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.