RAGE
A little over a year ago now I shot my part in this film during one day in New York in a tiny little studio in the northern most parts of Spanish Harlem. None of the cast met each other until some of made the pilgrimage to Berlin for the films premiere (go to the Germany section of my photo page for some shots). It’s a real honor to be on screen with so much mind bending talent and it was a really proud moment for me to see myself on that screen with those people and think that this little idea I had of becoming an actor isn’t always just rejection and disappointment. There are moments that take you by surprise and encourage you to keep walking in the direction you’re going. Check out the trailer above and then click here to see the site that was just posted. Its a really interesting multi cinema – multi platform release that suits the story of the film so perfectly that I think it will really heighten peoples reaction to the film to watch it on their cell phones and computers. It’s really what Sally intended and I can’t wait to see how people respond. I run up to New York on the 20th to open the film there with a few other cast members, including Mr.Law, so I will hopefully have some photos and thoughts when I get back.
Weather Girl
It is a shameful, shameful thing that I haven’t written about it. And that shame is driving me to action. Weather Girl is a movie I shot going on almost a year and a half ago. The budget was small so I assumed that it would just be a really good experience that would give me the chance to work with some great people and then hopefully have a DVD to sit on my shelf with a few other movies that would suffer the same fate the befalls most truly independent films. Cut to now – Weather Girl premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, won best film at the Aspen Film Festival, and has played really well in a handful of other festivals. A couple of weeks ago we had three screenings at the Los Angeles Film Festival and they were all sold out. The film has already secured international distribution, a domestic DVD wide release, a cable television run on Lifetime (in October i think), and a limited city theatrical release starting this weekend. Not to mention the trailer is on Apple’s trailer page – which for me is a major victory. Here in Los Angeles it is playing at the Sunset 5 theatre and you would have look at local listings to see if it is coming to a theatre in your town. I think the real success of this thing, beyond the incredible talent of Blayne Weaver, Tricia O’Kelley, Ryan Devlin, Mark Harmon, Kaitlin Olson, Jane Lynch, and Jon Cryer – is the fact that it is a romantic comedy in which the players are real people. I think people are tired of broad strokes in the romantic comedy genre. I wish I could say I realized this while we were shooting it but . . . nevermind . . . yeah i knew the whole time . . .
Here is the link for the trailer for it and make sure you check it out if you come across in theaters, on your television, or in a video store (before they all succumb to the crushing weight of NetFlix).
Enjoy.
And excuse my hair in this entire film. We were on bad terms but we have since made up and come to terms with our differences. Its all about compromise.
vicarious
In other web series news – and i should have posted this weeks ago – my friends Nick Clark and Evan Gaustad have also been hard at work getting Vicarious out into the worlds cyber consciousness. These are some of the funniest people I know doing what they do best. The first episode is above and the other ones can be found at their own site by clicking here. Enjoy.
bedheads
Bedheads – The Trailer from Laura Beckner & Pete Monro on Vimeo.
My friends and cohorts Peter Monro and Laura Beckner have been really hard at work on this web series. The site just went live and there are only six episodes. It’s the first web series that I have ever seen that takes its time and doesn’t rush to fill a 7 minute episode with as much information as possible. Check out the trailer above and then go their official site to catch all the episodes.
You Tube Put To Good Use
I’ll be honest. I have a little time on my hands these days. But so does this guy. And apparently you can do a lot of cool stuff with time and hands. Click above.
Wolfram Alpha
Meet Stephen Wolfram. His name has been flying around the interweb this week faster and more violently then those particles they are spinning around that Hadron Collider they built underneath Switzerland. He is the creator of wolframalpha.com, the newest search engine that everyone is hailing as the best thing since google. Immediately upon announcing its launch it has been flooded with criticism that its database is painfully empty and that there is not much there beyond the examples provided by Wolfram himself in his screencast which you can find on the homepage. I can’t afford to be so jaded in the face of what appears to be the beginnings of a whole new way of finding, comparing, correlating, and salivating over raw empirical data. While it may not have all of the worlds knowledge in there yet it is a compelling place to surf around a bit. I suggest watching the video to get a sense of what it is capable of now and what it’s going to be capable of in the near future. We’ve all wondered what the diameter of the earth is in comparison to the height of the Chrysler building at one point or another. Thank Stephen Wolfram for finally giving us the chance to find out.
Thanks to my dad for clueing me into it.
lights out and a link
(ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
Though it happened a while ago I just stumbled on these photos of Earth Hour around the world. Just click on each image to see the before and after. Just click on the photo above to check them out. And if you haven’t been to The Big Picture blog before I suggest checking it out as often as possible. It is a collection of some of the best photographs of major news stories around the globe straight from the separate organizations.