On the Rot

Just added a link in my film stuff section for Karma Critic a web site started by disgruntled former On the Lot contestants. One of them wrote an open letter to AICN detailing the problems that contestants had with the corporate powers-that-be and decided to create something real, hence Karma Critic. The only thing that surprises me about this whole drama is the fact that Spielberg allowed himself to be associated with such a disingenuous and artificial "competition" served up as entertainment. Apparently, as the season rolled on and the ratings plummeted FOX decided to slash the budget, so the filmmaker's presented films made before the show was ever produced. Now I have no problem with that, as long as they were honest about what was going on and not imply that the filmmakers were still being given tasks that they were supposedly responding to. Frankly, one of the few positive things that could come from this mess is the producer getting booted Off the Lot.

Thanks' to Scott Eggleston's blog Film Flap for the great post that brought his thing to my attention.

OK HW

June hiking report

June was a good month for hiking, offering up some wonderfully cooler, spring-like days that made it easy to get a few miles down. I tacked on another 52 miles to my total, bringing my year-to-date up to 282, just 18 shy of the 300 mark where I should have been for the end of June. We are halfway through the year already. It'll be fall before you know it.

Get out and hike.

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Look what I found...

That's right, it's return of "Dead Thing on the Beach". Check it out:



Does anyone know what kind of fish this is? I think he has a cool profile:



He/she was around one foot long. Oddly, the seagulls stayed away from it.

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PS-- Hello Lucy!

May Hiking Report

I'm little embarrassed to be posting my May Hiking Report on June 17th, but sometimes that's just the way it goes. May was a good hiking month for me, reaching the 64 mile mark, my best single month total so far in 2007. That helped dig me out of the hole a far bit, but I'm still 20 miles off the average (230 ytd and I should have been at 250 by the end of May). June's looking very good and I should eat up more of that deficit.

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Vimeo

I recently found this cool site to upload video clips called "VIMEO". It's slightly different from YouTube in that the posted clips have to be original, no old TV shows or clips from Hollywood films. VIMEO clips lean more towards the "Artsy-fartsy" end of the scale which is fine by me. So far I have posted "ZANK" and the trailer for "Happy Walter" and "ZANK" has really taken off with 427 "viewings" (the quotes are because I don't know what constitutes a viewing, clicking on the page? clicking the play button? does the video have to run until the end?) in the first two weeks. Compared to YouTube, where "ZANK" was uploaded four months ago and has only been "viewed" 127 times. I'm afraid the HW trailer hasn't caught on much yet with the either site with only 3 viewings on VIMEO and 9 on YouTube so far. Check out the clips:





ZANK from Weaverwerx on Vimeo







"Happy Walter" trailer from Weaverwerx on Vimeo


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Off the Lot

Just watched the first episode of "On the Lot", the new "reality TV show" for filmmakers from Spielberg and Burnett and I give it a thumbs down. Too frantic, too many contestants and too closely modeled after The Apprentice for my taste. They never stay on any one person long enough to allow the audience to get to know them, so when the ax starts swinging who cares? There may be an assumption that the audience has done their homework by reading up on all the contestants on the web site before hand, something I did not do. The three judges, Gary Marshall, Carrie Fisher and Brett Radner are charmless and forgettable and I got the feeling that their most honest and entertaining comments were cut. Comparisons to "Project Greenlight" are inevitable, and from my perspective PGL at least felt sincere and authenicate, where Lot just seems like the typical hyped-up Hollywood horseshit. I watched this hoping to feel inspired or maybe learn something and actually I guess did learn something. I need to turn off the TV and work on my own films.

zahdah

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