Strike, day 92; Production, day 1

February 4th, 2008

Instead of picketing, I spent today in production on the short-film-slash-web-pilot, details of which I’m keeping infuriatingly mum so that there’s some tiny bit of surprise when I can start showing it to people.

Today went really, really well. We’re shooting two cameras — the HVX-200’s I was all a-twitter over before they came out — with six actors in challenging sets. It’s a very different kind of shooting than The Nines, looser and less planned, with many departments and amenities absent but (largely) unmissed.

I’m tired, but happy tired, which is a huge difference.

Tomorrow, call time is 7 a.m. We’re wrapping early to allow cast and crew to vote in the California primary elections.

Added: I got the same email all WGA members got this evening, with word of important progress but significant points still to be resolved. So don’t pop corks just yet. But that’s not to say you couldn’t stockpile a few bottles. And get email addresses for those folks you met on the picket line.

You Should Play Football

February 4th, 2008

Chester Pitts goes from oboe player to heavy-hitting Super Bowl star.

Runtime: 1 min

James Carville and Bill Frist

February 4th, 2008

James Carville and Bill Frist rediscover the roots of democracy, together.

Runtime: 1 min

Diet Pepsi Max: Nod

February 4th, 2008

Diet Pepsi Max is the cure for the common sleepy-head.

Runtime: 1 min

RTN Announces Two South Dakota Affiliates

February 4th, 2008
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 4, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Retro Television Network (RTN), which is owned and distributed by Equity Media Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq:EMDA), announced today that it will launch RTN affiliates in two South Dakota markets, Sioux Falls and Rapid City. In Sioux Falls, the network will begin airing in March on KAUN, a station owned by J.F. Broadcasting that currently airs ION Television. In Rapid City, RTN programming will launch this summer on a digital stream of KOTA, the local ABC affiliate that is owned by Duhamel Broadcasting.

Hot Tub

February 4th, 2008

Are you talking about what I think you're talking about?

Runtime: 1 min

Napoleon

February 4th, 2008

Napoleon speeds his tiny car through the streets of France, and he couldn't be happier!

Runtime: 32 sec

Spot On

February 4th, 2008

Danica Patrick returns once more as a GoDaddy.com girl, but this time she's exposed.

Runtime: 30 sec

Planters Peanuts: Unibrow

February 4th, 2008

This unibrowed beauty just has that special something that drives the men wild.

Runtime: 1 min

There’s got to be a morning after

February 4th, 2008

hannah-montana-doll.jpg

The Superbowl? Man plans, God laughs.

The weekend box office? Disney plans, Billy Ray Cyrus laughs -- all the way to the bank. The 3D concert film "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour" grossed $29 million at 683 theaters, for a downright frightening $42,459 per-theater-average. As usual, the house that Walt built knows how to market a property like processed cheese (a decent description of Miley's music, incidentally) while increasing its value by making it look scarce. If you told a nine-year-old girl that she had only one week to see the Hannah Montana movie and that if she missed it she'd become a social leper, well, of course she'd sell her prized Zac Efron toilet plunger to see it. And of course Disney would then have to turn around Monday morning and announce "Engagement Extended Due to Overwhelming Demand". Are you listening, junior MBAs? Today's lesson is called "How to Print Money by Leveraging Pre-Pubescent Girls."

The film got decent reviews, though, and its success -- and that of U2 3D -- means we'll be seeing a lot more bulbous concert movies in the coming months. I'd love to see "Prince 3D" but we'd probably all have to wear protective raingear.

Coming in at #2 for the weekend, with less than half of the "Hannah Montana" gross, was the Jessica Alba J-horror remake "The Eye." Other newbies "Over Her Dead Body" and "Strange Wilderness" -- true first-quarter dogs -- failed to break $5 million apiece.

More grosses at the Box Office Mojo chart and Leonard Klady at Movie City News.