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read all the news from 2005, archived read all the news from 2004, archived read all the news from 2003, archived read all the news from 2002, archived read all the news from 2001, archived read all the news from 2000, archived For the very latest news, stay tuned to FFrevolution.com. 
Straight from the new Ghostbusted Trilogy DVD, I'm proud to be able to present GHOSTBUSTED ZERO, a very special outtake reel from the original Ghostbusted. And a remastered version of the original Ghostbusted, complete with new footage. http://ffrevolution.com/1ocpvideos/ghostbustedzero.mp4 (57.6 MB) http://ffrevolution.com/1ocpvideos/ghostbusted1.mp4 (41 MB) 
Ghostbusted, of course, was my mess of a movie shot at the first Camp Rewind film festival in South Dakota in 2001. The idea was to make a little Ghostbusters movie, but the people who were starring in it - Jason Santo, Jon Ashby, April Cresey, etc. - rapidly lost interest and the film became sloppier and sloppier until I was left without a cast and just shooting random footage with Mike Stoklasa and Jay Bauman, as the film itself degraded into a chaotic mess. The end result was quite funny, as edited together by Mike Stoklasa into an orgy of randomness. It's a nice commentary on the film festival itself, and for those who were there in 2001, or remember that era of Rewind and the Camp Rewind festival, the film brings back a lot of memories. 
Wellll ..... the new film, Ghostbusted Zero, contains all the outtakes from the original film, which are all very funny. Since it's just as long as the movie itself, actually longer (27.5 minutes as opposed to 21), I call it a new film, Ghostbusted Zero. The centerpiece is a very special extended version of "If you were a Ghostbuster, what kind of Ghostbuster would you be?" segment ... much, much longer and featuring appearances by Jonathan Margheim, Alan Winston, Erin Arbogast, Wei Quek, Murray Boyer, and extended bits with everyone, especially the Queequeg crew - and Wally Fong hitting me with a chair. The DVD also contains the Ghostbusted 3 outtake reel (and a long clip from Ghostbusted 3 itself). There is no outtake reel for Ghostbusted 2, because Ghostbusted 2 IS an outtake reel. It's not an actual movie. Anything bad or screwed-up was used in the film itself. 
You might also enjoy this remastered version of the original Ghostbusted. It appears on the DVD in lovely quality, but it'll look nicely like crap here online. Look for new little bits - an alternate edit of Jason & April's scene, new lines like "Somebody's gonna come up behind me, I know it," "hosers," "Get a new shirt," and a brief extra segment in the end credits, involving Jonathan Margheim and a dog. ENJOY. 
http://ffrevolution.com/1ocpvideos/ghostbustedzero.mp4 (57.6 MB) http://ffrevolution.com/1ocpvideos/ghostbusted1.mp4 (41 MB) Kicked out of the condo in Carlsbad. Moved into a new place in L.A. last night. All is well. New address! Garrett Gilchrist 1736 Kilbourn St. Los Angeles, CA 90065 Future Street stretches out before me .... literally. That's the name of the next street. The lights of the city. A view from my window, beautiful at night, ugly and brown during the day. This is the city. Los Angeles, CA. Kerry Thorne and Cicely Gilman, a middle-aged hippie-type couple, live here with their cat Cartouche. All is well. They have DSL so I catch up on Stella and old episodes of The State. I watch an old Emo Philips special and Henry Selick animations. Close to the studios, Burbankish - very close to ABC, NBC ... I bother them until work they give. After being rejected by Nickelodeon, I sent in some animated series pitches to Adult Swim. I am immensely proud of my pitch for The Chosen Ones. And the bizarre, surrealistic Dance With Grandpa. One in a billion chance that anyone will care, but it can't hurt to come up with good pitches anyway. Who knows. Might try working on pilots for these series, just create something to get it down on video. Party on, Wayne. New DVDs from Orange Cow this week! Ghostbusted Trilogy Preview Disc - A complete collection of the Ghostbusted films - or almost complete, as Ghostbusted 3 isn't done yet. A long 15-minute extract from it is included though, the entire end battle with Warren Blyth as The Ghostmaster. This is a great disc - it also includes lengthy outtake reels from Ghostbusted 3 and a new one for Ghostbusted, which is called Ghostbusted Zero, and includes many, many previously unseen scenes with the cast - like a very extended version of "If you were a Ghostbuster, what sort of Ghostbuster would you be?" Jonathan Margheim, Alan Winston, Erin Arbogast, Wei Quek, Murray Boyer and more are interviewed, and there are notably extended interviews with everyone else. The original Ghostbusted was remastered especially for this disc, and appears here in a brand-new edit, with some secret extra bits for you to enjoy. I'll redo this disc with the final Ghostbusted 3 whenever that's done, and maybe do a commentary or something. I've also transferred a lot of the old Orange Cow movies to DVD, just straight-up with a DVD recorder. Notably: Excaliburger Gorilla, Interrupted (with a lot of special features after the movie) The Animal Game (on two discs, the second disc also featuring 40 minutes of the sequel, The Animal Effect) A remastered version of The Phantom Movie has also been created, for a DVD with commentary and outtake reel, but I'm doing that the hard way so it's not available yet. I've also done an alternate version of the Indulgence DVD for my own library, just so I don't have to look at a version with Jay's commentary on it. The Gods of Los Angeles DVD will also be redone shortly, in its final cut version! Composer Fabrizio Castania has finished a whole bunch more music for this film, so I think we're done. I'll get to work on that. A second disc of special features will be created very quickly, as that has almost been done for some time. Notably, there will be an hour of deleted scenes and an hour of outtakes. A third disc containing interviews and a documentary about making the film will be created at some later point. Non-Orange Cow DVDs My video recorder has been fired up a lot lately to transfer rare Neil Innes and Monty Python material. Many, many discs created there. But I certainly didn't use a DVD recorder to make this one -- Bonzo Dog Band: Talking Pictures - This is the biggest Orange Cow fan DVD project since Deleted Magic. It's an epic compilation of rare performances by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, the eccentric British band from the 60s who were close friends with Monty Python and The Beatles. They took on old songs from the 20s and acid rock from the late 60s, including exploding robots and visual insanity in their act. Vivian Stanshall, Neil Innes, Roger Ruskin-Spear, Rodney Slater, Dennis Cowan (or Dave Clague, or Sam Spoons and Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell). I've taken every clip I could find and remastered it, then used clips and clever editing to reconstruct clips I couldn't find, and make entirely new videos for songs. Good stuff. Tracklist -- Intro (Dog)/Death Cab for Cutie (MMT) Hello (We Are Normal) Canyons of Your Mind (CMP) I'm the Urban Spaceman (CMP) Monster Mash (DNAYS) Equestrian Statue/Newsflash (BC) Little Sir Echo (BC) The Sound of Music (DNAYS) 4 Fables/Seaside Poem (IBOR) Mr. Apollo (CMP)/Sinister (IBOR) Love is a Cylindrical Piano (DNAYS) Metaphorically Speaking (DNAYS) By a Waterfall (DNAYS) Merry Christmas (DNAYS) I'm the Urban Spaceman (DNAYS) Eleven Moustachioed Daughters (BiG GRunt) Hunting Tigers Out in "Indiah" Head Ballet (Pathe) Equestrian Statue (Pathe) The Bride Stripped Bare by "Bachelors" (montage) Death Cab for Cutie (DNAYS) Beautiful Zelda (DNAYS) Adventures of the Son of Exploding Sausage (clip) Room With a View (The Big Show) Little Sir Echo (New Faces) Tubas in the Moonlight (DNAYS) Canyons of Your Mind (BC) I'm the Urban Spaceman (BC) Jollity Farm (cartoon) DNAYS sketches Ready-Mades (montage) I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles (Full House) Humanoid Boogie (IBOR reedit) We Were Wrong ("Urban Spaceman" minstrel promo montage) Hello Mabel (DNAYS) Vivian Stanshall Adverts Look Out, There's a Monster Coming (DNAYS) I'm the Urban Spaceman (IBOR) Equestrian Statue (DNAYS) Rawlinson End Wheelbarrow Nice and Tidy Quiet Talks and Summer Walks (IBOR reedit) Rawlinson End clip: "Riddles" Imagination I'm the Urban Spaceman (RWT) Suspicion The Cracks Are Showing The End (New Faces) I'd Rather Cut My Hands (Crank) Fishing (OMW) Bonus features: Full House with Roger Ruskin-Spear Friday Night, Saturday Morning with Vivian Stanshall Eric Idle sings Captain Fantastic Karaoke feature In other news, I've been kicked out of the condo in Carlsbad, am moving back to L.A. .... BR> I've drastically redesigned my website, Orangecow.org. It's a "back to nature" theme this time around, centering on grass and outdoor things, to tie in with the actual Orange Cow. I hadn't redesigned the Orange Cow site in two years - the orange and blue design Warren Blyth and I created was put up in summer 2003, during the Indulgence shoot, when Jay had left town to avoid actually making the movie. I like the orange and blue design, but it had gotten a little old, and I wanted something new to celebrate the quasi-release of Gods of Los Angeles. To create this new design, I walked outside here in Carlsbad and took some photos. A few that I liked became three different versions of the new design. The site's content isn't updated much, apart from a new "More From Orange Cow" section that replaces the old, old MeuhNET site (from 1996). That's nice. The preview version of Gods of Los Angeles (The Festival Cut) is also available for sale for the first time, but I've done that quietly because really, Gods won't be officially released until the entire big multi-disc DVD set is done. I'll be updating more soon. Woo. So, with Gods of Los Angeles long since done and being finished for DVD and the festivals, the heart of a young man turns to thoughts of love. But since no woman is interested in him, the thoughts turn to what the hell movie he's going to waste three years on next. And that's the problem. I used to do at least one feature a year ... did five in 1999 ... back when I could slap it together ... Gods of L.A. took so long mostly because I was still in school and had to wait to really work on editing, but it still took over a year to edit properly. The problem becomes that none of my current ideas seem worth spending THAT long on. I was developing a fantasy script called The Kings of Eternity, that WAS worth spending three years on, but that's because it was so insanely ambitious and expensive I could never actually shoot it on my budget. So, with 3/4 of the script done, I've had to put it aside. I don't want to, but it's a good film and I don't want to fuck it up by compromising on the budget - it's an ambitious film and I'll need a Hollywood budget to do it right. BUT WHO KNOWS WHAT THE FUTURE WILL BRING here's the logline: The Kings of Eternity (working title) - This is a powerful, dramatic fantasy film set in modern times. Many centuries ago, two brothers made a pact of evil that shocked the entire world, selling their souls in exchange for eternal life. One of those brothers regretted what he had done, and dedicated his life to erasing the evil his brother had unleashed. But he lost his eternal life for the love of a good woman, and is now dead. Now, his daughter has found out her father's secret ... just a regular girl, going to school. With the help of a regular guy from her home town, and accompanied by the possibly-evil son of her uncle, she must now track down and destroy her uncle and an entire legion of the undead, once and for all of eternity. Whichever movie I shoot next, though, it's probably going to be on 24p HD ... there are finally HDv cameras out for home use. I'm not happy with the 24p mode on Sony's attempt, but the one by JVC sounds ... all right. It's all prototype technology at this point though. I know that it'll all get much better soon, but I can't wait for soon. With Kings of Eternity on the backburner, I dusted off a very old script from 2001. I planned this as the followup to Excaliburger, but David Ashe didn't want to do it. The Dead Can't Dance - A comedy/drama/horror rock musical epic in the vein of Little Shop of Horrors. A group of young people living in a small town are gathered together on the night that the dead begin to rise from their graves and devour the living. They must fight back, and stick together, if they are to survive what looks like the end of the world. Featuring music numbers like "Lay Down Your Head and Die", "I Don't Want to Love You," and "I Can Still Remember." The songs in this film are great - the script itself needs some work. It was originally written as an Excaliburger style comedy, all sex jokes and fast food. If I actually shoot this one - and this seems like the best feature script to shoot - I have to do extensive rewriting (and writing, as I never wrote the last half/quarter of the movie) to change the tone of the piece to be more adult and less stupid. Yet I can never bring myself to rewrite myself ... so ... uh. After the reaction to Gods of Los Angeles I figure I should really get back to comedy. But comedy isn't the way I think anymore ... I lean toward drama and fantasy ... and comedy for me is reallly hard to write these days, especially since I hold myself to such high standards. Hm. I always have a headache. The other problem is that it doesn't seem worth it to spend all that long on a comedy. An epic musical though? Maybe. Hm. The songs have to be recorded first. I sent off a CD of me singing the songs badly to "Pink" Bob Harper in Illinois, and also contacted (or was contaced by) a few bands on the net. They're supposed to record the tunes, but nothing's happened yet. We'll see if anything does. I feel like I'm waiting for someone else to initiate this project. Sigh. I did attempt to develop a new comedy. And I've been writing one, off and on. It was inspired by how the idiot teenagers these days can't stop quoting Napoleon Dynamite and all that. I rolled my eyes and said, well, if kids want a cult comedy, I'll give them a fucking cult comedy. I attempted to analyze films like Clerks and do something along those lines only not as shitty. About my generation of nerds. In the process, the film became stuffed with pop culture references. Which has never been true in my scripts really. Apart from obvious things like The Phantom Movie. It just seemed right to reference geek culture in the script, to the point where if I actually made this film, I wouldn't really have full rights to it - even musicwise ... which would make festival screening hard. And again - is it worth spending that long on a silly comedy? Then again, this film might not take THAT long, it's conceived as kind of a toss-off, to be filmed lightly. If I can ever film anything lightly. She's Got Claws - A cult buddy comedy for the Nintendo generation, in the tradition of Clerks and Napoleon Dynamite. A film for anyone who's ever had trouble growing up and putting away their comics, toys and video games. Derren is a 24-year-old comic-store geek on a sacred quest for the world's greatest Catwoman action figure. Tate is his best friend, still recovering from an unhappy divorce. When they meet Princess and Eunice, they meet their match - two women crazy enough to join them on their strange quest ... during which they'll discover if they can really grow up and put the toys away. Another big problem is that as I mentioned I don't feel funny anymore, and don't naturally lean to writing comedy. I need a cowriter on this like nobody's business - to give me some ideas and spark me writing gags again. I attempted to enlist a few cowriters, including Jeremy Benjamin ... He wrote the first 8 pages, I rewrote, and then we had a small disagreement, and now he's busy. Again, I feel like I'm waiting for someone else to initiate this project. Sigh. While locked out of the house one hot day, I spent 5 hours walking, down by the beach, and became philosophical. I was struck by the beauty of my surroundings ... the deep canyons of the rocks, the beach nearby ... It occurred to me that this would make the perfect setting for a fantasy film, like Kings of Eternity. But I wasn't shooting Kings of Eternity ... was I? It then occurred to me that a short film might be a good way to go. Basically a test for Kings of Eternity. Something like a 50-minute fantasy or sci-fi film, not quite a feature, using whatever was available and simplifying things to kind of cobble something together cheaply and make it look good, as I did in The Journey of Truesong. Matte paintings and bluescreen would also help a lot. I'd been looking a lot at the original Star Wars, when I did Deleted Magic, and I guess that stuck in my mind, along with Red Dwarf and MST3K, because I started thinking about how they did things in that film, in the location parts. The idea became a sci-fi idea. And something of a comedy. In fact, when I wrote the first couple pages of it, I even snuck Lucky Xenon in there. Hm. So, I might shoot this. Flowers For a Dying Sun - A light-hearted science fiction film in the vein of the original Star Wars and Red Dwarf, full of humor and excitement. Two lowly janitors on the starship Silver Lizard accidentally become heroes when they intercept a distress call from a deserted planet. It's up to them to save their captain (a woman whom one of them happens to have a crush on), defeat an evil half-mechanical dictator, and rescue a mysterious young woman and her father, whose psychic abilities could either save or destroy the world. Currently intended as a one-hour special effects film rather than a full feature. There you are then. So, it's not totally clear what the next film will be, but I assume that the fates will make it clear soon enough. Oh, there's also this script I started but never finished. It's a really cool one, but (apart from a plotline about artificial dream construction and virtual love) it mostly lacks the fantasy element to really interest me in it. It was based on Jesse Maddox betting me I couldn't come up with a truly original action film idea. A Bullet For My Heart - A modern-day Hitchcockian thriller. A small-time occasional crook, struggling to get by and desperate, takes an offer to commit a burglary for a rich client. The rich client has set him up as a fall guy, and he is shot in the face and loses consciousness ... Seven years later, he seems to have his life together. He has a beautiful wife who he loves, lives in a nice house, has become a better man ... but it's all a dream. He wakes up after being in a coma for seven years, and is shocked to realize that his happy life was just a hallucination - that his body has atrophied, that he was never married, and now that he's awake again, he's being pursued by people working for his one-time rich client, because he is the only one who can get them something that the rich client would kill for ... His beautiful life wasn't real, and now he's in a living hell. Taking it on the run, he tries to get himself and his life back in shape ... and he's ready to give up ... until he realizes that the woman he thought he was married to for seven years ... is real. And ... married. Putting his jealousy aside, he now has to save the woman he still loves, and bring down his rich former client before he kills everyone he cares about. PREVIEW VERSION COMPLETE! I worked very very hard yesterday, and finally completed the preview version of Gods of Los Angeles. As noted above, I've been working forever on a new, much clearer, noise reduced sound mix for the film, and finally finished that - this version is also the first version to have a full musical score! Composer Fabrizio Castania is still composing music for reel 3, but to meet my film festival deadline I had to put SOME kind of music on the entire film. So I used various tracks by Castania and Richard Allen, all through the film ... since so much music has been composed for this film, it was possible to find the right tracks for each scene ... although several tracks are used more than once .... some used a whole bunch of times. It was definitely a case of making it work in teh edit. The score is very effective, repetitions or no, and this is the first version of the film I can sign off on happily. The score will be revised as Fabrizio sends in more material, though. Nathan Mateer is also sending in a temp version of his CGI opening titles tomorrow, which will hopefully arrive in time to include in the new version of the film, before the film festival deadline of the 15th. Hmm. The next step is to do some experimentation and get the film looking correct in the DVD format, since the DVDs to date have looked muddy and grey and oversaturated and awful. Apparently I'm also doing another audition for the Mr. Crawley scenes tomorrow. And then on the weekend, it's Comic Con! A "preview" version of the Gods of Los Angeles DVD has been circulating. As you might know, I've been creating Star Wars and Monty Python related DVDs that people have wanted, so as a bonus I've been throwing in copies of my short films, and Gods of Los Angeles, in order to get the films out there and corrupting peoples' minds. Reviews have been good ... there is an annoying tendency of all reviewers of Gods of L.A. to point out how much they like Clifford better than Bruce. But hey. The cut of the film on this "preview" disc runs about 155 minutes, which is longer than the film is actually going to be when I finally release it. Nathan Mateer's wonderful CGI opening titles are also not there yet. SPECIAL FEATURES? OH YES! I had promised that when I finally put out the full version of this DVD, that it would be a many disced set containing so many hours of special features that no one, NO ONE, ANYWHERE, EVER, would actually want to watch them. Not even me. In fact, as I'm editing together these hours of special features, I'm not even watching them myself! EXCELSIOR! It's a creepily complete set, folks, outdoing shoddy Hollywood product like The Lord of the Rings. What? ONE HOUR OF OUTTAKES. One hour. Who in their right mind would want to watch one hour of outtakes? There's about 11 minutes dedicated to Warren Blyth alone. This is probably not a good thing. This feature is much funnier than the actual film and will be either watched instead of the film or watched by no one. ONE HOUR OF DELETED SCENES. Spotting a pattern here? This is edited together as its own movie. You'll get to watch all the scenes that weren't even good enough to make it into THIS amateur film. There is a great subplot with David Maddox as Clifford, performing his standup act in five scenes. You'll see deleted cameos by Lisa Renley and some other people. You'll see all the ending scenes which go on and on and on and on and never ever end which is why they were cut. And John Brugmann? OH YES. I've just finished editing together one of the "unfinished scenes" ... a weird and rather silly subplot featuring John Brugmann, Volcano Todd, Art Balteria and others, that we never finished shooting because it wasn't quite clicking. But there's some quality Brugmann action here, and in the outtakes. Yes, this scene even has outtakes. As what will probably be an easter egg, because it's too random even for this set, I've included a short silent film with Volcano Todd, that I've dubbed "Beautiful Zelda 2." Currently I'm editing together another "lost/unfinished" scene, the Ghost scene with Cori Haisler and David Lawrence as her father. This was one of my favorite scenes in the script, but we couldn't quite make it work as well as I wanted onset (Lawrence had trouble with his lines), and when we got the footage back, there was no sound on any of it. So the scene was, very reluctantly, dropped. The first two takes have some sound on them, though, and Lawrence also did this as his audition piece (doing it very well, which is why he got the part), so I have SOME sound. From this extant material, I'm attempting to reconstruct the scene. The most famous unfinished material is Neil Innes' part as Mr. Crawley, Jules' guidance counselor. I was planning to cast a new actress as Jules and shoot these scenes - and I did some casting to that effect, but I haven't found the right actress yet. Still very much something I'd like to do, though. I also plan to edit together the brief scenes starring cast members who quit - notably Adam Grimes as Bruce and Toby Brusseau as Clifford. Hours and hours and hours of interviews with the cast and myself have also been shot, and I'll edit those together sometime I guess, also using those for commentary. IT'LL TAKE A MIRACLE: THE MAKING OF GODS OF LOS ANGELES ... that'll be on disc 3. I guess. I'm currently encoding various bits and bobs of things into MPEG format for the DVD, so here's a small list of some other things that are ready to go ... Screen tests for Katherine Hoagland, Julie Kenworth and David Lawrence. And a look at the people who auditioned for Martha and Daddy. Music montages: Extended versions of "Angel Town," "Time to Kill," "Echoes of Light," and an alternate version of "Woke Up." Trailers - all five trailers for the film. NEW SOUND MIX! What's been taking up most of my time with this DVD the last few weeks is a whole new sound mix for the film. The film's amateurish sound quality was detracting from people's ability to enjoy its amateurish visual quality. So I spent ages applying filters to the sound to remove background and camera noise from every scene, one by one, and then mix the original and new versions of the sound for each scene together carefully, so that they wouldn't sound too electronically-altered. The result is that this was a lot more work than it was really worth. But the film has taken a great leap forward in audio quality (apart from some minor electronic-sounding-ness at times) and this was a skill I always wanted to learn anyway, so it was a good opportunity to experiment. When you've been sitting on a movie for this long, it gives you a lot of excuses to learn how to do new tricks editingwise. The film finally sounds quasi-professional, and you'll be able to actually hear David Ashe's mumbled lines more clearly than before. ENJOY! Nathan Mateer is about 60% done with his titles. Fabrizio Castania in Italy has composed the score for reel 4 of the film, but when I got it, I couldn't figure out which scenes each track actually went to. A lot of score has been composed for this movie but it still doesn't seem to be nearly enough ... I need to go over the film's score carefully and edit the disparate bits into something that actually kind of works. Well, after half a year of waiting on my composers to actually care and get a full score together for this film, I've said fuck it and am going ahead with making the Gods of Los Angeles DVD. A new composer in Italy has been hired, and possibly another one here in the states, so hopefully they'll come up with the remaining music cues I need by the end of the month. A test DVD for Gods of Los Angeles was made early this week, a rough version for this composer and anyone else I cared to send it to. This was a long 156-minute cut - I haven't started really looking at the edit and making additional little trims yet. The previous cut was 164 minutes. For this cut, a lot of new Clifford scenes have been added including a new opening and ending for his character, and some of the Bruce/Rhonda scenes that people didn't like have been cut. Looking at this DVD, the sound mix was fucking awful, so I went back to the original edits and captured all the sound for the whole film, and I've applied noise reduction filters to all of the scenes individually. When you do noise reduction, you often get this annoying electronic sound, which is unusable in a film ... for the most part I was able to avoid that, but there are definitely scenes that have that electronic sound to them, and I'm attempting to do mixing with the original edits and work on the sound until it actually sounds good. The sound in this new version should be much clearer and make the film more watchable. I have also begun work on Disc 2 of what might be a three disc set ... I'm doing a reel of deleted scenes, that will play uninterrupted as its own film. It will probably be an hour long. All those Bruce/Rhonda scenes will be included, but the highlight for me is the five-scene-long Clifford's Standup Act sequence, which was cut from the film. Good stuff there. Since a lot of this material was never edited together for the film, I'm currently going back and actually editing together scenes which were never previously finished. One of these is the infamous "Unhappy People" sequence, starring John Brugmann as Sharkey, Volcano Todd as Kass, Art Balteria as Jimmy and Johnny Chang as Sean. OH YES BRUGMANN. This scene was supposed to kick off an entire subplot starring these minor characters, but despite nice work by Brugmann, Todd, Chang and others, the scene was coming out embarrassingly bad, and was never finished. It was decided that we didn't need to introduce new characters this late in the film, and that Lily was coming off as an irritating bitch in the scene. But thanks to the wonders of DVD, you'll get to see Brugmann say "I'M A GENIUS!" in digital quality. Oh yes. (All the people noted still cameo in the film, but have no lines.) Also newly edited - cameos by Lisa Renley, Jay Bauman, Mike Stoklasa, Wally Fong and Jon ashby (in that order) - a pretty bad little opening sequence that was never finished until now. Silly stuff. Lisa Renley still cameos in the film, but has no lines. There is also the matter of the big deleted scene with David Lawrence as Lily's dad ... the ghost scene, which was never quite finished. I'll be attempting to edit that, as well as scenes starring the original cast members who quit - Adam Grimes as Bruce, Toby Brusseau as Clifford and more. Also - I'm auditioning actresses and will be doing some extra shooting, so I can include on this disc the most famous deleted subplot from Gods of Los Angeles ... The "Mr. Crawley" scenes, which starred British music/comedy legend Neil Innes (of the Monty Python films and The Rutles). When Mariana McConnell left my sorry ass, quitting the film, she left her part as Jules unfinished. Neil's part as Mr. Crawley, Jules' counselor, was already shot, but I never was able to finish the scenes with Mariana. I considered rewriting the scenes to feature Katherine Hoagland as Rhonda, but she didn't return my calls either. For this DVD, as a special treat, I'll be shooting new footage of a new actress, performing the original lines. So you'll get to see what the scenes would have been like. It'll be ace. Recently, I went back to L.A. and did a three-hour interview with Cori Haisler (and Colin Brown) for this DVD. Portions of it will be included as a commentary, and in a special film, "It'll Take a Miracle: The Making of Gods of Los Angeles" which I haven't started editing yet. Interviews with David Ashe, Katherine Hoagland, and David Maddox were done in 2002, 2003 and 2005 respectively, and will also be included. As I was editing the film, I've also been compiling outtakes, so you'll be able to see endless footage of people fucking up their lines and shit. Even for deleted scenes like your bit Brugs. In other FF member news, there's plenty of Warren Blyth as well. Yo Warren. I had to cut out some of your first scene in the film, but the part I cut out will be in the deleted scenes reel. Party on, Wayne. In other news -- this new sound mix for Gods is great. I just started cutting it into the film last night. Now, we all know that this began as a film I shot 3 years ago, and it certainly has its technical problems. Sound was one of them. When I did the color correction for the final cut, it suddenly looked a million times better, and looked like a whole new film. Now, I'm doing the same thing for the sound! I've done noise reduction on every scene in the film, and it now sounds crystal clear without a lot of background noise ... finally sounding professional-ish. The difference is remarkable, and makes the movie much more watchable. Now, when you do noise reduction, a lot of times you get these weird electronic-sounding noises all over the scene. This is especilaly true in quiet moments inbetween dialogue, or in scenes with really bad background noise which changes a lot. Music can cover this up, but otherwise how do I cope with this? Well, the answer was to carefully remix the sound for the scenes - take the noise reduced audio and add the original audio to it, at a very low level, about 30%. Then, I would mix out the silences in the noise reduced audio, just cut the audio out entirely inbetween lines, so that all you're getting on the noise reduced track is the dialogue. In cases where the dialogue sounded too noise reduced and odd, I would mix the noise reduced version down, and bring the original version up. If done carefully, this results in a clear-sounding scene that doesn't sound too electronic. This is a lot of fucking work, but I feel that after all this time, I owe it to people to put out a film that actually lives up to my current technical standards. I could shoot this film much better today, but to remaster it like this and make it look and sound as good as it possibly could is the next best thing. Listening to this new mix I can be proud of the film. And the new ending is pretty great too. =) Hi everyone. I'm sick. Too sick to really want to work on the Gods of LA DVD right now. So ... I spent the past 3 or 4 days reviving one of my most popular side projects. Star Wars: Deleted Magic began as a little collection of deleted Star Wars footage ... but instead, I decided to create a deconstruction of the original Star Wars ... including deleted footage, behind the scenes stuff, outtakes, notes, and my own alternate edits based on the screenplay .... in order to get people to understand how the editing of Star Wars came together (a film that is commonly noted as being "saved in the editing room") ... as well as look at the film in a new (and hopefully entertaining) light. There's a lot of subtly funny stuff in there. I did the first 40 minutes of the film a while ago ... I edited it very quickly, being able to do it in a matter of days. The first 11 parts of the film were posted at: http://starwarz.com/deletedmagic It has proved shockingly popular with the Star Wars fan crowd. Every freakin' day I get letters asking when the rest of the film will be completed, and when it will be available on DVD. Not having the time for a silly side project like this, I ignored them ... Until this week when I got a cold. I'm sick, and not wanting to work on Gods right now, I went back to Deleted Magic, and - again working super quickly - have finished my deconstruction of the first Star Wars, in a matter of 3 days. It runs about an hour and 40 minutes, I think. I have added an extra hour of material to my original edit. So, the people who bug me about the DVD ought to be happy ... it will be out soon enough. But ... since I'm still sick ... I am planning on taking a few extra days and doing featurettes on the major deleted scenes, and extended featurettes on Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi first. As well as a still picture gallery detailing lots more deleted scenes info. Then, it's back to Gods ... You can view the first 11 parts at http://starwarz.com/deletedmagic ... The other hour of the movie will probably be posted there eventually ... and will be available on DVD from me soonish. I've decided to release a bare bones version of just the first Star Wars deconstruction on DVD. I am still planning on doing documentaries on the major deleted scenes, and sections on Empire and Jedi, along with lots of special features ... But this is a simple version for those who want it already, and so I can get some feedback on what I've done, and fix the film and add to it before I put a better version out, sometime in the future. This DVD will contain a few special features ... The extended Lapti Nek video will be included, as will a still picture gallery of deleted scenes (although not nearly as complex as the one that is in the works for the better version) ... Probably a few other special features as well ... The "Light the Sky on Fire" music video by Jefferson Starship will probably be on there, for reasons that will become clear when you watch the entire film. The DVD version has a new introduction and trailer, longer and more extensive than what you saw online, as well as a properly-rendered opening crawl, and new and fixed material throughout the film. It will be ready within the next few days. Those who want it, email tygerbug at yahoo dot com. Gods of Los Angeles should have been out a looong time ago. It's been done for ages now, but my composers haven't done any composing in a long time. I've gotten in a guy in Italy who might be able to finish the score. For him, I have to do a semi-final DVD cut of the film, and I'll be doing that this week. Oh yes. Also, a guy named Nathan is doing my CGI opening titles, which will be amaaaaaazing. I still have to get the first versions that Brugmann did. Hint brugmann hint. And hey Brugs, you got a package comin for ya. Anyway, with Gods stuck in this mire, what incredibly stupid projects has Garrett been wasting his time with?? OH YES IT'S MORE STAR WARS DVDS You might remember my DVD Deleted Magic, a comprehensive 2 hour documentary about the deleted scenes and editing of Star Wars. The fans went completely gaga about this. We were mentioned on Ain't It Cool News, the files were downloaded thousands and thousands of times, crippling the site it was on ... there are now thousands of copies of the DVD out there, thanks to the INTARNET. (Torrent at myspleen.net.) So, yeah, sure, the fans seem to like it. But what does the star of this film think about it? What does Garrick Hagon - Biggs Darklighter himself - think about Star Wars: Deleted Magic? Dear Garrett, The answer is--it's great! I had a fun morning yesterday watching it. Brought back memories and had a wealth of stuff I hadn't seen. What a terrific edit and collating job and such very good quality reproduction! Thanks to you and Skot and all best wishes, hope to meet up again in the future. Garrick --- So there. Biggs likes the DVD. Therefore, it is good. Anyway, here's my latest project, which is my fourth and last Star Wars DVD, I think, I'm trying to give up doing this shit. And wasting my life and all that. STAR WARS CLASSIC EDITION!    
From the editor that brought you Deleted Magic ... Star Wars: Classic Edition. It's the original version of Star Wars, not the way it was, but the way you remember it. I took the 2004 DVDs, and edited and composited in elements from the 1993 laserdiscs (among other sources) to remove all special edition changes and bring it, essentially, back to 1977. There's even a different sound mix, with lines put in from the rare 1977 mono mix. I wanted to create an Original Trilogy Star Wars disc that would look as good as the 2004 DVD, and have a new sound mix taken from the 93 laserdisc mix, with elements of the mono mix mixed in. In short, my own ideal version of the original Star Wars - the only version I need. It's gooood stuff, folks. The disc is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby Digital sound. The 2004 DVD image has been slightly color corrected to be brighter overall. One of the most exciting things is the commentary, which is all new, edited together from interviews, and is definitely the best ANH commentary yet assembled. Here is the list of participants: George Lucas Anthony Daniels - C3PO David Prowse - Darth Vader Peter Mayhew - Chewbacca Kenny Baker - R2D2 Mark Hamill - Luke Skywalker Carrie Fisher - Princess Leia Harrison Ford - Han Solo Garrick Hagon - Biggs Darklighter Ken Ralston - ILM Dennis Muren - ILM Ralph McQuarrie - Production Paintings Charles Lippincott - Former VP, Lucasfilm James Earl Jones - Voice of Darth Vader John Williams - Composer Irvin Kerschner - Director, The Empire Strikes Back Frank Oz - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back Jeremy Bulloch - Boba Fett, The Empire Strikes Back Matthew Carter - Bib Fortuna, Return of the Jedi Subtitles pop up to identify the speaker. The opening crawl does not say "A New Hope" - it is a reconstruction done earlier for Deleted Magic. The opening shot has been restored to its former pre-2004 glory by Shadowman, also from Deleted Magic. In some cases, Special Edition material has been literally painted out of the frame, combining the laserdisc image and the 2004 DVD image in the same frame. This results in a sharper image overall. Rontos and CGI Dewbacks were removed in Mos Eisley, Luke's Binary Sunset was restored to its original shape, and wipes/dissolves were carefully created so that 1977 elements could wipe to 2004 ones. Using a tiny dissolve to add some extra footage of Han talking, the Greedo scene was restored to its original timing. The 1993 laserdisc mix is the source of the soundtrack, apart from several lines of dialogue which have been taken instead from the 1977 mono mix ... a 1985 (?) PAL TV airing of the film in the UK was used for these. The sound is quite clear but has a slight tape hiss on it which you'll notice if listening closely. In some cases, the lines used are so quick that you won't be able to notice that tape hiss at all. From mono mix: + All Beru lines + Stormtrooper: "It's secure, move on to the next one." + C3PO: "The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations ..." + Stormtrooper: "Close the blast doors!" + Luke: "Blast it, Wedge, where are you?" The mono mix was considered definitive at the time, so I thought it was appropriate to include the most notable changes from it, the final mix ever done back in 1977. Menus and opening animations were created especially for this disc by me - I've used them to lead into a slightly altered version of some of the the menus from the official DVDs, which I thought was appropriate for this disc considering. The disc opens with a montage of characters against Stars, covered by a big Star Wars logo which recedes into the distance and says "Classic Edition." Yes, I know, I'm wasting my life. But hey, it was fun and didn't take that long, and it's lovely, lovely, lovely. Also ... there are two others. After Deleted Magic, I did a couple of quick DVDs as favors for Skot Kirkwood and Alex Brunelle. Return of the Ewok and Other Little Films - Return of the Ewok is a little film that Warwick Davis starred in on the set of Return of the Jedi. It's quite amusing, and most of the cast are in it - Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher in a metal bikini .... it's never been released anywhere. Hyperspace offered a few clips from it recently, with fucked up audio. Then Skot gave me a copy of it that some fan shot with a camcorder at a screening. Quality was piss poor, but watchable. I edited the two versions together, and there you have it. Also featuring: Deleted Scenes clips (I did a new edit of the human Jabba the Hutt scene for this disc), commercials, The Creatures Go to England, Making of SWSE, Donny and Marie Osmond, Muppet Show w/Mark Hamill, Mark Hamill TV Intro 84, Star Tours Ride Video, THX Soundtrack! Special Edition Hype - Not quite as exciting. Collects a couple of cheesy specials and commercials intended to promote the Special Editions in 1997. The Magic and the Mystery, an MTV Special, The Force Returns, Taco Bell/Pizza Hut/Pepsi/EmpireSE ads .... I also snuck on there my own documentary, Talking to People About Star Wars. And now, I'm giving up, and going back to working on my own shit. But those of you who get copies of these discs, enjoy them. Also - if you enjoy them - you're a nerd. PARTY! PIZZA PARTY! 
http://www.ffrevolution.com/1ocpvideos/gb3...3outtakessm.mov (40 MB, Quicktime) 
My Orangecow.org server is a little fuckt right now, so I was going to hold off on posting this ... since I have to post it here instead, which will be a bitch on our traffic ... but hell with it. GHOSTBUSTED 3 OUTTAKES! Starring Mike Stoklasa, Jason Santo, Garrett Gilchrist, Jonason Ho, Jesse Maddox. This is a good'un, folks. Perhaps more interesting than the actual film. It is full of fun and hate! Explore the questionable sexuality of this Ghostbusting team! Find out what Jason Santo and Mike Stoklasa think of Garrett's directing! Alter fate and destroy God himself! This does not contain the outtakes featuring Warren Blyth, and the Camp FF4 outtakes with Rich Evans, Lisa Renley, John Brugmann etc. Presumably those will come when Ghostbusted 3 is actually released. ROCK PARADE.  
Hey everyone! When I created the Orange Cow Short Films DVD, I decided to edit two special trailers for Gods of Los Angeles ... based on the two old trailers, these new ones are remastered and have about 50% footage from the old trailers, and 50% newly-added footage ... or more. These are the final release trailers. The film will be released when the score has been composed and the DVD is done ... still waiting for that. New music included is by Richard Allen, our main composer. They're online now, and you can check them out here: Gods of Los Angeles '05 trailer 1 - "God in a shopping mall" http://www.ffrevolution.com/1ocpvideos/god...s05trailer1.mov Gods of Los Angeles '05 trailer 2 - "Paper Dolls" http://www.ffrevolution.com/1ocpvideos/god...s05trailer2.mov Enjoy. 
It's finally here! Enjoy it, folks. I'm very proud of this one.  
Orange Cow Short Films Volume 1 DVD Released! Travel between life and death, love and hate, hell and heaven. From the mind of Garrett Gilchrist comes this utterly unique collection of short films. The very best Orange Cow short films have finally been released on DVD, in a collector's edition packed with far, far too many special features. Subtitled "Movies for Dreamers," the collection features drama, comedy, fantasy, animation and everything inbetween. Love conquers death in the medieval fantasy The Journey of Truesong. A dying comic strip artist confronts his life in Stripped Away. Death needs an apprentice in the animated Mort. There's a thin line between love and murder in Lover's Poison. A woman splits in two in Music for the Mind Ballet. You'll meet a happy homeless loser in Squiffy the Derelict Cat. And a young pilot tries to alter fate in the time travel musical For Science. Packed with hours and hours of special features, this is true independent entertainment. I hope you enjoy traveling to these other worlds as much as I've enjoyed putting them on film. The Collector's Edition DVD comes in professionally-made packaging and costs $20. A "budget version" is also available, which has no fancy packaging and is just a simple burned DVD. This costs $10. The contents of both DVDs are otherwise identical. Films are written and directed by Garrett Gilchrist, except for "For Science," written and directed by Tim Carras. "Mort" is adapted from the novel by Terry Pratchett. The DVDs include commentaries featuring Garrett Gilchrist, Jonathan Block, and Tim Carras. Many of the films, like The Journey of Truesong, Stripped Away and Lover's Poison, are remastered and appear here in all-new prints. "Mort" features a brand-new 20-minute film, "Voices of Mort," featuring outtakes and deleted scenes from the original voice recording session. For more information, visit: http://orangecow.org/shortfilmsdvd.html List of special features: 
THE JOURNEY OF TRUESONG Remastered and restored film with new title sequences. 4-minute behind the scenes film. Three (and a half) commentaries featuring Garrett Gilchrist and Tim Carras. Extensive photo gallery. Original screenplay. About the Film. 
STRIPPED AWAY Remastered and restored film. Commentary with Jonathan Block and Garrett Gilchrist. Who is Lucky Xenon? A complete 40-page episode guide to the greatest sci-fi comedy that never existed. Lucky Xenon: The Sugarhigh Saga cartoon - remastered and restored. Easier Than Thinking staged reading - clip. Original Screenplay. Class Critiques of the Film. About the Film. 
LOVER'S POISON Remastered and restored film, with new title sequences and a previously-unseen ending. Original screenplay. Two 1/2 commentaries by Garrett Gilchrist. Directing notes on the characters. About the Film. Easter Egg (Outtake). 
SQUIFFY THE DERELICT CAT Remastered, restored and extended edits of "It's Squiffy!" and "Squiffy Meets Giffy" ... with previously-unseen footage and all-new title sequences, featuring a brand-new "Squiffy Song." Extended "deleted scene" edit of "Squiffy Meets Giffy." Commentary by Squiffy the Derelict Cat, on both cartoons, featuring Freddie the Communist Frog. About Squiffy. 
FOR SCIENCE "Editor's cut" of the film, previously unseen on DVD. Commentary with Tim Carras and Garrett Gilchrist. Photo gallery. About the Film. 
MUSIC FOR THE MIND BALLET Commentary with Jonathan Block and Garrett Gilchrist. About the Film. Easter egg: "House of Fun." 
MORT "Voices of Mort" ... A new 20-minute featurette featuring outtakes, deleted scenes, and other raw footage excerpts featuring the voice cast. Commentary with Garrett Gilchrist. Original Screenplay (partial). Restored end titles. About the Film. Easter Egg: "Soul Music." Easter Egg: "Of Sound Mind." OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES About Orange Cow Productions. TRAILERS: Two new Gods of Los Angeles trailers, created for this DVD. Trailer for the Radio Man web series. Excaliburger trailer (remastered). Indulgence trailer. Gorilla, Interrupted trailer. To order, visit: http://orangecow.org/blatantcommercialism.html 
Awww, aren't they pretty. And these are actually the "cheap" versions! I will probably be nice and deliver even the cheap orders in full packaging. I know that's what I'm doing this week anyway, while I'm in a good mood. Hey, I had a nice date with a girl from Norco, all is well, I'm doin extra nice packaging, whaddayawant? At the last minute I decided to add some extra special features to these discs, so there are some very nice extra treats for y'all ... TRAILERS Two BRAND-NEW trailers for Gods of Los Angeles. These contain some of the material you saw in the original trailers in 2002 and 2003, but there's new music by Richard Allen and they've been updated with new stuff - new trailers! Radio Man trailer. Remastered Excaliburger trailer. Indulgence trailer. Gorilla, Interrupted trailer. MUSIC FOR THE MIND BALLET Now contains a new easter egg ... which I'll call the House of Fun easter egg. Enjoy. 
[CAPTION: David Maddox does his best Gene Wilder impression.] Three years (almost exactly) since David Maddox signed on to play Clifford in Orange Cow's feature film Gods of Los Angeles ... He finished his part this past weekend. 
Laurie Stevens was nice enough to drive me up to Los Angeles to get the final major bit of shooting done for the film, provide props and help out. We shot at USC from noon to 5 on saturday. The lovely Julie Kenworth was also there to finish up her part as Martha Masters. I ran into my friend Jeremy Benjamin (and Kate) along the way - they were about to shoot something for the Ed Wood festival at SC (shoot a film in a day) ... Jeremy wanted a copy of the rough cut, which I gave him. Jason Gutierrez, a good friend as always, let me crash at his place, and handled cinematography and sound with his usual panache as we shot at his place all day sunday. It was great to see Jason again (yo Jason, it was great to see you again) ... and see what he's been up to ... including a couple of great little videos he made for his girlfriend ... continuing the great tradition Jason and I began with the epic "Package" trilogy ... We also spent some time drooling over Sony's new 5-grand prosumer-HD camcorder. Want. His parents also gave me a lovely meal ... I remembered back to three years ago, the last time we shot with David Maddox at Jason's place, in his first real scenes ... the shoot then ended with a barbecue and a little pool party, and is one of my fondest memories of that shoot. This shoot went very smoothly and easily, and I got everything I needed, without any fuss, and with great thanks to David, who gave a fine performance in a whole bunch of scenes, some of which he'd already shot two years ago (in footage that was lost) and had to do again ... I had hoped to shoot with a live rabbit, and to get a reshoot of a "roof" scene ... but there was no time ... still, these are very minor things - I got everything I needed, and am very pleased. There was even time to record an interview with David for the DVD. Honest and no holds barred. All in all, over 2.5 hours of footage was shot. After the hideous boredom of spending all my time editing this film for 3/4 of a year, going back to shooting was actually fun, and I'm looking forward to shooting another crazy-huge feature again sometime. Perhaps on that Sony HD camera. Drool. 
If you'd been working on a movie for 3 years, you'd have this expression too. 
Maddox shows off the greatest shirt ever. 
Maddox uses all his acting skills to pretend he's on the stage at a comedy club instead of in Jason's bedroom. 
"Friends, Romans, countrymen ..."
"Wait, this isn't a Tim Burton movie." 
"I want an oompa-loompa now!" 
Maddox speaks for everyone. On a related note, God I'm ugly. Photos by myself, except for a few of the magic photos taken by Jason Gutierrez. (note: photos are not actually magic.) I'll be posting larger versions here. [URL=http://orangecow.org/godsofla/photos/cliffordlastday/]http://orangecow.org/godsofla/photos/cliffordlastday/[/URL] Screen grabs: 
From the exciting conclusion to Gods of Los Angeles. 
Do not give away the secrets of the exciting conclusion to Gods of Los Angeles. OMG SPOILERS!! 
"MERRY CHRISTMAS, BEDFORD FALLS!" I didn't take any photos of Julie Kenworth ... I should have. But here are some screen grabs from her part of the shoot. I rushed through these in Photoshop, so they look a bit grainy and lame. But it looks good in the film, so hey. 
On a related note, god I'm ugly. 
Auditioning for Tyra Bank's "Next Top Model," Martha perfects her "better than you" walk. 
Clifford's dream girl auditions to be the bassist for the White Stripes. OH NO LOOK OUT MEG 
De-glammed, Martha wanders USC, sad and alone. She is so emo right now. 
"Why isn't he paying attention to me? Doesn't he love my awesome emo sweater and glasses?" Poor Martha. She should sing of her pain. 
Clarence to George Bailey: "She's about to close up the LIBRARYYYYY!!!" 
With shock, Julie Kenworth suddenly realizes what movie she's in. ESCAPE MUST ESCAPE 
Gods of Los Angeles editing complete! It only took him three years, but California-based filmmaker Garrett Gilchrist, of Orange Cow Productions and FFrevolution.com, has completed editing on his long-awaited ambitious romantic philosophical feature drama, Gods of Los Angeles. The film is not yet available for purchase - wait for it in March or so. This is Garrett's first version of the movie. The score is still being composed, and Garrett will be shooting pickups and deleting scenes before the official DVD release, planned for March. This film was conceived as a 4-hour epic before being cut down ... This first edit runs a shockingly long 2 hours 44 minutes! This is not your average low-budget movie. The special edition multi-disc DVD set will contain deleted scenes, outtakes, interviews, screen tests, and much more. The film, a heartbreaking yet hopeful story of life, love and loss in Los Angeles, stars David Ashe, Cori Haisler, Katherine Hoagland, David Maddox and Mariana McConnell. Visit the official site at: http://orangecow.org/godsofla Three years of seemingly endless and impossibly hard work, to create a seemingly endless and impossible movie. And now it's done. I completed my first full edit of Gods of Los Angeles late last night ... the gap between February 7th and 8th, 2005. GODS OF LOS ANGELES IS DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE The film is not yet available for you to buy - wait for it in March. This is just the first edit of the film, and I'll be tweaking it a bit before release. 
Mainly, composers Richard Allen and Brian Duford are composing their score, and doing great work. I am also doing some final pickup shooting with David Maddox in LA this weekend ... and with Warren Blyth in Carlsbad at the end of the month - if anyone can get to Carlsbad round that time, we can party FF style. Also, John Brugmann is SUPPOSED to be completing his work on the opening titles ... Get to work Brugs. The current cut contains no score music, except for songs by Ryan Winford, Davi Kutz, Ken Thornton, Steven Darland, and Neil Innes. It also has a couple of "scene missing" cards for the David Maddox scenes I'm shooting this weekend. BUT ..... Apart from that, it's fucking done. I am making VHS copies of it for the composers as I speak. I am more proud of this film than any other film I've ever done. It is shamelessly personal, shamelessly sentimental, and shamelessly, insanely, impossibly, self-indulgently long. I am going to look at this edit and see what I can cut out of it for the final cut ... But, basically, it's going to be an insanely long film. That's just the way it is. This cut is ... wait for it ... 2 hours 44 minutes long. Strangely, that's just the way I like it. I've already cut a lot of material, and I think that it works, even at this length. It's a quality film. And it is what it is. I am planning to put the DVD out on two separate discs, so people can take a break in the middle, and see it as two films. I'll be looking for feedback on this edit, on what works well and what doesn't, so I can figure out what cuts to make, what tweaks and changes to make. I'd still like to cut as much as possible and get it down to length ... somehow ... I would love to do a 2 hour version for festival showing, even if that's not my preferred edit. If you'd like to see this version of the film, let me know .... you can email me at tygerbug at yahoo.com ... If you'd like to see it, please paypal me something like 10 bucks for postage, 8hour tape and packing, I'm broke. If you see it, please send me a full review, as long as you can ... with notes on your favorite stuff in it, and stuff you think could be cut. I'll be working on special features for the DVD next ... and hopefully sneak in some time to finish a certain Ghostbusted movie. CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES, COME ON! IT'S A CELEBRATION!! Film is emotion. Film is communication. The funny thing about film is that it doesn't even really have to be about anything important - in fact, it's often better if it isn't. The ideas can be small, inconsequential or even silly ... but if they're communicated brilliantly, if they sparkle and shine and have force and power and beauty and emotion behind them, you've got a brilliant film. Film is not about words. It's not about talk. My problem is, I'm a dialogue writer. Film isn't about dialogue - Dialogue often obscures meaning rather than clarifies it. Onscreen, a lot of times, the more you say, the more you dilute the power of what you're saying. You need to forge a simple, direct connection with the audience. As writers we like to think that it's all about what we're doing, what's in the script ... and it is, to a certain extent ... story and structure, concept and idea. But when you showcase yourself as a writer, when you write those witty 10-page dialogue scenes (that I always love to write, that I fall victim to every time), you're creating good writing, but you're not creating good cinema. There is always a place for that kind of writing in cinema, but those won't be the moments people necessarily remember. You can write as many words as you like, but in a moment, in a look, in the expression on an actress's face, the entire meaning of the film is crystallized, and changed. And you can't write that. You can direct that, if you're lucky, and smart, and you've figured out the secret of that moment. You're always trying to figure out the secret of each moment, even if you've been directing for 50 years. You can write and write and write, but the entire movie is suddenly told in a split second. But that's the magic.  Completely reedited and remastered as a tribute to the late Niket Doshi. (1980-2001)"The Lord of the Sword" - From Excaliburger. (38.8 MB, Quicktime 6 MPEG-4) One of the things I really wanted to do, when I went back to CT this New Year's, was to visit Niket Doshi's family and give them a compilation of their son's film work ... I wanted to do a tribute to Niket, because he was a great friend and is greatly missed, and I figured by now the wounds might have healed enough where they could appreciate it. So I didn't sleep for a few nights, and I created a 30 minute compilation ... outtakes and all of Niket's scenes from Excaliburger and The Phantom Movie ... the only part that took time was reediting all his scenes from Excaliburger in DVD quality. I didn't edit any of the old movies digitally, and that's a shame because Excaliburger could have been a much better film if I'd been able to do that, especially knowing what I know now, 4 1/2 years later. I decided Niket deserved better, so I reedited the whole Lord of the Sword sequence. I even did color correcting on it to bring out the detail. The sound is much better now, and it's a very different edit - I used a lot of different takes and more of those wonky closeups. Some deleted material has also been reinstated ... There is a famous fight sequence here between Niket and Dave Ashe, and I've put back a short scene of them kicking each other in the groin about a dozen times, which I mostly cut out in the original version. Plus a short scene of Niket chasing me around the store. And a lot of other little things if you notice them, which you won't, but they're there. So I did a lot of tricks and reedited Excaliburger as if I'd shot it today. And if I had shot it today, I'd never release it because I'm embarrassed of my bad acting. Anyway, this little scene is part of a full 30 minute tribute. Enjoy the clip. It's DVD quality now and looks pretty good on a TV, but then I go and compress it for the web so it looks like crap again! Long live Excaliburger! Fight choreographed by Niket Doshi and David Ashe. Camerawork by David Brown and Garrett Gilchrist. Music by David Ashe and Tal Pearson. Starring Niket Doshi, Garrett Gilchrist, David Ashe.  Heya folks! Since it's the new year and all, I thought I should give a little update on what's coming up in 2005. The big thing for me in 2005 will be DVDs ... I've never made one before (apart from doing special features for The Journey of Truesong and For Science on a USC student films disc) ... so I'll be on that like a caveman discovering fire. This should be, uh, interesting.The big thing is of course the Gods of Los Angeles DVD, which will FINALLY be out in the first part of this year. Sometime. I'm way past caring about deadlines with this film.  Ben Sipprell, who appeared in all the original Orange Cow movies, has gone out on a limb and decided to produce this DVD ... He believed in me enough to put up $3000 of his own money. He must be crazy. This is not official yet, but the rough plan is that I have to pay him back that much, plus $300, within a year of the day we first start selling. The money will pay to have 1000 of the DVDs professionally produced, with all the trimmings. I will be creating a huge special edition of the film - a two to four (!?) disc set. This was his idea, and it's the most exciting thing I've ever been involved in. I can't thank him enough. But now I have to sell a whole LOT of DVDs. 150-200 units should do the trick nicely. (Oh jesus. I must be crazy too.) As for the other 800 DVDs, they'll be my calling card - I can give them to anyone.Just how in-depth the Gods DVD will be will depend on what I have time to create! But I am planning to include commentary (by myself and any of the cast I can get to do it), a whole lot of deleted scenes, a whole lot of outtakes, interviews with cast members, screen tests, scenes featuring cast members who quit, easter eggs I won't go into, trailers, short films/clips starring cast members, and - if I have time - I'd really love to do this - a full-length documentary about Orange Cow and the making of Gods of Los Angeles entitled "It'll Take a Miracle." If I have time to do this documentary, I'll go into the early history of OCP, and then go into the making of this film with all the brutal honesty and humor I can muster. Again - just hope I have time. I have been doing stuff for the DVD all along, though. Editing deleted scenes and outtakes along with the film itself. Ought to be lovely. As for the film itself - Gods of Los Angeles is nearly complete. Composers Brian Duford in New York and Richard Allen in Los Angeles are working hard on the score, and doing really excellent work. I chose them from about 50 who auditioned - they seemed to be the hardest working. And very talented. Their deadline is february. I still have to put together the final reel of the film. I am editing the last major scene right now - though there's still a lesser sequence or two I have to put together. I'm deciding what to cut out right now. A tough decision, as the film is well over two hours now ... 
I did some extra dialogue replacement with Dave Ashe when I was back in CT this New Year's ... he's doing well, has a girlfriend in Jersey and he seems happy. I had a good/interesting Christmas/New Year's ... got to hang out with Justin Bielawa, which was good times ... spent much time with Ben ... Ben was running the 5th year Masuk High School reunion, so I saw a lot of people I haven't seen in years ... including Michelle Caruso, who's now a teacher at our old high school dealing with jokes from students who've seen Excaliburger ... got to meet my sister's boyfriend and his mother, who are both wonderful. Er, back on topic. I'd still like to do some minor pickup shooting with Katherine Hoagland, David Maddox and ADR with Bailey Hughes for the DVD, so, we'll see about that. The film should be together in a roughly final form by the end of february. After that I'll be working on the DVD, and partying because this monkey will finally be off my back! Other Orange Cow DVDs? I'm definitely going to do a shorts DVD at some point. Perhaps more than one. The old movies are not really in DVD quality, sadly ... although I did remaster the Niket Doshi scenes in Excaliburger, very much in DVD quality, for a tribute I did for his family. (Look for that online, right here.) I'd like to finish editing and release Ghostbusted 3 ... and do a Ghostbusted trilogy DVD. I could include a couple of small deleted scenes, few quick outtakes and related material. I know that's silly, but it would be nice, to wrap up that series. Just a small DVD there. 
I wouldn't even mind doing a volume of just the weird "Garrett alone" stuff, entitled "Garrett Dana Gilchrist Has Mental Problems." There's so much of that stuff that I've shot, just me ... alone. Radio Man and standup stuff included.
But this is all unimportant. I also keep meaning to edit and release the forgotten old-school Orange Cow feature The Animal Effect (2000) ... but then I've been promising that for four and a half years. I doubt if anyone still cares. Would make a nice set with The Animal Game though. Another movie no one but me cares about anymore! Excelsior! NEW STUFF: THE RADIO MAN HOLIDAY SPECIAL! I have shot 90% of a full-length Radio Man Holiday Special. I have no idea how long it is - it's probably about an hour, could be longer. I've shot about 10 hours of footage for it, mostly improvised, just me on my own. I did it because of an offhand joke John Brugmann made - about making an hourlong special where Radio Man learns the true meaning of Christmas, and I play like 10 parts. I took it as a dare. And did it. I did wimp out at the end, because it was so much work and I'd shot so much crap for it ... I did want to play "like 10 parts" ... and have 10 very different characters to play, but I wound up simplifying it at the end so that most of those characters are just ... different versions of Radio Man. It's pretty fucking stupid and goes on a bit. You'll love it? 
The major characters are Radio Man of course, and his brother Vivian (Spears) ... who is British, and an alcoholic. Vivian previously appeared in the unreleased Warren Blyth film "The Teenage Bingo Brigade." A film in need of an unreleased sequel, I suspect.
I've also added a scene with Vivian to an upcoming episode of the Radio Man web series ... he sings a song. There are still four episodes of the Radio Man web series which were shot but haven't been released yet ... That's four episodes kids ... so stay tuned. Three of them are "special" episodes too! One is a two parter. BUT I'VE SAID TOO MUCH ALREADY Happy 2005 everyone! Gonna be a big year! So keep checking back for the latest news at FFrevolution.com, and this site of course. |