More stills from the Memorial Day Weekend shoot. The next two weekends will, knock on wood, wrap the rest of the shooting. Still some serious logistics to pin down, such as a hotel amenable to us filming for an hour. Anybody knowaplace?
Memorial Day weekend was the biggest, most ambitious filming block for the pilot, and I’m happy to write that it was a success. We shot about half of the script in a single long weekend, thanks to the preparedness, efficiency, and talent of everybody involved.
There are still two weekends of shooting to go, but the schedules are a little more relaxed, and the technical demands of the scenes are fewer (fingers crossed). Onward!
My nerdy white-guy mug is getting some commercial work lately. If anybody has a copy of the Maine State Lotto commercial, let me know.
(and kudos, McLaughlin, for selling the hell out of that nail gun…)
A quickie—shooting for Unbalanced has officially begun, and although we’re spread out over the next two months, our progress thus far leads me to believe we’re in fine, fine shape! I’ll try to blog more about the process but I anticipate losing availability in the weeks leading up to Memorial Day Weekend (our biggest, most complex shooting block).
In the meantime, here’s Taylor in some test makeup.
Unbalanced preproduction continues to chug along. We have a modest handful of volunteers and low-cost laborers assembling various aspects of the show that will, I hope, bring some of the script’s ideas to life. We’re tackling two of the most challenging bits right now: character/costume design, and set design for Wendy’s fantasy world.
I hired Greg Miller, a talented young illustrator, to read the script and sketch out Mongor and Carl, our two fantasy creatures. His challenge was to create characters that would look menacing at night but comical by day. I think he succeeded:
Mongor the Heart Gouger
I love the yellow orbs, which evoke a kind of ragged clown-suit. My challenge is how to implement this design in the real world with a micro-budget.
Through the magic of eBay, I found a custom leatherwork shop, who quoted me a totally reasonable price for this custom work. I think their customers primarily come from LARPing circles; check out their gallery on flickr. Dealing with them, even across the Atlantic, has been a pleasure, and they send me progress reports every so often:
Mongor’s front, raw leather
Mongor’s front, partially treated
A horn from eBay. I do not condone the slaughter of cows for film projects (only for meat and revenge).
I’ve also got a wonderful pro bono seamstress who has agreed to work on some of the other costumes. It’s fun to see pieces slowly assemble, and our basement looks like a defunct Halloween shop.
As for Wendy’s fantasy world, we still haven’t figured it out yet, but the working idea is to slide-project fantasy images onto the apartment walls in order to evoke a different world without actually having to create the world. Shoestring, people!
If you are bored you might enjoy these projector tests, created with my camera, a Kodak Ektagraphic III (generously donated by Matt McLaughlin), and a 150W cheapo fresnel. If you are not bored, I recommend you utilize your time for something more productive or fun. Life is short, the internet is forever.
I'm a full-time student in USC's Stark Producing Program, class of '12.
Code Duello joined the UCB TourCo and is available for national bookings.
Syndicate
This is me in Peru. I am very interesting.
Click a photo to enlarge or visit my Flickr collection.
This is me in one of my comedy shows. Won't you come to the next one?