Hmmmm… Well would you look at that.

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On the great list of things that people do for film, and to an outside observer would look completely ridiculous, fight choreography is one of them.

“And that’s when he tears the plank off the wall and tries to kill Finn with it” Didn’t sound weird coming out of my mouth at the time, but upon due reflection, this is a very odd thing we’re doing isn’t it?

I’m reflecting of course on last Sunday’s fight training courtesy of Kevin Farrow, our fearless stunt coordinator and ‘beat-you-up’ guy. We had two for two that day with our Do Gooders showing half their numbers and our dangerous goon force to match.  We baked in the hot Tacoma sun for around six hours (my arms still sport a sun burn) kicking, punching and throwing people around in my back yard. I’m pleased to say that the fight is looking bloody awesome, we have some pretty cool moves that I hope will pan out in the final choreography. My plan is to simply bring the camera to the next fight choreography and try to film some stuff (which may or may not end up here) in a effort to see what will actually work. I haven’t filmed many fights, and certainly not any that featured any kind of planning or forethought. My strategy is to go all Bruce Lee and stick to medium shots, simply letting the fight speak for itself. I find that a preferable style to Bourne’s ‘camera strapped to the back of a bucking horse’ technique.

Right now we have a little dry time with one of our main’s out of state for a few weeks. So, while we wait there will be some more fight stuff and probably some shooting pickups stuff on the side. Our schedule will grow all the more interesting in the coming months, especially with our plan to move straight into episode 3 with no break. That being said, I have a confession to make. MAYBE someone was installing some updates on our site, and MAYBE that person ACCIDENTALLY broke the video page.

Sorry about that, I will figure out the problem soon and get that back up. In the mean time, I’m going to get ready for class as it’s scheduled to start in about 10 minutes.

Be Better, Do Gooder.

All right, we weren’t at the Tacoma Dome on Sunday the 8th. We were at a much, much better place. A scrap metal yard.

You scoff?

Then mayhaps you’ve never been to a scrap metal yard before. I never had. Let me tell you,  if you’re me, it is a magical place full of piles of sharp, shiny objects that just beg you to climb all over them, fall, and impale yourself. Plus! Construction equipment!   I swear it called to me…”Triiiin…Triiiin…come here…just pull a few levers and press some buttons…you’ll be a pro in no time…just pretend your ASVAB results didn’t come with a giant warning stamped all over them: NEVER ALLOW THIS PERSON TO TOUCH ANY MACHINERY, EVER. NEVER EVER. SHE SHOULD PROBABLY HIRE SOMEONE TO OPERATE HER KNIFE AND FORK FOR HER. SWEET MOTHER OF GOD, WITH SPATIAL SKILLS LIKE THOSE, HOW IS HER FACE NOT FULL OF PUNCTURE MARKS FROM TRYING TO FEED HERSELF….c’mon…it’ll be fun…” Well, I resisted the siren song of…whatever those pieces of machinery were but I could not resist the lure of flattening myself with a warehouse door.

Oh yes, I did do that. For you see, we were not at a scrap metal yard just for Trin’s amusement. We were there to film. And film we did. More on the door piece of it in a bit.

The day actually began much earlier with Swedish pancakes (crepes with lingonberries) at Ethan’s apartment and all the Do Gooders plus Shaw and May in attendance. Rounding out the crew was the ever affable Kevin and the always lovely Katie plus, of course, our fearless leader Sam. We made short work of the scene where the Do Gooders meet May for the first time (she’s basically mute unless she’s insulting them at this point) and soon bid adieu to Brandon, Mark, and Brian.

Then it was time for Ethan to snort milk up his nose. No really. Shaw and May startle Rudy in his apartment and the classic gag of milk spraying everywhere ensues. Which, I have to say, after seeing it in action, is a classic gag for a reason. I lack the words to adequately describe the Vesuvius of milk that spewed forth, covering Ethan from head to foot or the astonished expression on his face, it’s truly one of those things that must be seen to be experienced fully. For those familiar with the action of episode 101, this means that, yes, once again there will be footage of Ethan, in his underwear, covered in dairy products. They claim this won’t be true for 103, I’m still pretty sure there’s going to be a shot of Rudy, nekkid and covered in Cheeze Whiz. Steel yourselves, people. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re looking to read about Do Gooders, hate to say it, but it will be peripheral this blog. Deal with it!

I’ve done plenty of stupid things. Hell, some I would even call retarded. But I pulled a big one this last week. I have just returned, mostly unharmed, from my yearly family hike. We hit the road around 5:00 am Monday morning. But we were filming Sunday night. And I didn’t get any sleep. Literally none. Okay, like an hour and a half of crappy sleep in the car on the way up to Stevens Pass. So yes, that’s right, I got to walk the first 13.3 miles of the hike sleep deprived. That might not sound that bad to some of you. Well, fuck off. When you’re an out of shape fat guy, who suddenly gets 40lbs strapped to your back and is told to walk up and down mountains all day… OW. I was so tired I got to camp, ate dinner and then immediately passed out for the next 13 hours.

But all in all a good trip and a nice vacation from things. Had some time to think about Do Gooders as we walked 70 miles from Stevens Pass down to Snoqualmie Pass over the course of 5 days. There were campfires, and swearing, and pain and all the things necessary for a good successful hike. But I’m back in the world now and I can’t wait to get back to work on Episode 2.  We’ve been kicking ass on set and things keep swinging. About to go wake Sam’s lazy ass up and then pick up gear and we’ll be filming all day tomorrow.

In the meantime, beer and games, and all things awesome.

I’ll talk more about the project next time, I promise.

Keep Reading True Believers

-Ethan

Be Better, Do Gooder

A.K.A. My weekend on the Do Gooders set. Wherein I violently sit up in bed, perch awkwardly on a couch, crawl under a warehouse door, have a knife held to my throat, and deliver lots of fantastically snarky dialogue.

Picture this: you are a humble pizza delivery man. You are going about your job on Friday night, bringing gooey cheese and greasy goodness to the hungry masses. You’ve been called to a nearby motel. You knock and the door swings open. The scene that greets you? A woman, lying on the bed, hair tousled. She says “hi” and waves cheerily.  You notice she’s surrounded by a small team of people. There’s fancy bright lighting, and a boom,  and a camera. There’s clearly some filming going on.

On Friday night, I was that woman.

How did I get there? It all began on the roads of I-5 South, just outside of Fife, with a pair of louts in a pickup truck who implored me, in the most dulcet of tones, to expose my bosom to them. I instead exposed them to my middle finger.

Despite the inauspicious beginning, I arrived happy and eager to work on the set of Do Gooders (a motel in Fife) where the order of the day was to strip down into jammies…and climb into bed…no, not like that! You people!  Can’t a girl on the run get a decent night’s sleep once in awhile? Well, not on this show she can’t. Too many nightmares about the man trying to kill her. Thankfully her protector Shaw (the esteemed PJ Sirl) is back in the picture to help try to keep her safe.

While my character May doesn’t always live in the happiest of head spaces, I had an absolute blast filming with Sam, Katie, Kevin, PJ, and Ethan. ‘Twas a night full of Sam’s funny noises (“durpadurpadurp”), Ethan dancing like a monkey on command, much laughter by everyone, and, as the hours grew long and the warmth of the room became more of an issue, a point was reached where a number of people were wearing Korean rice cakes on their heads as though the rice cakes were yarmulkes. It’s times like these when I really wish there were a behind-the-scenes camera.

That camera might also have captured Katie & Trin’s mini dance parties, Kevin’s continued awesomeness, and the horde of parking lot revelers who steadfastly refused to believe we weren’t making porn. Still, the official camera hopefully captured some other good stuff, including, but not limited to, comical door malfunctions, me saying “what” ’til it no longer felt like a word, and bed head of epic proportions.

More on Sunday’s filming later.

Stay tuned, True Believers!

-Trin

Regretfully no filming was undertaken this passing weekend, we had some scheduling snafu’s and had no choice but to take the weekend off, doh!

I guess it happens, all’s fair in love and film, and because I love film, it’s not that bad. Besides, we are set to roll yet again this coming weekend, and not too far off we have some choreography training in the mix. You know what that means, FIGHT! *Ding*

We are making good headway despite the delays. We have over 100 gigs of video all squared away on the editing computer, and it’s looking pretty fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that I thought I would share a few screens. At least this way you have something to look at until while we get this thing in the can.

The following is just a few select screens from the stuff we’ve shot over the last three weeks. Keep in mind, none of this stuff has been color graded or is shown at true-resolution.

(expand the article to see the gallery)

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“It kinda has a porn name. But it’s not porn! It’s about superheroes. And it’s awesome.”

If you’ve spoken with me at all in the past, oh, 5 months or so, you’ve undoubtably heard me utter some version of the words above. Probably within the first two minutes of conversation. I can’t help it. I’m giddy, you see. I feel really lucky to be a part of this project.

But let me back up a little…for those of you who may not know me: Hi! I’m Trin and I play the character May Collins in Episode 102 of “The Dirty Do Gooders”. Now, you may be thinking, “May…that sounds like a girl’s name! I thought this show was about dudes and dick jokes and superheroes! I feel so betrayed! Mhrawaaah! Must destroy EVERYTHING! ” I implore you gentle readers, please put your hammers and maces and other destruction devices down.  For the Do Gooders are indeed about all of those things but I ask you: what good are superheroes if there are no people in trouble for them to help? Well, one May Collins is definitely a girl in trouble – she’s being hunted by the killer One Step and she needs the Do Gooders help to survive. It’s pretty exciting stuff.

So why do I feel so lucky to be a part of this project? Well, I’m a nerd. I love geeky superhero stuff so this is right up my alley. But I mostly feel lucky to be part of such a tremendous cast and crew. When I was cast back in February, I was initially a little worried, trepidatious even, about joining an already established group as the new girl. Would I be accepted? Would they make fun of me? Could I cope with an endless stream of dick and fart jokes?  The answers: Yes, overwhelmingly. Yes, lovingly. Yes, surprisingly, not as many of those as I might have expected and I seem to be handling it just fine. So thank you Brian, Brandon, Mark, Jen, PJ, Philemon, Kevin and Katie for being such amazing, welcoming people and making me feel like I belonged right away. Y’all are a big part of the reason I look forward to every shoot.

And a word about the creators: Sam and Ethan are awesome. Now, they won’t tell you that they’re awesome. Or if they do they might do it in such a grandiose, mocking way that you’ll be tempted not to take them seriously. So allow me to say it: the creators of this series are fantastically brilliant people who are utterly committed to this project and they inspire me as an actor and human being. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Stay Tuned True Believers

-Trin Miller

Hey kids, it’s time for Ethan to muse upon things once again, which means it’s probably time for you to take a nap, but you don’t mind do you?

After this weekend’s filming I definitely need a nap. Both Saturday and Sunday were night shoots for Episode 2, and they took their toll. But before that, was Friday, which was my 21st birthday. My boss got us a limo and the night was awesome. Started things off at El Gaucho, after a few hours moved on to TwoKoi (awesome sushi place if you’re the raw fish type, I highly suggest and the owner is a great guy) where the bartender hit me with a sake bomb, which tipped the scales. But one short puke and rally later we were off to the Matador for a glorious hunk of chocolate cake and good times for all. Brian and Trin were out for drinks as well as Kevin (fight choreographer) and of course Sam. Surprisingly the next morning went fairly smoothly.

Our day started around 9:30 when we headed to Seattle to pick up the gear. Sam came home and prepared the storyboards, I got costumes in order and off we went. Filmed behind the Puyallup Public Library with no interruptions and overall wild success. We wrapped around 2:00 am. Got some really good emotional stuff with Brandon and Jen, and then Brian and I did our thing. I know, I’m sorry, you have to deal with me trying to act more. I hope you can forgive me.

Slept in until about noon on Sunday, and then it was time for the races. More costuming for me, storyboarding for Sam. Picked up some snacks and pre-shoot beer, and gathered all the necessaries, like the generator, generously loaned by PJ and his wife Cindy, and various props like fake police badges and things. Cast and Crew showed up around 7:00 and after some delicious brownies and nachos and beer (supplied by the lovely Trin Miller not us, we would have offered like… peanuts and… spam, well, I provided the beer) we headed off to an alley right off Main St in Puyallup. First night of shooting in the Do Gooder costumes this episode and the first showdown between One Step and our heroes. Trin’s first real day on set and things got off to a good start. Wrapped up the shoot around 5:00am. Packed up everything and took it back to Sam’s where we sorted everything accordingly. By the time we were done, my alarm was going off to get up for work.

But I took the day off and got a few hours sleep.

Things have been going swimmingly thus far and the brilliance of our cast and crew shines ever on. Can’t wait to have more to show you guys and we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime…

Keep Reading True Believers

-Ethan Wolfe

Be Better, Do Gooder

Ola folks! Just a small update from the production side of things.

EUREKA! Once again Dirty Do Gooders has begun rolling footage this past weekend. We had a great kick-off to the episode with Brandon, Mark, Jen and Philemon all behind camera doing what they do best. Things went really smooth all day and we got some great stuff, these new cameras are kickin’ some ass too.

One snag in the process, however, was when me and Ethan got back to my place to get the footage off the camera and *GASP* the audio was screwing up! In a moment of sheer panic we immediately tried to remedy the problem. Finally we were able to re-capture the footage audio problem free and good as new. Now that we are recording everything digitally it makes your appreciate the benefits of having everything ‘on tape’. I get a little worried knowing that all of this episode’s footage will be sitting on hard-drives with no physical copy to rely on.

My worries are a little unfounded though, all in all the footage will be safer this episode than it ever was, being saved, backed up, backed up again and even backed up a third time on storage drives bought for this express purpose. I suppose we could make it a little safer by hiring chuck Norris or possibly Jackie Chan as the door guards to the editing room, but something tells me that will be a little overkill.

As Sam has already said, we had our kick-off party this last weekend. It was a lot of fun and we showed some of the stuff from Episode 1. We begin filming on Saturday and though we have already had a couple of hiccups, things look to be BRILLIANT!

This new website is so easy post on I hope to put a little bit more up here a little bit more often.

Episode 1 is looking great and coming along quickly. Sam and I have been working on this project for so long it’s a bit like watching a kid grow up and get ready to go out in public and be judged by all. Will people say it’s ill-behaved? Will they say it lacks moral fiber? Will they say it has a dirty mouth? Most probably. We can only hope it brings at least a few moments of joy to those who watch it. That is after all the only thing that any film can hope for. Episode 1 has some great stuff, comedy, bromance, even silly costumes (no tights).

The eternal march of production does move on though as Episode 2 begins filming very very soon. We are currently in the process of riding out on our steeds and lassoing our little ducklings all into a row. All that stands in our way is our obsessions with video games and comic books. But all habits must be placed on the back-burner sooner or later as the call to make stuff up about superheroes sounds in the distance.

Well, back to work I suppose.

Keep Reading, True Believers.

-Ethan Wolfe