The Weekly Report

Things look better in lists:

• Transmissions: I post fairly often about its progress. Namely, film fest rejections, which have been the norm. I don't even get nervous when a deadline comes up; I just expect the same pattern.
  
  
• Project 1011, aka Old War: The veil is lifted. So it's not much of a surprise. Or anything known territory, really, other than those few who either read or knew about the horrific 2003 script or the botched 2004 attempt. I breathed some joke life into it for Transmissions, in which Ridley Kraid watches it and laughs at the usual serious-silliness of sentimental war movies. But I've been rewriting the script, like clockwork, every year since. I have my 2005 draft, my 2006 draft, one for '07, a partial '08 work, and what I, obviously, think is my most solid effort for my '09 screenplay.
  
  I recently finished my material for my submission for a 2010 grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. I was in the running in '07 (because, well, I took the time to complete the application, not because I'm special or anything) and didn't get money. Then, my proposal was for basically the entire budget of Old War, which I'd shoot on my GL2. I actually got a call from the Board mentioning that I proposed all this and none of my work samples were actual films. And since I was asking for money to make a film, they, reasonably, wanted to see films I had made in the past. Then, my student film seems hopelessly outdated (but now I might've sent them in, since not a lot of people have work on celluloid film), so I just said let it slide and, maybe as a result or maybe not, no state money came my way.
  
  I originally planned to request grant money to travel to film festivals to promote Transmissions and network but... well, that's a goddamn shame, right? Anyhow, my Artist Plan for fiscal year 2010 is now to rent the notorious Red camera several times, assemble a skeleton crew (thus far have a location sound guy/possible sound designer + composer) and, with the help of a few Chicagoans, try to wrassle my way around the convoluted Redcode workflow without crashing my system just trying to look at the lowest-res files.
  
  So that's that. The script is locked and I wait until December to hear word. In the meantime, I can prep for OW with...
  
  
• Project 910: Yesterday I came up with the outline for the script. I'll dive in headfirst on Monday, so I can fiddle around a few days playing Rock Band drums and getting oh-so-close to the end of Infinite Jest (only 150 pages to go oh my gawd!). So I guess I was swept up in the zeitgeist of my own idea-creation and hyped it up before I even passed the page two mark in the script. Maybe it's because right now is the most exciting part of the process - sheer invention, trying to limit myself as infrequently as possible.
  
  So once I get comfortable with my first draft of the script, I'll put out feelers for my skeleton crew and cast. For the former, I probably need a boom op, a camera operator/AC, and maybe - I hate myself for this already - a PA. For cast, I'll need a solid lead (I already have an idea of who I want that to be, but he's not an actor and isn't sure he'll be comfortable with some ideas I've already laid down) and a bit of a supporting people to fill it out. Very different than Transmissions, I swear.
  
  Related to crew, I'm actually going to make an experimental short for this thing called MNKINO. (Those crazy video weren't up when I first went there. The On/Off intro is pretty fucking terrifying.) It says it's not for film students, but I imagine I'll meet some U of M film studies kids (since the U doesn't have a film production major, though some journalism kids shoot stuff for class). That could definitely be an untapped resource.
  
  That's it for now, I suppose. In addition to making the film of 910, I have some neat ideas to make it into a sort of multimedia project. And give it all away for free. I don't think I'll be submitting to any festivals this time around, and other than a scant few requisite Neighborhoodies items (that aren't stitched, meaning I'll save mad cash) and maybe another hard drive purchase, this one should cost much, much less than Transmissions. No iMac purchase required.

Enough has been said! Get back to work, you nine-to-fivers, and get ready to enjoy the weekend or whatever. I'll be in my technodrome, getting into Writing Mode, drinking too much coffee, listening to Fennesz and Fuck Buttons and Brian Eno, and cloistering myself from the outside world.