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May 31, 2004
Challenge: Done
I'm just dumping a safety copy of "Time-Lapse" right now -- I've already dumped the final copy to miniDV.
Today was a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. I got a few hours sleep and then got up for a meeting and then spent most of the day trying to find Ben to score the movie. (I did get some good comments from Shaun and Lillie Frances on the rough cut.) When I finally got ahold of Ben, I put a few hamburgers in him and then we tore through the scoring. I just plopped (it's a technical term) all the music in, made a few tweaks based on Shaun and Lillie's feedback, and voila!
Now, it's off to the Leadaway Bar to drop off this package and then get home to start packing for Colorado.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:23 PM | Comments (0)
Chic-a-go-go
Miss Mia
The Chic-a-go-go set
Erica and Fuzzy
Erica and Miss Mia
Wow, it's picture-central at FuzzyCo this weekend -- sorry if you're on dial-up or something.
Even though it will probably be the thing that pushs this weekend just over the edge into killing me, going to Chic-a-go-go was totally worth it.
Chic-a-go-go is a cable access show that's loosely modeled after Soul Train -- a couple of acts come on and lip-sync their own songs, and then dancers dance to a variety of dj'ed songs. The two big differences being that half of the dancers are kids under 10 and that one of the hosts is a rat puppet.
We taped two-and-a-half half-hour shows tonight, though it felt like were dancing for hours. I think my new fun home-game will be to watch Chic-a-go-go episodes and try and guess whether they were taped early or late in the evening -- by the last set, the kids were getting pretty tired (well, I was, too).
The performers tonight were a great mixed bag -- Sharkula, Aaron Ackerson, No More Lies (a band that came all the way from Spain just to be on Chic-a-go-go), and the cast of Lookingglass' The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World were all great.
You can catch me dancing in my orange cowboy hat on these Tuesdays at 8:30 pm and Wednesdays at 3:30 pm on CAN19:
June 15 & 16 (the show with "The Shaggs")
June 22 & 23 (with No More Lies)
June 29 & 30 (with Sharkula & Aaron Ackerson)
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:14 AM | Comments (1)
Challenge: Rough Cut
Hey! 4 am! I'm dumping a rough cut out to tape right now so I can get some comments from Shaun in the morning and maybe get some score music out of Ben Taylor.
In the absence of good logging (or a shot list or any idea of really what the shooters were going for), I eventually just got a feel for the footage ("hmm... I need an overhead shot of Eva here, I seem to remember one in the first 10 minutes or so...").
This might actually all work out.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:14 AM
Challenge: Edit, Edit, Edit
If you happen to be an actor in a movie, especially some sort of fast-filmmaking movie, please don't look at the camera as soon as you've said your last line of the scene. It tends to make your footage, oh, unusable.
(2:30 am. 1st bag of M&Ms, 2nd bottle of Coke.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:37 AM
Challenge: Let's say it
Let's say it out-loud: I wasted a day. Of only two days.
And now Final Cut Express is crashing. Damn.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:44 AM
May 30, 2004
Challenge: Back to Work
OK, really brief because I shouldn't even be typing this (since I wasted so much time on Chic-a-go-go and then dinner). I'm back to editing. Just discovered a major setback: my editing software (Final Cut Express) is not detecting the start/stop markers in the footage. Usually, even with unlogged footage, "Detect Start/Stop Markers" would at least give me different takes or scenes. So now I just have 3 unmarked, unlabeled, unlogged 20-minute clips, each containing dozens of scenes and takes. Eek.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
Challenge: Start of Editing
Good morning, Sunday. (Except that the careful eye will see that the time stamp on this post says it was posted around 4:30 pm.) I woke up this morning just in time to get our footage to the meet-up at noon. So then of course had to have breakfast. Clif started to log the footage (sigh -- the team who gave us our footage was not so editor-friendly as we were trying to be) but it evidently slow going, so by the time I got back from breakfast he was only 15 minutes into the tape. Then this and that and before I knew it it was 3:30 before I really got started in on capturing this footage. But we're in progress now (I'm watching the tape being captured in the corner of my eye). But... I'm going to interupt editing soon to go to a Chic-a-go-go taping. I know it's ridiculous -- this whole weekend is such a time-crunch already, and I'm doing all the editing by myself, why am I making it even harder? But I've been meaning to go to a Chic-a-go-go taping for so long, I really don't want to put it off any more. Any it's only 2-and-a-half hours, I keep telling myself. Sigh. I'm dumb.
After reading the script and watching this footage so far, I think this is going to be much more a mood piece than anything else -- which is both freeing (no plot points to hit) and scary (no plot to follow).
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:35 PM
Challenge: 100% done (filming, anyway)
OK, I put sound effects, the script, production stills, and the FuzzyCo logo on a CD for the editors and we decided not to film the car/motorcycle chase. So... we're done. At least, until noon tomorrow when we hand all this over to another team and get a similar manilla envelope and run off to start editing.
Before I forget, I want to thank Jamie Pilarski & Lauren Austin for writing such a good script -- just three locations and a straight-forward concept (a blind date gone wrong).
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:58 AM | Comments (1)
May 29, 2004
Challenge: 99% done
It's just before midnight and we're 99% done with filming. We have one more scene we could film, but don't have to, because its action is already described by another character. And the motorcycle battery died, so we'll only be able to film it if the battery recharges before we all fall asleep.
I also still need to assemble our credits list and (more editor-friendliness) I was going to try and find a few sound effects I think they'll need.
But 99% yay!
And above, 4 pictures of me (thanks Sarah) as the menacing "Motorcycle Rider". It's also the only continuity error (that I know of) in our film -- my glasses suddenly appear after I get off the cycle.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:57 PM
Challenge: Exteriors
Here Jin Kim as "Dog Walker" surveys what's left of the dog he was walking after "Walt" gets done with it. I have to say that our quick special effects (a hamburger and some ketchup) looked almost too good (good as in "really disgusting").
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:37 PM | Comments (1)
Challenge: 2/3 done filming
No time for pictures -- we're off to film our exteriors...
Posted by Fuzzy at 7:59 PM
Challenge: Editor Friendly
We're trying to be as editor-friendly as possible. We're logging all our footage as we go. (And look who's still around -- we've already shot all of Sarah's scenes, but she's just hanging out to help -- FuzzyCo peeps are the best!)
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:48 PM
Challenge: 2nd location
Clif Highfield as "Walt" and Ryan Stone as "Benjamin" in "the guys' apartment" (my living room).
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:40 PM | Comments (5)
Challenge: 1/3 done
We've shot all the girls' apartment scenes. Whoo-ray!
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:35 PM | Comments (1)
Challenge: 1st Location
Andrea Swanson as "Myra" and Sarah Pappalardo as "Frances" in "the girls' apartment" (my kitchen).
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:30 PM | Comments (1)
Challenge - first night & day
So we're working on the Challenge right now. Simply, the Challenge is an all-weekend event where 17 teams each work on 1/3 of 3 movies. On Friday night you write a script for a 7-minute film, working with actors' headshots, a song, and a prop. On Saturday morning you hand that script off to a different team (the one whose headshots you had) and get the one written for your actors. You have all day and night Saturday to film that script and then Sunday morning you hand in your footage, get a third team's footage and have until Monday evening to edit that footage into a completed short movie.
Because I'm going to be the main editor, I was excused from writing duties, so last night I went to the screening of Party Beach U.S.A. (It was very well-received by the actors and all of Phillip's friends (it's a low standard, but if you don't even get above the actors-and-friends bar you're in real trouble).) I came home at 1:30 am to find Shaun, Sean, Jin, Ryan, and Clif huddled over three laptops in the living room. They were round-robining the writing of the script, as well as writing character bios for all the characters. I went to bed with them still chugging away -- this morning they handed the script off, but none of them seemed sure exactly how it had turned out. Hopefully it made sense.
Our script looks pretty good. The first thing we did was cut two characters (we're ruthless) and recast the whole thing from what the writers had intended. Then we sat down for a couple read-throughs and a screen-breakdown and shot list. We finally started filming around 2:00 and we're on our 5th scene (of 26 scenes) about now. The trickiest will be the stuff in the car. I'm taking a quick break here -- Shaun is the camera and director and Clif is fulfilling my AD role right now by logging the footage as we go (to make life easier for the poor sap who has to edit this stuff).
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:33 PM
May 28, 2004
Party Beach showing
I finished some final sound tweaks on Party Beach U.S.A. last night, just in time for its world premiere tonight at The Church, 3030 W. Cortland. The evening starts at 9 pm and there will showings of other short films (like both Teds), door prizes, etc. It's all a fund-raiser for Superpunk's upcoming trip to L.A.
If you can't make the showing, flip through these unlabeled Party Beach U.S.A. stills very quickly, humming old surf music to yourself.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:43 PM
Despite my protestations that I never do these things...
From Tony Pierce, the political honest bloggers-only quiz, then from Kitty Bukkake the blogging addendum:
"do you have the guts to take the honest bloggers-only quiz?"
1. which political party do you typically agree with? Democrat.
2. which political party do you typically vote for? Democrat.
3. list the last five presidents that you voted for? Clinton, Clinton, Gore.
4. which party do you think is smarter about the economy? Democrat.
5. which party do you think is smarter about domestic affairs? Democrat.
6. do you think we should keep our troops in Iraq or pull them out? Out.
7. who, or what country, do you think is most responsible for 9/11? Al Qaeda.
8. do you think we will find weapons of mass destruction in iraq? No.
9. yes or no, should the u.s. legalize marijuana? Yes.
10. do you think the republicans stole the last presidental election? Yes.
11. do you think bill clinton should have been impeached because of what he did with monica lewinski? No.
12. do you think hillary clinton would make a good president? Good? Maybe. Better than Bush, for sure.
13. name a current democrat who would make a great president: Dean would be a great president, I still think.
14. name a current republican who would make a great president: McCain, I guess.
15. do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion? Yes.
16. what religion are you? Raised Lutheran, then Assemblies of God (Pentecostal), then Episcopal. Now, atheist, though I just asked my mom to pray for someone. Go figure.
17. have you read the Bible all the way through? 50% or so.
18. what's your favorite book? Winnie-the-Pooh.
19. who is your favorite band? Ruth Buzzy
20. who do you think you'll vote for president in the next election? Kerry.
21. what website did you see this on first? Kitty Bukkake's.
the honest bloggers-only quiz Kitty Bukkake addendum:
1. Do you try to look hot when you go to the grocery store just in case someone recognizes you from your blog? I always look hot. I can't help it.
2. Are the photos you post Photoshopped or otherwise altered? Most are adjusted for light levels in Photoshop (the new Shadow/Highlight adjustment is my new best friend, especially for theater and concert photos) and sometimes cropped. I rarely add or remove elements.
3. Do you like it when creeps or dorks email you? No, who would?
4. Do you lie in your blog? There are plenty of times I leave things out. I shade the truth sometimes.
5. Are you passive-aggressive in your blog? Nope.
6. Do you ever threaten to quit writing so people will tell you not to stop? Nope. Don would be the only one who'd care.
7. Are you in therapy? If not, should you be? If so, is it helping? I was. It was very helpful.
8. Do you delete mean comments? Do you fake nice ones? No and no.
9. Have you ever rubbed one out while reading a blog? How about after? No and no.
10. If your readers knew you in person, would they like you more or like you less? More.
11. Do you have a job? Yes.
12. If someone offered you a decent salary to blog full-time without restrictions, would you do it? Sure.
13. Which blogger do you want to meet in real life? Danny O'Brien
14. How many bloggers have you made out with? Three.
15. Do you usually act like you have more money or less money than you really have? More.
16. Does your family read your blog? I don't know.
17. How old is your blog? October 2001, so almost three years.
18. Do you get more than 1000 pageviews per day? Do you care? No and a little bit.
19. Do you have another secret blog in which you write about being depressed, slutty, or a liar? No.
20. Have you ever given another blogger money for his/her writing? Yes. I love to buy books by bloggers.
21. Do you report the money you earn from your blog on your taxes? No, the $45 a year I make from Amazon Associates remains scandalously unreported.
22. Is blogging narcissistic? But of course.
23. Do you feel guilty when you don't post for a long time? A little.
24. Do you like John Mayer? He's OK.
25. Do you have enemies? I think there some people who don't like me. I hope they don't hate me enough to call me an enemy.
26. Are you lonely? Sometimes.
27. Why bother? Why bother blogging? To promote my shows. To show off my cats. To keep my friends up to date on my life in a lazy way. To satisfy my exhibitionism. So Don will get off my back. Why bother with anything? Because it's fun! And even when it isn't, the experience of experiencing anything is better than not experiencing anything.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:57 PM | Comments (1)
May 27, 2004
I'm all vaguely legit
Matt worked his butt off and got Dancing With Gaia listed in the Internet Movie Database. Which means that I now have a listing in the IMDB.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:43 PM
Set your TiVo
I've just been informed that my award-winning(tm) short film Ted McGillicutty, Man of Action has been scheduled to be shown on WTTW's (Channel 11) Image Union on Friday, June 25 at 10:30 pm. I have a Chicago Comedy Company show at The Playground that same night, but I'm guessing we'll head home after the show for a time-shifted viewing party.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:25 PM | Comments (3)
Tie!
I played my first game of league kickball last night -- we tied it up 1-1, with my friend Susan providing our only run. I made two outs, which I think was pretty good for my first game.
Evidently ties are (unofficially?) settled by a game or two of flip cup over at Carol's Pub. At which game Kickball Therapy soundly stomped us. Which proves that they're bigger drunks than us, I suppose. Drunks with good hand-eye coordination.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:49 AM
May 24, 2004
More Pet Parading
Yesterday Shaun, Beth, and I took Mustapha (in a fancy harness courtesy of the Stone-Kulhans) to the Lakeview Mayfest Pet Parade. I know you want to see more photos...
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)
May 18, 2004
CIF
I'm still organizing all the Chicago Improv Festival photos, so I haven't posted any yet, but I ran across this one taken by John Abbott: Squinty McGee in the tech booth at the main stage.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:11 PM
May 17, 2004
What He Said...
Today same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts. Hoo-ray, I say. I've been married (and I'm not anymore, cie la vie) and I've married couples (well, a couple) and... John Scalzi says it better (he often does):
I celebrate your weddings, and I offer the greatest gift I have: That you receive in your married life the joy I have had in mine, and that you share that joy, every day, with an open and loving heart.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:31 AM
Pet Parade
I don't even like dogs that much (gasp!), but the Pet Parade was very entertaining.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:17 AM | Comments (3)
Erica's Tavern
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:07 AM
May 12, 2004
Car
I'm selling my car via ebay. Cheap!
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:28 PM
May 9, 2004
CIF Digital Archives
One of my jobs as the Chicago Improv Festival multimedia coordinator is to organize an archive of all the pictures and video (mostly digital) that were shot this week. If you were here this week and shot any pictures or video, I'd love to get a copy of it. Them. Whichever. Send me an email (fuzzy@fuzzyco.com).
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:57 PM
May 8, 2004
Surviving CIF
Pictures from CIF? I've taken a few. Stories? A thing or two has happened. Time to post it? Nope. I left the Schad/Fuz/Haus party at 4:15 am so I could get home by 5:00 to drive Shaun to the airport (I had one beer at the party, thank you very much). Tonight I'm doing video bits on the mainstage (I'm waiting for a few DVDs to burn right now) and then I'm off to run the Improv All Night until 6 am. Shaun was supposed to run it, but he's off to a wedding in Nashville. I owe him an IAN, since two years ago I was the IAN coordinator and got food poisoning that afternoon and Shaun had to go straight from running one of the other stages to do IAN all night.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:52 PM
May 6, 2004
FuzzyCo/Schadenfreude/Big House CIF After-party
A party? We had some DJs lying around gathering dust, and what are we going to do with all that beer, and, hey, there are all these CIF attendees standing around with nothing to do. A party!
3036 N Lincoln Ave - 2nd Flr
Friday, May 7, 10:45pm
It's Schadenfreude and FuzzyCo and the Big House, together again for the first time.
We're asking everyone to chip in $10 to help us cover the price of DJs, live band, food, shocking amounts of drinking fluids, and a party that should hopefully run very very late. Want to know which dozen of your friends have already RSVPed? Check out the evite.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:29 PM
May 5, 2004
CIF guide, online version
Or... if you'd like a web version of the schedule, with links to performers webpages and so on, I've whipped this up.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:44 AM
May 4, 2004
CIF guide
YesAnd.com has filled a noticable gap in the Chicago Improv Festival website by producing a color-coded, downloadable consolidated schedule (55K PDF) of the entire festival.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:09 PM
Fan Art
Zabeth and I were chatting about fan sites (I figure FuzzyCo.com is just a big fan site about me, that I happen to run) and she was saying that all I needed was some fan art. Thoughtfully, Noah Ginex sent this along. I'm not sure if I really have red glints of pure evil visible deep down in my eyes (I'm not trying to say I don't have pure evil deep down inside, I just didn't think it was visible) but he's the artist.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)