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 They Came From Valley has been around for a while and we've had a pretty good response so far. At this point, users have uploaded 26 different videos (including some of our swedes from the Fresno Swede Film Festival) and I have to say, it's a pretty good gathering of some of the different talents around here. If you haven't gone by in a while, I invite you to do so and discover some of the local talent we have here. Also, if you have some stuff to upload, do it NOW! We're always keeping an eye out for new stuff (but remember, we've got guidelines) so bust out that DV tape and send it up over there. We also have some forums over there to discuss all the latest happenings. Vimeo makes it easy and the quality looks 100 times better than You Tube so why are you still reading this and not over there yet?

As we mentioned in our podcast earlier this week (you listened, right?) September is going to be an all out assault on the local film lovers as we have three film festivals occurring here locally. F.I.L.M.M. (Festival Featuring Independent Lyricist and Movie Makers) is the first one and it's happening this Saturday, September 6th here in Fresno at the Tower Theater and doors open at 6:30 p.m. The festival features short films, junior short films, and poetry, mixed with a little live entertainment as well. I haven't had a chance to attend in the past so I'm not exactly sure what to expect this weekend but you can bet your ass I'll be there and if you have the time, come on out, say waddup and help support local film & the filmmakers making them. Here's a quote from the press release:

The event was designed to give people in and around the Central Valley an opportunity to show their work publicly to a national audience. All of the showcased participants involved have been chosen by a set of professional judges who have established themselves within the film or poetry industry. It’s a true independent festival that wants to give an outlet or resource to those who are serious about their craft and exemplify the potential to be successful in it, but don’t have the resources in order to fulfill those dreams and aspirations. It is "FFILMM's" hope to give these artists those resources, and if nothing else just give them the opportunity to express themselves and show their creative ability.

Once again our heroes return....what heroes do I speak of you ask? Well none other than myself, brodiemash, & our new co-host of The DUmb, Bryan Harley from AMF Productions. Back again for the first time, we talk about all kinds of stuff relating to film and some other things....not so much:

• We talk about films we saw over the Labor Day weekend including The Wackness, Pineapple Express, The Clone Wars, Babylon A.D., Tropic Thunder & more.

• Next weeks DVD releases and how nobody else loves Wings but me (and Quagmire).

• How we'd make an R-rated Star Wars film.

• We reenact the conversation between Sarah Palin and her pregnant daughter.

• My lunch at Livingstone's and their horrible customer service.

• The active film festivals going on in Fresno in the month of September, including the F.F.I.L.M.M and the Latino Film Festival

• The death of Don LaFontaine

• We overload on nerdiness as we discuss the awesome RED Camera.

All this and much, much more. All for free. Download it, listen and let us know what you think. Thanks to Late Update for hosting our podcast!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE DUMB #9

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!

The Usual Swede-spects from Roque Rodriguez on Vimeo.
A collaboration of The Dumb Drum, Late Update & Dead Days, this was our entry into the Fresno Film Festival which went down earlier today and turned out to be a success. It was awesome meeting a lot of you guys out there and It truly showed how much community is interested in this kind of stuff. Thanks again for everyone's support and we're already planning our next festival...what can it be? Stay tuned! I will post some of the other swedes that were shown at the festival later on. Thanks again for all the support and I really believe that this was the first step towards thrusting Fresno into the filmmaking spotlight! Let us know what you think of the swede! Just for shit's & giggles, I've posted the original trailer right here:

Well, the short film competition at the 1st Annual Latino Film Festival ended with a winner: A full length documentary film. "WTF?!" you might say (I said worse), after all, the film entry requirements for the competition called for films under 30 minutes (the winner was 50 mins. in length). Fair or unfair, I guess but we have to start somewhere, right? I feel sorry for 15-year old Antonio Garcia, whose film "You Owe Me One" also played there (and both met the requirements AND was extremely entertaining). How would you feel if you showed up to your first pick-up basketball game thinking your facing off against a peer only to find out that you'll be facing a player from the NBA. Not cool, especially when your that age and your craft is still developing. Hopefully, next year, the festival will make sure that these kind of mismatches don't happen again and it'll make the competition fair for all that enter. But most launches are a little rocky so we'll chalk it up to the shiny, brand-newness of it all. Hopefully, next year will bring in more entries, more attendees & a better over all experience for all who enter and attend. Thanks to the Fresno Art Museum for putting on the show!

It's finally here and I'm actually pretty excited. I mean, even if nobody shows up, just being able to see our film projected....that should be cool. And seeing your name in print is always cool, right? Check out this article from the today's Fresno Bee for more specific info on the festival as far as times and dates are concerned. We'll be playing Sunday at noon so if you can make, come on out! Spread the word, post it on a bulliten over on Myspace, tell a cousin, a friend, a co-worker, WHATEVER! Lets just try to get some people to realize that there's a lot going down right here in our very own backyard. Enough yammering from me, now you can enjoy the trailer for "Matando Cabos" the opening film playing tonight. It's highly recommended!

Matando Cabos - Theatrical Trailer (Spanish)

Mexican teens are just as quirky as Americans ... as demonstrated in this dark comedy about teens who kidnap a retired wrestling legend and a parrot.

So here it is. Our first "complete" short and the end result of what felt like a 2 week long face grinding. Shot entirely here in Fresno, this is just a little preview of what's to come (hopefully). If you like what you see or you don't like, let us know. We will continue making films and try to improve our skills so for being our first, I'd have to say it didn't come out too bad. Just training for "Blur" So if you wish to see this in it's non-web compressed format and projected onto a screen, come by the Fresno Art Museum's 1st Annual Latino Film Festival Nov. 2-4 where it will be screened. No for sure date yet, but I'm thinking it's going to be on Sun. between 12pm & 5pm but check the website for further updates. Come on out and help support local filmmaking! Also, for you of those around here in Fresno that are into filmmaking, you should attend Fresno Filmmakers Forum taking place Saturday, Oct. 27 in downtown Fresno. The cost is $15 and it seems to be a day long conference filled with some good film related talks. If interested, definately check it out.

Fast and furious. No not the production of Blur, rather these last couple of weeks. We're working to get a short shot (huh?) in about a week or two of total production (from concept to final) for the local Latino Film Festival held at The Fresno Art Museum next month. In the mean time, I had some free time this weekend and wanted to mess around with this trailer. Sounds horrible but just to get a look. Also, as you can tell, I've made it all black & white....and I think it looks nice! Most of the film will be shot at night so that will help as well. Maybe we should do the film like this? What do you guys think? Check it out here or here. Or just watch it here. Let us know what you think!

NEW Blur Teaser Trailer

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Did you see it again for the the first time? Remember seeing that there trailer in a pre-9/11 2001? Oh how things were so much simpler back then. The Limp Bizkit song that actually worked with the trailer (again, nostalgia rears it's ugly head into that thought), the recently out of production Toyota Supra racing a Dodge Charger, that awesome crash at the end....looking at it now, it was destined to be a classic just from the trailer ( I mean, shit....it's one of those "In a world..." trailers!). And on June 22nd, it was released. And, as a direct result, within months the scene was dead in Fresno. "How can a film change things in the real world?" one might ask. This was one of the first times that I saw first hand the imprint film was capable of leaving in our real world. But overall, was it was a good or bad imprint? That's the question with this film. On one hand, the attention it brought onto the scene that was, ultimately, the cause of it's implosion. On the other, it was the fertilizer that caused it to bloom into the $257 billion dollar business it is now. Sellout? Perhaps. But it was going to go mainstream eventually. What I ponder is what if this wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. Think about it in terms of a musical artist. Would you rather be know for working hard out of your apartment putting out record after record, playing joints that only very few people had actually ever heard of, all before being signed to a major record label and then blowing up or would you take the instant fame that would be thrust upon you by winning a national contest such as American Idol? No training, no background, no history. Just bam! Your a star. Either way, the outcome is the same, but the means of getting to that point are vastly different. This film, as a whole and it's lasting effects, is not too different from what The Punisher does. Sure, he only kills bad guys, but killing is killing, right? Or is it okay in some instances? Well, this'll be up for debate for years to come but please, I'd like to hear your views on this anit-hero of a film that is TFATF! Because all in all, I'm just a filmmaker trying to make my own imprint in the real world, without having to resort to Frank Castle-type tactics. Or is that the path I should be taking with Blur?

Sometimes I wonder "Should I have gone to film school?" After reading Robert Rodriguez' A Rebel Without A Crew, I knew film school wasn't for me. I mean, I was....shit, I AM a product of higher education. Now, don't get me wrong: College is important. I mean, one needs the discipline in order to learn the basics of whatever field you decide life is telling you to go in. Nurses, accountants, engineers: their fields are based on these basics and they never change. But an art-based field such as graphic design, film...that's a bit more organic (shit, I sound like a hippie, don't I?). You develop a style, a sense of working. You never hear about a surgeon who has his own style of doing open heart surgery, right? (Except for House....that foo is CrAzY!) That's the reason I wouldn't go back to school as a filmmaker. Instead, I plan on watching people make mistakes and learning what little I can learn from the Fox network. I'm talking about "On The Lot." Now I hardly ever watch TV, much less reality TV. But I've been really wanting to see this show and after the first episode, I'm hooked. I love to see these "creatives" butte heads as they try to find a solution as to how to light a scene. Fucken hilarious. It's great to see the gears turning in the contestants heads. So if you want an education in film, read Robert's book, rent some of your favorite films to see what you should do. And see this show to learn what to not do.