Posts Tagged body
The Rescue Blues…
Today was a good day. I woke up and downed a Slimfast, the typical breakfast for me the past 2 weeks. I love the taste of those things…they really have a nice chocolaty taste that’s great in the morning 
Not to mention it’s only 190 calories total, fills you for like 4 hours, and is loaded with some vitamins for the day. If I had cereal I would probably be eating 400+ calories between the milk and cereal, even the healthy stuff. There is a lot of calories in cereal, so 2 bowls or so in the morning isn’t the best attack on my fatness…
I made sure I woke up around 11:30 or so because I had a conference call with Nathan Webster, who has become a better friend as this year has progressed. He’s a fellow Christian filmmaker part of the Filmweavers team and recently shared with me the latest cut of The Penny, their latest feature. I really enjoyed it and found it to be different from the norm which was great to hear. The purpose of our call was to discuss Standing Firm, as Nathan had recently seen Cut #2 of the film and wanted to lend his comments. They were overwhelmingly positive, something that was great to hear. He enjoyed the story, felt it will touch a lot of people, and although the kind of movie it was…wasn’t his cup of tea, it held his attention throughout and moved him quite a bit. That was a relief, I gotta tell you. After staring at this thing so much, watching it for the first time all by myself (as I had blogged about previously) left me feeling sick to my stomach so hearing someone else talk about what they liked and didn’t like (not just editing notes, which was nice to have as well), was awesome. I feel a lot better about the state of the film. The cut has also gone out to 3 other friends so I look forward to comments from everyone and seeing how they compare with each other.
Last night I put together new titles for the film, an animated logo for Praise Pictures, and changed up a few things before bed. The film feels a bit more like a film now with some opening logos and such on the front. Final Cut Pro’s text plugin is very crappy to me…just doesn’t allow you to do much. Photoshop and After Effects have never let me down so far, and animating everything gave me some great results…as usual 
One funny thing to report today is I found a special tape I needed. I had recorded my Gaffer (Shaun Smith) ‘s interview before I left for LA and totally lost track of the tape. I had placed his interview at the end of a previously used tape…after wherever the shot footage on the tape ended. I was so terribly sick at the time we shot it I think I was just too out of it to make sure I remembered the tape. So I’ve been staring at this box full of a hundred plus tapes from shooting the film wondering which one it was on, or if I even had it anymore. I’ve put off going through them for a while, in fear I didn’t have it. I started going through them today and it didn’t look so good. I grabbed this new song recently called The Rescue Blues by Ryan Adams and was listening to it quite a few times today. I hit play on the song and popped in the next tape and just thought “wouldn’t it be funny that during THIS song I find the footage…” and BAM as soon as the tape loaded I saw Shaun’s face on the LCD of my little camera and cracked up. It’s rare that things happen that way but I got a kick out of it…thanks Lord.
Kevin showed up later and we spoke about what we need to do in the next few days, possible future of our company, how long before we mail a screener to Rich Peluso at Affirm Films, etc. Much needs to be done, but we’ll be fine. I leave in three days which is really soon…I think it’s crept up on me because I’ve forced myself to forget about it. I’ll be saying goodbye again on Saturday and Sunday to friends 
I hate doing that…
I spoke with my possible composer today as well. He’s a fantastic guy and one heck of a composer. He has written some really nice stuff and can turn out great content faster than anyone else I’ve seen. I know if we’re able to get a budget for him, he’ll bring us something truly special…which I feel the film needs. This has been re-enforced by those who have seen pieces of the film or the entire thing, the composer included. I’m hoping for good things when I mail off that screener to Affirm Films…somehow I feel like everything is fine and I’ll get a response. Don’t ask me how, I just do. Time will tell.
Tomorrow I’ll be getting up and driving around the surrounding towns gathering shots I need for a few pieces of the film, specifically exteriors to use that I didn’t grab in the past. Our church as a nifty new sign out front I want to get in there. Our previous was like flimsy cardboard on wooden sticks…so this new one will look a little better, ha ha.
Tomorrows another day, it’s gonna be a busy one…3 days to go.
Up Late…
My sleeping habits have been so odd lately. I got up at 1pm today because I had fallen asleep at about 4am. I can’t seem to get to the point where I can get to bed by 12 and get up around 9 or so. 9 is a good time to start the day for me. Hopefully I can get back to that sometime soon because I haven’t seen a morning in a long time lol. This is going to be a really short post because honestly I didn’t do much today. I worked on a new Standing Firm website, worked on our edit a little bit when Kevin came over, watched a movie or two, and that’s about it. One thing I did do today was eat some crappier food than usual. I’ve made it a point to eat when I’m hungry, something I never did in the past years and probably aided in my “thickness.” Not only did I not eat when I was hungry, but I had some pretty crappy food.
I’ve been craving some different food. I had pizza yesterday but that didn’t satisfy the craving I had. I wanted chicken wings…big, juicy, fattening chicken wings. That flavor was all I wanted so at the end of the day I ordered some. One thing I hate about going to Johnson’s to order things is it’s always awkward when I walk in. There isn’t really a place to wait, you sorta just stand there in the open in-between restaurant seats and the bar. People just love to stare and I don’t really know how to handle it. I’m not sure if they hired a bunch of new people either but when I walked in it seemed like all the hostesses there were attractive, lol. When I paid the one hostess said “enjoy your food, hun.” Now maybe it’s just me, but that’s normally something I hear from an older person. Maybe she thought I was 11, but the beard would say otherwise. She didn’t look anymore than a few years older than me. I just found that odd, lol. Yes, the wings were amazing. I ate as many as I could but didn’t finish the 20 I ordered. I probably had 15 stuffing myself. I can’t eat as much as I used to, probably half of what was normal. I can’t really finish a footlong Subway sub anymore. Once I eat the last bite of it if I finish I’m totally filled to the limit. It’s odd how my body reacts and fluctuates in weight, food intake, etc. I’ve always found it a tad confusing…ah well.
That’s about all I have to say, a pretty boring day all things considered. G’night.
Abrupt Awakening
Hair Cut!
The title of this post sounds like a movie doesn’t it? [movie trailer voice] In a world where 20 somethings get no sleep…one man overcomes all! [/movie trailer voice] Anyways I woke up to the sound of…”Kyyyyyyllllleeeeee. Wake up! You Hoo!! Kyylleee! *rock hits window*” It was Owen, a friend of mine outside trying to get me to let him in the house at like 10:30 or so. I wanted to sleep longer but for me being up for more than 30 seconds means I’m screwed, no falling back asleep for me today. He was supposed to work on our barn roof but got rained out just as he showed up. It poured pretty hard here today, and the lightning was awesome
Afterward I pretty much just sat down and got to work, just as I have every single day. Scene 14r (r because it’s a reshoot) is one of the sequences that I think will work really well, problem is I wasn’t 100% sure how. It involves some complicated editing. Not because the footage is bad, I have all the footage I could ever want. It’s just complicated because I need to communicate a lot of different pieces of information within about 10 seconds. It’s for a flashback sequence that happens in Dave’s head in a moment of anger. He isn’t asleep so I can’t play a scene out. I need to feed you basically his entire marriage and how it fell apart in a matter of seconds…and that’s not easy. I think I have a basic rough of how it will go together, but it needs some major tweaks before I think I’ll be happy with it. By happy I don’t mean that it’s the best thing ever seen by man, but it needs to be the best it can be based on the footage and content I have available. In every scene regardless of whatever shortcomings some might have (for a number of reasons), my job is to make the best scenes (and film) possible with what I have to work with. That’s why the edit takes so long. It’s not just “o it works now,” it’s “it works now and it’s the best it can be.” It’s coming together quite well, only a few scenes remain like 14r that will be very difficult, the rest of the story is basically in place and about 25% of the film is locked. As time continues I’ll be working out those difficult edits and tweaking and locking things scene by scene until we reach a point at which I’m satisfied. As always, hands to the plow!
In other news, tonight was a shower of The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry at NFBC. I wasn’t optomistic about the turnout, because people just seem so uninterested in getting out of the house for things, lol. It’s sad really, they’ll support my film if I said it was showing and bring everyone they know, but a film with the same goals doesn’t get the same treatment? Come now folks, don’t say you want cleaner, more family driven entertainment but you won’t come out and support it. Sooner or later, nobody will invest to help get those kinds of films (or mine) made because nobody supports them. Times are tough as it is, show those with the dough that you want more Christ Honoring films, and by that I mean GET OFF YOUR REAR. Do something about it, support these films will you or keep your trap shut!
Cutest Dog Ever
I went to go eat with Sam and Jeff after the movie. We just talked about Politics (yea…haha) and movies most of the time. We ate at The Brickyard which is by far my favorite place to eat around here. Everything there is amazing, and I always end up getting their chicken salad. It’s so fresh and amazing…covered in smoked chicken breast (ugh…mmm). Either way it was a good time and the drive home was great. I love driving around here, so peaceful, quieter, and it’s summer so it’s about 70s around 10pm or so. That’s absolutely perfect weather to drive in with a window down…
As you can see I have a new picture up in the upper right. That’s me currently after some weight loss and a haircut (not to mention a beard trimming). I got a few comments from friends yesterday at Circle C that I looked “very skinny.” Even if someone mentioned me losing weight before the word “very” was never added. It was nice some folks noticed. I’m officially 205, a weight I haven’t been for a few years. I’m saying “official” because I’ve been there for a few weeks, so my body has leveled out again, it wasn’t just a temporary dip. Nice to lose some of that chin I had, LOL.
It’s also my mom’s birthday today so to that I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA! I LOVE YOU! 
P.S. just as a bonus I added a picture of that puppy who is by far the cutest living thing I’ve ever seen. Nabbed from a photo album on Facebook (thanks Jenny!). Haha…just look at that little furball. ADORABLE!
