And somehow, in
the blink of an eye: it's over. I can't say I'm sad
really. It's a good sign that this should be your last
time, when every take for every character is a little
less weight on your shoulders. Granted, there were
some fun times, but as I said in the last entry with
everything going on, these shoots were the definition
of "chore". I wanted it over so badly. It felt like
doing yardwork. Yeah, you're happy when it's done, but
it was a chore - your hands hurt, and this other
things you'd rather be doing.
Let me also say
that a big part of that feeling is because I'm
responsible for EVERYTHING. And for some reason, this
time, it finally hit me. The addition of all the other
actors, 8 in all, added a few more things in my head
to think of. That and there's a lot of post-production
stuff that you'd normally have an effects supervisor
watchin' out for, that could've saved me a ton of
work. There are legitimately 5 other people that could
be busy as hell on the set while shooting this, not to
mention the editors later. And this time around, my
mind was fried. Hell shooting a movie that I starred
in, directed, produced, wrote and edited would be
easier than this. Something about the timing that gets
annoying even after 5 years of doing it. And the hair
dye! And the Eyebrows! AHHHHH. Heh. Good lord I know
how to whine sometimes don't I? This is suppoed to
allow the reader to "FEEL" the journey...so there
you go. Now to the pictures:
"How will
I be funny without intense sexual
innuendos?"
"Oh yeah,
I'm simply gonna be me..."
"First,
I'll poke fun at Cameron's
geekiness..."
"...then
pretend to have a 2 second attention span like
Dewey..."
"...and
I'll dress up EXACTLY like G, yet somehow look
completely gay."
"In this
way, I'll make sure no one forgets who this show is
really about."
This isn't
supposed to be the way it happens. I'm not supposed to
labor over every word for 4 months writing the script
and not only avoid writing Spencer's song until the
day of the shoot, but not even picking the song to
parody?!?! Am I nuts? Well I kept
procrastinating. I shot ALLLL of Spencer...and
then sat there and thought: "You're in some shit
Kontras, time to pull a mircle out of your ass..." And
I grabbed the Overature of Oklahoma, added a hip-hop
beat under it, and wrote the lyrics out in 20 minutes.
Then in a quick brainstorming on what the other TVs
should do...I just figured Spencer would be funny
trying to act like the other members. I thought it
would be humorous, and also show just how much we've
all come to see these characters as different people.
It would stand to reason that if you're trying to do
different characters, making them dress identical
would make it obvious it was the same person. Yet,
Spencer playing Dewey is by all means - Spencer
playing Dewey. It's almost freaky. Spencer as Cameron
is fuggin' classic. And of course how he acts
throughout the song is just...well perfect. I don't
believe I've ever laughed so much at myself as
watching Spencer play with Dewey's Gameboy and
randomnly hit buttons and smile. The last piece of the
show just fell in my lap. This will be very
special.
Now the shoot
itself was really just filled with dread. There was no
excitement going into it. Wasn't thrilled about
sitting in a hair salon for 2 1/2 hours to get what
may be the worst dye job ever (looked fine on TV
though). My takes were pretty good. The show is
extremely segmented and plot driven, and the only real
room for "performance" is the song, but even with
that - things turned out really well. It's amazing how
short 30 minutes can be when you're trying to portray
such a crazy-ass plot. Anyway, the day dragged out
forEVER because I didn't want to be in the middle
of a take, when someone would get there. So I'd
wait... and wait, and wait. And then add to it, that
every actress I booked except one, didn't show up.
After having a great turnout for Dewey, I ended
up simply praying the last person would show, and she
did. Incredibly, she was perfect.
"I'm
here!"
If Spencer was a
woman, he could only hope to look like this. LOL. She
was exactly what the script called for. Happy,
spirited, youthful looking, and always happy. Some
killer facial expressions and what's nice is you just
come off liking her. A hard thing to put your finger
on, but Spencer has that too. I guess you just like
someone who smiles all the time. I could learn from
that couldn't I?
Yes, Live
Adam pisses us all off, welcome to the
club.
"You're a
little too cute, mind if I come back
please?"
You can't see it
too much here but all the sudden: 5 O'Clock shadow? In
my life I have never had any growth later in the day.
For every Trinitron though, I was fighting the
beard the whole shoot. All the make-up in the world
couldn't hide it. I'm officially too old to be in a
boy band.
So she did
perfect, I redid another take as the "G" spencer
and that was the infamous final take! Forever! The
last spencer take, for the last T3 take, for the final
show. It was nothin' but celebration...until
I realized I completely forgot one part for her.
(sigh). Luckily she lives close (oh and her boyfriend
is a big-ass Xbox geek...WORD) and they were able to
stop by the next day to finish it up. So Sunday, July
18th, 2004 marked the final shoot with the final
backdrop...and all that jazz. There was a part of me
that was a little bummed. Because although I do plan
to do "The Journey" 4tvs show, or even as a short
film, the creation side of 4tvs is coming to a close.
But honestly, it was short-lived because I couldn't
wait to tear down the backdrop that had been set up in
the middle of our house for the past month.
So as dreary as
this entry sounds, man - everything went perfectly.
The actors were great, the show pacing is incredible,
it's just one thing after another - and it kicks off
with a killer surprise ending to the series. I
couldn't be more happy with the product, and to date -
it is obviously the coolest thing I've ever made.
Granted it'll only total about 90 minutes when you add
up all 3 shows, but it's a huge chunk of my life. It
says so much and means so much. I simply cannot wait
to perform this. End of August can't come fast
enough.
And
folks, there's zero sex. Can you believe
it? I have to admit, I wasn't entirely
sure that was possible, but man - when you
see this show, you'll never know it's
"censored". It really plays just as easy
as if it were filled with cursing and sex.
Obviously at the beginning you notice the
censors, but when they all quit and the
story moves forward, even though they're
"solo" the audience never has time to
think about the fact that they're "Clean".
And that is the biggest reason is that I
didn't use replacement words. There are no
"Friggin's" or "Darn it's", I just
avoided it completely and it comes off
very natural. Of course, the
outtakes
more than make-up for that.
Heh.
Alright, look
forward to the next entry. It's gonna be dedicated to
the 8 actors that were involved in a 4tvs set for the
first time ever. I've wanted to really spenc time
talking about how much they hepled out, but it didn't
really fit with the entries. Now I can devote a
whole entry and video to the fun we had. Expect that
this Sunday. Otherwise - I have more than enough to do
until then. But you better believe I'm gonna be
playing the hell out of NFL2K5 with Marty on Xbox Live
throughout the next few days. Adam needs a fuggin'
BREAK.
