John Q. Phats Entertainment

Today on YouTube’s front page they featured some shorts from the Sundance Film Festival.  Seeing as how Sundance is supposed to be one of the biggest and best film festivals out there I was kind of curious and half expecting something brilliant.  I would think that the only real advantage to showing these is that it would be sort of a marketing tool.  Like “look at these great films.  Come check out the festival next year, to see more just like it.”  This is just my opinion but after looking at these videos, I would not pay to go to Sundance next year.  I kind of expected them to put their best foot forward.  If this is the best they’ve got, I’m not interested.  Sundance shorts I’ve seen in the past have been deep and thought provoking, these are beyond shallow.  The one redeeming short out of the four on the main page is a documentary named Mr. Okra.  It’s a great story and it’s really nicely shot.  I was looking for more of something like that, rather then “look how stupid we are!” comedy.  By all means check them out though, this is just my opinion.  Sundance has a channel on YouTube.  I haven’t checked out some of the other videos yet, but these aren’t much of an incentive to do that.  I’m still not sure if this is now the norm of Sundance or if this is an extreme misrepresentation of the short films at Sundance on the part of YouTube.  Perhaps I’ve just lost touch with what’s good.
There are some short films out there that are so unbelievable they make me look at what I do and think “I have no clue what I am doing.”  That’s what I expect to see when I watch a Sundance short film.  That’s not what I got.
Here’s the link to Mr. Okra and here’s the link to the Sundance YouTube page.

So, either we have just 2 years left before the planet destroys itself or like the Y2K hoax nothing is going to happen and life will go on.  Either way, there’s nothing I can do about either of those so it’s time to have some fun and get down to business.  Unless of course John Cusack picks me up in a limo.  Then we can outrun earthquakes and lava.  That scene was absolutely ridicules and I loved every God damned second of it.  Just turn off your brain for movies like that, you’ll love them.  I liked that movie as a mindless action flick.  I got exactly what I expected.
With Do Nice Guys Finish Last all set and making its attempt at a festival run, I’m ready for my next project.  I plan to start 2010 right.  My resolution was to write a script whenever I get an idea.  I had way too many ideas last year that I’ve now forgotten because I never wrote them.  Sometimes they are entire long short films, other times they are just quick scenes.  I actually do really enjoy writing, but the hardest part is getting started.  So, no matter how bad or small the idea is, I am going to stop what I’m doing and write a script for it immediately.  We’ll see how that goes as I seem to get groups of ideas.  Hopefully I can keep up with myself.
Ellen Sandler is doing a seminar on January 23^rd in Los Angeles at The Writers Store.  I’m seriously considering going.  I really like her book.  Only thing holding me back is that it’s $150.  I could be spending that cash on my next short film.  Who knows though, this class might push me in another direction entirely.  For $150 I suppose I could find out.  I’ll keep you guys updated.  It could be a fun Saturday. 

Happy 2010 everyone.  Hopefully you all have a good year.