Whale meet again

It's what the eskimos keep saying. And the inuit. And the klinkit.

Stay current with Conviction over on its own blog. This one will pick back up when MPU starts airing..

In the Presence of the Lord

In scouting for our first episode, I've discovered a small town in Maryland that will let us shoot two days worth of scenes there. Normally, I'm not crazy about Maryland, probably because I always picture Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville and think traffic, perpetual construction, poor civic planning and a Rockville Pike that seems to go on forever without ever getting anywhere.

Agricultural communities are nice, perhaps because of the sparse ratio of people per square mile, but also due to the lack of modernity: Long fields that span to the horizon, orchards, barns, ponds, as well as Mom and Pop stores by the highway and historic churches whose steeples peek out between twists in the road.

Which is how I came to be at lunch with a group of ladies in a church basement.

This particular church was built in 1850, and is beautiful: stone exterior, gothic
aspects, but small, intimate, in a God-can-reach-you sort of way. The inside is cozy, dark and lit with slashes of color from the stained glass vestibularies.


They had just finished eating, and I told them I didn't want to interrupt, but they insisted now was a good time. Trying to make our story sound redemptive isn't hard, but it takes a positive outlook. We had a nice chat, and they've agreed, graciously, to have us in.

The town reminds me of the area in Kansas where my Dad spent most of his childhood. There's a smell of manure that's not unpleasant, a lot of dust and trucks, and I've seen a lot of guys pull into places of business, get out of their trucks and put their shirts on.

First day conviction

Okay, it's happened again: I've started a new job with a desk and a phone, and I'm sitting here wondering what to do, just like Costanza did when he got a new job. At least this time, I have incentive to look busy: my office is in a well-travelled hallway, so there's a buzz of acitvity and people walk past and glance in pretty regularly.

I'm also not as claustrophobic (and a little more office-saavy) than last time. I'm thinking that for the first few days I'll decorate, blog, read e-mail, and, time permitting, break the script down into managable chunks. There's an editor who has a guitar on a stand in his bay, which I think gives precedent for me to bring a tele in, or at least a Danelectro...

My AP this season has experience (for a change) and has been to film school (what's that like?). I've worked with AP's before who a) were emotionally arrested at age 14 b) would periodically try to go over my head if a particular assignment was inconvenient c) lack professionalism and experience and d) like, talk, dude, like um, this was like, Ridgemont High dude, and um like, Spicoli was our like diction coach dude (no way!)

But as you can see, I'm stoked, because, like I've got another gig directing true crime TV. Right now, someone else is getting Leo's sunglasses converted to AR-coated lenses...(and chatting organic cereal with Russell)

Light in August

Our job begins and ends with light- we capture the reflection of light off objects and people. Without light, there's no image, no picture, no show.

This season of television production is over- many people helped and some did the opposite. It's been a long season, made longer by creative struggles and adversity.

Now that it's over, I feel a huge weight lifted. It's nice to get my life back, and to have a project to look forward to creatively.

Thanks to the great team of actors and crew this season, notably Jake Cross, Stephen Guidry, Tony Parker, Robin Mincher and the extremely talented camera team of Thomas Jacobi, Stefan Weisen, and Martin Filfil.

If you were a positive influence this season, thank you. If you were a negative force- I wish you well.

The Professional

I'd forgotten what a difference working with film professionals can make. Bentley joined us on the set for our penultimate episode of the season, and made a huge difference.

It's nice to have someone on the set that is anticipating the needs of the shooting crew, communicating with the DP regarding equipment needs, looking ahead to prepare shots that will be next, and basically doing something besides sitting on equipment cases and chatting with friends on the phone.

It's called set savvy- either you know it and use it, or you don't . Here's an observation: wherever possible, hire professionals.

Thanks for the help, Bentley- it was great working with you again. I'll call you for my next show and recommend you highly and without reservation.

Veni vidi vici

Okay, so the verdict is in, and if you know where to look, and/or have been following this monologue/thread, feel free to judge for yourself...

I'm going to leave that song playing- I like it. Usually I disable autoplay after a subsequent post, but it's a groove. Let's keep it on. It makes it harder to read...

So the re-shoot door has been opened- we've been asked to shoot additional scenes for episodes already completed. We're already doing one, the meth man gambit from an episode that rhymes with bitch-hole (can't be too careful, might be some dookie lurking around here).

You can hear the floodgates creaking: can we re-shoot a scene where a couple is arguing, and put them in winter wardrobe? (even though it's now July, and foliage will tell the viewer as much). In a paraphrase- we've discarded more footage than you'll ever need- you could make a movie out of stuff we've shot that's not being used...

It would be called True Crime, kinda like Pulp Fiction, the plot would be a girl goes missing, someone smokes on some steps, a fisherman spots a box, a bald guys throws it over a clift, a sexy girl gets in her car, a couple leaves a beautiful but creepy farmhouse and then...

Stay tuned..

Better Bitter

I'm bitter. I feel like I've been burned.

What's my beef? Really want to know? Warning, the truth hurts...

Instead, and on a completely different topic, let's enjoy the NIN video that is thematically similar (but stylistically divergent) to something Bentley and I did for Decahedron. Shelby Cinca: spotted this and forwarded it:


Aaron, you're a fuckin rock star, bro

No Good Deed

Well, I thought it was awesome- I've been excoriated roundly for my efforts. While normal business models don't usually apply to creative fields, episodic television production often parallels the cubicle farms of "Office Space" and Dilbert:



I learned an important lesson- if it's not in your contract- don't do it.

Checking in on the road not taken- one of my music video competitors just completed the new Darkest Hour video-


It looks great, and includes a singable chorus that's pretty tuneful. Doug Champion's going out to LA to shoot Dillinger in the studio. David Palmer just signed with CAA! Sweet.

More fun facts: Mike Phyte, who played the lead in our Krnak episode, does not appear above the neck anywhere in the current cut.

Hypnotiq

This week, our team did something new and "fun". By fun, I mean extremely difficult, unusual, dangerous and with a high degree of stress and possibility of failure: we raced police cars and rental cars around a police training track while discharging weapons and rolling three cameras. In the dark. Good times.

Our patient and long-suffering hosts stayed way past midnight as the inevitable lateness of our schedule caught up with us- we had more coverage than could be obtained in the few short hours between when it gets dark and when nice people need to get home to bed.

The footage I saw looked great, but I only had a monitor about half the time- Stefan and I were crammed into the back seat of a training car with our A cam plus a lighting rig, and having the monitor jammed between my knees was creating an inguinal hernia in my lower ab region, so I threw it out. We also strapped a DVX-100 to the side of the pursuit vehicle and had PA/APs shooting pick-ups, so I haven't seen that footage.

It's going to look really cool- our police driver was as enthusiastic as is humanly possible. I accidently stepped into an elevator with the show creator who peppered me with questions while I was insanely sleep-deprived, and just exiting an exhausting meeting about another show, so I didn't do well in the de-brief.

Here's what I want to say- It's fucking awesome! The location, props, actors, lighting and camera work melded together into a symphony of visual form that will not only look extremely cool, but contain the essential building blocks to tell the story in a compelling manner that EVERYONE is going to want to watch.

Best show ever!

How annoying

What if a television crew pulled up to your house, came inside while your six-month old baby was sleeping, and started moving your furniture around? What if they then started plugging in huge lights, setting up camp at your dining room table and rehearsing scenes where people argue in loud voices, as if unaware an infant is napping?

Sounds pretty rude, doesn't it? It gets worse- the director encourages the actors to "escalate the emotional temperature" and doesn't dissuade them from swearing while the crew searches the area for interesting items to put into the scene for visual effect.


If that sounds like fun, we'd like to use your place as a location.

Fortunately, there are some friends of Tara's who welcome us in regardless. Today we returned to the scene of the Great Pizza Mishap (also known as the antique table debacle) and asked to use the beautiful children who live there as underage actors to help us build a sympathetic backstory for our character. Thanks Beth, Ruby and Maddy!

This episode (Number 9) saw its share of miracles, but the most amazing are the shots of Robyn with the children, which just leads me to believe that somebody up there likes us.

Great performances from Robyn Mincher who luminesced as our missing heroine, and all our bad guys and red herrings, Fernando and JD, who is going to be a caveman in a Geico ad (!) Nice job dude.

Deep Scone Pact

If my body is a planet, scones are the comets hurling through space on a path to destroy it. Let's consider the scone's component parts, shall we? It's flour, which my body reacts to by building fat around the midsection, butter, yum heart-y goodness, sugar- the white stuff, and salt. No salt related maladies, except it raises blood pressure.

Not as bad as, say, a frosted cupcake, right? Sure, but nobody is pedaling cupcakes as breakfast food, brunch fare, a substitute for lunch, and an after dinner treat.The phrase coffee and a scone are now starbucks tatooed onto the collective consciousness. Conjugate it with me: let's get a scone, you wanna scone? I need a scone.

Have an apple, for goodness sake. Stop it with the scones already. Unless there's some trace chopped fruit in there, especially apricot. Yum. Let's go get a scone.

+Late news: The MPU2 Drama team are producing and directing an action sequence for a
new show pilot, and confidence is high that it will be some of our finest work yet.. more as this develops. This shooting set will be a scone-free zone.

Mein Kampf

Oh, the struggle. Good versus evil, day versus night, interior versus exterior. It never ends.

As the season rolls on, we're finding new highs (and lows). We shot last week on Blue Mountain, a place I lived for a while, and the experience of being up there sent me into a slight flashback of life on the mountain: it takes an hour to get anywhere, and even then you're still nowhere. There are 2 general stores up there, and their merchandise is identical. It's desolate and shady and people who live there are hiding from something or trying to escape civilization for reasons that will remain unclear.

We spent day two on more even ground, back around my neighborhood where we created a rural Texas landscape, had a fun Harley scene and made a deserted building into a sketchy area for a drug deal.

The picture above is something I found on my run, and it haunted me until I went home, showered, got my camera and went back to find it. It's sad and beautiful, and I looked like a lunatic trying to photograph it, with my cheek pressed into the gravel as cars whizzed by. One person stopped to see if I was okay. I'm fine, but he's not.

Hump da Bump

We're halfway through our season- Yippee! The episodes are flying by to the point that I feel like a serial dater- I kinda remember the faces with the names, but I have to stop and think sometimes..."Miller, yeah, I remember her... sort of..."


One nice aspect is that the network has decided that more of our footage should be included in the shows, so in case you noticed that one minute out of 21:59 was our work, that number should be expanded. Maybe we'll get two minutes!

I'd like to mention two episodes worth of gratitude at once: Bill from Galaxy Hut looked great as killer Shawn Doyle, and gave his all for the part, as always, illustrated by him falling down an embankment. I hope we can use that take.

Heather Smith was radiant as a casino tart- Andy Morgan cleans up real nice. Stephen Guidry is not only a bayouriffic fisherman, he plays a mean game of texas hold-em.

I'm really glad we shot at the Hotel George in DC- it has a great look, accomodating staff and was just an ideal location in terms of decor, sightlines and attitude.

PLus everybody else dammit! Especially resident psychologist Tara "the Rock" Chia.

So let's get together for drinks and nosh to celebrate! Monday nite, 5:30 at Town Hall

Just the FAQs

As a public service, I will attempt to answer some frequently asked questions:

1: When will the show I was in (or that shot at my house, you said would air in May, you borrowed my truck/ gun/horse for, etc) be on the air?

Answer: I don't know.

2: Are the Psychics real?

Answer: They are not a hallucination.

3: Why are the recreations so hard to see?

Answer: That's an effect called "Saphire"- it's great, isn't it?

4: If an actress appears as a principal character in one episode, can she still appear as another character later in the same season?

Answer: Definitely!

5: Why did the producers pull the scene where detectives Parker and Hunt question and arrest the scam artist?

Answer: Back in the early 90's, the was a rap group called NWA who had a song that answered this very question: to quote Eric Wright, aka "Easy-E" (RIP), "They're stupid motha f#*kers!"

6: Does anyone know when Psychic Detectives will be renewed, and if last year's Visions team will return for season 6?

Answer: Noreen Ranier has said the following: "It's vegetation that wants to be near water. Metal holds the energy better than cloff. There's a short-handed gun and a long-handed gun."

7: Is it true that the Drama team gets confused about the script in regards to specific geography?

Answer: Goodnight Cleveland! We love you!

Leftovers

This photo, taken last season by Bentley, illustrates a moment when a bunch of suburban kids asked for my autograph


nothing to add here, i just thought it was funny

Get high and stay high

photo by tara

Martin's a genius. So is Thomas. These two guys make me look good. For a camera department with no crane, no dolley, no steadi-rig of any kind and no gaffer, these guys manage to compose shots and find the light in places I could never imagine.

At the risk of jinxing, I feel like the drama team is hitting its stride. We're rapidly approaching our halfway point in episodes, and are cruising along pretty well. Few things rattle us now, despite some difficult conditions.

We're working with a lot of the actors we have collaborated with before, and fortunately, we are maintaining good relations with our locations, no small or simple feat given our compressed time frame and limited budget and staff.

I'm hoping to have a happy hour fiesta the week of episode seven, so forewarned is forearmed. Put on your waders and your fishnets and come prepared to chug some ice cold water, cuz up in the high altitudes where the air is thin, that's just how we roll...

(or booze it up, whatever)

The summer of our creeping malaise

On my way to our set last week I got a call from the series producer. He never calls. He wanted to know if I could stop by and chat before shooting. I assumed it wasn't to tell me what a great job our team is doing, how lovely the footage looks, what compelling performances and artful photography are doing to advance the narratives forward.

No, it was more along the lines of: The exec. producer hates it. While we had a series of "creative" meetings, wherin we agreed on a "style" for shooting our segments, the big man isn't seeing what he needs.

This is totally valid: Just because a bunch of guys agree verbally doesn't mean the finished product will reflect the image that each individual sees in his head.

So, while I said earlier that we were shooting in a naturalistic style, we have been directed to also keep it abstract, and to look for the "cool shots" wherever possible.

I think this is great news; it's actually very freeing. The episode we shot last week was a creative highpoint for our team- and we've coined our own style: "Nabstrualistic"

Mike Phyte's translucent irises were a high point, and as always he killed, pun intended. Jake Cross continues to excel as a versatile and deep asset, both as actor and technician. And the older folks in the scenes were transcendent. I mean that.

But most amazingly, Stephen Guidry managed to rescue keys from a locked car in a manuever that NASA should study for future missions....

Karma's a bitch

Omnia Gallia, right?

If you get that, you're way ahead.

I used to love Jay Leno's segment called "What's my Beef?", a forum for complaining about the things that annoy him. It was random and disjointed, and in homage to that, apropos of nothing, let me begin:

A lot of television production people, especially those who toil in the basic cable programming end of the spectrum, use the term "film" as a verb, noun and adjectival modifier in describing their activities, as in " we'll be filming in your area" and "our film crew broke your toilet..." etc.

To paraphrase Joe Biden, I know film crews, and you, senator, are no film crew. You wouldn't know a can of 5298 if it hit you in the ground glass, or which end of a 435 might benefit from a set of primes.

The biggest difference, however, isn't the plasticine celluloid through which light passes, but the organizational approach to producting programming. Film crews are a collection of tightly ordered departments that cohese between and among themselves. TV is a spastic pastiche, a spastiche.

But, as indicated above, this means naught. Lack of cohesion is as freeing as a typhoon that wipes clean the land-it levels everything, is full of sound and ennui, and ultimately, signifies nothing.

And don't get me wrong- I'm blessed to have creative and hardworking collaborators; it's society's fault/ the result of market-driven economics, etc.

And remember what Brutus said: "Don't worry dude, I got your back".

Dying is Easy

Comedy is Hard.

The un intentionally funny is so much more humerous than the joke crafted for laughs. When I first saw the actor in today's scene, I was struck by how unlife-like his dental modifications appeared. He seemed to have phonic difficulties with it as well. But, as a crafty actor and cunning strategist, upon hearing that the character has a beard, he went home, applied his personal Henry V facial appliance and sent us a picture.

You gotta admire that. When I was trying to get hired on a movie, but had a scantlity thin resume, my then-girlfriend (now wife and mother of my children) baked a batch of her irresistible M&M chocolate chunk cookies. I felt a bit odd and frankly embarrassed to hand over my resume and a bag of cookies, but when I got hired, the coordinator said it was the cookies that got her attention.

This same stage-beard applying actor brings popcorn to the assistant of our company's president. Crazy? maybe. Odd, definitely. But he's working in today's scene, and he's on our lips and fingertips as the day unfolds...

Suh-mitchell

So never, under any circumstances, stop to pee in a corn field in Nebraska on a night with a full moon. If there's anything to be learned from the "Scream" trilogy, it's that if a situation seems fraught with horror movie cliches, perhaps you shouldn't be there..

Also, interlaced is +not+ progressive, no matter how many magic bullets Gen Arts have developed to save us from ourselves. Too esoteric? Here's tara's slideshow from our latest episode...


Val Linn likes to start out with a little RBV and take it from there...

Gitmo nutty

At one point last week, one member of our team started looking like the internees at Guantanamo Bay: Eyes fixed and dilated, uncommunicative, prone to fits of laughter and sobbing which comingled into a lurching howl that hung in the air like a plaintive wail, echoing far into the night...

And that was just the actress.



To quote the Eagles, I'm losing all my highs and lows.

We really got banged up last week-physically, emotionally, spiritually. I sorta melted down at the weekly meeting (held at the arsenic hour of 4 PM Friday) acting alternately petulant, morose, annoyed, annoying, and hungry.

Where was the creative, funny, good natured guy we all love? He can't make it, so I'll be filling in for him.

There's always next week. After all, tomorrow is another day..

Crank up the crazy

Here's what I learned last week: Cheap motels get really nervous when asked if a film crew can shoot there. I also figured out that a british accent is a hard thing to hide.
I think that "night manager" is a creepy job title. Also, perhaps not everyone needs to be regaled with amusing and interesting tales of my colorful past.

More enlightenment: In a perfunctory scientific experiment, it appears that hand-painted antique tables and hot Domino's pizza don't mix. (This experiment needs to be repeated with a kosher pizza as a control) Evidently, Georgetown isn't a great match for Spatanburg, South Carolina (who knew?)

In an interesting sidebar- It could be called Stephanopolustown, but that doesn't fit on a sign.

Old news: No-one knows anything; Don't trust anyone; Great literature and true-crime TV don't mix......

Thanks to jake, monalisa, all the moms of rodman place and especially tiki-free...

a perfect storm

The chance of everything going wrong usually perches just above our heads, whistling. For example, tomorrow's locations center around the lower georgetown, and the crew has no idea that I plan to shoot the "Excorcist Stairs" for purely personal reasons.

There are numerous red flags surrounding one location. We have a scene where a girl sits outside a house where a party goes on. The bong boys, as we've dubbed the residents, have decided to get a keg and have a real party. This spells trouble, with a capital T. Also, my associate identified herself to them as my "hot little assistant"
so they're whipped into a hormonal frenzy at the prospect of female attention.

So we've got that going for us. Throw in a Russian accountant who can't add or speak english, a stalinistic management team who never met a new set of procedural revisions they didn't like, and you've got us.

We're working in a dream factory...

Why the hell not?

The problem is with success- Last season our production team, Bentley, Chia and myself brought in our show, 13 episodes in all, on time and under budget.

So you'd think that would be a good thing right? You'd be wrong: this season we have a third less everything: no Bentley, two shooting days per episode instead of three and 2/3 of our previou$ budget.

But we have a secret weapon: Spunk. No seriously, we're fucked; the previous model was basically untenable, and this season we have a raft of new byzantine procedures and legal voodoo ceremonies to muddy the waters.

So crank up the crazy and laisse les bontemps roulette 'cuz MPU Drama (as they call us now, in a tip 'o the hat to the outcasts in high school who were always smoking and laughing outside the stage door) is in the house. And the yard. And the alley, where, unfortunately we have no permission to shoot.

Permits? We don't need no stinkin' permits!

aaaaaaaNNNNDDDDD ACTION!!!!