Not that I deserved this ...

... but my name popped up in some movie credits again, this time for an MMA documentary short created by the talented Lester Rowe. (I'm the bald guy doing the radio interview toward the end.)
Lester, you might recall, is a friend of our project Out Here In Kansas and is one of a handful of people who have seen a rough cut.

A lawyer, a musician and a sports announcer

That's who we're waiting to hear back from this week, as Kenny and I continue to work on "Out Here In Kansas."

Things changed a year ago

I just realized it was a year ago when we changed the title of this documentary from "Brain Of Burt" to "Out Here In Kansas." The story changed a little at that point, thanks to many meetings of different creative minds on our team.
Did that slow down the process of trying to finish this thing? No question.
Are we almost finished? Sort of. On one hand, we've got version 3 of a rough cut. On the other hand, as of last night we were still watching football tape from Burt's college days.

A little love in Lawrence

This Tweet comes from courtesy of one of the filmmakers close to our project, Savannah Rodgers.

Night at the movies

After a day of editing, tonight Kenny and I met at the Crowne Uptown, where we were invited to to screening of the movie "Bender."
The movie, directed by John Alexander and produced by J.C. Guest, is 80 minutes long and is based on a gruesome true story of Kansas events that happened in 1875. I'm not sure if they're categorizing it as horror, but it was so creepy and intense I never dared leave my seat.
I'm a little embarrassed to mention this, but at the end of the movie I was thrilled to see my name in the credits. I didn't quite catch the title they gave me, but believe me when I was tell you I they were being generous. They let me hang out on set for three days, one of which I got into a creek and helped move a heavy piece of the scene.
Mostly I just stayed quiet and observed. I was lucky enough to make friends with a handful of the cast and crew, including the two actors pictured with me here: Jon Monastero (left) and James Karen (middle).
Thanks to my old friend Shawn Rhodes, who was an associate producer for the movie, I've also gotten to know John and J.C.. All three of them offered to critique our new rough cut of "Out Here In Kansas" when we finish, and you'd better believe I'm going to take them up on it.

This picture makes me laugh

Over the weekend, Kenny and I did make a decision that was excruciatingly hard for me.
But don't worry. Despite what this photo suggests, making this documentary hasn't driven us to drink. Yet.

Back to work

As I mentioned on my last post, we had a small private screening of the rough cut of "Out Here In Kansas" Saturday night at in Andover. If you weren't invited, please don't be offended - it only means we don't want you to see it until it's great.
We're a little ways from a finished product. What we showed Saturday is still pretty much a blueprint. It's got placeholders, sections of black screen and me stumbling over my lines for some of the narration.
The conference room of Scooter's Coffeehouse was pretty crowded with the viewers we hand-picked, which included local filmmakers Lester Rowe and Nick Brown.
And what did we get out of it? Tons. When Kenny and I met Sunday afternoon, we were both feeling overwhelmed. Most of the feedback helped us realize what we need more and less of, and what needed re-arranged (which is harder than it sounds). Lester and Nick stuck around afterwards and talked technical stuff with us.
The best news? Our story makes sense to those who knew nothing about it going in. After editing 30 hours of film down to 35 minutes, Kenny and I were too close to the trees to see the forest.