houseofbit

The Coconut Sucked

2010-11-11T12:26:00.000-08:00

Did we mention that already? I did not re-read the last post. Either way, that coconut milk was practically poisonous and the meat left a taste in my mouth for hours.

But that was over a week ago. Why should I even dwell on it further?

We were in L.A. for two days, interviewing a couple of amazing collectors - one who collects antique flashlights, the other skateboards.

We did a couple of Q&A sessions for "Lumia" and "Video Out" at USC and the Echo Park Film Center. We drove in traffic a lot. We drove some more. We saw the Pacific Ocean. We ate. We kept driving. Then we flew home and it took two days to recover.

We have been working ever since. Meredith is now typing one of her philosophical diatribe/discourse posts on her Montagenik blog, so I'm just hanging out here, making sure young Otto doesn't go pee in my bed. He and Elko, the alpha dog in this household, are each doing their thing.

Fall is outside. We are about to start working.

13Bit Eats a Coconut

2010-10-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today 13Bit cracked open a coconut. 13Bit drank the juice and it was bitter. A piece of coconut shell lodged itself inside Paul's throat. We googled and we found an instructional video that taught us how to crack open a coconut and it worked. But the coconut oil polluted paul's sink.

It is good to be bitting again. We took some time off, and then I fell ill to the influenza of 2010. But now we are planning new trips for our doc, plotting the ecopocalypse, and the robot band -

this is a short post but i am now going to drink coffee, apparently the same hormone that metabolizes coffee is the hormone you produce when you are pregnant

Did you take your nihilism pill today?

2010-09-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

Nothing will endure.

Everything is generational.

The news is broken.

Yes, it's a dark scene at the compound today. Life's ugly realities are weighing heavily over here. Between that the Dow, or did I say Tao, we don't know shit anymore.

Anyway, just wanted to share some of the buzz.

"My eye is twitching."

It's total manipulation, I tell you.

We are eating at Minerva and that Tea Set place, at the panini place and getting french fry bomb baskets from assorted Village grease houses.

We are shutting down shop tomorrow for a couple of weeks, then taking our show on the road in Phoenix and running rabidly across Texas on the collector trail.

More news from the road, hopefully.

"I bruised my stomach with spaghetti..."

2010-09-14T12:13:00.001-07:00

Meredith did not say exactly that, but it's what she said in essence.

I think she is trying to dis our new 13BIT fooderie, Cafe Minerva.

Anyway, things are going well. We are cranking out the interviews, doing the ecopocalypse cartoon, getting ready for the Robot Parade, working on the iPad app, planning our next swing through the southwest to collect more collectors, and having civil arguments about modern literature every day.

And we are eating.

In addition to Minerva, a new place opened. We have not gone there yet, but we may go there soon to celebrate this renaissance of high-priced new coffee joints in the increasingly bougie west village.

We may also explore moving operations to Brooklyn. Today, we held consultations with our Persian brethren at Bettertex and learned that they, too, are contemplating a similar move. "Half of our clients no longer want to come into the city," the old man said.

A taxi driver complained to me about the new bus lanes on broadway. All signs point east. They also point west. What are we to do?

Tune in soon for more answers, questions, and head-scratching.

There are a million blogs started every minute

2010-09-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

I was reading a blog that I liked and Paul said something like there are a million blogs started every minute. And I said yeah well some of them are good. The particular good blog I was reading was BookTwo http://booktwo.org/notebook/five-things/, which I found through twitter via a retweet by ubuweb - http://www.ubuweb.com -another great site (although not a blog). Ubuweb tweeted about a 1969 Jean Beaudin experimental movie that I am trying to get paul to watch -http://ubu.com/film/beaudin_vertige.html. The movie is 40 minutes and today is a short day at the compound. I have jet lag compounded by bikram induced insanity and lack of coffee - because my husband did not make me coffee this morning! I think my head will explode.

We are very busy at the compound. We are deep into production of our third doc, we have screenings of our first two docs in Nov in LA, and a screening of Video Out in Germany. We are also working on a new iPad/iPhone application for our documentaries that is looking very fantastic! And of course there is low budget legends. Right now we will post the first Nina Paley interview.

Paul just dumped some bank statement on my desk. I am the CFO of 13Bit. This comes from my extensive experience modeling Sovereign CDS.

A Reflection

2010-08-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

This is a bit more of a personal post than the usual 13BIT post, but some of it is about the 13BIT juggernaut and, since Big Mer is away and I am holding down the fort, some of it is in the long tradition of me posting maudlin stuff while she is gone.

This is the last day of my 40's. Tomorrow, universe-willing, I turn 50. So, what has happened to me during the last ten years?

I started out my 40's with a cat and am ending them with a dog, both dear, sweet special creatures.

I began my 40's with both parents and they are now both gone. I was lucky to have had them.

Ten years ago, I had a gas-guzzling Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Now I have a gas-guzzling Ford Econoline, all via an economical Toyota Tacoma, all three of which I used and the last of which I continue to use to explore the U.S. and camp in the desert.

Ten years ago, I was shooting mainly film, along with some very expensive, low-resolution digital cameras. Now, it's pretty much all digital with some occasional film, which costs a lot to develop.

In my forties, I became a filmmaker and won a bunch of awards, made four features and co-founded 13BIT Productions with Meredith.

Ten years ago, I was vegan. Now I will eat cheese and eggs, although still no flesh.

Got a bunch of tattoos over the last ten years. They have not done much for my single status, either, so that's another myth put to rest.

Ten years ago, I - and everyone else - had to use portable CD and cassette players to listen to music on the go. Now, aside from iPods, I have a phone that acts as my stereo, TV, computer, shopping mall, road atlas, and about thirty other functions.

I started out my 40's on Barrow Street and am ending up on Bank Street, where I started out my 30's.

The Yankees were in first place then and are in first place now.

Still a Mac guy. Still weigh the same. Still ride my bike a lot. Still read a lot.

It's been an interesting decade. Not always easy, but always interesting.

I'm still grateful for another day.

Here's to yesterday, today and tomorrow!

Another day, another bit

2010-08-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Best line of code overheard muttered at the compound today:

"If blah blah blah..."

Yes, Meredith is up to her old tricks again, this time working on the asset upload for our super secret, beyond cool iPad app that concerns "Video Out," our first award-winning feature.

We are closing down shop again very soon, after having closed it down a few days ago for my aborted trip out west, and this time we will most likely stay shut down for a few weeks, barring emergency phone calls from collectors or hollywood agents.

What is the food situation lately in Bitland? Not really dire, but in need of a change. We have been doing Integral Yoga smoothies, the old standby, but we still miss Miracle Grill, Rue Bourbon and a few other local joints that are now gone.

A promising-looking place is supposed to open soon on Charles and Hudson - "Dolci by Donna," or something like that. In the meantime, though, our current standbys are Barbuto, Keste, Taim and Bonbonnierre. Now, I am advocating a return to Westville, after having OD'ed on their pesto mashed potatoes the other night, but Meredith is resisting. I will wear her down, though, at some point in the long slog ahead of us once we start logging all the footage we are now collecting.

And what are we collecting? Did we talk about the collectors documentary yet? If not, we will soon.

Suffice to say that we are collecting collectors, and there are some fascinating ones out there.

Now I'm hungry.

"The Quiet Room" has finally started going out to festivals and we have high hopes for it.

Onward!

Salt Bomb

2010-06-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

I hope that the NSA does not tag this post because I have included the word bomb in the title. That title refers to the meal that Paul and I ate yesterday at Barbuto. Barbuto is a very tasty place to eat - however we suffered from a salt overdose due to the tasty but salty potatoes. We are heaving into shooting our latest (3rd) feature documentary. We are in stealth mode - so I cant tell you what its about. However it is very compelling!

We are trying to salvage the water footprint documentary footage - perhaps next time we are out west we will shoot a dried up river valley or something. I wish we could use the footage from 'Chinatown' (the movie not the place) -but then hollywood would sue our asses.

We are also hard at work at lowbudgetlegends. And we are in the midst of editing an interview with a one of our favorite low budget legends Manny Kirchheimer

As we always say, we need to blog more - till next time.

This is a shitty blog post. I know. I have been in a dark mood for months. It is not mental chatter in my head just a sort of dark veil over my life. Paul says I need to go to more bikram yoga - so we are knocking off yoga so I can do a 4pm yoga.

A nice quiet room

2010-06-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

That's what this blog feels like sometimes. We know that the occasional person drifts through - hell, even WE drift through on occasion - but, for the most part, it's a quiet, clean, spacious room, maybe one with huge floor-to-ceiling arches opening onto the sea. Birds fly in and out. The waves crash on the beach. A tray with a pitcher of cool lemon water sits in the corner, next to the blogging desk and the quill pen knife.

We pop in occasionally, write a little snapshot of 13BIT life, usually about what we eat while editing or some other such interesting morsel, or "bit," as it were. Then we leave and go about our bittness.

That bidness today includes sending the Bit-Rocket into low-level orbit towards El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula.

We're off to collect some interviews of collectors.

No more apologies

2010-05-24T13:25:00.001-07:00

No more apologies, god damn it, for not posting. We could make a movie about the pathology of guilt, shame and inaction of not posting, but it would not be true.

We have actually been super hard at work, doing the work of Bitting. But first, a 13BIT food update:

We have been eating a lot of dark chocolate salty pretzel chocolate bars from the Chocolate Bar, on Hudson Street (and, no, we do not get any swag for our priceless references, just the joy of knowing we are spreading the word).

We have been doing smoothies still from Integral Yoga. Uh...chocolate corn chips with guacamole. Brussels sprouts from Integral, as well. Ninth Street Espresso from Chelsea Market has become a mainstay and, on our new pagan holiday of Options Expiry Day, we sometimes get ice cream from Ronnybrook Farms, also in Chelsea Market. The occasional Gobo takeout diner. 2 Boots. What's new, you ask? Not much. Why mess with a winning formula? Better to just add little bits of junk food, one thing at a time. We still miss the loss of Rue Bourbon and Miracle Grill, but life must go on, Bitting must go on, the future marches on. Which brings us to:

1. Lakshmi, aka "The Quiet Room," is a couple of days from being sent out to festivals and greater things.

2. The uber-blog "Low Budget Legends," has finally been released into the wild. You can glimpse it at http://www.lowbudgetlegends.com

3. We have put the water footprint doc on the back burner for now, actually, we have wrapped it in foil and put it in the low-carbon footprint freezer temporarily while we are feverishly at work on another documentary, the subject of which will be revealed in the near future.

4. We have been pod-casting parts of "The Discreet Charm of the Hipster Class" to wild popular acclaim.

5. We are getting in gear to write the script for the next narrative.

6. German TV is running "Lumia"

7. We are participating in a forum in Los Angeles in the fall on visual arts, and will be doing special director chats about "Lumia" and "Video Out."

And let me tell you, people, THIS IS NO VAPORWARE! Everything is actually happening and we are very excited dot com about it all.

PLUS, 13BIT Labs is working on a few killer iPad apps.

Yes, Elko and Otto have a lot on their plates here while we are chewing on our bones and watching them work.

We promise not to take so long until the next House of Bit post.

the most difficult login in the world

2010-04-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

I almost could not blog because I was unable to log into blogger. Sad but true. Meredith here from the 13Bit compound. Lakshmi is off to sound post-production so Paul and I can attend to other matters like the robot band, the website and of course blogging. You, dear reader, have not missed much on the food front. Paul and I have been drinking lots of smoothies and eating omlettes from doma. We have been mourning the loss of rue bourbon and miracle grill. I could also talk about the legend of chief greedy one ball, but I'll save that for another post. Paul is guilting me because I said I was going to write a screenplay on Spinoza. I did not think he wanted to make a movie about Spinoza!! But he does, so we will make it a 13Bit venture. That means I will not write a screenplay about Spinoza and during his long 13Bit haitus I will sit around and twiddle my thumbs and go to the bar with my dog.

Jackets Required

2009-09-30T10:17:00.001-07:00

We do all our editing in formal wear.

Actually, not, but it was the english phrase that just happened to be in the air just now, so I plucked it out.

Yesterday we went to Bethlehem, PA to interview Greta Browne for the new doc. Today, we go uptown to interview Manny Kirchheimer for Low Budget Legends.

Next week, we go abroad to interview the water footprint people. Poor little Elko will be guarding the fort. Luckily, Karla will be staying here with him.

Now, we are about to edit Lakshmi for a couple of hours.

AND, on top of all that, we have some really cool ideas for upcoming narratives.

Anyway, we must work.

It's Not All About Food

2009-09-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

But...since some of our stalwart food standbys have closed lately - Miracle Grill, Rue Bourbon, etc. - we have need to expand our horizons, to coin a brand new phrase.

Hence Westville and now, possibly some new place called Path Cafe.

13BIT must run on something, after all.

In other news, we are back editing Lakshmi, heading to Europe to interview people for the eco/water/metrics doc, and have other interesting plans, including a top secret neo apocalyptic adventure.

More will be revealed.

Long time no blog

2009-06-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since we have last blogged ... but a lot has been going on
1) We finished writing, casting and preproduction on "The Quiet Room/Lakshmi Saves/The Book of Lakshmi/..."
2) We started shooting "The Quiet Room/Lakshmi Saves/The Book of Lakshmi/..."
3) We started another blog - low budget legends
4) We started to use twitter
5) We had a web server migration
6) We wrote an iphone app that was rejected because of unsuitable content.
7) We interviewed Lloyd for low budget legends

We will try and post more

Mix Up All The Colors To Make Brown

2009-02-21T17:20:00.000-08:00

We are making another blog. Did I mention that already? I think I did.

This other blog is looking really cool. We have been hard at work, in the trenches, pickaxes in hand, hardhats on heads, rivets hanging in a pail from our necks...you name it, we're working it. Mixing those metaphors just enough to make you sick.

Anyway, we are getting ready to launch. Did the colors today and we really like the way they look. Made a header brown, hence the title of this post.

I clearly have nothing of value to say, so I'll just say this: TO THE TOPS!

Happy Presidents Day

2009-02-16T08:34:00.001-08:00

I fear that I will not be able to live up to Paul's last post. Today we are starting early at the compound. Paul and I are moving our servers over to other servers and all the servers have just gone down! So we are having some drama. Next on the agenda is eating! We are going to get some yummy grits and a hole in my bread from Bourbon street.

Then we will embark on the final 10 pages of Venezuela! Yes, you heard right, we are almost done with v1 of the script. I think we have 7 scenes left. Maybe we can knock two off today.

At 4 Paul has a dentist appointment, and I will finish my last attempt to speed up my prescient netflix script - converting everything to matrix calculations via gsl. (GSL is not as good as PDL sadly) .

At 6 Paul will return , and I will go to Kung Fu (since I have recovered from the avian flu) and the cycle then begins again tomorrow (although at 6)

Paul says big blocks of text are hard to scan.

I was told to blog.

2009-02-15T15:16:00.001-08:00

Meredith commanded me to blog something. I think she is worried about our public profile, wants to make sure that we are putting the best face forward or something. I am not sure, and I really don't know why my blogging would be the best thing to do for our public profile. Either way, she told me to blog, so here I am.

Let me fill you in a little bit on what we're up to.

Today, we created four Facebook groups, one for each of our films so far - aside from the one we're now writing - and one for the actual company, 13BIT Productions LLC, from which comes the noble name "House of Bit." We are so abysmal at self-promoting, yet so adept at web, geeky, online stuff that this seems like a really nice way to conduct our PR. We are hoping to use the current mania for Facebook as a way to keep people current on what we do, provide a small presence in the social networking world, and simply to plant a flag on Mount Facebook. So that was something we did today. It was exhilarating and somewhat scary. Exhilarating because we actually did a small bit of publicity and that made us happy. Scary because it felt like we were spamming our friends. Meredith, especially, almost had a complete breakdown over intruding in the lives of her friends. She thought they would hate her for sending these invites. I tried to explain that, if they are really her friends, they would welcome these developments. If they are not her friends, they won't care. I felt the same way, though, so I had to put up a brave front while I was telling her all this.

We also are still doing technical work to prepare our next project, a true blog about low budget filmmaking, which will cover the gamut: from philosophical issues to technical stuff and everything in-between. There will be no real overlap between that blog and this one. While we truly love this blog and, if nothing else, it lets us see what we have been eating for the past few years, we wanted to make one that focuses more on the filmmaking. We will continue to post here for both of our readers, but we wanted to make something more accessible to anybody making a film. We promise that we won't post about junk food to the new blog. Unless it's related to filmmaking, of course.

The last tidbit is that we are closing in on finishing the first version of Project Venezuela. We are very excited about this. We will probably be putting up casting notices soon.

Very, very excited.

And, for the record, we have been ordering from Taim lately. REALLY good falafel and sabich.

Over and out.

Pushing Off

2009-01-31T14:34:00.000-08:00

When I take long road trips, the kind where I drone on for 12 hours a day through long stretches of prairie or desert, I often feel that I'm in a plane - a C47 or an Electra - and making long runs from one isolated place to another. We get dusty, my co-pilot Elko and I, the plane gets dirty, we drone on, and eventually we come to a stop for the night, then crank it up again the next day. There are more details to it, but I'll leave it there for now.

I feel a similar analogy now regarding 13BIT, but it's more water-based. If we think of the company as a small boat which has been sitting on the shore, or moored for a month and a half now, that's more like it. The crew has just re-assembled and we have laid out our plans, discussed the charts, the routes, the shoals ahead, the places we may need to take on more crew. We are ready to push off and navigate the waters ahead. It's more accurate than the flying idea, as well, because it's a longer, slower journey, and the expanses are even greater. We are shooting for a spot that we are not even sure exists, or that we certainly don't know the path to at the moment, but we shoving off nonetheless.

Anyway, I'll shut up before I get any more silly than I already am. I have a wedding to go to this evening in Tribecaton.

Nee Hao Ma

2009-01-19T03:33:00.000-08:00

6.5 bits here - writing again from Hong Kong. I have returned from the wilds of Niseko - and I'm still burning from the sulfuric waters of the onsens. And my limbs are burning from tumbling down the mountain on a board. Ok that makes no sense. It is because I am in 13Bit withdrawl - and I am having problems functioning. I am looking forward to finishing the script for Venezuela and for the other new 13bit projects - and for forming a compound and for the recession that will make NY gritty. In asia it is the year of the OX, but globally it is the year of the Bit!

Quick Update

2009-01-16T07:30:00.001-08:00

For all two of our readers.

It's 10 degrees farenheit here at the headquarters compound. Indoors, it's not much more. Elko is snoring under the comforter, waiting to go out. We are leaving soon to a remote location in Brooklyn, site of the Guitar and Amp Wellness Center, which is one of those rare places that will actually service a transistor amp. They did good work on my tube amps; let's see what they can do with this one. Transistor amps have a bad rep, but I predict that they will soon become sought-after and desirable, both for their sonic attributes and for the collectibility. After Great Depression II, at least. For now, they are the abandoned step-children of the amplification world. And I say this as a Fender valve snob.

Anyway, that's what's happening here. Meredith, apparently, is in "the Alaska part of Japan, having a romantic honeymoon, sliding down the mountain on my ass" while snowboarding. That's a fairly accurate paraphrase/quotation. It sounds cool, Big Mer. Don't break your wrist or I'll have to finish typing the script all by myself.

Still no word on her return, but the Command Center should get a signal soon, we believe. In the meantime, we are monitoring the skies and all the usual frequencies.

On another exciting front, we have wooed Cindy J. in from across the pond to collaborate with us on the next, non-movie related project, to be code-named either "Sven" or "Shrunken Viking," depending on what mood Meredith is in when she returns. We are very excited about this, something we have been talking about for two years in those quiet moments between edits. We had a high-stakes meeting at the Cute Mei vegetarian restaurant in Hong Kong and Ms. J jumped on board. We are thrilled.

More as we find out.

13BIT HOLIDAY

2009-01-02T16:48:00.000-08:00

We haven't worked much in a while, even though I like to think that the *possibilty* of work is always there. Today, though, is an official 13BIT holiday.

We are in Hong Kong and today Meredith and Lian get married, so there's no way we're going to get anything done, even though I'd like to think that all life events are potential grist for the mill, and this one may be no different. Who knows, perhaps the next great idea will come to one of us up on the Peak at some point after the ceremony. Maybe that bird circling overhead is the 13BIT muse.

Either way, it's an exciting day and has been an exciting time so far here. Since this blog is devoted to the 13BIT process, there's not much more to say, except "stay tuned."

We officially hope to start up again by February 1st at the latest.

Why blog?

2008-12-28T05:44:00.001-08:00

Maybe it's all a waste of time.

BLOG ALWAYS

2008-12-24T20:16:00.000-08:00

Meredith is currently airborne, on the way to Hong Kong, probably somewhere over the polar cap as I type. I have been airborne for a long time. Well, not really. In fact, I was stranded in the muck for a long time. Another story, though.

I am heading out on Sunday. The shop is shuttered for the time-being, although there is a slight chance we will get some writing done in HK. Since she is about to get married, though, I don't think she'll really have time.

And I may be too busy photographing random stuff in HK to write, as well, so there.

Still, it seems awfully quiet around here. Thank god Elko is doing the caretaker shift while we're both gone. Meredith won't get back till February 1st, as well, so Project Venezuela will not be completed for a while.

All that aside, the script is going very well. A few plot points to hammer out, but we're getting there. Then we cast, then we shoot, then we edit, then we finish, etc. It's nice not having to answer to anybody but ourselves.

2008 has been quite a year. I will be glad to see it gone. And 2009, of course, promises to be an economic bloodbath, with the associated welter of crap that goes along with that. Well, one day at a time, right? That's the only way it can happen.

I will be glad to get on the plane. I will also be glad when cheap, solid state memory replaces hard drivess. One day at a time, right?

Okay, I clearly have nothing else to say.

Later.

Blog Now

2008-12-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

Paul commanded me to Blog.

We are about halfway through writing Venezuela. We have really been picking up steam the last few weeks. The way that it normally works is that we write a scene for about 30 min to 1:30 hrs and then we need 30 min off then we can work again. It is not like post production where we can muscle through 8 hours of edits, color correction sound, on brute force alone.

We have attempted to turn those 30 min breaks into something productive. So, when we remember, we pop in a movie and discuss shots. More often than not though, we just surf the web and buy clothing covered with wax.

Writing is fun.

Paul just brought me a cup of lumia - Golden Monkey. Yummm.

My label is like a snowflake.

Signing In From The Home Base

2008-12-07T20:21:00.000-08:00

No blogging for a while - very bad. My punishment? I am blogging.

Actually, I like to blog. "Project Venezuela" is going well. We are in the creating-something-from-nothing phase, as Meredith puts it. I call it screenwriting, but her description is accurate, as well. It is not difficult for us, and we are grateful for that, but it does consume energy. Unlike most other aspects, even the creative ones such as shooting and editing. Certainly unlike color correction and sound, you cannot just gut it out, lower your head and keep churning through it. With the writing, when we run out of gas, we run of gas for the day and must knock off. We seem to be good for about 2 to three hours each day, which is about one or two scenes, depending on what happens. If I am making this sound dire, it is not. That's actually pretty good. At this rate, we should be in good shape to finish the first draft by late January, taking a 4 or 5 week break for Meredith's wedding. Then, a couple of re-writes while we cast. Then, location-scouting and prep work. Then shooting. Then...oh, hell, I can't give away all the secrets, can I?

Anyway, it's going well. In other news, Elko is asleep on the couch. It's 20 degrees out in Old Gotham. I seem to be the only one in my immediate circle who thinks the Yankees can still take first place.

And I could go on with this exciting litany. I won't, though. I'll just pull out a DVD, maybe, or keep reading "The Fate of Africa," by Martin Meredith, then trek on into the Land of Nod.

Woof.

Fare-thee-well HK

2008-11-12T21:56:00.000-08:00

I am not leaving yet - but I am preparing to leave in 2 days. I still have some odds and ends to take care of, some tscatchies to buy, some massages to have, some fried mutton to eat (YUM!). Today I passed my Series 7, which means that when I get fired it will not be because I failed my series 7. It also means that when 13Bit launches the House of Bit Fund, ahhh - I really dont know what it means for that - (I did not do well on the rules and regulations portion of the exam). However, I really did not think I was going to pass, and when I saw my passing score with all its glory, I gave a yelp and tried to hi - five the proctor. When I left the admin said, she had never seen anyone so happy in the test center.

Well that is how we roll at the House of Bit. Now I cant wait to get back to bitting so the world can experience the greatness that is 13BIT.

Grateful Bit

2008-11-10T07:23:00.001-08:00

I too am grateful for the multi-talented, multi-faceted, creative bit torrent that is Big Paul. I am wrapping up my final week in the Orient - where I have created 16 discount curves, calculated numerous fx forwards, swap rates, cross currency swaps, and basis swaps and other things involving things far removed from actual money.

I am finishing up my week by studying for a finra exam - which I put off for so long that I got an email from compliance. I hate tests.

Hopefully we can mine this for a film. I am homesick f - and sick of Huinese chicken. I want some salad.

I cant wait to order some snice, bourbon street, even pick up some magnolia - Paul - it is all on me - in off balance sheet transactions

Like a breath of clean, Manhattan air...

2008-11-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

It's blog posts such as the one directly below that make me proud and grateful to have Big Mer as my business and creative partner in 13BIT Productions.

There's a lot going on in that dream and, while we don't have a medical plan yet, and certainly not one that covers psychotherapy, I am earnestly looking forward to:

1. Explaining and explicating everything in that dream for you over our next cup of coffee and a muffin from S'nice.

2. Plotting how to mine as much of that dream's material as possible for loading into the Superbitter mill.

3. Getting back to bitting.

I am back in the compound and, whether the fever and phlegm have actually abated or not - and it was truly a blow-your-nose-every-five-minutes kind of plane ride, it is SO GOOD to be back home that I feel better anyway.

Now, I must get to bed with Elko.

Onward!

Blog After Me

2008-11-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

This morning I received an email from Big Paul- telling me to repeat some affirmations and then blog.

I am going to blog about the very strange dream I had last night Years ago I worked for a company called DPG, a production company. It was bought by IDT, the phone company, because the president of IDT wanted to make a movie called Yankee Irving. While I was at DPG/IDT the entire animation staff was outsourced to Canada, and most everyone else was fired. The story of DPG is much more colorful, but it might be in another movie -so I wont go into details.

My dream: Last night I dreamt DPG bought the bank where I work. When I heard that my bank was bought - I quit. But when I realized the bank was bought by my old friends at DPG, I feverishly attempted to get my job back. (I also came to realize that since I had quit, I had forfeited my bonus or severence) This is all in the dream. So I am in this room waiting to talk to someone who can give me my job back and I see all my co workers - who are there to take over the bank. They are all happy to see me. We were all on good terms. Then I start pitching 13Bit movies - and that generates some interest. We start bantering, start discussing making more movies... Then I awoke...

I will be back bitting in less than a week.

Big Phlegm Bird

2008-11-08T06:41:00.001-08:00

I am carefully gathering up my possessions, walking around this hotel room - my prison for the past two days - gingerly, blowing my nose every minute and husbanding my strength for the 12 hour journey I am about to take.

I have had a 102 fever for the past two days and been unable to attend the screenings I came out here for, unfortunately. I am tamping down the temperature with aspirin now and some poor soul is going to sit next to me on the Chicago to Newark leg. If they are as hypochondriacal as I, I truly feel sorry for them in advance. Who knows? Maybe it'll be some hot chick who's into guys oozing phlegm, with blistered noses from too many kleenex, runny eyes and a feverish pallor. Such women must exist, right? Alas, I would not be able to satisfy her forever as I am probably already on the mend.

Anyway, I am about to pack up the rental car, drive the 60 miles to Albuquerque, wait at the airport for the 2.5 hour flight. Wait in Chicago for 2 hours, then take the 2.5 hour flight to NYC and home, aka "Fun City," "Gotham," "Domicile of the Snouted One," and more.

Wish me luck.

The good news is that I will almost certainly be done with my winter cold and ready to finish this screenplay whenever Meredith returns from the far East.

Greetings From the West

2008-11-03T09:37:00.000-08:00

"Fried Rice" used to be my street name. Did I ever tell you that, 6.5?

Well, possibly not, but it sounds cool, doesn't it?

I am in Denver International Airport, waiting on a long layover for the big bird to take me to San Jose and then points south, north, west and east.

I don't love hanging out in airports, but WiFi eases the wait a bit considerable much, as they say in the bayou. Well, possibly not, but it sounded interesting, didn't it?

I wish I could get some fried rice right now, but the only things here are a Quiznos Sub, an Auntie Ame pretzel shot, the everpresent Hudson News - perhaps I should get some Immodium just for the hell of it - a Pizza Hut and some shitty-looking yogurt joint. I think I'll eat in Santa Cruz.

I clearly have nothing to say, except "aloha" and "later."

Fried Rice

2008-10-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

I had some interesting thoughts as I wondered about the streets of Hong Kong. But I forgot most of them, because all I can think about right now is fried rice. Its the other 6.5 here. The vodcasting is not going as well as we thought, because I am having problems getting up early and iChatting with paul. But I am hoping tomorrow things will be different. I am trying to let my mind wander and to absorb the fullness of experience before my senses refract it and my consciousness (mis)interprets it. Tonight I am also trying to watch a preston sturges movie and perhaps Rear Window. I hope I can get to sleep. I have become addicted to buying crap off itunes because it is all .99 or 2.99.

I went hiking this weekend on Lantau Island with a bunch of Swedes and a Dutchman. It was like out of a Bergman movie - Wild Strawberries perhaps - a great road trip movie.

It is lonely out here at the furthest reaches of bit land -but as long as I can hear the gears of the Great Bit crank- my soul is satisfied.

Headquarters Has Received Your Transmission

2008-10-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

And now, 6.5, we are contemplating putting the galactic engines to sleep, closing down the Gravitron Beam and all of the other vital equipment, and taking an extended mission in the OmniTaco Expedition Ship, young Sinbad and I. A few more things must fall into place, then the ionic ice storms pelting down on the middle zones have to ease up, and then, possibly, we can break through the zone and find our way to the western galaxies. We shall see.

In the meantime, nothing has changed here, aside from the occasional piece of bad 13Bit spam or the temptation to indulge in chipatosis. It is strangely quiet here in the orbiting compound. The ghosts of older ideas keep bouncing off the walls, like bats whose sonar has gone bad, but they are pleasant enough company, and await their turn to come to life.

The 13BIT Mailroom may shut down by Friday. After that, we'll attempt to make planet-fall at the Santa Fe System eventually.

Greetings from the Middle Kingdom.

2008-10-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

Hello followers of bit. Meredith here writing from Hong Kong, China SAR. I am here on a super secret mission to prevent the collapse of the asian financial system. Am I too late? Paul and I are trying a new 13bit working method. While I am in HK, Paul is road tripping across the US and we are going to be podcast, vodcasting, and writing for one of our screenplays code named Chow Fun aka Baguette aka not Venezuela. (We are going to continue writing Venezuela when 13Bit is in one room)

Anyway I am taking up Muay Thai kickboxing. And it is going to make me super buff (even more buff than Kung Fu). That will further enable me to eat more cupcakes when 13Bit reunites ... and cupcakes are the fuel of the bit.

Ong Bak

Venezuela

2008-10-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

That is the code name for our current movie. It named after this delicious chocolate venzeulan pudding. The movie has nothing to do with latin america or pudding - that is why it is a code name - a secret code name. It is friday. I am very tired. Paul and I both feel fat - even though we have stopped eating 13bit quesadillas. Back to our secret movie script written with our secret script writing software.

Elko is sitting on my lap - blissed out. His paw is on my arm, is that a sign of dominance.

You owe me a billion dollars

2008-10-01T16:39:00.028-07:00

This was an email that I received from Paul the other day.
"In what?" I queried, "In Credit Default Swaps?"

"No, in film festival submission charges, but you can pay me in swaps."

Paul and I plan to brace for Great Depression 2.1 alpha by squatting in an abandoned WaMu branch, and selling $1 movie tickets.

There will be free bathtub gin, and foods with transfat. Out of work financial workers can sell their bodies in the abandoned cubicles.

Brave New World

2008-10-01T16:39:00.027-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.025-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.023-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.021-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.019-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.017-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.015-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.013-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.011-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.009-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.007-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.005-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.003-07:00

2008-10-01T16:39:00.001-07:00

Madame Chang

2008-10-01T16:26:00.001-07:00

"It's not about dialogue," Madame Grand Dame Finkelchang says in her most imperious tone...

13 Bit Runs on Sugar

2008-09-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

Maybe we already posted that once, but it's worth repeating. 13 Bit runs on sugar.

We have not posted in almost a month. No excuse, but we have been busy. "Game Theory" is out, out of the nomenclature closet, as well - we can officially say that Quesadilla, aka "Not Blavatsky," aka "The System," aka "The Rules of Make-Believe" is now done and has started to enter festival land, where the rules of make-believe really apply. We have high hopes and crossed fingers.

I can hear Meredith over at the other steam-turbine operated workstation, putting her back into the control levers as she paws into the "Lesser Evil" chocolate kettle corn, which leads me to the title of today's post. We have tried for a few days to cut back on cupcakes and other essential fuels of creativity. It is all in vain, though. We need sugar to sustain the flow, Columbia River-like in its majesty, of creativity coming from the mighty industrial-strength dynamos of the Bit Generators. Nothing else gets those massive engines running like a high dose of refined or unrefined sucrose.

We have begun working on - and are both thrilled by - Project Venezuela, aka "Notadoca," aka Empanada, aka Baguette. Finished outlining it, found a cool little web app and are writing the script now.

We are going to have to shut down shop for 4 to 5 weeks soon. I am going out west and Meredith is going east in order to save the western world from financial ruin. We may try video conferencing, but we probably won't be able to write that way. Arguing over dialogue just doesn't have the same impact and resonance via video conference. Either way, we'll brainstorm over phone, Big Mer from Hong Kong and I from Hanksville, Utah, and we will plot out a series of 15 movies that we'll each watch over the month.

I'd like to say we'll blog, and I may blog, but I'll bet that she doesn't. She'll get mad when she reads this, but I don't care - I'm at the keyboard now.

In the short long term? We need to replace one of these old steam turbines, which is getting long in the tooth, and are waiting for them to announce a new model.

Elko says "woof."

Scrubbing is no good

2008-09-02T16:16:00.001-07:00

Paul is trying to dictate to me what to blog. But no man can dictate my blog words. That does not make sense, but then again I a suffering from a mild case of chipatosis.

Today we discovered two things:
1) we went looking for extra sounds (laughing, chair scraping, foley type effects) in our captured clips. When you scrub the clips, often times you miss these important sounds. Therefore you must triple L.

2) Freeze frames are obvious. This came courtesy of our sound guy Greg. At certain points in the picture (really only two), we froze the frame because we did not have enough stable footage. But you know what, you can tell that the picture is not moving. Solution: loop one clip. It works like a charm.

Ok back to sound collection.

"I'm in the rat park..."

2008-09-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

And with that phrase, I always know that another Bitting session is about to begin.

"I don't think we need those middle dots there..."

2008-08-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

So, we're doing sound, if you hadn't guessed already. And we learned something about sound from our awesome new sound guy. He taught us the word "diegetic" and also taught us the proper name of a technique that we've been using for a while: automating sound levels.

We have always called it "dotting," for reasons left unsaid, but all too obvious to anyone who has ever worked in a timeline interface.

Anyway, we are really loving Quesadilla, aka "not Blavatsky," previously called "The System," also called "Gaming the System," briefly known as "The Rules of Make-Believe" or "People Playing Games" and now, finally, officially calle {drum roll}

"Game Theory"

We love you all.

Remembrance of titles lost

2008-08-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of good post titles but we forgot them. Unfortunately we have not remembered them yet.

This is Meredith writing today on behalf of 13 bit. Today we are meeting with Greg the sound guy. Hopefully Greg can fix some of the issues with a few of our clips, such as the echo in the clip of "Clay" talking to "Cory" in the bathroom.

We have also been composing and recording various pieces with the Analog Orchestra as well as a cellist and a pianist.

Hmmmmm - other than that - rendering HD is time consuming, it took us 8 hrs to render the movie yesterday (73 minutes) . Paul is going to build a computing grid.

13Bit is also a group on facebook now, join one join all.

This post is approved by Paulv.

We Do Our Best Work In Two Hours or Less

2008-08-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

From mashup re-edits to complete musical compositions to whole scenes scripted from the ether to monumental, world-beating tour-de-force brainstorms, we do it all, and we often do our best work in two hours or less. Sometimes five minutes or less.

Not to say there is no effort. Those two hours are built upon decades of pain, work and suffering...

That's right.

Just Because It's Bad Doesn't Mean It's Bad

2008-08-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Or, today's lesson in musical aesthetics.

"Just because it's bad doesn't mean it's bad."

"True, it's an aesthetic."

"Then again, maybe it really is bad."

This is how we work

Blog About Anything

2008-08-05T16:04:00.000-07:00

Today BIG MER is at the helm of the super bitter.

"What do I blog about?" I asked Paul. "Blog about anything" Paul replied.

So, today I am going to blog about process...

Project Quesadilla AKA Not Blavatsky is almost complete. Last week was color correction. We discovered Color Finesse and it changed out lives. Although we have to spend hrs rendering the movie. This week is sound. First, we are listening to the recordings that we made of our musicians Amy and Allison. Second, we are going to add the sound to the movie. Third, we are going hiring sound designer to give us a professional sheen.

Then we are done ! Viva Las Vegas (that is from the movie)

You Can't Eat It

2008-08-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

So, it turns out that Meredith and each have this fantasy - one of my many backup plans to living in the desert in a concrete bunker and raising goats with Elko while I am waiting for my mail order bride to arrive - we each have this fantasy of becoming an organic food farmer upstate.

I know, I know, how banal can you get. What kind of sheep are we? Who's reading the New Yorker lately? Yes, I know, but it's a pleasant, escapist thought while enduring the rocks and horrors of life in Manhattan sometimes.

Anyway, I was just mentioning this and Meredith said "It's honest work, at least." in its defense. I countered with "So is what we do," meaning the business of 13Bit. To which she replied, "Yes, but you can't eat it."

Get it?

Anyway, maybe we can go upstate and grow organic films.

Note to selves: A Russian morality play titled "Everybody In My Family Dies of Heart Attacks."

Quotes of the Day

2008-07-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

"Is there an "auto" way of doing this?"

"We're going to search the Bible."

Chipatosis

2008-07-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the mail is your conscience. You make a purchase on the Internet and then forget about it. Then, weeks later, a package arrives or, as happened today, a mountain of boxes arrived via UPS from a mad moment at the 13Bit compound that occurred weeks ago.

We were editing one night and Meredith had a craving for some salty food. Usually, it's sugar that powers the Superbitter engine but, every once in a while, one of us wants something specific. In this case, she was jonesing for a bag of the Hawaiian Sweet Maui Onion potato chips from Tim's Chips that we had eaten for a whole previous year.

A little background - I first discovered these chips on one of my hot spring trips with the mighty Paul S. We had stocked up at the Nugget grocery store in Davis, California. Actually, he had brought them on previous trips for years and I had fond memories of ravenously, greedily eating them with great gobs of fresh guacamole by the side of remote hot springs in Idaho and Nevada. Good memories. How much better does life get than a feast of such delicacies, bottles of water, and a good soak at dusk?

Anyway, that's how I knew about them. I could not find them on the East Coast, though, and had become curious about where I could get them. I also wanted to get some for a cross country trip a year or two ago. So, I found them online (www.timschips.com) and, on a whim, ordered a few boxes. When they arrived, I was a bit horrified because I had not thought about the fact that boxes of potato chips take up a lot of room. So, we began to eat this stuff while we'd edit. And the boxes were bottomless. We had chips coming out of our ears. We gave chips away to people. We had Hawaiian Sweet Maui Onion potato chips available for every shoot for "The System," aka "Not Blavatsky," aka "whatever the fuck we are going to call this movie." Anyway, we had chips for a long time.

And then one day, there were none left and I said a silent "hallelujah" and thanked the Universe that I lived through all those chips and vowed that I would never make the mistake again of ordering potato chips in bulk from the west coast.

Life went blissfully on. We edited. We shot. We kept on bitting.

And then one day, Meredith wanted some chips. I had a weak moment, as well, and decided to order some new ones. I went on line and was barking out varieties to her from the main workstation: "Limon con Salsa?"

"Yes"

"Maui Onion Rings?"

"Yes"

We just went into a chip frenzy, clicked "Buy," and then forgot about it.

Today, I was taking Elko out when the UPS truck stopped in front of the building and the guy ominously said "I have something for you."

He started piling the boxes up in the back of the truck.

I had only bought a hundred dollars' worth of chips, but let me tell you, a hundred bucks goes a long way in the world of wholesale chips.

When Meredith came over, I promptly blamed her for the whole episode, tried to impart as much guilt as possible through special osmosis, then we sat down to work.

20 minutes later, I felt like a chip. Just one chip. Meredith was an easy sell. She wanted a chip, too. So we both walked over to the mountain of chip boxes - a bit warily, I will admit - and we started cutting open boxes in awe.

I will not reveal what two flavors we ended up sampling, but within 20 minutes, Meredith was complaining of the dreaded 13bit Chip Fever.

We are now well provisioned for the end-of-summer writing, post production and test-screening season.

[crunch]

Everything causes dementia

2008-07-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

We are trying to order breakfast before we finish editing Quesadilla, aka "Not Blavatsky," aka "The System," aka "People Playing Games," aka "We haven't decided on the title yet even though we bought a domain name last year."

Anyway, I am off tofu because I don't want kidney stones. Meredith says it causes dementia. She also says it's "the shit part of the soybean." I dispute the latter statement, but I just am off mega soy. Between that and the drugs in the 80's, I have to really preserve my brain cells.

Anyway, I am not going to eat eggs today, either, so it's either some sandwich from S'Nice or something from Rue Bourbon. What does this have to do with making movies? Well, we need fuel to work, right? We need to share process, right? And we believe that everything is grist for the mill, so who knows? One day, we may read this blog post and come up with another film idea from it.

So there.

I'm hungry.

We break every wall

2008-07-14T16:18:00.001-07:00

There is no first, second or third wall in the cinematic universe of 13Bit, let alone some stinking FOURTH wall.

So there.

We love you all.

"I'm feeling very choppy choppy lately..."

2008-07-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

It's a technical editing term that we use - one that we were taught in the film school that we never attended. It's called "choppy choppy," and it's about the art of the chop, or the use of cuts that don't necessarily mirror reality as it happened. "Reality as it happened," though, is a really meaningless term when it comes to motion pictures. Isn't that the whole point, anyway? I mean, isn't it more fun when reality is plastic, when you can mess around with it, when you can alter it to your own best viewpoint? When you can engage in the black art of the choppy-chop?

Anyway, this technical term came up today when we were moving from one scene to the other in "Gaming the System," and we realized that it could also very well be state of mind: [deep British accent] "I'm feeling very choppy choppy today..."

Anyway, that's the idea. I must get back to the cutting because Meredith is trying to do some choppy choppy without my consent here.

Later

13Bit Triumphal Conquest of France

2008-07-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

It has been a month since 13Bit has posted, but what a month it has been. We have been hard at work finishing up Quesadilla, we have started writing our next narrative feature Venezuela, and we have been to the 25th Annual Avignon Film Festival.

Meredith just ran out of gas, incredibly, after two sentences, so I am taking over. Actually, it's not so incredible since we are both a teeny bit jet-lagged, but I got two hours more sleep than she did today and will cut her slack. I have to ask her how Lian is doing.

Anyway, it went well. Shoot, I am now running out of gas. What to say? It was a wonderful place. Jerry Rudes really knows how to put on a good festival - the best part of it, aside from the movies, being the atmosphere he created that put all of us filmmakers together. We did what we so often have been spastic at in the past: we talked with people - "networking," if you really must use that odious modern parlance, but that word really makes it sound like some mechanical, robotic action completely removed from real human interaction. We hung out, made acquaintances, and talked shop. It was a lot of fun and, trite as it may sound, an important part of being any kind of artist - hanging with one's peers. Now my own jet lag is showing, so please excuse the bad English and horrid syntax.

We loved Paris - I forgot how much I loved Paris - and may spend a year there one of these days, making a movie. The south was splendrous, the food was stupendous and the place we rented was a gas. When we were not at the festival, watching films, doing panels, eating at the Cinema Vox Terrace or going to other events, Meredith and Lian sped around Provence in a Citroen sports coupe and I retraced the Tour De France route on my bicycle. Well, almost.

They DID drive around in a Citroen and took magnificent hikes and I did bicycle around Provence on a mountain bike.

Anyway, it was a great time. We didn't do the writing we had planned, but it was a very loose plan and the festival took up all of our creative energies.

Now, we must work. Maybe we'll post photos tomorrow.

"Gravity is a motherfucker."

2008-05-30T14:01:00.001-07:00

It's not what you think it is, this reference.

We're talking about time and space, those intangibles that occasionally manifest themselves in the strangest ways, in this case a bag that, left alone, changes shape. How did we discover this? Well, fix a camera on something, subract some frames from the middle of it, and then see how much that static object has changed.

We're having a good day editing. Always get a lot done when we have big chunks of time to work with. We always get a lot done when we have little chunks, as well. I wonder if the three lunches I ate have slowed down my mind.

On reflection, no justice

2008-05-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about how the bet I made with Meredith two posts down and then clearly won in the previous post, well, that was a one way bet. Meaning, and please excuse all this horrid writing going on here, but I am tired in old South Carolina, meaning that she didn't actually agree to the bet, so why should she pay up?

Well, here's why. Because I am exercising my 50 percent shares in a proxy vote and the tie-breaker, Elko with his single vote, is silently voting with my bloc of shares to enforce the legality of this bet.

Now, I think I'll go watch the Yankees suck in Baltimore and drink some Ultimate Meal crap for dinner.

Man, that Pasita pizza is sure going to taste good.

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm....

Ha!

2008-05-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night, Big Mer.

You owe me a pizza from Pasita whenever you read this.

I am in Columbia, South Carolina tonight and cannot wait to get home and bit.

Meredith is going yachting this weekend, but we'll manage to get some work done, anyway.

To the top!

And I'll take half Champignon and half Margherita, along with a Cremosa salad and one of those little Venezuelan chocolate cups.

You can get whatever you want on the other pizza.

From Abilene, Texas

2008-05-25T18:56:00.001-07:00

Elko, the 13Bit tailgunner, is on the bed. I am, too, after a long, hard day slogging through Texas. Going to take the secondary highways from Dallas on through Louisiana tomorrow in search of the photography thing, kind of thing, you know, dig?

In the meantime, Meredith said she was going to post, but I'll bet I make it home before she posts a thing. In fact, even though she still owes me about 27 13Bit meals in return for film festival entry fees that I paid, I will bet her at least one meal that I will be making the next post here.

We shall see. It is now Sunday night.

"We're on to something..."

2008-05-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

"In brightest day, in blackest night
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power - Green Lantern's Light!"

©DC Comics

Does This Look Like A Camera Bag or a Suitcase?

2008-05-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

Do you really want to know about my day? I will not go into the whole tortured process of how I came to spend half my day indulging in my camera bag fetish - I actually needed this one, though - but I will say this:

The Pelican case looked too much like it was filled with tons of photo equipment. It worked well and fit in the truck seat, plus I'd be able to float away on it if the car ran into a flood on my upcoming road trip, so airtight are Pelican cases. The point is, I didn't want to be checking into 20 crappy motels in a row with a Pelican case, even a Pelican case that looks vaguely military.

So I went in search of a bag, but it had to be a very specific bag, one deep enough to accomodate a very deep still camera. See, I have the perfect bag, but not for the venerable D3.

Long story short: I found one that really works. No wheels, but that's why it works, size-wise. I had a moment of doubt, though, and held it up just now and asked Meredith "Does this look like a camera bag or a suitcase?"

She said "That's a blog post" so, since we hadn't posted yet today, here I sit. This is what we do while we edit.

The Third Click

2008-05-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

It all comes down to fractions of a second. Tiny fractions. Teeny rhythms and changes. Deep into the cutting here and we had a small technical discussion - it was not a dispute or an argument or anything like that - about when a cut should happen. Someone grabs a mouse and then we cut to a shot of something else. The details are unimportant beyond that.

I had a very specific idea on this one. Meredith didn't really care much either way. Sometimes it's the other way around but, in this case, I felt more strongly about it than she, so I told her to cut in on the third click. That's where the actual dispute started. I don't know what planet Meredith learned about clicking on, but I heard five and a half to her three. Anyway, I relented and realized that it was not about what her perception of the click was, but where I thought it ought to be, so I took the ball briefly on this one.

She'll probably have a strong opinion about the next cut.

It's going well.

Are you titling that post?

2008-04-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

Today big Paul is taking the editing wheel and I am back seat editing. Today we are tackling a particularly thorny scene, but I think it is coming together quite well.

When Paul edits he likes to de-link the audio from the video when we replace the audio with a better audio clip. I just mute the audio channel that we are replacing. The de-linking makes me very nervous. And now I think Paul does it just to drive me insane.

Paul says "in english we san unlink not de-link."

Paul's theory is that we are both mentally disabled in different ways and together we form a third way of being mentally disabled.

Another thing you should know out there in blog land is that paul and I insult each other by calling each other by the name of famous directors. Paul is now calling me Alfred - Implying that I am a fat, bald Englishman.

Also I dont understand the reference televisionland - like "Hello to everyone out there in televisionland." Shouldn't the people "out there" be in the real world, while the people on tv are in television land?

As a final note: You can't get Gonorreah from swimming in the Gowanus canal, but you can get polio, from swimming that is.
That is a reference from Quesadilla.

P.S. Gonorreah is the one word that Paul can't spell. I, personally, confuse all STDs with the sea monsters from the Odyssey.

Right, Left, and All Over The Place

2008-04-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

Meredith and I have been having a fascinating discussion about something that I am still trying to understand - why there is a right and a left. Not political sides, but simply a right and a left side.

It would take too long for me to recount here my attempts to understand what she is trying to convey to me, but I do still feel that I am NOT the one here with this particular learning disability. I may very well have others, but not this one. This is actually a very rare and odd condition, not the left and right-handedness thing, but her take on the whole thing, the way she sees it and even feels the need to understand this, as though this is something that can be understood and not felt.

In the backgound, Meredith is singing "montage-rama" to a lovely little melody. The scene is going well and it's another fruitful night here at 13BIT Productions, LLC.

"Stupid and vapid are really different."

2008-04-19T09:30:00.001-07:00

"You can be really smart and still be vapid."

So, we're deep in edit. And you get in these rhythms while editing. It's all part of that overused, over talked-about thing these days called "process."

As such, deep in edit, a few things are going on. Elko is hanging out trying to get attention. The AC is humming, even though it's April, because it's warm out and the massive turbine-operated Macs are putting out many BTU's. The timeline is taking shape, tea is brewing, I am keeping the browsers all turned off - except for this one, of course.

And, as we always do while deep in edit - and this is a good sign of a happy edit bay with good rhythms and a healthy creative flow - we are talking shit as we work. I happened to talk about something - I cannot say what here - and Meredith happened to respond - I cannot say what about here. And we began to have a dialogue about human nature, which is what it often comes back to here in the 13BIT Agora, the temple to all things modern and philosophickal, as they may have said one day in old England while discussing ancient Greece.

I should get back to the editing before she makes some cut that I don't like and I have to straighten things out.

Happy passover, America.

The Master Multitasker

2008-04-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

Meredith can keep her focus like no one else I know. She can be doing clever, daring, fine edits while surfing the web in between breaths.

It is my job, though, to try to keep that great engine of BIT focused, so here in the compound, you will often hear my voice screaming "Shut that browser down...shut that browser down..." to which Meredith responds with a guilty look and then minimizes the browser window with her 55 opened tabs the her Amazon shopping cart holding 1000 unpurchased books, only to surreptitiously open it again if there's half a second of downtime during the editing.

I usually look the other way during this behavior. God knows, I have my faults, too, and she usually overlooks them. Today, though, I am going to shut her down and, as soon as I hit the "Publish Post" button here, I am going to make her actually quit that browser for good.

So there.

Action, whatever...

2008-04-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

We have finally learned to say "action" when we shoot. It didn't come easily. Aside from it being a highly technical term that's difficult difficult to pronounce, we have an innate tendency to rebel against all forms of established process and nomenclature. We don't like conforming to the system, god damn it, even if the system evolved through slow, painful process and is the best way to go. No sireee. We have to discover the wheel ourselves every time.

Not really. We actually embrace prior experience and knowlege, but for some stupid reason, it took us a while to get into the habit of saying "action" before every shot. Clearly a consequence of not having spent a few hundred grand on film school. What failures we are. Ack!

Anyway, early on in the film, the irrefutable tape, the tape that never lies, caught us saying "action, whatever" on one shot. What were we thinking? Were we showing disdain for 100 years of Hollywood? No way. We love Hollywood.

Were we being lazy? Never! We are not lazy.

Were we being bogus? No comment.

Everything Kills You

2008-03-31T16:04:00.001-07:00

I just made the mistake of mentioning to Meredith the latest scare study that I saw, the one that came out from an "award-winning" cancer specialist that says cell phone usage is more dangerous than smoking or asbestos, that says it will give you brain tumors in ten to twenty years.

Meredith is almost as much of a hypochondriac as I am, which is saying a lot, so she instantly latched onto it. She's already been worried about her multiple imaginary fatal illnesses, something she'll probably be doing well into her nineties, so this is just another straw, not the one that breaks the camel's back, but one that bends it just a little bit further.

Anyway, we are digging being in the timeline again. The editing is going really well. Some festival action on Lumia and a Miracle Quesadilla is on the way over as I type. Life is good.

Women Do Not Sleep With Guys in Reggae Bands

2008-03-29T15:49:00.002-07:00

Meredith was just telling me that I should start playing out with my band. We are ready to play out, but we haven't yet and that's another story. How did we end up on this topic? I was talking about maybe dating again, but wondering where you meet somebody in NYC, the eternal question, I know.

So she said we should play out, to which I responded "I played out a lot with the reggae band in the late 90's. We toured around, I played at S.O.B.'s. I never met anbody." She said that women do not go with guys in reggae bands. They don't have groupies. Tell that to Bob Marley. Oh, "unless you're Bob Marley," she chimes in.

Anyway, that is something up to the universe. How does this relate to "The System," aka Project Quesadilla, aka Project HH NOT Blavatsky? Well, it means that we have the time to talk shit while we're going through outtakes, and THAT means that we're in the timeline, and THAT means that we're editing, which is a good thing. We love to edit. Anyway, that's the deal. Shooting is almost finished. We are editing like fiends for the next 6 weeks, taking a short break, then editing and doing music - in conjunction with our celebrity guest super band, and we should be done with this killa flick by 9/1, which is my birthday, which is also, by coincidence, the day that WWII started.

Women

2008-03-29T15:49:00.001-07:00

The Selling Is The Art

2008-03-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

Ran into my old friend, Katoukas, last night, and we had long chat on a stoop on Christopher Street.

I won't go into all that we covered, but I told him about how Meredith and I love to make stuff, but we need to work more on pushing ourselves.

He said "The art is in the selling, my dear."

We are meditating on that every day for three months.

The Iron Goddess Of Nausea

2008-03-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

We are blogging again. Alert the media. Have a parade. It had gotten to the point that we were either going to write again or never write again. Such is the rust in the gears of the creative process that, when you reach this point, you must either pour some liquid wrench on the gears and force your aching bones up into the tractor seat or forever hold your peace and let your voice just fade from the blogosphere of discourse forever.

We don't want that to happen, so we'll call this past two months a break and just never let it happen again.

Actually, when I look at it, there was a death in my family, Meredith went away, and other life events *did* conspire to prevent us from writing, but that is never an excuse. Anyway, enough snivelling.

What does this title mean?

We are drinking the old faithful Yunnan Black again tonight, the tea that always does the job, the tea that's up on the tea billboard in the 13Bit Parking Lot. The tea that don't stop working, yo. We were reminded of our period of drinking Tikunan Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong Tea and our discovey, confirmed by Tia, that it is a nausea inducer. I suppose that there are some uses for such a tea, but I can't think of any at this moment. Tia says that Japanese models drink it to stay thin. I would think that there are other ways to stay nauseous, but every culture has its thing, doesn't it?

The other thing about coffee, according to my dentist, is that it doesn't stain the teeth at all, whereas tea, well, you know what tea does. And what does Meredith say to this? She says:

"I don't care. I want old, black nasty teeth and I'm going to keep drinking tea."

And to that, I say "amen."

We are also big-time into coffee again here. Anyway, I have to go make another post. See you in a minute.

I'm shushing myself

2008-01-24T16:49:00.000-08:00

Tonight we are putting some finishing touches on the script for one of our scenes. Paul was on a roll, typing up a storm, and insulting my spelling of pyjamas. Which he said I spelled like "an old british fart." I was trying to capture the indian heritage of pyjama in the spelling of pyjama. Anyway Paul cannot write when I talk, where as I merely ignore Paul's talking when I write. So I started sushhing. "Dont sush me!" he said.

Not too worry, I'm sushing myself.

I could not care less...

2008-01-20T14:04:00.000-08:00

We are having a discussion about English usage. I love these philosophical discussions that we have.

I could care less...

I could not care less...

We present, you decide...

How to focus on an imaginary object

2008-01-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

Paul posed this question as we were creating our shot list for the next shoot in quesadilla. We cant elaborate on why we need to focus on an imaginary object, but doesn't it pique your interest?? Don't you want to go and see Quesadilla??? After returning refreshed from our winter hiatus, 13Bit has been hard at work since wednesday preparing for the remainding Quesadilla shoots. Paul needs to watch Boccaccio70. I have never heard about it - but its supposed to be brilliant. So I am going to watch it too.

We also need to tie up some lumia loose ends.

I need to go now because paul is distracting me with questions.

A sighting!

2008-01-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

Ah yes, M has surfaced, if briefly, from her expedition. We only retrieved the previous post with great difficulty. It bounced around in the ozone layer and, despite some bad atmospherics and interference from Galactic Command's big rigs, we pulled it in and routed it to the Bit Board. It seems straightforward enough, but we think there is a coded message in there.

Anyway, the perimeter here is quiet. Elko Bit and I may make an inspection tour of the moat now. Time to saddle up.

Ola

2008-01-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

Ola from Patagonia - where the the water in the toilets revolve in an opposite direction to that in NY. I wonder if where in the equatorial region this change takes place?

I am hard at work on my non proliferation of bad art treaty. But I am taking a break to do some trekking - so I am going off the grid - again/

I would write more but I being hustled off the computer.

Life After Bit

2007-12-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

Well, not really; there is no life after Bit. But there is life between bitting, which is what I'm doing at the moment. Getting lost in Brooklyn and the Bronx each night on photo missions. Catching up on long-lost writing. Reading, watching movies every night, getting my truck equipped with a deer bumper. I'll tell you what that means some other time.

And Meredith, from what I'm reading on the news wires and garnering from my sources in La Paz, Asuncion and Santiago, is brokering a global bad art non-proliferation treaty, doing rain forest research and putting out those damn fires in Tierra Del Fuego. Quite a handful, but not for a superbitter.

I am keeping the furnace stoked and the windows clean here at the House of Bit, and we resume operations in mid-January.

I must go now and take my shift at the watchpost in the Old Bit Tower.

"Death by Pizza"

2007-12-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

Oh my god, I think I'm going to die. This pizza made me sick. I think I'm going to need ten Tums.

Yes, this is the last day of "Food Month On The House of Bit."

One of us decided she wanted pizza tonight. One of us had already planned on getting pizza, so it seemed like the thing to do.

The pizza arrived - a medium pie from 2 Boots, half Tony Clifton and half Mild Margherita.

We ate with gusto, then resumed working. We were writing a scene tonight. Eventually, one of us seemed to feel sick, and declared it to be so. The night ended.

This will be the last food post for a while. Monday is our last day of work until mid-January.

"Donuts have given me power..."

2007-12-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

There are many other titles we could have used the past few days, but they were all too offensive or politically correct, so we are going with the latest twig that we just yanked from the stream of Bit consciousness.

A discussion on the relative caloric content and damage of certain foods - I arguing that pizza is light, Meredith arguing that donuts are good for you - has led to this "Donuts have given me power."

I do not doubt that, six and a half. I do not doubt that. But let me tell you, donuts can kill. I have seen it with my own eyes.

Anyway, here's an update:

Quesadilla, aka Not Blavatsky, is going really well. We pulled a fast one on a Turkish Grill owner the other day. Not really, but it sounds good, doesn't it? We had two great shoots the other day. Also, and this feels right, we are about halfway through shooting and are already thinking about our next project.

We are getting better by the second and are very excited, beyond very excited, about the next project, to be code named Nashville for reasons we will disclose one day. The Bithaus will be closing up shop for three weeks so that we can rest and rejuvenate, Meredith in the pampas and me in the hinterlands. Then we will reconvene in mid January, complete shooting The System, begin to edit and do the sound, then start writing the next great thing.

We also want to get going again with another doc. We may have some festival news soon on Lumia, too. More on that in January, hopefully.

"Paul, you cannot judge the fear of dogs..."

2007-12-16T10:21:00.001-08:00

I wanted to keep getting the process down here, on virtual paper for posterity, but we have been so busy that it has just been intermittent. I have left out the part about the Turkish Kebab place owners and their rapid acquience to our shooting request - more on that Tuesday; I have left out the part about the Israeli fabuloso store owner who took us into his heart and sold us his book, his CD, his DVD and his personalized line of towels; I have left out the part about the store owner on the Lower East Side who wanted to see our insurance. There is much I have left out, but I wanted to share today's process in the brief time I have before we have to set up the camera.

I was wondering whether or not the actor coming over was scared of dogs - we had one audition for us who was scared of Elko - and Meredith said she was not that one. I said, "but look at him..." and Meredith said "Paul, you cannot judge the fear of dogs..."

We have totally reconfigured this place for a shoot and it looks good. With time, anything is possible.

More later.

"I would be a much nicer person if I had not gone to summer camp."

2007-12-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

I won't tell you which one of us said that - although I will admit that I never went to camp - but this is the kind of amazing nugget that comes up when you are deep in the zone.

We are doing a shot list for the next scene, the next shoot. It doesn't matter what shoot, it's *our* next shoot and it will be fabulous. We are working on shots, discussing, debating angles, what order we will shoot in, what happens during each take, what dialogue goes where and how much we get in each take. This is difficult, but actually very satisfying. It's, dare I be that trite, our roadmap.

Anyway, we are doing it now and just took a break to talk about things. One of us started to talk about time going faster the older one gets, and the other one was agreeing, leading to a story about "color wars" at camp. "Race wars?" "No, color wars."

Anyway, one thing leads to another and a story illustrates the point. And somewhere during the course of that story is the offhand comment about how "I would be a much nicer person had I not gone to summer camp." It's like life, you know? These little stories are all we have to share with each other on our pathtic, magnificent, brief fling upon the rapidly disintegrating planet. Shall I tell you about the Amazon?

December - The Day Before Pearl Harbor Day

2007-12-06T10:17:00.000-08:00

I am at school. I am "teaching." I am not slacking off because my students are working on their finals and I am typing this in between jumping up and helping them put out their fires. So I am doing this while on call. Had to get that out of the way first.

Meredith was waxing eloquent and philosophical the other day in a cab on the way to the shoot on Allen and Delancey. We had just consumed a whole Tony Clifton pizza between us from 2 Boots and I was talking about the horror of it all. She sincerely and vociferously defended pizza as a food, as a snack, as a cure-for-what-ails-you, and as a way of life. She meant it. She said some brilliant things, but I did not have time to transcribe them verbatim, a la Herodotus, so they are lost forever. No mind, the thought was enough, and I was privileged enough to have witnessed it.

The shoots are going well. The outdoor one was not perfect - it was very cold and the light was poor - but we can re-purpose that. The other ones have been going really well and we are excited as we begin to cobble together this, our first real narrative feature.

We are running ourselves to the bone. We are solving problems right and left - audio issues, post-production workflow issues, people issues and we are now in the tiring, but immensely satisfying shooting process. We feel grateful to be living the dream, as a little dog whispered the other day in front of the abandoned Gristedes.

More later. We love you all.

Social Networking Sites Make You Fat

2007-11-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

I am not going to elaborate, but we have conclusive scientific proof. Really. No shit. Truly. we do.

We are not fat, but we are concerned about the state of the world.

Other koans from the House of Bit:

"The sooner we become dated, the sooner we are classics."

"I have peed everywhere."

"Fuck MySpace."

Where do these sayings come from? And where are they going?

We have our theories.

Tumultuous, busy productive days in the Bithaus. Continuing to write. Getting the script into shipshape. Dealing with details of shooting, sound and logistics, in general.

Just went out location-scouting in Central Park. It was a successful mission. We found a sufficiently sylvan spot. Almost alpine in aspect.

(Meredith is now saying "there really is too much shit on the internet." she is mutting "techno tranny slut...oh god..."

Anyway, we are off to give a script to Sean.

Back later.

"Budgets are for people who have cash flow."

2007-11-21T09:57:00.001-08:00

Meredith and I were just talking about the mechanics of filmmaking, how filmmaking is taught these days, and how WE make films.

We don't get caught up in things like detailed treatments and budgets. Not that we don't lay things out, not that we don't make plans, not that we are not responsible with our time, our ideas or our money.

But we don't sit about wasting time making detailed budgets. If we were perennial grantseekers, perhaps, but we're not. We are, at the present time, low-budget filmmakers who finance ourselves. If we need equipment, we buy it. If we were to hire someone to do field sound, well, we'd hire them. We don't need to lay it all out on paper.

We save our spreadsheets for things like casting, scheduling, how Meredith and her boyfriend are going to plan their Thanksgiving meal like a military campaign - THESE are the things that we use spreadsheets for.

Not minor things like budgets.

How many "No's?"

2007-11-17T14:30:00.001-08:00

There should be two nos - no three nos - no two nos. no no no. no no. This is a very important discussion paul and I were having as we were editing the script for Quesedilla.

Then we had another debate concerning three nos versus four nos. no no no no, no no no. The devil is in the details.

As I am writing this post, paul thinks that he can go and edit the script without me. But I see what he is doing, and I'm on to him.

Next to my mouse is my totemic advil. This week I was able to make a trip to the American Museum of Natural History, I've not been there since 95. I went to one of my favorite rooms - the room with the totem polls - I think it is called the Indians of the North Western US. I dont know - something like that. There is also a massive canoe in the adjacent room (go listen to m14a podcast #3 to learn more about the m14a planned podcast on canoes).

Anyway totem polls. What would the thirteen bit totem poll look like? Who is the 13 bit totem animal? Would paul and I have different totem animals and then 13 bit would also have a totem animal? These are all questions for the 13bit creation story which has not yet been posted.

Back to quesadilla.

A Love of Spreadsheets

2007-11-13T16:48:00.000-08:00

"You know, it's not always easy working for the man, but it's given me a love of spreadsheets."

What can I say?

It has come to this. Actually, the 13BIT machine is very lucky that The Big M has a "love of spreadsheets," as they used to say in the old country.

This film has come to rely MUCH more heavily on lists, organization and logistics than your average documentary. There's something very hunter/gatherer about a documentary. You go out and hunt down your assets; you collect them into your bushels for the long winter of editing that you know lies ahead. You subsist on those assets and bits of information, possibly gather in a few more as you go, then you are done. Organization is limited to folders, some lists, a few databases, and bins of tangible - well, tangible-digital - things.

This narrative feature thing, on the other hand, is...how can I describe it? It's a little more like an organized assault on a grand idea. No, that's not good. It's a lot of spreadsheets so far. Well, it's a lot of cross-referenced tables, some of which I don't understand, but which I completely trust Meredith to translate for me when needed. It's organization in a discrete compartment - creativity in a discrete compartment - technical execution in a discrete compartment - dealing with people in a discrete compartment. What does this sound like? I am suddenly brain dead and cannot say. Perhaps the next post.

This also brings up the symptoms of my early Alzheimer's, which I won't discuss now, but it's pretty amazing the stuff I cannot remember.

Anyway, we found our dwarf. We now need a sound person.

Back to the pits.

"God, I loved this game as a child..."

2007-11-06T15:50:00.000-08:00

"It's, like, the greatest game ever."

Meredith is not yet drooling or hunched over in a rubber room - another bloody casualty of life in the financial sector - but I am worried nonetheless.

"God, I love this game so much."

She is watching some youtube clip of a ten minute run through all the levels of Super Mario Bros.: Lost Levels, and sort of drifting into an early senility before my very eyes.

I know she'll snap out of it. I know she'll come back to earth. I know that, as soon as the quesadillas arrive from Miracle Grill, we will begin working on Project Quesadilla and writing.

For now, though, she is a shell of her former self.

More later.

"It's not nihilistic, it's realistic"

2007-10-30T10:54:00.001-07:00

Advice I just had to give someone about a professional situation. Actually, that wasn't the advice, it was a defense of the advice, which was "Just keep telling yourself it doesn't matter," to which the reply was "That's so nihilsitic."

What does have to do with 13BIT Productions LLC?

Well, nothing and everything. But that doesn't matter right now.