If there is a film to be shot, then the grit and grime starts here. At Manager DJ Webb’s suggestion, we’re going to go ahead and apply for non-profit status. As he’s pointed out, at the time we decide to switch over to profit, we will.

The process from both what I’ve read previously, and what DJ Webb has told me (Webb has filled out a mess of these over the years), is quite intensive. In DJ Webb’s words, “Remember the Death Star wasn’t built in a day”. I’m currently printing out the government documentation (an application for IRS 501c3 status) that needs to be filled out along with it’s instruction book.

Here was DJ Webb’s timeline for us.

• August-September 2005 —- Apply for non-profit status
• August-September 2005 —- Form board of directors, develop bylaws
• October 2005-February 2006 —- Flush out Script, audition for actors
• March 2006 —- Awarded 501 c3 Status
• March 2006 —- Request donations/funding
• April 2006 —- Begin Filming

OK, at Bear/Tim ‘s request I am putting this up. It’s no secret that I luvz my TV, and this is my short list of shows that I have seen 50 – 100 % of. I’d like to say that I have seen 75% + of all these shows, but that’s just not the case.

But if you know me at all – you know I love the sitcoms. I will talk about sitcoms all day if given the chance…

Continue reading I watch a lot of TV →

You think you know everything about something and inevitably you are proved wrong. I just came across this reading Steven C. Earley’s An Introduction to American Movies.

In 1933, Paramount released a film version of William Faulkner’s novel Sanctuary, a story of perversion and corruption. The picture was titled The Story of Temple Drake (1933), and although Paramount pretended to avoid all sexual abnormalities, civic groups were offended because the director had slanted his film to condone a murder. (54)

Now I don’t know if that is true or not, but it is very interesting. I thought the reason why the movie had come under attack was because of the raping of Temple Drake by the gangster Popeye. Earley’s claim, however, suggests otherwise. If Earley is correct, what adds irony to his assertion is that Faulkner’s publisher initially rejected Sanctuary on the grounds that if he published it, it would get them thrown in jail. Later however, Faulkner’s publisher had a change of mind and decided to go ahead and print the novel as it was. However, Faulkner had a change of mind too – and at his own expensive, decided to do an an extensive revision of the book anyway. The main difference between the two versions besides the fact that Faulkner placed more distance between themes and characters he’d explored previously in other novels, was that he added more violence.

As of this morning the first rough draft of the second Amieviathan script, The Green Machine, is done. This means that we are one step closer to the second phase of the project, in fact, closer than originally planned.

Life is fluid and there has been a change in plans. On the way to Thom’s the past weekend, Tim and I had a long discussion about this project and potential future projects. At Tim’s suggestion, I’ve decided to scrap the initial plan of writing three separate Amieviathan scripts.

Here’s the rationale. My original intention in writing the three scripts was to get practice more than anything. I knew from the start that the likelihood of getting any more than one of the scripts filmed was highly unlikely. Additionally, the real goal was to prepare for the writing of a feature length movie. The Ameviathan scripts were intended to be short, 20-30 minutes a piece in length. From a filming standpoint, Tim and I wanted to work on a more advanced technical level, and with outside actors. We figured a 20-30 minute movie was enough ambition without biting off the feature length film too. So the Ameviathan scripts were perfectly suited for our filming goals.

However, the three scripts weren’t suited for my writing goal, especially since I’ve achieved what I wanted to in writing-terms with the two short scripts. So at this stage, there isn’t really much point in practicing on another 20-30 minute script. The real practice would come in producing a feature length script.

So we are going to go ahead and begin the initial stages of pre-production as of this weekend. Tomorrow morning, I’ll run Tim a copy of the rough of the script. Then he’s going to read it along with the Boggy Boogieman and we’ll decide which one to develop. The choice of which one to develop is most likely going to be dictated by filming logistics, how many locals we need, how difficult FX will be and how many people we need. The easier of the two will probably be the one that gets shot.

Once we decided which one to develop, I’ll go back and redraft the script and we’ll begin with pre-production.

As for writing, I’ll continue with a new writing goal. Once the Ameviathan script we decide to shoot is redrafted, I’ll start drafting treatments for new feature length script. At this point I’ve got a number of ideas I want to investigate. But, more on them as they develop.

Last weekend, Tim (Bear), Brian (Dick) and myself went up to DJ Webb’s (Thom’s) house for a party. What a party it was! Of the many people I’ve known, none is a better party host than DJ Webb. His guests’ whims are catered to in every respect imaginable, from choice of beers, to food (which was in this case the Maryland favorite – crabs), to cigars. What’s more, DJ Webb’s house comes equipped with the perfect party-pad layout. On his sun porch, sits an original Contra Arcade game. In the den, there’s an HDTV hooked up to satellite. And who could forget THE POOL.

Driving up, Bear explained to me how when practicing with one of the bands he’d played with in high school, he and his band-mates had access to a pool one evening. It was in this pool that he said he and the band made a whirlpool. I’d never heard of anybody making a whirlpool in a swimming pool. I asked Bear to explain. He proceeded to tell me that all you needed were a couple of idiots who would run around the pool in a circle for a while, and presto, you had a whirlpool.

When we arrived, along with Dick and Robert, we made a whirlpool. It actually worked and it was awesome. I lay on my back and was sucked round and round staring in inebriated disbelief at glowing tiki-torches and that moronic owl.¹

I can’t wait until next year’s party.

¹ The owl, made of plastic, sits on the fence surrounding the pool. Thom “claims” to have found the owl in one of the bushes in his yard.

Megan has started a blog. It collects her very astute and witty observations from diverse things like the sitcom Full House, to the book, Sing and dance with the Pennsylvania Dutch. She made me laugh and I’m sure she’ll make you laugh too.

Click here to visit Megan’s site.

Well Week 1 of the new regimen is over. I won’t lie either, it beat the hell of me. However, rather miraculously the plan is working and progress on the screenplays is not only continuing, but going extremely well. I have a feeling that Week 2 is going to be a lot tougher. And Week 3… I don’t even want to think about yet.

This all means that I’m not really sure how many updates I’ll be doing here on Protozoic, at least while I’m working 9 to 5 and getting up at the crack of dawn to write. However, I’m certain I’ll figure out a way to squeeze in an update or two from time to time (maybe after I get my evenings back from exerting my will against the employment-void by filling out job applications). In any event, I will continue to post weekly reports of the Amieviathan project’s progress here. And of course, I’m sure our other posters will throw up some juicy nuggets of truth here at some point too.

Is there anything else? I saw a deplorable documentary about Chemtrails (2001). It had to be one of the worst produced things I’ve ever seen, not to mention the work of foaming madmen. Really though, what did you expect if you are watching a documentary on chemtrails? So there are highlights for chem-fans, like the interview with William Wallace, and his dog, eh-hem, Braveheart.

Some better, and more enjoyable things I’ve seen here in the past week or so are [The Good Fairy] (1935), directed by William Wyler, The Long Goodbye (1977), directed by Robert Altman, the new Battlestar Galatica (2003), directed by Michael Rymer and Joss Whedon’s Firefly (2002-2003).
If you are not particularly interested in chemtrails, watch these things first.

See you in a week.

I sweat a lot. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT. I sweat enough that deodorant is a very big deal to me. Anti-perspirant doesn’t stop me. At all. What it does do is make me not smell as much. I can live with that. What I’ve had problems living with is the fact that I ruin shirts with my deodorant impregnated sweat. I’ve hopped around to various types; normal stick, gels, roll-on, etc.¹ After a good 10 years of dedicated deodorant experimentation, I finally settled on plain old Ban roll-on, Regular or Powder Fresh. It looks like this:

I went to the store today to get a new stick. I couldn’t find it. The thought running through my head was, “How the fuck could this enormous grocery store not carry Ban deodorant?” I looked and looked and then finally saw this on the shelf:

Now, we get to the meat of this post. Why the redesign? What on God’s green Earth motivated the odor-free people at Ban to change the color on a stick of deodorant? And why this awful yellowish-green?

¹ No sprays for me.

DJ Webb is now running his own blog, Namrepus Hunter. I looked at the name for a couple days thinking it was slightly odd before I finally had to sit down and figure out what the hell it meant. I have to say, it is a good name, escpecially considering that it came from the same man who rather famously named his own “Master of Flowers” Monk, Mr. Monk.

Click here to read DJ Webb’s blog, Namrepus Hunter.

Thom at Little Chef: