I was told to blog.

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.

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.

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.

House of Bit Dusts Itself Off For Bitness

We only have two days to work this week - between my return and Meredith's annual 4th of July mega-bash, which has menu preparations like I have never seen before - we will not really get up a good head of steam until next week, BUT, that being said, the Bit House is open and we are preparing for the summer season.

We are using these two days for our show at S'nice, which features truly gorgeous, large-format prints on canvas. We entered "Video Out" into another festiva because we would love to go to Greece this December. We are planning and plotting on the "Lumia" end-game, the final shoot which we decided we must do in order to streamline the film, then one quick shoot at the Whitney.

Then we finish editing, do the color correction, sound and titles, the endless PR and promotional preparations, then hit the festival circuit. It's a mundane part of the business, but it's satisfying in its own way.

And after that, we begin the narrative feature.

On The Road

Oh how I miss the House of Bit.

We, the people of Bitland cannot live happily without our great, esteemed, benign Bit, the great entity that shines on our lives and illuminates all the dark corners of our otherwise meager corporeal existence. The desert is nothing compared to Bit. The sky is small with no Bit. The mighty Pacific is a puddle next to Bit.

My tribe - all two of us out here - prays for a safe return to the Land of Bit.

Great Bit Gods, please grant us safe passage back through these mighty States of America as we make our way home to the House of Bit!

Down the River

Meredith is somewhere in the Grand Canyon right now. The House of Bit is shuttered for the High Bit Holidays and I leave in a few days.

It is hot outside, but cold in the House of Bit right now. The air is musty and a cold wind is blowing through the small slats in the window at the top of the spire on the west side of the building, the one that faces west, across the Hudson.

In the distance, a pair of ravens that once followed me back from the desert are making their cawing sounds. They want to travel out west again. I will oblige them.

We will have one brief board meeting over the weekend - possibly - and then the Bit Booster Rocket will launch me and Elkobit Fuzzbot into the stratosphere, to return and resume full operations at the end of June.