1/31/05: Things are going full bore on the back end. Yes, I know that doesn't sound right, well, not that there is anything wrong with what didn't sound right. But I digress. We filmed "Starstruck" in the American Theater in Hampton and it went great except for one of our lights burning a hole in their very expensive curtain. Well, every project needs at least one disaster that nearly bankrupts everyone and this was ours (other than the directing, and that won't bankrupt us, just ruin the film.) After an initial sticker shock estimate, the cost of fixing the thing looks reasonable. We are putting ever-increasing sophisticated filters and effects on the "older" footage and while time-consuming, it's paying off in very realistic results. You really feel like you are watching something filmed in the 40's or 50's so it should be a nice balance with the modern interviews. We are down to the wire, only 5 or six more scenes to film. We've also made a few minor tweaks to the dramatic structure, should also make a tighter story. We should wrap this month. This is a marathon but we sprinted to start line and now were sprinting to the finish line. In between, well, we had some Gatorade, I stopped for a pizza and we took a shortcut, got lost, hitched a ride with some migrant farmers...anyway, we are now sprinting, I think that's the important thing.
12/15: I haven't updated the updates (an ironic sentence if ever there was one) in quite a while since this must take a back seat to actually doing things. We are getting very near the end of filming and, while it's a slow process, we raise the bar with every shoot. We filmed a complicated "Night Terrors" television episode with Mr. Parlanchin. It was filmed in "ShatnerVision" and any overacting is intentional. We also filmed a clip from "High Jinx", a 1940's B-film, at the Page House Inn, complete with a spectacular floating hat effect. How did we do it? Movie making magic (and some string!) Catherine Gendell added some much need beauty and sassiness (no offense, but I think we were all tired of looking at TJ no matter how sexy he is.)
We also have a hilarious, surreal Bantam Vodka commercial. Set in Jerry's swingin' bachelor pad, including a grand piano, it's the typical evening in the life of a successful show biz personality. This includes, of course, unexpected visits from blonde bombshells like Patti Jordan. The site of Delbert snuggling with Patti is screen magic.
We just finished a scene from "The Dummy Meets the Mummy". Keith Flippen generously gave us studio space, Kera O'Bryon was stunning as the beautiful, fearless archeologist and TJ, as always, breathed life into a wooden character plus he had to manipulate Delbert. And Todd Holiwick was a real troop in mummy make-up that may well have scarred him to life with acid burns. But art requires suffering, and not just from the audience. Scotty did a fantastic job with the sets. So bit by bit, inch by inch, we're going forward. The quality and production values have increased with every scene, as has our efficiency.
So that sums up the last 5 months. The end is in sight!
7/20: Edit, edit edit. We're stitching together scenes, finding music and doing whatever other backend work we can. We're researching festivals that fit our content and deadlines. Filmmakers should look at www.withoutabox.com. They handle automatic submissions and allow you bandwidth for film trailers and press kits, convenient as can be.
I hope to update the webpage with some stills and maybe a clip or two. The clips kill bandwidth and storage space, and that is really more appropriate to promote the movie when it's finished. But people loved the jolly Hitler clip so we'll see. James, Eric, Scotty and I have also been doing a quick video introduction to Chesapeake's Ghost Train, their Halloween attraction. Any resemblance between Irwin Van Helsing and Max Myer are strictly intentional.
6/21: It has been a month since the last update, I really need to get on our webmaster for being so slack. We have the Gorbeck interviews finished so that puts the vast majority of dialogue in the can. Newt Miller, another local theater veteran, brought a lot of flair to the character. We filmed in the sitting room of the Page House and it added a wonderful layer of authenticity. It blended with Newt who was dead serious, really sold the part. I was in Vegas last week, James is in Vermont this week so we'll jump start the editing in a week.
5/24: We had some machine trouble but all is now resolved, our editing PC is up to full strength and working like a champ. We recorded the narration and Delbert's voice-overs this weekend. That is a huge chunk of work done. The process is s-l-o-o-o-o-w, we're putting this together in piecemeal fashion because of schedules and commitments but what we are getting is good. Eric, our sound guy, had a good set up and the quality of the sound is very consistent. I had my children in the other room, plus Tyler the wonder pup, and the city screwed up our permit to stop all traffic, overhead flights and birds in the Colonial Place section of Norfolk. I suppose that's why people use special facilities, called "sound proof", though how you record sound when sound is omitted, I'll never know. But it's done and if we need to record any pick ups, they should be minimal. I've rediscovered why the script was so funny, hearing fresh dialogue through Scottie's voice-overs. I only blew one take laughing, I'm probably the last person who should be in the room when we're getting this.
Eric had good equipment, was generous with it's use and his time. Technology is very slick - it records to a memory card, hooks up to a PC with a standard USB connection so we'd record, transfer, record, transfer. Even a relatively small project like this requires tons of work and cooperation. We've had quality camera and recording equipment gratis and it's pretty safe to say we'd have not gotten off the ground without it. We have a good portion of filming and recording finished so we can concentrate on editing till we film the remainder.
5/17: While I'm not ready to actively market or push for any real buzz (to much to finish before we put energy there), we are now in the Google and Yahoo! indices . So I'm now doing things like meta-tagging and site submission. That means I also need to rewrite just about every page with some idea of keywording and theme continuity. While it isn't important until we have a finished product, it's still cool to be able to google the title.
5/16: Sorry for the delay in updates. We filmed all of the Denny St. Michaelson interview with Scott Rollins. He was hilarious and we are now locked in a corner - the film will have to be a comedy. With all that footage, we have at least half the film in the can. Two more talking head interviews and some wrap up stuff and we're in!
5/10: I spent the week editing the scene between TJ and Emily and am very pleased. With well-lit footage, software can work wonders. Good actors help, and boy, do we have one in Delbert. James says he's a little wooden but I think it fits the character. We filmed a small scene and were lucky to get it. James and I, not exactly the equipment wizards, set up lights, camera and boom mic successfully. That sentence doesn't sound like much but anyone who has seen us in action knows what a miracle it is. We're no substitute for Jay or Rob but we got the job done. Bruce Britton, who is a doctor, plays a doctor. Sure, you may accuse us of type-casting but it sure worked. We also have some good ideas for the follow-up shoot once we get TJ back in the stable. He'll be playing Jerry after a mental breakdown. Sure you may accuse us of typecasting but it will work. We keep plugging away, at this rate we're liable to actually finish.
Hardware has arrived and I'll work on that next. We jump from writing to acting to directing to scheduling to webmastering to technical work to lighting to computer repair to editing to animal rescue...and that doesn't count jobs and families and personal lives. So, yeah, we're tired. But it's worth it, we're really getting some good stuff and the story is coming to life and better in many ways than we had envisioned. That's because of the people we've been lucky enough to get.
5/2: All video is now safely captured to hard drive. We've ordered some parts for our main video editing system and are considering a Tim and Janey telethon to raise funds. Something like "Help save the soul of unsaved vent figures, send in $100 donation and receive a complimentary Tim and Janey Greatest Hits CD. We are trying to schedule our next round of shooting and meanwhile are doing the technical film work. AfterEffects and CineLook allow us to tweak the raw footage quite a bit. We'll do some "artistic" playing with the Dark Gepetto scenes to achieve an older 16mm look. It gives an authentic punch to everything and removes the digital feel.
4/27: The film we shot looks good - great quality from the Canon GL1 and our video captures are sharp. Rob, Jay and Rich have everyone in frame and in focus. We also got Imaginate, software that gives tight control over still image panning for a very professional documentary style. We should have all the current footage off tape and in backed-up 0's and 1's by the weekend.
4/26: "It's Bible Time, time for prayin', won't you listen to what we're sayin'?" Another day, another Christian puppet show. Thanks to Missy Berent who runs SOFA, fronts Quang T, knows a thing or to about lighting and understands the nuance of makeup. The dailys had us literally in tears and the outake reel is expanding. Komrade Klown is now in the kan and capitalism is safe once again. And, boy, did things go smoothly! Okay, I almost got us kicked out because I plugged into the Virginia Beach public library staff computer equipment to troubleshoot a problem. And we spent two hours figuring out why the boom mic didn't work. A support call to Rob revealed that the headphones were plugged into the wrong place. And Komrade Klown was so tangled that we had to restring him. I say we as if Rich, James and I had anything to do with it. Scottie had him in perfect shape in ten minutes after the Three Stooges had each given up. Scottie is also a technical wiz who built the puppet stages, held the boom, worked Komrade Klown to perfection and nailed the voice over audition. Rich filled in with the camera work and we couldn't have done any of today's work without out him.
4/25: We were beginning to worry that we would have no interesting stories, no ribald tales, no unusual happenstance which wreak havoc on the shoot. Sunday laid those fears to rest. Shooting was delayed by a kind-hearted actress with a fondness for stray dogs. Our 11 a.m. start time was delayed when Emily found a puppy wandering around 20th and Llewellyn. Our mini-rescue mission has to provide good karma for the film. The rest of the day was spent shooting pick-ups for the Dark Gepetto film within a film. The cemetery, of course, provided the most fun-filled levity. There are shots so bizarre, and truly funny, that I want to now want to make Dark Gepetto but James won't let me. We also, finally, got busted by the law for shooting photos on the step thingy outside of the Norfolk Federal building. Okay, so he was a pudgy rent-a-cop and he didn't even draw his piece. If he had one. But we GOT THE SHOT and the man can't stop us. We're real guerilla film makers! Also, as a tip, don't take an Irish actor to an Irish pub. If you must, make sure it's AFTER you film. Nuff said.
4/24: Saturday's shooting went very well. TJ and Emily stepped into a scene for which they were allowed NO real preparation (who's in charge of this thing, anyway?) and did a beautiful job. Not a single technical glitch and aside from the director throwing a fairly mild hissy fit, all went well. It was amazing to watch Emily learn lines in 5 minutes and see TJ operate Delbert like a pro. He acted his little wooden ass off and I think he really fed off of TJ's steadiness. And we somehow filmed the entire thing in the Chrysler Museum's outside sitting area without interruption - or incarceration. "This is no wooden puppet, nor wayward child. It is but the essence of pure evil." If you think it's hard to write dialogue this stiff, you should try having to SAY it.
4/20: We completed our first shot at the Chesapeake TCC campus theater stage. The scene, Delbert's attempt at a solo performance, was a great success, good camera angles, nice lighting, and frankly some of Delbert's best dramatic work. We knew he was funny, but I think more than a few people will be moved by last night's footage. Rob got some great shots and Matt from the TCC Theater crew had the lights ready and the stage set. Thanks also to Lumps #1-4, you know who you are. We're off to a modest but smooth start.
4/19: It's getting very hard to update the page since we're getting into actual production. We've nearly completed the Bible Time puppet set, thanks to all involved there. We have confirmed shooting dates of 4/20 and 4/24-4/26. The weekend dates will take care most of our locations shots and the Monday scenes will knock out our most complicated scenes. We'll have the beat generation scenes, Puppet Playhouse and Bible Time in the can!
4/12: I have finished a great deal of the storyboarding and will post them this evening.
4/10: Lights are on order - this may push back our shooting schedule but will make a huge difference in the production value. Relative Theory is confirmed as a location for the beat generation, as is the Page House. More local talent is now on board, check our Cast List to see who has been added. Delbert is giving TJ and Scott a hard time, we can only pray that he is ready for shooting.
4/6: I've been too busy to actually post all the updates, so here's the quick skinny: We've cast most of the principles and will post a cast list soon. Everyone has both experience and talent, we've been very luck this far. We also have confirmed the Virginia Beach library auditorium for the 26th of April for our staged puppet shows and the Page House for the High Jinx clips. We also have all the stock footage we need and have converted the best clips into AVI files for use in Premier.
3/31: I've posted a very short clip of some archive footage. I trust it is not representative of how polished our final product will be but it's fun to play around. And, no, I don't plan on doing all the voice-overs. Or all the parts. No matter how tempted I am.
3/30: Received and installed the DVD burner, it's working like a champ. Our editing computer, a sweet dual processor mega-machine, is down, possibly motherboard issues. It may be covered under warranty, we're awaiting the paperwork from Rob.
We now have the production crew nailed down and are casting this week.
We're working on consent forms for locations after which we hope to finalize them.
3/27: Scouted locations in downtown Norfolk. Relative Theory off of Granby has the look of a beatnik bar. The Custom House steps could double for a courtroom/federal building for J & D interview.
3/26: We have all the archive footage we need with the exception of some good crowd reaction footage. For the interested, the Prelinger Archives is a tremendous compilation of public domain, royalty free footage. It's well organized, searchable and a real treasure trove. My problem is picking from the wealth of stock footage, not finding good stuff. There is great stuff from WWII, radio and movies, old commercials, 50's Americana, Greenwich Village in the 60's. If you're making a film and need old stock, go there before you break out your checkbook.