ph33r the housec4t

tsfm week 3

...and I finished it all at karaoke.




Hey all! Got an update that smells like . . .. . TSFM WEEK 3! YEAH!


...

oh, just check the pictures already.




We shot for a couple days in Gerrittsen Beach, Brooklyn, during which time I 1) pissed off a local pizza place by leaving their cooking trays on set 2) picked up a Unit PA who just happened to be in a house we were asking to turn on their lights for the last shot of the night (runon, i know) 3) became a local celebrity! Because I had to schmooze with every neighbor, now every single person on that block knows me. A couple of 'em even invited me in / offered me some beer. That's local love, people.




Life is good.




On Monday we shot inside Green-Wood cemetary, one of the most elaborate and celebrity-filled greens that I've ever seen.



Dawn (our new Unit PA) and I ate dinner near the steps of one of the hundreds of mausoleums while we wrapped the location, not knowing that the guard was locking the cem. gates, trapping us inside! Dawn to me: "Is that a padlock?" "umm...shit."

We raced to the office, closed. The only lit place nearby was the community mausoleum, which we entered (no locks) and were greeted by organ music and emptiness. Creepy. With still no luck we ran outside and I came up with another plan - drive the Unit van to the side entrance on 22nd st - maybe the guard was still locking up there. As we walked to the van a security vehicle passed us (we yelled, he kept driving), and we followed him to the gates. It was the same guard that was there all day, watching cars and walkers enter the greens.

The next day . . . oh, crap, gotta sleep! Put it together on your own!

image dump!

I <3 grafitti

I love NYC Grafitti!!!!

There's some of the most clever/random stuff everywhere you go.








and some things are just bizarre...

TSFM week 2 recap

so! I did my first 24-hour workday. image dump

Wednesday was the nail in the coffin of the crazy Week 2 of Then She Found Me. Why a coffin? I think we were all ready to put it DOWN after all the stress on our department. We had to move to a cover set (due to potential rain), there were multiple last-minute location changes...all things that make Locations people cringe. I myself cringed as my brain tried to start, unsucessfully, when I was told that we were moving Day X to Day Tomorrow. No sleep makes it hard to compute change.


Day 5 - St. Patrick's, again.

The props department gave our 45 kid extras some crayons and markers to get some original artwork for the movie (and keep them occupied). This seemed like a good idea to me. At the end of the night, I was scrubbing the desks they obliterated with colorful joy.




We got a new Locations Assistant and man, he sure didn't like the concept of Trash Juice. To Evan and me, it's like Mother's Milk. You just can't move garbage bags without letting them touch your legs, and if there's a hole in the bottom, consider yourself slimed.



Day 6-7 blurred together.
Too many bland stories to tell.

Day 8 - Hospital (cover set)

They thought it would rain on Tuesday, so we went to our cover set (and thus split up the days we'd be there) - the abandoned Staten Island University Hospital. Everyone was remarking how 'scary' it was, and I kept countering that A) the lights were on, B) there were alot of people around, and C) it's not a remote ex-asylum. Willard rocks, baby!



The funny thing is, alot of the props left lying around were from previous film and TV productions. The hospital has been closed for about one to two years, and in that time it's been host to a ton of productions. We had some drama surrounding second meal for three days this week, two times of which I was responsible -yet- everything came through for the best.




Day 9 - The 24 Hour Charity Event Spectacular

My first ever 24-hours-straight workday. Most normal people would think this was 'abuse' or worse, but honestly, I did it with a whistle on my lips and energy crackling out my broom-carrying fingertips. If this wasn't the last day of the week, I wouldn't have been able to do it, and that's a fact. The day afterward, 1/2 of our dept. talked about quitting. Sigh... at least the penthouse we shot in was kickass.



Yes, there is a Mona Lisa in the Men's bathroom. The Women's has a freaking hottub set in marble. The view was also excellent. Someone commented over walkie: "Hey, if you guys thought the skyline was amazing at night...you should see the sun rising right now." Another comment was "Yeah, but we're kind of forced to!"



Right now it seems that everyone in the city is working on a project, which is great. I wonder if that'll be the same in three months...

sleepy but writing

I just worked a 24 hour day.



More to come after Shael's show at Fat Baby.

Thinking about seeing The Protector tomorrow.

Any takers?

jeeeeesssuussss!

once again, there are FAR too many stories for me to post here (especially all those neighbors' 9-11 stories...far too many perspectives and close calls), so here's a pictoral view of my week:


The Staten Island Children's Museum


Kids explode with joy here. We shot for the entire first day here, and left juuuuuust before our contact lost all her patience and charged us an extra day's pay.



Teh crew in action.




More awesomeness from the Museum. We had 15-30 children as BG extras, and most of them (and their parents) were locals who had never worked a film shoot before. This became obvious 10 hours in when most of them grew irratable and complained about going home :(



MMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO




The things you see in Brooklyn . . . This store features Puppies in Cages! Yippee!




The best anti-poop signage ever.




In Gerritten Beach (days 3-4) we held up in the basement of a church, which has this rockin 80s Jesus painting. The Gentiles have built a Metal Gear?! SNAAAAKEEE!!!!!


everything else!

TSFM week 1 recap.

I just figured out how to get stupid iPhoto to properly date/file my photos. It only took 1,000 images...



HEY Look at that - I am awake and not working - on a Thursday! WhooooooO! Laharl and co. are some 5 levels higher thanks to todays' efforts; the laundry is washed and soon the dishes will be clean! Wheeeeee first day off!


Last night I got home at 4AM - easily the latest thus far on Then She Found Me. This time around I've been doing more Locations-intensive work (mostly because my Assistant Manager is graciously giving me alot of his work) and thus, no splitting from set early like I did on WTD. So far I've been Production's go-to guy on Set when it comes to our department, a fact that my Manager has commended me for. All those hard hours being a PA...they really paid off! I'm on top of most stuff right as it's happening, and because my Manager's insights into what Prod. would want came weeks ago - we are well prepared.

Case in point - even though they said last week that they would never need to use the neighbor's yard for a lighting position, Mr. Manager had me collect his information anyway. Yesterday, who has to knock on the neighbor's door last minute to secure a lighting position? Me. A PA from the UK named Beth and I were running around the neighborhood, bringing neighbors onto our side and collecting random cats that might run into the scene. She's really talented and fun - a previous Troma Associate Producer - and adds another cool personality to the PA team. . . . I wish sometimes I was a PA just so I could hang out with all the guys again. Sometimes I get up from the Locations table and wander over to the PAs, but they don't treat me the same. Le sigh.


Anyway, there went TSFM Week 1. I've been the last person on set for 3 out of 4 days. I hug drunk neighbors and stop potential problems between Prod. and the community. I befriend complete strangers and collect their cellphone numbers, just in case. This is what I do.

TSFM day 1

Production started yesterday on Then She Found Me, and for most of it I was on my own. The 'up and at 'em' attitude I learned being a PA totally pays off when doing Locations, because you're expected to fix sound and immediate area problems ASAP. There was just one time where I wasn't performing fast enough to suit their tastes, and shit was hitting the fan. Production doesn't like to be held up, even for a minute.

I've had my first real sit-down time, too, waiting at the location for everyone there to finish packing up their trucks and leave. For two hours I sat at the Staten Island Children's Museum, just waiting, so I picked up trash and read some of The Two Towers to pass the time. By the end of the day our wonderful contact had had enough of us (I'm sure I'll see that again in people) and was ready to go home and eat some comfort food. At the end of my day (20 hours), I passed out and was unconscious until about 8:30 in the morning. Thank goodness for a pushed call time! A woman from our next location just called me and said she accidentally dialed me at 2AM last night...I have no memory of this conversation.

Day Two, punks!

TSFM: day 0

Then She Found Me begins tomorrow...call time for Production is 9:30AM, not so bad...but the Teamsters get there at 6:30AM>>>>>>>>>>>>

..which means that we, Locations, have to put up helpful arrows and signage before they get there. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my 20 hour workday.




...


This week in pre-production has been crazy-stressful. I just bought my unit supplies yesterday (blew $800 at the Home Depot like I was This Old House) and still have to organize my truck. Still gotta digitize and organize my notes, still gotta park the thing in a good lot.

Here's some of the stuff that happened this week.



This amazing lawn ornament was right next to a VFW that I tried to secure for a Holding/Catering space. It depicts a Pancho Villa-esque Mexican man instead of the traditional black servant holding the lantern. Somebody thought it was funny enough to buy / display. They could probably Ebay it for ALOT.



The giant PSP on Houston St. is no more! It's finally self-destructed, just like all Sony hardware. It used to project game ads and (mostly) band and movie vids, but the dead pixels soon began to appear. Too bad they didn't budget for breakdowns like this. (note: there are no giant Nintendo DS ads, yet I read the other day that they have 2 MILLION online subscribers, which is bigger than the population of most US states!)



This guy, he's half deaf and all crazy. An ex-Army guy, he was buying 'a' bottle of beer in this hole-in-the-wall deli I was buying a sandwich at. Man, nothing says 'hole in the wall' like fishing the bread you'll be eating out of a giant bin on the floor. Anyways this guy had me sign the duct-tape on this rose, which many people had done before me. Later the guy AND the rose/tape were gone. He needs help.




I visited the Mayor's Office of TV and Film Permits Office for the first time in my career as a Locations guy - and here it is! Crazy color scheme, yeah? It looks more like a website than a State-run office.



I can't go cuz of work. .. . but would SOMEBODY PLEASE GO TO THIS SHOW??? TELL ME HOW IT IS!!!!!!!!!

the rest of "I thought it was funny so I photographed it"

new vid

DOGS n TREES



a new video. blog. videoblog. GO

Astoria is beautiful.

sometimes The Chad gets artsy.





sometimes New York is just full of bizarre crap / photo opportunities.





image dump

lab-es

It's Labor Day and my girlfriend just went to work.


It's Labor Day and I'm about to joyously sit around and play videogames in my boxers for hours and hours and hours, which I've been thinking was exactly what I used to do in HighSchool. Ever since my family had a computer and I owned an RPG for it, I would sit around and play it until my back muscles hurt and I had to play it standing up.

I'm listening to the soundtrack to Revelations: Persona, an RPG released by Atlus (my favorite developer/overseas distributor) in the summer before Final Fantasy 7 came out and overshadowed all Playstation 1 RPGs. The world of Persona is set in modern-day Japan; the cast is a bunch of HighSchool kids; the story - decidedly sci-fi. It's different/great. I'm getting pumped just sitting here.







"I love videogames because I love the stories!" I used to tell people. This one is one of the best.


Persona 3 is due to come out soon...until then, Disgaea.11

!

sogs

AMAZING chiptune artist, Disasterpeace



I've been telling Z, every once in awhile, that I can't live without dogs.

It is totally true. When I was 3 - 16 my Mom always used to tell people (within earshot...annoying) that I was attuned to animals, and I freakin believe it. I spent alot of my childhood hanging around, observing, and picking up the poo of animals - especially dogs. Dogs are so fun sometimes that it's hard to pick words to describe the fun you are having. You could, for instance, say that sleeping on a malamute's big belly was like, "totally sick" or you could mention that running with akitas until you fall over and they run back and lick your face was like, "rad". But it doesn't do it justice.

Once you figure out dogs (and are not a psycho), they're so chill. Some people are into dogs but can't figure out how to NOT treat them like their own children, or NOT like little toys or puppies. Hey, that's cool if the dog is into it, but 95% of the time the dog will be thinking, "god, what a douschebag I'm turning into." See, even dogs that are turned into assholes or pursemonkies will understand that they have forced to turn what professionals dub: "the douschey route".

Where was I going with this? Dogs are way cool. The Aquabats have a song called "Canis Lupis" and the chorus goes "dogs...are...WAY SWEET!" <\dog crazy



Think about it. I've lived around and sometimes with dogs all my life. Even when I was a little tyke and lived in Alexander (though I don't even remember it, it's on VHS) we had a giant St. Bernard named Rena that was pretty cool. As a family, we have had 1,2,3... at least 10 dogs in my lifetime alone. We all talk about them and treat 'em like a part of the family, so why not continue in that? It's only natural for me.

.
PRESENT TIME

Z doesn't share my love of all things dogs, but she never had a pet growing up so that's only natural. It takes a few years of shoveling up somebody's poop before you really get to know them - an opportunity, much like tap dancing, that was denied her. My problem was that as her life partner, I didn't want it to be a "me thing"...I wanted it to be an "us thing". How to do that...hmmmm....maybe I could just keep takling about dogs nonstop? I kept thinking about them and thus, whenever we passed one in the street I would comment about how pumped up I am about dogs. She probably thought I was either cute or hard-up for some dog time.

Anyway, one of these times that I was going off to Z about identifying some mutt by its breed(s), two Irish Wolfhounds suddenly appeared - and FINALLY, the moment arrived! She fell in love w/a breed! The pair were so well behaved and cool (and BIG, the Irish Wolfhound is the. biggest. dog.) that she couldn't help but be subdued by their coolness. The magic lasso of dog-liking was finally in place, and I'm tying knots, folks. I'm a huge stupid geek but I'm tying knots.

|||INTER NET GO

Work is boring so here's a list of my favorite things from the Internet this week!

(1) Interview with former SEGA USA major awesome man, Tom Kalinske.
I knew virtually nothing about the crazy history of my favorite videogame company, SEGA, until I read this eye-opening article about how the Genesis went from owning 2% of the market share to a whopping 50%. Think about that - it takes a genius to pull that off, and SEGA's underdog USA office was the one to do it, under the vision/control of Tom Kalinske. When he left the company...well, you read it!

(2) Total disrespect to Bush's Katrina speech!
The mic of the announcer who brings us into CNN's broadcast of Bush's speech does not turn her mic off.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif..goes to the bathroom...and talks to another woman about 'good people'. Yeah, I lol'd.


(3) BAGMAN - the best 10 minutes of B-movie action schlock, ever
Keep with it until minute 4 hits. If you're not giggling / glued to the screen, hurry and kill yourself.

(4) Ultrasound.
Medical stuff creeps me out.

(5) OK GO: Here it goes again
Happy music video treadmill YAY