Here are some still images from the Math Wizard shoot on Saturday

As Michelle and I sit watching the Academy Awards ™ I’m imagining a future when I have to give an acceptance speech. So with the filming of the Math Wizard spots Saturday going off without a hitch I think it’s only appropriate to extend my own special thanks to our talented cast featuring Fawad, Sophia and Saggar as a family frustrated with thier math tutor played by Khalil and dual spokeswomen Jennifer and Mouzam. We’re also thankful to our location scout Darius and everyone at One On One Tax where the spots are filmed. The crew, my childhood friend, cinematographer, Michael S. Ojeda and of course I’d like to thank the academy…… Oh I need more time, my wife, the amazing producer, Michelle, I have to thank her. I need to thank everyone on the south side for keeping quiet on 79th street. Pat on the set, Teek and Augusto with graphics and design. Parag for hiring us and making the trip from Ohio. Everyone at McDonalds for the lunch and everybody I’m forgetting. Check back soon for some screen grab photos and the edited clips.

We’re one day away from production of our newest commercials for Math Wizard, an Ohio based learning center that enhances children’s math and English skills.

The spots, directed by David Miller, feature a competitions learning center and a wacky tutor trying to teach a young boy his lesson only to find that he’s overmatched by a ten year old. The spots will be filmed for Mimi Productions on the south side of Chicago by Cinematographer Michael S. Ojeda featuring a talented cast of nine actors.

Stay tuned for updates and photos from the shoot over the next few days.

So I guess this qualifies as a viral video… I had the pleasure of catching the Indiana Jones 4 trailer the day it was released and it was a pleasureful morning in part because the trailer actually looked good, content wise if not quality. The trailer brought back some nice memories from my childhood when movies lived up to expectations or better yet set expectations so high they would never be met. For many kids my age it was Star Wars and I put myself in the mix as a fan but not a fanatic, but my true hero was Indiana Jones and the chills it brought me as a eleven year old. I remember begging my grandmother to bring me to the theater to see the original over and over and her tolerating the film to see me enjoy it. Months later I traded a copy of “The Howling” for a betamax copy of the original Indiana Jones and watched it over and over with the very poor quality, dubbed a thousand times look that it had. Anyway a few days back when I saw the “sneak peek” of the trailer on the WGN morning news ripped off from the web with a quality very degrated and similar to the old Beta film that gave me chills years ago I got chills again. Not necessarily because the trailer was amazing but because it brought me back to my childhood again when Indiana Jones was the man.

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I like the video I saw earlier today with the dancers on the subway dancing to Thriller.  It reminded me of my buddy Kyle’s video he made in high school years back.  That video was a serious attempt at a remake and didn’t have any significant comedy to it other than hoping with all my heart that Kyle becomes famous so I can show the tape to Jay Leno and embarass him.  Maybe with Kyle’s permission I’ll post a clip of his video so you guys can check it out and start the embarassment early.  

So I was watching the fox video of Montel Williams when he’s asked a question about Heath Ledgers death and started going off on all the dead soldiers not getting attention in Iraq and it got me thinking. I’m getting a little sick of all the paparazzi coverage of things, mostly Brittany Spears, and I can see the Heath Ledger coverage building a little but at least there was some news there. The thing that pissed me off with Montel is that regardless of how much he’s put into the public awareness of the war he’ll still be a hypocrite in my book and gets a thumbs down for taking an any means necessary approach to getting his Iraq message across. Take a deep breath Montel and focus your anger in a more positive way towards the politicians who can make a difference.