blog seven

2012-03-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

New to Blog 7?

Please read the explanation first.

2009-12-25T01:32:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - Review

Although this poster (below) looks like a parody, I assure you that the motion picture "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" is quite real. I actually saw it on television in LA on Christmas Eve. Point of fact, this classic bizarro-world 1964 holiday movie is so incredibly ridiculous and bizarre, I couldn't turn it off. It was so bad, it was great, if that statement even makes sense.

A subsequent check on Wikipedia and IMDB let to the discovery that "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" has actually been voted one of the worst movies in the history of cinema. In fact, the film and the actors who performed in it were banned from the Soviet Union for over twenty-two years after the film's release, mostly due to unspecified reasons pertaining to national security.

If you want a laugh sometime, check out "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" -- just make sure you have a glass of wine at your side when you press play.

2009-12-24T13:32:00.001-08:00

Happy Festivus ...
and everything else.

2009-12-23T17:54:00.001-08:00

Progress.

As of today, My Immortal screenplay 2.0 is complete, and we have begun consolidating the 100 hours or so of footage that we got from the Renegades December camp weekend.

In terms of My Immortal, now comes the hard part that I have been putting off so long. My goal is to finish turning the screenplay into a novel ... something I thought would be very easy and quick, but has turned out to be anything but easy and quick. Argh. Seatbelt = on.

2009-12-23T11:18:00.001-08:00

Prague: Canon 1DMKIV from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

2009-12-22T21:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays.

2009-12-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

We rented the car racing video game "Need for Speed - Shift," by EA. I'm not usually a fan of racing games, but this one is genius.

2009-12-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

Props.

Today, I had coffee with an actor/producer client who always wears a name tag ... the sole exception being auditions, when he forgoes the name tag for a motorcycle helmet ... the genius point behind this particular unique marketing strategy is that each "prop" immediately gravitates the conversation in the room towards him, instead of the other way around. Everyone talks to him, and everyone remembers him.

2009-12-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

San Francisco
Copyright Lee Rudnicki 2009

2009-12-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

Behind the scenes of the holiday, there are few interesting, albeit unexpected, developments taking place in my entertainment work right now. This could be a good start to the New Year.

2009-12-22T02:40:00.001-08:00

Writing Project #1.

The first writing project this week is to complete the final proofread to My Immortal 2.0, the vampire screenplay which now begins (briefly) in the present day Berlin instead of 1945. Basically, I did a few things to tailor the screenplay to a target audience that is more Hollywood and less German, a valuable lesson I learned from the German filmmakers themselves at AFM and Cannes.

Once script 2.0 is done and the plan is refined ... we go at it again. And again and again and again and again ... until this film gets made.

2009-12-21T17:24:00.001-08:00

2009-12-21T14:05:00.000-08:00

Checking out.

I finished most of the work I needed to get done prior to the holidays, deactivated my Facebook account, and plan to be extremely selfish with my time for the next two weeks.

It's time to write and it's time to put the finishing touches on the plan for 2010, a year that I expect just might be my break out year in the entertainment industry. We'll see...

2009-12-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

Asukusa, Japan.
Photo copyright Lee Rudnicki 2009

2009-12-18T01:52:00.000-08:00

Late Night Extremely Jet-Lagged Rambling Thoughts

Thursday. Wait, no. Friday. Oh. Friday morning, just about 3:00 a.m.

Okay. I'm sitting down to write something on Blog 7 because I don't count sheep and there is not much to do anywhere outside of Vegas at this hour. I'm very tired and absolutely wide awake, and still kinda sorta on Tokyo time ... I say "kinda sorta," because to the best of my recollection, I was never quite sure what time or day it was the entire time I was in Japan. It was fun, productive, adventurous and cool ... but it's all a bluuuur.

You see, when you travel to Japan from the United States, you immediately lose most of yesterday when you step off the plane. It's like entering the Twilight Zone as the 1976 Cleveland Browns beat the Steelers. Your internal clock is turned upside down and kicked by the realities of jets that fly faster than the Earth spins. Kinda not really. In any case, you get off the plane at Narita and suddenly your day is night, night is day, cats are dogs, Scranton is Harajuku and so forth.

Eventually, after a wonderful time in a country whose biggest fault seems to be that f*cking glass of iced tea that costs six dollars at the Ducky Duck, you get on a plane to come home ... you might fly through the 3rd worst turbulence since the Battle of Britain, the 5th worst move since Waterworld (Harry Potter and the Half Baked Prince) and the 17th worst meal since the Donner Expedition ... then, you step off the plane at LAX and do Wednesday all over again, just like the film Groundhog Day.

The catch being that you go to work, instead of downing beers as you try to kill a super-genius Kenny-Loggins-loving rodent on a golf course. Oh wait. Wrong Bill Murray movie. Anyway, the time change coming back is Groundhog Day without the part where he sleeps between scenes. Or something like that.

OK cats, I hope you had as fun reading these ridiculous probably-not-very-creative rambling thoughts as I wrote them at 3:00 AM on a Thursday. Errrrrr ... Friday. See you later alligator, I gotta go count sheep --

Lee

2009-12-17T17:28:00.001-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC. Crunchy Frog is proud to announce the addition of Chris Nalls as the Director of Coverert Operations for the 2010 competitive season. Chris will work closely with Crunchy Musical Director Wayne Downey on the design of an intense show entitled "An Xtreme Musical Tribute to Wayne Downey, the Awesomest Arranger Who has 400 More Brass Trophies Than All of Us Put Together." When asked about his sudden decision to join the 2010 Crunchy Frog staff, Chris simply stated "I am going to assemble the best brass players on the planet. And I think we gotta come up with a better show title."

On a related note, Crunchy Frog legend Mistress Kelli has rejoined the frog organization to assume the post of Hot Assistant Director (H.A.D.), a title that sounds far less menacing than Director of Cover Operations but is actually quite evil in and of itself. Joining Mistress Kelli in her chaotic duties with the Frog will be the former vampire lesbian from Anthrax Ripple, Evil Lolita, who will serve as the on-stage conductor for the Mini Corps.

Crunchy Frog will compete as a Mini Corps at the 2010 DCA World Championships, followed by a command performance by the Crunchy Frog Alumni Corps in the streets of Rochester that will in all likelihood result in chaos, mass confusion, international sanctions, seven degrees of global warming and approximately 406 complaint emails sent to Tom Peashey.

This is the final Crunchy Frog announcement for 2009. We mean it this time. Really.

2009-12-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

Back in LA ...

Blog 7 will return very soon.

2009-12-11T16:35:00.000-08:00

Running amok in Tokyo ....

2009-12-04T10:28:00.000-08:00

Vanguard 88

2009-12-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

2009-12-01T16:08:00.001-08:00

After six weeks of preparation, planning and meetings ... we have assembled HD cameras, mics, crew, writers, a composer, a professional post-production team, and one of the top reality television producers in Hollywood to help us put it all together. Barring any unforeseen last-minute debacle (always a possibility) ... we should come out of this weekend of rehearsals with episode #1. If not, I will need beer.

2009-11-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

The reality show pilot has just taken a huge step forward.

2009-11-29T11:54:00.001-08:00

2009-11-24T10:51:00.000-08:00

Ironies response to Responsibility.
Subtitle: Life imitating art imitating life imitating life imitating art.

I left the wrap party for Hated last night before 1:00 a.m., so that I could get enough sleep to function this morning. Then, Buzz the dog got sick, and I found myself taking him outside over and over until 3:00 a.m. (he's okay). I felt like I was living in a sitcom for an evening, and I went to sleep around 4:00 a.m. with a bemused smile on my face. As I write this, I'm a little tired. lol.

2009-11-23T20:51:00.000-08:00