THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM: The most beautiful fan film I have EVER seen!

Ever since I began my own forays into filmmaking, it's become one of my personal missions in life to encourage others to make their own movies too. And you wanna know why?

Because the time has finally arrived when every person can make a movie that stands on par with anything that the major studios can produce.

Seriously. Think about it: high-def consumer camcorders are now inexpensive and with some equally affordable editing software and a lil' bit of know-how, the finished footage can look extremely cinematic. Can't compose a note of music? Ask around on the 'net for talented folks to help you out (hey, it's what I'm doing with a project now :-)

Thanks to the web and broadband, practically the entire world becomes a fully-equipped studio and post-production facility right at your fingertips. There's no longer any reason not to make the movie you have always dreamed of.

And as of today, a group of dedicated fans of J.R.R. Tolkien have proven that premise in spectacularly gorgeous fashion.

The Hunt for Gollum is a 40-minute long movie that had its online premiere earlier this afternoon. It's directed, co-written and executive produced by Chris Bouchard, who coordinated a worldwide effort involving 160 people to make the film a reality.

Adapted from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, The Hunt for Gollum expands upon Gandalf's recounting to Frodo earlier in the novel the tale of how Gollum eventually went looking for the One Ring, before the vile creature was tracked down in the wilderness and captured by Aragorn.

That's all you need to know before you start watching The Hunt for Gollum, because the film is so utterly amazing and tremendous an achievement, that I don't dare spoil anything else for you. Well, I can tell you that the cinematography is a feast for the eyes, and it's obviously styled after the look that Peter Jackson came up with for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Okay, I'll tease ya with this: yeah, you see Gollum. Chris Bouchard and his friends didn't "cheat" either. Maybe someone should make a fan film about The Hunt for Gollum crew breaking and entering into WETA so that they can CGI-render Gollum on the sly :-)

So... want to see it for yourself? Click here to watch The Hunt for Gollum in high-def or standard quality. And prepare to be amazed, friends and neighbors.

And to Chris Bouchard and his staff: very well done!! Y'all deserve nothing but the highest of praise for what you have done :-)

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MAKE MINE FREEDOM: Amazing insight from a 1958 cartoon

Just over fifty years ago, Harding College produced a series of films "to create a deeper understanding" of American culture. This one, Make Mine Freedom, has been "re-discovered" in recent days and is making the rounds quite a bit across the Internet. Personally, I found it to be uncannily prophetic about the country we are living in today. Perhaps we should begin considering the wisdom of the past.

Here is Make Mine Freedom...

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My first-ever text message from a mobile device

Yesterday (Saturday) afternoon I finally broke down and got a new cell phone. At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I had only the vaguest sense of what mobile technology is capable of doing these days, like "Bluetooth" and such.

And then there is text messaging. Something that I have never done before in my entire life. Not even once.

Until tonight.

I got the X-tc from Virgin Mobile (and I might treat myself to an iPhone if... something happens in the near future), which has a very nice slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It's a feature I was particularly looking for since I'm such a fast typist, and I didn't want to "re-learn" how to do texting like most folks seem adept at doing.

Anyhoo, I tied my Twitter account into my new mobile phone, and a short while ago sent my first-ever text message from a mobile gadget.

Want to see it? Here it is.

"What hath God wrought" were the words in the very first telegraph message, sent on May 24th, 1844 by its inventor Samuel F.B. Morse from a line in Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. The quote is from Numbers 23:23 in the Bible, and was suggested by the daughter of a friend.

The first time I got on the Internet, those were the words that I sent in my all-time first e-mail. So I figured this was an appropriate time to use the phrase again :-)

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Jack Kemp has passed away

Jack Kemp was one of the best people in modern American politics who never became President.

I'll be even more blunt: when the 1996 elections came around, Kemp was the only reason why I not only voted for Bob Dole, but put up a huge campaign sign for "Dole-Kemp" in our front apartment window (yeah my roomie was rootin' for 'em too).

And I can't help but wonder: if he had been vice-president under Reagan (I've heard plenty over the years that he was highly considered for the job by Reagan himself, but the party bigwigs wanted George Bush as his running mate instead) then this might have been a far different... and far better... country today. Kemp was a man of real ideas, particularly in regards to economic growth.

Jack Kemp - former NFL football player, member of the United States House of Representatives, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - passed away today at the age of 73 following a long battle with cancer.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family tonight.

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Swine flu has FINALLY infected swine!

It's taken more than a week, but tonight the first confirmed case of the swine flu infecting REAL swine has been reported.

The plague-laden pigs were found in Alberta, Canada: a loooong way from what's thought to be the initial hot zone down South of the Border.

Meanwhile, news agencies all over have been struggling with what to call the epidemic, since it's apparently "not nice" to refer to it as "swine flu". In the past few days there's been a dramatic shift on the part of journalists toward calling it simply the "H1N1 virus".

Can't say that really rolls off one's tongue, aye? So I noted to one reporter that it adapts well in "leet-speek"...

...so maybe we should start calling it the "Hiney-virus" :-P

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Framed websites creeping back into popularity

Remember "frames"? That website design technique which a lot of us discovered during idle hours in a campus computer lab back when the Internet was still so new? Depending on how they were used frames could make a page look spiffy-kewl... or they could make it look like a fractured abomination.

(To this day I'm still stunned at that one homepage that my filmmaking partner "Weird" Ed came up with. Just how many frames did you cram into that, Ed? Did you even know?!)

Anyways, The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the comeback of frames and how a lot of people aren't too happy about it. Digg attempted to resurrect it last month but was promptly booed-down by many of its users.

Personally, I never found any reason to outright dislike frames, and it mystifies me that there's this much raw hatred toward them.

What do y'all think?

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He can have a strong influence on the weak-minded

Found this political cartoon and couldn't resist posting it here...

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