D.D.A.T.W.C.U.N. on Pagina 164 of T.I.A.F. 2007 Catalog

So, I got a package this morning from Taiwan, I wasn't expecting one. It was from the people at the Taiwanese International Animation Festival returning the copy of my film as well as sending me the Festival's catalog. It was more book than catalog, being it was like 300 pages long. Of course I started to look to see if I was included in anyway asides from mention of my name or something in it. To my surprise I found that I was on the title page for my category and the first entry (non-alphabetical order). I actually hadn't known what category I had been placed in, it ended up being Docu-Anim, documentary animation. I had never really thought of the piece as such but in actuallity I think it fits that category, I had never before heard of such a category of animation prior. So, on that page there's a 1/4 of a page of "Death, Destruction, and the Weather Coming Up Next" and I couldn't be happier.

Colin & Other News

First off, I want to pay some respects to Colin McRae (1968-2007). For those of you who don't know who Colin McRae is, he's a Scottish rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship in 1995 for Subaru. He was runner up in 1996, 1997, and 2001. Known for being quite a fearless driver which resulted numerous times in offs, crashes, and the like due to pushing just a little to hard. Always haven driven flat out there was no toning down his tenacity. I had the chance to see him in 2006 at the X-Games, the first year they held a rally event. He was well out front of the competition, however he landed wrong after the final jump and rolled his car. He landed wheels down and took off as soon as they hit the ground and finished only a tenth of a second shy of 1st place. I was utterly shocked and amazed that he could pull off almost winning even after rolling his car. Here is a video from that day.



It's been a very rapid ascent this fall semester. right off the bat during the first week and continuing on I've had on minimum 150-200 pages of reading. Now this ain't your light reading it's all freakin' dense as hell. A lot of modernity, postmodernity, globalization, hybridity, economics, cultural relations, and the list goes on. I had two presentations this week and a paper due on top of that so I'm pretty spent. The paper and conjoining presentation was rather interesting material. It was a response to chapter by Flusser on the camera as an apparatus. Talked a lot about power relationships, medium, the "program" or design, and the entrapment of apparatuses. One of the examples I threw out during my presentation was the fallacy of power afforded by the Web 2.0 phenomina. Some people had some ardent arguements about that. My teacher backed me up on it, but it was definitely interesting discussion. However, all this left me very tired. I do have to say it's all very interesting reading and I enjoy it even if it's utterly draining sometimes. I find it will probably come in handy during thesis time this coming semester.

I am still coveting the blasted iPod Touch, but seriously, I need to know if it can be jailbaited before I buy one. I'm telling myself I want it for the N.N.W., but another part is I just want it. Really it's just trying to justify the means. Oi! Maybe I should take up a collection for "The Buy Emery an iPod Touch Foundation." I've also begun to eye the Logitech Revolution MX mouse, it feels so good, nice and heavy, and really nice ergonomic fit in the hand. It's got a place for your thumb. It feels real nice. I have to see if I will need it for the amount of time I'll be on the comp. We'll see. That one is a lot more in reach than the Touch.

On the 14th, "Death, Destruction, and the Weather Coming Up Next" screened in Milan, Italy at the Milano Film Festival. It was part of the "Different American Cinema" program. I'm still really shocked that it made it there. Sometime in this week or next week it will be getting shown in Taipei, Taiwan, at the Taiwanese International Animation Festival. I guess it has a hint at having legs.

Anyways I got more reading to do, so I'm gonna head back to that. but before I go here's a few little random tidbits. The first from the military industrial complex, of Russia. The other from the G-Train stations. Enjoy.


Amazing jet the Russian SU35.



"Me and Pookie put something special in the 'Special Sauce.'"

DDATWCUN Going to Milano Film Festival 2007

Well looks like "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" likes to travel. It has been selected for a special out of competition program, "Different American Cinema" for the 12th annual Milano Film Festival. There is a chance I may actually get to go to Milan as well, which is really cool. Here is the description of the program.

"Since this year's edition of the feature film competition includes two US works for the first time, we asked ourselves "What do American films today portray?" and tried to find an answer with the help of the short and feature films that were submitted to the competitions. Considering the high number of works, we decided to carve out some space for a few stories by young directors.
The short films in this section highlight human stories of greatness and more often of misery, family relationships marked by guilt and sorrow, friendships in which the seeds of doubts and rejection are planted. When it comes to the feature films there is something different to say: it would be difficult to describe their contents in a few words. If we should define them in conventional terms, we would use adjectives like "disturbing", "unconventional", "experimental" or "narratively disjointed". In spite of the feeling of spontaneous, personal, poor and instinctive films, a deeper analysis reveals that the works are well studied and depict self-absorbed characters, created by directors focusing on complex and troublesome individuals."

Milano Film Festival 2007

2nd Place for D.D.A.T.W.C.U.N. @ Carless Drive In Video Festival

I finally have reached home and started to look at my mail. I was informed that "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" won 2nd place in the Abstract category at the 4th Annual Carless Drive In Video Festival. Unfortunately I was unable to attend and I have no clue why i was grouped into that category or why I was put down as being from NYU when making the film (I was at CalArts at the time). Oh well, second place is second place. I should hear from the Academy this week, so fingers crossed.

Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next to Contend for Student Academy in Nationals

I just got word that my film "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" is going to be going to the Student Academy Nationals. It ended up being the only film of the four contending in my category to move on to the nationals. So, D.D.A.T.W.C.U.N. will be coming to Los Angeles again with the potential for a Student Academy, which also includes a little bit of cash. I'm pretty shocked, I didn't think I would end up being the only qualifier from my category, I figure they'd move two forward but nope. So, I guess on June 9th we'll find out what happens. I will post the details about the June 9th screening when I receive the information. Wooohooo! Now back to work to finish a final before tomorrow morning, agh.

"Death, Destruction, & The Weather Coming Up Next" Going To Student Academy Awards Regionals!

I just got an email today from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, informing me that my film that I finished last year, "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next," has made it to the regional finals for the Student Academy Awards. 175 films were submitted and 16 were choosen to move on to the regionals in the 4 categories. The whole list is at the bottom. So, from here a maximum of three finalists are choosen to proceed to the nationals in Los Angeles.

The Regional Finalists will be screened on Monday, April 23, 6p.m. at the Northwest Film Center/Portland Art Museum's Whitsell Auditorium. I was pretty shocked to hear this news as well as excited. So, I guess we'll see what happens.


34th ANNUAL STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS REGION 1 FINALISTS

A L T E R N A T I V E
DEATH, DESTRUCTION, & THE WEATHER COMING UP NEXT Emery C. Martin/California Institute of the Arts
THE GRANDE FINALE John Suits/California Institute of the Arts
LOUD SOLITUDE AND ALSO I SAID I WOULD NEVER LEAVE YOU Orly Shuber/University of Southern California
POSTMARKS Lisa Franek/San Diego State University

A N I M A T I O N
AFRICA PARTING Robyn Alice Yannoukos/University of California at Los Angeles
AQUALIBRAE Chanya Hetayothin/University of California at Los Angeles
CAMP BEAN, ALL THINGS WOODSEY Michelle Banta Tessier/University of California at Los Angeles
DOPPELGANGER Ki-Peum Lee/California Institute of the Arts
ICARUS AND THE TREE HERDER Ian Worrel/California Institute of the Arts
SUNDAY PARTY Sirirat Thawilvejakul/University of Southern California

D O C U M E N T A R Y
CROSS YOUR EYES KEEP THEM WIDE Ben Wu/Stanford University
LEFT IN BAGHDAD Peter Jordan, John Kane/Stanford University
LONG HAUL Erin Hudson/Stanford University

N A R R A T I V E
DEACON'S MONDAYS Destin Cretton, Lowell Frank/San Diego State University
HOUSE OF THE OLIVE TREES Thouly Dosios/University of California at Los Angeles
SVEN STROMSON BLUE Joseph Campanale/Chapman University