Besides wrapping up Schweitzer Lakedance ‘08, Fred and I and others have been working on ‘09.  It will mean some substantial changes to the film festival based on what we’ve seen over the past few years and the current state of the economy.  Don’t worry, it’s still going to be a grand festival, but many of the components, including programming, are going to see an “overhaul”.

Then there is Don’t Call Me a Doctor, our 30min short comedy we filmed in Seattle in May this last year.  At first, the plan was to have it completed before SL’08, and show it there.  I had so little time, I only had the time to put together a quickie teaser for the movie, which those who saw it seemed to enjoy.   There have been some (not impossible to overcome, just difficult to work with issues) regarding post-production on the picture once I really got to dig in my teeth in Novem

We'll be using this location for DCMAD

ber or so.  I had the picture more or less locked at the end of December, but we had to wait several weeks to get the final sound.  So that’s where we’re at now, the picture is locked and we’re putting the final sound (dialogue, ambient, foley, etc).  Lastly will come the soundtrack.  The good news is, I think we’re well over the hurdles of the picture edit that was slowing us down for so long, and so watch this space and the DCMAD website for more posts.

We’ve also come to an end in our project in North Idaho.  Fred and I signed on with our long time friend, Don Hayes, to restore the Charbonneau Hotel, a 1912 National Historic registered building, in Priest River as a group project.  We left Southern California in September 2004, and have been residing (and enjoying) North Idaho over since while we restored about 1/3 of the 12k sq. ft hotel.  Its been a herculean task, but alas, we’ve done everything we can do for the old building, so the time has come to pass the building along to someone with grand visions and the ability to finish it.  This means now relocating our business and personal items back to Southern California, although with full intention of returning for about six months to run and prepare for SL’09.

Also, our good friends, and SL sponsors, laser image, inc. of Sandpoint, asked me to redesign their website, based on my designs for SL’s website that they’ve seen and enjoyed over the years.  It was an honor, but it did take a bit of time from the schedule.  You can see the website at the first link above (we just finally launched it after about two months of development).  I won’t go into too much detail here, but we did go through two different designs, and ended up in this design, which the clients wanted.  While the end result is simple, it addresses every point the clients wanted to make, nailed our goals of a quick loading website, it is SEO optimized and easy to navigate.

We also planned for an put into development a film event in the So Cal area, that was intended for Spring ‘09.  We knew it was a bit ambitious, but we were prepared to do it.  Unfortunately, do to a number of factors, it will not happen in early ‘09.  It may happen in ‘10 but there are still some components that need to come together for it.

Recently, we have arranged with Mr. Paul Castro to have him return to Sandpoint in March for another screenwriting workshop, this time more lengthy, and far more in-depth.

Finally, as many know by now, Fred and I love to restore old cars.  It’s been a passion.  While in Idaho, at one time we owned 4 Volkswagons (66,71,72,76), a 1936 Oldsmobile, and a 1950 Ford F1 Truck.  In the past few months, when we made the decision to take our operations back to So Cal, we needed to downsize, and so we basically now own 1 ‘66 VW, and the 1936 Oldsmobile, both of which just finally reached the runner/driver/stopper phase.  The rest we’ve sold, almost entirely through the internet, to people around the USA.  How amazing craigslist and other resources are!  So suffice to say, its been quite an operation dealing with all of these sales, and the continual restoration on the other projects.

All of that said, its nice to have a drastically reduced “plate” in front of us.  Sure, we still have the big move coming up this week, but aside from that, and the boats, and the workshop, and prepping SL’09 my whole personal focus will be on DCMAD, and getting it finished and out to festivals, then working on the feature version.  I can’t wait!