3rd Site, Part I

As you may have noticed by now, if you're capable of reading this very text, our site has transferred both its Home Page and News Blog to a new site: directorG.uuuq.com. While the address is slightly longer, it was necessary for several reasons: 1) This News Blog takes up more space than you'd think -- at least 11 MB, 2) I needed a 3rd site that actually permitted FTPing files, which the 2nd site (jimthzz.bingodisk.com/public) simply wasn't capable of, 3) It was free, and 4) No Ads!

So, call it a celebration of sorts, as anything that's free (and means it) is a worthy cause. We'll see how well it works; it took nearly 2 weeks before it would let me register. Also, I'm having to put this main index page on there, too, so that I don't use an iFrame to insert the News Blog to another site's page (since it gets iFramed to the bottom of the main page regardless of where it's located...!).

The original links of directorG.com and directorG.com/news (for now, at least) will stay the same, and you'll get redirected to the new Zymic ones.

3,000 and Beyond!

This blog entry revolves around the number 3 in such a way that it's like saying three cubed, because one element of the story contains three parts to itself! Three of three, all dealing with YouTube... On with the story!

First and foremost, Scenes from Being John Malkovich (2006) has officially surpassed its 3,000th view on YouTube! This past set of 1,000 viewings went by rather quickly -- it was only in April when it passed 2,000! At this very minute, it has earned 3,003 viewings. Wow!

Second, I've finally posted Macbeth: Act 1 (2001) on YouTube, in three parts! The initial movie was about 24 minutes long, which obviously can't fit within the 10-minute limit allowed per uploaded flick, so I did some minor editing so it would be easy enough to splice into small enough chunks. The movie itself was DEFINITELY a high school pic, literally filmed entirely in a day, so you must look past characters reading lines straight from the book! I included it for comparison's sake, but it's also there in documentation, and for a good chuckle if you happened to be involved.

Third, as a surprise, I also posted some Sample Footage from the Cannery Row Documentary (2006). I don't happen to have an edited copy of the project, but I did happen to have the actual tapes I filmed of it. Since I am planning on using some footage of that anyway in my upcoming Cinematography Demo Reel, I decided to make this so there'd be a video to include on its site page. BTW, I have no memory who "Caesar" is; do you?

Enjoy!

10 Noms for Best Pic??

Wowsers, THIS changes EVERYTHING! Imagine if this were the situation in the past few years: Could WALL-E, Into the Wild, Children of Men, or (dare I say it) The Dark Knight have been included for Best Pic consideration, instead of snubbed like in reality?

So, it's back to how things were in the 1930s. How might things go this year for Best Pic noms? This is how I think it might go, with the year nearly half over (as of July 1st), give or take an extra five:

1. Up
2. Away We Go
   
3. Where the Wild Things Are
4. Nine
5. Precious
6. Avatar
7. Coraline
8. Bright Star
   
9. Public Enemies
10. Sita Sings the Blues
11. Green Zone
12. The Informant
13. Biutiful
    
14. The Hurt Locker
15. The Lovely Bones
    

Soundtrack Listed

'Tis official: now listed at the IMDb page for At the Core are the soundtrack credits for Michael Neverisky!

His credits appear as such:

• "Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine"
  Arranged & Performed by Michael Neverisky
  Courtesy of Michael Neverisky
  

What I still haven't been successful yet at for the creation of this new IMDb credit is actually making an individual page representing Mr. Neverisky. I guess a "mere" soundtrack listing alone won't do it... Perhaps giving him an additional Special Thanks credit might do the trick.

Lightbox 'n' Logo

To spiffy up the Washington D.C. scrapbook image transfer to GPicturama, I've now tried something I've never done before: utilize the official Lightbox scripts and a Javascript location menu!

Aside from all of THAT, I also created a logo image for all of GPicturama! It's a montage of several previous GPicturama images over the years, including one where you can see the tip of my nose and my glasses so that my identity is added to the logo.

It should be worked into more GPicturama pages in the near future... In the meantime, it's in the main page, the Washington D.C. [set of] page[s], and in the test page I first tried the Lightbox scripting experiment out on from 2002!

Grasshopper Approval

As an unexpected charm that happen to reach Thomas Productions yesterday, I was able to receive music rights for the song I was hoping to use in At the Core: more specifically, Michael Neverisky's instrumental performance of "Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine."

I was considering contacting him through an email address, but gosh darnit, that site would not load on my machine at that moment (but it would again later!). So, I found him on YouTube, and was able send him a message that way. That he responded so quickly and so kindly just about made my day! That particular song is not performed on YouTube by him, but here's another one that's at least as good.

Anyhow, this news is GREAT because it means the intentional, excellent piece can play in Mill Valley instead of my subpar temp track. Yay!

100th New News Blog Post!

One year, three months and five days: that's how long it took to reach this blog! That's actually not that bad, considering how often new News Blog blog entries are posted...

To commemorate this achievement, we're doing something special. As a movie production company, we obviously love movies when they're well-made! Embedded below's a good group of well-made films from across the board that were personally selected by yours truly for this special occasion. Many ended up being animation; go figure!

From YouTube: Google Maps

From Vimeo: Dried Up

From Hulu: Clip from Up

From Google Video: Trailer to American Beauty

From FunnyOrDie: Prop 8 - The Musical

From MySpaceVids: Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death'

Top Ten Zen

Lately, I've been doing a LOT of web work. So, to give you just a PEAK of it, I've updated the Yearly Top 10 Lists of my Movie Ratings. Now, they appear a bit more like the Best / Worst lists, are color-coded, and are archived by year in a pull-down menu. It's much more sensical, and it's easier on the eyes!

Further, I don't know what exactly was faulty about my movie reviews on the Best / Worst pages, but I fixed 'em, and added several more! I'm hoping at minimum to have reviews for all of my #1 selections for each of the years there's a Top 10 List for, and I'm about half way there. New reviews so far were written for such films as Memento, Being John Malkovich, The Dark Knight, and Into the Wild. Quick reviews can't be that hard to write, right?

Anyhow, it's all located here. Next up: the 100th News Blog Entry!

Double Your Pleasure

As with Mrs. Barg's 8th Grade AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) class last week, I had the same opportunity today with Mrs. Amos' 7th Grade AVID class to share some movies. Today was more a component of the class than the sole event of the class, as today it was part of a class party. So, there was only so much time...

Still, I successfully showed four short films, including one I did not get a chance to show in last week's class: The King Who Rained.

I would have liked to also show Photagrizzly Man, but the students at least know that it's online, including directly above this line of text.

All Signs Point to Mill Valley

Not to sound superstitious or anything, but today, I randomly received a note from someone giving positive site feedback. This person is named Christian Svanes Kolding.

christian svanes kolding, showreel, the "a-side" | 4 min. from svanes on Vimeo.

Why is this important, you ask? It's because his short film, Depression Served Six Ways, is listed as "great" on the Movie Ratings section of this site, and I had specifically viewed it at the 2005 Mill Valley Film Festival.

It's another reference to Mill Valley, and it had nothing to do with At the Core. Plus, it's always cool to get contacted by the filmmakers directly!