The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum

You smell that in the air? I. Smell. Swedes! It's back so this time we have a little more than the 3 weeks heads up from last time to create yourself a masterpeice! Coming to downtown Fresno on Saturday, November 22nd at 1pm is the Fresno Swede Fest The Second (not to be confused with the 2nd Annual Fresno Swede Festival, that'll be going down later next year at Corridor 2122) and it will be held at the C.A.F.E (Collective for Art, Freedom & Ecology) Infoshop in beautiful downtown Fresno (actually, Chinatown but did you know that there's actually people that down know that Fresno has a Chinatown? Crazy...) so you know what that means? We need your entries! This is the call out for everyone in Fresno the get together once again and create some good stuff. Still not sure what a swede is? Here's the vid I always show people the grasp the idea:

Got it? No! Well head on over to They Came From The Valley, click on videos and check out some of the entries from the last show to grasp the idea of what this is all about! So the deadline for this whole thing is going to be Nov. 17th, 2008 at Midnight so we need to receive your entry link via email at thedumbdrum@gmail.com. (We know not everyone wants to put their stuff up on the web so if that's the case, please drop us an email and we'll set up alternative means of entry but the deadline is the same so please plan ahead for this alternative entry method). Yup. that date seems to far away but it's really not so start planning right now by sitting down with a couple friends, bust out your DVDs and figure out a film you guys wanna swede! Please be sure to include your name and contact information in case your swede is chosen and we need to get a hold of you. Here are the rest of the rules: The entries musn't be over 5 mins. in running time. Also, the films must not use any excessively abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws. And as a little side note, if you do decide to work on a swede for the festival, let us know! We'd love to get some idea of how many films we're going to get (plus, it'll help us sleep) and if you take some still pictures of your production, send them over too and maybe we'll post them here! REMEMBER! If you have any questions, feel free to drop us an email at thedumbdrum@gmail.com and we'll get back at you ASAP! Can't wait to see what Fresno creates come Nov. 22nd so lets get out there and create!

So as to make it easy on my pocketbook, I've decided to take the easy way out and instead of creating a whole new site here to consolidate all local film projects I've gone and created a dedicated group over at Vimeo in order for people to upload their projects for the world to see what people here in the Central Valley can create. Hence the name of the group: They Came From The Valley. Head on over to the group page here to join the group and as soon as you become a member of the group you can immediately start uploading your vids! Hopefully we can start a group where anyone wondering "What the hell are local filmmakers creating nowadays?" can go and find out the answer to that very question instead of having to scour You Tube or the infinite internet for the same result. Full length features, short films, music videos, swedes, WHATEVER (Okay, not whatever. Please don't upload your nephews birthday party video or that commercial you shot for you friends car dealership....unless it's got something of artistic merit in it) So bookmark the site, spread the word and hopefully we can start building the library of films from our locals! Can't wait to see some of the local work!

I love the children. One of the things I'm hoping for in our next Swede Festival is to get some more entries like this one: involve the kids. As for the exact plans for the event, be reassured that we're working on it as we speak and we'll have details coming out pretty soon. In the mean time, start preparing a list....

And it's that time again for another episode of The DUmb! This time (again) we welcome back some of the usual suspects from our Swede Festival entry as Adrian Rodriguez from Late Update, John Rios from Dead Days, Bryan Harley from AMF Productions and Jay Montes from....Sanger join us for the round table discussion, which includes:

• A wrap up from this past weekend's Swede Festival over at Corridor 2122 and we address some negative feedback over at The Beehive's comment section, some discussion on the actual swedes and some early details on the next festival.

• Talk about the new "Cheap-O Theater" format the Clovis Towne Center has adopted and probably bumping The Wackness out of playing here in town.

• The Tropic Thunder & Star Wars: The Clone Wars controversy.

• Bryan tells us how he met the stars & creators of the BBC series Spaced.

• How I tried to buy Henry Perea's support for the new Film Ordinance.

• John discusses his workflow with Dead Days.

• Bryan reveals another word in the title of his upcoming secret project.

All this and and more! Download it, listen and let us know what yout hink. If your interested in coming on as a guest, please drop us an email at thedumbdrum@gmail.com. Thanks to Late Update for hosting our podcast!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE DUMB #8

No excuse, you should go out there. The date is finally here and the entries have been received! This Saturday, 2pm is the date & time for Fresno's 1st Swede Festival and I'm hoping to meet some of your guys out there. At the show, we will be premiering our newest swede, The Usual Swede-sepcts. That shot up there is the only official screen shot released so far as to not spoil the surprise for those attending the gathering. If all goes well, I'll post it up here after the show sometime Saturday evening as well as some of the other local entries (which, if you really wanted to check 'em out, you could find online). So if you haven't made plans to attend, do so now! Mark it in Entourage, your iPhone, Crackberry's, whatever. Just show up and bring some friends. If we get a good response, maybe we can expand this to an annual or bi-annual event to keep the community here growing! Now I'm off to go buy some Swedish Fish for the event!

What: Fresno 1st Swede Festival

Where: Corridor 2122, 2122 Mono St., Fresno, CA 93721

When: Saturday, August 9th at 2pm

Who: Presented by The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum & Corridor 2122

So here it is: the final weekend to work on your stuff is here. Oh wait, you think the deadline is today? Nope, it got extended until Monday in order to give you some more time to tweak and perfect. But that's just right around the corner so stop lagging! As a reminder, email the links to us here at thedumbdrum@gmail.com or to Corridor 2122 at info@corridor2122.net and entries are due by midnight on Monday, August 4th. Don't forget to make plans to swing by Corridor 2122 on Saturday, August 9th at 2pm to see what your fellow Fresnans were able to come up with (spread the word!) as well as experience all the cool stuff that will be on display at the gallery for William Raines' SPLASH show. NYUP!

So the other day, William Raines and I were having tea & biscuits and I asked him "Why is the deadline Aug. 1st? Wouldn't it be better if we gave the people an extra weekend to work on their swede by extending the deadline to Aug. 3rd instead?" And after a brutal tea & biscuit eating contest, I came out the victor and the deadline has indeed been pushed back to August 3rd so get cracking on those swedes, [insert your hometown here]! Remember to check out the original post for any more details or if you have a question, please email us here at thedumbdrum@gmail.com or info@corridor2122.com. And if you don't have a swede to submit, feel free to come on by Corridor 2122 on Aug. 9th and see what your community has created. Bring a friend (or twenty) and spread the word. It's gonna be TIGHT! (tightness not guaranteed)

Last week, I issued a challenge for someone to swede The Dark Knight. Well, it might not be a local product, but these guys have done it. And a wonderful job they did. I even like the ad libs they did....pretty good. This one reeks of effort & time but remember, if your working on your swede for the upcoming Swede Festival, it doesn't have to be this in depth....but by all means, feel free to take it this far. PartyMarty posted this originally over at GraFightJunkie.

UPDATE: So the deadline (which was originally August 1st) has been pushed back a couple days to August 3rd, in order to give everyone an extra weekend to work on their stuff. Can't wait to see it!

Aight, so it's been a while since we put our swede out there for you all to see. We got some positive feedback from people wanting to do their own but as of yet, no one has stepped up (I'll attribute that to that fact that only my mom and 5 other people read my blog; and my mom can't even use a computer) Well, now here is a more officialer gauntlet being thrown down. We've teamed up with Corridor 2122 (located in beautiful downtown Fresno) to offer an official venue to hold Fresno's very first Swede Film Festival as part of the gallery's SPLASH Show on Saturday, August 9th at 2pm (BYO Popcorn—it's a gallery, not a theater). We're trying to make this very simple for everyone so once you have your swede ready, upload it to YouTube and send the link to info@corridor2122.com or to us here at thedumbdrum@gmail.com. Please be sure to include your name and contact information in case your swede is chosen and we need to get a hold of you. There are some rules, though. We need to have all entries by August 1st (pressure makes all productions better) and they musn't be over 5 mins. in running time. Also, the films must not use any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws (so you can axe that planned swede of that one snuff film....maybe next year). So here's you opportunity, Fresno. Get off your ass, jump into that blazing sun and get cracking! If you need inspiration, go rent Be Kind Rewind, get some friends together and start a list of films to do. Embedded after this post is a little overview of what swedeing is all about coming from the horse's mouth: Michel Gondry. Enjoy and hope to see Fresno come out swinging on this one.

Another podcast has hit the internets for you too consume. This time, fellow Dumb Drum contributor Barrazie shows up for his first EVAR podcast and joins me as we talk about the Entertainment Weekly Top 1000 Of The Last 25 Years list, how how uses his kids to steal stuff from stores, we detail our trip to City Hall and how we single handedly (ahem) saved the Fresno Film Commission, we propose a cage match on top of City Hall for Autry vs Dyer, go over some other cool podcasts, we tease our upcoming Swede Film Festival thingy and much, much more. All clocking in at around 42 mins. so get your podcast on and join us! Thanks again to Late Update for hosting our podcast!

CLICK HERE FOR THE DUMB #6!!

So we submitted our swede over to Sweded Films and today, we made the coveted (some what coveted) Swede Of The Day! That's pretty awesome. So if you haven't seen it, check it out over here and (prepare for a shameless plug) be sure to help spread the word!

So here it is, our swede. And the lucky film for our first swede is Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Yup, overall our production cost us around $17 for random things we used (or didn't use) in the project. So please, by all means, let us know what you think, good or bad. And we issue the same challenge we issued last time we posted about sweding: kick our ass. I know this can't possibly be the best swede that Fresno can produce so pick your favorite film, scene, trailer WHATEVER! Just get out there with your friends and create and send them our way. Depending on response, maybe we can have some sort of showcase (contest?) here on Dumb Drum!