Joe's Moderately Entertaining Blog

Whither JMEA?

2005-08-26T21:36:00.000-04:00

Since my last post, production on the DVD has basically stopped. Recent events have forced us to put all projects on the back burner temporarily. We're trying to get back on track now, but it's going to be slow-going for a while. A few things to mention while we're getting back up to speed:

1. The Ace Callahan segment of JMEA is very close to being done. We're doing sound editing at this point, which is nothing short of tedious.

2. An equipment upgrade occurring within a month or so will allow us to resume working on sections of the DVD we've been holding off on. I'm very, very, happy about this.

3. I'm hoping--fingers crossed--to get the official JMEA page up soon, at least in a limited fashion. If nothing else, there'll be some pictures.

If all goes extremely well, I will have additional new pics in my next entry.

Not So Fast, Ace

2005-07-10T22:54:00.000-04:00

Very slowly but surely, editing continues on the Adventures of Ace Callahan segment of JMEA. For the most part, all that remains to be done on Ace is the sound, which is what we've been dealing with the past few weeks. This includes adding new voiceovers (more on that next time), as well as finishing the music. There's really not much more to say about it now except that Ace has actually been one of the smoothest portions of the DVD to put together.

Shown here are some of the criminals that our hero encounters on his latest assignment--The Claw (top) and The Face (above).

Besides the aforementioned discussion of the sound editing, I'm hoping to be able to discuss how we've changed Ace from its original incarnation. After that, I'll hopefully start posting pics from other parts of JMEA.

Enough Talk, Here's The First Pic

2005-07-02T18:19:00.000-04:00

Just to prove that we've actually been working on the DVD, and not just talking about it, we present the first official photo from JMEA (not counting those on the About Us page of our website).

We were hoping to save the pics for the JMEA webpage, but that project's been delayed indefinitely. During the weeks to come, we will be posting a few preview pics here (so keep checking back!)

Special Agent Ace Callahan confronts one of his many foes.

Read My Update Or The Editor Gets It

2005-05-29T00:52:00.000-04:00

After many, many delays, my brother is once again under the gun as work on JMEA resumes.

In the interim, there have been some discussions regarding the best (and fastest) way of completing the project. While all of the details have yet to be ironed out, it seems that much of the newly created footage originally planned is not going to happen. The reasons for this are various, but essentially we came to the conclusion that our focus should be on just restoring the original footage (by putting it on DVD) and cleaning it up as much as possible.

While I would have liked to see certain parts of the film get "enhanced" with new footage, there really isn't much reason to do so. This is not to say there won't be any new footage, just not nearly as much as we'd thought.

There also exists much footage that we're undecided on how to use, and other segments that have already been edited and, unfortunately, aren't working very well. Needless to say, we still have our work cut out for us.

The good news is, the first segment we've begun working on since our hiatus is going to be one of the DVD's highlights: a short action film called The Adventures of Ace Callahan. It was already pretty decent the first time, but now it'll will have a much cleaner edit and a completely new soundtrack.

I had hoped to have the JMEA webpage running by now, but in light of the recent delays, it's been pushed back indefinitely. Maybe when Ace is done. Who knows?

The Show So Far...

2005-04-11T01:32:00.000-04:00

At this point, we've been working on the DVD for one year. And when I say "we", I mean my brother Bryan (who does all the actual editing) and myself (who holds the gun to Bryan's head every Friday night until 1 a.m.). Based on our progress, it seems this project will take us a long, long time to complete...if it even gets completed at all.

The structure of JMEA consists of a variety of montages, short films, and other random segments that provide a fair representation of everything we videotaped back in the bygone era of the early 1990's.

Our intent is to make the old material as presentable as possible, enhancing it with improved sound, optical effects, and newly created shots. We have seven out of eighteen planned sequences edited together, approximating 25 minutes of the film's total length. These sequences will undergo another round of touch-ups later on.

Production is currently on hiatus as we are trying to launch the JMEA webpage. In a few weeks, editing should resume, at least for a couple of months.

Polishing A Turd: The JMEA Story Begins

2005-03-14T21:41:00.000-05:00

This blog will attempt to chronicle the monumental task of completing the DVD edition of Joe's Moderately Entertaining Adventure, a film that very few people will ever (or should ever) see.

Originally produced in 1991, JMEA was two hours of truly amateurish cinema and an utter waste of videotape. Our "special edition" DVD is an experiment, of sorts, as we take 15 year-old video footage and try to restore and improve it using modern editing technology.