Now that Dolby and the Razzle Dazzle DVD behind me, it’s time to move on to better and bolder projects. Currently I’m putting together a promotional site for a friend who is writing the definitive book on the Friday the 13th movie series. And in an attempt to make myself more marketable, and develop some revenue-generating projects of my own, I am going to teach myself PHP and MySQL, as my former specialty, Cold Fusion, seems likely go the way of the Dodo.

I plan to split my time evenly between web and film. It’ll be tricky, juggling coding, screenwriting, and doing preproduction for the film. Lunched in between of course, job hunting. I trust you all will keep me sane and grounded.  More soon…

Seems I will not be joining the ranks of Dolby Labs. A call from HR late today confirmed that the honor would go to another applicant. Seems I can’t get ahead no matta what I do.

As a result my spirits are down today, so until tomorrow…

Something unique and exciting happened tonite. Something that made every geek pee his/her pants. A fantasy film took home best picture, and a bonified geek took home best director. I am talking about the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King my friends, and that hobbit masquerading as a kiwi down under, Peter Jackson. For the first time a favorite book from my childhood translated to movie magic (the others failed miserable). And while there was much omitted from the story, and some of it not handled as well as I would have liked (I’m a purist, so sue me 🙂 there was SO much that was done right and was handled with spirit grace like Professor Tolkien’s prose.

I thank you Peter Jackson, the talented cast and crew, and New Zealand, for bringing Middle Earth to  life. And most of all to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, for inspiring us all.

Now its time to go throw my pants in the washer… Good nite all.

It’s Oscar Day! In a mad dash to watch the nominated films, we saw Mystic River last night and Lost in Translation this morning. The only best picture nominee we missed was Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and frankly I found the title too long when in of itself, put me to sleep. I just don’t think it has much of chance.

Well, I enjoyed Mystic River until the last 10 minutes, which were unnecessary and infuriating. I don’t want to give the movie away, but the film needed another week in the editing room. For those of you who have seen the film, it SHOULD have ended with the car driving away, the kid looking back toward Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn, and then fade to black. The performances are top notch however, and Tim Robbins is much deserving of Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

As for Lost in Translation, it is a nice “Two Ships Passing in the Night” film. Not much happens over 90 minutes, but it is a pleasant diversion, with a standout performance from Bill Murray. But I don’t think it will be walking away with Best Picture Oscar.

Lord of the Rings on the other hand, should walk away with Best Picture and Director Oscars. Anything more than that, is icing on the cake.

See ya on the Red Carpet!