Canned

Once again, the production of "Amber" has been slowed to a halt. The situation with Mary-Catherine won't clear up for at least another week and my grandparents are probably more worried about my relatives in New Orleans than they are about this. I should actually be too, it's just that I've been wanting to get this movie done for so long that I'm starting to feel like I should do anything it takes. Shame on me.

The Filmmaker's Blog will be put on hold until I can resume with the movie production.

Filmmaker's Blog, Day 1

Today, I began (or tried to begin) a venture into filming another scene for my movie "Amber." I also decided recently that this blog should be temporarily turned into a filmmaker's blog so that anyone actually interested in my life could see what went into the process.

Today, I was to film "Maggie's Scene" in my grandparents' house. In this particular scene, Maggie (one of the ghosts in the film) attempts to figure out what went wrong in her life that caused her to commit suicide. I got over there safely, with the kindness of my boss' mother, Maria. Maria was also kind enough to bake a cake that would be used as a prop in the scene. This was a huge help and I'll over her forever for it.

The problem though was my star actress failed to show up. Today of all days, she wound up having to take care of a sick cousin. This is disastrous on so many levels. I don't know how long it's going to take for her to take care of her cousin, nor how long this is going to put me back in terms of the movie's production. As for the cake, it'll hopefully still be used. If it takes a week though to get done with this scene filming, I'll be grateful to at least get it done. The cake might go bad though. We'll just have to pray.

I'm going to talk to her over the phone tonight. See if we can still get this done.

Does Not Compute

When it seems like nothing is going right today, this is just what I need:

www.cyborgname.com



Now if I can only use my magnificent powers to halt hurricane wreckage.

Oh, and for the record, my relatives are OK. I just hope our friends down there are too.

Mercy

As I write this, Hurrican Katrina is sweeping through Lousiana. The eye of the storm is over New Orleans where I have an aunt, an uncle and two cousins. They had the option of going to safe grouds at a giant stadium, but chose to stay in their house with their stuff. If I were them, I'd probably have headed for the stadium, but apparently the stadium is going to be a good place to go if you want to fight for your food and water.

May God have mercy on their souls.

Think of the Children

A while ago, I saw this really excellent Anime called “Pom Poko.” It was a cartoon about a group of raccoons who wage war against the encroaching human civilization. A nice family film with a good pro-life, pro-environmental message. As I watched it, the filmmaker inside told me that the United States needed a version of this movie. Or to be more clear, I would like to make it But you know what? I also thought that “Garfield,” the “Harry Potter” books, and “Scooby Doo” would all make good movies. Then Hollywood had to go ahead and read my mind on those ideas, not to mention they screwed up two of them big time. I also recently finished reading “Life of Pi,” and as luck would have it, there’s a movie version of that coming out too.

Considering my luck in wanting to make adaptations in film, chances are Pom Poko would be remade as a United States movie as well. After all, they love remaking Japanese horror flicks here in the U.S. Well, the good news is I’m wrong. Instead they are releasing the Japanese version in the United States. Fair enough right? I guess I should be jumping with joy that a film I liked is being released Stateside. The guys in Hollywood surely can’t screw this up, right?

Wrong. That’s where the bad news comes in. You see, part of the reason of my wanting to remake “Pom Poko” was not just to bring the story home, but to make version that family audiences in the United States could watch. Apparently the Japanese have a different idea of what can be shown in a family film and I can respect that, but do you want your kids watching an animated movie where all the male raccoon characters have testicles hanging down between their legs?

You read that right, folks. And if you don’t believe me, check out this link:

http://flowerskunk.chat.ru/pompoko/Defaul94.JPG

Yeah, they’re kinda stubby in that shot, but they vary in size and shape. You wouldn’t believe. To continue on this, I might also mention that the testicles are the centerpiece of a large percentage of the jokes in the movie. Plus, the raccoons have magical shape shifting powers which allow them to make their testicles grow to gigantic proportions so they can fight the humans by whacking them with their enormous balls. That’s not half of it, but I’ll stop there and say that since audiences in the U.S. would throw a fit over such material, then that’s also why I would remake the movie: to remove the testicles from the characters so that the kids over here can enjoy a nice, fun family film.

But now, it looks like the folks at Disney (Yeah, the almighty empire of family entertainment, Disney) is releasing this movie on DVD in the United States. Now, if I were Disney, I would probably have the testicles removed from the characters digitally and cut out the testicle jokes. These guys are gonna do the same, right? WRONG again. Click this link:

http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/studioghibli/studioghiblidvd.html

Go to the page about “Pom Poko,” click the “About Pom Poko” button. A new window should pop up with the story details. Take a good look at the picture on the page, specifically the raccoon sitting at the top of the picture with the testes hanging loose. YUP! They left the testicles in they movie. A Disney released movie with testicles in it. And it look like the movie’s getting a PG rating.

AM I THE ONLY ONE THINKING OF THE KIDS? Probably not. I’ve received word that the Disney folks changed the translation. Instead of testicles, they’re going to use the term “pouches.” Yeah, that’s right, “pouches.” Like kids aren’t going to be able to distinguish what they really are. I’ve also read that the Disney folks apparently don’t have the rights to change what they distribute from other companies. Sounds like a bunch of bull if you ask me, but if that’s the case then I’ve got a better idea: Don’t release the movie. If you can’t cut it for kids properly, then don’t bother releasing it. Let another company release it in the States with a higher rating on it, but don’t mess with the ratings system this way. Or better yet, maybe I’ll still get the chance to remake the movie one day.

Oh, and on another slightly more humorous note, it looks like they tried for some big name voice casting for the U.S. dubbing. Who’s voicing Shoukichi, the lead raccoon? According to the IMDB, it’s Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Looks like the pretty boy child star from “Home Improvement” is making his big return with the company that helped make him a star in a wacked out movie about raccoons that use their testicles to battle humans. Hmm, makes about as much sense as Macaulay Culkin making a comeback in a movie about a part organizer who brags about killing his roommate and gets in trouble for it. Oh wait, that happened too.

For Joe

Something really sad has just happened. Joe Ranft, a long time worker on many great animated film projects, has just died:

Confirming rumors we've been hearing all day, The Hollywood Reporter and AWN report that Joe Ranft was killed Tuesday afternoon in a car accident. Ranft worked on many of the most beloved modern classics out of Disney and Pixar, including: writing for The Brave Little Toaster, Oliver & Company, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Toy Story (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay), A Bug's Life, and Fantasia 2000; as storyboard supervisor for The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach; and voicing parts in A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, and Finding Nemo. Ranft was also working as head of story on Pixar's next film, Cars. In a statement released Wednesday, Pixar said "Joe was an important and beloved member of the Pixar family, and his loss is of great sorrow to all of us and to the animation industry as a whole". A Pixar spokesman added, "Joe was a big part of Pixar's soul". An interview from 2002 is available in Pixar's Artist Corner. Cartoon Brew has running updates with news and responses to Ranft's passing. Ranft is survived by his wife, Su, and two children, Jordy, 13, and Sophia 9. A memorial service for family, friends and close associates is planned for Sunday in Mill Valley, California. Pixar is planning a memorial for fans at a date to be determined.

Living here in Marin County, I’ve found that you can always get to know someone who knows someone who’s in the film business or even actually know someone who’s in the business firsthand. This case is the first of those two. A friend of my family by the name of John knew Joe rather well. His son David who I’ve been friends with since the fourth grade even hung out with him a lot. I remember going on a road trip with David once and him telling me about how he knew Joe Ranft, who had at the time finished voicing the character of Heimlich the caterpillar for “A Bug’s Life.” He was giving me early quotables from the movie such as “Oh, Mr. Early Bird! How about a nice, big, juicy worm on a stick?”

Now, just like that, he’s gone to that big place in the sky. I saw David online just the other day and I decided to tell him. It’s hard to tell a close friend that one of their old friends has died tragically. It goes without saying that he didn’t take it well.

Now, if I were Lee over at right-thinking.com, I’d probably tell a joke right now about how this is a sign of how God feels about 3D animation taking over the industry, but since I’m not that sick of a joker, I’m going to join in mourning this loss. This guy was part of Pixar, for cryin’ out loud. He was part of the group that makes most of the good 3D animated films, and not the kind of crap those wannabe companies like Dreamworks Animation churn out. The date they mentioned there for the fan memorial service… let’s just say that I’m gonna try and make it.

Joe, you did good.

Bound to happen

You know, I recall as a wee lad watching and enjoying "The Land Before Time" and actually being able to enjoy it. upon discovering that there was going to be a sequel, I was also quite happy, although wasn't quite as pleased as with the first one. By the time #5 came around, I pretty much gave up hope of the movies returning to their former glory, which was the first one. By that time, I was actually poking fun at the product and would continue to resent the numerous sequels that came afterward. I still remember working at Safeway as a bagger and watching a mother buy "The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze." Dan, the checker at that place, took one look at the front cover and jokingly asked "Do you think they'd be smiling like that if they knew they were about to become extinct?" It was a funny joke, but that's just it right there. The movies have become one big joke, comprised of terrible music, bright coloring, thin plots and weak themes. Kids love it though.

What brings me to this is the thought that not too long ago, I wondered something. They've made so many weak sequels that could be cut down to 20 minutes or less if they just removed the crappy music, so why don't they just make a TV series? I was joking, of course, but it looks like that's exactly what's happening:

Universal's newly formed family entertainment label, Universal Studios Home Entertainment Family Productions, today announced that production has begun on 26 episodes of a Land Before Time animated television series. Looking to debut on Cartoon Network in 2007, the show will later be distributed on DVD by Universal. Further details of the series, plus news of a twelfth installment in the Land Before Time film franchise, currently titled Day of the Flyers, may be found at Coming Soon.

Egads. After they toss another crap sequel our way, they WILL crank out a TV show after all just to pour the salt on. I need to stop thinking these ideas and jinxing the movie I so loved as a child. Ah well, it could be worse. They could be doing it in all CGI…D’oh!

What a Relief

Well, today I worked up the courage to tell Erik that I was working on a video for my church. He actually took it pretty well. Makes me feel better now that I have that off my chest.