Fat Monster In Malibu

Saturday night made a cross-town run to Malibu to catch a performance by the band MIGGS and a post-show meeting with front man Don Miggs. The band's 2005 album Insomnia was produced by Gavin MacKillop (Goo Goo Dolls, Barenaked Ladies, Sugarcult) and received enthusiastic reviews in the music press. Unfortunately, the band's label went bankrupt leaving the band to do promotion themselves (over 150 tour stops in 2007 alone). The band moved more than 20,000 copies of Insomnia at merchandise tables and New Jersey record label Rock Ridge Music has agreed to publish a new MIGGS album (Unraveled) to be released in June 2008.

The band is committed to having Fat Monster Films produce the video for the album's launch single and we discussed tentative schedules for production. The label has yet to choose the single for the video or commit to a budget so that last night's meeting could only be an exchange of good will and good intentions. Don, however, expressed his commitment to bringing Fat Monster on board with the only issue being whether we could work with whatever budget the label gives him.

In truth, the band's schedule fits our own better than an early production push. This week sees us shooting a short film project with talent and crew flying in from the East Coast and immediately thereafter we will be shooting a video for I Hate Kate before flying to Washington for the Vienna Teng shoot on Whidbey Island. Moreover, this week Tim has been negotiating with a band that hopes to shoot a video for their single "as soon as humanly possible." Given that we have forensic video projects set in Alabama, Virginia, Georgia and out here in San Bernardino we simply do not have the calendar bandwidth to take on a MIGGS project before March.

Of course, staying busy is what this business is all about and you will hear no complaints from us.

After the MIGGS meeting we stopped by Hollywood to call on Stuart Ortiz who was holding court among candles in his apartment. Stuart related a pretty amusing story about how the place came with electricity turned on and the juice flowed for more than three months so that Stuart sort of assumed the utilities came with the rent. Somebody at PG&E pulled a switch this weekend so that Stuart is without lights until Monday. Stuart's wide circle of friends assured a continuous supply of beer and candles so that he's not hurting in the least.

Stuart did give us more information on a feature film project he will be co-writing and shooting in Canada this spring and we'll keep our eye on it for you all.