So it's the end of a long day of filming for "This Side of the Truth " . I started at 9:30 AM and it ended at 10:30 PM. There were so many scenes I lost track. Mob scenes where Ricky Gervais was pushing through people that saw him as the new messiah. Then Jennifer Garner pushing through. Then they filmed a scene where a car was being pulled by a truck that had cameras mounted to the back pointed to it. Then it started raining. Fortunately everyone was allowed to use an umbrella until they started shooting. So they would yell "Rolling, Umbrellas down! ...now cut! umbrellas up!" which instantly caused this massive amount of water to fly everywhere. Then when evening hit there was a candlelight vigil which I am sure looked good on film. The film crew were perhaps the nicest I dealt with. Matthew Baker the second assistant director and Max Keene first assistant director had a very nice style in the way they directed. Instead of telling actors "don't do this ! " or "you are doing that wrong!" they always said "that was good but could you please try this instead" . They were so.....British... it made me want to do more British films.

The highlight of the day was when the co-director Matthew Robinson was doing a cameo he was pelted by a brash of NERF bullets during a filming.

Ok off to sleep I am bloody tired.

Yesterday I was acting in the film "This Side of the Truth " in Lowell. Ricky Gervais is the lead, written and co-directs. The entire day is surreal because I was thinking I was in the film "Extras" except he was acting and directing . He is exactly the same off camera as he is on camera. He has a blog here on the production of it. Tina Fey and Jennifer Garner was on the set as well. The film is a comedy that is set in a world where no one lies. Except one guy invents the lie and the whole world freaks out. The scene they shot yesterday was pretty funny. Most of the comedy films I was on they were pretty serious on set but this one it was difficult not to laugh at times. The day went quickly because I didn't have to wait hours before being called onto the set. Today I am there again.

The other day I watched Wax Mask (italian: M.D.C. - Maschera di cera) . Directed by Sergio Stivaletti and written by Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci . I think it was Lucio Fulci's last movie he ever worked on and died while producing and writing it. Dario stepped in to complete it. The movie looks visually amazing but the English print of it has terrible dubbing on it. The voice actors speaking in English over act and it ruins the experience of it. I also hated the music score in certain scenes because it's playing while the actors are speaking. Which is fine for movies like "Gone with the Wind" for that era but it just is distracting these days.

The album is still set for release. Actually nothing can stop the release date! It's like a rocket that already has been set at "ignition sequence start". Which is kind of nice. This weekend I will be working on getting more reviews for it in magazines and such. If you know of any cool underground newspapers or magazines that have a music section let me know.

Ok I admit I probably will watch Ironman and Harold & Kumar this weekend as well. (I think this is the most links I ever had to imdb in one post before!)

Last night I went to the Boston Independent Film Festival. They had a screening of "My Winnipeg" directed by Guy Maddin. It was a really fascinating film. The film details Guy's view what his home city is like and how his past is incorporated into it. The distorted narrative is filled with strange anecdotes that includes frozen horses on a river and seances on the town hall steps of Winnipeg. The film is edited and filmed in a way that you can't get bored while watching it. There is this vast barrage of visuals that are almost hypnotic at times.

After the screening the director was there for the Q&A's. He is probably the most easy going director I have come across. . Two new projects he is working on is a larger budgeted feature written by the same writer as "Saddest Music Of The World". He also is working on an Internet portal that will feature clips of recreated films (his version of it) that have been lost from the early 20th century.

I gave Guy a copy of "Prometheus Triumphant" . I usually never give celebrities anything because I don't want to come off as being needy. I hate it when at screenings people ask the director "hey, can I be in your movie?". ouch lame! However this time he honestly seemed happy about getting a copy of it to watch it.

I have been working a lot on getting the CD ready for release. There are a lot of roles while doing this release. Distribution, digital distribution, booking for shows, media coverage, music videos, and radio airplay. The bad side of doing everything myself is that I can't devote a lot of energy to every single one item but spreading myself out on all of them. The positive side of this is that I have no one on payroll, I don't have to train anyone, and I get the job done. I figure if I can devote a little for each task every day that compounded after a few weeks it comes out to be a lot.

If you haven't yet joined my mailing list please do. There will be a lot of free stuff coming to everyone on the mailing list very very soon.

The new Portishead album "Third" came out today and it's brilliant. The music industry needed this album. It's vastly different to anything out there today. Sure they were popular in the 90's and it might sound dated because of that but they discovered different paths to follow. They put a ton of work on the album. If you live in the New England area you can buy the album today at Newbury Comics and get a limited-edition white vinyl 45" single for free. Which is kind of cool but I don't have a record player. I should get one. I have this theory that records will have a revolutionary (ha! the pun) return to the mainstream.

Thank you for everyone's voting on what zombie I should be. I won third place in the zombie contest! The top prize went to the one arm zombie. Damn... now that I think about it I should have had a peg leg. They screened 'Dawn Of The Dead" the Argento edited version. Which is pretty close to the Romero edited version with a few extra minutes and more gore.

Here is the only scene were you can see me in the movie "21"




The 48 Hour Film Festival was a blast. The ‘The Lavimont Expense Report,’ came out pretty well. Here is a news article on the directors for the film. It should be posted soon on youtube.

In other news I have been busy busy BUSY with ramping up for the album release. I somehow don't remember having so many things to do the last album release but there are lot more promotional things that exist than the last album release.

The new Dr Who series is AWESOME.

If you like Steampunk you might want to get this book "Steampunk" . Former Boston DJ Lady B has a section written in it.

The results of the "What zombie shall DESAR be? " are in... Pirate Zombie won!

Yesterday's filmshoot for the 48 Hour Film Festival went very well. It started at 8AM and ended around 6:00 PM. The short film was a thriller/action and took place at an office. My characters worked for the CIA and I don't want to reveal anything else on it yet (the film will be shown on Tuesday April 15th, 9:30pm at Kendall Square Cinema. ) .

One of the best things about the shoot was that they had food catered. There was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Wonderbread already made. It was awesome (Better than the food catered for "The Departed" !)

After the film I had seen the movie "I Am Legend" . I bought it about a week ago and I tried to avoid seeing it because I read the script and it was nothing like the book. All the screenplay had to do was copy the book with a modern update to it and it would have been good. Instead it was the typical middle-of-the-road horror film that was afraid of alienating a segment of viewer demographic by making it more action-packed. The CGI vampires in the film looked like they were made for a video game and any fear of these characters was laughable. They could have had human actors dressed up with elaborate Fx makeup and made it much better. I give it 1 star because I liked the dog.

Speaking of animals I was beat by a cat in a game of Blackjack.....twice!

You know video blogs take a lot longer than just typing on here.

I was working on the design of ads to place in a few magazines in a few weeks. I am not placing in a lot of ads since they cost a lot. I am mostly focusing on getting exposure for the album in very unusual methods (ha ha ! I can't tell anyone what they are as of yet)

Saturday I am going to take part in the 48 Hour Film Festival. What is it? It's a festival in which a short film has to be written, shot, edited and scored in just 48 hours. On Friday night film directors get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in the movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be completed. So it's pretty chaotic and challenging but I have seen some really cool films come from it. So I am going to be acting in a film this Saturday. I haven't a clue what I will be doing, what it will be about, what it will be named or anything. I do know the film will be shown on Tuesday April 15th, 9:30pm at Kendall Square Cinema.

I watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age over the weekend. It wasn't as good as Queen Elizabeth I from 1998. It felt like a sequel and all the elements that made the first film made this one seem not as good. There was too much emphasis on the romance of the Queen with Walter Raleigh (played by Clive Owens) . The actors did a great job the director I fault for placing to much romantic emphasis and less on historical facts. Sometimes truth is by far more entertaining than fiction (perhaps this why reality TV shows are so common these days?)

I watched 21 on Friday. The film was ok. I was cut out of one scene and in another scene I am in the background. So that was about 19 hours of work for maybe 5 frames of exposure? At least I still got paid and I got to meet Kevin Spacey.

So to continue my self-cinematic-abuse I went to two casting calls yesterday for two more films being shot in Boston this coming month. I am going to start looking for better roles pretty soon.

The album is still in manufacturing. This week I will work on marketing/publicity designs. I am also still scouting for a location for the music video which I haven't been able to do last week because I was focusing on getting my album out the door.

I have been watching a movie called "Burned at the Stake" which was a TV movie filmed in 1981 in Salem. Some of the acting is pretty forced and there is a lot of running in the film but it's still entertaining.

So the CD master is shipped off to production. It should be completed and sent off to the distributor in about 3 weeks. Now I am working on the publicity side of the album release. I will be setting up a CD release party in the Boston area around the release date May 27th. Shows will be announced shortly. I want to have a bulk of a few shows to announce instead of announcing single shows as they get booked.

Last night I watched House by the cemetery (aka "Quella villa accanto al cimitero" ) directed by Lucio Fulci . It's an interesting film that I can't really say if I could understand all of it. There were a lot of creepy elements to it. Portions of it were filmed in Lexington MA. It was a good film that any fan of 1970's (well this was 1981 but that is still 70's) horror movies would like it.

The antibiotics are finally working on my coughing and I am almost not coughing at all. Which I am glad of. I hated playing the piano or trying to sing and every other measure I would be coughing. I haven't been able to sing normally for nearly a month and it feels like I am rebuilding myself to sing again.

I bought a copy of "Foxy Brown" directed by Jack Hill this afternoon. Jack Hill also directed one of my new favorite movies "Spider Baby". I am not sure why but I am fascinated on anything that is from 1970-1974. I can't believe I was actually born back then because it seems so long ago. I feel like I was born in 1982 because my memories of the 70's are pretty limited.I remember everything from a very young viewpoint but I have no idea what it was like to have been an adult. I am sure smoking must have been more pervasive everywhere as well as polyester clothing. I remember all the adults were upset that they couldn't get gas on certain days.

I have a few prospective locations for the music video (thank you everyone who helped me out with it!) . I have to contact the locations and visit them all to find the right one. Tomorrow I have a teleconference with the director so we can establish a shooting date for it. The bottom line will be, as with everything, is cost in the final decision where it will be shot.

The mastering session for "Beyond the Law" will be on Tuesday March 18th. Once that is completed the music production of the album is completed and the next phase is design then manufacturing.

This past weekend I was an extra again for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past shot at the Cranes Estate in Ipswich. It was a long day over 13 hours. It was very rainy and muddy which made it kind of a pain to go from the tent where all the extras waited to go on set to go to the mansion where they were shooting. The crew for the film seemed very mellow and relaxed. I have been on some film sets where everyone is all stressed or grumpy which makes it unpleasant.

Production for the music video "Club Monbijou" is underway. Mike McKown will be directing it, Jim Towns will be the art director for it and it will be filmed in Boston. I already have wardrobe and a production assistant for the video as well. This week I am going to scout for a locations for the video. The following week I will start casting for it. I am hoping to have it filmed in May time frame.

The album production is moving along. I should have the mastering session scheduled for next week. I am still looking at some tracks to place onto the album.

I really like the graphic novel "Y the Last Man" which is about this mysterious virus that kills every man on Earth instantly except this one guy and his monkey. Sounds like every man's dream right? Unfortunately, a section of the women in the new world adopt the amazon persona and want to kill him. It's like a zombie film in which everything deal with social chaos but without the dead. The series is very popular and was running for 5 years.

I don't like daylight savings time

So I did the extra work for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It was shot at the Cranes Estate in Ipswich which is about 20 minutes away from where I live. I love that place it's so beautiful. It's a great place to film a movie. It was used for several other films like The Witches Of Eastwick and Flowers in the Attic. The shoot just consisted of a wedding scene that had Lacey Chabert and Robert Forester in it. Robert Forester I remembered seeing from Mulholland Dr. as the detective in it. Although he looks a little like R. Lee Ermey which would have been much much cooler "Whats your major malfunction! ".

If you never been an extra for a film or TV show it's kind of like being the lowest person on a film set. The director is the king on the set and everyone else trickles down and the bottom of the pyramid are the extras. I really think if they could make robots or do CGI more cheaply there wouldn't be any need for extras. There is a lot of waiting involved and when the film or TV show comes out you will see yourself for like 1-2 seconds out of focus (if you are lucky). It's not awful though. You get to see and meet a lot of film people, you get free food and you get paid. I just want to have a speaking part one of these days.

Moby released a new single called "Alice" that I really like. He isn't singing in it which makes it a lot better. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but I like it. It sounds like it could be used for an opening sequence for a film.

The new album by Goldfrapp "Seventh Tree" isn't good. I don't like saying bad things about artists because I know there is a lot of work that goes into an album (oh believe me I know!). However, when you have a sizable budget from a good label (Mute Records) and you come out with something so lazily produced it's a crime. It's so boring, trite, and lacks originality. I kind of get the thought that perhaps Goldfrapp is just trying to complete their recording contract by just coming out with something.

Watch one day I will run into her and she will tell me that she was going to fund a world tour for me but then she read my blog post and totally won't support me... eh... it still is awful Alison! I don't care...

The call time for the film tomorrow I am an extra in is at 10:30AM! which means I can sleep in. Usually they are at like 7:00AM . Plus it's in the Northshore area at one of my favorite places near where I live (I can't disclose where right at the moment).

If you like Donkey Kong you must see the documentary "King Of Kong" . It's about two rivals trying to beat each other's high school in Donkey Kong.

cough cough cough cough

I can't wait till I can sing again it's been 2 weeks almost when I could sing. Now I can sing 2 bars sounding all nasally and then stop to cough.

I went to a wardrobe fitting today for a film I will be an extra in called The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. The scene I am in will takes place at a wedding and will be shot on Friday. I find it amusing since it wasn't too long ago I was in a TV show that took place at a funeral.

So I just got done watching Cloverfield 10 minutes ago and I have to say the film has good points and bad points. The good points is that it tries to create this sense of terror from urban chaos due to some disaster. Some of the scenes were inspired directly from footage from the 9/11 attack (complete with people walking in a daze with ash all over them). The use of a camcorder to shoot everything made a typical monster movie feel more like a reality-based TV show. When the monster attacks you feel like you are running with the massive crowd. However, this strongest point in the film is also the weakest.I understand the director was shooting in a cinéma vérité style but he went to far with it. It was almost shaking and weaving the entire time. Thirty minutes into the film I felt motion sickness and had to look away from the film. The camcorder they were shooting with did have image stablization.

So to sum up the movie this is it:

(shake camera in circles)
"Oh my god! oh my god !!! did you see that ?!?!"
"Srrrrrrrrreacccch"
"What was that ? move move! "
(move camera left, right up and down )
"Scrrrrrrrrreaacch"
"BOOM! "

Give me Godzilla any day instead of this film. I won't get sick, I can laugh at the terrible overdubs, and Godzilla gets into fights with other monsters. I highly suggest anyone watching it to take dramamine if you are likely to get motion sickness.

Last night I watched Argento's Deep Red (aka Profondo Rosso) . The artistic established camera shots in it makes this giallo film unique. There was a scene where the camera pans through several old children's toys and the way it was done (and the backing musical score) made it postively creepy.

Ahhhh my almost monthly posting while I am fresh from the dentist with a numb jaw. Actually this time the dentist shot me with Novocaine right at my front upper gums. Which now my entire upper lip and nose completely numb. The good news is I should be done with going to the dentist for awhile.

Recording for the trailer for the movie "Red Sister Red" is moving along fine. The trailer is about 1 minute and 30 seconds. The first part that is about :47 seconds in length I had recorded with a solo fife but it didn't really work out. So I am placing in a solo violin and female vocals into it which will create a nice contrast to the faster and aggressive section half of the trailer.

I ordered a production book on "Sweeney Todd" that came in the mail today. If you liked the film at all you would love the book. I am a big fan of the movie. It's like a Hammer Horror film mixed with a musical.

I am almost finished read The Diamond Age . I am glad I stuck through 2 chapters at the start of it that started to become boring for me. It picked up after the 4th chapter and I am amazed how insightful the author is on our present day society and how it will evolve into in the future. After this book I am reading Naked Lunch.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and/or holidays. It's great that such a holiday that spans over 4000 years in origin is still celebrated. I will tell about one of the coolest presents I ever got in my next posting.

I have been working on the trailer music for "Red Sister Red" . Yesterday I got some more guidance on the orchestration for it. The sounds of it is going to be very Irish which I think will translate pretty well on film.

I saw on the news that Boston is becoming the North Eastern Hollywood. Last year more than 8 major films were shot in the area. This year there is about 10 or 15 that will be in production around the area. It's great news considering the film industry here was nearly dead 4 years ago.

Sweeney Todd is an excellent film. I was exposed to Stephen Sondheim's work when I was working for an opera company in High School. (oh wow he is still alive today I didn't know that) ,,, so at the time I hated...HATED Sondheim. it was the song "Johanna " that is in it that drove me nuts. I had trouble playing it at the time and the music director would have fits that I made mistakes during rehearsals for it (I was playing the piano for their rehearsals and auditions). I just hated that one song because I never liked the 3 notes that are used in the Jo-han-na. I would have used a different set of three notes. The company I worked for loved his work though and I kept playing it and playing it. I really don't have such a hatred for the music now so I liked the movie. The imagery of it was wonderful and some of the scenes felt like it was lifted straight out of an Edward Gorey Illustration .

Well it is confirmed that I will be attending the screening of Prometheus Triumphant on January 19th in the Steven Spielberg screening room at the American Cinematheque Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California.

The film runs about 80 min., and will be proceeded by two short films by Mad Monkey Productions, 2003's The Sleep of Reason (5 min) and a new film written by Jim Towns and directed by Mike McKown called Red Queen (10 min), and also by a trailer for Jim Towns' Red Sister Red, due out later this year. This marks the first time any of these pieces have been screened for an LA audience, so we'd love to fill the house as much as possible. There will be a short Q&A following the film with the filmmakers and myself, the film's composer.

If you'll be in town and think you can make it, please send us a message so we can put you on the guest list, as seating is limited!


In other news. I got a copy of the soundtrack of the new Sweeney Todd movie. It's very Stephen Soundheim! I wonder if a lot of people will be attending the film thinking it was composed by Danny Elfman and being shocked while watching it...very broadway llike. My friend Kris thinks Johnny Depp's hairstyle in the film was directly lifted from Dave Vanian lead singer from the band The Damned.

The Golden Compass is a wonderful movie. It's a great story and the visual experience is wonderful! Sam Elliott is brilliant in it and Nicole Kidman makes a delightful evil woman. Christopher Lee is even in it briefly.

I read a lot of news articles how the movie illustrates the evils of religion etc etc. I really didn't see it as being political or having anti-religious undertones. It's a classic story about good vs. evil which is the basis of the majority of dramatic works.