Blue Man Group – awe and wonder

The Omaha Film Festival attends the Blue Man Group, live in concert in Omaha. That’s right Jeremy, Jason and I just got back from one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen/heard. If you’ve seen them, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, it’s a must. Oh, did I mention that we were in the second row, right in the middle? It’s one thing to be that close to a concert or show, but to be literally ten feet away from the spectacle that is BMG is really something to behold. And given their proclivity to pulling people from the audience and otherwise getting the crowd involved, I attempted to not maintain eye contact on the several times when they looked directly at me from the stage. The girl directly in front of me got pulled up after they all came down and went through her purse looking for a credit card. A gal four seats over went up at the end to read from a book introducing the band. And a guy 7 seats over had the camera-down-the-throat treatment (you’d have to see the show to understand – nasty).

Oh, did I also mention going back stage and hanging out with the Blue Men afterward? Yeah, they’re just a creepy in person. I got their “autograph.” And a picture. And I might have nightmares tonight.

What a trip. I’m ready to go again right now. Thanks Jeremy. Merry Christmas.

“Bush Pigs” auditions

Auditions for the new Topler/Champoux film “Bush Pigs” went great today. Often when you do an open cattle call for talent, invariably you get a handful of people that quite frankly aren’t very good, but today was certainly the exception. It seemed that everyone that came in and read did a tremendous job. Tops and Christian were both happy with the talent that they saw and most of the film can be cast with the actors that came out. Props to all for taking time out of their Sunday and auditioning. Props also to Fernando for filming and to Julie, Bryan, Tim, Jolynn and Tory for all of their help. Preproduction is officially underway.

Topler/Champoux

Felix Freeze – Poems of a Souldier

You like poetry? Spoken word? Comedy? Then you shoulda come out tonight. The Loft at the Mill in Lincoln was blowing up all night. DJ Romeo was keeping everyone on the edge of their seats with some serious beats and mixes and MC Ercell Watson pulled people out of their seats with his comedy and crowd work. Special guests McEvoy and Echo Poetico were amazing as always and everything set up perfectly for the guest of honor, Felix Izel Freeze to come out and kill for an hour. He gave a great performance as he poured his heart and soul into each piece and gave the crowd a lot to ponder as he wove stories of his life and loves into poetry and song.

Awesome night, awesome performances. And now, on to the editing.

Huge thanks to my crew (Skippy/Jason/Julie/Bryan) for coming out and helping put together an awesome five camera shoot.

OFF the EDGE filmmaking – show 7

We’re up to seven shows in our podcast. If you haven’t heard any of them, what’s your excuse?! Show six gives a preview of the special screenings we had at OFF’08. Show seven is a wrap-up of the festival. Check it out.

www.offtheedgefilmmaking.com