Woody Cavenaugh

In the space what was Wild Magnolia, in the space what was a 3 bay garage, now lives a wood fired clay oven pizza restaurant. And it was good. Very good.

Sticks and Stones seems to have taken the motto "Think globally, eat locally". Most all of their ingredients are local to the point that they make note when something isn't. Some people and places claim to be "sustainable" but these guys are living it. It shows up in the seasonable menu and the waterless urinal in the mens room. These are details that I notice and appreciate.

They list the farms where they get their veggies. They list the farms where they get their free range meats. They list the Goat Lady Dairy where they get their goat cheese. They mention the herb garden next to the restaurant where they get their herbs.

The general feel of the place still reminds me of New Orleans with the three large sets of French doors in the spaces that used to be garage doors. The layout is pretty much just like Wild Magnolia used to be. The big difference between them and Wild Magnolia is they didn't hit the local landfill for all of their furniture and decor.

Everything is wood now. The table tops are all wood covered with glass. Sandwiched between are old newspaper and magazine articles, ads, and such. It felt like they were going for European countryside to me. I also think they got it. I'm all about the big open French doors for atmosphere.

The beer and wine selection is quite nice for a place that isn't a bar.

The Wife and I had an appetizer, large pizza, extra topping, drinks, coffee and dessert for $36.00. Which isn't so bad. Your mileage may vary depending on if you are in the mood to "eat" or to "dine".

The quality of the food was very high, while the portion size was fairly small. Our appetizer called the "Pinkheart" which consisted of "Old Mill Polenta battered Mortadella corn dogs with roasted tomato coulis and wildflower honey mustard" cost us $6.25 It contained five pieces which equaled about one hot dog. The roasted tomato coulis, though tastey didn't add anything to it. The wildflower honey mustard rocked with it. The dish was very tasty, but neither Sara nor I thought it was a particular value. On the plus side that means that next time we get to try one of the other appetizers.

Our pizza "To be the One", a "Margherita pizza with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, and fresh basil" we added pepperoni. Sized large with the added pepperoni cost $18.95. It was probably one of the best Margherita pizzas I have ever had.

Some pizza places see the crust as nothing more than a topping transport device. Some pizza places see the crust as the center of the pizza and toppings are nothing more than condiments. Sticks and Stones made the crust an integral part of the pizza experience. The organic flour comes from Lindley Mills in Eli Whitney NC. The wood burning oven is kept at 700 degrees. The effect is that at first glance you might find your crust a little more done than you would expect or prefer. The fact is that though the crust is dark compared to most pizza places, it is not scorched. That little extra heat seemed to bring out some of the character in the crust which I should add was not tough, overly crunchy or even soggy from the ingredients. Plus they used a little toasted wheat bran in their dough which will darken it a bit anyway. It was a nice detail, well worth it.

The pizza experience was amazing! However, the large pizza pan they put on our table clearly had a medium sized pizza in the middle of it. The Wife and I polished it off entirely and still had room for dessert. This turned out to be a good thing.

For dessert we had wood oven baked peach and walnut cobbler with Homeland Creamery ice cream. $4.95 We shared one, and it was excellent, the walnuts served in the place of the traditional cobbler crust and really helped bring out the flavor of the peaches. No pizza place I have ever eaten in can claim a better dessert.

The place was family friendly and in fact there were a surprising number of young professional couples with their "first child" eating there. They even have on their kids menu what they call a "Kids Cheese Pizza" on the menu "Tomato sauce, whole milk mozzarella" add pepperoni for extra.

What you can't do here: I have the menu before me and they have no ingredient list where you can make your own pizza. That said, the offerings they have are good enough that you probably wouldn't want to anyway. Five of the pizzas were veggie. They also have some really fancy salads that I am inclined to have next time. (Add wood-fire roasted chicken to any salad for $3.95)

Noise: I am sensitive to noise. The echo in Sticks and Stones was warm and tended to be voices, but not so you felt like everyone could hear what you were saying. Some places I have eaten in have the same volume but the quality is metallic and tinny. If we're going to have noise, let it be warm and pleasant.

They have a url but at this posting they haven't actually done anything with it yet (like make a web page). They have only been open a couple of weeks now.

Posted by at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I happened to read an article about some real life costumed crusaders, and I have to admit it set my mind a whirl. Why is all this so familiar? People putting on fancy uniforms and going out into the real world facing ridicule and worse to do good deeds. There is something that makes me think a person could gain a lot of satisfaction by adopting the way of the mask. Have I done this before in a different life perhaps?

Even Greensboro has one. Sharp costume, clear goals, a myspace page, what more could a city want?

Of course there are some who have perhaps lost the way and turned to vigilantism, but those guys will get sorted out in the end. If they don't break the law themselves the criminals will likely break them. Criminals like their police to follow the rules. Its what gives the criminal their biggest advantage and costumed vigilantes take away that advantage and replace rules with brightly colored spandex. Darwinism will sort it all out in the end.

The rest of them however are on a very positive path, and I salute them. Salute? Why is that so familiar?

Easily recognized uniforms, good deeds, charity work, values. A group of people who are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, curious, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Yeah, I think I could find a place among them.

Wait a minute! I have! I was a Cub Scout, Webloe, and Boy Scout! But now I'm adult, and the Boy Scouts ends around 18 (at least it did for me). This is the next logical step! I'm trading the brown and the green with the scarf and the belt for a cowl and in some cases a cape (optional). That's what has been missing all this time, a civic organization!

I'm going to need to do some shopping before I apply for membership...

Posted by at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With a quick eye, digital camera, and a witty turn of phrase, Greensboro Wonderful has caught my attention and landed in my sidebar.

There are things that we drive past every day without thinking that the author actually sees, photographs and brings back to us for a fresh look. It isn't pretty, but it is the reality the rest of us spend a whole lot of time ignoring.

Give it a look, and leave some encouragement, this is another great example of citizen journalism at work.

Meanwhile, I leave you with this humble request: "I can has lightpole?"

Posted by at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First some background. Downtown Fencing Club at the Downtown YWCA in Greensboro was created by Dr. Sally Robinson as an outreach program to bring the sport of fencing to what she referred to as "all zip codes". Since the start of the club in 1998 the club has grown by leaps and bounds in, number of students, number of instructors, quality of instruction, quality and quantity of equipment.

We have reached a critical mass, and to use a more geeky term, we are "ready to level up". We have reached a critical mass and are ready to grow and expand. The goal as I see it is to keep up the same quality of fencing instruction at the same low price as always, at our core we are and forever will be an outreach program at our heart as part of the YWCA's mission. It is now also time for us to expand our focus, by taking those students with the talent, and desire to the next level competitively. This of course will require two key ingredients, coaches with the talent and skill necessary to take the student to the next level competitively, and students willing and able to pay for that privilage.

Of course, because of our history and background, we would be able to help "sponsor" students with the desire and the talent, who may not have the bank account to pay for the very valuable instructors. What remains for us as our one year goal is two fold:
First - Make sure we have capital to pay for the elite level coaches.
Second - Make sure that we have a system in place to keep from leaving any less fortunate students behind.

My model? The Peter Westbrook Foundation

Of course, I am not the spokesperson for the YWCA or even the Downtown Fencing Club. I am just one coach among many, and I'd like to see the students we teach go farther and be better than we can make them now.

Posted by at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are the awards as handed out by the judges this year. To see these and other films check out 48.tv, the place to see 48 hour films from all over the world.

Greensboro 48 HFP 2007 -- Awards

Best Use of Prop
"Help Line Hero" by Mills Entertainment

Best Use of Line of Dialogue
"10,000 Light Years in Outer Space" by Pi

Best Costumes
"The Knight Shift" by Contagious Media Productions

Best Choreography
"Factory Fever" by Grace Will Cary Us Through

Best Special Effects
"DeKay" by 9lb. Hammer

Best Graphics
"The Knight Shift" by Contagious Media Productions

Best Sound Design
"Baptism" by F. Artist

Best Musical Score
"Eye of the Beholder" by DARKHAWK Productions

Best Cinematography
"The Choker" by KVT Liquid Pictures

Best Editing
"DeKay" by 9lb. Hammer

Best Writing
"Jessica" by See-Saw Productions

Best Acting
"Jessica" by See-Saw Productions

Best Directing
"JoBeth" by The Keen Collaboration

Best Use of Genre
"Catastrophe" by Summer of Love

Runner-Up Best Film
"Eye of the Beholder" by DARKHAWK Productions

Best Film
"JoBeth" by The Keen Collaboration

Audience Awards for the Greensboro 48HFP

Audience Award Winner: Group A
"The Last Hurrah" by Jive Mechanic Films

Audience Award Winner: Group B
"Catastrophe" by Summer of Love

Audience Award Winner: Group C
"Eye of the Beholder" by DARKHAWK Productions

Posted by at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All the details are here. But for those of you who like one stop shopping, here's a past of the details strait from the above link.

Date: Saturday, August 11th Time: Group A will screen at 12:30pm. Group B will screen at 3:30pm. Group C will screen at 7:30pm. Place: Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street in Downtown Greensboro Notes: Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.carolinatheatre.com/tickets.html or in person at the Carolina Theatre. Tickets will be selling fast, so be sure to get yours early! Wrap Party Date: Saturday, August 11th Time: Directly after the final screening Place: The Greene Street Bar & Entertainment, 113 North Greene Street in Downtown Greensboro Notes: Doors open at 9pm and the Wrap Party begins directly after the last screening.

Here's the list of what is being shown in each group:

Group A, Screening Aug. 11th at 12:30pm
Accessory, jakub pucilowski
Cliche Name, Alerxandra terHorst
Contagious Media Productions, Mike Dickens
Daydream Thief Productions, Jason Sylvis
Fitzufilms, John Vaughan
General Pictures, Stephen Hyers
Jive Mechanic Films, Slade Blackburn
KVT Liquid Pictures, Lue Khang
Messin’ With Sasquatch, Tripp Green
Nexus, Justin Sale
No F in Productions, Anthony Schraeder
Robot Death Squad, Samuel Stevens
The Mad Ones, Evan Wade
The Knuckleheads, Brian Young
Tom Lipscomb Productions, Tom Lipscomb
Group B, Screening Aug. 11th at 3:30pm
9 lb. Hammer, Jill Cox
Charmed Life Productions, Beth Compton
Clear Mind Productions, Drew Jones
Grace will Cary us Through Productsion, Michael Appolonia
Green River Productions, Joseph Wiggins
Here’s the Kitten, John Washington
Icarus Productions, Harvey Robinson
It Could Be Worse Productions, Joshua Strayhorn
Louie Louie Productions, Louis Di Eugenio
Neon Kudzu, Jeremy Smith
No Sleep Productions, Allen Branch
Nuclear Family Productions, Alec Lewis
Pi, Scott Hathaway
Summer of Love, Sheila Duell
The Macaroni Project, Wilky Black
Group C, Screening Aug. 11th at 7:30pm
Bonnie and Clyde Productions, Greg Robbins
Catatonic Productions, Brendan Carter
Curiosity Entertainment, Dave DiVerniero
DARKHAWK Productions, Dan and Heather Kelly
F. Artists, John Winecker
Good as a Mugg, Matthew B. Moore
Mills Entertainment System, Joshua Mills
Naked Potato Productions, Terrence Covin
Pure Energy Productions, Jason Pierce
Santa, Jeffrey Shroyer
See-Saw Productions, Kevin Pojman
Team Go Gettas, Anthony Gregory
The Keen Collaboration, Dusty Keene
Two Rats Productions, Lucas Butchart
Vizual Insight, Devin Mervin

Posted by at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been watching this event occure for about two weeks now and it keeps getting funnier every day. Finally I realized I needed to share.
Universities, places were young fertile minds can soak in the wisdom of the ages, drink, party, have sex, and still manage to follow some sort of daily class schedule. Math, science, the arts, language, communications, sports, but no "reading". I remember in elementary school we had a book where each week we learned 10 new vocabulary words, and over the course of the week we learned to spell them, and learn what they mean. I especially liked the part where we had to use the words in sentences. Good times. I don't remember in all of my 10 years in elementary school, ever getting the word "pedestrian" though. I guess these find young minds haven't either.

If there had been more battery life in my camera I would have shown you more pictures with more college students in them. If the weather had been better they would have been in various states of undress too. Strangely I find I have some sort of strange ethical qualm with staking the place out on an 80 degree day with my camera though. More pictures here. Who knows what next week may bring....

Posted by at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was a blast from the past found on Rod M's myspace page. Imagine if you will the first year the the 48 hour film project was in Greensboro. Our crew only had two people with any film experience at all. Our cast...well...we had one. Fortune smiled on us and we drew Mocumentary. With a little bit of rented equipment we were able to knock this out. Many MANY people have made better films. In fact, as we drew mocumentary we had to work pretty hard to keep the production value low. Imagine actively trying to work a boom shadow into a shot so it would look like an accident and yet still be obvious.

The point is, we had way more fun than should be legal, and even now we can look back at this and get a good and hearty laugh out of it. I sort of miss the days when we did it just for fun and didn't give a wet slap what anyone thought of it. I guess that's what happens when you do something like this and end up successful with it. Yes, it actually won three awards that year. After that we felt like we had to always try to out do ourselves. Pity. Anyway, enjoy.

Purely Platinum

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Posted by at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night just before my Saber class I was visited by one of Greensboro's finest, and I am not speaking ironically or sarcastically. The police department was aware of my previous entry on the safety of the area surrounding the YWCA, and the excellent comments it attracted. The officer outlined what they were doing to help improve the security of the area. I outlined what we were doing to improve our own safety.

Each of us was satisfied with the action plans the other was taking and I taught my class as the solo coach no longer feeling like I had to keep one eye on the door to the front desk in case I needed to be called to instant action. I liked being able to focus wholly on my students again. I felt they got a better lesson. At the end of class, we left in groups. As the last fencer out (and usually the last patron), I pulled the external doors to, assuring that those YWCA employees left inside were secure. It was a good night.

Many thanks to the Greensboro Police Department for coming by, it was appreciated.

Posted by at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Over the weekend we had 50 fencers competing between the ages of 9 and 14 in 18 events, that puts us at about 200 people with coaches, parents, grandparents, siblings, and the competitors themselves. We received no complaints, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The Downtown Fencing Club fielded 11 fencers with 16 entries total on our roster. We brought home a total of 9 medals, 1 first, 4 seconds, and 4 thirds. It was a good two days for our club.

On the running side, we had few obvious goofs, and a couple of quite goofs. Our biggest unforseen goof was that thanks to new technologies fencers can now preregister and prepay for tournaments through a website called askFRED. This is a very good thing. As now when we hold a tournament we know in advance how many to expect and can plan referees, and strips accordingly. It also allows word of our events to reach a wider audience. For instance this RYC attracted youth from as far south as Florida and as far north as Maryland. For the fencers it is a good thing because they are able to pay for the event with a credit card. The site takes a modest cut and mails us a check after the results are posted. Everyone wins. The drawback we stumbled onto at the last moment was this. We wanted the fencers to have a great experience so we hired five referees and two armorers. It took half of our gross to do this, but we felt it was worth it for the quality of the event.

Then suddenly Sunday afternoon, someone said, "If almost everyone paid with a credit card online how are we going to pay the referees today?" Panic!!! Through selling bottled water, and a few last minute entries at the door, we had about a forth of what we needed. We ended up having to pass the hat amoung the leadership of the club and write IOU's. At the final hour we had managed to scrape up enough to pay the referees and armorers.

Lesson Learned: Have the YWCA write checks for the referees time in advance. We don't have to give them their checks until the end, but we need to have to them.

Other lesson learned: Booser clubs rock! Thanks to the generous donations of food from the parents and local businesses we were able to feed our referees, armorers, and volunteer staff. This meant that for once we were able to host a quality event with a good turnout that didn't end up being a loss or a break even financial situation. All clubs hold tournaments as fund raisers, because we focus on youth events, we can never hope to get the draw and the money that opens bring in. At least now we can be sure that our program doesn't cost the YWCA anything.

Posted by at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was a good day. As a tournament organizer, everything was smooth and on time. No one needed medical help. No one cried, and no parents behaved badly.

As a coach it was a good day too. We fielded seven fencers and we brought home five medals. All in all a good day.

Today we have four fencers and I predict we'll be taking home four medals. We have good kids. No we are not one of those feel good sports were everyone wins and everyone gets a prize. This is fencing, not happy feel good Barney day. If the blades were sharp there would be just one winner and a room full of dead kids. As we are a sport, there is a first, a second, and two thirds (that way we don't have to fence off for third).

As I wrote this one of our fencers just took third in Epee. That means the other will take first or second. The other two medals are still up in the air, but I am confident in my fencers.

If you are interested in coming out and seeing what all of the fuss is about, we are on the UNCG campus, in the Health and Human Performance Building (HHP) in the UNCG ancestral home of fencing the Coleman Research Gym (room 248).

I suspect the fencing will wind up today by about 4pm.

Ya'll come!

Posted by at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Downtown Fencing Club is hosting this years Mid Atlantic Regional Youth Circuit fencing tournament. As I am the one behind the desk at the computer running the event, you get first hand play by play fencing blogging action.

Our first event was Y10 saber "Y10" means that the fencers are ten years old or less. Our fencer, took second, and as I am the solo saber coach for our club right now, that makes me pretty happy.

The second event (In progress), is the Y14 Saber. We have no fencers in this age group. However over all this is a touch competition. In this state, we have some very strong young saberist. The finals was fenced between a "C" and a "D" rated fencer. Ratings are no easy thing and it starts with "E" and goes up to "A".

The other event going on right this second is Y10 epee. All of the fencers in this event are from our club! Needless to say, no matter how it turns out, our club rocks. :)

After lunch we will have Y12 Foil and Y14 Epee. Both will be strong events with great fencers. In case you are interested, we are on the UNCG Campus in the Health and Human Performance building (HHP) in Room 247 known as The Coleman Research Gym. Things are on schedule, so we should be finished by 5pm.

Tomorrow things pick up again at 8am and again I suspect baring great chaos and anarchy, we'll be finished by 5pm.

Y'all come!

Posted by at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Three nights a week I volunteer at the Downtown YWCA teaching the sport of fencing to all manner of willing student. Our youngest is 10, our oldest is 56, both men and women. The YWCA is nestled between a library, the cultural arts center, Center City Park, and the historical museum. By all accounts this ought to be a safe and snug harbor for folks to come out and expand their horizions in whatever way they choose. Sadly this isn't the case.

Last night at 8pm I am called out of my foil class to give aid to a woman who was attacked in the parking lot of the YWCA. As she was getting into her car a man attempted to steal her purse, and were it not for that lady's quick thinking and the awareness of the nice lady at the front desk, he would have gotten it and possibly more besides too.

Whenever this sort of thing happens, there are those who want to analyze what the woman did that made her a target. So lets cover those bases.
Where did she park? She parked in the handicapped space directly in front of the front door of the YWCA under a street light, which was working.
What did she do? She was holding her keys in her hands and as soon as he grabbed at her, she started screaming and she hit the panic button on her keys.
Where was her purse? She put it in the passenger seat of her vehicle under a coat.
What did he do when she started screaming and making a fuss? He just stood there looking at her all annoyed like.
Why did he leave? He saw the woman from the desk running out the door, me just seconds behind.

Now why was he there? I am not making any accusations, but I can't help but note that on the very same night that this happened, some group or another was feeding homeless people next to the library on YWCA Place. I'm not saying that those good, honest, but down on their luck folk are responsible, but maybe them being there is the cover that a more unseemly crowd needs so they can persue their criminal intents. Doesn't matter to me one bit one way or the other.

This is what makes me mad as hell. There are folk out there preying on me and mine and I am not going to stand for it. We were lucky last night as the eight girl scouts (ages 13 and 14) that were supposed to be here last night stood us up. Lucky also for us was the fact that because we knew we were going to have an additional eight on top of our usual 10-12 students we had plenty of coaching coverage. Had this happened on a night where we didn't have an abundance of coaches that would have meant that in order to protect the gentle souls at the Y, I would have to abandon my class. That doesn't make for a good fencing lesson, and that doesn't reflect well on me as a coach. Now imagine how I'm going to feel if I happen to find myself in charge of one of these miscreants sitting around NOT teaching a fencing class while waiting for the police to arrive.

I would hate to be that miscreant. It takes a great man to show compassion in a situation like that, and at best I'm just a good man. Well, maybe I'm ok. All I'm saying is this, if any of my people get attacked I swear by my spikey modern haircut there will be hell to pay.

Posted by at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This Saturday at UNCG's Health and Human Performance Building, UNCG and the Downtown YWCA are hosting "Girls and Women in Sport Day". If you watch the video link to the right of the article you will see that fencing is heavily involved, and that I look fat in my whites.

The event isn't local or small time, it comes from a much larger national association. The message? Sports aren't just for guys, and they aren't just for school girls either.

Speaking of Girls and Women in Sport, You might have noticed that I am a fan of women's football. Being married to the center for The Carolina Phoenix, it was either be a fan or be a hitting dummy. Check out this link. If you've been under a rock and unaware of women's football, here's your wake-up call. Are you ready? Tim Holmes head coach of the Phoenix has a great bunch of players and is getting them ready for the 2007 season. If you are interested in being involved with the Carolina Phoenix please contact the team at carolinaphoenix at gmail.com

Posted by at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is this scene early in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension, where Buckaroo running behind from performing emergency brain surgery, arrives at the desert jet car testing grounds hops strait in the driver's seat and immediately changes the way the world thinks about matter just before doing a couple of TV appearances and winding the day up at Artie's Artery performing with the Hong Kong Cavaliers to a packed house. Everywhere he went he was surrounded by friends he could trust, so he didn't have to worry about small details. Come in, be great, and move on.

That was sort of like my morning, but instead of brain surgery I was trying to get Sara up and ready to go before time for me to arrive on site. However when I arrived, it was exactly like the movie. I roll in late, to find that the team knew what to do and did it exactly. The fencers were dressed out and ready to go, they were setting up a strip and Henri hands me a sausage biscuit before heading off to work. By the time I was dressed and ready, everything was set up and perfect. Cameron came in at exactly the right moment, glowing like the sun, and ready to be brilliant. We did our two TV live spots; my fencers were awake, alert, and smiling. They made fencing look as good as it feels, and they made me proud in the process.

Once the live shots were done, the fencers dressed down and headed off to school, while parents put away the strip, and Cameron prepared for her interview. By 8:30 Cameron and I were the last out of the gym and it looked for all the world like we had never been there.

All in all I'd call that a good day.

Now I am at work, and we'll see how the day ends from here.

A huge thank you to, Margaret, Summer, Phillip, Henri, Cameron, and the parents for a flawless operation. No matter where you go...

Posted by at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This might be a piratical take on the situation, but I frown on hate crimes, as they are always based on fear and stereotypes. You fear what you do not understand, and another culture takes work to understand. Add the ironic twist of a hate crime on a Quaker college campus and my black flag flies up the mast.

For those under a rock. Three Palestinian students at Guilford college were severly beaten. The accused, three Guilford college football players, though up to 15 could have been involoved. The school, being quaker, did what one might expect. They moved the victums off campus, and promptly forgave the players. Well, that probably isn't exactly true. They are letting the accused hang out on campus, go to class and behave like normal. The reason, from their point of view, is that the accused have not been found guilty, therefore they are innocent of all charges. The victums were obviously beaten up, and therefore need to be kept away from the campus. They are clearly "guilty" of having been in a fight. While I don't agree with this, I have a high level of religious tollerance.

As for my own opinion of what should be done, tie the accused (20-year-old Michael Six, 20-year-old Michael Bates and 19-year-old Chris Barnette) to a yardarm and if guilty introduce them to the captian's daughter. I realize that they might have NFL dreams, and I don't see the problem. I understand the Bangles likes a criminal record in its team members.

Posted by at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am a friend of local film even if the filmmaker's don't always like my opinions of their work. Beth from Greensboring sent me and others an email eariler this week asking for help in getting the word out about a locally grown full length movie by Jay Thompson. My advice, go check it out. This town has enormous film making talent, go see them now before they get famous, and become tabloid fodder.

Hey all, this is Beth from Greensboring... Greensboro's Jay Thompson, a local Film director and producer has asked for my help to promote his new movie coming out this year called "The Heart of an Empire." It's a full-length motion picture which needs support to get attention, and to help Jay get the movie distributed. I did a write up for the movie on my blog at:

hoping to help his efforts, any additional promotion for his movie would be greatly appreciated. Jay has a blog, and more information on the film's official site:

Jay's a good guy who I talk with on a daily basis, and would love for his movie to be a sucess. He lives and works in Greensboro, and has been working on this film for 5 years. Thanks, Beth @ Greensboring.com PS if you know anyone that can pass this along, please do.

Posted by at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As someone involved with a non-profit where money is always an issue I keep my eyes open for opportunities at fund raising for my org. The other day I spoke to someone who had worked in a program out of the Greensboro Coliseum and I though I would share in the event that others are looking for ways to raise funds for their groups.

As you probably already know the Coliseum is like a boat that the city owns. It is a hole in the city into which they dump taxpayer's dollars. In a way to help the community and help stop the hemoraging of hard earned dollars they created a way for groups to volunteer at the concession stands during events. This means that there are fewer people on the payroll. In return for volunteer hours the groups get a percentage of the gross of their concessions. Pretty sweet deal when the beer is six dollars a cup!

In order to be included everyone who is in your group must take a class on how to sell beer, and pay about $318.00 to the coliseum for "insurance". Your group sells all it can and at the end of the night a staff member takes your cash drawer to the back room where they count it. You get a percentage of the gross of what you took in minus whatever the drawer is "short". The person I talked to said that the first night they were "short" slightly more than they were due to make so they got nothing. The second time they did it, the eight of them brought in for their organization $40.00 total.

They had a problem however completely unrelated to the cash flow. Apparently someone who was paid staff requested sex from one of the volunteers who said "no". The staffer reported to the person in charge of the volunteers that this particular volunteer was practiving a "devient lifestyle". Faster than you can say "sexual harassment", the volunteer was told they were no longer welcome. While this was going on one of the volunteers was told they looked "racist" by a regular paid staffer.

The lesson here, if you are trying to raise funds for your organization and someone asks you for sex you say "Yes daddy." I am sure there may be another lesson in here but I'll let you work that one out for yourself.

I gathered that the offending staffer got in big trouble with the higher ups and that's a good thing that reflects positively on the coliseum as a whole. But the person I talked to, was unsure if their group would return. They didn't want to put any of their volunteers in a position where they had to trade integritity for an opportunity to possibly make money for their group. So in a bid to make money for their org, if they don't continue, they will have lost a bunch of money instead.

Your milage may vary. Me, I'm going to pass on this opportunity. In my opinion if what I was told was even half true it is too high a risk for me.

Posted by at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Carolina Theatre played host to a packed house for their showing of Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark. Although I am a big fan of the franchise I had never actually seen Raiders on the big screen. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen it in years. I was not disappointed. Though film convention had evolved a bit since 1981, the film still thrills.

Check out the Carolina Theatre's list of upcomming feature films, A Clockwork Orange is comming soon. Not to mention the 1925 Lon Cheny version of The Phantom of the Opera. This by the way is a silent movie, so for the extra treat we will have a live accomppanyist just like one would have seen back in 1925. Not to be missed, and best of all tickets are only $5.00! Who could ask for anything more?

Posted by at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wow, just wow. For the third year running I have been fortunate enough to be on the "bridesmaid" team, awsome buzz, awsome product, excellent award collection, never quite enough to take the "Best Of Greensboro". I think this year my team took more awards than we have any other year with seven. I am very proud to have been a part of that. Especially since the "Best of Greensboro" film only took two awards. The other teams comming closest to matching our "medal count" did so with four each.

Now, as something of a disclaimer. The judges this year did a winner in each category as well as a runner up. Different people have different opinions of the "runner up" award. My opinion is that "runner up" equals second place. Second doesn't suck. As I have never been first in anything, second is as good as a win as far as I care. However, for the sake of those who see "runner up" as "first loser" I will break it down your way. Team Underexposed took first three times and "first loser" four times. The "Best Of Greensboro" won one and was tied for "first loser" with one. The two teams that were second in medal count one team had no first and 4 seconds. The other team took first 4 times.

Each year three different judges are chosen and they make their own rules for how they award. This is a good thing in my opinion as it means that you can't "play to the judges". If you knew exactly how the judges were going to judge you would probably end up spending all of your time trying to get all of the technical marks and this contest would degrade into figure skating. The downside of this is that each year the teams walk away not knowing how they were judged. They have no feedback on how to get better. So after the applause dies, there are always little groups of folks trying to figure out what happened and why. Especially when their favorites are snubbed.

In previous years the team that brought home the most "medals" took best overall. The judging then became clear even if you didn't agree with it. This year was odd because the team that took it all only one a "runner up" in one category (and that was judged by the fans not the Judges). I have a theory on this that might shed some light on the situation. Remember Judges perrogitive, they make the rules their way just as it should be. This year I believe that the judges wanted more teams to receive awards. They did after all give "runner up" awards in all of their categories. If I'm right, and I am just guessing here. The judges went through and judged each film. the team with the most awards took "Best of Greensboro". The judges then went through and removed them from all of the other categories, and everyone got bumped up by one. "Runner up" would become "winner" and the unnamed third got to get an award as "runner up". But this is just my theory of how it was done. I have heard some other theories that are just as plausable.

One of the outstanding members of our team Todd Williard went through and assigned a point value each "win" got two points and each "runner up" getting one point. By his system our team scored 10 points for the win. It does not take into account that the "Best of Greensboro" winner only scored one point by that system. However, if you use his scoring system with my "take the winner out and push everyone else up" theory I think it stands.

All of this of course brings up another ethical delima. Do teams do this to do it because it is fun, or do they do it to win. The first year when we did "Purely Platinum" we did it solely to have a great time. And we did. It was by far one of the most fun shoots I have ever been on. The past two years with Underexposed the emphasis has been on turning out a high quality film, excelling in every possible area, and have fun too. The third reason to do it is to make a film that the audience absolutely loves and to heck with winning anything but the audience award. For those folks a jury of their peers picking them is far superior to the technical awards given by the three judges. All in all, there is no right way to play so long as you come away happy.

I for one am pretty gosh darned happy. Maybe even happy enough to play again next year....

Posted by at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Many thanks to Ed and Nisha for making the 2006 48 Hour film Project: Greensboro the amazing success it was. Last night The Green Boro and McCoul's were standing room only as the awards ceremony kicked off. A&V via Ike Quigley made it possible to see the action from every room in both establishments with an amazingly complex simulcast on both establishment's many TVs. I would love to link to these films but most teams were concerned enough about ruining their eligibility that no one on the winner's list has posted publically yet. I will update this space should any of these incredible films go public.

1. Best Use of Line-Winner “Gone To Ground”-Team Underexposed

2. Best Use of Prop-Winner “The Little Ninja That Could” The Jive Mechanics

3. Best Use of Character-Winner “Izzie and Sophie’s Funnel Frenzy” Sloppy Entertainment

4. Best Costumes-Honorable Mention “The Daisy Dukes” Summer of Love, Winner “Butterflies” Good As A Mugg

5. Best Choreography-Winner “Kill Tong Pao” KVT

6. Best Musical Score- Honorable Mention “The Little Ninja That Could” The Jive Mechanics ,
Winner “Pursuit of Happiness” Loose Ends

7. Best Special Effects-Honorable Mention “Kill Tong Pao” KVT,
Winner “Jade Dagger” Green Pax

8. Best Graphics-Honorable Mention “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed,
Winner “Cletus & the Beast” The Macaroni Project

9. Best Sound Design-Honorable Mention “The Daisy Dukes” Summer of Love,
Winner “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed

10. Best Editing-Honorable Mention “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed,
Winner “Kill Tong Pao” KVT

11. Best Acting- Honorable Mention “The Daisy Dukes” Summer of Love,
Winner “Moving On” Team Because We Can

12. Best Writing-Honorable Mention “Z-Day” The Mad Ones,
Winner “Cletus & the Beast” The Macaroni Project

13. Best Cinematography-Honorable Mention “Moving On” Team Because We Can,
Winner “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed

14. Best Directing-Honorable Mention “Butterflies” Good As A Mugg,
Winner “Cletus & the Beast” The Macaroni Project

15. Audience Award "A"-Runner Up “Weapon of Mass Distraction” Louie Louie Productions,
Winner, “Cletus & the Beast” The Macaroni Project

16. Audience Award "B"-Runner Up “Gi Ho Lo: The Legend of Richard Long” Pure Energy Productions,
Winner “The Little Ninja That Could” The Jive Mechanics

17. Audience Award "C"-Runners Up (tie)-“Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed & “The Daisy Dukes” Summer of Love,
Winner “The Pursuit of Happiness” Loose Ends

18. Best of Greensboro-Honorable Mention “Gone To Ground” Team Underexposed,
Winner “Gi Ho Lo: The Legend of Richard Long” Pure Energy Productions

And there we are! 2006 48 Hour Film Project: Greensboro... thats a wrap.

Posted by at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The awards night for the 2006 Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project is comming Sunday at M’Coul’s Pub, 110 W. McGee st. and The Green Burro Sports Bar, 106 W. McGee st. and I though it might be fun to show you some of the submissions curtesy of YouTube. To be eligable, you must have used bubblewrap as a prop, B. Jones television personality as a character and the line "Its like my mother always said", it must be no longer than six minutes with one extra minute for credits. It must have been turned in by 7pm on the Sunday night. And there was a paperwork component with location and people waivers that had to be included with the movie. Those films above were missing one or more of those elements and thus can be posted right away on YouTube as they are ineligable for judging. After the judging, on Sunday night other films may pop up at this link if they can compress it down to 100MB or less and it didn't win. The winning project goes on to the finals and no one will want to risk their eligability in that.

Even though these films were not eligable or did not win don't think for a minute they are poor examples. Quality will vary, but this stuff isn't bad, especially when you remember that they were made in 48 hours from elements to concept, to script, to finished product. In a nutshell, the worst thing here is a triumph given the short time span allowed and the sheer number of things that could possibly go wrong.

Posted by at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Saturday Carolina Theater hosted the screenings of 36+ Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project entries. The films were split into three evenly sized groups and each of these films has a chance at winning the prestegious "Audience Award" in their group voted on by the folks who were there watching the films. Of these all but ten are eligable for judging on various categories by the judges which include: Best Directing, Best Script, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Acting, Best Use of Character, Best Use of Prop, Best Use of Line, Best Music, Best Sound Design, Best Effects. Those eligable for these awards all vie for the covetted "Best Overall". The winner of Best Overall is sent on to represent Greensboro at the higher levels.

Before I start the reviews I thought I would share a story that has to qualify as a Frequently Asked Question to me personally as I do my thing filmatically. "Why oh why does yours truly always end up dead in Ike Quigley flicks?" Its a good question, and an interesting story with lots of history so I thought I would lay this piece of local film legend and lore (in my own mind anyway) out for you.

The year was 1999, Ike Quigley who had been running a very successful film program out of Randolph Community College wanted to do an experiment. He wanted to see if he could make a 30 minute film casted and crewed entirely from amatures. The cast could have experience but he wanted to use his friends for crew and besides himself, only Sara (my lovely fem fatal) had any clue about making a movie. If successful, then one could create a film company as a start up and get to make movies (which is fun) while being with your friends all the time (which is also fun). Kevin Smith was already doing this with his Jersey crowd, and Ike wanted to see how it would work for us. Thus The Violin was born. Crewed by amatures, filmed in a micro mini budget, this 30 minute short is what would now be your average first year's 48 Hour Film Project entry's first cut. You know, you have to have only seven minutes of film, but you wrote a 45 minute script and on your first pass you managed to cut it down to 30 minutes. Yeah. That's pretty much what we created. But it proved that it could be done, and everyone involved had a hellova good time. In this film we had various scenes that required extras and we got those from the crew. So in one scene I was cast complete with lines (I played an ass, no suprise there), and in several others you saw me in different outfits walking one way or the other. Fun stuff. Anyway we all had a great time, and the shoot was generally jovial with plenty of good natured ribbing between takes. On some occasion Ike said something and my reply was "It's OK Ike, I'd still die for you." I can't remember what it was but it was funny as hell at the time. Since then, on every shoot that Ike directs, if I'm on the crew, I'm a dead man. In The Curse, I was shot twice in the chest. On the unfinished zombie picture, I was ripped appart by zombies no less than four times. I had a small role, a slightly larger role, and a bunch of background extra parts. (Having long hair made stuff like that possible.) In The Gift, I was shot once in the chest, and now in Gone To Ground, I was stabbed to death. Good times. Ike was actually teasing me the other night that he wants to to stretch me as a corpse into dying in new ways like hanging or drowning. He'd like to see me grow as an actor.

Now some of you who may have seen more of my work might remember that I wasn't killed in Purely Platinum. The reason was because in Purely Platinum my lovely wife Sara was directing, and Ike was a judge. We've always secretly believed that we would have done better in the first year of the 48 (at least with Judge Ike) if Sara had found some way to kill me in the film. The truth is I suspect Sara has cause to fantisize about killing me about once a week and there is no satisfaction from killing me in film. No matter how messed up I am made in a movie when the scene is cut and we move on to the next scene, I always get up and go shower. That's got to be disappointing.

Now for the reviews. Since the first year of the 48 Hour Film Project in Greensboro I have dutifully watched the films and gave a very honest one idiots opinion of the films. I would typically start the entry in some sort of "Character" that reflected my role in our film or the genre of the film. So when we did spy last year, I wrapped my reviews in a bunch of shitch about cleverly trying to sabatogue other folks films, but under it all, the reviews were my humble and unasked for opinions about what I thought about the works of the other crews. Every one of them are filled to the brim with talented folks, and honestly we have enough folks in this town that we could cast and crew an entire feature film, possibly twice over. Greensboro, in case you didn't know has a simply huge independant film crowd here. So here's my blog, one guy, who's one idiot, with one opinion, and I'm writing about folks I honestly like, so I'm pulling my punches a bit. If I didn't get it, I admitted I didn't get it, but I wasn't an ass about it. It was as though I had delcared open war on the local film crowd by performing in a donkey show in front of the court house while dressed like princess leah in the Return of the Jedi slave girl outfit. My hits jumped sky high and I got flamed six ways to Sunday by the nicest bunch of people one could ever hope to know. It was as though this one blogger's humble opinion included nazi's and each of their individual mothers. I learned a valuable lesson though. I learned that everyone involved with film only wants to hear how great they are. They don't want to hear about what they can do better. My theory on this is that they know each and every little thing they have ever done wrong in their whole lives but don't actually realize what they have done right on film. Low self esteme is a disease affecting many Americans. So if I were to take the high road, I would go down the list in order from my program and write a few sentences about what was done right and well on each and every film. But I'm not going to do that.

Continue reading "48 Hour Film Project 2006: Reviews" »

Posted by at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Joe Scott and goTriad.com weigh in. Joe was a reporter embedded with UnderExposed Productions. He got nearly no sleep, and when he did sleep we all worried we might forget wake him up and leave the location without him. I suspect the print version on the stands tomorrow will have a couple of photos of the action as well.

While I doubt he's ever covered a war before, this was artfully close to it.

Any mispellings or inaccuracies on his part are completely forgiven on mine. I've gone back and tried to read what I wrote after sleepless blogging, the man's a pro!

LATE EDIT: This link from YouTube This was sent to me Sue Cavanaugh AKA Sara Cavenaugh AKA I am a dead man. The link is other 48 Hour Film Projects from other years and other cities that have been posted. Lots of watching. Compare what they are doing to what Greensboro is turning out.

Posted by at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Principal photography for our team ended at 1am. There were still a couple of pickup shots to get, but most of the real shooting was shot, and the footage was off to the waiting editors. All non-essencial production staff were released, and I was in bed by 2:30am.

Now I am awake, alert, and hungry.

Our team is meeting at Natty Greens at 6:15 to start watching the stragglers race across the finish line before the deadline. And more importantly, I am going to eat! Who knows, I might end up at McCouls for a frosty mug of cider later on too.

I have no idea how things went in post production, but that's a wrap on my coverage of the 48 Hour Film Project: Underexposed Productions 2006 spy movie.

Don't forget!

The screening of the Greensboro entries is on Saturday July 29th at .

Posted by at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Oww! I feel like I have been killed a second time, this time by steam roller. No, that's not it, I just woke up on the floor again. Somewhere deep in the bowels of our secret lair, film is being created. These are action sequences, people dying, basic sound notes taken off of the HD 24P digital camera, and real sound layered piece by squishy piece in a place we like to call "The post production house". The rest of the sound team left hours ago to begin on the original musical score necessary to bring our little piece of espianoge pie to life.

Its midnight, I'll bet you're wondering if we are running behind? Will we get our piece turned in on time? The answer is yes, why not, it was 3:30am on Sunday morning last year when we got our last piece of film in the can (actually it was a small plastic box), and scooted off to the post production house.

Oh yeah, our network came back. Cool huh? As long as there are the internets, you get the freshest and most real info available from those of us in the trenches. I wonder if someone should go wake up the reporter guy? Nah, he's had a very busy weekend and could use an hour or two downtime. He's a machine I tell you! A robot in actual size armed with a deadly aray of pens, pencils, and this cool notebook.

So what do you think, do I need more caffine, or less? I can't tell anymore.

Posted by at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our crew is rotating fairly nicely, those who cannot be replaced, are getting catnaps where they can. One of these wonderful people have a condo/ ultra plus luxury apparement walking distance from our secret lair and has been awsome enough to allow us to have showers. After being coldly murdered, nothing says resurecton like a good hot shower.

I mentioned we were at the half way point in time to mention that we are just over halfway shooting, and we are on track for an on time completeion. Things that may hamper our plans include losing power due to the electrical storm that is currently pounding us. We are told blocks surrounding our own are without power right now, and everyone with a computer is running on batteries, yours truly included.

I am currently not needed on sound as they have a hand to hand combat sequence being shot in the ladies room down stairs, and its tight.

Overall the crew smells better thanks to the rotation and showers for those who cannot be rotated. Moral is high, and we think we are creating a work better than the one we made last year. Honestly, that is all anyone should ever hope for. Improve over their previous year, and if the managed to eclipe the reigning champion, well....wouldn't THAT be special.

Posted by at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

48 Hour Film Project 2006: Somewhere Late Saturday Night

We've almost met our baker's dozen in kills goal we set for ourselves what seems like a really long time ago. I can tell that the hours have been hard on me. Rather than fantasize about rum women and tech, I've been fantisizing about bed, being in it, and asleep. Fortunately, our crafts services team which has been absolutely phenominal, had a fresh hot pot of coffee ready just exactly when I wanted a steaming hot mugful.

The only bummer in all of this is that due to the raging storms going on all around us, the building has lost its network connectivity. I will just have to do the notpad thing, and update you all when I am next able.

Things that have gone better this year. Group harmony. Some of these folks last year had a tendency to doubt what their teammates could do. This lack of trust last year, led to occcasional catfights, while always fun to watch, it doesn't get the art or the craft created any faster. This year there is none of that. Everyone knows and trust their teammates and this has allowed us to stretch out and try things we might otherwise be afraid to try. Success or failure, isn't nearly as important as putting forth an effort to stretch outside of our comfort zones and try scary stuff.

Of this we have plenty. Sure, we might get twichy at a two hour set up, but when the shot comes off that well, its all worth it.

Looks like another storm is comming, I'd better get off the charge for now. More later. (I don't know about you in internet land, but I can tell I'm more rested.)

Posted by at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh my lord what time is it anyway? I have just been reserected, bathed, and fed and I feel like $99.99...in change. For those of you who don't know, I can't remember if I mentioned this before, forgive me if I have. Ike Quigley kills me on every set. I am Kenny. I am Seinfield's superman. I've been shot in the head, I've been torn appart (multiple times) by zombies, I've been shot some more. Today was the first time I was stabbed to death for my sins. But I should give credit where credit is due. Ike ordered the hit, but it was Cameron who executed my "little death". The knife entered my left juggler at an angle the blade lodging in my spine, severing my spinal cord. I died with barely a sound.

In case you are wondering, it is true, women kill much better than men. My bullet to the brain was from Sara and it was a work of art. My knife to the neck, though I haven't seen it yet, completely captivated a Greensboro News And Record photographer. I simply lost count of the number of snaps he took.

Props also go to the tireless fellow from Go Traid who has been an embedded reporter with us since the get go. One of the plusses of having a large crew is having plenty of folks to tag along with to get the story.

Our editing team has posted two edits of two sequences up and the footage looks simply marvelous. The post production sound guys came on the scene to do a "sound intervention". Apparently the sound is horrible, and they had to come all the way here to teach us poor ignorant sound guys how to do it. I am actually pleased. The fact that they came here is proof positive that I was right about the accustic nightmare we call home. Good luck boys, it isn't going to get any better than this!

Word on the street is that some of the other heavy hitting teams got stuff they are very happy with and we are pleased that based on what we know so far, the bar will really and truly be raised again this year and Greensboro!

I have a new definition of happiness, happiness is being covered in home made blood, walking past a major bus hub. All the while smiling and making friendly eye contact. :)

Posted by at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The sun is a mass of incandecent gas, and it shines too brightly for this hour. Actually, the sun is just right, it is just the fact that I am seeing it so early that haunts me so. We got our first shot off at 5am, which is pretty good all things being equal. As the boom guy, that basically meant that I had most of the night to sleep, wake early have more coffee and than make magic. No easy task. This place is an accoustic nightmare, it has every interior you could ever hope for from office to dungeon but the sound here travels like a yodel in the Grand Canyon. Where it was dark the crew surveyed using eccolocation. "Marco" "polo". It was very effectiive.
I kept quite last night because I wanted to surprise the Mighty Quigley. Ike Quigley is our director, nay our master of all things filmatic. Life under his command is one gleaming sunrise after another, and nothing ever goes wrong. three dollars per word, 25 words total, that plug just earned me a tidy seventy five dollars. Score! Seriously, he's the man. I mentioned our leadership team was without peer and I mean that. Now that we've put a couple of interior locations to bed he has been able to work his magic and prove his worth to those who have not yet had the pleasure of his directorship. (This one's on the house.)

Comming out of last year, our biggest compaint overall was the fact that we had a very strong 15 minute script we had to shoot into a seven minute movie. This year I believe our script will not suffer from that pitfall. Infact, I dare say that our writing team wrote a true to life seven minute acton adventure spy thriller...with seven year old dialogue. Truth be told, the dialogue is actually a series of injokes designed to get the point across and keep things light. This is an action adventure spy thriller after all, words would only take away. But we're keeping the blue key card. That's tres geek! Giving credit where it is due, the side splitting humor could only come from the master himself, the kicker of butt and the taker of minds, Mark Tebault.

One little spoiler I will share with you all. Our film has something that no other film has. Two maguffins! Top that! Ha! and I say once again Ha!

And with that, I am off to record the court room scene. Actually, I am off to grab the best nap space while we wait for our crack team of lighting folks to do thier magic! WooOOOOooOOOOooooEEEEeeeeOOOOooooo!

Coffee. I need coffee.

Posted by at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The lot has been drawn, the die has been cast.
The Prop: Bubble Wrap
The Character: A TV Reporter (I never caught their name)
The line of dialogue: My mamma always says...
Our Genre: Spy! (again)

Our home base this year is the Lindley Park Recreation Center. Here our team of 50 assembled and waited for word of what we were going to do. The writing team is sequestered in one room, props, costemes and the like is in another. Craft services gets the kitchen, and everyone and their sleeping bag is in the last large room.

The plus side of having a team 50 strong is always having someone free and fresh at any hour to get the job done. The downside of a team of 50 is well, there are 50 of them. A team this size needs strong leadership and we have it. Sara Cavenaugh the first Assistant Director (and bedmate of yours truly) is putting her mighty project management skills to good use with the cast and production crew. Rob Parrish, arguably my hetero-lifemate, is post production supervisor and has the post production team well in hand at our post production location. Cameron, head of the Art department (and arguably my hetero-lifemate), is simply on fire making magic happen.

It looks like the writers and director have come up with a rough battle plan, we just got the call from Sara that we have an immediate company move to our shoot location as we have a place on our list that will be well suited for our entire production. Sweet. I guess I had better pack. More a bit later.....

...a bit later...

We were completely out of Lindley park in 30 minutes. Every person, every piece of gear, every piece of trash. Nice! If nothing else, our team will be known for having some really strong logistics.

Our new location, our "secret lair" if you will has a name, it is called the Millinium Center, and it seems to have everything. I haven't found a bedroom yet, but my bedroll will work just fine on these sprung hardwood floors. Nighty night! The writers are still wrighting, the scouts are still scouting, and there is blessedly nothing for this boom-blogger to do but nap.

Posted by at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Keep your eyes open, if in the middle of the night you see someone with a video camera chasing someone else, you might be witness to someone's team shooting footage for their entry in the 48 Hour Film Project: Greensboro.

If you've not been paying attention the 48 Hour Film Project covers 33 cities and over 1000 teams across the globe where in each city each team draws a genre from a hat and has 48 hours to write, produce, and edit a seven to twelve minute film. Oh yeah, one other thing. They all must use predetermined prop, line of dialogue and character no matter what. All that cross the finish line in 48 hours will be screened. In Greensboro this year, the screening of the Greensboro entries is on Saturday July 29th at The Carolina Theatre.

If you are interested in seeing the "Cannon Ball Run" aspects of the event, come to The Flying Anvil in Downtown Greensboro this Friday the 21st from 6-7 as the teams draw their genres, and the character, line of dialogue, and prop are announced.

Or if you want to see the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat head over to Natty Green's on Sunday the 23rd. Entries will start trickling in almost as soon as the doors open and they won't stop until those heart pounding minutes before the 7:30 deadline. In previous years there have been actual foot races to check in with Ed and Nisha before the alarm goes off! Sometimes, computer and powersupply in hand as every possible second is used to get their submission rendered and burned. It's completely wild!

As always I will be blogging the event for the team I am on, and I will give the same quality reviews I have done in the past. As always my comments section during my reviews will be filled with people I genually like who attempt to rip me a new one for not liking or getting their submission. You might not agree with my opinion, but that doesn't make it wrong, and no, you won't hurt my feelings when you insult me for not thinking yours was the greatest film ever. We're still friends even if you don't realize it.

I have to admit, it is exciting to see the 39 teams assigned to their groups for their screening times. There are some amazing people and some amazing teams to compete against and Matt Moore of Good as a Mugg is sure to raise the bar again this year! As the overall winner in Greensboro two years running, Matt and his team is bound to feel the target on their back as everyone is hoping that this is the year they topple him.

Posted by at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)