May 15, 2009 by wilmington.

I will (snicker-snicker)…no really (yeah, right)…be updating the main page of www.seashantyfilms.com in the very near future (HahahaHA!) to reflect the longstanding fact (you can say that again) that this blog is the place to look for updates (Is that what you call these?).

Excuse me. (Hey! Whaddya doin?! HEY! Ow! OW! Cut it out!!)

[Scenes, sounds,…and smells of unimaginable violence.]

Ah-hem.

See below for an update I posted elsewhere about some VERY recent developments for Sea Shanty Films. In addition to the below info:
1) We are again trying to power through all of the work necessary to get X-GEN available for purchase and rental through IndieFlix.com (with availability on Amazon and NetFlix!)

….and….

2) Brigham is organizing a collaborative production effort for a NEW FEATURE. Still in the planning and Skyping stages, but inventory lists have been made, screenplays have been reviewed, and production AND post-production schedules have been presented.

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Previously, on Hill Street Blues…(and on Facebook)….
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Openfilm.com is an online viewing/distirbution site that asked us about making our short films available. So there they are! The viewing was a bit jumpy when I saw it, but it may be my computer or connection.

Our 2008 award-winner (”Best Avant-Garde Film” - Cape Fear Independent Film Festival) bailey and a fun WWII action short we did with a Sea Shanty friend Evan called Downed were both EDITOR’s PICKS! And perennial audience favorite The Wingnut and You! is on there, too!

Hopefully you can tell how good all of these look on the streaming video.It’s very small-time, no-big-deal-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things kind of stuff…but it’s nice to have them out there.

bailey is an intentionally stylized drama about a heavy subject. It’s a 6 minute look into the effects of a very public tragedy (based on a real event) on the lives of the kind of people who aren’t at the center of media attention. The lighting, shot angles, acting, sound, editing, etc., are all VERY different from anything else we’ve done. It’s a small, but serious story that we tried to communicate with a very “unnatural” and unsettling style.

Downed is something we shot in one day. We had access to real German uniforms and weaponry (yes, that stuff is actual WWII German equipment actually used in combat in the war) and came up with a quick, hopefully fun action piece. Minimal story, dialogue, character, etc. Just one “moment” in a larger epic story of war.

In other news, a bigger deal: IndieFlix.com has approached us about distirbuting X-GEN on their site. This would make the film available for purchase on IndieFlix, on AMAZON, and through NetFlix!! More later…

Pass the news on to anyone else involved/interested in Sea Shanty Films projects.

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January 7, 2009 by wilmington.

…Sea Shanty Films is still busy on various projects.

More to come soon - perhaps without the brilliant and innovative multi-media presentation which takes so long to post - concerning the following developments:

1) Brigham continues to build his arsenal in the Pirate’s Cove Compound. His tanks, small cannons, various masks, swords, etc., will soon be augmented by something he refers to only as “Mr. Plutonium.” I’ve learned not to ask so that I can tell federal agents I know nothing.

2) Hollywood Matt and I continue crafting our Big! Exciting! Marketable! But Intelligent and Deep Screenplay! Many great ideas and characters who are now beginning to tell us who they are. It’s fun to realize what we’ve learned from X-GEN and bailey…especially about the power of a character - especially in a visual medium - who acts rather than reacts. The passive-reaction thing worked for Kirk…but not for our new guys.

3) Matt has worked in various capacities on several small films in L.A. and is now reading screenplays for a production firm. And getting paid! << cue Jefferson's theme music >>

So - short and sweet, but posted. One photo (click below) to say howdy from central Texas to all Sea Shanty friends in Swansboro, Hillsborough, Durham, Winston-Salem, West Hollywood, Houston, etc. The small, startled pink creature is Anna Grace - the newest Sea Shanty intern.

Under the stars, out in the country - November 2008, Lake Waco

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July 22, 2008 by wilmington.

From the undisclosed, secure location of the Sea Shanty Production Headquarters (the lovely Pirate’s Cove Studio/HydroTherapy/Massage Appreciation Compound)…to the baking clay surrounding a monastic-sized apartment and oak-lined university in Waco, TX…to the sun-drenched-but-still-just-right streets of hard-working-while-still-looking-damn-good-as-I-take-a-meeting-sitting-outside-Starbucks in West Hollywood, CA, Sea Shanty powers through.

I’ve used up all the dashes stored in my keyboard, so don’t look for any in the rest of this post. I’ll buy more when I get a new can of Ether to power up my network connection.

1) Screenplay work continues unabated.
In fact, due to strange and possibly big things afoot in Hollywood, the new script (which has already taken shape and is now revealing its own momentum and quirky twists) has been joined by a “clean up” of the oft victorious X GEN ! (Grr..no dashes).
What can I tell you about the new script?! “Nothing” is one way to answer that question. “Very little” is another. “Mind your own stinking business you carrion eating film industry spies!!” is yet another.
I think it’s safe to say, especially since I am usually in a trance like (man, I miss those dashes) state when we collaborate and really have very little reliable information, (and as a further precaution, am using scare quotes in order to sow suspicion and ambiguity on any word or term that might give things away or commit us to accountability of any kind),

[Clarifying paragraph break inserted here by Federal Mandate due to excessively bloated appositive. Please refer back to initial clause and continue reading below. Thank you, and God bless the U.S.A.]

that Matt and I are working on the following kind of story: a “Thriller” with some “Horror like” aspects that takes some “cues” from “two” surprising and very, “very” different plot stru”ctur”es.
As I have written somewhere or at least thought to myself while staring blankly at a wall, we intend to get representation, market this script, sell it, yawp barbarically while diving into our piles of cash, and dabble in a little world domination whenever we get a break from our Cristal baths and Koala Bear endocrine gland facials.

It’s hard work. Just witness the manic incoherence of this blog entry. It’s all about clarity of action, motivation, and dramatic arc. St. Sid of the Fields has laid it all out for us, but shifting all the pieces around and continually asking yourself questions in order to whittle the story down to its barest essentials…and then suck the marrow out of that essence and throw everything else onto the scrap heap…well, it’s hard work.

But it’s not really just about horribly mixed metaphors and ridiculous quotations stolen from Whitman and Thoreau. It’s also about the money. And the women. The women AND the money. That’s right. Writing a screenplay is not at all about sitting on the phone for hours in the dead of night eating Life cereal in the dark agonizing over the larger effects of whether a character should be abducted by police at the airport or at an apartment. It’s a gangster’s paradise, and Matt and I are Mr. Big and Tony Montana, respectively.

Item Number “B”) I have no idea what else I was giong to write about. Abby Wambach broke her leg and can’t play in the Olympics? Anna Grace squawks like an attacking pterodactyl while diving with her gaping, slobbery mouth at your neck and then laughing and squealing hysterically. Luke has a great raquetball swing..including a decent backhand.

III.) G.K. Chesterton is awesome? I couldn’t possibly have been planning to write that…could I ? Myles Werntz has outed himself as a Jason Voorhees loving Friday the 13th aficionado?

#’s Fier through Zehn) Finishing strong…
> German hurts my brain.

> And The Dark Knight has serious problems that keep it from being the complete masterpiece many people claim it to be (despite being overwhelming and amazing throughout).

> And Brigham now has a Jeep!

> The four, six song EP’s Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot) wrote and released are excellent. Musically diverse, stylistically unpredictable, and very well written.

> Took a listen to several Wynton Marsalis albums that I haven’t played in years PLUS the recent “All Rise.” Am more convinced than ever that all those barely disguised counter-culture warriors who bashed everything Wynton wrote, played, and said as “cold…passionless…neo-conservative/classical…over technical, etc.” will regret their slavish advocacy of the so_called (grr..) “avant garde” of the 80’s and 90’s. People will be listening to, and young musicians will be learning from, any number of Wynton Marsalis’ albums…how many people will be listening to critical sweethearts like Myra Melford or David S. Ware? How many people are even still listening to them now?!

> I finally checked out iTunes University after hearing it recommended a dozen times. You can get podcasts of all kinds of lectures and panel discussions and conference presentations (even sermons!). So I can now hear Geoffrey Wainwright, Sam Wells, Joel Marcus, and others discussing ecumenism, Christian ethics, and the Resurrection while driving in my car. The fact that I think this is amazingly cool should remind you that 98% of my non_sleeping time is spent doing academic work in Theology…not, evidence on this blog notwithstanding, creating sloppily_ written and rambling blog entries about filmmaking, music, and soccer.

> Many of my former students have shown themselves to be pretty cool, almost like real, actual human beings!, via the widely used (OK, gotta dig around for extra dashes that might have fallen into the couch cushions) Facebook. They ask about books they’re reading or thoughts on colleges…and of course, I also get to continue tormenting them in various ways. It’s a win-win. (Found one!)

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May 20, 2008 by wilmington.

An (almost) just the facts account.

And it’s really just festivals. No parties. Or wild times.
So…sorry to get any hopes up about that other stuff. We’ll try harder.

1) bailey won “Best Avant Garde Film” at the Cape Fear Independent Film Festival. Very gratifying - we think this film deserves this and even more recognition. At the same time, it’s a difficult film that continues to haunt me. Even as we filmed and edited it, we knew that it wouldn’t have been created or executed as it was without tragedy and loss.

2) Reclusive artiste and real estate impresario David Brigham got unconditional adulation at the “Sister City Film Festival” in New Bern, NC for his work on “Downed” - a short film about a downed WWII pilot. Sea Shanty shipmate Evan Brinkley’s film was apparently the belle of the ball at “Sister City.”

3) The writing team of Long & Wilmington return to the writing trenches this month to chisel a new screenplay out of our modest ambitions to write a perfect, big time Hollywood movie that is a deep, funny, exciting, gripping, marketable Noir. This could take at least a week or two.

4) Based on X-GEN getting into the Indie Grits festival and bailey winning at Cape Fear, I’ll be updating our IMDB entries soon.

So…if you aren’t already a member of IMDB and you’ve seen any of our films AND have an opinion of any kind, please register (you never get any spam form IMDB) so that you can rate and comment on them.

As always…comments here make us happier than that bowl of Life cereal at 11:30pm.

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April 20, 2008 by wilmington.

The Sea Shanty Films short bailey has been accepted into the CAPE FEAR INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL in Wilmington, NC on May 2-4!!

On top of that outstanding news, bailey has also been selected as one of the FINALISTS in the “Avant Garde” category.

The festival will be held in downtown Wilmington, NC - a hotspot in the world of independent film AND television (”Blue Velvet,” “Dawson’s Creek,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “One Tree Hill,” “A Walk to Remember,” “Manhunter,” etc. etc.)

bailey is our most recent film. It’s a short dramatic piece inspired by real events. Writing and filming and performing and editing was all very exciting but also emotionally draining. The most common feedback from viewers has been: “Whoa. That was intense”…usually followed by a request for a second viewing.

It’s only 6 minutes long, all in real time, but we took the usual Sea Shanty approach of packing a much larger story and world into multi-layered writing, visuals, original music, and editing. I guess it is kind of “avant garde,” but that was mostly a function of trying to tell this particular story within 6 minutes. bailey is definitely different in design, execution, tone, visual style and “message” - - but it is a good example of a film that almost matches completely with our earliest vision. And that’s not easy, my friends…that is not easy.

If you’re anywhere near Wilmington, NC between May 2-4, we hope you can attend. I’ll update when I know more about the schedule - and you can check the festival site linked in its name above.

Comments are always welcome!

* Concluding Un-scientific and Blatantly Self-congratulatory (but in a triadic sense) Postscript*

All three of the Sea Shanty Films productions ( 1) The Wingnut and You! - (2004) , 2)X-GEN - (2006), and 3) bailey - (2007) ) that have been wrestled into complete forms have now been accepted into festivals. All 3 have been chosen as finalists…with bailey now in the running to join her older siblings as an award-winner, too. (And, hopefully, we can add The Spectre to this list someday soon…)

This is very nice icing on the much-more-satisfying cake of the actual creation and collaboration of our filmmaking odyssey.

..and that icing/cake metaphor is all mine. Don’t even think of stealing it.

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April 12, 2008 by wilmington.

NOW SHOWING at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Columbia, SC:

More details to come from Columbia and the Indie Grits Film Festival - but X-GEN is showing right now (2pm Eastern).

Matt Long flew out from his exclusive artists’ co-op bungalow in West Hollywood and was greeted in high style by the organizers of the festival. They have proved themselves to be extremely gracious and hospitable - read their “mission statement” on their site and see that these folks practice what they preach/promote.

Matt is soaking up the scene (outdoor concerts last night, screenings all day today) and loving a venue where “Independent Film” does not mean “the same few films that all the festivals who pose as independent somehow end up showing.” Sounds like great crowds and good networking.

Hopefully the judges and audiences will join the millions who are expressing their individuality by asking their doctors if X-GEN is right for them…

— And, see below if this seems random, but…BRIAN McBRIDE scored the winning goal to give Fulham its first away victory in ~18 months!! They may just avoid relegation with another couple of wins and a loss or two by Bolton and Birmingham…

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