I’m not very good at making announcements am I? It’s happening tomorrow at 8pm in Carlsbad CA. I’m very excited to showing a 6minute work-in-progress preview of my documentary just before a question and answer session with Emmett and Tom Griesgraber, who are both performing. If you haven’t been to the MMM, go! It’s an amazing collection of the history of music very well-done. Check out their site.

http://www.museumofmakingmusic.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=379&Itemid=3

STICK NIGHT LIVE. Check out the trailer up un YouTube. A collection of 9 top Stick artists performing on Emmett’s instrument. I’m very proud of the  project. I produced and directed this 83 minute DVD using concert footage we shot for the documentary. It really gives you an idea what The Stick is. Shows how it can be played in any genre of music. It’s the best live performances from series of three concerts my son Dean and I shot. We put together this trailer for it.

Dean created the flying Stick motion graphic using a combination of Maya, Cinema 4D and After Effects. I have been encouraging him to work in motion graphics for a long time. He has a natural aptitude for it having been an obsessive gamer since a toddler. I’m proud that he’s picking up where I left off as a designer. I knew I’d never be able to devote the time to learn this stuff.. He regularly stays up late nights with tutorials. He pulled 4 all-nighters on this trailer alone.

He was originally intending to fully render the instrument, but the texture mapping would have put the render times into the stratosphere. It will happen next time tough. It will look like an actual Stick.

Hope you enjoy it.  You can purchase it here: http://www.stick.com/features/video/

For those who donated, I want to thank you. Your generosity allowed me to take “Emmett” to the Ventura Film Society festival and get a 38 minute cut shown to a large group there. This is only the beginning of this documentary’s impact on a growing audience.

Now I need something else to enable progress to the next step.

What is needed are several days of concentrated editing in order to cut a 3 minute trailer that reflects the current state of this project. This will take $$$. The trailer that’s up right now was cut over a year ago for Emmett’s lecture at the University of Missouri. I cut it as a “first stab” to see if I could put something together for the students, requested by Sean Malone who is a professor there.

I’ve been researching funding from various sources and will have some exciting things to report very soon. But before I can approach serious funding institutions and individuals, it’s crucial to get a fast-paced trailer up on this site as soon as possible. I have something in mind that will be very exciting and will give a much deeper insight into the story of “Emmett.”

Please help me do this. For those of you who can contribute, even small donations will help.

My experience at Ventura Film Society Festival 2010 was just wonderful!

This was my first festival and is a big step on the road to finishing this docu. I was apprx. three weeks editing a 37:50 min cut. It was intense work requiring my full-time attention. It’s taken me this long to get back to any kind of regular schedule. My other work was put on hold and I now am trying to catch up with neglected projects. The great thing for me is that I now feel like the feature length version is becoming a reality. I’m just a bit less than halfway there. I was cutting a new version up until two hours before screening time.

We were in the honored position of closing the festival. The festival this year featured the great director, Paul Mazursky, who showed eight of his films as a retrospective of his amazing achievement. One of his films, “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” starred the late, Robert Culp. This movie was released in September 1969, just one week before Emmett discovered his “Free Hands” tapping method. It was a groundbreaking film that questioned the sexual mores of the time and among a few other films of the time, was a key symbol at the height of the cultural revolution of the ’60s.

I may be able to post some pix and/or video clips from the event. There were still and video shooters continuously for the Q&A and performances. The idea of having Stick performances after the screening to close the festival was brilliant! It gave the audience a full immersion in the subject. The audience was very responsive and inquisitive. Lots of questions, mostly directed toward Emmett. It was a packed house, albeit a small theater. Not sure how large but I’d say 150 people.

Thanks to all who’ve given me their support on this “labor of love” project.

I finished a 37:50 min cut yesterday, just in time for the festival. It was extremely challenging, but it’s done now. I’m very happy with it. Of course it’s only a WIP, but  I can see the full length version more clearly now.  I will make some private screenings. Right now anyone can see it 8:20 pm Sunday at the Ventura Film Society Festival. Along with Q&A and performances by Emmett, Don Schiff and Kevin Keith all playing The Stick.

info at:  http://www.venturafilmsociety.com/about.html