At about five, I gave up on hearing from him and decided to head down to Starbucks for a cup and some site reading. Not long after I arrived, Patrick called me and told me that Tom Sowa (who wrote the article about us for the Spokesman last week) had just called and was looking to have a chat with us. He put me on hold and got Tom on the phone.

As I packed up and headed to the north side of town for a haircut, Patrick and I had a 15 minute interview about the Myst movie. We didn’t get the interview we planned for, but another one just fell into our laps. It all worked out in the end.

One of the first things Tom said to us on the phone was that when he spoke with Rand it was very apparent that he was highly enthusiastic about what we are doing. “He’s game”. This is always good to hear.

We talked with Tom, spoke about the state of the project at present, how we came to this point and what was next. All and all, it was a pretty good interview, I think. Patrick and I both felt pretty good when we hung up with Tom. We chatted for a few minutes and then hung up with each other.

Just before Tom let us go, he informed us that he would be posting an audio clip from his interview with Rand from last week as well as an audio clip of the interview we were just finishing up.

Have a listen. We’re curious to know what you guys think.

Rand’s Clip

Mysteriacs’ Clip

It’s quickly becoming the War and Peace of screenplays.  We are way over the ideal page-count and I’m still writing.  I must admit, when we started this script, I had no idea how epic of an undertaking it was truly going to be.  I had some idea of the amount of effort and dedication it was going to take, but I never imagined anything like this.  This is absolutely the slowest I’ve ever worked as a writer.  The good news is, I think it is - without a doubt - my best work as a writer as well.  I guess it’s a trade-off.

I’ve joked with Patrick numerous times that we should be considering splitting this story into two films.  Of course, that really won’t work.  There’s going to have to be some considerable editing once this draft is done.  It’s a shame, though.  Part of what increases the page-count is  my insistance on writing the scenes that really develop the characters.  These are the things that commonly get dumped from a Hollywood film first.  If it doesn’t move the story (read: plot) along, cut it.  I feel pretty confident that we will both fight tooth and nail to ensure that the majority of these scenes are preserved, but I know some of them will end up going.

In other news, we’ve received an email from the reporter that we did the interview with.  She’s informed us that her editor has decided to run a “very truncated” transcript of our “epic” interview.  If you’re curious to know who the piece is for, check out Patrick’s post about that chat.  There may be some answers there…

Also, we have another interview in about an hour and a half with a reporter from our local paper.  Of course, we’ll let you all know how that turns out.

I feel like there has been an awful lot of build-up regarding this little chunk of video.  A lot of people seem to be hanging their opinions regarding the legitimacy of the project on it.  That scares me.  The reality is that it isn’t really all that good.  It is a rough pre-visualization.  I’ve never been very happy with it.  We had always had plans to rework parts of it - especially the beginning - but time constraints never allowed.   What we’re left with is a flawed, half-realized idea of a trailer that we never intended to show anyone originally.

Part of me just wants to pull the trigger and launch it, deal with the backlash and move on.  I don’t think Patrick is quite ready to do that.  I’m sure he wants to follow our plan and release the posts regarding its creation first.  He’s probably right.

The moral of this story?  Don’t expect genius.  Expect the seeds of a strong idea.  The script is far better than the animatic.  I promise.

I spent a few hours with my mamma today. I figured it was unavoidable, being Mother’s Day and all… We both went over to my grandparent’s to set them up with a nice dinner so my grandmother wouldn’t have to cook. We sat around, drank coffee, and talked about my plans to do away with my mother when she reaches 85 or so. I just don’t want the hassle of caring for an elderly mother, ya know? I mean, it’s not like she gave birth to me, changed my diapers, fed me, raised me, tolerated my unbelievably devilish behavior for most of my young life and still managed to love me… Plus, what’s a Mother’s Day without a discussion about matricide euthanasia?

You should know that when my mother and I get together we have a tendency to occasionally descend into fits of black humor. Today was one such time. I made one comment, she played along, and before we knew it, we were off on a little, private pageant with no audience.

We decided the events would be as such:

I would come to her, tiny white pills in hand, and tell her that I needed her to take them. She’d ask me what they were and I’d tell her they were good for her. She’d look me in the eye, trying to discern my trustworthiness then gingerly take the pills from my hand and place them in her mouth. I’d send her off to bed with a promise to check on her later.

Upon checking on her, I’d realize that the pills may not have been enough. The pillow will be the plan B. She’s certain at this point I’d sit down and have a smoke or two, then call the police to inform them that I’d found my mother dead in her bed.

When the EMT’s arrived they’d find the house decked out in streamers and balloons. I’d offer them cake. Perhaps they’d like some champagne? I’ve got some strawberries my mother froze about five years ago (my family has a sickness. They horde food. It’s insane. I can’t even begin to tell you how serious this problem is. You know what they say about pictures of the Grand Canyon? Well, that’s what this is like - but with words. I just can’t do it any justice).

I’d spend some time chatting politely with the police and the EMT’s and then be sure to suggest that they feel free to grab anything they may want from the 15 freezers in the garage on their way out.

That’s pretty much how we figure it will go…

When I showed up at my grandparent’s today, I produced my mom’s gift. She turned around and handed me a card in return. The card told me how happy she was to be my mother.

I love that lady.

This place has actually gone quite downhill overall in the last year or so. It seems barren of the stock it used to have, and the clientèle are of a different caliber than they used to be (a lot less elitist than I remember, which I sometimes enjoyed). I think I’m going to blame Veronica. I like to imagine that she left the place in such disarray that they’ll never recover. Regardless, something definitely happened.

I think a cafe-hop to Starbucks is going to be required here in a minute. I’d rather be home than this place.

edit: at Starbucks, now — much better.

In the meantime, just know that my mom and I had a good laugh today.  She was snorting and everything.

What also is a good sign is that I’m installing a new image system in the first place.  This might be a hint that a lot of imagery is coming soon… hmm… or, I could just be a web geek.

The Book Box post is currently using the system.  Let me know if it like makes your comp explode or something.

The news is that Tom Sowa, who covers technology and business for the Spokesman Revew out of Spokane, WA apparently had a good chat with Rand this afternoon. On Rand’s mind? The Myst Movie.

As this is the first official word sourced from Cyan in the press, it’s of note. Shove this in the face of any nay-sayers who still wonder if Rand’s foreword is real. (Oh, Snap!)

Avoiding Hollywood, Cyan Worlds allows two fans to develop a Myst movie

I spent another 4 1/2 hours today in a dentist chair. This was after 4 hours last Wednesday. This on top of many other things. A commitment to maintaining a promotional website for an endeavor toward a major motion picture. While playing my part to develop said major motion picture. While working a full time job. While (poorly) performing the care and feeding for a serious relationship. And being a mostly absent father to a mostly phenomenal son.

I am exhausted. In chronic pain for the past week. With a restored tooth that’s going to be -hot- for another week or so. And a jaw joint that’s about to explode from oral trauma.

I am eating Advil like no tomorrow. I am staring at another Hydrocodone bottle trying to decide if I should get started. I am fantasizing about a prime cut filet mignon that I could actually chew (with the fully restored right side of my face). While simultaneously planning a fantasy trip to Vegas for 5, 6 days or so. (With the knock out blond of my choice - she’s chosen.) And needing to vacuum the living room.

I am prepping more material leading up to the unveiling of the animatic. I am doing my part to tell the story. I am needing to call Sarah to say Hi and fill Ryan in on next steps. I am needing a blasted Jack and Code or a smooth cognac on I.V. drip. And a nap infused with prayer (and no jumbo carpenter ants clocking in at 5 oz.)

I need to start running again. Stop smoking. Floss more often. Finish Eclipse. See Prince Caspian. Buy a house. Not make video game movies.

And I want meatloaf. Good meatloaf. The kind Carla’s makes for me, even though she despises eating it. (Love her.)

I met with “my kid” (whom I will call “Steven” for confidentiality purposes) yesterday.  I think it went quite well.  The 13-page report - complete with the results of a battery of psychological assessments - led me to expect a very different child than the one I actually encountered.  This is a very good thing.  He far exceeded the portrait the report provided.

I got to..GRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!  It appears that the power supply for my laptop is taking a dive.  I’m currently dealing with a sporadically flashing light that is horribly distracting.  To make matters worse, the battery on this thing no longer holds a charge.  I’m going to have to be brief.  I may not be able to finish this post without the event of a seizure…

I’ll tell you about Steven another time, I guess.  This is going to make script writing difficult.

For now, I wanted to let everyone know that we received an email from the reporter that interviewed us.  Sadly, it would appear that her editor has decided to shelf the article.  Apparently the reporter had trouble compiling enough content outside of our project to support the article.  She did, however, say that she was looking into the possibility of writing a piece about our project specifically.  She didn’t want our interview to go to waste.  We’ll see what she can come up with.

Speaking of trouble, we seem to be causing it. (this is something I enjoy). The past couple of days have seen the proliferation of our press release that went out last week - and both traffic (and comments) are flowing into the site. I like comments. Especially those that launch Adrian into calling me on my cell to vent about (surprisingly) the large amount of people that choose to rebut without even making the small commitment of simply reading the readily available information.

In other words:

It’s day126 since the first discovery of this site - and for some reason, regardless of our increasingly aggressive posture in explaining through our words and our press that this is NOT A VIDEO GAME MOVIE - the people seem unable to accept the concept. The reasoning for this assumption simply escapes me - who in the hell in their right mind would commit over 4 years of their lives to a static slide-show retelling of a video game from 15 years ago?

Maybe it should be a sign to the masses of Adrian and I’s sensibilities in filmmaking that I’m asking the same exact question.

Note: shout out to Nek and the rest of you for defending our honor - you don’t know what it means to us to be able to borrow Cyan’s fans in this endeavor.

It’s real good for a couple of laughs.

I really enjoyed the one quote of: “Think of something in-between the Choose Your Own Adventure plots and what Dean Koontz would write if he had talent.”

Oh, and Uwe Boll is on Spike tonight at 9pm. Adrian asked me to Tivo it.

It looks like tonight is going to be another creative-fest at Patrick’s. I hope to dedicate the evening/night/early morning to more writing and wedding video editing.

One thing to note:

Called Jill today and she alerted me to the fact that she now needs the rest of the script.  Apparently, she read it in its entirety in less than 2 evenings (amongst work, taking care of 140lbs. of dog(s) and a 5-year-old) and now needs more.  She also has written notes for Adrian and I to peruse.  Maybe I’ll release the 100 pages that she hasn’t seen to her in batches of 8 or 10.. that’ll show her to take notes… ha.

More to come…

The problem is/was that this drive was home to all the color correction renders of Adrian’s old film, and all of the source renders out from After Effects of the animatic. So, the prime uncompressed HD renders of the animatic were toast. And I never had a chance to reconnect with the materials to re-render. The project timed out for a time while we were waiting for some matters to clear up, and Cyan had already seen everything, so reconstitution was not a priority. And considering the fact that around that time my outside work load went from 40 to 65 hours a week - things just fell by the wayside.

When I started going through our archives to prep content for release on this site, I knew this history was going to pose a problem. We had only one master image in possession of the animatic and as this was before the big wave of H.264, it had been ripped and archived in MPEG-2/DVD format. (For those non-tech types who aren’t already asleep, DVD format is hugely lossy and destructive - about 20% of your original material is lost in the rip. The format only saves what it considers data that’s changed between frames. This is how they fit full movies on one disc.) This problem became very clear when I started importing material for the presentation rip that came out a few weeks ago. A lot of it had to be reconstructed. Dead frames (which translate into bright red frames that have nothing but flat color in them) were all over the place. I had to tween and cut, and dupe frames to keep Adrian from blinking rapidly into a large red square. The first time I previewed it, I nearly had a seizure. And when I scrubbed to the animatic section of the presentation? There was corrupt data all over the place. Boards were getting in the way of the title sequences, black matte was flashing back to frames seen 30 seconds ago — it was a mess. So, I knew, that I was going to have to do some research, and set aside a time to find a better solution, or plan to re-render the entire thing from scratch material (which could easily take days of unbroken attention). Days we don’t have right now with everything going on.

Tonight, I had a breakthrough.

It’s taken a couple of odd hours here and there over the last several weeks researching the best ways to recapture original material from MPEG-2 format, but I finally found something that does the trick - and it’s open source. These obsessed C++ programmers certainly know their way around cracking the MPEG-2 codec to source from to really work with the bits and bytes. After just a little finagling with Handbrake (written by a collection of brilliant French programmers), which I found through reading the Creative COW forums, I could see the solution had come to light. The animatic has now been fully restored in just a simple 7 minute 4-core pass. And it’ll be ready to go as soon as I prep it into web format.

Now, I know what you’re asking. Why the hell am I telling you all of this? Well, because it’s a rant. Technology had me down, and I pwned it. And I had to say something. Just ’cause.

EDIT: Just a typo…um…typos (typoes?)…whatever

In the mean time, Patrick again has favors to ask of all of you (or at least the few that have some time to spare). Call it our foray into peer-to-peer news dissemination. Here’s what to do:

There are now two formats of the release that are prepared to be linked up and reposted to sites galore.

A link to the official text/web release is here:
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=64246.

A link to the official rich release is here:
http://mystmovie.com/materials/all-eyes-on-filmmakers-20080428.pdf.

Both formats of the releases are ready to be copy/pasted and/or linked to members of the press who might hold interest, boards still debating the legitimacy of our project, and reference points of Wikis. The release might be of particular interest to the Wikipedia Myst page as a citation, and the MystLore collection.

The goal is of course - to get the news out to additional people who might find the project and the blog of interest. Anything to get more public awareness of all that’s going on.

If you get the chance to help out, you have our thanks. If you don’t — you still have our thanks. You’re all the greatest.

The project alone has me wearing a lot of hats. When not writing, I’m finding myself working on press-related aspects, prepping posts for release on the site and emailing people to try to organize an event to be included in Mysterium this year (no promises yet. We’re working on it).

Outside of Passage, I’m working with Patrick to try to complete a wedding video I shot last year for some family friends and working with a photographer to develop a promotional video for his studio.

I’m also working as a Case Manager for a psychology practice in the area. If all goes as planned, I’ll be meeting my new charge sometime next week. I’m really looking forward to this. The client is a 9 year old that’s having a pretty hard time with things. My job is to spend some quality time with him and basically act as a mentor. I guess he’s in need of a strong male role-model in his life. This is of particular interest to me because I had a pretty rough childhood and the idea of playing a part in trying to prevent another child from suffering in that way fills me with a sense of purpose and hope. I hope I can help do the same for him.

Still not sure what’s going on the with the whole “termination from job” thing. I’ve been reinstated, but I’ve still not gotten the call to return to work. I’ve been following up on everything I can regarding this debacle. That’s taken a lot of energy lately.

So, that’s life for me at the moment. Lots to do.

I went over the footage from our interview with Patrick last night. I’m glad we shot it. As it turns out, we did far better than we had thought. It’s strange to look at the tape and remember (sort of) what my thought process was in the moment and then to see it from a third-party perspective and realize that I didn’t sound like a total moron after all. That’s a load off my mind. I think we’ve established a good base to work from when doing future press.

EDIT:  Forgot a word.

There’s always an initial panic when sending things to Cyan for approval. I experienced the brunt of it this time, maybe because the majority of the release was written by me and Carla, and it was like our souls sitting out there. “Guys, you’ve got to be kidding me,” is always the feared comment. It’s a looming threat that at the drop of a hat this entire endeavor could go up in a poof via a polite cease and desist letter. But we have to trust that Cyan wouldn’t do that, at least without adequate warning of some kind.

I’ve spent the last several days panicking about the end of the project - or the correct method of dissemination of the release, whichever came first. And, Adrian spent the entire time reassuring me that I had nothing to worry about. Stress from work probably played a part. Sometimes when things aren’t going well in one place, it can bleed over - and it seems there is always something in the background somewhere to mix the colors.

But, sure enough Tony got hold of us late this evening to gave us the approval and we’re now ready to go.  I had wondered what he was up to being in the office so late on a Friday night (what’s Cyan up to?) but I’ve rarely gotten specific details.  These guys always have something in the works.  They’re more secretive than us…

We’ve spent the late, late evening (early, early morning) going over the video we took of the interview the other day, and making the final alterations for the release going out Monday. We figured we’d release it here first, early - so that everyone could see:

http://mystmovie.com/materials/all-eyes-on-filmmakers-20080428.pdf

I ran and picked up the camera before I headed up to the office.  I figured it would be wise to shoot the whole interview for a couple of reasons.   First, we’re always frustrated with our failure to remember to properly document things for later release to those that find this process interesting.  Second, it was a good way to have a record of how the interview went.  We’ll be able to go back and watch the 50 min. conversation over again to see where we may need some improvement (something we haven’t done yet - out of fear, I think).  Third, Patrick’s just too pretty not to put on tape whenever humanly possible.

What a surreal experience.   Immediately following, I wasn’t even sure what exactly either of us said.   I found myself in this sort of dissociative place for the duration of the conversation.  It was like I was trying to talk intelligently about something that I had read about the night before - while falling asleep.  Emotionally speaking, it just didn’t seem have anything to do with my life…A strange thing to say when you consider that this project has been pretty much my entire life for the last four years.  Upon reflection, though, the details of the interview have come back to me, and I think we did pretty well.  There were certainly some things we could have been a bit clearer on, some things that we need to find a more concise way of saying, but overall, I think it was a success.

The whole interview was a bit more thorough than I had expected.  The piece is about video game franchises being adapted to films.  I figured we were just one project that would be discussed in the article, and as such, assumed the questions would be pretty surface-oriented.  That wasn’t the case.  She asked us enough questions to do a feature focused specifically on Project Passage.  It will be interesting to see which bits she decides to include.  I do remember mocking Uwe Boll at one point.  Her response to that was, “Can I quote you on that?”  I think, generally, when a reporter asks you if she can quote you on something, you can pretty much count on it making its way into the piece.   Anyway, that should be interesting.  I’m not a very good boxer…

I think Adrian was a little more collected than I was. I wasn’t panicked by any means — but there was something definitely seemingly treacherous about the whole prospect of this interview. Sometimes, I don’t feel entirely prepared to speak on behalf of the project. And, this felt like one of those times. Like when I’m out in public and someone mentions what I’m up to and others gawk and stare and ask more about it. They’ve done this at work. With client’s, even. As though I’m like the poster boy for modern media at the office and there is a claim to fame regarding the whole thing. And then, I have to explain:

I’m working to adapt a major motion picture from Myst. Myst, that video game? Yeah, that video game…

It’s become commonplace. That strange stare of blank judgment as though I’ve just been seen for the first time as this stereotypical gamer weirdo that they never suspected I was. Such disappointment. That’s one of the things we had to be clear about today. That we aren’t some die-hard gamers with just a lust so strong* for gaming that we simply had to choose the first thing we could get are* hands on - but rather, that we chose to go after Myst because of the story. Often, it’s such a hard concept for people to grasp that I don’t even try.

And it’s weird, honestly, and fulfilling at the same time - that the people in our lives (who know what we’re doing but have no experience with the franchise) have been really supportive and excited. There have been gads who have devoured the script as-is and develop a hunger for the story so strong that they yell at us when they come to the last page of the second act and find that there’s no more for them, yet. And on the other side, many Myst fans who we’ve come across simply look at us like we’re crazy, flat-out lying, or just plain stupid. What a mix. It will be a relief if and when the day comes that the world knows that the film will not be some regurgitated piece of the game. When people realize that: act II, our protagonist muddles randomly through the set dressing in search of something to manipulate* - is wholly inaccurate.

After the interview, Adrian and I went to have a drink. A much deserved one. Then dinner. No dancing. He asked me what kind of date this was supposed to be. One where you absolutely, under no circumstances, will get a kiss. That is, unless you get the script done, tonight.

* this post contains: a phrase given to me by Carla to replace an explicative; a misuse of a homophone*; a reference to a quote from a message board that i didn’t give credit for; and, the use of the word homophone under assumption without double checking the definition.

* this post was brought to you by the number 1; the letter U; and Patrick.