When In Rome, Do As the Actors Do...

Looks like that cloud right there is a boy... O_O

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! That was tonight's "Extremely-Mildly Risque Opening Line", back by popular demand! Oh, how my audience loves for me to push the limits of taste. Shame on you! I hope the FCC isn't paying attention!

So in world news, I think I'll mention the topic that has been on everyone's mind of late... yes, the news that Rome has celebrated it's 2,766th birthday! Did you all remember to wear your Ancient Roman costumes today? Participate in any battle reenactments or mock gladiator fights? Invade Germany, Egypt or Israel? No? Well, did you at least torch your own city and play the fiddle in the midst of the flames? Come on! Where's the Roman love!? At least name your feet "Romulus" and "Remus" for the day?

OK, this is either amazing, or stupid, or amazingly stupid....



So I was fortunate enough to meet, in a very surprising, serendipitous way, a Christian film maker named Bill Rahn this weekend. He came out to "our church" to help us set up our new video system (the old one broke down, oh, perhaps half a year ago), and I quickly discovered his love for film making. In fact, he had a copy of one of his films with him, called "Pendulum Swings", which he let me borrow, and I watched it. It is a mostly-autobiographic piece about a dark time in his life, in which he lost nearly everything, and hit bottom. The film was a great watch, not so much because it was flawless or highly-polished... but because there was a surprising amount of emotion just under the surface, plus lots of great moments, and a couple truly great parts (as far as the performances)... it's a "Christian" film, and made on a small budget, but the ideas are there, and for every moment that showed the lack of Grade-A Hollywood-level polish, there were other moments that I would gladly watch again with others, so that I could smile and watch them out of the corner of my eye, to see their response.

Anyway, Bill was involved in just about every aspect of the production, from writing, directing, casting to editing, producing and promotion. Very cool to meet him.

In other related news!

Had my first video chat meeting with Rick R. in reference to my initial foray into screenwriting. We talked today for about 2 hours about theme and story, and about the differences between telling a story in novel format versus screenplay format. Very informative. Rather than trying to write the script first, and then retroactively change it to make it structurally sound, I'm learning about theme and structure beforehand, so I can (hopefully) write a far better first draft, and be that much further along in the process by the time re-writes begin.

Promises to be a fun, interesting journey (and hard work too, no doubt).

And finally, if acting interests you, I've been tearing through the episodes of Inside the Actors Studio lately, and a few stand-outs are Harrison Ford, Ralph Fiennes, Robin Williams, and Steven Spielberg. There have been twice as many episodes that fail on certain levels, but those four definitely are both entertaining to watch and educational/enlightening.

This is funneh.

OK, well, I had other stuff to say, but I'm going to save it for the next post. I hope you shall forgive me...

Dave the Cracked