Of course, the lucky few that are vying for that golden spot as “new blood” on the TAPS International team, have to earn their keep – lead by the all-knowing Steve and Tango. Yeah… Spider boy and his side-kick head this one up. Thousands, of course, applied to be a part of the magical journey that is TAPS, but only five were chosen and have to prove what they are made of. You have a mix of newbie investigators, science students, mediums, and the average Joe – young students who really have no experience all coming together to learn from “the best” the field work of investigation. Of course Jason and Grant kick the whole thing off to let them know where they stand… (and BTW, what is Jason wearing?? What IS that jacket??) According to them, there are things that you have to have going in… because it’s not something that can be taught: Professionalism, Skepticism, Honesty, Composure, Respect. Make note – because as soon as you join the TAPS team, those things go right out the door.

So off they go in their RV with the academy logo plastered everywhere, so the world knows there’s one more Ghost Hunters show to add to the roster on TV. Once they arrive at Fort Mifflin, they prep to go on the introductory tour of the place – the medium girl decides to stay behind so as to not taint her own information that she receives once inside. Steve actually rolled his eyes at her!! Now, I’m not saying I buy mediums or what they do necessarily – but a true leader in investigation has to respect that a LITTLE and where’s that solid gold “Professionalism” that Jason and Grant were touting? Oh yeah – that goes out the door when you join the team, I forgot. However, she’s missing out on all the great advice Steve is getting out there on the walk-through. Yeah… the walk-through was basically all the crap they had “happen” on their investigations there. Then the pop-quiz of what would the newbies do to set up equipment in those “hot-spots”. One lucky wanna-be actually gets a gold star for knowing that it’s not an EVP when you actually hear a voice with your own ears – that it’s a disembodied voice! YAY for him!! Gold star from the masters!! Your existence in life has been validated! All investigator trainees are armed with specially marked Ghost Hunter Academy notebooks and furiously take notes from what the professors of paranormal say as they go.

Then prep of equipment commences, and Steve decides to pop quiz them again on his half-hearted statement of what they’ll do next. One girl decides to be cute and coy and suck up, and bats her eyelashes and tries to repeat what he’d just said… of course she misses about half of what he said. Aww… she loses – no gold star for her I guess. Sad day. Is it a big surprise, Steve, they weren’t listening to you? You’re there for your paycheck and don’t give a shit about really training these lemmings.

The newbies get briefed on the locations before heading out in teams of two to the various hot spots to catch their first bits of evidence. Chris and Karl start out with EVP in the casement – moments in they start seeing shadow movement nearby, and not long after that the same guy is touched. Steve and Tango are monitoring remotely aggravated by the fact the two guys sat together. The all-knowing mentors tell them to break it up and spread out to a larger area. OOOH did you guys just learn something??

Heather (the medium) was allowed to investigate alone, despite that going against what their team protocol is (???). But is was “ok” because they could monitor her via the IR cams set up in the dungeon where she was at. (Now… if it’s against team protocol, and they got pissed at her for just missing the walk-through – WHY is she off on her own? I’m not saying… I’m just saying…) She starts seeing the image of a man who was hanged (because that’s a stretch…) no description or what he looks like – but “Winston” or whoever was giving her a headache so she decided to move on.

Susan and Ben went out to the powder magazine to check things out. Ben is equipped with mini dv and quickly they start hearing things – which turns out to be the rain. Go Go Investigation skills! They head out after 40 minutes to go sit back on the porch of the control area… Steve and Tango quickly appear to ask why they were back. Poor Susan loses another gold star opportunity when she tells them that they were told to come back after they were done, but couldn’t tell them WHO told them that. Wow… these are the ones CHOSEN for this show. Wow… From the way things looked, they only sat in those individual locations – they never got to investigate the whole location… seemed a little odd to me, but bow to the masters – they know better than I. After all, they have a show and I do not.

They do go back for a second night of investigation, however, where they do get to investigate areas where they didn’t the night before. Chris and Heather went to the magazine for their first round, immediately Chris announced he smelled cigarette smoke – which Heather, of course, agreed too. Chris actually had the foresight to call on the walkie to Steve to find out if anyone was smoking in the vicinity (gold star!), and then was instructed to “find the source”. The masters come to facilitate the activity by finding the source of the smoke, not where the new investigators were standing, but about two feet away… And Steve, in his wealth of knowledge – deduces that it is not a present-day cigarette, but rather a hand rolled one from days gone by. Wow. Impressive work. You got that from a smell? I am not a smoker, so all you smokers out there will have to fill me in on this one. But of course the kids agree, and Steve of course called them on it that he was filling their heads with ideas proving power of suggestion. Interesting way of teaching, but I get it.

Nearby, Ben was investigating with Karl in the dungeon – when Karl began hearing a sigh. Then Ben heard a secondary one that Karl claimed – along with footsteps down the corridor. They ran out of the building to see what the source could be, then meeting up apparently with Steve and Tango. At one point Heather finds a voice recorder that the other two had left behind in the officer’s quarters and calls them on it – and of course Steve gets on their case for having left it in there and trust values – blah blah blah.

Heather begins investigating with Susan in the officer’s quarters and Susan was apparently affected by paralyzing agonizing sadness and had to leave the room. She went back to the RV to take a break. The huge outpouring begins that she is an empath and feels everything when this was divulged at the beginning – so she is three strikes now… but *dunh dunh duuuuuhn* will Steve and Tango find out??? That is the question!

The wrap-up undertaking seemingly went well and they took off to go over their evidence in the RV. They came up with some dust and (IMHO) a crap EVP – and apparently a second EVP that whispers the name of one investigator (Ben Smith).

During their performance review of Susan, of course they had found out that she was hiding her “ability” from them and they called her on it. They were hurt and dismayed (yeah right) that she would hide such a thing because they were dealing with Heather’s ability (oh this is where I add the “yeah right”)… They come to a compromise that she would stay on as long as she was truthful and not keep anything any further.

All in all, Dave and Tango are disappointed in the team’s investigative skills as a whole and one more time called “crap” on the medium and empath of the group before the show closing (but that is them working in tandem with them apparently…). Well guys, I am pretty much 100% sure you started out pretty similarly to what their performance was on the show. Hell, I watched the early days of Ghost Hunters and know your beginnings from that aspect and what you’ve “grown” into. But, oh, the masters are not fallible… how dare I attest to so much? Sorry guys. So as the professors themselves say, “time will tell”… It’s on the DVR to see what becomes of the newest group of lemmings to the Ghost Hunting world. And chock one more up to the Pilgrim Films’ roster of crap viewing entertainment on the SyFy.

Monday, I did a pretty major overhaul of the Templar website.  Please check it out atwww.templarpictures.com.  I’m pretty happy with it, though it’s always a work in progress… we’ll see what it looks like next week!  I’ve also started re-working some of my sports demo work.  This is a great idea for those high school students to showcase their athletic achievements for college recruitment.  With college tuitions soaring, this is an investment that you don’t want to miss out on – that chance for a scholarship.  With public institutions averaging $5,000 a tuition year, and private colleges soaring above $20,000 in many cases – this is an investment that could secure your son/daughter the chance of a lifetime.

My screenplay is coming along well, there’s not much to update on that front – but I’ve got a lot of peaked interests in it, so who knows where this will end up.  Here’s to hoping! 

Trans-Allegheny demo is done on the video end – now the composition of music begins.  It’s in my composer’s hands for the next couple weeks getting a custom treatment done.  I can’t wait to see what he comes up with!!  The shooting should begin in September, pending no disasters.  I’m very excited for this one!!

The next couple of days will have me working on some corporate projects, so stay tuned for any updates.

Working hard on the Corvette/Bloomington Gold for this year.  I’ve got the first segment out to them for review and will be on to part II next.  I am still not sure it will top last year’s… but we’ll see.  The show is June 25 – 28 at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL.  If you’d like more details on the event, please check out their site http://bloomingtongold.com/ .  It is going to be a big deal from what I can tell.  This year wraps up 25 years of doing the show in it’s current format before moving on to a new way of things – from the “Special Collection” into something even more exciting.  I’ll just say, that this year is going to be bringing back in only the best that have been shown over the last 25 years, as a Hall of Fame – so to speak.  The cars there are the best of the best of the best!  It kind of blows my mind to see what they’ve got in store, and I’m not even a “car person”!!

Last weekend I wrapped up an incredible wedding with Lexoria Wedding Films here in Chicago, that took place at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  It was something to behold, the place was stunning – and you couldn’t have asked for a better bride & groom (Jinny Oh and Brian Chung).  They were some of the nicest couples I’ve had the privilege of shooting their special day.  Too bad the weather didn’t hold out here for the event… I think it topped out at around 52 degrees, and the poor bride was running around in her dress and heels through the grass and mud PRE-ceremony to get some shots with the bridal party around the gardens.  I felt for her! LOL!  Come on mother nature, it’s June – let’s give those June brides their money’s worth!  They’re paying top dollar for these venues on these dates!  I give the Botanic Garden kudos though, they cranked those heaters up to keep that tent as warm as possible for all those adorned in sleeveless attire.  

I’ll be working on a shoot this weekend at the Give Me A Chance Foundation’s first annual Charity Golf Classic with Bo Jackson.  The charity strives to assist dis-advantaged minors with the opportunity to get first-rate baseball training while offering academic support.  I look forward to meeting Bo and to see what his efforts are doing for the kids.  Sunday, I’m off to the Cubs vs. Twins at Wrigley.  We’ll see how that goes.  Next week starts the cross-town series between the White Sox and Cubs! I can’t wait!  I’ll be on for two – Tuesday and Wednesday.

Friday I’m off to the LUCKY 13 Haunted America Conference hosted by Troy Taylor.  I’m looking so forward to this! I can’t wait to meet so many of the people I’ve always read about, or have now even met through Facebook and MySpace.  I will be speaking with Troy about a few opportunities for video – and hopefully some of the other participants there as well.  Should be a good time, if nothing else!  I am sure I’ll get a few good stories out of it as well! Keep posted.

Game’s gonna start – I’ll catch you later!

Templar will be persuing several projects this year on the documentary front.  We’re working on several ideas for some historic locations that you’ll absolutely fall in love with like I have.  First, Mansfield Reformatory – the prison featured in Shawshank Redemption.  We’re hoping to put together a two-disc feature for them to sell and assist with restoration of the Ohio landmark.  The first being an historic depiction of the beginnings of the prison to the closing of it’s doors; everything from the escape attempts, executions, riots, and more.  We’ll hear from ex-inmates and look at relics from the prison’s past.  The second disc will feature the ghost stories and lore that have now encompassed the dark walls of the prison.  I won’t go into too much yet, but I will just say – I did see my first (and sofar ONLY) apparition here, in over 10 years of ghost hunting….  The second project will be similar in nature, but on a completely different transfixing location – Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.  This will also be sold specifically with the purpose of bringing in funds to restore the place back to it’s original “look”.  And let me tell you, it is not short on ghost stories as well, so I can’t wait to go back!!!  We’ll also be working on getting one set up for another prison, you may have heard of – Moundsville Penitentiary in Moundsville, WV.  Off the ghosty track, I’m also on a personal crusade against puppy mills because it’s hit close to home now.  I’ll be visiting the puppy mill that my puppy (unknowingly to me when I purchased him) came from, and also fight the chain store that sold him with no other plan but to make money.  Some of my new media friends and I will be persuing the evil that IS puppy mills.

Another part of Templar that sets us apart, that we hope to work a bit more on this year – is music video production.  So all you local musicians that want to get a demo video together or want that video to go with your new single for your album, please contact us and we’ll put together the imagery to match your performance!

Stay tuned, I’m checking out from the Cell now, guys! See you soon!