HNM Production Diary

...I'll probably do all my own sound for HNM. I want to; it's just that know enough to know it's going to be a daunting task. Of course, when is making a decent film ever easy? I just don't want to disappoint anyone if my sound work isn't up to snuff. We'll see. I'll only seek help if I really need it, as usual…. (Work) ask(ed) what Black Cab Productions was -- being that it was endorsed on the back of one of the checks I had deposited. I told them it was my little film company. One of the board members said, "Well, if you ever need to shoot on the property, we can make you a good deal." Hahahaha, how cute. Boy, if they only knew we shot HNM in the basement, and was down there for a month in preproduction. Holy Christ! There would be hell to pay. Greedy bastards. Hope they all die painful deaths. And preferably at my hands... 13/10/2003

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Well, well, well...as of 7:00pm last night the ice broke and I suddenly found myself sitting in front of the ol' G4 and working on the opening sequence of HNM!!! Can you believe it? I worked for 4 hours and managed to get Tony down the last flight of stairs and looking down the narrow hallway. All is working fairly well and as planned, except for a few minor irritations. The soccer ball on the upper, second flight of stairs is always out of shot when the film is properly cropped for a 16x9 aspect ratio -- bummer, I was hoping it was showing -- although at the time, I don't think I knew Danilo had placed it on the stairs at all. Just too much on my mind, I guess. Secondly, the low angle outside the metal gate reveals the cardboard-covered window once the gate is opened. Oh well, there wasn't much I could do about that because of the angle -- I certainly didn't want the silver door behind him in the shot. At any rate, it's only visible for a moment, and when the proper color-correction is done, it'll hopefully just fade into the background and slip by -- one of those odd things that pop up in films that make people wonder, "Did I just see something strange?" Thirdly, the angle of Tony's hat between the "bottom of the stairs" shot and the "narrow hall" shot don't match. Of course that's the result of filming two connecting shots 3 or 4 days apart -- and having no script/continuity person on hand. Other than those minor issues all is working quite lovely. It is, however, driving me crazy having to edit the film in it's uncropped 4x3 format. To crop it and then cut would waste too much time in the rendering department, especially when fine tweaking. I need to figure out a clever way to nondestructively mask my monitor to reveal only the 16x9 framing the film was shot in. Fun, fun, the fun begins! Not to mention the race to get the flick completely finished in time to make the July 23 submission deadline for Shriekfest 2004. That's a mere 5 months away! Think I might be in big trouble. 17/2/2004

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Got another 4 hours in on HNM last night. Shwew! What a can of worms I've opened for myself. Mostly because my brain has become so far removed from those days of shooting 5 months ago. I feel like an outside editor called in to decipher what the hell the loser Director and DP were thinking –– and, as usual, Schwarz is nowhere to be found; off globe trotting through Kenya is where his trail currently ends...seems a small village was nearly burned to the ground thanks to his antics with a circus of chimpanzees he's travelling with; not too mention the local native girls all need serious therapy. Back to HNM... To make matters worse, no one made any notes in the shooting log as to what takes I said were the good ones. Ahhhhhh! So far, however, all of the best takes for camera and acting (good thing Tony's so consistent) have been the very last ones. So all those Take 14s and Take 25s that everyone was moaning about have paid off at this point. But oh boy, have I got a lot of work to do. Good news is the camera audio of Nemo getting out his keys and opening the lock and gate is extractable and can easily be cleaned up for use in building the final soundtrack. Of course everything else will have to be Foley, sound F/X, and original sound design, as planned. Anyway...the crazy camera zooms and ECUs are matching amazingly well. So far, that is. Making them look yummy in the end should require minimal post F/X. Again good news. Tedious, tedious, tedious, though. Tonight I must choose and import the best crucifix ECUs, and there are many to pick from. 18.2.04

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As I feared, some of the focus is a little soft in the long shots. It's so difficult to tell with that little camera and its mediocre lens. Not to mention trying to get sharp focus in low light and then the red/purple light of the crucifix wall. Yikes! And it's always hard to tell how clear Schwarz's eyes and head are when he's working the camera -- often seeing everything through the skewed clarity of a vodka haze, ya know. What a nightmare. Might have to sharpen some shots a few points in the end. Again we'll see how everything looks once a final cut is reached and the color-correction is finished. All in all, it was slow going last night. Only managed to get in about 3 hours work, and all of that time was spent viewing and importing footage for the fast cut ECUs of the wall. But I was on page 4 of the script and it was only day 3 of editing. So not too shabby. 19/2/04

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I THINK WE HAVE A MOVIE! Whoohoo!!!!!!!! After studying all the monologue takes, I found one that was just excellent. The front is a tad rough, but I can possibly marry it with a later take that has a very nice front but was cut short –– sadly, thanks to my own blind stupidity. Sometimes I really wonder what the hell I'm thinking. Regardless, Tony did a superb job –– a brilliant beaten-man performance that I had forgotten but prayed was there. Again, having shot this film 5 months ago, with all that's gone on since then (Shriekfest, NYCHFF, and PUZZLEMAN galleys) has rendered my brain tabula rasa in the HNM department. I'm breathing a bit easier now, though. Without that monologue there would be no movie, just a load of crap strung together. But on this new day, well...all is starting to bloom in my mind again: story, visuals, and performance. Now if it would only rain. 20/2/04

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Rain? Let’s just say it poured. Fortuitously, I’d already decided to take the evening off. A little R&R as it were. Not so lucky, though. When making movies plan ahead, but never make plans. It was approximately 6:13pm, I think, when there was a frantic and unexpected knock at the door. Fearing the cops had at last followed the trail of dead bodies to me, I hastily hid my copy of Anton Szandor LaVey’s THE SATANIC BIBLE in my laundry hamper. But there were no boys in blue to greet me –– no S.W.A.T team to wrestle me to the ground. What I did find at my threshold, however, was far more disturbing and disruptive to my quiet evening alone. Who, you might ask, was knocking? To be honest, he was absolutely hammering at this point. And it was none other than Schwarz Nipfargen, the dubious DP extraordinaire. Well, extraordinarily psychotic, anyway. Peeking discreetly through my blinds, I observed the beast for a full five minutes. He just kept grinning and pounding and grinning and pounding, at which point it became painfully evident that Schwarz was not going to go away. Not, at least, without first terrorizing me and my cramped flat. So I took a deep breath and opened my door to a certified neurotic who, without even a howdy-do, leapt passed me, executed a questionable pirouette, and made straight for the bar. Chanting eerily, he suddenly produced a souvenir from his recent exploits in Africa and, apparently, Haiti: a human skull painted with black, geometric designs by a voodoo priestess of unknown origin. With that, lightning erupted and then was followed by an enormous thunderclap that said, well...Schwarz Nipfargen was in da house. When he would leave was anybody’s guess. (And that includes God Himself.) All I know for certain is that suddenly Schwarz and I were drinking surprisingly tasty martinis out of that human skull as we tinkered with the QuickTime compression of the Black Cab mini-mercial. Let it be said that QuickTime wasn’t cooperating, but the skull-martinis were working amazingly well. After that I only vaguely remember tipping the skull at regular intervals while laughing my tail off at old Abbott and Costello movies. Not quite sure how the evening came to that. But let it be said that Schwarz Nipfargen is again on the loose, for he absconded sometime in the night, cloaked by the mysterious darkness that fell between the end of BUCK PRIVATES and the beginning of HOLD THAT GHOST. Thank God. 21.2.04

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Last night I got all but the last 2 shots imported into the computer. Will finish up today and then begin knocking out the first rough cut. I think the film is going to come together much quicker than I anticipated. But we'll see. The audio is still going to be the biggest beast on this flick. And recording the police interrogation could be daunting, being that I still don't have any actors to play the 2 detectives. Of course Cole Buisson is already under contract to play the psycho, but there's no telling what unforeseen horrors he's likely to bring to the project. Ah, que sera sera...what demons will be will be. 22.2.04

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Sadly, I didn't get as much done on HNM as I had hoped last night. More interruptions. I'm going to have to stop answering my phone. I was deep into figuring out how to cut together the crucifix ECUs when I got a surprise call from Eve Blaack, who runs THE HACKER'S SOURCE horror mag in Texas. She was inflamed over the recent review for SCREAM FOR ME I received on a website (that shall go unnamed), which was nearly a direct copy of her review that's coming out in the new edition of Hacker in March. She worked very hard on the review and wanted it to be an original, not only creatively speaking, but also in that it's an officially copyrighted piece of text -- coming out in print and all. Actually Eve and I ended up laughing about the whole mess, and then having a great chat about the BCP MiniMercial, which her 2.5-year-old granddaughter loved. Guess I've finally made a film for the whole family! Of course Eve's got that kid cutting her teeth on monster movies of all sorts. (By the way...as of this morning the doppelganger review has been removed from the unnamed website and now I must remove it from mine.) After Eve said good-bye, I almost immediately got a call from Rick Wildridge (AD and George from MY SKIN) who was calling from the boozy depths of another dubious and vague business trip. Primarily he wanted to see where I was at with HNM and to tell me to get to work on the damn thing. Of course that turned into more chatting and me not getting any work done. After Rick said farewell, however, I did slave over the film for another 2 hours, ultimately realizing I didn't like anything I had put together. Welcome to editing 101. After sleeping on the issues, which were primarily story based, I decided on a more thematic approach and now must do some experimentation to see if I can ultimately achieve my vision. Hopefully tonight the world will leave me alone to my madness, otherwise I'll be grabbing the ol' assault rifle and running to the local supermarket for target practice. 25/02/04

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Did 3 hours on HNM last night, but felt very unsatisfied with my special F/X experiments. So I made martinis and laid in bed and tried to think and felt glum and like a big failure and watched an old Abbott and Costello movie, which I could barely find the energy to smirk at. Then it was raining pretty hard out –– which almost never happens in LA –– so I stopped the movie for a bit to record the rain with my sound gear, for possible use in HNM. Maybe the night wasn't a complete waste. We'll see. I feel better today, after sleeping on the troubles, and am ready to hit the film hard again tonight. 26/02/04

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Managed 4 hours last night on HNM and made some minor -- or major (I still haven't decided yet) -- progress. I just have to keep at it -- keep flogging the beast until it submits. Or breaks loose and kills me. We shall see how things look to my eye tonight. Hmmmm...maybe I should have a martini first. Just to ease my terror. I was also checking the latest PUZZLEMAN galley proofs from my bonehead publisher yesterday (and was so close to signing off on them) when I suddenly noticed that the header on every other page had my last name spelled wrong. Shwew! That was a close one. Problem is I've been so concerned with the content of the story being right and formatted correctly that I failed to notice the difference in "Braodstone" and "Broadstone" at the top of the pages. Boy, it's those little things that can really tighten the noose around the ol' neck. But this time fate has been merciful on thee. 27/02/04

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Got in 8.5 hours on HNM yesterday, and all of it spent on screwing with the visual effects for one shot. Uhgggg! Hope I can make it all work. I'm still undecided. Got my BCP expenses spreadsheet done this morning, so my tax guy can now (hopefully) get me back some money from Uncle Sam to help finish the movie and promote PUZZLEMAN. I won't even mention how much cash I blew on BCP last year. Or on buying DVDs -- but at least I can write those off as education/research. Which in all truth is how I’ve learned the most about making movies: by simply watching them. Again and again and again. Not a bad way to learn, actually. Wish my rogue education would hurry up and kick in for HNM. Hmmmmm...maybe I should go buy some more DVDs. 29/02/04

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Craziness...I didn't get time to work on HNM all day yesterday and then the Oscars were on and I was thinking damn, I'll never get to it now. But during the Oscars my brain kept churning in the background and it suddenly dawned on me I should try tweaking this one other parameter of the effect I'm using. So after the Awards I did just that and the shot worked. Unbelievable. Over 8 hours screwing with it the day before and then suddenly boom, smooth sailing. I checked it again this morning, fearing the martinis and all that junk food I ate last night had skewed my senses. But no, the shot still looked good. The deeper I probed into what I had actually done, however, the more I came to realize that my tweak worked out of pure luck. I had actually over complicated the key framing in regard to the radius of the effect instead of simplifying it, which is what I thought I was doing. Well, as long as the shot works that's all I care about. And now I understand even better how that damn effect works. 1/03/04

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Anyway...sweated over HNM last night from 7:30pm until 11:30pm. Was feeling very sad and alone in this project, and wondering why I was even doing it. At least for a while -- until I read that article (during computer rendering) in Newsweek on THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. People need to stop bawling over that film -- take religion off their sleeve and keep it in their heart -- and realise the movie is little more than a sensationalist's imagination running amuck with historical facts to create a religious-fetish fantasy film for gorehounds, sadists, and dim-witted Christian sapheads. Now that I've said all that, I should probably go see the movie; but I already have a really bad attitude about it. I'm sick of people fantasizing and aggrandizing religion and ignoring religious history. For all the good religion has done in the world, it's done far more harm, and is still doing so today. The BIBLE, although the most influential book of all time, is still partially a work of fiction designed by those who wrote it (and later edited it or censored it) to manipulate the minds of people at very specific points in time in efforts to influence the course of governments, colonialism, racial prejudice, and, too often, personal fortunes. In getting back to the business of movies...the shot I was tweaking in HNM last night finally got to where it needed to be. Or at least it's heading in the right direction. Again, things are moving very slowly and with considerable difficulty. The good news is I can always dump all of my massaging of the shots with effects and default to my unaltered footage. My higher vision of the film will be sacrificed, but the raw filmmaking and story will still be there. Only time and further experimentation will aggrandize or fantasize my torment. 2/03/04

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I guess HNM really is a bit of a crusade for me. Or at least it should be. Worked 4 hours last night, still massaging effects, which I expect will go on until the film is completely finished, audio and all. On the other hand I might still abandon the effects altogether. I need to finish out and polish the front of the film a bit more and then get a second opinion on what I've accomplished...or completely destroyed. I also need to get back on editing the remaining shots to what's in the timeline now. And there are many. But I don't really want to proceed until I can get my head confidently around what I'm doing. I'm very sensitive to story, and I don't want to do anything visually to mess that up. But if I can enhance the story and characters, then it’ll all be worth it. Still a long road ahead. 3/03/04

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Worked long and hard on HNM again last night. Basically massaging the F/X once again. God I need a second opinion. Used to be nice having Lisa around the house for that kind of thing. Mr. Bones is no help at all -- by the time I get home from work he's always blasted drunk and won't do anything but sit there and grin at me. Probably won't post anything in the diary today. Even I'm getting board of my silly entries. Doubt anyone is reading them anyway. Guess I should check my stats. In the end, however, it will make a nice memory of what went on in my head and around me when I was slaving over the project. There's one side of me that feels like I'm really spinning my wheels on HNM, but another side is saying keep working, you're heading down the right path. I think the festival deadlines are making me sweat too much. But I really don't want to miss them. Talked by email with Denise from Shriekfest yesterday. Told her I was shooting for the late deadline in July and not to forget about me. She suggested I also send in my feature screenplays for the competition. Guess I will. What have I got to lose but the entry fee and mailing cost. 4/03/04

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Just sitting here answering emails with my laptop. The G4 is rendering effects and is taking it's good ol' time about it. Drives me crazy to have to wait 10 to 20 minutes just to find out the effect doesn't work, or I just plain don't like it. Worked long and hard yesterday -- managed a solid 8 hours and felt like I was actually making some progress by the end of the session. Then headed out to a filmmaker friend's art installation at a community gallery up in Pasadena. He did a great job, having created a giant catfish out of fiberglass and then projecting various images on the skin from within. He also made a collection of smaller catfish out of gelatin -- they looked like colourful Gummy Bears and good enough to eat. Anyway...woke up at 4am this morning for some unknown reason and couldn't sleep...so I took the opportunity to record some wild Foley in my kitchen: the sound of Nemo's lighter igniting, booze bottle to shot glass, gulping the shot, handling the bottle, etc. I think the stuff came out nicely, although I haven't listened back to it yet. Of course all will have to be processed to remove background noise -- although at 4am it's pretty quiet outside. Might have to record the bulk of the Foley in the wee hours of the morn. Tomorrow night Lisa is coming over so I can record her playing the Didgeridoo -- might make a nice eerie sound to throw in here and there, or use as a layer in the sound design to come. God, still another 4 minutes of rendering on the computer. And that makes the second attempt on this thing. The first attempt failed near the end for some mysterious reason. That makes this little tweak a 40-minute nightmare over all. Oh well, at least I'm getting my emails done. 7/03/04

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Yeah, my sleeping habits can be off at times. Had fun recording the Foley though. I thought, why not? It was so quiet that time of the morning. I was using my Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic on my boom (fishpole, as the pros call it); it's the same mic I had mounted on the camera when we were shooting the monologue stuff with Tony. The mic sounds amazing -- just perfect crystal clear sound (to my ears, anyway). I used the camera as my deck, so I was recording onto Mini DV, which works very well. Of course the mic cable was plugged into the BeachTek audio adapter mounted onto the bottom of the camera, and then the adapter was plugged into the camera mini-mic input. I just leaned the fishpole up against my kitchen cabinet, adjusted the mic angle accordingly, set camera audio levels manually (recoding in 16 bit stereo, although the input is really mono), then put the camera about 15 feet away behind some books (to avoid camera whine), ran headphones out of the camera and went to work making sounds in the kitchen. Good fun. I hope its usable stuff. I recorded wild, so I wasn't watching a video monitor for sync with Tony's actual motions, I was merely remembering what I'd seen him do (a hundred times over at this point) while editing the footage. Some of the sounds are off camera anyway, so most of the stuff should work. Still a lot yet to record, though. But until the edit is locked there isn't much use going crazy with Foley recording -- who knows what audio I'll need or won't need by then... Worked for a good 6 hours last night, still screwing with various effects, none of which manipulate the visuals consistently from shot to shot. That's not due to the effects filters themselves, however, but to the fact that the camera is constantly moving. Sometimes a blessing, but mostly a curse. Even so, I'm starting to gain control and develop a lexicon of what filter and parameters to use when and where to achieve the look I want. A very successful evening by the time the 11 o'clock martini hour rolled around. 8/03/04

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Lisa and I had a nice dinner out and then a decent little recording session. She wasn't satisfied with her performance, however, and ended up leaving with the didgeridoo and instructional video, her mind set on doing some practice and coming back in a couple weeks to do some more recording. I said sure, why not -- just don't leave the country with my didgeridoo! She also thought the effects I've been fooling with for HNM were working well, describing the feeling she got as that of being inside an insect creature that could fly around the room and focus-in strangely on things within the shot. So good deal. For some reason though, I was feeling down about the film again. I think it's that I'm frustrated with two things: 1) The opening long shots down in the room are too soft focus for my taste (and my effect work isn't really helping that), and 2) The blacks of the footage have video noise (a problem with having a camera that doesn't have a blacks control), and so far my only success in fixing the trouble is by applying the Black Restore filter -- the Color Corrector 3-Way wouldn't fix the issue and neither would the Gamma Corrector or Proc Amp filter. The problem with Black Restore, however, is that it's crushing the blacks too much in certain shots, making them far too dark. Attempts to adjust the filter have proven that the default setting is obviously the only sweet spot for the filter. Anyway...there's still more things to try, but I haven't had the time yet. Most likely I'll end up using the Black Restore filter only when the screen should be absolutely black. Making movies is a magicians art anyway -- just keep fooling the eye of the viewer so they can't ever focus on the problems. 9/03/04

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Didn't even look at HNM last night. The 6th PUZZLEMAN galley proof arrived again late yesterday afternoon and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Decided I had to get through the proof ASAP. It all looked good, so today I'll sign off on the interior...finally! Woohooo! Still waiting to see the cover proofs, though. Hope those boneheads get it right this time. I expect the book won't be available until April now, instead of March as I had hoped and have been advertising. Typical. After the proof I went to work the rest of the night putting more DVDs together, which turned into a nightmare. I ended up fighting a bad ink cart in my printer, which resulted in constant head cleaning and only getting about 6 or 8 usable DVD covers printed out. Damn! It was driving me nuts. The next ink cart worked fine, but then I ran out of paper and labels. Out of the 44 DVDs I was hoping to finish out, I only managed 20. Not a wasted evening, but a difficult one. I also have to get more press kits printed and more packages together for reviewers. Possibly I should do that tonight, as well as finish up the DVDs, and put HNM on the back burner again. I don't want to, but I can't keep Black Cab afloat if I don't have product and press kits ready to go when needed. 11/03/04

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Got the rest of the DVDs finished up last night, and got all of the packages together for the 6 new reviewers and that Wicked Pixel Cinema Edge Awards thing. Got everything in the mail today, too. Time-consuming work. So this week, so far, I've only tortured HNM for one night. Bummer. Need to go home and hit it this evening, but, of course, I'm already feeling pooped. I do plan to flog the beast all weekend, however. I also need to print out labels telling when MS is playing in SF to stick on the backs of the promo postcards I'm taking to the fest next week. Also must print out more press kits to take. God the office work never ends at BCP. Need a slave. Or a clone. Or both. 12/03/04

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Tony Simmons stopped by last night to check out HNM. He was very pleased. And very much liked the color correction I had already applied (and am still experimenting with), as well as the effects I've been using to torture the footage. He happily supplied my second opinion all evening until about 1am. Shwew! A very long night, but an enjoyable one. I'm feeling whipped today, however. Hope to get back to the crucifix montage (which I keep avoiding) tonight. It will be a very tricky sequence to pull off to my liking. More experimentation will be required. Which means more time-consuming rendering. My high hopes to have the edit pretty much locked by the end of March now looks like a pipedream. Especially with losing four days this weekend at the ANOTHER HOLE IN THE HEAD FILM FEST in SF. 16/03/04

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I'm feeling much better today. A better night's rest has certainly helped... What you say is true about chilling out and taking a breather, but of course I did just the opposite last night. Went straight home after work, slammed down a salad (which was less than satisfying –– my lettuce was too soggy, I think; not to mention the tomato I used was losing it's flavor from being in the fridge for too long), and started flogging the film again. Whipped the flailing beast from 7:30pm until 12:30am. My breather was in that I only flogged the aspects of the film I felt like flogging, such as more color correction, getting my broadcast monitor calibrated properly and then calibrating my Sony WEGA TV (which, unfortunately, can't be easily done with color bars due to it's built in super high contrast filters) and my other crappy TV so that I can see various CRT interpretations of the color correction I'm imposing on the footage. After I felt satisfied with the spectrum of CRTs –– from professional broadcast monitor to flatscreen WEGA to cheapo crap TV –– I then pulled out the red-hot pokers and began tormenting the film with some new techniques I wanted to inflict on the special effects. And, believe it or not, I actually had some very sweet success. All in all, a worthy night's work. And one that helped put a smile back on my face. The bloody monster is beginning to submit, I think. Although I expect I'll have to pull out the cat o' nine tails and pokers again soon. And many more times to follow. The brute will conform, I say! Give me cinema or give me death! What? Yes, of course I’ll take a big fat check instead... 18/03/04

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All I could say Friday morning when the Crazy Colombian arrived at my house was: “I hate you for this.” Thanks to Danilo’s relentless traffic phobia we were leaving L.A. at 5am, which translated into the sad fact that I’d only gotten 3 hours sleep –– and that was after busting my tail all week on HNM, up late every night, up for work early every morning, and last night burning the midnight oil to pack and prepare promo materials for the fest we were about to head for. I was starting out this mad journey already feeling whipped and quartered. At least at 5 in the morning I didn’t have to look at the murderous sunlight. Not for another hour anyway. After hitting Starbucks, which opened at 4:30am –– now that’s just wrong! –– we wheeled out onto the 60 West and then roared up the empty 5 heading north. Jesus God, there it was! The hideous, life-sucking sun rising, ripping off heads and burning out eyes as it grinned wickedly at us over the Santa Clarita mountains. Goddamn that incessant light! But we certainly did miss all the traffic. Too bad we were suddenly zooming up the wrong highway and didn’t even know it. Not until a butt-numbing 5 hours later, after stopping for a Taco Bell burrito in some godforsaken backwater, did I start wondering why I hadn’t seen any signs counting down the miles to San Francisco. Of course the Crazy Colombian sitting next to me hadn’t even thought twice about where we were headed –– being that he was so enraptured with rolling down the passenger window (the wind buffeting the opening and battering my eardrums to bloody hell) in efforts to snap pictures of every little piece of farm machinery or mediocre mechanical marvel we passed. So I pulled off the highway, refuelled, and took over navigation while Danilo took over the driver’s seat. Which, let me tell you, became a nightmare in itself –– poor me trying to decipher the Rand McNally atlas, but too afraid to take my eyes off the road as Danilo gleefully burned up the freeway, one hand on the wheel and the other working his digital camera –– and then his cell phone camera! The latter igniting a compulsion to immediately send out cell phone emails of the images he’d just captured. Good grief, man! We're lost on the 99 to Sacramento, which bypasses San Francisco completely! Keep your mind and your eyes on the task at hand, you crazed Colombian lunatic! Fortunately the AAA gods were merciful: we’d only veered a mere 45 minutes off course and didn’t have much trouble cutting across country to the 5, then the 580, and on to good ol’ San Francisco. Of course once over the Oakland Bridge and deep into the city we overshot our exit by a solid 15 minutes due to our foolhardy reliance on directions I had printed out online that were completely wrong. Danilo was now showing very scary signs of cabin fever and insisted I use his beloved camera/cell phone (by shoving it in my face) to find directions to the hotel –– right now, right now, right now! So...after one U-turn and two desperate phone calls to a single hotel operator that gave two different sets of directions we at last found our befuddled selves at the Embassy Suites hotel; here we’d be camping out for the next 3 nights with international businessman/potential CIA agent/persistent AD/dubious actor Rick Wildridge who had flown all the way in from Texas. In keeping with the theme of the trip (and Murphy’s [enervating] Law), it quite naturally took another hour for our room to be made ready –– so we munched on nuts I’d packed and had a much-needed drink. Three nights of movies and martinis had begun at last. Little did we know, however, that the hotel was about to be taken over by a foul-mouthed tribe of Haitian orphans left to run rampant by their mysteriously invisible keepers. And little did we realize that this over-priced hotel would at one point be atmospherically recalibrated to mimic the torrid heat only found in the deepest heart of Africa –– causing not only me and mine to drip sweat, but also the large sliding glass door that led out onto our room’s mini balcony. Even the air outside refused to enter our swampy digs, which we’d previously thought of as a respectable hotel room. It was no surprise my slowly boiling brain at last drove me to call the front desk and request a little air-conditioning. My effort, however, met with a less than satisfying result, but resulted in a very satisfying cathartic moment. I suddenly found myself bursting from our room and screaming at the top of my lungs –– “IT’S F#@KING HOT IN HERE!” –– the echo rattling the hotel’s central atrium and all 10 floors of the steaming Embassy Suites around 3 o’clock on Monday morning. I’m quite sure, however, my eloquent broadcast fell in futility on the unsympathetic ears of the snooty saps chained to the front desk. Ineffectual slobs!

Much earlier during the nerve-racking –– although far cooler –– portion of the evening, MY SKIN was well received at the SFIF Another Hole In The Head Film Fest hosted by the AMC Kabuki 8 Cinemas. Out of the scant questions asked the filmmakers after the block of shorts screened, two were directed at me: one about Tony’s bird-like performance and it’s enhancement by the use of speed effects, and one about “The Device”, which was used to shoot all the spinning shots. So that was nice –– and I even knew the right answers! Also, out in the lobby I was accosted by several inspired audience-types who had grand compliments for the film, and who were specifically infatuated with Tony's excellent portrayal of Death. (Kudos, Mr. Simmons.) I also set out 6 or 8 DVDs next to my promo postcards, stickers and reviews, starting a feeding frenzy amongst the horror-starved festival fanatics. The DVDs were devoured as fast as I tossed them out! The only real downside to the screening was that the video projection system hadn't been calibrated, making all the films look dull, flat, and desaturated. It was a bit gruelling watching MS knowing how much snappier it could look. And then, to add insult to injury, Michael Strode’s short, BLACK GULCH, and another called THE SILVERGLEAM WHISTLE, screened on beautiful, pristine 35mm prints. The lucky bastards! Of course they spent 10 times more green making their mini Hollywood blockbusters (not to mention their exorbitant film school tuition) than I did making my little underground MS. So such is life. And I inarguably did have a grizzly good time at the fest –– me hanging out at the Cat Club with makeup artist/director Gabe Bartalos (SKINNED DEEP) or at The Boom Boom Room, chatting with fellow filmmakers Jeffery Lando (SAVAGE ISLAND), Ashley Fester (OLD BREED), Bruce Fletcher (festival programmer), and Jeff Ross (fest director). Also had a grand time burning around the city with Rick and Danilo (who at some point in the mayhem slipped off to take advantage of the gay marriage scene running rampant in the wily streets of old S.F.: see honeymoon pic right here), and sipping pricy martinis and eating pricy cheese at a hip bar and restaurant called Absinthe (which we managed to infiltrate more than once after the dinner menu had long been put to bed). Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end. (And that included Rick and Danilo’s dodgy marriage.) The drive back on Monday began with hearty farewells and then a monstrous delay due to suddenly needing gas and another Starbucks mocha; then confidently dashing back onto the highway going the wrong direction; then a couple more miles down the road being scuttled by a dullish vehicle loaded with good Samaritans trying to inform us we had a flat tire; then getting that traitorous rubber bastard changed over; then missing the proper entrance to the next highway interchange; then making a rather raucous U-turn that left the pricy rock from the mountains of China I had bought in Japan Town toppled onto its side; then at the following interchange stupidly taking the wrong direction once again! Of course we didn't realize we’d been duped by the highway system until about fifteen minutes later when we came upon signage that smugly informed us we were heading back to San Francisco one more time. Frantically zigging and zagging off the freeway, Danilo and I quickly found ourselves lost in a bizarre hilly town where no roads seemed to run parallel, and from which we were almost certain we would never escape. Danilo grew evermore panicked and kept insisting we were in a real life horror film. I adamantly agreed –– and as I buggered in and out of an unusually narrow driveway of some small spook house, I also told Danilo that because we were in a real life horror film there was no way in hell we were going to stop, get out of the car, and ask for directions. So we locked our doors and spent the next 20 minutes searching for an entrance to the freeway that would take us home to wicked, yet longed for, L.A. When we finally did get back on track it wasn't but another 20 minutes before we found ourselves crawling through what seemed like endless traffic. Ahhhhhh, the madness of it all!!!!!! The loathing!!!!! But we kept our wits –– and our lives (even after a greasy dinner at Denny’s Diner in one of the most cow-stinky truck-stop towns on the map) –– and finally, around 10pm, swerved back onto the familiar street where my tiny residence rested peacefully in the darkness. Ah, I thought, just as I had left it. Hard work this film festival stuff. I’m dragging big time today and have already lost my desire to flog the HNM beast tonight. Been slavishly busy since morning and also need to get a new tire. Naturally the puncture is in the sidewall so it can't be fixed. Damn. Going to horror film festivals is also a horrifyingly costly affair. But what the hell, my pricy Chinese rock from Japan Town looks great towering over my California bar of Euro-American booze! Think I’ll make a Russian vodka martini and drop in a Mexican jalapeno-stuffed olive from Ohio. Now that’s globalization. 23/03/04

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Barely getting back to work on HNM here. Been so freakin' tired this last week, plus I’m going bug-eyed playing catch up. And now Lisa M (Li’l Montaugie!, as she’s known to here Japanese cult followers, is coming over for the evening. She's on spring break this week, so I better take her when I can get her. One more week for me and then I'll be off for that much needed week away from work to hone in on HNM properly. I hope. Talked to Brian Sussman the other night about the score. He wants to do it, but he's going to have to work it in to his tight schedule –– making loads of cash doing commercials these days. So we'll see. Fortunately, I don't think I'll need as much music as I did on MS. And I'm also toying with the idea of using a JUDAS ENGINE song, I AM A WALL, for the credit roll -- I think my lyrics work very well with the concept of the film. Might be nice to give HNM an angry, but up-beat, rock-n-toll ending anyway. Make people go, Fuck yeah! Instead of leaving them with a downer. Tony liked the idea. And the song would be free for me to use. Unless Barry, the co-writer, complains at some point. Doubt he’ll crawl out from under his crucifix unless he smells money, however. But I don't even know how to get a hold of him anymore anyway. Not like I'm making any money. The song would also be different from the endings of SFM and MS too. So that would be nice. 25/03/04

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I did put in a decent night's work on HNM last night. Finally got the crucifix montage to a point where I could insert the sequence into the film and move on. Still a lot to do. The goal is to have the edit locked by the end of April so Brian can start working on the score. That only gives him a little less than 2 months to knock it all out, which wouldn't be an issue except he can only work on the score when he's not working on larger projects that pay him his full rate. I can't even come close to paying him what he gets to score a commercial, etc. I'll probably end up having to fill in some music myself this go around. Like using I AM A WALL for the end credits. My stuff is free. At least for me. And if you can't steal from yourself, who can you steal from? Ordered the upgrade from Peak DV to Peak 4.1 yesterday. Bias was offering a special deal, so I jumped on it. Peak DV is just too limited. And what a better time to learn the full version of Peak than while using it to build the HNM soundtrack. The new Peak also has loads of room samples for reverb, among many other nice features that could really make a difference for the film. 27/03/04

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Worked for about 12 hours yesterday on HNM and was so frustrated with things that I haven't done crap on the film all day today. All the rendering is so time consuming. I need a super computer. I did take a short break, though, to do a little DVD shopping. Of course I spent way to damn much. I did pick up ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO -- couldn't find the trilogy. It was a bad idea, however, to watch all the extras after enduring such a frustrating day on HNM. Seeing Robert Rodriquez so ridiculously up-beat and showing off his million dollars worth of high-end gear in his million-dollar mansion made me want to puke. I felt like such a loser and with crummy equipment on top of it. Mini DV is just so limited in its range -- there just isn't enough visual information on the tape to screw with the image too much. It's driving me mad. I want HD, damnit! It's for sure I'm not relishing doing another project on Mini DV. I need more power! Robert Rodriquez kills me too, with all his trying to make filmmaking look like it's so damn easy a monkey could do it. Sure, all it takes is a million dollars worth of high-end gear, and you can be a brilliant filmmaker too. It also sounds like he just shoots so much coverage there's no way he couldn't cut a decent movie together in the end. Of course that's his real talent: knowing what footage to choose out of the million miles of tape he blows through, and how to cut it together effectively. Anyway...I found the extras all very interesting, they just made me feel like I'm trying too damn hard on HNM -- and then not quite getting the results I'd like. Me big loser, uhg, uhg! Kill, kill!! 5/04/04

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That sucks about all your computer problems. Even my computer seems to be running a bit slow. And for some miserable reason FCP keeps doing little quirky things like not displaying the correct filter parameters even if they really are correct. And the other day it changed the IN point on a clip somehow (of course my fat fingers probably did something stupid to create the issue), which rendered me incapable of applying a simple cross dissolve. Of course it took me 30 minutes to figure out what the problem was. Crazy software demons! I cast you out! The power of Schwarz compels you! The power of Schwarz compels you!!! And speaking of that notorious lunatic, wish I could exorcise him from the production of anymore of my films. The other day Tony was suggesting that Black Cab should take what scant profits were trickling in from DVD sales and pay for Schwarz to have his eyes fixed. I told Tony I didn't think Schwarz actually had eyes, which is part of his problem. I'm pretty sure his eyeballs are merely painted glass hiding whatever insect-like sight-sensors wriggle beneath. But even if Schwarz did have eyes, I don't think he'd bother to look through the camera much anyway. Especially when shooting. The dastardly mutant! Which brings me to another dastardly mutant and most definite infernal enigma: Cole Adam Buisson. Seems the mysterious wretch must be sensing his approaching, although as yet unscheduled, voice-over recording session. I'd woken up far too early last Monday morning and decided to have a bit of water. As I turned from my fridge to head back to bed there was Cole -- or at least a shadowy apparition of Cole -- lurking near my front door. I nearly jumped through the kitchen window with the shock, but grabbed my rusty meat cleaver instead. I cried, "I'll hack ya in two, ya shifty beast!" But with nary a smirk Cole was suddenly gone again, having quietly blended into the darkness of this heinous morning. I expect I'll be seeing more and more of that grim spook haunting Black Cab the closer we get to his VO session. Wonder if he'll actually show up in person this time around. Insanity abounds. 6/04/04

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I'm still toiling in the mouth of madness here. Just spent two more hours screwing around with the same damn shot I've been working on forever it seems. Trying to marry the effects to a previous shot, but not being able to figure out why the damn things won't say the big "I do" and give each other the big lovey-dovey smooch. Well...I finally realised that the SCALE filter had gotten clicked on and that was why the right edge of each shot was just ever-so-slightly falling short of the edge of the full VIEWER frame. I also just learned that the magic UNDO command is not specific to individual sequences -- which means that I can't jump between different sequences and undo changes without screwing up any alterations I'd made in a sequence I was recently in. That's why effects parameters have been changing on me mysteriously. I AM SUCH AN IDIOT! Boy, that's what you call learning the hard way. I'm never gonna get this movie finished at this rate. Once again, I'm my own worst enemy. And now I've got another 20 minutes to wait while the SCALE issue is fixed in the longer of the two shots. Working with takes that are a minute or more is proving an absolute render nightmare. I might have to start cutting the takes into smaller, more manageable pieces. The reason I don't want to do that is I'll then have to key frame the start and end of every cut to match the previous and following cuts. That would also be very time consuming and increase the chance of error -- me missing a parameter change or just typing in the wrong numbers, period. Oh well, at least I'm getting domestic and business chores done in all the downtime. Sadly, though, I don't really feel like I'm editing my film. Feel more like I'm being lazy somehow and merely fiddling a little bit with it now and then as the day drags on into night. Well at least that maniac Schwarz is leaving me alone, and I haven’t suffered anymore Cole Buisson sightings. 8/04/04

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Worked another 10 hours on HNM today. Very slow going. Learning the hard way as I always do. Wish I would learn to do things the easy way. Feeling very alone this week -- been so locked up in the house, I almost feel like I've been sick. Very strange. Not quite the week off I was hoping for, but if HNM becomes a better film because of it, well...I guess all the misery will be worth it. Speaking of which, I have a secret advanced copy of Tim Burton's ED WOOD DVD and have been watching it and all the extras. At one point in the film -- which is fictitious, but nonetheless wise -- Ed Wood meets Orson Welles and asks him (in regard to filmmaking), "Is it really worth it all?" And Orson replies, "When it works it is." And for me that says it all. I complain a lot, but when the movie works, all the suffering, self-doubt, loneliness, and frustration is worth it. The day I can pop my film into the DVD player and just watch something that would never have existed otherwise is a great and satisfying day. Today, however, is not that day. Oh well. There's plenty of folks that would love to have my troubles. Talk later. My frozen pizza has finished cooking and STARSHIP TROOPERS is ready to watch in wonderful surround sound. Tomorrow I go back into the fray -- HNM style -- but not tonight. Tonight the beast wins. But little does it know, it will not win the war. 9/04/04

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Me, I nearly had a nervous breakdown Friday night -- well maybe I did. I had spent 10 hours on HNM and all I wanted to do was eat a frozen pizza, have a martini, and watch STARSHIP TROOPERS (which I just purchased on DVD to replace my laser disc)...anyway, I was barely an hour into the film when I decided I needed a potty break. So here I am, relaxing on the toilet (the jalapenos I piled on the pizza already working their magic) when suddenly I hear this horrific sound coming from god knows where in the house. I mean I thought Mr. Bones was in dire need of an immediate exorcism -- which is nearly a daily hazard considering the amount of tequila his frail, bony constitution ingests. So I wipe what seems like the eternal mud of life from my bum and dash out into what would soon be a very grim and despicable moment at Black Cab Productions. After checking on Mr. Bones, who was grinning his usual drunken grin, but was sans demonic possession (save for demon alcohol), my ear hastily gave the premises the old Sherlock Holmes treatment and I realized with utter terror that one of my 160Gb external hard drives was crying out like some incubus was sucking its very life away. I cranked up the trusty G4 and sure enough the miserable hard drive had gone AWOL. God that incessant screeching it was making! So I unplugged the traitorous wretch –– which, of course, was the backup for all of HNM, SFM, and MS too! –– and attempted in a wild panic to recycle the drive...again...again ...and again...until finally I had to accept the bitter truth: the damn thing had died, although it was not going gentle into that good night. Neither was I. I was so freakin’ furious and swelling with despair that I ripped the bleeding drive from its earthly home and tried violently –– and repeatedly –– to pound it back to life. The resuscitation failed. And failed miserably. But I wasn’t about to give up, so I slammed the thing down on the notebook containing my HNM shooting log once...twice...three times a lady! I then dared to give the creature the ol’ Frankenstein CPR technique and plugged it into the wall socket for a bit of shock treatment. Well all that beating and electrical stimuli certainly did the trick –– the drive was now whooping like a nuclear plant about to meltdown and blow one-and-all back to God. Oh, Father why hast thou forsaken me?! I collapsed into my desk chair, my arms outstretched in a Jesus Christ pose, and wept. Well, at least I wanted to. But the tears wouldn’t come, only madness and misery and the dastardly revelation that I had to run out the next morning and plunk down more Black Cab blood money for a new hard drive. I also had to accept the sad fact that I had to immediately backup my HNM media files onto DVD (in a desperate act of safety and peace of mind), which, in my laziness, I hadn’t yet done. So, for the next two hours I burned DVDs, tried to collect myself, and also finished watching STARSHIP TROOPERS, although with a with a very, very sad face. The only good bug is a dead bug. Wish that applied to hard drives. And the damn thing wasn’t even a year old yet. Wait! That’s actually a good thing! I checked online early the following morning and found I still had 2 months of warranty left. Hallelujah! Even so, I couldn’t wait to have the drive fixed or replaced and had to run out and buy a new drive anyway. Movie making can be so fun. The new drive looks really cool though –– like something you might find lying around the starship Enterprise. 11/04/04

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Well, with the other external and internal hard drives I will have 720Gb of storage once I get the replacement for the faulty drive. A little more than I need at the moment, but I guess you can never have too much backup space. I am lucky Maxtor is replacing the drive. Sent it off to them today... Hope they find that I shipped it properly and don't try to weasel out of giving me a new drive. All that small print, ya know... Haven't even started HNM yet tonight and it's nearly 8pm... Yup, had another miserably screwed up sleep last night. This time my brain kept rendering some HNM shot over and over and over and always getting closer to what I wanted but never actually getting there. Ughhhh! Feeling quite beat today... Yeah, haven't gotten the mood up to watch HENRY yet, or FRAILTY. Been feeling on the lighter side at night these days. Making HNM is giving me my fill of darkness, I think... Well, gotta go and try to get something done on HNM before I totally burn out... 14/04/04

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In working on HNM last night I think I finally started to embrace the tools of torture I've been inflicting on the film. I know my brain and body have been fighting the technology tooth and nail -- wanting to keep things simple yet effective, as originally designed and executed -- as in the purest homage to Hitchcock; use nothing but carefully planned camera angles, hard cuts and simple cross dissolves to tell the story (what I did with SCREAM FOR ME). All the modern technology, and my eternal learning curve, has been making me feel like I've been losing control of the film (as I did for a while on MY SKIN). But such is the creative mind and process that it should keep birthing and morphing into something new and, hopefully, more magnificent. Mini DV has great limitations, but also amazing possibilities for transformation through processing. It all comes down to time and experimentation, and the ability to hang on to the story -- like a rodeo rider bucking a bronco -- until the ride is over. The talent is in the eye (and probably the eye of the beholder!), to see and know when what's playing out on the monitor is right or just plain "not" right -- just not there yet, that is. Take 3 steps forward and 2 back. Reflect. And never lose sight of the story, no matter where the visual madness takes me. 15/04/04

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Fooled with HNM from 8pm to midnight last night. Again the rendering time was a killer. And once again I didn't bother to move forward with the cutting and opted to do some more experimentation on the mad POV shots, which is pretty much the entire film. Cutting HNM together is the easy part of breathing life into this particular monster. It's going to be the look of the creature that's going to make or break HNM, I think, which wasn't entirely true on SFM or MS. Aesthetics have always been very important to me in my films, but never as much so as on this project. It's almost become an obsession. I'm in deep waters now and land has almost drifted completely out of sight. And, oddly enough, there's no desire to turn back anymore. Hope I don't sink. Or get eaten by sea monsters before I reach the new world. Or I can change the title of this film to CHRISMAN NO MORE. 16/04/04

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Been a decent weekend -- felt more peaceful than lonely, which was nice. HNM and it's rendering might drive me mad, however. It's so difficult to stay focused when I have to keep waiting so long to see every damn little change I make. Although I realized I can make a change and then make a cut a bit before the change takes effect and then only render that little section to see if I did the right thing. Then I watch the truncated clip, decide yea or nay, and then use the undo command to get back to where the cut is removed and then I can render the entire clip if I'm happy with what I did. Or make another change, if need be, and do the same process again. It's faster, but tedious as hell. Rick called from Abu Dhabi in the UAE this morning and offered to buy my G4 so I could upgrade to a G5 Dual 2Ghz processor Mac. A very nice offer, but the G5 would still end up costing me $2000 plus all the hidden costs and headaches of switching over midstream on HNM and having to adjust to a new OS that might not even like FCP 3. I know FCP 4 is touted to be the ultimate on the new G5s. Anyway, I think the downtime and loss of focus (and money) I would suffer just wouldn't be worth it right now. On the other hand I'm still toying with the idea. FCP pros claim the G5 renders 3 times as fast as my G4. That would speed up the making of HNM considerably...if the change over went smooth as silk. And that's not very likely. What to do? 18/04/04

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Trust me, although DVD Studio Pro is very intuitive, it's still complicated as hell. I need to get back to learning it -- I've forgotten everything at this point. Plus I need to learn Peak 4.1 and Deck 3.5 to finish out the HNM audio -- which I haven't really even begun. Kept fiddling with HNM until midnight last night -- massaging the same damn shots. Of course they are extremely difficult. I now have 3 layers of video going simultaneous in attempts to achieve the look I want. I think I'm much closer. I hope that tonight I will forge ahead to the next two long takes that precede the infamous monologue. Only two more weeks until May and my self-imposed deadline for locking the edit. Hmmmm...unless a miracle happens that just plain ain't gonna happen, cowboy. Frustrating. 19/04/04

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I have just spent the last 6 hours massaging a shot that is only 4 seconds long. This movie has turned into paint by numbers. Only there’s no numbers. Only endless filter parameters and guessing games. After all my planning, I’ve thrown it all to the wind in favour of a blank canvas. Well...nearly so. I still do have moving images that need warping into utter madness. And therein lies the problem. There is no madness by numbers is there? Ah, a blank canvas that keeps moving: now that spells trouble with a capital “OH MY GOD, WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?” But once again, at the last moment before collapse, progress presents itself. HNM is not a film that can be made under a deadline. Once again the filmic triangle holds true. In my case, if I want HNM to be “good” and “cheap” it is in no way going to be “fast”. My mind expands. My body deteriorates. And my self distorts. What next, I ask? What next? Well...working on the next shot would be a nice change of torment...and surely a new adventure in lunacy. 20/04/04

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Me, I've just being doing the same old crap on HNM. Just plugging away at a snails pace. Making this film is like watching the hands of a clock move. Guess I'm getting somewhere, but it never feels like it. Still haven't even gotten to Tony's monologue. I am close though. Might get into it by tonight or tomorrow, unless some other annoying little detail distracts me (which has been happening without mercy for weeks now). I can have a new extra on the DVD called "Discovering the Look of HNM" (or something more sensational like "Through The Serpent's Eye", or maybe just "Train Wreck At The O.K. Corral" would be more accurate), and do shot comparisons with original footage juxtaposed against finished footage, with me doing the mad commentary from whatever loony bin I've been locked up in by that point. I have to remember the old adage: Part of the enjoyment of making a film is discovery. And I am “discovering”...just how much patience I have. 3/05/04

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HNM is still driving me bonkers. It's just so difficult when I have to search and search for every little thing I like -- mostly finding things I don't like -- in the multiple effects filters I'm using, and then fix this detail or that detail, which causes another problem somewhere else, and when I fix that it causes another problem again. And so it goes. Several of the most difficult shots (which weren't planned to be difficult) have 4 layers of video now! And then, of course, I keep coming up with new ways to do things, which is usually better, but causes me to have to rework shots all over again. Just a very, very slow process. And, of course, the rendering time wears me down. Even so, I managed about 12 hours on Saturday (with a nice dinner break while the computer rendered) and 8 yesterday -- of course I also got most of the way through RETARD as well -- me tweaking on HNM for 15 to 30 minutes and then 30 to 45 minutes rendering time allowing me to turn to my laptop and plug away on the screenplay. So back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. I am making progress on HNM, however. But at this point I'm still undecided if I'll ever be truly happy with the look of the film. Most folks probably won't even think twice about it; or they'll simply find the film totally unwatchable. Ha! Little will they realise all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the making of the damn thing, just so they can complain about it. 10/05/04

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Take your time with RETARD. No hurry. The script is already off, as is, to those who will be reading it soon –– producers for Lions Gate, the Slamdance and Shriekfest folks. They will like it or not. If, at this point, the LG producers can't see any potential in the script, it isn't likely they ever will –– short of a complete rewrite making the retard a happy-go-lucky intellect and womanizer with Brad Pitt-ish looks. Mr. Goss will become Mrs. Goose, the sweet old lady that likes to tell the apartment children fairy tales. Lydia the hooker will become Liza the goth-hypster with multiple piercings and a fetish for gumballs and dark comic books. Det. Stockard will become a slightly lecherous plumber that frequents the apartment building in hopes of laying some pipe (in more ways than one). He'll then stumble across a giant, but slow-witted, sewer rat that escapes into the building and terrorizes one and all. The new name of the film will be, of course, RAT-ARD! What do you think? Much better script indeed! And Britney Spears would be great in the part of Liza. Madonna would quite naturally play Mrs. Goose. And I see Jim Carrey as Plumber Stockard. And the handicapped rat could be portrayed by a Muppet with John Franklin inside (sort of reprising his role as Cousin Itt from the Addams Family movies). Shwoo! Glad I figured out the direction the script needs to take. Look out Lions Gate! Here I come!

...wish I could be at home working on HNM right now, instead of slaving. Finally started on the monologue last night. The intercutting will be tricky, as not to lose the human side of the story, which at this point will only just be hitting home. At least I'll feel like I'm actually editing again instead of only babysitting the computer -- a fraction of the time tweaking a shot and the rest of the time reading a book or doing the dishes or cleaning the toilet or simply being driven to drink. 19/05/04

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Yes, HNM is taking a good long while. But all my films do. I'm very picky, and I'm quite insistent on getting the absolute best from the footage. The monologue is coming along, although last night was proving tricky. I tried many different ways of cutting the part where Nemo takes off his wedding ring and places it on the desk, but nothing was working quite right. Ultimately I just had to keep it simple and let the shot from behind (that creeps over his shoulder and moves in on the desktop) play out as we hear him continue his monologue out of shot. It can be quite maddening trying to enhance and bring out Tony's performance and not destroy it. Of course, in most cases, the cutting is following the script to a T. It's just tedious finding the sweet spots to go chop, chop! A single frame or two can make all the difference in the world. At least to me. As well, it's so easy to experiment in FCP that I often find myself exploring many different options that I hadn't previously thought of. Again, however, in most cases I still end up right back where I started: following the original script. Ahhhh, damn writers! What do they know!? So the journey to HNM spirals and circles back on itself again and again, sometimes stumbling into quagmires and sinking in quicksand, but ultimately trudging forward. And, despite all the drama and tragedy yet to come, I do believe the film will survive the treacherous jungle of post-production, grandly emerging from the bush and walking tall on it’s own two feet –– even if I end up crawling out on my hands and knees, looking like Indiana Jones after a particularly strenuous adventure. The only question is: when will the grand finale come? When will I say, HNM is finished? You're curiosity at wanting to see what another editor would do with the film would probably spell disaster. I have my doubts another editor would have as deep of an understanding of the story as I do. Or treat it with as much care. But it would be interesting to see through the eyes of another. Hmmmm, maybe I should try editing like Schwarz does his shooting: with eyes closed and one ear cocked toward the nearest gaggle of unsuspecting young women. 21/05/04

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Danilo checked out HNM last night and thought it was looking very good. Of course I'm not satisfied with it. Nemo's crash into the video camera and the fall is still looking like a massive train wreck to me. It's very, very fast to the point you can't tell what the hell's happening. After Danilo left I spent the next 3 hours recutting it many different ways, searching and searching for the sweet spots to chop the shots together in efforts to make it all eyeball friendly. It's better, but I'm still not satisfied. Will continue with it tonight, or will ignore it and begin work on the effects layering for the DV cam POVs that are intercut into the monologue. Still so much to do. At this point I'm hoping to have a locked edit by the end of June, but we'll see. If I can make that deadline then I'll have a little over 2 months to get all the audio done, score, and titles, and possibly make the late deadline for NYCHFF in mid September. Help! 25/05/04

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Worked a good 8 hours yesterday on HNM, then went out for a much needed meal, then came home and tried to watch a movie as I continued to tweak on some shots until about midnight. Been working for the last 4 hours today. Yesterday I read while rendering and today I’m doing domestic chores and emails while rendering. Making some headway, but it's slow going as usual. I do have all the footage cut together to the very end now. Looks like HNM will end up running about 20 minutes with the opening titles and end credits. Still not feeling completely satisfied with all my warping of the shots. Feel like I'm constantly battling technology. And it's whipping me into shape instead of the other way around. At best HNM will be a compromise between what I want the film to look like and what FCP wants the film to look like. Was hoping to make myself work late tonight, but it's only 4pm and I already want to shut up shop about 6 and head out to dinner and a movie. Lazy me! And I'm down to my last 2 pair of underwear too! I've got to do my laundry, not to mention get some DV tapes made for submitting to a small fest here and for the atomfilms.com thing. I must get up early tomorrow, damnit! Especially if I'm lazy tonight. 30/05/04

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Great news about FCP HD! You'll be lost in editing utopia soon. Me, I'm still lost in editing hell. Although I haven't been able to work on HNM for three days now, thanks to Lisa coming over Monday night, then Tuesday I spent all afternoon and evening getting press packs printed and DV tapes made for the atomfilms.com thing and to submit MS & SFM to the new HOLLYWOOD HORROR FILM FESTIVAL and Anxiety Films MINI-SHOCK FILM FEST; then last night I had to break down and make more DVDs since I was down to my last 3. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on HNM tonight. I also hope a few days away from the film will allow me to see it with fresh eyes. Of course I'm more likely to see things I don't like than things I do like. Feeling very burned out on HNM, yet there's still so much to do. 3/06/04

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When I got home last Thursday night guess what was sitting on my doorstep? A parcel marked Xlibris. I was terrified to open the box, but bravely did so just the same. Inside was the first ever paperback and hardback edition of PUZZLEMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the books looked awesome! Inside and out. I couldn't believe it! It felt so weird to be holding the books in my hands, and so incredibly strange to see my words in book form -- I've only ever seen them on a computer screen or printed out on regular paper. I couldn't put them down all night, what with calling everyone I knew to tell them the good news and me reading little bits of the book here and there while I sipped celebratory martinis into the late hours. I still can't believe the books are real. And really finished. Finally, an 18-year project has come to an end. (Except for all the promotion that must now be done.) Of course I was far too keyed up to sit down and battle with HNM, but I didn't care -- even though I hadn't been able to make time for the movie in three days. Now I was blowing off the film for another night, all the while knowing I also couldn't work on it the following evening because of committing to help Lisa with her audio project for a class at UCLA. I did, however, finally get to HNM on Saturday, and saw the beast with new eyes. After 5 full days away I actually felt refreshed and glad to be flogging the wicked creature once again -- and which I did without mercy from 12:30pm until 10:30pm. At that point Tony stopped by to see what damage I'd inflicted. He was very pleased and thought the thing was coming along exceptionally well. Sunday I only managed to torture the monster for a mere 4 hours before Lisa arrived to again work on her project, which we did until 11:30. She better get a triple A+ on this assignment, damnit! Still have two more nights to work on the thing, this coming Tuesday and Friday. No rest for the weary. Or the wicked. Tonight, however, I chain HNM back to the whipping post and intend to do my utter worst. The monster is finally showing signs of submission and must not be allowed to grow strong and again rise up against me! I am the master! Me, me, ME! 7/06/04

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HNM is coming a long, I think. Still screwing with the warping of the images though. Managed a solid 4 hours last night, but I think the last shot I was fooling with is going to require a fresh start from scratch. No matter what I did to it, it just didn't seem right. Not to me, anyway. And Mr. Bones, as usual, was too blasted on tequila to be of any help (I think he ate the worm again). He kept insisting the footage already looked distorted even before I'd applied one single effects filter. I told him if he'd stop looking at HNM through the bottom of a bottle of Cuervo Gold, he might see things a little differently. I mean, jeezus!, Schwarz has already done enough damage to the film with his skewed perspective. (By the way, good ol' Schwarz rang me up about a week ago to gloat over the fact that he'd been chased out of 3 more countries. He wouldn't elaborate on which ones, but he did say things at Abu Ghraib didn't look that bad to him. No telling what breed of scandal will come to light now.) At any rate, I'm pretending I can lock the edit by the end of this month. That gives me two and a half months to do the audio, titles, and end credits. Translation: Without a small miracle, it'll be impossible to make the NYCHFF deadline in mid September. Bummer if I miss that. Sadly, Shriekfest is already a no go. The only possible way to make their mid July deadline would be if God himself flew in on a flying saucer and crapped a load of Hitchcocks and Finchers all over the project to wrap up post ASAP. Don't think that's gonna happen, in spite of the fact that Mr. Bones keeps insisting he's seeing UFOs zooming in via the old second star to the right and straight on till morning route. I'd duct tape his mouth shut except for one thing: since he died he became telepathic and simply wills his crazed, drunken madness into my head. Shut up, Mr. Bones! There are no flying saucers! And no, you are not Peter Pan and you cannot fly back to Never Neverland and no, the Lost Boys have no film editing or audio recording or mixing skills and, therefore, cannot be of any use to me! Good grief! At least that sadistic lunatic Cole Adam Buisson has stayed away. 15/06/04

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Sorry for the delayed response. Been busy as hell training my new assistant and then working every night on HNM. I've hit another troublesome shot that just won't play along. The bastard! The good news is, I secured another week off today. So, I'll be able to focus on HNM (only) from this Saturday 21st thru Monday July 5th. Woohoo! Keep your fingers crossed I make some real headway. By god do I need it. As for getting help on the project, I'm stuck until I've locked the edit. I need to get Danilo focused on the opening titles, but he's all wrapped up in decorating his new house. Brian can't really do much score wise until I actually do lock the edit, and then I don't know who could help me anyway. I am a filmmaking island floating in a sea of filmmakers. Alas, filmmakers, filmmakers everywhere, but not a one to drink. Hmmmmmmm...martini please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...good to hear you got FCP HD running smoothly. I'm jealous. Looking forward to the end of HNM so I can relax and upgrade. At least before I launch into the endless super triple feature DVD project (and learning DVD Studio Pro at last). Ah, the horizon always burns with the never-setting sun of exhaustion for the indie filmmaker and writer. Jesus Christ, God, turn out the damn lights for once! 17/6/04

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I did finally (after 4 nights work) break through the wall last night on that damn 5 second shot on HNM. However, it will now require me to rework the previous shot. What the hell! I just want to do whatever it takes, pronto, and move on! Time is a commodity at this point. Talked to Brian today about the score. He's still up for it. So, if I can lock the edit by the end of the month we'll be good to go. At least to the next step. Well, it's now after 5pm here and I'm officially on vacation for the next 2 weeks. HNM beware! This time it's a fight to the death! 18/06/04

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Smokey Joe indeed! Yes, I suppose you're right on all 3 counts. I'm just lucky the umbrella on my patio didn't catch fire. Or me, for that matter. I'm certainly no expert on grilling. Yup, trying to get work done after burning my eyes out with smoke and having a few drinks wasn't much fun. But I did work just the same, from about 1:30 to 11pm. Ultimately, I decided the crucifix montage just plain sucked. I never really liked it anyway. So I spent all last night pulling other shots of the wall and doing something different -- and I have come up with some pretty crazy stuff. Today, for the last 5 hours, I've been working on one part of it -- one lousy shot that's only 18 frames long -- and I still can't get it to match the preceding shot! Damn, this is frustrating. I've got to get through this crucifix thing by tomorrow or I'm going to crucify someone myself. Mr. Bones is lucky he's already dead. I know he thinks my misery is all very funny, however, the way he just grins and grins at me all day long. Anyway...even though I've done something new with the sequence, I still can't decide if it's helping tell my story, or is just eye-candy crap to fill up space. And even if it is only eye-candy crap, it's still very crudely executed eye-candy crap. I need a real effects house working on this film. Oh well...once again the old truth of movie making is certainly holding true for HNM: if I want it GOOD and CHEAP, it ain't gonna get done FAST. Drats! The blasted beast is most definitely battling me to my wits end! 23/06/04

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I was about to answer this email from you when there was a strange patter at the front door. I wasn't even sure anyone was knocking. But sure enough there someone was -- an older man and a boy. The man started bantering in Spanish, so I had to cut him off quick. Hell, I don't speak Spanish -- except for taco, burrito, enchilada, Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Anyway, seems he wanted to give me a bible. Ha! I told him I had plenty of that stuff. (And I do!) I should have given him a copy of PUZZLEMAN. Now that would have been funny (and put some hair on his chest). If the poor guy only knew what the film I was working on was about. Hehehehe...

Well it is now two days later and I’m back to your email! Have had some very good luck with the crucifix montage. Yes, I had planned to just cut ECUs together (which would have worked if I had chosen to stick to the original, more simple, plan), but now I have created a sequence far superior. One that that really tells it’s own story, in relation to the dialogue, but also foreshadows the ending of the film. I’m very pleased with it, although it is far more wild, crazy and stylized. So be it. All my films are stylized. I like stylized films, damnit! Well I’ve been flogging HNM for 7 days straight, and now I’m taking one day off. Although, I am rendering some shots and toying with another. No rest for the wicked! Starting tomorrow I have 8 days to beat the bastard into submission. Hope to get started by 8am. I must, I must! Wish me luck. I have some hard shots ahead. But if I can make them as good as the crucifix sequence then I will have one amazing film. As for sounding like I need MOTION/SHAKE3.5 or a friend who does...to do a few touches and montages and make them properly blend....well, I need a freakin’ staff of artists using MOTION/SHAKE3.5! But such is my life. Sometimes just a crude palette and a gritty canvas can birth a masterpiece that a hundred artists and all the technology and machinery in the world could never produce. There’s still something to be said for elbow grease. 27/06/04

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Worked on HNM last night, but my enthusiasm and energy level was low. Will hit it again tonight and hope for the best. I've been totally reworking the wife pic CU section for a week now. I am making progress, but I've hit a bit of a roadblock. Originally the wife pic was to be one long CU dirty with Nemo in the shot, but now in context with all of the other crazy shots I've been building, the CU is just too boring, long, and out of character. I've chopped and overlapped the dialogue a bit to shorten and intensify the shot, and now I'm totally whacking out the visuals to meet the criteria set by the previous visual madness. At any rate, it's all very slow going and requiring much thought and experimentation, not to mention endless tweaking. Again and again I keep wondering what the hell I've gotten myself, and this film, into. And still no light at the end of the tunnel. Good news is I finally got wise enough to build and tweak my F/X shots in draft mode, which cuts down on rendering time considerably. Had I been doing that all along, I would have saved myself a month's worth of time. On the other hand, I can't really tell if the shots are right until it's rendered at full res anyway. But draft mode is great for trying a lot of different things quickly and for getting things close to right. 15/07/04

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HNM is submitting slowly but surely now. Ornery bastard. If I can lock the edit by July 31, I still might have a fighting chance to get the film done for NY. But that means the audio is going to be a speed test for me. Thank God it's easier to deal with than video. No telling too, if Brian will still be willing to do any music with the deadline getting so close. I'm sure I have many massive hurdles ahead. Like getting some nice Mexican food and a martini after work tonight. Then I must be a good boy and go home and slug it out with HNM for the rest of the evening. Hopefully the weekend will prove productive -- if I can keep my motivation up. I must, I must! No more crying and sad face for me. Just work, work, work like a pack mule. Of course the long faces of pack mules never look too happy, do they. 23/07/04

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Well I pretty much made my Saturday night deadline for locking the edit on HNM. It's now Tuesday and I hope to finish up tonight. Ha! I have received word from Brian and he's accepting my offer to do the music I need. Good deal! I hope to start working on the audio as soon as tomorrow night, unless I end up meeting with Brian to get him started on the tunes. Tony was over last Sunday night to check out the film and was quite impressed with it. And it's possible that Rodney will be sneaking a couple F/X shots through Pacific Title for me. That would be quite a wonderful thing. Icing on the cake! Especially being that I could never afford to pay Pac Title what they would charge me for doing such work through normal channels. Anyway...I think HNM is becoming docile at last. Although I expect I'll be tweaking the beast –– giving it that little extra cosmetic surgery (no anaesthesia, mind you) –– until the last minute and possibly beyond. In the digital world, a film never really has to be finished. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Right now, however, it seems like a very good thing. Ah yes, come here wicked beastie, time for a bit more nip and tuck and some liposuction. What? A new nose too?

Received FCP HD yesterday! Woohoo! Thanks a million. I'll try and install it on my computer at work, which is upgraded to PANTHER. That will be a good test to see if everything's going to work out OK. If so, I might go ahead and upgrade on my G4 and finish out HNM in style. We'll see. Must be careful. Can't afford any downtime until after NYCHFF deadline passes me by. 3/08/04

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There's still so much to do on the film. Good news is my meeting with Brian went very well last Thursday night. He really seemed to dig the film even with bad (or no) audio, and in an unmatted form. Also, Rodney got 2 shadow FX shots done for me at Pacific Title for free! I pick them up today. Hope there's no problem with them. One shot is just a simple shadow on the plain white wall as Nemo descends the first set of stairs, and the other shot is a large crucifix shadow that extends from the shadow of his real hand while Nemo is looking at the crucifix he takes from around his neck. I saw a test version of both shots which looked quite nice. All just simple stuff that adds another layer to the film -- the kind of thing the audience will never know is a special FX shot. Also stressing me out for all of last week through the weekend was that damn demonic bastard Cole Adam Buisson. I rolled over in bed a week ago Friday night to find the beast glaring back at me. As usual, Cole's surprise, nocturnal arrivals send me jumping right out of my skin -- and this time I even bashed my head on the ceiling (a problem with loft beds as it is). As I recovered from my concussion and near heart attack, I slowly came to realize that Cole was not going to leave anytime soon, and that likely meant he'd crawled out from under his rock with high intentions of getting down to the VO recording of Mr. Blight. At the time, little did I realize that meant the freak would quite literally be haunting Black Cab Productions for more than a week. Ahhhh, the torment! Hope the devil stays away now for a good long while. 19/8/04

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Tony's coming over tonight; we're going to get dinner and then head up to SCI-Arc to do some late night Foley recording in the stairwell and basement. Hopefully it'll all go well. Going to use a QuickTime movie on my laptop as a visual reference, being that using my deck or camera is too noisy. Of course I'll be using the camera to record the audio, but hopefully I'll be able to get it away from the mic, and I can always throw an old blanket over the whiny thing. Which is what I had to do while recording that monolithically profligate freak Cole Adam Buisson. Let it be known that any hiss or whine remaining on the final recording's of Cole as Mr. Blight is purely supernatural and has nothing to do with the physical laws that govern me or my camera. Egad! What a recording nightmare it all was -- what with Cole's breath reeking of fire and brimstone night and day, and his sulphur-stinking flatulence burning my eyes and causing the paint to peel. I can't believe the DV tape didn't shrivel and melt over the playheads in the camera. I'm sure they would have, however, if Cole had simply wished them to. Nonetheless, from the mouth of madness I have emerged intact. At least bodily intact, that is. And have no fear, I will get you the behind-the-scenes footage on DVD at some point, as well an FCP movie of the film so you can load it into your session and chop it up as you see fit. But have patience with me until September 15. Only 14 days until final sound mix must take place, or NYCHFF is a no go for this year, once and for all. Countdown to Armageddon truly begins. (Can you believe that in one week it will have been a year since we shot HNM. I have to get faster at making movies. I must, I must.) 27/8/04

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I recorded tons more Foley at my house last night, ending with me stabbing a watermelon and then gutting it with my bare hand. Made quite a mess on my kitchen floor. But I think the stuff might just work for the gore shots. Tonight I'm picking up the final music from Brian -- he's done a super and amazingly fast job on the music front. Hope you'll like it. After that I've got to record some more Foley at my place. Tomorrow I'm playing sick to start cutting it all together. Then I have a 4-day weekend with Rick visiting -- it'll be nice to have a second set of eyes and ears to help out for a change. Just think, this weekend it will have been one year since we shot HNM. Crazy. Tony and I had some good laughs last Friday night recording up at the HNM location. We worked until 2:30 in the morning. Things took so long because that basement is noisy as hell, what with all the street noise and traffic. Even after midnight! We kept having to wait for cars and trucks to pass. And then on many good takes some bastard would honk a horn right in the middle of things. Or we'd hear the beep-beep-beep of some damn truck backing up. Or freakin' street people babbling. Nevertheless, I think we got some usable stuff. Thank god for Sound Soap! 31/8/04

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I didn't think I'd have a score already either. I can't believe Brian cranked it out so fast. He's really gotten quick and slick at what he does. Plus it helped that he's worked with me before, so he knows my tastes. We just had one meeting and then a week and a half later he had music to show me. I thought it was great, but suggested a few tweaks, which he agreed with and then boom! He was done. He said he had a great time doing the job and that it seemed to just flow, unlike some other projects. Of course, another help was that I wanted music this time that was more up his alley in the style department. So it all worked out super, just like casting the right actor. On my sick day yesterday I managed 12 straight hours on HNM. I was whipped by midnight. And then, once the computer shut down, I recorded some Foley of Nemo taking the record off the player and then putting on his choice -- alas, another very fine piece of music by Brian -- very BLADER RUNNER meets ANGEL HEART, but with distorted sax against cello that builds with vibes, etc. then turns south in the tonal department. The sax and cello thing was what I had originally suggested to him in our first meeting and he really ran with it, adding the creepy, sexy distortion and tremolo to the sax, etc. Again, just amazing work. Many layers. Lots of mood. And speaking of mood. As of last night I've recorded almost 8 hours of audio for this little flick. Insane! I've got Foley out the whazoo and, of course, all the voice over stuff for the interrogation tape. Hope it all works. 2/9/04

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Been busting my tail at work everyday and up with HNM every night until 1 or 2am. Playing sick tomorrow and possibly Monday to hopefully get started and finish the audio mix. I will be forced at this point to submit the film without opening titles or end credits, but hopefully that won't ruin my chances of acceptance into the fest. The film will easily be ready for a late October screening. Hope all my hard work and suffering hasn't been for nothing. Hell, I just hope I get the movie itself finished, compressed, on DVD, and into the mail by Next Wednesday (D-Day). Keep your fingers crossed. I have a very long hard weekend ahead, and know one to help me. Madness is lurking around every corner. And I can feel the grim, lunatic fog of Schwarz and Cole Adam Buisson looming. Too bad they're rarely of assistance. Nonetheless, the last, most gruelling mile of race begins now. Probably won't hear from me for a few days. if you don't get an email by next Tuesday, call the coroner. I'll be quite dead and stinking up Black Cab for the last time. 9/9/04

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LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYIYI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BLABBABLABBABLABBABLABBA!!!!!!!!!
HOLY FREAKIN' HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HUMAN NO MORE IS INNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OFFICIAL SELECTION: NYC HORROR FILM FESTIVAL 2004!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I freakin' did it! When I got home and saw the letter from the fest I started feeling sick to my stomach -- I knew HNM was rejected. I looked at the junk mail first and then finally got the nerve up to open the wicked envelope. My stomach sank further as I unfolded the evil paper...but then there was a huge CONGRATULATIONS! at the top and then: Your submitted short film "Human No More" has been chosen to screen at the 2004 New York City Horror Film Festival.

I couldn't believe it. I nearly broke down and started bawling. My god this's been a hard last 8 months, but it all paid off and I achieved my goal. I still can't believe I did it. I feel like I'm going to collapse. And tomorrow's the opening night party for Shriekfest this weekend. Starting next Monday I've got to hit it hard again and get the final tweaks finished on HNM and get the opening titles and end credits done. At least now I've got a really good reason to get cracking. Boy do I feel exhilarated and exhausted all at the same time. Don't think I'm going to be able to get much work done tonight short of organizing my emails. Screw it! Who cares? HNM will have it's World Premiere in New York City!!!!!!!!

Anyway, thanks for all your help with shooting the film. And all your support through preproduction and this tremendously stressful and gruelling post-production. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're a good friend.

Well, I'm gonna go fall apart now, and plain zone out in front of the TV or something. Again, who cares? I'm going to New York!

Talk later, mate.

Chris

21.9.04

A Happy Ending At Long Last. Hallelujah!