How can they have a Rerun Show without Fred Berry?

So I saw Attack of the Clones today and while some of the dialogue was really bad (the whole love story stuff), I thought the movie kicked a whole lot of ass, explained a lot, and left me waiting for more. Yoda's fight scene rocked the house! I don't really want to give any spoilers here, but I will in the comments area, so don't click on that if you don't want spoilers.

Check out the demos from the now split up band that was Rage Against the Machine with Chris Cornell. Link via John Griffiths. Thanks! (note - that link no longer works. Go look for that stuff on Kazaa or whatever filesharing program you use. It's pretty good).

Well, they've found Chandra's remains. The first thing I thought was that at least her family has some of the answers, though how much comfort can that really bring them? What an awful thing for them to have to go through. The next few weeks should be interesting as the cause of death comes out. Will it be a congressional scandal, or will it be random crime with a lot of weird coincidences? Of course, there is the question of taste in that as this is unfolding, I'm currently shooting a film (and a trashy comedy, no less) about Washington interns and congressional scandal that has interns getting killed and going missing with cynicism from the media and police. Chandra's name is even brought up a couple of times. I feel that while lampooning the situation that young people who come to intern and work in the political system can get into some trouble, at least our intern wins while the sleazy congressman loses. In reality, the sleazy congressman did lose his seat, but a girl is dead, a family is devistated, a killer is loose and there is absolutely nothing funny about that.

The next movie I do, I want to shoot on one of these badboys!

OK, tonight is another installment of Celebrity Boxing of Fox and I'm embarassed to say that I can't wait! Any comments or expectations on the fight card? The Chyna/Joey Buttafuoco fight should be fun, but no contest for Chyna. But the one I'm most excited for is Arnold Horseshack vs Screech! Is Barbarino going to be in Horseshack's corner?

Great day of shooting! We got the lobbyist lunch scene from every possible angle and we were able to throw in a last minute cameo by Ann Branstadter whose name I sure hope I'm spelling correctly. We bought some microwave dinners and frozen spinach puff appetizers for them to eat, poured a couple of martinis and I think that it really looked like a real restaurant. Then we shot our exterior at Bistro au Ghetto, an abandonned building that this guy in the neighborhood had painted to look like a little French bistro, but with funny things in French painted on like "toujours ferme" and "patiserie imaginaire." We had a full audience of folks on the street taking pictures with disposable cameras and hooting and hollering when Adam got hit with the pie. Then we met the neighbor who actually painted the building and talked to him for a while. He showed us some cool pictures that I'll try to get up on the Slack Fist site sometime soon. Then it was off to the Haynes Point golf course where we just needed to shoot a few seconds of footage before it got dark. We got there and started walking towards a sand trap when a guy pulled up in a golf cart and told us that we had to go through the club and pay to golf but we said that we were just shooting a movie, so he said that we'd need to get permission. So instead of getting any sort of permission, we just shot what we needed to shoot while walking out past the putting green while the guy in the cart looked on and shook his head. This was the first runin that our guerilla film crew has gotten kicked out of someplace, so we were psyched.

Off to shoot today. Turning Karen & Marisa's living room into a restaurant is the first order of business, then putting together a meal and a creme pie. I'll try to post from the set. I expect it to go smoothly and quickly.

In a major victory for guerilla film, the Circuit City at Pentagon City sold me 6 master grade ME position tapes for $6.50 each! When I bought the same tapes from a pro video store, they were $13 per tape and I saw them at Circuit City for $12.99 for a two pack. Knowing a good deal, I grabbed 3 of them. When she scanned the prices in, they came out to being $22 for each 2 pack (still a pretty good price as I've seen those tapes for as much as $16 each). but because they were mislabelled, I got them on the cheap tip, probably under cost! So inadvertantly, this film ripped off a large corporation, sticking it to the man before it's even done being shot!

Last night my world was completely rocked by Belle and Sebastian! Possibly the best concert I've ever been to, they played for a solid 2 hours and did just about every song that I wanted to hear. Sleater-Kinney were the opening band and they rocked as hard as ever. When they came on, the lights were still on and the hall was half filled. Their whole set comprised of material from their upcoming album and although I really would have liked to have heard I Want to be Your Joey Ramone or Words and Guitars, the new stuff is great and I can't wait to hear the new album. They seemed amused to be playing to a half empty swanky room (this was at DAR Constitution Hall, run by the right wing Daughters of the American Revolution - not exactly a group that I'd like to support, but otherwise I would have missed an incredible show) so any kind of dancing was out of the question. This became a slight problem at the beginning of Belle and Sebastian's set when a whole bunch of people swooped down from the upper seats to try to dance in the aisles, but it seemed like it got cleared up without too much hassle and the show continued to rock. It was the last show on their American tour and they were having a blast. I'm counting the days until they get back here so I can see them again.

What can I say but "wow?" Seeing our work on the big screen was something else, even for just those 30 little seconds. It was really hard to gauge the audience response other than the very loud laugh from the people in front of us, but I think people were pretty favorable to it. The feature presentation, Not in Our Name, was about the April 20th weekend of protests and it was great. Our very own Elizabeth Croydon was hands down the star of the whole thing with the sarcastic news pieces that she shot with Jenny Carden during her lunch break from our own shooting, and I must say that she was kicking major improv ass all over the place. Her bits were interspersed throughout the whole thing and were very well recieved by the crowd. I was going to buy a tape, but it's still a work in progress. There was also a very entertaining cameo with another of our cast members, Zoe Mitchell, leading the MGJ march. Karen was also the first one of the gang to get her crew shirt and she was wearing it, and it looked SO cool!!! There will be merchandise available for the general public, but these ones are just for cast, crew and friends. Unfortunately, we were too tired to stick around to hear my one of my favorite elected officials, Rep. Cynthia McKinney speak after the film. Thanks to everyone who came out to see this. You guys were awsome and I felt like we were an entourage of fucking rock stars in there tonight! Just wait until this baby premieres. Also big thanks to all the hardworking folks at the IMC and Robin in particular for getting our trailer in.

Just two hours before the trailer makes its big screen debut and I'm all aflutter! I've printed up a bunch of flyers to hand out, and I'm prepared to get up in front of a theater full of people for the Q&A afterwards if I'm asked to participate. I really don't know what to expect.

Clueless reporters think Sweet Leaf is an anti drug song.

Just posted behind the scenes production photos here.

The trailer is going to be shown in a theater!!! Yes, that's right, we're getting the second trailer, which may or may not be behind a hidden link on the Slack Fist site, is going to be shown at Visions Cinema at Florida & 19th near Dupont Circle on Tuesday night as part of the DC-IMC NEWSREEL series. This starts at 7pm and usually sells out, so get there early, have a drink, and enjoy. The feature presentation is a documentary on the April 20th protests.

Confirmation is here. They were 11 Republican congressional pages. Here's the story. Real interns. Really Gone Bad!

Breaking news! Aparently 11 republican congressional interns have been busted for smoking pot. As is typical for members of the tough on other people's crime party, no charges were filed. As soon as I can get confirmation and an actual news story on this, we'll milk it for all it's worth to promote this movie. Real Washington Interns, Really Gone Bad!

Sweet night of shooting last night on the roof of the Dorchester House. The wind and the sunset made for some excellent John Woo shots, and we attracted quite an audience. Since we were using golf clubs as props for this scene, I had to walk around with a golf bag and several people actually thought I was a golfer, even though there was a tripod, a croquet mallet, a samurai sword and a softball bat in the bag as well. We could not have asked for a better sunset. We could have used a bit more practice and coreography beforehand, but in the world of guerilla film, we can't always get what we want. But we will be able to edit it all together nicely. I also got to spend the day showing off our trailers to cast, crew and then later to my coworkers and friends at a party. People seem to really be responding well. Many of the folks at my job have only just begun to take this project seriously (well as seriously as one could take a trashy political comedy) after seeing the wedding scene footage, and these trailers really did the trick with them because for the first time I'm hearing "oh my god, I can't wait to see this thing!" So as a special treat to those few who actually read this diary, here's the first teaser.

Not one but TWO trailers have been cut! One is a teaser, one gives a little eensie weensie bit more, both are 30 seconds and I will be putting them up in hidden links on the production company site within the next few days.

Major coup. We have an actual member of congress who is interested in a karaoke cameo in our film! How cool is that?