Don P. Hooper

“High Speed Heinz” Commercial – Downloading Flavor

Director, Cinematographer: Don P. Hooper
Writer, Composer: Bryant Falk
Starring: Richard Jordan

This is a quick note for Sunday. Darnel Degand, Coomacka Island’s illustrator, just informed me he received a Google Alert stating that Coomacka Island was featured in today’s Jamaica Gleaner (Sunday, Feb. 17). Needless to say this is an exciting moment. It’s one of the largest papers in the Caribbean with a circulation that reaches the Caribbean population in the U.S. as well.

I’ve already received calls from family and friends back in Jamaica who have read the article. So please check it out.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080217/arts/arts5.html

I couldn’t have made it this far without the support of everyone, so once again Thank you for all your kind words and encouragement.

One Love,
Don P.

It’s finally here. Check out the trailer for the upcoming animated Coomacka Island cartoon, based on the Caribbean inspired children’s book series.

Please visit the youtube page for the Coomacka Island Trailer and leave a comment and rating!

Also, don’t forget to stop by www.coomacka.com and sign up for our newsletter!

Keep your fingers crossed. The WGA strike may be coming to a close in the near future. If this happens, it would be good news for everyone across the board.

• Home viewers would get to see their favorite shows return, with some only narrowly escaping the chopping block.
• Actors will begin a late pilot season audition period
• Film and production crews who were hurt hard by production stops will get to return to work.
• And it will be back to business as usual for the writers.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed. With the strike going on, pitch meetings for new shows were put on ice and auditions were slow. Hopefully, the production season can be salvaged without too much loss to reality shows. Reality TV programs are cheaper to produce, so it’s likely networks have signed on more reality shows to their roster.

Big thanks to everyone who supported the writers during the strike.

This is just a quick note/update on Coomacka Island (Caribbean based children’s books for the unaware).

I’m about a week away from finishing off a quick trailer for Coomacka Island. Nothing big, just a video for YouTube to get the word out on this children’s book series. I probably could finish it in a day or less, but I’m working on about a hundred and one other projects.

Finishing off the trailer has just been several months behind schedule, so I want to wrap it before the end of Q1 2008. This one won’t be a fully animated trailer. It’s more of a book style trailer, but with some nifty editing and sound design.

Be sure to subscribe to either of my Youtube pages to make sure you see it.

Coomacka on YouTube
Jamtown Films

Well it’s 4am EST. So, that’s it for me.

I’ve done the unthinkable. After years of playing Halo online, I’ve decided to retire from Halo. It was a difficult decision, and I can’t say that sometimes, late at night, I don’t regret it.

Maybe if Halo 3 was really Halo 3, instead of just Halo 2.1, I wouldn’t have such adamant reservations against playing. But, regretfully with lackluster maps, and a community that still cheats/mods while playing, I’ve been forced to move on.

What do I do with my nights now? After careful research, and much deliberation with my clan – I decided to move on to Call of Duty 4. Ok, it’s not Halo, but heck it’s a damn good game. The detailed maps and game play quickly drew me into the game.

The only problem is that some of my Halo teammates have decided not to move on. It’s sad. Back in the days of Halo 3, a single email would go out, and everyone would be more than willing to hop online and play – whatever the time. But since the switch to Call of Duty 4, the clan’s numbers have dwindled by 50%. People just don’t seem to have the same loyalty to Call of Duty. In the end it’s just a game. Halo was a livelihood. The matchmaking, team setup, and interaction was just better.

Deep inside, I’d like nothing more than to just hop back on to Xbox Live and put in Halo 2. There are probably people still out there playing the original Xbox Live hit. And why not, so far it’s the best online console game ever. But as for Halo 3, I have about four other games I still need to beat. Whenever I have a moment of weakness, I force myself to put in another game and just walk away from the beast that took over a good 5% of my life for 3 years.

Farewell Halo… you will be missed, but not forgotten.

I’m not necessarily a Giants fan, but I am a New York fan. So, needless to say, when the New York Giants made it to the Superbowl, against the undefeated New England Patriots, I was excited. Admittedly, I didn’t expect the Giants to win. But, I’m a sucker for rooting for the underdog.

Before the game, Patriots fans were rising out of the woodworks, sending me text messages predicting the Giants loss by blowout. Some of them were former New Yorkers. This didn’t make sense. But you know what, the bandwagon is a powerful thing and draws everyone to it at some point. When a team goes 18-0, the bandwagon just gets more seats. However, this did not hinder my faith in New York. No matter what I’ll back the NYC team. Plus, something about everyone all of a sudden becoming Patriots fans just because they were undefeated made me angry. So what happens? My backing of the underdog grew.

The minute the commentary started on the Feb. 3, 2008 Superbowl, it was clear that the media was anti-Giants. The sportscasters used a single word to define each team. The word that described the Giants was “Resilient,” while the word that described the Patriots was “Teamwork.” Is it me or are these two words nowhere near in the ballpark of each other? This was the media’s subtle way of saying that the Giants didn’t belong in the Superbowl, but got lucky. And the Patriots on the other hand were perfect.

That’s all I needed. Fuel added to the fire. I was championing the underdog as if my life depended on it.

With two minutes and fifty three seconds left in the game Tom Brady had done what he does best, executed a textbook drive and taken the lead from the Giants. The score was 14-10 and the Giants couldn’t win with anything less than a touchdown. I had to laugh when the Patriots scored. Not because they scored, but because of the sportscasters. With nearly 3 minutes left in the Superbowl, they had already called the game for the Patriots. They boasted that Eli Manning should not be upset about his effort, but in the end the Patriots are better. In more words or less, “We Told you so Giants, the Patriots would win this because of Teamwork.”

What happened next was nothing short of brilliant. Eli Manning faced with seemingly unsurmountable odds, deflected 3 lineman and mad an amazing pass. Now within field position, the Giants came out on top with the Touchdown pass. It was truly amazing. The “Resilient Giants” had won.

Now, all the Patriots fans I know, decided to go on radio silence after the game was won. The same fans who were predicting an upset and spamming my cell phone with hateful text messages.

Funnily enough, 14 hours later, I get a text cursing out the New York Giants.

“You guys really got lucky this year. Even though the refs cheated on a few calls. So I guess ya’ll won.”

This may be the epitome of bitterness. Eli Manning makes several amazing passes to win the game with only 2 minutes left. The Giants “resilient” defense stops Brady cold, sack after sack, and people still cannot let the Giants have their moment to shine. Why not, because one thing a bandwagon hopper hates is the underdog. Another reason why the underdog gets my vote.

Oh well, too bad. Who has the trophy? The underdog. And you know what? Since the Giants are so “Resilient” they deserve it. Go Giants!!