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Puccini For Beginners, Smiley Face

Even thought the title of the movie sounds & feels way too much like Italian For Beginners, one of my favorite Dogme 95 movies, I'll still check out Puccini For Beginners (links galore from GreenCine Daily) 'cause I believe director Maria Maggenti is from Rockville, MD & the movie sounds interesting. :: I like the story of Greg Araki's career, very inspirational for low budget indie/arty/DIY filmmaking dudes like me, but so far I have not seen a movie of his that I really enjoyed. Perhaps Smiley Face (GreenCine Daily again) will be the one, it sounds good so far, looking forward to it.

Date Number One screening on 3/15 :: First of new features to be shot in April/May

DATE NUMBER ONE SCREENING : There is a Date Number One screening coming up on March 15 in Kensington. Get all the info. here . More on the screening coming as the date nears. :: NEW FEATURES : I think I want to shoot a bunch of ultra-low/"no" budget features this year, DV films even lower budgeted than Date Number One, maybe less than $2K per feature. I am working on a few scripts. It will be film as entertaining art, projects with very little regard to most indiewood & Hollywood expectations, but hopefully as interesting & entertaining as the best of them. I am going to look at collaborating with new actors (new to film that is) & non-actors in order to get the movies done in an affordable way. Another goal with the new films is to get them done very fast (Date Number One took way too long to make, but i liked the way it turned out, it will be a model in some ways for the '07 films). It is possible to make high quality movies on a low budget and to

stranger & sadder than fiction: weird astronaut love triangle problem

i was spending the morning in bed thinking up plots & characters for a movie & then i turned on my computer to check the e-mail, saw this story , sounds too fantastic to be true, but there it is, in the news . weirder & more tragic than any fiction i came up with this morning. i thought astronauts were pretty low key & together people, but it is also nice to know that they can be as crazy as the rest of us when it comes to romance, sometimes.

The Gadabout Traveling Film Festival

Who are they? From their site: "The Gadabout is a nationally touring film festival that screens a program of 20+ international short films. Independent in every sense, these films share the same willingness to challenge the conventions set for filmmaking. The Gadabout is a distribution avenue for truly indie filmmakers that distrust Hollywood and the commercial film festival circuit. We are NOT a competition, rather a celebration of what is possible in independent film and video." Find out more here , they sound very cool.

perhaps simpler will be better for the Date Number One DVD cover

now that i've had a day or so to think about the possible Date Number One DVD cover (& the DVD face art), i think i still need to take another pass at it to get the final cover (see the current version of the cover in the post prior to this one). i think simpler will be better. although i am happy with the DVD face art (see a couple of posts prior, the circular graphic), it just needs a few more words & possibly a small photo or drawing added to it. i expect to finish up the design work this coming week, along with the final work on the DVD content - the movie. hopefully by 2/15 the DVD will be available for purchase.

pretty much the final Date Number One DVD cover design

back cover is on left, front cover on right. this is pretty much the current plan for the upcoming Date Number One DVD's cover. music credits need to be added, but other then that, i think this is the cover (for now/1st run of DVDs, who knows what i will feel like doing in a couple of months :). once i have the DVDs made & ready to be sold, will post more detailed pics of the packaging & other related stuff.

DV Guru closes up shop

The informative digital video related blog DV Guru is closing. Read all about it here . Thanks for all the excellent work Team DV Guru, it was great while it lasted, & best of luck with future projects. This article lists the future plans of each of the writers; looks like they'll be doing some very interesting things & blogging from other places. I enjoyed my 15 mins. of DV Guru fame when Brian Liloia interviewed me last year re: Date Number One & DIY filmmaking. Check out that bit of the DV Guru past here .

and this (most likely) will be what the face of the Date Number One DVD will look like

working...working...working on it. the dvd is coming this month. can't wait :) the face of the dvd may very well look like that, except with more vibrant colors (the title is in red btw, not pink as it appears on my screen right now). should have an awesome sleeve/DVD box cover design soon. of course the inside of the movie is gonna be as yummy as the packaging, many changes have been made to the movie since the '06 screenings. the movie flows, and looks, and sounds a lot better now.

DC record label link of the day: DeSoto Records

check them out here . started & run by some of the folks responsible for Jawbox & other fine indie bands. and while you are there, read about cal robbins & how you can help. here is a little bit about DeSoto from their About Us page: "Deeply rooted in Washington, DC's independent music scene, DeSoto Records was nominally created in 1989 by members of the band Edsel to release their first single. Later that year, Kim Coletta and her bandmates in Jawbox offered to keep the DeSoto name alive by using it for their first EP. Before she knew it, Kim had turned DeSoto into what she now calls a "full-time labor of love." read the rest here . and one last link: cal robbins's parents have set up a blog for him, check it out here , and here's the introduction to cal's medical situation .

new Date Number One screeners available next week

i know i still owe a dozen or so screeners to various people from last year. those requests will be fulfilled next week. the new version, the final version, of Date Number One will be ready early next week (received the final missing element for the project today, thanks amir!). it might still take until the middle of this month (February) to have the retail DVDs available for sale. but for bloggers who are interested in checking out the movie & possibly writing about it, screeners will be available next week. if you are a blogger who wants to check out the movie, let me know ( wilddiner@aol.com ). be sure to e-mail me the URL to your blog also. thanks! - sujewa

Full Movie - SNEAK PREVIEW - Cosmic Disco Detective Rene And The Mystery Of Immortal Time Travelers

NEW - COSMIC DISCO DETECTIVE RENE (2023) - TRAILER!

The Secret Society For Slow Romance (2022) - available to rent as a new release starting January 1

Werewolf Ninja Philosopher at Vimeo VOD

Reading Material

Indie Film Blogger Road Trip