Olympia Dukakis Owes me $240

A long long time ago I worked for a theater company in Montclair called The Whole Theater. Olympia Dukakis was the artistic director.
I did some sound design work for them on one of their last shows but Olympia closed the theater before I could get paid. $200 for the design. $40 for my expenses.
I bet with interest I'd get, like, a gazillion dollars now if only I could collect... Of course, because I was a "contractor" I was put in line behind the Government and "real" employees (I, of course, had no choice about "contractor" status. So no money for me. I think a lawyer sent me a letter at one point because my invoice was still in the system. But no money ever came. Of course.

Oddly, a feature I was fired from actually starred Olympia Dukakis.

Lucky for her I was fired before she came on set and had to fork over the $240 she owes me.

Washing the Cat

Mr. Ridiculous decided this weekend that the most important thing in the house was somehow in the fireplace. I don't know what he heard or decided was up there, but he spent all his time staring at, or roaming around in, the fireplace.
I went to pet the little Pudding - head and he was filthy with grey soot. His little feet, normally white, were now grey.
I wanted to wring his little neck.
But I didn't.
I did something much worse.
I gave the little fuzzy-butt a bath.
Well, that's not actually true. What really happened was I filled the bathtub with about an inch of water and set him down in it.
Four times.
As it turns out, all you can do is drop the cat into the tub and try to get his feet wet. You will not be actually washing the cat. Just dampening the cat.
The most disturbing part of the whole experience is that (at least in the case with this particular cat) he would look at me as though I hadn't thrown him in the tub, indeed that it wasn't my fault at all: "Get out of here, Man! There's water in the floor of this tub! Save yourselves!" is the look he gave me. Even after the fourth time he went in the tub. He made me feel guilty about it. I'd rather he was just annoyed in that cat-way he has when he's woken from a nap.
Oh, and believe me, throwing him into the tub 4 times was the limit.
And still, only his paws got wet.
I'm sure he likes to think of himself as a mighty Bengal tiger. But he's just a pudding head.
Albeit a much cleaner pudding head.

It's a girl!

Someone, who won't let me publish her name in this blog, has a sister who had a baby today.
Breathe... Focus on the kitty...

No News

Today's the last day of the Cannes Film Market. I'm not expecting to find out anything about how that really went for us for another couple weeks. The unnameable one has an incredibly pregnant sister who may or may not be having a baby now. That movie I might have worked on? Last report was they couldn't find the director. And I've been very concerned with mixing levels, specifically where to "put" dialog. (Note that "A common dialog level contained in AC-3 program material is -27 dB FS LAeq".)
I wish I were a voice in a videogame. I've filled out an application for a housing lottery for a one-bedroom apartment in TriBeCa. I could bore you more but... no... I can't.

The Usual Suspects

Before I go on, let me point out that sound designers never get mentioned in reviews. In the almost 20 years I've been doing theater I have exactly two published reviews (the first one was last year for music I composed for Macbeth). But now! Now I have a mention as a sound designer.

That's right. I design a show for the beautiful and talented Catie Zambri. She wants some pre-show music. I thought that having all songs about letters is too on the nose for the show called Hate Mail but that's what Catie wanted so...

Here's the review:

http://www.offoffonline.com/reviews.php?id=1026

But let's get to the point of the entire review, shall we?

"...and Andrew Bellware's choice of music features the usual suspects ("Please Mr. Postman," "The Letter")."

The usual suspects indeed...

IT'S ALL CATIE'S FAULT!!! I DIDN'T WANT THOSE SONGS!!!! BLAME HER, NOT ME!

(I just hate Room 11.)

Eef!

"Usual suspects."

Feh.

CMIT

I've just had two identical conversations with other sound guys: talking about the difference between the $1800 Schoeps shotgun and the $800 Sanken CS-1. I contend that the re-recording mixer doesn't care about your source, whether it's a boom mic or wireless lav, as long as the tracks are clean. The Sanken probably records with a little more isolation than the Schoeps and probably makes slightly more usable tracks for the dialog editor to carve out in post production, but the Schoeps is so much nicer sounding to the sound crew on set. So the question is: which is more important, slightly better tracks in post, or being less irritated on set?

Everyone's answer: "Being less irritated on set."

blogdesign

First of all, the drink called a "zombie" is named that for a reason, people.
I think we're going to be shooting Angry Planet in September. That'll give us enough time to schedule and plan (and save money).
And we may not cast any name talent. Thinking now is going like this: spending that money on special effects might get us more money than name talent. That's our thinking. Right. Now.
I might have coming up - someone else's movie wherein they need a sound person. Hopefully I'll know later today 'cause there will be a lot of prep.
Last week I recorded the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York. It's the best recording I'd done of them up 'till now.
And I might be recording another off-Broadway musical. Gotta figure out how to do that. Thinking about renting a Cooper mixer for that purpose!

It's All About the Aliens

Today is the first day of the Cannes Film Market. Not only is Millennium Crisis there, but also Mulberry Street.
Tongues in and ears tall, gentlemen. Our careers are on the line.
Also, we're contacting William Sanderson's agent today.

Shriven Plasticine

Other than from that Beatles song, I don't know what plasticine is. But Brian Schiavo made this model of the she-creature from his script The Shriven out of it. And it looks cool!

0701 Greenlight

Angry Planet is Go.

So there is a to-do list:
1. Name Talent
2. Schedule (boards are already done, but #1 will dictate the calendar)
3. Location (best guess: we're doing decrepit Queens and Brooklyn for a post-apocalyptic world).
4. Casting

Greenlight

I just signed an agreement with Mac Rogers and so now Pandora Machine is greenlighting the project with the working title of "0701 Angry Planet".
I don't care if we have to make this movie for $1.98 and half a bag of potato chips.
We're going to make it.

Asparagus the Dragon

You are clearly low on Gustafer Yellowgold.
You'll want to get some more when you go out.

Biohazard 3077

This is my favorite post here yet!.

According to the Transformer website, this seems to be the Japanese cover for our feature Millennium Crisis.

From Google's translation of the "story":

"The battle, and the special ability in the strongly beautiful heroine and outer space to be extreme…
"The aurora which has the special ability “one time you just saw to be able to become the other race”, was the end 裔 of race “blood mask” of legend."

That actually seems like a reasonable summation of the story. Someone must have watched the movie in Japan.
I really love this cover a lot. Sure, in the actual movie that gun, those pants, this whole scene even, doesn't actually happen. But who cares?!
And truthfully, I like the name "Biohazard 3077" the best of all the names this movie's had so far.

I know I'm being a dork, but I think her wig is parted on the wrong side in this picture! I spent hundreds of hours editing the picture so I feel fairly certain they drew this from a "flopped" picture of Clare! ;-)

At some point we should actually have a copy of this version of the movie. I can't wait to see it in Japanese!