what i had to do to test for photoshop at temp agencies in new york - but no, it was a good old fashioned multiple choice test, taken in a private computer lab, on the internet. once you click 'end test,' you find out instantly if you studied hard enough, or if you have to shell out another $150 to retake the test next week. i could only miss 15 questions and still pass, but i had earmarked over 20 questions to review again later because i didn't instantly know the answers.. i had to be fully prepared to spend the money and retake the test before pressing the button - thankfully i got a perfectly respectable 87%, will be listed on the apple website as a certified pro, and i can now display this logo:



along with this logo came a huge booklet detailing 'proper usage of the apple logo.' bleh. though, that is how they keep everything looking so nice. microsoft certainly has no guidelines or standards when it comes to their look.

so i've finished editing 'loaded,' which is exciting, and it's been submitted to the boulder film festival. should find out soon if it's accepted. even if it's not, it was a great experience, and was the vehicle through which i picked up the bulk of my final cut pro skills. at some point i'll post a version online, but not just yet.

meanwhile.. looking for editing assistant jobs.