Club God Rough Edit Complete

Spent the last few late evenings finishing the rough cut edit of the short Club God.



You can see more screen captures from the edit and info on our progress at the Sonlight Pictures Blog website.

Little League - Cards Down Dodgers 13-8

The game started out like any other... accurate pitching from Gabe, good hitting from the other team and a lot of errors by the Cards. That put us in an early 8-0 deficit after two innings. After that Gabe shut down the Dodgers and the Cards bats started to come alive. Everyone contributed. Gabe went 1-3 with a triple, a walk, a ground out and a strike out.

One by one the Cards clawed their way back into the game, ending the fourth inning down 8-7. After hitting away the opposing starting pitcher, the team was patient at the plate with the next pitcher and made solid contact with the ball, ending up rallying to win 13-8.

The game was important to Gabe because the Cards had not beaten the Dodgers this season, he incorporated a lot more of his off speed stuff in the game and he elevated his starting pitching record to 4-2.

The Cards and Dodgers go at it again on Thursday. The opposing pitcher is Gabe's best friend, Robert. That should make for an interesting game.

Little League - Cards Win 5-2!

After a long drought that included two tournaments, the Cards finally put together a solid game to win yesterday evening, beating the Pirates 5-2.

Gabe went 3-4, beating out a throw for an infield single and followed up with two hits to right-center to setup some runs. The Cards had solid defense, especially the second base play of Phil Sorensen and a reshuffled batting order helped on offense.

You can watch Gabe's at-bats HERE (big file, IExporer)


But the real hero was pitcher Tommy Dailey, who struck out eight, made a cross-body diving catch from the pitchers mound on a shot hit right up the middle and went 3-3 with three RBIs.

So, the win was nice. We celebrated by spending the evening at the family sports bar called Varsity Club.

Funny thing was, the Varsity Club is located next door to the Cinema Cafe, where we started earlier that morning shooting Club God! Life can by cyclical at times.

Club God Shoot a Success

Well, the aggressive Club God shoot schedule seemed insurmountable, but we managed to pull it off.

On the set of Club God.

Everything came together. We were very blessed! You can read more and see more pics at the Sonlight Pictures Blog.

Little League - Gabe Hits Four in Loss

Gabe's new and improved swing is finally coming around. After weeks of tweaking his swing to incorporate his hips more, thereby giving him more power, he's finally starting to make consistent contact.

Tuesday night he went 4 - 4, with two line drives to the outfield and two strong hits through the infield. You can see the highlights HERE (you know the drill, big file, Internet Explorer).

In an otherwise typical night at the fields, we fought back, but ended up losing 13-9 to the Oldsmar Indians. Gabe pitched three-innings and struggled a bit, but for good reason. He's trying off-speed pitches (change-ups, no curve balls) during different counts... they require a different release point, so, like his swing, these additions to his pitching repertoire will offer some challenges at first, but we're hopeful he'll have it all worked out by All-Stars.

Sonlight Pictures Blog - Update

Don't forget to frequent the Sonlight Pictures Blog, where we're updating our progress on our first Christian short film called Club God.


The Club God short is scheduled to shoot this Saturday, May 3rd and stars Brian Shea and John Snell.


On the blog you can read about how to make Do-It-Yourself (DIY) lights and Props being used for Club God and future projects.


After Club God, we'll be shooting a six-part Christian web comedy series called Purgatory, USA. It's a very funny comedy about a young girl, Nikki (played by Dorothea Bauer) who must spend the summer with her flaky cousin, Babs (played by Tiffany Ross).

The Purgatory, USA script is already written and we've had a successful read-thru... we'll have more on that in a few weeks.

I'll be keeping the blog updated with all of our busy work this summer, so stop by and make the Sonlight Pictures Blog one of your favorites.

Fox News Promo - Update

So, as mentioned in our trip to New York City, while showing the kids the Statue of Liberty we were asked by some people from Fox News to participate in a pro-American promotion.

Well, about two weeks ago we got a call from the producer, Brad, asking us if we could send them some pictures and home videos they could incorporate them into our spot. Apparently there is going to be a website that shows all of these videos... Brad will let us know when its up and running.

So, this past week Dea and I scoured our old pics and old videos and picked out 50 pics and 20 video clips over the years that augment what we said during our interview. I put them on a DVD and sent them up to NY. Sending these personal memories off to Fox News certainly takes a fair bit of trust, but Brad had been a stand-up guy so far, so I'm confident they'll be used in a positive manner.

Can't wait to see the end results.

Little League - Games Continue, So Does Losing

The Cards finished up a three game tournament this past weekend, finishing 0-3. As a matter of fact, we were the only Safety Harbor team to go winless in the tournament. We could have won two of the games, but found ways not to do it. That's been our season.

This is the first season where I've seen a large portion of a team simply choose not to improve over the course of a season. It's not for lack of coaching or practice... they simply don't care enough to make the extra effort or to think ahead.

Frustrating for the few players who care and who are competitive.

Gabe's pitching went well and his hitting is finally coming around. The last game, from the left side he hit a line drive over the center fielder's head and got a single. The next at bat, on the right side, he hit the ball so hard we thought it was going to be his first home run, but it was caught at the fence by the center fielder. So there were some positives.

Gabe hates losing... really hates it. So, he's been really challenged being on a team with kids who don't share his drive. That's Little League, though. It's supposed to be more about fun than it is about winning.

So, we talk about it, saying the Lord is challenging him to lead by example through the tough times. By not giving up. By working hard. By staying positive.

And I shared my experiences with him... when I was in a kid I was on a Little League team that went winless one year. Right after that I played football and was on a team that went winless.

I remember asking my Mom why God won't let me win? She said, "Perhaps the Lord is preparing you for something later on in life."

And she was right. Not settling, not giving up... that's a strong part of who I am. It's what allowed me to handle the numerous rejections actors get in their careers. And what continues to drive me today.

So, it's tough for my son right now, but it doesn't mean the struggle will go to waste. I wonder what fruits this time in his life will bear years down the road.

Cloverfield (2008)

A long time ago... about ten years ago, I made a short film called Raw Footage. My directorial choice was to have the audience watch the film unfold as if they were watching the raw footage of a tape found at a crime scene. Where my story revolved around the murder and eventual killing of a news crew, Cloverfield revolves around the raw footage of a going-away party in NYC that ends up capturing the attack of something massive and mean.

Viewing Cloverfield on my fairly large movie screen in my house was hard to endure, at times, because the hand-held camera shaking was almost unbearable. Sure, the director had to show the kids running from the menace and that wouldn't entail smooth camera shots, but a little less verocity to the camera shake would have been nice. Normally, I wouldn't mention such a thing as directorial choice, but in this case it actually got in the way of me enjoying the story he was trying to tell.

The story itself is about a surprise going-away party for Jason Hawkins (Mike Vogel). The camera is manned by his brother Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and his best friend Hud (T.J. Miller) as they collect goodbye messages from the awaiting guests. Soon after Jason arrives and some personal drama unfolds between him and his girlfriend, who abruptly leaves, the party continues until the apartment shakes violently. The party goers rush onto the roof of the Manhattan building to see what is happening and find, in the distance, something destroying the city.

Jason receives a call from his trapped and injured girlfriend in her apartment across town. Unwilling to leave her behind, Jason, along with his brother and friends, head off to rescue her even though she lives directly in the vicinity of the creature killing everyone.

The story moves very quickly and the acting from a cast of relative unknowns works well enough. Despite the camera shaking, which lessens the impact of the film, the end result is an entertaining movie. If you're prone to motion sickness, car sickness or vertigo, I'd watch this film on a regular-sized television... or have a bag handy, just in case.

On a side note, the cool thing is that the camera I own, the Panasonic HVX200, was used to shoot many shots in this film.

The Mist (2007)

When I realized I wanted to make films, I knew that they would more than likely have to be low-budget. So, ever since then I've had a certain affinity for low-budget flicks. I started by watching the renowned, genre redefining film, Halloween, directed by John Carpenter. I followed that up by watching Carpenter's The Fog... which is still a guilty pleasure for me. When I first watched The Fog I kept saying to myself "what a brilliant idea... fog as the bad guy... how low-budget can you get! And it's creepy!"

So, the idea for The Mist immediately intrigued me... a group of town folk end up getting caught in a grocery store by a heavy mist. When someone tries to leave... well, bad things happen.

Based on the story by Stephen King and written and directed by Frank Darabont, I expected great things. The King/Darabont collaboration had worked exceptionally well with The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, so I wouldn't think there would be any letdown with The Mist.

Though not as heartfelt as Green Mile and Shawshank, The Mist can be equally as effective within its own genre story-telling.

The film is an ensemble piece and stars Thomas Jane (Punisher, 61), Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River), Lauren Holden (The Majestic) and one of my favorite actors, Andre Braugher (Homicide: Life on the Streets). The story deals with the effects of fear on a group of people and how the breakdown of civilization can so quickly occur as mans survival-of-the-fittest instinct kicks in. Along with it is what is waiting in the mist... and it ain't pretty.



Darabont, who is one of the most talented writers in Hollywood, does a wonderful job of making the breakdown of civilized behavior not only intriguing, but painful to watch unfold. The escalation of fear is exponential and the eventual outcome is frightening.



With The Fog and The Mist now having successfully explored the "evil in a cloud" theme, I wonder what Hollywood will come up with next... They'll have to be creative... how about The Cold Front? The Damp and Hovering Weather System? The Vaporized, Yet Low-Moving Collection of Air-Bound Moisture?

As for this current incarnation, The Mist is spooky and suspenseful, thought provoking and, at times, devastating.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

3:10 to Yuma is one of the most interesting films I've seen in a very long time. It unfolds in such a unique way, with such flawed lead characters and unexpected paths in the mix, that it really took my by surprise.

A remake of the 1957 film, this film is directed by James Mangold (Copland, Girl Interrupted, Identity) stars Christian Bale as Dan Evans, a one-legged ex-Civil War vet who inadvertently crosses paths with a ruthless outlaw, Ben Wade, played by Russell Crowe. After a heist and an error in judgement, Crowe is captured and Bale is one of the men being paid to make sure Crowe gets on the 3:10 train to Yuma.

What is so wonderful about this film is that the characters are so well rounded. You have Bale who is both noble and impotent. You feel his pain as he struggles to maintain his land and keep his family intact, yet you get frustrated when his own weakness interferes with his own success. You have Crowe as a cold-blooded killer who can be both charming and scary. You feel, if things had been just a little different in his life, he would have been a great man.

In the end, you feel that both men are not where they want or intended to be, but simply where they ended up. And that their paths happen to cross and eventually join is mere happenstance.

The last half-hour of 3:10 to Yuma is pretty great cinema and you'll find yourself drawn in and moved by these two very flawed, very human characters.

DC Goes to Prom

DC got invited to a Home School Prom by her best friends. She got all dressed real pretty and had a great time.

Sarah, Mary, Marisa, Caitlin,
Kenny (token male), Mary, DC, Ali, Kelli

DC, Kelli and Mary
(aka My "Daughters")

DC looking all beautified

Yeah, this whole teen daughter thing isn't going to work out too well for me.

Funny Headline

From the exceptionally funny satirical website The Onion comes this great headline:

****

Suspicious Package Industry Falls On Hard Times
New security measures put in place to allay terror fears are threatening to drive suspicious package retailers out of business.

Little League - Its going to be a long season...

Well, the second half of the Little League season started out like the end of the first half. Except for Gabe's 15 strike-out game at Countryside, the Cards are getting beat, and soundly.

As the rest of the teams have slowly improved over the course of our season, our team has not. The top four batters are hitting above .400. The rest of the team is batting .119. So, we'll start a game and get two or three batters on with one out and score nothing.

Add that and the multitude of errors that we always seem to allow per game (I think there were 12 last night in our 10-1 loss to the Yankees, including, for example, four by our first baseman in one inning) and you have the makings for a very, very long second half of the season.

Now, I know its just Little League. The sky is not falling. The world is not ending. It is just a game. However, kids being kids, they don't have a lot of fun losing all the time, no matter what the official brochure says.

And it's been tough on my ultra-competitive son.

He's been working on improving his swing and that has translated to some tough game time at-bats. I know he has it in him to be more consistent as soon as he gets more reps. The other night at one of the shorter Countryside fields (their fields are always smaller than ours) during an impromptu batting practice, Gabe hit a home run over the fence from both sides of the plate. So, he'll get there, but its going to be tough until then.

It's a good learning experience for him... test his leadership skills, his focus and his commitment. For the parents, not so much fun right now. :)

Local Friends Get Holy Publicity

Well, it is a small world. Some of my daughter's best home-school friends were lucky enough to make it up to New York to see the Pope offer Mass at Yankee Stadium. One of the teen leaders from our parish, Karen Underwood, along with her daughter Kelli and friend Mary McCook, scored tickets to the Mass and traveled up to participate in the blessed event.


We were all praying for their safety during their journey. Funny that, when we woke up this morning, Kelli and Mary's pictures were on the TBO website (which is part of the Tampa Tribune). Kelli and Mary are like daughters to me and are wonderful, loving friends to my daughter. It was wonderful to see them be able to express their faith and spread the gospel through their example.

You can read the article at the TBO website.

Can't wait to see them when they return!

Sonlight Pictures Blog

As we ramp up for the Club God shoot on May 3rd, I've created a Sonlight Pictures Blog to document our projects.

You can see it HERE. Please make it one of your favorites and visit often.

Empty & Beautiful

Well, I've been emersed in listening to Matt Maher's new CD called Empty & Beautiful. I'm not going to officially review it... I love the guy and his music too much to be objective.

The CD is interesting in that it's a collection of new songs and new recordings of songs previously released on older CDs. I have no inside info, but I'm guessing that his new label, Essential Records, wanted to reach the widest possible audience with his most proven work.

The end result is a wonderful CD. His title track, Empty & Beautiful, is inspiring and beautiful. His catchy tracks Looks Like a Fool, Great Things and Shine Like The Son will stay in your head for days. And his remake of As It Is in Heaven is amazing.

There's just not a single track I don't like. I sound like such a groupie, it's embarrassing!

Below are the tracks:

1. Your Grace Is Enough *
2. Look Like A Fool
3. For Your Glory *
4. As It Is In Heaven *
5. I Rejoice
6. Maranatha (Come Again)
7. Great Things
8. Leave A Light On
9. Shine Like The Son
10. Unwavering *
11. Lay It Down
12. Empty & Beautiful

* = new recordings of previously released songs.

I understand Essential Records trying to establish Matt as a Christian artist first and foremost, but I hope the record label doesn't dissuade his expression of his Catholicism in his future works. There is nothing nearly overt about Catholicism in this release, as it is so well and movingly displayed in his other CDs, like Behold the Lamb of God and The End and the Beginning. That's what I love about his talent more than others... he brings the faith alive through music like no one I've ever heard before.

Simply put, the man is off-the-charts talented... he could write a song about a colonoscopy and I'd be singing it out loud in my car with the windows down. I've listen to this CD about fifty times already and will keep on listening until my CD player wears out.

Congrats, Matt!

God is smiling! Touch as many souls as you can!

Nice Pic

I was looking through some pics and found this one of my family, sans my Dad, Joe and Leo, at my Father's wake. I am so blessed to be in a family that loves each other so much and truly enjoys each other's friendship.

Mary, Loretta, Charles, Paul
Steve, Mom, Me and John

A Different Focus

Pope Benedict XVI arrived today, his birthday, and was greeted by the most powerful man in the free world, the U.S. President. This happened to occur on the sad first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. As I scanned my bookmarked news sites, I was interested to see two very different approaches.

On Fox News, the arrival of the Pope took up half the page.

As a matter of fact, every news website I visited (MSNBC, USAToday, ABCNews) highlighted the Pope... except one. On CNN, the arrival of the Pope is listed only as a link above the main page (I highlighted in Yellow).


A different focus... neither of which is more valid than the other. But such subtleties can guide you on which news organization will give exposure to areas that interest you the most.

Little League - Gabe strikes out a bunch as Cards win 3-2

Gabe pitched the best game of his young life last night.

The Countryside little league has always been our biggest rival. They have better facilities, are usually better coached overall and have fared better in competitions than our league. As a matter of fact, we lost to them in the District 12 title game last year for the 10-11 division.

Even in the regular season, Gabe had never been on a team that beat a Countryside team. Usually they were more talented than our teams, but we lost even when we had the greater skills.

So, last night was a real treat.

Gabe pitched an exceptional game against the Countryside Giants. The Cards won 3-2... a game very well played by both teams, a game in which the two runs scored against us were unearned and a game in which we were twice tagged out at home plate on great throws by the Giants from the outfield.

But most importantly, it was a game in which Gabe threw 15 strike-outs!

To put it into perspective, Gabe's strike out total for the first-half of the season was 11. He has always been very good at getting batters to two strikes, but had trouble finishing them off. Last night, facing an umpire we had used before that liked low and outside pitches, when up two strikes, Gabe would hit the low/outside corner and ring up the batters.

I think there were only six batters that hit the ball at all and less than that actually got on base.

He was so proud! And, I'll admit, I was a bit giddy myself.

Unfortunately, I usually only video tape Gabe's hitting, so I don't have a video to show you of his pitching success. Who would have thought, of all nights, he'd do so well in the cold, windy Countryside field. Fifteen strike-outs and a 0.00 ERA... it rarely gets better than that.

On a day where my father was heavily on my mind... to have such a great night as a father with my son... well, it was very special.

This was a nice start to the second half of the season. We have another game tonight against the Countryside Phillies... let's see if we can make it two-in-a-row.