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September 25, 2002
New Review
I just got a copy of Andy's performance of One Man Seen from the Toronto Improv Festival, and the description KP Robbins put in the "Commodity Description" field of the customs form would be on every One Man Seen poster (if this Sunday wasn't the close of the show):
VHS Cassette
Original Comedy/Theatre
Non-Pornographic
Declared Value: $0
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:16 PM
Door Prize
I got my first door prize last night. The back wheel of my bike was already screwed up from almost getting hit by a car a few weeks ago (just slamming on the brakes and then bouncing around from that bent my back rim all over the place) and now my front wheel is squeeking. I was a little scraped up, but I made it to the read-through for EFG's new show The Odds. (I'm not in the show, I was just helping out -- but it's a very funny show and you should go see it in November.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2002
"Penis"
Our suggestion was "Penis" (and then seconds later, "Sea Monkeys") but Shaun went with that first gutteral utterance. It all worked out, though. The opening montage that Michael films about half an hour before the show started with an image of a billboard that just said "Mr. Right" and it was improv-magic on improv-magic from there on in.
This show, like the first one, ended in a make-out session. There must be something about the absence of an audience that lets the actors do things let probably wouldn't on stage.
This was "closing night", since we only did two shows this time around. So now I'm just making tapes for the cast and crew (unlike most improv shows, this one ends with a product that's much the same as what the audience saw) and we're looking at venues to mount a longer run in early 2003. Watch the FuzzyCo home page for updates.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:24 PM | Comments (1)
September 11, 2002
Sybilization Blog
I've been cast in the newest round of the Sybilization workshop/performance group, and producer Megan Pedersen has set up a Blog for the cast.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:33 PM
The Reviews are In
TheatreChicago said One Man Seen was "brilliantly executed" and the Chicago Reader said Andy was an "improv savant".
Phillip Mottaz said The Neutrino Project had the "magic of magic".
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:11 AM
September 9, 2002
We'll Fix it in Post
About the same time I wrote the entry above, I asked Matt by email what the schedule was. He just replied with a very detailed message, which is a great peek at the post-production process of a film. With his permission, here's his message:
Fuzzy,
I just realized I probably never replied to this email (plus, I noticed your "limbo" comment in your blog), so I figured I'd email you back and give you a heads-up.
We're actually a gnat's wing away from having the rough cut done. We just have to edit your interview and one short scene, and then the entire rough cut of the film is done. Of course, this is still months away from a release print. (I'm telling you all this because I think you might be interested. If it's too much detail, just skip down to the part where I say "DWG will probably be in the can by the end of the year.")
After Andrew (the editor, who was also our sound guy) and I finish the rough cut, the next step is to "spot" the film with Brian, our composer. This basically just means I sit down and watch it with him, but "spotting" sounds more technical. I will also spot the film with Jason (the graphic artist who is doing our titling).
Once Brian and Jason are sent on their merry way to compose the score and create the titles, Andrew and I sit down for the arduous task of syncronizing the sound. This is where we line up the sound recorded on MD with the picture already recorded (that's what the slate is for). This is the suckiest part of post-production. It's very tedious, but has to be done exactly right, or we end up with the swing dancing version of "What's Up, Tiger Lily?". This is also the time that we will record any replacement dialogue necessary (it looks like we only have one line that needs to be re-recorded, so that's pretty good).
After we get good sync on the sound, it's time for the "polish edit". This is where Andrew and I sit down and tweak the cuts (based upon responses we've gotten to the rough cut, as well as our own thoughts after looking over the material again). Basically, this is our chance to make sure the story makes sense. We also do any color-correction necessary in this step.
Once we are sure that the film is the way we want it, it goes into a state called "picture lock". This means that we will not be changing anything with the video portion - no footage will be removed or added from this point on.
If our timing is correct, we'll be getting picture lock around the same time as Brian finishes composing the score. We'll match up his draft recording of the score with the film, and assuming everything looks (andsounds) good, he'll go off and have the musicians record the actual score.
We finish up by having the audio mix "sweetened" by an audio engineer, and possibly run the whole video through a CineLook processor (to step it down to 24 frames per second, to better emulate film stock). Then we're done!
Long story short, Dancing With Gaia should be in the can by year's end. As we get closer to release time, we'll be keeping you all posted about where/when you can see the film, and when you can expect your very own copy.
Matt
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:00 PM
Whew
One Man Seen opened, Neutrino opened, Movie journal updated, Neutrino journal updated. Can I rest now?
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:48 AM
"Nepotism"
Well, I would definitely say that the Chicago premiere of The Neutrino Project was a success. For starters, the whole thing actually worked. We had a few sound problems in the final scene, and it turned out that Greg didn't rewind one scene far enough and the audience only saw half of it, but that was the worst.
Minor victories: we got the 8' screen for the 6' price. Michael got popcorn nearly donated by the Davis Theater. Lots of people said they loved it. The door take covered the cost of the beer we had for the cast after the show. It worked!
There were lots of fun, weird improv-synchronities. From the suggestion of "nepotism," we somehow ended up with four stories of relationships gone wrong. All the stories had people getting wasted. Two different pairs of characters got thrown out of establishments. The whole thing ended in a big make-out scene that was high-larious.
Fortunately for us, there was no midnight show this week at WNEP, so after the show, we cracked open the aforementioned beer and the cast and crew got to watch the movie. Several of the cast commented on the same thing I thought would be weird -- knowing that people were watching the show while we were still making it. Oh, I did bring the camera to see what the audience reactions were like, but I forgot to turn it on. Oops.
I have to give a special shout-out to the runners -- Sean Cusick, Adam Devlin-Brown, Lance Hoffman, & Scott McNulty. Those guys acted as crowd control, were extras, ran like demons, and were really draconian time-keepers. Early on in the process I empowered the runners to be the final arbiters of when the tapes absolutely had to be back to the theater. And they were on it, barking orders at the camera people -- "gimme that tape now." We didn't have any late tapes...
And a super-big thanks, again, to Neutrino in New York for inventing this thing and then sharing their hard-won knowledge so freely with us.
"But say, Fuzzy, I just noticed from the time stamp of this post that you're up pretty late on a Sunday night." It is definitely time for me to get my own miniDV camera. When we first stared working on the show, I was trying to convince myself that I needed a new camera. But I managed to talk myself out of it, because I figured my Sony Digital8 camera was good enough. I think it is for the show (you can tell the difference between my camera and Michael's, but I think mine is OK). But tonight I'm blanking all the miniDV tapes for next week's show and I have to stay up late to do it, because I only have the loan of Michael's miniDV deck for tonight. If we do a run of this show, I'm definitely getting a new camera, just so I can do tasks like this at my leisure.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:25 AM
September 7, 2002
All set ...
We had a great rehearsal this afternoon, where everything technical and acting-wise seemed to flow. I had a minor technical crisis with my crew, but we recovered and you could hardly tell when we saw the final movie.
Michael Starcevich secured us popcorn this afternoon (thanks Davis Theater!) so we'll have popcorn at our movie -- and that's just wau that should be.
I blanked all the tapes this afternoon and now I just need to run down to Radioshack and get a 30' video cable. See you at the show tonight!
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:37 PM | Comments (1)
September 6, 2002
Locations
A story from Wednesday's rehearsal I forgot to mention: The show takes place in actual real world locations, so we need to scout locations before the show. For the rehearsal, Shaun checked with two restaurants behind our house and at 7 o'clock both of them said "sure". At 8:30, one of our camera crews was kicked out of Paisan's Pizza by the owner. The moral of story, if there is one, is that we may end up doing a lot of shooting on the sidewalk, even if we think we've got our locations set.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:20 AM
September 5, 2002
If I'm not dead, it'll be great.
Rehearsal last night went great. We had (nearly) everyone together in the same place at the same time and we ran a full show and it pretty much all worked.
On the acting side, things are butter. I love this cast like a bunch of candy. In a bad news/good news fashion, one of our cast members got a commercial gig and probably won't make the shows (good for her, but poop), but I called Jen Ellison and said, "Hey, I know you're super busy with the last rehearsals for your main stage season opening, but come be in my show." And said "OK". So, yay.
On the tech side, the show's gonna happen, but the details are what're going to kill me by Saturday (that and all the last minute details for the One Man Seen opening. Two openings in one weekend = poor planning.) I sat down after the cast left last night and made a long list. Projection screen. Platform for the projector. Animated logo (more important than it sounds). Cables. Sony vs. Canon playback issues (Agghhh! I was warned, but wished it not true. It's true.) Stop watches (Target doesn't have stopwatches. What's up with that?) Popcorn. OK, we can live without popcorn. But it'd be nice to have popcorn at the opening. It's a movie, there should be popcorn at a movie.
Oh, and thanks are owed, already, to Lance and Adam for running. Those boys can book.
Did I mention already that I know it's going to be weird on the night, not being in the theater while the audience is seeing the movie? I'm such a tech-control-freak that it's going to kill me worrying about things going wrong while I'm not there. And on an artistic level, it's going to be weird not getting audience feedback (laughs, groans, etc.) while the movie is playing. I've been thinking of setting up a camera in the theater just to see how the audience reacts to the movie.
OK, I'd better go get some lunch (and do some research on the Sony vs. Canon playback issue).
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:26 PM
We're insane!
Two FuzzyCo openings in one weekend! I'm going to be dead by Monday!
Saturday, 10:30 - The Neutrino Project. Only two shows, only $5.
Sunday, 8:00 - One Man Seen. The preview was great. A reception follows opening night.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:02 PM