Social Networking Sites Make You Fat

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."

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?"

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

"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..."

"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.