The DVDs are Here!

Finally...

The Dear J DVDs are ready and waiting. All shrink-wrapped, looking like they're for sale in a store.

And, hey, they are for sale!

Which means YOU can own your very own copy of the movie! (Not sure what it's all about? Check out our "official" film website.)

Want to buy the DVD? We've got the link right here!

And, as a special deal, we're offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders made before June 1st. Which means you have a month to scrape together the $20 or so to buy your very own, personal DVD copy of the movie. (Hey, aren't those rebate checks coming in the mail pretty soon???)

You know, we've been waiting since November/December for this day. Well, the wait is finally over...

Caring for your DVD

Okay, so you will soon be the proud owner of your very own DVD copy of our new film Dear J...

Or maybe you landed on this page because you want to know about caring for your DVDs (or also your CDs)...

Well, whether or not you have just one DVD or a million of them (aside: what kind of room would you need to house a million DVDs?)... we all know DVDs can be quite fragile. Hence, they need to be treated with care.

Do you know the proper way to protect your DVDs?

Well, we've compiled a list of **Five Common Dangers** in the world of the DVD:

1. Fingerprints
   DVDs were meant to be held by the edges (see photo above). For those of you who remember records, this shouldn't be too hard. In any case, avoid touching the shiny part.



2. Heat sources
   Keep those disks out of direct sunlight! Ditto for radiators, etc.



3. Pets
   That's right! Your dog may think the DVD is a frisbee, so keep it out of sight. Your cat may want to use it for a scratching pad. That's not something your DVD really needs.



4. Babies and Toddlers
   We love them. They're curious. And they love shiny things. But if you want your DVDs to last until they're ready to go off to college, keep those DVDs out of reach! (On the other hand, it's probably a good idea to teach older children how to treat DVDs right as early as you think they're ready. But you may wish to designate certain DVDs for little fingers as they are learning.)



5. Table tops
   It's not just pets and kids. If you leave your DVDs lying about, unprotected, they could easily develop scratches. So, keep your DVDs in their cases. Or one of the special DVD books with pockets for your whole collection. (Or part of your DVD collection, anyway, depending on the size of said collection.)
   

The Wait is Almost Over...

That's right... The wait for the DVD of our feature film Dear J is almost over.

Mark your calendars to Thursday, May 1, 2008. That's the date of the official DVD release.

Some good news... FINALLY...

Watch the Movie Trailer for "Dear J"

The new trailer for our feature film Dear J is here...

The DVD Wraps Are... What?!

Sometimes it seems like Mr. Murphy is up to his old tricks with that famous law of his...

About a week ago, we got a call from our DVD manufacturer. The DVD wraps (that's the printed paper sleeve that sits under the plastic on the DVD case) had arrived at their place of business.

They had been all ready to put the wraps (sent to them by the printer) into the cases when they discovered... the wraps had been cut TOO SHORT!

Well, the DVD people refused to put in wraps that were a quarter inch too small. They gave a phone call to tell us. When we heard of this... Well, how would you feel?

Our first thought was, of course, that can't be OUR fault.

Having never put out a DVD before, we then had the nagging feeling; maybe it was our fault?

But then again, we did a million and one print-tests before sending out the final artwork to the printer in California.

We called the printer next to find out what happened at their end. Except, since they're in California, they're a few hours behind us. So, they weren't in their office yet. And we had to wait.

Well... as it turns out, the too-short DVD wraps were a mistake on the part of the printers. That was a bit of a relief to know (i.e. now we knew we weren't completely crazy and that all those print-outs were not for naught).

So, the printers in California are sending the new, standard-length wraps to Minnesota or Wisconsin or wherever the DVDs are actually being manufactured.

And we should be getting the DVDs very soon... (We think.)

Reading it Through

We have a read-thru planned for tonight... for one of our screenplays-in-progress.

It's an early draft for a full-length feature that we've been working on (on and off) for about a year or so. And after you've been staring at the computer screen, trying to make all these scenes and characters come alive, it's always a good idea to do just that.

Make them come alive.

And one of the best ways to do that, of course, is to have a read-thru... To see where the weaknesses of the script still lie. To see what works.

Not sure how this read will go. But we'll probably have plenty of work after it's finished...

Spamalot (Not the Musical)

You've been around the internet, and so you've probably had your fair share of the spam problem. (Or probably more than you'd like).

The scary thing is when you start getting spam that is from... yourself?!

Yep! It's happened to us. We've been getting some spam that seems to be coming directly from one of our main email accounts at cubecity.org...

But how can that be? We're not sending that stuff out...

It does seem kind of freaky. But, guess what? It's not all that uncommon; as we've discovered. Just look at this article.

Pretty much summed up, it says, "Email spoofing is rampant. Spammers often send email that looks like it came from you. And there's little you can do about it."

That's kinda frustrating news.

So, people, if you've found a weird email from cubecity.org that offers you some strange spam-like offering... please remember, it's not from us!

Working on a New Trailer

If you've been to our website to check out the trailer for our feature film "Dear J", you'll probably notice something.

Yep! It's still the one with the old title "Liars and Lunatics"!

So... We've been working on a new trailer. One that works with the new title Dear J.

Keep you posted...

Clocks and Continuity

Time is one of those pesky things when it comes to continuity and filmmaking.

You do take after take. And if you dare have a clock in the shot, you better be careful! You don't want the clock saying it's 7:30 when it's supposed to be the middle of the night.

And it's not just the small independent filmmakers that have difficulty telling time.

According to MovieMistakes.com, the movie The Fugitive had a slight clock problem. When Harrison Ford is being chased by Tommy Lee Jones in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, apparently there are three different clock shots, all of which show completely different times.

For reasons like that, we wanted to avoid all clocks when we shot our feature, Dear J. And we thought we did pretty good. Until one day...

We realized too late that one of the camera set-ups in the Institute's rec room included a clock in the background. Fortunately, it's only in one or two shots and the time on the clock... Well, it could be the correct time.

Then again, maybe there are more clock shots... and we've just never noticed them.