10 years of wendago.com

Happy Birthday wendago.com. I have kept an online journal for 10 years. I say “journal” cuz when I got started “blog” and “blogger” were relatively unknown. But I gotta think ten years puts me in a small group. I’ve never made a dime off my goofy site. Started it for me. Not you. I started this site so that I, when old and bald or dead but in ghostly haunty form, could look back and revel in my unawesomeness. So to show respect to meself I am going to play catch up. I got behind after the My Bloody Valentine 3D release and now seems like a fine time to play catch up. So let’s get this underway and bring us to September of 2010.

But first… Trailers. (Special thanks to Edgar @edgarwright Wright for tweeting a couple of these last week.)

If you work in Marketing for the Hollywood machine… please watch this.

So how did we go from the above to the current standard which is defined as “reveal everything”? What is going on? Do we really need to show MOST of the movie before the release? Doesn’t that sort of take the fun out of it?

And even when a nice twist escapes the trailer you nearly always end up with it leaked online. Like in the case of Roger Ebert dropping a GIANT spoiler to the movie SUPER in the front of his review, there’s simply no excuse. Man. I just don’t get it.

So, moving on to SEPTEMBER 2010:

Patrick was fighting to finish the movie. This consisted of editing as well as post music, sound and visual effects. It was also the month to prep screenings because the powers that be naturally wanted to see what they’d paid for. Sadly, the time and energy it takes to stop the train in order to screen a movie can impact the finished product. Perhaps not on a Cameron or Bay movie but when you have a tight budget it can sting a little. This isn’t a jab, it’s a statement of fact and common sense.

As for Hellraiser, we had pitched, Bob said yes. So while Patrick and his team were fighting the good fight on Drive Angry, we were also in the heart of negotiations to write Hellraiser.

And due to the fact that we never went over our Drive Angry budget, we were awarded Skywalker Sound. This was wonderful. I mean no disrespect to other sound shacks but if you aren’t Skywalker Sound you’re sort of meh.

So, we went up North for the temp mix. A temporary version of the movie allows you to get a quick idea how she’s coming together so that adjustments can be made. It’s a temp edit, with temp music and temp sounds. But as far as the suits are concerned the temp mix is for them. They want to see how it’s going.

I GET their logic. If I invested money, you bet I’d want to see the progress. And it certainly protects the investor from a rogue filmmaker. At the same time, I see the drawback, especially if your filmaker isn’t a rogue. And Patrick isn’t rogue. In fact, what he managed to accomplish on the shoestring given is rather impressive. And he did this without ever yelling at the crew. So while I understand the process of the temp mix, I wish we could take the money and time spent in the temp world and feed it into the finished product. Or I wish we’d had access to it back during production. BUT this is simply a part of it.

All that aside, any excuse to go to Skywalker should be taken VERY seriously.

Skywalker Ranch is Disney for workaholic geeks. And Skywalker Sound is simply the best in the biz. Even those who hated My Bloody Valentine would often comment on how great the sound was. I can nearly always hear the difference. First of all, the Skywalker humans are good. These guys and gals aren’t phoning it in. They aren’t punching a time card while thinking about quitting time. There’s real talent at work. I’ve seen it. They can hear things I can’t. I don’t have the ear. I watch them and am fascinated. Second, their droids are the best. The equipment is remarkable. Even the coffee machine in the lobby is fifth rendition R2 unit.

Third, there’s setting. This one Hollywood accountants will likely never understand because a the benefit cannot be measured on a spreadsheet. But when you take a creative out of LA and drop he or she in paradise, watch out. The air is clean. There’s grass and trees and hills. There’s livestock. There’s Jedi. The security team happens to be the fire department. So not only can they pummel you, but they look good with their shirts off. All of this translates to better creativity. LA is stifling. Don’t take my word for it. Ask around.

In the end, all you really need to do is walk down the hall of posters and be blown away. ALL of your favorite movies were mixed there.

There is a strict rule not to take pictures inside the buildings. Oops.

On the way back I stopped and had dinner with Blake and Brenna.

Blake and Brenna started Fridaythe13thfilms.com way back when. I started hanging out at the site while we were working on Jason X. They are no longer involved with the site but we have been friends ever since.

In fact, one year they somehow convinced Mel and I to fly to… Arkansas or some similar State, journey to a youth camp in the middle of nowhere and camp out with a bunch of machete collecting Friday the 13th fans. If you have never experienced 48 hours of drunk with a bunch of Karaoke singing horror fans then perhaps you win.

Mel and I survived the journey. And I even walked away with my Friday the 13th The Website Camp vs. Camp T-shirt which I still wear as one of my favorite pick-up-chicks-at-bars T-shirts. Okay. Maybe it’s not THAT cool.

Izzie Rain and the year of the four. Time sure does speed up when there’s a kid involved. September was roughly six months since we were told that Izzie was autistic. And in that time our team of Jedi had been nothing short of amazing. We had speech therapists, occupational therapists and counselors. Even the gym where Mel and I work out has daycare attendants trained in autistic needs. Granted the private school may have been the weakest link but I’ll come back to that later. What mattered was that Izzie’s progress resulted in the term “high functioning”. Because the goal for everyone is to simply be able to function in our silly world.

The key to all of this is early diagnosis. Look, we’re all screwed up. I’ve met most of you and you people is crazy. BUT, we have all learned to live with our screwedupedness. And that’s the thing. Autism is no more nutty than my own Attention Deficit Disorder or my moments of OCD or my monthly stuggles with being extremely good-looking. BUT, I have learned to live with it. Izzie Rain is learning to live with it. In fact, she’s learning to excel at it.

But please don’t pull that conspiracy crap with me in which you say, “Oh there’s too many “terms”. They have a “term” for everything. All these “categories” mean nothing.” Because you simply don’t know what you don’t know. I have an autistic child and I’m very proud of her. She is loving and kind and pigheaded. She says please and thank you. But then… there are moments that make her slightly different. Unique if you will. And I and her mother couldn’t love her more for this uniqueness.

After only six months I’m in awe. I can’t imagine where her world will be in a year. I look forward to that journey.

And the other happening of note in September was Melanie’s taking the Fall Festival by storm for the St. Angela’s Private School of We Are Slightly Better Than Everyone Else. Mel was part of the Silent Auction and when you compare what was done last year to what Mel accomplished this year, well, they should let Izzie go there for free.

At the end of the month I drove to San Francisco to support the unrated release of Hatchet II. If you are a horror fan and you didn’t go then shame on you. Buy the Blu-ray. Twice. Adam Green’s Hatchet is the only surviving 1980’s slasher franchise in today’s world. I know this because I’ve written a 1980s slasher. And now that Hatchet 3 has the go-ahead the franchise will continue. Ye who call yourself horror, support it.

And that was September. In a couple of days, I’ll tell you about October because by the end of April “10 years of wendago.com” will be caught up!