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Ok, with much fanfare, I finally got some real stills from the Unglued shoot up in my gallery. There's some cool images there, please check them out. I've really been out of the Unglued loop for a while because I've been working on three "paid" projects trying to raise money for better production gear. One industrial piece for a museum in Boston, one band promo/ music video, and a sound and light install. What do I hope to get out of all this sweat? Hmmm, topping the list is a real 16:9 HD ready production monitor, I'd also like to get the AJA XENA LHe card for HD-SDI capture capability with my editor, and of course (always on my list, but always at the bottom) a Herman Miller Aeron chair. We'll see how we do. I'm also thinking about what's next for Palatia, after we get Unglued done. Drama? Sci-Fi? Comedy? It will have to be one of those for sure. I just need that next idea to pop up. Dont forget to check out the pictures, and I'll get back to work. - C

Monday - the big final push to finish production on Unglued is now complete. We all need a vacation. The task of post producing this movie from all the captured media lays before us, and of course, festival deadlines loom. There's always something else. I'm happy though, the shoot went pretty much as planned, the locations we lined up back in October last year did not fall through, and we got the shots we had hoped for, and some we could have only dreamed of. Saturday was a very long day, up before sunrise, working virtually nonstop up until the whole cast and crew sat telling stories and jokes around a huge campfire till midnight, or later? It was a good time for sure, and we got the raw materials for a good movie. I'll get some pics posted when I can. - C

The big weekend shoot is coming up in like 72 hours. Getting everything together is pretty much done. Going over the shotlists and script again to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. My biggest fear is that once we get to the location, which is a 3 hour drive from home and at least an hour from any real civilization, Im going to realize what I forgot and by then it will be too late and I'll have to compromise the shot because of whatever it is that I didn't bring. Other than that, there's really nothing to it, but to do it. I'm just thinking that I'm going to add a poll asking the filmmakers here if they are also musicians. I believe that the two are very much interconnected in some simply human way. The creative "thing" that some people have manifests itself in many ways and that often turns out to be musicial as well as filmmaking. I know filmmakers that are painters / sculpters also. Many times some of the most intuitive editors are also drummers, because placing that cut, that transition, the cutaway, is very much like placing a beat in a song. The overall understanding on some level of how those cuts or beats affects the picture as a whole and subsequently the audience is within the grasp of musicians and particularly drummers. I'm curious of those filmmakers with musical talents, do those of you create your own score elements, sounds, beds, etc? Do you have the time, or even the desire to control even that part of your project?
As you might have guessed, I am a drummer, and a musician. I've been playing drums / percussion for 23 years (Yikes! that will age me) I also play piano / synth. and dabble in various guitars. I write alot of what goes into my pictures, but not all. I really value the exterior perspective a piece of music created outside the confines of the creative process of directly making the film. There is something to be said for that too. What do you think?

I have to hope that they will at some point.
Since you guys and gals don't really know me just yet what you should know is: I founded Palatia Motion Picture Group here in North Texas. Our films include: "Those Sneaky Devils" "The Fire" "The Other Cheek" "Waitlesness" "Sanctus Donum", and now "Unglued".

Ok, here's all the stuff thats been going on with the filmmaking. Unglued, a short psycological thriller is still in production. We set out to shoot this last November and the plan was for a shooting schedule inside of a 3 month window. Didn't happen. The best laid plans...So the final shoot weekend, a big all hands trek to an isolated (and extremely creepy) cabin in the piney woods of east Texas is scheduled for May 18th - 20th. Hopefully by the 21st of May we will be totally in post on this one. Scenes have been edited or at least rough cut as we have been going along, so maybe post won't be such a big project. Last year I built a new edit and post suite for Palatia Motion Picture Group. Details of which can be seen at our website. www.palatiampg.com I recently replaced all the editing hardware, and built a new 2TB RAID array that will support editing HD. I've really done some great effects and compositing work, using Autodesk Combustion 4, for Unglued on the new system. It is so much more powerful than our old workstation that the additional levels of realtime performance make all the difference in how creative I can be with effects. Trying something different isn't as costly time-wise. I'm talking with a producer this coming Friday about doing a micro-documentary on a part of the video game industry, that will screen for a year at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston. That could be cool. This summer I suspect that after Unglued is complete, and we get it out to some festivals, we might do a music video project. More to come...CK