Author Archives: Amanda Rogers

Follow Up to “Drive”

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So Paul Ben-Victor’s performance last night in Drive reminded me a lot of Bobby Hobbes…a lot of the same mannerisms.  Anybody else see that? 

I love that Greg Yaitanes twittered a shout out to The Invisible Man when he wrote, “the truck driver is played by Paul Ben Victor who played VINTAGE Bobby Hobbes on the Invisible Man. Which I directed.”  He could have just as easily named another role that Paul is known for, but he chose I-Man.  Yes! 

If you missed Paul’s performance last night, no problem, you can watch it right now on Drive’s MySpace page!  The name of the episode is “Partners.”  I just love that networks are starting to stream TV shows on the Web.

Greg Yaitanes in the Driver’s Seat AND Paul Ben-Victor Plays a Truck Driver

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One of the I-Man directors that I like to keep track of is Greg Yaitanes.  Back in 2003, Greg did a SciFi.com chat with fans for his movie Children of Dune.  During the chat he graciously acknowledged The Invisible Man and all the dedicated and hopeful I-Man fans (myself included) who came to the chat with “Save I-Man” in front of their handles.  Some of you old timers might remember that. 

In addition, Greg has hired Paul Ben-Victor for an episode of Alias and Fastlane, Vincent Ventresca for an episode of Cold Case and, of course, who could forget when he put Vince and Paul together for an episode of Las Vegas. 

But it doesn’t end there.  Tonight is the premiere of Greg’s new show Drive and Paul has a guest role as a truck driver.  The show has a (very unusual) two-night three-hour premiere, with the first two hours airing tonight at 8:00 p.m./7:00 p.m. central and the third hour airing tomorrow at 8:00 p.m./7:00 p.m. central on FOX (check your local listings). 

Greg not only directs the pilot in this series, but he also steps out of his usual director role to become one of the executive producers of the show.  During tonight’s premiere, Greg will be twittering live a director’s commentary while the show is airing.  I can’t say I’m familiar with how twittering works, but it appears that you can access Greg’s comments via text messaging on your phone, instant messaging, or the twitter foxdrive web page.  If you’re interested in participating and new to twittering, it would be a good idea to get signed up early and explore the website to get familiar with the service and how it works. 

One of the things I find fascinating about this new series is that most of the action is done via visual effects.  Greg, along with the Visual Effects Supervisor, Loni Peristere, takes us behind the scenes in this interesting video interview at ifilm that explains how the visuals effects are done.

Articles, Reviews and Interviews

Zap2it From Inside the Box – “Review:  Fox’s Drive”

The Chronicle Herald – “Computers driving force behind series”

Movieweb – Drive Races Into High Gear on Fox!

Drive Fans – EXCLUSIVE: An Interview with Greg Yaitanes

The Hollywood Reporter – Yaitanes steering Fox’s ‘Drive’

Mike and Jason Need Our Help!

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As a follow up to Friday’s post, I want to remind everyone that your vote is very much needed to help Mike McCafferty and Jason Makiaris’ show L33t Haxxors Episode 2 get on VH1’s Acceptable TV this Friday.  If they don’t get enough votes, their show doesn’t air…simple as that.  And that would be a shame!

Time is short as Jason informs me that the voting ends Wednesday afternoon.  So please take a minute and go the Acceptable TV website and vote.  Jason has written some great instructions, complete with pictures, on how to register and vote, which I’m copying and pasting below for you.

Mike, Ben and Jason

 Vote Counts

Hi Everybody!

Hopefully some of you caught our big VH1 debut last Friday night. Thanks for all of your help and well wishes! A number of you have mentioned that you voted (which is great) and a number need some more info.

Time is quickly running out to vote for our show “L33t Haxxors Episode 2” on the Acceptable.TV website. (if you missed episode 1, click here)

We’d like to be the first user-submitted show in the history of AcceptableTV to return for a second episode. You can help us conquer Hollywood with a simple click of your mouse. There are 7 easy steps to helping us do this:

Step 1. Log on to the Acceptable.TV site. We’ve made it easy for you. Just click on the link here. 

Step 1

Step 2. Click on “register” at the top right of the page to sign up for an account. (You will not receive any sort of spam or unwanted e-mail as a result of signing up.)

Step 2

Step 3. Fill out the fields with your information with a vaild e-mail address so that you’ll receive your registration confirmation.

Step 3

Step 4. Make sure that you have checked the box signifying that you accept the user-agreement and the box verifying that you are over the age of 18. Then click “submit my info”.

Step 4

Step 5. Go to your e-mail account, where you should find an e-mail that looks like the following. Click on the link to confirm your account.

Step 5

Step 6. Once you are brought back to the AcceptableTV page by the link, make sure that you are logged in. From AcceptableTV’s home page, scroll down to the user submitted show section in red. Find our show on the list, and click on it.

Step 6

Step 7. At the top of our video’s page, you will see a list of eligible videos to choose from. Click on the heart with “vote for this video” next to it.

Step 7

The heart should change into text that says “You Voted For This Video.”

Step 8

That’s it!

We appreciate the support and, hopefully, you’ll see us on your picture boxes this Friday night!

– Jason

Downloads and Fun Stuff

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Observant readers might have noticed that there are a couple of new pages on the website. 

On the Downloads page is a section called Banners.  Credit for the banner and idea goes to Rain, who suggested that banners would be a good way to publicize the film project.  If you wish, feel free to copy and paste (no hot linking please) the striking banner she created and place it on your own web page or use it in your sig line.

Banner

A fan art gallery has been created on the Fun Stuff page.  Rain has contributed three original drawings and I’ve moved over two original drawings by Shoshi from the Invisible Man Online site.  Check out the talent of these two fans!

If you have a banner or artwork that you would like to contribute, feel free to contact me.  I can only accept original artwork and graphics with non-copyrighted pictures.

Mike and Jason on VH1 Tonight!

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This is cutting it very close for those of you who are on the east coast, but I just got home from work so I’m just now able to post this.  I got emails today from both Mike McCafferty and Jason Makiaris.  Though they didn’t specify, I’m going to make the assumption that they want me to pass this on to all of you.  In the interest of saving time, which is very short, I’m just going to copy and paste each of their emails below.

Hope you can watch and vote!

From Mike:

Hey all,

A double dose of me tonight, 10pm on VH1’s Department of Acceptable Media show.  DAM is an offshoot of Channel 101 where short films compete to return the following week.

First I am in a skit where I play…well, I play a rapist (start jokes..now).  It’s actually a funny show called Circue du Soliel: SVU so it’s not as bad as it sounds.

Second, I co-wrote a show called “l33t Haxxors” that won their weekly online contest and will be screened on the show tonight.  It’s about 2 Elite Hackers who get in serious trouble.  Evidentially, VH1 liked it so much that they asked us to shoot a second episode, which will be in competition on www.acceptable.tv.  So after the show, log on to the website and vote for “l33t Haxxors 2”! 

If you can’t wait to see “l33t” you can see it here,
http://one.revver.com/watch/208011

Thanks!

Mike

From Jason:

Hey Everybody,

Just a quick note to let you all know that a show that Mike McCafferty, Ben Pluimer and I have put together is airing tonight on VH1.  Acceptable TV is on at 10pm Eastern and Pacific (check your local listings to be sure).

Many of you know that I’ve been involved with something called Channel 101 for years now. With the help of executive producer Jack Black and
Channel 101 co-creators Dan Harmon/Rob Schrab, 101 has now branched off into a TV show called Acceptable TV which premiered last week. The same principles apply. If you like one of the mini-shows, vote for it and it returns the next week.

Our show tonight is called “L33t Haxxors”. Ben Pluimer wrote it with Mike, I shot it and wrote the music. We’ve already shot episode two
(which Mike and I appear in), and we could use your help next week to get it back in the show. I’ll send another e-mail next week letting you
know how you can vote to keep us in.

You can see more about Acceptable TV and our show at http://www.acceptable.tv/

You can see our other videos on our YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/shipoffoolsprod

Hope everyone is doing great!

Jason

I-Man Poetry Contest

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Time to put on your thinking caps, get your creative juices flowing, and break out the pen and paper because this year’s I-ManiCon features an I-Man poetry contest. 

Following are the rules of the contest so, if you’re interested in entering the competition, please read them carefully.  Questions should be sent to I_Man_Poetry@yahoo.com. 

I imagine that eventually these rules will be up on an official I-ManiCon website, but for now I’m helping to get the word out about the contest so that contestants have time to create their masterpieces…err, entries. 

Have fun with it!

  1. Submissions must be original works related in some way to The Invisible Man (2000); this may be in theme, use of characters, etc.  However, no flaming of real-life persons or companies associated with the show, its production, or its airing will be allowed.
  2. Submissions may be any style of verse, including songs. Submissions must be no longer than 350 words.
  3. Entrants must be members of the I-Maniacs, a.k.a. The Invisible Man Fan Club.
  4. Submissions should be sent to I_Man_Poetry@ yahoo.com as e-mail attachments in Microsoft Word document format (.doc extension), 1 poem
    per file. “I-Man Poetry Contest” should be in the subject line, or the e-mail may be mistaken as spam and discarded.
  5. Entrants may submit as many original works as they like.
  6. Entrants should be sure to include, on each page of each entry, their name or handle as they would like it to appear on any awards certificate, list of winners, or publication. Judging will be anonymous.
  7. All persons submitting work agree to allow, without monetary remuneration, their submissions to be printed, published online, or otherwise distributed by the contest coordinators, including officers of the I-Maniacs, a.k.a. The Invisible Man Fan Club, and members of the club who actually work on the I-Man Poetry Contest before, during, and/or after I-ManiCon 2007, in perpetuity. All persons submitting work retain the right to print, publish, or otherwise distribute their
    submissions in any form they may choose.
  8. Submissions are due no later than 11:59 p.m. on July 9, 2007 to allow time for printing. Submissions received after this date will be excluded. Submissions will be judged at I-ManiCon 2007 in Los Angeles on July 21. Entrants need not be present to win.
  9. Submissions must be rated G, PG, or PG-13; anything excessively vulgar or explicit will not be considered for the contest or for publication. Mild profanity may be allowed if it fits within the context of the poem, to be determined by the contest coordinator. The GD, F and S words are forbidden; all others will be considered on a case-by-case situation. The safest way to avoid this problem is to avoid this kind of language. “Crap” is not profanity.
  10. These rules subject to updating or clarification, so please check back from time to time to make sure there have been no changes; entrants will be notified via e-mail if any important changes occur after they submit, but it should not affect their entries.

Vince Gets Cast in a Film

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I was going to wait until I had a bit more information about this project, then I thought, why wait?  We all are interested in knowing about Vincent Ventresca’s projects, so I’ll give you what little I do know about this film.

The title of the film is Sorry, though that may just be the working title.  It appears to be a small independent film, possibly even a short film created specifically for a film festival.  If that’s true, I’m not sure what our chances are of getting to see it.  A lot depends on what the filmmaker’s goals are for the film.  Filming is supposed to start in a few weeks.

I’ll keep my ears open and if I find out more, I’ll let you know.

Vincent Ventresca