Week of Films

For anyone who is interested, I will be at the Phoenix Comicon this weekend on Saturday, May 29th, as part of the Squishy Studios contingent for the showing of our comedy/horror short, Zombie Team Building. I'm also going to be at the Film Stock Film Festival in Tempe on Thursday, June 3rd for the Squishy Studios showing of our 40's-era adventure comedy, Masters of Daring. If you're at one or the other of these events, try to track me down. I'll give you a prize (probably not, but if you tackle me to the ground and mug me, you might win an empty wallet!).

Marathon Writing

I'm going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month this year for the first time. The previous three years that I've known about the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel from start to finish during the 30 days of November, I was previously unable to participate. I'm very glad to have a chance to take part this year, as I've always thought it was a great ideal to challenge oneself to write at a furious pace and a hard deadline.

It also alleviates the need to carefully scrutinize the details of the work, because it requires an average output of over 1,600 words per day for all 30 days in order to complete. As such, there's very little time for one to go back and tinker with every tiny detail. It's not a contest for perfectionists, which thankfully is far from being one of my faults. If you want to find out more, you can visit their website at www.NaNoWriMo.org.

Actually, it is a project similar to the kind I just helped complete with Squishy Studios. We took part in a 72-hour film challenge with a local group called Almost Famous Film Festival, and our comedy/adventure short, Masters of Daring, scored extremely well in the challenge, winning several awards including a tie for first place in the entire festival! We're very proud of our movie, which was a 10 minute homage to the old 1940's black and white adventure serials. If you want to view it, you can at www.normallythisweird.com.

Which brings me to our web series which is about to premiere its first episode on Halloween Night (this Saturday), on the same site. Unlike the black and white adventure short that's on the site right now, which was a one-shot deal (despite it's inherent episodic nature), the Normally This Weird pilot episode will be followed up in future months with an extended storyline. The episodes will premiere on the first of every month starting in January (there will be a making-of documentary at the beginning of December), and we're all really excited about where it will be headed.