Current Project

[CMJ]

You know I try not to bore you guys with the different films I work on, but dear God the one I'm on now is one for the ages.

This is without a doubt the most UNORGANIZED set I've ever been on. Crap I did in school was more thought through. I'm in the Art Department on this one and I MADE THE F&*KING shooting script(for novices that's what breaks down the days and what gets shot everyday)! That is usually the job of the Assistant Directors OR Line Producer. Long story...but I ended up doing it. I think I should ask for 2nd AD credit. :p

It gets better for me. This is a FREEBIE as in no pay. Usually that's not a problem, people when they start out often do freebie's...it's sort of expected. But the Art Department is the ONLY department not getting paid(long story on that one too). So ALL of us are getting screwed. :p

Oh I haven't even touched on the writer/producer/actor/director. Yes the same dude holds all those positions. I think he's gonna drive the print to the theatre and help bake the popcorn. ;) The deal is...the guy is a TOTAL dumbass. The script is mindbogglingly bad. He can't organize worth crap(and his Line Producer isn't much better but that's a whole other story). He couldn't act his way through a wet paper sack, and from what I've seen he can't direct.

Uhhh Maybe I should stop for now....rant time is on hold. :smokin

[JMK]

Dude, how did you get stuck with that? School or did you lose a bet with the director? Does he act like he knows what he's doing, or does he know he's got nothing working for him and is just trying to get things done the best way he can?

[CMJ]

Nah a friend of mine is the Art Director and he got me this gig. As far as breaking down the script....it hadn't been done...it needed to get done...I've done it before(in school), so i did it. It may not be the best breakdown ever but it'll fly. :)

As far as Tommy goes...he THINKS he knows what he's doing, but he's a clueless moron. Imagine a French Ozzy Osbourne, who shows up 3 hours late to set...and then bitches at everybody to move crap so he can park his car and you have a vague idea what he's like. :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

That sounds like some project, CMJ, well at least it will give you experience.

[Quadinaros]

So when should we look for Pearl Harbor 2 to hit theaters? :lol

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Owch that was harsh, Quadrinaros! As long as they didn't cast Prince in it, it still might be saved. ;)

[JMK]

So CMJ, he acts like Chris Rock in Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back? Except with no knowledge.

[CMJ]

LOL something like that. Kyle. :)

Quadinaros, this makes "Pearl Harbor" look like a masterpiece. Think really bad soap opera....that's what it is. :) Don't expect it to hit theatres, I halfway think the film won't even finish production period.

[JMK]

Are you guys running a pool to see when and if the movie sees the light of day?:lol

[CMJ]

LOL...not exactly, but we are wondring how long peopl will last before they just walk off period. :)

[JMK]

Why not stage a mutiny and claim the movie as your own.;)
Oh yeah, I forgot, the script sucks, right?

[Admiral Lebron]

I don't know if I'd work on that movie . . . .

[Sanis Prent]

Don't forget to get Vin Diesel's autograph, since you're doing his movie for free ;)

[Admiral Lebron]

:lol

[JonathanLB]

Vin Diesel wouldn't be caught dead in a bad movie. Never has been in one, hopefully won't be in many either! He has excellent taste in the movies he chooses. Only the best.

CMJ, this project sounds like a mess, lol. It practically sounds worse than what my friends and I do. ;)

Nah we are actually starting a cool film project ourselves quite soon.

Bryan and I have made up a story idea, mostly his idea I suppose because he wrote it all down, but we brainstormed together so I'd say 30% of it is my influence. Anyway, we are building a large miniature city for filming this sci-fi movie, which is set in the future (about 2040, post-apocalyptic type of thing), and hopefully we will have it finished before the end of September, i.e. before we go back to college. I have a lot of other stuff to do though, so I'm not quite sure.

Anyway, then we can easily burn it to DVD once we finish the editing, which will probably take a lot longer. We are going to be using green screen for this project to create views out windows and whatnot. It should be cool if we can get it all working ok. We know how to do this with Adobe Premiere 6.0 now and this computer is dang fast.

Unfortunately there is always the issue of finding the proper time to do all of this so that we don't rush through it. Grr...

Anyway I wouldn't go so far as calling Pearl Harbor a masterpiece, but I thought it was a great movie! I don't care how many people want to take pot shots at it, aside from some problems with the love triangle and maybe objections to its running time, the film was great. I thought it was incredibly realistic feeling and the effects were amazing, plus I liked the way they told the story for the most part. I thought it was quite effective. Great film.

[CMJ]

Jonathan..I wasn't saying PH was a masterpiece, but compared to "The Room"(great title huh?) it sure as hell is.

I literally have just scratched the surface of how terrible this experience is. What I will go through to build a resume, huh? ;)

Actually if the Art Director and I weren't buddies I might've left already. I'm sticking it out for his sake.

[Quadinaros]

Originally posted by Sanis Prent
Don't forget to get Vin Diesel's autograph, since you're doing his movie for free ;)

:lol :evil :lol :evil Gotta love it!!

[Jedi Master Carr]

Just curious CMJ, anybody in it that any of us would know.

[CMJ]

Nah...it's a pretty small production Carr. The actors are really nice though. They bitch about Tommy as much...if not more than us.

It's really funny.

[JMK]

This sounds like fun CMJ! I wish I were there to see it.
Let me know if you need a poster laid out for the movie. I'll make sure its fitting of the mess you're in!

[CMJ]

It is fun...in a sadistic kinda way. ;)

A poster huh? Maybe I should ask the "Man" if he needs one. :p

[CMJ]

Man...sorry I haven't been around much but the hours I've been putting in on this thing are insane. The Art Dept almost walked off the set for good yesterday.

*sigh*

I wish we had. Anyways, I guess it's time for me to go row with the other slaves

[Jedi Master Carr]

Sounds awful, CMJ, I kind of figured you were busy on it, so what are the odds the movie will get finished now?

[JonathanLB]

I don't understand how you manage all of this.

I mean, in time I want to be in the film industry myself, and I fully expect that I will help some other people out on movies for absolutely no pay, but a man must eat too. Even if I did help someone else out, I'd need plenty of time to work on my own projects too (online mostly) so that I could support myself while working for free, LOL.

I dunno though, we'll see how it goes. Maybe I will be able to just start right in. I mean, if I can have about $100,000 to $150,000 in my bank account by the time I graduate college, which I see as quite possible, then I go to a film school for a year (or 13 months like the AFI one), and when I finish up with that, perhaps I have even more money, and that would be plenty to make my own small budget film, like even a $25,000 indie film, where I would be the director because I'd of course bankroll the movie. I guess it depends on what I would decide to do.

I want to be in the film industry, I think, but at the least I want to have something to do with it. I would be pretty happy being an author, a critic, and a businessman though. That would certainly let me comment on the film industry and be part of it in some ways, maybe even writing a few screenplays, but then I'd make my money mostly on business.

I'd imagine if I had $100,000 after graduating college, I could find investors and start a project somewhere around the $2 million range even. After all, you don't really need the money yourself to do most things, you just need to find backers and if you can put in some money yourself it's all the more convincing.

[CMJ]

Well Jonathan..as of a few days ago I started getting some money. Also it's kind of a given when you're on a set, that you're gonna get fed. Of course now they expect MORE of us...so I almost wish we hadn't gotten paid.

A few days ago the Art Director and I put in a 22 hour work day.

I am pretty sick today so I get the day off. My first one since the project started...about 17 or so days ago. :\

[JonathanLB]

I'm sick too :(

What are you sick with? I have a pretty annoying cold, sore throat and stuff, just don't feel very good.

I know who to blame THIS one on, grr. When we went to Vegas, my sister's friend Meghan had a sore throat, and I'm sure I probably got it from her.

Nonetheless, I can get as much sleep as I want and I have nowhere important to be, so oh well. Just lots of work to do here, hehe.

I have 27 full reviews to write to relaunch JLB Movies, and I have 9 partial ones (completed my commentary but didn't put the plot synopsis in). All that includes 3 movies I've not even seen yet and have to see, hehe.

I've actually never been sick during the summer, at least in terms of really sick. A cold hardly counts as I can do pretty much anything I would be able to do anyway I just don't feel 100%, more like 75%. But I've never been actually sick during the summer. It just goes to prove that if you get enough sleep and don't come into contact with all that many people, as always is true during the summer for me, then you essentially never get sick. Actually, even during other seasons I rarely get sick, unlike my sister. My immune system is very strong :) "Capable of withstanding any orbital bombardment." Hehe, or something.

[JMK]

I had a pretty bad cold about a month ago, but then I played 6 games of softball in less than 48 hours and I was cured. It was so hot I sweat it right out of me. Thank God too, because summer colds are too hard to get rid of.

[CMJ]

I have some kind of sore throat...runny nose combo. Throw in a headache for good measure.

I also have a tough immune system. This is the first time I've been sick in over a year. I once went over 2 years without so much as a cold.

Anyways..I feel marginally better than I did this morning, but I still don't wanna go into work tommorrow.

[JMK]

I wasn't feeling so hot this morning, but given the type of weekend I had (ie; softball, sun and lots of beer) it's not that hard to fathom. :p Nothing a few glasses of water and a cold shower doesn't help!

[Jedieb]

JMK you lucky SOB, where are you playing all of these softball games?

[JonathanLB]

Nice JMK

"I have some kind of sore throat...runny nose combo. Throw in a headache for good measure."

Yeah, lol, same here. I hate it, pretty annoying. I decided against going to the theater today, didn't feel like it, so it's review writing time today.

[imported_QuiGonJ]

CMJ, that's why I gave up my dreams of working in production. Too many idjit wanting you to work for free to make demo reels that are pieces of stool.

Been there, done, that, they were too cheap to even have crew t-shirts. ;)

Good luck though. The reality is, if you really intend to stick it out, with any luck that's where you'll meet the people and make it happen.

[CMJ]

It'll take alot more than this project to make me give up. :)

[JonathanLB]

I very much want to get into the movie business too, but I think that perhaps if I get my online activities doing quite well then I can be making enough money so that I only have to work on those projects like 15 to 20 hours a week max and then I could spend the rest of my time on whatever other pursuits I want, like filmmaking for instance.

Plus I have a sizeable, but fairly small, trust fund that I'll get after I graduate from college, it's just enough money so that I won't have to worry about car payments and apartment payments and that sorta stuff right off the bat, even if I didn't have any money myself, which is basically impossible. I want to make sure that by the time I graduate college I have $100,000 I've made online.

[JMK]

I play at a beautiful park on sundays right on the water. Couldn't ask for a nicer diamond to play softball at on a Sunday morning.:)

[JonathanLB]

Sounds sweet, only I wouldn't ever want to have to see a Sunday morning. I make an effort not ever to see the morning, except from like 12:01 a.m. to about 4 a.m.

[JMK]

I'm usually the same way, but this league is so fun it makes sundays worth getting up for!

[JonathanLB]

Well that is great then! :)

Sounds like fun. I hated softball when I played as a kid, but that's because I was the 2nd worst person on the team (by my own assessment, hehe). The funny thing is, I started getting a lot better by like 8th grade, when we played in PE and stuff, I was really good, but that's because I was probably just not developed enough when I was younger.

My friends ALL hate baseball, but I like every sport basically, so I enjoy watching the playoffs. I don't watch regular season games, mainly because I don't see them on really, not at the times I want to watch, but when the playoffs start, I hardly miss a game! Plus I follow baseball at least daily, always checking ESPN and reading all of the articles I can, so I'd say I keep very well informed even without watching a single game. Great article on Alfonso Soriano in SI last week, too...

Softball can be a lot of fun to play too, I think. There's something gratifying about frickin' nailing a ball out of the park. ;)

[Jedieb]

Where's your league JMK? I haven't played softball since college. Man, did I love playing. I loved hitting to the opposite field. No one ever expects you to go deep to the opposite field. Plus, the weakest outfielder is usually stuck in right field. Oh, the fun, the fun...

[JMK]

My league is in Montreal about 15 minutes from where I live.
I used to be awesome at going opposite too, but now I just pull the ball first base side all the time...

[CMJ]

Well the Art Department has left the picture. Good luck to them to finish the rest of the film. ;)

[JMK]

They just walked off the set? Was it an intense scene, or did they just not show up for work? Details CMJ! Details!:p

[CMJ]

Well I was IN the AD JMK. ;)

First they didn't renew Merce's(the Production Designer) contract. She signed a document for a certain number of DAYS..and they said they couldn't afford her anymore.

Then the rest of us were asked how much we wanted(money wise) to continue. Only one dude's salary was approved.

Then he decided he wouldn't work without the rest of us. This REALLY agered the producer/director/writer/etc. guy who called us a bunch of quiters. :p

[JMK]

Poor bastard. He should have had a better plan in place to get this movie rolling...

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well I was waiting for you guys to walk out, hopefully the rest of the film will come crashing down like the Hindenburg now.

[CMJ]

Well the Grips and electricians will probably be leaving at the end of the week(insider info). When that happens there will be no movie.

You just can't make a film without those guys.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Serves him right, if he can't learn to get along with people than that is how things should turn out.

[CMJ]

Preach it brutha. :smokin

[JonathanLB]

What makes me most irked about that, even though I have nothing to do with it, is that you wasted your time and he made everyone else around you waste their time just because he's too darn stupid to figure things out and put together a movie properly.

It must be frustrating for you too, though, because you didn't exactly rake in the cash here! You were nice enough to work for free at the start and he just wasted your time by not even being a legitimate filmmaker.

[CMJ]

Well I made a few good contacts. It was actually a really good crew...probably the best I've been on. One of the camera assistants told me usually you make the best contacts on bad gigs because it's like going through boot camp. ;)

Hey it was a paycheck. :D