Bad news on the Dave Does Disney front

There’s been a delay in getting the remaining episodes (one on Hollywood Studios, one on some of the resorts and Downtown Disney, and one “grand finale”) out because I’ve been so busy with my actual job (by the way, have you seen the zBlog site yet?), but now the delay will go on longer because today, a mere few days after I put the finishing touches on the next two episodes, my external hard drive died without warning.

I’m pretty mad at myself, since I kept making a mental note to back up the videos, but kept putting it off. Yes, I am stupid. Feel free to point at me and laugh derisively.

Anyway, right now I can think of four options:

OPTION ONE: I can simply re-edit the remaining videos. I believe I still have all the raw footage I shot last year on other hard drives (and if not, it’s all on tapes at my parents’ house), so I could re-edit, but I spent so long editing these the first time around that I have no idea when it would get done. It would be a BIT faster if I remember everything I did last time, but it would still be a pain.

OPTION TWO: Since I’m back in Florida for a few months, I could start over COMPLETELY from scratch, shooting new, far superior footage with a more current look at Hollywood Studios and the resorts.

Reasons I might want to start over from scratch:
(1) I was already planning on doing a post-series follow-up on the things that have changed anyway, so this kills two birds with one stone.
(2) I would have to rerecord the narration anyway, and something about re-reciting my impressions from my first time at Hollywood Studios, now that I’ve been there so many times since and have a different perspective on it, feels…disingenuous, I guess? I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.
(3) There was a lot from the old versions of the videos I was never satisfied with. As I’ve mentioned, this wasn’t originally meant to be a detailed review series, but a much more casual “goofing off at theme parks” video. Since the project developed in editing, I had to settle for some really bad shots of some rides, shows, or locations because they’re the only ones I happened to have. Starting over would give me a chance

The reasons I’m reluctant to start over from scratch are:
(1) It would take EVEN LONGER than just reassembling the footage. I don’t even know when the next time I’ll be free enough to visit a Disney park is.
(2) I really don’t feel like going to all those hotels again to collect footage.
(3) I don’t like the idea of the last few episodes being a different style than the first three, even if it’s an improved style. I’m a fan of consistency.
(4) While there was stuff I wasn’t satisfied with, there were plenty of other things in the old videos that I was really proud of, things that I wouldn’t be able to recreate with new footage.

OPTION THREE: I can adapt the scripts from the remaining episodes into written blog posts. This would be the easiest solution, but also the least satisfying. As I said, I don’t like the idea of the series changing styles in the middle unless it’s clearly a “new season” or something like that, but at least you’d get to hear all the obscure jokes that I think are so hilarious even though only three of you will get them

OPTION FOUR: Pray that my hard drive will miraculously start working again, at least long enough for me to back up the files.

Anyway. I’m going to not think about it for a few days, and hopefully come back with a fresh perspective. Feel free to let me know which option you would lean towards (or if you prefer a different option altogether!)

Once again, I’m really glad so many of you like this so far, and I’m really sorry it will be so long before you see the remaining episodes.

But hey, in the meantime, you can watch Tony Goldmark’s Disney park videos, which are funnier (and have more profanity) than mine anyway!

A boy forever young, a mediocre song forever in your head, a high school drama team forever awesome.

In a shocking (not really) turn of events, a great deal of my spring break this past week was spent at the ol’ high school, CHS. Even more surprising (not really), this was directly connected to the performance of the spring musical. The most unexpected part of all (not really) (it’s so easy to convey sarcasm in a text-only format) (not really) was that I was one of the camera operators for the DVD of said play, there at each performance.

And what musical masterpiece was selected for this year? “Peter Pan”! But which of the 427 musicals based on the beloved children’s story was used? Apparently, the only one we could afford! Which, by coincidence, is the one nobody has ever heard of! Continue reading

Kentucky DIE Chicken! WIth a side helping of MURDER!

It’s common knowledge that the necessary evil of the television world is commercials. Sure, their existence pays for our precious TV programs, but then we use all our scientific knowledge on devices that allow us to avoid the advertising experience, such as TiVo, the VCR, the mute button, the bathroom, etc.

Even the people who make commercials know that they are doing dirty, soulless work. As a result, nobody really expects commercials to have effort, heart, or coherence. I realize this. But I expect commercials to make a *tad* bit more sense than the KFC ads I’ve seen recently.

The commercial, for those of you who haven’t seen it, features a friendly-looking woman pulling up to a KFC, parking next to a Tyson truck, talking about how the chicken is fresh or something. She then says “How do I know? I’m the cook here”, as she dons an apron and hat. Okay, a bit pretentious, I suppose, but fine…except at the bottom of the screen, it clearly says “ACTOR PORTRAYAL”.

And suddenly, with those two little words, NOTHING in the commercial makes any sense anymore.

WHY did they need to hire an actress to read some facts and say she’s a cook? Were there no actual cooks at any KFCs who looked friendly enough? (Actually, I suppose that is a possibility.)

Okay. Fine. So, they figure we’d rather look at a friendly-but-nondescript actress than an actual cook. So why bother having her claim to be a cook? Do they really think we’ll trust her more on this issue if she claims to be a cook? Because that trust is kinda undermined by those words at the bottom of the screen. If she’s willing to lie about being a cook, how do we know she’s telling the truth about the damn chicken? Frankly, I’d be more inclined to believe her claims about the chicken’s freshness if she just admitted “How do I know? Because I’m reading it off a damn cue card!” At least then we can believe she’s honest.

Go to hell, KFC, for causing me untold sleepless nights of anguish with your stupid, nonsensical commercial. To hell, I say!