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...