Well, first off the first thing to take note of in the world of Boo is the new site for the BLOG and JOURNAL ENTRIES – PeterJohnRoss.com. This was a wonderful birthday present from my best friend. It’s one of those surprise gifts you’d never ask for but has a lot of meaning and uses you never considered. Big shout out to the Moe for this handy gift of a domain and site. More so than usual, I am incredibly busy. I’ve been hired and been steadily working on editing a DV feature for a Dayton filmmaker. It’s a fun feature from a first time director and I am definitely making a contribution, it’s someone else’s vision. I started with a rough cut of the whole movie, so I am really just doing the fine cut and then final edits, plus sound mix & sound design. This is where a lot of my time has gone because it’s a paid gig.
The days of generosity are not as fruitful as they once were. I’ve sacrificed a lot of my time, energy, passion, and soul to other people’s projects, and I have no regrets, but it’s my time. I feel I’ve earned respect and also the right to charge for what I do, even to filmmakers. There’s enough in terms of equipment and experience that I offer that make me worth the meager amounts I’m charging. Besides, food needs to be put in the fridge and on the table.
I have just made my formal call for Interns to get some help with the many editorial endeavors I have on my plate. There’s just more work than one person can handle, and sadly very little of it is actually for Sonnyboo Productions ® or me. These are gigs for the greater good and other filmmakers. There’s a 16mm feature from my past that I was not involved with, but have agreed to help out on with the edit. There’s a lot to be done with a feature like synching sound to 7 tapes of raw footage as well as separating the clips into scenes and creating a whole organizational pipeline so that more than one person can make sense of the muddled mess that is the raw footage, sound, music, titles, etc. that make up a feature film.
There will be 2-3 interns working alongside myself & Micah on these projects as we kick off 2007 with the mountain of work here. I’ve (miracle of miracles) had interns before. This is the first time I’ve solicited them, though. I need the help and don’t mind giving some edit time for free, a chance to get some other people trained and involved in the editing process. Much to my surprise, I have well over 20 applicants and I will actually have to make choices. This surprised me because I didn’t think I’d get more than 3-4 people interested. Lucky for me there is a strong movement at the Ohio State University with their new film studies major and some fans of the Boo there spreading the good word.
With Horrors of War, we have hours of footage and interviews that never saw the light of day. I’d like the more experienced editorial interns to take a crack at making something of those that can be found on the internet or on DVD for the cast & crew who got left on the cutting room floor. We still have no clue how much of what we turned in will or won’t be used for the North American DVD release (although I guarantee that no foreign market will even know we have DVD extras). Myself, I can’t stand to contemplate spending minutes nonetheless hours staring at me or listening to chatter about HORRORS of WAR. It’s “of the past” for me, but there’s still an obligation to the people who threw down for us to get their time in the light.
I shan’t go a rant, but I will say that I am yet again a target of someone’s deep seeded emotions. On the FOX network’s ON THE LOT contest site, I locked horns with a local filmmaker. Funnily enough, I said nothing harmful or derogatory, but this guy lost his Shiite as if I told him to spend more time with his kids or something. I confess to a deep seeded interest in the wackos who read this very blog often, make mention of it, or write about it or your faithful narrator, and then claim they aren’t obsessed.
Let’s face some facts. When someone says they are basing a character in their script on you over the past 3 years; that sends a pretty clear message: YOU ARE OBSESSED. I don’t even base any characters on myself anymore. I have to write about people who are more interesting than some guy who spends most of his time on the Internet writing to obsessed fanatics. The truth is I still can’t comprehend or relate to the people who find me or my writings online and then become fixated on my and my goings on. When I don’t like someone or something, I tend to ignore it or stop paying attention, and then they/it ceases to be a problem. For some people, and good God, I mean more than I can count on my fingers and toes now, they want to explore this further and make a confrontation. At that point, I get interested for brief periods of time because I can’t see what’s so interesting about me. I love a good debate and the impending scrap, but then I get bored and move on.
I don’t care if you only spend 10 minutes a week writing about me or my stuff, but please dear God, I hope you find a more fulfilling hobby. Thank God I have My Sexy Girlfriend Veronica ™ and a life outside of this virtual world where geeks are Gods and the sad & lonely find purpose in annoyance. You’d think I’d have a deeper understanding of the crazies by now, but I don’t. I’m no closer to truly comprehending the mindset of the disturbed.
The great & powerful Scott Spears defines eloquently by saying that I am “polarizing”. People Either love me or hate me and there’s little in the middle. I am what I am, and I don’t have a problem with who I am. I sleep well at night.
I was recently told that I will get what I deserve and that fate will play its role out. Sadly, this was meant to be a portent into the future for my demise, but based on the world I live in, I think I will get what I deserve, but my fate seems to be looking more positive. I’ve got financing for at least one of my features this year and the 2nd seems imminent, regardless it may happen too. When 2007 started, I was feeling the squeeze from a lack of paid work, but by Mid-February I will be doing well again, plus the Interns will help on the workload (who says they can’t get help in Columbus Ohio???). In March I’m going to Europe on someone else’s dime to do research on their feature, plus have a bit o’ fun. In April, I get a new car that’s been earmarked for me. Yup. I’m getting what I deserve all right.
The cats are dubious these days. I don’t trust either of them for very long. Their alliances are fragile and our Rossdonia is held together by a thread of peace. Our troops are tired and want to come home, but the difference in beliefs is so strong, we can’t let them police themselves. I tried training the cats to do their own security but they weren’t trained properly. Our troops need more body armor, but the vice president failed to submit the proper requisition. Damn government!
Time to get back to the grindstone of editorial work.
Love and special sauce for all the peeps of Sonnyboo,
PjR, the real one
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