Upgrade!

Recently I upgraded my photography equipment, with a new camera (Canon 5D Mark II), lenses, and flashes. I look forward to shooting everything I can with this camera, stills and HD video. For the first shoot I out together was for the infamous Kam Lee (metal/punk frontman for many popular musical acts since the early 80s). This was to be used for Kam's promotion, as well as for an article in the Jan 2010 issue of Rue Morgue magazine. See more of Kam at his Facebook Page here.

Turtle Power!

One of the biggest impacts on my adolescent life, was the discovery of Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird's most bodacious creations, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was completely obsessed as a child, and the elements from that program have stuck with me through today.

This year is the 25th anniversary of TMNT, and at the San Diego Comic Con in June, I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Eastman for the first time. He drew me a Donatello in the limited collectors edition hardback of the 25th Anniversary Comic Collection. Completely Excellent!

For our wedding anniversary this year, my amazing wife Melanie, bought me the Blu-ray collection of the 4 TMNT movies. Upon receiving this, the immediate thought in my mind was, MARATHON! Our buddy (and fellow TMNT enthusiast) Keenan readily agreed. So yesterday, we watched 7 straight hours of the green team, on our 11' projector wall. Starting out with the original animated pilot, then the 3 live action movies, then the CG animated movie, and ending everything with the first episode of the live action TV series. In the middle was ordered some Dominos pizza (who sponsored the first film) and covered it with toppings from candy corn to gummi bears to chocolate chips and marshmallows. (I do not recommend gummi bears in the future!) The day was radical, and I can't wait to do something like this again! Cowabunga!

...on Writing

I gotta be honest, ironically as much of a writer as I am in my professional field, I seem to have a hard time with these blogs. Despite the consistent busy schedule, after school activities, and over saturated day dreams, today I really felt like writing some updates.

Luckily we are writing 3 scripts at the moment (and 3 more in the wings), so I have plenty of avenues to get my creative voice on paper.

I booked my tickets yesterday for my return trip to Los Angeles, Dec 11-16. Plans are to reconnect with friends, and meet with a few different agencies that will hopefully help push our career to the next level.

I did two interviews this week, one for the Orlando Sentinel, and the other for examiner.com so keep an eye out for those down the pipeline.

They announced that 2:22 will play the Brouhaha Film Festival on Dec 6th. Luckily the day after what will only go down as a killer Misfits concert the night before.

Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival

After the slew of Orlando screenings last week, we brought 2:22 down to the lovely city of Melbourne, FL, for the Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival. We frequent this fest every year, and always have a blast, thanks to the guys at 3 Boys Productions. We had a Friday the 13th screening of 2:22, showing full theater frame and in 5.1 Surround Sound (for the first time!) We only offended a few of the older crowd that attends the festival, and had a good response otherwise. The next day we also screened our short film we created last year, Guitar God. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the screening, because I was in a Walk for the American Diabetes Association in Orlando. Represent, Team Happy Toes!

That evening was the awards gala, and I am very proud to say, we ended up walking away with "Best Horror Short" and "Best Musical Score". Tim and I were there to represent (and eat all of the free cake & sushi!) Congrats to all of the other winners!

November Film Slam

After a tiring week of rocking the Orlando Film Festival, we ended the week with a screening of 2:22 at the Enzian Theater's Film Slam. It's a monthly local short film showcase, screening in Winter Park, FL. After playing with 6 other films, we ended up winning over the popularity of the audience, and became the film of the month. With that, we are automatically entered in the Brouhaha Film Festival, and will screen next month. If we end up winning that festival, we get a spot to play at the Florida Film Festival next year. We'll see what happens!

Orlando Film Festival

Due to the overwhelming support of the Orlando Sentinel, we were requested to play 2:22 at the 4th Annual Orlando Film Festival. We had a fantastic time over the course of 5 days. The festival was definitely one of the most VIP-oriented events I had ever been too. We got badges that allowed to get free food and drinks in over 10 different venues surrounding the theater in downtown Orlando, and entrance to many red carpet parties. It was totally sick. We made our mark, by plastering the theater with 2:22 flyers (including all stalls in the bathrooms) during the course of the fest. Due to our diligence, we ended up having two completely standing room only screenings of 2:22. We played with a featurette sci-fi flick called Enigma, that helped bring in the crowd. I like to call them Fire-Hazard screenings, because so many people had to sit in the aisles. This is definitely by far my favorite film festival in Orlando. They really know how to show a Filmmaker a good time!