The love is gone

There is no more spark. The gas has run out. I've got no drive for it.

Today I was going to work on my second Callaway Golf Ad for Poptent. But I just don't see it happening. I had it in my head and it seemed like a great idea, but I'm just not feeling it anymore. I never want to work on anything I'm not 100 percent into. I've worked on so much crap in the past and projects that didn't stimulate me, that I'm at a point now where if I don't feel it, then I don't do it. Even if it is for paying jobs. If my only motivation is the paycheck then it's really not worth it to me.

Money comes and goes, and yes these are "tough times" apparently, but I'm not so strapped for cash that I'll just do anything creatively despite how I feel about it. I've passed up plenty of projects in the last few years, paying projects, simply because my heart just wasn't into it. A certain monster movie comes to mind. A few years back, very wealthy man who was into this particular monster, wanted to hire me to shoot his script about said monster. Getting paid to direct is always the goal for me, but not when the script is this bad. Try watching Meatballs and Aliens back to back in reverse, while listening to a Toby Keith album and you'll get the basic feel of this script.

It's why I stopped doing weddings and depositions. Weddings are lovely, but to shoot one is such a pain. Dealing with carzy Brides and Moms, haggling with the photographer for the best spot, and then having to relive the entire thing over and over in editing. Depositions are worse, because it's just point and shoot for long drawn out dialogue about mind numbing details. Depositions are almost as bad as shooting a catholic wedding. Long and boring. Very much like watching Titanic, in reverse, with the sound off. (I don't know where I'm going with these "watching in reverse" references, just bare with me.)

So I try to choose to work on things that I am passionate about. I've got a few VLOGS that I'd like to produce. I've got Tadcast, Jim Beam, and Stella Artois submissions to think about, as well as the usual Poptent Assignments. But right now, I just want to work on Monster Cops.

I'm quite happy with the great feedback I've been getting for the vids being posted so far, so I'm anxious to get a ton more shorts/webisodes up. And I'm anxious to get the next 4 10 to 20 minute episodes up and out to venues and fests.

There is one particular webisode I want to do, but it sorta breaks my rules. I'm very big on originality. Meaning everything I make, I make. I shoot it, I cut it, and I compose all the music. Sure we'll pay an homage to something, make references, and borrow classic comedy bits, but for the most part the material is original, especially the music. I always cringe when I watch video contest submissions where the rules strictly prohibit the use of copyrighted material and there's a video using music from The Dark Knight or Pirates Of The Caribbean. I make my own music and I never want to use anyone else music unless I can pay for it.

Now if you're doing a spoof or a vlog where you're not making any money off it, then I think it's perfectly fine and falls under Fair Use. But for shorts trying to compete or make money, it's a big no no. With that said, I have this great idea for a Monster Cops webisode that features a very popular copyrighted song. I want to see it happen so badly I'm considering actually producing it. Sure YouTube may take it down, and we may not be able to sell it on the DVD, but it's just one of those things that's just gotta be done. At least it'll be online for folks to see. It should survive Vimeo, Metacafe, and Myspace and you'll definitely be able to see it at Monstercops.com.

I shall ponder this some more. Gonna go work on a Monster Cops Short and check on my pot roast, then I think I shall get on the recumbent bike. LOL. Recumbent. I dunno why that word makes me laugh.




----------------
Now playing: Craig Armstrong - PM's Love Theme -Craig Armstrong
via FoxyTunes

Putting It All Together

I've been busting my ass trying to submit to as many Video Contests and Assignments as possible. I was pretty successful last year making videos for XLNTADS/Poptent, as well as Metacafe, and ExpoTV. So far this year I've submitted and got Honorable Mention for the Acer Aspire One Netbook Contest. Finished and submitted my ad for Callaway Golf Diablo Promo. Currently I'm working on another Callaway Golf Ad and thinking about Tadcast.

I was working on submitting my Archangel action trailer to Bigstar.TV's Action Short Contest, but it's due this Saturday and I'm a minute short. So I won't be making that one happen.

My apologies to Chris Plouffe. He's been a major supporter of my work and he's lent us the use of his office so many times. The last time we shot we ended up breaking his window. We were going to fix it, but apparently it wasn't fast enough for the owners. They've told him to move out by next week. Chris, I am immensely sorry we got you kicked out of your office. Indie Movies successfully destroys yet another location. Again, so sorry Chris. I feel bad about it.

I am working on those contests above as well as others. Also writing a couple of shorts and working out a possible feature. And as usual, I've been working on my baby, MONSTER COPS.

The main goal as it stands is to just keep producing as many shorts (5 minutes of less) and episodes (10 minutes or more) posting them at monstercops.com, and just continue to get the word out about it as I try to get my vision for it produced. I feel strongly about it, and if I had the right budget I know I could produce an amazing feature film out of it AND get it distributed.

I've got the entire process and agenda mapped out on how to produce, distribute, and market a feature film for less than $400,000 and make the money back. So lemme just pull that out of my ass and we can get to work on it. But seriously, I know it's a rough economic landscape right now, but I also know I still see alot of people out there still spending money. Perhaps raising money for an indie film may not seem feasible, but I know it's possible. But all I can do right now is work on making monstercops.com as great as I possibly can. Keep producing good material, getting it out in front of people, and hoping that people like what they see and will want more. Like old Harry Anderson use to say:

If you give em a good enough show, the people will be more than happy to pay the price of admission.

So that's where I'm at right now. Working the day job, working on making more videos for money, and working on Monster Cops. So far so good.

Here's the semi-new intro for Monster Cops. It's actually the old vid recut to include some new shots and old clips from The Midnight Special. To me it's a little bit closer to what I see Monster Cops as. Action, Horror, RealityTV, mixed with Comedy. I'm hoping to achieve more and more of those things with each short and episode.

Honorable Mention

So as expected, I did not win the Aspire One Contest. Just wasn't getting the views, and comments. But I am glad that the top 3 videos that won, were some that I liked a lot and I felt actually deserved to win.

And as a nice gesture, my video was featured as an Honorable Mention. Although there are no prizes for honorable mention, it is a great honor just to have my work recognized. So thank you so much to ACER for the opportunity to compete. I live for video contests! And congratulations to all the winners and my fellow honorable mentionees. I felt everyone got what they deserved, especially those that worked hard and used true creativity for their videos.

Here's a list of the winners and honorable mentions:
http://www.wantonecontest.com/video_contest_winners.aspx

And just for the heck of it, here's my video for the Acer Aspire One Netbook Contest, ALIENS and COW LIPS.

Yup, Another One.

So I cut together another video for the Aspire One Promo Contest. This time with the help of Brandon White and Chris Plouffe.



Go to the YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIu9CBaO0Ko
Please spread it around, rate it high, and watch it alot, oh yes and leave a comment.

First Contest of the Year

So here we are, back in the contest saddle again. This time it's for Acer's Aspire One Netbook Contest. A prize package that includes cash and a Netbook of course.

Check it out here: http://www.wantonecontest.com/

You do the usual, look over the rules, figure out what you can and can't do, then come up with an idea. Acer's basic idea is just make a vid/ad about the Aspire Netbook and get as many views, ratings, and comments as humanly possible.

For some reason the Alien Conspiracy idea popped into my head and I figured it would be fun to play with animation again.

Threw together a bunch of drawings and graphics mainly using Inkscape and MSpaint and did all the animating in Sony Vegas. I did all the voices and most of the sound effects. So I hope everyone likes it.

As I said, it's all about the views, the ratings, and the comments, so if you wanna help, check out the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anq2rVoBLbM and watch and rate highly.






Watch it now:

Last Chance

Gotta stay in the top three through midnight tonight. So if you please. Register and vote for Monster Cops "Wolf Hunt".

Master Of The Macabre

I entered the Wolf Hunt video into Project Breakout's Master Of The Macabre, horror video competition. If you get the chance, please click on the banner below, register, and vote for Monster Cops. You get 15 votes a day, so if you wanna vote 15 times everday for Monster Cops, I'm not gonna complain.



Click here to see the video.

Monster Cops Series First Look

Here's the first few minutes of the 22 minute Monster Cops Episode 1, condensed into short form. This is the Lycan scene then the show intro.

From Crackle: Monster Cops Intro

XLNT ADS AMAZING PITCH 2

Xlnt Ads had this great idea to have a contest to see if they could find a really great pitch or trailer for a web series. And guess who got a runner up prize?

Yup, that's right, MONSTER COPS.

Monster Cops got a $500.00 prize as well as the possiblity to get sponsors to help fund future episodes. Awesome. Really I was just aiming for the $500.00.

See the XLNT Ads blog about it.

Check out the Video that was submitted yourself.

Contest Round Up #453

What better way to hone your skills than submitting to a contest. get some practice in while giving yourself a chance to win cash and prizes. Some of these are kinda cutting it close on the deadline, as usual. I've put them in order of deadline, as usual. If you know of anymore then by all means comment and let us know.


Ourstage (of course)
Deadline: On going
http://www.ourstage.com/go/video?gclid=CIHF35nw540CFSgRGgodYHnf0Q


Psoriasis Cure Now Video Contest
Early Bird Deadline: 8/15/07
http://www.psoriasis-cure-now.org/contest/


Best Buy Youtube Tech-U-out Contest
8/18/07
http://www.youtube.com/contest/TechUOut

IFC's Assassins Creed Short Film Contest
Deadline: 8/20/07
http://medialab.ifc.com/content.jsp?pg=assassin_s_creed.html


Jumpcut and Butterfinger's “Battle of the Balls” Video Contest
Deadline 8/21/07
http://www.jumpcut.com/groups/detail?g_id=30A18AA624F511DC8AB3000423CF385C&fudd=


Project 86 Make Your Own Video Contest!
Deadline: 8/24/07
http://www.youtube.com/group/project86contest


Mobile Video Rockstar
Deadline: 8/31/07
http://www.namethatmusicvideo.com/?pg=contest


SuperMediaStore Video Contest
Deadline: 9/14/07
http://www.youtube.com/group/SuperMediaStore


XLNT ADS PARTICIPATING BRANDS CONTEST
Deadline: 9/15/07
This is actually about 8 different contests. Go to their site and click on anyone of the "participating brands" to the left.
http://www.xlntads.com/


FairVote Democracy Video Contest
Deadline: 9/28/07
http://www.fairvote.org/upgradedemocracy/enter.php


10 Day Take 2
Deadline: 10/4/07
http://www.ziddio.com/contest.zd?dispatch=landing&contest=25


Psoriasis Cure Now Video Contest
Regular Deadline: 10/10/07
http://www.psoriasis-cure-now.org/contest/


Videomaker Short Video Contest
Deadline: 10/31/07
http://www.videomaker.com/blog/2007/07/318-videomaker-short-video-contest-is-under-way


I'll repost as I find out about them. Always got my ear to the ground.

Contest Roundup 23

Updated May 31st, 2007

Ok so it's not actually the 23rd time I've posted a Contest Roundup, but it sure feels like it. As usual these are posted by order of dealine. Deadlines are in ( ).
If I hear of more contests within the next few weeks, I will update this post, otherwise I'll just post Contest Roundup 32.


Acceptable TV
(Rolling Deadlines)
http://acceptable.tv/

Briobox $50,000 Contest
(Rolling Deadlines)
http://www.briobox.com/index.php

OurStage Video Contest
(Monthly Deadlines)
http://www.ourstage.com/go/vidopp

IGFDN Vegas DVD COntest
(Soon)
http://www.igfdb.com/news.php

Nintendo Short Cuts
(June 6th, 2007)
Create a three-to-five minute film incorporating Nintendo
http://www.nintendoshortcuts.com/

John Woo's Stranglehold
(June 25th, 2007)
Write, produce, and direct your own short film tribute to John Woo of no more than 2-1/2 minutes.
http://www.myspace.com/strangleholdgame

Bytecaster Video Presentation Contest
(June 29th, 2007)
http://www.bytecaster.com/contests/presentation/index.aspx

Mr Clean Scenes
(June 30th, 2007)
http://www.mrcleanscenes.com/mrclean/en_US/mclanding.do

XLNTads Contest
(June 30th, 2007)
http://www.xlntads.com/contest/

Comedy Central/Atom Films Test Pilots
(July)
Your TV pilot can download you five grand and maybe even your own development deal. Your pilot must be between one and five minutes in length and be a maximum file size of 100 MB.
http://www.comedycentral.com/events/test_pilots/index.jhtml

Heinz Top This TV Challenge
(August 6th)
http://www.topthistv.com/

One Minute Film Festival
(September 1st, 2007)
http://www.minutefilmfest.com/2007/home.htm

Call For Entries

Washington, D.C.'s Horror Film Festival ~ YEAR LONG EXPOSURE!

Friends of “The Spooky Movie” on MySpace can pay the following discounted fees for their shorts or features:

$15.00 – First Look (June 8)
$20.00 - Early (July 6)
$25.00 – Deadline (August 3)
$30.00 – Extended (August 24)

The 2007 Spooky Movie Film Festival is looking for horror, sci-fi, fantasy, fan films, thrillers, slashers, monsters, chillers, comedies with a morbid or odd bent, grindhouse, and even documentaries and animated work. Shorts and feature length - indie, underground and experiments! Send them on in!


THE 2007 SPOOKY MOVIE FILM FESTIVAL

Funny Or Die

I'm loving these new rash of sites that are forcing you to choose between the good videos and the crap. I love Youtube and all, but since they accept everything submitted you have to dig through alot of crap to find what you're looking for, or to even find something decent.

Especially when digging for comedy, you have to put up with someone doing a horrible stand up comedy routine with bad sound in the attic of their parents house, and you happen to stumble across it because they had the nerve to tag their video as comedy, funny, or humorous.

Well, enter Funny Or Die. Which some of you may already know about. Will Ferrell's and Adam McKay's FUNNYORDIE.COM. A site in which you watch a video and you must rate it at the end, is it FUNNY? Or should it DIE? Why do I bring this up? Because I have posted our beloved Dinosaur Killers 3000: Music Mountain, on the website. I submit it to you here for your consideration. Is it funny? Or should it die? I'm proud to say that since submitting the video last night we've gotten fairly high ratings. Yay!




Another site that is currently running something similar, but not really, is OURSTAGE.COM. Here you can choose a category where you can watch music videos or comedy videos or other videos for you to vote on. Choose to "JUDGE", pick a category to judge, and then they will give you two videos to watch. Once you've watched at least 30 seconds of each video you have to choose which one is better, and by how much, as explained above the two videos. They give you 30 seconds for each video, because alot of the videos submitted you'll only be able to stand for that long.

I have submitted THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL Trailer under the COMEDY Category, and out of 139 or so vids in that category, I am proud to say that we are 3rd for this months contest. Every month winners receive a cash prize, so help us out if you can. Lord knows I'd be putting that money right back into advertising for The Midnight Special. Click this link:
ourstage.com/judge

Make sure you've selected COMEDY as the "channel" and start watching videos. What sucks is you can't just go directly to the video and rate it, you have to go through the videos they send you and choose the best, so if you decide to watch for our video, you'll have to judge two videos at a time until you get to ours. At the same time it's a great way for each video to get seen and judged.

When you do come to The Midnight Special Trailer, if the video opposite us happens to be, in your opinion, better then our trailer, then by all means, please vote their video as the best. Other indie moviemakers are out there busting their asses getting these videos out and they deserve due credit for that. The spirit of ourstage.com is to bring the best videos to the winners circle. If it's us, then great. If it's someone else, great as well, just as long as it's someone who worked hard and really did have a great video.

Contest Round up AGAIN! Update

Major updates to the last contest round up post. Scroll down to the post or click this link: http://onespartan.blogspot.com/2007/04/contest-round-up-again.html

Contest Round Up. AGAIN!

EDITED 4/29/07

Bust out that video camera and get crackin!
(Deadlines in parenthesis)

Ratatouille Comedy Contest
http://www.myspace.com/ratatouille

Acceptable TV
(Rolling Deadlines)
http://acceptable.tv/

Filmaka Film Competition
(Rolling Deadlines, Currently "The Secret" April 30th)
http://www.filmaka.com/index.asp

Briobox $50,000 Contest
(Rolling Deadlines)
http://www.briobox.com/index.php

OurStage Video Contest
(April 26th)
http://www.ourstage.com/go/vidopp

Lonely Planet TV's Travel Video Contest
(May 15th 2007)
http://www.lonelyplanet.tv/competition.aspx

MTV Movie Awards Movie Spoof Contest
(May 21st, 2007)
http://mtvmovieawards.yahoo.com/spoofs/

Love My Library Video Contest
(May 25th 2007)
http://www.gale.com/librareo/

Bytecaster Video Presentation Contest
(May 30th, 2007)
http://www.bytecaster.com/contests/presentation/index.aspx

"Chub City® In Action" Film Contest
(May 31st)
http://www.iplayaz.com/

John Woo's Stranglehold
(June 25th, 2007)
http://www.myspace.com/strangleholdgame

Mr Clean Scenes
(June 30th, 2007)
http://www.mrcleanscenes.com/mrclean/en_US/mclanding.do

Heinz Top This TV Challenge
(August 6th)
http://www.topthistv.com/

One Minute Film Festival
(September 1st, 2007)
http://www.minutefilmfest.com/2007/home.htm

VIDEO ROUND-UP and CONTEST ROUND UP!

Never ever ever underestimate the power of editing. Case in point the creative individual who runs under the name of AMDS Films. Check out all his stuff on Youtube. AMDS FILMS http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=amds

Excellent excellent work. Back in the day I use to do something smiliar with my fav movies, reedit them, combine them, Remix them, or as the kids are calling it nowadays "Mash ups". But what this guy is doing is amazing. Terminator Vs. Robocop Episode 1 is my fav and Neo Vs. Robocop is my second. I gotta say, him inserting himself into Garden State was pretty neat. Great stuff!


TERMINATOR vs ROBOCOP Episode 1
I love not only how well it's edited, but also the mashup with the scores is GREAT!
Great ending too! I haven't been this blown away by a FanFilm/Mashup since BATMAN: DEAD END


TERMINATOR vs ROBOCOP Episode 2


NEO vs ROBOCOP


3 DAYS IN ROMANS



It's that time of year again folks. Time for the STAR WARS FAN FILM CHALLENGE. If you didn't know about it, click on the link, get your creative Star Wars fan film juices goin and send in your submissions. This is one of those I know about every year but never get a chance to do. My fav since 2003 has been the one called "PINK 5" starring my favorite Valley Girl Jedi, Stacy.

AtomFilm's and LucaFilm's STAR WARS FAN FILM CHALLENGE

And while your at it here's some more heads up on other fun little video contests for all my fellow movie makers. Make something and submit, you just might win something.


VMIX has 3 contests for you to enter, if you dare.

- THE DO IT YOURSELF DOC CONTEST

- THE BEST ROOMMATE PRANK CONTEST

- GOLDRUSH MUSIC VIDEO CONTEST

And here is more for ya:

- istockphoto's THE FUTURE IS NOW CONTEST

- GRAB EM BY THE SACK VIDEO CONTEST (I swear that's really the name)

And I can't believe Carson Daily is actually good for something. Check out the following for constant video challenges and chances to create and win.

- CARSON DAILY'S IT'S YOUR SHOW
If most of the challenges are about to be done, just wait and new ones will be posted.

Make your very own GRINDHOUSE Trailer

Press Release as follows:

Austin, TX - January 15, 2007 - The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival is putting out a call to filmmakers who would like to submit their best "grindhouse trailer," in honor of the April release from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Grindhouse. A sample of the best submissions will be judged by Rodriguez himself, and presented during SXSW, on March 11, 2007.

Filmmakers have a deadline of February 12 to submit their “grindhouse trailer” (no longer than two minutes in length) to SXSW. The trailer should be made for a fictional feature-film, just like those being made by celebrity directors Eli Roth and Rob Zombie for Grindhouse. From those submissions, Rodriguez will determine the best of the bunch, and it will screen during a special presentation entitled “Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse 101” on Sunday, March 11. During the presentation, Rodriguez will share stories and footage from the making of the upcoming Dimension Films release.

“We really want filmmakers to come up with something fun, scary, freaky, and out-of-this-world for the competition,” says SXSW Festival Producer Matt Dentler. “This competition, like Grindhouse itself, is in the true spirit of innovative and fast-paced filmmaking.”

Submissions must arrive no later than February 12, to: “SXSW Grindhouse Trailers,” P.O. Box 4999, Austin, TX 78765. There is no application fee, but the trailers must be under two minutes in length, and made within the last 12 months. Films that have already been submitted to SXSW for 2007 consideration, are not eligible. The 2007 SXSW Film Festival occurs March 9-17 throughout downtown Austin, TX. Grindhouse will open nationwide on April 6, 2007.

Contest Round Up

I was wrong about being able to work on FX Friday. That'll most likely be pushed back to Monday or Tuesday, as it seems this script for this untitled detective short has decided to take presidence (sp?). Also it seems I have to work. Seems appropriate somehow that I would be spending the first of the year killing zombies.

In doing research for this particular short, I find myself looking up subjects on google along the lines of, handcuffs, binary explosives, and firearms, and I begin to wonder if the government can somehow secretly see what I'm searching for and if they think that I'm some sort of rogue terrorist that has a bondage fetish. I assure you all these subjects will most likely be featured in this newest short (except for the bondage). Although the topic of big brother spying on you does make one paranoid about the topics of porn one searches for.

Anyhoo, I've decided to compile some of the current contests for you digital video enthusiasts. Most of these I will most likely not be partaking in due to time constraints, but it's fun to contemplate what kind of commercial one could shoot for JVC, and Dove, and the Coke contest does seem intruiging.

IFC MEDIA LAB Independent Spirit Awards Short Film Contest 2007
Make a short film (90 seconds or less) with the theme:
What does independence mean to you?
May give this one a shot. We've already got The Midnight Special Trailer uploaded on the regular IFC Media Lab, why not throw them one more.
Deadline: January 19th, 2007

Carson Daily's It's Your Show.
It's like a Ghetto version of triggerstreet.
Deadline: On going.

And speaking of triggerstreet

Kevin Spacey's TriggerStreet 3rd Season Contest Begins Soon.
Still my favorite, granted I've only been on the site a few times this year. I still catch some really great shorts on this one and I like the contest structure.
Deadline: On going.

JVC Create Our Commercial
Oops, my bad. This one ends in two days. Well good luck. :)

COCA-COLA Poetry In Motion Video Contest
That whole Mentos and Coke fiasco really started something.
Deadline: Not a clue.

DOVE Cream Oil Video Contest
Sorry fellas, this ones for the ladies only. Make a TV spot for Dove.
Deadline: January 15th, 2007.

Make Your Mark
Short film contest offering huge money.
Deadline: January 3rd, 2007. Hurry.

The First Annual Francis Coppola Presents Rosso Bianco Theater Movie Contest
The winning short gets to have images from the movie put on a bottle of wine. Something all aspiring filmmakers really want. Thanks Francis.
Deadline: April 30th, 2007

SHIFTING BASELINES
Enter your 60 second short about Shifting Baselines. Find out for yourself what that means. Prizes include: Final Cut Studio and $2500 cash. Celebrity Judges include Zooey Deschanel and Michael Rapaport.
Deadline: March 1st, 2007

Convenient Truth aka TreeHugger Contest
An Inconvenient Truth presented a problem. They want you to show them how to solve this problem. Create an actionable, inspiring follow-up to the movie. But you've got 2 minutes to do it in.
Deadline: February 28th, 2007

VBOXX Video Contest
Honestly, this one doesn't look all that appealing, and actually looks like a big hassle.

Zannel Fest
Submit a kick ass short film under 10 minutes and you could win cash and a rubber chicken. No really.
Deadline: April 1st, 2007

Panasonic Undeniable Power Video Contest
Create a live-action or animated video that demonstrates the Undeniable Power of something. Win panasonic products. Enter your 5 minute short. And checkout Jamie Kennedy's video intro on youtube. Pretty funny.
Deadline: January 11th, 2007


I'll post more as they come up.