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STILL ME SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION OF A NOMINATION FOR THE ACADEMY AWARDS:

STILL ME  SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION OF A NOMINATION FOR THE 81ST ACADEMY AWARDS.

Los Angeles, CA - October 1, 2008 - The short film Still Me was submitted for consideration of a nomination at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the upcoming 81st Academy Awards, in the category of live action short film.

The reviewing committee of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch will screen eligible live action and animated shorts.

Academy Award^® nominations in all categories will be announced on January 22, 2009, at 5:30 a.m. PST.

The 81st Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2008 will be held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and be telecast live by the ABC Television Network on Sunday, February 22, 2009.

Additional information may be obtained by visiting www.oscars.org.


Executive Producers: Daniel Bui, Amy Tripp-Myers, Beth McElhenny
Producers: Beth McElhenny, Chase White, Amy Tripp-Myers, Dara Fraley
Editor: Todd Carter
Music: Rich Brosco
Sound Mix: Jim Baldree
Director of Photography: Chun Ming Huang
Written & directed by: Beth McElhenny

Meanwhile, I am in anticipation of my trip to Oak Ridge, Tennessee next week to attend the Secret City Film Festival, where, of course, Still Me will screen as a contestant.

And tonight I see Jim Gaffigan in his live appearance at the E.J. Nutter Center, which is the Wright State University(*) sports & large-scale entertainment venue.

(*): MY ALMA MATER & MY PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT VIA MY  REGULAR JOB

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SECRET CITY FILM FESTIVAL:

The responsibility to actively promote the movie and accept any award now falls to me. I'm okay with this development and not intimidated; but there is the hair-thick somber tinge of paranoia that I will somehow come off as a dorky boob.

That's just that positive-thinking, self-affirming internal voice that does so much to boost my confidence so often. Yes, a real valuable member of the committee in my head.

Going to the printers after work tomorrow to get some postcards of the poster, (see below), to take with me for promotion. Also will get with the car rental company tomorrow morning and make sure there will be a compact-class car waiting for me on Wednesday when I show up.

Here is the promotional poster. Click on it for a larger version:

U.D. LAW DRAMATIC IMPROV GIG:

This being a daytime gig on a Tuesday and a Thursday, and with this week's trip to the film festival, which will take four work days, I have now pushed that elusive three weeks of accumulated vacation leave earned into late January. And I'm sure to burn some more vacation hours before then.

ARTWORK FOR THE COVER OF LIFE:

PRODUCING PLAYS:

MOVIE PRODUCING/DIRECTING:

OUTWARD BOUND:

By the way, Jim Gaffigan was sexy-funny-good in his live appearance at Nutter Thursday night. Had a chance to meet him at the "Meet & Greet" after the show. Unfortunately I passed on it only because there was no information about it disseminated at the performance, so I had to root around to find out where it was. By the time I got to it the line was quite long and I had to get home. So oh well.

	Hot
		Pock-
I went home and ate a			-et

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THE TRIP TO THE VOLUNTEER STATE:

I also verified today that I'll be able to use my mobile phone to edit the blog while I am at the film festival. My hotel will have internet service, but since I still have not replaced my laptop, that perk does me little good. I was able, today, to use my phone's internet browser to get to the web-based control center for my domain and had full access to the html text-based editor. So I can post updates about the weekend more immanently -- providing that I can get cell service in Oak Ridge, that is. I will be taking photos, but those won't be posted until I get back, though I may add at least some pics retrospectively to the daily posts from the festival.

And if I have no service, I will still journal on the trip and post it all when I get home, with accompanying pictures.

For you five who care.

CREATIVE VACATION LEAVE ECONOMICS:

A COUPLE WOOLLCOTT PICS FROM WORK SONG
Two pictures of me as Alexander Woollcott in the recent Work Song - Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson. Performed at the Wright designed historical site, The Westcott House, in Springfield, Ohio, Work Song was a production of Springfield StageWorks. Both pictures were snapped by the show's director, Larry Coressel, but at least one of them was with Liz Dillard's camera. Ms. Dillard appeared as Mamah Cheney and Olgivana Lloyd Wright in the production.

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HEADING OUT TO THE SECRET CITY FILM FESTIVAL:

So sue me as a sexist.

And, truth be told, it may actually be "a little" agonizing. I am, after all, a tad bit neurotic.

Went to the T-Mobile site and checked out the service coverage map. According to that I should get between three to five bars while in Oak Ridge. We'll see. So look for the probability of daily blog entries whilst I am gone.

Still Me screens during a session of short films at noon on Friday. I wait with baited breath to finally see the movie.

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ARRIVED IN OAK RIDGE:

Indeed, the drive was close to exactly five and a half hours.

3:00 pm		Left the printers, where I had just picked up an order of 6x4 postcards of the Still Me promo postcard, and hit the last several miles of I-675 toward I-75 South.
4:00 pm		Crossed the bridge over the Ohio River and entered Kentucky.
8:30 pm		Arrived in Oak Ridge

Me in the motel room Wednesday night, working on this blog entry, for posting the next morning.

More of the same, whilst I watched some TV.

Brought a copy of Catfish Moon to read during my "spare" time this weekend, to prep for the upcoming audition for January's mounting at The Guild.

I do this sort of nonsense all the time. Used to take trips when I was in college and bring text books to read class assignments -- you might guess that I never read them on my stays; not once. Did I have the opportunity to read some of it in my room last night? Well, yeah. What did I do?: watched Criminal Minds, CSI: New York, The Daily Show, Lettermen, South Park and The Sarah Silvermen Show.

And damned if I didn't forget to set my VCR to record the season opening of the original  CSI tonight! -- (that's right, I know it's so 20th Century, but I have a VCR not DVR or Tivo). I am tempted to leave tonight's festival opening in time to get back to my room and catch the show. I mean, come on! Warrick got murdered for the love of Pete!.

Nevertheless, I have Catfish Moon with me and have every intention of reading at least some of it.

On another note, I guess it must be obvious that I have good cell service here in Oak Ridge.

Now, off to breakfast. Okay, okay: brunch.

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CLOSING TODAY

The cast of Outward Bound in order of appearance Duante Beddingfield            Scrubby Angelé Price            Ann Robb Willoughby            Henry Danny Lipps            Mr. Tom Prior Ellen Finch            Mrs. Cliveden-Banks Michael Boyd            Rev. William Duke Barbara Jorgensen            Mrs. Midget Blake Senseman            Mr. Lingley Gil Martin            Rev. Frank Thomson     Jennifer Lockwood            Assistant Director

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SECRET CITY FILM FESTIVAL WRAP-UP COMING....:

I will post the wrap-up of the weekend soon. Perhaps tomorrow evening. Need to find time to write it.

OTHER STILL ME NEWS:

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SECRET CITY FILM FESTIVAL, DAY IV & RECAP OF THE FESTIVAL:

I accept the Best Family Film Award from screen actor Natalie Canerday, on behalf of Director Beth McElhenny, for STILL ME at the 2008 Secret City Film Festival. Photo courtesy of The Secret City Film Festival photographer: Ray Smith

David Dwyer in a film clip from Boys of Summerville during the presentation of his Secret City Film Festival Founder's Award. This, just one of many clips shown from a choice selection of David's 90-plus film appearances.

Keith McDaniel being interviewed by local press about the festival.

The film festival audience in the theatre for more screenings.

Last Sunday was, of course, the closing day of the festival and another full day with the screenings ending with a most unusual, surrealistic film-noir/sci-fi hybrid entitled Yesterday Was a Lie, directed by James Kerwin and the ultimate winner of the festival's first place award for feature film. Having missed at least one full-length feature during the weekend I was not hard set that it would win, but I certainly reasoned it was a strong contender.

After that closing movie, we took a short break, then the awards were given out. As you already know, Still Me is three for three, having taken home the Best Family Film award from this festival. We have won something at every festival, so far. Here we tied with a gentle and sweet short by North Carolina director, Nic Beery, Veronica Always .

Before the movie awards were handed out, however, screen character actor David Dwyer was awarded the 2008 Secret City Film Festival Founder's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Film. David has been in nearly 100 films in his almost twenty-year career, starting with 1989's Winter People, starring Kurt Russell, Kelly McGillis and Lloyd Bridges.

Here are all the award winners from the festival:

MY MOVIE PROJECTS:

Looking down the road, I have always seen an opening for that 30-35 minute screenplay that is an overhead chopper shot. I had essentially written it off, but now I am going to look into chartering one for a few hours. We won't go into my object terror of heights. I spoke with a movie producer Friday night and mentioned this. She advised that the shot will need to be made by an arial cinematographer who has all of the right equipment and skills to get a steady shot as well as the giblets it takes to possibly have to lean out of a chopper.

In terms of other movies projects, there is, as I believe I've mentioned before, a short story I published at my literary web site that I know would make a great short movie. As soon as I have the cash built up, I plan to approach the author about optioning the movie rights. There are also a couple more stories by me that I want to turn into screenplays. One is not finished, yet. There are other stories at my lit site I might think about optioning, too.

CATFISH MOON AUDITION:

MS. NATASHA RANDALL AND MY MUMMY:

She was there with Glenn H. 'Bud' Martin, who is Kat's mummy, aka: Hunute the Mummy. Kat and Hunute danced various dances from the film, live on the street as the director and producer, J. Todd Anderson, and one of the film's co-producers, Marion Schniegenberg, sold DVDs. I bought one. I have not watched it yet.

J. Todd, by-the-way, does the story boards for all of the Coen Brothers' films.

Marion is who talked to me about the special needs for an aerial cinematographer for that chopper shot I want.

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CATFISH MOON AUDITION:

I haven't been getting to the forested parks enough this year -- but I digress.

It certainly is a character-driven play, a little light on plot development, but still offers some great roles for actors. I would be happy in any of the three male roles. I am drawn just slightly more to one of the characters but it's an insignificant measure of preference. There's one that, if director Saul Caplan is pure to the text when casting, I probably am the wrong physical type for; the character is written as a larger man than I.

I haven't sat down and drilled the sides I have for the audition yet, but I was getting a real sense of all three men as I read the whole play. After work I'll study the sides, as opposed to going to the gym, which I have again slacked off as of lately. Then, tonight, round one of auditions.

U.D. LAW DRAMATIC IMPROV GIG:

ANOTHER DV MOVIE PROJECT FOR THE GUILD:

IMPROV NARRATIVE LONG-FORM DV MOVIE SHORTS PROJECT:

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FIRST NIGHT OF CATFISH MOON AUDITIONS:

U.D. LAW DRAMATIC IMPROV GIG:

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SECOND NIGHT OF CATFISH MOON AUDITIONS:

I think I did okay. It all felt okay. It seemed to me as if I was giving the characters' their due, that I was understanding them and their agendas, or motivations, or whatever you want to call it. Actually, I read one scene as the character Gordon, and I didn't feel like I played into him at all.

We will see what the outcome will be. I have no clue, which means I prepare to not be cast.

U.D. LAW DRAMATIC IMPROV GIG:

I was looking for the students (the lawyers) to give me reasons to go off on them. Little really came up. Tomorrow, when they come back with their legal advice, I will likely have plenty of opportunities. My character knows exactly what he wants to hear and anything else will not make him happy, whatsoever.

IMPROV MOVIE VIGNETTES:

Well, for one thing, not everyone is as obsessed with checking their email as I am. Some may be considering before they reply. A few might be blowing me off. Since I'm not getting elaborate with the production process I am not going through the steps of audition -- since I am not wholly sure how exactly to audition for improv, anyway, and shall wait until I, I hope, have the valuable guidance of one who has great expertise in that realm. I have been approaching people whom I know have greater interest and at least some experience at improv acting. Unfortunately, based on some recent information, I think at least two of the actors I have invited will be out of town for most or all of the projected shoot dates.

I've also approached a couple people about crewing and one has whole-heartedly agreed. He's a student on campus who will still be in class at the start so probably can't crew all the shoots, but he can some. We also need that second camera operator. Fred has two cameras and the point is to have them both rolling on the same action; and cloning Fred is probably prohibitive to the broken, rotted, frayed shoe string budget of the project. Our student may be good for at least some time on camera. Plus Fred is trying to get hold of an operator he knows, and I have emailed another WSU person, who's been involved with a few video and movie projects, both for his job and at least one 48 Hour film, and I think maybe more than one.

I also have been a little too light on the invites to lady actors, only because I'm not sure of many who are interested or experienced. Actually, there's one young lady, whom I saw both Monday and last night at Catfish Moon auditions, who is one of the best actors I've seen on stage in Dayton, and I think would be very photogenic. She also is so quick to grasp a character in a cold reading that I know she'd be good at improv. But she's already told me she is not at all enthused nor interested in camera work -- 'cause you can bet the film maker in me eyed her immediately. But I really need to try and increase the pool of ladies to entice into this project.

Despite that at the moment I have no cast and only the hint of a crew, I still hope to shoot on November 1 or 2. Hey, that's a whole ten days from now. A lot might happen,

maybe,
possibly.

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AND IT'S ON TO THE NEXT AUDITION:

Not sure what I audition for next.

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U.D. LAW DRAMATIC IMPROV GIG:

It's much easier to play angry with another actor who's on board with you, especially if it's from a script, than it is to go after a student who is getting caught up in the moment with you and feels backed into a corner and isn't sure how to get out. I know it can be seized by this fellow as a valuable experience to learn from, and hope he does so. But man did I feel bad for the guy.

IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT:

FUTURE MOVIE PROJECTS:

Too, I think I want to delve into a screenplay for another of my own short stories, "A New Role For Herald," which has been posted at The WriteGallery for almost nine and a half years. It would be a short movie that would need a pretty big budget (at least relatively speaking) to bring off well. It's a sci0-fi story that calls for a certain amount of post-production effects as well as, for at least one segment, convincing representation of international exotic locations. But it's also a great script for me as an actor -- I could play Herald (that's a purposeful spelling, by the way) without it being a stretch, whatsoever. Though I would have to amend his age a little.

And I have at least one other short story by me that could be a good screenplay. As well as, there's a longer one, about 14 thousand words and forty-five double-spaced manuscript pages. That one would move into the realm of a feature length and I am not so sure the screenplay would be adapted as much as it would be based on or inspired by. But that one would be a major undertaking to turn into a screenplay and a far more costly and production heavy movie to make, just because it would be feature length.

And there is still that short story by another author at WG that I'd love to option and adapt myself, as well as potential other stories by other authors.

"THE SCOTTISH PLAY" AT SINCLAIR CC:

Director Brian McKnight had some interesting use of flashlights in the production. It was more-or-less like, but not exactly like, those moody investigation scenes in the original CSI where the lights at the crime scene are never turned on and there's always a little fog in the room for the flashlight beams to infiltrate. It's always been a stylized effect, very removed from verisimilitude, on CSI that I have always forgiven them for -- along with none of the women investigators ever putting their hair up or back while at an active crime scene. In the play the flashlights were much less in need of forgiveness.

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IMPROV MOVIE VIGNETTES:

There will be a production meeting, of a sort, this coming Saturday. I, the DP, and whomever else either of us can get there will at least discuss a game plan and do some screen tests. We will get an initial idea of how we want to shoot and what we may need that we don't have.

I'd like to have at least a couple actors as subjects for the lens. And if we can actually shoot some viable footage, we might as well do so.

Meanwhile, I have the beginning of a few ideas about how to approach material and will spend the week brainstorming concepts, scenarios and possible character profiles.

Some of the profiles, I may model after those created for the U.D. School of Law guided improv gigs. There, as you may know from reading about them here, the name, some vital facts, a situation and the goals & agenda of the character are given to the actor. Not sure I will always, if ever, get as thorough with those for my project as the U.D. gigs do, but I might write up a stock pile after the fashion of the U.D. examples.

Guides that focus on the situation and the conflict, leaving the characters mostly or completely up to the actors, will prove interesting, too. It may be that a lot of this pre-fab material is on hand in case we aren't coming up with ideas on the spot at the shoots. But I bet I create scenarios of which I decide I must get on screen.

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IMPROV MOVIE VIGNETTES:

The crew, by the way, is four at the moment. I'd love to have an AD, but I need to find someone who can make all the productions days.

As indicated before, in terms of the overall production, as we shoot this fall/winter we'll be riffing on ideas and such to see where they go. Being funny isn't the penultimate goal. It's not frowned upon, of course, but I am more interested in drama, even if it's lighter. But a good funny vignette is welcomed, too, if it works out that way. And we may regroup on any given take or segment. There is a very great chance that we will adjust and re-shoot portions of a given riff. The second half of the magic will be in the editing process. And the pressures off everyone, because this whole project is all experiment this fall/winter; the entire exercise is mostly me and the DP, Fred Boomer, testing how to shoot this stuff for a more "formal" or perhaps "structured" improv project later. Though, as I have said, any good footage we get from any production day here in November and December is fair game for use.

What I hope is a good thing for this current project is that each actor does not have to commit to more than one production day, or even less if that's all he or she can give. And If all one can do is this more experimental shoot this fall/winter, that's fine. There is no inherent assumption that association with this experiment. Not to suggest I would not welcome an actor to be there for most of these upcoming shoots, or maybe all. But there is lots of flexibility that I hope helps getting commitments.

I have received a certain amount of positive responses from actors who are on board. Others still have not responded at all. I have ten names right now, though the participation of most depends on the jibing of schedules. I hope to have a tentative (75-90% concrete) production schedule, perhaps tonight, which will help.

The last several days I have been doing a bit of brain storming on scenarios, situations, phrases, characters, all which may spark some improvisational moments. As previously indicated, some of the scenarios will be much like, and in some cases, exactly like, the U.D. Law gigs. Our "guidance" will not always be as structured or perhaps as detailed. Invoking based on a word or phrase is, on the other hand, quite removed from the structured guidance of those law gigs. I also have every intention of welcoming impromptu ideas from cast and crew, on the spot.

Moving from director/producer into the "executive" producer realm, I got a signature loan for $300 to cover feeding everyone during the shoots as well as some small amount of other productions needs, whatever those may turn out to be. Actually, since they consolidated this new loan with my previously running sig loan (for auto repairs), I was technically credited with $301.71, they loaned me enough to pay off my pervious balance and make the new balance an even $500. Not that you would care about the minutia of detail. Point is I have borrowed 300 bucks to help with the current project.

Not that I am writing checks to participants this round. The proposition I forwarded is that at this point this is not a commercial venture. Down the road, I hope it will be. I do know that the ultimate improv production will at least be available on-line (YouTube and probably a dedicated web site with them as pod casts). This present experiment is fair game for that, if we get any footage we like enough. Whether or not there is any income attached to any of this is a pretty tenuous concept. Probably mostly because I have no real business sense, whatsoever.

That said, this fall/winter work is not a paying gig, but if it does get marketed, I am going to cut all involved in. I wouldn't count on any of us getting rich off of it. And I wouldn't wager the odds of it being marketed, to begin with. But if we mine any gold, we might as well take it to the claims office.

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IMPROV MOVIE VIGNETTES:

Stay tuned.....

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IMPROV MOVIE VIGNETTES: FIRST PRODUCTION WEEKEND ‐‐ FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, THROUGH SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2008:

Duante Beddingfield, Brett Taylor and Craig Roberts in the improvisational vignette shot as the test shoot, Saturday, Novemeber 1, 2008.

Craig had to slate the shot since there was no assistant director and all the production people were behind the bar.

Setting up for the shoot

The same shoot as right above, this time from Camera B.

Note previous picture above. This is another example of the same moment of acting caught from the two-camera shot set-up.

All in all I am pleased with Test Shoot Day. We learned a few things and actually ended up with a pretty decent vignette on tape.

As shown above and to the right, the actors who were there were Duante Beddingfield, Craig Roberts and Brett Taylor. Duante, of course, I have now worked with a couple times (Playing God and The Best Man); Craig, a few times (The Cripple of Inishmaan, Proposals, The Diviners, and The Beard of Avon); Brett, I just met, as he was another of we who auditioned for, but were not cast in, Catfish Moon.

Unless I am remembering wrongly, I don't think I have completely spelled out the concept, as it is, of this improv project. The long and the short of it is that I want to produce a series of short DV improv movies. These November and December shoots are production experiments, where I and Fred Boomer (the Director of Photography, as you may know) will discover more fully how we want to shoot and produce a more structured production, later.

The only things I know absolutely are that we are shooting the action two-camera and that many of the segments will be guided beyond simply a set up of the situation, like I have previously indicated or at least suggested. The ending plot result, or the ending emotional state of at least one character, may be a stated goal at the start. And I am sure now that in some cases I am, as I know I have said, going to be far more detailed and specific about character, situation, conflict and the emotion goals of the vignette in the guidance I give the talent.

It probably goes without saying, but, this will be true narrative improv here, not Whose Line Is It, Anyway gag improv. I have a concept (a general, macro concept anyway) for this exercise. It's truly an idea of convenience. The project's workshop title is Bar Flying and we are using the bar and restaurant in the basement of the new Guild building on Wayne Avenue. As well, other parts of the building will be used.

Right now there is no over-arch, except that the bar is playing a central theme. This open enough as an exercise concept, however, that such may change before we are done. The beauty of it is that no actor needs to commit to all the production days. Since we are doing vignettes, since we are very open about what the over-arch is, one ever develops, we can adjust and accommodate. There may be the possibility of pick-ups being shot later for some segments, but, that's open; and we have a location that we know we can get back into.

At this point, Bar Flying still is not a commercial venture. Down the road, maybe it will become one. Bar Flying is certainly intended to be at least available on-line. It is not a paying gig, but if it would get marketed, I certainly still think I should cut all involved in. You can't use people's good services for free then turn a buck from that help. Yeah, but ultimately I still wouldn't wager the odds of Bar Flying being marketed.

There is a clear level of uncertainty connected to the whole project. To show up at the shoot with no script, no shooting script, just sketches of what can and might be done, has a level of anxiety attached to it. Our test shoot day has proven to alleviate the intensity of this for me, though. My three actors gave me a really good riff that we pulled out of the air just a few minutes before the camera rolled. The result wasn't absolutely brilliant stuff, but it was good work that was light years from "sucking." That's a good sign.

Here's the account of the first production weekend:

Friday, October 31, 2008

3:30 pm

Dropped into Meijer and grabbed some snack foods and bottled water for the cast and crew. After that, it was off to Best Buy for a six pack of mini DV tape cassettes. I also dropped by Lowe's to price a few things that I may end up needing for the production, namely, half-inch, four-foot by eight-foot foam sheets and painting supplies. At this point, including a lunch meeting with Fred Boomer two weeks earlier, the production is at $93.33 in expense debts.

evening

Did some administrative work. Tailored then printed actors' release forms for the production. Looked at the November and December calendar, then created and printed an availability form for each crew and cast person to fill out. Created a shoot log for the production. Packed my car, save for a few more valuable items that were not going to sit in my car, outside, overnight. This is important: I had borrowed a three chip DV camcorder from campus. Right before I went to bed, I plugged the AC power unit in and fixed the battery in the recharging slot.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

8:00-ish am

A little while after I posted the short Saturday morning blog entry, I finished packing my car (adding the valuable stuff: sound equipment, my slate board, items like such), then made a stop at IGA for the last of the, let's call it "craft service" things : napkins, plastic plates and ice for the cooler of bottled water.

8:45-ish am

Arrived at the Guild's Salem theatre to pick up a few set pieces and properties, as well as the coffee maker. I thought I needed a few 30" tall bar stools. I also thought about grabbing one small table, but there was not enough room in my car. Borrowed a few liquor bottles, too.

9:30-ish am

Pulled into the Wayne location, where Fred was waiting for me. We unloaded and began to set up. We can both add "grip" to our credits on the roll. Of course, that's always the way it is on a shoe-string indy production.

10:00 am

As per the crew call, Chris Tung arrived. And then there were three. Chris is the new student in the Wright State University Motion Picture Production Program, whom is my first official networking connection through My Space that has born productivity, Like the rest of us, he gripped, but he also ended up as second camera operator. * -- Sorry no good photo from the day available of Chris. But that is him behind the bar in the second behind-the-scenes set pic.

10:45-ish am

A friend of Fred's, Greg Forsthaefel* came and served primarily as sound engineer, but also gave other production help, especially in terms of identifying sight line and light bleed problems. * -- Not sure I have spelled his last name correctly. And again, no good pic of him from the day, just like Chris; and FRED, for that matter.

12:30 pm

Actually, a little earlier than that, Brett showed for the 12:30 cast call. Duante was close to exactly on time. Craig was not far behind.

1:00-ish pm

I have several scenarios more or less worked out, none of which I wanted to use for this riff for the test shoot. I had also done a strange little game with my Word thesaurus to grab a long-ass list of words. from there I put together a page of phrases, cobbled and free associated. The page of phrases was my intended well for whatever we would do for the test. So, of course, I left that at home. So after a little discussion I looked at Brett and said. "Okay, Brett. Who's your character?" He thought for a second then said, "I'm a traveler." "Which means what?" I asked, "You a seeker, a salesman?" He decided on a scout for a hotel chain who travels looking for real estate to build new hotels on. He's lonely and seeking something. Based on few other things Brett came to decide -- some with my guidance -- I made Duante a preacher, because I saw the chance for a good dichotomy between the two characters. It was also based on an observation Duante had made when he arrived, about his previous evening. I won't elaborate but it did have to do with Halloween and a Priest costume. Craig decided to be the drunk college student. I took the role, of screen, well mostly off screen, of the bar tender. the really interesting thing is that most of us were named by someone else. Craig named me Gip; I named him Bart -- (though at least once I called him Brett during the riff); I also named Daunte: Marcus. Brett named himself: Frank. Like I said it was not the most brilliant improvisational scene to ever be created, but it was not at all horrible. There was a beginning, a middle and a resolution. And the guys all gave me some good, spontaneous performances. I was probably the weakest, but I was not really trying hard. I was focusing on being director. I was off screen save for my hands on occasion when I poured a drink. Actually, Fred panned back onto me at one point when my character, Gip, was taking some action that was more directly involved in the scene. And I had a couple of occasions to move by the front of each lens. But mostly I was off screen. Fred suggested some pick-ups of me at the bar, but really, the whole point was to test shoot to discover problems and what we will need that I had not thought of nor anticipated. That had already been accomplished in spades. And We would have had to readjust the lights a bit. I didn't want to bother with it. Though some cut-away shots would add variety to what we have. The scene ran twenty-two minutes. It could stand to be trimmed, but I'm not sure I would want to edit it down to under ten minutes. That's the maximum length it can be on a standard account at YouTube account. I think it's a relatively interesting scene, but it is certainly into "talking heads" territory. The cut-aways of me would have helped, but I really don't think they would save it from this element.

1:45-ish pm

The day was pretty much wrapped and we were watching the rushes. *Rushes: "The first positive prints made from the negatives photographed on the previous day. During filming, the director and some actors may view these dailies as an indication of how the filming and the actors' performances are progressing." -- from IMDb Movie Terminology Glossary. In this case though, the rushes, or "dailies" are not "first positive prints made from the negatives photographed on the previous day," but rather simply the roll back of the tape to the beginning of what has just been shot.

By 2:30-2:45 Fred and I were both packed. I then took the coffee pot back to the Salem Avenue theatre and was home eating dinner by 5:30. By 7:30 I was dumping the digital signals from the tapes onto the hard drive of my ancient Mac tower. Because I only have a 400 mghz processor I was not able to create files of the whole twenty-two minute take as one file. My computer would freeze. So I broke each of the camera takes into seven separate files.

I backed up a few seconds on each file so there is a little bit of action duplicated from the end of one onto the beginning of the next. I also made sure the comparable action from the second camera did not match up precisely on the same numbered files. For instance, the first file from camera A starts at the start of the scene and goes to about 4:00 into the scene. The first file for camera B, also starts at the start of the scene, but I only took it to about 2:00 in. So I have a staggering of the progression of action on the files from A compared to B. The reason is so I have different runs of continuous action on the files from A to B. In the editing process that will make a big difference. Truthfully, I'd have rather had two 22:00 files, but that was not going to happen.

By the way, I used the DV camcorder I had borrow from campus to dump the footage -- Fred seemed to want to take his expensive cameras with him for some reason. Now, this was one of the reasons I had borrowed the DV camera, to transfer the footage onto my hard drive. I had also intended to shoot some behind the scenes footage during the production day. But, remember that battery I had plugged into the AC power unit, to charge overnight? Well, I left all that at the apartment so I had no power to run the thing during the day!

Sunday, I looked at the footage some. It looks pretty good. We only recorded sound through a mixer for camera A. I notice the volume is a bit lower, but the quality is a little better than on B. There are lines lost on each roll, too. I don't think any of the same ones for both, which is good. I may actually, if I need to, plug the audio for a given line from one roll to the other, more or less doing the same thing as ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement -- AKA: Looping), at least as far as the editing room and the end result.

I actually did the same thing in the editing for The Chorus for Candice. I liked one particular performance by Kim Reiter in one take but preferred her emphasis on a particular word from another take. So I used just that one word from the audio track of the take not used. In that particular case, since I was fitting a word into a sentence, it took me about forty-five minutes to edit it in. I had to precisely trim the vowel sounding to make the word the exact length as the version it was replacing. It was a challenge to get an edit that did not call attention to itself by sounding unnatural or different in quality from the rest of her voice in the sentence.

Yes, I am pleased with our test shoot. We learned a lot. I was hot to shoot next Saturday, Nov 8, but that is going to be the "Art Department" day. The restaurant is a nice location, but the mirrors everywhere are a bit of a problem for lights and for sight line for the lens. So I am going to be faking out some walls and such to mask a lot of mirrors, using the trusty 4x8 foam sheets.

Peaking into the room I want to use as a jail cell, from the long white room. Eventually my "jail cell" is likely to become a dressing room. The long white room is planned as the makeup room.

Closer view of the "jail cell."

I also have a story idea that involves a jail cell and I see the perfect room for that -- okay, I saw the room first, then got the idea. But it's a white room right now, which will not work for several reasons. A white jail cell doesn't work for me, and white walls, in general, don't work for the camera lens. So, I'm going to ask permission to paint the walls in the room, probably gray, maybe brown. I am referring to the little room that's next to the single bathroom and shower, off the long white room, just behind the bar area. *See right.

Anyway, that's how I am spending Saturday, the 8th, and perhaps Sunday, the 9th. My goal now is to have a shoot on Saturday the 15th and Sunday the 16th. As soon as I have confirmed that with Fred (Director of Photography) and also am sure some of the talent will be able to make it. I want a solid schedule soon, but I will wait until cast and crew, as a whole, have an idea what's good (and more importantly, what's bad) for them.

In the meantime I will be doing more brainstorming on more focused and solid scenarios and such. When I know in advance particular people will be making a shoot, I will get the material to them to look over. For the most part I'm not concerned that the actors totally commit the material to memory, in most cases. We will just have to be sure everyone in a scene is on the same page when/if that is necessary in a given vignette.

PRODUCING THEATRE:

Otherwise, as an actor, I am not sure what's next. But my eyes and ears are open. I do have some options down the road a few months.

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FIRST OF ALL:

As many of you do, I remember watching his speech in '04 at the Democratic National Convention and thinking, as many did, This guy is going to run for president someday. The pessimist in my head would have never contemplated him making the acceptance speech at midnight, November 4, 2008.

I am amazed and I'm also miraculously inspirited to find I have underestimated my fellow citizens.

BAR FLYING:

I'm also beginning to formulate some character profiles for the actors. I decided I want each actor to play the same role across vignettes. The roles Brett, Craig and Duante played in the test shoot vignette don't necessarily apply. But from the fifteenth forward, the actors will be a certain character and keep that role if they do more than one vignette. What I aim for is a group of captivating characters who will be intriguing to watch interact with each other and then place them in interesting situations, sometimes with clearly stated and concrete agendas given to the actors by their director, sometimes with only a vague wisp of a goal provided.

And I don't mind admitting that when I ponder the mission to achieve this goal I hear a little voice in my head asking, "How the £µ¢% you gonna pull THIS off?"

I am going to be sure they get their profiles and scenarios ahead of time so they will have time to form an idea of who they are, yadda yadda.

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BAR FLYING:

Last night I did start getting some good sense of a idea and direction. mostly based on starting to form some ideas about the characters I am creating for the actors -- though I am only in the first phase of that. A problem presented itself, one that is part and parcel to a recurring theme for me. My creative juices starting bubbling in earnest at about 10:30 last night. Before I knew it, it was 11:45, and I have to be at work at 7 a.m. I was hot for another good two hours of creative work on these improv guides, but I had to reluctantly, begrudgingly stop the productive session and go to bed.

The paycheck job gets in the way again. It's difficult for me to sometimes remember its critical, survival-level importance to my existence.

This particular inconvenience aside, at least I have a concept formulating in my mind.

Meanwhile, four actors can make the Nov 15-16 shoots, and I anticipate at least one more will be good for at least the Saturday shoot.

I am contemplating moving things slightly out of the bar area for what's cooking in my head for the 15th. We may go into the area right behind the bar, a room I've been calling "the dart room," only because it has a dart board on the wall, left from the Dayton Gym Club occupation of the place.

Still doing "art department" this coming weekend. The little room as a jail cell or a similar place is still uppermost in my plans; I am not finished with the bar area at all, either. So, I still need to create fake walls to mask all the friggin' mirrors in the place.

Still going shopping for "art department" supplies tomorrow night. Then, since I have to be in Dayton tonight anyway for a Guild related activity. I believe I'll drop by the Wayne building and get some measurements. Hope to be able to book a DV camera to shoot some behind-the-scenes footage of my art work, this weekend.

TECHING THE COVER OF LIFE:

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That little, once white room, for which I have production plans. shown here, paint wet, and only moments after I had finished painting the floor gray. Tomorrow I'll finish off any spot work, as I am back to do other art department work.

BAR FLYING ART DEPARTMENT WORK:

Plus I'm tired and don't want to fool much with the blog. I'd really like to go to bed right now, but I have a date with a muse.

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BEFORE

AFTER

BAR FLYING ART DEPARTMENT WORK:

And, again, I'll journal the whole weekend later. Right now I'm still dancing the ritual dance to win that effervescent tryst with my muse.

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Crap I didn't need to buy

Getting ready to paint a white room gray.

"I see a white room and I want to paint it gray"

BAR FLYING:

Five actors have been emailed what I think are some interesting profiles with some opportunities for interesting intermingling, conflicts and emotional responses to each other. If I did my job, I have a group of actors who can do theirs.

As for "Art Department" weekend, I didn't shop for production supplies last Friday night as I'd planned. I didn't feel well so I stayed home, took it easy, watched a little TV (maybe a little too much) and worked some on that brain storming the characters and scenarios, though I made little progress, then.

The goal for Saturday was to get to the Wayne building at 9 a.m., but as I told Chris Tung, "it'll probably be 10 a.m. and maybe 11 a.m." As it turned out, I was unloading my car at the site just about 9:30 Saturday morning. And I did the shopping that morning: six 4x8 white foam sheets, a gallon of dark gray and a gallon of brown paint, one brush, one roller, one roller extension pole, a paint tray, a four-pack of roller covers. A total of $135.11, so far, for the day.

After arriving at Wayne and doing a little search in a utility area for tools, I discovered a roller and a paint tray, which could have saved me six bucks. Well, I plan on giving whatever is left over to the Guild when I'm done, anyway, including the 4x8 foam sheets. I figure it as rent payment for use of the facility on Wayne.

The first big adventure of the day happened before I got to Dayton. It was in the parking lot of Lowe's in Fairborn, Ohio. The moment, almost the very second, I walked out the door with six four-foot by eight-foot sheets of foam in my hands, the wind started picking up, and I thought I would possibly take flight. Then, when I got to my car, to my Ford Probe, it became clear I had miscalculated the ability of my vehicle to transport six 4x8 sheets of foam insulation. I'd done a quick measurement, and clearly a hasty and sloppy measurement, that told me I could angle the sheets and fit them in, even if a few feet of the long end hung out the back of the car. I was wrong, even in a windless environment, where the elements weren't making my attempts a slapstick routine, the law of physics were ruling the back portion of my hatchback to be narrower than the four feet I needed.

Fortunately, the foam was pliable enough I was able to fold each sheet over on itself and fit all six in the back of my Probe's cabin. Unfortunately, I didn't think to snap a picture -- it would have been a good one. Now, polyethylene foam is a material with elastic memory, so after I had unloaded the sheets at the site, I found, as I suspected I would, that they did not want to lie flat. I had to lay them on top of each other, then turn a couple heavy tables upside down and lay on top of the stack and add a flat board with weights on it to all that. I let them lie for more than twenty-four hours like that to flatten them back out. So, Saturday was forced to become the paint a white room gray day. And I did that, with one dinner break, until about 6 p.m. Actually, now that I think about it, I also had to go out and buy another can of gray paint; it took more than I'd thought it would. I bought my lunch on the way back. The second can brought the day's total to $159.70 and the productions whole total to $260.55; I have $54.35 of the signature loan left.

Sunday I finished off the gray room, which, instead of being a jail cell, I think will be the visitation room at a penitentiary. I haven't fleshed that scenario out yet, but it likely will involved some of the characters (actors) that are shot this coming weekend. Then I peeled the plastic from the sheets, and painted them a base dark brown. I kept five of the six sheets as 4x8. One I trimmed down and angled to fit around one of the mirrored pillars in the bar area. Today I will texture and highlight all of them, then place them in the bar area. They are all to mask mirrors, ether on the pillar or on the walls.

That fifty-four bucks will be challenged since the Saturday shoot is a scene at a pizza place and there will be pizza in the scene. plus, I need table cloths, which I haven't found -- I'll buy dollar store crap, but it's still a debit.

Also, concerning the shoot day, I think for various reasons I may occasionally interrupt the riffing, stop shooting, as we go along. For one thing, I may seize an opportunity to get pick-ups on a particular actor, plus it may be an opportunity to adjust the story and certainly to change the shot set ups, if only minutely. I'll let my instincts rule here. If I think it unwise to break the dance, I'll leave it be. If it seems like we could stand to regroup, I will cut.

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The set space for Balboni's Casa di Pizza.

Gotta have some tunes when you're working

Adding highlights.

Using a dry brush, with the original base brown paint, to mute the highlight design.

On the left, the loudly highlighted 4x8 flat; on the right, the muted version.

BAR FLYING:

There are two new additions to the cast coming on Saturday. I have plans for these two that will make them marginal in the Saturday shoot. They will be a married couple. The woman is the granddaughter who is now running Balboni's Casa di Pizza. At the Saturday shoot, they will be very much supporting, as the group already set will be the scenario's focus. Saturday it will about establishing them as running Balboni's and checking on their customers. etc. There will be at least one future shoot the will focus this couple, and it could be Sunday.

Not to say that if we wrap the planned scene with the group we might not get to some focused work on the restaurateurs on Saturday, but that's if we don't grab a lot of pick-ups from the dinner scene. I also am thinking that if we shoot something different Saturday with the couple, it would not be on the set we are using for the dining scene -- so there'd be some down time to light the new area. And with either or both of these contingencies, we are most certainly looking at a later wrap for the day.

But here's a thought: this couple (the actual couple) has a business and an office they work out of. I've introduced the possibility of using their actual office, at some point, as the office for Balboni's. All we have to do is come up with a compelling reason to shoot the characters in their office, which I know we can.

As for Art Department work, (NOTICE I'VE THROWN MY LITTLE SELF-INDULGENT PICS TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COLUMN?), it's not totally done for the coming weekend, but it's mostly done. I do have go back Friday evening; and' I'll be doing some shopping on Thursday evening.

Yesterday was a pretty productive day, though. I got the finishing garnishes on all of sheets, including that which will fit around the mirrored pillar in the bar area. For two of the five 4x8 sheets I created a design that's really almost more like a large canvas by an artist -- albeit, I would not suggest the guy to be a terribly brilliant artist. The other three have a, let's say, "less ambitious" design, which is also what I used for the foam sheet I angled to mask the mirrored pillar.

Much of the highlight coloring was far too loud, though, for both designs. So, I used the original base brown to dry-brush over the garnish colors and mute them down. The end result is not the greatest scenic design effort to ever occur, but I guess it'll have to work for me.

When I'd finished the flats, I took some time to assess the area we will shoot in Saturday. This is going to become Balboni's Casa di Pizza, and the setting for a group of friends and family. We'll be using the far left corner of that "dart room." The dart board -- the reason I've dubbed it "dart room." -- will be coming down before Saturday. There's too much of a risk that it will end up in the shot and I don't want to justify Balboni's as a place where there would be a dart board in the dining room.

Meanwhile I grabbed some framed pictures for Balboni's walls from upstairs in the mountain of properties on the first floor of the building; it is good to be shooting in a theatre building. I also set the two little tables I'd used to flatten the foam sheets out last week, in place in Balboni's. They had been part of what we used as background set pieces for the test shoot in the bar area. I have five characters to sit at the table. Those two small tables are not enough. I will have to get a longer one from upstairs. I know which one I'm bringing down; it technically is not what would be in a restaurant, but with a table cloth over it, the camera will assume it is what we suggest it is.

Art Department work isn't done yet, either. Need other set pieces: appropriate chairs, at least one centerpiece for the table (a vase, I am thinking), and, of course, I need the correct table cloth, still. I also need plates and utensils, drinking glasses, some large flat serving pans for the pizza that will be on set -- that's right, this is a shoot with food on the set. And I don't have another writer to blame, the food in the scene is of my own invention.

Tomorrow night I at least shop for the table cloths, if I don't go ahead and either drop by the Salem theatre to find the plates and utensils that will work at Balboni's, or stop by the Wayne building and start putting the set together, or do both. That dart board must come down, as I said. The pictures most go up. The longer table must come downstairs. I should get the 4x8 flats up on the walls in the bar area to mask the mirrors, too. I doubt we're shooting in there this weekend, but it won't hurt to get them up and ready for when their time comes. Regardless of the order of these tasks, Thursday and Friday night I am busy getting pre-production for Saturday ready.

The best news is that all of the actors are comfortable with the character profiles and scenario information I have given them. I was a little worried I had saturated them with too much information. None of them seemed to feel it is a heavy burden, so we shall see what happens. I think there's great potential for something golden to happen. Of course, part of the excitement is that very real risk that the vignette falls flat on its face. I got good people though, so I anticipate something worthwhile being captured this weekend.

COVER OF LIFE ART WORK:

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BAR FLYING:

We had two good shoot days over the weekend. I will be back to journal them. The post will either be tomorrow or Wednesday...


or Thursday...


or Friday.


I have not been able to transfer the three-plus hours of footage to my hard drive, yet. If I can get access to a three-chip camcorder -- to use as my source machine -- I will spend this evening doing that. Then, along with a few still shots I took with my camera, I'll have still frames to post with the journaling text.

VOICE ACTING AUDITION:

"DOH!"  moment number 162,371: I got the email with the draft script attached on Thursday. There were several script pages and the email said to look at the man and to only review the "60" spot. So I found the 60 second spot that had a woman's dialogue and the VO (Voice Over) dialogue. Being preoccupied with my own project, I did not invest much logic-building in this. I came to the conclusion that "man" and "VO" were the same, read over it a bit and made an appointment for this morning.

As I was sitting there, reading the text, Jim Payne (my agent) seemed to be puzzled and getting more so the further I read. Turns out there was another "60 spot" with "Man" and "VO," which was the copy directed at me. Fortunately, I brought a printout of the whole PDF document with me, so I had the correct script. Also fortunate was that the dialogue was only one, relatively brief paragraph -- thirty-seven words. I did a couple practice reads, then did two takes (#2 being a safety take).

This turn of events did make the direction in the email to speak naturally and not like a "radio announcer" much easier than for the VO text, which, of course, was written for a radio announcer and had that slicker feel to it.

My two takes? They were....good.

COVER OF LIFE ART WORK:

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OPENING TODAY AT THE DAYTON THEATRE GUILD:

IT'S COMING

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STILL WORKING ON THE ENTRY TO CHRONICLE THE FIRST BONA FIDE PRODUCTION WEEKEND FOR THE IMPROV MOVIE (WORKSHOP TITLE ‐‐ BAR FLYING):

Like I usually do with these, um, "reports," if you will, for projects or for something like the wrap-up to the adventure to the Secret City Film Festival, the entry for this first production weekend for the movie is being constructed, piecemeal, over several days -- a week now, in fact.

Since this blog is often more accurately "a journal of artistic things" than a "diary," I, as is clear from a lot of the blog's content over the years, try to use what brain matter I have to attempt some analysis and interpretation of what I have been involved with.

And, too, I am trying to get some still frames from the footage processed to post in the pics column. I have actual snapshot stills but I am grabbing some frames from the video, as well. Not as easy as it may sound. FinalCut creates frames that are, by default, 720 x 480 pixels. Problem is, and a complaint I have, these 720-pixel-wide images are originally 640 pixels wide stretched horizontally by 12.5%. After I have selected a frame to export as a still image, I have to use another image program, Corel Painter, to compress the image back down to 640 wide.

Then there's also the fact that stills from a video, and usually film, are not as clean as a true, still photograph. So there's usually some sharpening and other enhancements that need to be made. I exported what amounted to several hundred still frames a few nights ago; for reasons I won't detail here, I abandoned them all and opted to start over. I have, as of this posting, one still frame from the weekend that is ready for posting. I post it in the left column here. It is the slate for camera 2 as the first footage on Saturday is about to be shot. In the far right of the frame, is Barbara Jorgensen, who is about to give a beautiful performance.

The journaling blog entry covering the weekend, is coming.

Really.

THIS WEEKEND TO MULL OVER AN OPPORTUNITY THAT I AM ON THE FENCE ABOUT:

The pay is only a little better than what I make now at my rent-payer. I also can think of at least one other local actor for whom this job seems absolutely perfect. Jim said I was one of five people he thought of; I am willing to bet he whom I am referring to is also one of the five.

The other side of this coin is that it would be a job directly in "show biz'ness." That has a monumental appeal to me. I told Jim I would think upon this over the weekend.

THE COVER OF LIFE AT THE DAYTON THEATRE GUILD:

And I got to get a look at the printed version of the Life magazine cover I mocked up. There are few minor problems, but, overall it looks pretty damned good even if I do say to myself.

PUSHING DAISIES WILL SOON BE "PUSHING DAISIES":

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The Improv Movie Entry for the Nov 14-16 Production Days is Still in the Works and Coming

If not tomorrow, then Wednesday,

or Thursday, or Friday.

THAT OPPORTUNITY TO BE FULL-TIME "SHOWBIZZ":

I do, however, have some trepidations, the biggest being that the job requires a skill that is a miraculous art within itself, and I may have it -- if so, it's mostly untried. But I believe I ought to investigate this doorway and the hall it leads down more before I say, "No thanks." Ultimately, I may find that this job is not a good fit for me -- but at this point I don't know. And I may come to find out it is a great fit.

Those seeking the talent want a reel, up to ten minutes. I have asked Jim exactly what needs to be on it and in what format do they want it? I currently have none of my film or tape work, save for a DVD of Nutcracker: the Musical. I may have to shoot a fresh audition performance or two.

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The Improv Movie Nov 14-16 Production Days Entry is Now Slated for Thanksgiving Day.

Day after tomorrow.

Unless of course it's Friday

MORE ON THAT OPPORTUNITY TO BE FULL-TIME "SHOWBIZZ":

D.D.N. REVIEW OF THE COVER OF LIFE:

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The dart board comes down as the area is transformed into Balboni's Casa di Pizza.

The Balboni's set Friday night, about 85-90% complete.

Balboni's a couple hours before the Saturday shoot.

Balboni's, again, a couple hours before the Saturday shoot, from a different perspective.

Barbara Jorgensen as Leola Davenport

Barb and Brett Taylor -- Brett as Jeremy Davenport

The slate for the second portion of the improv riff for the Balboni's sequence. You may not be able to tell, but the slate has "Balbino's" incorrectly written on it; as well, I repeatedly misspoke and called the sequence Balbino's in my verbal slates. AND I CREATED THE NAME BALBONI'S!

Elena Monigold as Kate Johnson

Gino Pasi as Dave Vallas

Zara Justice as Tina Balboni

The visitation room at prison -- IE: the jail set.

Director of photography, Fred Boomer, sets the camera for the Prison Visitation sequences.

Wayne Justice as Grady O'Donnell

Crystal Justice as Celeste Balboni-O'Donnell

Celeste visits Grady

"Bar Flying" is now more of a workshop title (*wst) for the project than ever. In fact, I guarantee the finished product will bear a different name, whatever that name shall be. "Bar Flying" now only refers to the fact that the basic production location has thus far been in the basement of the Dayton Theatre Guild Wayne Avenue facility, where the bar & restaurant area is a prominent feature.

Thus far, however, we have shot no official scenes using the bar, save for the test shoot. I have at least one segment planned for there, though. There's no way I am going to have spent all that time and effort (and money) on those 4x8 foam sheets, turning them into mirror masks, then not use them in a shoot.

But, onward to what we did shoot during this weekend in question of Nov 15-16. We shot segments set at the fictitious Balboni's Casa di Pizza and then at a visitation room at a medium security prison. Both those sets, of course, created elsewhere in the DTG Wayne Ave. basement.

For all practical purposes, the weekend production started in earnest that Friday evening with some pre-production. I could say it had been the Thursday evening, which is technically true, but I actually got no pre-production for the weekend accomplished. In the late afternoon Thursday I did drop into a few places in search of a banquet-length table cloth, but didn't find one. So I put a few calls into folk who might have a line on one. Got an answer the next day. Carol Finley, current Guild president, loaned me one of hers. I'd actually called her to see if she knew if the Guild owned one that might be stuffed in a box and setting on a shelf somewhere.

And then, for the rest of Thursday evening....well....you know how parts of your week can kind of get vague as you think back upon it? If I remember it correctly, Thursday night was one of several recent nights that I lay down for a moment to take a little nap that ended up as me out for the night. Or, maybe I worked more on the Cover of Life cover of Life. I'm not really sure which one it was.

My Friday afternoon and night I am very sure about. As per the usual, I skipped the gym, where I need to be at far more than I ever am, to go almost straight from work to the movie location where I put the finishing touches, or at least most of them, on Balboni's Casa di Pizza.

It was "almost straight to the movie location" because first I dropped by the Guild's Salem Avenue venue and grabbed a few props: some serving plates (we won't discuss how I later found a large stash of EXACTLY the same style of dishes in the kitchen in the Wayne Avenue basement); two serving pitchers, for sodas at the restaurant (which we ended up not using because the refreshment of choice for dinner ended up being "red wine" -- i.e.: water with red food coloring); also grabbed a vase and some plastic flowers, (which we also did not use because the vase was too tall and the flowers were too colorful and thus they both pulled focus); lastly, a large round metal serving plate (for the fabulous Balboni's pizza to be served on). All the serving material, I took home with me to wash. Anyone going to be surprised to read that I ended up leaving the metal plate at home, in my dish drainer on the day of the shoot?

On Wayne, Friday evening I got to work and finished the lion's wealth of the Balboni's set. The biggest things were that I got that dart board down off the wall, the paintings up, and a long table in place. I think I may have dragged a few rolls of carpet down from the main floor, for use as sound buffer in that little gray room that served as the Prison Visits set on Sunday. You may be able to tell from the pictures I've posted of the room that it's basically a rectangular concrete room, which means it has a major acoustical reverb ambience. We needed to kill as much of that as we could. I know I hung the carpet Sunday morning, but I believe I brought at least some of it down Friday night -- but I may be remembering incorrectly, and I choose to believe this is because of the heightened amount of production activity in a compressed parameter of time and not because of pentagenarian issues.

At home Friday night, after I'd done dishes for the production, I sat at my computer with Corel Painter and finished off the mock-up cover of Life for The Cover of Life. I sent the finished product to director Fran Pesch at about 1:30 or so Saturday morning.

The 15th being the third Saturday of the month, I had a 9 a.m. Dayton Theatre Guild board meeting. Right after that I was part of a directors, producers, and publicity meeting for DTG, because I am producing the last two shows of the 08/09 season.

Q: Why am I producing both of the last two shows of the season?
A: because I am both an egomaniac and an idiot.

My whine here is that I got to bed about 2:00 Saturday morning, probably got to sleep about 2:30, then got up at 7. Thing is, I am and have always been one of those light-weights who needs a good six hours sleep to function anywhere close to full capacity, and really, eight hours of golden slumbers is my good bare-minimum. But as of late I've not gotten much of that. The four and a half hours was much less than I would have liked, but, so-oh-well.

Aside from being much thicker and weightier behind my eyes when I woke up Saturday than I like, when I logged on for my morning email, I also got the kind of news that a director or producer is less than enthused about: one of the actors had to cancel from the Saturday shoot. This project being so loose, his absence was not a day-killer. On the other hand, I had plans for his character as a tie in to the stuff we would shoot the next day. I also had specifically devised things going on in his life to contribute to the drama at the table at Balboni's on Saturday.

In poetic terms, I'd planned to make grape juice and had to make lemonade instead. So, I made lemonade.

The cast for the Balboni's segment is, in order of appearance: Barbara Jorgensen as Leola Davenport (the rather uptight matriarch of the Davenport family); Crystal Justice as Celeste Balboni-O'Donnell (the Balboni granddaughter and the general manager of the restaurant); Zara Justice as Celeste's niece, Tina Balboni; Brett Taylor as Jeremy Davenport (Leola's son); Elena Monigold as Kate Johnson (Jeremy's sister, Leola's daughter); and Gino Pasi as Dave Vallas (Kate's boyfriend).

Barb and Elena are well-known in the Dayton theatre community, as any Dayton theatre people and patrons reading this know, and they both have serious skills at this acting craft. Crystal is more associated with the Springfield, Ohio theatre community. I may have to verify this, but I think this weekend was Crystal's debut as an actor. I must say, she's got a magnitude of potential, which showed itself especially on Sunday when she was featured far more than Saturday. More on that later. I met Crystal during the Springfield StageWorks production of Endgame where she served as the box office manager.

It's no coincidence that Crystal's last name is Justice, the same as my co-star in Endgame, Wayne Justice. They married perhaps a year or two after that show closed. Zara is Wayne's daughter. She was on set and wanted to get on screen, so Crystal devised the idea that Zara play Celeste's niece; I was okay with it, so Zara has a walk-on in the Balboni's segment.

As chronicled a little while back, Brett is new to the Dayton theatre community -- at least he's new to me -- and I first met him when we both auditioned for the forthcoming Guild production of Catfish Moon. He also is one of the three actors who participated in the test shoot on November 1.

Gino is of the Columbus theatre & indy film community. I know him from my rent-paying job, to where he commutes daily from said Columbus. I invited him into the project having never seen him act, but rather based on my intuition that told me he has skill. My intuition was correct.

As for Wayne Justice, he operated camera 2 Saturday. His day as an actor was Sunday, playing the role of Celeste's husband, Grady O'Donnell. The whole Saturday crew consisted of myself, Fred and Wayne. On Sunday it was just Fred and me -- and for most of the shoot, just me (on both cameras), because Fred had an obligation elsewhere to fulfill. Young Chris Tung, who had been on camera 2 when we did the test shoot, was actually off shooting a 48-hour film type production with a friend over this same weekend.

The famous Balboni's pizza pie was actually ordered from Pizza Hut, along with an order of PH's pasta in marinnara sauce. Now, if you remember, I had already realized that I'd left the metal serving dish -- for the Balboni's pizza -- back at my apartment, some thirty-minutes away. On the drive to get the pizza, Saturday afternoon, it occurred to me that I'd left one other rather important element of the production day at home, as well. That would be the DV tape cassettes for the DV cameras! It's rather difficult to get footage when you have nothing to record that footage on.

In a panic, I called Fred's cell phone from my car to see if he'd brought some. He'd gone off-site for while since there was a bit of down time for him; as I tried to reach his cell all I was getting was his voice mail; I was starting to mentally inventory East Dayton to remember where might be the closest place to buy some mini DV tapes. When I did get him on the phone, I was relieved to hear he indeed did have some blank tapes with his equipment, back at Wayne.

By early afternoon there was a sleety rain coming down in the area as the call for cast members was approaching (2:00) and I actually expected Gino to be bit late. He'd called me a little before 1:00 to say he was just leaving Columbus, and with the slick highway I was prepared to start shooting without him and have his character arrive late to the dinner date at Balboni's. But, as I talked with the rest of the cast just before we started to shoot the scene, in he walked, only but a short few minutes late.

Our little family gathering at Balboni's went fabulously. The cast delivered great performances for me -- for the cameras. I am most pleased with the footage I have. There's more than fifty minutes on each tape, out of which I can edit a tight twenty or thirty minutes, or even less.

Now the big question becomes: can my dinosaur of a 400 MHz Power PC G4 computer handle editing together a thirty minute movie? It could be a question of adding more RAM. Right now I have 832 mbs and I believe I can go to 1 gig, maybe more. I may need to. In fact, a Mac geek on campus told me he thinks I can take it up to four gigs, maybe more.

My statement to the cast and crew Saturday was that my goal was to be wrapped by 5:00, and 6:00 was the absolute stopping point. We wrapped at about 4:00 or 4:30 after only running once through the improv exercise. I had thought I might stop the cast occasionally and adjust their story direction but that did not happen. We did stop a couple times to set up the next portion but these were not readjustments or backtracks.

The cast riffed so well on the set-up I gave them that I was satisfied with where they took things, which is one of the reasons I did not redirect them. It's true, too, that I could have been a more proactive director. I think it probable I missed recognizing good opportunities for redirection, opportunities surely there despite the good work that the actors delivered.

Perhaps if the actors had slouched in their performances I'd have keyed in on a need to intervene; but, they did better than simply well. That's not to point fingers at my cast, though; if I missed chances as the director to make the vignette better I certainly am not going to blame them for being too good. My missing any opportunities is to be faulted to me and my very green shading as a director.

There were some occasions during the shoot when I would be just about to jump in because the riff was showing signs of being about to die but then just as I was about to intervene, someone would say something interesting and I did not want to kill the momentum at that point. They did also, on occasion, fumble around with each other, basically feeling out the scene in what are really some moments when the actors groping is transparent. This was their first run of the scene though, with only a road map, and they were essentially checking out the landmarks on the road map. Those moments, along with a couple contradictory statements and some "facts" I don't want in the final product will all be seamlessly edited out of the final cut.

My little domestic DV camcorder, some, or at least one of you, may remember, had suffered a state of mechanical disrepair back while I was beginning to shoot the now legally unavailable promotional trailer for I Ought to Be in Pictures. Recently, I've been borrowing (checking out) a small, three CCD chip model from a department in the Wright State University Library. I'd hoped to get one for this weekend of shoots, to have set up in the corner to document the production day. There only being three of these machines available, and it being close to the end of the Fall quarter on campus, there was high student demand for them, so I was not able to get one for the weekend. Too bad, too, because I have an idea for this project for which such footage would have been a great asset.

The point in mentioning the library's three chip DV cameras is that I also had no source machine for the footage we shot over the weekend to use at home to either look at or to transfer the footage into FinalCut. Fred let me take one of his cameras home Saturday evening to at least look at the footage, and really to also get it onto my computer's hard drive. However, Saturday evening was indeed one of those times where I lay down for a nap and woke up the next morning. Actually, I woke up at midnight, but I went right back to sleep. The next morning I awoke at a relatively early time, unprecedented for me on a Sunday, at about 8:00, so I did get a chance to look at the Saturday footage from camera 1. But then I needed to get to Wayne Ave. to prep the set for the day.

It occurs to me now that I did at least start to hang some of the carpet in the back of the little gray room on Friday evening. I'm pretty sure I pulled a tall, folding flat into there and placed it as a V in the corner and draped a carpet over it. Or at least I placed the flat Friday night. Most of the sound buffering, however, I am sure came about Sunday morning and early afternoon. I laid carpet on the back half of the floor. I hung carpet down all the side and back walls just behind the part of the room in frame on screen. There actually was a Chinese rug hanging on the wall as seen on the right of the frame in the still photography pics in this entry's picture column, but I did not snap any pictures to target that fact after I had hung it. It is, however, visible to some extent in the one snapshot of me watching the camera monitor which I have posted above in previous recent entries, as well as in the very last picture in the right column here -- the rug is the tan fabric you can see right in front of the camera.

I also stood some narrow flats at the doorway leading off into little hallway to the side of the room in back, and I draped carpet over those flats to keep voices from echoing back from the concrete in that adjacent hall. You can see that work just behind me in that last pic to the right, too. All my efforts worked well. I really became aware of how much reverb was killed as we tore it all down the following weekend. The more we removed, the more pronounced the reverb on our voices got. I would have loved to have killed all the reverb, but what we end up with in the footage is certainly acceptable. What would have been there had we not buffered would have been too unwieldy to work with. It's better to add reverb or echo electronically in post than to have to contend with it as production sound*. But, we have good sound from the shoot.

* Production sound: sound actually recorded on the set or location as the scene is being shot -- often it's not usable because of undesirable quality or because of intrusive noise such as heaters, air conditioners, wind, etc.).

There is an exception to this good production sound idea. Somehow, before we started shooting, a fluorescent light was inadvertently turned back on, one we had decisively determined must NOT be on, and camera 2 did pick up a bit of a hum from it. I may be able to work with it. And I have the audio from camera 1 to sync in if I need to when using shots from no.2.

Sound buffering contended with, we started rolling on time on Sunday. That day, Crystal's character, Celeste, was featured far more than her two brief walk-ons during the Saturday shoot. Wayne, who was not in front of the camera at all Saturday, was the prominent character on screen, Sunday, Grady the convict. Also on set Sunday was Duante Beddingfield, the only of the three actors from the Nov. 1 test shoot to keep the same character, Rev. Marcus Washburn. Marcus stayed because I found him interesting and also to have great potential if thrown in with the other Saturday characters, which was unable to occur. I made him Jeremy's best friend from high school. And despite that Duante was the actor who had to cancel the Saturday shoot, I have kept Marcus as such. I am thinking that Jeremy and Marcus will be together in that bone fide bar scene we have yet to shoot.

Some may know from either this blog or from seeing the productions, that Duante and I have worked together twice before, once on stage in the new play Playing God, by Gary Flaxman, at FutureFest 2007, then he was the AD/stage manager for The Best Man last season at the Guild. We both also work for Fran Pesch in the guided improv work for U.D. Law.

And again, Duante was that actor who unfortunately had to cancel from the Balboni's scene on Saturday. I had already planned to use Marcus in the Sunday shoot, at the prison, I just wasn't able to set it up during the Balboni's scene in the way I had intended.

For the sake of a little exposition and set-up in the movie, I, myself, made a brief appearance on screen. I was a lawyer again, as I was in voice-over at the start of The Chorus for Candice -- coincidentally, that previous appearance served the same purpose, as this new one, as part of the initial exposition and set-up. The need this time didn't come to my mind until that morning, and that timeliness, or, poor timing, persuaded the character quality of the lawyer I played. My hair's a bit longer than it ought to be for a top-dog counselor, so I slicked it back at Wayne's suggestion. Further, as we shot the scene. my tie inadvertently was flipped around backwards. I come off on screen looking like a two-bit lawyer with probably a dismal success rate. It actually works for the scene despite that I played the lawyer with a demeanor of confidence, if such is his own self delusion.

Sunday's shoot proved as esthetically prosperous as the day before. Wayne, Crystal and Duante all gave me good work. Wayne and Duante I already knew would give good stuff; Crystal was the unknown quantity, but I had this sense that she'd do well -- and she did. She is natural as an actor and her improv is as close to on top of it as anyone else's. And as already stated, I think her practical acting experience is pretty slim if not almost non-existent.

Find it surprising that I believe the weakest performance of the weekend to be my own little cameo?

Fred left a few minutes into the scene that was shot second, which was Wayne and Crystal (Grady and Celeste). First we shot Wayne and me, but that segment is only probably a minute long, maybe ninety seconds. Since I was a camera operator Sunday, we just left my camera unattended while I was in front of the cameras. After Fred left, I was the only camera operator, so I floated between the two. I would change the zoom on one subject while the other was talking. That way there will be more visual variety for the final cut. And the camera will be zooming mostly in footage that will not be used, though a few zooms might work.

Once again I'll say it: looking through the camera lens while I am also directing is not what I prefer. I am too focused on actor performance to attend totally to screen composition or shooting-related flubs. And, there are a couple pieces of equipment that show up in my shots from Sunday. They can be dealt with in post production editing, but the fact that they are there proves I cannot direct and be behind the camera at the same time to optimum results. The Chorus for Candice had already proved this to me: Can you say, "Moving boom shadow?"

Although, I still have to say I shot some well-composed frames that Sunday, especially a few CU's (close ups) and ECU's (extreme close ups).

Some other good lessons came from the weekend. One idea from Mr. Pasi is to run through a rehearsal first. That would give the actors the chance to feel things out and get on the same page. It would cut down immensely or completely eliminate those moments when the actors need to grope on camera for the path of the story. It would also give me the chance to realign the direction of the story as well as correct any "factual" errors that run contrary to the universe I set them into the midst of. Ms. Jorgensen would have liked to have had more time with the other actors before the cameras rolled, to discuss the dynamics of their relationship and to even interact in character. Again, that would have helped them be better on the same page with each other. Both actors present valuable and valid points that I am taking to heart.

And man would I have liked to have had an AD or a co-producer on set. Crystal kind of did some of that work but I never sat her down and gave her specifics. Should have; she is the kind of management-minded person who could do the work famously. Here are some examples of the results of no AD or other production partners:

• There were no menus at our Balboni's Casa di Pizza. Had a menu been incremental to a conflict or story set-up, I would have thought about them. As it was, they were a minutia of detail that was not on my radar. An AD or co-producer might have said, "Won't the restaurant need menus?"
• Over this weekend I completely let the mundane task of paperwork go unattended. I forgot to have the new actors -- all but Brett and Duante -- sign the actor's release forms. And the production log records were hardly filled out. Crystal did one for Saturday. I still need to get all this addressed to completion.

Beyond all that, the other limitation or box we stayed in was to keep the action basically stationary. In all three shoots we've done so far, the Nov 1 test shoot and both the official shoots over the Nov 15-16 weekend, the characters are pretty much either standing at the bar (test shoot) or sitting at a table (Balboni's and Prison Visits). Some characters walk in or walk out of scene, but beyond those brief moments, there's not much dynamic action in the meat of the drama. People are sitting and talking.

Different ranges of close up, medium and wide shots, and repositioning of the camera tripods all will help break up the visual monotony, but only to a certain extent. We've been doing this investigation into how to shoot improv work with two cameras in baby steps. It's time to look at more sophisticated shooting schemes. We need actors on the move, going from room to room or down a hall way, or walking across the room in interesting framing, and other such like behavior. And I have one such idea, if I can get the two actors I want for this together and in an appropriate location.

The challenge is to have controlled plotting of the shoots and of the actors physical action and still allow them the relative freedom to improv. Lighting the scenes becomes more of a challenge when the subjects and the camera are on the move. But movies need this sort of visual interest, so a film maker is either up to the challenge or needs to find a different artistic outlet.

We'll be taking a few weeks off, but I hope to be able to shoot again in mid December and I now look to do something in January, only because there is an actor I very much want to use in this project who will become available then.

As for what the final cut will be, I am not completely sure. I do know I have a concept that has each vignette featuring at least one character who has been in at least one other vignette. Celeste was at Balboni's, and of course, Marcus was supposed to be as well. Half-rate Lawyer Guy will probably not be making another appearance. I do still have some actors, like the January one, that I want to use. As the canvas I am painting becomes clearer to me, I will figure how to incorporate them into this overall concept.

This thing may end up having some length to it. It could be at least an hour when it's all done with, if not longer. I really will need to be on a different computer, or at least have the RAM (SDRAM, actually) jacked up to maximum capacity. At this point, I have no doubt I would have nothing but crashes all night when attempting to edit a FinalCut movie sequence that has gotten anywhere into the neighborhood of thirty minutes, much less an hour or more. But I see this as perhaps something that can easily and justifiably grow into pretty close to full-length feature time, and I'm not going to back off that because of my technology problems.

Another idea that has surfaced is that this be packaged to be as much about the improv process used as anything else, perhaps with the actors talking about their experiences and involvement here, and maybe then also speaking about improv in general. That's not a lock for me but it most certainly is an idea that I have not rejected. It has merit and may be the only route to anything close to marketability, though I am not sure it meets an overly-potent potential marketability.

The irony here is that of all the movie concepts I conceived of in recent times, this one was last on the list. It's just the easiest to pull off so it's what I got to first. Now my mind is racing with all the other projects I want to get to.

For god's sake, I have two screenwriting software programs sitting in my application folder waiting for me to pick which of them I'm going to start dating.

THE FULL-TIME SHOWBIZ JOB:

The major factor about this I haven't mentioned before is that this position is to work with children. And that skill is an artform onto itself. I love the dickens out of young ones, but whether or not I have the presence it takes to win and keep the attention and favor of an audience of them is something that remains to be seen.

The search team for this, of which I do not know for what company or organization, prefers a DVD of the "reel," but would also accept a VHS cassette tape. For me it'll be just as simple to burn a DVD. The next step will be an interview with finalists. At this point the salary looks to be just a little more than I make right now at my rent-payer, with a vacation, medical and travel package plus the costs of costumes and props.

Again, I am doing this audition despite my own self-critical assessment of my comedic instincts. The need for magic presents an interesting question, too. Does it mean one must have a "magical personality" or does it mean one must have mastery in the craft? The former is arguable; the latter, well, David Copperfield I am not.

Still, as a wise actor friend once said, which I have mentioned here before but which deserves repeating: Every audition is a learning experience; you always learn something you can later use. As I have already written about this new opportunity, I will at least have a try at this particular mechanics of auditioning for something, so that the next time it comes up, and maybe the job is closer to a snug fit for me, I will have already had practical experience at the procedure. One of the other things I have done is to get hold of some software that will help me capture a section off a DVD of the performance I did as Godfather Drosselmeier in Nutcracker: the Musical at the Guild several years ago. I am thinking I will use my song, "The Nutcracker's Lament." Perhaps other moments from it would be good, too. That and the new material should work on the disk ("reel"). Assembling composite reels is something I have not done yet. It's something I have known for a while I have to do. This audition get's me into this new practice, if it does nothing else.

Beyond that, there is that other wisdom in the acting world that even when you may not be what the auditor has in mind for the particular project, he or she still may like your audition. Later, something new may come up where she or he will think of you as right for the role. Or, you walk back in, independently, and he or she remembers your good audition for that thing you weren't right for. It's good for me to rehearse auditioning and it's good to put myself in front of auditors, if not for their projects of the hour, then for their projects of the future. Regardless of how good or bad a fit I believe I am for anything I audition for, I always view my audition as a dress rehearsal for the next one. I always try to become aware of what I did well and poorly -- honestly, recognizing what I did poorly and how to change such is more important.

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THE FULL-TIME SHOWBIZ JOB:

Never fear, though, I checked a DV camera out again yesterday and here's hoping that by Thursday I have the footage I need. I also have downloaded some software to help me capture some DVD footage of myself to add to the reel.

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CLOSING TODAY

The cast of The Cover of Life in order of appearance in the script Debra Strauss            Kate Miller Wendi Williams            Weetsie Holly Kuhn            Sybil Angela Timpone            Tood Jennifer Lockwood            Aunt Ola Heather Martin            Addie Mae Matt Curry            Tommy

ANOTHER GOOD REVIEW OF THE COVER OF LIFE:

A Great Shakespeare play can survive a weak cast or interpretation. A flawed play can be elevated by great acting and direction. The Dayton Theatre Guild offering, R. T. Robinson's The Cover of Life, is a perfect example of the latter premise.

Click here for the review


And click here to see my contribution to the production -- The photographer being Fred Boomer.

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AUDITION DVD REEL FOR THE FULL-TIME SHOWBIZ JOB:

Arianna Huffington recently described blogging as basically unedited, first-thoughts/best-thoughts writing. My blog ain't either, though one can successfully argue that even if this blog isn't truly "unedited," it frequently qualifies as poorly edited. Recently, I fixed a typo from months back; that is a common occurrence. Just last night I fixed several spelling and other grammatical errors I had finally recognized all over this particular page.

My point being that this entry, as is sometimes the case here, has not been written in one long sitting. This portion you're reading right now was started Sunday afternoon before I headed to The Guild to help strike the Cover of LIFE set, and was edited and revised over the course of time between then and the eventual posting. As I initially typed this paragraph, my DVD ripper software was converting a portion of the personal DVD of The Nutcracker: the Musical into an mp4 file so I could use my performance of the song "The Nutcracker's Lament," as Godfather Drosselmeier, on the reel. When I finished that sentence, I checedk the progress and it was 24% finished with the conversion. It was about 2:49 p.m. At this point I knew I would be leaving at about 4:00 or 4:30 to get to the theatre to help strike. The rate the conversion was progressing at tells me it probably would not be done before I left. It'd been working for a couple hours already to only be at that one-fourth point. I hoped it would be finished by the time I got home, which I guessed would be circa 7 p.m. The goal was to edit the reel together Sunday night so I could burn it after work Monday.

*An hour later (3:41 p.m. Sunday) the progress of the conversion was only at 31%. Not a good sign.

Originally started on Sunday afternoon, this section was intended for a blog entry dated for Monday, December 8. I knew as I worked on it that it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that the actual post date might be Tuesday, December 9, or later. I declare this only because I know of my pseudo-philosophical intent for the section. My goal is to touch on the ideas of muse, motivation, action and procrastination as well as chronicling the events described here. So this has been treated as an essay, albeit loosely as one. At its inception, it was written as a Word doc rather than being written in Text Wrangler and keyed in at its point of placement in the "kls_blog21.html" document. Thus, the plan was that when I was done composing the section, it'd be copied and pasted into the proper spot in the html document for this blog page. *As a point of order, the composition of the essay was finished in Text Wrangler.

The pseudo-philosophical? -- it starts with this: I first brought a DV camcorder home from work to shoot new audition material for this reel over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. I had Wednesday evening, Thursday morning, most of the day Friday, Saturday morning & evening, and Sunday morning & evening to shoot the footage. I did not get it shot. I checked the camera back out the following day, Monday, Dec 1, and I had then three evenings to shoot it. An extra day was added to that because I called in sick and was home all day Thursday. I really did not feel well Thursday, though I suppose it could have been a productive day toward the reel. I got nothing shot Monday through Thursday. I checked the camcorder out again for this past weekend. I had all day Saturday and Sunday morning & early afternoon to shoot the footage.

I shot the footage in the early afternoon this past Sunday (Dec 7) at that point in time most commonly know as "The Eleventh Hour."

Isn't it curious that as serious as I present myself to be about this art and craft (a presentation I believe is true) I postponed the taping of the audition performance until the last possible moment? This is not new behavior. I often have had this odd, contradictory resistance to delving into the artistic action of the hour. Often when I was writing a lot of fiction, I would suddenly find myself doing household chores that I really don't like to do rather than sitting down to work on a story, or the next chapter of my novel. Yet, I love to write, I love to act, I love to make music (despite that I have made very little in the last decade or so), I love creating whatever it is the medium I am working in calls for. That is, after I am inside the artwork and am doing it I love it. As I stand there before it, preparing myself to take action, I am usually reluctant, sometimes painfully reluctant.

Art intimidates the shit out of me. Whenever I achieve anything artistically and aesthetically satisfying, I am first of all, absolutely amazed I accomplished it; secondly, I am not completely sure how in the hell I managed to pull it off, and sometimes I am totally in the dark as to how; thirdly, I always have this stark foreboding sense and dark, fearful thought that I will never be able to do it again; I mean anything -- I am terrified that I have just gasped the last artistic breath of my life. The happier I am with whatever work I have just finished, the deeper my anxiety about the death knoll of my artistic capabilities.

It's irrational and unfounded, yet the feeling of alarm for my artistic future is authentic and palpable. So, when I walk up to the edge of the bank of that lake, or, oh hell, that sea of creative venture, I often stand there, staring at the ripples on the surface, wondering if I can swim this time. Never mind that I may have swam well and strongly last time and that I have many previous like experiences.

Right now, as I sit here writing this, I think of myself out on a stage in front of an audience of people, saying words I have committed to memory, speaking them in a fashion that brings the character alive for that audience. I think about me, deep inside the psyche and soul of that character, being him to all of myself, my cast mates and that audience. It seems an impossible feat and I cannot think of how I ever managed to achieve it nor how I could ever again. Yet, of course, I ultimately know that I can and that I will, even if I know such with that dose of doubt that plagues mixed in.

For this new audition material the specific dilemma was that I am to submit footage that, as I wrote before, must "show [my] humor, improv, magic and charisma." It took me a while to mosey up to the improv work. As is the nature of improv, I did not know what I was going to do. It didn't help that because of the circumstances I was going to be doing a solo improv performance -- improv is most naturally a team craft with two or more players feeding off of and giving to each other. Solo or team, this particular improv piece needs to be funny, energetic and soaked in spontaneity. Yep, intimidating. Probably I was putting it off, was avoiding trying to reach a successful improv riff, because the risk of not arriving at one is so acutely protruding it might as well be a Roman chariot scythe spinning towards my legs to cut me down on the battlefield. Ironic, isn't it? -- that I would have this perspective, considering the specific movie production I am in the midst of producing.

Art intimidates the shit out of me. The risk is always so emotionally real even when it's something as innocuous as playing the fool for kids. But then, again, it is true that capturing and keeping captive the attention and fascination of a child is an art form, a craft, a gift unto itself. Doing so with a group of children is exponentially demanding, perhaps to the power of ten. And doing anything for a talent auditor is loaded with nerve-piercing pins and needles.

Prof. Snicklefritz

But, even if I put it off and put it off, the time comes when I get off my ass and do it. This time, as is not unusual, I did it almost at the last possible moment. Before I tell what I did, I tell how I came to it. A few weeks back, a co-worker at the rent-payer asked me if I wanted to accept a donation of a toupee for the Guild. Now, hair pieces really need to be custom made for a particular man and his particular pattern of baldness, but I figured, what the hell, so I told her to bring it in. I still had it at the apartment so I figured: humor for kids? A bad toupee on my head will surely be a comic prop. And, indeed it is. It looks really stupid, which in this case is what is wanted. See to the right.

To the bad hair piece, I added the tacky-ass plaid sport jacket and those thick, black rim eye glass frames I used as Jensen in The Best Man. Then, a small plastic container of baby powder and a generic east European accent and I became Prof. Snicklefritz, warning children about playing practical jokes with itching powder. The professor demonstrates to the kids, using "fake" itching powder, how the powder would be applied by those naughty children who would do so. Then he realizes that someone has switched the fake with the real. He starts itching uncontrollably, spastically, until he collapses below frame. And, of course, his toupee has fallen off several times.

I did one take without a rehearsal and I asserted such in the slate for the reel. In said slate I said that I was doing an improv that I had given some thought to and had gathered props for, but that I had not rehearsed it and that I would send the very first take. Then I also said I was including the excerpt from The Nutcracker musical, gambling that I would not have file problems that rendered such inclusion impossible.

Indeed, the only thing then left to worry about was would I be able to grab that portion of The Nutcracker to include on the DVD reel. When I got home from the Cover of LIFE strike at about 7 p.m., the prospects did not look good. The section I had started converting earlier in the day was ripped to mp4 from the DVD. However, that mp4 did not play well, and as it turned out, the part with the song was not in the first two DVD chapters that I converted. So I immediately converted chapter three, though I had valid concerns that this new mp4 would not play correctly, either. It did rip much faster, being only 00:04:38. Still, it took just about three hours. It was 10:05 before I could open the second file in Quicktime to see if it would play. It would not. I also went ahead and created the FinalCut project then tried to import the mp4 file in. FinalCut reported a general error.

Turns out that apparently also, the song I need is in chapter two, after all. So I went back in to rip chapter two. This time I changed the codecs to match the mp4 file format at MPEG-4 Video (the software had defaulted to a 264 codecs). It was past 10:30 when I started that so I thought I had to go to bed with the program still converting the chapter, however, MPEG-4 Video files are written faster than I thought they would be, so it wrote in about an hour. Unfortunately, that file didn't work either. It would play but the problem is a flaw on the DVD. A Monday night DVD burn was looking pretty slim. Tuesday night I was suppose to scout a location for the next Saturday's shoot. A vignette of Kate and Dave (Elena Monigold and Gino Pasi) at home is on the agenda.

The flaw has to do with a stall in playing that I am familiar with. I have never been able to successfully play the DVD on either my lap top (now dearly departed) or my tower computer. Several minutes in, and just before "Nutcracker's Lament," the movie freezes. It had happened on the first copy I was given and so I was burned another copy. The same thing happens in the same spot on the second copy. However, I can successfully play the DVD on my regular DVD player. I'm not sure what the problem is but I suspect there is a flaw on the movie code that the DVD player has a higher sample rate for which it can compensate for whatever the error is.

What actually happened in the file creation was that the song turns out to be in chapter one, but the conversion stops at that point where the glitch is. So that chapter two mp4 I had created with the MPEG-4 Video did run correctly, but doesn't have what I need. I subsequently created the chapter one mp4 that I then found stopped short of the needed action. My next step was to set the program to convert the whole thirty-five minute movie to mp4 with the MPEG-4 Video codecs, then go to bed. In the morning, though, I found the software had crashed and the "MP4" file would not open: I got an error message that said it was not a movie file.

My next step was to bring the DVD and some blank DVD disks to work to see if I could go to the University Libraries' Student Technology Assistance Center (STAC) to burn a copy with the hope that perhaps the flaw would be corrected in that process. A long shot, but a worthy attempt. Meanwhile I was thinking of what other little, goofy improv bit I might conjure up and tape.

This really has become an eleventh hour project, more like an 11:45 project.

A friend at work suggested I temporarily install a copy of the DVD ripper software on a Mac in the Mac lab on campus and see if I could grab the last part of chapter one from an iMac, those on campus being more powerful than my Power Mac at home. So I did download the installer to try that, too, as well. The Mac lab had an art class in it, all day, Mon-Fri until 4:30. So I installed it on an Imac out in a public area, but the program would not open -- I believe it was a security measure on the machine that got in my way.

The final action to capture the Drosselmeier song was taken into the said STAC room with the good support of a helpful student assistant who works there. Yet, my goal was not met. In STAC the strategy was to play the DVD on a source DVD player and capture the portion I wanted using iMovie. Then I saved the resulting clip as a Quicktime movie file (".mov"). Monday evening I discovered that, believe it or not, my FinalCut Express would not allow me to import the dot-mov file. I had to convert it to an mp4 with a proper mpeg codecs, and finally -- FINALLY! -- I could import it into my FinalCut project.

What was it that defeated my goal? There was no audio.

Surrendering to the inevitable, or, admitting my impatience, I ditched the idea of including the song. I had to edit out my reference in the slate to the Drosselmeier performance, and I covered the resulting jump cut by superimposing a head shot over that edit spot. The Drosselmeier performance wasn't all that great, anyway. So, my finished audition reel has only the Prof. Snicklefritz improv along with a few stills of some of my favorite headshots. I burned the DVD at lunch time today and it will be in the mail to Roof-Goenner soon.

Itself, the improv bit doesn't impress nor satisfy me fabulously, but, as we know, I am a harsh self critic.

IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT (WST: BAR FLYING):

At this point we are still slated to shoot Rev. Washburn, Jeremy Davenport and Celeste Balboni-O'Donnell on the 20th -- Duante Beddingfield, Brett Taylor and Crystal Justice, respectively. This will be that official shoot in the bar area at the DTG Wayne, Ave. basement, which will be the barroom at Balboni's Casa di Pizza.

PRE-PRODUCTION FOR THE GUILD:

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AUDITION DVD REEL FOR THE FULL-TIME SHOWBIZ JOB:

I also had put my name in key matte titles in the lower quarter of the screen at the end of the clip (see the image here). I had forgotten to take into account the zone at the parameter of the frame that usually is lost when on a TV screen, especially an older TV screen that will only accommodate a full screen (4:3) picture. Ironically, the clip is 4:3, but still the outer area is often lost.

On my screen at home, The "K.L." in "K.L. Storer" is off screen. If the auditors watch the DVD on a newer TV that accommodates wide screen TV and movies (9:16), then they will likely see all the name.

I placed my name center screen in bigger font at the start of the video, so this frame parameter problem is only a minor glitch. It is a consideration I need to stay on top of in a better way as I edit movies and videos, however.

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IMPROV MOVIE PROJECT -- two points:

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BAR FLYING:

Meanwhile, a few other developments. For one thing, I had plans last night to scout an apartment for use as the set for the Kate and Dave at home sequence. I had to cancel though, which is the second time that had to happen. The reason was the major hazardous ice conditions Tuesday night in the Dayton area. Now enter the holiday party today at my rent-paying job and my obligation to bring a crock pot of three-cheese tuna in rice and pasta. Hey, I can't make a lot of dishes but what I can make, I can make well.

My intention was to go grocery shopping for the fixinís after work Tuesday. The threat of the bad roads made me rethink how soon I headed for the homestead. It seemed clear that the later I was out the worse driving would be. I was correct. I left work at 5:00, heading for my apartment, eleven miles away. After a drive where I had to make two detours because of impassable roads and averaged about fifteen mph, I pulled into a parking spot at home about 6:30.

Needing to cook the fantabulous entré last night, I also needed to slip the grocery shopping into the slot I had made for the location scouting. But we won't shoot that scene until January so I have some time to finally get over to the place.

Tonight I will shop for the Saturday shoot. Some food props, mostly sodas to double as beer and liquor and a few sodas products that may end up being soda products. Plus, I'll provide some craft cart sort of snacks for cast and crew, too. Then we will also need some more DV cassette tapes, the afore-mentioned vital ingredient in a DV taping.

Friday evening it'll be production set-up time. I'll be mounting those 4x8 foam mirror masks and DP Fred will be into set lights.

Once again, production day is the same day as the DTG board meeting. And this time the meeting will be at the Salem Avenue theatre. But it is planned to be short and I should be on set by 10:00 or 10:30 at the latest.

As far as the bar crowd, I have some people, but I'd love tp have more. I want to give the sense of a busy establishment, and I may still be able to do that with the group I am pretty sure I'll have on hand, but more would be better.

ON OTHER FRONTS:

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THE BLOG ENTRY FOR THE THIRD SHOOTING DAY FOR BAR FLYING WILL BE POSTED ASAP:

I will say that it went well, though we had far fewer extras than I wanted.

STILL ME DVD:

To order a copy, go to brookwoodfilms.com/buy.html.

If you do buy a copy, put my name in the comment field of the form. We cast and crew are involved in a promotional contest where for each ten sold that are attributed to us, our names are in a drawing to go to the Oscars in late February. If you remember, the film is submitted to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration as a nominee in the category of live action short film. The attendance is contingent on the movie garnering a nomination.

I am not sure I could make the trip if my name was pulled, but I do want to help promote this Award Winning film and help rack up some sales. Also, please understand that this competition and it's win is limited to Still Me cast and crew members -- You can't enter; but you can purchase a great little film at a decent price.

And no, I get no residuals from the sales.

CATFISH MOON SET WORK:

*) To have "dutched muslin" means to have soaked it in paint then laid the fabric down so it would harden. The technique is most often used to cover the seams between two flats that are standing vertical to be the walls of a building on a theatre set. It's all then painted again and from a distance the seams disappear from view -- for the audience. It does not have to be muslin that it used, but muslin works most effectively.
           In this case, my job was to take the paint soaked fabric and make slops to help create that illusion of a hill.
           The use of the word "dutch" like this may be a theatrical lexicon item specifically regional -- or it may be isolated as a use at DTG. In a web search, I found no definitions that match what I wrote here. But I did not make a thorough search, either. Although I did find "Dutchman," described as Tape or material used to cover the seams between flats or to cover hinges, prior to painting. That shows our local use is at least derived from something more universal to the theatre world in general.

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WEIRD DREAMS:

I mention these only to segue into these weird-assed acting dreams I have had a habit of having. I actually had many more during the twenty-six indefensible years when I was disrespecting myself by ignoring the craft as an endeavor. The scenario there was usually that my old high school drama teacher, Chuck Scott, was directing a play and someone had to drop out of the cast at the last minute. I was asked to replace the guy. It's always a few minutes before the opening curtain and I cannot remember a single line of dialogue.

After my tardy-assed return to acting I had variations on that theme as well as other, completely different dreams. In one, I and a specific actress I know were in a play together at the Guild, only it wasn't The Guild. We are on a platform stage in a living room set that is set up with all the furniture facing away from the audience. We are on the couch, our characters having some sort of argument. The director, again, a specific man I know, suddenly stops the action and fires us both on the spot.

THEN I WOKE UP

Still, in the last four years I have had far fewer Acting Dreams than during my self-imposed self-betrayal period. But, I had a new one last night. In this one I am at some sort of a presentational function. The audience is a mix of theatre people I know and actual card-carrying professional stars. Now, I am conscious that both these groups are there and are, somehow in this dream, amalgamated into the same group, but I cannot recall a single local Dayton theatre person's nor big-time celebrity's face from the dream. I just have this knowledge that these are who are there.

At some point, I, as a member of the audience, am approached to take over an improvizational, send-up performance of a celebrity, as part of the entertainment. There is this woman, rather heavy-set, sitting close by, whom I do not know, who was to do this routine. But the producers of the event have asked me to do it and this rather large lady is quite pleased to allow me to take her place.

It sounds like the vaguely distinguishable producer tells me I am to do a gag about Al Rooker. The lady sitting close by then hands me a jacket made of shiny gold fabric to wear. I am wondering how that works for an impersonation of Al Rooker.

So, I am sitting there, brain storming how to do an improvizational send off of Mr. Rooker. I think of Ryan Stiles doing the weather reporter on "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" I have just about settled on what I am going to do when the evening's MC -- who is a well-known celebrity I just can't completely recognize -- introduces me as the "Grammy-Award-winning Anne Keller!!!!" I have no clue who Grammy-Award-winning Anne Keller is! In fact, I actually did a web search today. I found no Anne Keller in the music business. So, there I am, about to go up on stage in front of several hundred of "my peers" to improv a send-up of a person I have never heard of, wearing a tacky gold jacket.

Then I woke up

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The set for Balboni's bar the night before the shoot. Fred and I erected flats with faux wood paneling to cover up the opening between rooms.

Essentially the same view as above after all the movie set has been struck.

One person's trash is a theatre's props.

This time the red wine was cherry Kool-Aid®

These are the pitchers we use during performances at the Guild for intermission refreshments, usually cold water. For the shoot they became pitchers of "beer" -- i.e.: Vernors® ginger soda.

In the foreground, Brett Taylor, Duante Beddingfield and Loren S. Goins.

Crystal Justice and Duante

Chazz

Barbara L. Henkaline

Honey Rountree

Laurie M. Shear

Mike Sopronyi.

Jeri Williams.

Fred Boomer.

That's NOT the half-rate lawyer, about to walk behind Rev. Washburn. That's some other guy, another patron who'se going to the restroom.

A reversal shot of Quincy.

(Thu Dec 25) -- It's 2:59 in the afternoon of Christmas Day as I finally get to the prose for this entry. That prediction, that when the Dec 23 entry was posted and you were reading it, I would have likely have started the prose, turned out to be false, unless you didn't read that entry until mid afternoon today or later. Here I am, back in MS Word, writing an essay or whatever to eventually copy-&-paste over into Text Wrangler. I'd write it in Corel WordPerfect 3.5E for Mac but I don't want to have to fire up OS9, so here I am using Word only because it is expedient. Expedience is almost always a correlation with the compromise of quality, ethics and high standards, or some mixture or variation of these, and at least "quality" and "standards" apply here as having been compromised.

I'm still under the weather but alive and I did attend the family holiday gathering on Christmas Eve. The last several days, on the other hand, have seen me in bed quite a bit. Today I didn't arise until noon. I did then sit down to my computer, and after some banking and other miscellaneous business, I did start on this blog entry, but before I got to writing the account, I picked the first seventeen pictures, the headline pic and the first sixteen for the right column. That actually runs pretty far down the web page and I wonder if this time I will have enough prose. It occurs to me as I write this that you may not see sixteen images to the right; some may have been cut, or perhaps moved to below the prose.

One thing I do to help the images fit is write prose padding like this right here, you see -- it's a total breach of the rules of good writing, but then, perhaps I'm not all that good of a writer.

On Friday the 19th, DP Fred Boomer and I put together about 97% of the Balboni's bar set. As is usually the case, before I went to the Wayne facility I dropped into the Salem Guild building to grab some props: a whole lot of liquor and beer bottles; three glass pitchers that are commonly used for the cold water at intermission of performances; packets of cherry Kool-Aid® and a bag of sugar (which served as the rosé this time rather than simple red food coloring in water); one of our twelve-cup coffee makers (to brew tea to serve as various whiskeys and such -- and to brew coffee for the cast and crew); several types of alcoholic drinking glasses; a phone; probably a few other items I am not remembering right now. Oh , yes, I needed a hand drill.

My first action upon the scene at Wayne Avenue was to use that hand drill to mount the 4x8 sheets of painted foam to mask the mirrors in the bar area. Because we moved the principal action down the bar a bit, closer to the kitchen and bathroom areas, I also moved the painted foam mask from the mirrored pillar it had been on to the other one. I wanted one camera to shoot from a pov (point of view) that would have the bathroom doors in the background. That way I could have extras travel to and fro on occasion. Meanwhile, Fred set the lights.

If I had thought I was going to have a lot of extras, I would have made a conscious decision to leave the opening between the bar area and the back room, where we shot the original Balboni's restaurant scene, and I'd have populated it with diners. That would have taken more time, planning and thought than I'd given the whole need for extras. As it was, I realized Friday night that we should darken or close up that hole between the rooms. We were able to borrow, courtesy of Entertainment Unlimited, several flats with faux wood paneling that we used to create a wall in that hole.

We mostly got the bar tables in place on Friday night, too. Fred suggested we take one of the two 4x8's I had painted with squares and created a faux entrance way off to screen left in the background. By the shoot on Saturday he had added the other like 4x8 to hinge around a table. As it turned out, it doesn't look exactly like an entrance way because the area behind it, to the far left on screen ended up not being darkened out on screen as it should have been -- more on that later. These 4x8s do give a good look on screen. I am not sure what the structure is supposed to be, but I guess the viewer can image the function or purpose.

The white cloth sheets we had draping the bar tables were too hot for the cameras; it was clear we needed something else. On the way home that night, it was early enough that the Dollar General store close to my house was still open. I popped in and got several green Christmas table cloths. Two of the four were vinyl rather than fabric, and as I suspected might be the case, we did find those two reflected light a tad bit. So Fred placed one where it would be in a shadow, and we used the tan one from the first shoot in place of the other.

At the checkout counter was when I realized two of the four were vinyl. Thinking out loud I said something like, "Oh, man, I wonder if that's going to..." The checkout clerk assured me that the vinyl would be much easier to clean. Then I told her my concern was how shiny they were, that they were for a movie set and I was more concerned about how they would look on screen. The look on her face suggested that she was skeptical of me.

Mr. K.L. "Hollywood" Sonnenfeld!

Saturday morning, before the DTG Board meeting, which this month was at the Salem theatre, I stopped by the Wayne building to let Fred in. He braced the faux wood wall flats more securely and did a few other things. The night before I had left all the booze bottles soaking with soap in them. I didn't know how the action of the improv was going to play out and I didn't want an actor having a drink poured for him or her from a dirty vessel. One of my first jobs on site Saturday was to finish that cleaning process.

We also again had the food prop of Balboni's pizza. This time it was a large pizza from Tony's Pizza, owned by Crystal's cousin. And this time I remembered to bring the round silver serving tray that I had forgotten for the first Balboni's pizza last month. Not that the tray was terribly prominent in this sequence. The pizza eaters are off in the background, but the plate had value for the cut-away close ups of these diners.

*Here, on Christmas Day, as I look at the time in the far upper-right corner of my computer screen, I note it is 4:30 and I realize I have not eaten yet today. That seems like a pretty good idea. So I take a break from pretending to be a writer and attack some of the care package sent home with me from my sister's yesterday.

5:15 p.m.: I'll have you know that there is a marathon of Myth Busters on TV right now, and I sat down and watched segments whilst I ate but as soon as I was done I turned off the TV and came back to the Mac. You may not appreciate the accomplishment here, but believe me, it was one.

For the Balboni's Casa di Pizza bar vignette, we did shoot three-camera the way I suggested a few days back we might. Unfortunately, there are no good images from the day of our other two camera operators, Dara Bornstein (camera 1) and Wayne Justice (camera 3). Wayne, of course, there are pics of from the Prison Visits shoot and also older ones from the Endgame pics page. Dara is someone I have only known as a mild acquaintance in the past, someone I would and do see on campus, usually at the coffee machines in the basement under the library. For this project I actually connected with her through a mutual friend on campus who suggested her as a possible production crew addition. When I approached her through email I did not know that she was the same person I saw around occasionally, though I figured I would recognize the face when she showed up on set. Neither of us connected faces with names for each other until she walked in about 10:30 Saturday morning.

The count of extras for the shoot was, as I was afraid it would be, much, much, much smaller than I wished it to be. There ended up being six extras: Chazz, who works on campus and responded to the call I posted on the university announce list serve; Barbara L. Henkaline, who came through a courtesy notice that Roof-Goenner sent out for me; Honey Rountree, also from campus; Laurie M. Shear, again through Roof-Goenner; Mike Sopronyi, who, of course, directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Ghostbusters: Spook University and did this as a favor to me; and lastly, the lovely and talented Jeri Williams, whom I worked with in The Best Man at the Guild last year. Jeri, by the way, is currently in rehearsal, along with Brett and Duante, for the forthcoming production of Larry Gelbart's Sly Fox at Beavercreek Community Theatre.

Seven people actually showed to be extras but I upgraded one to the role of the bartender. Also from the Spook University project, Loren S. Goins is the other co-writer of the screenplay and was a lead as one of the GB team. For me, he became a character named Quincy, so named by Ms. Henkaline, who blurted out the name when I said to Loren, "Okay, what's your name going to be?" I had told Loren already that I would probably put him in that role. As I wrote before, I wanted the bartender to be one of the buddy's Celeste warned Grady about hanging with when he is released from prison. The drama of conflict as Celeste warns Quincy to watch his ass when Grady gets out seemed like a good thing to throw into the mix of the Balboni's bar segment.

There are, I think, a few reasons why the count of extras was so low. First, it was the Saturday before Christmas, which was going to automatically be a conflict for a lot of people. Second, I didn't really get the call out far enough in advance, especially since the shoot was five days before Christmas. I also missed a lot of good venues to get the call out. I did send the call out to as many actors' emails as I had; though my collections of actors' emails are all so scattered that I am willing to bet I missed a big chunk of them, and there are a certain amount I am privy to not from my own gathering and I am reluctant to send to them because it would essentially be spam on my part. As reflected above, I also sent the call on the announce list serve on campus at Wright State University. Plus, I put it out on my MySpace account as a bulletin to all my friends there (which is not a big list to begin with and some on the list are a crossover with some of the other venues I used).

Lastly, as big as my ego is, I know that I am not some local theatre arts person with a big, stellar and long-standing reputation; a lot of people probably did not take it terribly seriously or did not think of it as some fabulous opportunity to seize upon: no worries there on my part; no one had any reason to jump on it as a golden chance and I have no reason to have expected they do so.

With Loren behind the bar as Quincy and only six others to put in the background of the shots, the bar at Balboni's became less crackling with business than I had hoped to present it on screen. Had there been, say, twenty or twenty-five, or more, Wayne would have served as an AD and would have been off to the side sending extras across the screen behind the principals for the duration of the shoot. That wasn't necessary or viable under the circumstance, so I put Wayne behind the bar counter with the small three-chip DV recorder to get more freely hand-held shots of the principals and the principal action. He got more direct-on shots and more close-ups (CUs) and extreme close-ups (ECUs).

With this smaller group of extras, I changed a couple production procedures from what I'd had planned. I did not have them act in mos in the background (pantomiming dialogue). Instead I had them speak at lower voice levels. We did a sound and level check before we started shooting and then as we shot, they had real conversations at sound levels that were good for background noise. For one thing, since I have such a small group of bar patrons, throwing a mesh of background voices in would not be practical. I am not going to have a suggestion of dozens or several dozens of people's voices in the background without a visual suggestion of such a crowd. Had I been able to have a constant flow of traffic in the background, of a lot of different faces, then it would have worked. Then, with such a cacophony of background voices, it would not look odd to see people back there speaking and not hear voices that seem to correlate with the movement of the lips.

Clearly, I had to shoot this as if the patronage was light, and pretty much who you see in the background is probably most of those in the bar. The voices back there are light. Now, when you see lips move, there needs to be an audible correlation. I did not want to have to worry about Foley sound for that in post production. So, now, if you see Jeri Williams laugh, you will hear Jeri Williams laugh, and all I have to do is, well, nothing. The visual and audible are already synced.

I also did not have the extras stay to do the bar ambiance audio recording after we were done shooting, either. I am going to find and buy some, I think. I will want it light anyway. It has occurred to me to have distant sounds of the restaurant area, as well. I had intended to get several audios of Loren as Quincy, answering the phone, to drop in at times while he's off screen, but I forgot about it, but I will do that. He's on campus and I see him almost every day so there will be no problem getting such.

With Wayne on camera 3, I saw that we could get some reversal shots*. Rather than waiting until later, we got the shots as the needs arose. It usually had to do with some action by Quincy that seemed good to get from a better pov. What we did was simply stop the action right then and flip the shot set up around. That way the improvizational dialogue and the emotional level and intent were still fresh for the actors. It plays a little bit against the idea of shooting multiples of the same action, but does not betray the whole approach we have been making.

*) REVERSAL: AKA Reverse Angle or Reverse shot. A shot taken at a 120-180 degree angle from the preceding shot. When used in dialogue scenes, reversal editing usually alternates between over-the-shoulder shots that show each character speaking.

Almost all the reversal takes had to do with times when Quincy and Celeste were engaged, and in one case, it was that particular conflict that was the whole reason I brought Quincy into the vignette in the first place. Quincy will be back in at least one more sequence, along with at least one other of those bad apples Celeste wants Grady to steer clear of.

Again, we got good work from the actors and we got good work from the extras. I did have to occasionally gesture to the extras to lower their levels, but the truth is I actually did so slightly before they got too loud. With camera 2 (Fred) trained on an angle to show the bathrooms, I did make sure a few trips were made there. I made the first one. I contemplated the fact that I have already appeared on screen as the lawyer in a Prison Visit sequence. But since then I have gotten a hair cut plus I was in a suit in the prison scene. This time I also had a cap on. Plus I am background this time, so I don't think the risk is there.

When I came out of the bathroom I went to the table where I had sat four of the six and talked with Mike. That conversation is actually behind the pillar so I am not even seen. I told Mike to wait about two or three minutes then go to the bathroom. Later, when we stopped, I think it was for a reversal, but it may have been one of a few times I stopped the principals to correct an error in story-line fact, I told Barbara to also go to the bathroom. Brett, as Jeremy, also went to the bathroom at one point so we could clear the way for a discussion between Marcus and Celeste.

All the principals were excellent about working with things. They all had ideas for their characters and even presented me with good challenges to what I had set up for them. I sent Jeremy to the bathroom because Duante believed that Marcus would not have the conversation I wanted him to have with Celeste about Grady if Jeremy was there. He had a good point. And Crystal was very good about how Celeste would confront Quincy about Grady. I set up the idea that Quincy was there and finds out Grady is getting out. I set up that she lets him know to watch himself. But what came out of her mouth was all her and it was good stuff.

Both Crystal and Loren were good about going about the bar and doing what a manager and a bartender would do. Tables were cleared. At one point Celeste tells Quincy that the table with the four people needs another pitcher of beer. It took a little on the spot communication between me and Loren but I got it across that there were cans of Vernors to fill a glass pitcher with. And Quincy was there, in the back ground, taking care of the customers. These were all bits that did not come from the director.

Concerning the new pitcher of beer, I actually crawled on the floor behind the main action, to stay off camera but get to the kitchen to help Loren with the ginger ale. Then I crawled back. I think there is no indication from any actor of this incognito action.

Wayne was also good about grabbing many good cut-away shots for me. He pretty much did this on his own. At one point during a break while I was working an idea out with actors he went over and got good close ups of all the extras at their tables. I have some good cut-away shots and some initial establishing shots due to his initiative.

As for what the patrons were conversing about: I told the extras to just get to know each other. Nothing they were saying would be distinguishable, so they were all just having real conversations. I think at one point during a cut-away close-up one actor did create a line, knowing that line might be audibly understandable. But, for the most part, they were people having real conversations about whatever, maybe even about what a dork their director is.

Somewhere in here I suppose I should mention the fact that it was pretty frickin' cold on the set. That, itself, was probably mentioned in those conversations. Last week, for those who don't know, Midwest America was going into a deep freeze. We hit zero on Sunday in the Dayton area. It was pretty cold on Saturday. I did not turn the heat up in the building because it would have taken far too much time, energy and cost to get the basement area warm. I did not want to add to the utility bill for the building. I must admit, it was a little cooler than I had anticipated it would be. Fortunately, Fred brought a little space heater that he set up in the back room, behind the faux wooden walls. And the actors went back there to warm up on occasion. I hadn't thought to warn people that it would be cold. As I said, I hadn't realized it would be quite as frigid as it was, to begin with.

*Aw, geez! Now, here it is, 11:06 p.m. and it's clear to me I am not about to be finished with this pseudo-prose work here. My goal is to post this on December 26, but it's starting to look like if it is the 26th, it will not be the morning.

And now I am off to bed.

(Fri Dec 26) -- It's a dreary, rainy afternoon, the day after Christmas. The first thing I did when I got up today (late this morning)  was to write a recounting of the weird actor's dream I had *(see the Dec 26 blog entry). But, now, here I am, with hope, polishing off this particular essay-ish thing.

To no personal shock, I'm not incredibly happy with my own work as director. I would give this third production day a C+ at best were I to be assigning a grade. That may be a bit generous, too. Perhaps a straight-on C or even a C- is more so in order, My harsh assessment has more to do with technical details than with work with the actors, though that does not come out unscathed in my adjudication of myself.

Whereas I am ecstatic that Wayne had the instinct to grab cut-away shots, especially of the bar patrons, it strikes me that I did not, myself, bring that clearly essential necessity to mind. One would think it would be a matter of course for the director to ask for such shots. Had Wayne not taken the initiative, I would not have them -- unless Fred had interjected the need later. It also bugs me that I had decided I wanted audio of Loren (Quincy) answering the phone off-screen to drop in when it seems a good spot, then completely forgot about recording such. Yes, we have established that I can pick that up quite easily since Loren is usually close by on campus. But, damn it.

Further, I had conceived of a shot of someone walking down the stairwell that leads to the restaurant area and opening the door to walk in. I completely forgot about it on Saturday. Again, I may be able to pick that up, but man! I was right friggin' there with all sorts of actors!

These are all DOH! moments to add to the exponentially growing list.

Another big lesson for me is that I need to keep more on top of what things will look like through the lens, as we are about to shoot. When the set was originally lit, there was a far wall, seen from camera 1. That wall is screen left, behind the brown partition area. This from the angle that puts Duante closer to the camera lens. That far wall was originally in deep shadow, so much so that the L partition appeared as an entranceway from another section of Balboni's, perhaps the restaurant area. Somewhere, somehow, things got re-lit and that far back wall became well-lit, complete with unsightly cables and wires hanging down. And the partition now appears more as a partition than a structural wall. Had I looked through all the camera lenses before we began to shoot, I would have seen this and we would have addressed it. But, I didn't and so the resulting inequity falls directly on my shoulders as the one to blame. Plus there are some harsh shadows in other shots that I could live without.

There are also a few other things that, in some zoom levels, are in frame that I don't want there. On TV screens they would most probably not show. But viewed on a computer as a MP4 or a podcast in QuickTime or Windows Media Player that parameter of the screen will show. What I may be able to do is crop the shot in, if, as an editor, I feel that is the shot I want to use. But I have to be careful. Cropping too far in means zooming too far in, and the result is poorer resolution of which the compromised quality is clearly visible.

No, I did not attend as much to the shots as a director should. And I am quite sure I was inadequate at communicating my ideals about the visuals. It's a fine line, too. You want to bring in good people who are good with the lens, who have the eye. If you are going to bring them in, it makes no sense to completely dictate their work. You don't bring in a chef then provide him or her with the entire menu and all the recipes. But you do get to say, "No red meat, and please have some sort of chocolate dessert," or whatever; and you do get the right to taste the dishes as the meal is being prepared. I was charged with the responsibility to be more proactive about the guidance toward what I wanted, at least in terms of elements that are specific to my visual concept and in terms of what I do and do not want.

Now I did communicate some things well. Fred and I came to an agreement the lighting should be a bit moody and I think it is. I let everybody know I wanted them to change up the zooms and such on their shots. Wayne, of course, on the free hand-held, had an even more specific and pronounced directive for such, as it was inherent to the nature of the camera 3 assignment. All three cameras gave me good variety.

(Sat Dec 27) -- To quote myself from the Dec 23 blog entry, "Being sick sucks." This cold has attacked my motivation and stamina with varying degrees of effectiveness. Now, here it is, mid-afternoon Saturday, the shoot is now a week old, and though I am sure I'll finally wrap this damned mara-blog, it will be posted far behind my targeted deadline. Make that deadlines, targeted deadlines, because I've missed a few already. I think I first imagined this being posted before Christmas Day. Ah, but here we are (here I am), the afternoon of the 27th, "Aquarius," by the Boards of Canada, blasting on my iTunes radio from Groove Salad on Soma FM, as I begin to contemplate how to express what I am happier about in terms of me as director of this project.

That C- to C+ grade is not failing, you know. I remember an interview David Letterman gave, years ago, to Larry king, I believe, where they talked about how he paid little attention to his rave reviews but a lot of attention to the reviews that panned him or were at least less flattering. Letterman said that he learned nothing about getting better from the raves. His essential message to me was that it's far more important to know what you're doing wrong than what you are getting right.

That doesn't mean I don't want to know what I am doing right in whatever field of artistic expression I am involved in at the moment. Improving means knowing what to improve, though. Which is why I tend to be, and sanction being, highly self-critical. But, I ultimately don't believe I suck even if I find particular moments where I have sucked badly or at the least could have been much, much, much, much better. There is some of that former and much of the latter.

To focus only on what didn't work, what was inadequate, what was missing, that can quickly discourage one. I am easily enough discouraged already, sometimes going through bouts where I find this whole artistic venture to be one big, moronic joke. I, then, owe it to myself to risk megalomania on occasion to admit that I do some good work, even if often flawed.

Saturday the 20th saw a director who was in charge of the day and created a collaborative atmosphere that invited creative thought and input from the rest of the team, both actors and crew. I worry that I was less attentive to the extras than I could have been, but I am sure I was not rude or unprofessional to them.

Certainly I am a green freshman here, and it would be folly to neither recognize or admit it. But I think I am not terrible and I know I will get better, because I am open to and have the certain goal to do just so.

Even though my ego hates that I am not:
B R I L L I A N T !

And now, because I just have so many great still frames I like, as well as straight-out photographs I took, here are more images from the day. And I have left out more than fifty other images from the day: