Fuego's Place

Although the short films are all coming along quitenicely, the large increase of distance, and the sudden decrease of ones and zeros, has slowed the process of post production down quite a bit. Of course, being back in the confortable surrounding of Prague (with glorious weather) and family (with a 18 month old) hasn't really added any energy to the campagn either, but that stuff is to be expected. With all the energy spread out so far, the Quest for World Domination has taken quite a downturn.

No, have thee no fear, the proejects are moving along, just not very quickly. What my editor and i could have easily accomplished in a few hourse in the editing bay (plus yummy bar-b-q a,d a few rounds of Croquet) now takes weeks and weeks of emails back and forth...what the Quest needs is a bit of a kick in the pants, and that begins at 6am tomorrow morning.

What is it, you may ask, that can bring the world into your grasp fuego, that has such a precise starting time?

A Script Writing Competition (inseert link here, cause that's one thing I can't really do well on the phone). It consists of three rounds. The first round you have an enitire weekend to write a 3 - 5 page scene for a film that, as far as we are concerned, is already being shot. Grace under pressure...which shrinks down to a day for the second round. 100 folks will make it to round two where the pressure is really on, only one day to fix the film!

Round 3 is where it gets really fun, you only get 90 mins to get the scene done, not much time at all (but I have experienced this exact situation (not as the writer, mind you) where the episode was being written pretty muich as they shot it...I don't suggest this...
It's not clear to me just now how many people make it to the 3rd round, but i think it's like 10 or so...or, should I say, myself plus 9?

pL

Please note: the subject is just a test of the letters that don't always work right off. something about the keyboard, takes some wiggling at first to get it going in the morning...

OK, question of the day: what do malted barley and red chili powder have in comon?

Before we get to the answer, I will go over just why it is we have these things. Well, the red chili is pretty obvious. I am originally from New Mexico, so things like red chili powder, green chili, quality salsa, and listerine often times find themsleves in my suitcase.

The malted barley, on the otherhand, is not so obvious. While my family is fond of homebrewing, the steps including the barley, malted or no, are usually skipped in favor of a tin of concentrated syrup, similar to molases in many ways. The barley was a mistake. We were trying to order sugar for the next batch of brew, and got mixed up. A difficult mistake, you might say. In English, yes. Barley and sugar are very different words. In Czech, not so much. The word for the malted barley is "slad," which is very similar to the word for "sweet." We made a mistake and got two giant bags of barley.

Homebrewing is temperature dependant. Since we live in an apartment, we don't have a lot of controll over the temperature (rediators with a 1-6 control knob), especially in the summer. Durring the winter, the East Wing is usually just about right for brewing, 20-22 degrees C. In the summer, with the sun high in the sky, shinging through the windows, the temperature is way too high. The barley has been sitting in a box for quite some time now.

Back to the question: what do these two very different things have in common? The Indian Meal Moth. It seems these little winged pests, or, more accurately their larve, are fans of both. One of our bags of barley had become a Moth Farm, and the red chili powder had webs and used coccoons in it. They acually had to chew through two plastic bags to get to the chili. Who woudl have know, red chili powder? Maybe they are New Mexician India Meal Moths.

There you have it. I suppose we could have used the barley to make an Indian Moth Pale Ale...

...fuego

We introduced the Lil' Guy to Earth Hour...

Got an intresting call today, it now it seem sI am going to Belgrade...followed by Milano and then Monaco. I'll be working for a company called Zepter, and it isn't the first time they have called me last minute to help do a show.

The problem with it this time is that it is right before we were planning to shoot our short film, and now we will have to push that a couple of weeks later. Shouldn't matter, really, might even be better.

For example, we might be able to get a red camera for a better price. And it will be easier to organize the extras. The hard part will be that we probably have to shoot it a day after I get back. Now, all of a sudden, I will not be there for most of the preproduction. Of course, a large part of that has already been done, and with the wonder of email, I can still keep an eye on what the kids are up to.

pL