I head out on Monday for NATPE. Looking forward to catching up with a lot of my industry contacts. Always a great time.

Jeanne heads out to RealScreen Summit on Saturday. This is always a busy travel time for us.

I think Jeanne’s more excited that I am. She gets to be a part of the finals in the RealScreen pitch competition with our project ReSet. I do wish I could be there. We finished prepping our ReSet crew today on the pitch. They will do great!

If you’re going to RealScreen, make sure you go to the So You Think You Can Pitch competition and cheer us on. We want to have the biggest cheering section!

Big day of editing.

Have to edit our Reset sizzle reel down. The Real Screen pitch competition only gives us 5 minutes to pitch and show a sizzle… and our original sizzle is 6 minutes. Crap.

Also editing on an animated pilot for the Comedy Central pilot competition. Deadline is next week.

Luckily I love editing, but other work is being pushed to days I also don’t have extra time in. Oh well. Good problem to have.

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Man, there’s a lot of press about Lana Del Rey’s performance on Saturday Night Live. People are up in arms that she sucked.

I’m not going to defend her, I saw it and she was terrible.

I’m just curious as to why this seems so surprising to so many people. I love SNL but the one part I always fast forward through are the music acts. Most of them suck. It’s just that some suck more than others.

What is it that made her suckiness suck more than others sucked?

I think it was because her performance was boring AND she sucked. Someone who is at least entertaining to watch in their extreme presentation can be given some leeway in that you can’t sing well and do backflips at the same time. Lana looked like the X-Factor contestants who were overwhelmed by the far-too-extravagant stage presentations before they were ready. There wasn’t any presentation at all.

I can put this in terms of college graduates who think they will get a diploma and then be the next Spielberg. You still need to pay your dues. Lana wasn’t ready for prime time (even though SNL used to be called the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players). She needed experience performing live in smaller venues, pay her dues and then try to hit the big time.

Ooh, ooh. I can also put this in terms of the Wall Street financial crisis. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. We, the American people, have been ripped off of trillions of dollars of our hard earned money by the big financial institutions, but not one person has gone to jail for it. But, a guy on the street who steals a couple of bucks will go to jail for years. Lana simply didn’t suck big enough to get away with it.

We are so excited! One of the shows we developed and produced, Reset, with our client Michael Thompson, is in the finals of the Realscreen Summit pitch competition.

To help produce and direct the sizzle reel, we hired our friend Doug Stanley, Emmy winner for producing Deadliest Catch. Doug was amazing on the shoot.

Michael, Jeanne and Doug will all be on stage pitching Reset. There are only 4 or 5 finalists, and we know how great the sizzle reel is, so we’re excited about the competition!

There are 5 judges, including Howie Mandel and execs from NBC, Discovery and National Geographic. Check out the details at http://summit.realscreen.com/2012/sessions.html?s=65081

The live competition is Tuesday night, January 31st from 5-6pm in the Renaissance ballroom. Don’t miss it.

If you are going to the Realscreen Summit this year, make sure you go to the So You Think You Can Pitch competition and cheer Jeanne on.

I was at the DAVE School (Digital Animation & Visual Effects) today in their research library when I saw lots of my books on their shelves. It was very cool. Here’s a shot of the 3rd edition of my storyboard book on one shelf and copies of the 2nd edition on the shelf below.

They obviously have very fine taste in literature.

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It’s OK to admit that you are. He’s got a small but strong fan base. And no one can curse like he can, which makes his Q&A sessions legendary.

He’s got a reality show coming out which seems to be a cross between the characters who work at his comic book shop and his online podcasts.

I’m a comic book fan and a Kevin Smith fan so he’s got my viewing eyes already. I expect lots of freakin’ bleeps.

http://www.amctv.com/comic-book-men/videos/on-air-trailer-2-comic-book-men

Any of you who read my (Mark) posts know that I love behind the scenes footage. I only buy DVDs that have great making of docs and great commentaries.

I just found this test footage from War Horse. It’s awesome. Make sure you watch the entire thing. It’s not what it seems. Welcome to Hollywood!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2840768931148

Our clients Balance Studios just released their new children’s book app, Rocks in My Socks. It’s got great characters and animation. Check it out at  http://kidscreen.com/2012/01/16/wonderwerkz-launches-augmented-reality-kids-book/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wonderwerkz-launches-augmented-reality-kids-book

Balance Studios owners Darren and Tina are great to work with. We’ve had creative sessions with them (on other projects) that left us all with side-aches from laughing so hard. That makes for a great day in production.