sympathy for the omnislash.

Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII

Lest some horrendous external event comes to rain disaster in late December, my Christmas is hardly ever ruined. My mom demands a Christmas list from me every year (even though now I'm far past the age where I should be making them) and my parents rarely go off book. I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome my new ADIDAS shoes, my new soccer ball, numerous DVDs and, of course, my new video iPod. Cadbury also made out like a bandit with all kinds of chew toys, hay, treats and a slicker brush (which he tries to eat). My brother Josh, however, always has the most interesting Christmases of all.

You may notice the picture of Cloud Strife here (I know, this is yet another post making reference to a Final Fantasy game). The picture is there as a comparative tool. Josh has two unwavering interests: weaponry and video games. Josh's "poison" of choice (so to speak) is swords and he usually has some sort of ridiculous blade waiting for him beneath the great seasonal evergreen: one year he got a Braveheart replica sword and in another he received a naginata (the Japanese halberd featured in the poorly edited story I wrote, Christmas with Gouki). This year, his two loves were combined with the Buster Sword, the giant weapon Cloud has tipped on his shoulder. The replica has to be at least twenty or thirty pounds and four feet long (complete with materia slots). My parents got it off (where else?) Amazon. Without further ado, I give you motion picture of Josh holding a giant sword.

Josh carrying his Buster Sword replica, 320x240, 624KB (Quicktime)

nyc: don't block the box.

There's really too much to say about New York. I came out of Penn Station and was amazed. TV does not lie to you about the grandness of this city. Nothing I hate about Atlanta exists here: trains come every couple minutes, there are plenty of places to eat that aren't bars or $15/plate or chain restaurants, and you can walk to places. This city has an identity; Atlanta is trying to steal its own from others. This city functions; Atlanta is held together by paste and socially/environmentally-apathetic developers. This city is beautiful; Atlanta tries really hard.

But what would Katie love about this place? Sure, she would like the art, the scene, the not having to travel by car everywhere. But she would be in hysterics every couple of blocks on a major thoroughfare like 5th or 6th Ave. In each intersection is a painted area designating the boundaries of its interior: the box in which the two streets meet each other. Above each of these boxes is a sign that says, "Don't block the box - Fine + 2 points." She would have to be carried I think.

regali.

Cadbury demands you check out his wish list at Gifthat. He expects something from each and every one of you.

You can also check out my (lamer) Amazon wish list.

abrupt end of transmission -and- deleted scenes.

So I stopped writing about the production. I was boring myself with the entries and, since my blog is essentially just an opportunity for me to read my own composition, I just ended it. Also, the video didn't win due to various factors, not the least of which was that the purported "talent search" for a "credible show" was more of a "popularity contest" no matter how viable the talent was. I can't blame Yahoo! for choosing what was most popular; it's a good litmus test for how successful a show would be. It just turned out to be a different contest than I thought it was. Thanks to everyone that commented and voted.

There was plenty of good footage I couldn't include in the original version (Ian's been urging me to make a director's cut) so I thought I'd put up some deleted scenes.

This first one is the full version of the "Catch 22" segment. Sean did such a great job with this and, unfortunately, we had to cut it for time. But now his acting chops can be shown (complete with the original transition into the music video), his credit being given on a blog.

Catch 22/Count of Monte Cristo (full version), 320x240, 3.6MB

This next one is probably my favorite setup and joke of the entire shoot but I could never fit it in. For this video I also put some handy "in" and "not in" markers to let you know what made it in the final version and what didn't. From Ian's opening monologue:

Excerpt from Ian's Opening Monologue, 320x240, 2.9MB

Hopefully this isn't beating a dead horse but I think it's funny. I also think the three people that read this think so, too.

web of chaos: post-release diary, pt 3 (more pro-pro)

Vote for Ian here!

Ian's video is officially entered in the Yahoo! Talent Show. Vote for it and leave a comment! You have through December 1st to do it! I'm using a lot of exclamation points!

While searching for props especially for the breakdance scene, Ian got this hot from a shop in Little 5. I'm always a little confused on what kind of hat is what but I think it's a fedora. I downloaded some Sinatra the other day so I was feeling kind of Rat-Packy and decided to try it on. Nothing but compliments. Since then, it's been a regular part of my wardrobe. I wear it around the house. I wore it all during the shoot (making it difficult to wear the headphones which may explain some of the floopy audio). I couple it with my Diesel jacket and look pretty awesome. It just goes to show you I'll do pretty much anything for positive recognition.

The scene for which we bought the hat was coming pretty close to production but, at five-ish on Tuesday evening, I quickly realized the time crunch I was going to be to tape it all. Sonny the Breakdancer wasn't going to be off work until 7pm. I told everyone involved with Dad's Garage shoot we were starting at 9 (although, since Dad's fell through and I couldn't secure another theatre, we decided to recreate it at my house) and I didn't have the phone number of everyone involved to tell them we might be a little late.

Actually, I did have the phone number for everyone except one: Becca. Becca was a good sport to help us out, especially since she got shoved in the face and pushed down to the ground take after take. At rehearsal she was pushed down to the concrete so many times it was ridiculous and I kept saying, "Again!" even though there was no way I could use the footage. And now, here I was, knowing I was going to be late at 5:00pm and could do nothing about it except try to hurry.

In the two hours we had before Sonny got off work we had to watch a small bit of Dr Phil (Katie's unguilty pleasure) before heading off to the store to pick up some ingredients for a Monte Cristo (the sandwich you see ever so briefly in the video. Sonny got off work a little early and we headed to the hotel Ian secured for us for the Breakdancing segment. Then, after arriving at the wrong hotel, we found the right one and went there.

The breakdancing scene is like many others on the Yahoo! Talent Show but our concept was this: a dude would be breakdancing for a while before Ian would break in and taunt him. The dude would challenge him and then Ian, in Michael Jackson/Ali G style, would gain a leather jacket and hat (the hat) and continue with a dance off. The dancer would fall defeated and Ian would walk out.

The shoot took dang near forever, a little over two hours (a little time dedicated to picking up Josh Campbell to help out with sound). I also laughed just about the whole time and it's the only time I was on screen, to act a fool. So if you want to see me hopping around like a doofus ... well, all you really had to do was ask.

Becca called me at some point and I somehow said we'd be back there by 9 still. We didn't leave there until about twenty after. So Becca ended up having to go to Borders to wander around while my other friends (who know me better) knew I really meant 9:30, 10:00 with my 9:00 call time.

This is getting long and is very uninteresting I think. I'll cut it short.

[to be continued ...]