New Chapter.

Today marks a new chapter...

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea the day was going to pan out the way it did. All I knew was that at 1pm, I was going to meet with the Plant 51 sales rep to put in an offer on our second choice loft unit. The brick loft I posted about a few weeks back was unfortunately snatched away from us by another buyer. Jenny and I had the option to proceed with our second choice unit or continue to keep looking for places. We decided that we weren't going to find any place like the lofts at Plant 51, so I told the sales rep I was ready to purchase.



So, today when I went to the sales office, the rep divulged some new information. The person who reserved the brick loft never followed through with the paper work. This meant that starting that day, unit 2131 (the one Jenny and I loved) was back on the market. In the back of my head, I was thinking "April Fools, right?" Nope. Just lucky timing.

Jenny and I were at a standstill. We didn't know what to do. The brick loft was a bit more money, but it was our first choice to begin with. The only way to make a final decision was to do a final walkthrough. It was one of those moments where when you walk through the door, it just feels right. It was meant to be.



A few hours and 200+ documents later we had put our offer in. We were able to agree to a 55 day escrow, which meant that we would have close to two months to save up for furniture and such. As awesome as today was, nothing is guaranteed. We are not out of the woods quite yet. Our purchase is contingent on us getting financing. Based on what the mortgage broker said, we should be just fine, but nothing is for sure. So until then, fingers crossed.

If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.

Dream Lofty Dreams.

I've been bit by the loft bug... bad.

Since as far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to live in a loft. One of those old, rustic looking buildings with exposed brick and metal support beams. One with hard wood floors and oversized windows that pour in sunlight. You know the kind of place I'm talking about. The hard part is finding the perfect place.



I'm not sure exactly what attracted me to the loft style living space originally, but I know seeing this guy's toy collection in his space sure guided my interest. The toy collector's name is Pirovino, and he has one of the most epic KAWS collections I've ever seen. Come on now, all six 4 foot Companions. This guys is oozing money.









For the last six months, I've been legitimately looking for lofts of all shapes and colors throughout all of California. From Los Angeles to San Francisco. Don't get me wrong, I've found plenty of amazing loft units for sale, but none are in the price range that's feasible for me. I found a few that are so-so in San Jose (where I'm currently living), but nothing too special. I thought all hope was lost, until I stumbled upon a newer condo complex through a random google search.

The complex is called Plant 51 and was converted from the old Del Monte pineapple cannery into high end lofts and living spaces. How cool is that? This place isn't one of those fake loft complexes that are made to look old and aged. This is the real deal. This is one of those complexes that has history, and that's what I love.





As a sort of spur of the moment whim, Jenny and I decided to head down to Plant 51 to check out the units for sale. Most of the units were just above our price range, but there's no harm in ogling. The sales rep showed us three level lofts, two level lofts, and a few flats. They were all awesome. Jenny and I were obviously leaning more towards the two level loft, but that fact that none of the available units had any exposed brick walls was a huge letdown. It was still great to see the units in person.

A few weeks later, we returned to Plant 51 with Jenny's mom and our pug Coco. This time we wanted to get some different reactions. We wanted to see how our dog liked place, since their "pet friendliness" is one of the big perks. This time around, we saw a lot more units than the first time. There was one corner unit that we saw for the first time, and Jenny and I instantly fell in love. I was under the impression that there were no two level brick lofts, but I guess there was still one left. This unit had two huge brick walls, black metal support beams running through the unit, and floor to ceiling windows. Needless to say, it was perfect. The only downside was the small upstairs bedroom. We saw some other units that day, but nothing stood out to us like that corner loft. Below are some photos of the unit.







Now, a week later, Jenny and I are still talking about how much we love that unit. With all our tastes and things we already own (vintage cameras, toys, art, etc.), everything would look perfect in that loft. It is very much our style. Not to mention, it's a few blocks from the HP Pavilion, right next to the train station, and a block from a dog park. Can you say perfect?

I am currently going through the mortgage financing phase, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Having only worked for 6-7 months after graduating is what's really hurting me right now. Mortgage brokers like to see borrowers working for at least a year before lending to. I'm hoping that having my mother as a cosigner will help things happen, but only time will tell. I'm going to try my hardest to get this dream home. For now though, it is just a lofty dream.

48 Hours of Pain, Tears, and Joy.

Every year around this time comes the San Jose 48 Hour Film Festival, and each year I vow not to partake due to the stress of last year. Well once again, I got roped into working on another film. It's not that I don't enjoy making films in the least, it's just the stress of delivering a final product in 48 hours...

From writing, to production, to editing, to sound mixing, to exporting, there is so much that needs to happen in such a short time frame. The group I was working with are a great group of people that I love collaborating with. We all motivate each and always seem to be on the same page in terms of ides and visuals.

As with all 48 Hour Film Projects, we were given a few required elements to include within our film

Mandatory Elements:
+Inclusion of a chair (we had fun with this one)
+Line of dialogue: "Give me some kind of sign"
+Inclusion of a "recycling expert" character
+Someone with the name "Ian Jeffers" or "Eileen Jeffers"

PRODUCTION (8/12-8/14)

Luckily we drew the genre "horror" for our film. We knew we were going to go way overboard with this genre, but that was sort of the point. So after agreeing that we would use the super awesome abandoned naval base of Fort Ord as our location, we wrote our script. We finished our script by 11pm-ish friday night before heading home to get some props and few hours of precious rest.

The next morning we were off. As we drove into the town of Marina, CA, we were all giddy with excitement. The fog that had crept over the town in the middle of the night was perfect and looked straight out of a... well... horror film. We spent all day shooting at various locations throughout the fort. This place is a haven for people like me. This will be the third project I've shot here, and I still get excited every time. I highly recommend checking this place out if you find yourself ever down this way.

We shot until the last speckle of day disappeared behind the horizon. We drove home to begin the arduous task of post production. I was exhausted, but I knew we needed to have a rough edit done before the morning. I stayed up until 3-4am completing this task. When my eyes would stay open no lon ger, I trudged off to bed. I woke up around 8am the next morning knowing how much work we all still had to do.

A few members of our group recorded foley while Ben Southward and I worked on mixing the sound and adding in the music. We began our final export close to two hours before the due time. This was just to make sure we weren't down to the line like last year. Sure enough the film exported in about 45 minutes and we were in the clear. I wish we had time for some color correction, but honestly I don't think we could have made it.

A half an hour left to go, and we headed over to the meetup location at a bar and billiard room in downtown San Jose. We made sure we had all the necessary documentation before turning in our film and packet. That was it. We had finished. We all took a sigh of relief and smiled as we realized we had just completed our second film created in 48 hours.

SCREENING NIGHT (8/18)

After having caught up on sleep somewhat, my team and I were all excited to see our hard work displayed up on the big screen. Camera 12 Cinemas in downtown San Jose was the place to be Thursday night. The theater was packed and our group had to split up because of this, which was unfortunate.

Overall, the films were very well done. Some of the works made you question if the filmmakers didn't have some sort of head start based on their production value and sound work. EIther way, the films were extremely enjoyable.

When our name "Surfin' Kitty Productions" popped up on the screen our team and friends screamed with excitement. The film was awesome on the big screen. There were definitely a number of minor problems with the film, but nothing too drastic to take the viewer out of the film. We got a few laughs, which was awesome too, considering we mad a horror film...

As for now, I don't plan on doing anymore 48 Hour Film Festivals anytime soon, but I wouldn't mind making the San Jose 48 Hour Film Festival into a yearly tradition! Looking back on the whole situation, I had a blast and learned a lot. I'm not a huge fan of the sleep deprivation that comes with the film festival, but that's sort of the challenge. It feels almost like a marathon for filmmakers!

Here is our final film as it was presented to the audience at the screening. Since then, I've only done some minor color correction work. Enjoy!




**UPDATE**
I just received word that our film was nominated for 4 awards (best screenplay, best makeup, best cinematography, and DUN DUN DUNNNN, BEST PICTURE!). Fingers crossed!