Another Sunny Day in Los Angeles

Our short film "Where The Heart Lies" placed third in its first festival submission for the dvxuser "love fest" on line festival. Approximately 50 films were entered and we missed second place by two points and first place by seven. We are busily editing a longer festival version that will compete in several short film festivals from coast to coast.

Meanwhile, we are also working on a new short film project that we are very enthused about. We've got a first draft of the script and have already attached some serious talent to the cast and crew. More details to be released in time. Suffice it to say that we're happiest when we're making films and we feel particularly good about this new project.

We are constantly reminded why we love living out here in the Los Angeles basin with so many resources. Tim was seeking some assistance with art direction on one of our upcoming music videos and pulled up one of the many long lists of contacts that you can find on L.A. websites. He found a listing for a gentleman who simply had "production designer" next to his name. Tim called him and started asking about helping with art direction and the guy politely said, "Well, I'm probably not able to work in your budget but perhaps I can help you on the phone with some ideas." They discussed some issues and the man was really helpful and spent a lot of time on the call. Before they hung up he told Tim to call back if he wanted to run some more stuff by him. Only then did we look him up on line to find that he's the Production Designer who did "12 Monkeys", David Fincher's "The Game" and was nominated for an academy award for his work on "Dances with Wolves." Sometimes Hollywood can really surprise you when you find people who REALLY care about helping others and especially helping the little indie film makers who often get overlooked.

I had a similar experience as I was running down some prop assistance for our new short film project. While scouting some locations a studio manager gave me a number for a prop designer, who I was told might be able to help us. Not having any idea who he was, I called him and had a remarkable conversation along with his commitment to help us figure out how to shoot our concept on a tight budget. I later learned that he has done everything from Alien: Resurrection, Star Trek: Voyager, The X-Files and Independence Day. I dissolved into fanboy mode when he mentioned that he did all five years of Babylon 5 and still has a ton of the props and costumes in his garage. The guy was as friendly as though I'd known him for years and he invited us to come over this weekend to look through his stuff. As I said, sometimes Hollywood can surprise you.

Fat Monster Short Film Begins Festival Run

The FatMonster short film Where The Heart Lies will be competing in several film festivals this spring and summer. The film is a modern "noir" piece involving deception and betrayal within a marriage. The lead role is played by Ana Alexander, who has numerous film and television credits including starring roles in Vegas, CSI Miami, Two and a Half Men, Sleeper Cell and many others.

Early responses have been very positive and we are optimistic that the short film will receive recognition for its production values and script. A short six-minute version of the film was recently entered in one of the largest on-line film festivals (the DVXUSER fest) along with approximately 50 other entries and winners for the festival are expected to be announced today (Monday February 25). Wish us luck!

Return to Hollywood

After five days on Whidbey Island shooting the Vienna Teng video it was spectacular to get back home. Shortly after returning, Tim and I received an invitation to attend a true hollywood glitz party at Social Hollywood for the launch of the nicole Khristine jewelry line. Lots of celebrities and hoi polloi in attendance. Brooke Mueller, Billy Morrison, Jane Kaczmarek, Cheryl Hines, Rachel Hunter, Jerry Rice, Hanson and Diedra Hall to name some. Given that we're not tabloid worthy (yet) it was nice to get a chance to step into the tinsel world for a look-see. As soon as we walked in Tim bumped into Snoop Dogg and we realized this was definitely more up-scale than our usual bud-light and chips soirees.

While there we were able to network with Don Miggs and his manager to discuss the upcoming music video that Fat Monster will be doing to accompany the release of the new MIGGS album. Best guess is that we will commence production in March.

Back in California

It took twelve hours, but we finally rolled in last night around 11 p.m. only to find that Southwest lost our bags. Although we had archived our footage onto a terrabyte hard drive and had it with us, the thought of losing all our gear made going to sleep a little tough. Fortunately, around 2 a.m. a courier brought everything to the studio.

We just got a little clip from Steven Dempsey, the DP on the project. He was running a camcorder on the next to last night on the island when Vienna played a few songs for the crew and local friends at Huckleberry Hill. Here's an excerpt of The Tower. Our host, Dean Petrich, apologized profusely for not eliminating the squeak on the sustain pedal! http://www.pinelakefilms.com/fatmonster/vienna2.mp4

The Fat Monster Films credo is "We depend upon the kindness of strangers and the science of happy accidents." Time and again it seems that Fortuna has smiled on us when the odds were against any reasonable hope for success. On this particular shoot we started out by being pulled over by a Washington State Trooper as we were speeding down Interstate 5. When he gave us a warning along with cheerful directions to the ferry we felt it was an omen that karma was still in place.

Now that the weekend shoot is over we can see that the omen was accurate. Everything fell into place for what was one of our best outings to date. One of the best happy accidents this time was our finding Dean Petrich -- a professional clown, talented piano technician and our host for the weekend. Dean gave us the run of Huckleberry Hill with its beautiful wooded land, zip lines, hot tubs and trampolines. We actually used two locations on his property for the Vienna video.

We have learned that Whidbey Island (at least the south side) is intensely populated by artists, musicians, writers, poets and various refugees from the 60's who all have a "building-codes-be-damned" attitude. On this trip alone we saw houses with tunnels between rooms, a living room with a trapeze installed in the ceiling, a tetrahedral swing contraption and a collection of stilts that filled a warehouse. However, the king of eclectic is Dean Petrich who has built a rambling compound from found materials without paying a cent. The place has multi levels with all sorts of personal touches, including a high tower that you can reach only by climbing a narrow metal ladder in the dark (at night). Vienna chose to sleep there the last night she stayed. As an aside, the next morning when she came to breakfast I commented, "Hey V.T., I guess the tower was pretty rough last night, huh?" She replied "maybe a little rushed." You see, the night before she played an impromptu concert for the crew and friends and she thought I was referring to her song "The Tower."

Dean Petrich will always be special to us because we could not have pulled off the shoot without him. He helped us pick out the piano we used on the beach by allowing us to sort through all 150+ pianos he keeps on his property. When we found one with a beautiful case and decent keys he got it in playing order by taking apart the beast and drying out each key/hammer assembly with a hair dryer. Finally, he used his truck to get the piano to the beach where we muscled the damn thing all the way to the isolated spot that Tim had chosen.

Right now Tim and I are in Sacramento trying to get home to L.A. The flights have been delayed and we've been hitting the airport bars while running up prodigious bar tabs. We can only hope that Vienna is safely home in New York now and that she's catching up on much needed sleep after a hard weekend in the brutal weather of February.

Mark Johnson - Fat Monster Films

On Whidbey Island with Vienna Teng

Our small, but truculent Fat Monster crew arrived at the Seattle Airport on the morning of January 31 and rented an overpriced SUV for the trek to Whidbey Island. We then hooked up with Director of Photography Steven Dempsey at the ferry to the island and found ourselves scouting locations before noon had arrived. We soon split up into two groups and combed the island to find the best shooting spot.

Our intent was to lug a piano to the chosen location even though we weren't exactly sure how we would accomplish that. When we all convened at Cozy's Roadhouse back by the ferry we all agreed that the beach at Double Bluffs was the pick of the litter. Never mind that to get a piano to the precise spot director Tim Hyten selected would mean a portage over soft sand and driftwood and traversing some private property.

Having identified the problem we progressed to the first step of a solution: ordering more pitchers of beer (a quaint local brew named "Dead Man's Ale.") By 8:00 p.m. we were devising ever more elaborate Rube Goldberg-ish schemes to transport the piano as we were graced by the appearance of the lovely Vienna Teng herself. Thus ensued additional eating of indigenous Whidbey foods (nachos and onion rings.)

After some post prandial Dead Men, we convoyed to the home of our host for the weekend - Dean Petrich. Sadly, I cannot even approach justice for the description of either the man or his home-grown architecture. Dean has built an amazing homestead that he calls Huckleberry Hill. I'll quote Dean's website: "The basic premises for this house were: To construct an entire house out of garbage; To incorporate non-toxic and net-energey efficient components; to incorporate three primary components - EVERYTHING must be 1) Pragmatic, Aesthetic and Playful.

I'll write more about Dean's abode and some of the events that have occurred here during the shoot. Right now we are about to depart for the third shooting day of this trip so I'll close this post for now.