So, as far as my acting career goes, I've got a few important updates..

1. I'm auditioning for a notionally renowned talent agency in Cincinnati! To be a model and an actor.

2. I acted in a TV Miniseries! 3 episodes of it.

3. September 5th, is the premier of the first Indie feature film I've ever done!

4. I know the show schedule for Miami this school year, Heda Gabler, Down in Mississippi, and....ARABIAN NIGHTS which is pretty much the perfect show for me, as most people agree. Auditions for that aren't until Spring semester though, so I'll have to be patient.

So I can't believe it's been over a year since I've been in a play or musical!!!!

Last Wed. I auditioned for a production of The Taming of the Shrew. It wasn't until callbacks that I realized this was a production unlike any other that I've done. The play is a CHINESE OPERA, based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. So, chinese dance, movement, music, costumes, etc. It also meant that guys could play girls parts, and girls could play guys. At callbacks I read for two roles, Lion Dog, who wants to marry the older sister, and I also read for Little Sister, the one who can't get married until her elder sister, named Rogue Tigress, gets married. So after waiting patiently over labor day weekend, I checked the call board on Tues. to discover I had been selected for the role of LITTLE SISTER! I couldn't believe it, one I had made it into the main stage production, two, that I was playing a GIRL?! I'm actually really excited for rehersals, which start on Oct. 13th, because I've never had a role like this ever. I'm excited to see what my costumes look like, and what kind of choreography I'll have, needless to say, this will be an interesting production for me.

So my English 112 final paper was a 55 word short story about love and/or death. The assignment was based on one of the books we read in class,  The World's Shortest Stories of Love and Death., a compilation of 55 word or less stories.  For extra credit we can actually send our stories to the competition and so I was inspired to make mine worthy of submission.

The following is my story. While brainstorming I decided that I didn't want to kill my characters, but I wanted the  story to be about love AND death. I decided upon a Twilight inspired story about a Vampire and a human.



                                 Forever Yours

"Will it hurt?"

"Only a little," His nose brushed her vulnerable neck.

"You're freezing." She shivered.

"A minor setback."

"I can't live without you." Running fingers across his ivory skin.

"Well, technically you won't be--"

"Hush." Her fingers to his mouth.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"My heart is yours," She gushed.

                                                               Adam Kezele

Wow, its been a little while since I've posted.

So, that film festival I worked at, something came out of it. I met a producer/writer at one of the receptions, we started off just talking about the festival, then about our films.  Then I told him I was looking to make my legitimate start in the industry, whether it was as an actor, or whatever, didn't matter, I wanted to be a part of a real Independent film. So, he paused for a second, opened his wallet and handed me a business card , and told me to send him an e-mail sometime. I did, he responded the next day, asking for my headshots and resume. He told me that him and  his wife were going to shoot a feature film over the summer and that they would be considering me for a role!!! I'm gonna send him another e-mail soon to find out more about what the film is gonna be, and to tell him that even if he decides not to cast me I'd still be interested in being on crew, an extra, or anything else...  

I've come to terms with the fact that movie making requires the sale of one's soul. More development on this later, for now, more editing and composing...

So. Thursday, April 10th marked the beginning of the Oxford International Film Festival, the one my film could have been in if I had gotten it done in time. Anyhow I was talking to the people who are running it this year, and they were in need of volunteers, so I said I would help out. Yesterday, I spent 8 hours working at the festival, I met a couple filmmakers and saw some wonderful films, a  few of which were premiers. Anyhow, nearing the end of the night I was with a  friend interviewing some filmmakers who then turned the camera on us, lol. So much for the interview.  We went on to talk with them a bit about directing, acting, writing, etc. and gave them a ride to the reception. While we were in the car I told them how I was working on my first film here, and they asked me what about. So I told them, and as I was telling them about it, they seemed really interested in the project. They were asking me questions about it, and when I was finished they said they'd like to see it when it's finished, that it  sounded like a really cool film. So hopefully over the next 2 days I'll get to know them better and maybe get an address to send my film to. This festival is about making connections, meeting actors, directors, etc. and seeing their latest films. This is only my first year at the festival and I'm already meeting people! I can't imagine what it's gonna be like when I'm a senior here, and have been in, and directed a handful of films. Anyhow I've gotta head back over to the festival soon...

So,  now that I've finished filming the movie, I began editing more of the footage, putting it all together bit by bit. Today I spent 10 hrs at the library, 8 of which I spent editing my film. It was a very productive day, a little slow, but special effects take time. I won't reveal what effects in particular, it's a secret, just know that I had to edit for a specific effect FRAME BY FRAME. Needless to say, it was a time consuming process and involved the sale of my soul. (not really, but it required a lot of effort to figure out how to make the effect work the way I wanted it to.)

Anyhow thats all for now, I'm tired and I wanna go to bed.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! I FINALLY finished filming my movie, ya know the one I've been working on since....OCTOBER?!  Anyhow, after 3 and a half hours in the broadcasting studio today, I finished up the last of my scenes. I'm very happy with how they turned out. Thanks to a generous Japanese restaurant, I acquired various pieces, and my set looked believably like a Japanese bedroom. Now all I have to do is edit it, write the rest of the music, and record it! I plan to be done with this film in 3 months or less.
Im also changing the name of the film I think. Anrui will be the new title when its all finished. It means silent tears. Very appropriate for a film with no dialog, except, there is crying in the film, does that matter?

So, I had my first stunting practice with some of the cheerleaders yesterday, I didn't really know what to expect going into it, except that it would be very difficult, especially because I don't have a whole lot of upper body strength. However despite this I was able to throw the girls up high enough, however getting my hands underneath their feet in time is proving to be a little difficult, mostly because I'm developing a bad habit of bringing my arms around, instead of straight down. I did manage to get under one of the girls feet a couple times, so it wasn't bad for my first day of practice. It was a good practice though, despite having a girl fall on my head, at least she didn't get hurt, that's what's important right? Anyhow, I'm done typing, my wrists really hurt today lol. I'm told I'll get used to it....

Kayli you'll probably get a kick out of this.

    So it all started back in middle school, I played soccer and lacrosse,  i was pretty good at soccer and terrible at lacrosse. After moving on to high school. I dropped both sports and joined the marching band and jazz band. After playing in marching band for 3 years I decided, hey being the mascot looks fun! So my senior year of high school I became the mascot. It was so much fun, doing all sorts of tumbling up and down the sidelines was a blast. So senior year came to an end and it was off to college, where I once again was tumbling up and down the sidelines as the school mascot. So, football season is long gone, and basketball is coming to a close. I get sent to the Mid American Conference with the cheerleaders to support our b-ball teams. I miss a week of school and instead spend it with the cheerleaders. The women's team ends up winning the tournament, so after a couple days of spring break its off to Connecticut for the NCAA. By now I was really starting to get to know the cheerleaders, and I realized what a fun group they are. Long story short, by the end of Easter weekend, and our return to school from Connecticut, they had convinced me to become a cheerleader. So tomorrow, I start learning how to stunt, and soon after, learn more tumbling. Whats funny is, if I could go back and tell my Sophmore year HS self that I would become a cheerleader, my younger self would probably slap me in the face saying  "What the hell dude?!" So it's time to cross another activity/hobby/interest off the list.

The List (bold are things I've accomplished)

learn to play saxophone, learn to play guitar, pole vault, become a mascot, learn to play the violin, learn Japanese, go to Japan, get paid to act, get cast in a full length motion-picture, become a paid videographer, become a cheerleader, become a paramedic, live in Japan, climb Mt. Fuji, climb Mt. Everest, and the rest of the seven summits.

So just came across this short film contest that I think I have a good shot at winning with the idea I came up for it. I even found someone to co-direct it with me, the problem is, the deadline for submissions is March 12th, and I'm already working on another film next week. I don't think I can write this script shoot it and edit it, as well as edit my mom's company video this week, and finish filming my other project next week. I really wish I could, the prize is $5000 and a trip to a Hollywood premier. Maybe I'll go ahead and make the movie at a later date because it's still a good idea that I would like to use eventually. I've got like 5 different ideas circling around in my head for my next film, but I don't know which one to pick. Anyhow in the meantime, I've got 4 days to make a professional quality movie for my mom's boss, guess I'd better start editing it...

I figured since its been a while since I updated my entry about the progress I've had on my movie, I would make a new one. So,
Yesterday, Feb 10th. we finally started filming again, however looking back I kinda wished we had just done it all in October.　The reason I waited in the first place is because I wanted snow for a couple of the scenes, which we didn't get. so instead of filming the rest of the outdoor scenes back in October when the weather was nice, we filmed in Feb. on a day that it was 18 degrees out, -2 with wind chill. I learned something yesterday....KIMONO ARE NOT WARM! Anyhow, after filming outside in the cold for about an hour and a half, it was time to head over to the broadcasting studio to begin work on the indoor scenes which, with Tom's experimentation with lights and camera angles, and with the help of a few set pieces, turned out to look really cool. *Sigh* after seeing some of yesterday's work I kinda wish I was filming all in color...Anyhow, through everyone's hard work and patience, this project is going to look really cool when it's done. I however did miss the deadline for the Oxford International Film Festival, so I will be looking for another festival to enter it in in the next few months.

May 2007.

Day 1
nothing exciting today, i spent it all on a plane, a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong, and on top of that, i lost a day! we got to the hotel around 9 30 local time, and soon after i discovered i had internet (that made me very happy) i crashed.

Day 2
i was rudely awaken by my mom at 7 30 am we went down to the restaurant to have Dim Sum with the other person i was traveling with (my mom's boss). After breakfast i got to experience my first taste of the world of international business. We met with one of the suppliers, Aurient, for the company my mom works for, Creativity For Kids. After a long morning discussing supplies products, quality, and pricing, we went to lunch at some local restaurant, no one there spoke english, and the menus were all in chinese as well. So we let our hosts do all the talking. After lunch it was back to work, more discussions, but hey its worth the trip ^_^. We decided to take a break from chinese and went to eat italian for dinner, ughh not one of the greatest meals ive ever eaten. After dinner my mom and her boss went back to the hotel, while i went out with 2 Aurient employees, Alice, and Moon. Alice is from Taiwan, but she speaks mandarin, and english. She went to college at OSU. Moon has lived in Hong Kong her entire life, and she speaks very little english, but we still had fun. They took me on a ferry over to downtown Hong Kong (we were staying in Kowloon). There we snapped some photos together, and i took some video for my documentary. We walked around downtown for a while, and eventually ended up where all the clubs and bars are, yay ^_^ (the drinking age in China is 18). Sooo we sat down in one of the bars and ordered some drinks, my first alcohol purchase and i didnt even get carded XP, so we got our drinks and sat in the bar talking for a good hour or so. Both Alice and Moon are very interesting women, (they're in their mid 20s btw). So after talking and walking around for a while it was time to take me back to the hotel because we all needed to be back at Aurient the next morning X_X. I got back to my room said good night to them, and thanked them (they wouldnt let me pay for anything), and said id see them tomorrow morning. Ok well id better wrap this up b/c i only have a few more minutes of paid internet left, ill add photos, and more tomorrow. Good night all!

Day 3

Another early start, and more dim sum, yaaay! except i learned a valuable lesson, chinese food and grapefruit juice dont mix >_<. Anyhow today was a lot of fun, i spent the morning in the office filming meetings etc, and then decided to start my self taught crash course in Cantonese. I figured since moon speaks little english i could impress her with my knowledge of her language. So moving on, we went out for lunch again, this time for japanese, and to my surprise hong kong has the BEST japanese food ive tasted so far, cant wait till i go to japan ^_^. After lunch moon and alice took me around the city again. Today we took the subway over to central hong kong, and took a tram to Victoria Peak. I got some good footage overlooking the city, and after that we went to this really cool wax museum. Now normally id find this pretty boring, but when you see the pictures, you'll get why it was fun. So after some time spent playing the latest video games, sightseeing, and picture taking, we met up with the rest of the group for dinner at a Thai restaurant, the food was really good, but i unfortunately didnt have much of an appetite, oh well. So after dinner we said good night to the Aurient employees who met us for dinner, and me and my mom went walking around the 8 FLOOR MALL that the restaurant was located in. Most of the shops were brand name stores weve got here, but there was some cool stuff at toys r us that you cant get in the us very easily, and there was this cool japanese jean company, unfortunately, their jeans cost about $140 US a pair, so i decided not to buy them, even though they were the coolest looking jeans ive ever seen...moving on, by this point i was completely exhausted, i feel bad for Alice and Moon because they had to be even more tired than me, (as Hosts in an asian country they will not stop entertaining you unless you are ready to stop, even if they are tired) so after dinner i told them i was going to bed so that they wouldnt feel obligated to stay up any later. Ive now determined that sleep has become optional for me, if there's something cool to do, even if its 4 in the morning, im gonna go do it, unfortunately it takes its toll on me during the day. So i finally got back to my room, and felt like sleeping for 2 days, but i decided to update my blog instead ^_^. So today was great, ive never eaten so much in my life, nor have i ever been this sleep deprived, so with that im going off to bed, and im sorry i havent posted any pictures yet but im exhausted, i promise ill do it tomorrow morning (tomorrow night Cleveland time).

note: cantonese is very very very very difficult to pronounce, gave up and switched to mandarin chinese :-P moon and alice both speak it, so i probably should have learned this from the beginning ^_^ but its proving to be easier since i have a slight prerequesite on pronunciation thanks to Dynasty Warriors :-P

Day 4

no breakfast today, i decided to sleep in until Alice and Moon came to pick me up. Today they took me to Ocean Park, one of Hong Kong's amusement parks. Throughout the day whenever we had down time or were waiting in line i asked them questions about their work, and they even spent a good hour helping me with my mandarin. They said to practice so next time i visit i can speak in chinese with them. i said ill try ^_^. Later that day we went back to Aurient for a surprise birthday party for my mom, after we all had a piece of cake we went to dinner at a place famous for its Peking Duck. This is the place where i had a lot of interesting experiences. 1. i've never had Peking Duck, it turned out to be very delicious. 2. I decided to eat jelly fish, it tasted all right, but i wouldnt go out of my way to get it, the problem was the texture, try chewing on a rubber band thats been diped in slime, thats what jellyfish is like >_< 3. On top of that i ate some sea cucumber, so by now my stomach wanted to kill me, but i was fine, just felt a little sick. After dinner Alice Moon and I went to the Night Market, its an open air market lined with tons and tons of shops, people selling EVERYTHING, cheap too. So after walking around looking for anything interesting to buy, i decided now would be a good time to get my mom a birthday card, so after an hour of searching i found one that was in english, and i took it to a tea shop to sign. I used my 'vast' skills in chinese to write happy birthday in it, (alice wrote it on a recipt for me to copy :-P), and then we ordered something called bubble tea, its made from black, or green tea, milk, and tapioca, it was really good. So by now i was completely exhausted, and still not feeling too well, so i decided to head back to the hotel. Alice and Moon got me back safely, and we said goodnight, and sadly i think tonight was the last time ill get to see Moon until i come back to Hong Kong. I'd love to write more but i cant keep my eyes open, ive uploaded some more photos onto the computer but havent had a chance to put them on photobucket yet. well, Good Night!


Day 5

slept in again, today was my mom's and her boss's day off, so we all went out together. We spent the morning at a local chinese art museum, grabbed a quick lunch and went over to the space museum to see an imax movie. after that my mom and her boss went back to the hotel to take a nap, so that they wouldnt be tired after dinner, this gave me the freedom to go off on my own for the first time on the trip. I decided to pick a street and direction and just walk, and walk, and walk, until i found something interesting, i ended up walking about 20 blocks or so, i would have gone further, but my new converse shoes werent broken in yet so my feet were hurting. Anyhow, the purpose of this walk was just to observe the culture, and the people, or rather observe the people observing me, being an 18 year old american walking around Hong Kong by myself :-P. So after a while of walking i grabbed a quick drink (ramune ^_^) and headed back toward the hotel. I would have taken the subway back, but then i would have been left with too much down time before dinner, but not enough to take the ferry over to Central, so i walked. After a quick change of shoes, and shirt, (its like 80 degrees out and 75% humidity every day here) i went back out to kill some more time. I was lucky enough to stumble upon an arcade, YAY. So i sat around playing video games until, now, when i came back to update my blog before dinner. I'm going back to the night market tonight, and heading to mainland china tomorrow, so i dunno if i will be able to update my blog in the next few days. So for now, here's some more pictures.

Day 5 part 2

ok so we ate dinner at this really really classy restaurant up high in the peninsula hotel, called Felix. To give you an idea how fancy, the mens bathroom was featured on the Travel Channel. Anyhow after dinner we all went out to the night market again, Alice, Tiffany (a chinese girl my age who joined us for dinner), and I went off on our own to do a little shopping, we met up with Tiffany's best friend Ti Sou, who i actually ended up talking to a lot. Ti Sou was very interested in talking english, and was also fascinated by my knowledge of japanese, so after talking about western and chinese culture for a while we took turns teaching eachother cantonese and japanese. After a little time in a local arcade taking pictures in one of those photobooths that every teenager girl is craaaazy about in japan, Tiffany and her friend headed home. So after a little more shopping so did Alice and I.

Day 6

Going to mainland china was a very unique experience. 1. Almost no english is seen or spoken there, and westerners are very rare. 2. some of the places were emotionally hard for me to film and visit. Although parts of it were very interesting, and the cost of living is cheap (ill talk more on that later), the air is so polluted, the streets are extremely busy, and people work all day for virtually nothing. I got the chance to walk down into some of the factories, and see all the work these people do, and i also got to visit their "dorms". After seeing their living conditions, i will definitely never complain about my college dorm, or anywhere i may live in the future. Even the manager at the factory shares a room, no carpeting, crummy bed, the only perk she gets is a tv and a microwave in her room. Anyhow, after viewing the factory, and meeting with various companies, Melody took us all to this Hair salon, i guess thats what you would call it. But unlike a western salon, you dont go there and pay $20 for a haircut and then leave, they wash your hair thouroughly (for like 20min) with some ginger shampoo, then the give you a back massage, neck/shoulder/arm/hand massage, and then you go downstairs to get your hair cut for a total of about $2.50 US. Of course if you want it dyed you have to pay another $9. A side note: i think the guy who washed my hair thought the experience was more interesting than i did, because he had probably never touched non-asian hair, or even seen an american teenager before except on tv, lol... So after another afternoon of shopping we went to grab some dinner. Now here is probably the best idea someone has ever had, it turns out there is an authentic italian restaurant, owned by an italian family on mainland china. They're probably making a fortune off that place (the chinese seem to love italina food). So after dinner we went to our hotel to turn in for the night. Now i dont have any pictures of the hotel, but if youve ever stayed at one of the really nice hotels in disney world, this hotel was like one of them, except it only cost about $60 for the night.

Day 7

Its back to Hong Kong, my last day in China. Didn't really do anything exciting, i conducted some interviews for my movie, and said good bye to Alice and Amy. We got back to Hong Kong, and i was left on my own to go wander around until dinner, i pretty much did the same thing i did the last time i had time to myself, i wandered around watching the city move around me. We dropped Melody off at the airport, said good bye to my mom's boss and checked in to our hotel.

Day 8

Its off to JAPAN!!!!! jumped out of bed early in the morning, packed everything up and headed to the airport, cramming as much new japanese as i could into my head the whole way there, and on the plane. We landed a little late due to some bad weather, but it didnt really matter because we would have had to wait for the bus to our hotel anyway. After storing some of our baggage at the airport, we checked in to our hotel in Narita, went to dinner in the hotel and went to bed early, realllly early, dunno why, whatever, there wasnt anything to do there anyway.

Day 9

Up early once again, packed everything up checked out of the hotel and hopped on a bus to the train station. So from now on the trip is basically on my shoulders, my mom left it up to me to plan out traveling in japan and most of everything we do here. We went to the counter and to my relief the ticket salesperson spoke english and she made sure i knew how to get to the right train station to board the shinkansen (bullet train). So we hopped on a train to Tokyo, and from there we got on the shinkansen to Kyoto, got a taxi to our hotel and met our personal tour guide. We spent our first day in Kyoto visitng shrines and temples and talking to our tour guide, William, who's a lot like what the future me might be like. He was born in the US studied in undergrad school in the US, and took Japanese, then, he applied for some grant by the japanese government (a scholarship basically) to live, and study in Japan for graduate school. He was accepted. The Japanese Government paid for his flight, his schooling, his apartment, and gave him a stipend to live off of. <-----what i am going to do after college. After the tour we said c ya tomorrow to William, and went back to our Ryokan (Japanese inn/guesthouse) for a Japanese bath before dinner, after the bath i put on a yukata (summer kimono) and went to dinner. Throughout the meal i spoke as little english as i possibly could, and the staff at the inn was very impressed by this, so they asked me (in english) about where and why i was studying the language. After dinner we changed into street clothes and walked around Gion (the geisha distric in Kyoto). It was one of the coolest experiences in my life, Kyoto is a lot like feudal Japan, although everything had modern conveniences, the people preserved the style, architecture, and atmosphere of old Japan. after walking around for a while and taking some video footage, we went back to our room and my mom went to sleep on her futon (japanese style bed) while i stayed up studying japanese.

Day 10

Went down to breakfast in our Ryokan, and afterwards took another bath, (if you saw/knew what one was like, you'd understand why i took so many). We went out that morning just wandering around looking for anything of interest, until it was time to meet our tour guide again. We visited some more temples of course, but today was amazing, we visited an abandoned shrine, the Rice God's mountain, and even walked through a bamboo forest. I got so many great photos/video footage, i cant wait to upload it. After this amazing cultural immersion experience, we invited our guide to dinner. I had him write down information on the scholarship as well as a few things to do the next morning. After dinner we walked around with William a little more before saying thank you and good bye, and we went back toward Gion. Tonight we decided to head over to Pontocho (a street where you may be lucky enough to see a geisha), and walk around/take some video, and to my great surprise, i saw a REAL GEISHA (people can pay money at some hotels to dress up for a few hours), but this was for real. Side note: im genreally relatively confident about my japanese speaking abilities, except around William, but as soon as i walked up to the geisha, i was more nervous than ive ever been in my life (not joking at all). I asked her, in horribly broken Japanese (i had suddenly forgotten everything i know) if i could take her picture, she nodded, and i snapped a quick photo of her. I would have really liked to have a conversation with her then, but she was surrounded by her entourage and her paying customers, she seemed to be wanting to get on her way, and i had lost the ability to talk anyway X_X. So we walked on a little more and after turning around we crossed paths with the geisha again, this time i took some candid video footage (i closed up the display and held the camera at my waist, angled upward at her), becasue i was too afraid to ask her if it was all right to take some footage. After walking around Gion some more we went back to the Ryokan, took another bath and went to bed.

Day 11

We went down to breakfast again checked out, but left our baggage at the ryokan while we went shopping before we left for Tokyo. We found this really cool area with a lot of little shops selling authentic Japanese products for an affordable price. I bought a real Kimono ensemble (kimono, coat, tabi socks, zori sandals) all for about $65. I had a lot of fun this morning, most of the people in the shops didnt speak any english, so my mom relied on me fore everything, and everywhere we went store owners would comment on my japanese. So after a morning of interesting shopping (we were buying items of cultural influence, not name brand knock off clothing etc.), we headed to the Ryokan to pick up our luggage. Side note: Im going to live in Kyoto one day... Everything there was amazing the food, the people, it had the best of everything, hiking trails, geisha, all kinds of food, traditional style housing, modern conveniences, shopping arcades, a downtown, and a subway system, lol even the ramune was great, only 110yen a bottle, about 95c US (in the US ramune can cost as much as $3 a bottle). So by now we were running late, so after a long good bye with the ryokan staff and after thanking them for an amazing experience, we headed for kyoto station, where i got us on the shinkansen to Tokyo. When we arrived in Tokyo we still needed to get to our hotel which meant taking the subway, so after getting some more cash, i went to the ticket office (the automatic ticket machines are all in japanese) and got us tickets to Ebisu station. Side note: throughout our entire trip my mom did not trust my ability to navigate, she kept getting worried, asking questions, distracting me, wanting to ask for directions, but after she saw me take us all over Hong Kong and Japan, she took all her comments back about it, especailly the jokes about me being a "lost boy". (finally). Anyhow we unfortunately arrived too late to meet up with my friend Mari, so me and my mom went to dinner at a nearby italian place (my mom is sick of asian food, ill never be sick of it) lol,it was pretty funny, i didnt speak a word of english at the restaurant, the waiter didnt know english anyway, but what was funny/odd was ordering italian food in Japanese. I would pronounce the name of the dish the italian way, followed by a few phrases of Japanese. Anyhow, after we ate we came back to the hotel, and my mom went to bed, so after discovering there was internet here (yay) i sat down to update my blog. side note: im in the process of getting more pictures and maybe even some video up on here, i might have it up by the time you read this, but you never know, i have 230 pictures on my video camera alone, and 199 video files so it could take a while to find the ones i want. (gaaaah, nvm, im not gonna be able to get many picture up becuase i left my usb cable in my suitcase at the airport, ill see what i can do.) Oyasumi Nasai.

Day 12

Slept in..... a, yokatta.... (what a relief), went over to ebisu station to grab some food, and thne we took the subway over to asakusa to meet my friend Mari. It took us about 30 min. to find eachother, but after we did we headed over toward the temple because there was some huuuuuge festival going on, it was great, i got a lot of video footage, tried some japanese 'fair food', and got the experience of what a huge city is like, there was no room to walk anywhere...after a couple hours at the festival mari, her mom, my mom, and i, headed over to akihabara, where all the electronics anime and gadget stores are, i didnt buy anything there, i was just looking for stuff to film for my video, teenagers in costumes/street fashion mainly. After walking around until we couldnt walk anymore we all went out to dinner and afterward we said goodbye. (Mari was an exchange student from Japan that i went on a blind date with 2 years ago) We had a lot to talk about, and after some discussion she decided that she is going to stay with us for a while this summer. After saying goodbye we came back to the hotel, and my mom crashed on the bed, which i guess means were done for the night :-(. Anyhow i took this as an oppertunity to update my blog...for the last time, er well ill do a final update whein i get home, with a link to my video and all my photos, but give me some time to do that, like a week maybe. Anyhow tonight is my last night in Japan, but i wanna stay here forever, no joke....but i do miss everyone, and ive got a lot of work waiting for me back home X_X. Well, good night!

Day 13

Woke up early, checked out of the hotel, caught a train over to Harajuku (WOOOT). Harajuku...is....awesome. This is where some of the crazy Japanese fashion trends started. They had everything from J-punk, to goth, to skater, to harajuku girl, etc. There were girls dressed in lolita fashion, music stores, and more. I bought some sweet clothes there too ^_^. Unfortunately we couldn't stay for long, we had to get to the airport. So we headed back to the hotel and got our stuff. Then we headed to the airport :-(. Time to go back to boring old Ohio.

So yea, I've been trying, trying and failing to get a group together in my hometown to make movies and music videos for a while now. Occasionally we'll get a music video together, but nothing major, and they're rarely professional looking. Well, here at Miami there is a group called M.A.F.I.A (Miami Association of Filmmakers and Independent Actors) they own about $50,000 worth of film making equipment: Jibs, track dollys, boom mics, $4000 cameras, FINAL CUT 2 (professional video editing software), etc. and I am now a member of this group, and am already working on my first film. So i guess I'll give you guys a description of the project (as best i can w/o giving anything away).

short synopsis: Shingen no Sakura is a short-film with no dialogue that takes place in a non-existent feudal Japan. A woman suffers from Tuberculosis and it is up to her lover to bring her a lifesaving medicine before she expires.

genre(s): Action, Drama

run-time: 15 min

I'm casting this show in September, filming it in October, and it should be finished by December, so keep checking for the updated status of my project, also you can go to http://oxfordfilms.com/mafia/ to see the progress of mine, and other films.



Update: Sept. 1st, I have scheduled my first production meeting for the project for Tuesday. As of now, the script is finished (its 5 pages of stage directions), the storyboard/shot sheet is almost finished too, and I found a camera man. The tentative shooting dates for the project are, Oct. 5th, 6th, 7th, and 12th.

Update: Sept. 7th, Production meeting was postponed until this morning. It went very well, I have narrowed down my shooting dates to Oct. 5th 6th and 7th. I have gathered up props and costumes, my project will be up on the site in the next few days, and I went out looking for filming locations for my project today and was was very successful. ^_^

Update: Sept. 11th, My film is on the site!!!!! ^_^ and my props are on their way!

Update: Sept. 18th, I've gathered/bought almost all of my props and costumes.
I have a cast and crew, except for an actress, I've found someone interested but she is gone the weekend of filming. I am currently working on finding another time to shoot her scenes, as well as looking for someone else who can be there on the shooting dates.

Update: Sept. 24th, I have a full cast and crew, and everyone is going to be at tonight's production meeting. I cant WAIT to start filming!

Update: Sept. 24th, production meeting: Started at around 5:15, at the meeting we discussed choreography, the shot sheets, the script, locations, and the filming schedule, which has now been set to Oct. 6th and 7th noon- until were done.  The meeting was a success and as soon as we finish the fight choreography this film will be ready to go.

Update: Oct. 1st, Movie making is stressful...... I think I prefer acting in other peoples' films. Although when this is finished it will be really nice to be able to show it to people, as the first high quality, high 'caliber' film I've made, i.e there is no way in HELL I'm posting it on youtube or facebook, or whatever. However, look for the trailer in about 3 weeks or so, I will definitely be posting that online. ^_^ Anyhow, there is something exciting going on following the completion of this film, but it all depends on whether or not the film meets my standards, so I've only told a few people about it, I will make the 'exciting' announcement upon the completion of the final product of my film, again thats if its up to par.

Update: Oct. 4th Had our second fight choreography session, and it's starting to look good, we're gonna practice the fight and add to it some more tomorrow, so that it will be ready to go on Saturday.

Update: Oct. 5th, Holy crap! We start filming tomorrow! I just finished the last of my fight choreography sessions, and I'm exhausted, but it was well worth it. The fight scene is intense, it flows really well, and is probably some of the best choreography I've ever had a part in. My stunt coordinator is amazing, putting his knowledge of European choreography, and 'safety' with my skill in Japanese fighting styles, has created an accurate, but flashy, heart-pounding fight sequence. I only wish that I was filming the whole movie this weekend, instead of just the 1st half. Not sure when were doing the second half, but my Assistant Director is amazing and will help me get this thing together.

Update: Oct. 7th, Filming went well yesterday, we got a lot done and we have a lot of great shots to work with. It took us about 5 hours to get everything we had planned done. Only 1 more day of filming to go ^_^, anyhow time to crash, I was exhausted yesterday, and I still am today....X_X
Update: Oct. 8th, PHOTOS!!!! (Day 1 of filming)

Update: Nov. 1st, I have begun to edit the footage from day one of this project, its looking good so far, but this film is gonna take a loooooooot of work to get it 'up to par' Also after a lot of thinking, i may be adding another day of filming to this project.

Update: Nov. 21st, I've finally figured out exactly what im doing with this film, to make it more artistic. I felt that film needed another layer to it visually, other than the authentic costumes and props, and not just plain old color film. I'm not giving anything away, so everyone who knows about this project will just have to wait and see what it looks like in the end. I have also determined the shooting schedule for the rest of the film. Look for some major steps forward in the next few months.

So, I hadn't been to a convention since February, and I hadn't seen any of my "con buddies" in just as long. So i decided to meet up with them at Anime Weekend Atlanta.  I booked a flight, and started working on a new costume now that I had a deadline. However, as the con got closer and closer I started running into problems with the costume, getting in the way of school work, and the hotel, not having a place to stay during the con O_O". So as the weeks passed my costume started to looking better and better, still no place to stay though, but then a wonderful, wonderful, friend of mine invited me to stay at her house,(Thanks again! ^_^) and everything seemed to be working out alright.  So the con finally rolled around and my costume was, more or less finished. So I spent this past weekend running around in crazy costumes, catching up with old friends, and just goofing around. All in all, I had fun at the con because my friends were there, but the convention itself wasn't anything spectacular. I'm definitely not going to AWA next year, just because Dragon*con is a couple weeks before it, there's no reason to go to AWA too, plus, I like to think I have a life outside of cosplay.

The con itself:
    As I said before, noting spectacular, but it was nice to see some of my friends. So we spent most of the con going to photo shoots, catching up with old friends, and just goofing around. I did have one problem at the con, TOO MANY PICTURES.....GAAAH. It became a real problem too, I couldnt walk 10 feet w/o getting stopped, so I had to change into my new costume, which not many people were familiar with, so that was nice. Anyhow Saturday night was fun, I got to leave the convention for a while to hang out with my friend's family, and eat some real food ^_^.   After that we had an in costume adventure to Walmart before heading back to the con for the PJ party, at which my friend surprised me with a birthday cookie cake, that was really nice of her. Sunday, the last day of the con, we slept, and slept some more, and then finally got around to going to the con to hang out with a few friends. Then we left the con I got some dinner before heading to the airport. Me and my friend talked a little while, and i pushed going through security to the last minute, so much that I would have alomst missed my flight, had it not been delayed....and gate changed......twice.....by the time I got back home it was 3 am...