Snow Storm & Short Film

We got our first snow storm of the winter yesterday. Now that the shoveling is done and the snow is sticking around it should make for a fun weekend.
We went sledding this afternoon, we shot some video which I'll try to get up later. I think we need another sled though. Two kids, two sleds.
Tomorrow starts the mommy and daughter swim lessons. I think Drake and I will go sledding while they are swimming. Should be fun all around.


Also, I finally got a cut of my short film out to a festival, we'll see if it gets in. Lots of other film projects on the horizon. I'm feeling motivated to get moving on some personal projects. Time will tell.
Here's the trailer for the short film that is going out:

Soccer and Movies

So this whole weekend is going to be Soccer:

And working on a television episode / short film. Here's a test shot from a location scout:

Music Festival

Finished a project tonight. 30 second commercial of a Youth Music Festival next month:

sleep now.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Well, the weekend went well. Got to see a bad movie with the family (land of the lost) and get some housework done. I think I could use one or two more of these before I start to go stir crazy. Though maybe I should just work in more production time, I'm sure I'll get on that when these early summer morning wake-ups are over. Though last night I was able to put together a quick highlight reel from the Monster Truck show my wife's parents took us to. Well, not the baby, too loud and she's totally not into Monster Trucks anyway. Honestly was going to try to put a little more production effort into it, but I've got actual projects I should be working on and I ended up editing on the lapop. Which for HD footage is slooow. So here's what I ended up with:

No Plans Weekend

Attempting a relaxing weekend at home. Let's see how that works out. So much work last week and when I'm home my son is literally climbing all over me for attention.
On the work side, I'm getting more comfortable taking more creative risks with what I'm delivering to clients, which is more fun for me. Here's an example:

Speedy Week

Wow, the last week went fast. Hopefully the summer will slow down soon so I can enjoy some of it.
Last weekend was an SCA event, rain forced the fighting indoors. I did very well, actually won the tournament. Day started out with fights like this:

And as the day went on the fights got longer, better opponents. I fought through Master Wolfstan the Unshod and Sir Murdoc Bayne, fights I don't usually win. Then I was in the finals and took two fights there to win the tournament:

Maybe it is a harbinger of good things if I can keep up my physical raining and get to some more fighter practices.
July is going to bring a ton of work, mostly instruction, but it will mean a chance to kind of play executive producer on some documentary projects. Hopefully I can get some traction on some personal stuff too. Do some writing, start some editing and finish at least one short film. Time will tell.

#@%!*

Okay, my productive work day turned ugly when as I was plugging in my laptop to do some dual computer work (logging footage on one while editing on the other) my knee hit the USB cable to an external hard drive, pulled it to the floor and caused what sounds like a "head crash" or dead drive. On the plus side the drive had 1 active project on it, with the footage on that one on another computer at the client's site, and archives of past work projects. So I may have done some damage to my demo reel (though I think I have some of that on a drive at another site) but I didn't loose anything of sentimental value. Just a 500GB drive and the 2 freak-out hours I spent trying to retrieve the data.
But I did get some other projects out the door:


Oh well, deep breath and try to get some work done tomorrow. Bonus, I got my HD Handi-cam working. It shoots 1080 to a SD card, so I'm guessing from now on the home movies won't all be shot on the digital still camera. Here's my test movie:

Bitter Strawberries

So we have a wooden barrel planter at the top of our driveway with a strawberry plant in it. Last year we lost about half the crop to birds, deer and squirrels. So this year we've put a net cover over it, it seems to be working as the first berries are ripening. It's nice to see my son picking the fresh berries and eating them, though I'm not getting many berries for myself. Also, the weather has been great and my son has taken to running off to play with the neighborhood kids. It makes me happy we got his house.

Okay funny story. We were out shopping Sunday and as we arrived at a store I took our son in while my wife got our daughter out of the car. After about 5 minutes in the store, no wife and daughter. So we looked back outside to see the driver's door open, a clear sign of a diaper change in progress. Then my phone started ringing, it was my wife calling for help. My son and I ran out into the parking lot to discover a half changed baby and my wife with splattered poop on her shirt. Apparently she had started changing the diaper after "one push of poop" and was surprised but a stream of projectile poop from the second push. And without the diaper, well, she got sprayed. Nothing I had ever seen or heard of before. On the up side; newborn breastfed baby poop has almost no scent, we had a shirt in the car we were going to return (too small for me, but big enough for the wife) so we had a change of clothes and finally it wasn't me that got sprayed.
On a totally different note, I'm trying to figure something out. I am very busy production-wise right now, but when I see other companies or individuals get work locally it makes me mad. It's not that I need more work right now, but I guess I still want a shot at every job I see. It has made me want to focus on getting production work lined up for the summer, hopefully get a short film done too. Or at least widen my network of contacts so I know more of what's going on around here. It's that or try and pick up some distance editing jobs from NYC. Actually that's not a bad idea either.
More later, should be video posts of completed work next time as I'm going to take tomorrow as a work day.

Turn down the heat please

Okay, where did this heat wave come from and when's it going away? I was outside Saturday at an SCA event and it totally destroyed me. And seriously dented my confidence about crown tournament. I'm considering calling in sick to work to get in an extra practice this week. Mmm, perhaps not a thought I should post on the internet.
On the production side, the more I work that harder it is to eat well, or perhaps the easier it is to eat poorly. I'm going to try and fix that over then next couple weeks, or at least cut out the fast food. I'd skip the soda to, but I'm tired and as previously mentioned it's too hot for tea. However, here's my first editing project for my newest client:

And finally, here's a quick video of my son and his cousin at the Discovery Center:

Update Time

Time to upgrade my editing suite. I found a nice looking tutorial on-line, but I couldn't do it because it needed a more recent version of Motion to do it.
On the plus side, I'm getting enough production work right now that I can justify buying the upgrade. Plus I'd like to invest in some hardware upgrades as well: an HD deck for logging tapes, a blue-ray burner (now that the HD disk war is over), a new faster computer (to reduce the load on the laptop and aid in multitasking) and eventually a new camera (though I really don't need one right now)
On the down side, I'm so tired. I'm trying to squeeze in all the work I can now, because as fast as it's all shown up it could all dry up in a couple of months.

And now, bubble fun:

Crazy August

August was jam packed, actually September doesn't look much better. But I'm going to try and get back to posting here, as I've gotten no personal production work done since my last post here.
On an SCA note I'm trying to focus on getting ready for crown tournament the first weekend in August. But work is crushing my ability to get to as many practices as I would like to right now. I'm getting about half of the fighting training I want right now. Hopefully I can make a push over the next couple weeks and get at least to point where I'm comfortable.

One of the big events of August was my getting knighted at Pennsic. I don't think I can explain what being knighted, especially at Pennsic, means to me.



Production-wise I'm hoping to get some projects started and be able to update my progress here. But for now I think produced movies with my son are on hold for now. However, I will keep posting home movie style clips, like our recent release of about two dozen salamanders my son caught on Saturday.

Back to Blogging

A month with no blogging. So, lets update:

SCA. I feel like the Buffalo Bills of AEthelmearc. Crown tournament is every 6 months. If you win you sit as Prince and Princess for 4 months and then as King and Queens for 6 months. Over the last two years, or the last 4 tournaments we've (my wife and I) finished second 3 times. Here are the finals from this year:
Spring 2008 finals
Pennsic is 12 weeks away. Time to focus training on that.

Production. Without the deadline of the puppy movies, I haven't done any work on personal projects. I have been getting work, which is good. But it's time to get back to some personal stuff. So, let's say I'll start another series with my son in June, and get my short film ready for festivals by June.

Movies. We went and saw Iron Man as a family for Mother's Day. And I'd say we all enjoyed the movie. The next few months look like they'll see more of my son and I going to the theater to see movies. So far he's been very good about sitting through the movie with minimal fidgeting. We're seeing Speed Racer on Thursday, I'm hoping for lots of racing scenes. That seems to be what my son is expecting. And with a 2hr and 15min run time, racing and action will be important to keeping him interested. Though Iron Man was almost that long, and Water Horse was too. And he got through those, so I suspect we'll be okay.

Well, I'll try and get back in the habit of posting again.

Making Movies, Puppy 3

Okay, I'm putting the "done" stamp on the third instalment of the Puppy Rescue series.

Wow, I'm really not a visual effects guy or a sound guy, though I will try and fake it if necessary. But what this project, and the infomercial shoot, have thought me is that I work better when I have a focused plan for a shoot. The infomercial turned out okay after edit and the client is very happy, but the shoot could have been done smoother and more efficiently.
Finally got to an SCA practice tonight. It's been just over two weeks. I'm way off pace for my training, at this point I guess I'll have to buckle down next month and see how Crown Tournament goes. We will see.
I used to have three hobbies: SCA, video production (unpaid), and D&D. Over the last 6 months, I'm down to the SCA. On the plus side, paying video production has replaced hobby video production. I think my wife would like it if we could get back to some D&D, but my drive in that area is low and there aren't many opportunities to pursue it around here. And I guess I can always get back to my own production projects when the paying video work slows down. If it doesn't slow down, then I suppose I'm doing alright with just the paying work.
Movies I watched last week:
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Sliver Surfer. Tough to review, as I slept through the middle. Not a reflection on the movie, I was REALLY tired. From what I saw it looked better than the first Fantastic 4, which I did enjoy. Overall I think it's most likely a 2 or 3 out of 5, depending on what happened while I was asleep.
Horton Hears a Who. My son and I saw this on in the theater. He was very excited about the previews for upcoming movies (Kung-Fu Panda, Wall-e, Ice Age 3, and Speed Racer). Horton was a very good movie. It did an excellent job of staying true to the Dr. Seuss style and the type of message that he tried to convey with his stories. In some ways it was an improvement of the story, as the characters had more personality and depth. With the playfulness of the story and some excellent voice actors I would definitely recommend this certainly adaptation as a movie worth seeing. My son stayed awake for the whole movie, which was not a lock as he was a little sick and nap usually starts about half way though the movie's run time; and he's talked about the movie several times in the days since. So my best guess is that he enjoyed it as well.
So, I'm thinking 3 out of 5 for adults and 4 out of 5 for children.

Puppy Movie

I finished a short movie, about 1 minute, that I shot with my son last Thursday. I was going to edit it over the weekend, but ended up spending my free time at a martial arts festival. The festival was great, I got to do some animal Kung-Fu and then some other stuff on movement and power generation that I hope to be able to bring over to my SCA fighting.
So I spent about half of today cutting it together the 1 minute movie. It was nice, but it also got me thinking about film making. I think that my main stumbling block is the collaborative nature of making a movie. I'd like to do some more movies with my son, perhaps a short series. And while I can write a script, direct and run the camera I would need more actors. I'd thought I was on to something when I found a local list-serve for amateur film makers but after a week there are three members, not very encouraging.
So, I think that at this point I'm going to give myself the goals of generating footage for very short movies with my son on Thursdays and having it cut together by Monday. Of course I'm also about to start gearing up for crown tournament in May, so that means more rigorous training, exercise and focus on SCA.
Anyway, for now here's the movie:

Big Shot

Okay, I'm way behind on personal projects because of paying clients and the SCA. Paying clients are good and I have some short turn around stuff that has to get done, but hopefully I'll be able get Drake to cooperate with me so I can get some footage of him for a 30 second movie I want to do. Post that Friday if I can get it done.

As for what I have been working on, here's something odd. The guy who owns the event company where I get most of my freelance work right now wants to be on this show called Big Shot Live. So he had me put together a video for him so he could enter. I've tried linking to the video: here, but the site is horrible and the link seems to dump you on a front page where you put in your zip code so it can direct you to your local station hosting the contest. Then it sometimes goes to his video and sometimes dumps you somewhere else. So if your on the wrong video you may have to click over to the TV Host section and find the KMotsko video. Then you have to register before you can vote. Overall, a lot of work to ask of people when I'm not really getting anything out of it.

For the videos, there seem to be two types; the most pathetic and desperate people I've ever seen and people who are already professionals in their field are looking for a break to get into the big time.

But if you're really interested in seeing the kind of stuff I'm getting do to right now (when it's not a wedding, birthday party or school play) here you go:

Playing the Fool Trailer

Here's the trailer for the short film "Playing the Fool" that I'm working on. I know this isn't a new project, but it is a new trailer, and I think the project is just about done. The audio needs a little work, mostly in sync and I'm going to need a score, but I think that the pace and edit are pretty much done.
If anyone wants to see the film as it is right now, I'd be happy to send you a copy as I am looking for input before I start sending this out to festivals.

The more things change . . .

So, I've been away from the computer for about a week. This has resulted in my being way behind on my self imposed deadlines for personal projects. At this point to meet the first deadline I'm going to have to neglect a work project with a looser time table.I'm not sure, but I think I'm going with the personal project on this one. Work is good, but since it's about three steps away from what I really want to be doing, I think I'm going to need to keep pushing the personal projects. At least until what I've got has succeeded or failed.

That gives me 1 short film, 1 documentary that could be feature length and 2 scripts.

If I can meet my deadline on "Playing the Fool" then I'll try and get a trailer cut together too, so that I have something to post.

Lots of video work this weekend and lots of SCA next week, so it may be about another week before I post again.

On another note:

Superbowl = Incredible

Also, we're going to push the Cars theme through my son's birthday party, but Superheroes and Transformers are now his dominate intrests. Superheroes for books and pretend play and Transformers for toys (thank his uncle for this one). Not that he's not still excited about Cars or abandoned the toys, but what he talks about "needing" is more Transformers. And at the toy store, he'd rather pick through the Transformers than visit the Cars aisle. Well, on the bright side, I should be able to pick up a large crate of my old Transformer toys from my parents' house (the same uncle has donated his old ones to the cause as well). And if I ration them out, I should be able to give my son a "new" Transformer every week for about a year and a half.

Projects

I'm having trouble getting to work on my personal side projects, and I think it's because I don't have a deadline. So I end up doing contract work that has to get done and then relaxing, housework or something else instead of working on some editing or a script.
So I'm going to set some goals for next month:
By Feb. 11 - have polished cut of short film (Playing the Fool)
by Feb 29 - have rough script for feature (Last Season)
Maybe the blog will help keep me on track too.

On another note, it looks like I'm going to be involved in the production of a local television show again. A televised Karaoke contest, but this time instead of being a Camera Operator and Editor, I'm going to be the Director and Show Runner. I'm not sure I want to let go of the hands-on creative control I had last time, but it will give me more time to continue work on other productions I'm overseeing. Overall, I think it's for the best.

Finally, here's another picture of my son combined with a picture he painted at preschool.