Random Me-ness

I haven't put any images on this for a while, so here's a bunch.

My Midnight Trip to Wagga - The start.

After 3 hours driving

The Underfiend

Miss Liana

Ed Wood - Fearless Monster Hunter

Me and Vanessa's Dad, Bill, clowning around.




The Prettiest girl in the world.

The Screening

Apologies for the shitty title but it's all I could come up with. My insistence on starting every title in the Mythicman blog with The something-or-other seems to crossed over to infect this blog.

So, if you've been paying attention, I went to a lot of effort and nervousness and heartache over something called The Trasharama a go go film festival. IT was my first ever entry into a film fest, and I was incredibly nervous about it as i anticipated the release of the final shortlist. I was also incredibly gutted when my film didn't make it in. Oh well, I thought, I guess it just wasn't up to the standard of film they were expecting. I'll try harder next year, I thought. Lousy, mother fucking, tasteless cunts, I thought.

One of the upsides of entering was that I got a free pass to go to the screening of the final films. There were only two in Sydney, one at the Paddington RSL, which apparently, only 8 people showed up for. The second was at a place called Mu Messons in Annandale. They are some sort of independent, obscure, small time movie house. There's a lot of way's to describe them, but the easiest and most descriptive is to say some "non conformist", which translates to mean pretentious, inner city toss pots stuck up a sheet and some lawn furniture in their attic and show movies that don't got shown anywhere else simply because no one want to see the damn things. I would have missed the damn place if I didn't see a bunch of guys mulling about the bottom of the stairs with trasharama T-shirt's on who were passing a dooche on the left hand side.

So, after going in, and getting through the confusion of "Free ticket", I found a seat close to the screen and got comfy, waiting for the films to commence. While I was waiting, they showed a trailer for an upcoming feature they were going to present, from the Great Insert-name-I've-never-heard-of. If this guy is "great", then I'll quite happily settle for mediocrity. The film seemed to consist of some overly fat guy eating, puking, fake blood, pissing off dogs, proving himself to be a loser and getting berated by everyone he passes. Then it's revealed to be the auto biography of the director. This is the life these clowns are aspiring too? Jesus.

Enough with the preliminaries, and on to the main event. The films finally started, after of course having to listen to the owner of the venue slagging off Greater Union with every second breath, which makes me think "Ex-Employee", and then the obligatory speech by the creator of Tropfest. He demonstrated his dedication to his festival by showing a tattoo of the Trasharma zombie cheerleader character across his entire back. HE stuttered, rambled, lost his place, shared a few private jokes with his Entourage, and then finally shut the fuck up long enough to let them start the films. The first one was called, I think, Rabbit rage. It was about a guy who was being stalked and haunted in his house by a pet rabbit. In all honesty, I've seen worse. But then things took an abrupt downhill slide. The next one was called Money Shot, which was a 15 sec, stop motion animated porno that ended with, you guessed it, a Money Shot! The wasn't anything after that that really upped the ante - or the quality for that matter. One film was called the day I got Sacked, which just consisted of a guy being beaten up by a giant cartoon pair of testicles.

I swear, I'm not making this shit up.

One film was just a couple of action figures moved about in front of the camera wit shitty cardboard sets. Another was a just a drag show with a gore screen. Another was a rip off or Re-animator. The only reason I could come up with for my film not making it through is that it was good! I actually put a bit of effort into my film, which, I'm sure If I read the fine print I would have seen it, is not something that is appreciated in this Fest.

When Intermission finally came around, I was half tempted to make a run for it. No, I thought, I'll give it a chance, maybe all the good ones are in the second half. Damn me for my optimistic ways. All in all, the entire night was shit. I just kept thinking how glad I was that Tony and Vanessa didn't come along, because they would have had to have paid, and Tony I know would have made a scene trying to get his money back.

About the only thing I got out of the night was the realisation that I never want to waste my time making another film for Trasharama. Which actually really shits me, because there just doesn't seem to be a film festival anywhere around that cater to my interests in film making. I can't stick my head far enough up my own ass to be considered for Tropfest, yet I actually endeavour to make my films as high quality and entertaining as I can, which means I'll never be considered for Trasharama.

Useless pricks.

Another step closer. . .

So I turned 34 yesterday.

I think I preferred 33. There's a bit of synchronicity to it. 34 sounds like you're counting towards something.

I had lunch with my parents and my Pretty Girl, helped dad out with some farm stuff, went for a drive, then sat and watched an old Hitchcock film while Ness slept in my arms. Ness gave me this great book on short film making, and her parents and sister gave me the Marvel Encyclopedia. Mum and dad gave me a huge warm and cosy jacket - lousy timing considering its going into Summer - and a t-shirt they picked up in New York. And I had a truck load of emails from friends on Facebook.

Then today, I received the review of the second issue of Robotoon, which was once again really positive.

Not a bad day on any accounts.

Is this how it ends?

If you've been reading this thing, or just listening to me bitch, you'd have heard how much I hate my job. The biggest reasons are 1) I'm bored, 2) There's no future in it, and 3) the bullshit, hypocritical management style. Recently though, things have been coming to a head. Because of the writers strike in Hollywood a few months back, there's sweet fuck all on at the movies at the moment. This is evident by how much emphasis they put on the release of "House Bunny" of all fucking things. So, no product mean no patrons. No patrons means the company isn't making any money. OR at least, not as much as they used to. With this in mind, the company has been making a whole bunch of "cost cutting methods" and putting them into play. This includes things like only turning on one light in two. Only putting on the bare minimum of staff. Cutting the starting times of shifts so they don't have to pay as much. Stupid shit like that.

What's been worrying me is shift culling. I'm casual. I need 5 shifts a week to survive. They know that. I've told them that. Unfortunately, this isn't just some weekend thing, second job or distraction between uni classes. This is how I survive. This is my only source of income. I am completely dependant on the company for my current financial stability. This is a simple fact of my life at the moment that I REALLY FUCKING HATE!!!!!!!!

I got a message from my boss today, cancelling my shift on Monday. This was because of an order from the Higher ups. I didn't see it coming, my boss could do nothing about it, and it is EXACTLY what I have been predicting. I'm really angry about it. Maybe more so because I've been drinking tonight, but angry none the less.

This is what it comes down to. And it's what I'm going to tell my boss on Tuesday when I see him. This is Strike One. No anger, no discussion, no me going off on rants. Very simple. Strike One. Which means they get two more. They get Strike 3, and that's it. I walk out the door, and they never hear from me again.

I'm on the downward ramp towards three years at that place anyway, so it's long enough. But I'm not taking this shit. If I thought I could walk into another job by the end of the week, I'd quit right now. But the way the world's going at the moment, that's not something I can easily count on. So I have to play this silly little game.

Strike One, fuckers. Your move.

I've been Reviewed!!

I sent my comics off to a lady who had reviewed Tony's comics for him, just to see what she thought. She printed her first review of Robotoon Issue 1 just yesterday.

HERE

It's quite positive, and says some things I've never thought of before. I'm looking forward to seeing what she writes of the next two.

On another note, Tony hung out with me this 'arvo and we were going through some of our films we'd made. Sitting down to check out the cut of Horrorflix, we gutted it, cutting ti down to a more manageable state. I had gotten to a point where I hated it, but now it doesn't flow to badly. I've also done a bit more cutting on the first Fearless Monster Hunters, which makes it work a bit better. Taking a bit of time away, then coming back to a project helps you to get a better viewpoint on things. Clears your head, so you can make a bit better decisions.

We also tried shooting part two of FMH, but stopped half way through. I just wasn't feeling it, it wasn't working out, I picked the wrong location, etc. I have to pull my finger out and get some more things up on Youtube, cause Tony's kicking my ass at the moment. Of course, where he beats in quantity, I beat in quality . . .

I've got about 4 pages of Robotoon pencilled and ready to go. One's Nearly done inking, the others need to be traced up ready. I went to buy some paper today, but the store I went to didn't stock it. Which was annoying, cause I took a special drive out to Liverpool to pick it up. There are two art stores closer to here, but they both suck. I'm going to leave earlier for work tomorrow and try the Art store in Newtown. Fingers Crossed.

Ness is nearly finished her course, so hen she's done, I'm going to get her stuck into making the puppet for 'Aborted'. Yes, I'm really going to make that bloody thing. Let's see Trasharama not include me NEXT bloody year! I also got paid for that drawing of the Sick Forklift I did, more than I was expecting. The money went to good use, buying me a set of specialised lenses for my camera. I still need - want - a wide angle lens and another longer lasting battery. I've got an idea on how to solve my lighting issues, but that will wait for later

Got a few more parts of Mythicman done. Haven't uploaded them just yet. Need to research some facts before they go up. I hope people are enjoying it.

Not much else to report at this stage in the game.