Not That Funny is a movie that is shooting currently in Sierra Madre, CA. I am an associate producer on the show. What does that mean? Well, it can mean anything, but for me, what it has meant so far is
- recording production sound for a week before our wonderful sound guy came on board
- renting my Canon 7D camera, lights, hard drives, and other useful stuff to the production
- managing the digital workflow for set-to-editor-to-director-to-post, as well as managing dailies
- general help on-set and off-set
- even some graphic design! (see the photo of a fake poster above)
- maybe sound design.
The cast and crew is incredible. We are halfway through 25 days of shooting, followed by some additional pickups and various projects to get the film ready for completion. The editing process will take several months of massaging the footage to make it serve the story. Our hope is that it will get picked up for a few film festivals in early 2011, and then see theatrical distribution sometime during the year.
Our cast is outstanding, anchored by John Kapelos (remember Breakfast Club?), K Callan, Brigid Brannagh (Army Wives), and the amazing Tony Hale (Arrested Development).
Check the movie out:
Did I mention we were busy this summer? (By the way, my son is the one in the yellow cap above…playing the nerd. Perfect casting.)(Oh, and the fantastic photos of this summer’s shows were taken by New York-based pro photographer Matthew Murphy. He got some incredible shots.)
The Pasadena Musical Theatre Program is a decades-old training program for kids in Pasadena, CA. But I would call this a kid’s program on steroids, or, better, a pro theatre program that just happens to have kids as its focus. But this summer we held a master class with Megan Hilty of Wicked fame, held a class entitled Pursuing a Career in Musical Theatre, and did a American Idol-style solo competition, in addition to the two main shows that are produced every summer. Ryan Scott Oliver (award-winning musical composer), Cindy Abbott (wonderfully dedicated Pasadena music teacher), and Emily Clark (fabulous musical theatre performer and teacher) have transformed this program into a powerhouse that trains over 125 students every summer.
So what did Hearken Creative do? Well, for starters, I joined the board of the program last summer, because funding for arts has dried up with local school districts and I feel strongly about arts education. So, on our own, we have raised somewhere in the range of $50,000 every summer to make the program happen. In addition, Hearken Creative
- provided all design services for print media, programs, and press releases,
- photographed the Megan Hilty master class,
- filmed the Promise Competition,
- ran sound for all events, including the master class, meetings and competitions, and
- sound designed both major shows — the Juniors (4th-6th graders) and the Seniors (7th-12th grade) shows.
Essentially, this was two weeks of wrangling a high school auditorium (that a friend aptly called an “airplane hangar”) into submission, using Hearken Creative-provided equipment, rented equipment, and the high school’s 40-year-old 24-channel mixer, as well as my own 16-channel digital mixer. Twenty wireless body mics, plus choir mics and band sound reinforcement.
And boy, did it sound good! We don’t have the professionally-produced video from KLRN yet, but several people have posted their home videos already. Here’s one:
and my son singing a solo at the Promise Competition:
The purpose of the program is twofold: first, arts education is vital to a well-rounded education, and music/dance hits so many of the other disciplines — math, reasoning, spatial relationships — that it seems stupid the schools are cutting performing arts. Secondly, there is an erroneous meme out there that there are no viable career options in performing arts. We aim to change that perception.
By using Hearken Creative’s graphic design skills, our production and sound design skills, as well as our music background and fundraising acumen, we were able to help make this summer’s Pasadena Musical Theatre Program a complete success.
Wow, it’s hard to get a hold on where the economy is, for entertainment companies both big and small. The L.A. Times has a story on how the toy industry is looking to large blockbuster films like Transformers to drive more and more toy sales, especially in the off-peak summer months. A story about the success of the movie industry? But a day earlier, the Times looked at how smaller production and support companies were being squeezed by runaway production — filming moving to cheaper locations out-of-state — and how it’s going to be hard for the SoCal economy to absorb the loss of work.
And is NBC-Universal for sale or not? Who knows. They have been having a hard time, both on television (Knight Rider) and at the moviess (Land of the Lost). But what happens to the big affects even us small companies.
But look at total box office figures for the last few years. We’re on track this year to at least keep up with last year, if not surpass it. People are still spending money on entertainment.
With all of the bad things that are going on in the economy, it’s good to look at a few bright spots. When an economic shakeout happens, the competition in the market becomes fiercer, allowing strong companies to strengthen their position and weaker ones to be weeded out. Interestingly, it’s not always those that stay out of bankruptcy protection that are the safest. And sometimes, especially in the entertainment industry, it becomes hard to capitalize on a successful business — like British films.
A few quick links:
- My new friend Petrea from Pasadena Daily Photo did a series of pieces on our building in Old Town Pasadena last week. Interesting stuff, if you are into the history of old neighborhoods and buildings. Here are the three posts: 1, 2, 3, & 4.
- Homage or plagiarism? Lots of designers are up in arms about this website for a Republican candidate for governor, including Print‘s Daily Heller blog. Is it plagiarism? I don’t know. But the similarities to Obama’s well-designed site for his candidacy are striking…
- Copyblogger has a great little article about my favorite ad guy, Lloyd Ogilvie. Even though he wrote Ogilvie on Advertising decades ago, it still rings true for me as a marketer and graphic designer.
Happy Monday to you, wherever you are!
I’ve been so busy over the past week that I haven’t posted much of anything here, electing instead to do quick tweets of links that I have found interesting or helpful. So here’s my accumulated updates for this week:
- Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, Ed McMahon. All gone this week. Pasadena Star News has an article here. I can’t tell you how many MJ songs I have memorized; Thriller came out when I was just getting started in Chamber Singers/Musical Theater. Quincy Jones and Greg Phillinganes were my idols for creating such a magical mishmash of R&B, pop, jazz, and rock on MJ’s albums. And who from Southern California can forget Disneyland’s Captain EO?
- Fame is coming back — remember that awesome film? It shaped many of us young performers’ hopes and dreams way back when; now it’s updated for a new generation. Why do I point this out? Well, much of the interior filming (especially the dance studio) was filmed at my kids’ school last fall; it was a nightmare for the school, but hey, that’s show business in L.A., right? Here’s the trailer.
- I have completed two movies with Burning Heart Productions, and we are starting preproduction on the third. The Fair Trade movie was accepted to the Iowa Independent Film Festival, held in mid-July. That makes it seven film festivals for that little no-budget movie. Congratulations to the entire production team! Both The Fair Trade and 2004′s Laundry and Tosca are in negotiations for broadcast and/or theatrical releases in Australia right now, which is an exciting prospect for movies that were built on credit cards and love and providence…
- WebVideoUniversity had a review of the HF-S10, a new camera from Canon. They really like it, and I like that I would be able to salvage much of my old 58mm lens stuff from the Canon GL2 (that I still own and use on occasion). But I’m also looking at the other end of the product lines, and really liking what I’m hearing about the new Panasonic VariCam 3700 [see quick reviews here and here]. So I don’t know what I’ll pick up next…
- Finally, a note about the economy. The Pasadena Star News ran a tiny article about a study detailing how “most Californians failed to benefit from the economic expansion that predated last year’s meltdown…gains from the growth in the economy between 2000 and 2007 went to corporate profits and the wealthiest 20 percent of California taxpayers.” And to that I say…no duh. As fun as this business has been for me, the years between 1996 and 2000 were much easier — financially — than the last ten years. Not that I’m going anywhere: we have some new announcements over the next few weeks, and some great new projects in the works.
Well, I’ve done this over the years for friends, but I think I should stop underselling myself. This weekend I mixed sound at the Global Day of Prayer/Love Pasadena event on the steps of the Rose Bowl. 500 people, 5 bands, several hours, and lots of running around and soundchecking. And the event went off without a hitch. I’m really proud of Advantage Productions in Santa Clarita for finding me a sound system on short notice, and the pastors of the churches who helped put the event together.
Running live sound is a lot different than recording in the studio. In the studio, you can move mics around until you get it right, you can punch-in to fix a bad line, you can EQ and compress to your heart’s delight on your own time. But live sound needs to sound great — NOW. So I was really happy that, with no soundcheck for any of the bands, we were able to walk in and make everything sound awesome the first time. Having great equipment can make or break a show, and that’s why I’m s0 pleased with Brett and Ron from Advantage Productions, and how easy it was to work with them.
So, I’m hanging my shingle out for running live sound for events. And next time I’ll wear sunscreen.
The Pasadena Star News today reported that the inclusion of plans for a parking structure and access road in the mostly-unimproved Hahamongna Watershed Park was simply an error:
After more protests at a meeting last week, city staff Tuesday night told residents at a meeting of the city’s Environmental Advisory Committee that the inclusion of the garage and road in the new plan was an oversight and would be fixed. “The roadway will be removed from the plan’s addendum,” said Theresa Fuentes, of the City Attorney’s Office. “The plan will be edited for removal of the parking garage.”
Well, I’m glad to hear it. Hahmongna is a city treasure, and, even more, a local gem. Can you think of many other locations within a few minutes’ drive where you can get completely lost in nature? There aren’t many in Southern California.
Next time I’m up there, maybe I’ll take the video camera and post some video. It’s truly that beautiful.
Flickr Photos
