Now, however, it is finally finished and has become my entry into Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett’s new reality show On the Lot. One of the requirements for submitting a film for consideration is to produce and submit a 30 – 45 second introductory clip and that is the first video marked “Introduction,” and the actual film itself is the entry marked “A Thief in the Night.”

I want to thank everyone involved for outstanding work:

Ken Degon and Nicole Signore for wonderful fight choreography with an additional nod to Nicole for grabbing great behind-the-scenes photos

Erick James for letting Ken Degon beat the tar out of him! (Just kidding – we did not beat Erick up that badly!)

Vanessa Cornell for also getting tossed around and for being a truly sweet person to work with

JC Carey for most excellent Production Assistant-ing

Denise Bowen for letting us film in her home and for cooking up some fantastic food for our dinner

Mike Furestein of Cucumber Alley Lighting for most excellent advice on lighting and for patient instruction on how to set up professional lights

Michal Kazlo II for use of prop guns

Hertz Rental Corp. for helping me get a cool, black car for the film

I would also like to thank a “Guiding Hand” that helped me put this production together; a Divine Influence. Everything came together so well, we all had a great time and, despite the possibility for accidents, none occurred and no one was injured. Granted, we were all sore and tired the next day, but no one was hurt and all for that I am very thankful for.

Enjoy!

Click to view

At last I have a digital camera and can show off one of the trophies I won at this festival. What you see here is the Stella Artois “Magnum” goblet that I won for Best Promotional Poster. When I held this in my hands, at the microphone, the first thing I thought was, “Now I have something to drink my protein shakes out of!” And now here I am, with my protein shake.

Yes, it is only a single episode, but the exposure will fantastic.

There was strong competition, however from some of the other films, including one film that was beautifully shot with wonderful storytelling technique on a piece of consumer video equipment that was once sold as a kids’ toy back in the ’70′s.

My hat is off to you, sir for a wonderful film that should have gotten the “Best of Show” award

But this is not the end of this journey as I will be submitting G-Rated to Apple iTunes.

Click to view poster

The film, my entry into the 2006 Ed Wood Quickies Film Festival, is complete after hours of high speed editing and some serious multitasking by my computer and myself. It was a 72 hours that I will not soon forget, filled with chaos, laughter, sleepless nights, stressing over meeting a deadline and looking forward to making better films in the future as well as a better entry next year.I worked with an incredible crew that got me good takes usually on the first try, and that’s a real rarity. Thank you all so very, very much.

Have a chuckle!

Needless to say, the waitress never showed.

JC, the writer for our can of mixed nuts, is the only other female on the production team. Luckily, she knows that she may be pressed into service as our “porn star” should the waitress fall through and I know that she will not let me down.

We’re both crossing our fingers … and toes … and any other appendages that can be crossed …

Makes it hard for JC to type that way, though.

I unpack the camera and lights and set up the room for shooting.

I still have not heard from the waitress yet. I call her again, and she does not answer again.

This does not bode well.

This time, I leave her a message with directions on where to go for the shoot, hoping that she is simply too busy and will just show up at the hotel, sexy costume in hand.

Now time to make the rounds and let everyone else know when and where we are shooting.

I call the waitress. It took a couple of tries as I mis-dialed her number twice. She does not answer, but last night she said she might be busy in the morning, so I leave a message for her to call me back, proceed to pack the car with lighting and camera gear and head out to the hotel I intend to rent for the shoot.