RV Spy Guys 2: The E-Hollywood True Story

The RV Spy Guys are back! That's right! My little viral marketing experiment from January has continued and a new episode has just gone live. See it for yourself at www.rvspyguys.com. We produced the video, now it's time to promote it which means I get to spend lots of time writing all about it.. what it's about, how we made it, etc. But there is a problem.. in all the writing I have to do to promote this, I have to be... Uh.. very PC. I have to put a nice little spin on the whole event, a little "ahhh isn't this nice, look at the little movie we made, how clever." Well.. no more. Yes, the first episode was a lot of fun to put together and was really a straight forward filming experience, as I blogged about here. But Mission 2 was a whole different story. And so now its finally time to write about this more openly, to tell the story I can't tell through the publicity channels. It's time for the E-Hollywood True Story.

Starting out this follow up episode was fairly straight forward. About a week after we released the last mission, I met with my Dean, my producer, and we began to brainstorm ideas of what we could do for a follow-up. The nice thing about this whole spy guys concept is that there is no shortage of ideas.. take all the spy movies... and spy cliches. There's a lot of material to pull from. Now combine it with Wylie Coyote and the Roadrunner cartoons, where poor Wylie went through countless attempts to get that darn roadrunner, and never succeeding, combine Spy movies with Roadrunner and you get endless possibilities of things we can do to these poor guys.

Finally, another lightbulb went off in my noggin, the plot of this episode came to me and I began to write the script. I turned in my copy to Dean and we began to plan out exactly how to accomplish filming my ideas. My script was.. clean... straightforward.. and simple. One day, I got an e-mail from Dean. Attached were the photos of a local actress that he had just found out about along with a note joking about we had to come up with some way to "write her in". I joked back. As part of the plot of the new episode deals with a coach, I said "Yeah.. ok.. we'll just make her the driver.. ha ha!" The problem is.. the idea stuck. Suddenly a whole new subplot emerged out of thin air.. one that I was seriously questioning it's appropriateness to a fun little RV story. Dean, seeing my reluctance to this addition went to our boss, who thinking just like most males, eagerly agreed to the new direction. Now came all the discussions in my office that I never thought I'd be having.. and secretly praying that the ladies outside the door were not hearing.. "what should she be wearing?" "How do we ramp up her sex appeal" "How much do we need to slow-mo her to create the right feel?". It was just not what I was expecting when the whole idea popped in. As a side note... While filming this episode, the following photo was taken. It seemed to just sum up this whole part of the experience: Me (attempting to direct), but stuck with my head in my hands, cringing.

Ok.. so plot disagreements aside, I was overruled.. but it's time to move on and get ready to film this thing. We got the date planned, all 3 actors booked, props produced and all the technological angles plotted out. The filming schedule was ambitious... in order to stay on budget, we had only 5 hours to film the whole thing. In that time, we had to film in 3 locations... at the factory, out in the countryside north of town and in a studio setting. We had it all planned to carefully take advantage of the light, knowing when the sun was setting, what had to be shot in the light, what needed to be filmed after dark. With such a short window of time, everything needed to go according to schedule or we'd have serious problems.. but it was planned. We were confident.. we had thought of everything, right? Not quite.

Day one: Filming day arrived and we were swamped.. making sure everything was perfectly ready to go. According to the schedule, the actors needed to check in at 2:30 so that we'd have time to get them in costume, have our briefing to review the schedule and get in place for the first shot. At 2:20, a polite 10 minutes early, Don (who plays Spy Guy Bill) and Tulce (the "girl") were both present and accounted for in my office with Tulce pulling various tops out of her bag to see which one we preferred. My reaction? See the photo above... I spent most of the day in that position... with Producer Dean grinning ear to ear.

2:30 came and the actor playing Ed was no where to be seen. 2:40.. no Ed. We quickly hit the phones calling the casting agent. 3:00.. no Ed.. We were suddenly in panic mode as we couldn't shoot anything without him, and there was no time for this. FINALLY, about 3:15.. 45 minutes late, Ed's car pulls up. We were still panicked, but as long as he was here, we could get back on schedule. Wrong!

Ed stepped out of the car. Now, what we had told the agent is this.. "He needs to be here prior to 2:30 wearing blue jeans, sneakers, and a comfortable shirt and his lines need to be memorized." When Ed stepped out of the car... he looked as though he had just crawled out of a sewer. He was wearing FILTHY grey sweat pants.. complete with holes, pulled halfway up to his chest, a dirty half buttoned, shirt, and work boots without any laces. I was shocked and I think went 3 shades of pale. I asked him to go get changed into what he was supposed to be wearing and he admitted he that he didn't bring any other clothes. I could feel the little gray hairs sprouting out of my head as he spoke. One other problem.. he speech was slurred and not very clear. He was walking funny. It become clear very quickly that Ed.. was drunk.

So.. now what... We could fire him. But then we'd lose the whole day and the other 2 actors that we were paying to be there.. who, trying to re-coordinate schedules with could be a nightmare. We had no choice but to press forward and attempt to film. First things first, Ed had to change. We immediately sent him home even though it was about a 90 minute round trip. (In hindsight.. we should have never let him get back behind the wheel, but we weren't thinking clearly at that moment..) We then had to take our script and tear it apart. It was no longer about shooting each scene. We had to plot out each shot to figure out which individual shots could be filmed without Ed there, and then where to shoot those in the immediate area around us. Soon we had a plan in place and cameras rolled even with the setbacks.

90 minutes later, Ed reappeared still looking out of it, but at least he was in jeans. Quickly we grabbed him and set up for the first shot featuring the two together. That's when we discovered our next issue... Ed hadn't memorized anything.. HE HADN'T EVEN READ THE SCRIPT!! So much for the tricky dialogue.. hence the reasons we had sent out the scripts a week in advance to give the guys plenty of time to get ready. I think I just about had a grey pony tail by this point.

Again, we worked to make the best out of the situation... quickly working to film what we could before all the light went away. Towards the end of the day, our production assistant snapped the following photo of me.. My look said it all about the day we just had.

And Dean's look back to me....

At 8:00 that night, the actors had gone home. I sat in my chair with my head on my desk, banging. This was supposed to be a SIMPLE little web video, not a nightmare. Dean was pacing back and forth, concocting stories out loud as to how to viciously kill off Ed's character in the next episode (run over by a combine in Kansas seemed to be a popular solution). We went home discouraged, not knowing how this could ever be resolved.

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Day 2: It became obvious to me after decompressing, that there was just no way to salvage the shoot. Rather than coming up with a way to kill of the Ed character for the next episode, we'd have to just edit him out of THIS episode. Luckily when we reported all of this to the casting agent, she got angry enough to work overtime to help us out. By noon that day, we had a line up of actors to audition for the role of a new Spy Guy and we spent Tuesday afternoon holding auditions so that this would not happen again. Finally, we had a more experienced actor.. without a drinking problem, who was willing to do what it takes to make this all work.

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Day 3: Wait.. wasn't this all supposed to be done the day before yesterday?! Ug. Oh well. Luckily, Bill was so frustrated from his experience of acting next to Ed 2 days previously, he agreed to do whatever he needed to do to clear his schedule to come back and film this correctly. We had managed to complete the Tulce scenes on Monday (the one successful thing we did that day) so she didn't have to come back. And, also luckily, the weather managed to perfectly match the conditions of Monday, allowing us to mix and match shots from both days.

By 2:30, BOTH actors were in position for their first shots and cameras rolled as planned. All I can say is this.. what a wonderful experience it is to work with actors who can.. Act.. who can deliver lines... We completed shots.. quickly! We actually laughed! What was a nightmare, suddenly became the fun filming we had hoped for all along. NOW, the spy guys were back!

With all the footage now shot, it was time to edit the episode. This is where yet another problem hit. This one was simple.. people in the company realized that these videos were POPULAR! Meaning, that lots of people would be seeing it. So if lots of people are watching, what should we be doing? Selling motorhomes of course! Our goal in creating these was to simply entertain.. create a video to generate buzz, make people laugh and then give them a desire to see what the big deal was themselves. But the sales approach was to insert heavy handed dialogue throughout the video to help sell. My opinion.. if people felt like they were being manipulated with heavy handed dialogue, they'd never return. But the debate raged, making the edit process a big bureaucracy challenge. "Take that scene out.. put that back in.. no, take it out, make it funny, sell more coaches". Ug.

So the fact that this thing went live today, feels like a miracle to me. It took a lot of work to De-Edit Ed from the video, the website, the publicity shots, etc. But it is all now done. Overall, I like the new Spy Guy. I think we are better off than before and the future looks bright for the spy guys. And our next episode is already written!

But, trust me.. this was NOT the story I was telling in the publicity. In fact, I think I summarized it down like this:

" Filming the new episode felt almost as complicated as what happens to the Spy Guys. Whereas the first episode came together without delay, the second took some new creative energy thanks to scheduling conflicts causing parts of the episode to be re-written and re-filmed. As a result, audiences are introduced to a new Spy Guy named "Al", a character that was alluded to, but never shown in the first installment. "

But here.. on my blog, you get the whole story. Not the PC approach. Go RV Spy Guys!!!

Introducing: The DFO

First things first... visit www.disfanfilm.com! Now.. back to the blog..

Ok... this blog entry will be a little different. Think about Reeses Peanut Butter Cups... Two totally different things, chocolate and peanut butter. Before the cup was invented, people would say these are two things that just don't belong together. But in fact they are.. and a wonderful thing they are too. So tonight's blog will be about two different subjects that may not seem to go together, but stick with it.. they will.

Point 1: I love using film (video) as a way to tell stories.

Anyone who has read my blog over the past two years has probably picked up on a common theme: I seem to be happiest when running around working my butt off on some kind of film project. And as such, I am constantly trying to find new stories that I can commit to film.

In my opinion, a documentary filmmaker of today is much like a novelist of yesterday. We both are keeping a constant lookout for stories to tell, stories that intrigue us, that we find interesting. A novelist then does research to discover his characters and story before putting pencil to paper and taking what he sees in his mind and telling the rest of the world the story, on paper. The documentary filmmaker does it much the same way, finding interesting stories, but uses a video camera to tell his story in an interesting visual way.

Luckily, the tools for telling stories through film have worked their way down the technology chain to give more and more people access to them. Some critics may say that this will dilute the field of films coming out... that with so many having the tools, the quality will go down and the quantity will go up. In some cases this may be true. But in my opinion, a good story is a good story, regardless of whether a studio with millions of dollars hears it, or someone with a prosumer camera and a laptop hears it. Besides, critics may have said the same things when pencils began to be available to the world.. or computers began to spread. "But if everyone has a pencil.. now everyone will be writing, and it will no longer be a tool for the elite!!!" But only when everyone has access to the tools do the real talents emerge.

Film is also an interesting beast in that there is a misconception in the past that it is a hard thing to do. You see the behind the scenes photos of films being produced and what do you see? Lots of people. It looks really difficult to produce a film! And when we hear about Hollywood's ballooning budgets for films.. it sounds expensive too! This makes the average person think "It is way to expensive and complicated for me to make a film" when in fact, this is not the case. A person with a basic camera, an ability to look through the lens and tell a compelling story can make just as much impact on society as a large film studio with millions of dollars to burn. We are seeing this more and more thanks to the YouTube site. Now granted, a large majority of what you find on that site is pure crap. Made by teenagers who love filming their exploits and putting them up for the world to see. But there are good videos to be found on YouTube.. videos that show a lot of talent, creativity and ingenuity. It's changing what we know about film and what society considers to be the norms of the medium.

Take, for example a film called "Bloody Omaha" that can be seen on YouTube... (click here). Steven Speilberg took a thousand extras, millions of dollars and a month of shooting to recreate the storming of the beaches in Normandy for his film Saving Private Ryan. In "Bloody Omaha" 3 filmmakers with almost no budget set out to recreate this same opening scene, in the course of 4 days. And their results are mind blowing. This, to me, is the antithesis of where this is all going. It's not just Hollywood anymore... Anyone can do it, if they really want to.

So that brings me to.. me, realizing that I have the power to tell stories just as well as the big boys of Hollywood. I have the tools.. I have the cameras, I have the software, but what can I do with it all? In the past, this question has been easily answered thanks to my finding how many inspirational stories can be found on a high school girl's volleyball team. I have loved the time I have spent over the last... 6 years documenting those stories.. putting them on film. But the question that has always stayed in the back of my mind, much like the novelist.. is when it's not volleyball season, what kind of stories do I want to tell? Sure, I am making money by telling the volleyball stories.. hard to turn that down. But even if no one was paying me.. what kinds of stories would I want to tell? Everyone who sees my volleyball films talk about "my shooting style" and how much they connect with it... but I have to try to do something with it besides volleyball, but what?

Now.. Hold that thought... Put it one side of your brain. Then steer the other side towards this:

Point 2: I have become a Disney Podcast addict.
A little over a year ago.. I was reading one of my favorite websites at www.jimhillmedia.com. Jim Hill is a writer that focuses on the Walt Disney Company, telling visitors all about the goings on in the company as well as providing all sorts of background information about the Disney theme parks.. how certain attractions came to be.. how some were conceived, but never made.. just my kind of thing as a Disney fan. In one column, Jim mentioned his participation in a Podcast about the Disney parks and, as I enjoyed the site, I followed along. From that day on.. I was hooked. Suddenly my iPod began filling up with WDW Radio, The Magical Definition Podcast, MouseGuest Weekly, All About the Mouse, NETcot, and others.

And while I loved listening to these podcasts on my iPod during my commute to and from work, part of me was really annoyed at them. The people hosting these podcasts actually were able to make a living.. by being a Disney fan. Yup.. they have figured out a way to get paid.. to go to Disneyworld. Take, for example, a guy named Jeff Lange. He started shooting video of theme park attractions back in the late 80's. He'd go to a park, and film the whole thing, start to finish. I don't think he thought about the potential of this down the road.. maybe he did, but what he has now done is take all the footage and release it on DVD. Want to ride EPCOT Center's old Horizon's ride, a fan favorite that no longer exists? You can.. you can buy Jeff's Horizon's DVD featuring every version of it! I'd pay money for that!!! And lots do. I hear about that kind of thing.. and just kick myself. Why did I not think of that?! It's brilliant!

Some podcasters are writing books, creating audio CD's, holding fan events all over the place... It's nuts. I feel like I have stumbled across this subculture of people all with the same crazy interests that I do. And that is very cool to me.. I'm not the only Disneyworld freak!!! Woo Hoo! But at the same time... I want in on this.. I want to become a player in this Disney Online Community. But how do I do that?! Do I have the resources to make my own podcast? Nope. Plus there are too many others that already exist. Could I create a Disney website? Well, I could, but again.. there are probably too many out there to compete with. Could I write a book? Theoretically, I guess. But what's my angle? Why would anyone care? So I do I contribute to this group that I am so intrigued with? Many ideas floated through my head for several months.. until one day.. when a lightbulb went off.

Ok... now.. join the two sides of your brain back together. And... mix. Where does that put us?

I like to tell stories with film... I am fascinated by the Disney Online Community and all that it does for people... when my brain put the two together.. suddenly I had something potentially interesting to me. I could make a film.. not about Disney, the company, but about this emerging online community and what drives it. What causes these people to spend their hard earned money to travel to the parks year after year? What makes them so passionate? How did these people find these online resources and what are they going to do with them now that they have them. This is a new subject in today's world that is interesting: How do businesses, with communities of passionate fans, use that? How does this change business and their decision making?

Last year, Disney announced that its Marketing focus had moved away from "Park Birthday Celebrations".. you know.. "Come Celebrate Disneyland's 40th Anniversary!!" that it had always done. It just so happened that one of Disney's most fan liked parks, Florida's EPCOT Center was turning 25. So when Disney announced there were no plans for a formal celebration, fans were extremely disappointed. But thanks to this online community, they all bonded together saying "If Disney wont do it.. then we'll do it ourselves". Using the internet and podcasts, fans made their own plans for October 1st. They organized large groups.. of thousands of people all flying in to be there for the special day, each planning their own festivities. Disney did take notice and soon reversed their decision. Suddenly Disney had their "own" celebration planned.. a celebration that received rave reviews from the faithful that attended.

But what does this mean? Does this mean that fans, using the internet to organize themselves can actually persuade a large corporation to change its ways? What kind of power do these groups have in today's society and how do businesses cope with this kind of phenomenon? To me.. that is intriguing.

One final lightbulb to kick me in the rear... About a month ago, one of my employees sent me a link to an interesting website. It was for a fan film created by Star Wars fans to express their displeasure with the new 3 Star Wars films. Their idea was to use this new YouTube mindset to have fans record interviews of themselves and submit them to be part of this documentary film. While I disagreed with the concept, the whole idea seemed brilliant. By giving people the opportunity to be in a documentary film, it allows a filmmaker to collect stories and tell an interesting tale.. straight from the fans mouths.

And thus.. "The DFO" (Disney Fans Online) was born: a documentary film about the Disney online community, as told by the fans themselves. It's an exploration of these die hard fans.. what drives them.. and how much power they have.

So make sure to visit the all new site: www.disfanfilm.com. There you can learn all about this crazy new project of mine. And if you know any Disney nut-cases out there.. send them the link to help the word spread. Then check back here.. oh.. in mid-July.. when I am pulling my hair out attempting to watch and edit fan submitted videos. But... at least my life isn't boring..

I'll conclude this record setting long blog with two quotes from Walt Disney himself, that I use for ongoing inspiration:

"All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them"

"The best way to get started is to stop talking and begin doing."

It's time for me to spread my wings a bit.. It's time to tell a bigger story than just volleyball. It's time to begin... The DFO.

The First Concert... Finally!

Amanda finally got her 13th birthday present this weekend, it was just 9 months late. Why? Because I am an extreme slacker parent? Nope. She just hit an unlucky streak. Here's the story:

Last June, while looking at a concert calendar, my wife and I discovered that Amanda's then favorite artist, Kelly Clarkson was coming to Portland. "What a perfect birthday present for her," we thought. After all, she'd be turning 13 and it would be a cool experience for her to attend her first show with Dad and do something she had never had the opportunity to do. So, we surprised her with tickets to the show and she was ECSTATIC and began counting the days to the big show.

Just a few weeks before the concert, I got the dreaded e-mail, informing me that Kelly Clarkson had canceled her tour. While I really didn't want to have to break the news to my daughter, I finally summoned the courage to make the call. As expected, she was emotional.. crying for a nice long while as she worked through her disappointment. I felt terrible for her and tried to explain that in all my years of concert going.. I had never had a show cancel. It just doesn't happen very often. We vowed to continue to find her birthday show.

Fast forward a few months.. we finally found a solution: Maroon 5 announced they'd be playing in Portland. Amanda eagerly agreed to go and we got our tickets.. Floor tickets.. a few rows back from the stage. Thus, began the Maroon 5 phase of the summer where we'd be listening to the band everywhere we went making sure we were up on their music and gearing up for a fun time.

Needless to say.. when I got the e-mail announcing that due to a band scheduling conflict, Maroon 5 would be canceling their Portland show... I felt like banging my head against my desk. As expected, breaking this news to my poor daughter, slowly losing her faith in humanity, was not a fun experience.

And so we come to January. After giving up hope of having Bon Jovi come to Portland, we kept our eyes peeled for something that would work for us.. and actually happen. Then we got the announcement that Rascal Flatts would be coming in April. Keeping out fingers crossed, we yet again, purchased tickets. Luckily, this one stuck and Friday, Amanda got her show. And what a show it was! Talk about an amazing first concert!

After our drive to Portland, we arrived to a nice surprise. While we couldn't quite swing floor seats this time around, we were just a little off the floor, up one side. We knew we'd have a nice view of the stage, but what got our attention was a smaller, satellite stage, right in front of our seats. Suddenly, we realized that the band was going to be much closer to us than we had expected.

The opening act was Taylor Swift, another (very young) favorite of Amanda's, who did a great job of whipping the crowd into a frenzy during her 45 minutes on stage. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Amanda ogle the "huge" stage, as I could see the main stage peeking through from behind. After a short break, long enough for Amanda to get her first concert t-shirt ($30!!!!! What the heck!! I must be old..) we came back in the arena, and I swear, Amanda's eyes about boinged out of her head at the site of the BIG stage. And even for me as a veteran concert goer, this looked to be quite the multimedia event: the stage took up the whole back half of the Rose Garden Arena, giant video screens where everywhere, the stage itself had 2 levels.

Soon the show started, the big stage firing up. Much to our joy and surprise, the band didn't step out onto the big stage, but emerged out of the small stage.. right in front of us. At first they seemed stranded there, but before to long a large bridge was lowered from the rafters connecting the two stages, right over the top of the screaming audience.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I'm just not a huge country fan. Luckily, Rascal Flatts isn't that annoying, twangy country... It's a little more bearable. And these guys both know how to rock, and know that for every country fan, there was a rock and roll fan eager to hear something amazing. At one point, while the rest of the band took a break, the lead guitarist (standing right in front of us on the small stage) stood right behind the drum kit, hitting the foot pedal with his foot while also playing his guitar and played an awesome selection of 80's guitar riffs. Sweet Home Alabama, Black in Black, even some Guns and Roses thrown in.. he was a one man show. You can see some examples of this here and here.

Some other highlights... The fiddle player on stage with just the drummer doing his own version of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir (click here), and many of the Rascal Flatts songs such as Me and My Gang, My Wish, and the final song "Life is a Highway"

All in all... a GREAT show, and a fun night watching my daughter experience her first large scale concert. While it may be difficult having my daughter.. my little girl grow up so fast, it is also a blast doing these more adult things together.

Want to hear her take on the experience? Like her old man, she's started a blog of her own where you can read her comments and see more photos. Click here >>

Click on the video below to see a short sampling from the opening song of the concert. You'll see the giant stage, the kinds of effects it was capable of, the band's entrance from the small stage, the bridge lowering between stages and quick and even some of the pyrotechnics used. And yes.. that screaming voice you'll hear in the background.. that was my little girl... geeking out and losing her voice.

Spring Break with Moody Mother!

Man.. Mother Nature is moody!!! It's Spring Break this week. Under normal conditions, this would mean it's finally time for some warmer weather.. maybe a few days of rain. But this year.. wow.. In my 14 years as an Oregonian, I have never seen anything quite like this. Let's take Friday for example. We had sun, wind, driving rain, falling ice, snow, and hail. Every 15 minutes it seemed like something new.. and drastically different. As I was leaving the office, the sun was out, the temperature was warm and I thought to myself "I need to get home so I can try to get a bike ride in". 15 minutes later and halfway home it was snowing so hard I could barely see the road. Another 15 minutes later as I pulled into the driveway, the sun was back out for a minute. Then wind and hail hit. Just bizarre! Today (Sunday) it was sunny at I went to church, snowing as I left church, and at 3 this afternoon a giant hail storm hit blanketing the area not in white snow, but in little round hail balls. And the whole week has been like that.

Luckily, our plans for the break were not dependent on good weather. We spent the first half of spring break with the kids in a beach house on the coast. Spending time at the coast... it's just good for the soul. The sand, the waves.. it's therapeutic.

Saturday we headed out out of town and got settled in at the beach, before beginning our Easter tradition of dying easter eggs. As is customary, the girls goal is to make them pretty, and the boys goal is to mix the most disgusting color that can be created with egg dye.

Sunday it was off to Easter church services.. me in my pirate t-shirt. Now.. this wasn't planned. In our quest to get loaded and out of the house, we neglected to load the hanger with our white church shirts. And so there I was in nice slacks, black shoes.. and a pirate t-shirt. Luckily, I kept my jacket on so no one could see it.. but I knew I was wearing a pirate shirt making for an Easter service I'll never forget. And what better way to spend the rest of the day? The weather forced us inside to play games all day.. a perfect way to spend the holiday.

Monday.. we got a little stir crazy, so we headed North to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Depoe Bay and OSU Marine Science Center. The aquarium.. another relaxing wonder.. due the giant walk through tanks built in the old Keiko the Killer Whale rehab area. The deep sea display where visitors can walk through long tubes surrounded by water and fish is filled with sharks and all kinds of cool marine life. I don't know what's more fun, watching the animals that close up, or the kids when a shark comes right up behind them. Good times..

By late Tuesday, it was time to head back home, although we all could have used a few more days by the ocean. But.. work calls and I only have so many vacation days. And just as luck would have it, the day after we left, the coast got one of it's ultra rare beach snow storms, dumping an inch of snow all down the beach. How terrible to miss that.. just another sign of our wacky weather. Mother Nature.. I swear.. the old lady is losing it..

R.I.P. Vader

Flashback: Anyone remember this post from almost exactly two years ago? Let's refresh.. Little Calvin, just weeks earlier, had gotten his first two "real" pets... the tank full of fish don't REALLY count to little kids as pets, since you can't scoop them out of their tank and play with them on the floor.. (well... most times... I'll save that story for another time..) Anyhoo.. He had just gotten two little gerbils, Max and Vader, and he was loving life with them. Playing with them, taking such good care of them. Then suddenly, one became sick and for the first time, we thought we'd have to start explaining the concept of death, life after death, dealing with death.. all that hard stuff for a child to come to grips with. Luckily, the little gerbil came through, recovered and went back to his active gerbil life.

Fast forward two years later. Inside Little Calvin's gerbil cage sit... Max and Vader. Still going strong. And in that two years, Little Calvin has become the little gerbil expert. He works very hard to keep the cage clean, water in the bottles, food in the dish (sometimes a bit much.. but that's ok) and he pulls each one out multiple times each day to give them their proper attention. He loves on them, kisses them, let's them run around in their play areas under his close supervision. He has been a fantastic pet owner!

Then came Monday night. He had both gerbils out to watch him play a computer video game (apparently gerbils like to do that since when he asks them if they want to watch.. they nod.) He made the observation that the entire time he had been playing, his gerbil, Vader, hadn't tried to bite him even once. Side note... Vader was not the friendliest gerbil.. he liked to bite.. go figure. He suddenly became concerned that Vader was getting sick. He carefully brought him to us to check, and sure enough, we could tell that something just wasn't right with the little thing.

From there on out, we switched gears from gerbil playing to gerbil hospital. We had to move the cage out of his room to keep an eye on what was going on... we started to use a syringe to help him drink water every few hours. My wife and I could just look at him, consider his age.. and we knew it was highly unlikely that this would end well. We began to prepare Little Calvin for the fact that his little pet, may soon be going to "become God's gerbil". Tears poored down on Monday night as he struggled to understand why this had to happen. Suffice it to say.. it was not an easy evening in our house.

But.. much to our surprise.. Tuesday morning, it was still alive. Obviously not doing well, but just too strong to give up. Tuesday night.. still going.. just not moving much and occasionally convulsing. Wednesday morning, he was still alive, just not moving around.

Wednesday evening, Dawn had a later meeting and so I picked up Little Calvin from school before heading home. I meant to get in the house before him to go check the cage for a status update, but by golly.. Little Calvin is FAST getting in that house when he knows one of his gerbils needs to be checked. He sprinted for the cage, and rather than looking through the plastic to watch for a breath first, he just dove on into the cage, plucking up Vader and held him to see if he was ok. Instantly, he looked at me, very puzzled. "Dad!" he said, very confused, "Why is he so stiff.. he feels all hard"!! I told him to gently put him back in the cage and come get in my lap. That's when I had to break the news.. "When they got all hard like that.. that means that they have died." I didn't want to have to tell him, I felt like ripping my heart out.. but it's a lesson we all have to learn somehow. Once again, as they had many many times in the last three days, the tears came on strong. I held him.. wishing I could wave the magic wand and make it all instantly better, to bring back his typical ultra happy self, but I knew that I had to give him time to mourn and to try to understand.

Soon, Dawn was home and together we could help him come to grips. We found the perfect little box.. just Vader sized, put him inside with a little favorite chew toy and Little Calvin found a flower for him. Then looking inside the box, but trying to be strong, and with tears in his eyes as he gently pet him, he said "Good bye Vader. You've been a great gerbil. You'll be ok." Then.. on his own he shut the box and returned to his Mom's arms for some much needed hugs.

Since we are short on land that we can dig up, I delivered the box to a friends house with lots of land and the experiences of many children and grandchildren of their own having had similar experiences. They promised to take care of it and make it special so that the next time Little Calvin came to visit them he could see how it all turned out.

I know.. it's only a little gerbil. But for Little Calvin, this was his first real experience with death. This week there have been so many tears, so many hugs and even more questions. It's been totally exhausting. It's just such an interesting thing to think about as a parent. I know from looking at my own life, that those really dark times.. those horrible experiences.. those really sad times... those are the things that really helped me to grow.. to learn.. and to understand. Yet as a parent, it's the hardest thing in the world to watch you child hurt and grieve and really struggle. It's almost like you don't want them to have to endure the very things that will make them who they will eventually become.

And so now we become a one gerbil household. We learn to treasure all the time we have with our family, no matter how big or small. There is time to grieve and there is time to slowly let it go. We know it will be a rough few days as we make the transition, but as they say.. this to shall pass.

But... to little biting Vader.. You've been a good gerbil.. you'll be ok... And so will Little Calvin.

Spy Guys Mayhem

Two posts ago, I reported on the creation of my little viral campaign for my company, tracking it's progress as it was created and was about to be unleashed to the public. Rather than continue to update that entry where know one will probably notice the updates, I'll start fresh, as many have inquired as to how this ended up.

Let's just say.. my whole little idea.. worked. In a big way. For the last several weeks all I have heard is "Spy Guys.. Spy Guys.. Spy Guys." And I must say, it really has been a lot of fun seeing the hype that I was able to create. My ultimate experiment worked.. I was able to spend next to nothing to produce a small little video, use the internet to freely present it and spread the word to our base audience. All free! It has made the point that I have been trying to make for a long time: This little thing called the internet... if used properly.. can be the best way to spread the word to large amounts of people, for the cheapest amount of money. And for marketers that know how to use it, it can be a great thing!

Sure, I was nervous about how this might go over.. its like nothing we have ever done before. But that is what makes it successful. People watch it and say "This can't be from you!! This is not the kind of thing we'd expect from you. Man, my friends need to see this" and.. so it begins.

Just days after we launched the site, people began e-mail the CEO directly saying "What a great way to generate some buzz! And just when the industry needs some laughter". Then, the local media picked it up the story and I had reporters calling my desk wanting to do interviews, resulting in stories such as these:

Click here to view the Register Guard article.

Then, the Industry magazines and websites picked up the story. With each new publication, magazine, website, blog and message board that picked up on the story, that many more people started hitting the site and watching the video. While I can't print any of our numbers.. suffice it to say, the website got hit... A LOT as word spread. The number of people who signed up to say they were interested in more episodes just shocked me. And in carefully tracking the results each day, it was just astounding to me to see how quickly it spread, and WHERE it was spreading to. Soon after the launch, I had people watching from Canada, England, Mexico, Germany, France, Switzerland.. even Singapore, plus many others. It was just a fun thing to watch explode onto the internet.

Now.. it's time to begin the next phase. Next week we'll post a new video to the site, to give our new fans some fresh content to watch. And I've already mapped out the next episode and plan to have the script done soon. We have noted from others that have tried this that we can't burn this out too quickly.. so it may be a little while before our next installment hits the web.. but it is coming. And, honestly, without sounding like my head is getting big, now that I know what we can accomplish, what our actors can (and can't) do and I have the feedback from the first go around... I think that the next episode will be far better than the first. Time will tell.

But.. the RV Spy Guys will be back.. trying harder than ever to accomplish their mission. (Cue the Mission Impossible Theme DAH DAH, da da DAH DAH...)

Blown Away

I have now seen the future of cinema.. And it is COOOL! Two years ago, after loving life at the U2 concert in Portland, I began to hear rumblings that the band was filming their South American shows using state of the art, IMAX 3-D cameras. I was intrigued... The rumor mill stated that U2 was planning a new concert film for exclusive release in IMAX theaters using some new 3D technology.

Suddenly I was reminded of my last "U2 in a theater" experience, back when I was a junior in high school. My buddies and I saw "Rattle and Hum" almost as soon as it opened, and then... Mom.. don't read this.... The film became the "play hooky from school to go see repeatedly film", until the day the theater pulled the movie and I was stuck with Schwarzenegger's Twins. (Ug). I much preferred the thought of seeing them in a live concert setting, especially after my parents vetoed my seeing the Joshua Tree tour live in Denver.. they said I was too young and had a camp out with my boy scout troop. So in its place, the movie sufficed, especially when seen at the old 70 millimeter Century 21 gargantuan theater with mega sound system.. our preferred theater for the "big" movies. Even if it wasn't "live" live, it was still cool to just see the band larger than life, and both hear and feel the music pumping through the system. I thought those days were long gone. Until now...

Last year, it finally appeared I may get a chance to relive those glory days as the new U23D film was announced. But I was concerned... The film was set to be an IMAX film, and here in Oregon there were no IMAX theaters in the state. Could I actually convince my wife to let me drive to Seattle just to see a movie? Luckily, I didn't have to. Low and behold the perfect timing, just before U2 was set to open, I learned a new IMAX theater had been built in Portland.. just 90 minutes north. Bingo.

And so, with eleven year old Tyler bouncing with excitement in the passenger seat, now a big U2 fan like his old man... we made the trek North.. a short road trip to see our band on the BIG screen, just as I had done so many times.. while I was supposed to be in high school.

At last, we arrived, fully loaded with Mountain Dew caffeine buzz we grabbed our 3D glasses, pulled our jaws off the floor at the sight of the giant screen and settled in for 90 minutes of music nirvana.

So.. how was the film? Man, did it ever suck!!! Just kidding. Quite the contrary. We were totally blown away. The film is getting rave reviews from both U2 and non U2 fans and we could see why. Forget the trendy Hannah Montana 3D film... this was the FIRST ever live action 3D IMAX film. As such, it was created to be a thorough experience, not just a concert taking advantage of 3D trickery for cheap thrills. As such, it literally makes you feel as though you are right there in the concert. You find yourself wanting the dumb people in front of you to put their hands down so you can see better, only to realize that they are part of the film.. not actually in front of you. Then suddenly you are on stage with the band. It's almost like being a fly.. buzzing around this 3D world all around you, going where you'd like. Simply amazing.

The music was great too! Some personal favorites.. Love And Peace Or Else, a song I didn't find really interesting on their CD, but live it becomes an amazing event. And "The Fly" was an experience never to forget with its hard rocking performance and visual experience like no other in the film.

What surprised me the most was that this was actually a film... I think I was expecting just a 3D concert and this felt like so much more. It had much more of a film quality, art design and concept, and that was fun to see. In between each song, Ty would lean over to me and say "This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!!!" I'd just smile and be grateful at least one of my offspring would find this enjoyable.

And so with goofy smiles on our faces, both of us talking a mile a minute about what we had just experienced, we got in the car to head back south. Sadly, we realize that this is not an experience we can ever recreate with our DVD player at home (until I can convince my wife to let me build on an IMAX theater onto our house), so we just have to enjoy it while it lasts. And then count the days until we can experience it again on the smaller scale of a regular movie theater screen, when it opens in Eugene in 3 weeks. The nice thing about this show... I can keep experiencing it, at least while in theaters without having to pay $175 a pop for concert tickets!!



So... If you've managed to find an IMAX theater in your city... GO NOW!! Do not hesitate! And when this film comes to a regular theater near you on February 22, go!!! Then you too (hey!) can experience the future of cinema.. and rock out at the same time.. without the dealing with the drunk guy spilling his beer on you at the concert!

Click here to view the trailer, learn more about the film and its technology, and find a theater near you!