Sunday, April 22, 2007

A new blog...

a new blog has been started just for our claymation work!

afilmbysamward.blogspot.com

I just copy/pasted some song lyrics there for now but soon there will be actual stuff on it.

Paul

Friday, April 20, 2007

all the way home

So, I'm home now and recovering from jet lag. Yesterday I slept for 17 hours and last night I slept 4. I have no sense of time or the date. As soon as I get my head screwed on straight I will begin the backlog of posts that have been gradually building.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Back from China

I am now back in Bangkok and waiting for my plane to go to Taipei (and then on to LA). My family will leave from here and fly back to Chiang Mai about the same time. The Internet connection here is sketchy but I thought I would post anyway. China was great! We did a night food market thing the first night before going back to our hotel. Then the next day we went to Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. Then yesterday we did the Great Wall, and this morning we flew out. It was quite the whirlwind tour but we did it. Well, more details on these things and the end of my Thailand stay when I return tomorrow nightish. (I return tomorrow night but may not actually post then)

Saturday, April 14, 2007

This is not the perfect blog

As I am sure you are already aware. This is not the perfect blog. I spell stuff incorrectly, my facts aren't always straight, I don't post everyday, and now I will begin posting out of order. Stuff is happening so fast now that I don't have time to write about what is going on as it happens. The last two days were very full and interesting and will take a while to write about. But now we are sitting in the Bangkok airport waiting for out plane to take us to Beijing, China. My external hard drive with all my pictures on it is packed away in my checked bag and I may not get be able to set it all up in the same place that I get Internet while we are in China. I may not get Internet there at all.

So... My blog will be confusing and the pictures of my last few days in Thailand, pictures of China, and all my videos may have to wait until I get back to California. I will try and write about things as I get the chance but it will probably be brief. Sorry. You will just have to deal with it.

YouTube vs. Thailand

OK, so I really wanted to post videos of my trip as I have been taking a few of them. But I have been having problems with the Internet provider not allowing access to YouTube. I thought this was just a small problem and that it would be fixed sometime soon. Apparently not. A couple of weeks ago, somewhere on YouTube, a video (or a few, I'm not sure) was posted that makes fun of the King of Thailand. I don't know how serious the video is but... the Thai people love their king. YouTube would not let the country block individual videos because of some discrimination issues so the government decided to block the entire site. YouTube no longer exists in Thailand.

As this is the case I will have to wait until I get home to post the videos. Sorry for the delay.

Friday, April 13, 2007

More Goings On

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Stuff here is happening pretty fast so I am a little behind. The other day my mother and I went to Wararot market (basically a collection of stores) to buy some stuff and I took these pictures.


Fabric Store


A Thai Silk Store


A Guy Smoking


A Bead Store

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Kent Anderson Butler Presents: Little Sunshine

ART NEWS FLASH!!!
My friend (and former professor) is having an art exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. He has been telling me about the work and I am really excited to see it installed. The reception is Monday, April 23 from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. and he is doing an "Artist Talk" on Sunday, May 6 at 2:00 pm. Hope to see you there.

More information:
About Kent and his work...
www.kentandersonbutler.com
About the Museum and Kent's show...
www.pmcaonline.org/upcoming-exhibitions.html

Wouldn't it be just like me to...

...get sick. Yes folks, the night before last it started out as a sore throat but then quickly escalated to a fever (with all the aches and pains that it so graciously provides). I spent that night tossing and turning in my bed deathly afraid of being splashed with cold water by a little girl (who laughed in between splashes) and with random parts of Wilco's "Heavy Metal Drummer" looping through my head.

Fevers do weird things to your brain.

But now I am getting better. The fever is gone and I now only have exhaustion and a sore throat to contend with. I took a couple of videos that I am planning on editing and posting soon. But for some reason the ISP at the house won't let me access YouTube. I can't even view the videos on my own blog. Hopefully by the time I finish editing the videos I will feel well enough to go to a place that has free wireless and I can upload them there.

It is David's birthday today and I think we are having some of his friends over for dinner or something like that.

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Mike's and Geocaching

Yesterday was spent sitting around the house recovering from my trip. I ate some delicious mangoes and pineapple (the fruit here is amazing) and sat under the air conditioner.

Today however we had our first day out on the town. Mom and Dad had some errands to do in the morning for which we stayed home but when they got back we piled into the van and drove the 1o minutes into central Chiang Mai.

We ate lunch at Mike's (hailed by some as the best American food in town) and then walked down the street looking for the Geocache that we had looked up on the Internet that morning. What? you don't know what a Geocache is? Well, then you had better read this because I don't have time to explain it myself.

We found the cache with out too much trouble as it was in plain sight in a store (no I won't tell you which one). We were hoping for more of a challenge, but it wasn't to bad for our first one. Hopefully we can hide our own later.

oh yeah, pictures...


Mike's! (proud supporter of Comic Sans)


The GPS unit leading the way past a taxi parking lot and a building that is several hundred years old.


Detail shot of a really old wall (taken from the car as we were speeding past)


Steven navigating with the GPS unit


Sam, always happy to be photographed.

More stuff later!

Friday, April 6, 2007

A safe arrival

I made it! After many hours of flying and waiting I have emerged victorious in my battle over the airport monster. The Internet monster, however, is another matter. The night I got here the odds were stacked against me as I tried desperately to find a connection. As you can see it was only a matter of time before I conquered that as well. (I have to make all this stuff sound dramatic or it is not as interesting to read)

Well, I had better introduce the family so that when I mention them later you will not be confused. First off we have Sam. Sam is my little foster Thai brother who my parents will be keeping until he is 2. Right now he is 7 months old, and very photogenic.


Next we have Steven. After being the youngest for 13 years he finally has a little sibling.


Then there is David. With the older siblings off to college in the States, he is now the oldest one around.


Next is Mom (LeaAnn). I don't know if the fact that I can't remember her age is a good or a bad thing.


And finally Dad (Bill). I'm not even tempted to ask him how old he is. (Why I chose age as the defining factoid that you should know about my family is beyond even my comprehension.)



There they are. Now you know. Everything. There. Is. To. Know...
Jet Lag...
brain...
shutting...
down...
writing...

getting...

stupid...

mosquito...

eating...

me...

goodnight.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Sitting in LAX


As you can see I am sitting in LAX right now waiting to board my flight. This leg takes me from LA to Taipei in 13 hours and leaves at 1:15AM. Then there is a 3.5 hour layover before continuing on to Bangkok (which takes another 4 hours). Then I wait another 6 hours in Bangkok in order to take the 50min flight to Chiang Mai. So... there is lots of flying and waiting ahead of me. I'll see you on the other side.

Transition Tuesday

Today I am leaving to visit my family in Thailand. I feel bad leaving Sam and Malachi to finish the film on their own but I am confident that they will do a good job. So as of now I will be mostly posting about my trip. Hopefully I can get some good pictures and video to show you all. I will also be emailing a bunch of people to tell/remind them of this blogs existence so that all can share in the insanity that will be my trip.



UPDATE!!!
Did I say insanity? That was stupid.

The cantina scenes are complete!

After two weeks of working and shooting every night (and all day for the last 4 days) we have finally completed shooting and editing all of the scenes inside the cantina. This puts our official footage clock at 7:00 so far. Already it is more than double the length of the last film and we haven't even finished shooting. All we have left now are the scenes on the pirate ship which are the flashbacks that Stonefish experiences during the cantina scenes.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Stuff is happening.

Over the last week we have been working diligently on the movie and things are slowly but surely coming together. Yesterday we continued to film the interior of the cantina and started to work on the opening titles. This morning I finished the titles and we are now waiting for Sam to get here so that we can continue filming. The other day Sam and Malachi's parents (Bruce and Melissa) delivered the pirate ship set that they have been faithfully working on for the past 8 months (since August). I had not seen it yet and was dumbfounded by the craftsmanship and beauty of this genius piece of set building. (as soon as we put the final painting and set dressing I can post some pictures)

Sam is here now and we are discussing our plan of attack for the next few days. I am leaving to visit my family in Thailand on Tuesday and will not be back until the 20th of this month (a little less that two weeks). This leaves us with only 3 more days (including today) that I will be able to help with the filming. We have a lot of work to do in that time. The cantina scenes need to be completely shot and edited so that they can be given to Robbie for sound editing. The ship set needs to be be painted and dressed with props. The rest of the crew needs to be built. The backdrop system for the sky and horizon needs to be designed and constructed. And the end titles need to be added after the lighthouse scene. Plus I have packing and shopping to do before I leave.

The idea is that we will get everything ready to shoot the scenes on the ship before I leave. Then Sam and Malachi will shoot and edit those scenes while I am gone. The entire film needs to be turned in to the festival people by the 16th so... we'll see how it goes.

(new record for post length!)