Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

With the movie done I actually had time with nothing to do.....


But last night I was so tired I just slept it off. But today is another day! As usual when in a project the sun is shining and the weather is great and women are all around in their finest or sexiest; so good weather and good scenery and all the rest. But when that project is done you wake up with the beginnings of a cold, it is raining outside and all the rest. Around 9:30 I should be off to hand over our hard drive to get that DCP hard drive and coupling device for theater screening. We need it fast for Sudbury if they accept us, but if not we still need it for other festivals and also for our advocacy in general.

The fact is that that movie is our general mission statement to the world and I can hold private and public screenings at all sorts of events including UN and UNESCO events with that DCP drive. It is a much better solution than those eight DVDs nobody has the time to watch.


So that is the plan now - get the DCP drive made before the deadlines.


It is odd now; actually having a moment when nothing urgent needs to be done. You feel lost and uncomfortable. That is what happens when you are doing nothing but "catching your ass" making a movie in record time and finishing it up to broadcast standard. Speaking of which I want the artist collective to do the DCP work. I could give it to the usual suspects in broadcast up to "DELUXE" (Vikings, Resident Evil: Final Chapter, Into the Badlands, Crimson Peak, The Expanse and so on) but I would be low man on the totem pole there and wickedly expensive. So we do it the usual way.


Wow the rain is really coming down - this will be a fun day!


Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

I'm slowly getting back to normal.....







So I dropped off our hard drive to be made into a CRU drive for the theater projector and sound system and I like the people who I selected. Like the idea of giving editorial control to outsiders in the broadcast industry, to make the show more "broadcast friendly", we can't go against our founding philosophy which was: "By our voice and by ourselves!" Same here, I went back to those in the artist collective, as we aren't forgetting those that brought us - as the saying goes. So it is in the hands of Andrew who will help us try to get the audio to 5.1 standards. Remember that this movie is not only entertainment, but also advocacy - the new anthem - and we stay the course and don't bail from our founding objectives for something cheap and tawdry. We go this way with people we can trust.....


But man, what a couple of months! It was Michael's idea to cut the series into a movie. I was weary of going in a new direction but gave it a quick go - and like Nirvana who listened to their album "Nevermind" for the first time - it looked really good! If it can hold the attention of millennials for two and a half hours, we really have something here! Sure it has issues but the issues are wedded to the time frame it was produced in so it is honest, it is pure, it is a message - the new anthem!




Superman and Kryptonite



The message is all important! Everything else is secondary. If Sudbury does not let us in - we apply somewhere else, but we keep the message pure! Look, in two days we find out our fate with Sudbury, and I won't lie to you; the subjective judgment always works against a guy like me..... Like Superman's Kryptonite, the subjective judgment is always my downfall. But I can't do anything about that. It is what it is, so keep that in mind when things come to a head on Friday which is judgment day for the Sudbury Film Festival. If we don't get in I go to the Untied Nations when they have their big General Assembly meeting with Presidents and Prime Ministers and hang out there instead.....


Apart from all that as I said before - I am getting back to normal. Sleeping the night through which means I am actually tired. Doing some errands, and sleeping another couple of hours on top of that. But I am preening myself up a bit as I let myself go finishing the movie. I will make sure the bills are paid and the house gets cleaned. Just take it easy and wait for our fate.....




Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

Not say'in much for the next few days.....


Just backing up files and cleaning up the house for Thursday. It will be cool to not have to touch the editor this weekend. I will burn a few DVDs and hand them out to my gang over the weekend but I can relax ' relax while waiting for the verdict on your film from Sudbury - so not truly relaxing but a form of relaxing.....


And that is it. We wait. It would be nice and even cool to be there at the Sudbury Film Festival and hang out with other filmmakers and see each other's films and all of that. That is a new experience for me if it happens. Just when I thought it would just be more of the same from now on, fate throws you another curve ball and you find yourself in another universe, this time movies.



Wish us luck and we will see what happens tomorrow. I am optimistic but rejection does not bug me as much because I have been there in the music and TV stuff, but breaking the news to my gang is the bother and that could be rough, so I really hope we get in! But I should warn you that tomorrow has some leeway if I read the deadline statement. So it could run into the weekend. The wait continues.....



Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

I got the notification date wrong and it's not today - but tomorrow.....





CRU Drive



So I'm just going to chill and say very little. I did finally get that CRU enclosure on Thursday. They call it a CRU drive as that is the name of the company that manufactures the enclosure. When we test the CRU drive at a theatre with flying colours, I will make a copy using this left over enclosure. It's Murphy's Law so I'll have two whenever we screen to the public. Apart from that it is doing nothing. This is excruciating for a guy like me but good therapy. You need a break even if it is not for mind but for body.


Anyway, for the faithful still following this adventure - keep following it. Hehehehehehehe.....




Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

Judgment Day!


We are supposed to find out our fate on the Sudbury Film Festival Today. I am going to resist temptation and keep my mouth shut as opposed to the long rant I had planned. What I will say is that I had a spat of bad luck lately, the little ones which is what I desire. I want little bits of niggling but inconsequential bad luck and one bit of major good luck. The little bits of bad luck are coming in regularity. The latest was a few hours ago when I ordered my mocha with whipped cream at Starbucks and got black coffee with whipped cream on top. I tossed that mud onto the grass! And that is the sorts of bad luck I was having. Before that it was a lock that seized, and on and on..... That increases the possibility of good luck but these are probabilities and nothing is a lock. Another sign is delays. The longer a decision takes, the better our odds get. Sure this is the date, but things could drag on. The people slated for screening have to be given theaters and times and all this has to be co-ordinated. While if you were slated to not be screened there is no reason for delay - so they just send you your "soft landing email" and that is that. So, as much as I tear my hair out at the roots waiting - the waiting means the odds get better.

That is about it. Early next week we get our CRU drive and 5.1 audio and we are good to go. I have not forgotten our real reason for all this but I love throwing yourself into something like this and having some fun. You got to work in the fun where you can. And believe it or not - I love the drama of possible acceptance or rejection - it pushes all the emotional checkboxes for me, and I love the sensation.....




Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

And the answer is?


The answer is that we don't know yet. We are now officially in overtime. This is not unusual though and we at FOF have been here before ourselves. What it does mean for me is that the pendulum has now shifted to us more than likely, going to this festival. So today I continue with plans as if we got the nod for a screening at Sudbury. The fact is that if they say yes today or in a few days things get harder for me. I will actually go to the movies today and check out one of those ATMOS sound systems. I am assuming it is Dolby Atmos with 128 tracks! That is one of the reasons we went to 5.1 as it's just too embarrassing to present with 2 tracks at a theater anymore. But if I don't go today it gets harder to see a movie during the week so we have to carry on.


The best part is taking a break from the editor! Just having nothing to do is great! It won't last but I can relish just having the option to do nothing. So we just continue and see what happens. Time is getting short.....



Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

So after several years watching DVDs and Blurays, I finally went to the Cineplex.....




The Cineplex and yes that is my Mustang out front!




The Cineplex in its entirety - huge!



Up till now I always thought the big stand-alone aging and falling apart theater was the way to go. Bigger screen, no intrusion from other movies and such. Well I have to admit things have changed. I went to see Mission Impossible: Fallout with Tom Cruise - and in 3D (a first for me). The plan was to go there and check out the screen resolution and audio so as to get a base line for what is state of the art at this time and compare it to my more humble product. Well first of all there are more speakers than the six for Dolby 5.1 - I saw two huge subwoofers at the back with rows - yes rows - of speakers flowing toward the front at the walls and ceilings. Presumably you could track objects (individual sounds) around the room to create auditory movement. So the audio would be first rate. The screen was enormous as big as any stand alone theater so that was the biggest shock - the Cineplex is a match for any traditional theater - and the movie started..... Then the titling appeared telling you to put on your 3D glasses now, and I had no glasses with me! So off outside I go and after figuring out where the glasses were at each 3D movie entrance I picked up my pair and removed the cellophane outside as I could hear that inside quite obviously. Bam - 3D!


So this was 3D!


Ok, so I have done the 3D thing before most recently with Google Cardboard but maybe it's my glasses in the 3D glasses but the screen really shrinks when you watch 3D. Or at least that appears to me. I kept flipping from glasses on to glasses off - or tilted up - and some scenes are just 2D like close-ups and some are 3D. So that was 3D! It actually added to the experience but I could see this could get old fast, but whatever.....


The audio was kind of flat for most of the movie. The big ass action sequences seemed to have more mono feel to them using volume for action. There were a few impressive stereo moments and occasionally you could hear individual objects out of individual speakers, but not as much use of the audio than I would have thought. This is not a criticism as much as a virgin eyes notation. Like at the FOFSTOCK concert I had one camera inside the stage area and another out by the crowd and several "B" roll team members inside the crowd. But those two cameras were where I would get the audio. So when Jelleestone takes the stage and interacts with the crowd you hear Jelleestone on one microphone and on the other side you hear the crowd reacting and cheering and chanting! We shall see how that translates into the experience as we try to fill up six speakers; so I can see the dilemmas for the audio guys on Fallout.


As for the actual movie? Well you suspend disbelief mostly although credit must be given to Cruise who did most of his own stunts and even broke his ankle on one. The funny part is that he jumps to this other building ledge and he limps away with me thinking - at least they made him limp a bit with that jump - when in actual fact he had just broken his ankle! But still mostly disbelief though I have a soft spot for Cruise as he is two years younger than me and can still pull the leading action man thing off! Two atomic bombs about to go off and a detonator that slides to the edge of a cliff and on and on. Then comes my movie about real life and I just groan as the kids have been trained to look at this as the norm. No wonder my stuff is seen as watchable but "boring" even though we are putting on TV shows, putting out our a newspaper, publishing books, making music and holding a big ass concert in Toronto's "Times Square" and then trying to change the world at the UN - and still it inevitably gets graded against fantasies like Mission Impossible: Fallout!


Anyway that is what I did on Sunday. Still no news from Sudbury but hang in there folks. For those who wonder if they know our application even exists, yes they do as I called them up with a question about the video submission and they located the application and even made a notation about something in there - so we are there. We just wait but carry on as if we are in. That is unnerving mostly but I am used to it, though the others aren't.


But yes, we come up short with reality as opposed to fantasy. Cruise has to save to work in spectacular fashion, while me and a small army like me try to save the world through advocacy, speeches and provocative ideas. That reality just can't compete against the fantasy of today's action pictures and comic book revival heroes..... But the world is in a tail spin of sorts. The world does need saving! But you do it without action and force, but through calm, cool and collected nerves, good ideas, and maybe, just maybe you can save the world from that tail spin, from going splat! A softer landing for the human race as technology runs amuck and faster than we can handle. It won't be pretty but it can be done.


Reality and not fantasy.....




Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGHP4uGImX4&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

I had to do some business in Mississagua this morning so a late one. Sudbury is now starting to update its upcoming program for September and still in there but it's happening now. We may or may not get it but the word should come down soon now.


So I'll just shut up and cross my fingers.




Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

Still chilling.....


I will wash the car if I don't have to rush out to do something Wednesday morning. Sudbury is still making selections and now things start to go negative for our chances as that dwindles down. I told some of my gang to be prepared for rejection as they are always positive on these things while I am always negative. But we just have to see for ourselves.




The CRU drive and pelican case!



I picked up a new pelican case for a CRU drive on Tuesday. I was trying to get used but I got wholesale prices on a new one from a distributor so that works for me! Other than that I just keep my mouth shut. People still want to join at IAIJ so I will make some time emailing them after I post this. My birthday is coming up in late September (September 23) and I don't feel old but the year tally says you are getting there..... One thing I have learned bitterly is that you can't provoke change with a ground war. Or in other words, you can't change things in your life by yourself. The things I value most emotionally are just being accepted in my community. Like not walking down the street and having people wish you were dead. Or, dating anyone I wanted without worrying if some guy was going to smash your head in with a hammer. Stuff like that. Always the subjective judgment - my Kryptonite. I did win cases in employment where there was obvious racism involved but you can't do that forever and it is depressing. Long story short - we are coming up on 60 years of my life (actually 59 but 60 sounds better) and really, nothing has changed for me. You still draw every negative connotation on you just based on your appearance and name, nobody cares that you were born here, a prairie boy at that, and you just wished for once that your own home, city, nation would give you some feeling of belonging. I know I am not seeing this through filtered glasses as internationally things always go my way - and then on the home front everything comes to a screeching halt. What am I to make of that.....?


It is what it is but I can't change ingrained attitudes one person at a time - that is the ground war. You have to do it at the top and let that mechanism filter those new ideas to the population. So what I am doing internationally is a good thing. But me trying to do things as an individual in my home country is pretty much a marathon of frustration and futility. Yet emotionally you want it that way as opposed to the rational way that works. How wacky is that! At least I have some measure of influence to change things even if it will be too late for me personally.


Anyway that is what is going through my mind as I type this.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

There is just too much going on and y'all know how I loath crises management. But some of it is good news.



More later.....

[Maurice Ali]

Taking care of business.....


We still have a little bit more growth to do at this organization before I tie things down and start to make it work as a totally independent entity. Not as bad now but starting these things up can be expensive. Realistically though the orgs have carried themselves since FOFSTOCK in that I haven't gone into any extra debt since them. But that does not mean they aren't sucking at my tit for money, so the next step is to have them sustain themselves on their own.


Even though we are this idealistic, advocacy based organization, much of it is actual business! We run advocacy as a business. You can't keep your advocacy freedom when someone else pays the bills. Right now that is me but since I am also the founder there is no compromise between the organization's principles and goals and mine as they are one and the same. But bring in outside parties and you can guarantee their influence will be felt. That is one reason I made the orgs to literally run on vapors. Therefore, if they ran out of cash they literally just scaled back projects that required cash until they got the cash - but the organizations still stayed in operation. I loathe leases and such, as it is the fixed operating expenses that will kill you in the end. Anyway this is not Business 101 but all I am saying is that the longevity and integrity of your organization is directly linked to the cash box and who controls it!


You may be surprised at just how many businessmen and businesswomen follow my adventures on this blog of sorts. The lure is that while we have the not-or-profit in IAIJ, the other five corporations are all for profit and I work the for profit business side to help the advocacy. I'm no meek mannered sweetheart, and I have learned when to be a "bad ass" to forward our altruistic intentions. In my experience the academic world may have their hearts in the right place but they lack the fortitude, the cunning and - for want of a better word - ruthlessness to gain an objective! You need a guy like me operating under a moral imperative, but basically a slum dog swinging a base ball bat to provide the necessary motivation to get things done or get things changed! Most of our accomplishments happened when I applied the "necessary motivation" to get the job done..... So business is watching this side show. And: Business or most particularly "Big Money" may be my savior if we actually get the chance to make the biggest of big plays and really change things - messing with the machine. In this strange wacky way, the big money and our agenda can work together toward a common goal. If you wanted to know where my power will ultimately come from - well it will probably be from the Big Money.....



But enough of that. Like I said, this organization is almost becoming too big. You got to watch that as adding another organizational layer can bury you. I have deliberately kept our organizational structure where it is precisely to avoid that. Bigger is not necessarily better if you just barely make it to the next organizational layer as you have to meet the minimum resources to sustain that layer and we may not have that kind of money yet. But I digress. Thursday was talking to my gang and explaining the facts of life and rejection and how to deal with that. They are all positive and itching to go on a new project we have been thinking about for a few weeks. I put away my bat and wallowed in "everyone's" plight in life to test a few things in the last month or so. Things pretty much went down as I expected. There will be no more wallowing in self-pity. The bat is coming back out and we are back in business!




Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTgn-l-8vUc&feature=share


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEbRFc8O0QA&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

Surprise!

[Maurice Ali]

With the film festival websites and social media accounts up and running I decided to do some home reno work and fix a leaky faucet. This thing cost me an extra hundred bucks on the water bill and was getting worse. It is amazing how a minor thing like that sticks in the mind when you hear the leak in the house. Note: I have been doing home reno work for decades and it is always a pain in the butt - something always goes wrong!



The original fix!


So I cut off the lower pipe that attached to the source pipes and put two valves there to stop the leak and replace the faucet at a later date. So far it was wonderful. Then returning some stuff to Home Depot I saw the exact same old fashioned laundry room faucet on sale. This would mean just attaching it to the compression valve bolts I had and I was done! Of course if you didn't know better, you would cut the pipes and try to attach the faucet only to find the compression bolts were not included! There is a special Hell for people that do this shit at the company that makes the faucet! But I had the bolts from the valves I already installed. So I patted myself on the back with regard to my home reno acumen and attached the faucet. These faucets were crudely made but I got it attached with good old fashioned heft. But now it all went wrong. I noticed a leak from the pipe connector above the faucet. - shit - and that was the side with the old valve that actually worked. The other side was the hot water valve that didn't close that lead to the facet hot water valve that also would not close. I groaned and committed myself to doing this right and replacing all the valves and crappy solder pipes. What the previous owner did not do was to de-bur and sand down the ends of the copper pipes so they would go all the way into the connectors. He compensated for this by just adding tons of lead solder. So when I twisted the joints making the faucet water tight the thing cracked and started this leak.....





The proper fix!



I spent the night removing a heavy cupboard that was integral with the pipes and carefully cut the downspouts again above the offending joints and valves and threw all that away. I attached the valves. - bought more valves than I needed because reusing them can crimp the seals - and hoped and prayed these joints above would hold water. They did and I went to bed. In the morning I tested the valves and all good to go so I put back the cupboard - a real pain in the ass that as it is heavy as all Hell - and replaced all the contents and all the supplies I had on his plastic pallet underneath. Then I replace the washing machine tub to its downspout and cleaned up and returned all that useless crap back to Home Depot for a refund. And that is my weekend so far.



Fun? Not!

[Maurice Ali]

Well this just happened:


http://fortressoffreedom.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2969


And so the completely different and formatted for HD "Real Life: Real Lives" is now a movie short. I soaking in the tub as my AVID editor spits out another DNxHD file and then that get rendered into a QuickTime movie for the online screener and sent to Sundance.


I always like to try something different and so sending in a short and a feature length film all at the same time should be cool and somewhat out of the norm. We will see what happens.

Like I said I'm in the tub, so I'll leave you all now and get ready to mow the lawn. It may be a long weekend but I never run out of things to do.....


Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

This was a successful weekend.....





Real Life: Real Lives




I finally got the leaky valves replaced in the laundry room that were a constant bother in my mind. That was the big score this weekend! The other big score was the completion of the "Real Life: Real Lives" movie short:



https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8942206/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1


And don't forget about our feature length movie:



https://m.imdb.com/title/tt8770798/?ref_=m_ttmi_tt



This was completed and is already "in consideration" at Sundance! We stand little chance but it is a cool little 18 minute short on homeless street youth. So more time and money down the drain with this one but it is another movie, and another line on your filmmaker resume. The fact is I have only so much time left to be as vital/dynamic as I am now, so you push everything out there you can!




Real Life:Real Lives



I checked in on my gang and updated everyone. They are all on-board and excited about all this even though I try to tone down expectations. Man, there is so much going on. I was so focused on getting the short in before Sundance's deadline (September 14) that I forgot we are doing the film festival I just announced..... Now that is having a fast-paced life.




Sabrina Singh: Real Life:Real Lives!



I also mowed the lawn while files were being rendered but I didn't vacuum the house yet. I just love having a productive long weekend! Things got done which strokes my "A" personality to a "t"..... So it's Tuesday right now. I may get the message to finally pick up the DCP from the video company downtown. If that happens we will scout around to check out a theater so we can have a private screening to check out the quality of the transfer and that Dolby audio. That should be fun though - again - another hit to my wallet. But you only live once and if you shirk back on the interesting stuff you just end up with a boring life.





Shane Murphy: Real Life: Real Lives





So we rock on.....