Well, dear readers, editing has begun. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, editing has begun on the web series. I had a lovelier than lovely lunch with our editor, the wonderful Marshall Harvey, who just returned from Italy and cutting the new Dario Argento film of Dracula. Marshall and I worked together long ago on the Likely Stories series. Since then, he’s become Joe Dante’s regular editor, having done most of his films (if not all) after Gremlins. I’m very excited to have him doing this. We watched all the footage that involves music and chose takes and discussed style. The sequences that don’t involve music I just asked him to put together – I’ll now go through those scenes and choose takes and get him those numbers. Meanwhile, the search goes on for camera and sound people – it is really shocking to me how difficult this aspect of these shoots are. I got a long list of recent graduates of film school from David Wechter’s son Zach. Of the ten people I e-mailed, exactly one got back to me and he’s not available. The problem is, of course, there is no money on a web series, but for someone just starting to try and make a living in this business you’d think the chance to work with some amazing talent and to have something with that talent on their reel would be enticement enough, but no, that is not the world we live in, sadly. Kids don’t give a crap today. They’re entitled to start at the top or think they can start at the top and at some point soon most of them will have a rude awakening. And so, as with the New York shoot, the search goes on. We shoot one week from Friday. The plan was to shoot two episodes that day, but that plan has now had to change since one of my cast members has to go see his ailing father. So, we’ll just shoot the Jason Graae episode and Melody’s part of the New York episode, and then I may try to get the opening sequence of Jason’s episode done, as long as we’ll have the time. That would be done at his house.
I began the day with a four-mile jog, then lunch, then viewing and it’s surprising how much of the day was gone by the time we finished all that. Then I picked up a package and an important envelope, did some errands and whatnot, and then it was time for a work session with Vicki Lewis and Joan Ryan and John Boswell. It was fun and went pretty smoothly. We worked first on the finale of the fifteen minute presentation they have to have ready in six days. After getting that structured and arranged (it’s two songs put together), we moved on to Vicki’s solo. Because the two duets (opening and closing number) run about seven minutes, we’re only dealing with eight more minutes for their two solos. Right now we’ve got those sequences down to about 4:30 and that will be fine. My suggestion was for each gal to do a medley so we could show off different aspects of them in one sequence. And that’s what we did – in Vicki’s 4:30 she does bits of three songs from a musical she did last year. In Joan’s, she does two songs that are a bit longer. It should work well.
After that, I went to Gelson’s and got a few low-cal things to snack on (I had a pretty light lunch), and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I began watching a motion picture on DVD entitled Riot On Sunset Strip. I got it because I thought there’d be great late 60s location footage. My hopes were high when they opened with some actual stock footage of the Strip with kids cruising up and down the street. And then it cut directly to the MGM backlot (same old shops that were used in countless MGM musicals). The first ten minutes were so bad I just shut it off. I’ll finish it some other time. Then I watched the first third of Budd Boetticher’s little crime noir The Killer Is Loose – not one of Boetticher’s greats, but it’s only seventy-three minutes long and it has a strong cast including Wendell Corey and Joseph Cotton. I’d only seen it once before and it must have been on MGM-HD or TCM. I do love the film’s opening shot, which takes place at Pico and Roxbury, about five minutes from where I grew up. There’s a grand shot of the drug store where I used to sit at the counter and have lunch occasionally with my mother. I’ll finish it tonight.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall be up early, I shall do the four-mile jog, I shall do some banking, I have to call the four companies that take their monthly fee from my paypal debit card, which, of course, is not working at the moment and until I get a replacement I have to make other arrangements. That includes DirecTV, AT&T, Public Storage and Time Warner. What a pain in the ASS. Meanwhile, paypal’s behavior during this difficult business has been exemplary – they’ve already credit the money back into my account. Then I have to go to a rehearsal with our Gardenia guest-star Ruth Williamson – she can’t be at our regular rehearsal, so this is my only chance to work with her until the stumble-through. It will be short and sweet. After that, I have to do liner notes and begin prepping everything for our next release.
Tomorrow, I have a lunch meeting and then lots o’ other stuff to do – I believe I also have lunches on Thursday and Friday, too, as well as some meetings. Hoping the weekend is somewhat light.
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 and the Shipoopi, because today is the birthday of our beloved dear reader TCB. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our beloved dear reader TCB. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR BELOVED DEAR READER TCB!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the four-mile jog, I must make many telephonic calls, I must attend a brief rehearsal, I must hopefully pick up a package or three, I must pay some bills, I must begin liner notes, and I must relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite teen exploitation films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland.