A Summer of Shorts

Indeed it has been a beautiful summer, perfect short wearing weather, perfect making film shorts weather, but too short all the same. With the bad jokes out of the way, allow me to get down to the task at hand.

With as often as I'm discussing one of my random projects, I'm not sure if you've had a chance to see the variety of things that I've posted here on my blog, on youtube, or on my facebook group this summer so I thought a recap of the last few months was in order.

I find myself trying to stay in touch with so many people on so many different online accounts that it's tough to remember what I've shared and with who. What I've posted on this blog, what I've talked about, and so on and so forth is kind of a part-time job in itself, but the goal is to find an audience: people just like you! So, I apologize if you've seen some of these already, but even if you have why not check them out again, it's only a couple minutes. Hey, you might even like something (which would be nice to know)!

I've included a brief description of each project and a link to the video on my youtube account. For the best playback click the 'watch in high quality' link beneath the video on the youtube site. As always I appreciate any of your comments or ratings on youtube, any comments here on this blog, as well as any personal comments through facebook or email.

I want to thank all of you who pass by this blog and lend a little of your time just to see some of the shorts I've come up with, or share your thoughts on something I want to talk about. It's been a great experience thus far, and your continued interest only fuels my motivation and inspires me to create new things and push myself further. Thank you! I can only hope that what I'm putting out there in return meets your expectations.

Without further delay, the 2008 Summer of Shorts recap:

I'm Luke, I'm Fandrix
The one year blogiversary video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GJwpqjBDUY


Chico Bandito: The Series
Inspired by a marionette that I found in the laundry room, Chico Bandito is a series about the marionette's planned and hopeful escape.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNyysiq-PDM

Day Dream Day
My most recent edit about a thinking place and my personal outlook.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziigkAI1bsQ


Space Drama!
A found footage project I put together using footage from a 1950's sci-fi show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZlP1sXLCcU


Siblings
A tale of sibling rivalry at a playground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaEtZt-USjo

Car Kaleidoscope
My submission to the Toronto Urban Film Fest, showing urban life in an experimental short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBfx0phSr3M


Rushmore & South Dakota Recap
A recap within the recap, this edit was made this summer to sum up the road trip to Mount Rushmore I went on in 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpMBPlci9bU

Split Wash
A technical exercise I made using a split frame of the same image while washing my car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI9F-T4WLIo


Educated Detours Trailer
A promo for the short film I made with my friend Paul several summers ago in 2006.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IDT6WFprzU


Give it Time (2008 Version)
My submission in the Youngcuts International festival in Montreal this year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdUTty3yEPM


For more of my work/writing/edits/etc. you can visit my youtube channel, and facebook group:
www.youtube.com/fandrix
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9504646625


It's always enjoyable to share what I've got going on, and I look forward to a whole new series of projects to debut in the coming months. I can't believe the fall is just around the corner, but here's to what has been a great summer!

Day Dream Day

Everyone has a thinking place.

Day Dream Day (2008) Written & Directed by Luke Fandrich

Perched on the roof with the street at a glance,
An afternoon devoted to pondering chance.

The neighbourhood's silent, the possibility's there,
But you think to yourself, and you shift and you stare.

It's nice to be free, it's nice to be young,
Your potential, you reason, is so out strung.

You glance at the windows, the roofs, and ground,
It's a long way up, when the there's just pavement around.

The world is my oyster, the future my now,
So many questions, but most of them how.

I want to be seen, and I want to be heard,
But so high up, I think, there's only the birds.

So I'll get back to the ground, get my head from the clouds,
I'll shuffle and mingle, shake hands with the crowds.

I'll do what it takes, and I'll work the late hours,
I'll sacrifice some sleep, some meals, some showers.

I'm just another dreamer, another guy with some hope,
Just a man on a leash, tugged by someone else's rope.

But from here things look fine, with camera in hand,
I'll shoot what I'll see, I'll edit and I'll land.

All at once I won't do, cause I don't wanna fall,
I'll just ease myself back, while admiring it all.

But maybe not yet, not just for this minute,
I want to dream a bit more, and find myself lost in it.

1007 DVDs

I meant to make note of this when hitting 1000 DVDs but time kind of kept rolling and I found myself 7 movies further along before putting this post together. So, 1007 titles. It all started in December 2001 when I had asked for a DVD player for Christmas and had already started buying DVDs to replace my then 100 VHS tapes. Not quite 7 years later I've crossed the thousand mark and have acquired quite an extensive and diverse collection of work that I like to refer to as my library.

I used to receive a lot of flack from my folks, especially in my early uni days because of the money I'd spend on movies. I understood their point, but really, all students have their vices. For some it's booze, some it's fast food, and mine just happened to be DVDs. I can't remember the number of times that I used the excuse that because I was in film production, DVDs were really like my textbooks. That's true, but it's also clear they weren't the most financially responsible choice (especially back in the beginning when they were $20 and up).

Now-a-days, I'm a previously viewed buyer and because I've acquired most of the movies that I had on my wish list, most of my purchases are either pre-1980 films or recent releases. Keeping track of all these flicks can be difficult, but thankfully I'm a pretty organized guy and have all my films databased, referenced, and alphabetically catalogued in binders. A bit obsessive? Maybe a bit, but it's tough not to care about the films that I've spent thousands of dollars on.

The nice thing about having my films in a database is that I can easily share some of the statistics about the films I love and the collection itself. So, here goes!

• There are 1007 titles in my collection.
• With a total of 1361 actual discs.
• A total length of 146852 minutes.
• It would take approx. 102 straight days to watch all the movies.
• The average year of the collection is 1993.8
• The years I have the most movies from are 2005 and 2006, both with 80 titles.
• Top 5 directors in my collection: Steven Spielberg (18), Charlie Chaplin (11), Robert Zemeckis (11), Woody Allen (9), Martin Scorsese (9).
• Time it took to reach 1007 DVDs: 6 years and 9 months.
• That's 2.9 DVDs purchased per week since December 2001.
• I was 17 when I purchased my first DVD which was Mel Brook's Spaceballs (1987).
• Oldest movie in the collection: The Kid (1921) directed by Charlie Chaplin.
• DVDs by decade: Pre-1970 (98), 1970s (38), 1980s (130), 1990s (225), 2000s (516).
• 17 Genres in my collection: Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Fantasy, Holiday, Mockumentary, Music, Science Fiction, Sports, Television, Thriller, War, Western.
• Most common genre: Comedy (253)
• Least common genre: Mockumentary (13)
• 48 Academy Award Best Picture Winners
• Oldest Oscar Best Picture in collection: Grand Hotel (1933)
• Most Recent Best Picture in collection: No Country for Old Men (2007)
• And yes, I have watched every DVD I own. Some only once, some tens of times, and the majority somewhere in between.

So there's a handful of tidbits regarding my DVDs, and there doesn't seem to be any sign of things slowing down. Although over the years, whenever I told people how many DVDs I was at, they'd always assume the next time I saw them that I must have several hundred more movies. I bet from the date of this post if you add 3 DVDs per week to whatever date, that will be the current total.

I don't have a single favourite movie, but if you're interested the Desert Island Flick entries I've been writing on this blog are all about the movies I own and love. Happy flick watching!