I wrote a commercial for a real estate company in Ft. Walton Beach. It starts airing on select Cox Communications cable channels in that market on Friday. The slot is for one year, so this ad will run until a new one is produced.
I ganked a copy of the finished spot in WMV format. You can see it here.
Glee.
I came home last night and fell asleep at around quarter till six. I didn’t wake up until some time around eleven.
I hate sleeping while the sun is up. Back in my heyday, when I wasn’t addicted to caffeine, and never actually drank it, I would fall asleep by ten p.m., and be up with no alarm clock by six the next morning. No wasted time there, and I was always awake and alert. I never felt exhausted, worn out, weak or any other symptoms of fatigue. I never had problems sleeping in those days. It wasn’t until I started working full time that I switched from water and Sprite to Diet Coke, and eventually to Coke and Mountain Dew. That’s when my problems began.
If I sleep the evening away and get up at eleven, I’m screwed. There’s no way I can get back to sleep at that point. I’ve already gotten about as much rest as I typically allow myself to get in a night, so I feel like I should just stay up and do something. Usually, it’s video editing. There’s no video for me to edit right now, though. So my drug of choice is World of Warcraft.
This sleeping arrangement doesn’t balance out, though. As the night wears on, I start feeling tired. Really tired. The kind of tired you get when you sleep for five hours, then get up, and don’t have any caffeine, a shower, or anything else you’d usually associate with waking up. So, I end up going back to bed around one or two a.m. I lay there, tossing and turning, waking up every thirty minutes, wondering if I should just give up and shower, or if I should roll over and go back to sleep. I’ll keep this up until my alarm goes off, and it’s no longer an issue.
I spend the rest of the day in a sort of haze. Not quite awake, not quite asleep. Feeling like I’m not really where I am, not really doing what I’m doing, disconnected from a reality that barely acknowledges my presence. I feel like this tenuous link to the world is maintained only by drinking caffeinated soda. Lots of it. Caffeinated anything, really. If I could wear caffeinated clothes, I’d have a wardrobe of nothing but.
When I’m not at work, I’m at home, doing only what I must to survive. A single sandwich per day for food, a glass of juice or two to quench my thirst, a single load of laundry with enough clothes to last through a work week. All responsibilities that are not in my critical path fall to the wayside. Bills go unpaid until I’m threatened. Dishes and glasses go unwashed until the ants come. Loose change and dollar bills pile up all over the desk and floor, transferred from my pockets to whereever they land.
Ambition is a dream I’m desperately trying to wake up from.
More feedback. This batch is from the Homegrown Forums.
Dave: “The funniest thing is the fact boner isnt wearing a t-shirt.”
soas: “EEE …. man…. nice work”
Callum: “”Why don’t you journey back down to your car as fast as you can” That was great “
nutters: “just watched it I thought it was realy good I liked the bit when they robbed the hand bag and then ran into the wall and when the girl jumped on the car lol”
And some from AIM:
Brandon: “love the script [...] excellent…a little wordy during the exchange in the kitchen”
Can someone tell me how Hurricane Katrina got more and more powerful as it moved ashore?
I mean, does it stand in direct defiance of the science of these storms?
Typically, when it moves closer to land, and subsequently ashore, it gets weaker. This one slams into Broward county then jumps up by 10mph! How the heck?
I wish good tidings to those in the Panhandle who will be receving our gift of this hurricane some time early next week.
Selling The Faith has been released to boredom-induced.com! Let’s see what some people are saying:
Wilbur @ Homegrownforums: “I liked it. Nice angles, editing, and the story was good too. It was like watching something on that amateur film channel.”
WEAK @ Homegrownforums: “I didnt like it. I didnt watch it all..so unless it had some awesome ending…my opinion stays the same. oh yeah..and it was boring. thats why I didnt like it. … the acting was good. But it just came out boring to me. “
Melody, via IM: “it was amusing”
Ivy, via IM: “you know, i am very, very impressed … good job, dude … awesome script, awesome acting”
Clipsmoke @ Homegrownforums: “the boredom induced short film that I thought was gonna be hilarious was fucking retarted [sic]“
Duran: “I thought it was tight, the dialogue was great, acting was good. I think it could have gone more into how they started the religion and what it was about. but I liked it. the part where u guys steal the purse is funny but the comedy seemed out of place.”
Jen: “selling the faith=awesome!!”
Let’s keep those reviews rolling in!
I’m on Google Talk. It’s a pretty no-frills, stripped down program, but it’s lightweight and it works great. My name on here is spiffymarc@gmail.com, which wasn’t a huge reach to figure out. I think everybody should go install it and start using it, so I can ditch AOL Instant Messenger once and for all. You have to have a Gmail account to use it. If you don’t, well, I’m going to probably call you out for not surfing the pop culture wave, failing to stay on the leading edge of brand synergy, bucking trends for the sake of appearing hip, etc.
Or maybe you just already had an email account.
I’m heading up to Crestview in two weeks, give or take. I’m looking forward to certain things while up there, but on the whole, I really don’t want to go. It’ll be nice to have a week off of work, but I think I’d rather spend that week not in Crestview. The very thought of being in Crestview just angers me. The traffic is horrendous, the collective IQ is in the toilet, and unless you’re into fast food and buffets, there’s not much else to do except shop at Wal-Mart.
Maybe I’ll stay in Pensacola instead.
There’s a hurricane watch for Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. I hope we can get some good footage if/when Hurricane Katrina comes blasting through here. That’ll be a nice change of pace.
Life is so boring and predictable as an adult. I think this trend started when I got to my senior year of high school. I started constantly skipping class and doing things that were very “out of character” for me, just to mix things up. Now, there’s no deviation. It’s all the same. Some people strive for that. I loathe it.
I spotted the person who runs the drawbridge on U.S. 1 sitting out in front of the little booth thing yesterday at around five fourty-five in the afternoon. I know your face now. Dah dah DAH. (No, this is not a threat. We must say this to cover our butts.)
So, I really really hate the short film. There’s no cutting around it. I just don’t like it. I think maybe I’m just overexposed to it. Hopefully, we can release it tonight, and I can be done with it forever. I never want to hear about it again!
I picked up Nintendogs. I now lay in bed at night, shouting “PUPPY SIT! PUPPY! PUPPY SIT!!” into my DS.
It’s glorious.
I’m not a good person.
Apparently, I put out an uncaring vibe, even when I care a lot.
That’s just the way I am, I suppose.
Why is it that we have such a hard time just telling other people what we think of them, or how we feel about them? I’m not going to go all emo and start ranting about this. It just seems like a very old problem that requires a very simple solution. If you are unsure of someone’s intentions, ask them.
The short film is done, for the most part. We still might reshoot a couple things, but otherwise, it’s golden. I hate it so much.
We fell way behind schedule and didn’t finish the short film in time.
The deadline was this past Wednesday. We finished shooting tonight.
We DID finish shooting, though! We shot our butts off, and we finished the darn thing. It’s all up to the editing and post-production now. Which I’m working on right now.
The crew spent a total of 13 hours filming today, give or take. We shot so much different stuff. Tons of skits and mix-up footage will come from today, I can feel it! I can feel it in my bones!
More later. I’m exhausted and I’ve got to edit some of this tonight or I’ll freak out.
My co-worker keeps telling me what to do.
This will end badly.
This should ensure that we have no more audio problems.
Boom operator wears the headphones. Boom operator holds the boom mic. Boom operator hears every little tiny movement and gesture he makes rattle at an insane volume in his headset. Boom operator learns to operate boom better.
Oh, and he realizes when the XLR cable is all f*cked up and causing wicked insane static.
Problem solved!