CAP Hollywood Short Film

Money Girl
Becca, Kirin, Laura, and I finished up the script, storyboard, and shot list this week for out short film. The film is called Monet Girl and is about a fifteen year old who's involved in printing counterfeit money. She's being relentlessly pursued through the city streets by a man, but his identity remains a mystery to the audience until the movie's dramatic conclusion. I feel like we successfully created a sense of suspense and drama, and I can't wait until we get to the editing process. Editing is challenging and time consuming, but it's one of my favorite parts of making a movie. Editing can make or break a project.

Clapper Rail

Almost as soon as we stepped off the boat onto Smith Isand, we saw our first great bird --- another life bird for me. It was a clapper rail! An elderly birder named Howard had pulled out his iPod near a patch of reeds and began playing the bird's call. It's breeding season, so the rail appeared immediately and he was hopping mad. He figured he had a rival on his territory and he was ready to kick some butt. I'm not sure what went through his mind when he found a bunch of gawking people toting monster telephoto lenses (which were of no use since the bird was within arm's reach) instead. He stayed out in the open for quite a while giving everybody great looks. He was making a loud barking/coughing sound the whole time. The picture below that was taken by Evelyn Ralston.

Don't forget the sun block

I spent Saturday on a quest for some new life birds. What's a life bird, you ask? Well, it's simply a bird you've never seen in the wild before. I headed to Point Lookout State Park to catch a boat to Smith Island. From the boat launch, I scoped a great blue heron colony. The tall birds dotted the tops of the tall pine trees. They did alot of squawking and displaying. They look way more beautiful than they sound. From the same spot, I was able to observe a nesting pair of bald eagles, several opspreys, a common loon, some cormorants, and a fishing Caspian tern. All this, and we hadn't even boarded the boat yet. I observed more Caspian and some Forster's terns perched on a series of pilings as we cruised out of the cove.
The sun was blazing, but it was windy and frigid out on the open water of the bay. Pretty soon I forgot all about how cold it was when someone called out that we had northern gannets all around us. Gannets are our largest water birds. They have a six foot wing span. They're brilliant white with pointy black wing tips. Their light blue eyes are encircled in a blue line surrounded by jet black skin and they have a yellow wash on their heads. They dive into the water from great heights to catch fish. It was an amazing sight to see. Soon they'll migrate to Canada to nest in huge groups on rocky cliffs.
I saw many more great birds on the trip, and didn't notice that I'd developed a wicked bad sunburn on my face until Saturday evening. You should really get out and do some birding sometime soon. Just don't forget the sunblock.

The Minecraft April Fools Jokes for 2011 and 2013

This year Mojang, the company that produces minecraft,  made the best April Fools joke in history and I fell for it... really badly. Mojang talked to some of the most famous YouTubers and got them in on the prank. They got the administrators of the MindCrack server (a server that only people that are ridiculously famous on YouTube get to play on) to agree to release an exclusive update pre-release video and showcase an "update pre-release". So many things were added to the prerelease like, torches that burn out, the possibility to over feed animals, tinted glass, TNT slabs, and much more. I was so excited after seeing the video that I logged onto a multiplayer server and told everyone about the  pre-release video. This one player then told me, "lol, dude you know that was this year's April Fools joke right?" Well I had to admit it; they TOTALLYgot me. Here's one of the videos by one of the YouTubers who was in on the prank. Skip to 1:40 to see the features of the fake update.

There was also a good April Fools joke in 2011, so if you missed out on that look at this video. The joke takes place from 2:08-3:53