October 27, 2005
I've posted a couple of photos from last weekend's movie shoot (Mark France's The Fallen, in case you've forgotten). You can view them here. My tripod is still in the shop and Mark still has my camera. I feel naked without my tools!

Also, this weekend I am filling in on vocals for the band Soul Circus. They are another No Deal Records band, as Elixir was. We're playing at The Dawg House on Groesbeck in Clinton Twp. We are playing a bunch of stuff that I've always wanted to sing but never have. Gonna be a fun weekend. I wonder if we're going to have to play an extra hour on Saturday night. We better get a tip if we do!

Finally, if you make a U-turn and there is no sign prohibiting it and you still get pulled over, does a tree crap in the woods?
 

October 24, 2005
We had a chilly yet successful weekend shooting Mark A. France's new project, The Fallen. It was exciting to be behind the camera for the first time, and there were no technical difficulties with the camera. The same cannot be said, however, for my $400 tripod which is barely 1 year old. It's a Bogen 501 with this ball-socket contraption for leveling and rotating the head. Anyway, whilst setting up for a shot yesterday, the whole thing just fell apart. Fortunately I had a firm grip on the camera and no damage was done to it, but the tripod is in shambles. OK, technically not the tripod but the head. We tried for about 30 minutes to figure out how to put it all back together again, but not even our mechanically inclined star actor, Richie, could figure it out. So we went hand-held the rest of the day, ignoring the protests from my aching, frozen arms. I took the mess into a camera repair shop today, and am awaiting an estimate.

The shoot, as I said, went very well both days. It is truly a beautiful time of the year to shoot. Hopefully it will all look as good on TV as it did in the viewfinder. Jacquie looked wonderful on Saturday and decomposed on Sunday, as unfortunately her character met an untimely end at the mouth of a radiator grille. I also got to play Runt, an emo/slacker dude. I took the character to heart, as I called in sick to work today! Nothing feels better...
 

October 17, 2005
Mark A. France's new project, The Fallen, shoots this coming weekend. I am helming the camera and playing an emo-goth punk named Runt. My beautiful bride is playing the lead role. Nothing like the pressure of making sure your wife looks perfect in your first foray into cinematography! This film is described as "a horrific psycho-drama involving love, loss and the living dead." Should be a good one! :)
 

September 30, 2005
A bunch of local Detroit musicians recently got together and recorded a benefit song for the victims of hurricane Katrina. I "lent my voice" to the song, and it's now available online at www.rockinforthehurricane.com. It's a $0.99 download, and all proceeds go to the American Red Cross. So do your part to support disaster relief AND Detroit rock and roll!
 

September 26, 2005
Holy cow, what a weekend! On Saturday, Mike (Elixir's guitar player) and I played our first acoustic show up at Filippa's in Sterling Heights. We had a great time and so did the people that pay our bills, so we will be back there sometime in October. Dates will be posted here...

Then on Sunday, Jacquie, Sid Redlin, Melissa Zinn and I traveled east to Cleveland to see Love & Plutonium in the Twisted Spine "Micro" Film Festival. It was a lot of fun and we met some interesting people. And to top it all off, we won the "Best Feature Film" award! We are on cloud nine right now. Read all about it at www.LoveAndPlutonium.com, and see proof here. :)
 

September 19, 2005
Well, my band Elixir had our swan song last weekend. We had 4 fine 4 shows with some good crowds out at Jack's Waterfront. We rocked, we hugged and we rocked some more. I posted some photos on the Elixir web site, probably the last things I'll ever post there. Enjoy!

Speaking of photos, today I picked up some photos from the Talk America shoot I did back in August. I did a TV spot and a print ad. I've posted a few of the print shots on the Photos page (check out the 2nd row). Not sure which one the client actually picked. If you get a Talk America mailing with my mug on it, drop me a line and let me know which shot they used! Just for some context, I played a man's man working on his hot rod in his manly garage.
  

September 15, 2005
My scenes in Probejackers have been completed. It was a lot of fun and quite challenging work, what with all the green-screen acting. I've posted a couple of photos from the shoot on the Photos page. In them I am wearing the t-shirts of my character's (Meltdown) favorite Martian rock bands, written in Shavian. See if you can translate them... :)

Went to the production meeting for Numb, the independent film I was cast in. Still don't know too much on that, other than I will wear a suit in the rain in one scene. Better not be one of my suits!

This weekend also marks the last 4 gigs of my band Elixir. We are "retiring" as a band and pursuing other interests. I will be resurfacing in a newly-named, but hauntingly familiar, band in the next couple of months. In the interim I'll be playing some acoustic shows at Filippa's in Sterling Heights, starting on Saturday, September 24. Then the next morning we'll be leaving for Cleveland to see Love & Plutonium in the Twisted Spine "Micro" Film Festival! Slow down? Me? Ha, don't be foolish.
  

September 5, 2005
Love & Plutonium has been selected for the Twisted Spine "Micro" Film Festival! The festival will be held on Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and 25, in Cleveland, Ohio. Love & Plutonium will be screened at 2:30 pm on Sunday. For more information and analysis, visit the official web site at www.LoveAndPlutonium.com.

The Too Good To Be True project is on hold while the wacky MPI people sort out all their equipment scheduling problems. For all the money kids pay to go to that school, the organizational skills displayed by the faculty are quite poor!

More Probejackers shooting this Saturday, this time in fake zero-gravity, spacesuit and all! This should be interesting.

I've also been cast in another independent film, Numb. Our first production meeting is this Friday. I'll post more when I know more...
  

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