Visiting the Doctor: Jones that is..

Although this may be common knowledge to most people.. I am really starting to wonder if my brain is in backwards... if I am just a little left of normal (or way left quite possibly.) That's me.. just a freak of nature. I should go and move to the North Pole to live with Rudolph's misfit colony.

Why am I so off base? Let's see.. I collect toys aimed at 4 year olds (Star Wars Galactic Heroes), my favorite breakfast is a piece of cheesecake, I love to wear my socks half on and half off (warming comfort of the sock on my toes, yet bare on the heel.. ahhh), I love eating the film that develops on hot pudding when it sits in the fridge (that one grosses a lot of people out), and I like the new Indiana Jones movie.. Yes.. (gasp!) You heard me correctly, and I will proclaim to the world: I LIKED THE NEW INDIANA JONES MOVIE!!!

At first, I didn't think this was such an oddity. I mean, the movie got descent reviews. Sure there are the critics that just dashed it to pieces, but they did that for each of the 3 previous films, so that can't be an indicator. Little Calvin loved it as well. Yes, he is 7, but still, it was a good time by all at the movies. The audience even applauded at the end of the film, something that just doesn't happen much these days. I came out of the theater happy as a clam, humming the Indiana Jones song, feeling like I had just spent 2 hours with a good friend I hadn't seen in almost 20 years.

I keep very fond memories of the Indiana Jones films: Seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time with my Webelos Scout group. I remember seeing my favorite Indy poster, the Temple of Doom one-sheet with a uber-buff Indy holding a sword and looking all torn to shreds. I couldn't wait to see what would happen to him next.

By the time the Last Crusade came out I was almost through high school, and yet my Dad and I still made it a point to see it together on opening night at Denver's giant "Century 21" theater with a 70mm screen (forget IMAX.. THIS was the way to see a movie with the giant screen and the curtain that would open up to reveal the beginning of the film.. good stuff). We even got our specialty printed tickets for watching it on opening night, something that theaters just never do anymore.. cheapskates..

The Indy movies were just a great source of memories... I even remember playing Indy as a kid. We lived in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at about 8,500 feet. Our backyard wasn't some little fenced number with grass. Nope it was a big expanse on the side of a mountain.. with rocks to climb, even caves. I still remember the look on my Mom's face when I came in late one summer night after playing all day. I was dressed in full Indy garb, and I had even wet my face in just the right areas and powdered it with some nice dirt to give me that perfect Indy light beard. I thought this was pretty cool. My Mom just looked horrified and sent me to the shower. But those back yard adventures in my head.. new relics to find, new swordsman to fight off and new villains to shoot with my stick gun (My mom would let us have toy guns... maybe that's why I am so deranged now).

And so it was with all these memories floating around my head that I walked into the theater with my own son, just slightly younger than I was when I first experienced "The Jones". We came in tired and exhausted.. Little Calvin had been in school all day, then had a Thursday evening soccer game to attend (where he played his best game ever, according to him, from all his pre-Indy excitement). I had purchased my tickets 2 weeks out.. just to make sure our show didn't sell out, thus missing out on our opening day opportunity. I entered the theater a little panicked as, thanks to the soccer game, we could only arrive 30 minutes before show time. I figured on opening day I'd be doomed to have to sit in the front row, or crammed against a side wall. Much to my surprise.. when we walked in (T-minus 25 minutes to show time) we were the only ones in the theater. It did fill up eventually, but it was just surprising to me when compared to other big movies on opening day.

So that all leaves me to the film itself. Like I said, I very much enjoyed the movie. Was it perfect? Of course not.. It did have some typical Indy plot holes and there were a few sequences that I felt were unnecessary.. In other words I think the film would have been perfectly fine without them so I just didn't see their point (my code words for these are "Fridge" and "Tarzan"). But still, most films have those and it was just a good time spent at the theater.

But then I cam into work and began to compare notes with my co-workers. This is where I began to analyze my sanity and movie taste. It seems my co-workers.. every last one of them all stand united: They HATED the film.. they despised it. "George Lucas.. stop destroying my childhood memories.." seemed to be the common thread. Now, I am getting all their little e-mails from others online that seem to also hate it, disagreeing with every concept, picking apart each little plot point. "Why are there jungle cutters if there are already roads.." "Why'd it have to be about aliens..." "why do the good guys and the bad guys have the same goals?" Blah blah blah on and on and on they go...

But it still makes me wonder.. is there something wrong with my brain? If one or two disliked it, that's one thing. But EVERY person in the office, didn't just dislike it.. they can't stop talking about their dislike. So... what does that say about me? Is there something that I am missing? Did I sleep through the suckiness? Is the "recognizing that old Indy stinks" chip missing from my brain? I just don't get it.. and so I'll just accept the fact that I am one weird individual, And I am fine with that.

You know what.. I can't wait to see the film again! And so I'll sit in my empty theater, smiling wide at my whip wielding friend, enjoying myself.. while everyone else sits outside and gripes. Their loss. My gain. Go Indy! Don't wait for another 20 years before coming back for another visit!

Growing Up, Growing Over

It just so happens that my wife is an awesome artist. With busy schedules, jobs, sports, and all the craziness that motherhood brings, she doesn't get a chance to use that artistic skill as much as she might like, but occasionally, she gets the chance to dream big and do something really cool.

One of those cool things is a wall in Little Calvin's room. Being that straight white walls tend to send us loopy.. like being stuck in a cell, we immediately had to start adding some color when it was his baby nursery, and so the wall became turquoise with a slight sponging effect (looked like clouds when it was all said and done). That then led to a full wall sized city mural back in 2004 when Little Calvin was going through his "Transportation phase". Back then he loved any kind of car or train or airplane and was one excited little kid to get his wall painted like a big city.

But fast forward 4 years. He's now almost 8 and he's gotten over the whole transportation thing. Instead of being fascinated by all thing that move on the planet, he has accepted these things as a part of everyday life and moved on.. to space aliens. But what becomes difficult for my wife, who spent a HUGE amount of time painting that city on the wall, is coming to terms with the fact that as he grows up, it must be erased.

So for the past few months, Little Calvin and his mom have been in planning mode, trying to figure out what to put on the wall instead of the city. The answer wasn't hard to find.. it's Little Calvin's constant obsession: Ben 10, the cartoon series about a boy who can turn into a large number of alien super heroes to help fight off the invading evils from other planets.

And so the "Ben 10 Room" began to take shape and the project started to take shape. It included.. replacing all the trains on his shelves with his Star Wars toys, making a new bed spread, new curtains, and finally the new wall. Essentially, everything with a car or train motif had to be replaced.

I think the most painful moment of the project came towards the beginning. WIth all the paint ready to go, the room prepped and ready, I let Little Calvin do the "ceremonies first brushes" to kick off the project. With paint roller in hand, he immediately wiped the truck (painted with a Wiggles logo) out of existence, as a sign of his growing up and moving on.

Many coats of primer and several coats of grey later, the wall looked remarkably different, all signs of city life completely gone. Then it was time for the Ben 10 mural to take shape... A chance for Dawn to have her giant, wall sized palette to work from once again.

Now the room is done.. painting complete, new curtains and bed spread in place and, as yet another sign of the times, his once hidden desk has now been pulled out, so he has a place to work on his homework.

Sure the kids grown 4 inches in just a few months.. he's now interested in sports, school, his piano and fiddle lessons, etc. But sometimes it's hard to watch those remnants of his childhood start to slip away. He is now "too grown up" for those "little kid things". While part of me is really excited to see these changes as it gives us more things to do together that he can handle, part of me will miss all his little trains, his old fascination with "bing bings" (railroad tracks, thanks to the sound the gates make when the trains go by) and the fun growth that early childhood brings.

Combine this with my daughter getting ready to start high school in a few months, and new found obsession with boys.. (I'll save that for another blog) and suddenly I find myself realizing my family is changing.. growing up.. and growing over their old interests. It's very weird to me, and so I have to try to enjoy each day before they go to sleep, to become a little older by tomorrow.

If you'd like to read Little Calvin's take on the whole new room thing, head over to my wife's new blog (she decided to jump into this blogging world last week), where she's going to let Little Calvin do some guest blogging for her. Click here for her blog.

Word of the Week: MacGyver

This past week I added a new word to my lexicon.. a word that I think will become part of my regular vocabulary as it really is quite useful. Now kids.. can you all say the word "MacGyver".. that's right.. once again.. all together.. "MacGyver". Good. Yes.. as in the 80's TV show.

According to Urban Dictionary, the word has 3 meanings:
1. Someone who can jump-start a truck with a cactus.
2. the ability to use a dorito, some duct tape, and a paper clip to create a time machine.

or the definition that I am currently using:

3. a. To use ingenuity to fix or remedy a problem using only the tools available at hand. b. To jury-rig

The word came in quite handy and a hundred times a day as I spent the week down at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas. The NAB Show is one of the biggest conferences in Vegas each year with approximately 110,000 attendees. NAB stands for the National Association of Broadcasters, but in this day and age "broadcasting" doesn't just mean TV. It means any content that can be distributed. And thus the show has become the premier showcase for technology for all kinds of media production... TV, film, internet broadcasts, etc. Almost any company having anything to do with media production has a booth at the NAB show as it fills every last inch of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and even part of the Hilton Hotel. It takes literally days to walk the show.

And so Dean, our video producer, and I spent a nice 3 days on our feet, looking around and learning how to better our productions. For my main job I was scouting out better ways of distributing video content online for projects I am working on. For my own video production business I was researching out a new camera and DVD duplication gear for upcoming projects. (Fell in love with the Canon XH-Al, by the way... perfect camera for my needs, it's never leaving my side and is so fun to shoot with..)

What became fun was trying to figure out what we could "MacGyver". Obviously, video gear is insanely expensive stuff. So Dean and I would walk around the show, and when we'd find something that caught our attention, we'd carefully research it out, then go into brainstorming mode as to how we could MacGyver it. This could lead to some really strange conversations.

"I'll be we could MacGyver that with a garden hose, some duct tape and rollerblade wheels! It would be better than paying 3 grand!"

"Man, get some PVC, a steering wheel from the junk yard and a couple of q-tips, and we could totally MacGyver that..."

From the viewpoint of the uninitiated, we must have sounded like a pair of Richard Dean Anderson fanboys, constantly going off on our MacGyvering.

But in the grand scheme of things, I ended up with a new camera, and our department ended up with a new Tele-Prompter, Jib and lighting gear.. things that can't really be MacGyvered. That all costs money.. but the amount of money we potentially saved ourselves by carefully figuring out how to MacGyver all sorts of expensive gear.. that will save us thousands and go along ways to helping us to keep our creative edge.

So the question to ask: Do I buy new? Or do I MacGyver it? Fun things to think about.

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SIDE NOTE #1: After spending days walking the conference, we put our new skills and knowledge to the test as we spent a day filming one of our company owned properties in the Vegas area, getting some necessary footage for some future projects.

While running around the golf courses, tennis courts and through this crazy lush oasis in the middle of the Nevada desert, I just had to shake my head and count my blessings that even with the economy taking its hits, I still am blessed with the opportunity to work in a luxury industry. I never know how long it will last, so I just have to do the best I can and savor each of these fun opportunities.

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SIDE NOTE #2: One of the most bizarre things I saw in Vegas (and there are ALOT of bizarre things to see in this city!!) was this:

Yup... While I certainly am a proponent of our second amendment rights.. this just seemed a little too blatant in this day and age. I busted up laughing on the street corner before diving into my pocket for my camera. Of course, maybe that's what the company wants us to do... Genius advertising. Oh, and according to the ad in my hotel room magazine, the company also RENTS the guns on an hourly basis. I can go get myself an AK47 with ammo for an hour.. Lovely... That's just what we need!

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..