What have I gotten myself into?

Well, November is shaping up to be a very busy month for me. I could have prevented some of it, but no, I am accepting challenges that come once a year. Maybe I didn't have a choice.

First of all are all the things I continue to want to do: begin and complete the Web site design for my film work; begin gathering interviews for my documentary project; try to raise funds for my documentary project; finish my script for my screenwriting class (my next draft is due in three weeks - meaning if I want a complete draft I will need to write around 60 more pages); continue pre-production planning on two short films; write a script for another short film; complete the "mockumentary" of my first video editing project (a music video for Jimi Hendrix's "Red House"); record a commentary for that video; record a commentary for my short film "The Obituaries"; plan webisodes for "The Obituaries"; and on and on.

So, with all that on my plate, guess what I went and did... I entered two contests that have very stringent deadlines this month.

The first is a short film competition sponsored by Apple called the Insomnia Film Festival. It is a 24-hour contest where teams of filmmakers have 24 hours to shoot, edit and upload to the Interweb a 3-minute short film. Oh yes, just 24 hours. I have roped in some friends of mine and we are going to do it. Of course, it isn't quite as daunting as you might think. Everything can be in place prior to the designated 24-hour period: writing, gathering equipment, scouting locations, securing crew and actors, etc. But the actual filming and editing must take place the day of the competition, which is 9 a.m. November 15 to 9 a.m. November 16. This is going to be fun.

The big gonzo crazy thing I've gone and done is registered for the National Novel Writing Month competition. The quest here is to write a 175-page (50,000 word) novel between November 1 and November 30. Talk about daunting. Especially since I've never written a novel before. That's about 1,700 words a day. The goal, according to the Web site, isn't to write a masterpiece. The goal is to write. Just write and write and write. Complete the novel. Then, if it isn't any good, you at least have finished a draft that you can go back and fix later. The creators' contention is that if you don't push yourself, you'll never do it. While there is no true prize, there is the knowledge and relief and probably joy you will feel when finished. I think it's a great concept and I intend to complete it. I have the idea in place and on November 1, I will write my first words. And by November 30 I will have written 50,000.

So, what have I gotten myself into? I think a lot of cool stuff that will make me better than if I just sat around and watched TV for a month.

And that makes me feel good.

Photo of the Day - 10/28/08

Downtown Lexington from the rooftop of a parking structure at UK.
Lexington, Kentucky
October 28, 2008

Recent Project

Hello there. I don't normally write about my film work on this page since I also have a film blog at brokenheartfilms.blogspot.com; however, I wanted to post this video here for those of you who may not read that blog.

This summer I directed a short film called "Previously Viewed: 2-Day Rental," the sequel to a short my friend Eric made while we were in film class during the fall of 2007. I filmed some behind-the-scenes footage during the shoot. The video below recounts the first night of filming.

The short film itself will make it's debut in December, time and location to be determined.

Hope you enjoy. (And be warned, it has some adult language.)


"Previously Viewed: 2-Day Rental" Director's Diary from Brad Duncan on Vimeo.

Photo of the Day - 10/22/08

The Moon at Noon
Monday, October 20, 2008
Lexington, Kentucky

What kind of son am I ....

that I was home for three days this weekend and it didn't occur to me while I was there to go visit my dad at the cemetery?

Please Lord don't let me forget him.

Fall Festival Fun

It's that time of year again, so I headed home this weekend for the Evansville, Indiana, Westside Nut Club Fall Festival.



What makes this festival so great is the large, and I do mean large, amount of food available for consumption throughout the event. Four blocks of Franklin St. in E'ville are blocked off for six days. Along one side of one block of the street is the Midway where kids of all ages can spend their money on cotton candy, candied apples, rides and games to win crappy prizes. It's a grand time.





But the other three blocks and the four blocks on the other side of the street are where the real magic occur. This is where all the local groups set up their food booths to raise money for their organizations.

What I like to do when I get there is to walk the course and check out the items I might like to munch on while I'm there. In doing this, not only am I checking out the goodies available, but since a lot of items are available at different places, this allows me to find the cheapest prices. Maximizing your spending here is crucial.

However, I didn't arrive until almost one o'clock. Since I had had nothing to eat today, I decided to go ahead and get something quickly. The one item I had on my mind was the Texas Tenderloin. This wonderful sandwich is a fried pork tenderloin that hangs off of a regular sized bun by about an inch all the way around. A huge sandwich. And like I said, I was hungry. So I picked up one of these bad boys at the first booth I came to. I was too hungry to take a photo. I had to eat it right away.

My mom went with me and luckily she was hungry, too, so she spotted a Walking Taco that she thought would hit the spot.



And according to her, it did. Now, the Walking Taco is interesting. As you can see, the variety she got was the paperboat filled with Fritos, taco meat, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream. There actually are two other varieties: the kind that is served in the Frito bag itself and the kind that is served in a cone made out of a taco shell.



Mom prefers the open boat. Also, there are things called Haystacks, which are the same as walking tacos. Go figure.



As always, there are many things to eat and drink. I didn't get photos of everything, but here is a sampling of the unusual offerings: Pig Lickers (slices of fried bacon dipped in chocolate), Gator Gumbo, YooHoo Milkshakes (I did try one of these, and oh my was it good), BBQ Grippochos (Grippo's BBQ chips covered in BBQ -- didn't try this but really wish I had), Fried Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (I really wish I had tried that, too), and, of course Brain Sandwiches. Yes, I said brains. No, I did not eat one, but the two booths that have those usually have the longest lines. Here was one:



Yes, the sign up top says: Daughters of the Nile Brain Booth. For just $6 you could have a pile of fried pork brains on a bun to devour for your pleasure.



Also, you can get just about anything fried: candy bars, Twinkies, pickles, green beans, green tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms and macaroni and cheese. And don't forget the staples of any fall festival/festival-type gathering: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, lemon shake-ups, ice cream, nachos, onion rings and french fries.

I don't usually get that kind of stuff because I can really get that anywhere. However, one thing that has always confused me is the Corn Dog and the Pronto Pup. They look the same but I've never had a PP and have always wondered the difference. According to Wikipedia, the difference is this.

In addition to my Texas Tenderloin, I also had a double-sausage burger with pickle.



Mom had the funnel cake. Also a solid choice, but I passed on that for the Yoo Hoo milkshake. I also had some cherry cider.



Yes, apple is good, but if you like cherries and have never had cherry cider, you really should try it sometime. And this was locally made. Even better.

Oh, and I can't forget the mutton sandwich I got to bring home.

As for sweets, we also bought a couple of bags of French Waffles. No, these are nothing like regular waffles, and I don't know what is so French about them. They actually are made by dipping a shaped iron into batter and then dipping into hot oil to fry it. The cooked batter then slides off the iron and is heavily coated in powdered sugar. My grandmother used to make them when I was a kid.



But the ones we bought didn't look like that. My mom is a great bargain shopper and the lady selling these had two bags that had broken. So she gave us $2 off per bag. We aren't picky, and you have to break them to eat them anyway, so no problem for us.

After we had walked around a couple of times, eaten some good food and had some good drink, we were ready to roll. And this is what I felt like:

21 Nights

This book I got in the mail today tops anything I got at this past weekend's Mid-Ohio Con.