Nice Moustache!

Monster in the Mirror

Here's a nice clip from one of our episodes, featuring Chris Prascus as Ron Brooke and Charlie Buntz as the other guy...nice looks at Laura Bloechl at the end..

TV Repair Unicorn

It makes sense if you think about it, but usually, you'd never think about it. I need a TV repair shop to be used as a shooting location, and they basically don't exist anymore. A while back (last century, actually) we shot at one in DC that was run by very nervous Nigerian guys. People came and went all day, none of them carrying any equipment- make your own analysis.

But it's gone now, as are basically every other one that isn't in someone's basement. I spent a day going to seven different addresses, six of which led to residential homes, and one that led to this:
So I called the number: disconnected. I drove to the new address, where I encountered a Chinese guy who feigned to not understand what I was asking, then explained that the TV repair business has become the funeral business. His astute observances asides, we could not break the can I film here? barrier. Truth be told, the place looked like crap:Finally, I found a holy grail: a true 70's era TV repair shop, the building made from pattern molded block, the interior a wood panelled, overflowing ashtray work of art. The owner, while friendly and chatty, wouldn't let me take pictures. The building's been sold, he said, I'm clearing out now. The unspoken message was, and who knows who you are?

I can, however, get you a good deal on a slightly used studio monitor (modified):It's not over...

*LATE UPDATE* It does exist, the last unicorn:

Reckless abandon

I'm drawn to abandoned spaces. I don't know why, but I enjoy finding places that were formerly inhabited and are now empty. Like gems, they come in every condition and value, from the useless and trashed to the pristine and flawless. Ostensibly, I'm scouting for ideal shooting locations when I stop and U-turn to go back when I glimpse a run-down farmhouse or falling down barn in the middle of nowhere.The truth is, I enjoy the puzzle: who lived here? When? What did they leave behind, and why? I like to haunt these places like a living ghost, pondering, hovering, trying to make sense of the unsensical...Sometime, they scare me. There are things, objects, arranged or scattered in a way that is creepy, as if there's some dark purpose to the chaos.
Usually it just looks trashed, but sometimes a chair is placed in a room, sometimes, there are objects lined up. I think I like being part detective, part psychologist, part set dresser looking for interesting objects.And because it's disappearing. I drive past them, and then, one day, they're gone. I was lucky enought to be able to use one as a location for our episode last week. It was really a rare joy to be able to merge these two worlds, the one that contemplates and the one that creates. A rare joy indeed.

Bad Cartoonist

Part of my job, arguably the largest part, is telling a story in pictures. Ideally, the story is coherent enough that it could make sense with no sound/dialogue. A tool to model the shots that will tell this compelling narrative is the storyboard.

Plenty of people who can't draw don't let their lack of artistic ability prevent them from scrawling and doodling their way through a set of storyboards. Even huge directors who could well hire storyboard artists sometimes draw their own, which I love.

In that spirit, here are some of mine:

Pretty clear so far, right? You can tell what's going on. There are some guys, they're doing something. The guy in the middle looks clearly uncomfortable.


Amazing! It's almost Hitchcockian (hitchcockesque?) Anyway, it's brilliant!


Wait, that's kind of the same shot isn't it? Are you sure you want to follow that one with this one? Or is this a different guy?


Okay, now you've lost me- something's definitely wrong, and why are there two frames- unless we're looking out a vehicle's rear window...ohhh, I get it, clever..


Well hello, dolley.


Back to this? Wait, now it's the front windshield of a different vehicle (then why aren't the figures reversed, Rembrandt?)


The horror, the horror!


Damn! Until now, I thought this was a comedy. No one's laughing now...


Ha! Spoke too soon. What's the arrow mean, up with peep-hole?

I couldn't afford art school. Actually, the sad truth is, I kinda went to art school..

In the Presence of the Lord

In scouting for our first episode, I've discovered a small town in Maryland that will let us shoot two days worth of scenes there. Normally, I'm not crazy about Maryland, probably because I always picture Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville and think traffic, perpetual construction, poor civic planning and a Rockville Pike that seems to go on forever without ever getting anywhere.

Agricultural communities are nice, perhaps because of the sparse ratio of people per square mile, but also due to the lack of modernity: Long fields that span to the horizon, orchards, barns, ponds, as well as Mom and Pop stores by the highway and historic churches whose steeples peek out between twists in the road.

Which is how I came to be at lunch with a group of ladies in a church basement.

This particular church was built in 1850, and is beautiful: stone exterior, gothic
aspects, but small, intimate, in a God-can-reach-you sort of way. The inside is cozy, dark and lit with slashes of color from the stained glass vestibularies.


They had just finished eating, and I told them I didn't want to interrupt, but they insisted now was a good time. Trying to make our story sound redemptive isn't hard, but it takes a positive outlook. We had a nice chat, and they've agreed, graciously, to have us in.

The town reminds me of the area in Kansas where my Dad spent most of his childhood. There's a smell of manure that's not unpleasant, a lot of dust and trucks, and I've seen a lot of guys pull into places of business, get out of their trucks and put their shirts on.

First day conviction

Okay, it's happened again: I've started a new job with a desk and a phone, and I'm sitting here wondering what to do, just like Costanza did when he got a new job. At least this time, I have incentive to look busy: my office is in a well-travelled hallway, so there's a buzz of activity and people walk past and glance in pretty regularly.

I'm also not as claustrophobic (and a little more office-saavy) than last time. I'm thinkinig that for the first few days I'll decorate, blog, read e-mail, and, time permitting, break the script down into managable chunks. There's an editor who has a guitar on a stand in his bay, which I think gives precedent for me to bring a tele in, or at least a Danelectro...

My AP this season has experience (for a change) and has been to film school(what's that like?). I've worked with AP's before who a) were emotionally arrested at age 14 b) would periodically try to go over my head if a particular assignment was inconvenient c) lack professionalism and experience and d) like, talk, dude, like um, this was like, Ridgemont High dude, and um like, Spicoli was our like diction coach dude (no way!)

But as you can see, I'm stoked, because, like I've got another gig directing true crime TV. Right now, someone else is getting Leo's sunglasses converted to AR-coated lenses...