Mentally overwhelmed.  Sorting things out.  

My “final draft” for As the Crows Fly has been completed.  I use quotations because I tend to rewrite a lot while we’re shooting.  Actors love that (sarcasm).  ”No, no.  You know how you had that whole thing memorized?  Forget that.  You now have a 3 page monologue.  We shoot in an hour.”

As the Crows Fly is about 120 pages.  Sent it out to the other actors I want on board.  

Excited to work on Crows since it’s a mature movie.  More in line with the kind of pictures I’ve always wanted to make.  Making this is what everything I’ve ever worked on has been leading up to.

I don’t deserve this compliment.  No way in hell do I do.  But Joe Halter compared the script to Sandman.  So thank you for that, sir.

It’s not exactly the straight out horror movie I intended to write.  It’s more drama/fantasy/horrific.  Can’t wait to show people this film.

I might have time to sneak in another picture in between.  Something smaller with a 3-4 person cast that can be shot over a couple weekends.  I’m going to make that decision soon.  Have the script already written.  Hope to work with different actors this time around.

I have some really cool news re: Oblivion.Not saying anything until it’s 100% confirmed.  We used to have a worldwide loyal-fan base so If you’re still around, this is for you.

Scenes from Oblivion.  I just watched the final cut of the flick (which I completed this past summer) and I’ve warmed up to it a notch.  For a no-budget feature by someone who didn’t know what the hell he was doing at the time it’s not too bad.  There are some scenes I’m really proud of and some other stuff that in no way possible form can be fixed.  I’m talking about terrible.  Have to turn my back on it.  Warts and goblins and all.  

Jessica Gallant is finally going to color correct Scenes.  So at least it’ll look good!  

I don’t dare screen the movie publicly but I will have an invite-only small showing here at the house for everyone who worked on it.

Back to Oblivion.

I really lost sight of what I was doing on that show.  Mainly because my gear got stolen when we were on a roll.  

I don’t think the show ever topped Episodes 3 & 5.  Those are the ones where all the plotlines really gelled and every character got their moment to shine.  They have camp, drama, a sense of just hanging out, and occasionally some witty dialogue.  Plus 3 had that fun cliffhanger that I took too long to follow through with (the unreleased episodes pick up on that).  

I really wanted to make a live-action comic book series with colorful characters, and the two episodes I mentioned above really emphasized that.

So there.  I said it.  Oblivion was in no way an “authentic representation” of a punk scene.  I was making a cartoon.  So all those that kept sending me hate mail can kiss my balls.

Of course, losing my gear lead to depression.  I was able to recuperate some of it thanks to a Kickstarter campaign.  But by then I was angry and had lost focus.  A few episodes in and we started concentrating on only a small group of characters at a time (instead of the entire cast - which is what made Eps 2/3/5 click - also, the cast was now living all over the place and impossible to schedule) and then we got really crazy with The Halloween Special, which ruined everything.

To this day, the Special is my least favorite thing we worked on.  Getting that made was a shit-fest.  If anyone remembers…The Halloween Special started shooting in August for an obvious Halloween premiere. But no, it was rushed for Christmas!  And the hour-long/2-part special became a 4-parter!

Too many new/side characters became a central focus because we couldn’t get the core cast out.  There was no Joy, no Louise, no Fay, no Arsenic…Cutter, Cliff and Vince were barely in it…and we had to work with a stand-in for Pox…which is why Pox has a mask glued to his face the entire time…Josh couldn’t come to California and ADR’d his dialogue.  Also, Ziggy should never be featured as much as he was.

Rewinding…

With those original 3 episodes intact we made it to MTV.  I pitched the show to David Gale.  The response was - 15 years ago this show could have been a hit with the “alternative generation” but now, kids didn’t care for this sort of crap.  Of course, the potty-mouth aspect was a problem as well.  Which is why I thought late-night Comedy Central would be our niche.  We never got there.

But you kidding me?  Kids don’t care for this sort of crap?

Kids who watch MTV take whatever’s fuckin’ given to them.  Viacom knows that, they are proud of that factor, yet deny it.  Any kid that I met or received emails from that had watched Oblivion was in the age bracket of 12-18.  That was our biggest fan-base and they ate that shit up.  Hell, that’s who I made the show for.  Man, if there was something like Oblivion around when I was 13 I would have flipped!  I would have taped it and watched it obsessively, wearing out my VHS tapes.

But it is what it is.

We had some crazy plans for the show - a huge season finale fight with Weavers’ skinhead gang VS the Brookhurst residents plus an arc that had Ziggy and Arsenic drinking from this new vat of swill Rat had made…they would dress up as superheroes…as arch-nemesis…and fight at night…I think Arsenic was Flying Nocturnal Mammal Man and Ziggy became Guy Who Dresses Like Clown and Commits Crimes.  The twist would be that everyone knew their secret identifies except for themselves because they’d be too drunk to remember anything.  Eventually they would form opposing super groups of wastoids.  Footage leading up to this actually exists.  And it’s some of the funniest stuff we ever shot.

Not to mention, plans for an Oblivion: Year One.

But, yeah.  I get nostalgic.  Bad acting, sloppy edits aside….the movie included, Oblivion was a dominant force in my life for almost 5 years.  I also met some of my favorite people by working on the show and became close to several others.  Really, for a stint the show was my social life.  

Had a meeting/interview with some cool cats over at the Cortez Brothers last month.  More details about that when I’m allowed to talk about it.  But it’s good news.

I’ve been slacking off too much.  Have two Dignitary music videos I need to work on ASAP, a second video for Spirit Vine, and looks like a couple for Deathday.

 Keepin’ in tune.

Sample of Paul Elia as Sherold in As the Crows Fly.