BOOM Update #4: To all the fans

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:43:20 -0700

First, thanks for all the support, excitement and -- above all -- patience. As many of you have already pointed out, this has been a very long road. The good news is we're entering the final stages of post-production. We have a complete edit that essentially lays out the entire foundation of our film. The hard work and heavy lifting is over. Now it's time to fill in the gaps. In practical terms that means three more shooting days in early May. Once we acquire this missing footage, it will be edited into the existing cut and, after some additional tweaking, we'll have a movie! But don't celebrate too soon. After that comes motion graphics, sound mixing, color correction, voice over narration and a host of other boring, technical steps required to convert our film from my computer to a version you can watch. Translation: The bad news is we still don't have a release date.
I know it seems like this has gone on forever (believe me, no one understands better than I), but the reality is documentary films take a very long time to complete. It's a slow, laborious process even for the most experienced documentary filmmakers and you have to remember: this is an independent production. We don't have a massive team of editors and producers. We have one editor (me) working on this every day and night, trying to retain my sanity and I'm very happy with the progress. We only began editing in October 2011 and six months for a complete edit is really not that long (by any documentary standards) -- especially when our story is constantly expanding and evolving while I'm editing it! The release of our trailer last May may have given people the idea we were closer to completion than we actually were. Any deception was unintentional. At that point, we'd really only just begun. The purpose of the trailer was to create awareness for the project so we'd have an easier time securing interviews during the 2011 WSOP. It worked like gangbusters. Throughout the series, we interview 65+ subjects from all over the industry. This is the real story of online poker told by those who know it best.
Thanks again for all the support. We'll keep the updates coming as they become available. Personally, I hope I can deliver a film that exceeds all your expectations...

BOOM Update #3: Lost in Oblivion

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:33:49 -0800

For the last five months, BOOM has been kicking my ass. Since we first began the project, the story has grown immensely and, in turn, so has our catalog of raw footage. This is my first feature length documentary and I’m not embarrassed to say this has been a challenge that has seemed insurmountable at times. But I wouldn’t be making this blog entry if we hadn’t recently turned a corner. We’re very close to our first real assembly edit which will do well to inform us on what need for re-shoots and additional interviews. For the first time, I finally feel like I’m a contender in this fight to tame the wild lion that is BOOM. The finish line is finally a blurry shape on the horizon, not quite distinguishable, but it’s there.

At the final table of the 2011 World Series of Poker with BOOM producer Jay Rosenkrantz.

PokerStars: talonchick

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:58:21 -0800

Check out another documentary short I did for PokerStars!

BOOM Update #2: Black Friday

Mon, 2 May 2011 05:25:29 -0700

It’s been just over two weeks since the darkest day in online poker history. April 15th, 2011 will forever be remembered in the poker community as “Black Friday”. On that fateful day, the Department of Justice filed an indictment against the “Big Three” -- PokerStars, FullTilt and UltimateBet -- on charges of bank fraud, illegal gambling and money laundering. The FBI seized their domain names so those who visited .com addresses were greeted with an ominous webpage that made them feel like the Feds were one step away from kicking their door down, confiscating their computer and dragging them off to a dark cell on some secret island somewhere. In the infamous words of Daigoro: “It was a bad time for the Empire.”
To most people, online poker is just a glorified video game played with real money. It’s unfortunate people might lose their ability to play, but the ramifications are about as severe as the Farmville servers suddenly going down forever. So you don’t get to play your favorite game anymore. Boo-hoo. But Farmville doesn’t put food on the table. Tens of thousands of “ordinary people” trying to make ends meet are suddenly out of a job. A lot of them have the majority of their net-worth tied up on online poker sites which, at this point, have no way of returning to them. A large percentage of the poker community has gone from robusto to busto overnight. Beyond the players, there’s the multi-million dollar poker media industry that employs countless creative professionals -- including me! This industry is largely financed by online poker sites and if they’re forced to leave the U.S., it will crumble. Say what you will about professional poker players, plenty of “legitimate” professions will also be negatively impacted. Hopes, dreams, life-plans have been forever transformed by the DoJ.
Many people have asked me how this affects BOOM. Some seemed to think, in light of this news, we’d abandon the project. Quite the contrary! All of this new legislation makes BOOM more relevant than ever. Our immediate response was to organize an emergency to Minnesota to shoot with our original subject, Danielle “dmoongirl” Andersen, and capture the aftermath of “Black Friday” in real time. We now feel an even greater sense of responsibility to tell the poker community's side of the story. We want the general public to know what a tremendous impact this unfounded legislation has had on so many lives. We're part of the battle, and we don't plan on quitting any time soon.

The Micros: Episode Four

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:45:38 -0700

Late last year, BOOM producer Jay Rosenkrantz teamed up with LA-based director John Wray to write/produce an animated web-series about online poker called “The Micros”. It offered audiences a hilariously insightful view into the world of the micro-stakes grinder -- the guy playing for pennies who dreams of one day winning it all. The pilot became an instant cult classic (in the online poker community, that is) and garnered enough hits on YouTube to inspire the behemoths at Full Tilt Poker to sponsor the entire series. Today they released their fourth episode and I think it’s the best on yet. I’m afraid I’m going to have to stop asking Jay about the story-lines beforehand, because now I’m really excited to see where this goes. Check it out. If you like it, visit their YouTube Channel and Facebook page, and become a fan.