:: Mikel's Mind ::

:: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 ::

To be honest, I'm not sure if the current crop of auditioners has a Tim Dixon (the father) in it and that worries me a bit. His time comitment isn't all that great, but the part's too important to have some fluff through it. I sent out some feelers and got a few bites, so we're getting a few more people to read for the father at callbacks this Thursday and Friday.

Have a lot of people coming to callbacks. Rueben and Mandy misunderstood a direction--"Run them through twice each, if you have time" to mean that they should run them through the same scene twice. Not a total loss, though, as I was able to see who adapted and learned from their first reading. I'll be doing a lot more hands-on work at the callbacks.

We have too many people who would be good for Rachel and Alex. I was damn worried about finding a good Alex, but we've got several good people. It doesn't hurt that I actually wrote him about 12 years old instead of 8. (Howie brought this to my attention and I was pretty much thinking that anyway.) The variety of smaller parts shouldn't be too hard to fill, though a crew would be nice. Even if it's 4-5 people. I can probably get Rueben on crew most of the time, though I may lose him on nights he works, which shouldn't be too often this summer.

Finished up rewriting dialogue last night, though I'm certain I'll be nitpicking at it and asking the cast for their imput on their particular characters.

I felt like something would go wrong with the auditions and this wouldn't happen. Got past that, got past the camera problem before that. This thing is actually going to happen and I couldn't be happier.

Hot damn.
:: Mikel 11:23 AM [+] ::
...

The Oberlin Improv Festival was wonderful. Got to meet Shaun Landry again...gave her a Grendel Shot Glass. Performed an odd "long-form" which I wasn't sold on. Did a kick-ass solo improv and saw some good shit while there.

Had a great time with the Gaspar Project, too.

The auditions went well. Rueben and Mandy ran the auditions for me, which was awesome. I got to come back and fast-forward through the bad auditions.

I will NEVER be at an audition I'm running again. :)

Callbacks this week....still not sure we've found someone who's right for the father, though.

:: Mikel 1:41 PM [+] ::
...

Well, it happened again last night.

Reuben and I went to Industrial night at C-Street. Partly for the free drinks (until the owner's boyfriend showed up and we had to get them at half price) and partly because, well, some goth chicks are god damned hot.

So, anyway, we're talking with this one goth chick Rueben met last monday...hotter then hell and fairly cool, when, for some reason I'm not really remembering, she asks Bryan (half-way joking but, after all, it IS Bryan so this is not unexpected) if he's evil.

I said: "I try to be evil, but always come off looking like a cute teddy bear."
Hot Goth Chick says "I get that from you."

I swear to fucking god that the next person who says I'm like a teddy bear, or a big brother, etc. etc. will have their head handed to them. With my luck, it'll look "cute."

"You're so cute when you're taking people's heads off. We know you don't really mean it so it's cute and funny."

grumble grumble grumble
:: Mikel 11:06 AM [+] ::
...

Got the camera.

I've been playing around with it and was horrified at first to see that everything looked like absolute and utter shit through the viewfinder. I was discouraged. This was going to look like hell and, therefore, there was no reason to bother doing it. I'd spent a lot of money on advertising and some of my own equipment for no reason.

Then I downloaded it onto the computer, where it looked beautiful. Yay! Took a bunch of test shots last night and found the manual on line for the camera today, so I can use all the stuff it's got.

Auditions this weekend. Hope we get a good batch. If you know anyone who wants to audition, send 'em may way.

Tip for the day: One way to help learn about camera angles---read Manga (Japenese comics). Because they have a higher page count and a quicker release, they can have 40 page stories that would be told in 10 in America. Lone Wolf and Cub has beautiful use of art to evoke moods. I'm taking what I've learned in comics into movies.

Mikel
:: Mikel 3:22 PM [+] ::
...

Being tired sucks, as does this cold or whatever-the-fuck it is that I've been fighting the last week or so. Think I hurt my voice singing too long without something to drink on the way to Bloomington recently.

Sold all my transformers (yay!) to help with movie stuff. Paid for newspaper ads yesterday. The News Gazette already ran the press release, so I'm not bothering with them. The Octopus and DI will hopefully help. Sent stuff out to the schools and have gotten emails from them, which was cool. Hopefully the auditions will have a good turn out. (Not that I'll know---I'll be in Ohio. :) I get to come back and see the tapes, like I'm important enough not to actually be there.)

Should get the film equipment tonight to begin playing around with. Went to (and ended up speaking) at a talk at Parkland with some local filmmakers. Nice thing was that it turned out I can get sound stuff much cheaper then I thought I could and, depending on time, I may have someone who'll help edit it professionaly.

Soon, this will turn into me going over the days of shooting and keeping a running journal for all the strange shit that no one ever tells you is going to happen when you shoot. I'm hoping it'll be useful to someone--myself, most of all.

Mikel

:: Mikel 10:30 AM [+] ::
...