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CATEGORIES ::
> Blah! > Movies, Music, Guitars & Comics > Fiction
BLOOD, SWEAT N' TEARS ::
> Y2k > Ciplak
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> MySpace > Flickr
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> Albert > Az > Cynthia > Debbie > Eddy > Effigy > Izuwan > Jordan > Kevin > Pete Teo > Rina > Shelley
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So what's been happening in the world of the Gube, eh? What indeed. Many, many things. So many, in fact, that I've double booked myself this Friday which has caused much pain and suffering to all those concerns, both financially and emotionally. But not in an extreme way. Ciplak's fate is to be decided by next week at the latest. If all goes well you shall soon see me bombing the country with flyers and possibly cheap, illegal marketing methods such as stenciling (to be decided). The studio is, well, going ok so far. It could be a whole lot better, but a lot of people don't want to come and check it out due to it being 'far'. Those that have trekked to the studio, however, have made bookings. Someone out there, please help spread the word that this is NOT some egg carton covered studio but an actual, fully working recording facility with kick-ass guitar amps. Godammit. My brain has been wracked with numbers and figures and accounting terms that I don't understand which pisses me off to no end. To ease this I have taken to fooling around with my guitar a helluva lot, trying to find that perfect sound (which is almost there, but not quite). What geekery. This has been my life for the past two months: working on music, movies, more music and missing half the day's sun. Working without a salary (yet) and hoping and praying for the moment where I'm finally there. I've been here so long it's making me sick. I want to be there for fucks sake. Sure, I'm doing what I want, but at a price, and it's a price I pay gladly but with a slightly heavy heart. Good things come to those who wait, I guess. ... Quit taking your time and gimme my dues, dammit! 1. CIPLAK POSTER COMPETITION So here's the thing: I've done one version of the poster that I'm kinda happy with, Pussycoat have done another that I'm also kinda happy with but both are flawed. Mine doesn't look as good as I hoped it would (and, quite frankly, the colour overdose is quite disorientating) and the Pussycoat one may go over the heads of those who have no idea about the finer points of DVD-piracy packaging. It is with this problem in mind that I have decided, for the next few weeks, to ask you wonderful readers (which, since the changing of 20six's format, has been reduced dramatically to less than fifty a day) to attempt to achieve what I have only been able to adequately do. That's right. I'm asking YOU to design a poster for me. And the one(s) chosen will... (drum roll...) ...be used in the marketing of the movie! ... Yes. That's it. What did you expect? Cash money? But, lack of monetary compensation aside, this could be your chance to get either (a) your design career on track by having YOUR work plastered all over GSC, (b) your portfolio a bit fuller, (c) another chance at some design/advertising award or (d) increase your pride and ego to dizzying heights as you stand next to a bunting of the poster you designed outside the cinema telling chicks passing by that you designed it! Fame! Fortune! Fresh Kiblets! Go on, help me out. I'm rather busy. Pics can be downloaded at my Flickr page in the 'Ciplak' set. The title font is 'Downcome' which you can download at DaFont.com and main text font is Keyboard Plaque (available at the same site). Enjoi. 2. PRIVATE CIPLAK UK SCREENING! The other Ciplak news on the agenda is the upcoming UK screening, to be held at the prestigious friend of a friend's place somewhere in London. If you've been happily (or sadly) reading the slow process of making this movie from the confines of a London bedsit then here's your chance to see what all the fuss is about. The screening's in August, so if you're in use the link (somewhere on this page) to e-mail me and gimme your e-mail address. I'll compile them and pass them to Man Method (who shall be overseeing said screening) and he'll contact you with details. As for the status of the movie's screening in Malaysia... well, just wait and see. Ok, so I wasn't that detailed with the poster requirements when I wrote the last post (which I should have, but in truth, I was rushing in fear of impending battery death). This is in response to Helen's last post, but would apply to anyone else thinking of doing a poster: 1. CONCEPT A poster with a concept or idea behind it which reflects the theme/mood/style/content of the movie would be great. The concept can either come out in the style of the poster or the actual content on the poster. 2. HUMOR This would kind of answer the style of the poster, I guess. Since the movie is predominantly a comedy, the poster can't be too moody or serious. Or it can, but be undercut by a killer tagline which takes the piss of the image. Or whatever. I'd like to stay away from the typical comedy posters which usually just have the cast smiling with a white background. Something sarcastic, sardonic, whatever. Humor must be somewhere. Hopefully. If you can't make it funny, then try making it... 3. COOL I have no idea how to explain this. Who can define cool? You probably understand the concept of cool. Cool design style, cool photoshopping, whatever. Coolness rules. Oh, this next one's important: 4. CREDITS & OTHER REQUIREMENTS Ok. A basic credit list can be taken from the website. Or you can use the last Ciplak poster as a reference (large version available on my Flickr page). The design also has to be done in such a way that it can be blown up to poster and bunting size and there needs to be room somewhere at the bottom for all the sponsor logos (which I don't have at the moment). Oh, and the 'Downcome' font is required for the title. In yellow. If you do not like yellow... sorry. Cheers, peeps. Oh, and if you need ideas, check out the Internet Movie Poster Awards site. They've got all the latest movie posters from around the world as well as archives dating back to the late sixties. Before you ask, it's tough to compare the new one to the old one because of the advances in technology. For example, in the original Christoper Reeves version the mere fact that they could make him look like he can fly was incredible? Now? Supes goes all out (and looks a whole lot better than when Neo took to the skies). In the past, he deflected bullets. Now, he deflects the entire magazine of a gattling gun AND a 9mm in the EYE. So how do you compare it? Well, the new one has improved on Lex Luthor, that's for sure. I always found it hard to take the Gene Hackman Lex seriously because he was surrounded by absolute morons, making the bad guys look like an updated version of the Three Stooges. Kevin Spacey's Lex and goons may still have the comedic element (which, in my opinion, works better this time) but now Lex is really evil. I like. The story is steeped in the same traditions as the first two to the point that even the opening credits are the same (well, except for the cool CGI planet wizardry). So here's the main question: how was the new Superman himself? Brandon Routh? Well, one thing's for sure - he's hot. Now, I'm not saying this from personal observation. No matter how in tune I am with my feminine side I can't visually see another male as hot. Cool, yes. Hot, fuck no. But I have been told by many reliable sources that he is hot. Super hot. Hell, it was the first thing my girlfriend said about the movie, to the point where I knew she was thinking, "if they really did CGI his 'package' to look smaller, imagine how big it really is..." (Come on. It's Superman. Why shouldn't Superman have a Superdick?) But as great a Superman he was, his hottness is what, to me, proved to be his weakness. Why? He just couldn't. Christoper Reeve did such a good job of playing Clark Kent you could believe that nobody noticed that Clark and Supes had the same build, same weight, same facial features, etc. Brandon just can't hide it. That's the only flaw for me when it came to the new Superman. Supes wasn't the problem. It was Clark. Clark just wasn't... Clark enough. Superman? Superman was a badass. But why nobody bothered scribbling glasses on his pictures to discover the truth is beyond me. I also think this is the first time I've seen a guy on screen since Brad Pitt who has the ability to make women unanimously, all over the world, salivate from more than one orifice. Many people don't realize how much of a pain in the neck it can be to start your own company. Everyone thinks about the fact that you don't have a boss, you're you're own boss, you're living the dream... ...they never think about the tough times, though. It's almost always taken for granted. "Oh, of course it'll be tough, but with hard work and perseverance and planning, we'll get through it." Bollocks. It's like putting on a play: anything that can go wrong will go wrong. For example: 1. The Day We Forgot to Close the Windows See, we don't have an awning above our windows on the second floor, and since we're still starting up whenever possible we switch off the air conditioners and let fresh (a very loose definition of fresh) air in. The problem is when it rains and we forget to close the windows. That's when shit like this happens: The photo doesn't really show just how fucking wet the floor was. It was about a half inch deep (at some points even an inch). Since we're not hiring cleaners, guess who has to mop up? (I was cleaning up to, but there was no one else to document this so that's why only Saiful appears). Worst of all, though, was the fact that amongst the windows that were left open during the shitstorm was the one in our storage area: See those CD's? That's some of our stock, godammit. From Japan, godammit! So what do you do when your CD's are wet? Well, most of them were saved by the shrink wrapping. However, some weren't and the CD sleeves got wet. That's when the hair-dryer comes in handy: Still didn't do that good a job, though. Since we had the mops, Saiful decided to clean up the staff toilet. In the toilet were two bottles: one marked 'Ajax toilet cleaner', the other unlabelled. Guess which one Saiful used? I was in the main office, sorting out some stuff on the computer when I heard Saiful choking and coughing between bouts of screaming "FUCK!". I popped over to the toilet to see smoke coming out of the bog and wondering "is that steam? Why did he install a water heater?" Unfortunately, it wasn't steam. The photo doesn't really show just how fucked up the situation was. Either the stuff Saiful poured into the toilet was ammonia or possibly some form of sulphuric acid. Either way, the second this stuff made contact with the ground it started fizzing and a white smoke filled up the place (Saiful used a lot of this strange liquid). One whiff of it would burn up your lungs and make you feel like coughing up your innards. We couldn't open the windows because it was still raining so we instead decided to run the fuck out. The stuff did clean the toilet, though (although it missed a spot, but I doubt we'll be using that bottle again). A more common problem is the next one: 2. The Wrath of the Accountants After yesterday's meeting with accountant, I have decided to one day go to Kinokuniya, look up the history of accounting, find out who invented it, take a course in astro-physics and dedicate my life inventing a time machine so that I can find the evil fucker who invented cash flow statements, income forecasts, balance sheets, accruences, assets, liabilities, depreciation and all that other bollocks and have him raped by mutant seals with surgically grafted whale cocks. That's how much I fucking hate accounting. I don't get it. I don't understand it. There is no form of logic that can explain accounting. My father kept telling me "you were good at maths, why can't you do this?" to which I'd reply, "maths is based on logic. This is based on the random musings of satan's love-child". Ok, so I didn't really say that, but it was along those lines. Then there's the other problem: 3. Marketing Madness I'm lacking in budget to print mega-advertising like I was used to when working in an advertising agency, which has limited my creativity about marketing this place. There's also the fact that I'm the client now, which means my priorities are not for great works of advertising, but stuff that just works. Saiful's been doing his best to get people to come check out the studio, but many are put off by the distance. The thing is, once people check it out, they book straight away. Repeat clients aren't a problem. First timers are. And it's pissing me off. We've got targets to reach and I'm worried about reaching them. We've got bills to pay, salaries to pay, equipment to maintain and lives to lead. And this lack of customers is driving me up the wall. But, apart from all this (and the many other fucked up things that happen), it's still my business. I'm takin' care of business and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. There are many pitfalls (very fucking annoying ones) but hopefully, hopefully, we'll get through it. And if not, I have a few grand saved up as safety money. If all else fails, I'm using it to buy me a Steyr rifle to pop a cap in some unruly asses. For shits n' giggles. |
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Yes. Two Ciplak items on the agenda today...
Because as Clark Kent, he couldn't hide it.
