Yeah,
yeah - I promised last Sunday, but guess
what was reeeeeeeeeeeeeally long. Man what
a post-production this is. First of all,
DOWNLOAD THE TRAILER.
I worked my ever-lovin' ass off on it and
I think it RULES. Then I'll tell you
all the cool shit that's happened in the
past week. Well, before that, check out
what I started to write the week after
Spencer was done:
I cannot
believe I'm even contemplating this.
I'm seriously
considering reshooting major parts of Dewey,
Spencer and Cameron to change the order of the
songs, to correct "the flow" problem I spoke
about in the Spencer entry. Wig and all,
I think it's that necessary. I've started
re-writing a new version and figuring out a way to
pull this off over the 4th of July
Weekend.
No shit. LOL. I
must be out of my fuggin' mind. I'm officially too
close to the project to make the choice here, but
I'm not sure how I can bounce it off someone else
without showing them a mainly finished project.
Because on paper - everything works perfectly...
it's only after you see the performances the
"flow" comes into play.
We actually had
this problem with the first show. "Washin' up the
Genitals" just wasn't funny after Spencer. It
always got laughs before in the normal 4tvs show -
but the tone was set differently then. Spencer
throws EVERYTHING out of whack. So in the first
one, I found a way around it and had Adam pull
the plug, had the guys talk off camera and it
worked perfectly. Saved the end of the show in my
opinion.
It may all
depend on the yet unseen reaction to Dewey's
serious song. If it works, and people ARE
suprised, and enjoy the song - they won't
miss not laughing. It's the whole theater piece vs.
stand-up routine. My goal was not to have the
audience pissing their pants the whole time. There
is an actual (gasp) singer in me. There is the
musical aspect of it that I know I can pull
off - and if done correctly I know people will
respect that.
I struggled
looooooong with this. Asked a bunch of people - ran
things buy 'em - and nothing really changed my mind.
I was absolutley ready to do the reshoot. It
would've solved the sun problem, as I would be
redoing the 3 tvs that had no sun and once July hits
we have nothing but that out here...and of course
I would be able to change the pacing. But one of
my "calmer" split-personalities prevailed and
I decided against it. What really made me change
my mind, is that the show is funny on different
levels. The whole situation is funny, and just because
the most overt "line" from Spencer's song will
probably get the most laughs, doesn't mean the more
situational comedy will drag because of it. Spencer's
line is song is in no way a climax, and I don't
believe any audience will feel that it peeked 15
minutes in. As well, Dewey's song WILL work. And, hell
even the "secret location" grand finale even has funny
dialogue within. I keep forgetting that. So
I dropped the reshoot plans and this past weekend
was editing.
Wow. Much, much,
much longer than I thought it would be. And I still
haven't touched the audio. Actually I don't even have
picture-lock yet as there's still a few effects to
work with. But for the most part it is complete. Of
course I labor over every single moment. If someone's
reaction is a HAAAAAAAIR off, I take out frames, or
pause them for 3 frames just to make it all work. Not
a whole lot of that this time, but certainly some
moments that are saved by a few frames here and there.
The transitions
are the big parts though. And actually a really
interesting part of the show. It's a good lesson in:
"There's hidden laughs everywhere if you look hard
enough." For example I had Spence's song come right up
on all the TVs instead of individually like I had in
the last show, and even in G's song this show because
I wanted to try something different...but in the
end you just end up throwing away laughs. I went
back to opening each TV individually so the audience
can soak in the look of each person. Yeah, it's the
same as it always is - but you just don't take away a
laugh. And in this case 2 or 3. It's stuff like that
that makes the editing process take so
long.
And again as
I did for the first, I saved every TV
individually as well as put into 1/4 screens so if I
ever re-do these puppies in High-Definition I'll have
the orignal source already edited and ready to go. So
that really sucked the hours out of the day. Because
you're constantly changing the TVs even after you
"think" you're done. So you have to remake the
files individually AND with the 4tvs version over
and over again.
The audio however
is still miles away from correct. By far the most
impossible part of this show is sound. There's the
obvious stuff like Dewey's mic had a bit of a buzz to
it and I may have to re-do every single one of
his lines (ugh). I'm a friggin' badass at looping
though, so I"m not too worried. But more than
anything, the overall "mix" in a 30 minute show is
just painstaking. It's hard enough when it's just a
film, but because it's also live it just kinda makes
you labor over every detail even a bit more. From the
balancing of sound effects to completely producing the
songs - to simply making sure every word is completely
audible over what could be laughter...I'm never really
happy with it.
So when I was
done with the first rough cut, I sat down and
watched it with a notepad and wrote down 53 things
I needed to fix. Heh. That's actually not too
bad. Quite a few are audio. The worst is that my ears
are so bad, I can barely tell if things are panned
correctly. I pan the TVs at 50% to get "some"
seperation, and sometimes my ears can barely
differentiate it. I'm certain half of my hearing is
gone in my right ear. Such a bummer. That and the
pain, and the popping - just sick of it all. My boss
(chiropractor) thinks she may be able to clear my
eustacian tubes that I believe have been full for 10
years. I'll let you know.
Anyway - let's get
to the good news. I am absolutely overjoyed with
the show. I think it's faster, funnier, more
inventive, ten times more creative - everything a
sequel should be. Not that the first one wasn't those
things, but sequels simply have more demanded of them.
Especially considering I'll be playing these
back-to-back in many cases. Watching it I still
laughed in many places. And more than anything: it's
PACKED. There is sooooooo much in this one. So many
things to watch. Spotlights on all the members equally
- it's just a cooooool show. And when you combine it
with the first for a full hour, it should come off as
an amazing 60 minutes.
And dear
GOD it's unique. I don't give a shit anymore if
that's bad. It's me. It's just a wonderful medium as
an artist to get to work with. I bet there's a
bunch of people that would give anything to be able to
have 4tvs. To be able to mix film/on-stage in this
way. To be able to act/sing/characters all in one
show...it's a blessing that you can fulfill so much of
that with 4tvs. That's cool as shit. I'm certain
there's many people that have the talent to do it all,
but no way to roll it into one. I feel incredibly
lucky to have the means to do it.
Now, of course -
when am I gonna perform this thing? Honestly, as of
right now I just don't know where I could
draw...anyone. Columbus of course, but heh -
that's in September. I figure Magnolia Apartments
is as good a place as any. They have a nice little
room - and it's where I premiered the first one 2
years ago. Somewhat of a built-in audience. I'd rather
do it at a theater of course, but I just know I can't
get even 10 people to come out. I'll figure out
something soon.
So enjoy the
trailer, there's a few suprises in there. And look for
my next entry which will include my new girl, Roxy.
Just don't let Jess know.
