Well, dear readers, somehow I’m in the home stretch of this new play I’ve been writing. I think I’ve got about fifteen to twenty pages to go and am in the final scene. I suppose there is the possibility that I could be finished by the finish of the weekend, if I write five pages a day. I don’t know if it’s any good or not, but I really like the characters – in fact, I’ve sort of fallen in love with all of them, which is what always happens with these sorts of things. And the one thing I know is that I’ve achieved part of my goal, which was to write a 60s sort of comedy, the kind I grew up loving. I’m sure whenever I get around to having a casual reading of it that its worth or non-worth will be apparent, and then I’ll decide what its next step is. Most of the play consists of two-person scenes, which are very hard to write and keep interesting for pages at a time. Well, onward I go, and hopefully I can keep up with the pace I’ve set for myself. Speaking of the pace I’ve set for myself, yesterday was a nice sort of day, sort of. First we had our musical theater workshop (MTW), where we went over the music to the opening number, which I then began staging. I’ll finish it on Thursday. After that, I drove over to Mr. Grant Geissman’s home environment, where I picked up his splendidly splendid and creepily creepy Theme from Deceit. I then came home and wrote six pages, after which I headed over to the editing room to begin the sound mix. We’re actually fixing all the dialogue first – we had eight mics on six channels which were mixed down to a stereo camera feed. Some of that mixdown is fine and we just smooth out the levels, but there are other times when the sound is too boomy and ambient, so for those sequences we isolate whatever mic they’re standing nearest to, and we shut off the others. It’s actually sounding very good now. We got through two-thirds of the first act. When we’re done with the dialogue, then we sweeten the sound effects – rain, thunder, and a handful of things like clock chimes, cell phone rings, the sound of someone taking a shower, and that sort of thing. My editor still has to finish letterboxing and adjusting each shot, and then we have to color correct some shots, and then the whole of the video needs to be what they call “up-rezzed” for its highest video resolution. If we go ahead and release it for DVD, we’ll encode it for widescreen TVs. After that, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I started to watch a motion picture on DVD entitled Match Point. I’m only thirty minutes in, so I’ll reserve judgment, other than to say it’s hardly the second coming and hardly Woody’s comeback. Of course, people say that for every new film he makes, then the following year when the newest one comes out, they suddenly forget they said it for the previous one. I’ll have a full report when I’m done, most likely this evening.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m sort of done with this sort of section.
Today I sort of have a busy little day. I actually packaged up all CDs that needed to be shipped, and I actually drove over to my little USPS located in a drug store, only to be told that the silly woman who runs the joint had closed the jernt down for inventory. She does this all the time, and never lets anyone know, so I wasted gas driving over there for naught. And with gas prices being what they are, I was not so happy. She goes on long lunches, you can never predict when she will or won’t be there, and it’s thoroughly annoying. On the other hand, there’s never a long wait there. The point is, I have to go back there this morning to ship what should have gone out yesterday. After that, I shall try to write my five or six pages, which will take me to about page eighty-two or so. After that, I will, most likely, head over to the editing room where we can hopefully slog our way through to the end of the show, audio mix-wise.
I say, let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the mambo, because today is dear reader Jennifer’s very own actual birthday. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Jennifer. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER JENNIFER!!!
I sort of continue my dietary ways, even though last night I ate a nice big bacon cheeseburger and a salad – however, it was my only meal of the day, and I also had jogged for a mile-and-a-half, so I should be fine. I have several other dinners slated for the next week, so I must be careful.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, ship, eat, sound mix, do errands, drive about in my motor car, and catch up on some telephonic calls that need returning. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers, shall we?