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September 3, 2011:

THE NAME OF THE GAME

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I am exhausted and it’s only the third of September. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, am exhausted and it’s only the third of September. On the other hand, it is a long weekend and other than writing and organizing, I should be able to get in some relaxation time and ME time. I have to say that I had an absolutely wonderfully wonderful time at yesterday’s shoot. I got up at seven and was jogging by seven-fifteen. Then I shaved and showered and then moseyed on over to Screenland Studios. We loaded in around 9:45 and were rehearsing by 10:00. The camera gal was very fast, very smart, and she had a gaffer with her for a couple of lights she brought. The sound guy is a real pro and he was fun, too. I think they all got the vibe I like right away – loose, no pressure, and fun. We began by shooting a wide master of the number we were doing. Jason Graae was his usual hilarious self. We did the wide about four times and then began doing coverage. It all goes much faster than anyone thinks it will – you can run the number from start to finish any number of times, but since it’s only 3:00 you get a lot done very quickly. We did some fun moving shots, we had a jib to do some low and high angle moving shots, and we did some close-ups – in fact, we did more coverage on this number than we did on the New York shoot. We got our first shot at eleven and were done with the number by one. Then at one-thirty we did Melody’s little tap-dancing sequence, which will actually cut together with the other part of the shot, which was done in New York. At least that’s the plan. Melody was her usual funny and professional self and she had fun and so did all of us. We wrapped out of rehearsal studio an hour early, but we had to clean up and pack up.

Then the crew and I went to Jason’s house to do the set-up scene, which we shot on his lovelier than lovely patio. While we were setting up the shot I noticed Jason’s dog Roy was sitting on the patio couch cocking his head this way and that each time someone new spoke. I pointed it out to the camera gal, she saw how great it was, and we got about two incredible minutes of footage of the dog cocking his head hilariously from side to side, which will make wonderful cutaways and punctuation marks for gags in the scene. We shot a wide master, a closer master, and a close-up, and a few inserts, and that was that. We then dumped all the footage and sound onto our hard drive and we wrapped out of Jason’s an hour early, finishing the day at four. I then had to hurry and pick up mail and a package, after which I came home. I had a ton of e-mails to answer, and a few telephonic calls to return. Then I had a fun conference call with Miss Cindy Williams and a writer friend of hers, and they’ve asked me to help them put together a little one-person show for her, which I said I’d be more than happy to do – so, we’ll start having regular telephonic conferences after I read through their outline.

By that point, I was ready to faint from hunger so I went and had a turkey sandwich and onion rings, after which I came back home and began going through the version two check disc for the Blu and Ray of Nudie Musical. The couple of things that we needed to fix were indeed fixed. But I’m going to go through everything on the disc over the weekend, just to make sure it’s all absolutely perfect. And just for fun, I do want to check the image against the version one check disc’s image – just to make sure they’re absolutely identical, which I’m sure they are, but I’ll feel more comfy knowing that making two check discs off the master yields the exact same results without any variance. Presuming everything is according to Hoyle, I’ll approve on Tuesday morning and off it will go to the pressing plant. I’m hoping that the print goes in on Tuesday, too, and then that will probably be a turnaround of a week, at which point it will get overnighted to the plant, and then they will do their best to get me copies before I go to Chicago for the Ray Courts signing show. I also may ask Cindy if she’ll sign 100 booklets with me, and then we’d offer those to the first 100 people who order – not sure she’ll have the time and she may not even want to, although she’s a good egg about stuff like that.

I then listened to the first half of our next release – it sounds great so that’s going to get approved this weekend and he’ll move on to the next two projects. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must go get my beauty sleep because right now I am anything but beautiful.

Today, I shall hopefully arise after a wonderful, long night’s sleep. Then I shall do the four-mile jog, then finish one set of liner notes and get those off for the first set of approvals, then I’ll start the liner notes for our next release, which I have to finish today because THAT packaging has to also go in on Tuesday morning. Hopefully I’ll pick up a package or three and an important envelope. Then I have to eat something light but amusing and then I shall hopefully relax.

Tomorrow, the name of the game is relaxation. Monday, the name of the game is relaxation. Tuesday, the name of the game is busy, as will the rest of the week. I have to cast the final episode, set the shoot dates for all three that are left to do (Gregory Harrison is doing one, Alet and Andy Taylor are doing one, and the actor who was going to do the third one dropped out today because he thought he was somehow getting paid, even though I said upfront it was a web series and no one gets paid on these things and I listed all the wonderful actors we’ve had thus far, who all worked gratis (they would make a little money if these episodes ever actually achieve revenue – I was contacted by You Tube yesterday, actually, about revenue-sharing on a video I posted from the Schwartz/Menken benefit).

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, do the four-mile jog, write, hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What do you think would be the best ways for us to spread the word about our web series, once we officially announce it and people finally know what the show is about? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland because the name of the game is sleep.

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