The Real JDB

Thrice - Interview

2009-05-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

I finally got the fabled Thrice interview up. I shot this nearly a year ago, on the same day as the Say Anything interview.

http://www.theoffline.com/interviews/thrice.php

I've been up to a lot of exciting stuff lately. We'll have more on the blog and on the site soon, so keep slamming those f5's.

Shaun of the Dead / Hot Fuzz

2009-03-01T17:21:00.000-08:00

Graham, Scott and I went to Bloor Cinema on Saturday night for a double screening of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, hosted by Edgar Wright, who has a really funny voice. Really nasal. And British. He took a photo of the fans who stuck around for the QnA. I am in the top left holding up my paperback copy of Dune, pretty much only because I had nothing else on me to hold up in the air. See graham to the right of me.

Check out Edgar's blog, he posts a picture every day showing his adventures, being a film director and all.

http://edgarwrighthere.com/

I guess you guys don't know who Graham and Scott are. They're friends that I'm doing a few projects with. One is a top-secret movie that's gonna be huge. The other is a series that we might be seeing later this summer. Stay tuned.

Chili Peppers + Inca Roads = :S

2009-01-19T17:35:00.000-08:00

I never really liked the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I've tried, believe me, I've tried. It's weird because I love funk rock fusion. I love Fishbone, Faith No More, Praxis, Primus, Urban Dance Squad, and even Mr. Bungle's demos; all those early 90s alternative crap bands. Give me some fat bass, schizophrenic guitar, and clever or explicit lyrics, and I'll be a happy man.

But for some reason Chili Peppers just don't mesh for me. I've tried. I was even listening to Blood Sugar Sex Magik when I started writing this, but after a song I got bored and put on Urban Dance Squad. By the way, if you haven't heard of them, they were pretty much the Dutch version of Rage Against the Machine, but with metal traded for a bit more hip hop and pop sensibility.

Anyway. Point is, I'm not some douche who has a thing against RHCP... the fact is, I want to like them. Their output over the past few years (californication and beyond) I feel especially neutral towards, but BSSM, Mother's Milk, Freaky Styley are all albums that I should love, as they contain my favorite, most indulgent, musical ingredients.

As this battle rages in my head every once in a while, I stumble across something that puts my mind at ease, and makes me comfortable with the thought: "I don't like the Red Hot Chili Peppers". Examples of this could be anything, whether it be a new single, (I couldn't stand By the Way, which at least in Ontario, still got regular airplay 5 years after the album's release.) or RHCP kicking Mr. Bungle off of festival lineups for a decade-old grudge that started with Kiedis bitching about Mike Patton "stealing his moves".

Once again, while browsing the vast media entity known as youtube.com, I came across the most recent addition to my list of "Why RHCP sucks" list:

Now, maybe you have to be a Zappa fan, or maybe you just have to be as neurotic as I am for this to bother you. For whatever reason, this bothered me. I'm not sure why, as obviously they're just goofing around. Butchering beautiful songs might bother the pretentious fan, but not me; hell when my next musical project hits the stage, I plan on ruining plenty of old classics, including a Zappa song or two. Maybe it's Kiedis' joking arrogance? I'm really not sure. It just doesn't feel right in my gut. Whatever it is, they're doing it rong.

Realistically though, in a month or so, I'll be at a party, or in a friend's car or house, and Red Hot Chili Peppers will be playing. And I'll like it. I might even move my hips or bob my head. Then I'll go home, all excited to hear Freaky Styley, only to turn it off after ten minutes to put on Fishbone's Reality of my Surroundings. Rinse and repeat.

Here's a real version of Inca Roads. If you aren't familiar with Zappa, this is in my opinion, one of his best "serious" rock pieces.

So what did you guys think of the RHCP clip? Did it entertain you? Annoy you? Am I crazy? Leave a comment; share your thoughts.

New Year's Screen Resolution: 1280x800... Same as last year.

2009-01-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

So I got another package from the LumberJerks. It had this nice card, a vhs tape with their latest work, a new show called "Bill's Home Videos" and a note promising another episode later in the month.

So I suppose it didn't occur to them when sending a Christmas card, to send it in advance so it arrives before Christmas; not to put the card in the mail on Christmas. Oh well, I still enjoyed it.

I've uploaded the first episode of Bill's Home Videos, catch it here.

Also, I recently put together a silly little short from old footage, so that'll be up soon. It stars... Brian and Corey, of course. I mean, I have plenty of friends, but... well it's not like they're my only friends.

So Happy New Years! And if you missed it, a couple days ago theoffline.com was a google adds site briefly. Here's a screenshot just in case you wanted to know how you could speed up Outlook or get a trial of Paintshop Pro.

Octoberfest

2008-10-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

Word up.

For the interests of anyone who saw 6 hours away, either at this summer's Drop Your Shorts festival, or on DVD: Graham and I are working together again on a new film, to be shot next year. All other details are secret. Mainly because I don't even know them yet myself.

Drop your shorts is coming up again this month, and I will be submitting something perhaps the newest LumberJerks bit, which will also be available on theoffline.com by Sunday night. This newest one is by far the shortest, but funnily enough, took the longest for me to work on. Those assholes out in BC (I know you're reading this!) sent me an 8mm film reel, and I had to, surprisingly for the first time in my life, go and get it transfered to DV.

Corey Stevens, Ben Cooper and myself shot a little short recently. It's a little... risky. And by that I don't mean subject matter, but rather process. It might just be a giant, self-indulgent turd, or it will be a very clever, simple and fun piece. Updates on that as they come.

Paul and I are putting together a very epic short film about... internet memes.

That's all for now. Enjoy the video Corey and I submitted for the Halton Skills Competition when we were 17. SPECIAL NOTE: OUR VIDEO GOT THIRD PLACE. TAYLOR NORRIS' VIDEO LANDED FOURTH.

Cheers.

Naked City - Speedfreaks

2008-09-13T17:14:00.001-07:00

The LumberJerks Trailer is out if you haven't seen it yet, check it out @ theoffline.com

A new episode is coming up this weekend, and another one two weeks after that.

I'm also working on putting together a new weekly show, hopefully I'll be shooting that with Ben Cooper.

The Say Anything interview I mentioned earlier is about to go up as well.

On to talks about music:

I've been listening to John Zorn since I was in highschool, but lately, I've been really into it. Here's a great Naked City song; it's been one of my favorite Zorn compositions for years.

LumberJerks - COMING SOON

2008-09-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

Bill the Manager acting cool. lol.

Alright dudes, duds and dads.

Soon on the offline.com we'll introduce a new show. It's not so much of a show as it is a compilation of content, all produced by LumberJerk Film Co.

The LumberJerks are a film collective from some small logging town in BC, and "LumberJerks" will feature their content as it arrives to us in the mail. (They don't have regular enough access to the internet to use ftp) They make shorts, trailers, documentaries, and whatever else. Basically it's some goofy shit, and we're always happy to include other work from people who show promise, energy, and grassroots attitude.

I'm currently working on setting up the php and xhtml to get their material connected into the site, but it's a steep learning curve for me; it's been about five years since I've done any coding, and that was java and C++!!

Anyway, peace out and check theoffline.com often; we're about to explode with a whole bunch of sticky content!!

Behind My Eyes - Trailer

2008-09-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a trailer to a movie I shot earlier this year.

Behind my eyes teaser trailer

edit: New video. (myspaceTV instead of youtube)

RIP RUSTY: We love you.

2008-08-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly two months since I've updated my blog! Mister or Misses (I assume that I have one regular reader, and that they are at least a man or a woman) I am greatly apologetic.

First order of news, until the next blog (c'mon just being realistic here): RIP RUSTY

RUSTY CHEWBUGS BAXTER: (other known aliases: Roostor, Pusty, Russ, dog) Tuesday August 5th, a day that will live in infamy for the Baxter family, and for others as well Although for the others it'll live in infamy in the same way that Pearl Harbour does... I mean, can you actually off the top of your head tell me what day of the year the Japonese attacked? It's okay, I don't expect you to remember Rusty's death day. Err.... Moving on.

Anyway, he was a wicked bad ass and slightly wimpy dog. I loved him. He died 12 years old, an average age for a dog of his size to die. Earlier this year he had a terrible skin condition where he lost a lot of his hair. When the condition passed, his hair re-grew as richly coloured as it was when he was a puppy. It really was amazing. At the same time though his lungs and heart were getting worse. On Monday the 4th, him and I went through our regular 2am routine of me coaxing him out of my room so he doesn't wake me up four hours later. The next morning my sister and I woke up to the sound of Rusty trying really hard to keep his breath. We drove to the emergency animal hospital, and he died in my arms on the way. I experienced it shit, piss, death slobber and all. I hand my hand on his heart when it stopped beating.

My sister is really strong for being able to drive and get us to the hospital despite her dog dieing right beside her.

Here is the last photo of him ever taken, by mister Ben Cooper:

I stay up late most nights. Every time I get up to go to the restroom or get a snack, I open the door to the dark hallway and am surprised to not see rusty waiting outside of my door, trying to get in my room to sleep at the foot of my bed.

Leave comments for rusty; I heard canine spirits can access the internet.

Late June Update

2008-06-28T23:53:00.001-07:00

List of things:

- LUMBERJERKS the first two of many LumberJerks segments are finished, and waiting on a few minor technical delays before they'll be up on the site. If you haven't heard of this series yet, let me tell you it's HYPE. One of the bits is a trailer, and the other is an old silent film that was found in some old case with a projector in an attic.

- THRICE. An interview with them. Expect one.

- SAY ANYTHING. An interview with them. Expect one of those, as well.

- VIDEO BLOGS. I've been having formatting issues with my blogs. Really it's not a big deal, but I have picky (ie: detrimental) standards. I'm re-rendering them all and re-uploading them. So episode 1 will be back, and episode 5 will be done as well (Oh wait, you didn't know about episode 4?)

- A WALK THROUGH THE ALLEY. Remember that old short that featured Brian Morgan falling in love with a bowling ball? We're re-shooting it the second I get back from NY.

- NEW YORK FUCKIN CITY I'm going to NY tomorrow morning. I will be there for a week. Perhaps some of this will manifest in interesting video content.

- BEHIND CLOSED DOORS a surreal horror short that I cut is wrapping up post production, and will be screened, many times, in many places, in the near future. Check out my video blog, episode 3 to see behind the scenes stuff.

- 6 HOURS AWAY I shot a short directed and produced produced by Graham Sheppard and Vanessa Jung. It is also wrapping up post, so stay tuned. It's pretty much some of the best DV footage I've ever shot. I'll post info on screenings as it wraps up.

- BEHIND MY EYES I wasn't going to mention this one because it's still in early post, but I shot a cerebral horror for Bob Barrow, and damn, I hate to toot my own horn, but it looks sexy. Well, as sexy as a shirtless man pulling his own teeth out can be, anyway. Again, I'll post links/screening dates when I can, but just hold tight since it's so early in post. Fellow OFFLINER Steve Leck is rumored to be editing it...

That's all. It's 3am and I start driving at 9:30 am. I should start packing, shouldn't I?

A Bridge on the River Que

2008-06-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

A bridge on the River Que is now on youtube, on the theoffline account.

For some reason lately youtube has been having trouble recongnizing 16:9 video. I'm going to delete and re-upload my blogs as 4:3 with 16:9 tags, as well as adding episode five. w00ters. That'll be a fun four hours.

Video Blog Episode 3

2008-06-09T00:18:00.001-07:00

Another belated Video Blog.

Video Blog Episode 2

2008-05-20T00:19:00.000-07:00

Here's my next blog episode, from April 4th. This sat on my computer for a very long time. Next week we'll see Episode 3, a behind the scenes on the short film "Behind Closed Doors"

2008-05-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

I present to you a video blog for... March 21st.

My video blogs have been delayed by a software slowdown, so I'm a bit backed up. Over the next two-three weeks, a bunch of these will be released, to bring me up to date. From there I will post a new video blog every two weeks.

The blogs are about whatever I feel like making them about. They are generally just an observation of what I'm up to. A little slice of life. Many of them so far have been about behind the scenes on movies, so that might be interesting to you guys. They all end with jams.

Enjoy a two month old blog!

The Cheddar Connection

2008-05-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

I threw up two old Cheddar Connection trailers onto my Confused Director youtube account. The second I finished high school I wanted to make a movie. A big movie. I had a concept for a movie: A cheesy-addicted junky hallucinates a giant cheesie who convinces him to perform evil deeds. I contacted Max Goodis to co-write it with me, and after many nights of writing sessions downtown Burlington (including getting kicked out of a parking garage) we had a movie.

Making The Cheddar Connection was wicked. We got a good chunk of BCHS theater students and alumni (Tom Hart, Myke Dukich, Simon Livingstone, Martha Sachs, Danny Difiore, Kirsten Hess and Roy) to act and help us out. These guys were of extremely high caliber. Maybe it was the school, maybe it was Helen, but everybody was so professional and dedicated to the project that it most likely wouldn't have been able to come together if I wasn't working with them.

Over the next 8 months in college, I worked on cutting The Cheddar Conenction whenever I had the time. When classes ended I spent a good two weeks working full-time at the shool on The Cheddar Connection. Finalizing the edit, doing the sound mix (which sounds atrocious now) and assembling a very in depth DVD, took so long that I was still in Oakville when my lease ran out and I ended up sleeping on a couch at my friend's place for a couple days.

In Burlington, there were a surprising number of people waiting to see the film. I knew nearly half of the staff at a nearby Block Buster, so I would go in every day, asking a different friend who worked there, if they could spare me some empty cases, and after about a week or so I had thirty or thirty five.

I just got bored of writing. Watch the damn videos.

Sean Messenger

2008-04-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

A bit of a random piece; I found some video I shot in Vegas on Sean Messenger's blog:

Check out his blog, it's very insightful.

http://seanmessenger.com/

Confused Director Productions

2008-04-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

I created a new youtube account for my old highschool videos.

One day, in twelfth grade, I stumbled into the cafeteria, about an hour after class would have started. My friends, who also should have been in class, were hanging out, eating their breakfasts. I got a coffee, and sat down with them. I stared into the wall. I was unshaven and my eyes were at half-mast. I was wearing the same leather jacket that I wear today.

"Dude, you are such a fucking confused director," pipes in my buddy Chris.
"Huh?" I most likely responded with a bit of a delay.
"I mean... what the fuck is wrong with you? You're a living cliche. You are the quintessetial, absent-minded totally spaced out director. You are a Confused Director."

And then it just stuck. I was the Confused Director. It was my pseudonym. I designed a logo in CorelDraw: C connected to a D surrounded by a Question mark. I used this logo on the resume that got me into Sheridan. I made an e-mail address. I later made an animation of the logo; I still have the corrugated cardboard letters. My productions had a company: "Confused Director Productions"

After years of saying "I'd love to but I don't have the time" I finally buckled down and made a youtube account for Confused Director Productions, as to share the many video gems that were created in highschool and early college. There are many more videos to upload, but there are also many more that will never see the light of day again. Here's to the best of the best (of the decent)

Check out the Confused Director Channel to see more videos!

http://www.youtube.com/user/confusedDirector

Busy, busy, busy.

2008-04-12T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yo.

I really, really, really wanted my next blog entry to contain an interesting piece of media, say a song or a video, but nothing has been 'just right'. So instead of delaying further I decided to go ahead and write a new blog entry to let everyone know I'm not dead.

I've been very busy as of late. A lot of this content you'll be able to see either on the offline, my blog, youtuve account, or my soon-to-be bi-weekly video blog.

In addition to corporate stuff (bleh) I'm cutting a short horror called "Behind Closed Doors". When my video blog goes online you'll see an episode all about special effects and behind the scenes on this fun little indy flick. You might even see some secret leaked footage! (I am the editor after all.)

I'm writing three sketch pieces. At least one of them will be funny and worthy enough to survive the rigors of story-editing, shooting and post. That one will be really really good.

My video blog will be epic. I've already shot the the first four episodes, and am in the midst of cutting the second. We discuss everything from coffee to the spice melange, to super worms, to wearing shorts in the month of April. Scattered within the blogs are also little bits of bits that never made it, were cut from other movies, were funny but didn't suit the mood, etc. It's really a great resource to get the inside scoop on EAT OR DIE Productions, The Offline, and related projects. Last, and certainly not least, every episode ends with a JAM SESSION. You'll see jams from myself, Brian Morgan, and fantastic local experimental bands such as Brunch, Sylvia's Taco Salad (feat. Paul S on kit) and The Henchmen of Xenu. You really can't lose. It's a variety show TO THE MAX!!

Tomorrow I'm doing a shoot with anybody who wants to help out. If you live in Burlington or near by and are reading this, get a hold of me and join in. So far almost ten people have said they're coming, but to be honest, although I love my friends dearly, I expect most of them will flake and it will end up being just me Brian and Corey. Who knows what it'll end up being. Whatever it is, even if it just ends up being me by myself, it'll be up on this blog in two weeks.

Peace until then.

The Florida Everglades

2008-01-21T19:16:00.001-08:00

In December my father and I drove down to Florida to go on a canoe trip through Everglades national park. We started in Everglade City, on the west coast and traveled over 100 miles to Flamingo, on the southern tip. The canoe trip took seven days. Here are some photos!

On our first night before heading out, we hung out with some fishers. A man and his wife caught a shark! This shark was five and a half feet long. He chopped it up and put the meat in a bucket to eat later. I bet he still hasn't eaten all of that shark meat!

The Journey begins!

Brian likes the Everglades as much as I do! See those roots hanging in the air behind him? Chest-nut sized crabs would scuttle up and down the roots and keep on the opposite side to keep out of sight. That's why you can't see them!

Here is white man's bastardized version of a chickee hut! Usually these are what I slept on.

This teenaged gator decided to give us a visit. I don't know if he knew that humans are predators or not, but either way we didn't have any guns or forks, so killing and eating him wasn't an option, unfortunately. He was a really lazy gator, he just swam with his tail, leaving his limbs floating at his sides.

Nope, that's not a dirty lens. It's a gaggle of birds! It was huge! Like a rain cloud on crack! It was just like in "Fellowship of the Ring" when all those birds came flying down to spy on the not-very-hidden fellowship. I hope Sauron isn't after me!

Here's a shipwreck we found on the Gulf coast!

Here's the friendly people who were stranded due to wrecking their ship. They were stuck on a desert island for four days! They said that everyone who passed them ignored them, until the people just before us, who arranged for them to be saved the next day. They kind of look like Woody Harrelson. They had two little chihuahuas named Taco and Nacho.

Birds keeping cool by the water.

Our campsite on the coast. If you look hard enough you can see Cuba!

Here's dad making food for us to digest with our stomachs!

This is the biggest Gator we saw. He was at least 8 feet long. I call him Mr. Aligatorade. He's a thirsty gator! Every day he drinks the water in the everglades to the point that the water level drops! My dad said that's the tide, but I don't understand what laundry detergent has to do with that.

Here we are, seven days later, in the town of Flamingo. Next: Two Coronas and a bag of cool ranch Doritos!

Gardage

2007-12-07T01:06:00.000-08:00

A classic. One evening, back in high school, Brian Morgan had an idea, and I had a borrowed video camera. Corey and I followed him and acted/shot his scenes for him. Before we could finish, the rain came down and put our 2 dollar production to a halt. That night I cut the footage together and thew some funny looking credits. Although only the opening of the story was even shot, on some bizarre aesthetic level it worked.

Gardage was always a special video for me because surprisingly or unsurprisingly, everybody seemed to have a very strong and unique interpretation for it. I was always interested in what people had to say about it because frankly, beyond and the pure aesthetic appeal, it has no objective meaning or purpose. It was such a small file size that it was very easily shared through e-mail or msn conversation, which let to a lot of people seeing it, and a wide variety of reactions.

Hell, for all I know everybody's been humoring me and it's just a worthless pile. Either way, I was inspired one night and re-worked the video. Digitized footage from the original tapes, cut it virtually exactly as the old one was, did come colour correction and went overboard by key framing the modulation on gamma adjust for a shot that had a painful display of auto-exposure. I completely redesigned the sound. One of the charms of the original Gardage was the looping, slowed-down 2 second clip of suburban ambiance that seemed to say "womp womp, womp womp". I replaced this with a cleaner recording that was recorded... elsewhere. 'Thew in some foley, and I had a completely re-mastered classic.

I wonder if the new audio removed some of the cheap charm. Also, the colour correction I did was for a CRT monitor, not a computer monitor, so in the next week or so I might re-do that and re-upload it. For now though, here's GARDAGE.

Also, if you haven't heard of or seen it, take the time to check out Zeitgeist. It's constructed really well and the concepts not only brought up in the film, but the concepts that the filmmakers themselves are pushing are really worthwhile.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

UPDATE

2007-12-02T12:29:00.000-08:00

A general update on what's been happening lately.

Three weeks ago I left Sim Video. I had a great time there, made bags of money, learned mountains of information and met rooms full of great people. It was time though, for me to move on and do my best experiencing this thing known as 'the industry' (aka: field, business, real world). I thank everybody at Sim for a great ten months. Here is a photo journal of my departure, by Mr. Matt Hardstaff:

Here is me at work, on my second last day:

Here I am, leaving at the end of the day:

Hayley waves goodbye:

Adam watches... and waits...

Anyway, since then I've been editing. All day, nearly everyday. My skin has paled as have my eyes.

I spent a solid week working on Faun Fable's Transit Rider video, which will be wrapping up very soon. We aren't sure what we're going to do with it; there are many options. At the very least the best handful of songs will be available online, somewhere. It's pretty fun stuff. http://www.faunfables.net

I've also recently started doing a bit of post work for Johnny Soporno and that has been developing fantastically. http://www.worthyplayboy.com/

A couple of nights ago I couldn't sleep and so I put together these clips from The Caped Avengah. It's alternative takes and bloopers, despite the fact that I hate blooper reels. They're always overly repetitious. "Oh, look! Edward Norton can't stop laughing!" So, uh, if my blooper reel sucks and I'm a complete hypocrite, let me know so I never make another one again.

I've also been going over my other old stuff, cleaning it up either for presentation or to put away in boxes, never to see the light of day again. Check in every now and again to see how that develops. All you old BCHS colleagues will appreciate them, anyway.

Thanks for reading.

Caped Avengha's Pie Adventures

2007-11-27T08:31:00.001-08:00

The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures is online!

I just spend two days cleaning up the sound, only to upload it to youtube where it will sound like shit anyway. w00t. Is this movie worth two years of hype? You decide...

MPEG-1 rocks the fuck out of H.264.
I spent a good deal of yesterday compressing CAPA in a variety of formats before uploading to youtube. MPEG-1, with the video at 1.85mbps and audio at 48kh, 226kbps, gave me a much better and consistent looking video file that was a couple megabytes smaller than the H.264 equivalent (they were both in the 90mb range). And to put icing on the cake, the MPEG conversion took about half the time and also included de-interlacing, which I would have had to do separately on H.264, which would have made it take even longer. This brings me to a question I asked myself yesterday... who in the world would need to retain an interlaced image after taking the quality far below tape and broadcast standards? Gah. Anyways. I have to give H.264 a bit of credit though, their algorithm was smart enough to detect text and ensure that those images were crisp and clean. Too little too late, though.

Caped Avengah Kills!

2007-11-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

An MSN log play-by-play of somebody watching the Caped Avengah trailer:

Mr. Moo says: (9:01:54 PM)
solid!
Mr. Moo says: (9:03:33 PM)
omg
Mr. Moo says: (9:03:36 PM)
wtf am i watching
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:09 PM)
oh... oh my god
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:19 PM)
I want to kill myself
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:21 PM)
OH SHIT
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:28 PM)
i just heard him yelling at the pie
Mr. Moo says: (9:04:30 PM)
that killed me

Could this be the best video of all time? I doubt it, but the film Titanic killed forty nine people* and my video's trailer is at one. Only forty eight to go!

*source

Duke Panache!!!!

2007-10-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

DUKE PANACHE!

The NEXT great Canadian Director! Action, Drama, Romance, suspense and even Comedy! I promise you, fellow film-lovers, that this man can do it all. I've seen only a portion of his work and I was so blown away by it that I had to take it easy for a minute.

I really want to say that he's underground or that he's 'on the rise' but that really doesn't do justice. Let's be honest, phrases like that sound outright lame. He's not underground because he can't make it into the mainstream; he's not independent because a studio wouldn't' pick him up (they'd salivate at the thought, lol) The reason that he's still in the shadows is because the mainstream literally isn't ready for such greatness. To be outright exposed to Duke Panache would be equivalent to getting a heart attack from being quickly submersed into cold water (it's happened). Like a stir-fry, the public needs to be warmed up before it can sizzle in the heat. This heat, is DUKE PANACHE.

So, ladies and gentlemen, get ready. I'd love to tell you what to get ready for or how, but all I can tell you is that it's Classified. Yes, that's right. Info on his latest and greatest project shrouded in so much mystery that even project itself is referred to as such. Rumor has it that's it's just recently begun a long post-production process. A project of such magnitude will take a long time to complete, but the wait will be far more than worth it. Heck, I bet the film is already done and THE DUKE is just teasing us by slowly releasing small tiny bits of information. One thing I do know for sure is that the final image WILL be seen in 1080p. Gorgeous! Not even The Offline can afford to shoot 1080p. I can't wait. I have to go clean up, now. this is just too exciting for me!!

Check out these kick-ass websites!

http://www.theduke.net/ - The Duke's webpage!
http://www.dukepanache.com/movie.html - Unofficial fanpage!
http://fansofduke.tripod.com/id1.html - Not sure what the source of this is, but i found it on google, lol!

A Life is a Life

2007-10-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

I present an old gem, the best of the best of highschool video. One of the peaks of the now defunct "Confused Director Productions". A serious war film with philosophical metaphor. A bit starring Dan Sams and Brian Morgan: A Life is a Life.

PEOPLE in TO again

2007-10-13T06:34:00.001-07:00

Just a shout to any of the wonderful people who worked hard on BDTC's video for People's summer '07 album, Misbegotten Man. People walked all the way from Crooklyn NY, to beautiful Khanata once again, and they handed me a stack of shiny new albums, which I will in turn mail out to the following:

Ben Cooper
Jen Mason

Jack Lee

Peter Donaldson

Thanks fellas, the band was totally stoked about the video! And I'm still totally stoked that you guys came out for free to save my ass so I can run around telling people* that I'm a "producer". Also a hearty "Kick ass job, dude!" to another Canadian, Tomas Del Basco (made famous by his band dd/mm/yyyy) who did the album artwork.

*as in masses of persons, not the band.

ADVERTISING!
www.myspace.com/peopletheband
www.myspace.com/burndownthecapital

Caped Avengah's arrival soon...

2007-10-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

I had written the second part to my three part computer saga, but since I fixed my problems I really don't care any more. It's time for more exciting things. I present to thee a trailer for the most highly anticipated short among BCHS alumni: The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures.

Computers Suck, part 1

2007-09-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

Obsviously, for the all of one (1) of you (me) who've been following and anticipating the release of C.A.P.A., there has been a delay. I've run into computer problems, once again.

My macbook started to shut off randomly with absolutely no notice. I did some research and learned that this is a regular problem with first-generation macbooks. Apple released an a firmwire update to solve this problem. The install instructions recommended that you update your OS to the most resent version. At time of release it was 10.4.8. I have 10.4.7. The instructions specifically said that if you install the update on OS 10.4.6 or anything below, you will fuck your computer up. .7 and beyond are fine, although an update is recommended.

I booted the computer up and started a download for 10.4.10, the most recent mac OS. 250mb download. I cancelled the download in fear that my computer would turn off, as at that point it would only stay on for about 1-3 minutes. I started the firmwire update download. On completion, I followed the instructions TO THE T. After the install, I had to reset, as is normal for most software installations. Then, nothing. My computer wouldn't turn on. It would 'warm up' as in I could hear the harddrive and fan spinning, and I could insert and remove CDs. After a variety of attempts to turn my computer under different circumstances (battery in, out, depleted, waiting a long time, plugged in, unplugged, etc) I took it into a very friendly and trusty mac-authorized dealer.

The logic board was fried.

A little History on The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures.

2007-09-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

In a week from now I'll have a trailer for The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures online. Either on the offline, or youtube, or whatever.

This was a big project, produced by Brian Morgan and myself. It stars the talents of Corey Stevens (who's been in a slew of Sheridan student films) and Shawn Verge (my oldest video collaborator) and Brian Morgan, as the lead role. A cameo is made by Steven Leck who came by to operate the broom mic, and I'm sure he'll be around to work on more offline projects in the future.

We shot The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures almost two years ago. Brian and I wrote it back in the summer of 05 when I was working in a greenhouse, furiously making up for my first year school debt. We shot it in November later that year, and I did a rough edit of the first scene, which probably nearly a hundred people have seen. School picked up and I had to put it down.

When the summer of 06 came around, I was fortunate enough to go on tour with the Faun Fables, but unfortunate enough to have my computer stolen on the last gig in Hamilton. Mega-delayed but armed with a new macbook by June, I rushed to get even older work done before working on C.A.P.A. Many Beautiful Nothing and Trevor Dunn and Shelley Burgon concerts were edited that summer.

By August, a full year after completing the script, I sat down and edited the entire film, minus the end. We had shot about 6 different endings, and I couldn't decide which worked best. The movie also suffered from a plauge known as boringness. The rhythm of the cutting was so predictable, yet it had no driving pulse to keep the audience interested. As my last semester of school kicked in, I had to regrettably put down the Avengah.

Funnily enough, in February '07, I went up to Brampton for the indie arts fest, to shoot Trevor Dunn and Shelley Burgon's set. There I met Friendly Rich and got a compilation disc of artists on the bill. The Friendly Rich song on that compilation fit perfectly with the Caped Avengah. It was glorious; the movie was watchable.

Now from February until today, I'm honestly not sure why I never sat down and finished The Caped Avengah. It didn't even occur to me until writing this that it's been six months and I have no valid excuse as to why I didn't buckle down and do the less than a day's work that's left. Every now and again I'd throw myself into a project non-stop for two weeks, (such as editing the Zombie short Bloodshed, producing BDTC's People video, and most recently The Faun Fable's Transit Rider) but frankly, when it came down to my own projects, I've been fucking lazy. I think once The Transit Rider is done, I'm throwing away my producing/editing role the fuck out and replacing it with directing/writing. It's been a while. The Offline is a perfect excuse.

...So what's The Caped Avengah's Pie Adventures all about? Eh... Just check out the trailer next week and you'll get an idea.

A message to whoever makes shoelaces:

2007-09-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

YOU FAIL. More on that later. For now, here's my introduction.

I am John Baxter; welcome to my blag. I'm going to call my blag a blag because blogs are lame and I'll have none of it. Actually to be honest, I don't have much against blogs. They can be helpful if you're looking for porn, and you find a blog that writes about updates on porn sites, etc... but I just figured I didn't want to be involved with something that I only find useful on lonely nights.

...But maybe that's it! Nobody reads blogs (unless by chance while looking for porn) but everybody writes them. That's what blogging is all about! Making yourself feel important when nobody else cares! Ah... now I understand.

Well, I still don't want any part of it, so welcome to my blag, motherfuckers.

Mostly [ideally] this blag will contain video content, or posts that link to video content, or updates on future video content. Otherwise, it will most likely be a vehicle for me to complain, lament, and bitch about things that excite me or piss me off: Music, bands, shitty music, shitty bands, food, ceral boxes, shoelaces and anything else that strikes my fancy.

Back onto the subject of shoelaces. I bought a new pair of shoes recently, and when I tied them up, even with huge, gayngly* bows, the laces still hung loose enough to step on. I have big feet, so anybody with a few sizes smaller must even have an additional extra inch or so of lace dangling behind them. Fuck that. Shoe laces are a very simple device. It's not fucking rocket science. Whoever Vans hired to decide the length of the shoelaces that they throw in the box utterly, completely failed. That asshole better not get commission, because he doesn't deserve it.

Nobody comment and say "But lol, you can tuck them in!". No, you can't 'tuck them in'. If you tuck them the laces into your shoes, not only are they uncomfortable, but they will constantly fall out and you'll have to re-tuck them, looking just like some moronic girl who wears a tube top, constantly re-tucking their tits and armpit flab into what can only very loosely be described as a 'shirt'.

So to conclude... Please, anybody who reads this and happens to be a lead designer at a major shoe company, cut the shoelaces shorter, and thanks for reading my blag.

-JDB

*combined: gay + gangly