If you have't been watching The Sopranos this season but don't want to spoil it for yourself in reruns don't click the read more link. I'm serious you WILL see things you don't want to until you're ready. Okay so you've been warned. Here we go...

I started up a Canucks only blog right here: A Canucks Fan. Hopefully, I'll have lots to post about well into June if you get my drift. So, unless the Canucks win the Stanley Cup I won't be posting much about them here any more. There will be hockey posts once in a while. Go Canucks Go!

Vancouver compositor and editor Geoff Richardson (blog and main site) went to the Vancouver Pillow Fight 2006 with his video camera. I would have liked to have gone to this. Solicited assault with a feather pillow is a nice way to work out some aggression without maiming someone. I could have used this when the deaf 93 year old man next door allowed his car alarm to go off for an hour this morning under our dining room window.

Geoff did a fabulous job covering this fun looking event (his reel is impressive too). Anyway, you can download the high resolution Quicktime version right here or watch the YouTube version here on the site by clicking the read more link.

Mark from HollywoodNorthReport.com sent this along. I know its a little late for another St Patricks Day post, but I found it amusing all the same. Apprently there's a Leprechaun in Alabama. The video doesn't show footage of the creature but all the hooplah around it. It's like Mardi Gras...

"Richard Fleischer, a director whose works include the 1967 film Dr. Dolittle, Soylent Green and Conan the Destroyer, has died at the age of 89."

CBC Arts: 'Conan,' 'Dr. Doolittle' director dies

MAJOR MOVIE SPOILER: Just in case you don't already know, Soylent Green is people.

There are two more...

Going to work on a promotional photoshoot with some of the lead actors from The 4400 tomorrow. I'm going to be a production assistant ensuring that the location is taken care of and cleaned up properly when the crew pulls out. It's taking place in a mansion just a few blocks away so I don't have to go far at all. I really like the show so it'll be kind of fun to work on just for a day. If you haven't seen it the first season is available on DVD. If you like dark sci-fi you might like The 4400. It's a lot like X-Files which also shot it's first 8 seasons here in Vancouver (I was a security guard at some of the locations for that show). Remember how season 9 sucked? That's because the light was so different having moved to L.A. Anyway, off to bed... 5:45 am comes early.

Mark Messier always gave me the creeps. The picture kind of says it all... At least they're happy about the 'nucks win tonight.

That's two in a row in this triple header against the Oilers. Saturday night on CBC is the next game. Go Canucks go!

BCIT : : FilmFLEX Technology Professional: Part-time, BCIT/Industry Partnership Certificate

I do wish I could afford to take this course. You get a boat load of equipment for your $28720.00 in tuition and fees for the 12 month course. It's only part-time so I don't think EI would pay for it. Not to mention the fact that we have to keep a roof over our heads and pay off our debts. So let's see we'd need another $25k or so from somewhere. There's always a part time job, but there's no way we're doing the student loan thing again. Those are the debts we're currently paying down.

Hey can anyone spare $50k. Ugh! I'm a panhandler now.

Hooray! What a game. Finally the team showed up. I had been holding my breath and posts until after this game, in fact for the entire season. Now I can breathe a little, at least until tomorrow night when they play the Oilers again (and then again on Saturday). Now the Canucks are in 7th place rather than 9th and out of the playoffs. Hopefully that game is an omen of good things to come. Trevor "the Drought" Linden even scored. Regardless of that, he's still one of my favourie players on the team

They got home rather quickly too. I saw Keith Carney and Eric Weinrich standing outside of Cin Cin looking at the menu this afternoon. I guess rental D-men get paid okay as I didn't see them slink into The Cactus Club where I was hangin' with Vince.

This is bad... really, really, really bad. Footage from a horrible martial arts film called Cui hua kuang mo (that's Undfeatable to those of you who don't speak Cantonese). Enjoy, if you possibly can:

Tom Cruise and other Scientologists have seen to it that the episode of South Park making fun of Scientology doesn't see. But we have the internet don't we? Censorship bad. Below is some footage from the show...

Yesterday afternoon things just felt off. Concentration was a major chore. I just wasn't myself and even told Carol so when she got home. I thought maybe it was the March Equinox pulling my fragile psyche all over the place. Perhaps this case of the wonkies was being caused by Mercury's being in retrograde as Carol mentioned. At 6:00 pm I got my answer. The phone rang and call display said the area code was 902, Nova Scotia. Immediately my heart sank. Something was wrong. I answered the phone and it was Andrea, my half-brother JP's wife. First she asked me if I had been to Phil my other 1/2 brother's blog. I said no. She then assured me that everything was okay and proceeded to tell me that Dianne, my birthmom's home had burned down just hours earlier. She's lost pretty much everything including one of her cats. Scamp, the bad one, is okay but poor Bobbie the cute bobbleheaded kitty didn't get out. Andrea then told me the phone number for where Dianne was staying and I hung up and called immediately.

Dianne was in shock and distraught but able to crack a few jokes nonetheless. She's homeless (for the moment) but assured me that she had very good insurance coverage and that many people including the Red Cross had already been to see her and give her support. JP is there today being a good son to his mom. I always feel like such a bad family member when this kind of thing happens and I live so far away.

Dianne told me that her neighbour noticed the fire outside of Dianne's home and ran over to raise the alarm and make sure Dianne got out, which she did but short one cat, her precious Bobbie. The fire fighters managed to move Dianne's car, which almost got caught up in the blaze, but pretty much everything else was lost. Dianne was the most upset about the family photos that were lost. Don't worry sweetie we'll send some more.

Being a volunteer firefighter in the Berwick Fire Department there's a definite irony to this tragedy that wasn't lost on Dianne and her colleagues who tried to lighten the mood reminding her that Monday nights are fire practice anyway.

Dianne's been through enough trial and tribulation in one lifetime to warrant an Oprah show, believe me. The daughter of a war bride from a Dutch Jewish family who converted to Christianity to escape the Nazi's, placing a child up for adoption, multiple serious health issues, divorce, raising two teenage boys on her own and now her home burns down. Ugh! Through it all though Dianne seems to have this unshakable spirit. She spoke very positively about her future even in the midst of such misfortune. Wow! I know plenty of folks (namely myself) who could take a page from that book. I'm proud to have that DNA you gave me Dianne. :)

As of this writing I haven't heard yet what the cause of the fire was. Please send all your good vibes, thoughts and prayers - whatever you believe in. Dianne needs all the help she can get.

This particular Development Hell is of my own making, but there's a lot to be learned here. I had some hard desicions to make over the weekend and having made them it feels much better.

The more I write of this story the more I realize that a backstory should remain just that. Zone 63 started life as a little story to support an idea for a faux reality show that I had and I thought, "Why not make a movie out of that too?" Some stories don't need to be movies and this is one of them. Taken alone it's just not that filmic. However, as a supporting story to a more interesting premise (my original intent) it works fantastically. So we're taking another tack here.

No I'm not throwing the baby out with the bath water. The work that I've already done, specifically the short contained within the Zone 63 story structure, is still solid and a viable piece that will go far to help promote this other project, the name of which I'd like to keep on the QT for now.

Where does this leave me? I have an awesome backstory for my mock reality show. Also, I just now completed the third draft of the short. That's right third! And am ready to let some people in the know have a look so I can polish it and shoot the darn thing. That's right shoot! I'll be posting a bit about what I need cast, crew and equipment wise once the breakdown is done.

Looks like we'll be shooting this far sooner than I expected. Cool!

Thank goodness for Syd Field and this little gem.

The Boss was in quandary. He had to fire somebody. He had it narrowed down to one of two people, Katie or Jack. It was an impossible decision, they were both super workers. Rather than flip a coin, he decided he would fire the first one who used the water cooler the next morning.

Katie came in the next morning with a horrible hang-over after partying all night. She went straight to the cooler to take an aspirin.

The Boss approached her and said: "Katie, I've never done this before, but I have to lay you or Jack off."

"Could you jack off?" she says. "I really feel like shit this morning."

Thanks to Billy G for this giggle.

With all of the media attention around protecting children from internet predators the film Hard Candy couldn't be coming at a better time. Variety is calling this award winning movie "...a film that's impossible to dismiss". No doubt. Watch the trailer and decide for yourself. I'm looking forward to it. Perverts beware, this 'victim' will kick your ass.

Do you know who your kids are chatting to?

Postscript: There's a strong Canadian connection here. The female lead, 19 year old Ellen Page, also played the daughter of drunkard Jim Lahey in The Trailer Park Boys.

O.F.C.S.: The Online Film Critics Society Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s
What a list! There are some awesome films there. I was going through my DVD collection yesterday and noticed Miller's Crossing. Perhaps we'll check out that today.

Today in Ireland flooding caused mass pandemonium among Irish residents. Click the read more link for photo evidence of the scene to horrifying to post without a warning to readers of this blog.

Remember, you have been warned...

ICBC is turning to black humour to get those 18 - 21 year olds to quit driving like assholes. I'm not sure if www.nofunbeingdead.ca will achieve anything other than a laugh. Especially fun is the soccer game with a dead guy in goal.

Speaking from extreme asshole driving experience, namely my own at that age, this kind of thing won't make a dent in the problem. It will not compute with the youthful faux-immortals it is targeted toward.

However, being a lover of zombie films I do appreciate the campaign. Nothing like grave humour to start my day.

Check out Cowabduction.com It's just what you think. The video on the front page is pretty funny. It's hard not to feel sorry for the poor farmers.


"Durned aylee-yins be takin' mah cows!"

I'm actually impressed by the accuracy of this personaitly test. It's one of the better ones I've taken. You can test yourself here.

All actors can play six degrees of Kevin Bacon. What is a bacon number?

According to IMDb my Bacon Number is: 4

Mike Browne was in Chuk sing mooi ji yee a suen a (1996) with Oliver Tan...
... who was in Romeo Must Die (2000) with Kandyse McClure...
... who was in See Spot Run (2001) with J.B. Bivens...
... who was in Trapped (2002) with Kevin Bacon.

Odd way to get there but I guess it counts. LOL!

Bubbles of Trailer Park Boys fame, reporting for This Hour has 22 Minutes, goes flying in a Canadian Armed Forces CF-18 fighter jet.
Ken sent this along. Thanks bud.

CBC News: Milosevic found dead in cell
Perhaps the folks who had him on trial are a tad upset. Someone would have found a way to do him in anyway. His health beat everyone else to the punch. Another genocidal egomaniac bites the dust.

NOTE: Deaths usually fall into the Downers and Obits category. Not this one.

Poor Anne Sellors. Now that's something to be unremembered for.

This is the bench clearing brawl between Canada and Russia during the World Junior tournament in 1987:


Lest we forget... how embarrassing. And right in the middle of it all? Theoren Fluery. Always one to stir up trouble and he's still at it. More here.

I woke up feeling like I was stuck again. One of the characters was driving me nuts as were a couple of the opening scences. They been reworked to contain stronger story elements. Necessary exposition is dealt with in a far more interesting (read less boring) manner.

Quote of the day from one of my heroes, George A Romero:

"I like the idea that the monster is in us... somewhere in there. That's why I think I prefer all this sort of transformation monsters, that grow out of humans rather than beasts that are spawned in a septic tank. But, I suppose in a way that'd be human waste, too."

Speaking of zombies, I started reading Stephen King's Cell. So far: yikes! Of particular interest, it's being made into a film with Eli Roth of Hostel and Cabin Fever fame at the helm.

I suffer from Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). Medication is expensive and I'm broke and cheap. You do the math. Dopey me. I suffer to save money.

So sick of feeling crappy I called LD today. When I got there the stupid pharmacist gave me the run around. Apparenlty it takes 6 hours to put a sticker on a box. Ghey! Carol's picking the stuff up after work for me. Thanks hon.

Too bad you can pick this stuff up without a presciption (and for a third of the price) like in the U.S. Why you need a scrip' for this crap is beyond me. We usually pick up a three month supply in WA or OR when we're there but haven't done that in a while. Looks like time for another trip south.

UPDATE: drugs spell relief. Ahhhhh!

Added a little progress bar to the site on the right. It will measure this current writing project and those subsequent. It might be cool to show one through the actual production of a film too. Finding the time might be slightly difficult then with 18 hour days. The idea was baltantly stolen from another screenwriter's blog - Man Bytes Hollywood - he 'borrowed' it from someone else who did likewise and so on. NucleusCMS had a plugin all ready for uploading to my site. Nice!

Lots of screenwriters with blogs, even Vancouverites. Like Jeff O'Brien's Magnificent Iguana Productions. Clicking links on Jeff's site brought some odd information to light. Jeff was born on August 5th (see his IMDb listing). Me too (mine).

As it turns out there are other people who have August 5th birthdays on IMDb as well. For example: Bob Clark - director of such films as Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Porky's and of course, A Christmas Story. Three favourites for sure. Word on the street is Mr Clark will be remaking Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things here in Vancouver. Oh to play a shambling un-dead dude in a remake of such a genre classic. Dare to dream. He'll be receiving an email shortly. Hopefully the project is still a go.

Strangely, Chuck Campbell, an actor working on Stargate here in Vancouver of late was born on August 5th, 1969... where? Halifax, Nova Scotia! Perhaps we were in the same nursery at the Grace Maternity. Weird.

From the look of this list we could put together quite the cast and crew of August the 5th babies.

There's even a porn star. Although some were rather amusing I'm not going to quote the names of any of her films. Ew!

Although it looks like two pages it's actually about 6 as some re-writing got done today. Friday was a "day off" as I needed time to think about some story problems. Some other things needed attention. Websites, for example:

• zombiefreak.com my horror portal


• redcritter.com the home for my entertainment company, Red Critter Productions

Neither are anywhere near finished, especially Red Critter but they've been started all the same. I've also started bashing around some ideas for promotional sites for Zone 63.

Creativity Tip 1: When you're having trouble coming up with a solution to a creative problem do something mundane and mindless: Go for a walk in the fresh air. Have a shower (A lot of problem solving seems to occur for me in the shower). Fold laundry (don't tell Carol about this one). Just taking one's attention away from the pressure of the actual creative project, even for a little while, allows a person to work through some things you can't seem to get through otherwise.

My site ZombieFreak.com has been resurrected. It's one of the many projects I've been working on. There's not a heck of a lot of content there yet, but it's shambling along. The plan is utilize it to help in the promotion of my movies.

Check in often...

Especially cool is the bit about the Dutch zombie film, Worst Case Scenario. They're looking for zombie extras. Airfare to Holland? Anyone?

The Starbucks Entertainment logo (new to me) magically appeared on the trailer for Akeelah and the Bee. Feeling a bit taken aback so some rewinding was in order. Sure enough there it was. A quick Google search for the term "Starbucks Entertainment" came up with this.

BusinessWire: Starbucks Entertainment and Lionsgate Announce a Partnership That Transforms Traditional Motion Picture Marketing and Distribution Model

Why not? Looks like a very interesting way to market a film.

Fox Searchlight is blogging the making of 28 Days Later and Trainspotting director Danny Boyle's next project Sunshine. There are even photos from the making of Sunhine on Flikr.

More films will be doing this for nerds like us. It appears to be catching on although slowly. There are some, like Jason Reitman's blog. He's the director of Thank You for Smoking due to hit theatres on March 17th. That movie looks kind of fun.

Check out director Wim Wenders 50 golden rules of fimmaking in in MovieMaker Magazine's issue #61 My Golden Rules. I was going to type them out after reading them in the past month's issue, but found them already online. Funny stuff, but educational at the same time. This one is a favourite:

12. Don’t shoot a western if you hate horses. (But it’s okay to not be fond of cows.)

Often wondered what the Simpsons would look like live action? Now we can see what them in the opening sequence at least. Made in the UK. They're not driving on the wrong side of the road. Thanks to Carol for the tip.

Started writing later in the day and didn't want to stop. Only got three pages written, but a good three if that makes sense. Looks like turning off MSN messenger, the phone and ignoring email would be a good idea. I'm like a friggin' crow... "Ooh! looks something shiny! Let's go over there."

Is it ADHD? Could be. Perhaps I should be eating these in the morning:


Actually not entirely true. Once I get my teeth into a project its hard to get them out again. Especially if its something like this.

CBC News: Nova Scotia soldier killed in Afghan crash


Cpl. Paul Davis, a Canadian soldier from Bridgewater, N.S. in a DND Photo. He's definitely a familiar face from my home town. If I'm remembering correctly he was a few years (like 7 or 8) behind me in school. There's no mention of him at all on any of the Bridgewater news sites as of this writing and the Chronicle Herald only has this story with no specific names.

More from Canoe.ca. I think I know his dad.

Farting around with my time machine and decided I go pick up the newspaper from a year from now. Look at what Daily Variety had to say!


Things really are going to get better.

You too can get a message from the future here.

We're just about a third of the way there. The average low-budget screenplay should be between 90 and 100 pages. Each page represents close to one minute of screen time so we have a 28 and a half minute movie so far. Kind of cool. Characters are truly taking coming to life on the page. I'm going to expand on a few of their backstories tonight by writing a more detailed biography for each one. It's a little trick I used to get into character when acting.

The story is headed in an interesting direction and is shaping up nicely. The need for a second draft is becoming apparent as well. As we've heard it said, "nothing is ever written, it's re-written". How right that is.

The first draft of the short contained within the feature is sitting here on the desk in front of me. Printed out and formtted with a nice title page. Now that gives me a sense of accomplishment. One step is complete and here in the real world. Cool!

I'm also reading The Six Day Horror Movie by Indie movie director Michael P. DiPaolo. He took $5000 and six days to make his feature zombie film, Daddy. We're hoping to have a little more than $5k and 6 days with which to shoot this movie, but it helps to see that it's possible and read about how it was done.

Buy The Six Day Horror Movie Book Here

I don't know what it is with these stupid ads pushing religi0us crap on my site. It's getting fucking irritating to me though. Especially all the J-word crapola. I'm not even going to write out the name because I think that keywords like that are one of the reasons why. I don't endorse the content of these ads in any way and am frankly disgusted by some of the snake oil sales going on when I click through. Go away ads... go away. I'll spend a hour or so everyday blocking you whack jobs if I have to. Argh!! Making money from the weakness of others is sick and I won't support it.

If the ads don't start to disappear soon I'm going to remove the AdSense code. No one is really clicking anyway. I've made $57.59 (which means this site is self supporting!) in a month, but that's really petering off with this garbage.

/insane rant