Heath McKnight

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Writing my new film

February 24, 2010

So I'm writing my new film, a super hero flick based on a comic book character I created over 15 years ago, when I was leaving high school and heading into college (pre-film school, though).

I'm still finessing the plot, but I've written out a couple of scenes/sequences. Last time I wrote like that was in 1998 when I was writing up little scenes here and there for what would become Skye Falling. Eventually, I wrote out an entire first draft (while listening to Radiohead's The Bends, OK Computer, and the Airbag EP, and AIR's Moon Safari), then went back and did more drafts until my co-writer Grant came in to help me.

That's basically what I'm doing with my new film, titled "Ambush." I hope as I continue to map things out, and write little scenes, I'll then take everything and write out an entire first draft.

Of course, I don't just have a full-time job--I also do a lot of writing for different companies (tech stuff, etc.), so finding time is always difficult. If all else "fails," I can always hand over the outline and scenes to my other co-writer Jeremiah Hall.

I'm thinking about doing a mini-series to come out some time in 2011, probably under my Alien Comics banner.

More updates soon!

Some of my favorite albums from 2000-09

January 02, 2010

My cousin Chad mentioned he was mulling over his favorite albums of the last decade and it made me think about it. I didn't get into a lot of the rock that came out (maybe I'm just old), but I thought I'd put together a quick list (not in any particular order) of my favorites:

* In Rainbows and Kid A by Radiohead (I loved Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief when they came out, but maybe because I was really obsessed).

* Talkie Walkie, Love 2, and Pocket Symphony by AIR (esp. Talkie Walkie; 2001's 10,000 Hz Legend wasn't good at all).

* Franz Ferdinand and You Could Have It So Much Better by Franz Ferdinand, plus Tonight (the first two are incredible, the third is great but I don't know. Maybe very good? First one and Talkie Walkie were my favs for 2004).

* Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple (my album of the year for 2005).

* First Impressions of Earth and Is This It? by The Strokes (really blew me away, esp. their last album, First... Room on Fire was basically a retread of Is This It? Last album was my fave for 06).

* Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere. Awesome! * Demon Days by Gorillaz, also awesome! I will have to come back to this and write some more.

Happy New Year!

January 01, 2010

It's 2010, Happy New Year! It's gonna be a great one!!!

2009 Year-In-Review

December 31, 2009

Hey everyone, it's that time again! Even though I blogged less in the past two years (08/09), my New Years Resolution for 2010 is to get back into the blogging world. But if you want to see what I'm doing daily, follow me on Twitter @hmcknight, or check out my Facebook. I also started going on MySpace less and less due to Facebook, but I'm making a comeback! Check out my MySpace here.

I sometimes do a month-by-month summary, and I'll do that here, too. But I'm going to try and keep it short-and-sweet.

I started the New Year off quietly with Marina and Peanut at my old apartment (which was in the "hood"). By mid-January, Marina and I celebrated her birthday at the Rustic Inn, which was a lot of fun. I was busy working for a video production company doing corporate videos, but things were getting a little worrisome as work started drying up (more on that soon).

Early February saw me turn 33 (Feb. 2, Groundhog Day!), and Marina took me to a steak dinner but the weekend before, she, Big Pat Sammon (a close friend I went to school at FAU with in early 2006), and I headed over to Dave and Busters, which was a lot of fun. For Valentine's Day, I took Marina to an amazing one-man performance of A Bronx Tale with Chazz Palminteri (the film is one of her favorites), followed by drinks in Ft. Lauderdale (very cool, very chill and saw some great local artists like Marc Solomon and Craig Greenberg, whose out of NYC), followed by a romantic dinner at Cafe Casablanca. The best Valentine's Day ever! Oh, and I started a photo blog I sometimes update.

By March, I was laid off. I wasn't too nervous, because I had an interview for a job in West Palm Beach, FL for a company doing local commercials. I didn't get it (yet, more in the May section), but I was hired back after only two or three days to work again. At the end of March, Marina and I went to Plantation, FL and found a sister apartment to the one we lived at in Oakland Park (east/Ft. Lauderdale) and we loved it.

April saw me work towards transferring from the old apartment to the new one out west (Plantation is very similar to my hometown of Wellington, FL). Unfortunately, I was laid off permanently and it looked like my old boss was folding his company but he merged with another guy whose business got hurt, too. I was trying to get into IT (Information Technology) training, but...

By May 1, Marina and I moved to our new apartment, which is incredible! I was trying to do the IT training, but I wasn't qualified for a federal grant because I am a 1099/self-employed guy and I had to be a regular employee laid off. BUT, that company I interviewed with in March hired me to work at the Ft. Lauderdale office as a freelancer with another producer, doing local commercials.

June was a busy month, to say the least. Stayed very busy.

July 4th was incredible! We live next to Plantation's Central Park, which has a huge fireworks display. It rocked! We were closer than the people in the park! Marina and I saw in our lawn chairs and enjoyed the show. July was a busy month, but I ventured down to the west Miramar, FL office and was able to move down there permanently for work (it's very west and I have an edit bay vs. sitting at a desk with sales people). I made that move permanent in either August or September.

Honestly, I don't really remember much of August and September since it was so busy, but I was officially hired full-time on August 31 at the company I work for. I know the newest Final Cut Studio was released (which I loved, read my review here).

October was fun: I got to put up a ton of Halloween decorations. I also got a War Machine tattoo by world famous artist Frank Lee at Tattoo Blues in Ft. Lauderdale. Iron Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau even recognized it (http://twitter.com/Jon_Favreau! Marina and her sister Ericca went to Austin, TX for a concert, and when she got back we both realized we loved each other too much and are happy with our life together. Halloween was a blast, too!

November was a busy month at work (we even flew up to HQ in Jacksonville, FL during a super busy time, but it was great to see everyone again, like we did in July). Marina decided to introduce me to her Dad (you don't just introduce any boyfriend), and I was welcomed into the family during Sunday dinner and Thanksgiving, which was incredible!

December was/is a fantastic month for everyone. Marina, her mom (Mama P), and her oldest sister Rene did a lot of shopping and bonding, as did I. I was able to get everyone some great stuff (esp. Marina), and Christmas Eve and Day with her family, including all 5 of her parents' kids, was terrific. She and I went all out on the Christmas tree and decorations, and it was the best Christmas season/day in years. I don't know what we're doing New Years Eve, but I hope it's spent together.

And that's it for my annual year end review. I guess it was a bit longer than I thought. Oh, I got an Iron Man vs. Iron Monger tattoo (details/pix here).

I didn't see a lot of movies this year (the WGA strike kinda hurt the quality), but I did enjoy Star Trek a lot (as did Marina), along with Watchmen and District 9 (which Marina didn't like quite as much). I need to catch up.

AIR's Love 2 was incredible and my favorite album of the year! And not just because I'm such a fan! We're seeing them in Miami in March 2010.

Best book was definitely Steve Alten's 4th Meg book, Meg: Hell's Aquarium. I am currently 1/3 of the way (more or less) through Stephen King's Under the Dome. It's an 1100 page monster! I also enjoyed The Road, a lot of comics, Sunken Treasures by Wil Wheaton, and a lot more.

I hope 2010 is a great year for all of us, and I hope I can be more creative (I'd love to finally write that script I've been developing on-and-off in 2009, along with a show created by Marina), and I'd like to get back into photography.

Anyway, that's it for me. Happy New Year, be safe! Here's to a great 2010!

Almost the end of the year

December 29, 2009

Almost the end of the year; I'll be taking off the next few days starting New Years Eve, so I'll do my annual year-in-review for 2009. I'm sad to say I tweet so much more (follow me at @hmcknight to see my daily blogs) that I barely post here. For 2009, I posted 7 times, including this one! WHOA!

One of my New Years resolutions is to blog here more, and to do a design update. This site goes back to 2004 and my dang resume is WAY old!

Anyway, expect my year-in-review soon.

Heath

Sorry for lack of blogs, but here's an update!

October 25, 2009

Sorry for the overall lack of blogs, but I seem to do so much Twittering that I don't blog much here. Follow me at twitter.com/hmcknight to see what I'm doing.

But I'll give you a little news right now:

1. December, the film I co-produced last spring 2008, is finished with its final cut by editor Derek Miner. I'll have more details on the release, film fests, etc.

2. I've compiled all the recorded interviews for 9:04 AM and Grant Balfour (co-writer and music supervisor) will be recording his interview, and I'll be doing mine, and I hope to have the DVD ready soon. After our successful free screening of the entire film, YouTube and MySpace webisode versions, it's definitely time to get the DVD out. Especially since the movie wrapped 3 years and a few days ago. And opened 2.5 years ago. I'll let you know more soon!

3. So what's next for me? if you've been reading my blogs, you may have heard about 3 years ago my next film I was to direct was going to be Rich Koslowski's The 3 Geeks. It is not. Instead, I'm slowly working on a new project that will hopefully be shot in 3D. But I don't expect to even have a script ready until sometime next year (2010).

4. Hellevator: Please be patient, I hope to have the final FX done soon.

Other than that, I've just been staying busy, weathering the bad economy which has really affected the film business, particularly the indies.

I'll keep you up-to-date here and at Twitter. Are you subscribed to the MPS Digital Studios newsletter? If not, go to mpsdigital.com and you can sign up on the home page. I'm also hoping to update that site in the next year, too.

Other than that, I hope to blog more regularly. Happy Halloween!

-Heath

ps-I do have a little photography blog I update on occasion. Check it out at heathmcknight.blogspot.com.

9:04 AM now online for free!

September 04, 2009

I decided to put my film 9:04 AM online for free, the entire film (and not just webisode versions of the movie). It's September 4, aka 9/04, so in honor of that, I wanted to do something special.

Check out 9:04 AM for a limited time here:

http://904am.com/904am_full.mov

or here:

exposureroom.com/904am

I hope you enjoy it! And please spread the word around!!

40th anniversary of man landing on the moon!

July 20, 2009

The 40th Anniversary of 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11's Moon Landing! http://tinyurl.com/mvz8rf!

Haven't blogged in a while...

July 05, 2009

... because I blog everywhere else! Here's where I'm at:

1. You can follow me on Twitter

2. Facebook

3. MySpace

4. My Photos

I'm going to try and get over here more often and blog! Happy late 4th of July!

heath

9:04 AM is screening at the 2009 Delray Beach Film Festival, May 24!

April 15, 2009

That's right, my latest film 9:04 AM is screening at the 2009 Delray Beach Film Festival, on May 24, 2009 at 3 PM, at the Crest Theater in Delray Beach, FL.

For complete info and directions, visit http://dbff.bside.com/2009/films/90400am_dbff2009.

I hope to see you there!