Doug Broke His Arm

Yep, he sat on it snowboarding. Shattered his wrist. He was in a cast past his elbow for a few weeks. Now he's got a shorty - cast that is.
Side note - "Whack Off Hand" - good name for a band.

Fairness

This blog has taken a number of friendly swipes at some of the characters here at Filmcore. Doug, Carl, Christa, Ricardo, Tracy, Fender have all been stung. Some of these swipes have followed an evening of extracurricular activity. So, in the spirit of this very blog's Motto, "Tracking our news without fear or favor.", here is one image that displays the success(?) of our inaugural Filmcore Drinks party. Guess the man with the middle finger and you win a night at the Crow Bar with yours truly.

FCSF CONSTRUCTION - DAY SEVENTY ONE

Still moving forward steadily.

Items of note:
Distribution gets some lovely afternoon sunlight.
Rumblings of who wants which edit suite are being heard.
Our Engineering/wiring crew grew to doubled in size last week from 2 to 4.
Ceilings are being dropped in the edit suites.
One month'ish out from the space being delivered.
Move in'ish some time after that.
(April Showers bring May movers?)


LOTS OF SPARKS ABOVE
AND
LOTS OF WALLS BELOW.

Super Bowl Spots

The other day Carl mentioned that he was surprised
that I didn't do a post on this years Super Bowl spots.
Then last night I saw the FedEx "Caveman" spot again.
So without further ado, here some highlights.

FedEx.
Kicking the doggie dino is funny.

Sprint.
Throwing the phone twice is funny.

Burger King.
The Busby Berkeley meat patty is gross.
The lyric about the "freaky" King is funny.

Cars.
My boy, Jack, loved it.

Budweiser "Magic Fridge".
Not original(at all) - but something about it made me laugh.

Hummer.
Odd and old.

United Airlines "Dragon".
Beautiful animation by Jamie Caliri.

Gillette.
Simply the finest commercial ever made.

Go here to see the rest.

Vagina

Yes, you read that right. Wondering what vaginas have to do with Filmcore and advertising? Well, everything. Think about it. But let's focus on two things: our receptionist at FCSF, Sam and The Vagina Monologues. Sam is an actress and director. Last night she performed in the Obie-Award winning play The Vagina Monologues. Written by Eve Ensler, the play presents eight highly personal stories. These stories, drawn from interviews with hundreds of women around world, range from the tragic, to the historical, to the hilarious. This particular production was put on in celebration of V-Day, which is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls that grew out of Ensler's experience performing the play around the world.

Held at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, last nights show was attended by a number of the FCSF crew, including a few equipped with a penis. We watched as Sam, wearing a black dress, black boots and red kimono with lipstick to match, took the stage with her fellow actors. This production departed from the original sole performer staging by presenting each monologue from a separate actor. As we watched, we got brief hits of Sam as she chimed in during the ensemble sections. I have to say that while I enjoyed and appreciated each monologue, I was growing a bit impatient for Sam's turn. And then, she took center stage for a highly entertaining monologue that drew a near standing ovation. Let's just say that Sam's role made me quickly dismiss Meg Ryan's famous display in When Harry Met Sally. If you haven't seen it, the play is a must see. The show raised $12,000 for numerous women's organizations in the Bay Area. Kudos to Sam and The Vagina Monologues.

Hit The Links

After realizing that this very blog has attracted a large and devoted following, I thought I should add some features to enhance the experience. Please take notice of the list of links in the right column. Here you can find many of your favorite and hopefully some new internet destinations regarding our industry. I am humbled by the fact that the Filmcore blog has evolved from a mere cyber sidenote into a powerful portal at your fingertips. I will continue to push the edge on this internet envelope.

Editors, Crash and The Academy

I have contemplated numerous posts on the Oscars:
My predictions, my reviews of the Best picture nominees, suggestions for Jon Stewart, analysis of the Editor nominees, a post show review of the entire extravaganza.

But, alas, I chose to hold off. Who cares. All of you out there in the land of the Filmcore Blog don't need to hear me bloviating about the Oscars. (Only those in the FCSF office are subjected that.)

With that said, I was sent a Hollywood Reporter article covering the post mortem on the surprise win of Crash. Go here to read the whole thing. Most of it we already know or have read in other places. However, growing up in Hollywood and considering myself a know-it-all regarding all things Oscar, the credit given to Editor Cabal is new to me.

Moreover, insiders are also pointing to a little known piece of Oscar trivia -- which I'm happy to say I pointed out here last Friday -- which is that not since 1980's "Ordinary People" has a film won the best picture Oscar without also having had a nomination for best film editing. As we now realize but weren't thinking about pre-Oscars, "Brokeback" wasn't a film editing nominee this year. "Crash" was. In fact, "Crash" film editor Hughes Winborne wound up taking home the Oscar for his work on the picture. Insiders claim that film editors don't vote for best picture nominees that aren't also best film editing nominees. There are 239 members of the Academy's Film Editors branch. If we add their votes to the 1,238 votes that quite possibly weren't cast at all, that's a total of 1,477 votes -- nearly 24% of the total Academy membership -- that didn't go to "Brokeback."

There you have it. Till next year.
(Hat tip to my father in-law Abbas for the Hollywood Reporter link.)

FCSF CONSTRUCTION - DAY FIFTY NINE

Sparks are flying(see second pic below) at the 500 Sansome space.
Construction is 60% percent complete.
Tony and his right hand karate specialist(see below) Peter are in full wiring mode.
They have manufactured "baloney tube" to run "a 1000 Base T
10 Giga Bit Infrastructure and 550 MHZ Video" using 3 inch conduit
to drive diagonal through the walls.
Asked when the wiring will be done Tony responded that you can
"...never really be done with wiring... just terminate the ends...it makes it more flexible."
The quote of the interview was this, "This place will have 550 megahertz of video.
And this place has put the MEGA HURT on me."


TIDY.


GO HERE FOR THE MICHAEL SEMBELLO
"MANIAC" VIDEO FOR FLASHDANCE.


OOHHH...CABLE TRAYS.


THE KARATE KID "CRANE" POSITION

Oy.

Punk Rock is dead. Or maybe, just maybe, it is born again.
You decide. Take a look at this.
(Hat tip to my lovely wife Heather, who somehow spotted this while zipping through TIVO.)

The Cult

Rock icons The Cult have always had an eclectic fan-base of Goths, jocks, head-bangers and suburbanites, amongst others. Wednesday’s Fillmore gig can add post-production professionals to the mix as Filmcore’s own Doug Walker, Tim Brooks, Carl Cordova, Brian Lagerhausen, Kat Keegan and yours truly, Tim Fender, were in attendance for what would kick off the band’s 2006 tour.

Commencing with pizza and beers at Pizza Inferno we were in an anticipatory mood as we loped down Fillmore Street towards the hallowed doors of The Fillmore. Following the prerequisite security pat-down everyone headed for the bar except me because I had been imbibing all afternoon with our very own Nikki Winig at Club Filmcore. Why drink $5 beers when you can suck them down for free? Thanks Ascent Media.

After anticipating the show for weeks due to Carl’s heavy iTunes rotation of the classic albums “Love”, “Electric” and “Sonic Temple” we were eager for the house lights to dim, but would have to wait as The Cult must have been getting their substances aligned backstage. Or perhaps they were pondering the fact that they were only the second most famous cult to populate the block after Jim Jones, who had previously housed his People’s Temple next door. In any event we were ready to drink the hard rock Kool-Aid, along with the sold-out crowd of 40ish white dudes (present company excluded) who somehow found the time to break away from an evening of “American Idol”.

Finally at 9:15, founding members Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy took to the stage and were joined on drums by metal basher John Tempesta (Testament, Helmet, White Zombie), longhaired bassist Chris Wyse (Ozzy Osbourne, Jerry Cantrell) and a bespectacled rhythm guitarist who only occasionally emerged from the shadows and shall remain anonymous.

Opening with a rousing rendition of “War” off 2001’s “Beyond Good and Evil”, we were treated to a camouflage draped Astbury striking a Rock-God like pose at the edge of the stage, legend status intact. Meanwhile, Duffy parked it in front of his wall of Marshalls, conjuring up the image of 1989’s “Sonic Temple” cover-art. Technical difficulties threatened to mar the festivities not long after however, but surprisingly, the band rolled with it. Putting up with several microphone failures, the likes of which are usually only seen in Filmcore’s Avid rooms, Astbury had to make due by utilizing bassist Wyse’s microphone on “New York City”. The notoriously pouty Astbury at one point even joked that the band had found their flustered microphone technician toiling at a Radio Shack. Likewise, Tempesta soldiered on despite having to have his hi-hat clutch reaffixed mid-song after it loosened from his assault. Guitarist Duffy seemed a tad miffed however when his Les Paul ceased to function midway through “Rain”, a song he had just introduced as one of his favorites.

Following one of their more forgettable numbers, “The Witch”, the rhythm section vacated so Astbury and Duffy could convene center-stage ala Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and perform an acoustic version of “Edie (Ciao Baby)”. This had the potential to be an embarrassing, Spinal Tappish, moment, but guitarist Duffy showed himself to be more than just a power-chord wielding Neanderthal and Astbury’s exposed lyrics took on a more emotional slant than the electrified version normally allows. The site of the two, oft-feuding band-mates performing under a lone spotlight left the impression that future collaborations could also be in the works.

“Revolution” followed and helped ramp up the energy for perhaps the best moment of the night, “Peace Dog”. Utilizing the song’s final, fiery chorus, Astbury connected with the audience in a spirited back and forth of “PEACE!”… “DOG!” which somehow seemed fitting in the city that brought you the Summer of Love. Editor Walker was particularly moved as he thrust his cast-laden broken arm skyward, pain notwithstanding. Following this spectacle, Skinsman Tempesta kicked “Fire Woman” into high gear with a thunderous flam on his snare that made it clear all his metal schooling had not gone to waste. Rounding out the set were “Wonderland”, “Sweet Soul Sister” and “Rise”. “Sweet Soul Sister” especially satisfying with it’s “hustle and strut” lyrical breakdown by the now t-shirt clad Astbury that had even the skeptical Tim Brooks bobbing his shaven skull to and fro.

Next it was time for the obligatory encores and the crowd, given it’s advanced age, anticipated 20 more minutes of bashing, followed soon thereafter by bedtime. What we were treated to though was “The Phoenix” which featured a wonderful wah-wah guitar intro and concise, rock-solid solos by bassist Wyse and the relentless Tempesta. Next up was “She Sells Sanctuary” which saw the opening guitar lick doubled to 16 bars because sometimes 8 isn’t enough. This effective technique was also used to build the intensity during the bridge so that the song’s signature drum break felt even more powerful. Apparently 2 decades of performing has taught The Cult a thing or two about getting the most bang for their 1985 buck.

Encore 2 was a return to basics, with the bone-crunching splendor of “Wild Flower” (performed just 2 nights earlier on The Craig Ferguson Show) and “Love Removal Machine”. It was the later’s fast-paced, punk-inspired conclusion that finally finished us off and sent us out into the rainy night with commemorative posters in our hands, smiles on our faces and a ringing in our ears which ought to last until the next time The Cult rolls through in 2010.

- The above was lovingly crafted by Mr. Timothy Fender.

HAMMERTIME!

I haven't thought about M.C. Hammer (born Stanley Kirk Burrell) in years. Yet today, I ran across an item in the news about his blog. My first thought was "Everybody thinks they can blog." My second thought was about the night I worked on a Hammer video in '96 or '97. This was a comeback video. A lengthy "narrative" about Hammer being tempted by and doing battle with Satan himself opened the video. Another editor was suppose to start cutting the video the next day. Hammer showed up at 6pm the night before expecting to work.

(One side note: Hammer's Hummer was parked curbside downstairs. This was before Hummer's became the emasculated version they are today. Also, this was soon after his much public bankruptcy.)

So there I was, drafted to work with Hammer for the night. I was just starting to cut and learning the ropes of dealing with a pushy client. My producer told him that I could only work till 10pm.

So we began.
Two of his "posse" - the oh so popular term at the time - sat behind us, silent on the couch. Hammer sat right next to me. We jumped in and banged out most of it by 10pm. At the stroke of the hour, Hammer placed a crisp $100 bill in the keyboard saying, "Dude, we are so close. Let's push on for one more hour." I smiled, pocketed the c-note and kept working. Hammer knew the video "wasn't all that", yet he worked hard to make it as good as it could be. At the stroke of 11pm Hammer placed another $100 bill in the keyboard saying, "Dude, we'll finish by midnight." I smiled and pocketed that c-note too. We did indeed finish by midnight.
He thanked me profusely and rumbled off into the night in that Hummer.

That was about ten years ago. Between then and now Hammer has been all over VH1 in: "I Love the '90s", "Behind the Music", "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs... Ever", and, of course, "The Surreal Life". He has emerged from bankruptcy, started a blog and helped out down in New Orleans.
God bless M.C. Hammer, $100 bills, and Blogs.
Go here for some HAMMERTIME!