Seasons Bleezings!

The title says it all, from the Krej Krew we hope all of you (yes all two of you) have a happy holidays!

OK enough of that. So what's been up with Krej you ask? At first glance not much. In actuality a lot under the surface has happened.

Steven, Trent and Grantzy just finished their improv classes at the Relapse Theater. A big congrats goes out to them for sticking with the 8 month class. As has been stated before we are making some strong connections with the good people at Relapse.

In other news, the painstakingly slow editing of "Of Rats and Men" has grinded to a complete stop. The plan was to have a "damn close to final cut" done by Christmas. Do to recent events it looks like we might finish sometime in the later part of this decade. I wouldn't advise you on holding your breath.

As for me, my plan this winter is to alienate myself from everyone so I can get some writing done. When not doing that I will follow suit with my Krej Kompatriots and be taking improv classes. I can only hope this proves to be a huge embarrassing failure.

Speaking of huge embarrassing failures I just recently took a trip to Salt Lake City and attempted to ski. Let me take this moment to rant about how much I now loathe that sport. I am almost died twice. It didn't help that me and my friend Keegan accidentally got on the wrong lift and ended up on the advanced mountain.

There was however a moment of joy whilst my body was falling down the mountain (I say that because what I was doing would never be considered skiing). It was euphoric for a brief moment, but then I crashed and the reality of my plight was restored. The bar there was pretty nice though, had a nice cup of chili while I waited for feeling to return to my extremities and nursed my aching body.

We continue to truck a long here at Krej. 2010 was a good year for networking. With some hard work we might be able to use that to have a very fruitful 2011.

Like last year I will be doing a Top 10 Movies of the year. With a bit of luck I will have that done sooner then later.

Well I can't think anything else to type that any of you would really care about, so peace!

Jeff K

Zombie Attack! Week 2 recap

Well folks, today's Thursday! So here's a recap of this week's Zombie Attack! shorts, part 3 and 4. 

Zombie Attack! Part 3 : "Proposal"

Zombie Attack! Part 4 : "House Hunters"

Enjoy & share with your friends!

The Dollar Movie Critic: "Going The Distance"

So, I’ve been sitting around doing some thinking lately about the blog. Ways to keep it interesting around this joint. I looked back over some our previous blogs to see what worked and what didn’t (Douchebag of the Month for example), and I came across a movie review for “Avatar” written by Kaminski from months and months ago. So, I gots to thinkin. We make movies. We watch movies. Why not talk about the movies that we see when they come out. Only problem is, I’m broke as hell. Always. I can’t always afford to go see movies right when they come out. So, I now introduce to you to the very first installment of “The Dollar Movie Critic.”

I managed to get off work early tonight (as in not 2am) and took a little trip to my local dollar theater to see “Going The Distance,” the romantic comedy starring Justin Long and Drew Barrymore about a couple trying to make a long distance relationship work while he lives in New York and she lives in San Francisco. I have been looking forward to seeing this movie for a while, since I watched the trailer online. I’m a big fan of Justin Long in his comedy roles (just look at “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” and “The Sasquatch Gang for a couple of my favorite performances of his). Dude knows how to be funny and improvise like a beast. It seemed to me that this movie was going for the same audience that “500 Days of Summer” was going for, evenly aimed at the guys in the audience just as much as the chicks. I really enjoyed that movie, so I had high hopes for this one as well.

When I watched the trailer, two things stuck out. First, I saw that the movie was rated R, which, unfortunately, is not the norm for romantic comedies. It looked to me that they were going for something a little more along the lines of a Judd Apatow helmed romantic comedy, as opposed to the typical Kate Hudson crap that we’re all used to. The second thing I noticed was that Charlie Day (as in Charlie from “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”) was in the flick. Seeing as how I (along with everyone else in KREJ) am a die-hard Sunny fan, it should go without saying that this movie immediately became a huge priority on my “movies to see” list.

And boy, Charlie did not disappoint in the role of Long’s roommate/friend. He killed it, in my opinion. He was my favorite part of the whole movie. He was in the movie way more than I thought he would be. There were at least 6 or 7 parts in the movie where he really got to shine. I was really happy to see that, in a movie where a handful of really funny and talented people (like Rob Riggle and Kristen Schaal) were severely under-used. Jason Sudeikis did an okay job as Long’s other friend and coworker, but I felt like there wasn’t much more to his character than a funny moustache for the majority of the film (There was a running gag about him having a moustache to attract older ladies, who are reminiscent of the 70’s, where the moustache was king). There was, however, a nice piece of business involving moustaches later on in the movie, that I thought was a nice pay-off to the gag, but it really didn’t really involve Sudeikis’s character that much. Jim Gaffigan could’ve been used a little bit more, but he was still very funny in the role of Barrymore’s brother-in-law.

As far as the leads go, I thought they did what all good leads in a romantic comedy should do, sell the relationship aspect, and be funny. Both of them had several really funny parts. The relationship was believable, but they actually dated, so that part kinda doesn’t even count if you think about it. The one person that surprised me the most was Christina Applegate. I knew she could do comedy, but I’ve never seen her go quite so blue before. She cracked me up several times, and the relationship between her character and Gaffigan’s was a definitely a different one than I’ve seen before in this genre.

I do have to say that I was actually surprised by the writing in this movie. There were several scenes where I felt like the dialogue was pretty genuine. I have to say I’m a big fan of the “that’s how people really talk” writing style that some of my favorite writers like Kevin Smith employ, and I think they succeeded as far as believable dialogue goes. I was a bit surprised that I found scenes between just the female characters just as funny and dirty as some of the scenes with just the guys. I felt the dialogue was pretty evenly balanced in that respect. I also appreciated how the writer approached certain things that most rom-coms would overlook, such as the question of “how the hell do these two have enough money to travel back and forth so often?” Surprisingly, this is writer Geoff LaTulippe’s first produced script. I look forward to seeing what else he does in the future.

As far as the film’s direction goes, there were a few shots in the movie that I liked quite a bit. One scene in particular, during the point of the film where the couple is getting to know each other, is shot in a style very similar to a documentary (all of the director, Nanette Burstein’s previous works are documentaries). The thing I liked the least about the movie was whenever a character flew from one side of the country to the other, a large map comes up on screen with line and a little animated plane to show us how a person can get into a plane and fly from one place to another (which actually happens quite a lot in a movie about two people flying back and forth to see each other). I’d say this technique is highly overused in films, and we the audience know how air travel works. They could have found a different, more unique way of showing their travels.

But that’s a small complaint. I thought the film was pretty enjoyable overall. If you’re into movies like “500 Days of Summer” or any of the raunchier Judd Apatow produced rom-coms like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and the likes, you’d probably enjoy this movie. If you’re as big a fan of “It’s Always Sunny” as I am, than this might be worth checking out with the appearance of Charlie Day alone. This is like the first widely released movie that he’s even been in since “Sunny” first premiered, and he’s pretty heavily featured, where as the other guys from the show, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney, have been in a few things, but didn’t really get to do much, let alone something right in the range of what we get to see them do on “It’s Always Sunny.” But I should also add that this film should appeal to the typical audience of your average romantic comedies as well, as long as things like crude, sexual language doesn’t turn you away.

Aaaaaaaannnndddd, that’s my first review. I’ve been wanting to try and make a conscience effort to go see more movies, and maybe the movie review parts of this blog can get me to do that more. But I ain’t paying more than $2 a ticket until some millionare decides to start funding our movies. Sooo, millionaires get on that.

Peace,
-Grantzy

Howdy howdy howdy!

Well it's been a while, but it's time for another installment of Jerry's Scuttlebutt.

Let me start off by saying that the last few months have been more hectic than the rest of the year combined. Both personally speaking and KREJ-wise. Ever since Of Rats And Men wrapped it has been one thing after another here. The good news is this has entailed all sorts of wonderful opportunities for KREJ. We've been consistently meeting new and wonderful people to work with, and have been having a blast doing so. And as previously mentioned by Grantzy, we had the privilege to shoot a plethora of short films for Relapse Theatre! Even better, the first two are online and ready for you to go watch them! So after you finish reading this most-important of blog posts, speaking modestly of course, you should totes go watch them both, and then pass them on to your friends. 

In other news, Of Rats And Men is currently in the process of being edited by none other than yours truly. We are planning to have a rough cut done by Halloween, and then we can begin fine tuning it for mass-viewing by you, our wonderful fans. But as far as a date for when the final version will be done? Well, stay tuned on that.. (honestly I don't know, there are way too many factors involved right now).

Rewinding to 2009, some of you maybe remember a little flick we did called Tim & Katie (A Nice Little Love Story, With Zombies). Well I've got great news for those of you who are clueless right now! We are going to be posting this movie, in its entirety, in the near future. Now for those of you who already saw it, there's even better news, this version will be shorter, tighter, and look a lot mo-bettah. Plus, I mean, it'll be online.. so.. you know, you can watch it as many times you want, whenever, and wherever!

Also, begin mentally preparing yourself for KREJ Productions to enter the realm of podcasting. It's been said before, sure, but this time, we really mean it (I think?).

Anyways, without further ado, I present to you the Zombie Attack shorts (more will be appended and/or posted as they are uploaded every Tues. & Thurs.)!

Love, Matthew (Jerry)


 Zombie Attack Part 1: "Birthday Party"
 


Zombie Attack! Part 2 :  "Good Samaritan"

Jeff Grantz Rantz: Our First Improv Show

So, I still don't have internet, otherwise, I would have posted sooner with the tellings from this past weekend. Currently, I am sitting in my buddy Johnny's driveway borrowing some internets. It's cool though, because he knows I am doing it. It would be a dick move to steal someone's internets and them not know you are doing it.
Some guy I made up: "Martha, why is it taking so long to download Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3?"
Martha (whom I also made up): "I don't know. By the way, who's that creepy guy sitting in our driveway?"
First Guy: "I'm not sure. Hey, be a dear, and hand me that gun."

Anyways, this past Saturday was our (Steven, Trent and myself) first improv show. We were a little nervous, I know I was at least. Doing improv with an audience is interesting, because there is NOTHING planned. At least in plays or stuff there is a script to go off of, so as long as you know your shit, you can at least blame the material if it sucks. We managed to pull our shit together right as we were getting introduced (by our new friend Ron, who was in "Zombie Attack!" and will be returning later in this story) and we took the stage.

See, the thing about the format that we were doing, the Harold, is that it is normally done with 6 to 8 performers. Well, we have 11 in our class. That makes it pretty hard to keep 11 people all on the same page. Luckily, we managed to work together and we actually pulled off a pretty good first show. We had alot of people there in the audience, so that was pretty cool. It gave me a little more confidence in myself as a performer to know that I didn't just freeze up under pressure. Not that I ever really thought that might be the case, but it's always good to know for sure.

Like I said though, it is hard to do a Harold with 11 people, so some people got a little more play than others, but everybody got to do stuff. Out of the three of us, Steven was definitely onstage the most, in a hilarious scene with Craig Zeiss (whom you will soon know as Ron from "Of Rats and Men") and Kelley Roark (due some unfortunate incident, was cut from ORAM). I gotta say (even though it fills me with udder hate) Steven was getting a lot of laughs. Homeboy was killing it. It is really hard to explain an imrov scene, it's kind of like a "You had to be there..." story, but the best part about his scenes, were him slipping in and out of a gay accent as he was trying to hide the fact that he is gay from his mom... and Craig played his boyfriend... Need I say more... OK... I will... It was AWESOME!!!

So, after our show, we definitely stuck around. If you haven't been to Relapse Theatre, for shame. That's a bunch of really funny people who know how to have a good time. After us, there was like 6 or 7 other teams playing, including the aforementioned Craig Zeiss and our current improv teacher, Jay Revis and their brand new show, "The Condition." Hysterical, that's all I can say.

After a night filled with funny shows and hanging out with Ron and some people from our class, we headed back to KREJ HQ, with Ron in tow. And proceeded to throw down. We hung out til around 4:30 drinking and talking shop, future projects and whatnot. Definitely a very fun night. Ron is an extremely hilarious dude. Check out his YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/drmagoo18 Dude was in an official adult swim commercial.

Now to another potentially fun thing. We're currently working on added stuff to our website. "Zombie Attack!" is gonna be going up soon (on the blog first, then to the video section of the site), we (Kaminski and I at least) are trying to make a conscious effort to blog more (hard, in my current broke ass state), we're talking new features, and there might even be some "Tim and Katie" action coming soon. Another thing we're working on is podcasts. We've been talking about a KREJ podcast for a while, and once we get a shedule down, it's coming, but the podcast that me and Trent have been working on with our friend Luke Brayden might be out sooner. We don't have a name yet, but we're working on it. Make sure to check in for that very soon.

And I mentioned "Zombie Attack!" earlier, and tomorrow is the day. At some point tomorrow, the first part of the 7 part series will go up. So, check back here every five minutes tomorrow until it goes up, then watch it 30 or 40 times, in a row, and then post links to them on your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot, Myspace, Xanga, Gaia, and every other social networking site in existence (if you don't have some of these, create an account) and tell all of your friends and/or break into their house and write it on their calenders. And you'll have to do that every Tuesday and Wednesday for the next 3 weeks. Have fun kids.

2,
-Grantzy

P.S. Oh, and my cousin Josh (from Tim and Katie) was this close* to getting a tattoo of Homestar Runner on his ass. But the tattoo gun stopped working. Shitty.

*I'm holding my index finger and thumb roughly a centimeter and a half apart.

What happens when the Zombies Attack

First, I want to start off by apologizing that we haven’t been keeping up with the blog, but things have been really busy around KREJ HQ (Plus, we’ve been without internet for the past couple of weeks back at casa de Grantz). We’ve been working on the edit for “Of Rats and Men,” and so far, it’s looking pretty funny, if I may say so myself. We’ve also been working on scripts like crazy; a couple of shorts, some features, and even a comic book. We also have had another project that we’ve been working on.

If you’ve been reading this blog like all good little KREJ-heads, you should know that Steven, Trent and myself have been taking improv classes at the Relapse Comedy Theatre since February (we have our first show this Saturday at Relapse at 8:00). Well, this year Relapse and the Home Park Community is doing a haunted house and they hired KREJ Productions to produce several shorts to promote the event. This project was entitled “Zombie Attack!” That’s right, KREJ actually got hired to do something. Weird, right?

Our shoot was scheduled for this past Sunday, September 26th, and it went extremely well. Everyone in KREJ was definitely on their A-game. We we’re scheduled to shoot 7 separate short films, all tying together to tell the story of a neighborhood that is under siege by zombies.

This particular shoot was a LOT of fun. This was our biggest project to date, in terms of cast and crew. We had roughly forty people involved in the production. Tons of extras. We worked with a lot of actors that we haven’t had the pleasure of working with before, and that was great. Hopefully, we’ll get to work with some of them again in the future. Also, it was really fun to be doing some zombie stuff again.

The plan right now is to release them every Tuesday and Thursday in October until the haunted house opens. So, keep an eye out for those. And go down to Relapse and check out the haunted house. And why’ll you’re at it, check out all their shows every week. There’s some funny people down there at that Relapse.

There’s a lot of great stuff in the KREJ pipeline, so keep checking in. I’ll try to get onto everybody and get them to blog more. Oh, and everybody wish Jerry a Happy Birthday today. You’ve got ten minutes of today left.

Take it bleezy,
-Grantzy

Just when I think I'm out...

They drag me back in! Got some zombie news, but you will have to wait till later for that.

So, it's been a while since I have posted. Many moons some would say. For those of you that have been reading you know how crazy production got for "Of Rats and Men". I think I have finally recovered from it.

For me that film has been an endurance test. The fact that things kept going wrong has wore me out. The best way to sum it up for us is something like this "We had our backs against the wall, and then the damn wall fell down on us". The good news is that as a group well all came together and bonded even more. I feel we are a stronger unit now.

Rats is currently being edited, which means it is in "Post-Production". Jerry is working hard to get a rough cut done. We are still looking for music to add, so let us know if you know a band.

I do believe that is enough Rats info for now.

Which brings us back to the zombies. Thanks to a contact at The Relapse Theater (haven't been there, you should!) Krej Productions has been called in to work on a zombie project. Yup back to the zombie well we a go-go!

It should be fun, and I look forward to it. We are going to be filming about 6 1-2 minute shorts at the end of the month. Most of them will be in one shot, so expect to see them at the start of October.

What else, what else? I feel like I am forgetting something.

Oh yeah! Dragon Con came and went. How I miss it already. 4 days of Halloween. It was a great victory lap for the team after the insanity of this summer. Maybe Jerry can post some pictures from it (and "Of Rats and Men" to).

Whelp that's all I got for now. Well not really, but the season premiere of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is about to come on, so deal with it

Keep it real Krej Heads,
Jeff K

"Of Rats and Men" Trailer

I just wanted to say that just moments ago the trailer for "Of Rats and Men" went up online. Please check it out, and give us some feedback somewhere, on here, or YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, krej.tv, something... Just do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SPwryOS76Y&feature=youtu.be

Ok, now I'm gonna go back to playing Robot Unicorn Attack for another hour.

"Of Rats and Men" Production Blog #4

Sorry it took a while. Here’s the recap for Sunday.

Sometime late, late Saturday night I got a really bad headache. I’ve been trying to quit drinking sodas for a little while now, but can’t go a day without caffeine without getting a really intense migraine. I really didn’t need to have a headache all day, so myself and young Trenton struck out at about 3 AM to score some caffeine, despite having no idea where we were going. Eventually, we ran across a 24-hour CVS right next to a Huddle House. After we noshed on shitty diner burgers, we headed back to the house where we were filming, and spent the rest of the night chilling (literally, because it was too hot inside) in my car, and listening to an episode of Never Not Funny (a hilarious podcast hosted by genius comedian Jimmy Pardo). The podcast ended at exactly 6:00 (on the dot), right as the food, provided by the wonderful Stephanie Norton, arrived and Kaminski came outside to meet her. After breakfast, we started shooting.

As with Saturday, we again had to rush to get everything with Diane and Steve out of the way, so they could be wrapped by 10:30. And again, we managed to wrap them just in time. We started off with the final scene in the film, a fun scene to shoot for me, because I didn’t have a whole lot to do. So, I spent the entire scene doodling on a sheet of paper, which I hope Kaminski can find and post up here, but I don’t imagine he will do soon, because it is supposed to be a testimonial, which I wrote in character (for no reason) and it is full of spoilers.

After that, we went around and finished up all of the scenes that had Steve and Diane, and we sent them on their merry way, to be brilliant somewhere else. The last scene we shot with Diane was in the garage, which was hotter than the rest of the house (and possibly even Hell) and was an extreme hassle for all involved, but especially Craig and I in our jump suits. But whereas I was a whiny little bitch, and ran out to get some air every time we cut, Craig persisted and hung in there like a champ.

After we left the furnace, I made myself scarce while Trent and Steven shot a couple of scenes outdoors. To be completely honest, I have no idea exactly what happened in these scenes, and I’d like for it to stay that way until the premiere. I like there to be some surprises when I watch the final product. It’s no fun watching a movie for the first time and knowing every single thing that’s gonna happen before it happens, so I always like to be elsewhere while certain scenes that I’m not in are being shot. Lucky for me (and maybe the viewer too), there were a lot more scenes that I wasn’t in in this film as opposed to Tim and Katie, which had such a tiny cast that we all had to be there for pretty much everything.

As I said before, we had to recast Chris into the “Vernon” role, which made the scene he had already shot, a hilarious soap opera spoof, unusable. So, everyone was really excited that our original choice for “Vernon,” Mr. Jan Lefrançois-Gijzen was able to come in and make a small cameo in that re-shot scene, along with his girlfriend, Katie Causey. Given such a quick scene to shoot (it only took about 10 minutes) Jan and Katie really brought the funny in a big (and sometimes uncomfortable) way.

After the soap scene, we shot what was the funniest, craziest, most high energy scene to shoot for the entire project. It takes place in the climax of the story, and features myself, Steven, Craig, Dasha, Chris, Trent in full-on Billy Hutton mode, guns, a rat costume, a lot of screaming, and a LOT of insanity all going on at the same time. It was intense. I’ve never been a part of insanity such as this in my life. I can’t wait to see how this scene looks on the screen, because it was a blast to shoot. There are a few scenes that I am really excited to see how Jerry cuts them together, and this is one of those.

Unfortunately, I was wrapped after that scene, along with Steven and Trent. Trent and I had to head out early so that we could drop Matt off at another gig. Jerry filled in on sound for the final couple of scenes. The first marked the return of Lake to do his final scene with Dasha. Everyone was nervous because it was starting to look like rain, and Lake was running behind because he was coming from North Carolina, where he was doing another shoot. Just before he got there, it stopped raining just long enough for them to shoot the scene, which I hear went really well. Then, the cast and crew packed up, waved goodbye to the house (I’m guessing that part, like I said, I wasn’t there), and headed over to the final location where Craig and Richard Hoard reportedly knocked it out of the park in a matter of minutes. I got the call just after I got home that we filming had been completed.

So, that’s that. It’s a wrap, as they say. Principle photography is completed on “Of Rats and Men.” I think we managed to do something that is interesting and a lot more diverse than any of our past projects, but it still has the core of what makes it a KREJ film. There has been talk of shooting an extra scene or two, nothing crucial, just a couple things to bring everything full circle story-wise, but we haven’t officially decided whether or not to do so. For the most part, we managed to shoot everything we set out to shoot as planned, and in a lot of places, things turned out WAY funnier than we expected. That’s what you get when you hire great talent.

On that note, I’ll go ahead and admit it, we got lucky. We somehow managed to pull together an amazing cast and crew for this film. If it wasn’t for some of the stuff we’ve been doing outside of KREJ (improv, acting classes, etc.), we wouldn’t have never met most of these incredibly talented people that we had the immense pleasure of working with on “Of Rats and Men.” I would like to take this time to thank everybody that was involved in some capacity or another, alphabetically or course (sorry Craig). Here goes:

Matthew Aschberger
Nick Bilz
Brenda Breedon
Katie Causey
Diane Dicker
Brett Grueber
Richard Hoard
Johnnie Holland
Keegan Ingram
Dasha Jordan
Jeff Kaminski
Carla Larson
Jan Lefrancois-Gijzen
Matt Levy
Regina Nicole
Stephanie Norton
Melissa Owens
Chris Parsons
Steve Pryor
Kelley Roark
Lake Roberts
Hakim Robinson
Trolle Selander
Steven Teuchert
Trent Whitmire
Craig Zeiss

I don’t think I forgot anybody, but if I did, I’m really sorry. Keep checking in, because we will be announcing when the premiere of “Of Rats and Men” will be as soon as we set a date, and hopefully, since we’re done with shooting, we can start blogging again soon.

-Grantzy

"Of Rats and Men" Production Blog #3

OK, first of all I want to apologize for not putting this up sooner. We didn’t have internet access at our filming location, and between work and trying catch up on all of my lost sleep over the weekend, I haven’t had time to post this production blog. After many scheduling conflicts the past several weekends, we finally managed to get everyone on the same page and we finished shooting the latest KREJ short, “Of Rats and Men.” It’s over. We can all breathe a huge sigh of relief now, except for Jerry, who has the honor of editing the film.

There were some changes on the cast and crew line up. First, because of scheduling conflicts with our original D.P., Hakim, we brought in Nick Bilz in. Nick was a real joy to have on set. He really busted his ass this weekend and we appreciate that. He somehow managed to come in, and blend seamlessly into our little group, so well it felt like we have been working with him for a long time. He really fit right in, and we hope to have him back in the future.

Our second line up change up came during the previous, when Jan Lefrançois-Gijzen, the actor we cast as “Vernon” regrettably informed us that due to personal reasons, he could not make it in to film his scenes. It was unfortunate, but luckily, we managed to enlist Chris Parsons to play the part. We had already filmed a very short scene with Chris in our first weekend, so that had to be added to schedule again to be re-shot with a different actor. We we’re very fortunate that Jan managed to come in and shoot the short, but very funny, scene and we got to have him in the film after all. I do want to apologize however to Kelley Roark, who was in the original scene with Chris. Unfortunately, I could not manage to get in touch with her to ask her to come in to re-film the scene, but we we’re lucky enough that Jan brought his girlfriend, Katie Causey, along to sub for Kelley. They both did a great job, and I really look forward to seeing that scene on film.

Ok, so here’s a little breakdown of what happened this weekend on set.

Saturday:

I don’t think anybody got any sleep Friday night. Most of us drove done to our shooting location in McDonough the night before filming. Trent and I had to work Friday night, so we didn’t even get on the road until almost 1:30 a.m. We arrived roughly around 3:00 a.m., with sound guy Matt Levy and Chris in tow. We were met in the driveway by Director Jeff Kaminski, who couldn’t sleep. We filed in, and everyone choose a place to sleep, but it was no use for me; I was up until call time. It sucked having to sit around while everyone else slept (or tried to) waiting to start shooting. I never was good at getting any sleep the night before a shoot. I think it’s a mix of being excited and a little nervous.

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long for call time. After the numerous delays, we had decided to move our start time up a little to 6 a.m. in order to accommodate a few of our actors, Diane Dicker and Steve Pryor, who had to be wrapped for the day around 10:30 a.m. This seemed like a daunting task, as will all of our past projects, we’ve had a little problem with meeting our pre-decided wrap time. I have no idea what got into us this past weekend, but we somehow, seemingly out of nowhere, morphed into a well-oiled independent film production machine. We pulled a Barry Allen (or perhaps a Wally West) and moved faster than we ever have in the past. Everybody pulled far more than their own weight. Actors we’re nailing it take after take, not a line forgotten. Crew was setting up and striking down sets in the blink of an eye. We were able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. OK, not really, but you get the picture. I guess after being delayed for three weeks, we all had a lot of pent up aggression, and wanted to get this thing in the can.

There were a couple of times though, where we got held up for a minute or two, here and there. One of the most memorable was when one of my contacts fell out during a very physical scene I shared with Craig Zeiss. I had to run down stairs to the basement/our holding area, and grab my contact solution. When I came back up stairs, everyone started feigning concern for my well being, each time calling me by a different famous actor’s name. Needless to say, this became a running gag. Everyone was ragging on me, calling me everything from Al Pacino to Michael Cera to Whoopi Goldberg. Some of my favorites include Larry David, John Goodman, Zach Galifianakis, Betty White, Kevin Smith, and Snooki. I eventually egged them on even more by challenging them to guess which name I was thinking of, Don Knotts, which Craig finally got.

Despite the little eyewear annoyance, I still have to say that that scene in particular, our big finale, is probably my favorite one we filmed. There was a lot to this scene, and it took a good chunk of the day Saturday, as well as a little time on Sunday to film. The majority of the cast we’re involved in this scene: myself, Craig, Chris, Diane, Steve, Steven, Trent, and Dasha Jordan. I think Dasha might have had a little too much fun. We could all see how holding a prop gun, and getting to push me and Craig around went to her head a little. I kid… a little.

We got a lot of other great scenes on Saturday, including several scenes between Chris’ “Vernon” and Diane’s “Wilma.” These scenes were very pivotal to the plot, but there were no worries, as they both nailed each scene. Another really fun scene we shot is a promo for a wrestling event we filmed featuring Johnnie Holland (who you may remember as the landlord from Tim and Katie) and a priceless director cameo from Mr. Kaminski himself. I went to sleep on the couch right before they started shooting this, and was woken up by screams and whoops from the two, not realizing that they had set the green screen up right in front of me, and was filming the scene just two feet away from my sleeping head. It was strange looking back at the footage and realizing all this was going on right next to me while I dozed.

We managed to get Diane and Steve, who were both exceptionally fantastic, out on time, which is a KREJ first. We then went on to wrap for the day very early (another KREJ first), and when we were done we didn’t really know what to do with our selves for the rest of the night. We did get to sit down and watch all the footage on the projector downstairs in the basement. It’s a real bonding experience sitting down with some of the cast and crew watching all of our hard work from the day on the wall in front of us.

I wanted to try and write up my blogs for both Saturday and Sunday, but somehow it is already 5 a.m., and I may or may not have a doctor’s appointment early in the morning, so let’s finish this up tomorrow, shall we?

Stay tuned for Sunday’s Production blog. Same KREJ time. Same KREJ channel.

"Of Rats and Men" Production Blog #2

Hey everyone, it’s time for another update on the filming of “Of Rats and Men”. We’ve got the first weekend out of the way, and after we take a little break next weekend for the 4th, we’re gonna get right back into the swing of things.

Unfortunately, today we had a very late start due to the typical problem that KREJ tends to run into every time we film something… we we’re locked out of the location (You might remember on Tim and Katie, we were locked out of the gate that leads to the cabin, and we may or may not have cut the chains to get in there). Fortunately enough, we weren’t locked out of the entire location. See, the plan was to shoot a scene out in front of a local exterminator’s office, and then go behind the building, which is surrounded by a locked fence, to shoot three more. The plan was for the manager of said exterminators to have someone leave the gate unlocked for us last night. Alas, there was a misunderstanding, and either the person in charge of leaving the gate unlocked for us failed miserably, or some other asshole came along, saw an unlocked lock, and with the impression that they were doing good, did the opposite. So, we had to shoot the one scene out front, and then move another scene, that was meant to be shot in the back, to the front, which, in the long run, ended up working out just fine.

But, there was still the problem of the remaining two scenes that we had originally planned on shooting behind the building. We lucked out though, and came up with a last minute replacement location. So I want to thank Tommy and Lee, my managers at the pizza place I work at, for allowing us to film behind the store, as well as full use of the back door to complete our scenes. And all we had to do for it was take out all the trash for them. A few of the people on the set fell in love with me a little bit when I introduced them to the walk-in freezer, which after two days of filming in the hot sun, was the greatest feeling in the world. Next time, we just need to write a film about two guys who sit at home all day, wearing shorts, and enjoying their air conditioning. Probably won’t be too interesting of a movie, but damn would it be nice to film.

Things went a little smoother today, due to the fact that we only had 4 actors total working today, instead of the 7 we had yesterday. All of today’s scenes featured Craig, Steven, and myself, and we had a short, but really fun scene with Carla, who was a real sport to put up with some of the lines directed to her by Craig’s hilarious character Ron. After the slow start of the morning, things moved relatively quickly once we got the ball rolling, and we only slowed down a little when large clouds started blocking the sunlight for sometimes up to 5 or 10 minutes at a time (At which point we’d visit our old friend the walk in). But we pushed through, got some good footage, including our first scene of this project where we got to experiment some and do a bit of improv. I can’t wait to see what of all the improvised stuff we did ends up in the final edited film. I can think of a few hilarious lines that Craig delivered that I would love to see in there. There was also this great moment in a scene where Steven’s character is supposed to storm around the corner of the building, in a rage. When Kaminski yelled action, Steven, not telling anybody he was going to do this, launches a traffic cone (that I still don’t know to this second where it came from) from around the building, and stomps straight up to me. I had a hard time to keep from laughing, as I didn’t expect it at all.

One thing that I'm really glad that we're doing this time around, is taking a lot of pictures. The entire time that we're on set, whether we're filming or just sitting around waiting, someone is always carrying a camera, and constantly snapping photos. Trent, Matt, and Jerry got a lot of great pics today, and a lot we're taken yesterday as well. Hopefully, we'll be able to post a few of those up on the website or our KREJ Productions Facebook group as soon as possible (become a member if you haven't already).

At around 3:30, we finished all of our exterior Lawrenceville scenes, but unfortunately, the set backs from the whole location fiasco put us far enough off schedule that we didn’t have time to move on the our last location, an office building in Conyers. But that’s ok. That’s what make-up days are for. I do want to apologize to Richard Hoard though, because we didn’t get to shoot his scenes, which is a shame, because I was looking forward to those.

I do wanna say that, despite these set-backs, the heat, and all the general headaches that come from film making, today, Hell the whole weekend for that matter, has been a lot of fun. One of the best times we’ve had making movies here at KREJ. We have a fantastic group of hard-working, hilarious, and talented people putting a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this thing. So, we have to start dipping into our stored up make-up days. But doesn’t that just mean we get another day together, to work hard, and laugh harder? I like to think of it that way.

Two weeks is a long time to wait to until our next shooting day. The worst part about shooting all weekend, and then going back to work all week, is dealing with your regular job responsibilities, while the whole time thinking how much you’d rather be on set. No matter how much crap we have to put up with during a shoot, it’s always a hundred times better than the day job. I’m very much looking forward to shooting again, because next time we’ve got a lot more actors coming in, including Jan Lefrançois-Gijzen and Dasha Jordan, from our improv class, and Diane Dicker and Steve Pryor, who answered our casting call, as well as the return of Craig, Steven, Trent, Lake, and myself. Can’t wait.

Well, until next time,
-Grantzy

"Of Rats and Men" Production Blog #1

What a day. What a day. The first day of production on “Of Rats and Men” is finally over. Ok, so technically it was over hours ago, but this is the first chance I had to get to a computer all day. In my last blog I promised to do a production blog every night after we shoot. So, here goes:

I wanna start by saying we’re behind schedule… 30 seconds behind schedule. We got everything we needed to shoot today, with the exception of one short green screen shot, which we moved to tomorrow. Tomorrow we already have a green screen shot scheduled. It only makes sense to do them both at once. So, this is barely a dent in our schedule. We had a very productive day, albeit a very long day. This is probably the most productive day in KREJ history!

We had a great cast and a great crew. Like I said last time, we had Hakim Robinson and Regina Nicole from Eyes Entertainment return as D.P. and A.D. We also had Melissa Owens, our make-up artist from Tim and Katie return to make us look pretty, as well as getting in front of the camera. Brett “Da Gruuub” Grueber and Johnnie Holland also showed up to give a helping hand, and Brenda Breedon, an old friend from the days before there even was a KREJ, was our script supervisor. We also had some KREJ first-timers join in on the fun. Matt Levy is our newest addition to the crew, killing it today on sound. For someone that never worked on a film before, this kid didn’t miss a beat. Great job Matt!

As for the cast of this thing, holy shit everybody, this is not gonna be one to miss. We have an amazing cast, including people from three different comedy theatre around Atlanta (Relapse, Dad’s Garage, and Sketchworks for those wondering). Today we had the pleasure of working with Chris Parsons, who worked crew on Tim and Katie, and Kelley Roarke, a fellow improv student. They showed up when we asked them to, and waited patiently until it was their turn shoot, and then killed it. It was definitely one of the funniest scenes to shoot. But not to knock everyone else, because everyone brought their A-game today. We also shot the first of a couple scenes featuring Lake Roberts, a terrific actor who is currently appearing at Dad’s Garage in “The Change: Another Teenage Werewolf Musical,” (see it before it’s run ends in early July). After today, we’re really excited to shoot his other scenes, which unfortunately won’t be until the next shooting weekend.

We also got a lot of Steven’s (who is a trooper for standing outside all hot ass day in that rat suit) better scenes shot, including the introduction of Trent’s Billy Hutton character, which trust me world, you’re not ready for. We filmed all day in the blistering hot sun in Lawrenceville, and ended up wrapping for the day in Atlanta, with the first scene of the film, featuring Steven and myself. For the first time today, I realized that it’s been exactly a year since we wrapped production on Tim and Katie. This means that I haven’t acted on camera in an entire year. There were a few hiccups when, by the time we got to my scene, I was struggling a bit to remember my lines for the first few takes. I eventually pulled myself together, and we managed to get through it. I promise tomorrow I will try to step it up a notch. (I know “Do or do not, there is no try.” Yoda!!)

As the days go by, I realize more and more how much I love producing. It’s a lot of hours and a lot of work, but for me the payoff is totally worth it; I get to put my name on something that I’m proud of. In Tim and Katie, I was credited as a producer, but it didn’t really go much farther than hiring Trolle Selander (who will return on “Rats”) to do the Special Effects and help make a couple of creative decisions here and there. But this time it’s different. I’ve been handling everything single thing I could get my hands on, and I’ve been loving every second of it. Our biggest goal in “Rats” is to make the most professional project we’ve done yet. Everyone single person is pulling their weight, and it’s going to show in the final film.

I just wanna send out a huge thanks to everybody who helped out today, and day one is officially behind us guys. We’re all really excited for tomorrow, where we’ll be filming in two actual locations, and working with Carla Larson, Richard Hoard, and Craig Zeiss, who has a very good chance of stealing every scene he’s in, like a f-in criminal man. I know I’m gonna have a hard time not breaking with this guy. There’s gonna be some good times on the set tomorrow. Let’s hope tomorrow goes as well, and as problem-free as today.

Well, it’s way too late, I gotta get up way too early, and I still have way too much left of this quesadilla. I’m gonna shove this delicious Mexican treat down, and then pass out as if someone chloroformed me.

Dueces,
-Grantzy

It's almost time...

Hi everybody,

Man, has it been a long time since I’ve done this. I do apologize for not throwing my two-cents in here on a more regular basis. All of us here at KREJ have been extremely busy on pre-production for our latest short, “Of Rats and Men,” which longtime followers (yep, still telling myself that someone is reading this) will know this to be the prequel to a feature-length script called “Rat Bastards” written by one Jeff Kaminski. (That’s right Tarantino we spell it like Americans!)

And boy has there been a lot of pre-production to do on this thing. One of the big things I’ve been working on is locking down one of the major filming locations. This will be the first time we use a real business for a location in the history of KREJ. Mostly we’d use friends’ houses and woods and stuff, but this time we’re using a couple different legit locations. One of those is a local branch of an exterminating company, and the other is an office building where one of our actors work. We’re excited to have gotten permission from these people and we thank them.

I had to lock down the Director of Photography and Assistant Director as well. I’m happy to announce that we’re again going to be working with Hakim Robinson and Regina Nicole from Eyes Entertainment as D.P. and A.D. respectively. We’ve previously worked with them on our last film project “Bored,” which I promise will be coming to you in one form or another very soon.

I’ve also been doing a lot of work organizing everything as far as emailing actors and crew. A lot of scripts and schedules and whatnot being sent back and forth. We are still waiting on a few members of the crew to be locked down, so we still might need some more help. If you’re in the area and would like to help, check out the KREJ needs Crew group on Facebook, and if you haven’t already, join the KREJ Productions group there as well. That group used to be the Tim and Katie fangroup, but we switched it over to an all-KREJ, all-the-time kinda thing. So if you were a member of the T&K group, you don’t have to join again, we already got you. We recently posted a few pre-production pics from “Of Rats and Men,” some pictures of people in costume, and a few from a couple table reads and rehearsals we’ve done so far. We also got a couple of really nice group shots with almost everyone in the cast.

Speaking of the cast, we’re thrilled to be working with a lot of new talent that we have somehow managed to aquire this time around. Of course, you’ve got fan favorites Steven, Trent, and myself returning, but a large portion of the cast are people we’ve never worked with before, and that’s something that’s very exciting for us. I’m telling you, we’ve got a really funny group coming at this thing, and I know they’re gonna get out there and make with the funny. A good bit of the performers are people Steven, Trent, and I have met recently in our Improv class at the Relapse Theatre in Atlanta. A few others, are people we’ve known for a little while, and even a couple of people that just answered our casting calls. We got really lucky to bring together all the talent that we have.

I also wanna give a couple of shout outs. First one goes out to Stephanie Norton. Some of you might know her as an Executive Producer on Tim and Katie, others might know her as Kaminski’s mom, we know her as the person who feeds us when we’re on set (and God are we grateful). Stephanie deserves a huge shout out because she saved our ass on this one. As some of you might know, we had a company (that to my understanding predominantly makes animal/mascot costumes for Furries) enlisted to create the rat costume for one Stevie Teuchert to wear for his role. Last second, due to some beef they had with someone else, they decided to say, “oh yeah, we’re just gonna not do that.” We we’re willing to shell out our hard-earned money to these guys, and due to reasons that have nothing to do with us personally, they ditch us. Not good business friends. So anyway, who swoops in to save us at the last second, but Mrs. Norton herself. In just 5 hours (the other guys quoted us a month), she managed to bang this thing out, and man it looks a hundred times better than we ever imagined it. I bet it looks better than the one the other guys we’re gonna make us, cause we had the options to customize a couple of things. It saved us an ass-ton of money on the thing too.

The other shout out goes to our own Jerry, because he took a random stupid idea I had, and weaved it into gold. In this film, wrestling play a decent sized role in the story. We decided early on that we we’re gonna have one Johnnie Holland (who you might remember as Mr. Roberts from Tim and Katie) take on the role of a pro wrestler. I threw out the idea that we take a picture of him and make a t-shirt for my character to wear in the opening scene of the film. Again, he took the idea I had in my mind’s eye and made it a hundred times better than I expected. I guess what I’ve learned here, is to quit having such low expectations for everyone around me. Hmm, I guess I’m an asshole. All’s that’s left to do now is get in touch with the guy who’s supposed to be having the shirt made for us, so we can have it in time.

I mentioned earlier that I haven’t blogged in a good while (which explains why this blog never seems to end), and I plan on making up for that during the shoot. Every night, after we wrap, I’m going to do a new blog reporting of the events from that day’s shoot. It’ll be like a short diary from the set. Very short seeing as how we’re only planning on shooting for four days.

All of this work we’ve been doing, and I still got a to-do list almost two pages long. I still gotta call the people at the locations, call the t-shirt guy, get a hair-cut, wait til my costume arrives so I can make sure it fits right (then have it altered if it doesn’t), re-read “Rat Bastards” to refresh myself with it, take meetings with a few different people for scoring and music and stuff, record an actual song, figure out this whole damn carpooling situation, make a shit-load of phone calls, and then I just gotta send about 37-thousand emails. Fun. Oh well, at least I got stuff to keep me busy these next few days until we shoot.

But, it hasn’t been all “Of Rats and Men,” for me. I have, whenever I can find the time, been working on a couple of other writing projects. The first being a very very rough draft for a feature length script we would love to tackle next summer, entitled “How Not To Make A Movie.” It’s very loosely based on a true story involving us fellas at KREJ, and our experiences in the business of show. The other is a very gritty buddy cop short entitled “T.J. Freelove.” It’s a story I’ve had in my head for well over 2 years, but haven’t written a word on it. I finally got behind the keyboard and started banging it out, and at this point in time, I’m roughly half-way through it. It’s got some very fun characters, and I know we’d have a blast shooting it. We’d like to shoot this sometime in the near future, possibly after whatever we shoot after this (I hear the stable boy has been cooking up a thing or two in that old noggin of his).

Oh piss, It’s 5:15 in the morning, and I’ve been pre-productioning my ass off for the last 5 hours. Time for sleep. Night. Bye.

-Grantzy

May Day! May Day!

Happy May everyone!

I have no idea why none of the other Krej people aren't blogging. I like how we are midway through May and Steven hasn't announced the winner of April's D-Bag contest. He shall be flogged for this.

OK, so as always things are very busy for Team Krej. The past two weeks we have been doing table reads at the Relapse Theater for our new movie "Of Rats and Men". It has been going amazing, we have recruited a wider range of actors this time around. And they have been awesome.

One of the things that I noticed during the readings though was the story was a bit lost. It was funny, but I feared the audience would have a hard time figuring out who they were supposed to cheer for. I had myself flogged for not being a good writer. The good news though was that this had been figured out early on.

During pre-production on "Tim and Katie" I had a gut suspicion that the relationship between Tim and Jimmy needed to be worked out more. But I ignored this as I was to busy just trying to get the movie made. That was a big mistake. And after the first table read I got that same gut feeling, that something in the script wasn't right.

So now that I have learned from my mistakes I reworked the script. This afternoon I finished up what I hope will be close to the final draft. What was wrong was Steven and Grantz's characters were drowned out, so I gave them an opening scene and reworked how they interact with everyone else. With a bit of luck the audience will now know they are the central story.

In other "Of Rats" news we filled out the cast and locked in one of the locations. We were hurting to have access to an actual exterminator office. Good ol Jeff Grantz came through and found us one. Now we just need to find a house we can film in over a weekend and all locations are locked.

So far pre-production has been much better then it was on "Tim and Katie". At this point last year we had one location and lot's of question marks. All we need now this year is one more location and a director of photography (and camera). Both of which we have some options for. It is a very good feeling, and I am somewhat on guard. Normally things don't go this smoothly for us, so I am sure something bad is about to happen.

Outside of that not much has been going at Krej Productions. We have been hyper focused on "Of Rats", which doesn't leave time for much else. With production slated to begin at the end of June, it's time to dig in and get ready. Going to get onto the other guys for not posting more, stay tuned for more Krej Heads!

Your Hero,
Jeff K

Cutting it Close

Hola,

As I promised I would try and get around to posting more then once a month. And here I am at the last moment fulfilling my promise. Cutting it close? Maybe, but that's how we roll at Krej Productions!

So what's been going on at the scuttlebutt? As always a lot!

Starting casting for my new movie "Of Rats and Men". I have just a few roles left to fill. The big difference between this production and "Tim and Katie" is we are going outside our pool of friends to bring in actors. Thankfully Steven, Trent and Grantzy have been taking improv classes and have met new/talented people to help fill our ranks.

Another big change is the use of more locations. Which is proving to be the Achilles' heel. We are desperate for a house we can film in for a weekend, and a Pest Exterminator's office we can film in for about a day. The idea with all this new stuff is to up our production value. We want each film to be better then the last in some way.

In other production news Hannah Davis has begun story boarding the "Hero Sandwich" short. With a little bit of luck we will be able to show you more much sooner then later.

How about them Braves? Been hard to watch the 8 game loosing streak. But it's only April, and I have this deranged gut feeling that they are going to turn things around on May. Go Bravos!

For the three of you who keep up with the "Douchebag of the Month" competition, I have some news. Young Steven Tuechert is well on his way to clinching his first win. He easily has my vote. So if over the weekend he declares himself winner, he has my support.

As for the long lost "Director's Critiques" of "Tim and Katie" I will be honest with you. I haven't worked on it one bit. Not enough time on my end. Pre-Production for Rats has been taking up my time. And I feel that is infinitely more important. But if the stars align and I find some free time I will try and finish it up (when I last stopped I was about halfway done).

Last but not least, Jerry did a great job adding the "Talents" page to the website. Just needed to give him some props. Also if you want to help out with our summer productions let us know!

Peace out Krej Heads!
Your Hero,
Big Daddy K

P.S. You STILL need to listen to Titus Andronicus, that band has been getting me through a very craptastic week.

T&K Update 9000

Greetings and Salutations to you all! It's been a while since I've Scuttlebutt-ed, so I thought I would type up a little something something to keep you all abreast of what's been going on here at KREJ HQ.

For starters, things are in full-swing for pre-production for 'Of Rats And Men', our short-format version of Rat Bastards. We are gathering actors and actresses, and the script is almost finalized, and we have begun scouting for locations. We still need a couple more Actors and one Actress, so click up top under the Scuttlebutt title to go to our talent page, or just click here for details on the project, as well as more in depth information on what, or rather whom we are looking for.

In Tim & Katie news, we have made a new edit of the film, trimming some fat so to speak. The new run time clocks in at 50 minutes ( the original was 59 ), and in addition to a faster pace, there is more color correction and a better look and feel to the video, as well as better sound work. We'll be sending out this new version to film festivals as early as this/next week! So cross your fingers! Below are a couple pictures to show off the new look.

(It should also be noted, in payment for the quick turn-around on this baby, Steven bought me a chocolate cake. <3 )

One Love,
-Matt

Bored to Death

Hi everybody!

Friends of ours, and occasional collaborators, Eyes Entertainment have posted their 1st Quarter demo reel on their website. You may be asking yourself, how is this KREJ related? If so, then that's fantastic, because that means someone other than the 5 idiots here at KREJ are reading this thing. The answer is, featured in this demo reel are clips from the most recent KREJ Project, "Bored," a short film which I wrote and directed, and that stars KREJ usual suspects Jerry, Trent, and Steven, and KREJ first-timer Eric Colom. The demo reel also features some clips from a film that Trent and I worked crew on for a couple days, entitled "The Morning After," which we had a lot of fun working on.

The link for the demo reel is: http://www.eyesentertainmentinc.com/content/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=57&task=videodirectlink&id=13

The Cinematographer for Eyes Entertainment, one Hakim Robinson, did a great job on all of these projects. They really look amazing. I swear, if we had just one shot at it, we'd steal his camera in a heartbeat (just kidding Hakim).

We encourage you to give it a watch, and leave them some feedback on their website, which is: http://www.eyesentertainmentinc.com

And for those of you wondering when you might get a chance to see "Bored," a dark comedy in the format of an extended movie trailer (similar to the trailers in Grindhouse), in all it's un-glory, we are currently in the midst of post-production on it, and we'll be throwing it up on the website as soon as it's good and ready, OK?! Back off man!

Nooch,
-Grantzy

Want news? Oh I can get ya some news!

Hellowski from the polski!

I trust the nice spring weather is treating all you very nicely. It's been a while since I have posted, but I assure you this has been because of a busy schedule and not laziness. So, where to start, where to start...

OK first things last, I've been doing A LOT of writing lately. Finished up a 1st draft of my summer project "Of Rats and Men". Going to refine it some more in the next few weeks. Also started pre-production on the project. Trying to round up actors and locations. Was able to get Trolle (Tim and Katie gore master) to sign on to help with some special effects stuff we will need for it.

If you happen to know anyone who works at an "Exterminator Company", please let me know. I really need to lock down that location before the end of spring. Also here is some concept art for Steven's character in the film.Pretty neat huh. We have Hannah Davis to thank for that! Everyone give her a round of applause. And while your at it give me one to, I figured out how to post a picture without Jerry having to tell me how to do it.

In more writing news last weekend I also tried an experiment. I wanted to try and see how much of a script I could write over the span of a weekend. The story has been in the back of my head for the past couple of years, and it seemed like a good time to flesh it out. I was able to get the story done and about 60 pages of dialogue. It was fun pushing my mind and body to the limit, there was very little sleep on my end. But it was worth it, I really like the story and can't wait to finish it.

In other Krej writing news, Jeff Grantz and myself have been working with another company developing a TV pilot. It's been an interesting process. We had to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) to start on the project. So legally I can't tell you anything story-wise about it.

What I can tell you is that it was originally to be a feature-length film. A few companies said they would rather do it as a TV show, So the company put out a call for writers. Thankfully someone Grantz and I had previously worked with, put our names in the hat.

So we have been trying to turn the full-length script into a short TV pilot. It's been pretty fun. The producers kind of gave us cart blanche to develop new characters and story arcs. We will be sure to keep you posted on what we can. The plan right now is spend the weekend trying to get a rough draft (last night we finished up a strong outline) done and in the hands of the producers.

In "Tim and Katie" news, Jerry is very close to finishing up a re-edit of the film. This new one should be faster-paced and cut some scenes down that may have dragged on a bit too long. He also did some really nice color correction on it that makes it look amazing.

Also I am going to try and finish up my critique on Tim and Katie in the next week. I am about halfway done with it. Unfortunately it has been somewhat of a low priority as my plate is very full at the moment. You will be able to read this critique in the newly-implemented Critique section of our website. There, KREJ Directors will self-critique their projects, and offer up all sorts of insight into the various stages of production. Rumor has it Steven is writing one up for Saving Suburbia, KREJ's first short film we worked on.

Whelp time to be hitting the ole dusty trail. I will be doing my best to post more this month, but no promises. Take it easy Krej Heads!
-Jeff K

P.S. If you haven't heard of the band "Titus Andronicus" go listen to them right now. They have an album named "An Airing of Grievances", like from the "Festivus" episode of Seinfeld. If that hasn't sold you on them, you might be in dire need of intense psychiatric help.

He did it ladies and germs

Well with a new month comes a new champion, in the form of jeryy assberger. Pulling now punches and delivering a showstopping preformance last month jerry managed to beat out every other competitor for the douche bag glory. his prize for this accomplishment for this feat is a free can of axe body spray

Who will it be???

The month is winding down, and what a month it has been for d-baggery. Every player has given it their all, and left everything on the field. Just in case you missed it, I'll give you a recap.

Jeff Kaminski has pleased his fans by making a strong start in the early weeks by attempting to write philosophy...who cares Jeff? Not only did he decide to be a pretentious asshole, but he passed up two, count them, two girls who for some ungodly reason were showing some interest in him, thus he won major d-bag points there.

Not to be out done, the other Jeff had a strong start in March by making me drive allll the waaay back from Atlanta to Lawrenceville, then aalllll the waaay back to Atlanta for no damn reason. In an even more stunning turn of events, our own Jeff Grantz managed to up his game by starting a rap group.....a RAP GROUP, need I say more?... I will, it looks as though Grantz will be attempting to pull off an impressive two month victory.

I did manage to get on the score board for multiple accounts of shooting Nerf darts at unarmed civilians, and not showing up at places when I was invited, and not bothering to pick up my phone. While both Jeffs and myself offer up amazing examples of d-baggery they will both have to contend with the astonishing amount of points scored by Jerry, who for some reason decided to take a two week vacation from.....??

So as of now it seems as though Jerry is in the lead, but there has been promise of a last minute victory by our first month winner Trent. What could he be hiding up his sleeves? We have already seen his balls too much, so showing us again would just be amateur hour, he will have to pull out all the stops if wants the title back in his slimy grasp. Its heating up to be one for the record books, that's for sure!


STAY TUNED NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Steven




(edited for mass comprehension by Jerry)

Back in the USSR.. err the ATL!

Well hello there folks! I'm comin' atcha from KREJ HQ, I have once again returned to my domicile, after a lovely near-two week stint of visiting Greg & Hannah down in Savannah, GA.

Also, a belated Happy St. Paddy's Day to you all!! This weekend will bring many things, one of them, the arrival of Da Grub. Another being a St. Paddy's party this weekend with some friends coming over to KREJ HQ. It should be quite the blast, as you kids say.

Unfortunately, there still exists a problem with our internet, and I am currently using our apartment complex's internet cafe wifi network, so it's slow as dog molasses.

I saw a bunch of movies/films while I was down in Savannah. Among them, Crazy Heart; which was every bit of excellent I hoped it would be. Mr. Bridges was nothing short of superb in his role as an old, busted up country singer trying to reclaim a slice of fame and joy in his musical career, battling the super evils/terribleness of more modern 'nu-country', as well as a beastly case of alcoholism.

I also watched Boondock Saints II : All Saints Day. It was pretty alright; as most people would tell you, not as good as the first, but still enjoyable. Plenty of action, a couple plot twists/reveals, and the usual helping of what us guys love most, guns, swearing, blood and more swearing.

Did a little more design work in planning for the poster we are putting together for Hero Sandwich. Really excited about working on that! Also changed my personal site design like 3 times. So yay?!

In my email inbox is a short version of our feature length script Rat Bastards. Will probably try and read it tonight, or else someone is gonna give me the third degree. Read your scripts people send you kids!

Until next time,
-Matt

Diatribe? I'll give it a try...

Despite paying the people at At and T good/quasi hard earned money, I find myself without internet. But wait a second Jeff, if you don't have internet how are you blogging? Easy answer, I am "borrowing" ze inter web. Jerry is also out of town so no one is here during the day to try and fix it. Not totally sure how this situation will resolve itself, but I am sure I will figure something out.

So what's been going on at Krej? As always a lot of a little things. First and foremost I just got back from Savannah (which is where Jerry still is), I spent the weekend celebrating my mother's 50th birthday. That's a hard concept to process, time flies by so fast sometimes. I had a great time, and my mom really enjoyed herself.

On behalf of the Krej crew HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!!! I love you very much and appreciate all you do for me and the guys at Krej (she kept us well fed and alive during the "Tim and Katie" production).

Whilst I was in Savannah I didn't miss the opportunity to work. I know the concept that someone as profoundly lazy as myself would work on vacation might have you feeling a bit light headed. So take a moment and let that sink, when you are ready we can start again.

OK, that was plenty of time for you to recuperate, now where was I? Oh yea, Savannah. My good friend Hannah lives there, so I got to spend some time with her talking about "Hero Sandwich". And got to watch her draw some concepts for "Titanium Cranium". Hannah is an excelent artist and I am very glad to be working with her on this.

Also while on the way down I was able to lock down my summer project. Over the past two months I have been toiling away on various short scripts. They weren't bad ideas, but I couldn't get anything to stick. And finally I had a eureka moment!

My grand scheme is to take my feature length script "Rat Bastards" and cut it down to 20-30 pages and film it! Obviously I will rewrite a lot of this, it's not going to be a copy and paste process. I plan on adding some new characters, taking some out and reworking the plot (but keep it similar in tone to the original).

I am going to spend this week working on the script and try and hammer a rough draft out. Once that is done it will be time to start rounding up the cast/crew. The goal is to film early summer (I had the same goal for "Tim and Katie" but we didn't start production until mid July for many reasons). So anyone in the Atlanta area who wants to help out give me a shout and I will keep you up to date.

Speaking of "Tim and Katie", we are going to add a new page to website. It's going to be a section where the director of each project critiques their own work. So expect articles from me and Steven concerning our films.

Before I digress, I would like to point out that in an earlier blog I praised the writing of "Hurt Locker". And lo and behold what has happened, that film's writer took away an Oscar. Definitely glad it beat out "Avatar" for best picture as well. Whelp time to hit the dusty trail, take it easy Krej Heads!