Good Person 09

This is our latest Good Person video. We shot it during our recent awesome trip to IL.

This was the first video I have directed, and I would like to give a special thanks to everyone who helped out. The actors were all great - none of this would have been possible without them. And Chad did a fantastic job behind the camera, too!

Good Person 09 from Block One Studios on Vimeo.

-Dominic

Block One Studios.com

WWW.BLOCKONESTUDIOS.COM!!!


Oh, BTW, new facts about us are up on the sidebar.

Rate and Comment!

Hello!

Emily, Christy, and Hannah Miller, great friends and fellow Block One Studios filmmakers, made this video for a film contest and they need our help to rate and comment on it everyday to help them win!

So follow this link over to YouTube, and rate and comment everyday until December 21st to help them out!

Dominic

BROS Is Out!

Hey all!

BROS is officially released today! Click here to view the entire film online for free!

Enjoy, and God bless!

-Dominic

BROS DVD Release Info!

Hey everyone!

Here's the official DVD release info for BROS! Please pass this info on and share it with all your friends!



Bros Release Info from Block One Studios on Vimeo.


us4HIM Productions and Block One Studios have teamed up to produce a new Christian short film called Bros. The film tells the story of a young man named Trey, who has an adopted brother named Johnson. Rather than accept Johnson as his brother, Trey shuns him. But when his father challenges him to get to know Johnson, Trey goes on a journey of discovery and redemption in this moving tale which is inspired, in many ways, by true experiences.

The film, which is 43 minutes in length, goes on sale Friday, October 9th. However, on that same day, it will be made available online for FREE viewing for 3 days. The movie will be uploaded, in 3 sections, to Vimeo, the popular video sharing site. It will be available for viewing on this channel: www.vimeo.com/blockone

There is no obligation to buy the film – this online viewing is completely free, and mainly designed to garner interest in the film and get feedback from viewers.
After watching, should you desire to purchase the movie, there will be two purchase options: DVD and Download. For $10 (plus shipping), you will be able to purchase the DVD, which features well over an hour of special features, short films, and trailers in addition to the 43-minute film. The download will consist of solely the film itself, and will cost only $5.

Please help in spreading the word about the Bros online release. You can do so in many ways.
1. Copy this post into your own blog. That’s right! You don’t have to write up your own blog post about the film (please feel free to do so, though!) – you can just copy this post and paste it into your own blog. That simple!
2. Link to or embed the video in which Writer/Director Geno DiMaria explains the 3-day free online viewing and talks a bit about the film itself. You can also post the link to this video (or a link to your blog post about the film) on your Facebook or Twitter account to help us spread the word about it. The direct link to that video is: www.vimeo.com/6944260
3. Do both!
4. Spread the word about the film in any other way you can think of!
And for families’ consideration, Bros contains no objectionable or unclean content, and is completely acceptable for all ages. It sets forth a biblical worldview, and all involved sought to honor the Lord with every aspect of the production.
Thank you so much for helping us4HIM Productions and Block One Studios in getting the word out about Bros, it is SO appreciated!

Links:
Movie Website: www.us4him.com/bros
Release Information Video: www.vimeo.com/6944260
Movie Trailer: www.vimeo.com/5958658
Vimeo Channel (where the film will be playing online for 3 days):www.vimeo.com/blockone

Go to the BROS site! 

A Skype Conversation

So, Anth and I were just having another interesting conversation over Skype... but we were only 20 1/2 feet away from each other. Not only that, but we were also having a real verbal conversation while we were typing this one:

Anthony DiMaria: I think PS is about to crash

Dominic DiMaria: what did you do to it?

Anthony DiMaria: I was messing with the screen modes like full screen, standard, etc. and then i opened a new file and the color wheel came up

Anthony DiMaria: and is still up

Anthony DiMaria: i think i'll force quit

Dominic DiMaria: good idea

Anthony DiMaria: i did it

Anthony DiMaria: maybe i shouldn't leave it running for days at a time

Dominic DiMaria: yeah, maybe

Anthony DiMaria: 'cause now all my recently opened files are gone

Anthony DiMaria: i mean, they are on my computer but not in the little menu

Anthony DiMaria: you know what i mean

Dominic DiMaria: yeah

Anthony DiMaria: it's good now

Dominic DiMaria: yay

Yeah, it was kinda lame - but most of our Skype conversations are like this. When talking to others they are a little more exciting, but not each other...

-Dominic

I Tore My Rotator Cuff!

Wow, first of all, it's been way too long since I posted on here - sorry. I'll try to update here more often.

Secondly, yes, it's true - I got injured playing frisbee of all things!

So, here's how it happened: Geno asked me if I wanted to go throw some football, and I was like "Sure!" So, we threw for a while, and then I asked Geno if he wanted to toss some frisbee around with me. He said he would for a couple minutes. Well, next thing we know, everybody's out there and we're playing 500. What a blast! We have some special rules that make it a little bit more exciting. ;-)

Anyways, I was the thrower for the round, so I tossed the frisbee, everybody chased it down, and I don't remember who got it. All I know is that Geno or Anth tossed it back to me, but threw it high. So, I chased it. Not watching where I was going, I ran on uneven ground and just tripped. That's when I fell on my shoulder. I didn't hear a pop or anything, so that was good, but I knew when I stood up that it wasn't right. Usually I would be able to just kinda shake a fall like that right off, but my shoulder was really hurting! So, I took a second, and then continued the game. We played for probably another hour after that. My shoulder was a little sore, but it wasn't too bad, so I just ignored it for a little while. I was going to the chiropractor in the morning anyways, so I figured I'd just have him take a look at it then.

Okay, next morning, I went to the chiropractor and told him what the issue was, and what I had done. He said "I have some good news for you, and some bad news for you. Good news is that I think we can fix it. Bad news is that it's one of my most painful adjustments." I told him I'd give it a go, so he started working. First, he just examined it and checked my strength - my right arm was weak. Then, he popped my collar bone and shoulder back into joint because they were slightly separated (which, fortunately, didn't hurt!). He checked my strength again - still weak. He felt around some more, and told me I had torn my rotator cuff, but it wasn't a full tear. If it was a full tear, I believe it would have to be surgically repaired, but since it's not I just have to stretch it everyday to make sure the scar tissue doesn't heal too tightly.

So, there ya have it! The story of how I injured myself...playing frisbee.

Toodles!

Dominic

Joshua Harris Sermon Excerpt

Just saw this video on the Rebelution, and thought it was really good. Take a look!



-Dominic

Washington D.C.

Okay, so last week my Dad let us all know that he had to go to Washington D.C. for a week. He has to do that every now and again, so it wasn't a huge shock or anything. But for years I've wanted to go to D.C. to photograph it, and see all the awesome monuments and such. The thought of going with my Dad did cross my mind once or twice, and then on Saturday my Mom and Dad said they had been talking about Anth and I going with him, and thought it might work!

Well, I was uber excited. I'd always wanted to go, and I was finally able to!

We decided to leave a day early, so we could get all the transportation issues figured out with Dad as far as the shuttle, bus, and Metro...

The first day (Monday) was a blast! We walked around D.C. with Dad, and really had an awesome time! We saw most of the main stuff, like the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum (which we left - it was absolutely riddled with evolution...), the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the World War II Memorial. Those were all really incredible to see.

Tuesday my Dad had to work, so Anth and I went out alone. We went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (which was a total blast...until we got charged an arm and a leg to ride a lame simulator. Oh well.), the Museum of the American Indian (which was a little strange...we ended up leaving there, too, because of the Native American religious stuff and that sort of thing), we tried to get into the Library of Congress but they wouldn't let me in because of a tiny pocket knife I had on my key chain, then we walked an uber long way to see the National Archives (which were incredible. We saw the Charters of Freedom, and it was amazing.), then it was getting late, so we got back on the Metro and headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday we stayed at the hotel and did school.

Thursday we tried to hit all the places we hadn't seen yet. We tried to get a tour of the Washington Monument, but all the scheduled times that we could have gone were out of tickets...So, on to the White House! That was neat to see. We tried to go around the back, but there was construction going on, so we couldn't. Then we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I was really interested in this place, but we didn't have time to see the main exhibit...oh well. So, we went into the exhibit about Nazi Propaganda. It was very interesting. Then Anth and I decided we had had enough of that, so we looked for an exit. There were a bunch of exit signs pointing in the same direction, so that's the way we went - right out the emergency exit. I looked before and after I opened that door, and nowhere did it say that it was an emergency exit. I'm positive. So, yeah, the door started beeping and we were then told we couldn't go out that way and to just leave the way we had come in. So, we did. On to the Jefferson Memorial! It was cool, and we got some neat photos of it. Then we walked many miles to the Library of Congress. What a neat building. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't get in the actually library part of it, but it was still neat to see. After that, we studied the map and made sure there was nowhere else we wanted to go, then made our way back to the Metro station, then to the bus, to the shuttle, and finally back to the hotel.

What an incredible trip! I'm very thankful that I was able to go. It's been what I'd call a dream of mine for a long time, so it was absolutely awesome to make it real! And I really want to go back some time...anybody else wanna come???

Here's the link to some of the photos I took while I was there: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4783&id=1774080747&l=7a9332c400


Toodles for now!

-Dominic

BROS Trailer Release!

Hey all!

Just wanted to post our new BROS trailer on here!

Enjoy!

-Dominic

Santonio Holmes

Well, I just kinda had to post his once I saw it. Steelers Wide Receiver Santonio Holmes demonstrating how he practices:

-Dominic

Tractors

Hey! Sorry I haven't been posting much...been pretty busy around here lately.

Well, last weekend my dad asked me to take some pictures of our two lawn tractors and post them on Craigslist. So, I posted them on Saturday night, and they were both sold by Sunday afternoon.

Then we went over to Sears to look at new tractors. Dad picked one out, and Geno ordered it for him.

Dad thought he would have to wait until Saturday to get it, but mom figured we should go surprise him and pick it up. So on Thursday I hooked up the trailer, and we went over to Sears to pick it up.

We got it loaded up, and brought it home.

I took a series of photos from the moments dad was pulling in the driveway to the moment he took it for the first spin.

Observing the new beauty.

Takin' a spin!

Well, toodles for now!

-Dominic

Chad's Not Here Anymore

Well, Chad is no longer down here in SC. He left on the 16th of this month. It was hard to say good bye to him because he had lived here for almost two months! So, we were all kinda upset that he had to leave.

Geno had to go to work early that day, so he said "See ya" first.

After packing up the famous 24" iMac, Chad packed up his van.

Then we all said "See ya"

Group Photo.

As you can see from this picture, the trip kinda started off rough. The van wouldn't start... So, I went in and looked up the exact steps of how to jump start a car without blowing it up.

So, after about an hour of trying we were able to get it to the point where it would stay running, and Chad was able to go on his way.

Chad, it was great having you here, and hope to see you again soon, dude!

-Dominic

Block One Studios

Well, everyone, I'd like to post this awesome piece of graphic art that our good friend Hannah Miller just sent me. This is our Block One Studios logo combined with around 320 photos.

-Dominic

STRIKE

I can't believe I forgot to post this until now! Several months ago when Chad and Ty were here we made a practice short action film called STRIKE.

Here it is:

I wonder if Agent Puller will have any future missions...;)

-Dominic

Best Pic Ever! (well, one of 'em)

Last night I was going through the pictures from the wrap party for 'Bros' and came across this über awesome one of the first 4 ------ (I am not allowed to say what... those in the picture and around when it was taken know the word that I avoided). Anyway, I think this picture is one of the best ever (hence the title of the post) and will now let y'all take a look at this pure awesomeness.

Ty, Hannah, and Sage... y'all are da über bombs!

-anth-

New BROS Promo

Click here to see the new BROS promo banner!

Also, see the new banner in action on our side bar!

-Dominic

Independence Day 09

Well, I'm just gonna copy the post I made on my photo blog here:

From Independence Day 09

Yesterday was Independence day. A day that we Americans celebrate the liberty God has given us with food, parades, and...fireworks! Dad went out and got the most fireworks we've ever got this year, and we had a blast...pardon the pun.

From Independence Day 09

From Independence Day 09

Air War was my personal favorite of the night. But Loch Ness was pretty uber sweet, too. This is acutally a composite of four images...

From Independence Day 09

And here's some real light painting. I love doing light paintings, because it's such an artistic way of showing several moments in time...

From Independence Day 09

Many thanks to Christy and Hannah Miller for informing us of the awesome flammability of hand sanitizer. It's pretty sweet...

Anyways, there's our fourth of July for ya!

-Dominic

And, here's a pretty cool photo Chad took of me yesterday. Nice editing, Chad!

From Independence Day 09

The Real-Estate Shoot

We recently got a job doing videos of neighborhoods for a local real-estate agent. Tuesday we had 3 neighborhoods to do.

Chad, Dominic, Geno and I left around 9:45-10:00. The drive down was fine with no trouble and we didn't even get lost!

Seaside Farms was the first neighborhood we were going to film. Well, at first it was going great! We were getting everything we needed and weren't having any trouble finding our way around. We got the first section of the neighborhood and then we went to get the condo section. Chad and Dominic got out to shoot the condos. Then someone in one of the condos saw them and came out to interrogate them. This is Chad's account of the situation:

At the first location, I was shooting outside a condo building, and a lady comes out from the third floor. Conversation:

Lady: What are you doing?
Me: I'm shooting a video —
Lady: Why are you taking pictures?
Me: For a real-estate video...
Lady: Are you doing Google street view?
Me: No, we were hired to do this by—
Lady: Why do you have microphones?
Me: To capture ambient noise—
Lady: What?
Me: To record environment noise...
Lady: Why are you here?
Me: We're making a real-estate video.
Lady: You're with the state?
Me: Yes.
Lady: Okay, thanks.

It didn't register in my mind that she asked if I was with the state until after I said "yes," because I had just said "real-eSTATE," and was still thinking that.

Chad was a little bit shaken by this experience, but once we got going again, he was okay.

It took us a few minutes, but we were able to find the next section of the neighborhood... we dropped Chad and Dominic off at one spot and Geno and I went to a different spot. Geno and I were asked what we were doing, but the guy who asked was really nice and actually thought what we were doing was cool! Geno and I picked up Chad and Dominic (after getting lost and driving all over the neighborhood for a little while trying to find where we had dropped them off) and got going again.

We were trying to find the next section we needed to shoot, but just couldn't... we did find a swimming pool (at the time, it was closed due to contamination) that we needed to get. We stopped again and Dominic got out to grab a shot of it. There was a man by the swimming pool and Dominic asked him about where the Marais subsection (the location we needed to shoot) was. The man told him that he "thought" if we walked a certain direction on the walking trail, we would get to it.

We found a place to park and got out onto the walking trail. We were walking the way the man told us, but realized we were just going back to a place we had already shot. We asked someone else where the Marais subsection was and found out that it was actually the other way on the path. So we walked all the way along the path, which was a really long way! We finally found the subsection and got the footage we needed. But now we had to walk all the way back. We made it back to our car and got going again. We decided to go back to Marais to see if it led to one of the other locations we needed to shoot. So, we pulled out, and it turned out that we had parked about 500 feet away from Marais! We could have avoided walking a mile or two!

After driving around in circles for a little bit (not intentionally, of course), we found the final part of the first neighborhood and got the footage we needed. Now it was time for lunch!

We went to Sonic for lunch and we all got 44 oz. drinks. They were awesome!

After lunch we headed to our next location: Snee Farm.

We found Snee Farm fairly easily and at first everything was going great! We dropped Chad and Dominic off and Geno and I went to find the golf course that was supposed to be there. Then things started to go downhill. Geno and I saw the golf course, but couldn't find an entrance. We now needed to go pick up Chad and Dominic to see what we were going to do next. On our way to pick them up, we saw a car pull in the driveway of the house Dominic and Chad were filming. Geno and I were kind of laughing about it until we pulled up there and saw that the guy wasn't very happy about us filming out by his house. Of course, Chad was the one who talked to him, and this is Chad's account of the conversation:

I put down sticks, set my eye in the eyepiece, and hear footsteps. I look up. A guy's standing there.

Guy: What are you doing?
Me: I'm shooting a video.
Guy: You're taking pictures of my house?
Me: Of the whole neighborhood.
Guy: Why?
Me: It's a real estate video. We were hired to do this—
Guy: Who's having you do this?
Me: A real estate agent.
Guy: Who's he with?
Me: Charleston Property.
Guy: So you're going around video-ing people's houses.
Me: The whole neighborhood...
Guy: Why?
Me: He's wanting to make videos of all the neighborhoods in Charleston.
Guy: Why? Doesn't he know my house isn't for sale?
Me: He's wanting to promote whole neighborhoods.

Guy: I'm just asking, because anytime I see people taking video of my house, I wonder what they're doing.
Me: Well, I haven't taken any footage of your house yet.
Guy: Are you planning on doing that?
Me: I don't have to — it's fine if I don't.
Guy: (something about his house and video...)
Me: It's fine — I don't have to take video of your house.
Guy: Okay, that's fine?
Me: Yeah, I don't have to do it...
Guy: Okay, well... Okay... Alright, have a good day.
Me: Thanks, bye.
Dominic: Have a nice day.
Guy: Yeah, you guys take it easy.

Chad got back in the car and he was completely traumatized. He just sat in the back seat saying barely anything. We finally realized that this neighborhood revolved around a country club. We had to get shots from in the car of the golf course. Then we went to the actual club. We got footage of the driving range. Chad refused to leave the car so Geno and I got the footage here. Then Geno and I went to get footage of some tennis courts. While getting footage a girl was walking down the same path we were on and calls out 'Crazy people with cameras!'. I was kinda shocked by this. When we crossed her on the path, though, and she asked what we were doing and we told her, she thought it cool. I was still in shock from her yelling 'Crazy people with cameras!' so when we got back to the car we left. Very fast.

Our next neighborhood was Old Village. At Old Village we needed to get a place called Alhambra Hall. We drove past it while looking around the neighborhood and then we parked where we thought we were close to it; we were wrong. We had to walk almost a mile to get there. We finally got down to Alhambra Hall and were hoping to film the inside of it. The doors were open, so before we just went in and filmed, Geno and I went in to see if there was someone to ask... and to use the bathroom. Well, the lady that was in there was kind of, um, unhappy that we were in there so we thought we should probably just not even ask about filming... we did get the outside of the Hall, though. The people in Old Village were really nice and one person who pulled over to talk to us was very excited about what we were doing.

Everything took much longer than we thought it would and we didn't get home until 6:30 or 7:00, but we got home safe.

Well, that's the end of the crazy day.

Thanks for reading!

-anth-

A Rainbow Free Verse

Well, here's another free verse poem I wrote today.

It's a rainy time,

Now there's a Rainbow in the sky.

Everyone sees it,

But nobody stops to think of what it means.

It's more than an effect of colors and light;

It's a promise from the everlasting God.

A promise from the one and only God that no man can see;

That's what a Rainbow means.

-Dominic

New Facts

Well, everybody, just wanted to let you know that I posted new facts in the Facts About Us section of the sidebar...

-Dominic

FRIENDS

Well, this is a photo from Day 5 of the production of BROS that I Photoshopped yesterday. I sent it to Ty and Christy, and Ty posted it on his blog, so I figured I would, too.

This shot was taken while we were shooting our cameo. Probably my favorite cameo I've ever done, 'cause I got to do it with two of my best friends!

What an awesome day. I think that was my favorite day of production.

-Dominic

P.S. If you're interested, I have a walk through of how I did this image over on my photo blog.

Superglue

Well, tonight I went into the garage to superglue the mic back onto some headphones that had broken...the video will tell you what happened after I tried to glue it...

It's a very weird feeling being stuck to something against your will...kinda creepy...

After this video, I went back down to the garage with my Dad 'cause he was gonna help me get unstuck...on the way down the stairs I was able to one of my fingers free and it didn't even take any skin off! My other finger was still stuck very good, though...My Dad got a razor blade so we could slowly cut the glue off...well, it didn't work out like we planned and I kinda got a small cut from the razor blade, BUT my finger was freed moments after that...

Anyway, I'm sure you feel like a better person after reading/watching this...

Thanks for visiting!

-anth-

New Item on Side Bar

Hey, I just wanted to let everyone know about the new item on the side bar of this blog. I've added a section with my favorite quotes from my friends. Check it out! ---------->

-Dominic

No More Trade Show

I just wanted to make sure I let everybody know that I no longer recommend the PDN Photographers' Virtual Trade Show. I was on it again today, and there have been several inappropriate photos and/or videos in the presentations. So, I apologize for my earlier post about it. I did not mean to cause anyone to stumble if I did so because of my recommendation of the trade show. I am very disappointed in it this time, and I won't be getting back on.

Thanks and God bless!

-Dominic

Some Recent Cool Things

Well, in the last few days some cool things have happened to me. I was asked by a friend who just recently opened a business (www.abellarose.com), to teach her how to use her server and website. So, I decided to put together an outline for what I wanted to go over, and the lesson went pretty well! I was able to complete the lesson plan, and go over everything I wanted to, so it was nice. We ran into some server trouble at the end, but it looks like it's fixed now...

Last week I was playing my guitar, and one of my stings snapped! It hurt a little because my hands were still on the guitar when the string broke, so it kinda whacked a couple of my fingers. Anyways, Dad took me down to Pecknel Music Company, and we got it restrung. We also got a new string for my electric guitar, which I broke a string on while trying my hand at ear-tuning...Obviously I'm not real good at ear-tuning! So, after the guys at Pecknel strung up my guitars, they asked if I wanted to hook 'em up to a Fender amp to see what they sounded like. Of course I did! Since, my main guitar is an acoustic/electric, I was very curious to hear what it sounded like on an amp; and I was pretty impressed. The amp's sound quality was very good with both guitars. So, that was neat and the guys were really nice.

The last thing I want to include in this post is about photography. There are these things called snoots. A snoot is a tube like thingy that you hook to your flash to control the pattern of your light. You can make a small spot of light, or a larger spot, and add some really neat effects to your images that way. I looked them up on B&H and was quite disappointed in the cost of buying a snoot. So, I decided to see what I could find here at home that would work. I am currently using a piece of black cardstock rolled up into a tube as my snoot. It really works pretty well, and I'd really recommend doing it if you need a snoot effect. You can see a sample of my snoot in use over at my Photo Blog. Let me know what you think!

BTW, this will probably be the last post on here for a few weeks because we'll be shooting and working on BROS! So, even though not much will be going on around here, head on over to the BROS Blog, and follow the production. And be sure to check out the BlockOne Flikr stream that we hope to be updating daily with production photos!

-Dominic

New YouTube Channel Design

Hey! I just wanted to let all you fellow YouTubers out there know about the new Beta channel design out there. You just go to Account >Edit Channel, and you'll be able to select the new Beta design. It's pretty sweet. You can see, I already updated our us4HIM channel, and Creation, Evolution, and Science Ministries' channel.

It's pretty cool!

-Dominic

Aaahhh!

Wow, I am so excited for BROS! I call this being uber psyched! It's a state of total euphoria when thinking of an exciting event within three days of the writing. Yeah, I came up with that all on my own. ;-)

-Dominic

The Squire and the Scroll Teaser

Well, Zeke's been at it again! He read a book called The Squire and the Scroll, and liked it so much he decided to do an animated film based off of the same story. Recently he and I have been working on a teaser for it, and here it is!

I'm amazed at what he can accomplish in Blender...

-Dominic

I Did it Again

So, I wrote another poem. I don't know why. It just came to me. It's free verse and not real impressive, but I thought I'd post it on here anyways.

THE WEATHER POEM – BASED ON MY INTERPRETATION OF THE WEATHER ON MAY 19TH, 2009.

By Dominic DiMaria

The Weather outside is familiar.
Though it reminds me of something I cannot recall.
Something I recognize, yet cannot realize.
It’s cloudy, the air is crisp.
There is a soft breeze in the air.

Yet, I cannot remember the mysterious but mundane smell.
The smell is in the air.
A delightful odor…It calls to my memory,
But, I still cannot recall
Where the beautiful fragrance comes from;
The place and time that I smelled it before.

-Dominic

PDN Photographers' Virtual Trade Show

Hey everyone! I wanted to let everyone know about the PDN Photographer's Virtual Trade Show. It's a virtual enviroment where one can visit booths from prominent businesses such as B&H, Adorama, Canon, DriveSavers, etc.

It's a really neat place. You can chat with other photographers, attend virtual presentations, and download useful documents. Today is the first event, and there will be another one on June 11th.

Hope to see you there! (either today or June 11th)

-Dominic

Skype Chat

The following is a fairly typical Skype conversation between Anth and I. He was making a comment about my little status message which was "Oh darn, I broke a guitar string...":

Anthony DiMaria: poor you
Dominic DiMaria: referring to my satus?
Anthony DiMaria: si
Dominic DiMaria: yeah, tell me about it
Anthony DiMaria: oh, well, what can you do now?
Dominic DiMaria: get a new string
Anthony DiMaria: yep

Seems a bit random, but Anth and I seem to have some random Skype conversations...The weirdest thing is that we're only about 10 feet away from each other when we Skype. That's why our conversations are usually pretty short...

-D

The Secret Project *wink*

Happy 19th b-day, Geno! As you know, I've been working on a secret project *wink* for this day. I'm now unveiling it for you! I hope you enjoy it. Take a look!



And, thank you, everyone who did a video for this. You helped make this project work, and make Geno's b-day special.

-Dominic

P.S. For anyone who would like to download this video, here is the link to download it from our server. Direct Link: http://us4him.com/mediauploads/Geno19.mpg

Man, I forgot the hosting company changed my FTP password, so it took me a while to get in the server! :-)

P.P.S. The Ower's also wanted to say Happy B-day!

Well, I Didn't Get the Job

Well, as the title of this post implies, I did not get the video internship position down where Dad works. But, I'm okay with it because 1, we knew it was a long shot, and 2, now I can focus all my attention on finishing up school next week, working on Bros, hopefully doing driver's ed over the summer, and also doing some CLEP tests this coming school year.

So, in some ways it's good that I didn't get it. I know that if God wanted me to get it, I would've got it. That's obviously not the case, so I'm gonna focus on other stuff for now.

Anybody need a website?

-Dominic

P.S. I'm considering doing a blog redesign here soon...I'll post a poll on the side to see if anybody wants one...If anybody even reads this. =P

I'm a Mac...

Well, I've been saving up for a laptop for a while. I figured I would get a nice Dell or something because I didn't think there was any difference between Mac's and PC's besides the fact that Macs are more expensive. But once Geno got his MacBook Pro and let me use it, I realized why Macs were more expensive. They are soooo much faster than PC's and it's easier to use the operating system on them.

I decided I was going to keep saving for a Mac even though it would take about double the time. Well, I was looking on craigslist every day for a new deal and, finally, about 1 and 1/2 weeks ago, an amazing deal came along. There was a MacBook Unibody that was only 60 days old that came with iLife '09 (obviously), iWork '09, a carrying case, VMWare Fusion so I can now run Windows on my Mac, and MobileMe, all for a really cheap price.

My dad, Dominic, and I went to meet the man and all the disks were there and everything was in great condition so, I bought it!

-Anth

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms I know! (especially my dearest mother ;-)

-Dominic

Today is Weird

Today is weird. It's hot outside, yet the wind is blowing, yet the breeze is not cooling the temperature at all. It's cloudy, but not raining, though it looks like it might here soon.

And it smells like roses outside...

-Dominic

The Hunt for Gollum

Well, a few days ago Geno found out about this LOTR fan film called The Hunt for Gollum. I viewed the trailers, and though "Hey, this looks like it might be cool!" The very next day I went to the site again, and realized "It comes out today! In HD! For FREE! Cool..."

So, we hooked up Geno's MacBook Pro to our TV and sat back to watch it.

It wasn't the greatest film of all time. The story was a little weak, and it dragged at times, but for a fan film I thought it was awesome. It was like the LOTR fan film I always wanted to make. The acting was good, the landscape visual effects were good (the close-ups weren't bad, but they weren't great), the orcs' prosthetics were decent, and it was a cool filler for the LOTR story.

The battles were actually quite a bit bloodier than in the real films...at least from the orc side (no good guys get hurt, just the bad guys). I don't think it was necessary, and it actually took away from the LOTR feel because of that. Some of the shots were just plain nasty, honestly. And the orcs were a bit creepier than in the real films...

Now, little disclaimer here, I won't recommend or discourage this film. I know that no matter what I think, someone will always disagree in some way; so I don't really recommend or discourage most of the films that I watch.

All in all, I think The Hunt for Gollum is a worthy fan film with some awesome visual effects (and some just okay ones), that most LOTR fans will enjoy!

-Dominic

Well,

Our cat just had kittens...

-Dominic

A Thought on Darwinian Evolution

Theory: A hypothesis that has passed multiple controlled experiments, and has the support of other scientists.

Just a quick thought here: for a hypothesis to become a theory, it must qualify to what the above states. Although it does have the support o many scientists today, Darwinian evolution has never passed any experiments whatsoever...so, technically, it's not even a "theory", just a hypothesis...

Right?

-Dominic

Some Photoshop Stuff

Recently I've been trying to learn Photoshop. I've done some tutorials and one of the ones I did recently turned out really well. The tutorial showed me how to make my picture look like a magazine cover or something. It wasn't very hard and, like I said before, turned out looking pretty cool. Obviously I can't take any of the credit because I just followed the steps of the tutorial.

Here's the orginal:

And here it is after I messed with it in photoshop:

Here's another version of it:

Let me know what you think!

-anth-

Hilarious Clip From the Archives

Several months ago, Geno and I choreographed a somewhat lame, but kinda cool fight. We had Anth film it. HERE is a hilarious clip from one of the steps in the battle. Or you can watch it below, but the compression stinketh on Blogger.

-Dominic

Another Visit!

Hey!

A couple days ago, the Stembridge's paid us another visit. What a great time we had!



Since Dad was in Seattle for work, and we are on Spring Break, we decided to make a really fun short film, take photos, joke around, play a vicious game of airsoft, and just have a fun time.

We figured we'd make the upside down photos our visit trade mark, so here they are! (along with some others, as well)

We made the first official Block One Studios (our Stembridge-DiMaria production company) film:

And, for those of you who read my photo blog, here are a couple pics using my new speedlight:

(Dad came home the last night they were here)

And, the first shipment for our next film project arrived yesterday! It's getting exciting!

I may be able to post more pictures later or upon requeset, but that's all for now, folks!

I'll hopefully be able to link to the video we made soon, too!


Yours Cheesey,

Dominic

Does This Take Your Breath Away?

(note: there is one "h" word in the video.)

The Last Year

Wow...

That's all I have to say. The last year has absolutely flown by. A lot has happened. So, here is what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna list everything I can think of that happened within the last year!

(Anything I forget I'll just add to a new post)

Hunting season went fairly well. We got around 6 deer I think. We had a really good time, too. The funnest hunting trip was The Grand Hunting Adventure Story but the rest of it was fun, too.

Geno got a great job at Sears (which he still has). He's pretty happy there, and he's got great employers.

I participated in a 9-month internship at a local computer store. I learned a ton. Gary, my boss, is a great guy, and a great instructor. I know a ton more than I did when I started. It was a great experience.

We went to Illinois to help make a film with Chad Stembridge. What a blast! Had a great time, and really enjoyed meeting and working with everyone.

My dad developed what we call the 'Gene Grueling Exercise Plan.' Pretty self-explanatory. It's a great fitness program that we do 5 days a week, and it hurts...but it works really well!

I've had the opportunity to go to work with Dad and do a bunch of filming and editing for them. It's been a lot of fun, and I've even applied for a job there as the video guy over the summer. I hope it works out! I'll probably post on here if I get it.

Geno got a MacBook Pro. It rocks. Plain and simple. Now, let me clear something up: it's a common misconception that I'm a "Windows-Only Guy". I'm not. Whatever's better for you and the project you're doing. Personally, I want a Mac because of the power, the speed, and the fact that it can run Windows XP.

Anth got tall. Yeah, he did. He hasn't caught me yet, but he did grow quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, I can still pound him, but he is substantially bonier and more painful to fight now.

Geno is now the shortest of "The Guys." I passed him up a while ago, and Anth did not too long ago. Poor guy. But Geno does have superior intellect when it comes to most things...

I've been working on the RUSS ONLINE video series with Russ Miller of Creation, Evolution, and Science Ministries. It's been a good opportunity to get the truth out!

Zeke and John have both grown like 6 inches, no kidding. They are getting tall and really good at Blender 3D. And they love Narnia, Star Wars, Ice Age, and anything made in Blender.

We got a cat! Yeah, I'm trying not to get too attached to her because we live near a busy road, but she is one of the best cats we've ever had. And...she's pregnant! But we're not keeping the kittens. They're cute, but can't stay. Anyone want one?

I've made several additions to my photo equipment, both tangible and mental. I'm just trying to learn all I can. My next planned addition to the equipment is really exciting, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is 'til I get (which hopefully will be very soon). At that time, I will make a post.

We had a great trip to Ohio a couple months ago. We had a really nice time with everyone on Grandma's 80th b-day!

Our team, the Steelers (the best team in football) won the Super Bowl! And James Harrison (the best defensive player in football) did great!

We migrated our us4HIM blog from the website to http://www.us4him.blogspot.com/.

I've started the great journey of looking for a car. I'm shopping for a Jeep Wrangler, or a Subaru Forester. Preferably the Jeep. Dad and I test drove several last summer and fall, and we were dealing for one, but the guy just wouldn't come down far enough. So, we're just gonna wait for the perfect one.

We all had birthdays in the last year. Duh. :p

We made a film for a local competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jSGJcp7TIU

I've really learned a lot about web design, and I've experimented with a bunch of different kinds of websites. My latest project is hopefully gonna launch within a couple months. http://www.shop.us4him.com/ is the project, and I'm hoping to have some cool things going on with it!

Anth is shopping for a MacBook now. He found one that we may be taking a look at here soon. It's used, but so was Geno's and it's worked out fine. I hope it works out for him.

We went to the Apple Store! It was cool. I messed with the iPods and the iPhone, not to mention the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook, and I can't remember about the MacBook Air. I think I messed with it a little...Anyways, the iPods were really nice. If I didn't have more important things to get right now, I'd buy one!

The Vision and Family Court have both been selected for film festivals!

The Vision is on IMDb!

And the last thing for now: we're making a new movie! Yep, our fourth real project. We're hoping to shoot in late May - Early June, but October is also an option right now. I'll update as we go. We're actually starting to purchase our equipment for the film today!

That's all for now!

Yours Cheesey,

Dominic