I hesitate to make a post like this, mostly because I see them so commonly at the top of dormant blogs. Basically I haven’t been posting to this particular blog as much as I’d like, so I want to give a quick update with what’s been going on in my life, and hopefully this will be the beginning of some new jamesgoux.com content in the future.

The big thing you should be aware of by now is also the primary reason for a lack of content on this site. I have been writing, and it’s available for you to see, it’s just not on this site at the moment. That’s because my friend Benn Hadland and I have created a new website, called Lock, Stock, and Two Film Geeks.

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or: A Few More Things I Like About My Internship

You may have seen my previous post about my new internship, listing five things that I really appreciated about my new internship.  Since that first day, I’ve gone back twice and it’s been going well.  The people there seem to appreciate my script coverage, and say I do a solid job on it as well.  Luckily, the way I’ve learned to do coverage in the past seems to be more thorough and better than what they usually require.  Rather than come down to that level, I’ve decided to stick with my better quality of coverage.  I’ve just realized that I’ve mentioned script coverage twice now, and some people may not actually be aware of what it is.  Since this particular task is what makes up about 99% of my time at any development internship, perhaps I should go into it a bit.

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I wanted to do this earlier in the week, but have been a little too busy up until now.  Basically I just wanted to take a written look at how I did on my predictions, and also make some general comments on the Oscars.

First: the predictions.  You can always look down below and compare with any results page you may see to see exactly which catagories I got right, I’m not going to go through them all.  Overall I got 14 out of the 23 or 24 catagories right, not a great record considering how many I saw, but pretty serviceable, and at least it’s above 50%.  The good news is that I got all eight of the big eight categories right.  Since these are the really important catagories anyway, and the ones that don’t require a bunch of technical knowledge, I take a lot of pride in this.  Especially because in order to get all eight of these right, I took a big risk and it paid off.

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Film is very important to me, and I’ve always enjoyed the Acadamy Awards. I’ve made a special effort this year to watch as many Oscar nominated films as I can, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job of it. So, it is with great pride that I present to you my predictions for tomorrow night’s ceremony. But first, I’d like to make it clear which movies I’ve seen, so readers can understand exactly which nominess on which I’m speaking with first-hand knowledge.

Nominated movies I saw as of 2/21/2009:

• Changeling
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• Doubt
• Frost/Nixon
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army
• In Bruges
• Iron Man
• Kung Fu Panda
• Milk
• Presto
• Rachel Getting Married
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Tropic Thunder
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• The Visitor
• Wall-E
• Wanted
• The Wrestler

Edit: before the ceremony on Sunday, I was able to catch the following:

• Toyland
• Lavatory – Love Story
• Octapodi
• This Way Up
• Manon on the Asphalt
• On the Line

Because of this, I’ve changed my prediction on the animated short catagory.

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I’m not going to pretend that I’m not a sucker for internet trends.  Everyone on facebook is doing the “25 Random Things About Me” post, and I’ve been tagged to do it, so I’m going to.  Here it is:

1. I really love listening to Peter and the Wolf.  Part of it is nostalgia from listening to it as a kid.  Part of it is that I just really enjoy the orchestral piece.  It’s beautiful, and it tells a story in a really unique way.  I like that there’s characters that interact and tell their story without words.  And the narration is really fun too.  For some reason Peter’s theme is the thing that most often gets stuck in my head — ever.  I find myself whistling it all the time.  It’s not that I listen to it on a regular basis, but I did just download and have started listening to it again.

2. I’m more comfortable in smaller groups.  It’s easier to have a more meaningful conversation and I like the general dynamic better.  2-4 people is definitely my favorite way of interacting.

3. Similarly, I’ve always been the type to have a few really close friends rather than a lot of friends that are not as close.  It’s nothing personal to the other people, it’s just what seems to work best for me.

4. Unintentionally, I seem to have put myself to the impossible quest of seeing every worthwhile movie ever made, read every worthwhile comic book ever made, and watching as much good television as I can.  It’s an unfortunate decision due to it’s sheer impossibility and the amount of time in my life it seems to take up.  My Blockbuster.com queue always hovers in the range of 160-170 items and never gets any smaller.

5. I get really nervous when I get my hair cut.  It doesn’t make much sense because I trust the people who I let do it, and even if they did mess up my hair grows absurdly fast.

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I started a new internship today, and my first day went really well.  There were a few things I really liked about it, so I thought I might list them.

1. It’s in Santa Monica.  Santa Monica is simply a really nice place to be.  You’ve got the ocean air, there’s actually parking structures, and it’s not as crowded as L.A.  Plus getting into L.A. can be kind of a pain, not that Santa Monica doesn’t have it’s share of traffic, but it avoids the whole central L.A. thing.  Santa Monica just feels better.

2. Lunch.  They pay for lunch, and they do it from nice places that are also healthy.  Also, everyone in the company eats lunch together, which makes for fun discussion, an easy way to get to know everyone, and an oppurtunity to learn from everyone.

3. They keep a copy of the trades in the bathroom.  This one will sound really weird.  I’ll admit that I like to read on the toilet, and the fact that they keep copies in there makes me feel that that’s not a completely strange thing to do.  I like reading the trades, but usually feel like I have to be doing something more productive for the company while I’m at my desk.  This gives me a good oppurtunity to skim through.

4. Friendly co-workers.  Everyone at the compnay seems to be really friendly and laid back.  Additionally, their younger than most people in the film industry, which makes it a bit easier to relate.

5. Perks.  I had to copy some DVDs today, and not only did they suggest making some for myself, they almost made it seem like it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t.

I held off writing my first real post for quite a while.  For some reason it felt like it had to be something big, or more quality than anything else that will appear later on the blog.  When it came down to it I’ve been too busy to start doing any of the truly creative work quite yet, but I’d like to get something up here.  And then I realized, perhaps while writing the “about” section, which you’ll find a link to above, that while I know what I want to do with this site, anyone who’s reading this might not.  So I’m going to use this blog post to really set out my goals for this website, and what purpose it’s supposed to serve.

1. This is my webpage, so it’s a central location for all things… me.  It may seem pretty basic, but I really wanted a central place to have links to everywhere on the internet that has any connection to me (that I can think of).  Mostly this means linking to my social networking profiles, which you will see in the right hand column of the page.  At some point I plan to add a more extensive list of links that will include explanations of what all these websites are, for the uninitiated.  This will eventually appear on the about page, but for now, if you see something and are confused, check out the “ClaimID” link on the right for a similar list.
2. I want to make myself accountable for putting out some creative writing every week.  I often find that pressure to write something really good keeps me from starting at all, so I’ve created a place where I can just throw work out into the world and forget about it, and this is it.  Additionally, because other people are looking, hopefully I will feel some sort of obligation to get work out on a regular basis.  Inspired by Paul Dini’s “200 Words” column on iFanboy.com, I’ve tentatively decided that writing 200 words once a week is a good starting point, so expect to see pieces around that size soon.
3. I’m a film student, so in turn, I have made films.  A lot of people ask me to post them on YouTube, but I’m just not a fan of it’s cluttered format and low quality.  I would like to share my films with those who can’t go to a screening, so soon I will have my reel posted on this site.  Similarly, I’d like to get some of my art photography up here as well.
4. This site should serve as a marketing tool both for myself as someone who works in the film inustry, but also as a freelance photographer/videographer.  This is why my resume appears in the links above, and if a business for photography/videography ever begins to build up, you’ll probably start to see more information on that somewhere on this website as well.
5. It’s been a while since I had a blog, and it would be nice to have someplace to go when I feel a rant coming on, or if I have something to say that doesn’t fit in a twitter post. (By the way, if you don’t follow me on Twitter, you should note that I’m extremely active on it, and it’s one of the better ways to get to know things about me.  The link to my account is on the right).

There’s more details to be worked out of course, I’d like to come up with some sort of schedule for posts.  Perhaps 200 words on Mondays and blog posts on Thursdays?  Don’t hold me to that quite yet.  And obviously nothing real has really been posted quite yet.  Hopefully that will change soon.  Until then, “Good night, and good luck”.