Logo made by FirstShowing.net

I recently started writing for 2 amazing film news sites, go and check them out.

• www.firstshowing.net
• www.fusedfilm.com

They are both extremely professional and very well run, with consistent news updates as well as the occasional exclusive.

Please go check out my first article I wrote for FirstShowing about the VFX Oscars contenders:

http://www.firstshowing.net/2010/12/13/the-academys-15-movies-chosen-for-the-visual-effects-shortlist/

Let me know what you think.

I’d like to thank both Alex Billington (FirstShowing.net) & Kevin Coll (FusedFilm.com) for the oppurtunity to be writing for such amazing sites.

Well the T.K.O. trailer wrapped a few weeks ago, hopefully the film can get funding and a feature can be made. It was a great experience to get to meet everyone involved with both films and I look forward to the possibility of working with any of them in the future.

That being said I’m looking to the future and at this point last year I wanted to be moving to California in a few weeks time, it’s now almost a full year later and I am still here in central New York. I had a good discussion with my wife the other night about the fact at this point that we just need to take a leap of fatih and make the cross country move, come hell or high water.

Next week on the 21st I am traveling to San Diego, CA for Comic Con. I volunteered to work the convention for the fact that I can get in free for all 4 days, but mostly because I wanted the oppurtunity to be able to meet high profile contacts within my field for the slight possibility of present/future job oppurtunities, fingers crossed.

So here’s to the future and all the possibilities it may hold…

So another day on set yesterday, the usual Key Set Production Assistant wasn’t there yesterday, so I filled in as the Key P.A. The position of Key P.A. is esentially that of running around making sure people are quiet during filming and completeing tasks given to you by a producer, Assistant Director, etc.

I also filled in for the Boom Operator yesterday for about an hour until he got to set. Doing that was a pretty cool experience because I was able to be right in on the shooting as it happened. I ultimately want to be a feature fim director someday and all this on set experience is really helping me out alot.

Tonight, I have to close at my paying job of Blockbuster but hope that I can make it to the set tonight to help out as well, shooting is taking place at a Drive-In  movie theater, which should be very awesome.

I’ll end today with posting a panoramic 360 degree picture I took yesterday atop one of our filming locations.

Click on it to see the whole picture…

So the actual third day of filming I had to work at my job that pays me (Blockbuster) so I wasn’t able to be on set that day. Apparently that was a huge day to miss. I arrived on set the 4th day of shooting to find out that Jesse had left the production for reasons that still can’t and haven’t been fully divulged to everyone, except that it was more or less a matter of creative differences. I wasn’t there that day so I’m not sure exactly what happend, nor am I high enough up in the ranking to be told. All that we were told was that it was a mutual agreement essentially to shut down filming on “The Ambassadors”.

So ended the filming of that film, but began a new experience on Pre-Production on a trailer for a film called “T.K.O.” It involved striking the set of “The Ambassadors” and returning set decor to it’s original owners as well as a bunch of necessary pre-production work.

The pre-production work involved for me anyways creating new contact lists and spreadsheets for finding a spec. car for the film as well as extras. Production started Tuesday this week and has gone really well, only had the cops called on us once because a scene we were shooting was too realistic, but all was taken care off.

Filming is scheduled to end on Sunday.

I’ll end with what I posted on as my Facebook status after what had happened on “The Ambassadors”:

Well “The Ambassadors” may have wrapped well before anyone had expected it to, but all the new people and friends I made on set will stay with me for a very long time. I’ll eventually get to see my name in the credits of a film someday, I guess just not yet. Here’s to the next great film adventure that will be “T.K.O.”…

The Assistant Editor - Caleb

So today was my second day on set of “The Ambassadors”, yet another awesome day. Today on set required moving all of the Grip & Electric equipment from one room outside (and then later on, onto a truck). Then we moved a bunch of the props to the production office. Later on  in the day I was asked to go buy “speciality items” to make a “specialty prop” I’ll explain once the movie is released next year. The day was also filled with “Billy Madison” quotes as some the crew waited for tasks to do. I then had the board game Apples to Apples explained to me by Jesse, we also all discussed board games being made into films, such as “Twister” (fake) – “Do you put your right hand on red often?” & “Battleship” (real). The head P.A. had to leave early later in the day so by default I became the “new Jacob” (“Lost” reference) and I became the head P.A. which basically meant I had to make sure everyone knew when to be quiet while they were filming and get the 1st A.D. his keys as well as another actor in the film, Jeremy Strong (who I met for the first time today). Overall it was a great second day, I’m happy to have met Jesse in real life and in this context, he’s such an awesome guy and is incredibly down-to earth, I can’t say enough good things about the man, I wish him all the best in his future productions. I’m sad that I won’t be on set tomorrow, mostly because I have to work at Blockbuster. But I go back on Friday for another day as a set production assistant.

So I recently started as a set production assistant for a film being shot in my hometown called “The Ambassadors” which is both written and stars Jesse Eisenberg. You may know him from films like “The Squid & the Whale”, “Adventureland”, “Zombieland”, & most recently “Holy Rollers”. On set today I was asked to go and pick up the producer Jimmy Daddabbo who I was able to talk with about my ultimate aspirations within the film industry of becoming a feature film director. He gave me some pretty good tips and pointers of what to do with my time as a p.a. to help me acheive that goal someday. I also had the very cool and surreal experince of talking with the actor Jesse Eisenberg about the double-tap rule in his film “Zombieland”, he was a very cool and dow to earth guy, we talked about my plans to move New York City and how he grew up in Queens. We also talked about what kind of films I’d like to make someday when I become a director. Last but not least I ended up talking with the director Paul Todisco about “Fantasia”, “The Sorcerer’s Apprecntice” & an event at Disneyland/Disneyworld. It was an eventful day, I gained some experience and I looke forward to the rest of the shoot.

I will try to keep a log of my days on set through this blog.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1651145/

So I got married June 27th, 2009 to my long time girlfriend/fiancée/mother to my son Kelly Rumsey… who is now Kelly Vibbert. The day turned out amazingly well, it was supposed to thunderstorm the day, but it ended up not doing so. It was good to see friends I hadn’t seen in a while, as well as family I rarely see. It was somewhat bittersweet at the reception (since we’re moving in August to L.A.) knowing that this might be the last time I see some of these people. I’m still trying to come to terms with leaving my longtime friends behind in NY as I head out west, I know I’ll still be keeping in touch, but I know and they know we won’t be as close as we are now. Long distance relationships don’t work… and that goes for friendships too I suppose. I’m hoping some will come to visit or that we’ll be able to find money to come back to good old Auburn, NY and visit once & a while. Luckily most of my friends are aspiring for the same field of work as myself (the film industry).

It’s a year of many changes…

But change is good, right?

"The Horror Section" Teaser Poster

                 I’ve been working on a film for the past couple weeks called “The Horror Section”. I wrote the screenplay in the Fall of ’07 for a screenwriting class, the story itself is about a video store clerk who kills unsuspecting…. but very rude or particularly annoying customers. For the film itself I’m only shooting the opening scene because I feel it also can work very strong as a short within itself. The “actor” that I got to play the main character of Bruce Meyer is Tom Fredette, which I actually somewhat based the character of him to begin with. I’ve begun the editing stage of the film recently and should be finished by Sunday at the latest. The premiere screening for it is Monday, December 15th from 5-9:30pm at SUNY Oswego, so if you live close to the area feel free to show up and support me. Below I’ll post some stills and you can see the teaser poster above as well.

Bruce Meyer: Video Store Clerk

Opening Scene

Bruce Meyer: Serial Killer