So today is the big day. We are having our first read through for Trapped in the Woods at 6:30. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. I remember about 3 years ago when I had the first read through for an earlier draft of this movie and how I gathered everyone around the table and kept avoiding the actual read through because I was scared to death of what they would say. By time we started it was just me, Zelda and Lucy and they did tear it apart. I went on to write four other drafts. The fifth of which is what we are reading today. Myself, Ashley, Zelda and Tre are the only people coming back from the original cast.
This time everybody has read the script ahead of time(or so they tell me) so I'm not nervous about what they think. Truthfully I'm more nervous about everyone showing up. I have a lot of people signed on that I've never worked with before and I know next to nothing about their work ethic. I've texted everyone today to remind them about the read through and the lack of responses is not encouraging. It's discouraging if truth be told. The plan is to start filming in two weeks. If I have to recast half of the movie by then it might have to be pushed back even more. It's stressful but hopefully everything works out like it's supposed to. I mean we seem to have a good crew together so I have faith that everything will run smoothly. I'll give you guys an update tomorrow. Take it easy Blueroof Nation!
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So as many of you know, I love podcasts! Huge fan of listening to them and of making them! I just recorded a three hour episode of my podcast Clean Jeans and around the 2 hour mark it ran out of space, I noticed it fixed it and a few minutes later it ran out of space again but this time I didn't catch it for about 30 minutes. When I did I had to go get a third recorder and record the ending.
There is nothing more annoying than doing work only to realize that it didn't save and is gone. The very first pod I did, well it was a radio show for UTA but still, it was a great episode about horror movies and video games with my friend Saul, of Wolfcast fame. It never got recorded, neither did the follow up episode with my friend J-Bell. When you get sloppy things happen and mistakes get made. You can't let them. You have to be constantly on the look out for Murphy's Law because it is always in full effect and the second you start thinking you're safe from it is when it attacks the hardest. So what do you do when you feel emotionally and physically drained? Like the life is getting sucked out of you drop by drop? I don't know what it is, some days you just don't want to do anything. It is almost like your will has been sucked away and you are nothing more than a husk pretending to be a person. How do you over come this? How do you fight back?
The only answer I see is to keep moving forward. If you just can't go on anymore because everything around you has turned to doom and gloom than you pick yourself up and carry on anyways. What's the alternative? You sit around and wait for it to get better? What if it doesn't? What if it gets worse? I think a big part of why we feel this way is because we are trying to do something that other people can't conceive of. The worst feeling in the world is when you have an amazing dream that could turn into a one of a kind story but when you wake up you can't find anywhere to write it down. You run around the house looking for paper and a pen and sit down to write and . . . you can't remember anything but the basics and even that is foggy. Why the hell do we forget our dreams so quickly? I wish there was a way to recall dreams as well as I could recall memories. It would make life so much more interesting. But alas we do not yet have this gift.
So last year I worked on another podcast for my good friend Larry Stanley. His site, larrystanleyshow.com is still up but the show has long since come to an end after a ground breaking four episode. I wrote a blog for the show on 9/24/2014. I thought I would repost it here for all of you guys. Enjoy.
What's up Blueroof. . . wait this isn't the Blueroof Nation. No! This is the Larry Stanley Show! So what's up Stanleylites? Uh no. Well we can work on the name, no worries. So I figured since I'm new to the show and don't know you all I'd take a few minutes out to tell you guys about myself. I'm Jonathan Gutheinz, the man with far too many nicknames so for now you guys can just call me JG. I was born and raised in San Diego, California till I was about 15. I grew up in a neighborhood nicknamed The Blueroofs. I have many crazy stories from those days, I'll have to fill you guys in on them at some point. So I started High school out here and that didn't really take so I spent a few years chilling before starting high school at 17. During this alone time I discovered the works of Joss Whedon and learned that what I really wanted to do with my life was write. TV is the end goal, with films, short stories and novels along the way. Because uh yeah that's not too much work for one guy. Not at all. At 17 I started going to college at North Lake and finished there before going to UTA, then deciding I hated broadcasting and wanted to find a real film school, which somehow got me back to North Lake where I met Larry. The NLC/UTA/NLC years are full of crazy exes, always the best way to spend the collage years, am I right? It's also during these years that I fell in love, and I do mean love with Kevin Smith and Ryan Higa. Ryan Higa got me into making YouTube videos that you can check out on my YouTube page, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA9Ws04n3fvC6PONW9VynCw. Now Kevin Smith, the second best writer I have ever seen, after Joss Whedon who is of course my master, got me into wanting to write films. Oh and not only did Kevin Smith get me into writing films, but he got me into Podcasts! The Smodcast network is one of the few things I can't live without. Right behind Dr. Pepper. His shows got me into wanting to do my own, so me and my homeboys started Wolfcast, needless to say we were big fans of the first hangover movie. Don't Judge. It went on and off for a bout a year before it stopped and turned into Blueroofcasting, a podcast I did while trying to make my first film. That film is still in development hell, but it will be made. At some point Wolfcast came back and Blueroofcasting became separate podcasts and Blueroofcasting has become more a fun podcast I do with my best friend Elizabeth (Zelda) Khan. For some reason I thought I should add two more podcasts so I started a new one with my Ex Miz Ink called Miz Ink and the Cracker, it lasted two episodes :/. The other new podcast that was started was It's Not my Fault. This one was filmed with my other best friend Ashley and my homeboy Darrell. This is the second podcast on my network to come to an end, it lasted 12 episodes recorded over a year. Darrell became less and less involved and was more or less replaced with Esau. The Podcast was rebooted as Clean Jeans with Me and Ashley as hosts and Esau comes when he can. The last Podcast on our Channel is Paranormal Investigation that I do with Saul and Pancho from Wolfcast. On it we talk about supernatural stories that we have been through and hear about. So my second stint at NLC is where I met Larry, we had studio class together and hit it off. He invited me to help out on crew and even act in his short film The Gospel of Thomas. It was a great experience and a lot of fun. This led to him inviting me on board with this podcast and thus to me boring you all with a bit about me. I can't wait to get to know you all. So I just found out that a documentary I worked on called Missing Moon Rocks has just won an Emmy for best Historical Documentary! How cool is that! I was assistant camera on the film. It was so cool walking around NASA to get the footage. As a child all I wanted to do was grow up to work for NASA so this was both of my worlds coming together. I could not have had a better experience on a first film! I'm so proud of everyone I worked with on the film.
Every time I make myself a schedule it starts off great! I stick too it and get things done. The second that something comes up and I have to change it, even for a day messes me up good and I never seem to be able to get back on track. What the hell is wrong with me? It is just so hard to keep on track. I think I just need a kick in the ass to get back on track.
Any takers? Writing is hard work when done right. There is nothing in this world scarier than a blank page but once you find the story and get into it there is nothing more fun. The words just flow out of you, almost as if someone else is writing it and you are just the dictator. It's sometimes hard to keep up when the story flows so well. You'd be amazed how many typos that you'll have when you go back to reread just because you were typing so fast and not paying attention.
As fun as it is, it does take a toll on you. When you write, you're taking a piece of your soul and sharing it with the world. It's an incredibly personal thing. I once dated a girl who told me that all my stories sounded like me. That even my scifi and supernatural stories seemed to have me in their DNA. She meant it as an insult but it was really a complement. What she was trying to say was that I'm self-absorbed and can't write anything that doesn't relate to me, because I've had a few run ins with vampires and once served on a spaceship. Long stories. But what she was really saying was that I had a strong voice. And for a writer that is a good thing. You need to have a voice when writing. When people tell you to write what you know, they don't mean personal stories, although if they are interesting go for it. What they mean is the personal sides, if you know what it's like to be in love, write that, if you know about heartache, write that. Whatever personal stuff you have been through you can write about, you can put them through genre filters if you want but at the end of the day it is still a piece of your soul you are showing the world. And be honest, you wouldn't have it any other way. That's what makes it art. I just found out that my friend who started on Youtube after me had over 200 subscribers while I'm pushing 30. True I took years off and he comes out every week with great stuff. What makes it worse is the last couple videos I made have gotten no views. It seems that if you go away for a while, people will forget about you. It's a sad thing to say but an important one to hear. You have to bring new content to people all the time or they will move on to the newest thing. There isn't much brand loyalty, at least until you make it big and earn it. While starting out it it's really all about word of mouth and if that word is that you're inconsistent than you have lost them. Every time you lose them you have to start over from step one. Don't start over! Just keep moving forward and don't let anything get in the way of your dreams.
I'm here to tell I'm here to tell you that the sun is not our friend. I repeat, not our friend. Have you ever noticed how the longer you're under the sun the more tired you are? The more red your skin turns and the more it hurts at the slightest touch? It is because the sun has decided to kill us all! It pretends to sit in his throne out there in space, giving us warmth and light but it is all a trick. A cruel evil trick designed to lull us into a false sense of security. Don't be fooled by that trusting face, just looking into it's bright eyes will cost your sight! See how evil the sun is? Causing us to go blind just because we dare to look upon its face? We must stop the sun no matter the cost? Whose with me?
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AuthorJonathan Gutheinz vents about everything under the sun. Archives
August 2022
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