FACEPLANT PRODUCTIONS!

"What Comes Around" Goes Live!

2007-10-21T17:52:00.000-04:00

Hey All!
We've finally got our latest film uploaded on our podcast. Sheesh, there's several kinks to work out in our upload process. We're aware of the letterboxing issue, but at least it's not still being marked "explicit". Check it out by either going directly to our podcast page here or by checking it out in our new video player (yeah, the new ugly monstrosity blatantly ignoring the boundaries over in the sidebar). Anyone interested in building us a better site? Anyone?

48 Hr. Guerrilla Film Competition

2007-10-17T12:30:00.000-04:00

Well, hello again to everyone!
We're back after a ridiculously long length of time that I can neither refer to as a vacation or a hiatus. Just know that after 10 long months we're finally back and we'll have a brand new, state-of-the-art short film for your viewing enjoyment this week!
Last weekend we entered the 48 Hr. GFC in Sarasota and, man, what a fantastic time it was! If you've never tried to write, shoot, and edit an entire film in 48 hours then... well, perhaps you are more interested in things like relaxing and sleeping. We did neither of those things and have come up with a project that we're fairly proud of and, thus, will be showing to the world via our video podcast (yeah, remember we used to have that) in the days ahead.
This weekend is the awards ceremony and the viewing of all the films. 25 groups entered the competition and only 18 were able to turn in finished products within the allotted time. I gotta take a moment here to point out that we had the world's most amazing cast and crew and massive props should go to each of them. In fact, I'll name them all here: Justin, Jami, Larry, Tyler, Thomas, Nicole, Tom, Brannon, Cameron, John, and myself (James).
Whew, awesome stuff! Thanks again to everyone for their help and if you're in Sarasota this weekend. Come on by Burns Court Cinema on Saturday from 11-2pm for the premiers, or SoundStage 1 at 8pm for the awards ceremony/wrap party.

What do you want... a cookie?

2006-05-07T14:13:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know it's been practically years since we've posted. Yes, we're slackers... but Yeah, we've done some stuff since we last wrote!
Quick update:
In April, we finished the short film/mocumentary on Jonah. Check it out!
And way back in March (I told you I realized it had been awhile since we've posted anything) we finished our experiment with filming dialogue: The Importance of Being Ernest. Might as well give it a glance while you're at it!
We're currently in production of two different projects. One is an alternate-ending for the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" which we're doing as a help to a friend for her school project.
The other is a skate video that we started filming last week. If you live in Bradenton/Sarasota and have some mad skillz. We'd love to hear from you.
We're also writing an action/adventure script of our own. It's quite a daunting task to put pen to paper, but we like what we're seeing so far. Our main challenge right now is to press through to the end of the story as opposed to re-writing our current 30 some-odd pages over and over...
Matt Flood has also nearly finished a script for us and we're looking at production possibilites starting in the fall. More on this to come...
Drop us a line if you like. We always like hearing from you guys, and yes, we WILL start answering again... hehe

Whewwweee!

2006-02-18T00:14:00.000-05:00

Ok y'all,
We finally got our podcasting fixed up and the new vid looks sweet. Take a moment (if you haven't already) and check out our latest podcast by clicking here or subscribing via the itunes link in the sidebar.
Oh yeah, and be sure to leave us a comment!
-james

We got issues...

2006-02-15T13:42:00.000-05:00

Got an extra magazine rack floating around somewhere? Donate it to FACEPLANT PRODUCTIONS! We need one to hold all our issues...
Of course, I am speaking here, once again, of the myriad of technical issues we face as we press on to bring you the highest quality short film entertainment you can get for absolutely free. The problem is our latest valentine's episode is finished, uploaded, and completely unviewable to anyone because of ... Well, I don't know why.
It's all hopelessly complicated and, I feel, deliberately boring, but if you know the ins and outs of uploading .m4v, .mp4, and .mov files that are of acceptable size and quality and making them available to people via web steaming and podcasting, well then, we'd love to talk to you.
In other news, the news stations here in bradenton aren't being as cooperative as we had originally hoped. We're still committed to bringing you the most incredible documentary you'll ever see next month... it just might not have all the bells and whistles you've come to expect... or it might... like I said, it's an issue.
We'll get these issues resolved as soon as we can and those of you on the hunger strike will hopefully be able to resume your normal eating habits shortly.
Take care.
-james
I'm sure we'll have these issues worked out

Editing Earnest

2006-02-06T12:55:00.000-05:00

Well folks, we filmed over this past weekend and have finished. We have about 3 hours of footage for a 5 minute short. yes... we are still learning, hah! We're gonna spend this week editing and finishing up and hopefully have it posted next monday.
If you're reading this, click on this link and help us out by taking a quick second to vote for our podcast. Nah, we're probably not gonna win the whole dang thing, but we could move up in rank which definitely wouldn't hurt anything, natch.
Anybody see the game yesterday? yeah... not too fun, but how bout the commercial with the guy in the hospital bed and the doctor zapping the fly with the defibulator? Hah, dark comedy = good stuff.
-james

Filming Earnest

2006-02-02T11:12:00.000-05:00

Well peeps,
Starting yesterday we began filming of "The Importance of Being Earnest." Ya know what? It's amazing how much you learn about the filming process when you actually do it... We're gonna be shooting today and tomorrow as well. We've got some cool ideas, and the end product should be under 5 minutes.
Did anyone realize how many different takes it was required to do dialogue? Well, let me tell you it takes quite a few. Actors have to give their line correctly, move correctly, and the camera has to be focused correctly, and the mic has to be placed properly all at the same time. Patience, good humor, and frequent snack breaks are important - even when you're under a huge time constraint. Anyway, we'll be with the principle photography this weekend and hopefully do all post-production next week.
Do you wanna know what we're doing for March and April? Oh... well, I'm gonna save that bit of info for now... but we have much more coming soon to a podcast near you...

A quickie...

2006-01-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

Hey all,
Well, good news... after a month of emailing back and forth with apple, our show is finally up correctly on itunes {edit: for some reason, it only appears to work in internet explorer, if you're using firefox try loading this page in explorer}. You can find it by going clicking on the itunes link in the side bar or by searching for "faceplant" under podcasting from the itunes music store. Woohoo!!! hehe
Also, we got final confirmation that the play we've been planning to film is indeed old enough that copyright laws no longer apply (it's public domain, yo) so we don't have to change the words all around and call it an "adaption." Good stuff.
Tomorrow, I'm meeting with a good friend and screen writer, Matthew J. Flood and we're gonna begin looking through some ideas for the future. Stay tuned...

You say potato...

2006-01-19T11:53:00.000-05:00

Well, it's time for an update (apparently).

Things have been going well and John and I have been hard at work over here, despite the lack of updates to the blog. Don't cry, at least you're getting to read one now, right? See... life's getting better.

Um, so we're now working on an adaption of a small portion of "The Importance of Being Earnest." It's a British comedy and it's actually pretty hilarious. We've had one read through with our actors and one of our biggest challenges is actually going to be getting the dialect correct. The tricky part is that most of us tend to completely overdo accents when we talk, or we don't really do them at all. Fortunately, this particular play uses the "posh" portion of the British dialect, so it is a bit more obvious than a normal Brit you would hear on the street.

You probably think that you've never heard of this play or seen any part of it, but you're incorrect. This is the play that Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst, who by the way, if she's reading this... please, please email me) performs in Spider Man 2. Hah! And you probably thought we were more cultured or something right? Nah, we're the same as the rest of you blokes! We just watch our action movies very closely. Dig?
-james

Atlantis in the house!!!

2006-01-11T11:05:00.000-05:00

Hola peeps,
Well, the day has finally arrived and we have got our second short film uploaded!

ATLANTIS

It's pretty sweet... come on, you've seen the pics.... you've waited for the links.. Well, here it is!!! You currently have 2 options for watching it:

1. Download it on your web browser
2. Watch it in itunes (in itunes, go to Advanced and select "Subscribe to Podcast..." Copy this link into the box: http://theplight.podomatic.com/rss2.xml) Hopefully, we will have a direct link for this soon.
That's it for now. We're working on another as-yet-unnamed project and have other short films that we'll be uploading hopefully once a month... so stay tuned!
-james

The way we roll...

2006-01-09T13:22:00.001-05:00

Well, it's finally finished. Our second short film entitled "Atlantis" is hot off the presses.. er hot off the final cut.... er... something. Anyway, it is a great little flick that we think you'll love. We know we do! Look for a direct link to the file on the sidebar later today or subscribe to our podcast via a program like itunes.

Here at Faceplant we strive to make it as easy as possible for you, the viewer, to take advantage of our productions. In other words, we want any ole tom, dick, or harry to be able to watch our vids. The problem is that currently you are unable to find our podcast within itunes by doing a search. We have contacted Apple and they are working on a solution... apparently we are not the only ones who are having this problem.

Until further notice, you can still subscribe to our podcast by click on the Advanced Tab in itunes and selecting "Subscribe to Podcast..." A window will pop up and you need to copy this link into the box:
http://theplight.podomatic.com/rss2.xml
Then hit OK. This will give you the ability to watch our first short film "The Flash" as well as "Atlantis" (due later today). Enjoy!
-james

Well hey y'all!

2006-01-07T23:30:00.000-05:00

So, we've finally completed the video and audio editing on our latest short film. I know... the wait has been almost unbearable right!? Well, the good news is that we are running it through the final rendering right now. That should only take... 9 hours... it's probably gonna be like an 11 gig file for a 4 1/2 minute movie. How is that even possible?
One of the main problems we have run into over the past week is that John's 2.5 yr. old computer has a wimpy single processor and is completely unable to keep up with the work load. We go through about a half-dozen crashes everyday. Not cool. At all. So, we're totally lookin into updating that junk, but we gotta have the funds first, but that ain't easy when John hasn't worked since november and I am a lowly teacher, wurd?
Anyway... we're always in search for more harddrive space and faster computers. Hopefully we'll have it finished and compressed for ipod Video and podcasting in the next few days. If you'd like to find us in itunes. Just go to the "Podcast" directory in the music store and search for "faceplant productions." Then go ahead and subscribe to our podcast or just download the one vid that's already there. Dig? I'm tired. Goodnight
-james

New Movie Stills!

2006-01-03T21:06:00.000-05:00

Hola everybody,
Today, John and I have finished all the principle photography for the short film and we got the sound effects that we needed. I'm uploading a few stills for you to take a gander at. These are just frames from the footage, but they show off our "amazing" *cough* actors.
Seriously, it's good stuff and once we have the coloration of the film finished and have added the sound effects and music tracks we'll have it uploaded with a link right here for everyone to enjoy. It's just like Christmas all over again!
You may have to scroll down to see the pics... I dunno why...

General Cornwallis... er.. Zack	Captain Rambo, I mean... Kellen
our Stuntman, Tyler	Travis
Steven Spahn	Steven Pena
Ben	Logan

What's Up?!

2005-12-29T16:40:00.000-05:00

Well as of today, we have finished most of the principle photography of our second film. Um.. yeah, that's cause it was a piece of cake, a work of art, and a love of war all directed and produced by john and I. But the real story here is that the actors are all highschool guys from the church youth group.
PS, these guys are an amazing untapped resource... you won't believe what they'll do for some pizza and a night of video games away from home! Anyway, we hope to have it edited and finished up in about a week. We have a rough edit completed, but we have much work still to do on the audio and music.
Also, if anyone knows about streaming quicktime videos and has a server that allows them to do so and wants to donate some space... We'd love to hear from you. Also, anyone with experience in macromedia Flash programming we have a sweet offer for you that includes no bling, but plenty of street cred. dig?
Finally, the Red Badge of Courage Award goes out to Travis who took one for the team today and took it pretty solidly to the face. Way to go man, I'm sure the swelling will go down soon.
-james

An Update!

2005-12-23T02:24:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!
Just wanted to let you know that I updated the page and threw in a link to our new short film (You can find it under "links" on this page). Check it out and then post some comments!

- john

First Post!!!

2005-12-23T00:38:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!
This is the very first post! Face Plant Productions is just getting started on some awesome projects. We'll try to update often, but no promises yet...

Check back often!

-james