With the new site in progress, I'm going to try to keep the blog entries a little more regular too. It helps that I've had a million things to do, so I feel the need to share with you guys... so I can read this later and remind myself what it felt like to be completely scattered for an extended period.
So in no particular order... two weeks ago, I participated in the Toronto 48-Hour Film Challenge again. You may recall we did this last June, where I played an auto-mechanic in a bizarre script involving a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey accident. This year, we had many of the same folks as last time, except we had much better actors (not me!) and had decided before the competition even began that we would do a musical, just for kicks.
Nobody had ever done a musical, as far as we knew. So over several years and several hundred short films, we would be the first. It meant however, that there would be NO sleep. I started writing after a brief brain-storming session with the group and wrapped the script up around 1am. That didn't include the music, however, but that was surprisingly easy thanks to computer technology and a series of corny rhymes. The talent was fantastic, and we had the whole thing recorded by 5:30am, at which point everybody got very excited for what we were about to do, because the hardest part was behind us.
Everybody tried to grab a quick nap on the couch of the recording studio we were calling our headquarters, but after waking up face-down on a recliner, I realized that my hour of sleep was less than restful. We shot the first scene (which was actually the 2nd to last shot of the movie) around 7am, and shot all day and night until about 4am (when the REAL last shot was done). Our editor had already started working on the previous days tapes and had no problem wrapping it up by our 8pm Sunday deadline.
On Wednesday, they announce that 39 teams started, 27 finished on time, and we were among the Top 20 to be screened. I'm not going to lie, I would have been LIVID if we hadn't made it that far. However, the screening was really well received and we were informed that we were in the Top 10, and were actually eligible for prizes at the gala (this coming Friday). So our writing, acting, editing, directing, etc. could win us some prizes, or a Best Picture award. We'll have to wait and see...
If you want to watch the movie, it's available here (http://youtube.com/watch?v=xfoyQZHShoA). The slate at the beginning tells you what our film had to include.
Other than that, Tai and I joined a load of other folks up at Steve's Cottage for the annual Wilberforce weekend. It is generally a pretty crazy time, and this year was no exception. I'm not going to say much, other than the fact that it was somewhat outrageous and there may have been nudity involved. Not from me, or Tai, but that's about all I will divulge.
We rushed back from the cottage on Sunday morning in time to catch the FIFA U20 World Cup Final between Czech Republic and Argentina. It was an exciting game with a lot of scoring chances, and a brilliant goal by the Czechs... who promptly allowed 2 goals shortly thereafter. Overall, it was a beautiful day, the hotdogs, watermellon, and beer all tasted like summer, and Tai and I got to hang out with some good friends and watch a great game.
Then we split and went to the film screenings...
Finally, everything else is keeping me busy too. The schooling has quietly become somewhat demanding, work has gotten busier but still not too stressful, and my two softball teams are suffering their worst seasons in recent memory. I did, however, hit my first homer of the year on Tuesday, which was a great feeling...
And finally... I'm just about due for a haircut. That's it for now.
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