DV: Looking Back - Interview with Viggo

Chris has posted about me; not posting. Which is probably the laziest thing to do since the doc he failed to finish over the course of three years. I have been routinely arriving home around 3am because of work, social gatherings and some such. I digress... The Viggo Interview Story:

My beautiful and talented friend Anna gave me a ticket to go see a Gala presentation of "Good" one of Viggo's three films at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Meanwhile my ugly and untallented friend Chris was incapable of getting tickets to the same film. He also failed to charge the camera battery enough to capture my encounter after the film.

I spoke to Viggo on the red carped and asked him if he would be in the next Hobbit movie. He said "maybe the second one" and then I told him "I'll see you there". He looked at me a bit oddly and I told him that I would be going to New Zealand for the filming of the Hobbit. Overwhelmed by the contrasting nature of what I had told him Viggo gracefully walked into the screening of his own film.

You're probably thinking that's the worst story you've ever read. You've probably met the man yourself. But what you haven't done is have Viggo personally speak to your friend (a huge Viggo fan) by way of cellphone and have him thank the your friend for the ticket.

That's what I did. I gave him my cellphone, had him explain who he was and to sign the ticket to a sold-out Gala presentation of Good.

I doubt he will remember me... but at least I have a news article about it.

I did not take this photo and I don't condone the use of red font on images

* Note: The only reason Dan was able to post this disparaging entry was because he had me to remind him what the password that HE had created for this blog was. That's how long he went without bothering to post. - CC

CC: Media Frenzy (If One Interview Counts as a Frenzy)

Chris here again. That's right, Dan still hasn't taken the time to get up off his lazy ass (or perhaps sit down on his lazy ass more accurately) and get around to doing another entry. If I hadn't been holding out hope for Dan Vosharticular activity I surely would have done this next post sooner, but I'm afraid I must appologize to our loyal readers (please exist) for the long break.
Since getting this blog up we've really been gearing up the campaign and been starting to try to get some attention for ourselves. My web designer of a father came up for a couple days to work on our soon to be published website *plug* pay John Ciosk money to design stuff for you *plug*, which I will link you all to as soon as it hits the internets. We've all been shameless plugging this blog to everyone we meet too in hopes of getting a few more people interested, and hopefully some of you are reading this right now! Tell all of your friends!!!!
Even more excitingly this Wednesday we did our first official interview with the wildly talented (I hope) Clare Hill of the Ryersonian. She may not know it, but we're offically great friends now by virtue of her having done extended edition LOTR marathons not to mention actually catching all of my references! We somehow managed to waste two and a half hours of her time between me and Dan bickering about each other (everything that went wrong with the Viggo interview was his fault), my tediously incessant idealistic rants, and even a small stretch where we actually answered her questions. All things said, it was a pretty excellent interview and sometime next week we should have an article to share with all of you.
We're also heading out to do a photoshoot with the folks at the Ryersonian tomorrow afternoon. The last thing that I heard was that they were out shopping for cloaks for us to wear, so I'm very excited to say the least. I've never known a school paper to spend this much time and effort on an article, let alone to be half this enthusiastic, so my deepest adiration goes out to all the wonderful folks in the Ryersonian Arts Department!
That's about it for today, but in the meantime have fun, and keep an eye out for our Ryersonian article (tentatively coming out Oct 1) as well as our website.

CC: Looking back - Endorsement by the Creator of the TV Show 'Extras'

Hello everyone! Since this blog got started so late into our preparation for our elven adventures, we figured we'd fill you in on some of the exciting stuff that's been going on before you even knew we existed.
Two weeks ago at TIFF, me and Vosh set out to accomplish a task that no one expected we could pull off, but we thought would be an amazing way to get started: we wanted to get an official blessing for our endeavour by Ricky Gervais (creator of The Office, but more importantly the TV show Extras) while he was in town promoting his new movie Ghost Town at the Toronto International Film Festival. Thinking of the best way to get his attention, I decided we should design shirts of Karl Pilkington (his whinging bald-headed manc twat of a friend from his bestselling podcast), and after a day of meetings, drawings, and photoshop work we had created some pretty excellent shirts, if I say so myself.

One of our shirt designs

After convincing some charitable first year film girls to buy us discounted $20 student tickets to the premiere (hey, it may sound like we're cheap, but we spent more than $100 printing shirts!) and getting into the theatre, things turned out more difficult than expected. First of all, the bit of red carpet where Ricky was talking to the press was completely blocked off and we had to grab a spot right at the end. Then to make matters worse, Ricky was militantly escorted down the carpet by organizers who didn't want him dawdling and throwing the screening off schedule once the press was done with him.
Knowing we might not have another chance we yelled out his name and luckily he turned around not far past us. The instant he saw our shirts he let out the most gleefully childish squeal of joy I have ever heard (it still reverberates off the walls in my brain today) and stopped in his tracks, to the organizers' disapproval, to stop and stare. After several seconds of soaking in our excellent drawings he happily exclaimed "That's fantastic! Karl Pilkington!" before being escorted along without us being able to come over and without us being able to talk to him.

Ricky sees the shirts we made for the first time...

...and stops to happily stare.

Unfortunately he never stayed to watch the movie and was well gone by the time we left the theatre, denying us of the chance we expected to have to talk to him. Afterwards however, we were talking to David Koep, the movie's director (and the writer of Jurassic Park!), who agreed to deliver the shirts to Ricky along with our letter stating our case. Ricky's been complaining on his blog recently of having to do literally hundreds of interviews a day for the release of Ghost Town, and after TIFF he headed straight off for New York for the American premiere followed by a recent appearance at the Emmies. Hopefully though once his life settles down a bit we may hear back from him yet, or at least better positioned to give it another try later on this year in New York City.
All things said and done though, I made the creator of the greatest and most hilarious show in television history giggle like an idiot. I am at peace with myself. And though we may not have got our extra cred, we were still declared "fantasitc" T shirt designers. If only we could have as much luck at catching Peter Jackson's attention sometime in the near future....
Stay tuned for word on Dan's encounter with none other than Aragorn himself.

CC: The Adventure Begins!

At last the crew has been assembled, the plans have been planned, the logistics considered, and myself and my new roommate Dan Voshart are ready to plunge ourselves in earnest into the task of transforming ourselves into the perfect elves. When we get to New Zealand Guillermo Del Toro and Peter Jackson aren't going to be saying "Sure, I suppose they could pass for elves", but rather, "I need those two lanky gentlemen to be our elves and won't accept any substitutions. In fact, put them nearer the foreground where they're only kind of out of focus!" We've debated and discussed, I've recently started my regiment for developing an elven physique, and this week we are looking into learning the essential elven skill of horseback riding.

This adventure promises to be even more of a challenge for me as in less than five months I'm planning to go on a nearly year long across Asia, where I'll attempt to master the art of elfhood amongst some of the appropriately most epic environments and ancient cultures on earth. And at the end of it all, I'll have traveled overland all the way to New Zealand where I'll be meeting Dan. From crossing snowy Himilayan mountain passes (surely Everest is our equivalent of Middle Earth's Caradhras which only Legolas could navigate) to getting in touch with the closest I'll come to my elven-like immortal nature through meditation, to visiting remote civilizations and popping by massive Mount Doom sized volcanoes, by the time I reach New Zealand I may arrive a different person. A much more elven person to be presise.

In the meantime, I'll be showering you with updates on our latest progress in the rare bits of free time I'll have between working seven days a week to save money, finishing up An Adventurer is You, my current documentary project, not to mention elvenizing myself and planning out the trip. So keep reading and feel free to watch from the comfort of your computer chair as we struggle to realize our childhood dreams and participate in one of the most exciting movie experiences we can imagine. Or drop us a line and see what you can do to get involved or help!

DV: First Blog Post

After months of planning and grueling work we have created a blog to keep you up to date about any progress in our Hobbit Doc.

The Hobbit Doc is the quest of two room-mates to become extras in Peter Jackson's new Lord of the Rings film slated for release in 2011. Our quest is to insure beyond any doubt that our faces appear on the silver screen when millions of people watch The Hobbit.

I'll keep the posts frequent and relevant but having said that I have no promises what Chris's bizarre mind will conjure. I'm sure it will deteriorate into annoying posts about Chris proclaiming how great life is. Stick with us as I'm sure there will be some nuggets worth keeping.

-Dan V