Gardage

A classic. One evening, back in high school, Brian Morgan had an idea, and I had a borrowed video camera. Corey and I followed him and acted/shot his scenes for him. Before we could finish, the rain came down and put our 2 dollar production to a halt. That night I cut the footage together and thew some funny looking credits. Although only the opening of the story was even shot, on some bizarre aesthetic level it worked.

Gardage was always a special video for me because surprisingly or unsurprisingly, everybody seemed to have a very strong and unique interpretation for it. I was always interested in what people had to say about it because frankly, beyond and the pure aesthetic appeal, it has no objective meaning or purpose. It was such a small file size that it was very easily shared through e-mail or msn conversation, which let to a lot of people seeing it, and a wide variety of reactions.

Hell, for all I know everybody's been humoring me and it's just a worthless pile. Either way, I was inspired one night and re-worked the video. Digitized footage from the original tapes, cut it virtually exactly as the old one was, did come colour correction and went overboard by key framing the modulation on gamma adjust for a shot that had a painful display of auto-exposure. I completely redesigned the sound. One of the charms of the original Gardage was the looping, slowed-down 2 second clip of suburban ambiance that seemed to say "womp womp, womp womp". I replaced this with a cleaner recording that was recorded... elsewhere. 'Thew in some foley, and I had a completely re-mastered classic.

I wonder if the new audio removed some of the cheap charm. Also, the colour correction I did was for a CRT monitor, not a computer monitor, so in the next week or so I might re-do that and re-upload it. For now though, here's GARDAGE.





Also, if you haven't heard of or seen it, take the time to check out Zeitgeist. It's constructed really well and the concepts not only brought up in the film, but the concepts that the filmmakers themselves are pushing are really worthwhile.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

UPDATE

A general update on what's been happening lately.

Three weeks ago I left Sim Video. I had a great time there, made bags of money, learned mountains of information and met rooms full of great people. It was time though, for me to move on and do my best experiencing this thing known as 'the industry' (aka: field, business, real world). I thank everybody at Sim for a great ten months. Here is a photo journal of my departure, by Mr. Matt Hardstaff:

Here is me at work, on my second last day:


Here I am, leaving at the end of the day:


Hayley waves goodbye:


Adam watches... and waits...



Anyway, since then I've been editing. All day, nearly everyday. My skin has paled as have my eyes.

I spent a solid week working on Faun Fable's Transit Rider video, which will be wrapping up very soon. We aren't sure what we're going to do with it; there are many options. At the very least the best handful of songs will be available online, somewhere. It's pretty fun stuff. http://www.faunfables.net

I've also recently started doing a bit of post work for Johnny Soporno and that has been developing fantastically. http://www.worthyplayboy.com/

A couple of nights ago I couldn't sleep and so I put together these clips from The Caped Avengah. It's alternative takes and bloopers, despite the fact that I hate blooper reels. They're always overly repetitious. "Oh, look! Edward Norton can't stop laughing!" So, uh, if my blooper reel sucks and I'm a complete hypocrite, let me know so I never make another one again.




I've also been going over my other old stuff, cleaning it up either for presentation or to put away in boxes, never to see the light of day again. Check in every now and again to see how that develops. All you old BCHS colleagues will appreciate them, anyway.

Thanks for reading.

Caped Avengha's Pie Adventures

The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures is online!

I just spend two days cleaning up the sound, only to upload it to youtube where it will sound like shit anyway. w00t. Is this movie worth two years of hype? You decide...



MPEG-1 rocks the fuck out of H.264.
I spent a good deal of yesterday compressing CAPA in a variety of formats before uploading to youtube. MPEG-1, with the video at 1.85mbps and audio at 48kh, 226kbps, gave me a much better and consistent looking video file that was a couple megabytes smaller than the H.264 equivalent (they were both in the 90mb range). And to put icing on the cake, the MPEG conversion took about half the time and also included de-interlacing, which I would have had to do separately on H.264, which would have made it take even longer. This brings me to a question I asked myself yesterday... who in the world would need to retain an interlaced image after taking the quality far below tape and broadcast standards? Gah. Anyways. I have to give H.264 a bit of credit though, their algorithm was smart enough to detect text and ensure that those images were crisp and clean. Too little too late, though.

Caped Avengah Kills!

An MSN log play-by-play of somebody watching the Caped Avengah trailer:

Mr. Moo says: (9:01:54 PM)
solid!
Mr. Moo says: (9:03:33 PM)
omg
Mr. Moo says: (9:03:36 PM)
wtf am i watching
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:09 PM)
oh... oh my god
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:19 PM)
I want to kill myself
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:21 PM)
OH SHIT
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:28 PM)
i just heard him yelling at the pie
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:30 PM)
that killed me

Could this be the best video of all time? I doubt it, but the film Titanic killed forty nine people* and my video's trailer is at one. Only forty eight to go!


*source

Duke Panache!!!!

DUKE PANACHE!

The NEXT great Canadian Director! Action, Drama, Romance, suspense and even Comedy! I promise you, fellow film-lovers, that this man can do it all. I've seen only a portion of his work and I was so blown away by it that I had to take it easy for a minute.

I really want to say that he's underground or that he's 'on the rise' but that really doesn't do justice. Let's be honest, phrases like that sound outright lame. He's not underground because he can't make it into the mainstream; he's not independent because a studio wouldn't' pick him up (they'd salivate at the thought, lol) The reason that he's still in the shadows is because the mainstream literally isn't ready for such greatness. To be outright exposed to Duke Panache would be equivalent to getting a heart attack from being quickly submersed into cold water (it's happened). Like a stir-fry, the public needs to be warmed up before it can sizzle in the heat. This heat, is DUKE PANACHE.

So, ladies and gentlemen, get ready. I'd love to tell you what to get ready for or how, but all I can tell you is that it's Classified. Yes, that's right. Info on his latest and greatest project shrouded in so much mystery that even project itself is referred to as such. Rumor has it that's it's just recently begun a long post-production process. A project of such magnitude will take a long time to complete, but the wait will be far more than worth it. Heck, I bet the film is already done and THE DUKE is just teasing us by slowly releasing small tiny bits of information. One thing I do know for sure is that the final image WILL be seen in 1080p. Gorgeous! Not even The Offline can afford to shoot 1080p. I can't wait. I have to go clean up, now. this is just too exciting for me!!


Check out these kick-ass websites!

http://www.theduke.net/ - The Duke's webpage!
http://www.dukepanache.com/movie.html - Unofficial fanpage!
http://fansofduke.tripod.com/id1.html - Not sure what the source of this is, but i found it on google, lol!

A Life is a Life

I present an old gem, the best of the best of highschool video. One of the peaks of the now defunct "Confused Director Productions". A serious war film with philosophical metaphor. A bit starring Dan Sams and Brian Morgan: A Life is a Life.

PEOPLE in TO again

Just a shout to any of the wonderful people who worked hard on BDTC's video for People's summer '07 album, Misbegotten Man. People walked all the way from Crooklyn NY, to beautiful Khanata once again, and they handed me a stack of shiny new albums, which I will in turn mail out to the following:

Ben Cooper
Jen Mason

Jack Lee

Peter Donaldson

Thanks fellas, the band was totally stoked about the video! And I'm still totally stoked that you guys came out for free to save my ass so I can run around telling people* that I'm a "producer". Also a hearty "Kick ass job, dude!" to another Canadian, Tomas Del Basco (made famous by his band dd/mm/yyyy) who did the album artwork.

*as in masses of persons, not the band.

ADVERTISING!
www.myspace.com/peopletheband
www.myspace.com/burndownthecapital

Caped Avengah's arrival soon...

I had written the second part to my three part computer saga, but since I fixed my problems I really don't care any more. It's time for more exciting things. I present to thee a trailer for the most highly anticipated short among BCHS alumni: The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures.

Computers Suck, part 1

Obsviously, for the all of one (1) of you (me) who've been following and anticipating the release of C.A.P.A., there has been a delay. I've run into computer problems, once again.

My macbook started to shut off randomly with absolutely no notice. I did some research and learned that this is a regular problem with first-generation macbooks. Apple released an a firmwire update to solve this problem. The install instructions recommended that you update your OS to the most resent version. At time of release it was 10.4.8. I have 10.4.7. The instructions specifically said that if you install the update on OS 10.4.6 or anything below, you will fuck your computer up. .7 and beyond are fine, although an update is recommended.

I booted the computer up and started a download for 10.4.10, the most recent mac OS. 250mb download. I cancelled the download in fear that my computer would turn off, as at that point it would only stay on for about 1-3 minutes. I started the firmwire update download. On completion, I followed the instructions TO THE T. After the install, I had to reset, as is normal for most software installations. Then, nothing. My computer wouldn't turn on. It would 'warm up' as in I could hear the harddrive and fan spinning, and I could insert and remove CDs. After a variety of attempts to turn my computer under different circumstances (battery in, out, depleted, waiting a long time, plugged in, unplugged, etc) I took it into a very friendly and trusty mac-authorized dealer.

The logic board was fried.

A little History on The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures.

In a week from now I'll have a trailer for The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures online. Either on the offline, or youtube, or whatever.

This was a big project, produced by Brian Morgan and myself. It stars the talents of Corey Stevens (who's been in a slew of Sheridan student films) and Shawn Verge (my oldest video collaborator) and Brian Morgan, as the lead role. A cameo is made by Steven Leck who came by to operate the broom mic, and I'm sure he'll be around to work on more offline projects in the future.

We shot The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures almost two years ago. Brian and I wrote it back in the summer of 05 when I was working in a greenhouse, furiously making up for my first year school debt. We shot it in November later that year, and I did a rough edit of the first scene, which probably nearly a hundred people have seen. School picked up and I had to put it down.

When the summer of 06 came around, I was fortunate enough to go on tour with the Faun Fables, but unfortunate enough to have my computer stolen on the last gig in Hamilton. Mega-delayed but armed with a new macbook by June, I rushed to get even older work done before working on C.A.P.A. Many Beautiful Nothing and Trevor Dunn and Shelley Burgon concerts were edited that summer.

By August, a full year after completing the script, I sat down and edited the entire film, minus the end. We had shot about 6 different endings, and I couldn't decide which worked best. The movie also suffered from a plauge known as boringness. The rhythm of the cutting was so predictable, yet it had no driving pulse to keep the audience interested. As my last semester of school kicked in, I had to regrettably put down the Avengah.

Funnily enough, in February '07, I went up to Brampton for the indie arts fest, to shoot Trevor Dunn and Shelley Burgon's set. There I met Friendly Rich and got a compilation disc of artists on the bill. The Friendly Rich song on that compilation fit perfectly with the Caped Avengah. It was glorious; the movie was watchable.

Now from February until today, I'm honestly not sure why I never sat down and finished The Caped Avengah. It didn't even occur to me until writing this that it's been six months and I have no valid excuse as to why I didn't buckle down and do the less than a day's work that's left. Every now and again I'd throw myself into a project non-stop for two weeks, (such as editing the Zombie short Bloodshed, producing BDTC's People video, and most recently The Faun Fable's Transit Rider) but frankly, when it came down to my own projects, I've been fucking lazy. I think once The Transit Rider is done, I'm throwing away my producing/editing role the fuck out and replacing it with directing/writing. It's been a while. The Offline is a perfect excuse.

...So what's The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures all about? Eh... Just check out the trailer next week and you'll get an idea.

A message to whoever makes shoelaces:

YOU FAIL. More on that later. For now, here's my introduction.


I am John Baxter; welcome to my blag. I'm going to call my blag a blag because blogs are lame and I'll have none of it. Actually to be honest, I don't have much against blogs. They can be helpful if you're looking for porn, and you find a blog that writes about updates on porn sites, etc... but I just figured I didn't want to be involved with something that I only find useful on lonely nights.

...But maybe that's it! Nobody reads blogs (unless by chance while looking for porn) but everybody writes them. That's what blogging is all about! Making yourself feel important when nobody else cares! Ah... now I understand.

Well, I still don't want any part of it, so welcome to my blag, motherfuckers.

Mostly [ideally] this blag will contain video content, or posts that link to video content, or updates on future video content. Otherwise, it will most likely be a vehicle for me to complain, lament, and bitch about things that excite me or piss me off: Music, bands, shitty music, shitty bands, food, ceral boxes, shoelaces and anything else that strikes my fancy.

Back onto the subject of shoelaces. I bought a new pair of shoes recently, and when I tied them up, even with huge, gayngly* bows, the laces still hung loose enough to step on. I have big feet, so anybody with a few sizes smaller must even have an additional extra inch or so of lace dangling behind them. Fuck that. Shoe laces are a very simple device. It's not fucking rocket science. Whoever Vans hired to decide the length of the shoelaces that they throw in the box utterly, completely failed. That asshole better not get commission, because he doesn't deserve it.

Nobody comment and say "But lol, you can tuck them in!". No, you can't 'tuck them in'. If you tuck them the laces into your shoes, not only are they uncomfortable, but they will constantly fall out and you'll have to re-tuck them, looking just like some moronic girl who wears a tube top, constantly re-tucking their tits and armpit flab into what can only very loosely be described as a 'shirt'.

So to conclude... Please, anybody who reads this and happens to be a lead designer at a major shoe company, cut the shoelaces shorter, and thanks for reading my blag.

-JDB



*combined: gay + gangly