Aug
11
It is a very sad day for the Campea family… cause in a way, we lost one of our own. I was talking with my mom on the phone earlier tonight and she told me the bad news that one of the family dogs, Blackie (you can guess which one he is in the picture) has died.
As some of you know, when I first moved back to Ontario, I spent some time staying at my folks ranch while I got settled and went to school. Lady and Blackie are WONDERFUL dogs. Always close by, PERFECTLY tempered, very protective of the kids… and most of all a lot of fun.
I would often take the 4-wheelers back to the pond and Lady and Blackie would run right along side me all the way there (well… Blackie fell behind because of his age… but he LOVED going back there). The two of them would get so excited when they would hear me start up the engine, cause they knew it meant we were going back to the pond.
The one Blackie’s death with hit hardest is Lady. She’s younger than Blackie, and we think she’s always had Blackie around. The two with usually together. My mom said when they went back to the barn and found Blackie, Lady was laying with him and refused to leave his side. Lady always obeys when my dad calls her… but she refused to move, she wouldn’t leave Blackie. I’m actually getting choked up thinking about it. Poor Lady… this will be hard on her.
Blackie was a wonderful pet and part of the family. I miss him already. Good boy Blackie…. good boy.
Aug
04
About a year or so ago I started wrestling with the idea of what I’m going to do with myself next. In other words… when “The Movie Blog” is done (all good things come to an end) what am I going to do with myself? It’s a hard question to ask. I didn’t really come up with anything and I stopped thinking about it after a couple of weeks.
For some reason… coming back from Comic Con (Huge convention in San Diego i just got back from) I started wondering about that again. What do I do next?
Don’t get me wrong… it’s not that I’m getting tired of doing The Movie Blog at all… but this is the internet, and anything can happen at anytime. Remember Friendster? it was a bigger online social network than myspace just a couple of years ago. Google offered to buy them for $30 million and THEY TURNED IT DOWN! Now they’re not worth $30 bucks.
Anyway… so let’s say something like that happens to The Movie Blog. What do I do next? I don’t think I want to go back to just working joe jobs. It’s been so great working for myself, and doing something sort of creative. I don’t know… I just don’t know
Jul
21
The new Harry Potter book isn’t the only one that has advanced spoilers slipping out on the internet. There is a HUGE bible spoiler. If you want to see it… CLICK HERE
Jul
20
Hey there…
Well, I just got home from getting fitted for my “Military Intelligence” uniform for my appearance in…. THE NEW INCREDIBLE HULK MOVIE!!!!! I’m so excited about this. I’ve been really pumped about the new Hulk movie ever since they announced it (Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt) and you can imagine my excitement when I got the call asking if I want to get an extra part in it. YES!
So anyway, I went down today to get fitted for my uniform. It looks slick. I didn’t even know they were filming part of the movie here in Hamilton… but they are. They’re shooting my scene on Tuesday, so I’ll go back down then. I won’t be able to talk about it… but I just wanted to share that I’m in it. Look for me on screen next summer when you’re watching the movie. 
Jul
19
The Toronto International Film Festival is argued by some as the most important and most prestigious film festival in North America. It is filled with Hollywood produced films, and even the Canadian content is often high budget fare. Not to mention there were reportedly about 3000 films submitted for consideration (I think just over 200 are selected).
So even though I knew my little film “Prince of Peace – God of War” had virtually no chance at getting into the festival, I decided to try anyway and submit it. Well… I just got word that although it made it past the preliminary rounds… ultimately my film didn’t get in.
On the one hand, I’m not surprised at all. A zero budget documentary shot on a mini-dv camera by a total amateur (me) failing to get into the biggest film festival in north america won’t surprise anyone… not the least of which me. To be honest I would have dropped with total shock had I gotten into the thing. But….
I really like my film… I’m proud of it… and there was some little small part of me that actually thought it MIGHT have a shot at getting in. So I was prepared for the bad news… but it still stung. Ouch.
My goal is to get into at least one of the festivals I’ve submitted to. I’ll keep you updated.
On the positive side… Prince of Peace – God of War just got its first review… and it’s a GOOD ONE! The film site “Movie Patron” did it. You can read it here.
Jul
12
Well, the movie is done and I’ve now submitted it to 8 really good film festivals:
The Toronto International Film Festival (Toronto)
The Atlantic International Film Festival (Halifax)
The Calgary International Film Festival (Calgary)
The Global Peace Film Festival (Orlando)
The Vancouver International Film Festival (Vancouver)
The San Francisco Documentary Film Festival (San Francisco)
The Connecticut Film Festival
The Cinefest International Film Festival (Sudbury)
And I’m still thinking about a couple of others, including the Canada international Film Festival.
Here’s the thing. I am VERY aware that my chances of getting into any of these festivals is slim. But still… I have hope. The part that is really hard though is the damn WAITING!!! AARRGGG! The waiting is killing me. I won’t even start hearing back from any of the festivals until at least August 10th. So everyday I just sit… and wait. Some days I feel really optimistic, like I’ll get into the Toronto Film Festival… then other days not so much like I won’t get into any… it’s such an emotional rollercoaster.
It’s a good thing I don’t have like $100,000 invested in the movie or else that would add to the stress of NEEDING to get into the festivals (at this point I don’t NEED to get into the festivals… I’d just really really like to).
So for now… I just continue to sit… and wait… and wait…. and wait. Sigh… guess I’ll just play some more Unreal Tournament.
Jul
04
Saw this this morning from MSNBC. The most articulate, well laid out outrage against Bush. This president needs to go.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX5MZEZ49zA]
Jun
13
Movie Blog reader “ChewieDC” gave me the heads up on this site claiming to have the first pictures from the set of the upcoming (allegedly) 4th installment of the Indiana Jones franchise.
The site has more pictures that you can see here.
Jun
13
Later today I’m going to contacting the Toronto Film Festival and asking them if they would allow me to submit a newer cut of my film “Prince of Peace- God of War”. As some of you may know, last week I finally submitted my film to the Toronto International Film Festival. However, for some reasons after I submitted it, I got flooded with ideas for changes in the film.
I sat down and started making the changes… I made 35 changes in all! The result was a MUCH better film. Today I’m sending in the NEW film to the Calgary, Vancouver and Hollywood Documentary film festivals… and as I mentioned, I’m asking Toronto if they’ll let me switch the old version of the film for the new one. If they don’t let me, I think I’m going to withdraw my film from the competition.
I’m not trying to be picky… it’s just that the version of the film they have is no longer what I consider to be the film, and I would rather withdraw it than have them judge the wrong film. Does that make sense?
I’ll keep you updated.
Jun
09
Well… today I drove out to Toronto to drop off my movie “Prince of Peace – God of War” to the offices of the Toronto International Film Festival. Today was the final day of submissions, so I got it in just in time. Now it’s just a matter of sitting and waiting for about 6-8 weeks to hear back from them.
Apparently the number of films that got submitted are in the 4 digit range… so my chances of getting in are quite slim… but even if it doesn’t get into the festival, I’m very proud of the film (especially for my first attempt) and I’m glad I got it this far. The test audiences went really well, and I made improvements to the film as a result of their feedback.
Now I have to fight the urge and temptation to edit the film some more, or make more changes. At some point I have to just walk away from it and say “it is done”. But I still have a couple of things gnawing at me. I’m partially tempted to withdraw my film from the festival… make a few more changes, and then submit it to other festivals. I’ll take a couple of days to think about it.
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