This year's Sci-Fi party

Some of you have questioned me about it during the past couple of months, and yes, I will be having my annual sci-fi party this year. I just don't know exactly when it will be yet. I have updated the webpage, though, at http://flamingdeath.net/scifiparty/.

This would also be a good opportunity to do some planning for L&L. By then, things should have settled down for me as far as the housing crisis goes, and I should be more available. However, then we hit the problem of getting people together again for filming. Just can't win....

I've also decided to keep the Google advertisements on the site. It's not making me any money... well, I take that back. It looks like I made two cents this past week! Anyway, it gives the site a certain level of credibility, in my opinion.

Blah....

Looks like the Google advertisements aren't doing a bit of business for me at all, so I'm considering taking them down in the near future. It was a good idea, but we just don't get high volumes of traffic here to make it worthwhile. Any thoughts? I guess they do make the site look a little more busy and official though.

Second, it looks like any forthcoming projects are again on hold. With the Marlers moving shortly as well as myself, there are just too many uncertainties to deal with.

Third, Atomfilms has announced their deadline for this year's fanfilm awards: May 27. Details are right here. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll make it in time if L&L gets off the ground before then.

Lastly, I got rid of the falling snow here. After dealing with this winter and no heat in my car, I'm ready for ALL snow to leave. I don't even want to spend any more time in the Misty Mountains in LOTRO because of all the snow there. Bring on spring!

Let's get rolling!

Hey all,

Okay, it's about that time to get serious about making this "Luke & Leia" movie we've been talking about for two years. ;-)

First, I'm sending this posting in an e-mail to quite a few people who were involved with "Yoda's Treasure", a couple of them (Chris and Travis) who will actually be on screen, but the rest as candidates for camera-work and other technical aspects behind the camera and perhaps extras. If you're interested in joining the crew, reply back ASAP so I have an idea of who's all going to be involved.

Second, after having an idea of who the crew will consist of, I want to try to get us together at least once for a pre-production meeting. That means I need two dates from people that they're available, the second date being the shooting date. I'm guessing that an early morning would work best with Chris' restaurant and everyone involved rather than waiting until after close, but Chris…if you could let me know which one is best, I'd appreciate it. So, to reiterate, I need two open dates from people, so the easiest way to get this is to tell me all of your open weekends and I'll compare them all to get the magical two dates.

Fifth, I have yet another film idea, this one unwritten as of yet, that I would like some feedback on to flesh out a good story. We can all discuss this at the pre-production meeting. Matt, you could join us via Teamspeak for your input as well since you already know what I'm thinking of here.

That's about it for now. Check those calendars! :-)

P.S. Yes, I can count. I meant to do that. However, it's a good hint on what that new film idea is. ;-)

Merry Christmas!

...and Happy New Year!

(and a happy birthday to meeeeeeeeee!)

New to the site: Google Advertising

After a discussion with my sister-in-law, I checked into putting up some advertising through Google AdSense. I figure if it brings in any money, I can use those funds to pay for the domain name charge and keep the website operational that way. The way that the ads are chosen is from taking key words from the text on this webpage. Since there's been a lot of talk about the shirts recently, it is finding ads that deal with that subject matter in some way or form. So, if I start talking about Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar every day, we'd probably see ads for Lord of the Rings Online if Turbine is still promoting that way. Anyway, here's hoping for some advertising income!

Oh, the irony of it all...

Two days after I sent the "Luke & Leia" script to the two people I was going to use in place of Travis and Chris, I get an e-mail from Travis saying that he's finally coming back to Minnesota. So, I made the decision to go back to using Chris and Travis for the film. Maybe we'll get something done by year's end.

Recasting and FDP Store news

First to the store news. I have it pretty organized the way I want it now except for the graphic ad on the main page here and a better store name to sprawl across the main store page. I'm open to suggestions on what we can call it besides the Flaming Death Productions Store or FDP Store. FDP just sounds too much like FDS to me, and we're not selling feminine deodorant (or at least not yet). Heh!

Second, I've finally decided to recast "Luke & Leia". After two years, I just decided that it's time. I have two people in mind for the leads, but I don't want to put any names out here until they're locked into place. Preliminary negotiations are looking favorable, though. SO... watch this site for the latest updates! Yes, we're finally going to make another movie!

The "Yoda's Treasure" DVDs for sale!

I don't have everything in the store worked out yet, but I did make up a page for ordering the "Yoda's Treasure" DVDs. It's located right here until I organize the store and set up the side-bar links. At $7.50 a DVD with USPS Priority Mail shipping included, it's not too bad of a deal, don't cha think?

The store is open!

Yes, you're not hallucinating! I finally gave Lord of the Rings Online a rest tonight and got the FDP store up and running. We're only selling the t-shirts at this time, so that's all you'll see for now. Hopefully we'll include more products at a future date including "Yoda's Treasure" which itself would only be sold at cost due to copyright restrictions. If you have any other ideas that we could use for items to sell, let me know via the e-mail link here on the site.

In other news, the filming that I though would take place this summer has been delayed. (Surprise! Surprise!) So, now the contest begins! Who will make it back to Minnesota first? Travis (in Nevada) or Matt (in Michigan)? I'm placing my bets on Matt. hehe!

Long time, no posts

Yep, it's been a while since the last post, so I thought I'd give everyone an update on what's happening.

"Luke & Leia" is still currently stalled (imagine that!). However, while sitting at work a couple of weeks ago, I came up with two more ideas, one of which I wrote a script for. This one should be a little easier to do, but does require both Chris and Matt to be around at the same time. It just so happens that Matt will be back in the area at some point soon, so perhaps we'll have some filming going on soon!

As for the t-shirts, I'm finally starting to get around to making the online order form. Yes, I've talked about doing it for quite a while, but I can blame two things for getting in the way: "Starcraft" and "Lord of the Rings Online".

T-Shirts are ordered!

Yep...and they'll be ready on February 16th. This will mean they'll be ready to be handed out and shown to people at my annual Sci-Fi Party which is the next day.

I'm also going to be modifying the site here sometime soon so we can take orders online for others who want shirts. Perhaps I'll expand the line a little and see what else we can have made up.

Final Design

The final t-shirt design is ready to go. All I need now is to get orders from a couple more people and pricing on everything so we can go ahead and get the shirts made. Here's the final design:

Okay, serious takers for t-shirts?

It looks like a reality for my thought of getting some FDP t-shirts made up. So, I need to know how many people are interested and, if so, how many you're considering. I'll have some price figures ready by the end of the week. Scroll down to my original t-shirt post for a concept design for what I'm thinking of.

Location change?

When we finally get to filming "Luke & Leia", we won't be shooting at the Applebee's restaurant in Rosemount, MN. That's because Chris is now managing the Applebee's in Apple Valley, MN. I scoped it out last weekend, and it should work out very nicely for shooting.

So far, there's only been one inquiry regarding doing t-shirts. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Another piece of fan mail!

This one comes to us from Oscar, age 6, in Australia:

Flaming Death Apparel?

What do people think about making up some Flaming Death Productions t-shirts?



Nothing too elaborate, but they'd be kinda nice to have when promoting past and future movies. Send me some feedback by using the e-mail link in the right column.

Slowwwww times...but good news!

It isn't looking too promising for getting Luke & Leia off the ground when I wanted to. The only thing really holding us back is finding the right person for the Randal character. Of course, if Travis could make a trip to Minnesota for a week, we'd really be in business. ;-)

However, I do have good news. No, I didn't switch to Geiko. I may have a band willing to donate some music to the film for the ending credits! They're called Sodanation, and they have a website at, what else, www.sodanation.com. I'm working through the wife of one of the band members (thank you Charlotte!) to bring this cooperative endeavor into fruition. So far it sounds like if I give them the credits spot and a nice plug within the credits, they'll also return the favor on their next CD and help promote Luke & Leia! Cool, huh?

I also have the lighting gear finished up. Thank you, Menard's PVC department! hehe!

Casting Call

Do you know anyone that would make a good Randal (from Clerks and Clerks II)? I’m looking for someone to fill the role opposite Chris (the Dante character) in the Flaming Death Productions film “Luke and Leia”. Of course, this is a non-profit film, and no one is getting paid for the work they do on it. I decided to go this route because Travis, my choice for the Randal character, still won’t be back in Minnesota for a long, long time. So, if you have any ideas of someone that would fit the part, I’m open to suggestions. If necessary, I will do auditions. So, put on your brainstorming caps and let’s find someone for our movie! :-)


Oh, and by the way, if you need to see who Randal is...



(He's the one in the middle.)

YouTube!

The trailer for Yoda's Treasure is now on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbYNhJXmPrU

I would like to have put the whole movie on there, but there's a ten minute cap on video length so I only put on the trailer and a link to this site. Just one more way of getting our movie some publicity! :-)

(updated link on 11/08/2006)

Draft #2

By now, some of you have received draft #2 of the script for "Luke & Leia". If by chance you didn't receive a copy and would like to participate as cast or crew, let me know and I'll review the request and see what's available. It's still uncertain as to when we would film, but it's getting closer and closer (I hope!).