Sunday, December 28, 2008

Why blog?

Maybe it's all a waste of time.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

BLOG ALWAYS

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.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Blog Now

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.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Signing In From The Home Base

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.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Fare-thee-well HK

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.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Grateful Bit

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

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Like a breath of clean, Manhattan air...

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

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

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.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Greetings From the West

"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."

Monday, October 27, 2008

Fried Rice

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.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Headquarters Has Received Your Transmission

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.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Greetings from the Middle Kingdom.

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

Friday, October 3, 2008

Venezuela

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.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

You owe me a billion dollars

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

Madame Chang

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

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

13 Bit Runs on Sugar

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."

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Scrubbing is no good

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.

Monday, September 1, 2008

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

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

Saturday, August 23, 2008

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

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.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Remembrance of titles lost

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.

Monday, August 11, 2008

We Do Our Best Work In Two Hours or Less

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.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

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

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

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Blog About Anything

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)

Monday, August 4, 2008

You Can't Eat It

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."

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Quotes of the Day

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

"We're going to search the Bible."

Monday, July 21, 2008

Chipatosis

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]

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Everything causes dementia

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.

Monday, July 14, 2008

We break every wall

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..."

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

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

13Bit Triumphal Conquest of France

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.

Friday, May 30, 2008

"Gravity is a motherfucker."

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.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

On reflection, no justice

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!

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.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

From Abilene, Texas

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.

Friday, May 23, 2008

"We're on to something..."

"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

Friday, May 9, 2008

Does This Look Like A Camera Bag or a Suitcase?

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.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

The Third Click

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.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Are you titling that post?

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.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Right, Left, and All Over The Place

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.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

"Stupid and vapid are really different."

"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.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The Master Multitasker

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.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Action, whatever...

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.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Everything Kills You

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.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Women Do Not Sleep With Guys in Reggae Bands

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

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The Selling Is The Art

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

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.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

I'm shushing myself

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.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I could not care less...

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...

Saturday, January 19, 2008

How to focus on an imaginary object

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.

Monday, January 7, 2008

A sighting!

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.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Ola

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.