1000 Journals Documentary

Collaborate: The Scribble Project

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:57:06 GMT

This will help you to get through any boring phone call or meeting: The Scribble Project was started by the Australian artist Lisa Currie, and grew from a zine project to a blog, now archive, to the current club on Flickr. Doodlers are invited to complete a sketch-friendly "questionnaire" and upload it to the club.

The original Scribble sheet that got it all started:

Here are a couple of the filled-in sheets:

More are on the archive blog. New "blank" sheets are on Flickr.

And if you like this, see also Doodlers Anonymous.

Blanket Magazine

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:13:21 GMT

1000 Journals and Someguy makes an appearance in Blanket Magazine, a collaborative PDF publication which is uncovering artists, designers and photographers from around the world.

A few days ago, Blanket launched a redesigned website, and put out Number 15, The Communication Issue. Editor and Art Director Bec Brown writes, "It's all about that thing we have to do everyday as artists/designers/photographers/crafters… TALK to our audience in our own personal medium to communicate our feelings, our thoughts, our ideas. It's all about being open and unafraid: in art AND in life."

The Art of Communication: how do you communicate with an audience you might never meet? features Jonathan Hulme's interview with Someguy, a story about Post Secret, Blanket's own Pass It On project, a section about Crafter-Bloggers, and many interviews punctuated by great art and photography. There's also a call for contributions to the next issue, whose theme is "Portrait." Deadline: May 15th.

Teesha and Tracy's Journalfest

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:03:01 GMT

Just a few days before the start of Artfest, Teesha and Tracy Moore opened the virtual doors to Journalfest, a workshop weekend to be held at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, October 21 to 25, 2009. If you have seen our Artfest Special on the 1000 Journals DVD, you know what to expect: loads of inspiration, support, love, great teachers and great fun in a spectacular setting. In other words - highly recommended.

On the cute Journalfest website, which is worth a visit even if you can't attend, are infos and links to download registration, workshop, and schedule PDFs.

Playtime!

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:16:11 GMT

It's simple: You pick up to ten colors, and the idée multicolr search lab pulls small squares from ten million "interesting" pictures on Flickr.

I tried with gray scale and shades of red and pink...

The multicolr search lab is synonymous with everything I LOVE about the internet, and now I can color this love in all shades of pink! Or green, or blue...

There's more at idée labs... check it out: labs.ideeinc.com

(Thank you, Kim, at the re:design blog, for yet another great find!)

SFMOMA - three more weeks

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:52:53 GMT

If you haven't yet, try to catch the 1000 Journals exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) soon, because the show is going to be taken down in 24 days.

Nothing beats the chance to handle the journals in person, but if you're too far away, there's great blog coverage. Just a few examples: our dear friend Adda Dada, who came to all screenings at the San Francisco International Film Festival, put up a set of pictures on his Flickr site. Nick, of the Worldli Blog, wrote about discovering Janice's pages in Journal 751, which "included an email and phone number at the end of the 3-page entry; the phone number had a 732 area code which is the same area code that my parents live in back in Jersey. So I took out my BlackBerry and I emailed her right there, standing above this book that had changed hands multiple times all over the world." Nick and Janice became pen pals, Facebook friends, and may meet when Janice is in California on the AIDS/Lifecycle tour. Janice's story in our film: her journal was quarantined in the Anthrax scare of 2001. Here's an upclose look at the card Someguy created for the exhibition, along with tips on successful promotion. Artquiltmaker Jaye and her friend Julie each posted about the show they visited together, and made some interesting (if not critical) notes about what people put in the journals on exhibition. I love this blog post, from In The Pine: "walls of journals that people. strangers. sisters. brothers. write in. telling anything. drawing something. cutting and pasting everything. they were filled with secrets. confessions. stories. art. george bush. it was powerful to read and look at. i could have stayed hours reading." Laura Mappin (who is in the film) wrote about her entry, "I riffed off of someone else's offering -- what if the hokey pokey is what it's all about?" Engineer's Daughter wrote, "I found an empty spot in one of the journals and added a little bit of my own writing, making it extra-personal just for good measure. It's both wonderful and terrifying that I'll never know who will read it." In an earlier post, I mentioned blog stories in "Adoption & Fire," Sean Woolsey's blog, and Steve Rhodes' flickr set, all with great pictures.

The film will screen again on Free Thursday, April 2nd. Leave a comment if you're planning to come to the screening, please... I may come, too.

Picture by Steve Rhodes

Picture from the In The Pine blog

Soon in Spain!

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:06:31 GMT

How this came about is so 1000 Journals -- a random and lucky connection on the internet... I posted a story about Belén here...

On January 14th, Belen filled in the comment form on the 1000 J website and sent me a short note: "Congratulations for such an amazing project. I've being checking out the screenings, but Spain doesn't appear... yet. Do you think you will come?" We started to write back and forth, and then Belen made a wonderful proposal: she'd try to set up screenings at universities in the Alicante area, and at the FNAC store, which is a French/Spanish chain, like a cultural center, plus Border, Apple, Amazon and Virgin Mega stores rolled into one. We spoke a few times on Skype and Belen got the ball rolling. And here it is:

The screening at University Miguel Hernandez in Elche/Alicante is on Monday, March 16th, at 6:00 PM. The host is the Journalism Faculty - Economics and Financial Study Department, Prof. Miguel Carvajal. Check the faculty's blog for event details. Belen pitched the film's context as being "Creativity from the bottom. Co-creation. Storytelling. Web 2.0 as a big challenge, but also a risk. New ways to communicate in a global context: Trust vs Fear." Brilliant!

En Español:
Fecha: 16 marzo, 18.00 pm
Lugar: Aula 1.2. Edificio Altabix. Avd Universidad s/n 03202 Elche /alicante.
Página web: escuelablog.es
Público al que va dirigido: Estudiantes de periodismo, antropología y bellas artes.
Quién lo organiza: Área de Periodismo-Departamento de Estudios Económicos y Financieros- Prof. Miguel Carvajal.
Sinopsis: San Francisco, USA. Año 2000. Un artista llamado Someguy decide lanzar un experimento creativo: repartir 1000 libretas en blanco por todo el mundo, con una única intención: permitir que quien la encontrara pudiera crear algo en ella y demostrar así que todos somos creativos y co-creadores. Gracias a Internet, usuarios de todo el mundo comenzaron a interconectar, solicitando formar parte del experimento. Las libretas fueron de mano en mano, y pasado un tiempo, una de ellas volvió a manos de Someguy. Pero, ¿qué pasó con las otras 999? Andrea Kreuzhage, directora del film, dirige el documental en busca de todas ellas: un viaje lleno de relatos personales, sorpresas e interesantes paradojas.
Contexto: La creatividad, vista desde el usuario final. Internet y co-creación. Globalización y 2.0: ¿tiene límites la red? El storytelling como nueva herramienta de comunicación. Confianza vs miedo. La co-creación, nuevos diálogos entre marca y consumidor.
Link: www.1000journalsfilm.com

1000 Journals -- the DVD!

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:56:36 GMT

Hello friends! We're so happy to announce that the 1000 Journals DVD is finally available from Amazon.com. It's fully loaded with subtitles in English, French and Spanish, commentary track, bonus stories, an Artfest Port Townsend special, stereo and surround sound, scene selections, animated menus, and more! On our website is the full list of features, images, and soon also a promo video -- check it out.

You can personalize this DVD and make it a wonderful gift: turn around the cover, and add your own creations to the template. We can't wait to see what you're coming up with!

Screening News and Updates...

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:04:57 GMT

The screening series at SFMOMA continues! See the film and check out the 1000 Journals exhibition, where you can even add to some of the journals.

We are returning to the Olympic Peninsula, for a presentation at the Peninsula College in Port Angeles, as part of the Port Townsend Film Festival Movable Fest.

See us at the Victoria Film Festival! The screening is at Odeon Theatre, 780 Yates St., on Thursday, February 5th, 9:30 PM.

On February 22nd, you can see the film and meet me at the Phoenix Art Museum!

On Sunday, October 19th, at 2:00 PM, 1000 Journals is screening at the Wisconsin Book Festival, at the Madison MOCA. The presenter of this special screening is the Wisconsin Film Festival.

At HDFEST in New York City, we'll be screening at Sony Plaza on Madison Ave. Space is limited, so get your tix early for our screening on Saturday, October 18th, at 5:15 PM.

1000 Journal is the Closing Night film of the San Diego Women's Film Festival. See us at 8:30 PM, on Sunday, October 5th, at the Gaslamp Theatres.

We are the opening film of the 2008/2009 film series Movies that Matter, in Calgary, AB, Canada, and screening at the Epcor Centre on Monday, September 22nd, at 7:00 PM. There will be repeat screening at the University of Calgary on October 2nd at 7:00 PM.

The UK Premiere of 1000 Journals is on Friday, September 26th. We'll screen at the Cambridge Film Festival, at 9:15 PM, with a Q+A session after the film via video iChat. The second screening is on 9/28, 10:30 AM. Both are at Arts Picturehouse.

On Saturday, September 27th is our first screening at the Port Townsend Film Festival, at the Rose Theatre. The second screening is on 9/28 at 6:15 PM.

During September, October, and November, we'll screen on numerous dates in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The venue is Smart Project Space, which combines studios with exhibition platforms for art, sound, and other events, a cafe/restaurant, and a brand-new 2-screen cinema.

One week to go...

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:53:32 GMT

Today in one week, on Friday, August 22nd, 1000 Journals will screen in two locations: I will present the movie at the mixed media workshop weekend ZNE ConvenZioNE, at the Amador Theater in Pleasanton, CA, starting at 7:00 PM.

Someguy will be in Atlanta, GA for the Docufest screening, and more...

Bring your journals, see the film, and meet the man who started it all at Youngblood Gallery, at 9:30 PM.

ZNE tickets | Docufest Atlanta tickets

September will be a very international month for 1000 Journals, with festival screenings in Italy, the UK, Canada, and a limited theatrical run in Amsterdam, Holland. The film is also invited to the Port Townsend Film Festival in Washington, where we filmed at Artfest and with Tracy and Teesha Moore in April 2006. All screening details will be posted soon

1000 Journals at the Roxie in S.F.

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:33:40 GMT

The 1000 Journals Project was started in San Francisco, in the summer of 2000, eight years ago. And now we're coming back to San Francisco, after our wonderful run at the San Francisco International Film Festival, to show the film for a week at the Roxie Theater. This is quite a milestone in the life of the documentary: our first theatrical booking, with hopefully more to come across the country.

If you live in San Francisco, please come and join us at the Roxie, and bring your friends. If you know folks in S.F., please tell them. We'll show journals during the opening weekend, and are around to answer questions.

1000 Journals opens on Friday, August 1st, 2008.

The showtimes are every day at 7:00 and 8:50 PM, and additionally,
Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday at 2:30 and 4:45 PM.

Roxie Theater
3117 16th Street
San Francisco, California 94103
map

Visit roxie.com or 1000journalsfilm.com for more info.

Upcoming Screenings

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:04:42 GMT

I posted quite a few entries on our official site, but didn't have the time to copy them over to Livejournal, sorry.

But here are the upcoming 1000 Journals Screenings:

Detroit Windsor International Film Festival
http://www.dwiff.org/
Friday, June 27, 2008, at 7:00 PM

Orange County Museum of Art
Newport Beach, CA
http://www.ocma.net
Thursday, July 10, 2008, 8:00 PM

Roxie Theater San Francisco
http://roxie.com
Starting Friday, August 1, 2008

Atlanta Docu Fest
http://festivalleague.com/1000journals.cfm
Friday, August 22, 2008, 9:30 PM
Youngblood Gallery

ZNE Convenzione
Pleasanton, CA
http://www.zneconvenzione.com/
Friday, August 22, 2008

Pagine Nascoste (Hidden Pages)
Festivaletteratura, Mantova, Italy
http://www.festivaletteratura.it/
Friday, September 5, 2008, 2:30 PM
Saturday, September 6, 2008, 10:30 PM

In the heat of the O.C.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:42:52 GMT

I stuffed my backpack with journals, postcards, and camera, and took a cab to Oakland airport to get on the morning flight to Long Beach, some 20 miles south of Los Angeles. From the cool of the Bay Area to a heatwave in Southern California, triple digits! The Newport Beach Film Festival picked me up on the curb, and off we went to the Fashion Island Mall, where filmmakers and film fans mingle with shoppers. Ginny Laird, Senior Programmer and our "mum" at the Newport fest, gave me the warmest welcome and introduced me all around, and then brought me to the Edwards Island cinema, to meet our composer Stuart Balcomb. Outside, waiting in the sun, was a long line queuing up behind a 1000 Journals sign. These people were great: it took a while to get them all out of the heat into the theater, but they waited patiently. I ran into Adrian Windsor, the Program Director of The Inside Edge, and several people who were at our early morning session on Wednesday at UC Irvine. And ever so briefly I chatted with the director of Cubefreak, Erika Speed, and Sweet Mike of the Delray Beach Film Festival. When we were about to start the film, the projectionists alerted us about a slight HD tech glitch and asked if I had a backup Digibeta on me... I did! It's one of these moments that makes you sweat bullets. At this point in the life of our film, I still think I can control a few things, for example, the quality of the projection. From my perspective, the switch from HD to Digibeta feels huge. I tried to talk myself through and out of this -- so many people watch films on their computers, even on their iPods, and what counts is the story. We tweak all these frames (in our case, 29.97 frames per second of film) to make them look perfect, but then we have to learn to give it up and trust the whole thing works. This was a good lesson for me. 1000 Journals is growing up.

After the packed screening and a great Q+A session: Ginny Laird, and Paul and Naomi's Sundance friends, Ernest and Demetria, with Journal 878.

Photo call for Stuart and me.

Day One San Francisco

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:49:37 GMT

It's wonderful to be back in San Francisco. The here and now is fantastic, coming "home" with the finished film to the fabulous SFIFF. Wherever I go, and around every corner from there, are memories: scenes we shot with Someguy, interview locations, looking for the perfect park bench, navigating the city, favorite restaurants, the many hotels we stayed in... Between January 2004 and July 2006, we came to San Francisco seven times, filming well over 20 hours of interview footage with Someguy alone, plus about twenty interviews with contributors to the journals and other people connected to the project or Someguy. In most of these memories is of course Ralph, and I'm sad he's missing the festival. He's crazy busy with work, but we are hoping his call sheet on Sunday has an opening so he can join Stuart and me in Newport Beach.

Our first screening here, at 1:30, was great fun, and packed, and this despite nearly 80 degrees and bright sunshine. Many people stayed to check out journals, and snapped pictures. Among them ADDA DADA, who posted great coverage on his Flickr page, and Curbsidetreasures. On the news scroll are updated links to pics, reviews and blog posts.

Journal 832 surfaces in Indianapolis

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:51:27 GMT

While I was on the early shift presenting 1000 Journals to The Inside Edge, Someguy traveled across the country to attend our screening in Indianapolis. He came back with an amazing story:

"The Indianapolis International Film Festival had a surprise in store for me... during the Q&A, a woman raised her hand and said "Um, I've got one of the journals. I've had it since 2001." The crowd buzzed with excitement and a man in the back raised his hand and asked "Can I have dibs on it?"

Journal 832 wasn't very full, but gauging from the excitement, I'm sure it'll get some love and care soon. Shannon had already promised it to two other people, and I'm trying to arrange to have everything scanned at high-res. It just goes to show that these journals, even if they've been in a packing box for years, can still continue their adventures and touch peoples lives."

Lain Ewing was there to shoot a video about Someguy's conversation with Shannon, the keeper of Journal 832. It's posted on YouTube. Lain also covered and posted the Q+A session.

Quiet before...

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:59:15 GMT

For the hard working people who run the film festivals in San Francisco, Newport Beach, and Indianapolis, and for us filmmakers invited to these festivals, this is the weekend before the fun begins. Since Friday afternoon, when I shipped off the last box with screening masters and publicity materials, I hear a clock ticking away, loud and clear. Three days to go until I drive to UC Irvine, for the 6:30 AM presentation at The Inside Edge. Four days to go until Someguy leaves just as early to get to our screening of 1000 Journals, at the International Film Festival in Indianapolis. On Saturday, we'll meet at our first of four screenings at the San Francisco International Film festival. I'll leave S.F. for the day on Sunday, to attend our screening at the Newport Beach Film Festival. On Monday, Someguy and I will talk about the film at Jefferson High School in Daly City, and in the evening at 9:00 PM, we'll have our second S.F. screening... With an itinerary like this, we are so depending on airlines and airports operating on schedule, flights not grounded for safety checks, airlines not suddenly calling it quits... Something to better not worry about.

Enjoying the quiet before, I met with 1000 Journals contributor Sandra Steh yesterday for a bike ride along the beach. Sandra is visiting Los Angeles, from Munich, Germany, and as she is a very talented and energetic photographer, she did what she does best, making tons of contacts and working at various photo shoots around town. And now I'm back at the computer, filling in my iCal with dates and flight numbers... The next two weeks are going to be crazy and fun!

I love this photo by Sandra, and she must like it too: It's her Facebook profile picture, and it's the title image of her website.

Where are they now? -- Ralph Kaechele

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:59:28 GMT

Indeed, where is he now? Wrapping 1000 Journals did by no means end Director of Photography Ralph Kaechele's intense travel schedule, and he remains difficult to pin down. In a discussion about public transportation, Ralph once jokingly remarked, "I'm flying to work."

Andrea: Where have you been, and what did you do there?
Ralph: Oh gosh, where and when should I start? To not be boring, let's only talk about the last 4 months. I was in NYC to chill and spent New Year's, which was great, especially as I met LindA, Brad and Someguy as well while hanging out there.

On January 3rd I had to go back to L.A. to shoot a piece of a carreerbuilder.com commercial that actually made it into the Super Bowl broadcast. The commercial shoot was great fun. It was another collaboration with my wonderful friends of Screen Novelties, a Stop Motion Animation company around the corner from where I live. These guys keep the fantastic and so charming tradition of single frame stop motion animation alive while for some reason everybody else tries to do either hyper-realistic 3D animations on the computer, or spends millions and millions to alter some of the most beautiful human beings into completely sick, ugly and disgusting locking ancient Persian warriors.
After that, I went to Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Moorea, for a shoot which was great. 90 degrees in late January, and whenever I had a break from shooting I would be jumping into the ocean and snorkel. Unfortunately my surfboard couldn't be with me, it just wouldn't fit into my luggage.

A: Despite all the time spent on these projects, you also find time to promote the films you worked on. I was thrilled you came to Berlin to support the international premiere of 1000 Journals in the section Berlinale Special…
R: Those 6 or 7 days in Berlin have been just wonderful and insane at the same time. The screenings of 1000 Journals were amazing, the reactions more than satisfying, and especially for me it is always a bit of a coming home. To see and meet all my friends and buddies again is just great. And the parties -- my God, don't even get me started. I think I haven't slept much more than 14 hours during those 7 days.

A: Your wife Nic told me you're keeping a festival journal for 1000 Journals...
R: Well, if you call that collection of beer and drink taps a journal, yes! But seriously, no, I actually just plastered screening tickets, receipts and other fun things in and over my copy of the 1000 Journals Project book that I kept with me.

A: In what can only be described as the perfect and logical next step in your career, you started a production company, fusionfilms. What's in this name, and what has happened so far?
R: Well, an old friend and collaborator of mine approached me with a story that we thought would make a great documentary. It would have been my first time not only doing the camera work, but also directing a feature length documentary.

After prepping, investing in and founding a company for this purpose, it turned out that we couldn't get all the rights to the story at that moment. So the project is on hold, but the company is very much alive, because we have tons of ideas. As we've known and worked with each other for many, many years, it really felt like the most natural thing to finally fuse and form a company. So we went ahead and shot 2 commercials for luxury resorts in French Polynesia, since my business partner, Martin, has a book publishing background and tons of connections in this field. He usually produces around 30 books per year, you've seen them everywhere; nice coffee table books like "Cool Hotels," "Luxury Houses," or the really nice pocket size city travel guide called "and:guide."
Despite dedicating a lot of time towards the new company, I'm still shooting other productions as a D.P. In fact, I just finished another commercial including all kinds of tricks and animations. It's for the "HP - Hands" commercials series that you might have seen. These clips are with Michel Gondry, Vera Wang, Jerry Seinfeld and so on. Really cool and crazy stuff, especially Gondry's, I love his work, mashing all styles and techniques together is wonderful, and again, so much more charming than any perfectly rendered computer animation.

A: How do you go about soliciting work? How much is on spec?
R: We were lucky that we didn't have to do anything on spec, but the budgets weren't the biggest in the world, so far. But last month we shot and produced a mood film for a huge corporation in the UK, so we are basically pitching a whole new film concept to them and if it gets green lit we will be busy for quite some time. And I can already foresee that it will include a huge amount of travel.

A: While you and I were on the road for many, many weeks, and getting sick and tired of fast and restaurant food, we often spoke about cooking, favorite dishes, and what we would really like to eat now. Your favorite specialty at the time was a Thai Papaya salad...
R: Oh yeah, that salad is great, especially on days like this when it is still 90 degrees at 6pm. I altered my version slightly from the version that you and I had in that Thai restaurant in Chicago. Or was it Toronto? It was freezing cold, I mean extremely freezing cold! Way too cold for the surfer dude I wish I would be.

Here is the rundown: slice a Papaya and a Mango and one green Bell Pepper in thin long pieces, mince a bunch of green onions and one small regular onion, chop a good amount of cilantro and squeeze the juice from 4 limes. You also need half a small spoon of those hot and dried red chili flakes. Start with the sauce: Lime juice, onions, chillies or pepper flakes, cilantro, pepper and salt. Add the rest, mix around and have it sit for an hour in the fridge. You can always add more lime juice. The Mango and Papaya need to soak up the lime juice and the flavors will start to blend. Bon Appetit !!!! I think I'm going to make one right now. See you Later!

Look Card

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:47:36 GMT

All our upcoming screenings on one card...

...here also a bit larger.

Where are they now? -- Grant Dillion

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:06:05 GMT

Assistant editor and animator Grant Dillion kept working on 1000 Journals through post production, late summer 2007. He had a short stint with a video game company, and then decided to move back to Arkansas, to finish his B.A. at Harding University, majoring in English (creative writing), with a minor in Electronic Media Production. The decision to leave Los Angeles wasn't easy, but as Grant's father is on tour in Iraq and offered his house and tuition, Grant packed up his car and left.

We are pen and Facebook pals, and when Grant told me he's working on a graphic novel I immediately wanted to know all and everything about that. I love graphic novels!

Here's an interview about this work, entitled Mad Meat.

Andrea: How did you come up with the idea?
Grant: I had wanted to do something involving slaughterhouse sanitation workers ever since reading in the book Fast Food Nation that it was the "Most Dangerous Job in America." Then one night in 2007, my 17 year old brother, David, and I were watching a series of horror movies at my apartment and decided to write a cheap slasher flick that could be shot in a warehouse. I proposed we do something involving sanitation workers and my brother suggested we base it around The Odyssey. David's a sucker for big epics and had just been playing the videogame "God of War," which takes just about every Greek myth and meshes them together. Once I started writing the screenplay I realized that it would lend itself to a graphic novel and it evolved from there.

A: What is the story about?
G: A small group of sanitation workers are locked inside a meat packing plant they have to clean during the night. While working, they discover that the plant's day crew has been transformed into violent, savage, monsters from a new mutated strain of mad cow disease introduced into the plant's meat supply. Realizing they only have until sunrise to escape the building before the next day's crew arrives and releases the infection, the men battle across the plant's multitude of boilers, grinders, and packagers to escape the infected and warn the world without becoming infected meat themselves.

A: Who is creating the artwork for Mad Meat?
G: I'm working with a fantastic Turkish artist from Istanbul, Alperen Kahraman.

A: How did you meet him?
G: After dozens of failed attempts using artists in the US, I started looking for European artists online. I happened upon Alperen's art one day at a website called CGportfolio.com. I emailed him and explained the project. He loved it and got involved right away. Although there's a bit of a language barrier, we work together brilliantly because we are communicating with images. Pictures are the easiest way to get the story across. I'm sending him very rough pencil sketches, which he is turning into beautiful panels.

A: I noticed the hero of Mad Meat does look a bit like you.
G: Perhaps. I certainly would have never asked for it, but I'm happy that it's turned out that way. I have a dozen or so Graphic Novels that I'm working on and just about all of them have main characters that are based on certain sides of me. Maybe Alperen just sensed that I'd written myself into the main character and captured my "tough" side into the character's look.

From sketch...

...to panel

1000 Journals at ConvenZioNE

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:55:21 GMT

With many thanks to Creative Souls member Chelise, the powerful artist behind all things ZNE, and Creative Souls initiator Izabella, I'm more than happy to announce that 1000 Journals will screen at the upcoming ConvenZioNE in Pleasanton, Northern California, on August 22nd. Register for an amazing mixed media art weekend, and see the film!

ZNE is one of the largest mixed media focused art groups in the world, with over 1,000 members worldwide. ZNE actively promotes member artists, and has ongoing art contests, art and ephemera swaps, art production theme weeks, discounted mixed media art related products for members only, and for the first time in 2008, a convention with workshops.

The Social Network

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:10:42 GMT

The wonderful Artist Izabella Pierce sent me an email yesterday, in response to my shout-out on our upcoming festivals, and invited me to join the community Creative Souls, a Ning based network. Izabella told me about the ongoing discussion about 1001 Journals, and several of the Creative Souls launching journals. I set-up a member page and chimed in.

On Ning, which allows members to start social networks, is another community I belong to: Film Community. It was interesting to see this grow from a few hundred members when I joined to over 2,200, and counting. One of its most active participants is Stuart Balcomb, our composer.

Our page on MySpace, the most populous network worldwide, turned out to be the starting point for many inspiring conversations, and festival invitations. It's fascinating that people do find each other in this vast space of possibilities. Sunday's new friends include author Samara O'shea, whose new book "Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits" will come out in July, and historian Howard Zinn. Facebook has served up so many old friends and colleagues, and I'm happy that our 1000 Journals Facebook group is growing and active.

We're up on about 25 networking sites, and I spend a few hours every day, usually very early in the morning before the daily grind begins, answering messages, adding to ongoing discussions, approving comments, accepting friends requests, and inviting friends. Sometimes I think consolidation would save a lot of time, but then I really like the microcosms, small networks like Creative Souls... Join in!

Newport Beach Film Festival

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:48:39 GMT

The program guide of the Newport Beach Film Festival has just come live. It's a B-side community, where you can sign up, create a schedule, write reviews, and invite others. It's pretty cool, check it out. We're screening on Sunday, April 27th, at 3:30 PM, in the Edwards Island Cinemas, located in the Fashion Island Mall. I've great memories of the festival, as a film I produced, Ave Maria, was invited in 2000, and screened in the same theater.

I'm invited to introduce the film and show journals at The Inside Edge, a foundation of and for "intellectually-curious and spiritually-conscious people" who meet for breakfast every week. Insomniacs and seriously early birds among us, please come and join this. My 1000 Journals presentation will be on Wednesday morning, April 23rd, at 6:30 AM, at the University Club of UC Irvine. More information is on the Inside Edge website.

Directors Notes

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:49:39 GMT

1000 Journals is featured in the impressive collection of interviews by MarBelle of Directors Notes. MarBelle is after "The What, How & Why of Independent Filmmaking," and by speaking with directors from around the world, both about their specific films, and about general filmmaking concerns, is offering a multi-faceted resource for artists and audiences alike. We are episode number 082, and available on the Directors Notes website as well as on iTunes.

San Francisco International Film Festival

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:11:52 GMT

We'll be screening four times at the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival, which runs from April 24th to May 8th.

Saturday, April 26, at 1:30 PM

Monday, April 28, at 9:00 PM

Thursday, May 1, at 12:30 PM

Thursday, May 1, at 3:15 PM

All screenings will be at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki.

From April 1st, SFIFF's website will include a box office, and the full program guide.

Image caption: Festival attendees stand under the Castro Theatre marquee at the 43rd San Francisco International Film Festival. Photo Credit: © Pamela Gentile. Copyright: Pamela Gentile/San Francisco Film Society. Year: 2000

Galassia Gutenberg

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:38:16 GMT

Over the past few months, we've been talking with a museum in Naples, Italy, the Galassia Gutenberg, whose curator, Simonetta Capecchi, has put together an exhibition of art journals about traveling. Simo blogged about the making-of, and wrote about us here, and here, she created a PDF version of the catalog, an online gallery on Flickr, and a very comprehensive journal blog and website roll. Journal 2639 of the 1001 Journals Project is visiting Galassia Gutenberg for the duration of the show, from March 28th to 31st, 2008. To Simo, un successo travolgente, and tanti auguri!

Indianapolis

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:01:37 GMT

1000 Journals is invited to the Indianapolis International Film Festival, April 23rd to May 3rd, 2008. The festival has recently announced its competition line-up in a press release. Check it out... The full program will go live on the fest's website April 1st, including box office and venue infos. We'll be screening twice, co-hosted by the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA): On Thursday, April 24, at 9:15 PM, and on Thursday, May 01, at 2:15 PM. Someguy will be at the first screening.

I just discovered a Call for Artists on the festival website: Jointly presented with the iMOCA, artists are invited to donate movie-themed art items to a silent auction. Maybe one of you wants to participate? The entry form is on the festival website.