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new home

Scrapped ( and Brethren ) have found a new home. Connie and I have not... yet.

I've been hired on to a new movie studio here in the Twin Cities. No, I didn't know there was anything like that here in the Midwest either. It might be the only one of any size. It's called Shadow Creek Studios, is only four months old and has a handful of titles, all monster type movies right now. I've been hired on to start up a "docutainment" division and do some other projects for the parent company Braun Media who's got DVD's and audio books all over the place like Barnes and Nobles, Target, Walmart, online stores, etc. That means Scrapped will probably end up in bricks and mortar stores and major retailers sometime soon.



I moved all my inventory into the warehouse at work last week. I had some pride when I rolled up the door to my storage space and loaded up 3 pickup loads full of Public and Premiere edition DVD's, T Shirts, posters, etc. because they were a tangible, measurable item to see what I've accomplished in the last year of making something out of nothing. It was fun to think that out of everything I'm moving there's actually more than twice as much floating around the planet somewhere. Then I unloaded everything into the warehouse at work and it all came into perspective. Here's my few pallets worth of stuff compared to part of the warehouse with part of the movies I'll help promote. A small part.

My job consists of finding good documentaries and movies with strong stories, family type stuff and projects that are quirky for distribution. It will also include making some new ones myself - like a Scrapped sequel, but not for a little while. I've inherited a backlog of stuff to work on because everything is still in startup mode.

Some of the interesting possibilities are plans for online TV and radio broadcasts, pay per view download movies on the internet ( like netflix is doing ) making videos in short formats for cell phone companies that want to liscence our stuff and projects for some national cable TV netoworks. Fun technology, lots of freedom, keep doing what I'm doing except getting a regular paycheck. How cool is that?

After a few years of slaving away as a peon I'm finally breaking in to the indie film biz. I've signed on with a couple friends of mine who are doing a "micro budget" movie of around $200k in LA for the month of August. All of our last projects were designed to save the world, enhance mankind or statements for virtue but this is pretty much a murder mystery movie that's deisgned to get exposure, entertain and make some form of profit.

I'm overjoyed because I'm not in charge of anything, it's all their baby. They wrote the script, are acting, directing, etc. I'm just using my camera, doing grip work ( lighting and camera movement stuff ), managing the digital footage and being the clacker boy ( that slate thing with the black and white stripey bar on the top that you smack together when they say action. ) I say I'm overjoyed because it's a full on Hollywood style production with a lighting truck, crew, 16 hour days, several locations ( like a hollywood airplane set used in regular features ), name actors ( not huge name, but people you'd recognize ) and the whole degree of stress that comes with a regular movie crew.



The two guys heading things up are D.David Morin imdb info here and Geno Andrews imdb info here. D.David is the guy I stayed with during CHA this spring in Anaheim. I'll be staying with him again for August which will be great because I really like Santa Monica and being right by the beach.



So expect lots of interesting pictures from the shoot and behind the scenes stuff in August.

Tomorrow is Independence Day here in yankee land. The day we decided to fight the bloated governing powers because we were getting our pants taxed off and had the government making decisions on who's going to pay for what without representation from the actual citizens. 230 years later we're kind of in the same boat... and don't even get me started with the Twins Stadium. ( inside joke for Minnesotans. ) I recommend lightening up for the holidays and listening to some "Real Men of Genius" adds here.

PS. Hello Sweden! For some reason I've gotten a big peppering of log in's from you in the last few days so thanks! If you care to identify yourself please email me a pic at wesatcomcast.net and I'll put you up on the blog for everyone to see. I'm sure the rest of the world would love to see what the Swede's look like scrapbooking!

posted by wes @ 4:49 AM