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01-01-01 "Deer Trouble!"

My head hurt a bit as I had one too many Hacker Pschors last night but I did manage to get something done. I headed over to Little Falls and got some great footage of the deer. I needed to get a shot of a lone buck as he turns to look at me. Well, let me tell you that it is rather difficult to do that when he keep surrounding himself by does! I shot for almost an hour and a half before I was let down by my battery. I think I caught some good stuff though! School's tomorrow, am I ready? Heck NO!!!

01-02-01 "Mister Tee-Shirts!!"

Tom got through with some quotes for tee-shirts and they're a bit steep! We can get them done for about $15.00 a shirt but we need to get 24 of them. Now this would be great if we were sure we could sell them (and if we had the extra scratch to pay for the whole business). Actually, I think they'd sell because they are rather appealing and it is kind of funny having a shirt to a place that doesn't exist. I'm gonna check on the price of silk screen materials because I could probably do it myself (even though I never had much success with silk screening before). The first day back at school went well. All the kids were still asleep. Also had play practice before and after school. Wow! I am committed!

01-3-01 "Lizard Of Death!!"

After school I headed to Green Bay for practice only to find out that we didn't have it!! Oh well, I was able to get silk screening stuff and an armload of shirts. I can now print my own 24 shirts and it won't cost $400.00. It will only be about $150.00. That we can handle! I might end up taking some of the shirts back also so it might not cost that much at all. The thing is, we NEED at least two shirts for our actors. All the rest are extras or promotionals.

Secondly, if you get a chance check out lizardofdeath.com on the internet! Fellow Wisconsin filmmaker Ben Heckendorn has outdone himself with his latest project! They uncovered an old monster flick from the fifties that had accidentally been lost in a wall all these years (not really but they are promoting it that way). The whole thing sounds like an experience and a half! If I can make it to the premier I'm going to try but it's on the same weekend as the play! Crud!!! They also are doing it on Wednesday? Maybe I can get off school to run across the state to talk with these maniacs!? Sounds like a professional day to me?!

01-04-01 "Feelings... Whoe whoe whoe!!!!!"

OK, First off, I was married on January 4, 1986 so today was at one time very special to me. Many years ago she fell in love with another and I was left in the dust. I never got a chance to fall out of love so the whole mess still hurts at times. I never see my ex-wife and I'm damn glad of it! I think of her at times. It's rather tragic.

OK, I took the initiative and printed some shirts today! They turned out pretty cool! They weren't perfect but they'd certainly pass as it on screen! I'm thinking of using just white as I'm sure I could never line these darn things up a second time and get right on the money! I'm very pleased with them. I made six and might make more, I'm still not certain!

OK, now don't get too excited or anything just yet but listen up! Yesterday a Federal Express guy left a note for us on the door. I was certain that the delivery was for my mom as she has yet to get a gift from a special friend of hers. Well, it turns out it wasn't for her at all. It was for me. It was from California. It was a check for $2750.00! It was a refund from the camera I tried to buy many months back! I was sure I had been ripped off and I'm still not believing it yet. I won't believe it until the check has been cashed and I have that money in my greedy little hands!!! I haven't heard from any of those guys since August or so?! I wonder what the heck there deal is???

Anyway, it'd be cool if something nice happened to me (especially today!) I'll keep you posted on this one. If it's legit I'm buying a 3X lens for my camera!!! Please please!

01-06-01 "Bus Boy!!!"

I went down to Appleton today to catch the new Coen film "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" only to find out that it wasn't playing anywhere! Stopped at Tom's to shoot the breeze then headed up to Green Bay to catch a High School show. I stayed all night and helped behind the counter selling beer and soda. I'm really starting to enjoy some of the people in the troupe as we share many similar interests! I'm a ball of knots with this stupid check coming back to me!!! I don't know what to think of the whole mess yet! I'm not gonna get excited until the cash is in my greedy little fingers!!

01-10-01 "More Scripts!!!"

Practice tonight at Comedy City was a blast as usual! Mike has his own Canon XL-1 and the guys are always making little short flicks! It's driving me nuts as I long for the times of old when it was about shooting footage and things like story and quality were secondary! Their stuff is pretty darn funny! Darby sent me two scripts he wrote so I'll be reading the next few nights. He's a heck of a writer! I wish Tom would have been able to find the time to get involved with Comedy City somehow but I guess I should just be satisfied with the time I can squeek out of him as it is!

I've been tossing around an idea that would make a great short. It shouldn't require too much prep time and it would be mainly documentary. I'm thinking of doing a five to ten minute mockumentary on a guy who's taken on the task of being a self employed vampire slayer or monster hunter. I think it could be pretty funny.

01-13-01 "Naughty Jokes And Broken Bottles!!!"

I took three high school kids up to Green Bay for Comedy City's High School show and practice. They were too cool to really get into it but I think they had a good time, plus they're not use to dealing with humor that doesn't deal with violence, poop, or sex! I'd like to start a comedy troupe in Marion High School but I'm afraid too many kids would make it inappropriate. We'll see what happens.

Hey, wasn't I working on a film a while ago? I've been so blasted busy wrapping up first semester and working with the school play that I haven't been able to do Jack Squat on the project (other than make a few t-shirts). We've had a month off now it's getting close to the time we should get back on track!

A teacher friend is trying to talk me into going with him to the Bahamas this summer for a week. I'm seriously thinking about it!!

01-15-01 "The Unbelievable Happens!!!!"

I got a message today from my bank telling me that my check was waiting for me and they wanted to know how to deposite it. Holy Crap!!!!! I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER in a million years thought I'd see that money again!! I still have no explaination as to what happened or WHY I got a refund but I officially have my cash back! I'm going to send a large chunk to a family friend that gave me a perfectly timed loan (even though he split ties with my mom last week... hmmmm, maybe I shouldn't pay him back?!). Anyway, I'll give him a bit, possibly get a 3X lens for the camera (before we do the car interior would be nice), and toss the rest at a trip to the Bahamas. Sometimes it's kinda nice how life works out.

I read both of Darby's scripts and loved them both. He wrote a sequel to a film that Tom and I both played a bit part in. The movie is called "Afterbirth" and it was written and directed by Paul Reinhard of Green Bay. That script had a real "Men In Black" feel to it. Darby's second script was a nice little short that deals with a robbery. He hopes to shoot it this summer, I hope I can help.

01-17-01 "Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!"

Holy Crud! I've been running myself ragged with play practices early each morning. Plus the start of a new semester is always exhausting. We had to replace one of our key actors because of bad grades so we decided to push the play back two weeks. Now I'll be able to run down to see the premiere of "Lizard Of Death"!! I'm excited! We really needed the extra time for the play also. The sets are minimal but the acting is pretty tight and the kids need to be right on or things get lost.

Tonight at Comedy City practice Peggy asked me to teach a lesson to her high school troupe. I told her, "Sure thing!!" I think it'll be fun. After practice I went over to Darby's house and gave him a quick lesson on an editing program he'd like to try. As I looked around his appartment I couldn't believe how much of the same stuff we have. I'm hoping we'll get a chance to work together on something soon. I gave him a copy of "The Hunt" and told him to check out two of the characters. Maybe he'll like one and want to be an actor! I have another Comedy City actor, Dave, that's looking over the script to possible act as one of the characters. Dave IS quite a character already!!

01-18-01 "Death And Taxes!!"

Tonight I had an appointment with my tax person to get 'Out Of Whack Productions' officially registered as a business and get my taxes prepared. I typed up a massive list of all the expenses and tools I have. Keep in mind that I have far more stuff than I was able to put down. For example, how do you determine the value of a costume that took a week to construct? Multiply that by twenty! Anyway, I have about $16,500.00 worth of equipment accumulated over the course of my life. I'm finally able to write it off! Now all I need to do is begin creating projects that will start catching folks' eyes!!

I wish I had more time to do my own creating!!! I haven't done ANYTHING artistic for this year's art shows yet! I have plenty of incredible ideas but I don't seem to have the time or the energy to get at them. I better get my butt in gear or the deadlines will be here and gone!

01-22-01 "The Relic!!!"

I finally took my own advice and began a painting in school for the art shows this year. I think it may turn out rather cliche' but I feel the need to do something! I'll need to spend a few late nights at school if I hope to wrap it up in time for the New London show!! Maybe Tom would like to come up and make something. He mentioned he'd like to create something for a show last year. We haven't had much of any quality buddy time lately.

Also, I got a tape containing two shorts from a young film maker in Appleton. His name is Scott and he works in the comic shop down there. These little movies where school projects but they were actually much more developed than anything I've seen any of my students create! He did a fine job! They both were pretty darn funny!

01-24-01 "Goldilocks And The Foreign Exchange Bear!!!!"

Comedy City practice went great tonight even though I am feeling like crud! After the show some of the troupe performed a children's play that Mike had written. It was great!! Songs, dance, audience participation!! I'm sure it'll go over well.

Went out for hot wings with Darby and Steve afterwards at "The Bar". Once again I stayed until the wee hours of the night talking film with Darby. I swear him and I could talk until the sun came up! I'm hoping we'll be able to motivate each other to achieve new heights.

01-25-01 "The Wonders Of The Internet!!!"

After sending a bunch of test emails to the "Out Of Whack" email address from school and not getting them at home I began to wonder what the heck was up. I checked everything out and all appeared well until I located a darn typo. When I got it all up and running I was floored with over 47 emails!! Many of them were from Cousin Joe who was going nuts wondering when we were going to need him. Why the heck he didn't call is beyond me??!! Oh well! It took me nearly the rest of the night to get all my blasted mail read! Emails from Jon and Tony, even some lost emails from Tom. These babies went back to Thanksgiving time! Sorry about that folks!!!

01-27-01 "The Lizard Of Death!!!!"

I got a chance to visit beautiful downtown Richland Center Wisconsin this weekend!! What, you don't know where that is? Well, worry not little campers for I too didn't know where this place was until Saturday!! Richland Center is located between Madison and LaCrosse (that narrows it down a bit doesn't it!). Actually it's probably about a hour or so from Madison. I was actually quite impressed with the little Meca of 5000+ people. There were tons of wonderful brick buildings including one designed by Frank Lloyd Wright himself (I got a little footage of that building). My one major complaint is that the town had absolutely no where to buy comic books!! What kind of town is it?! Barbaric!

What brought me more than four hours from my home to this sleepy little hamlet (did you catch that Ben, I got a chance to use your line!!)? Well, none other than the premiere of "The Lizard Of Death"!! This inspiring film is the brainchild of Ben Heckendorn, Ben Koelsch, and a few other film nuts from the area. The film was magnificent!! They were trying to capture the feel of an old B movie from the late 1950's and they succeeded 100%!! The film is entered in this year's Wisconsin Film Festival and I'm almost certain it'll be accepted! It has to be, the darn thing's too smart to be overlooked. I guess there is another group of folks in California that did something similar but not quite to the level of "Lizard", I'll have to check that out as well. The cast and crew were extreemly inviting as Ben Heckendorn (the director/writer) invited me along for pizza after the first show. Myself and six other film buffs (including the Nazi robot guy!) talked so much we missed the second showing completely! I think I made a few good connections and a few good friends! Very successful weekend! I need to get a tape of some of our stuff down to those guys. Get me your email addresses fellas!

As I wandered the streets of Richland Center I found a music store that had a poster in the window for "Lizard". This was the first indication that I was even in the right place. It was quite a relief. I talked briefly with the music store clerk only to find out that she was the female lead in the movie! Barbi, you are a fox and I'm in love with you!! I'm serious! She's probably married to one of the Bens or something... thus is life and love! From the music store I meandered over to the town's coffee shop where I met up with Peter, the local Mexican Philosopher. He was a great guy and we talked for a good hour. I'll have to check out his website. From there I wandered out to Walmart and bought two DVD's from a guy named Dale Nauertz. He turned out to be the star of Ben's earlier movies (we didn't even realize we had met each other until we were done eating that night!) I loved you in "Adventure" and "Adventurous", Dale! From Walmart I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. While I was getting another glass of water this guy was staring at me from behind the counter. I recognized him right away as a student I had over ten years ago in Clintonville! His name is Todd Schloeman. Small world huh? After that I went down to a bar and had a few dark beers as I worked on my fricken school art budget.

The quality of "Lizard" surprised me! Ben used a rather basic DV camcorder but he got that baby to do incredible things! Along with some great model work and super-imposed images (that were purposfully made to look poor) the whole experience left a smile on my face all weekend! Three thumbs up! Ben offered to help out with any effects work we might need, might have to take him up on it! Oh ya, I got a chance to play his handheld Atari unit! I may need to get one of those! Tom, eat your heart out!

01-31-01 "What's Going On!?!!!

Another wonderful practice with the guys up at Comedy City in Green Bay! I feel like I've been running myself ragged these past few days... I guess it doesn't help when I stay up in Green Bay until midnight every Wednesday! I'm making some great friends and I hope to get some of the folks there involved with "The Hunt" so I can wrap it up. I don't know what my problem is... I'm anxious to start on a new project but I haven't finished the current one yet! Am I destined for failure because I don't have the paitience to finish anything? No no no!!! Buck up little camper!! You just need to get a confident cast assembled and run! That's it! Yes! This weekend I'll get some footage shot. I also ordered a new wide angle lens for my camera. Hopefully it will solve all the problems I forsee with shooting in the small spaces of the cabin and the interior of the car.

My painting goes well and the school play makes me worry. We're having one heck of a time getting decent practice times! It seems like I've had to be at school at 7:00 for the last two months!

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