[Deviant Nation] HeadlessBill's Journal

Status on New Years Resolutions.

HeadlessBill — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:47:05 GMT

So, these were my New Years Resolutions, for those that didn't remember.

1. To be more social and meet more people.
2. Finish my documentary.
3. Shoot enough sets to become a Staff Photographer here at DN.
4. Start making semi-regular income from my photography.
5. Get a job in the film industry.
6. Get back down to 200 lbs.
7. To improve my photography and cinematography skills.
8. To get better with my editing in both Photoshop and Final Cut.

And this is the status on them.

1. Haven't really gone out much, due to the wife being paranoid about money with me not working. And since I'm rather shy around people I don't know, I prefer to go out with others to help break the ice and such, but I haven't really had anyone to go out with. My wife doesn't like to go out socializing much and most of my friends seem to have better things to do than hang out with me.
2. Hopefully by summer of next year, yet again. Sigh.
3. Only managed to shoot one set.
4. I am making no income from my photography. Actually, I'm getting paid in t-shirts by shooting for punkstuff.com's new site. And I got a free calendar for a shoot I did for the Sugarplum Elves. But this makes the wife paranoid about money.
5. Still unemployed and the wife is too paranoid about money that I can't go down to LA to look for work. Have a strong feeling this will never happen.
6. Still have to lose about 50-60 lbs. The amount I needed to lose back in January.
7. Having not shot much, both video and still, I can say that I am probably regressing in my skills.
8. Since this is very much connected to #7, I can probably say that the answer is the same.

No Subject

HeadlessBill — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:18:47 GMT

Chixor

HeadlessBill — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:34:30 GMT

Amusing use of one of my photos.

HeadlessBill — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:11:06 GMT

This is so amusing, it's wrong, but it's amusing.

I'm going to put a link to an image of mine that is being used by an entertainment management company that is obviously a con of some sort.

http://ravenight.com/54.html?frm_data1=41&frm_data1_type=large

So, what's wrong you may ask.

1. They are using my photo without permission.
2. The person in the photo, Nixon, is a friend of mine and she is not represented by this company.
3. They have Nixon identified as Shannon Lark.
4. Shannon Lark is also my friend and they do not represent her, either.

This is Nixon's take on what needs to be done.

I suggest you take a look. Pick a girl. Call in as the girl, someone trying to hire her, someone she punched in a bar, a paparazzi she hit with a car, an illegitimate child she abandoned in the sixties... whatever you like. Leave me a note and let me know. I'll post the best ones.

The number: 310-666-0835

UPDATE: It appears the company has removed all the talent and models it claims to manage from their website with the exception of someone named Jade DeWinter.

Nothing to say...

HeadlessBill — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:55:20 GMT

Don't have anything to say, but feel I should post something.

Just uploaded a new set to Zivity. Just 5 votes away from them cutting me my first check.

Also, uploaded a new interview snippet clip from my documentary to YouTube, but in case you've never seen any of them, here are the four up there at the moment.

Tattoo concept sketches

HeadlessBill — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:02:23 GMT

So, the artist that is designing my Gothiphilia tattoo for me sent me some rough pencil sketches of a few ideas she had so I can mull them over and pick a couple for her to finalize and correct before she makes the final drawing(s). Since I'm also going to be using the image on cast and crew t-shirts, she suggested I use the second favorite image for a mass consumption t-shirt (if anywone actually wants to buy one).

I want to post the sketches she sent me, but I'm not certain if I should (am allowed), but I want feedback from friends here.

GAH!

Le sigh.

HeadlessBill — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:19:38 GMT

Not that I'm looking for any kind of pity party, but I need to state a few things, just so I can get them off my mind.

Things in my life (or not in some cases) that are depressing me, in no particular order.

1. Not having a job.
2. Not having anything to film.
3. Not having anyone to photograph.
4. Photo editing.
5. Tons of photos that need editing.
6. Not having had sex in over year.
7. Feeling like the few people I know in real life are avoiding me.
8. Not going out to do anything, mainly because of #5.
9 Going stir-crazy, mainly because of a combination of #7 and #8.
10. Not having anyone to talk to about these things.
11. Not having time to video edit.
12. I feel like I'm in a creative decline.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

HeadlessBill — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:21:01 GMT

If ye want t' talk like seafarin' hearty, but be havin' problems, try this handy seafarin' hearty translator.

http://www.syddware.com/cgi-bin/pirate.pl

It can e'en change an entire webpage t' shipmate speak fer ye.

Last minute photo shoot

HeadlessBill — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:18:54 GMT

So, yesterday, I'm sitting at home and around 4:15PM, LeEvil calls me and what to know if I want to do a photo shoot. She's one of my favorite models to work with, so I agree and ask her when she wants to shoot. She wants to know if I can meet her out at Treasure Island in an hour. Hesitantly, I tell her I can.

I meet her and we drive around Treasure Island looking for a place to shoot. When we do, we shoot for about 45 minutes to an hour (a very short time for me) because we are quickly loosing the sun. Mentally unprepared to shoot, I kept making simple mistakes. I put the sun behind her for the first 1/3 of the shoot but with the setting sun, it should have been behind me, because the light on her would have been much better. I also realized I didn't take any shots that show her in her environment.

Anyhow, a couple of images from the shoot.

First shoot in over a month.

HeadlessBill — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:53:41 GMT

Vote Beeblebrox!

HeadlessBill — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:40:13 GMT

No Subject

HeadlessBill — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:17:52 GMT

Your result for The Director Who Films Your Life Test...

Sofia Coppola

With few films under her belt (The Virgin Suicides, Lost In Translation, Marie Antoinette) as a writer/director, she's already highly respected and connected -- her dad, Francis, directed all The Godfather movies and Apocolypse Now. Sofia's good at making the romantic drama that is your life with poignant sullen moments of introspection. You saw how she stylishly handled Marie Antoinette's life, no? And who didn't have at least a lump in the throat at the end of Lost In Translation? She's already won one Academy Award for her writing, now she'll be the first woman to receive one for directing -- YOUR FILM!

Take The Director Who Films Your Life Test at HelloQuizzy

Which photos??!?

HeadlessBill — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:11:12 GMT

So, I need to put a couple of the images from Nummymonkey's set into my ModelMayhem portfolio. But which ones should I use? Let's see what the collective Deviant brain comes up with.

Time to change my journal.

HeadlessBill — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:46:03 GMT

Woot!

The set I shot of Nummymonkey has gone up!

Go check it out if you haven't. Tell her nice things. Tell me where I screwed up.

:twiddles thumbs:

HeadlessBill — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:14:00 GMT

So, as I patiently wait to see if NummyMonkey's set goes live at some point, I've been sitting at home doing much of nothing, unfortunately. I find I'm either cruising the internet procrastinating from editing photos or procrastinating on working on the website for my documentary or procrastinating on working on my script for my script writing workshop or procrastinating on procrastinating on editing video from my documentary. I'd rather be shooting photos and video, for when I do and the more often I do, the more I feel creative and actually want to edit photos and edit video and write and work on my website.

:sigh:

But, with some of my best models/friends moving away. Nixon and Vampirabat are moving to LA and Noxious is going to Guam, I find myself with fewer people to work with and it was hard enough to get our schedules to mesh to shoot as little as we have. I'm finding my motivation rapidly declining and my creativity ebbing away.

:sigh:

But on a better note I think I may have found someone to help me with the design of the tattoo I'm thinking of getting when I complete me documentary. She did the image at the front of Ariellah's website, but in case you don't want to click the link here it is. I really like her style and I think she'll be able to do the Goth pin-up/art nouveau look rather well.

And some things are being discussed on the documentary front that are rather interesting. Not certain if any of it will pan out beyond our discussing, but using the connections Sasha has, we're going to try and start looking for finding funding and sponsors to help us with money so we can do some traveling to models rather than waiting for them to come to the Bay Area. A couple of other ideas we have concerning people Sasha's contacts most likely won't pan out, but they would involve Psyclon Nine and Jhonen Vasquez if they do, but since they probably won't, forget I even mentioned them.

Oh, and I guess I should end my journal with a photo I've taken.

Cat in a colander.

Bo Peep

HeadlessBill — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:57:52 GMT

Chixor's Bo Peep set is one of my favorite sets of all time. I really love the charm and personality it has. But I'd been wanting to shoot a Bo Peep set for my documentary for a while and here are some images from my take on it.

Some more Ariellah.

HeadlessBill — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:53:47 GMT

Shot these today.

Purpleness!

HeadlessBill — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:20:55 GMT

So, Nummymonkey went purple, which means the set I shot of her has been accepted. So go give her a big congrats and cake!

Also, now, I don't have to feel embarrassed about having the photographer profile without having had any live sets or shoots in the queue.

Soundtrack to my Life?

HeadlessBill — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:33:36 GMT

iTunes creates the soundtrack to your life!

Here's how it works.

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)

2. Put it on shuffle

3. Press Play

4. For every question, type the song that's playing; for extra cool points, add descriptions.

5. When you go to a new question, press the next button

6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

Opening Credits

Euphoria (Firefly) - Delerium

I'm not certain about this.

Waking Up

Flowers Become Screens (Frequency Modulation Mix) - Delerium

Seems my entire soundtrack will be ambient dance music.

First Day at School

Lumberjack Song - Monty Python

A break from the ambient. Seems appropriate. I don't know why. It just seems appropriate. Maybe I'm going to trade school.

Falling in Love

Leaving So Soon? - Keane

They never do seem to stick around for long, do they?

Fight Song

Ask DNA - The Seatbelts

Great song from a great movie, but too happy for a fight song. It's kinda like having Walking on Sunshine by Katrina & the Waves as your fight song.

Breaking Up

Fernando - ABBA
I'm pining for a Spaniard that went off to war? :scratches head:

Prom

Tidal Pool - Conjure One

Back to the ambient music. I doubt anything like this was played at any prom. But if I was their seducing someone...

Life

Back to the Rivers of Belief - Enigma

Appropriate. Song has three parts which could easily fit the cycle of birth, living and dying.

Mental Breakdown

Rock and Roll is King - Electric Light Orchestra

I guess I dance around like a fool during my mental breakdown.

Driving

Red Rain - Peter Gabriel

I'm definitely not on a road trip if this is playing. I must be driving in the rain after getting some bad news. How cliche.

Flashback

In the Shadow, In the Light - Enigma
I guess I'm remembering some poignant but happy moments of my life with whoever I was driving through the rain to get to.

Wedding

Old and Wise - The Alan Parsons Project

A better funeral song. Maybe foreshadowing.

Birth of a Child

Thank You for the Music - ABBA

At least I have an idea for the name of my child.

Final Battle

Smell of Desire - Enigma

Slow, ambient music always makes good fight music. :rolls eyes:

Death Scene

Movin' Right Along - Muppets

Upbeat road song from the Muppets. Sounds about right.

Funeral Song

Big Wednesday - Freeland

Woot! My funeral is going to turn into a rave!

End Credits

Breathe Me - Sia
If it weren't for the fact this song was overplayed on every TV show that had a downer ending, I'd kinda like it, Though it really seems inappropriate to the way I died.

This movie's soundtrack sucked. Didn't match the story at all.

I'll have to do this again at a later date.

Submitted set.

HeadlessBill — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:18:00 GMT

So, i submitted a set of nummymonkey. I'm hoping it'll be accepted. Anyhow, since Gwindylyn said it was okay for me to post a couple of teaser images, I thought I would.

On a side note, I've been home editing photos since Saturday for a variety of different things. I'm bored and lonely and feeling isolated from the world.

Busy... Busy... Busy...

HeadlessBill — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:15:06 GMT

My god, what a busy week this was. Looking forward to not having to do anything this weekend. Well, technically, I should be finishing editing the photos from Emerging Illusions, The Sugarplum Elves and nummymonkey, but I need a break.

Let's see. What did I do?

Sunday, I don't think I did anything except procrastinate from doing the photo editing I mentioned above, with the exception of nummy's photos since I hadn't taken them yet.

Monday, I did something, but can't remember what it was I did. Is my age showing.

Tuesday, I met with Fushia about shooting her for my documentary.

Wednesday, I spent my evening and night shooting product photos for a website that will be selling t-shirts. (Site's not up yet, so no link.) That shoot is almost worthy of it's own blog, but I will save it for another day, if anyone is interested. Anyhow, here are some sample images.

Thursday, I shot nummymonkey for DN. No sample images yet. I have them but I'm not gonna show them to you (unless Gwindylyn says it's okay).

Friday, I shot Kittylicious for Zivity. We also planned a shoot for my documentary. Alas, the shoot didn't go as planned, nor did we do the nudity we wanted to do because of pedestrians, wind, fog, pedestrians, winter-esque weather, fog, Friday the 13th and pedestrians. Here is a sample image from that shoot.

Saturday, I think I'm gonna go see Indiana Jones. Or sleep in. Or both.

What have I been up to?

HeadlessBill — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:01:40 GMT

Yes, i haven't posted anything about my life lately, but I feel I should rectify that problem.

I went to the Death Guild Thunderdome Benefit on Saturday. It's basically a fundraiser for Death Guild so they can get their Thunderdome to Burning Man.

I was their to video tape Ariellah.

It was an evening of being cold, trying to stop the two people helping me shoot from killing each other and basically being miserable. I may have lost a friend during this evening. *sigh*

Today i wandered around San Francisco location scouting for a shoot I have on Friday. I found these places.

And bought a couple of props for an upcoming shoot with Nixon.

I have a shoot on Wednesday, shooting T-shirts for a website and I'm still trying to find an appropriate spot to shoot in. The guy making the shirts wants someplace like a slaughterhouse or Silent Hill. I really like some of the designs/logos on these shirts.

I have shoot on Friday with a model that goes by Kittylicious. Here's a photo of her.

So that is what is going on in my life at the moment.

Besides looking for work that will actually pay me something.

Oh, and I don't know how I did it, but i completely forgot to mention that I am shooting NummyMonkey on Thursday.

Website blues...

HeadlessBill — Sat, 31 May 2008 03:53:12 GMT

So, I'm trying to get my website up and running and have hit a snag. I've created the website using Dreamweaver CS3, but maybe someone who knows something about html might be able to help me out, too.

This is what my website looks like when hosted on our school server. I have no idea how much longer the site will be on the school server, since I am no longer a student.

http://www.berkeleycitycollege.edu/students/jashton/

It looks fine and dandy and the way it looks when I view the website off of my harddrive.

This is what it looks like when viewed on my hosting server.

http://www.gothiphilia.com/pages/main.html

It looks terrible.

If anyone can offer any type of assistance in fixing it, I'd greatly appreciate it.

What do I do now?

HeadlessBill — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:08:49 GMT

So, I have my last Scriptwriting class tonight and my last editing class tomorrow. Don't really need to go to them, since our finals were already done and our grades are already turned in, but I want to talk to the teachers. Having now completed my schooling and awaiting for them to send me my certificate in the mail (I didn't go to commencement) I need to look for work in the movie industry and put together a demo reel.

I just have no idea where to look and typically, where to apply. I know Pixar, Lucasfilm and M5, but I'm not certain where else in the Bay Area I can look for work doing Production Assistant, Assistant Editor, Assistant Script Editor, Assistant Story Editor, Editor, Camera Assistant, Director or Cinematography jobs.

I have a feeling I may have to go down to LA and look for work there, while my wife stays here in the Bay Area. She has no intention of going to LA since loves working at the San Francisco Opera. She knows if she got a job in one of the studio costumes shops, she'll mainly be doing contemporary clothes and she prefers to do period and fantasy pieces.

A few people have recommended I look for work on Craig's List, but I don't think so. I've tried to cast a couple of my shorts I've shot through Craig's List and it wasn't a wonderful experience.

Also, I'm trying to keep shooting photos for my documentary and filming for my documentary, but I've seemed to hit a dry patch again. Things are going really slow in that area, and whenever that happens, I start questioning if I should continue. I know I will, but it always puts in such a funk when I start doing that.

Oh, and Nixon and I saw Zombie Strippers and we feel that it was the funniest, so awesomely bad it's actually good movie we've seen in such a long time, that we both recommend it.

I guess I should end with a photo.

Finals finally final.

HeadlessBill — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:54:01 GMT

I've been not too busy on here as of late, since I am in the midst of finals. Most of the big finals are done, so I have a couple of little finals left to do. Today I am resting as I had only 10 hours of sleep since Sunday as of my Editing Final being turned in yesterday.

Re-reading the above paragraph made me realize that it doesn't make any sense, but I'm gonna leave it that way anyway.

I graduate on Thursday with my Certificate for Digital Video Arts. Also, once school ends, I will probably be no longer receiving my unemployment benefits. So, I'll probably need to start looking for a job in film production. If anyone wants to buy me a snazzy tie to wear to interviews as a graduation gift, you can get me one from this place: Cyberoptic TieLab.

I don't know why, but I've not really told anyone I'm graduating. Maybe it's because every time I do have a day worth celebrating (like my Birthday), when I let my friends know they all forget and nothing ever happens anyway, so it ends up being like any other day anyway.

Also, since there is still a week of school left after commencement, I keep thinking it's being held at the wrong time. Shouldn't it be after school is done for the semester?

Anyhow, I'm just rambling now so maybe I should end this.

I hope everyone is doing well.