If not, it won’t be so bad. I like the Patriots well enough, and I’ve always
thought Tom Brady played to win more than Peyton Manning, who Brady is often
compared to in terms of all-time greats. Manning, IMO, has always played for
glossy stats, and I think it cost him a playoff game the night after Brady
and the Pats won in an epic passfest, and Manning went out to try and put up
matching numbers, with a pass-at-all-costs mindset, and it backfired. So,
either li’l brother Eli gets his 2nd ring (one more than Peyton, despite all
those great Colts teams and him having a ton more playoff starts), or Brady
gets a fourth, which Peyton will likely never match. And, of course, one of
the best things about this Super Bowl? It’s Rex Ryan free!

Enjoy the game. I don’t take many days off, but Super Bowl Sunday is always
one of ‘em, usually for good reason. If tomorrow ends like the 2007 SB did?
It’ll be for great reason.

Hawkeye

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Currently listening to: Tupelo by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

http://tinyurl.com/7hz4nzl

It’s an update on what’s goin’ on specifically on the writing front, so
figured I’D house that one over there. More film info coming soon-a lot of
it!

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Currently listening to: The Middle by Jimmy Eat World

Anyway, while I endeavor to keep mucous from getting all over my space bar, here’s a quick update on what’s happening on this end.

My novel, Torn to Pieces, is being proofed by friends and fellow authors, as we ready it for release on Kindle, NOOK, and whatever other e-book options exist. Not being a Kindle or NOOK user myself, I’m sure there’s other means of getting e-books into the hands of readers, so feel free to clue the blind guy in on what’s available by dropping me an e-mail.

As well, we’re scheduling the photo shoot for the CHASERS upload (if you missed the chance to download it for free for Xmas, relax, it’ll only be .99 cents when we put it up again). That one generated some really nice responses, and to everyone who gave it a look-see and commented, you have my thanks.

Stuff Out’a My Head 2 is in the works, which I’m really jazzed about, because with the growing acceptance of e-books, now I don’t have to worry about the cost of printing if I want to make the thing 300 pages…or more. I guess once we format it, I’ll have a better idea, but I’m going to put in a lot more than I was able to with Stuff 1.

So, that’s it. Just a quickie report so loyalists don’t think I’ve abandoned the blog completely. Next update’ll likely concern the upcoming release of my debut feature film, The Bunker, and what international fests/markets it’ll be offered at. Yep, international film markets, The Bunker is headed overseas!

‘Til next time…

Hawkeye
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Currently listening to: Immigrant Song, covered by Karen O feat. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, from Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (which I highly recommend.)
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Like horror? Mystery novels? Thrillers? Well, click FOLLOW here & keep up with everything the blind guy’s doing—including breaking new ground in the film industry:

http://www.twitter.com/josephmonks

1) Herman Cain

Loser. Announced his bid for the republican nomination for president. Took
the country by storm (and surprise), quickly rising to the top of the polls.
Then, rumors of affairs, accusations of sexual harassment, and a series of
embarrassments drove him to the sidelines. Welcome to politics, Herman.
Maybe try running for a House or Senate seat first next time.

2) Albert Pujols

Winner. At 41, in all likelihood he’ll be well, well past his prime, but the
contract he just signed with the California Angels will still be paying him
more than 25 mil per season. Who knows? By then the economy might even turn
around. Which leads us to…

3) Anybody looking for a job.

Losers. Let’s face it folks, the stimulis plan was a disaster, and it’s been
three years. The man at the top and his economic policies blow. My guess is
even the most rabid Bush-haters’d trade 2011 for 2005, with it’s 5.3%
unemployment rate and a booming housing market. As the twitterverse would
put it: #EpicFail

4) ebook authors

Winners. E-publishing is finally viewed as legitimate, and as a result many
quality writers have been able to carve out a spot for themselves without
the hassle of needing an agent to beat down the doors of a traditional
publishing house. Unfortunately, this also leads to…

5) ebook readers

Losers. No, not the Nook, Kindle or other devices-I’m talking actual
readers. Human beings. All you folks who like to turn a page, be it pulp or
pixels. The market’s been flooded with more garbage than the average river
near a chemical plant, and trust me, no matter how many .99 cent offerings
you plod through, there are a lot of non-quality writers doing the same
thing they did when self-published chapbooks were the order of the day.
True, they’re no longer killing trees. Just brain cells.

6) The Indianapolis Colts

Losers. Sure, they may get their own version of Aaron Rodgers in Andrew
Luck, who’ll learn behind Peyton Manning. But boy, how the loss of one guy
really put this franchise into the toilet. Sure, other guys have been hurt
and put on IR, etc. But…come on. This team started the season in pretty
decent shape aside from quarterback. Until a couple of weeks ago, they were
looking like they’d match the Lions from a couple seasons back and go
winless. (The Tennessee Titans sure wish they would have). Still, the
biggest reason the Colts are losers? Simply because of how quickly they were
exposed without Manning under center. In 2012, I expect the bulls-eye to be
on a still-recovering Manning, regardless of how risky it’s been to blitz
him in the past. Put him on the sideline for a couple series, this team isn’t
just different, it’s gutted.

7) Casey Anthony

The only person to make this list in both categories, Winner and Loser.
Sure, she got away with the murder of her child. In doing so, however, she
avoids prison only to face death threats and be the most hated woman in the
United States. Probably some other countries too-and she doesn’t even live
there.

The Occupy… movement

Losers. “What?!” you say. “But…look at what they accomplished!” Exactly.
They burned bright, burned brief, and…where are they now? They’ve been run
out of almost all their encampments. They managed to tick off the very
people they wanted to have on their side. They’re getting virtually no ink
at present, and my guess is they probably won’t be able to recapture the
media’s attention without doing something extreme-which would only
marginalize them further. So, yeah, for a short time they held the world’s
attention. But you know what? Justin Bieber has more staying power. What’s
that tell you about the mark Occupy… has left overall?

9) Drew Brees

Winner. Breaking a record is one thing, but breaking a record that’s stood
for 27 years, and was held by one of the greatest passers of all time in Dan
Marino…with another game left to add to it? Well done, sir, well done.

10) Creators & Intellectual property holders

Losers. You’d think that congress wanting to crack down on piracy would be a
good thing, at least in principle. But, this SOPA bill is so poorly crafted
that you now have creators and rightsholders clamoring for its defeat. No
wonder congress’ approval rating is lower than Mel Gibson’s…

and, just outside the Top 10…

11) You-if you like readin’ horror stories

Yep, for fans of extreme horror, I’m leaving up CHASERS, my grim Xmas tale,
for an extra week. Scroll back to the last column, or click here and grab
it:

http://tinyurl.com/cy835zp

Thanks for stopping by, here’s wishing you a safe and healthy New Year’s,
and all my wishes for everything in 2012 to be positive for you! (Well,
maybe not an HIV test, but still…)

–Joe

Thanks for stopping by, whether you’re a newcomer or a longtime fan & friend. Merry Christmas, and (despite this unwrapped piece of wretchedness finding it’s way beneath your tree), best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to you and yours.

– Joe Monks
12/19/11

Download the PDF of CHASERS right here

Russell’s been talking with the interested companies, making notes about
each offer, etc. Lots of stuff we like, some things’re a little iffy, and
there’s a few items we don’t. Me? So far, I don’t think there’s been any
surprises. Foreign distribs may want a title change. Always knew that was
possible, doesn’t really bug me. Maybe some work to be done on the
performance clauses. Not really my thing, so I’ve weighed in, it’ll be up to
those guys to work that part out. Still a lot of questions on the
deliverables, but at least there, it doesn’t look like anything that’s going
to be too tough to nail down quickly. Current expected delivery date? Feb.
15. Could mean I dump one song, or maybe not. Will depend on what happens
between the band and yours truly over the next 2 weeks.

It’s early in the process, but I don’t think we’re going to have too many
problems getting a deal hammered out by year’s end, which has been our goal
since AFM. With The Bunker finally out of the way, time to get working on
the next project, which I’ve already started on. I feel pretty sure folks
who are long-timers (and I’m talking-back to the comic book days) will get a
kick out of it. More details coming soon, maybe around mid-January. After
the holidays.

Which are absolutely *torturing* my inner-workaholic…

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Currently listening to: Bottoms Up by Nickleback

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Don’t follow me on Twitter. I’m telling you not to. And you know you’re too
weak to defy me…

http://www.twitter.com

The Bunker impressed a number of people, and although the market is primarily geared toward American film distributors selling their movies to foreign distributors, we wound up getting a number of face-to-face meetings on the fly. With only a handful set up prior to leaving, we didn’t expect all that much, but Russell knocked on every door, (including at film companies we both knew would have zero interest in The Bunker). Still, we got a few meetings with execs from those companies too, which alone made the trip worthwhile.

As mentioned, AFM is about showing off your film to foreign distributors, sales reps and agents. Well, we did that, all right, meeting with enough people to generate some significant offers for representation for the film overseas. Russell and I plan on making an announcement about that in December, as we’re still being contacted by companies we met with and who took Bunker presentation packages home. Ten days sounds like a long time (longer than I prefer to be in CA, that’s for sure), but it’s far from enough for foreign distributors to watch all the films they’re being pitched, so we sent a lot of folks home with screeners and media kits.

Streaming. Yep, everybody’s about streaming these days, which is disappointing to a Luddite like myself, but was to be expected. That said, we did meet with several companies who still release DVDs and Blue-Ray. Mostly, though, we talked streaming with distributors, both foreign and domestic. There’s an announcement to be made concerning this, too, as we do have a streaming deal in place, covering multiple territories. We may be able to make that a global deal, but working out those details will likely take until the end of the year.

Moving forward…there’s a couple wrinkles, and new irons in the fire. We got invited by a film financing company to attend a small party at Salute, in Santa Monica, where the Jeff Goldblum Orchestra played. I think the whole event was only open to about 300 people. The gentleman we met at the party had a lot to talk to us about, and set up a meeting the morning after to discuss some possibilities. At present, I’ve spoken with some producers in New York, and we’re building a package for two vehicle films, which we expect to have our attorney present right after the first of the year. I’m excited about it, because it’s long overdue that I get onto something new, not just a music video or two.

Speaking of new, one of the meetings we took (with one of those companies I’d’ve pegged as having no interest in my flick), actually went surprisingly well. They’re a big fish, so we figured, “What the hell?”, and did our best. That led to us getting a bit of inside information about specific types of projects that company is buying up /seeking out. Including theatrical releases for existing franchise film properties. Sitting there on the couch—no joke, I literally sat there during the meeting thinking this out—I came up with an idea for one of the properties in question. A day later, we stole another couple minutes from this exec, solely to ask what the company would need to see in order to get something into the right hands. His response? “Get me a script. Have your attorney present a package, I’ll look at it. You want to take a run at this franchise, you have my numbers.” That he indeed gave us his cell phone number certainly made that meeting one of the better ones.

Did we get blown off? Sure, at several places. Some film companies didn’t even have anyone in power at the market, just sales firms repping their completed and in-production features for the foreign buyers. Russell met with one French firm (figures, right?) who deigned to talk with him, and was told, “Well, we wouldn’t even think about exploiting the blind angle.” Really? This is a first. Nobody’s done it before. And, Frenchy was going to ignore it because he thought there was something inherently unsavory about exploiting the biggest marketing hook Frank Darabont’s ever seen? Yeah, nice. I can just picture him looking at the producers of GIA and saying, “I wouldn’t think of exploiting Angelina Jolie’s gorgeous, well-rounded breasts. Bring me a poster with her male co-star, maybe we can do something with this…” Luckily, though, those encounters were relatively few. Even then, at a couple of places, we met with really nice folks who were more than happy to slip us the card of somebody we did want to be talking to, even if it couldn’t be at the market.

Finally, the media. Got on two radio shows while out in CA, the head entertainment editor for Variety got in touch, and wound up getting interviewed by Gannett’s News-Press the day after I returned. Even got some face time (unbeknownst to me) on NBC. Did the Kevin & Bean morning show on KROQ—the top dog out on the W. coast—and got to thank Ralph Garman in person for his help (and the help of his Hollywood Babble-On podcast partner, Kevin Smith) with the funding needed to complete the film. Can’t thank those guys enough for all they did when time was running out and we had more post-production loose ends to tie up than cash.

Enjoy the gallery. More updates coming soon, about projects both in production and in the works. With a little luck, 2012 will be filled with reports of me continuing to be the workaholic I am, but doing it on somebody else’s dime!

Been shooting a lot of music video stuff, and working with a band and a solo
musician on two songs for an upcoming project. Not being a musician (I
played the cello in HS, but that was about the last time I picked up an
instrument with any level of competence), that’s been alternately thrilling
and frustrating, but great progress is being made.

As for the horror. On the video shoot a couple of weeks ago, we dragged out
my casket (yep, it’s a real authentic post-mortem 1 room apartment), and
shot a little anniversary shout out for the fine folks at LatinHorror.com.
You can check it out here:

Very happy to contribute to the anniversary well-wishes, and to do something
creative in just 20 seconds. The whole run of videos will be shown prior to
the Anthology Film Archive event next week in New York City, so if you’re
gonna be there, you can wait. If not? Click the link and let the guys at LH
know you dig it.

Big announcement coming in the next day or two, been finalizing arrangements
for the past few weeks. Keep checkin’ in, I’m chompin’ at the bit about this
one.

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Currently listening to: Diffuzion – Dbd (While You Can)

Tomorrow I’m meeting up with our makeup F/X artist to pick up some new gory goodies, and we’re going to talk about some more work I’m throwing his way for the next shoot. I’m hoping we can arrange that before Zombiecon in mid-October.

Tomorrow night, I’m hooking up with two of the band members, too, and the lead singer for another group who’s interested in getting a video shot. I caught the band a couple of weeks back in Naples, we shot some performance footage, and now I’m hoping we can start working out the details for one of their originals. Between festivals and some upcoming travel, it might be hit-and-miss, especially since they’re scheduling a bunch of gigs. Still, I think we ought to be able to make it happen.

Okay, back to the grind. Got more cast and crew to schedule. As Pam and I get to go over the raw footage and stills, we’ll be uploading more pics here and then into a Facebook gallery. Check back for links to that once it’s posted.
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Currently listening to: Rebels by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
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Speaking of Facebook, if you’re there, give us a Like or become a friend or whatever it is people do when they connect. I’m at:

http://www.facebook.com/JosephMMonks

and

http://www.facebook.com/joemonks

As well, the official FB page for my debut feature, The Bunker, is at:
http://www.facebook.com/thebunkermovie

http://tinyurl.com/3v5ge9d

I’ve got three shoots lined up this week (word is getting out with local
bands), but I’ll be checking in regularly. You got a question? Post it.
Comment? Let Ellie know what you think. This is a real fun Q&A, and she runs
a very cool site.

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Currently listening to: Dragula by Rob Zombie