Production Update: Westinghouse 7/31/07

Holy cow! Look at the drama, excitement and glamour of being an indie documentary filmmaker!

Let me tell you how it is in this high profile, celebrity business. The gossip magazines and cable shows don't do it justice.

I lead an elaborate life of excess. It's true. Just today I was thinking of drag racing Escalades, snorting lines of coke off my diamond encrusted gold counter tops or running my illegal slug fighting operation... but instead I chose to stare all day at my computer as it crunched numbers. I was sleepy after a 128 hour bender dancing at night clubs and hopping in and out of jail.



This is really wild. Today I documentd, by hand, every shot and file name in my new documentary film to keep it organized and backed up in hard copy. I was also rebuilding it from scratch in High-Def after I'd made all of my preliminary editing decisions.

Where is the glamour and excitement in this? Where is the the celebrity reality show when you need it? Seriously, this was extreme. I wrote it all with a blue pen too. In your face people who like red pens! EXTREME!!!!



Check this out. It is a 1 terabyte hard drive. I go through these things faster than Crocket and Tubbs bust bad guys. Did I say bad guys? I mean misunderstood businessmen.

This hard drive should be full of phone numbers, a-list party schedules and the financial statements from my illegal slug fighting operation. It is not though. It is full of historical photographs, rare footage from the 19th century and hand written letters from very intelligent people who worked hard to make America a better place.

Bah humbug! I'm off to hit some trendy party somewhere. Who cares about smart, hard working people like George Westinghouse when you can see models fall of the bar into a pile of extreme vodka mix drinks?

Being a documentary filmmaker is extreme. Really. I'm being serious. It is. $20 on the yellow slug.

Mark's Update, Game Room and Westinghouse

The key to being a successful blogger is to update your blog frequently to keep readers coming back frequently. Which means I'm a pretty lousy blogger. I can barely keep up with one post a month this summer. I'm hoping to change the layout of my blog to seperate it into sections for photographs, film pictures and interview updates. This will hopefully give it a cleaner look and organize it by subject matter.

Let's get the current film news out of the way first.



Classic Game Room: The Rise and Fall of the Internet's Greatest Video Game Review Show is coming to DVD on August 28th. A few of the press copies came and went, reviewer response has been good and I've been doing a few interviews for the film. More interviews are lined up and I will post them as they are published.

I will make a list of all interviews for Classic Game Room and my other documentaries this week. I've recently done a few Internet radio programs and those can be listened to anywhere, anytime from PC Talk Radio, ReelTalkReviews.com and Calling All Pets.

I was interviewed by one of my favorite websites, Sega-16.com, a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to linking to it when it is posted.



Above is a great shot of our dog, Stella, launching herself off of our patio in my direction. She loves to take flying leaps into the yard and covers about 8 feet soaring in the air. Which for a dog her size is very fun to watch.



Westinghouse is my next HD documentary film about George Westinghouse, his battle with Thomas Edison and the Westinghouse legacy. I have been working on it since January and it is nearing final editing now. The Website just went live and can be viewed at www.WestinghouseFilm.com

I will start to post production photos over the next few weeks once I create my new site layout. It is getting to be confusing reading about classic video games, Westinghouse, Gettysburg and Stella in the same post.....

Westinghouse will most likely be released on DVD in spring of 2008. There has even been some discussion of a high definition release, possibly blu-ray. But nothing concrete. I'd like to see it released in HD if I have it my way. The archival footage and prints in the film are absolutely stunning and look best in HD.

The picture below was taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi w/ the 300mm zoom lens. You can see Stella's Chow Chow blue patches on her tongue. She's a Chow/German Shepherd mix.



So keep an eye out for exciting new changes to my blog and the list of promotional events for Classic Game Room, Johnstown Flood, Expo: Magic of the White City and Horses of Gettysburg. I will also have a section devoted to my photography and whatever other random nonsense I feel like writing about.

I vow to work harder not to be such a lousy blogger.

Trip Day 8, Keswick & Lake District

Here it is in July and I'm still writing the update of my two weeks in the U.K. from back in May.

Visiting the U.K. is just similar enough to be familiar and just different enough to be different from the USA. For one thing, I can't think of any place in the states that looks or feels quite like the Lake District.



We were standing at the edge of Derwentwater Lake, at Keswick, when taking this photo. Day 8 of our trip was a long day. Total travel time from Stirling to Keswick: 6 hours. Total cost of 2 beers in Edinburgh train station: $20. Good beers though. We had to ride a bus for a while as tracks were under construction. Boo.



Keswick (pictured above) was a beautiful, quaint town on the edge of Derwentwater. This was probably our favorite town of this trip. I love any place where we go to a pub and look down only to see a dog at our feet. And the people were very friendly and happy to talk about dogs or beer or whatever. Great town.



Keswick and the Lake District are full of rolling hills, rocky crags and sheep farms. As the weather was perfect for our entire visit this made for a few days of fantastic photography and walking. My wife loves sheep so she was in wool heaven.



Our first day in the Lake District was spent walking around Keswick and Derwentwater. There's no shortage of relaxed, well stocked pubs in Keswick with good beer on tap. And dogs, did I mention there were dogs everywhere? We missed our dog, Stella.



We liked the lake though.