I'd like to wish my fellow Americans a happy Independence Day. (If there's an "independent film" joke in there somewhere, I can't find it.) I have quite a few updates for you today. First of all, my short film Portrait of a Pensive Lady - retitled from "Still Life With Woman" - has been accepted into its first festival, and on August 1-2 it will play at the Ballston Spa Film Festival. Ballston Spa is a beautiful old Victorian resort town in upstate New York. The festival is free to attend, and all the short films - many of them world premieres, like mine - will be screened outdoors under the stars. It sounds wonderful. I wish I could be there. But if you live in the area or plan to visit there around that time, please go.
I've been working for Hollywood again, too. The Cloverfield Blu-ray, which features my creative writing, is now out! The disc turned out great, and the movie's many fans seem to really enjoy my work (I wrote all the entries for the film's "Special Investigation Mode," where you can watch Cloverfield from the government's perspective; this makes more sense if you know the film. I also researched all the locations for the disc's "live" map, and even wrote trivia questions for the tie-in website). The company I was contracting for then asked me back to do some writing for the Iron Man Blu-ray, which should be out in a few months, and very recently I finished up - mostly - writing work for the Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull Blu-ray. Big movies. Nice additions to the ol' resume. So I've been keeping busy with all that, as well as with some design work. And on top of everything, I still hope to make another short film before summer's over. I have the story worked out and it can very easily be shot in my house. I've just been lazy about getting it all together, but it will happen. It'll be my first out-and-out comedy, even if I've put a lot of comic elements into my earlier work. Once I shoot it, you can be sure that you, dear readers, will be the first to know.