Home And Thoughts

So if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm home safe - finally. Shooting on this last film was a nightmare, but fun all the same. I got to wear tons of fake blood smeared across my chest and face and we played countless hours of Quake 3 and Defense of the Ancients. It was really the first set where work was play was work and it actually did get a bit dull fragging and trying not to be fragged for ten hours at a time.

OK, But I'm back! And things are finaly beginning to slow down as I settle back into my avery-day life. Getting back on the usual sleep pattern is a pain in my spine but at least I'm financially secure. I have officially gone 2.5 months without a paycheck and I was out of town, away from stability, for that alottment of time. Near the end I overcompensated my bank account and did not realize that the pay schedule of my office changed from Fridays at midnight to Mondays at midnight. While I did cash in all of my PTO hours on the home stretch, the money wasn't in my account when I purchased the lavalier microphones and my parents were welcomed with two bounced checks. As much as my mind is drifting slowly toward the horizons of getting out and continuing the pursuit of my passions, my budget just can't handle it, and it's better for me to be a seagul in an ocean of plenty - diving in for food and sweeping out again and diving back when I'm ready, rense lather repeat - than a komikaze all or nothing. Because, frankly, I'd rather just have it all when I get to it. No sense killing myself now, especially when I don't have to.

So I'm home. I'm at a mundane desk job again. But all is not lost. As soon as my brother gets back from West Virginia, we're going to put together a few short films. There is a producer out of Orlando that is meeting with me later in September about turning my television show concept into a reality and a comic book artist is sketching up dramatized portraits of Feng as we speak!

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I was browsing my usual internet sites yesterday and I came across the trailer for this new romance/dramedy Undiscovered, which - from what I can tell - is a story about up-and-coming artists (musicians and actors) who of course fall in love over their impossible quest of being famous. The ultimate challenge, however, is that the guy is a rock musician and the girl doesn't want to fall in love with him because "you don't date rockstars." Talk about intense.

To make up for the fact that the plot sucks balls and Ashley Simpson is eating our souls, Hollywood decided to fake origionality (again) and sneak in the infamous skateboarding dog. They even give him the skateboard. So they're pretty unappologetic about it. Which got me to thinking again about this whole anti-piracy issue. Bear with me.

The dog isn't theirs. Hollywood didn't train it. Hollywood didn't want it. Hollywood didn't even know about it. Had it not been for the circulation of the home video where Tyson (the dog) skates around a parkinglot, Hollywood never would have cared. But now they know and they just had to have him. So they stole him and pretend he's their concept. One of the friends of the main character even says in the movie "they need to put this dog on Lenno" and that will probably be exactly what follows, which is sort of sad. Hollywood has now come outright and told us they have no origional material. And that's not true either. They have tons of new concepts, all written out and collecting dust in their corporate drawers because they'd rather regurgitate. So undiscoverds will continue to be that, some aspiring and talented screenwriters will never see the light of dayjobs because Hollywood just doesn't want them. They're too fresh, too new. Give us Ashley "The Fake" Simpson and a weak story instead.

Every time I go to a movie, I have to sit through three and a half minutes of preaching from some industry guru or blue-collar gaffer about why I shouldn't pirate movies or download ripped DVDs, why it's so damaging and how it hurts the industry and the people who worked so very hard to make their dreams into a reality. Is it really so wrong to steal a movie from Hollywood?

What about every movie Hollywood stole from Japan? Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara). The Ring (Ringu). The Grudge (Ju-on). What about the writers of those films who aren't going to see a penny of the profits made by Hollywood who outright stole their story? Nobody would have known about the Oriental origins had it not been for the internet and people who are gurus enough to pay attention. Hollywood sure as hell wasn't in any hurry to inform us of their sources. Actors and directors show up on late night talk shows taking credit for somebody else's genius like it's nobody's business, so don't give me this crap about the sins of piracy, Hollywood, when you pirate from people everyday. No, I'm not justifying what I may or may not be doing, but I am saying that these "you're screwing me" ads need to stop. They're stupid and a waste of time. Give me a hardcore emo trailer any day of the week.

I hate Hollywood.