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Given the family emergency that followed right on top of my return from Portland, Oregon in August, I never got around to writing about the trip there and the experience of working on the 48 Hour Film Project.
I just finished backfilling those entries, so here they are (click the links below:
Just something I drew for Kelly today...
For a change the title of this entry is fairly literal.
I've been going out with a very nice guy named Mike about twice a week for a few weeks now. Today we decided to make a short trip outside the city, popped over to Mill Valley and had lunch at the Dipsea Cafe.
Well, stuffed, we discuss that the most appropriate thing would be to go have a nap, but, no, we're going to press on as planned and go for a walk. We decide to drive over to Stinson Beach, where we talke a nice, lesirely stroll across the sand. It's an absolutely beautiful day. Ahhhhh.
sillySicks, Sicks, Sicks!
By which I mean The Kinsey Sicks, "America's Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet".
Trixie, Trampolina, Winnie and Rachel: The Kinsey Sicks
Tonight I watched the DVD of their satrical concert film "I Wanna Be A Republican". Check out the trailer to get an idea. It's pretty funny.
Oh, and there's free songs on their website here.
I met a two of the members (Winnie and Trampolina) at a fundraiser a few years ago. Very talented guys...er, gals.
Sometimes I'm just a glutton for punishment.
Lats night we were up rather late drinking after the screening of our film. Youd think I'd try to make it a short day.
So, it's up and at 'em. Scott delays going into work until after dropping me at the airport, so I pack up, we grab breakie at a nearby cafe, then I say bye to his kitty, Gloria, and we're off to the airport.
On the way I call my friend Diana, whom I knew was flying TO Portland this morning. She's just landed as we leave Scott's. Ships that pass on the freeway...or something.
Goodbyes said, I check in at Portland's airport. No sooner have I cleared security than I see a familiar face. I walk over. He looks up. "Good Time Charlie" I say, pointing at him. Yep, it's the actor who played the title roll in one of the films ours was screened with. He's heading home to L.A. I give him my card, we chat, then he's off to the plane.
The flight home is uneventful, and I finish the book I've been reading: If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, by Bruce Campbell. It's a fun book, and oddly inspirational for someone who wants to make movies.
I'm in the office by 3. Now the fun begins. Right off, I see our visitor from Japan and wave, and he waves back rather tentatively. It's clear he doesn't recognize me. This theory is supported by the numerous double takes I receive from co-workers, some of whom don't realize who I am at first. I guess the shaved-head and lip makes me look a lot different. I suspect the latter especially.
Scott calls from Portland to say our short didn't win the audiece favorite last night. The winner? Good Time Charlie. I suspected as much... Scott's upset. I'm not surprised by the result.
I'm pretty beat, but I do get some work accomplished. I find my car where I left it on Saturday in the company garage. Now I have to drive to Cupertino for a Yakiniku dinner with our visitor and some select co-workers. The food's fantastic (as usual), but I deflect the drinks as much as possible. I'm tired and still have to drive an hour to get home. Finally, we part and 10 p.m. and I hit the road. I text message one of my friends as I leave. He texts me back as I arrive in S.F. He is getting off work at 11 p.m.
Now, I should just go home and sleep. This is where I get really stupid. I go have a drink with him in the Castro. It's great to see him, but I'm fading fast.
1 a.m. and I get home and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
I awake with a slight headache. Not sure it it's last night's drinks or not, but it puts a rather unpleasant edge on the morning.
Espresso helps kick start me to on painting in the Solar-Man drawing I did yesterday. I'm a little rusty with Photoshop, so it's a litle slow going at first, but it comes back to me and my work speeds up. Before long, Solar-Man is all done and I leave Scott to compose the final comic book cover type image.
A nice hot shower is in order, then it's on to the business of shaving...a much more involved task than it was previously, since for the past year I've worn a full beard and only had to shave my neck. Now I have to shave my head, my upper lip, and around the sculpted beard I'm wearing. It takes 5x as long as 5x as much shaving cream. Is it worth it?
Scott and I go out to Kinkos to get the comic handouts printed.
Solar-Man...dressing left
That done, we hit a pub and get lunch. Next task is getting Scott an outfit for tonight's screening. He doesn't know what look he wants...and shopping is a little slow until a salesman he knowns starts steering him around. He tries on a very cool black jacket with a paisley pattern that you don't see until the light hits it right, but the jacket costs more than he wants to spend on the whole outfit... so I find a short version in my size and I buy it.
Shopping accomplished, a short break is taken to have coffee with my former downstrairs neighbor, recently moved to Portland. That done, Scott and I make a run to get metallic markers for writing on the fliers, then back to his place to suit up.
And Now Our Feature Presentation
We arrive at Cinema 21 an hour before the show, so we decide to get a drink before the line starts. Neither of our two principle actors will be attending, but Kyle has seen my comic image of his alter-ego on Scott's website and on a phone call to Scott thanks me for the "generous package".
Drink done, we meet Ms. Kelly, our location manager on the film (and on-screen DJ), Dean, and Jenny (who played Shiela).
Now, here I get a tad uncomfortable, because Scott wants us to hand out the fliers—which are supposed to point people to his website if they want a DVD copy of the film—which is fine, but he wants us to shill for the film and try to get people to vote for it. This feels disingenuous to me. I realize it's an audience favorite award they're giving tonight, but this feels too premeditated. "Vote for our film" instead of "remember our film when you vote" is a farily fine distinction.
And then it starts.
Okay, right off, the house is fairly empty. It's the last show of a small city fesitval and it's on a Sunday (school) night. Second, the program didn't get enough entries (it's for local filmmakers) to fill out the two programs that had been planned, so they put it all into this one program...and even then there are only six.
The program started by having the filmmakers or their designated proxies say a few words about the films. Right away I can hear that some films have groups of supporters present while others do not, which means the latter have absolutely no chance of winning.
Let's face it, true audience favorites work only when there is a large enough audience for nepotism not to be an issue, otherwise it's like a high school student body election where only the popular girls get into office.
So, the films are a really mixed bag. Some are weird in that art school project sort of way, others are conceptually cute but the production values are non-existent. The projectionist isn't entirely on the ball with this video projection system... there's big lags between films, and at least one a film starts in the middle and then gets jumped back to the start.Our film comes up 4th (I think), and right off there's problems. The sound level is really low through most of the big action scene, which totally undermines it. Then, when it ends, the screen goes BLACK before the credits. Then you hear the sound of the credits over a black screen, and then the picture comes back. Frustrating!
That said, it's fun seeing it on the big screen. Even with the "stacked" audience, the best lines get laughs. Every time I see the film, however, I wish we had gotten in a joke right at the top to make the audience realize they have "permission" to laugh, since the opening scene's more action than comedy. Oh well, next film!
Afterwards, we and some compatriots of Scott's retire back to the pub where we started and have drinks and chat. It's great seeing Jenny and Kelly again. Kelley shows me her new custom made ring...which is subtly in the shape of the Green Lantern's power ring. She's such a loveable geek!
Myself, Kelly, Jenny, and Scott (Dean has left the building)
We end up discussing the various films. Several there are convinced that the only real competitor to ours is a rather gay knockoff of the fight dance in Michael Jackson's BAD video, but my gut instinct is that the film Good Time Charlie is the one we have to worry about. It got a lot of cheers.
We'll find out the results tomorrow.
On the road
On my way to Portland, OR to see "Secret Identity Crisis" screened in a program at the Portland Gay & Lesbian Film Festival tomorrow night.
I'm flying out of San Jose so I can be in the area for a company dinner with a Japanese colleague when I return on Monday.
I'm running a little later than I want. Since I want to leave the car at the office garage, I have to leave time to catch the free shuttle that goes to the airport from near the office. As I park, I'm debating abandoning this plan and parking at the airport proper. Just then I see someone from our Marketing department enter the garage. I instantly volunteer him to drive me to the airport. Fortunately, he agrees—after all, the airport is literally walking distance from our office.
In the air
It's a small plane. For a moment I'm worried that I'll get stuck next to the man who clearly will overflow the meager seat width, but I luck out. I really luck out. I end up next to a very friendly fellow from Monterey and we chat the whole way. From the way he doesn't move his leg away when it touches mine, and the fact that I don't move mine, it's pretty obvious we're both batting for the same team. When I misspeak my age as 42, before I can correct it to 43 he chimes about the "ultimate answer" (if you don't get it, keep moving). I think I'm in love! Ok, back to earth (heh heh). We swap phone numbers and email addresses. Maybe I'll get a date out of this.
A pleasant walk
In Portland, after a filling lunch at an Italian restaurant and a visit to Powell's Books, we end up back at Scott's place and he shows me the Solar-Man image that NEO f/x created for a handout he plans to print. I hate the image, as I think Photoshopped photos processed to make them look drawn are uniformly hideous. So, instead of hanging out and visiting, here I am at Scott's kitchen table drawing a comic book version of the same pose as the Photo...but, somehow, Solar-Man ends up a lot buffer than his cinematic counterpart. Hmmm... oh, of course. The camera adds 20 lbs. That must be it! Sure! (Click here to see the image.)
Anyway, it's a gay audience, and it is a guy in tights, so he gets lots of muscles, killer abs, and, er, a generous package. I resist the obvious temptation to pull a Joel Schumacher by adding solar-nipples to the suit. This leaves just one outstanding question... does Solar-Man dress left or right?
Left, I decide.
Now, as to if he's Jewish...
As I finish inking, Scott says we should have our villain on the cover somewhere, and suggests his face in the "company imprint" box in the upper left. I don't really want to spend a lot of time drawing another caricature, so I grab a printout of a screen grab and trace over it with Sharpies. I flip the result over, where only the black lines bleed through the paper, and clean that up. It's a cheat, but it's fast.
The images are scanned and coloring in Photoshop begins, but we stop to actually go do something other than work.
Cinema and Cocktails
We meet Scott's friend Dean, who also acted as our A.D. on "SIC", and attend one of the features of the festival. This is the theater where our film will be screened. The showing we attend is pretty full, but it's a Saturday night. The film is Shelter. It's one of those films where boy meets perfect boy with no (apparent) flaws and everything works out so perfectly in the end. Sweet but bordering on unbelievable. The pace is too languid in the first act, and I feel the older sister character is written as a plot device more than as a believeable human being, but it's not a bad film, even if I saw the ending coming by the third reel.
Dean leaves us after the show, and we attend the Closing Night Gala at a martini bar called CRUSH. Yes, the festival ends tomorrow, but they decided to celebrate the conclusion rather prematurely. Anyway, here I get a nice compliment on my beard and my new look, and I flirt with a guy, but mostly Scott and I talk about projects we'd like to do.
And now... sleep!
Shaved my head again today to see how the dermatological surgery was healing and it looks really good. A little pink, but the nasty looking but harmless ol' sebhorric keratoses is gone for the time being.
I'd been wanting to change my look for a while now, and the razor in my hot little hand more than excuse enough. Since my noggin was freshly shaven I decided I'd bare my upper lip to the sunshine as well.
The fun thing about shaving facial hair is that you can do it in stages and see what it looks like when you excise this bit or that. First I started by excising the middle of the moustache out to the ends of my mouth, but left the bits on the side. I'm not sure if it makes me look more like a Fu Manchu caricature or a Klingon. If my eyebrows were bushier, I'd say the latter.
Duj HvoqtaH!*
(Note that you can see just a tinge of pink on the horizon of my head to the left of my eye...that's where the scalpel did its work.)
After scowling in the mirror for a few minutes, cursing Tribbles, and calling the Enterprise a garbage scow in my best Michael Pataki imitation, my instincts tell me this isn't the best look for me. The side tufts go, and no one will be offering me blood wine.
* "Trust your instincts" in Klingonese.
celebratoryWell, after working Friday and Saturday like mad, the "Fabulous Edition" of our short film "Secret Identity Crisis" is in the can. Director Scott Cummins was making tweaks to the edit and the sound in preparation for turning in a copy to the Portland Gay & Lebian Film Festival, where it will be screened on Suday the 21st.
My—self inflicted—job was to draw create new graphics for the opening and closing of the film. The original cut of the film made for the 48 Hour Film Project had a pseudo comic-book style image under the titles that then dissolved into the actual scene. That image, created by NEO f/x, was a crude digital processing job that looked enough like the newsprint image to sell the idea. However, when a similar image was tried for the last shot in the film for the final edition, the weakness of this approach became apparent. That, and the film was ending on a image of an empty room.
I was adamant that the images needed to be replaced because they didn't match each other stylistically, the looked like Photoshop work instead of a comic book, and the last shot should be the hand clasp, not the empty room when the characters leave.
So, starting Friday I processed frames of the film to punch up the contrast, printed them large, slapped them on a lightbox, traced the important contours, then threw the frame grabs aside, and went to town with pencil and pen and drew the images from scratch. Once that was done, I scanned them back into the computer, cleaned them up, then painted them in.
The building was a lot more work than the hands, just because there was a lot more inking, and I had to spend a lot more time figuring out how much detail was needed and what was too much.
Fortunately, Scott loved them, and they're in the final cut of the film. And now we have the right ending shot.
Whew!
A week from now I'll see it in a theater with an audience!
...and I did today, at the UCSF dermatology department, where I had a minor procedure to remove two (benign) spots of seborrheic keratoses from my scalp.
As they were removing it, one of the doctors commented, "It's very superficial", and I quipped, "Just like its owner."
Always after the laugh, that's me.
I got one.
