I went to Rob’s house to help clean it up, it was pretty much clean, so we hung out and watched the Simpsons.

Rob gave my phone number to his landlord, Skip Smith. I’m hoping that he will realize how ridiculous this extortion racket is and wont have the balls to call me with such an absurd scheme.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5, 1998

I paid for editing time on the credit card.

Nicole, Shanon and myself went to see Valley of the Dolls at the Paramount. We picked up Barna on the way.

SUNDAY AUGUST 16, 1998

Worked on Viet’s short film yesterday and today. I’m acting in it as he main bad guy. So far, I’ve murdered seven people, with no stop in sight. Yesterday, I got to film some stuff with the steady-cam, that was pretty fun. Today I set up all the lights up. Anlo (the D.P.) pretty much let me do whatever I wanted with the lights.

It is good to work as an actor for another director, it gives me some insight on what an actor needs, information wise, to do his job. I can sympathize with the actor’s needs, I think.

I also worked as the lighting DP today and if something wasn’t going to work due to lack of proper gear, I always suggested an alternative solution.

I think it’s bad ass that Viet and Anlo are shooting action flicks. They don’t want to make talking-head films. They like action films and that’s what they want to make. So they make action films. They have squibs made from rubbers, fake blood and firecrackers, just light it and run. They also have a few nut cases willing to risk their asses for the film, including sliding down 30 foot cliffs and all other kinds of ridiculous fights and stunts.

Tomorrow Barna and I meet with a lawyer to figure out how much it will cost for his services.

Still haven’t heard for Skip Smith (Rob’s landlord who was trying to ex-post-fact-extort us for $500 for the use of Rob’s house). Maybe he was just pissed about the cost of fixing the air conditioner and the extortion racket was his way of letting off steam and now that he’s had time to think about it, he’s realized how absurd it all is.

I’m trying to find a program that I can do computer animation with. I’ve been working on a cartoon based on the experiences at the Leon Street apartments. I lived there for five years with Jerry, then Tony and later Ted as a room mate (Nicole moved in later). We’re calling it St. Charles Place, a combination of the name of the apartments, The St. Charles, and Melrose Place.

I think me and Ted are going to do a similar thing with this idea he had about a traveling con artist/side show act. It’s about this escape artist cat and his con artist owner who scams hillbillies out of their cash. It will be called The Great Hoodini Cat.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 1998

I finished the first trailer today. I think it looks pretty good.

Doing the trailer was my first time using the Media 100 and it was also my first time to actually edit by myself. I’ve done the two VCRs hooked up and a little work on a linear system. But the process was so tedious that I immediately didn’t like it. I am more suited for production. However, after this weekend, I’m sold on the non-linear editing system. It rules. And it was a lot of fun. I was amazed at how easy and fun it was. I thought I hated editing, but I realized that it’s not editing that I dislike, it’s the old way of doing it. These computers are the tops.

I edited a bunch of the action sequences to the Kane song that Pigpoke plays. It’s really fast and action packed. I think that if nothing else, the movie looks exciting. I can’t wait to show it off.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1998

The rest of the footage has arrived. The hard drive we’ve been waiting on should be here tomorrow and hopefully it will be installed then too.

I met with Dave Dannhein today to show him the trailer. He’s going to interview me via email for Austin Monthly.

I showed the trailer to my parents. I looked over at my mom as she watched it and saw an expression of shock. She was smiling, but horrified. She said that she liked it, later on. Bill also liked it and though it looked real professional.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 1998

We shot some of the pick-ups last Monday. We filmed all the Ned shots that were missing. We shot the reflection of the ember in the chrome of the lighter & the shots of him packing the pipe with weed .

We had planned to shoot some driving shots of Toe and the telephone conversation of the Man and Paco. Both Jerry and Randy were a no show. Jerry was in San Antonio and he was supposed to come back earlier that Mon. and he just never arrived. Three days later, on Thursday, Jerry decided to call, the bastard. Jerry has a responsibility to irresponsibility. Randy claims to have at least called and leave a message. It pisses me off that they didn’t show up.

I participated in a mock interview for Richard McIntosh’s UT film production class. Richard’s plan was to star with Night of the Kung Fu Zombie Bastards from Hell! and segue into Rock Opera, so they were copying some clips from Night of the Kung Fu Zombie Bastards from Hell! when I walked in. What was weird was that because a lot of that class had seen Night of the Kung Fu Zombie Bastards from Hell! in their introduction to Film of whatever class at UT, and they were talking about it as. Everyone was real laid back and when I started to answer the questions with completely ridiculous answers, the host, B, started to go with the flow.

GSD&M has sent me an invitation to the Blood Simple re-release premiere party. So I’ll try to be social and what not (free beer and food!).

Shannon has digitized some of the footage. She started on Friday and will digitize more on Thurs. It’s been nearly two months since we wrapped, I’m glad to have a time to step away and come back to the project fresh, even though the vacation was forced. We waited for parts for the computer and there were all kinds of problems and everything and a witch on a stick went wrong. It looks like I’ll get to start on Friday?

It looks like the web site is doing pretty good. We have 370 hits since August 25^th, that’s about ten a day. Not bad, right?

TUESDAY OCTOBER 27, 1998

So I started editing a few weeks ago. I’ve been in to edit around ten times and I have a good rough edit on about thirty minutes. If all goes well then I should have a completed cut in another month or so.

I hope we can make the SXSW deadline so we can premiere the film in our hometown. But I don’t want to compromise the edit to make the deadline. Hell, we still need to process and transfer the super 8 footage. And we need cash to do that. But for now, I’m going to concentrate on what I can do.

Barna accidentally erased some of the footage in the computer. He managed to replace most of the lost footage, with the exception of the stuff that originated on VHS (CapZeyeZ & Phantom Creeps stuff). Scenes 6 & 7 were all screwed up too, but I fixed them and tomorrow we will fix the VHS stuff.

Shanon is going to cut a trailer together. We still have the one I made a while back, but I think it would be cool to have a few of them and Shanon will get a chance to do something creative instead of just digitizing footage all day. I think I will also enter the numbers of the original trailer into the computer since it has been erased, then I can tweak it a little.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1998

Edit,,,,, edit,,, edit.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1998

More of the same, edit, edit, edit. I completed the first rough cut last week, as complete as complete gets without the super 8 stuff and some of the sound from Toe’s house. The super 8 footage should be in tomorrow and Kurtis is getting a DAT player so we can dump the sound into the system on Friday.

Yesterday, Ted came over and we called all the clubs in town trying to book a Witchbanger show. I’ll give the tape to Kurtis tomorrow and he’ll mix all the calls down and we’ll lay it over the montage of Ned working the phone, trying to book a tour.

Last weekend I shot Mr. Fuzzy Goes Boom Boom, a film by Tony Linder and Kurtis D. Machler. It stars Dillon "Chicken" Griffith as a businessman by day and a crackhead-werewolf by night.

I shot some stuff for GSD&M over the weekend. It was a series of demo commercials for Chupa Chups lollipops. GSD&M shoots some of their ideas for the commercial on a low budget to use as an example when they pitch their bid. They wanted to use Super 8 and the trail led to me, thankfully. The gig pays! And just in time, too, I had just barely bounced my first check and those goddamn credit card bills are murder!

The SXSW deadline is 12 days away. Shanon will be cutting together the Witchbanger montage. This will allow me to focus on the action scenes and the other stuff that needs work. I think we’ll have a fairly good tape to show the judges, but who knows if they’ll take it as is, and even if they do, I have no earthly idea where the cash for cutting the negative and the print will come from.

I’m very happy with how the editing is going. I’ve rearranged some of the scenes from the original script order and I’m trying to find how the film works best. I think it’s really coming together well. I can’t wait to get the rest of the footage in there and the sound and the songs too. All that shit.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1998

So I took today off to descramble my mind.

Tom Chaimberlan and Barna tied up the system Monday morning (December 14, remember that SXSW deadline?). They ate up about two of my seven hours to finish up before the SXSW offices close at 6. Once I finally got in there it wasn’t a pretty site. I didn’t manage to accomplish nearly what I had set out to (on the bright side, I’m sure Tom managed to enter a nice copy of his work).

Someone had rigged up the system in some funky fashion that causes a bunch of horizontal lines to crawl up the screen when you’re trying to make a VHS copy of the work. I spent the next thirty min trying to fix the problem. Ultimately, I just dumped the shit to tape, crawling lines and all.

So here I am, dumping the movie and it’s becoming clear that I’m not going to make the deadline. Shanon shows up, bless her sweet lil heart.. She finishes the tape and I jet over to the SXSW offices to make the deadline with the paperwork and entry fee, at least.

I get back to the editing room and grab the tape and head back for the SXSW HQ. I get the tape in and am off, still pissed about the shitty quality of the tape, but at least it’s turned in on time. I made a note forewarning the viewer of the technical problems that accompany the work-in-progress film, and turned it in with the tape. Maybe I can pull a switcheroo somewhere down the line.

As I’m walking back to my truck, someone calls my name. "Oh, great, what’s the problem now?" I think.

"Angela told me, ‘You tell Bob to take this back’" she says and hands me a piece of paper.

I unfold it and see that it’s the check I wrote for the entry fee. "Hey, tell Angela I said thanks" I yell as the lady walks off.

Another thing, Barna sent out the Super 8 Sound film to Yale, forgetting that the processing is pre-paid when you buy film from Super 8 Sound. He was concerned with getting the footage back in time to put it into the system and in the SXSW tape. Unfortunately, the time I lost from the delay didn’t allow me to put the footage in and in the end was just wasted money (we did our home transfer and it looks like shit, I’m not even bothering to put it in until we get a real transfer)..

On Wed, I had a talk with Barna about the situation and we came to an agreement about how things will operate and what not. Afterwards, he reveals to me that he is the cause of the three lost rolls of Super 8 film. He remembers putting them in an envelope and then the envelope disappeared. He’s searched everywhere and can’t find them. He’s going to call the lab and see if they were delivered without instructions or something.

Cash flow low. Big, big bills. Nicole helps out a lot with the bills.

Speaking of cash and bills… tomorrow, I go in and see about working at Catsue. Tony Linder is dragging up and needs someone to fill the slot, so he’s passing on the job to me. Making lamps and shit as I understand.

Also tomorrow, Viet will join me in the studio, he will bring some outside insight and fresh ideas to some of the action scenes that I’m not too happy with. Viet specializes in this kind of ridiculous action shit and I’m sure his talents will be helpful.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1998

Viet in the suite. Went pretty smooth.

Barna still can’t find the 3 lost rolls of super 8.

Next door neighbor ordeal……..too much to explain now.

A fellow I met while shooting the Chupa-Chups commercials, Bonner Bellew, called today with a job opportunity. He works at the local NBC affiliate KXAN 36 and wants me to shoot an intro spot for their nightly news broadcast at 6 and 10. They want to shoot on 16mm, so I’ll need to find a camera package to rent and all that crap. Maybe I’ll hire Richard Mcintosh as a camera assistant. Bonner mentioned that we might get to ride in their whirly-bird if the budget and time allow.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1998

Jeremy Thompson (rock star drummer for Nashville Pussy) is in town. He leaves tomorrow. He bought upwards of $500 worth of Pee-Wee Herman toys. I got him to sign a release sp I can use the footage of him in Rock Opera. He’s in the music video for the Phantom Creeps that’s playing in the background as Toe sells Ross a dime bag.

"Fucking Barna" was supposed to go to Mexico w/ his girlfriend today. Instead he decided to hang around and dick me for the second day in a row on the editing system.

I’m going to try and re-shoot the stuff that was on the film that Barna lost this weekend if I can get my shit together.

Bonner Bellew from KXAN called to talk about the shoot. He left a message and I’ll call him back tomorrow.

Going to see Voltage tonight.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1999

Filmed stuff for KXAN today. We shot some green screen stuff and some shots of the weather room with Jim Spence. We shoot the rest in two weeks on location.

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1999

I found out a week ago that Nashville Pussy is nominated for a Grammy for Best Heavy Metal Performance for the song "Fried Chicken and Coffee." It would seem less likely that I will be able to leagelly use the song in Rock Opera. But until the cease and desist orders start piling up, the song’s going in the film. I hope they beat out Metallica and that Rammerstein band.

The web site is doing great. Beth Sams is doing a fantastic job (as you can see since you are most likely on the site if you’re reading this). We entered the web site into the SXSW web competition. Hopefully we can get some more exposure out of it. It would also be nice if Beth were to win some award for all her hard work, she deserves it. We now have over 1500 hits on the site, still on the average of ten a day. There is also a new voting system in place to let people vote for their favorite title for the film. TEXAS cRUDE is winning with 50% of the 12 votes and Rock Opera and Rohypnol Summer are tied for second with two votes each.