Recent Developments

So, I've been pretty negligent about updating this blog. Truth be told, there hasn't been much news to report lately. This past weekend, though, we filmed the first scene for the long-awaited Duke City Nights Chapter 2, starring Steve Pinzone and Alisia Downing! Check out some stills from the filming here:

http://505films.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=68#68

I've had to make yet another modification to the forums to attempt to stave off the interminable hordes of spambot registrants. I added a mod called Textual Confirmation that requires people attempting to register to type in (and spell correctly) the answer to a question. Honestly, I'm not sure how the bots get past the gestalt-scrambled numbers and letters thing, but they do. I've had about 10-20 spambots registering every day lately. Just now I went to clear out all the fake accounts, and in the weeks since I last did so there were 250 or so that had registered. Fortunately, I implemented a thing that prevented them from posting until I approved their accounts; now that I have this textual confirmation thing, I've reset it to the normal e-mail confirmation process; hopefully this will keep the spam-bots out while allowing you, the real people, to still get in.

Finally, Necroville is starting a weeklong run this weekend:

Necroville starts THIS FRIDAY at the Guild Cinema

February 22nd through the 28th
9:30pm Daily
Guild Cinema
3405 Central NE (across from Starbucks in Nob Hill)
Albuquerque, NM

$7 regular tickets
$5 for students w/ID

That’s a Friday through Thursday week long engagement. Full sized Necroville
movie posters featuring art by Harry “Zero” Morris will be available for $25 a
pop. Assorted other C.R. Productions goodies and general niftiness will be
available as well.

End of an Era

Yes, I've finally replaced my controversial voicemail message with one far more banal and unremarkable. As fun as it was, I ultimately decided that professional considerations must prevail. Also, it was just time. It was no longer fresh or original, and it certainly did nothing to stem the onslaught of unwanted calls I'm subjected to on a daily basis. Anyway, if you're interested in hearing it again for old times' sake (or whatever) it has been preserved for posterity here.

A new gathering place...

So I was reading the Daily Despair the other day and saw that Scott was closing down his message boards. Way back when I first put up 505films.com, long before I'd even met Scott, I decided against putting up my own boards because EDP's were already the staple of Albuquerque online forum life. I always kind of thought it was too bad someone had beaten me to the punch, but then again that's all part of being the new guy. I've been a big fan of online forums for years and years, ever since joining Ars Technica's forums way back in 2000. I'd always kind of wanted to have and maintain my own, but never had a real reason to... until now!!!

The 505 Films Forum is all set up and ready to go - head on over there and sign up! I'd like to make this the new online community for Abq z-budget filmmakers, and that means getting butts in seats (metaphorically). Scott was generous enough to link to us from his page, and I'm hoping that we can get all the old participants to join up over here. While, at the same time, keeping the spammers out. So take a break from reading this and go sign up now!

So, you probably also noticed the new design of the page... I've been meaning to do it for awhile, actually, because I was never happy with the left-hand button menu layout. It was so... 1998. No, literally, I copied it from a webpage I made in 1998 (actually, '97. Eek!). I wanted to move to the "center column with navigation buttons in a row along the top under a header image" style almost since I built the site, but just didn't get around to it till now.

Partly I was also waiting for inspiration to strike artistically, since I never really had a good idea what the site should look like. Lately, with all the thinking I've been doing regarding Duke City Nights chapters and their future, I've had my mind on early 20th century art and architecture. It was only a matter of time before I connected my need to redesign the website with art deco.

I'm very pleased with the results, myself, although I still have some loose ends to tie up. One of the biggest "problems" is that alpha-layer transparency in PNG files isn't supported in IE 6 and below, so the site doesn't look right in those browsers. Of course, the natural response of all thinking people should be "Who the hell still browses with IE 6?" I mean, seriously people, get Firefox. Now. But I strive for widespread compatibility when I make a site, so I'm trying to figure out a workaround. I briefly switched the images with transparent areas to .gifs, but they looked pretty terrible. Bleh.

On another random note, while I was building this layout I discovered a color that's one of my new favorites. Because I write all the HTML, CSS and Javascript code for my websites by hand, I sometimes have a hard time troubleshooting when elements don't appear where they're supposed to. In this case, I was trying to position the div for the navigation buttons properly before I'd actually made the buttons. A div with no properties and nothing in it is invisible, so I often give them a random background color so I can see where they are when I load the page in Firefox. When I say "random", what I mean is that I slap in whatever six-digit hexidecimal number that pops into my head. This time it was 34567c. The result, as you can see, is a worthy color indeed:

I liked the color so much I was tempted to throw out my original concept of using black and white only for the site. Ultimately I decided to stick with my first idea, but I have taken special note of that color code and may well use it next time I redesign the site. That will truly be a glorious day.

Now I think I'm gonna go post some threads in the new fora, to hopefully encourage people to start posting there...

No Business Like Show Business...

Hey all! Been a long time since I provided an update, I know. There are a lot of exciting things going on, though, so I figured it was about time.

First of all, in case you have been living in a cave in Outer Mongolia and hadn't heard, Land of Entrapment DVD's are for sale on our website! Check out the newly upgraded 505 Films Store, now with Paypal shopping cart! Now you can easily order massive quantities of your favorite locally-made movie and give them as presents to all your friends and family this holiday season! If you're more of a brick-and-mortar type, you can now buy LOE DVDs at Page One Too in Albuquerque, on the southeast corner of Montgomery & Juan Tabo!

Also, there are only four copies left of the Limited Edition DVD of Duke City Nights: Chapter One. I'm not sure if I'm going to make any more, because we're gearing up to film the next chapter in the DCN saga at the end of the month, and I may just wait until I've finished a few more of the chapters to make a compilation DVD. So this may be your last chance to get a DCN1 DVD.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Billy and everyone who helped him with Necroville, which won "Best New Mexico Film" at this year's Santa Fe Film Festival! If you haven't seen it yet, the movie is awesome. Keep an eye on the Necroville Gazette for further developments, and don't forget to buy it on DVD when it comes out! It'll be a key addition to any local Albuquerque film collection!

Speaking of which, have you heard what EDP is planning for their award-winning feature Gimme Skelter? They're going to self-distribute in association with Burning Paradise! With the distribution market the way it is these days, self-distribution is starting to look like the way of the future, and we'll all be watching Skelter's success closely. Best of all, the self-distribution model means that you can pre-order your Skelter DVD right now over at EDPMOVIES.COM! Get over there and order one!

As I mentioned earlier in the post, we're getting ready to film Duke City Nights: Chapter Two. While I'm not sure if it'll be able to live up to the pedigree of the first one, we're going to be putting a lot of effort into making it as good as we can. The main thing I'd like to say about it is not to expect more of the same - my whole purpose behind these shorts is to experiment with all aspects of the filmmaking process, which includes story elements and structure. This one will star Steve Pinzone in his first featured role in a 505 Films production!