Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Roebot Online.

As any good filmmaker can tell you, you have to start doing what you love before you can make money doing what you love. So we at Roebot Films started the assembly line onto creating our very first short film (and our very first blog post!) Alas, it is not perfect, nor did I expect it to be. This is kind of a learning process for me. Let's go back to when I was just a little bot with big dreams.
When I was younger, I found out that my mother wanted to be an actress. Everyday when I would go into our living room, where the television and film collection rested, I would see on the wall playbills signed by her adoring fans. She would tell me marvelous stories about how she dreamed the incredible dream, how she sang and danced her way across the stage, and how eventually she gave it all up for comfort. That last part unfortunately wasn't a truly moving story about fame, but instead about the death of a dream. Something I simply cannot abide.

As I grew older I knew I wanted to write, but what ever could I do? Be like Homer and create an epic that will be read begrudgingly by high school students and literature majors alike? Perhaps follow in the footsteps of Orwell and become a raging cynical individual whose truly great works are just jokes about the present and the potential future. Of course if I tried hard enough I could be like Moore and create my works of art and then proceed to hate them until everyone else hated them as much as I. But no after many hours and failed writing attempts I realized I too dreamed the incredible dream...of Hollywood.

The glitz and the glam has always attracted me. Stars always shine bright in Hollywood they say (ah the ambiguous 'they' who govern everything we do). Truly the most romantic of careers is in the star studded city of fame...and broken dreams. Time and again I hear of all those people who have given up and regret doing so. If you are willing to give up on something, why start it in the first place? Just a simple thought.

Anyway back to the life of the bot. I never had a nickname when I was growing up, even when I was taken under the wing of a Youtube channel (Ergo Pictures) my only other moniker was the 'face amoeba' for my ability to alter my expression in a variety of ways. There I made a small career for myself with multiple acting videos (I'm in about 15 or so, do forgive me for not remembering) and for also creating my first short film 'Foreclosure'.

As the title suggests it was about banks foreclosing on homes, however it was more a character study about the individuals who actually have to be the messengers of death as it were. The film did surprisingly well, save for the fact that my lead actor didn't read the script until five minutes before the shooting started, and a faulty costume for my other lead. Other than that, oh yes how could I forget about my on set meltdown at my DP and lead, I must say it was a rather invigorating experience. To see my story come to life, like no other way imaginable, is an incredible experience. On the festival circuit it did alright, placing in the top 25 films at CSUN's Campus Moviefest (something I still boast about to this day). But like all good things, this entourage I surrounded myself with came to a grinding end.

Due to a whole lot of immaturity, Andrew and myself left Ergo Pictures to create bigger and better things. Even though Andrew wasn't as convinced as I was, I eventually persuaded him to follow me on this endeavor.  We created Android+Roebot Films, and I finally found my name. While we never stuck to a schedule (not a fault of mine) nor did we have consistently humorous content (equal fault on that one, god the abysmal 'Face Prank' video still haunts me to this day) it was still me doing what I loved doing (and supposedly what Andrew loved doing, even though if it weren't about him then <syntax error/expletive deleted> you). Eventually I wanted to do short films, once again I had to pull out the pliers and yank on Andrew's muzzle for him to eventually cave and agree on making a short film.

'Answer' was the answer to my prayers. A 16 minute long film, written, produced, and co directed by your friendly neighborhood Roebot. But all was not well in the house of Android+Roebot. From the day of it's creation, Andrew dug his fingers in my work. Changing dialogue that he deemed too offensive (mind you he had quite the Disney childhood), scenes that called for certain actions to be changed, plot points that had to be altered, etc, etc. The list could go on, but one thing mattered to me. 'Answer' was being made.

Once again though, things did not go as swimmingly. Andrew would make on the fly decisions regarding certain scenes, eventually warping 'Answer' from a drama with thematic elements to a sub par Dramedy (drama+comedy=dramedy) with minor thematic elements. I can't fault him for that though, his forte is in comedy, or that's how it would appear to most. But once again this didn't matter 'Answer' was being made.

Now if you've ever made a film, which I assume most of you haven't, but those of you who have you understand a lot can happen to relationships during a busy, crazy, hectic time. I would yell at him, he would rebuttal. I would gripe to my ex-girlfriend (she broke up with me a week into shooting, HOW CRUEL!) and she would half listen. It was a mess, but then I heard this one day "It's a wrap." and I couldn't be more excited.

We jumped right into editing and like clockwork it all came together. We had a big party for it, which to this day I am embarrassed about because it didn't go over well with the audience. (I blame poor scriptwriting and the direction it went, but that's just me and I'm quite biased). On the circuit it didn't even get any screen time. No one wanted to screen a sub-par film at 16minutes when they could show three, five minute works that were vastly superior. Alas I digress, this wasn't the end of Android+Roebot however, that's this nasty little tale.

After a few months of doing the sketch comedy thing again we rolled into another short film competition. Universal Halloween Horror Night's Short Film Competition (quite the mouth full isn't it?) Anyway it was simple enough, make something under two minutes and it will be judged by a group of Hollywood's best, including Rob Zombie (musician turned Hollywood director). I told Andrew we should do this, and he of course was (say it with me everyone!) skeptical about the ordeal. Not a fan of short films in general, Andrew hated the horror genre (but to be fair so do I). But we made a contest out of it for our Youtube fans to enjoy.

Andrew made a film, then I made a film. You could vote on it with the 'like' button and we would see who won. What a nightmare that was. When we made the films Andrew shot, edited and all that jazz his own work within a matter of three days. Then it was my turn (I don't have the equipment so I depended upon my friend for this matter). After begging for him to finally come over he did, complained the whole shoot and eventually we wrapped in just over three hours.

Then came the editing. I insisted upon sitting in on and I watched the film come together. AND BY GOD IT WAS AWFUL! To this day I think it's even worse than 'Answer' but that's just the artist in me talking. Anyway I watched his and congratulated him on what I assumed would be the sure winner of our little contest. But there was of course the real film fest to worry about.

We sent them in on the same day, we waited patiently for weeks. Until one morning I received an email. My film (which if you watch our little contest video, we both declare it as my film) had been selected out of 300 entrants to be in the top 10. I was shocked, ecstatic and I thought my friend would be as well. But I was wrong.

Instead it turned into bitter hatred, basically he said I couldn't have done it without him. That he was the brains behind the outfit (he even went as far to say it was his idea). Needless to say I didn't win the competition and our friendship was over because of this.

Years later, not doing anything Youtube related, but always pining to keep working on films I created this. Roebot Films, my own company, to do whatever I want with. What do you think after reading this exquisite tale? That I want to do sketch comedy again? NO! I want to chase my dream and continue making short films and eventually weasel my way into Hollywood.

And this all starts with 'Titan', a short film created for IGN's Film School Chronicles Contest. Not even selected to place, barely watched by the judges, it explores the idea of extraordinary in a normal man without powers. It's not great, it's not awful, it just is. I guess that's what all the greats said about their first real attempts. I wonder how many failed attempts at film-making are buried deep in their closets. The world will never know.

Sorry for the long post here, I figured I would give you guys a chance to see what I'm all about. You can now clearly tell that I find no faults in myself, that I deem everything I touch gold, that I am the future of Hollywood and etc. That's all a joke by the way, in case you couldn't pick up on that.
I hope you all enjoyed and I promise that the next posts will be much shorter and actually have a cohesive plot.

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