There's a Lot on the Plate

Was a productive weekend, with a lot of time spent learning how to utilize Final Cut Pro. Ultimately, the best part of the weekend was just the realization that this whole project CAN be done, and I can do it, though it will take some time. As with anything good, it's a learning process.

Beyond that, I'm getting some interview set up with Laura Mars & Don Ogilvie, two folks that used to play in bands with John. I'm really excited about getting into that stuff a little more, as I want this project to really reach out beyond King Cat.

My interview with Jeffrey Brown has been pushed back to Thursday of THIS week, which I'm still pretty excited about. Beyond that I need to do some more work with Joe Chiappetta, which I'm hoping to set up today.

In the 'big news' category, I sent off a request to Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang of Damon & Naomi and Galaxie 500, and requested the use of both D/N and G500 songs in the project. I got a lovely note back from Damon saying it sounded like a good project, he was excited about it, and would be happy to have D/N music in there, and pointed out that G500 stuff might be too expensive (when I explained our shockingly limited budget).

I was really psyched on that tidbit. Today, I'm going after some of the other big guns -- Husker Du, Flipper, Minor Threat/Fugazi, and Yo La Tengo. As I've (I think) said before, the goal is to have music that a) was in some way influential to John/King Cat but also b) music that is in keeping with the independent spirit of the zine/minicomic scene. For instance, the Husker Du stuff I'm going to be asking about will I think, be the pre-Warner's stuff they put out on SST.

I am getting very excited for the trip. This film needs motion -- right now it's a bunch of 40 year old dudes sitting around going, 'yah, John P rules' which, while I agree with the sentiment, can't be the WHOLE movie, or well, we'll be the only ones who watch it. I also need to get some WOMEN in the project.

So far I've asked seven women to participate, and sadly four have turned me down -- all saying it was a good project, but no time/dislike of cameras/etc. etc. It's an interesting thing because a subtlety of this project would be to show the egalitarian-nesss of whole minicomic/zine community, but, well, so far it's more white and male than Congress.

As for my 'need for a villian' there's a good comment about using John's illness -- which is basically the plan at this point. We'll see!

What else? I believe that's it. In terms of 'other projects', Kilgore Books and Comics is still working to figure out entering the publishing world by putting out Blammo # 5 by Noah Van Sciver, and I've started putting together issue two of the KBC zine. After getting some rather... intense... feedback from a comic master, I really want to make sure that one comes out right.

I know that this is a blog about the making of Root Hog, but that other stuff will slip in occasionally -- hope y'all don't mind.

As for clips -- I spent the weekend working on actually putting various clips together, and as I MAY end up using some of them for the opening and closing credits, I don't want to spill too much by posting them here. Once I get some more 'b-roll' or throwaway footage, I'll put it up.

People have said they're (again) unable to load the clips, which is frustrating, so I may upload them to YouTube and then embed them here -- assuming I find the time somewhere.

Oh, yah, the other big thing I've been working on is hand lettering the credit sequences. Duh. To the left is the first one, penciled.

Below is the copy of the NY'er I ever so fanboyishly asked Chris Ware to sign for me at Francoise's talk last week:

I do believe that's it for now folks. More to come over the next couple of days.