As Promised...

Here's a shot of me actually wearing the Vincent Price Gothic Steampunk Monster Hunter costume from the Halloween party last Saturday.

With my hot flapper wife.

And lest I forget, I've been directing this for the past couple months.  We open on Friday night and close on Halloween.  If you live in the Seattle area and want to experience a very cool performance, you have a small window of opportunity. Tickets available here.

Weekend Players

No, not referencing the English neo-lounge duo.  I'm referring to the packed weekend in which we managed to be all kinds of productive while not exhausting ourselves.  We were up early Saturday to head to the Lynnwood office location of The Collectibles, meeting a skeleton crew to shoot some promo material for the show, including this:


And this:


And this:


The rest of Saturday consisted of Raechelle and me running errands, Halloween shopping, grocery shopping, and then retiring to the house for Halloween decorating and what ended up being a 5-hour Mad Men marathon.  We're getting Raechelle caught up for the new season.

Sunday morning consisted of me shopping and cooking brunch while Raechelle cleaned.  I made a nice brunch and we watched the first half of the Seahawks game (which was the team's first victory in the east in 5 years), then Brian Beardsley and I roughed out the second half of Airship Daedalus chapter three while Rae cheered from the living room (not us, the Hawks game).  Then Dan Humphrey (aka The Quick) and I went over some editing notes for The Collectibles.  Then Dan Heinrich called and we ended up heading over to Dan & Trish's for dinner and another couple Mad Men episodes.  When we got home, I colored and lettered today's Daedalus strip, uploaded it, then turned my attention to editing the PSAs for The Collectibles.

I've been really inspired to write recently - not just throwing stuff into the blog, but real screenplay material.  I did a writing pass on The Collectibles episodes 4 and 5, and have made a start on the Daedalus script for chapter 4.  Also been thinking more seriously about Green Light.  Tomorrow we rehearse Sorry Wrong Number with our Foley guys.

Exciting times.

A Life if Its Own

Funny how Dan & I were just chatting about doing a project during the summer to keep our filmmaking chops up and stay relevant in the Seattle indie scene.  The Collectibles has begun to get traction.  The traction is turning into views on some of the promotional videos (like those below).  And the views are building a fan base.  This has led to a strategic alliance with Zombie Orpheus Entertainment and Ben Dobyns' Fan Supported brand to help maximize exposure.  Our local media sneak peek happens on Sunday, with the website and funding campaign going live on Monday the 26th.  Here are some of the recent teasers we've released:







Meanwhile, Brian Beardsley and I did some research and altered the Airship Daedalus publishing schedule to a Monday-Friday model to better reflect our readers' viewing habits.  We will have a table at Jet City Comic Show this coming Saturday, and a limited run of single issues for Chapters 1 & 2 of the Daedalus comic.

 Also meanwhile (meaning concurrently with the above activities), we cast the fall show for Twelfth Night Productions, a limited double feature of classic suspense radio programs for Halloween weekend done in the same format as It's a Wonderful Life last year.  Actors in period costume performing the plays on a stage set like a period radio studio with live sound effects and, in our case, live music on a 1929 Mighty Wurlitzer.

My favorite poster design in a long time!

So, as always, incredibly busy, but working on stuff I actually enjoy and creating business opportunities along the way.  Still honing and tweaking the Ordinary Angels pitch with my buddy in LA as well.  Back to that in a bit...

Curb Appeal

The last week or so has been an exercise in beautification for the front of the house. My stepdad came down from Bellingham twice to help me get a porch rail and banisters constructed for the front porch. We also poured a new concrete step and spread bark in the planter areas in front of the house. Once the painting is done, the curb appeal of the place will go way up. Just having the railing on makes the place feel more secure and focuses the flow up to the front door.

Our greatest challenge turned out to be when we discovered there wasn't a square angle on that old porch, considering the posts are 80 years old. So we started square and then fudged on the side of visual appeal, realizing that if we made the new construction 100% square, a) it wouldn't match up; and b) it would accentuate to older non-plumb angles. So at least the new construction looks like it belongs on a restored 1922 craftsman home.


This last weekend was also the opening of The Music Man. I'm so proud of Kayleigh. She's in a bunch of the show, singing, dancing, acting her heart out, on her cues and really in the moment. This will be her last show with the younger kids. From now on, she will be in the teen groups, which she's looking forward to. Soon she'll be getting lines.

I can't say enough about the show. The performances are all terrific, and there's no lack of vocal talent. My buddy Raff was made to play Professor Harold Hill, and he owns it throughout. And once again Travis steals the show with his Chaplin-esque town magistrate.

Things have been settling into a groove on the wedding and home fronts. It's a welcome change, and it's made the relationship with TFMD quite a bit more comfy. We've been making time for the occasional dinner or cocktail date. She's less stressed, I'm less stressed. And lo and behold, we have more energy and focus. Go figure.

Sunday was the rescheduled Duo: Issue #0 shoot, and it went off pretty flawlessly. It was a joy to be working with my OA crew again (Anthony, Dan Humphrey, Eric Riedmann and Trish Loyd Heinrich). It was my second time being on set with Dan Heinrich, and the experience cemented for me the necessity of working with such a competent, creative counterpart. It was also momentous because Khanh Doan and I had not been on a set together before, and she'd been cast in the role five years ago. Aside from one scene rehearsal prior to shelving the Duo feature in 2005, she'd had no outlet for her character. So it was truly great to finally work together.

It should be noted that just prior to the Duo shoot, Eric Riedmann had auditioned for a featured role in an episode of Leverage with Timothy Hutton. After we wrapped, he got the word that he got it, and he's currently in Portland on the Leverage set, working opposite Hutton and Jeri Ryan. I have to say that's pretty cool. Nice work, Mr. Eric.

Life is good, and I am grateful for it.

My Life in a Snow-Globe

Apparently, Mother Nature either didn't get the memo or chose to ignore it. Once again. And it's friggin' MARCH. Yet here we are, on March 9th, at friggin' sea level, with another snow flurry whipping through.

I didn't get a chance to see The Watchmen this last weekend. I wanted to take Tyler, but there was just no way, between him sounding like the seal house at the zoo and us with previous engagements on the calendar. We finally got to see Always... Patsy Cline at ACT. Good show with strong performances. And, six degrees of separation and all that, the drummer in the band is also the drummer for Trepan (whose vocalist is Kevin Schumacher), and one of the two women in the show is in Jet City Improv, and knows the Greenleaf family. And of course Don, the guitarist in the band (and the disc jockey in the play), is the big brother of Rae's ex. Small town, eh? Especially in the arts.

I'm keeping Tyler's bug at bay, but it may be a losing battle. Nobody is sleeping very well. Lots of changes in barometric pressure as we go from highs in the 50s to highs in the teens and 20s with snow flurries.

I got a rough cut done on the Duo short, then went back and tweaked for a 2nd draft. This week I will finalize the cut and get the audio sorted out. I now spot some holes in my direction that I'm kicking myself over. But that's why it's good to do these shorts as a practice run for the feature. Almost like a sports team watching game footage. Here's were we went wrong, now we can fix it.

I like the titles and music (thanks Brian Chase and Kyle Stevens), and the acting performances (when they're not being hampered by poor direction). As it is, I think it does the job. But I want to see it in sequence with the other shorts to gauge its full value.

I probably would never have found Stephen Rader's blog were it not for my sweetie. And I'm ever so thankful. For while she gets to ogle the pretty boys in his Fratboy Friday feature, I get some pretty cool comic book, film and pop culture commentary. One such noteworthy item is this comedy duo from Atlanta by way of NYC. BriTANick. Your mileage may vary, but I've always been a fan of absurdist comedy.



And with that, anon.