NaNoWriMo

Just started writing a NaNoWriMo novel! Well I had started one before but this is a better one...

You can read part 1 here.

blog: this shit's all topsy turvy!

Yes!!! One of the happiest purchases I've made in a while. I don't usually post self-gratuitious bloggy things but Cabin in the Woods will always be an exception to everything.

blog: shut up, little man

And a scotched-up Omar tries to ruin everyone's fun.

blog: didn't think so...

It was worth a shot.

blog: there I am!

It was recently H.P. Lovecraft's birthday so I looked up this old cthulhu terribly told story story I did back in Santa Barbara. I am absoutely humbled by the company surrounding the video on YouTube.

hi yes I'm back!

Hi.

Yeah, I've been away from this blog for a bit. Things got in the way. Things and stuff. But anyhow, I'm back and I plan on keeping this blog far more updated. But there will be changes:

-first of all, I'm getting rid of the reblog page. Instead, I've got a tumblr (which you can check out here) where I'm just going to reblog stuff. Because tumblr is like the reblog thing.
- secondly (or second of all), I am going to be doing a lot more writing. This is because I'm trying to make writing my job and, as stated in a link posted by my friend Steven, it's stupid to run away from the thing that you want to do more/get paid to do/do even more of.

And that's about it. I'm still trying to catch up on catching up in terms of putting all my pictures on here. One day though, one day I will be done.

Okay, I'm gonna rest. Bye.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- shark weekender

SHARK WEEK! SHARK WEEK! SHARK WEEK!

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- off-beat musical thespians

Here is our episode for off-beat musical thespians!

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- adult swimmer

Here is our episode for adults who watch cartoons.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- star wars vs star trek pt 1

Here is part one of our star wars vs star trek geek debate.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- star wars vs star trek pt 2

Here is part two of our Star Wars vs Star Trek geek debate.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- westerns

Here is our episode about the best westerns (ha!) on Netflix instant watch.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- jurassic party

Here is our second Maybe Wil Wheaton will show up party. This time it was Jurassic Park themed!

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- dark knight rises primer

Here is our video we did right before Dark Knight Rises came out.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- mia's joker pencil trick

Here's an episode of Mia Makes It Cute where she draws the scene from the Dark Knight in which the Joker makes a pencil disappear.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- pretentious film student

Here's our Hey That's On Netflix (Instant Watch) list for those pretentious film students out there. We're probably going to do another episode.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- Quarter Academy

Here is the first (and only, so far) episode of Quarter Academy- the 25 cent comic book club.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- Black Widow movie

Here's a rant I did about the lack of Black Widow movie.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- American Sitcom Lover

Here's a Hey That's On Netflix (Instant Watch) for those sitcom lovers. The ones from America. The American sitcom lovers.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- prometheus party

Here's the first episode of our Maybe Wil Wheaton will show up parties. This time (the first time) we threw together an party inspired by the Alien/Prometheus franchises.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- Kick-Ass Girls

Here's the episode of the top five kick-ass ladies on Netflix Instant Watch.

reblog: omfg it's beautiful

So the folks at CERN took all their Higgs data and turned it into music. And it's beeeeeeautiful!!!



Via io9.

blog: fun with the TDKR app

Hooray for marketing! WB just released an awesome VR intensive TDKR app. So I used it on PJ.

reblog: so this all seems horrible

First it's a dead whale. And then you realize... No this is much worse.

Sharks attack whale from Rachel Campbell on Vimeo.

Via iO9.

P.S. That girl is nuts.

movies: 2 Broke Geeks- broke animator

Here's this week's Wednesday episode of 2 Broke Geeks about how to be a broke animator!

photos: Evan visit

Just uploaded some pictures of my friend Evan visiting and us going up to the Griffith observatory.

You can check out the rest here.

blog: rotten tomatoes on that's my boy

It's nothern solstice and that means the summer Thundercats are go! Which means we are in the heat of Hollywood blockbusters trying to be released before Dark Knight Rises dominates the box office. Which means it's prime Rotten Tomatoes time.

Rotten Tomatoes can get a bit difficult to check sometimes. Either the critics are extremely violent or the fanboy reaction is extremely violent or the 99 out of 100 times that both are occurring at the exact same time.

Here are two critics on the film That's My Boy:

Now usually these posts get flooded with low-brown fanboy reaction that most of the time puts forth arguments like "you're the worst" and "go dig yourself a ditch" but today, like that fateful day in December during WWI when the Germans and English played soccer, a mircale has happened. Everyone can agree that That's My Boy deserves a 23%.

Here's Eric D. Snider's review of the film:

And here is the audience response. To save you time, I've highlighted the LOL's and LMFAO's in red.

Christmas has come early. And it's called summer solstice.

You can check out Eric D. Snider's comment thread for yourself as well as the RT page for That's My Boy.

blog: y u no let me do things?

Photobucket has a website page just to stonewall you in case you can't visit the website itself. Hardest game on the internet in my opinion.

photos: IV trip

Just uploaded some photos from my trip to Isla Vista that I took at some point.

You can check them out here.

photos: SLO trip

Just uploaded some photos from a trip to SLO!

You can check them out by clicking here.

photos: LA zoo

I just uploaded some pictures from the LA zoo!

You can check them out here.

blog: geeked out facebook thread

This is why we host a show called 2 Broke Geeks

movies: margarita salt

This is the first episode of Margarita Salt that I wrote and got to act in like a year ago. It was a ton of fun to work on and was a complete labor of love. HUGE PROPS to Georgina who poured her heart and soul into this.

blog: bad advertising

Um... no...

reblog: Leighton Meester singing

Leighton Meester is a really good singer!

reblog: Prometheus review

After seeing Prometheus, I had a lot of questions.

And then Red Letter Media made this video which made me feel better.

movies: HTON PBS

Here's the new episode of 2 Broke Geeks about the top 5 PBS things on Netflix.

blog: when you see it...

This is why we are friends.

movies: GvG Marvel vs DC

Here are the two latest episodes from 2 Broke Geeks. This Wednesday we did Geek vs. Geek in which we argued about Marvel vs. DC and since we had A LOT to say, it became two episodes. Enjoy.

movies: HTON robots

Here's last week's episode of the top 5 movies to watch on Netflix Instant Watch that involve robots!

blog: meme monday: hunger games

Hey everyone, sorry I've been not posting to the blog for like a week. I recieved some personal news and have been away from my computer for a bit.

But I'm gonna try to get the wheels going again. To catch up, I figured I'd put up a few memes for meme monday. Hope you enjoy.

blog: meme monday

Wouldn't be a Monday without meme monday.

 Original picture via.

movies: Purple

This was one of my favorite projects I got to direct for my directing workshop. The assignment was to make a 2 minute non-dialogue film based on the word Purple. So here it is.

movies: Omar Will Watch Anything

Also, in addition to Hey That's On Netflix Instant Watch on Fridays, we decided to throw in some Wednesday videos. Each Wednesday is going to have something different (as chosen by the Wild Card Wednesdays cards) and the first episode was Omar Will Watch Anything where I watch the worst movies on Netflix and recap/rate them.

This video is about Troll 2.

movies: Hey That's On Netflix (Instant Watch)

I just posted all of the existing Hey That's On Netflix Instant Watch episodes in order.



The rest of the episodes are on the movies page.

movies: mise-en-scene

This was my first assignment for my Directing Workshop I class at UCLA. Our assignment was to shoot a thirty second, static shot that told a story. The focus was on mise-en-scene. I did this. Huge thanks to Mia who helped on the "shoot".

movies: Roommates vs. The Apartment

Again, for my directing class, we were assigned to do a one minute non-dialogue mood piece. I decided to take something from the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack, put it to tedious chores and make something awesome.

Everyone in this did an insanely incredible job.

movies: Out of Mind Out of Sight

This was shot as a one minute non-dialogue assignment for my directing workshop. My team (the Kubrickians) decided to split up the human senses between the five of us. Obviously, I got sight. Tomi Mendel does a great performance as someone scared to use an eye dropper.



Check out the video's movie page to see alternative endings we shot.

movies: Good News Bad News

This was an assignment to shoot a 2 minute voice over film. We had a different shoot planned but some unexpected issues came up and instead we did this on the fly. Huge props to Minna Kim and Tomi Mendel who were not going to even act in the video but volunteered on the spot.

movies: Duck Variations

Here is another scene I shot for my directing workshop. Originally a Mamet play, translated through the eyes of college stoners.

movies: God of Carnage

This was the final I shot for my directing class in the UCLA directing certificate program.



INCREDIBLE performances by Steve Suh, Emily Cipriani, Jesse Bainbridge and Georgina Tolentino.

movies: Improvability dating video

For the anti-Valentine's Day show my Senior year, we shot a dating video.

Keep in mind, when we shot this, I had JUST come back from the local microbrewery.

movies: apartment painting

When Mia and I moved into our new apartment (but not current apartment), we thought we'd document the wall painting with over 200 pictures.

So we did and here's the video.

movies: This Week WTF

Just uploaded a bunch of The This Week WTF episodes.



You can see all of the videos here.

movies: others with Georgina

Here are two other videos I got to do with Georgina.

music: Inception

So for a while I had a segment on TurnOnStudios.com called 'Music Mondays' where each Monday I wrote a song and recorded it and uploaded it. This started sometime in July and I had a bunch of songs stashed away to upload around Halloween time. So, at a loss for lyrics, I decided to just steal some from the trailer I was obsessed with at the moment.

Ta da: Inception.



You can check out the song on its music page.

music: Mr. Maydoff

This was the second song of Music Mondays about Bernard "Backstreet Boy" Maydoff.



You can check out the song on its music page.

music: Why Do All The Trees Die

So while I was still working on Music Mondays, I wrote this song while riding the 24x on my way to a modern poetry class I was taking over the summer. I thought it would be fun to write a religious song that ended on a really sad note. In my head, it was a joke. But after recording it and uploading it, no one understood it to be a joke.

So this is a really serious song about God and trees.



You can check out the song on its music page.

music: Things That Go Woah in the Night

So just at the conclusion of TurnOnStudios.com, I wrote this song as a part of the 13 Days 13 Shorts celebration (I think. I can't really remember). But nonethelessness it's a song about critters in the wild during Autumn.



You can check out the song on its music page.

music: 9 Crimes

So back when I was trying to get TurnOnStudios.blogspot.com going (where things were getting uploaded daily), I had an idea for something called Saturday Lounge where a bunch of people get together and just play music. In my head it would be like Arcade Fire's concert in that elevator in France or wherever.

But it didn't really work out. None the less, I recorded three covers on my own. The first cover was of Damien Rice's 9 Crimes.



You can check out the song on its music page.

music: When The Roses Bloom Again

Another Saturday Lounge song: a cover of Wilco/Billy Bragg's When The Roses Bloom Again.



You can check out the song on its music page.

music: Lay Lady Lay

Just uploaded a cover of Lay Lady Lay I did a while back.

It's really not good.



You can check out the song on its music page.

music: You Wouldn't Like Me

Here's the first of the Tegan and Sara covers I posted.



You can also check it out on its music page.

music: You Went Away (cover)

Here's another Tegan and Sara cover.



Or you could check out the song on its music page.

music: Call it Off

Here's the last bunch of Tegan and Sara covers.





You can check on the songs on their music page.

music: I Wish (original)

Here's a song I wrote/recorded while waiting for an episode of This Sh*t Is Raw to upload.



Or you can check out the song on its music page.

music: Dreaming of You (cover)

So I just started working on the music page. And to get started, I uploaded the worst of all the songs I plan on uploading!



Or you can go directly to the song's music page.

photos: Griffith Observatory at night

Just uploaded some pictures I took at the Griffith Observatory at night overlooking LA.

You can check them out on their photo page.

photos: PJ having fun

Just uploaded some pictures of PJ running around on a cloudy January morning.

You can check them all out on their photo page.

photos: SLO new years 2010

Just uploaded three pictures I took at Cayucos on New Years eve 2010 (the eve that lead to 2011).

You can check them all out on their photo page.

movies: Machinima Masterpiece

This was made for Jackie Apodaca's Production for Television class at UCSB. Our assignment was to make a video presentation about machinima which is taking video game footage and turning it into narrative. So we decided to take narrative footage and turn it into a video game.



P.S. It was such a pleasure working with Brandon.

movies: Goosebumps

Okay so I was a really big Goosebumps fan growing up (the book series as well as the show) but it wasn't until Sophomore year of college that I became a HUGE fan of Goosebumps since Cartoon Network ran marathons of the show. With the combination of my almost frightening love for Halloween combined with the nostalgia of childhood franchises and low budget (relatively) filmmaking, I started working on a project for the following year: shooting three Goosebumps episodes.

We held a contest on Myspace (haha, right?) where people pitched ideas/titles and the three winners got ten bucks each. I uh... kinda dropped the ball so if your title got picked, I still owe you ten bucks. We shot the episodes over the span of a week and edited them over two days before Halloween.

But Halloween night (which is enormous in Isla Vista), we threw a screening party which was absurdly successful. Here is the entire series in order. Keep in mind there are still minor edits that need to be made, but won't be. Cause... I dunno, I have stuff.











In retrospect, I have no idea how we pulled this off. I also have no idea how my roommates didn't kick me out of the apartment for shooting all that footage. Also, how has the theme music not been pulled from these videos? Also, the window in the garage really helped us out in this shoot.

OH! And I just remembered that when we were shooting Bloodshed II, Megan lifted a blanket and a gigantic rat fell out.

movies: top five friday

At the same time I was putting together This Sh*t Is Raw, I worked on Top Five Friday (which was completely on the other end of the tonal spectrum). This was mainly done to stay sane.







While this series was SUPER fun to do, I think this is about it for Top Five Friday. The name did transfer to 2 Broke Geeks for a while (until we thought of a better name) BUT the theme music behind this will be making its way into the Hey That's On Netflix (Instant Watch) episodes. So it all comes full circle. P.S. I need to buy more shirts.

movies: SiR

Back when I was still bumming around Santa Barbara (after graduating, before growing up) I decided to just get some YouTube serieses started. And when Scott Pilgrim got a bad reception at the box office, I started This Sh*t Is Raw.









Now I stopped doing the series because a) I ran out of time and b) because I hated maintaining that much beard. BUT I might bring back SiR once I get the 2 Broke Geeks schedule in my pocket (I hate saying "under my belt" because I think it's an outdated phrase and it has some dangerous connotations in our contemporary context).

movies: Annual Fund raps

So for work we shot a rap music video to get the word out about what we do.



And then we did it again.

movies: orange marmalade

To kick off the video page, I thought I'd throw up a video from college that we did for Apple's 24 Hour Insomniac video contest. We got some prompts and shot/edited/uploaded this within 24 hours (actually it was like seven hours cause we didn't even start until 3pm). Fun story: we actually uploaded it two minutes late but my friend Henry and I had spent so much time working on it that we emailed the supervisors and asked them for some more time. And they said yes. So we got to upload it. We didn't win. Enjoy.

blog: will a person do a thing?

What an alternative political strategy.

Original article via.

blog: meme mondays

It's meme monday where every monday I make a meme. This isn't really a meme per say, but it has impact style font. Which makes it look like a meme. Really, it's art.

Original picture via.

photos: San Jose sunrise

Here are some pictures I grabbed during sunrise in San Jose with Sara and Sean. These were taken with a Canon 400D.





















Check these out on the photo blog post.

blog: hair blowing in the breeze

Mia totally came up with this joke after watching Cabin in the Woods. But I had to stay up doing something (we opened up a bottle of wine and I didn't want it to go bad) so I made this out of it.

In case you haven't seen Doctor Horrible... you won't get it. Original picture via.

blog: hey! 420 views

I know, I know, grow up James.

reblog: Giada vs. Paula Deen

This is fun. Compare the first ten seconds of Giada against the first ten seconds of Paula Deen.


Check out the reblog post.

photos: isla vista sunset

Also taken for my photography class, here are some pictures of the Isla Vista beach taken by the Nikon FG. Thanks to my friends for willing to be in photos. 

Check out the photos on their photo blog post.

photos: the morning after

Alright, here's the step in catching up on uploading all the photos. This is from an album called "The Morning After"I took for a photography class at UCSB. It was taken on my Nikon FG.

Check out the photos on their photo blog post.