Around the World in 80 Daves

Now THAT.... is a selfie... hey, lets take a drone up to the top of the Matterhorn and get a pano-selfie! Yay!

That might be one of my favorite photos of all time...

Except, of course, for the 9GAG tag on the right side... grrr...

Hello, all! Dave the Lemming here, with another vacuous blast of hot air... this is the part where I ramble on about my life and pretend that people actually care about it. How narcissistic of me, eh? I know all you come here for are the funny animal photos...

But that's ok. A little of what you want, a little of what I want, and we're all happy, right? Right!

So let's move on...

First things first! The 48 Hour Film Festival!

This past weekend, we filmed our effort for the 2014 48 Hour Film Festival, and it was great fun. Friday night, every team sent a representative (or two, in our case) to Hospitality Point on Mission Bay to pull the random genre for our team, and get the elements that had to be in each of the films. This year, instead of the "pull genre from the hat" thing they normally do, they had a giant Genre Plinko board, which was funny...

You let the disc go, and wherever it landed, you pulled that envelope, and got one of 12 different genres. I was representing Team Viva, so I got to climb up and drop the puck (so to speak)...

As you can see, we got "Road Movie", which was a nice draw, I'd say. Other genres were Horror, Western/Musical and Film Noir, which would have been harder... of course, Comedy, Black Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi and Fish Out Of Water were other choices...

All things considered, it was a good pull. So we had to do a variation on a road film, where "it's all about the journey"... we phoned it into our writing team, and they started gathering viable ideas for the short film (up to 7 minutes long, final cut). At 7pm they announced the other elements that had to appear in each of the submissions. The prop was a marshmallow. The character was an investigator, and the name was John or Joyce Jansen. And the line of dialog was "I saw one of those yesterday". So all those elements needed to be in the script for it to qualify.

We grabbed a GoPro Camera along with all the accouterments, and went to the place in El Cajon where the director(s) were holed up, ready to write. I say "we", because I was at the genre pull with fellow cast member Lisa Winans. We dropped off the GoPro Camera equipment, and then sat in on the brainstorming session for the story. That was one of the best parts of the whole experience. We talked for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, kicking around ideas, before settling on what I considered to be a terrific story idea. We left the script-writing team to do their work, and went home, ready to get a good night's rest so we could film all day Saturday.

Turns out, my part was only in the first minute or so of the movie, so I was done filming by 1pm. I got to go home after that and take a nap and fart around, while the rest of the crew filmed until about 9pm. Then the actors went home, and the real fun began. Editing! Long story short, they edited the film, added the sound and music, and was able to get it turned in Sunday by about 8 minutes before deadline. Whew! We made it!

The experience of shooting was great fun. I loved it. We even had one of those hover drones, which we attached the GoPro to and got some cool aerial shots.

I was able to see the finished film (Called "Desert Rose"), and man, it turned out great. I wish I could post it here -- maybe I will be allowed to at some point in the future. But hey, for only putting it together in 48 hours, it turned out amazingly well. We have our screening downtown on July 17th, along with the others in our bracket that turned in films on time...

That was Saturday. So on Sunday, I had to be downtown in San Diego to do test shoots for BTI, the web series I've been bragging about for half a year now. Heck, at this point, you may even wonder if it really exists! I assure you, it does.

We met at a restaurant in Little Italy, downtown San Diego, at 6:30 am, and filmed until midday. This is the series where I play that crazy Russian guy... In a suit...

That's me and Travis, my co-star, going through our scene. As you can see, I'm doing what I call my "Russian Forehead" thing, to help me be in character, lol...  That's the Assistant Director Mike Evans on the right, watching us intently on a monitor. Hey, I'm wearing a suit! See? See how respectable I can be?

I felt so comfortable on set, it was a little unnerving. I seem to have developed the ability to simply tune everyone else out. So even though more than a dozen people were there watching the scene as it unfolded, to me, it was just Travis and I. 

That's our Fearless Director Jeff Patton watching the proceedings on a monitor. Look at me! I'm a movie star! This whole thing is so much fun, I'm beside myself. Apparently, Jeff said the footage turned out really good. I doubt I'll be able to post any video samples here, sorry. Gotta keep things under wraps until the pilot is finished. I'm sure you understand.

Still, it's so much fun...

Here's a handful of my other co-actors, including Lisa Winans (whom I mentioned earlier), on the left there, making kissy-faces at the Sheriff. You can't see him, cuz he's turned away, but that's Shawn Wildern, a fellow student at my acting class, whom I introduced to Jeff when the role of the Sheriff became available. I think he's a perfect fit, and so far, he's proving me right. Good work, Shawn. And that's Susan in the red shirt. I don't know her last name!!!! Doh!

Me and Travis and Jeff (Herr Director) posing for a photo out front, after the shoot. Jeff is so cool, it isn't even funny. He is, as they say, "The Man".

I got lots of positive feedback from everybody, regarding my "performance" during the test shoot. That's always nice. We plan on filming through July and into August. Once the pilot is in the can, I'm sure you'll all know about it here. I hope I can do you all proud!

So it was quite a weekend. The 48 Hour thing, and the BTI thing. In both cases, I felt so at home, it only confirms that I really need to be doing this for a living. I've met so many awesome people this past year, it isn't even funny. Lots of other cool stuff I can't talk about yet in the works. Once I can, be assured, I will relay it here.

OK, video break. Check out this strange encounter between a nature photographer and a curious elk...



Sadly, from what I understand, the ranger service "put the elk down" after this encounter. Bummer. I guess...

So what have I been reading? Glad you asked!

I had a couple failed attempts. Hey, you try new authors, right? You can't just stick with the old tried and true, right? Sometimes, the old tried and true will yield the occasional turd (ahem... Sanderson and Steelheart...)... actually speaking of Brandon Sanderson (I referenced a Parenthetical comment! Man, what a mess!), I've been wanting to dive into Book Two of his Stormlight Archive (Words of Radiance), but enough time has passed since I read Volume 1 (The Way of Kings) that I really need to reread it. The porblem is, Volume One is 1,000+ pages long, as is the second volume... that's a 2,000 page commitment I keep postponing...

In the interim, I tried to read The Scribe, by Elizabeth Hunter, which I bought for a song at some point in the past, and decided a "4.41 out of 5" average rating on Good Reads was reason enough to read it. Well, I got about half-way through before I gave up. It started out with an interesting "angels and demons" premise... but quickly devolved into an amateurish love triangle thing, which I tired of quickly. I decided I had too much good stuff waiting in my library to be read, so I jumped ship. Sorry, Liz....

So I dove into another new author, Seth Skorkowski's debut novel Damoren, which also had a high average rating (4.08 out of 5 stars), and another interesting premise - a secret society of monster hunters wielding Holy Weaponry. Another cool premise clumsily handled and frittered away. Sorry, Seth. I bailed at about the 60% mark as well. Too many bland characters introduced and then killed off for me to give a rip.

Third time's a charm, eh?

I really enjoyed Heroes Die by Matthew Stover last year, so I fired up the first sequel, called The Blade of Tyshalle today... man, what a difference a pro writer makes. From the first page, this one is SUCH a great read, I'm diving in and likely won't surface for a breath until I'm finished. So great to visit with Hari Michaelson again. Expect a review soon...



I survived the Steam Summer Sale with only three new acquisitions... and two of them were gifts from a pair of friends of mine! I'm practically healed of my addiction! Are you proud of me? I still actually play next to none of my games... I know what it feels like for a woman to stare at a closet full of clothes and feel like she has nothing to wear...

OK, I've rambled long enough! Here's one more funny photo, and then I'm gone!

How to brush your teeth, by a Real Man...

Success!

Adios for now,

Dave the Wannabe Thespian