Back

05-01-01 "Half Deck Willie!"

I won a third prize ribbon in the professional catagory at the Waupaca Fine Arts Festival! Hot Damn!! The odd thing is, the piece that won was, in my opinion, the worse of my three entries! Oh well, but I did get a ribbon!! Two years ago I actually placed first in the show and the year before that I won the sesqua-centential award, big cash prises!! I'm very proud of these accomplishments!

I caught "Along Came A Spider" at the Waupaca theatre. The theatre has just been revamped and it's quite nice. I had the movie all to myself.

05-06-01 "Meet Me At The Crossroads!!"

What a day!! Tom, Jason and I met Pete in Tigerton at the Crossroads bar which is owned by Pete's good buddy, Jamie Bent (I teach with his sister). Jamie's dad, Mike, played our first bartender of the day and he did a fabulous job!! He had only one line but he was absolutly believable! Anything we needed at Crossroads was instantly provided, I couldn't have asked for better treatment. We even used a little gal , Angie, who was working in the back as bartender number two! Thanks guys! You're the best!!

From there we headed down the street to the VFW bar where Pete had scheduled our second shoot (thanks Pete!!). We quickly got the shots we needed after blocking a few windows and bumping people from one end of the bar to the other. At the VFW we used a gal by the name of Cookie as bartender number three and Bette Jo as bartender number four. Later on I found out that I thought Pete knew Bette Jo and he thought I knew her. Neither one of us had ever seen her before!! I'm starting to wonder about getting release forms ready although the bartenders aren't the focus of the shots. Still wouldn't be a bad idea!

Next we ran over to Pete's awesome house for a quick tour before running back to Marion. I took Tom and Jason past our new maze park. That's right, Marion is about to have our own Maze park! The whole thing looks pretty darn impressive actually! I hope it works out for them!

We shot some quick footage in front of the Marion Plaza. I'm hoping I can add some digital lettering on the building so it'll look like it says, "Randal's One Stop" or "Randal's Big Five".

Next we jumped down to the bowling alley and shot two more sections of big scene 21 using Corrine O. and Joe T. (school buddies) as bartenders five and six.

THEN we went to Bubbas for the final bar scene of the day using Tracy (my good looking little friend) as bartender number seven. After that Pete needed to jet off so we decided to try to shoot some character developing stuff. I got a quick shot of Tom in front of the Ken's Kandy sign and a great shot of Jason fishing by the dam. While we were shooting by the dam Connie L. drove past and talked with us briefly about the last shot of the movie in which Buck is in bed with her (if she plays Gary's ex-wife). Such a beauty she is!! Sigh!

After that Tom and Jason tooted around on my brothers dirt bikes for a while before they needed to head homeward. I took Travis B.'s truck down to lakeview for two more shots which were shot by Mr. Tripod!

THEN I came home and captured the day's footage on the computer and edited a bit to see how it'll turn out. I'm still undecided. I hope it comes across as I envision it. It's a rather unique way of showing the passing of time thoughout the course of a night!

FINALLY I typed this journal entry up. Mom and Lumpy are downstairs watching "The Godfather" and I'm going to go read before I shut myself off!

Holy crud what a day!

05-09-01 "Running On Fumes!!"

I had a bit of a rough practice tonight as my levels haven't exactly been up to snuff as far as improvisation are concerned. My confidence level has taken a serious blow after the "Survivor" show at Comedy City. The practice tonight was based on movement. There was a bit of compitition between everyone and I, of course, was on the bottom of the barrel again. I'm hoping that when the school year is wrapped up I'll have a lot more energy! That should get my spirits up again!

I listened to the first part of Darby's radio show on the ride home. When I pulled into Marion the sky was black with an occational flash of lightning. The story was reaching a rather horrifying point and, I swear, I was absolutely chilled!! The story has a connection to Biblical prophecy so it has some deeper issues that it covers. Millions of people are 'chosen' and they just disappear! The rapture has taken place and the story deals with the poor souls that are left behind! It's an addaption of a book series called "The Kids Left Behind" and it is incredible!! The show is being distributed worldly as far as I understand. Darby is responsible for a significant amount of the humor.

05-12-01 "Never's End!!!"

I am very glad I took the initiative to drive over to Sheboygan today!! First off, while I drove down I listened to the last few hours of Darby's radio show that he has on CD. I even caught his voice as one of the bit characters. The story made the nice drive even better!

I went down to Sheboygan to catch the premier of a great new movie by a group of film makers from the area. While I didn't make it in time to actually view the film, I had a great time talking with director, Ron Haese, and his right hand man, Nick Kaat, outside the theatre. They were very enthusiastic about making more projects! They tried to get thier film into the Wisconsin Film Festival this last year and it wasn't accepted which adds to my own concerns... what happens if we get our movie done and no one gets a chance to see it? Ron has made a number of other projects and I'm hoping I'll get a chance to see some of them in the future. He's got "Never's End" ready for transfer to DVD witha bloopers clip and a director's comentary track already done. I also got a chance to talk with Russ Margenau, the musician for the movie (he also played the villian in the film). He's an incredibly talented guy! I bought the soundtrack and listened to it all the way home. I was completely impressed!

I hope to get the chance to work with these guys in the future!! They seem very cool! Even if I haven't a clue as to how to pronounce their last names?! Check my links for a direct connection to thier site!!

05-13-01 "A Rough Mother's Day For All!"

This day turned out to be a real killer for me. Everyone showed up and we were right on time for what was to be the final group shoot of "The Hunt". Joe Budke was unable to get here because he got ripped off in Chicago and didn't have any gas money. I didn't get his email until about 1:00 so it was way too late to run down and get him.

I can't even begin to describe what a powerful crushing hammer blow to the heart the day turned out to be. We ended up getting four or five brief shots that I'm hoping to use as a montage at the beginning of the movie but we could have gotten them any other day. I felt so bad for everybody, especially Cousin Joe, Jason, Tom, Jon, and Tony as they all had over an hour drive just to get here. To top it all off, Josh's dad is starting to get sick of the whole business. He needs Josh out in the fields. I'm just hoping they can see that I'm offering their son the oppertunity of a lifetime.

I felt like dropping into a hole and giving up!!

05-17-01 "The Call!!"

One of the most possitive aspects of my school year has been my Junior High art classes. Both my seventh and eighth graders are creative and energetic. I decided to shoot a quick short in Art 8. We spent a day brainstorming for ideas and decided to create a short comedy about a group of kids that gets called to the office. I'm going to shoot it using the movie frame mode on my camera and in the widescreen format. I've shot a few scenes already and brought them back to the class after editing. They love seeing how the footage fits together. Many of the shots I captured didn't make sense to them until they saw how it looked in the final stage. The class is learning a lot and I'm regaining some much needed energy! I'm hoping the project turns out nice enough to enter into a few student contests including next year's High School Art Day at UW Oshkosh! I think the project has also gotten some of my older students to realize that they have potential as far as film making is concerned!

05-18-01 "The Senior Slide Show!!!"

I've also been working on the senior slide show for this year's graduating class. I had to restart it three times because too many of the same kids were always being represented and I had to try to ballance it a bit more. Tonight was it's premier. I was once again chosen as an honored guest to the graduating class. I had everything set up and ready for the show. All I needed to do was turn on the projector and start the VCR. Well when it came time to play the video I couldn't get the darn thing to play!! I was totally embarrased! After what seemed like five minutes of silly stupid jokes I realized that the tape had been playing all along and needed to be rewound! Well, never fear because I had an ace up my sleeve. I had a letter from our former foreign exchange student that she wanted me to read to the class. I had planned to read it after the video but all worked out in the end. Most folks commented that they thought it had all been a set up on my part. I'm just going to let them think that!!

You'll be happy to know that the letter made several of the students cry! Oh, how sweet!! The entire ceremony was great. My only problem was with two girls that put me on their 'crap list' because I had to repremand them their last week of school. While they were two of my favorite students they had it coming and I can't feel sorry for that. It's just unfortunate that they can't see that, as the incident has effected the relationship I had with them and it seems that it will never be the same. Oh the wonderful politics od education!!!

05-23-01 "A Great Practice!!"

Comedy City pracice went very well tonight and I left feeling energized and witty! This last week of school is going smoothly as I'm giving final exams and playing "Run Lola Run" in my classes. While it may not deal with a completely wholesome subject, one cannot argue that it is a very artistic film! The kids didn't like it at first because they had to read German but after the first ten minutes most of them where engrossed! It's making this last week of school almost enjoyable!! The Junior High film is coming along amazingly well! I can't wait to put the final edits together and show it. No time to edit tonight. Tomorrow!

05-25-01 "The Junior High Premiere!!!

I stayed up until about 2:00 this morning putting the final touches to my Junior High movie and it was all worth it. Even though I was dragging my butt the whole day we got a chance to show "The Call" for Junior High graduation. It premiered in front of a group that consisted of parents, faculty, and students and it was a complete hit!! I watched the student's faces as the crowd laughed at their movie and I saw a great amount of pride! Again, it all was worth it!! I cut down the seven minute blooper real to about three minutes because the movie itself was only five minutes long.

I AM REVITALIZED!!!!

Oh ya, I'm also begining to concieve a little idea for a short that involves a guy who hates cutting his lawn. Hee hee, more to come!!

05-28-01 "Casting, Momento, and Pearl Harbor!!!"

I spent Saturday and Sunday up in Green Bay helping Darby cast "One Unselfish Act". While we didn't have a ton of people we had some good luck with very qualified people trying out. Many people got wind of us through 'The Rock' talent agency in Madison. They had tried to contact me at one point went Tom and I had our casting call on the Wisconsin Film Office site. I never got back to them because I though Madison was too far for most people to drive. I wish I had contacted them now as I met some great actors that could have done amazing things in "The Hunt"! Kevin Griffin in particular was quite a character. He'd have made an incredible deer hunter! I also met a beautiful little thing named Cheryl! She had a great look but was a bit too sweet for a tomboy. Darby is hoping to use everybody somewhere in the project. As of now I'm kind of his right hand man on this thing. I'm kind of liking that!!

Saturday I caught "Momento" after a GREAT show at Comedy City. That's right, I got up on stage again for the third time now. I did a wonderful job and the whole experience turned out to be extreemly positive! Anyway, "Momento" was great! There were some people complaining about the film on the way out. I felt like telling them off but that would have been a bad thing. Frickin' idiots!! The whole drive home was strange as I felt like I had the same disability as the guy in the film!!

Sunday I caught "Pearl Harbor" with Darby and Bobby Jo after we were done with the day's casting. After the film we were walking across the parking lot and Darby mentioned to me that it was very appropriate that the movie was playing this weekend. It was at that second I realized it was Memorial Day weekend. That thought choked me up and I seriously got a little teary! Big stupid ass!! Here I was watching the movie for the cinematic value and hadn't even thought of the thousands of soldiers that gave up their lives for America!

Monday was a day of rest as I cleaned my bomb zone of a bedroom and then watched "Tora Tora Tora" with my brother. I'll probably catch "Pearl Harbor" again soon as everyone wants to see it.

Back