Dave Foley is that guy from The Kids in the Hall

It’s been a while. And there’s a reason for that. If, of course, you’re willing to accept my idiosyncratic neuroses as a reason.

See, the short is almost done. Done done. Not almost, kinda, but just needs one more thing done—it’s almost freaking COMPLETE and ready to be tossed out to the big bad world. Jeffrey is working his people-skills magic trying to secure us a location for the screening. And I’m working up the financial courage necessary to pay for entrant fees for the festival circuit. That kind of done.

So, I wanted my next post to be all Pomp and Circumstance, all fanfare and heraldry. But alas, the blessed day of completion has not yet arrived and the continuing blog silence is too much to bear (for me and two, possibly three, other people).

While we wait, let me impart here a lesson we learned the hard way. Always get sound. Even when the director says, It’s fine, we don’t need sound on this one. Tell him No. Refuse. Jump up and down. Mutiny if you must. He will thank you later. Also. On those takes when you think you’re getting sound, go ahead and give a little double check to the "microphone on" switch.

We failed both lessons a few times. Which means we had to foley some of the sound. In the video below, you'll see how we went about getting sound for a scene. Brandon and I went back to the office and, while watching a DVD of the movie on my laptop, recreated Jonathan’s movements. Movie magic!

PS: To anyone who got to this page looking for information on Dave Foley, I appologize. To make up for it, here's a fact about Dave Foley: He's the youngest member of The Kids in the Hall. That's a fact you'd learn if you looked at his trivia section on IMDb. So you should probably go there. And not here. But thanks for stopping by!

Another Log for the Fire

Quick note: I just finished a screenplay for another short (not the next short, just another short -- soon the Company will have a big cache of scripts and we can sift through them and pick one out and film it at our leisure, with funding and golden fairy wings)

This one is a mystery! With dialogue! And action! Brandon reads it now. I await the judgement of a Director Directs, then, if they so desire, I will subject it to the scrutiny of the Company. Then one day we will perhaps film it and it will be subjected to the scrutiny of the world at large. And I realize, everyone just wants to be loved, including me.

Which reminds me, if you're reading this and want to "Follow This Blog," please do so. Just click on the little link to your right. It will make me feel loved. And like I just said, that's what everyone wants. Including me. Still.

And Then Here We Are

This blog has been around for a year now. Happy anniversary.

When this started I was writing the screenplay for Archie Hotel. I finished it. Brandon and I fought like squirel versus weasel to come up with the final draft. Then the company began filming it. Then we realized a feature was too big and somewhere between July 8th and August 3rd we gave up on it.

Not 10 days after relating our defeat we had the script for a short. We casted it. Filmed it. Took pictures. By mid-October we were done with production.

And now we sit in post-production limbo as we wait for the final edit. A few days past we watched a rough cut. I'll tell you all now: it was good. Prepare yourselves.

Even the most delicious tomato was grown in poo

I asked Brandon how the editing is coming along. He said, "Good." So there you have it, you're all up to date.

In the continuing meanwhile, here are a few more goings on: the screenplay (that will not feature bad guys) is coming along. Characters have been sketched, relationships mapped out, scenarios developed, and two whole pages written. Whoop-dee-doo.

This screenplay, however, will not be the next short the Company is to film. Next on the docket: an Ariana-helmed documentary. And not just any documentary, a documentary about the pursuit of a possibly mythical, but irrefutably fascinating beast. I'll add only that this particular beast is partial to our forested backdrops here in the Northwest, and say no more so as to not spoil the fun.

Jeffrey is also writing a narrative. It involves a coffee shop.

As you can see, the Company is busy making this whole filmmaking fantasy a plausible reality. You may wonder, where did this whole business begin? Well, since you're wondering...

It started with a Christmas present for our families. We wrote, acted in, and edited together a fifteen minute Noir. For reasons of copyright (we used music that didn't belong to us) and artistic integrity (we acted), this particular production will never be posted for any sort of public viewing. If you happen to know a member of one of our four families, ask them to arrange a screening for you. Barring that, just know that our little project turned out about 87 degrees more awesome than we'd expected, and we saw that our love of watching movies could become a love of making them.

Of course there were all sorts of technical things to consider. Editing? How the hell do you do that? So I decided to try something out. Film a scene from a movie, edit it on Apple's magnanimously free iMovie, and convert it to a Quicktime movie file. What resulted is not good, but functional. It helped convince us that it was possible to film things. Recently, Jeffrey (the one member of the Company who turned out to posess acting skills) posted his fantastic and infamous crying scene from our ill-fated attempt at filming the Feature. So I thought I'd post this seminal snippet. Also my grandfather lives in Vietnam and has asked for a recent picture. Hi Ted!

Please note: I do not generally do not wear tights on my head; at the time (mid 2007), the Flight of the Conchords reference in the credits was current; and at all times, in all worlds, in all cultures, and to all humans Deep Forest's Sweet Lullaby is a fantastic and awesome and super great song.

Two Days of Grueling Euphoria

‘the hell? This is the most interesting part of the process—the MAKING part—and where is the update?

Here it is:

I’ll make no excuses for the delay… Yes, producing is a draining, tiring process, and yes, I also work my forty hours a week, plus I belong to a volleyball league, and a book group. But, honestly, I’ve still had time enough to throw a little update to the people. Something else has been occupying my thoughts and time. I’m not proud. But it could be worse.

So. Last weekend. We started by putting our star in the bathtub. Throughout the weekend, Brandon had Jonathan do a whole slew of strange and extra things not in the script. He came up with one particular series of actions for the first Studio scene. All strung together, it was about a straight 5 minutes of action. These weren’t things in the script, Jonathan was told what to do once, ran through it with Brandon once, then we started rolling. And Jonathan nailed it. We did a series of these very long takes and he made them funny and interesting and sad and cool all at the same time.

One thing about these epic takes: someone has to hold the camera. We don’t have time for tripods so our living, breathing cameraman has to hold a not unheavy camera in an awkward position and not move for a very long time. Even though his nose may itch and his leg may ache and his hand muscles start to rebel. I was getting tired and antsy just being still enough to not make noise while rolling, then I looked at Jeffrey, doubled over, motionlessly holding the camera through the entire take and my fidgetiness felt petty. And standing next to him, Karrie held that boom aloft with the same degree of stoic immobility. To say it was impressive is to say the Meteor Crater is a divot in Arizona.

Also, we were lucky enough to get a real live photographer to take production stills on Saturday. I’ll share some with you as soon as Chris uploads them.

On Sunday, we descended upon the offices of CB&S, set up shop in the conference room and shot Jonathan and Ladawn’s scenes. Ladawn was priceless. She came up with little improvisations and tweaks on her delivery that just killed. We have so many good shots of their two brief interactions that we want to use them all…

Around one, pizza came and Jeffrey and I ate cheese, which later proved unpleasant to our internal processes… Corey arrived and didn’t bat an eye when Brandon told him his first scene would now take place in a bathroom. He added a specific something to one scene that I can’t tell you about because, if it makes the final cut, I want you to experience it with no forewarning.

Then Jeffrey contorted himself into new and unnatural positions to capture more of those long wonderful shots that Jonathan again pulled off flawlessly. In one particular shot, Brandon helmed the camera, while Jeffrey and I checked the monitor for focus. And yes. It was the one shot out of focus. Aside from that, we only had one other flaw. One scene of dialogue was too quiet from one end. We may have to do a little ADR. That's okay, it'll make us feel fancier.

By the end of the weekend, we were tired, we were spent, we were sore. And now, I want nothing more than to do it again. And again. And again until I expire.

I’m putting together the next script in my head. I’m thinking… more bathroom scenes.

Everybody Loves Samples!

If you look at the side bar (right hand side of yer computer screen), you'll see a link to the first eight pages of the script. I have posted it not only for your viewing and reading pleasure, but also so potential actors considering working with us will be able to get some sort of clue about what might be instore for them should they decide to join forces with our motley crew and fight with us the forces of evil.

It's a pdf file and if you are one of the last members of society to not have Adobe Reader, click here and get it for free and dance the dance of the modern era.

Thanks for taking a look. If you like it, feel free to comment. If you don't like it, remember that lying is okay if it makes someone feel good.

Eleven Pages of Wonder and Delight

I finished the script for the short. Here's a picture of it in a mini-blind-striated pool of light:


It has received director approval. Glorious songs from the heavens shine down upon us.

In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name

And like that. The movie is dead. Or at least it's very cold and not moving when we poke it. So now I can tell you...its name was Archie Hotel. Or at least that's what we called it.

Over the weekend, the Company ventured out into the woods and attempted to film one of the simpler segments of the film. A man lost in the forest. We had a forest. We had a man. All that was left was pointing the camera and pushing the big red button... Ha. Let me restate that: Ha.

We didn't focus the camera properly. We acted tired in one shot and angry in another. We wore the wrong shirt. We planned for a three hour tour, but were stuck on the island for three years. And none of us was as forward thinking as the Howells.

So the movie died. We didn't realize it right away. We put sunglasses on it and carried it around for a while, Bernie Lomax style. Then it sunk in. Brandon noticed it first. Then, perhaps due to the fetid smell of the footage or the realization that the task at hand was as heavy and crushing as a cubic ton of burial dirt, I too saw how our film was no longer with us. We met with the rest of the Company, shared the bad news, and collectively pored over the autopsy report. Then we drank.

It's been a little while now. I'm getting used to its absence. I'll admit I wasn't ready to let it go, kept holding on to its hand asking it to please wake up, yelling at Brandon, telling him to stop lying to me. It wasn't dead, it just needed better organization, more effort, more love. I made lists and forms and schedules and promises, anything I could think of to revive it, anything to not to give up. But it was gone. It is gone. That which once rang so blue and clear in our hearts is now but a dull, raw hole in our chests.

However.

We are still alive. And we have ten freakin' thousand dollars' worth of camera and editing equipment. And we have you: friends and family and co-workers to whom we've made this silly declaration, this threat, this promise that four people dedicated to the idea of independently creating a diversionary narrative from pictures and sound can do so if they try. So we are trying.

I'm back at the studio. I'm writing a short that involves four locations, all of which we have access to, and four speaking parts. It will be smaller, more manageable. And I'll tell you all about it. Right here.

You may have noticed the "About me" description has changed. This here will still be about bringing Archie Hotel to life. That process is just taking a little longer than we first expected--it's not overnight that you learn how to make radios from coconuts.