This is the music for this evening. Halfway, I think, mood wise. OK?

Today, second day off of a two week holiday and what did I do? Uhh... 'Red Dead Undead Nightmare' was given a good old go. I listened to some pod casts and packed for my holiday (the one where I leave the house) and I tried to drum up some looks, likes and overall publicity for 'Better Off Inside'. It was just a 'an email wouldn't hurt' kind of thing. Whatever works.

This isn't anything. Soon I will have things to say. I hope. I used to have things to say before life got in the way. 

Quite Mad..

When I was about 13, I used to go to my friend Richards house to watch horror films. At the time, we both wanted to be horror writers and we were hugely into Stephen King. We would write on this old typewriter, taking it in turns to write parts of our stories. They were rubbish, of course. I tried to copy the spirit and tone of 'Misery' (my favourite book at the time) and, being 13 and not really capable of being scary, it was a mess. I can't even remember what it was about but it did feature passages IN BLOCK CAPITALS, trying to make things more interesting. So interesting that I forgot anything to do with the story. Richard's little opus was a series about a haunted ottoman, called 'The Ottoman'. There were three books in this ghastly (in every sense of the word) trilogy and it was far less pretentious than mine. (How bad is it that I recall writing loads of my story, the tone and style but NOTHING about the actual story? It's like my adult brain has blocked it out.)
I do remember a story about robot dinosaurs escaping from a theme park and killing people. This was 1993. You can guess what influenced that slapdash slash, can't you?

I loved creative writing at school. I loved it so much that I would literally ignore other subjects and just write stories; long, long stories (with sequels) even if the teachers didn't ask me to. It was mostly because I liked escaping into fantasy worlds and also a handy way to get out of maths. You see, if you hadn't finished something, and they wanted to move onto another subject, you could ask to finish, taking time off the boring stuff to focus on the lessons you loved. This ruse did not work in secondary school because of time tables and having to go to different rooms for lessons (and *shudder* outside for sports).
I got through a lot of books in English, 4 in one term. I just wrote lots of stories, usually horror and fantasy. There were terrible pictures, spin off stories, you name it. There was one story, a trilogy about a woman who was, get this, BEING STALKED BY A CAR CRASH. I'm not even sure where that came from but the task was to write something about road safety. Kind of an odd leap but then, I did also write a story about a man who, after getting out of the wrong side of bed, was transported to a fantasy world that featured Volcano women, foot-faced barbarians and a talking parrot called 'Pervert'. My teacher at the time, a youngish man (Well, younger than the other teachers) wrote: "You are quite mad". I loved that. It was certainly better than being yelled at for not catching/kicking/dodging balls in PE.

I have no idea what started this off. I guess somethings never change.

A Winner Is You!

Results from the Broad Street Film Festival:

Best Score - Soulmates, University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Music by Olive Musique, Brandon Bus, and Sgt Beefsteak Mahoney.

Best Screenplay - Fireworks, Southern Adventist University. Directed by Dillan Forsey.

Best Actor (non-student) - Jim Chandler for his role as Walt, In the Grey, Southern Adventist University.

Best Production Design - Sahale Jensen, Incarnate, Southern Adventist University.

Best Actress (non-student) - Emily Bowman, Incarnate, Southern Adventist University.

Best Directing - Justin Peter, In the Grey, Southern Adventist University.

Best Editing - Geoffry Simons, In the Grey, Southern Adventist University.

Best Cinematography - Andrew Aldridge, In the Grey, Southern Adventist University.

Best Actor (student) - Tony Anobile for his role as Adler, In the Grey, Southern Adventist University.

Best Actress (student) - Aja Meers for her role as Aja, Cyborg Aja, Chattanooga State Community College.

Best Documentary - Lift, Directed by Tim Banks, Southern Adventist University.

Best Music Video - "I Beg You" Justin Kelly, Hannah Kelly, T.K. King, Bryan College.

Best Trailer - Better Off Inside, Brad and Joe Heath, Charity Arnold, Chattanooga State Community College.

Best Picture - In the Grey, Directed by Justin Peter, Southern Adventist University.

Audience Award - Chroma, Directed by Jacob Henson, Chattanooga State.

And this: 

Better Off Inside on IMDB

Stand There and Say That..

I have been at a bit of a cross roads of late. I had a fierce run of energy, creative and otherwise in the opening month but I think the endless winter and the constant threat of more and more snow has slowed me down somewhat. I'm not really sure what I would like to do next. As ever, the creative side is still the dominant force and that always seems to quell any desires to give in and become some kind of super serious so-and-so. I guess day jobs will always be something that I'm fine with as long as people leave me alone.

 Leave me alone to think about made up people, in made up places, coping with various odd things.

It's really cool that I have this whole other thing. It's sometimes a curse though as you can go from giddy joy about a film being played, and people reacting to it, but then you can be bothered by office politics or people that don't know you or get you. On the whole,  the creative side of things keeps my mental state at a SMILEY level, rather than a furrowed brow heavy with life concerns.

I am going to strive to take matters into my own hands. I would like to complete some different bits and pieces and look to get something made fairly local. I would like to physically help out on a film, even if it's just making the tea and moving stuff. Of course, I would like to have a bash at telling people how to say lines and where to say them (My limited 'directing' non-skills). I have a few ideas that could work, on a very slender budget but I just need people that can act and so forth. Alas, I cannot act to save my life, or anyone elses so I can't make a 'This is John' or something like that.

I have some people that are interested, a group I've heard of but only seen their work. It's looking likely that something will happen with them but the genre my be different. No, not nudie films. That's Plan C.

I guess it's a case of the same old issues. I just need to focus and not let niggling doubts and boring people get me down. It's not like I'm hurting anyone. I don't make things to piss people or disturb people. If I was a Tom Six kind of guy, I could understand people not sharing or pulling away.

People not sharing, or people I thought would give me a thumbs up, was a thing that bothered me a few weeks ago but I can sort of understand it. Just because you're friends, doesn't mean they have to 'like' everything and some people I know don't seem to like ANYTHING. I suppose it cuts down on the 'I'll share yours if you share mine' fakery. That's a whole other thing, friendships. Online and off, they can be a chore at times. Sometimes it feels like you're giving too much and getting very little but, hey, that is life and as long as it isn't boring, it's fine with me.

Better Off Inside New Trailer

Long weekend. Did things. NOWHERE near as creative as I wanted to be. It was like a ghost town around here, real end of the world feel. Or the start of 'Vanilla Sky' with Thomas Cruise running around, wondering where all the people are. It was a bit like that.

Speaking of the end of the world..



And this, from the desk of Joe Heath..

So there are two Minty Pineapple screenings coming up! First off is the Broad Street Film Festival Screening which will be showing the Better Off Inside Trailer. (The film itself was too long, but you should still come and vote for the trailer). Then there's The Backlot: a PLACE for FILM (April meeting) which will be showing Neil's New Robot. I'm also working on getting a showing going at the Carmike Cinemas Battlefield 10 which is where I work. Hope to see you at some or all of these!