The Little Details - Films

Fear of Girls 2 Premiere

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:13:00 -0500

I'm happy to announce that the second episode of Fear of Girls will premiere as part of the Fearless Filmmakers series on January 31st.

Here are the details:
Fearless Filmmakers Screening: "The Viral Market" The Oak Street Cinema
309 Oak Street SE
Minneapolis MN 55414
Wednesday January 31st
Screening begins at 7:30 PM
Panel Discussion with filmmakers and special guests to follow. Official After Party
Stub and Herbs
227 Oak Street SE (one block away)
Minneapolis MN 55414
Tickets are $9 General Admission, $7 Students,$5 Mn Film Arts Members. Tickets will go onsale at 6:30 PM ONLY on January 31st. (No pre-sale!) I hope you can make it. I will be there with my entourage. -Tom, who would like to note that his entourage consists entirely of 3rd level commoners.

Thanks

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:49:00 -0500

Thanks to everyone who voted for my entry in the past couple weeks. It does not appear that I finished in the top ten, despite having a firm grip on sixth place for most of the day yesterday. But, WotC's rules are rather ambiguous, so there is still hope. If they cling stringently to their rules and let automated vote-spamming bounce sub-par entries to the top, they're not serving anyone's interests very well. If nothing else, this was a hugely educational experience and the feedback I got from my friends -- and for that matter, total strangers on the various D&D messageboards I frequent -- was very, very encouraging. Even if I don't get any further recognition, it's been gratifying to have so many people supporting my efforts. Thanks for believing and thanks for your help. -Tom, who will do more, don't worry!

Final Day of Voting

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:46:00 -0500

I can't imagine anyone who reads my blog doesn't know this already but today is the final (and crucial) day for voting in the D&D Film Contest. Visit http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/5721 and rate my video today! Even if you previously voted, you can still vote again. Thanks for all your support! -Tom, pimpin' it.

Vote for Me in the Online D&D Film Contest!

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 12:43:00 -0500

So a couple weeks ago I hinted about making a short film in just over 48 hours. Well, here are the results of that labor! And you can help me make it to the final round of judging with a few simple steps:

Visit the page for the movie: http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/5721
Under the RATE IT box, give it a rating of '10' (or whatever you think is appropriate).
You will have to enter some letters on the page to prove you are human.
Forward the link and instructions to all your nerdy friends!

The good news is that you can vote every time you open your browser, so please vote as often as you can. Voting runs through October 10th. Thanks for your support! -Tom, who notes that Sir Chastain does all his own stunts. And is now ready to retire from show business.

A Test

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:24:00 -0500

Can you cast, shoot, and edit an award-winning five-minute short in less than 36 hours? I am trying to find out. -Tom, who has friends who can, and plans to lean on them.

Just A Little Background

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 21:37:00 -0500

I was going to blog about this when it premiered, but I didn't want to steal any thunder from Meryl Streep or Tommy Lee Jones: I'm in the new movie A Prairie Home Companion. [More]

Your TV Is Redundant

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 10:28:00 -0500

Hey, it's Tuesday and I'm in a good mood so I thought I would share a treat with you and try to 'pay it forward'. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I crush a small piece of your soul with that horrible cliche? Allow an attempt at recompense. I'm happy to announce that Paper Hearts is now on Google Video. The guys from Sleepy Eye rolled the dice to cast me as the lead in this and I think we're all happy with how it turned out. The whole thing was made as part of the 48-hour film festival in which you are assigned a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a random genre for a short film which you then have 48 hours to script, shoot, and edit. We were featured in the best of the fest, and apart from the gimmicky nature of the process I think the final result stands up on its own as a fun piece of entertainment. Enjoy! -Tom, who encourages you to check out Revolver and Say Nothing while you're there.

Makin' a List, and Checkin' It Twice...

Sat, 11 Feb 2006 16:47:00 -0500

I'm coming up with a list of films set in and around Los Angeles. You know, to prep myself for what's next. Cause all movies are real. Just like 'reality TV' is a redundant term. Right? Anyhow, here's what I've come up with so far:

L.A. Story
Swingers
Pulp Fiction
Resevoir Dogs
Chinatown
The Player
Collateral
Boyz 'n the Hood
The Terminator trilogy
To Live and Die in L.A.
2 Days in the Valley

Any further suggestions? -Tom, who is pimping you, yes. Yes, indeed.

Over the Top

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:51:00 -0500

So, the stats continue to roll on Fear of Girls:

327 people saved the link on del.icio.us
We broke the Top Ten most popular links over at Bloglines, coming in today at number nine.
Our hit count on Google Video has topped 320,000. (We racked up 140,000 Sunday and Monday alone after slashdot.org picked us up.)

Responses to my acting tend to fall into two camps:

Man, that's over-the-top! Too much mugging!
Hilarious! What's scary is I know guys just like this!

I actually agree more with the first camp than the second: I'm deliberately playing a caricature. [More]

Surviving the Slashdot

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 11:01:00 -0500

... or, "200,000 Geeks Can't Be Wrong." So on Sunday, Fear of Girls attracted the attention of the fine folks at geek central, slashdot.org. The site links to items on the web that your alpha-nerd would find interesting. There's a lot of programming and tech links, but a lot of random lifestyle stuff too. This place has a HUGE audience, so much that the traffic overload it can cause on a website is called slashdotting. The big appeal of slashdot is that everyone reads the story and then gets to make snarky remarks about it. (And other readers rate the comments to vote for funniest, most informative, whatever.) So let's have a look at the armchair quarterbacking that happens in our little geek zoo... [More]

Fear of Girls Now on Google Video

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:19:00 -0500

So earlier this week while I was in the Nash-diggity, Ryan Wood released Fear of Girls on Google Video. You can check it out here. So far it's gotten fifty or sixty thousand hits. Ninety-four people have saved the link on del.icio.us. But my favorite of all is a guy who goes by the name kiznit on ENWorld who mocked up a fake version of the module that's mentioned in the script: That RULES! -Tom, off to go... game! What else??

Fear of Stomach

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 06:05:00 -0500

So last night was the screening of Fear of Girls at Cinema Lounge. Man, do they pack that place in. It was standing room only (which is about 90 people at BLB's tiny little theater) and I talked to Dan the host afterwards and he said it's been like that for the past three months. He attributed it to my performance in the promotional spots I did for them with Sleepy Eye. I'm not convinced that's the sole reason, but I'm not above lapping up some industry insider flattery, either. (My ego is a dog and once in a while you have to let him up on the kitchen counter and eat some pumpkin pie.) [More]

12-die Lightning Bolt, No Saving Throw!

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 21:54:00 -0500

So back in July I got called in for this audition for a short film directed by Ryan Wood called Fear of Girls. My notes say he's looking for someone who can play a human version of Beaker from the Muppet Show. (I guess when you have a niche, you have a niche.) Well I got the script and the film is about two guys who play waaaaaaay too much Dungeons & Dragons - to the exclusion of any other social contact in their lives. Now, I'm not saying I am one of those guys in real life, but I am saying I know some guys like that in real life. So I get dorked up in my finest nerdery - glasses, retainer, Dragon t-shirt - and lo and behold I appear to be exactly what Ryan's looking for, probably even moreso. (He wanted Beaker and he got Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.) Well, one of the great things about shooting this project was that Ryan let us run with the script. That's a pretty brave choice when you're out to make your own movie (especially when you're the one footing the bill) but Ryan let us go and it was a blast. We shot eight hours of footage, including A LOT of improvising. Charles Hubbell and Scott Jorgenson also appear and they consistently rocked the house. The end result merges the best of both the script and the spontaneous bits into a very funny 12-minute short. It's like "Spinal Tap" went to a gaming convention. Ryan was keeping the final edit under tight wraps until the premiere and I'll admit, I was a bit nervous. But it debuted last month to big applause at the Fearless Filmmakers' Screening event and I have to say, I'm very proud and pleased with how it turned out. The best part of the whole thing is I get two totally different reactions, depending on how people know me: "Wow, you play a really good nerd." and "Dude. You were totally typecast." -Tom, really good nerd and totally bad typist.