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January 4, 2023:

UP TO SPEED

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, let me bring you up to speed. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, will bring you up to speed because we always want to be up to speed rather than lagging behind because we are not up to speed. So, first let me tell you that I got to see the first cut of episode six of the new web series and it was very good, as all of Marshall Harvey’s first cuts have been, due to us being on the same page, page twenty-three. We watched it straight through and I laughed quite a bit, which is a good thing since it’s a comedy. I will admit to borrowing one small bit in the episode from part of a sketch I wrote for one of the Donny and Marie Shows that Cindy Williams and I did – not the entire sketch, just one small part of it that I always thought was funny. Anyway, after we watched it, we did what we always do, went back to the start and did some finessing, quite a few small things that took about two-and-a-half hours. A lot of it is simply swapping one take for another and usually just for a line or two. Another part of it is sometimes tightening a bit by removing a few frames from either side of an edit and it’s amazing how doing that tiny adjustment will make the rhythm of a scene work better. Other stuff involves perhaps staying on an actor a bit longer rather than cutting to another person or playing an entire line from one character over a shot of the other character because that character’s reaction is what works or sometimes by playing a line over another actor’s shot enables you to take out pauses you don’t want from the actor who’s now not on camera. Just little things like that. It’s fun to do and it’s fun to see it help things. Again, it’s nothing major but every way you can even slightly improve something is something you should strive to do, and I think both Marshall and I are perfectionists in that regard. I was worried about the song that ends the episode, but Marshall did a great job of it, and we only had to change a couple of tiny things. So, now we send the vocal and piano track to John Adams for mixing and making it sound like it’s in a nightclub on a microphone. There’s an audition sequence in this episode and I must say the actors who play the director and casting assistant are very funny. And Sami is endearing and charming and we’re very careful with the comedy and she’s coming off great. Sitting with Marshall on those days is very pleasurable for me.

And to bring you up to speed on the writing, I managed to futz and finesse the prior writing, then write three pages prior to leaving. After Marshall’s, I went to the mail place and picked up a small package, then to the bank to cash a check, and I was in an out in three minutes flat. Then I came home and ordered a Marco’s pepperoni pizza thing from the right Marco’s (you now have to search Marco’s and you get the nearby one – if you use the one that’s pictured on the splash page it stupidly defaults to the one in Tarzana, which is just ridiculous. Whilst waiting for the pizza’s arrival, I wrote another five pages, then pizza arrived, and I ate it – it was a bit smaller than usual, and I was fine with that. After that, I wrote four more pages for a total of twelve, and my plan is to write three more after I post these here notes. I’ll do another thirty pages over the next couple of days and then I have to get it to Muse Margaret, because I really have no perspective on this at this point. I know some of it works well, but I need to know that it doesn’t get boring. I don’t THINK it does, but I need her good eyeballs on it.

After all that, I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched a motion picture I’d heard good things about, that just began streaming on HBO-Max, The Menu, starring Ralph Fiennes and Ana Taylor-Joy. It’s a completely weird black comedy that they’re selling as a “dark comedy horror film.” It’s not really a horror film at all, save for a bit of violence a couple of times, but nothing you haven’t seen before. Both Fiennes and Taylor-Joy are very good, and so is the rest of the cast. Fiennes plays a, well, let’s just say a kind of demented chef on a private island where diners get a fine dining experience – but not these particular diners, who all have secrets that are revealed as the meal goes on. It doesn’t quite work but I did enjoy it. They say this film grossed over seventy-million dollars – thirty-six million in the US. I think that’s inflated and I think the overseas box-office is just a bunch of BS. It’s not the kind of film that does that kind of business, it’s just not.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I haven’t heard from the helper about what time we’re meeting at the storage place, so I don’t know if that’s happening or not – if it doesn’t, I’ve told her it has to happen tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ll futz and finesse, write throughout the day and some of the evening, I’ll eat something light but fun, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll make a bank deposit, I’ll pray for a major miracle and then I can watch, listen, and relax.

The rest of the week and weekend is more of the same and I’ll be sending Muse Margaret at least ninety pages as a PDF so we can make sure I’m on the right track and that it’s working. And now you’re up to speed.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, maybe go to storage, futz and finesse, write new pages, make a bank deposit, eat something light but fun, do whatever needs doing, and then watch, listen, and relax. 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 and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have brought everyone up to speed.

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