Oh yes, it's been like a year since I've posted, but later than never I suppose.

Um, yeah. So there's that and this and that.

Currently working on improv project, there is a shortage of material for the middle, and it will likely stay that way.

Well, it's been too long since I've entered any kind of entry, and the reason for this particular one is because I completely forgotten about the email account and hotmail had decided to kill my folders and all my old emails. I have effectively lost any contact with anyone I used to work with on movies. I'm sad now. I reactivated it but four years of history just went down the drain. Oh well. The account's back on anyways.

Hamster Wheel Productions has been dark for a little while, because I have been working under the direction of Late Knight Productions for a while, but seems like it's still around to make an occasional spark here and there. The Scene has been struggling in terms of content and money, and now we're just mostly waiting for me to get to editing and to free up some time so that our personnel will have more freedom to go about business.

We did enter three 10 second shorts for a contest, and two of them did not make the cut, but one of them sorta did, although I'm pretty sure it will not win, because the contest seems to be rigged in some way or another, because they're picking some pretty horrible ones to screen and ditching "Group Therapy" and "La Reine", which is Cody Luff's short. But Duel is available for watching, just gotta click on the link on the main page.

Director: Nicky Loi
Actors: Cody Luff, Katana Operator, Emery Clevenger, Shooter.
Editor: Nicky Loi
Music by Freeplay, Inc.

Yes, I have to take the credit for editor. You'll know why when you watch it.

Witness began shooting sometime last week, and we went till 2:30 in the morning. We initially felt pretty darn good about the stuff we shot, but looking over the footage, it was apparent that we needed to reshoot the majority of what we had. Too much lighting was one of the factors, and the acting needed some more work. No worries about reshooting, since it's at my place, but it is a pain in the behind because we have to redo what we've already done. That's moviemaking for ya.

Been thinking about writing a comedy lately, perhaps something that's more in the reins of a mockumentary, even though I swore I'd stay the hell away from that genre. It's a tougher genre than most people think. Pretending to be someone while pretending to be a documentary is very very hard. Maybe a traditional comedy is in place. Hey, the next Chinese New Year is approaching. Time for a sequel perhaps?

Got our tenative timeslot from KVOS today, and it's looking a lot different than we expected. He pegged us for a 21 and over audience, and also since we pretty much have no experience in the matter, they've got us slotted tenatively at 1am on Friday. It's not necessarily a bad time slot, (though not a great one either) it's a start. What it does do to our programming however, is an entirely different thing. Because of this time slot, if we ran our programming the way it is, people would naturally just convulse, because its catered to families and general audience. Also, it would just certainly throw many a people off to do the show the way we do, and expect the kind of revenue we get.

What does it all mean? Back to the drawing board. I think it pretty much means that our pilot has to be scrapped, and everything has to be redone, down to the title of the show. Pity, I kinda liked the Hamster Report. The bad side seems plenty, but like Dansen said, I should really look at the good side, and he's right. We are getting a show on TV, and not a lot of people can just do that. Furthermore, this new format might actually make the show more marketable to other ... markets. If we do it correctly, Comedy Central could even be interested.

At any rate, Witness is tenative at Sat. So stay tuned for news on that. The new show will take longer to report on.

The pilot to the Hamster Report is finally finished, thank god. Took forever to get it out the door. But the good thing of it is if it gets picked up by the station, the templates for the graphics are already set up, and it should be ten times easier to crank out another episode in relatively little time. I can quit my job as retail bitch, and work on the show full time, having fun, working hard, and being our own bosses.

If they reject the show, I will resort to pornography.

And since we have no money to hire actresses (face it, you don't really have to hire actors for porn. Put up a flyer and they'll show) I'll have to resort to shooting porn with animals. Animal porn, baby. Like the Discovery Channel except the animals will be wearing strap balls and paw restraints.

I'm joking.

Or am I?

Next up for us, not sure yet. Definitely get Witness shot and in the plastic case (since cans don't exist for Mini-DV), and then maybe busy with the show, or maybe just stagnant from the lack of show to work on. Who knows.

P.S. Am aware I have no idea how to spell "concious" correctly. That close to being "Cous Cous."

Which is also soup I don't like.

Here are the projects that Hamster Wheel Productions have... er... in pre-production. It's relatively interesting but somewhat sad that I haven't even found the time to do half of it. Beyond the point of conception anyway.

The Hamster Show

The pilot for this show is almost completed, just putting the finishing touches to it (Okay, I'm still editing the stories. Go away.) and I'm gonna call the Operations Managers at KVOS tomorrow to set up a viewing date next week, or at least sometime to drop off the tape so that he could have a chance to view it. Fingers crossed, hoping that they'll fall in love with it and request that the stupid guy in the Karatae segment be strung up and shot. We have basic graphics for it, and we don't know what's in line for it at all. Low rent local show, or budding genius to have a program in the middle between Seattle and Vancouver B.C.? Time and wild speculation will tell.

Witness

We've got a cast, a crew lined up, an awesome director and a good script with partial nudity, why the hell else is it not off the ground yet? See above, plus Winter break. Love Kelsey, not her fault at all, just haven't found the perfect little location for our perfect little staged killing. I'm really looking forward to shooting this because I've had visual pre-conceptions of the shots, and it'll look sweeeeet. Cody's taking care of the other thing, the actor wrangling thing. I'm not that good with actors because I'm not comfortable being... I'm just a wiseass, it doesn't help me direct much. Anyway, therapy's for later.

Untitled Pyschic Girl Feature

No script, nary an outline. Just a lot of talk right now. Actually, we haven't actually talked about the script for a while. Haven't written it yet mostly because I haven't found the time. Secondary reason is that there are already too many movies based on similar premises, and I'm kinda afraid to venture there before being concious of what's out there. (i.e. need to run to the video store to watch "Carrie".)

Zombie Vampire Horror Short

A vanity project, also a fun one. Started off with just an action scene, but I had to get all retarded and create a backstory. No script yet, just ideas. Basically a vanity project because Cody, Ted, and I played "Hunter: The Reckoning" and thought we should be in the game to kill zombies. Budget wise, it could kick our butt.

Flicker Film Festival

Just ideas as well, and I think it's more so my wanting to do this than Cody. I just like comedy, and after being burnt at Projections, I'm itching to make fun of everyone and be forever ostracized from the local filmmaking community. Exile is fun! No really, it works out brilliantly, because if anyone at Projections gets offended, it'll just imply that that's how they perceive themselves. Guilty conscious kinda thing. But really, everyone at Projections was fine, I guess losing makes some people crazy. With Jealousy. And Spite. Plus we'll get to play with a lot of different genres, which will be cooler than hell. If it froze over.

Porn

We'll shoot people having sex if all else fails, finance us some money, and try the filmmaking thing all over again.

Yeah.