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Ahhhh

Dropped off the DVD master, artwork and poster proof at the places where they'll be multiplied by thousands. I was still up working until 3:30 AM or so last night but was able to take a nice break in the garage getting the bike ready for a road trip to the Apostle Islands this weekend with my biking buddy of the last twenty one years and our wives. Here's a snapshot of my relationship with Walter. Many, many years ago he was working on a motorcycle for a friend of ours and wanted to take a test drive. I stopped by and we went hooning around ending up at a pizza place managed by a friend of ours that we also had both worked at during summers. One thing lead to another and somehow I ended up driving my bike into the restaurant. Completely sober, just under the influence of broiling testosterone and idiocy. Someone naturally called the police and we left our bikes outside, tore through the restaurant and out the back door, somehow jumped an eight foot security fence into a yard with a dog, ran for blocks avoiding the spotlights, cruisers, patrols, radios,etc. etc. you get the idea. Walter was a bystander but followed me in the evasion of what ended up being several ( at least three but have heard as many as five ) squad cars while on foot. Our bikes got impounded and I was out of the country within the week to backpack around Australia so it wasn't a great concern in my book. He had to deal with the aftermath of questions, etc. We've had some crazy times together. Of course now we're smarter, much more law abiding ( don't do this at home kids... being a public nuisance isn't cool and I apologize to Bloomington's finest for the stress I caused ) and he's settled down with three lovely children and 40 achres. His back yard is where I shot my first scrapbook!

So, last night was a beautiful moment with the simple things. Some air tools, an Arturo Fuente Sun Grown, Houses of the Holy dripping through the speakers ( the song not the album ) and a big task crossed of the list.

Here's the proof for the premiere edition DVD. ( click on image to blow it up ) It's got a different menu, packaging and poster, etc. just for premiere week. I'll do a new menu and grahics for the first run of public release disks to go on sale Sept. 5th. There might be additional information on the public release disks but I'll wait for some feedback as to whether people think the main program is too long in which case I'll trim it down and add migrate some things to the back of the extras section. I did actually make a one of edition for a scrapbook rock star who's blog I read off and on and inadventantly struck up a conversation with. I don't have packaging yet so I made a goofy cover and insert for her to review the project. I'll let her reveal herself if she so chooses.

It's a goofy balance between doing a documentary that's also your opinion and story like a dramatic narrative. I'm not really breaking the rules as much as just intentionally throwing caution to the wind and letting it all hang out - good or bad. I'm not under the influence of anything, just fueled by broiling testosterone and idiocy I guess. Well, just the idiocy. I've got this syndrome going where the average Jane Doe ( or John Doe for my last project ) likes what they see and typically have an oatmeal for their brain experience where the production tastes bland but it sticks to their ribs and fills up their entertainment hunger all day. The flip side is the typical reaction I got from an industry friend who's been calling to see how it's going every few weeks. I called him back, he asked and I told then he kept teasing me about scrapbooking ( like it's a bad thing? insert smirk here ) and was making jokes with his other producer friend in the car. Just two movie dudes driving down the freeway in LA on their way to some power lunch talking with their freakshow friend in fly over land about some video accident waiting to happen. :0)

The first question the passenger friend asked was "How long is it?" 101 minutes I said. I could hear them both laughing on the phone... Scrapbooking AND feature length. "Tell him to cut it to 54 and we'll talk." My reply was it isn't too long if you have Kiefer Sutherland in it... One of the passengers last projects was 117 minutes long but had several A list actors in it. The reality is that although I take some ribbing on many levels for doing a project about scrapbooking, do it mostly by myself and break the standards that get things done ( attach a name to a script that has a tried and true story, that gets you funding and a green light gets you distribution { hopefully } set up in advance ) this model for making movies and media is extremely difficult to execute and passenger number two was on the phone every week during production scraping to get the next million dollars to continue shooting the next week, only to get reemed in a distribution deal with a studio with the hopes of eventually breaking a profit after everyone gets their slice of the pie. And this guy knows what he's doing. They're both shrewd people, the system has just been inbred for so long that it's producing mutant baby movies... products of a dwindling gene pool. I'll be the first to admit I'm a hack but hey, in my small fry scale of things I'll likely turn a profit, retain ownership of my work and have a complete blast in the process!

What I'm making is anything but a slick, airtight movie product. It's more like a loaf of homemade bread that's lumpy, doesn't have a nice wrapper, isn't perfectly symmetrical and can't be bought at a chain store. It's not convenient but you know it's made with passion. it's made by someone that's hungry for substance and loves kneading by hand, sweating a little and smelling it when it comes out of the oven.

posted by wes @ 1:00 PM