Indie Wednesday: Trippin Balls



This is supposedly done with projection techniques at the time of shooting rather than computer trickery afterward. Don't ask me; I've just been staring at the screen like this...

New York's News and Notes 10.1.13


New York City: an object of my fascination for almost 25 years. There is likely no single place that I've anticipated visiting more. Through middle school and high school, I was convinced I would live and work there. Things change and life moves you in different directions but my crush continued, albeit slightly tempered as the years have gone by. In a few days, I'm stepping on a plane and finally making that trip. Hence, the bloggiest blog post this site has ever seen...

I want to be clear, this trip is completely an indulgence of my 14 year-old self. I'm under no current illusions that the city is magic, but I've found I can still tap into the old fascination. I scoured travel sites for hotels for a couple of weeks. When I saw the views of the skyline from the Mandarin Oriental (the same skyline that was plastered across my room growing up), my heart literally started to race. Now, if you know me, you know I'm not easily excitable. So at that point, I knew the 14 year-old was alive and well. I don't know what it is about the Empire State Building, but that gorgeous, old building inspires me.

What created my adolescent obsession? Growing up in a very small town, I was always lured by the lights and the thought of big cities that don't shut down at 9pm. Cities in which you could go anywhere and find anything. But there were a few things in particular that built my romanticized image of New York and called out to me above the rest. First and foremost...

Saturday Night Live
I've loved the show since the very first time I snuck a peek at it. There were always sketches and monologues and Paul Simon intertwining it with the city, but it was the opening title sequence that painted the indelible image in my mind. Life and lots of it, happening in the middle of the night. That's what I saw. Year after year, the casts came and went, but the images of nightlife on the streets stayed the same. Oh, they may have been a little more rough around the edges in the 80s before Giuliani and the transformation of Times Square, but I loved them either way and they made a huge impact on my subconscious.

Letterman
Only slightly behind my fascination of SNL was Letterman in his prime. Letterman at NBC. Dave was a star of epic proportions in my eyes and there were few things better than Letterman out in the city doing ridiculous things with ridiculous people. Spraying people on the streets with water, dropping things from rooftops, finding out if a guy in a bear suit can walk into a strip club...  I wonder if Mujibur and Sirajul are still around.

Marvel
Stan Lee used to do a column every month called Bullpen Bulletins and, later, Stan's Soapbox. I loved comics and completely bought in to the almost entirely fictional depiction of the hijinx-laden Marvel bullpen Stan described in his columns. For approximately four years, I planned on being a comic artist. Now, no artist actually goes into the office to work, but I didn't know that. Even Jack Kirby would just mail his pages in or drop by to pick up a check now and then. But I was a comic geek extraordinaire and Marvel was my drug of choice. The company and its characters were firmly rooted in New York, rather than a fictional city like Gotham or Metropolis. So reading about Spider-Man catching crooks in Chelsea or Daredevil cleaning up Hell's Kitchen only added to the tapestry my mind was weaving.

New York Giants
I'm not sure if I've ever been a bigger fan of anything than I was of the Giants in the years surrounding 1990. Yes I loved LT and that defense, but Phil Simms was my guy. Phil is Kentucky born and raised; a should-be hall-of-famer and I lived for the occasional Sunday afternoon that I got to watch him play on national television.

All the Whatfor
Why wait so long? I couldn't tell you exactly. It's a combination of factors. Cost in conjunction with the fact that this was a big deal to me. When do I go and who do I go with? I had always looked at age 30 as good time to go, but life threw me a curveball that year. So, now do I go solo? Fast forward a few years and I have a 10 year-old girl who wants to see New York, wants to go to Comic Con, and isn't ashamed to hang out with her Dad yet. Bingo. I'm not the most spontaneous guy, but it was time to pull the trigger.

What does all of this have to do with the WSF site? Almost nothing. But I wanted to write it down and also set up any posts I might write next week or after we get back. If you didn't catch it, Allen's write-up of FandomFest in Louisville was my favorite thing we've been able to share here. So, I may attempt to do a scaled back version of anything interesting we see at New York Comic Con. I'm sure I'll thoroughly document our misadventures on Instagram (wsf_scott) throughout the week as well.

Check back in tomorrow for Indie Wednesday. AND we could hear whether or not Paranormous got accepted into the Rivers Edge Film Fest at any point starting today, so keep an eye out for that news!

Agents of SHIELD Review

Let me say it right out of the gate: I'm impressed.

And (despite how much of a Marvel shill and geek I am), I admit that I did not expect to be. That's why your regular Indie Wednesday post has been replaced by this review of the

Agents of Shield

pilot.

Trust me, this will not be a weekly feature. I just wanted to share in the post-debut excitement and follow up on some of the questions I posed on

Monday

.

My fears were that the show would be slow and hokey due largely to the restrictions of a TV budget. (Heck, even

The Avengers

has some moments of strong hokeyness.) I also didn't have a firm grasp on what the show would be.

Was it going to be CSI with vague occasional references to superheroes?

Almost all my major doubts were put to rest tonight. The effects work and action didn't outreach their means (i.e. Once Upon a Time) and were actually very respectable. At no point was I distracted by any effects looking cut-rate. The pacing was great and the balance between action and character dynamics seemed spot on as well. And Coulson is a very tricky character to navigate. He's built on dry wit and little else in the movies and it works well there. To take that character and bring him front and center in a 45 minute episodic seems difficult to say the least. But, once again, I feel like the producers passed the test.

Geek it up.

There were also more nods than I expected to longtime nerds like myself.

Using Coulson as a conduit between ultra-modern SHIELD and throwback Kirby designs and tech is brilliant.

Another word I wouldn't have anticipated using in regards to this show. (I knew they'd want to make Lola an old-school flying SHIELD car, I just didn't know if they'd have the guts to go for it.) Coulson-as-collector bridges the SHIELD of 60s comics with the cinematic version we know now, not only turning me into a raging geek monster but also creating the sense of the organization's history for the average viewer. Plus, meshing those two worlds of design simply has the potential to create great set pieces and a very cool aesthetic.

I think potential is actually the word of the day.

What I saw was a strong effort for a pilot. Much better than I expected. Now we need to see if those production values maintain throughout the season and if future episodes flow as well without Joss Whedon in the director's chair. Most of my excitement stems not from how good the first episode was, but from what this show

can

be. I saw a lot of moments that made me flash back to fun adventure television of the 70s and 80s. This show could take all the best elements of so many shows and genres and turn into something special. Think about shows like Remington Steele and The Incredible Hulk and The A-Team and Knight Rider at their best. Agents of Shield can create moments like that for this generation. This foundation is definitely strong enough to build something special on, now we'll have to wait and see how good the architects are.

PS -

I'm 90% sure I know what happened to Coulson.

I won't ruin it. ...Unless you want me to.

World's Greatest Political Ad

We like to bring you good things here. Things that make your day a little brighter. Allow me to present Mr. Jeff Wagner and what might be the greatest political campaign ad of all time. Jeff is running for Mayor and he wants Minneapolis to wake the eff up.



Now, you all know right away that this is amazing and that Mr. Wagner is already the honorary Mayor of our hearts. However, I don't want to simply leave it at that. I want to break down every element of this commercial so it may be irrefutably declared the World's greatest political ad.

  • An alluring lady lets us know what she's looking for in a Mayor.
  • The young lady apparently thinks she's done with this commercial and decides to check her phone. But, unbeknownst to her, something emerges from the lake behind her... like glistening Neptune, chiseled from the rocks of the sea floor.
  • I'm sure Jeff had Casino Royale in mind when he dreamt up this shot; oh, but he pulls it off better than Daniel Craig ever could.
  • As he gets closer, we notice the future Mayor of Minneapolis is holding something in his hand... It's a coffee mug. The man was drinking his coffee underwater!
  • Wagner steps up beside the young woman; an answer to her political prayer. Without a word, only a coy smile, he hands her his mug. Her place is not to question why and she does not.
  • The lady disappears and Jeff cuts right to the point of why he's come to bless the surface dwellers.
  • Let's take a time out to appreciate the fact that Mr. Wagner is not wearing swim trunks. He has no need. Underwear are the working man's swim trunks and all of us toiling in the middle class can appreciate that.
  • The message: We the people don't decide who we vote for. Who does? The media and the money.
  • Jeff is not going to play all the old political games. He's HAPPY with the measly 6 figure mayor's salary. He won't take extra cash from the developers OR the political angle.
  • Most candidates wouldn't have even gone this far, but Wagner isn't going to rest there. He makes us a solemn promise that he will not even patronize the local strip clubs (any more). I wasn't aware that strip clubs were a powerful special interest in Minnesota, but Jeff has pulled back the curtain for all of us.
  • Sometimes the masses need a shock and to wake up Minneapolis, Jeff has to drop the f bomb. Did he want to? I doubt it. But they made him. It's called tough love and Jeff Wagner isn't afraid to dish it out.
  • Our young lady returns. It turns out she had gone to fetch Mr. Wagner a fresh cup of Joe from her empty coffee pot.
  • And, just as quickly as he arrived, it's time for him to go. Back into the lake like a forgotten legend of Arthurian lore. He returns to the water to rest and drink coffee until such time as we need him again. And I have a feeling that time will come very, very soon.
We salute you and your amazing commercial, Jeffrey Alan Wagner.


Emmy's News and Notes 9.23.13

Congrats, Bob. It's been a long time coming.

It isn't fun times in the household tonight as I have a sick little girl on my hands but, before the yuck set in, she wanted to watch some of the Emmys. Therefore, I bring you some thoughts on our preeminent television awards show and more.

First of all, thank goodness I'm not a high-stakes awards show gambler, because I would have likely lost the house. I may have called two winners all night: Bob Newhart and Julia Louis Dreyfuss. (Oh... and the Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy since, after a third straight win, they're apparently just going to rename it the Jim Parsons award.) Everything else seemed fairly surprising (for a guy that admittedly doesn't watch much TV). The shows I do watch didn't fare so well. Mad Men got completely shut out and House of Cards grabbed a directing award for David Fincher but all the actors came up empty. Mad Men and House of Cards... I must be extremely white. At least I've managed to avoid Homeland.

One thing I think we can take away from the night is that this may be a golden era of American television. All the more surprising when you consider that we are still squarely in the era of "reality" TV. We have so many highly lauded scripted dramas, it's impossible to watch them all. I try not to watch a lot of television and that's why I don't give many shows a chance. I don't want to get sucked into giving away yet another hour of my week. However, I think we can agree there is something for everyone out there right now. Speaking of, allow me to...

Geek Out

Now is the obligatory portion of News and Notes when I talk about Marvel comics or movies or television shows in some form or fashion. It seems like it always happens and this week is no different because it marks the debut of Agents of Shield on ABC. Basically, I just have my fingers crossed, hoping that the show is close to as good as it could be. I can imagine it being great if they find the right blend of stories and action. Dig through a wealth of material and characters that the films will never be able to get to, and the show could be golden. But I can also imagine it stinking out loud if storylines doddle along and nothing interesting happens. We shall see. They can't shy away too much from the sci-fi and spectacle of the movies and risk being another mundane crime investigation show that happens to include Phil Coulson. The first big litmus test for me will be the revelation of how Phil survived his seemingly fatal wound in The Avengers. If they take a risk and do something interesting (like if they transferred his memories into a Life Model Decoy or maybe even the original Coulson was an android, etc), I'll be hooked. If Coulson just got rushed to the infirmary in the nick of time and got better... thumbs down.

In other news, Wall Street estimates are prognosticating that the Phase 2 Marvel films could easily rake in 5 billion dollars. Five. Billion. I wonder if Stan Lee wishes they hadn't changed his contract that at one time included 10% of all Marvel movie profits. It also appears that Disney knew what they were doing when they bough the once floundering comics publisher for what seemed like a staggering 4 billion.

WSF News

Things are still a bit slow on our end. We're basically inbetween news cycles right now. A lot of work went into Paranormous and now we wait for lots of news about where it goes from here. Plus, I haven't gone full tilt back into Space Cops editing because I've been planning for a trip that I'll talk about here next week.

Come back tomorrow for a complete break down of the most amazing political campaign ad you've ever seen!

Vimeo's News and Notes 9.16.13

A late update this morning. WSF news is a bit low because we took a week off after the big push to finish Paranormous. I expect things to start picking back up this week, however.

Indie News

How about a bit of actual production news for the indie filmmakers out there? Vimeo released an update for its on-demand service this week to give you and your audience more options of watching/paying for your content.


Vimeo On Demand launched in March as a simple way of selling video work on the web. To make some cash, all a filmmaker has to do is upload their work, add some information about the movie and set a price. (That plus some shameless, hardcore marketing/self-promotion. We apologize for that, but nobody, and I mean nobody, gets people to watch their stuff by sheer happenstance.) Vimeo takes 10 percent of any revenue, with the rest going to the filmmaker.

Here are the newest features:  if you’re an uploader, you can now set different prices for renting (stream only), and buying (stream and download) – whereas before, you could only offer one price for both options. And if you're a marketing wiz and can generate some buzz, you can also make your film available for pre-order.

Personally I think this is a great thing for indie folk and I expect it to actually change the way we do things here at Walk Softly. Had this feature been in place when we released Cannonball, it may have had a significant impact on our bottom line. So, in the future you can expect our bigger projects to have an On Demand release before they go completely free.

Chipotle Short Film?

And, just because... here's the best commercial you'll see today.


Deadline News and Notes 9.9.13


So, the big news for us last week was this big bubble-lined envelope you see above. If you've been following along lately, you know that we've been feverishly working on our newest project with the hope of submitting it to RiversEdge Film Fest before their final deadline closed. Well, it took a few weeks of hard work and a couple of edit parties to help finish it off but, with a wide grin on my face, I dropped that thing in the mail on Thursday.

I've talked about it before and you'll hear it again I'm sure, so I won't bore you with a bunch of details about why we love RiversEdge so much. In a nutshell: it's a Fall fest, we love downtown Paducah and the food you can find there, the peeps that run it are super nice and they take great care of us. Now, do we think there is some guarantee that we'll be accepted just because we got our submission in under the wire? Absolutely not. I know there were over 80 submissions in our category from countries all over the world, which means that likely less than 25% of them will be accepted into the festival. We've been accepted three years running right now and this would be the fourth. We realize that sooner or later our run of good fortune has to come to an end. But, every year we'll continue to cross our fingers and wait for that email that lets us know yay or nay.

Paranormous

 Now, some thoughts on the product that actually made it into that envelope. The question becomes, what do we have on our hands here? I am extremely curious to see how Paranormous is received. I know we all like it. I know it makes us laugh. A lot. That's nothing new. But, Allen has said several times that he believes Paranormous will have more universal appeal and more audience laughs than anything we've done up to this point. Allen's positive vibes are really interesting to me. I don't disagree with him at all, but it's always hard for me to judge. As the guy who spends the most time in the editing cave, I usually become disconnected with everything we work on and rarely have a solid notion of how good or funny it is by the time I'm done with it. Also, we've been surprised before. Just like we had no idea that Bizarnival, a glorified camera test, would win several Best Short awards and get the attention that it did. You just never know how the public is going to react until you put it out there.

It's also an interesting experiment for me because the very first project we worked on together was in mockumentary style, much like Paranormous. We tried to submit Meltdown to a Lexington festival, got turned down flat and it practically disappeared forever. So will Paranormous be our mockumentary redemption or are we off base? Time will tell.

Speaking of, you may be asking yourself, "When can I see this 'Paranormous'?" Well, IF RiversEdge takes us in, your first opportunity to see it will be in Paducah, KY, November 7-10. We're going to hold off and give those guys the World Premiere if they'll have us. Then we'll have an online premiere sometime afterward. But, if we get denied, we'll likely put it up on our site the day after we stop crying. We'll let you know as soon as we get the news.

So, what now? Finish Space Cops 4 and 5!

We'll see you back here for Indie Wednesday and any other goofiness that comes up.