It is so hot out that my computer, to protect itself from over heating, "crashed" last night as I was wrapping up the first draft of this post.So, yeah, yesterday another record high here in Los Angeles. I was up in Burbank at the casting office, where it is routinely ten degrees hotter than the rest of L.A.
I noticed that I had two new emails in my inbox. One was from Jeff Ham. The other from Jeff Bacon.
Jeff Ham is Claire's ex-boyfriend. Claire set Ham up with her old job at the casting agency. Ham is now, part time anyway, my boss.
Jeff Bacon is my buddy I met at a UCLA Extension class for making short films. I ended up producing Bacon's first two shorts, the $60,000 plus, 35mm spectacular, "Birth of a Salesman", and the $500, mini DV spoof "Arrowhead Beer."
Both Ham and Bacon are writers. Both write comedy. Both love football and beer.
Both Ham and Bacon once worked for the same temp agency, The Right Connections, although they never knew each other. Claire recalls one time picking up Ham's paycheck, and the girl handing out checks thought she was kidding, and tried giving Claire the check with Jeff Bacon's name on it.
Besides the occasional party Claire and I have, Bacon and Ham spend no time with each other. And in those rare instances, everyone else finds it more amusing that Bacon and Ham are together than they do. But now...
Jeff Bacon works at New Line Cinema. Jeff Ham is now casting the film, "The New World", a New Line Cinema production.
Then, the other day, Ham shows me that he was just sent a clip via email of "Arrowhead Beer" by someone who thought he'd enjoy it - not knowing it was directed by not just someone he knew, but someone named Jeff Bacon.
This was flattering, to see that this teeny short film was still making the rounds, but not surprising. Bacon and I still get requests now and again, usually from Europe, to show "Arrowhead Beer" on TV or the internet. We've had friends from Germany tell us it was making the rounds there. And, if you do a search for "Arrowhead Beer", you'll see it has a little bit of a following. The only disappoint, I think, is that "Arrowhead Beer" required signifigantly less effort, and a fraction of the money, as "Birth of a Salesman."
So, with that tease in mind, here's a couple links to sites about "Arrowhead Beer." The whole, five minute short, is available at iFilm, including the end credits and "Real Beer for Real Men" song as performed by Kari Newhouse, but I'm not sure how to access it.Maxim magazine (European edition) coverage of "Arrowhead Beer"
Film Threat magazine's review of "Arrowhead Beer"
Click here to watch the first of the "Arrowhead Beer" ads, hosted by Digital Fog
