Tolling in the New Year
It’s been two years. Two years since Sam called me up and let me in on this tiny little scheme he had. A small project to scratch our filmmaking itch. Two years and we’re still not done. Can’t think of a way that I’d rather have spent the last two years of creative energy.
For those of you who have been watching the chunks of Episode 1 release online here’s an update of our progress. We have all of Episode 1 in the bag, it’s just going through editing, chunk by chunk, each piece meeting that Saturday deadline. 1.3 will be a big deal as we finally begin to deal with the boys waking up with their superpowers. And we go back to my favorite kind of chunks where I don’t have as much dialog. Sam and I will be sitting down tonight to begin refining the rough edit of Chunk 3. We are in midst of filming episodes both 2 and 3. Episode 1 will wrap up releasing February 12 and then there will be a week or two break from new Episodes (though we will still be releasing videos weekly, be they bloopers or video blogs from us, the Creators) and then we’ll be back to our weekly march of release.
It occurs to me how much work is left to do and that for the next six months my time will be taken up sitting in the editing room annoying Sam while he does all the hard work.
So here’s to 2011 and all the greatness of 2010. 2010, you were a good year for me. I met good people, had new opportunities and did some things I’d only dreamed of doing. And 2011 looks to be mighty as well. (I’m planning on going to Pamplona to run with the bulls) So here’s to conquering the world.
Until next time…
Keep Reading, True Believers.
And so it begins.
It’s 9 o’ clock in the morning. The birds are chirping, the sun is rising, and I just hit enter on my computer to render the first segment of our web show.
Mind you, I’m not up this early, but rather up this late. I’ve been working solidly on the episode the last few days and it is finally time to cut the umbilical. The feeling is strange to describe really. I guess I would relate it most to a fussing parent sending their child off to their first day of school. Worried, anxious, but content that I’ve done my best and that things are out of my control for now, but I’ve prepared my creation well.
I don’t know what or if anything will change now that we have actually released the fucking thing. The only thing I can hope for is that people will find it and watch it. It’s taken a whole hell of a lot to do, but we did it. And I have no doubt in my mind that its only by the virtue of those around me that it has come this far. I risk sounding grandiose in my stupor, but I just want to salute those that helped this fumbling child of a project finally get to it’s bus stop.
This is hardly the end, oh no! We have a few more months till episode three will wrap, and I still have to keep these babies crankin’ onto the Internet each week. I know it’s going to be taxing, but it’s a good kind of work. And lo’, even as I rolled back from my editing desk and took in what had been done, I felt a true sense of accomplishment. We made something I feel is truly awesome people. And again, I thank you for it.
We threw a fitting farewell / Christmas party in Brandon’s honor. Everything was perfect. The food and drink was good, the company was better, and there were still a solid steady few that stayed up beyond their leisure. You guys are indeed, ‘Da mad notes’.
It’s sad to see Brandon Jared go on his way, but now that a Do Gooder has wrapped it feels like the bell will soon toll on this lengthy production period. And about godamned time too! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy when I’m filming, but a year is a long time to go without seeing any fruits of labor. But now is the time, when I publish this blog I’m uploading the video ASAP to youtube and our videos page.
If you are willing to help and I know you all are, all you need to do is get the word out. Send it to your friends, to your family, your acquaintances, your barber, your mailman and even your pets. Let people know how awesome you are, and what we managed to do with so precious little. Who knows, maybe next time we will have a budget and we can make more! Sounds like a sweet dream to me.
Until then folks, Its been an honor. So heres to more work and even more good times ahead! Salute!
Be Better, Do Gooder.
This is my boomstick
Another weekend with Do Gooders, another weekend of Trin vs. Doors. Doors: 3. Trin: 0. My last weekend on set with Brandon Jared and the discovery of hitherto unknown skills of boom operation.
Saturday began with the filming of a car scene in the bowels of Matt and Sam’s garage. May wasn’t needed yet but Do Gooders is an all hands on deck kind of project and I’m both handy and decky. So I esconced myself in a fuzzy green blanket and waddled out to the garage to assist in any way possible. Mostly by providing others with inspiration for mocking but I make my contributions where I can.
I trundled into the backseat to feed lines for Ethan and Brian and waited while Sam figured out his angles, frame, and exactly how much bounce to the ounce he needed to make the car movement look realistic. Just as we’d gotten everything situated it became the sad part of the afternoon where Katie had to leave us for another project. With Katie gone and Sam manning the camera, Kevin shaking the car (oh so…rhythmically, at first), Matt flashing us (with lights, people!), and Ethan and Brian both needed as ach-TORS, who would operate the boom to record vital audio?! Who could be trusted with this most noble and sacred task?
We’ve come to the bit of the narrative where the enthroned king calls out to the assembled masses, “is there no one in my kingdom brave enough to answer this charge?” his eyes scanning the crowd, uncertainty growing within his ermine-clad breast. Just when all seems lost, a lone voice calls out, “I will”. The crowd parts as a woman slowly rises to her feet. Her clothes are dusty and travel-stained but the light of adventure is in her eyes and her head is bloody but unbowed – she is a warrior. “I will answer the call,” she says, the clang of trumpets in her voice, “I will wield the boomstick.”
Except that’s not what happened at all. Continue reading
The Dirty Do Gooders Wrapping Up
Well, Stephanie has covered the events of last Tuesday with stunning vocabulary and form, but since she was away in Baltimore during the weekend, I guess I should cover what happened there.
So, to set the stage, this was our last weekend of shooting that we had available to us to use Brandon Jared. Sam was going away to the happiest place on earth, and then with the holidays setting in, no one would be available for filming until after Mr Jared has left us to follow his dreams to the City of Angels. Sam and I sat down and hacked out a schedule that would fit every single one of Brandon’s scenes neatly into one little perfectly wrapped bundle of film-making completion. But the weekend was tightly packed and we could not afford to miss a beat. Saturday morning began as most Saturday morning shoots do, with myself rolling off the couch in Sam’s living room to rouse the sleeping bear himself. As I went in and we began to pow-wow about the events to come that day, there was a knock on the door. Call wasn’t for another hour. Who could it be? As I went to the door garbed only in underwear and a blanket, I saw the top of Katie’s head out the window of the door. I immediately began swearing.
Throughout filming many times, call times have been shifted about last minute. Such was the case this Saturday morning. And as the case has been many times, for some reason unbeknownst to us, we seem to call everyone else except Katie. It seems it had happened again. I opened the door, shame, embarrassment, and a plea for mercy crowding my face. I didn’t even have to say anything. Katie merely looked at me and said, “Goddamnit Ethan.”
But once we had acquired a green screen and the rest of cast and crew showed up we could begin our day of filming. We were in the Shideler garage, filming a short but vital sequence. Now, it is an often overlooked fact that cars shake when they are being driven and the only way to have convincing green screen car scenes is to be shaking the car. We achieved this by having Kevin stand on the spare tire of the CR-V and bounce around on it randomly. The shoot went by rapidly and we even had time for a Rock Band break in the middle of the day.
That night we were to be behind the Puyallup Public Library. But Mother nature conspired against us. Continue reading
Weathering the Wind and Worshipping the Warmth
First and foremost, sorry. I FAIL at writing short blogs. Deal with it, and so it begins…….
The Pacific Northwest is being pelted by a la Niña storm. Rain and rain and rain. Rivers cresting over their banks, the cracks in the local dam straining under the added pressure of the rainwater runoff careening down from the foothills of the Cascade mountains, walkways once busy with people and their four-legged friends are abandoned as water floods across them and park benches can be seen floating away.
Yet Puyallup is spared (for the most part, anyways)! The cast and crew of the Do Gooders project bundled up and climbed into several cars and headed out towards our location for the evening. A fast foray through a tiny bit of standing water on the roadway (NOT recommended, please do not try this at home folks!) as we bustled towards the back of the Puyallup library (with a brief stop at Fred Meyer for a quick equipment run, a tent, mmm, yes…good plan).
The library, and the alley behind it, was still above the rising water table! Yay! Filming could begin! Like the well ‘trained’ crew that we are, we hauled the equipment out of Sam’s car and bam! The lights were out and up (personal umbrella covers and all), the newly purchased canopy was erected, camera was atop the tripod, and the boom was assembled. The set was now a rain resistant bricolage.
Actors arrived and were costumed. This was my first experience seeing all four of our heroes in full garb, and I must say, I was impressed. I would willingly be a damsel in distress for any one of those four on any day.
Filming commenced and hilarity ensued. I have never heard “Ah, poop.” uttered with such a myriad of inflections. It warmed my heart. God knows it wasn’t warming my feet or my hands, because they were just about frozen off. It wasn’t as cold as the night that I watched ice crystals form over the vehicles, but, this time, we were moderately wet and cold. Not to mention the wind chill. Brrrrrrrrrrr.
The heavens cracked open and began to unceremoniously dump little rain droplets on our production. We scurried around like little mice-ees and covered the scene with the canopy and quickly threw a trash bag on the camera. As soon as all was covered and ready to go, the powers that be laughed at our antics and decided that it was time to stop pissing on our production. Continue reading
I’m a-door-able!
The story of how I courageously stopped a falling door with my face.
So both Ethan and Stephanie have recently written heartfelt blogs that yammer on and on about how much they love the project and the people working on it and blah, blah, blah, pass me a tissue. Screw that, I say. I’ma talk about something far more important: how the Do Gooders set tried to kill me.
This past Saturday we filmed in Ethan’s apartment. This is relevant to the story in that there is a closet in the entryway with heavy, fold out doors. I knew this. Unbeknownst to me was the fact that one of the doors had liberated itself from the track and was planning a desperate bid for freedom. Or was lying in wait to make an attempt on my life.
As I stood in the hallway – several feet away from the door – it finally made its move. I’ll never know exactly why it fell just then but fall with a vengeance it did. BOOM! went the door as it struck my head. SLICE! went the hinges across my face. OOOOW! went the cry out of my mouth.
In summary:
Door: *WHAM! SMASH FACE!*
Me: “Door hit me. Ouch, door! That really hurt. And it’s still huuurting.”
Door: *wicked chuckle*
Perhaps I’m judging Door too harshly. Maybe it realized it loved me and couldn’t stand to be apart from me one second longer. It needed to demonstrate its love the only way it knew how: by desperately trying to connect with my face.
Well, whatever your intentions, Door, if-that’s-even-your-real-name, your advances were unwanted. As well as painful. I hope Ethan chops you into tiny, tiny bits. AND BURNS YOU.
Lucky for me Stephanie was on set. And lucky for Wander Child I signed that release form a couple weeks back. Otherwise I would totally sue! For all their…money? Well, comics and DVD collections maybe. YES. All the comics will be MINE!!! That oughta make Ethan cry. Bwahahaha! Wait, where was I?
Oh right, Stephanie’s continued rockstardom. While everyone else was squawking and asking if I was okay she was on it. She sprang into action like an indefatigable cartoon character and was assessing the equalness and reactivity of my pupils before I’d fully realized I’d just been hit in the face with a door. Then she shoved cold things at me, burned me with antiseptic and just generally behaved exactly like the sort of calm and cool person you want to have around in case of actual emergency. So I echo Sam’s new catchphrase: Thank God for Stephanie. Continue reading
In Times Like These…
It is in times like these that I feel most inadequate.
I sit currently behind Sam, who uses his fingers as if in a trance to chop footage, move around clips, re-cut old cuts and add music and sound and life to our video. I can do very little. A little input about a cut here or there. Stating that music is fucking retarded or fucking epic. A bad one liner about a dick. That’s about it. I distract myself from my lack of ability to help as much as I would like in the editing room by working on scheduling and blogging.
It is in times like these, that I realize how far we’ve come.
We have been filming for over 20 months now and the end is nearing. We are a couple of good strong thrusts away from climaxing in orgasm and finally being able to relax. 16 days until we begin to slowly blow our load all over the internet chunk by chunk. All that is left is polishing, wrapping the latter 2 episodes and then showing it to the world so that the internet dick-heads can mock us and we can flip them off and attempt to succeed anyway. It seems so long ago that we were nervously standing on set with these fabulous people who are our cast and crew for the first time, having only briefly met them in an audition. That first day of filming with Brandon, Mark, and Colter back before Brian joined the cast. Filming in the heat of summer in my small apartment as we all sweated away at least a pound an hour. Brian’s first day on set when we slapped him repeatedly. Jen’s first day, when we scheduled way too much and didn’t get it all done. Philemon’s first day, the scene that we threw away and re-wrote, having to shoot all over again. It’s been a long time since those days. Now we are not surrounded merely by actors on set but by fast friends and fond memories being relived.
It is in times like these that I find myself more determined than ever. Continue reading
Grappling with Gravity and Conquering the Cold
I feel that I have surpassed that initial ‘trial stage’ with…well, colors (definitely not flying colors, but colors nonetheless).
You know, when you are initially hanging out with people, trying to read them, figuring out if they actually like you or if they are just begrudgingly putting up with your presence because they are far too polite to tell you to STFU and GTFO. But I now have a name, and am not only known as our stunt guy’s little sister.
Thank you to my dear stunt man of a brother, master of bladed, pointy objects, who, through his unrelenting persistence, dragged me out of my cushy family cave up north and opened my eyes to the awesomeness that is his people. They truly are wonderful people, who, when I first ventured into the world of the Dirty Do Gooders and friends, made me think, “Oh my god! They’re nerds just like me! Wait, no, they are Jedi masters of nerdiness and I am a young Padawan. More hanging out must ensue…” And thus my narrative began.
On one fine Saturday there was a crisis. The Dirty Do Gooders set had a crew that consisted entirely of Sam. What to do?! I imagine the thought process and/or conversation (between Sam and Ethan you never know if they actually use words or if the complete conversation transpires between long, deep stares and flicks of the head in their own idioglossia) went something like this… ‘What are we going to do? This isn’t working? Who can we wrangle into coming and helping? What about Kevin’s sister? She seemed pretty cool the few times we’ve hung out, at least she won’t fuck it up too horribly, right?” And thus phone calls were made, addresses given, and the rest, well, just worked. Oh, and Trin, “You’re welcome,” five times, with striking eye contact.
Last Saturday was an early call and a late start all rolled into one. People and gear and food EVERYWHERE for over twelve hours! Much was forever scribed into history via Sam’s camera, from face slapping to Spiderman linens to BACON maple bars!
With so much of the Do Gooder family present, it was only right to take photos, right? After the cast photos were taken, the call for crew went out, and I was dragged into the shot. That’s when I knew…I had passed through the Wander Child crucible and emerged having attained official ‘crew’ status.
Dirty Do Gooders – Trailer 2
Hey all!
We have a new trailer online, so go check it out on youtube!
Make sure you rate us and subscribe, fo’ real!
Stuff and things and junk!
Hullo internets!
I am here to tell you of grand things, things that will reshape the very world as you know it.
Not really. But hey, It’s still pretty cool. I’m actually here to let you know there is a new trailer for DDG coming at you either tomorrow or monday. We have a shoot scheduled for Saturday so I may or may not have enough time to get it up online then, we shall see!
The trailer is kind of a preview of what you can expect to see over the first three episodes of the series which will be split into about 8 chucks a piece. In short, you can expect about 25 “minisodes” that are around 5 minutes long that span our first three episode run. The trailer shows off some of the powers and showcases our heroes doing what they do best: kicking some ass and fighting some crime!
Beyond this I will try and release a little video each week up until release, be that little behind the scenes videos or trailers. So be on the look out, you got brand spankin’ new content coming your way!
