3 Takeaways from this year's 168 Film Festival

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Or, why I haven't posted lately :)

I may have said some of this before, either here or elsewhere, however, put simply, I've been busy. Or, I haven't gotten enough computer time, as it's always a negotiation here, or maybe, it always has been, however, I never realized it before.

As I hope you know by now, Black Friday screened appropriately, on Friday, March 26th, 2010 as part of The 168 Film Festival, which is the culmination of what started out as Untitled 168 Project Team #13 2010 edition. It was a long and winding road, with many forks and spoons, wherein I came away with three things that may effect my future participation.

• You can't always fix it in post
• Working in a "Christian" environment is no different than working anywhere else, and finally
• The 168 Project is a year round ministry

Well, at least for me. I discovered that one filmmaker that made the top 20 this year raised $31K, or thirty one thousand dollars for the right handed people. I didn't even have a tenth of that going in, and not to make this a plea for money, however, I do have some expenses that have yet to be met, and by now you know where the donate button is :) In any case, I felt I did quite well in a year that I originally decided not to participate.

I'm not going to make that mistake again. I'm a filmmaker, therefore, I should be making films. I've got this nice Flip Mini that I won from the fine folks at Gate6 Inc, simply for tweeting. Most of you know that I tweet constantly, so that should come as no surprise. YouTube will now be my new best friend. I'm not really going to be posting anything spectacular, as those of you that may have already seen Makin' Coffee or Cats!!! will attest. I'm going to start a new Word Press blog, that will be setup shortly, and I'll move all 168 related activities over there. This site will return to its original intent, which is to promote Watchmaker, a film about Intelligent Design, and the surrounding controversy.

I will hopefully continue to post with more frequency on the above two subjects, as it seems that everyone thinks that blogging everyday is a good idea. I'm not so sure on that, as I don't actually have that much to say, most of the time. In addition, I'll continue to post elsewhere, on a variety of topics that interest me. I've even received a small paying gig for one of those. Small meaning, not my usual article rate, and not my usual frequency of writing said articles, meaning not enough to support me, my family or this ministry.

That's why I need you. Thank you in advance for your support, both financially and spiritually. I hope you'll enjoy the ride.

I'll come up with an appropriate catch phrase later. Leave a comment, and let me know that I'm crazy :)

Update: This may be a response to this; simply so I don't have to type all of the above twice :) There will also be a site redesign in my future. And yours. Stay tuned.

The Making of Black Friday

As I'm sure most of you, or at least some of you know, Black Friday premieres tomorrow night at the Hope Theatre in San Fernando. That should be enough info for Google maps to tell you how to get there, if you feel so inclined. What you may not know, is that the behind the scenes video diary I shot, was also supposed to premiere tomorrow.

Of course, 168 being what it is, in my rush to get that film turned in on time, I apparently didn't use the correct specs to export it from iMovie, which is what I used to edit. Therefore, Triskaidekaphobia won't be shown tomorrow on the big screen.

The good news is, that means that I can now post it online, for all to see. I might get more viewers this way, who knows???? :)

Anyway, here is it for your enjoyment. Let me know what you think.

3 New Things I Learned During This Year's 168 Project

As opposed to last year, when I experienced 168 Madness, after which came, 168 Clarity, I give you the following:

1. In moviemaking, money gives you time.
2. Time is fixed in this competition, therefore
3. It doesn't matter how much money you spend.

And that last one goes in either direction, meaning, it is possible to spend almost no money in making a 168, beyond the aforementioned entry fees. If indeed I have mentioned them before.

Time is Money

A cliche I'm sure you've all heard before, which leads to the following syllogism: Time is money. Money is power. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely. Therefore, man is inherently evil. As money approaches zero, and your time is running out, it's necessary to think creatively, and quickly. We had a situation where we didn't have a boom. Was borrowing the mic, but we didn't have the needed boom pole to go with it. Had we had the budget for it, I would've probably purchased one myself. However, we did have a C stand. Or two. Problem solved.

Let's "Fix it in Post!"

Well, almost. Turns out we had some buzz on the cable, that made it to the editing process. As I couldn't afford a sound guy, complete with boom, mic, and mixing box included, we plugged the mic directly into the camera. I did this last year on Three of Clubs, with no problems. Probably because I had a guy that had his own boom and cables. Not so this time. Prayed. Made a few phone calls. Prayed some more. The writer called in a favor. We were indeed able to fix it in post, however, not without a lot of headaches, and stress.

Money, Money, Money!!!

In conclusion, I do always wish that projects like the 168 could be filmed for next to nothing, however, we did indeed incur some expenses. Without boring you with the details, my friend was wrong. You may remember before this whole thing started, that I posted that I had two naysayers. I probably had more, however, only two were vocal about it. One was right, but for the wrong reason. I wasn't able to make a movie for $4400. Had I had that much, I probably could've made at least three, and had some money left over for a great wrap party. I'm reminded of an oft misquoted verse in The Bible, which I'm sure you're aware of, as most will tell you, "Money is the root of all evil." Wrong. Read the entire verse, which I shall quote here, and link to: For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. I Timothy 6:10, from the King James Version, to be exact. Other translations read slightly different, and I ask you to compare and contrast, to get the gist.

In any case, well, really specifically this one, Having a million dollars would've been a good thing, however unnecessary. Maybe next year....

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach.

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