D E C E M B E R   6 ,   2 0 1 1

FINALLY, SOMETHING TO SHOW FOR THE YEAR
I feel bad that 2011 has only allowed me to write three development updates for you, dear reader. I really do. It's not for lack of trying. I just don't like talking too much about things in progress if I don't have actual stuff to show you. So let me give you a little gift for the season: My first music video is now online! (Click that previous sentence to watch it.) It's called "The Road to Hana" and it's for a one man band called State Shirt. Now, I've known many acquaintances over the years who have attempted to make music, but I genuinely like this guy's work. If I didn't, there's no way I could have endured listening to this song several hundred times while editing the video (which I also conceived, directed, and shot most of). I'm proud of this thing, so check it out.

I also have news along the personal filmmaking front: I finally recorded the voiceover for A Trophy, the short that I shot literally one year ago. Getting the voiceover done was the one true obstacle (besides my own busy schedule) that kept me from editing. Now that this crucial part of the film is in the can, I should be able to get into post-production next month... Unless yet more freelance work gets in the way, that is. Without divulging too much, I can say that, other than a couple of design-oriented gigs I'm deep into at the moment, there are two really cool projects in the pipeline. One is an interactive children's book and one is an online screenwriting course. Yes, really. Neither of these has been written in stone yet - it all depends on somebody else signing a contract and a check, which will either happen this month or never - but they're far enough along for me to at least cite them as reasons why I've been so busy this autumn. If they don't pan out, this is the last you will hear of either of them, and the upside is that I will be able to concentrate on A Trophy. But if they do move forward, I'll keep you in the loop.

Oh, one more thing: I wrote Jesse Eisenberg's voiceover intro for the Rio animated Blu-ray, as well as text for the headlines for the newspaper montage in A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas as well as some phony Cosmopolitan-style questionnaires for the title sequence of the comedy What's Your Number? which was released a couple months ago to little fanfare. Yours to enjoy on cable someday soon!

A U G U S T   9 ,   2 0 1 1

48 HOURS (AND 8 MONTHS) LATER...
Well, this is embarrassing. I've never taken so long to post an update. Apologies. For those who come here regularly, you'll note that I have continued to add movie reviews and Lists of 9, so it's not like I have neglected this site. That said, I've written fewer lists than usual this year, because I have been much busier than I expected to be. My freelance career has seen a marked improvement over 2010, and ever since January I have been very active with both writing and design work. For the most part, I've been supplying the copy for various special features on major studio Blu-ray releases, though as usual I'm not allowed to say what they are until they come out. (Things I wrote last year on the discs for HBO's True Blood and Treme were released in the last couple of months.) I will say that this year involved writing a voiceover for a recently Oscar-nominated actor and even jokes for a popular late night talk show host. Quite unexpected in both cases. On top of that, if you squint, you can see my text in the opening credits of the comedy Your Highness here, and two upcoming studio comedies feature my words in special animated sequences. I've also gotten back into the web design business, launching three brand new sites in 2011 already, with more to come. Finally, I made an animated video for a PR company, which was pretty cute. Feel free to check it out.

Meanwhile, my live action film career yet lives! I once again wrote the screenplay for this year's 48 Hour Film Project competition. Working for my producer friend Dom Zook (who also starred in Party Pooper and my upcoming A Trophy - more on that in a second), this is the second year that I have written for his team, after directing two years ago. All this went down just last weekend, so I haven't even seen the finished film yet. If we win any awards after our premiere next week, I will post a little addendum. And in July I directed my first music video, a low-budget effort for State Shirt. It still needs to be edited, but I'll post a link to it when it's done. Speaking of editing, what is going on with that short film I shot last December (see previous update)? Well, the aforementioned A Trophy - that's the title for now - has been on the back burner because I kept waiting for a good lull in my freelance work to edit it. The noisy distractions of heavy renovations on the property where I live - nine months and counting - have provided another excuse not to get to it. But the freelance lull has arrived, the construction work is slowing to an end, and I promise I will finish this film.

J A N U A R Y   2 ,   2 0 1 1

A NEW YEAR, A NEW SHORT
2011 is already off to an active start for those of me here at Cassava Films. To begin with, I shot a new short film in December, and over the next month or two I will be editing it. This is a much more serious film than my last few shorts, and if it turns out all right, I will even enter it into festivals - something I haven't really done in over a decade. But I think this film has the potential for better things than the YouTube dumping ground (though I'd like to live in a world where Party Pooper and Ron and Nancy would be welcomed by festivals). I can't tell you too much about it, except that it stars Party Pooper's Dom Zook as a lonely filmmaker who gets wrapped up in the dark side of Hollywood history, and that I shot it mostly outside, guerrilla style - kind of a new thing for me - all around Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. I haven't even nailed down a title for it yet. But I will keep you updated on its status.

At the same time, I continue to slog away on freelance writing, design, and even animation gigs. After my writing work on The Other Guys' end credit sequence earned a surprising amount of press last summer, I've been providing the company who designed those titles with "background text" for no fewer than four major 2011 releases (three theatrical features and one TV movie). I'll reveal their titles once the movies come out and I know my work has survived. As for my own third feature, I continue to play the waiting game. My potential financier had originally suggested a springtime shoot in Florida, but has informed me that this will be postponed, although he says he still intends to have me write and direct this thing. As always, until a contract has been signed and the check clears the bank, I remain skeptical - but hopeful. Happy New Year!

Copyright © Mark Tapio Kines 2012