The plan

I think I can get somewhere with the static shock thing I'm slowly pushing forward here...

Today is the last day of november. I currently am in decent shape, if I had to shoot the actual final scenes and nail that stuff down, I'd be fine with it honestly.

I really am annoyed with the balloon scene still needing to get done and so I'd like to just get it out of the way.

Today was good. I did the batman shot I've been itching to get and even discovered that batman looks amazing at low angle perspective. I was just going to shoot him purely straight forward, but when I accidentally just had the camera down low for a bit shit looked awesome so that's how I'll have some of his stuff in the final cut since it gives the illusion that batman has some actual size to him. Sadly I look awful as batman, I'll have to mostly NOT show how I look in full costume if I want to sell this in any realistic fashion. I don't want it to be so awkward and lame like batman tends to look constantly. I don't think any live batmen have actually looked right. They've yet to figure batman out, except for Adam west. Now that I think about it, he was the most comfortable relaxed natural batman of them all. He just made sense all around.

I mean it's tiresome and putting the pressure of the deadline on me has taken its toll. I simply will try to release a rough cut of the film by then. What that means is that stuff will be unfinished.... Until I find the time to get the fx work done.

Still just kinda ball parking the film. Nothing is planned meticulously. I'm still writing the script in my head to this day. I know the overall structure  but the finer details are tough to pin down....

Let me show you this though:

Yep, that's how intense this project will be. I'm going down that road of inserting myself into stuff in order to fake that I'm really there with someone. Not even wearing the shirt I want to be wearing but I was just sick of sitting on this scene in my brain all this time and not actually getting off my ass to do it, so I said screw it and got it shot and it actually came out decent when I was expecting it to be total balls. That's the journey with this project. I go out work on it expect ass, then it suddenly works and makes sense and fits. It's magical when those moments happen. 

It wasn't easy. I had to find frames where the person I'm cropping out isn't there and some how force myself into the shot. I don't even have the ecto cooler and minion in the shot yet that's how early in the process this shot was. I had to put them in there to cover the woman's hand who I'm putting myself on top of... kept on moving it in the scene and ruining things so I just tossed a minion on it.

Why static brings a minion the bar, who knows. It's a running gag that the minion keeps showing up at awkward moments. Look for him a lot actually. I just tossed him in shots for no reason whatsoever.

Alright. Rough cut when TLJ is out. I'll release it after I go see the movie. And on Christmas the final director's cut will be out. 

IF I can some how squeeze the final version out on the 15, yeah right, but if some how I drop 10 pounds in the next 3 days, shoot the balloon stuff, shoot the joker stuff, shoot the final scene, plus the funny joke scenes I want, then ok release.

Matt Lauer is the new O Reilly?

Will he too start a twitter undergound version of his show to keep up a bit of his former prestige?

No all joking aside, sad to hear about his firing today. Not a huge fan of his, but he was always around all my life, a good classy person.

Well shit. You know what I think happened, he was caught on tape or camera making unwanted advances or saying something dickish to a girl at work.

But he's too smart to do that in today's paranoid pussy world we're in, something doesn't make sense... could be a hit job, could be. It's all so sudden and we have no proof, no full story on this, just a sudden dismissal. Couldn't they have respected him enough to let him quietly resign instead of publicly shaming him? Say whatever you want about what he did or didn't do, but he some how knocked the show out every day and got it done with such dignity and grace. He was the best. People are now calling for Roker's firing because he's well, he's Roker at times.... Maybe it's coming...

Well who knows. I'm going to guess he got irritated by a girl at work who was harassing him and decided to return the favor. I've been there. Girls LOVE to harass and belittle us then when we fight back they cry about it, been there at my old job. I didn't want to start anything with this chick, but she brought it HARD to me every chance she could get, and it was just a wake up to how females operate, super tough when it comes to attacking males, then turn into little princess when you blow up at them. I think he met the same girl, he did something in an act of rage and now she has the fuel she wanted to burn him. Sad but real talk, that's how I've experienced it, women are tough to figure out, bro.

Good luck Matt, we're not all hating ya...

Edit: Further thawtz.

I don't know what's going on but apparently Lauer had a history of being a dick to people at Today and may have been responsible for one of his co workers getting fired.

Sad, so sad... why can't people try to be better and not give in to the dark side. It does come back to bite you, it so does as is clear here.

I'd like to know what he did. What finally broke the last straw here. I guess we'll never know. He'll never speak about it, ever. But Lauer can't just disappear at all. Whatever he does, this ghost will follow him, this mystery will be there. Maybe man up and say sorry, it's a start, bro....

Progress report and stuff

Gosh, didn't know I'd still be alive, but yunno, if I'm going to have to be here, I'm going to try to make something cool.

Luckily for me I've discovered a way to get up to the garage roof so I will some time this week shoot and complete the entire joker meets static scene. I've done some acting tests:

Then after that, it's all stuff I can shoot here locally so I don't worry about it. The only major piece left to the puzzle is the finale where static shoots boom with his shit. I mean Amazing what cutting sodium actually does. I've started to actually lose a bit more fat and I can start to see my abs. So we'll see where I am a week from now and if I'm nicely shaped, I'll shoot it. Honestly, what I should do is just go shoot the balloon elements since that'll be a quick shot and then go work my ass off to get shredded as a mufuga and finally shoot the final boom blast.

We'll muffugin see... am currently sick with a cold due to short changing my immune system in an attempt to go on a water and magnesium only diet. Learned the hard way that's a bad idea.

I can't afford to do the film's adr with this cold so hopefully it's going to pass soon, strangely it kinda helps the joker voice get pitched pretty good though....

there is a GOD

I say that with tears swelling in my eyes...

I'm just, let me gather my thoughts at this very moment.

I am just now sitting here having found my power glove. I know you all don't care about that shit. But I've been spending the last 4 hours since I woke up to go do a shot early before the cars started coming in full costume as boom. I went to look for my glove in the car where I thought I left it, not there...

I didn't find it. I figured it's in my room somewhere. NADA, gone.

I say to myself, oops left the power glove in the woods like I've done to other things, just go and fetch it, no big deal. It's probably where I tossed it.

I literally go combing the woods for the glove, GONE.

I drop emotionally. Start thinking about why this happened, why a power glove worth maybe 100 bucks is now gone from me....

I lost my mind searching for it some more. Returned to the park 3 times to look for it. Looked through footage on my camera to identify where the goddamn hell I left it. Looked like I dropped it behind a tree, go look, not there.

I then just told myself, let it go, it's over. Someone stole the damn thing out of the woods and I will never see it again.

Felt like my soul had been crushed and a part of me gone forever. That sense of this abyss in life where things just are gone for good.

I accepted defeat, held on to a slight glimmer that I might see it again if it fell off the edge of the bed or under it, whatever the case. But I accepted it was gone...

It's now here safe, next to me. But I still feel like its gone. I fully was prepared to forge forward with the rest of the film without it for possible new footage and reshoots.

My spirits are shaken right now. I feel a sense of overwhelming loss and overwhelming relief at the same time. Making this movie has been and continues to be more of a sacrafice than I ever anticapated but it is one I'm willing to make, it's who I am.

How did I find it. I didn't 'FIND' it. I looked at all the footage I shot for that day and noticed I was smart enough to always have the power glove in hand. Made me wonder if I stashed it in my bag since that 's all I was carrying that day. So on a bit of of a weird silly what the heck moment of spontinaity or whatever, I just took a look in my bag, which I already previously searched multiple times, and at the very bottom, under EVERYTHING, found the glove. Makes no sense that it would end up that deep in it. and the thing that is weird is that I searched the bag for it, just not to the bottom I guess.

I can't begin to make sense of this hectic morning I've had thus far, needless to say, I'm very happy and very messed up and need a break from this project. It probably will be delayed. The reason for losing things and doing things off step is because I'm trying to rush it. I got to just let it come when it comes from here forward....

Thanks to God, thank the force, all who brought my glove back to me. You don't know how great I feel knowing it's still here, still with me right now...

Might move release date to the 25th

Might... depends on what shape I'm in by the target date and how much progress I make on editing and fx work that still has to be done in the ensuing weeks.

I figure, chrismas day makes more sense than the 15th. I want it to coincide with the release of TLJ but then I remembered christmas is more significant a day than the 15.

Kinda a downer for me to have missed my target but whatever, the film will be better for it.

filming continues

It does indeed.

I've been doing the art thing forever, so it's nothing new to me, just more of the same arduous nonsense to the step by step grind of getting it done...

Stupid thanksgiving has definitely put a dent in my diet program I'm on to try to lose the last flab on my body in order to get the final shot of static beast moding super saiyan style... I mean, I'm not bad right now, but I was hoping to be looking too good. Little do I know that sodium was such a huge diet killer. I was unaware of how it can impact the body and of course did not limit my sodium intake all this time. So despite dropping weight and getting lean due to limiting sugar and calories. I was still high on sodium and basically sodium causes you to maintain bulgy fat as your body retains water... so yeah, that's been a huge issue.

I now have to go on a severe diet and basically starve myself to fulfill my hopes of slimming down to look the right way for the shot... Yay, this is going to suck ass..

Don't know what I'm doing diet wise, just don't know. I know that yeah high fiber, high protein, and low calories, sodium, and sugar will cause weight loss, that I do know. But it's been hell to get there...

Got to shoot the joker vs static bits some point. Not looking to rush it. Been doing bits of makeup tests for joker and it's going to be amazing, I can gurantee that. I've been a huge joker nut all my life. So there's no doubt in my mind I'll nail his character. Got to learn how to do flamboyant mannerisms though on camera. I mean, it's tough once the camera is rolling to figure out how to keep the momentum of the performance and not dip into moments where you think about wtf you want to say. Indeed the  best performances are natural ones. When I find that groove and I just go with my gut and just let it all go, stop being a bitch about it, and just let the force flow, that's when the magic happens and the scene kicks ass. Nice natural acting...

Don't really know what else I got to shoot, got a good tons of gigs worth of footage shot and am almost ready to cut the film together and make it somewhat work.

Gotta shoot the boom forest stuff I want to reshoot and of course finish with the final scenes. I mean, we'll see how this thing all culminates in the end.

Thawtz on Battle Fart

That's what I call it.

I have very little time left in the trial period on battle front 2. It's as usual a star wars cluster fuck. Brilliance mixed with garbage.

I'm glad the tolkens are gone. That was among many things a huge issue with me. Getting the hero meant just finding a random tolken, so some idiot little punk kid would be the hero and waste it. But yeah many issues with BF 1 that I'll try to get to here.

They have wisely added back multi colored laser fire. I was just wondering why in a star wars freaking game were lasers all the same color when star wars features so many kinds and it would help you know who's shooting from where. So now as I've played today, there was a nice ability to figure out which team was shooting at you... good change.

Now getting the goddamn higher grade characters and heros is where I have an issue... Basically to get the hero you have to be some kind of juggernaut bitch and mow through the other team getting tons of kills and objective score until you reach 6 or 8000 goddamn points. I haven't played the hero ONCE, good grief. Almost got to 6000 but no the match ended. Matches are too short and the whole phases and sections thing is all kinds of stupid. You die because the phase changed and the map forces you to leave an area. How about not doing that, and letting us goddamn have time to leave or choose to stay and get killed, whatever. It was just unbelievable how the stage killed me more than the other players. I'm getting skilled, and figuring out how to survive battles, but oh no, phase change, map count down to death, better run! shit.

Doesn't feel like a star wars game. Watered down halo/call duty/battlefield. I'm so over EA having the license to make this. They've long since proven they don't understand star wars and are making expensive skin mods to battlefield, nothing more, nothing less. I gave them a pass on the first game. It was them getting their feet wet and figuring things out, fine. This time, they've learned nothing. The maps are bland rehashes of everything that came before, nothing new except maybe kamino. But they ruined that map with the phase time limit making you have to move indoors instead of playing on the superior outside map, why did they do that shit?

Agreed that the game is basically a grenade fest on the close quarters maps. It's just wait, get killed by random grenade thrown from nowhere. That's the game in those maps.

Just really standard issue lazy map design, nothing truly utilizes the vast infinite possibilities of star wars, granted I've not yet truly played them all and doubt I ever will. People have been saying the naboo map fails to be chosen every time they play, and it's true. Why the hell can't we choose our maps?

Why can't we play in friends lists and squads? Is it the end of the world to add interactive elements to the map, collapsable buildings, you did it already with bf4... Bridges we can blow up to stop the other team. It's star wars, that's kinda what it's always embodied little traps and tricks and sarlacc pits.

So you can't skin the characters to your preference so it feels very detached, boring and impersonal, that's something that you'd think they'd put in after it being damn bare bones in the first one. But no. And who knows how much money they'd make if it was pay to buy new skins and emblems whatever you want... skins is big business in gaming, so dumb.

Overall it's a game that needs a steep learning curve to figure out and adjust to. It's tough on you just for being a star wars fan and wanting to have a good time and that's wrong of them to do. It should be about celebrating star wars, not making you pissed off about how crappy the design and game mechanics are, or how much you can't afford to upgrade anything while other players have the best stuff and stomp all over you.

Just a bland game with some smidges of brilliance here and there and the concept of being able to upgrade through experience points this time is a good one, but too damn slow and awfully designed, the idea that the hero goes to the best players with the most points is wonderful now, but good luck having any time to enjoy it since the matches are short as hell...

Too bad the maps are ass, the phase system is ass, the costs for things is ass. It's a mountain to climb just to become the rocket dude and then you die in no time flat. He should be a mini tank for f's sake. They didn't care...

That's how i feel about this game. THEY. DIDN'T. CARE....