FashionablyLate.net

What’s on your must-list for January? The Dilemma? No Strings Attached? A carefully-plotted suicide?

Xtranormal movie #2, in which we discuss the final two smokestacks still visible above the water line on the S.S. MySpace*.

*My condolences to those MySpace employees who got canned today. I was thrown overboard on June 16, 2009.

I’ve grown to love these weird little Xtranormal movies that have started appearing lately, so I decided to make one myself. This one’s called “Flossing.”

Here’s a little piece that I wrote about Earth Day for another forum, but it didn’t end up there, so it ends up here:

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Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a worldwide day of awareness founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson — who was also responsible for the inclusion of side effects disclosures on pharmaceutical drug labels. Other famous Gaylords in history include Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry, Chicago street gang The Almighty Gaylords and British poet Lord Byron. Allegedly.

In 1970, a Time Magazine article mentioned a right-leaning faction who took note that Earth Day happened to fall on Lenin’s birthday, warning that the entire event was a Communist trick, and that a Mississippi delegate from the Daughters of the American Revolution declared “Subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them.” The group has not yet officially endorsed KFC’s new Double Down chicken sandwich.

Since we celebrated our first Earth Day in 1970, the average daily newspaper circulation has dropped from 62.1 million to its current level of 30.4 million, which is bad news for newspapermen but good news for the kind of people who add “Please consider the environment before printing this email” to the end of every message -– people like Steve Jobs, the Apple founder whose company sold 300,000 new iPads on the first day the touchscreen computer became available. While critics debate how the iPad will affect the publishing industry, it’s hard to argue the eco-friendliness of a completely paper-free device –- until you consider just how many greenbacks you’re laying down to achieve early adopter status.

And while taking pains to insist they’re not picking on Apple, Greenpeace recently issued a report that claims growth of internet computing could come with a huge jump in greenhouse gas emissions due to the rise of cloud computing devices like the iPad, which may contribute to a much larger carbon footprint than previously estimated. Now, if all this Earth Day news is getting you down, maybe it’s time you asked your doctor about what else happened in 1970. If he’s not too busy playing with his iPad, he might tell you that pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly began work that year which lead to the discovery of the antidepressant Fluoxetine, more commonly known by it’s trade name, Prozac. And while you’re considering the drug’s side effects, which include fever, nausea and vomiting, don’t forget whom you’ve got to thank for this full disclosure – the honorable Wisconsin Senator and Earth Day founder, Gaylord Nelson.

For good measure, I just posted the HD version of my Downy “Feel More Films” contest-winning short film from 2008. This premiered during the live broadcast of the People’s Choice Awards in January of 2009.

I just finished a new short film that I wrote and directed for a Gen Art/Fox Searchlight contest. It’s a tie-in promotion for Wes Anderson’s new film, “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” The winning four filmmakers were given costume designs and tasked with creating an instructional piece so that anyone could learn how to create a costume based on one of the film’s central characters. You can see my how-to video at the link below (in the featured videos section):

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/fantasticmrfox/

I’m happy with the how-to segment, but Fox Searchlight opted to post this abbreviated cut and offered a polite “no thanks” to the full narrative version as it was originally written. Now through the magic of the internets, you can see the full version, “The Animal Gang in How To Make A Rabbit Costume” below. It’s the version I prefer.

Here’s the final version of my Butterfinger commercial spec spot, “Zombies!” It was created for the “Nobody’s Gonna Lay A Finger On My Butterfinger” video contest.


Credits:
Written and directed by: Jesse Costello
Starring: Frank Bonomo, Steve Horak and Davram Stiefler

Frank and Steve are in a very funny NY-based improv group called CRUSH. They play weekly at the Magnet Theater. Go see ‘em!

Here’s what I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks working on:

http://protectyourbutterfingerbar.yahoo.com/?v=5I5lZgx0y

Here’s some more me news since I’m rebooting the site today: I’m one of ten filmmakers selected by Billboard magazine to take part in their “Music On The Move” contest. They gave us all little Nokia phones with 3 megapixel video cameras that do live streaming. We’re supposed to wander the world and record musical things as they happen, so occasionally you might see stuff pop up here related to that contest. You can see the live gallery here and my personal Billboard clip page here.

The contest runs through September, and the winner gets a trip to a U.S. music festival of his/her choice. I believe the winner will be determined by their page views, and as you can see, DavidJr is currently playing an entirely different game than the rest of us. I’ve met the guy before, and the dude is a videoblogging maniac. He is clearly giving it his all, and I am giving it my some.

Hey! My People’s Choice award-winning film, “Stripes 2″ was selected for a very cool website called The Hyde Tube. It’s a new talent showcase helping to connect filmmakers with prospective clients. You can see it here: http://www.thehydetube.com/tube.php?video=399