John Q. Phats Entertainment

I know I should be talking about the Academy Awards or something recent. But the fact is, the awards were really predictable. All the people everyone thought were going to win, won. There’s not really much to talk about. Instead, I would like to talk about Lost. I know, I’m about 3 years late but I just got around to watching the final season on DVD. I’m a big fan of Lost. The show changed a lot of people’s opinions about it throughout it’s life time. It seemed like everyone watched season 1 and was on board. I would say people started to get pissed around season 4. They were impatient for answers. The only problem with that is that when Lost answered a question it created on average 4 more questions. Here’s an example. In the first season there was some sort of big monster crashing through the island and killing people.
The question:
“What’s the big monster crashing through the jungle?”
The answer:
“It’s a big pillar of smOKe that clicks and creeks and has lightning shooting off of it!”
Which brought about the questions:
“Why is there a big pillar of smoke on the island?”
“What is it?”
“Why is it killing people?”
“How did it get there?”
This went on for six season. With each answer bringing 4+ questions with it. I think the fourth season was a lot of people’s breaking point. I’m not the type of person that needs answers. I don’t know, maybe I’m an ignorant simpleton. I just enjoy the ride while it’s happening. I made it through the sixth season and I’m content with the ending. Of course it only brought more questions and I’m OK with that. Were they dead the entire time? I don’t know and who really gives a shit? They’re all imaginary anyway. Whatever, it was a good story.

The search for a mascot continues.  Current discussions focused around what exactly the mascot would mean and why I was doing this.  We also discussed squirrels and mice as possible mascots.  Wow, that all sounds so official.  I suppose this is part of me taking a break after finishing filming for Do Nice Guys Finish Last.  I usually do that.  I wish I didn’t have to, but it does make everything more exciting when I start on my next project.  I have been writing here and there, but I haven’t really worked on anything major.  I really want to shoot in HD next.  I keep telling myself that once I get an HD camera that shoots 24 FPS I’ll be good from then on.  I know that’s not the case though.  As I have said in previous posts, I’ll always be chasing some new billion dollar thing that does something better then my current equipment.  I like to consider myself a budget friendly film maker.  I usually make what I have work.  That doesn’t really come out of ingenuity though, it’s more of a necessity.  Like when we built the jib arm for Red Hood.  I could have rented one for $2500, but I didn’t have that kind of budget.  So, I built one for just over $100.  It worked and now I have a jib arm.  Building stuff is always a cheap way out.  Plus, it’s kind of interesting to see what Gabe can come up with.  Or some random guy who posts blue prints on the Internet.  We built a steady cam off of the Internet.  We called it the Raminator.  It worked pretty good.  It’s kind of heavy and weird, but that’s kind of the point.  It’s supposed to add weight to the camera at a lower point to help stabilize it.  It worked for what we wanted to use it for.  Back to my original point, the mascot.  The mascot has to do with changing the name of the company.  Also, I want something kind of fun to put at the end of the credits that people will remember.  That’s pretty much it.  I really thought that there was more to it then that, but I guess not. 
Gabe tells me that the color correction for Do Nice Guys Finish Last is tedious, but he’s making progress.  Once the color correction is done the transitions will be a snap.  The credits are all ready to go.  So, we’re not too far off.  There’s not that much color correction to be done.  For a lot of the scenes, Gabe stuck with one camera.  It just flowed better that way. 
I watched a bunch more of the first season of True Blood last night.  Awesome series, but I stand by my belief that vampires are dicks.  I also got Dexter Season 3 on DVD earlier this week.  I’ve only watched the first episode, but holy shit that show is awesome.  I can’t stand watching shows on TV, I have to wait for them on DVD.  I think it’s the cliff hangers that really aggravate me.  There have been a couple times in True Blood, where if I wasn’t able to go to the next episode immediately, I would have lost my freaking mind.  Same with Dexter, although Dexter usually has a pretty good ending to each episode that leaves you satisfied.  Heroes plays the cliff hanger game a lot.  The worst by though is Lost.  I watched season 1 on DVD and decided to watch season 2 on television.  Every single episode I watched ended with me yelling “Jesus Christ!  What the fuck?!”  I only watched like 4 of them before I finally gave up and just waited for the DVD’s.  The thing with Lost is, is that they show you a preview the week before and you’re excited to see this one thing in the preview, then you watch it, and of course, that one thing is at the end of the episode.  But then that’s all it is.  There’s no explanation of it.  It just sort of happens.  Then you have to wait for an entire week to see every ones reaction to that one thing, which is what you wanted to see last week.  Season 5 comes out in December and I’ve been keeping up with it.  I love that show, I think it’s great, but screw those writers.