"15 Eyes" is being shelved for now. It was impossible to avoid bloodshed with Izzy Lawson on such a project, as apparently 20 minutes actually means 30 minutes and 30 minutes is too long a movie.
The new debut production for the company is a teaser trailer for "Megabyte", a TV series about video game designers who must stop one of their creations from bringing about the end of civilization. Who knows if we will ever get the funding to make the actual series, but a trailer is a good start. The concept has been done several times before (i.e. "Ace Lightning"), but if we do end up producing the series, how we roll with the concept will no doubt generate interest ... I'm thinking it's one of those shows with a cult fandom.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Another Year
Here I sit wondering whether a blog for my company was a good idea on top of everything else I have to do. I am not a blogger by nature .... very rarely do I have something prepared to spew out in text for all the world to see (or not see, of course), because it takes so damn long for my thoughts to click into place and form a speech I feel satisfied with.
Life is non-fiction. If there's one thing I suck at writing, it's non-fiction. And that makes sense, because:
"You can't just create fiction, and let it replace your reality. If you want something to happen, don't imagine it, just do it." - musician / philosopher Susan Waycik
That's the mantra I live by. I can't spend hours and hours explaining to people what I'm working on. I show them instead. Or at least I try.
Dropping this barely-breathing blog like a hot potato, however, is an entirely different story.
Life is non-fiction. If there's one thing I suck at writing, it's non-fiction. And that makes sense, because:
"You can't just create fiction, and let it replace your reality. If you want something to happen, don't imagine it, just do it." - musician / philosopher Susan Waycik
That's the mantra I live by. I can't spend hours and hours explaining to people what I'm working on. I show them instead. Or at least I try.
Dropping this barely-breathing blog like a hot potato, however, is an entirely different story.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Oh yes, other members added ...
Laura Del Papa is the group's new leading actress. Danilo Miljevic, Jacob Boose and Cody Mcgrattan will be extras and crew members.
Backup plan
Because "15 Eyes" has become far too ambitious a project to fit between the second semester's school workload, I have devised a better, less epic debut.
It used to be that when it comes to weddings, the bride and the groom were the only subjects fit for cinema. Judd Apatow's Bridesmaids changed that.
For "Here Comes the Wait", Sezar Salad Hashbrown will focus on the people least likely to be of interest to anyone at all: the random people in the pews who are just watching the whole wedding unfold. However, it is these people that hold the greatest opportunity for comedy and drama because as third-person observers, they subsonciously (rarely consciously) project themselves onto the ceremony, and each wedding guest sees the married-couple-to-be in an extremely unique way.
Instead of taking the whole of February and March 2012 to attempt all of the shooting required for "15 Eyes", "Here Comes the Wait" will be filmed somewhere in that period in (hopefully) a single weekend. "15 Eyes" filming will be postponed until at least May 2012.
It used to be that when it comes to weddings, the bride and the groom were the only subjects fit for cinema. Judd Apatow's Bridesmaids changed that.
For "Here Comes the Wait", Sezar Salad Hashbrown will focus on the people least likely to be of interest to anyone at all: the random people in the pews who are just watching the whole wedding unfold. However, it is these people that hold the greatest opportunity for comedy and drama because as third-person observers, they subsonciously (rarely consciously) project themselves onto the ceremony, and each wedding guest sees the married-couple-to-be in an extremely unique way.
Instead of taking the whole of February and March 2012 to attempt all of the shooting required for "15 Eyes", "Here Comes the Wait" will be filmed somewhere in that period in (hopefully) a single weekend. "15 Eyes" filming will be postponed until at least May 2012.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Limbo
Beyond the title, there isn't anything of substance I can say. "15 Eyes" is quite simply and unequivocally in limbo while the people attached to the project recuperate from a very chaotic term at Sheridan.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Chaplin & Keaton
CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Bowler hat, thick eyebrows, tiny mustache, bamboo cane, tight-fitting jacket, oversized pants, oversized shoes
Easy Street (1917): The film is 22 minutes long. The plot: short, skinny bum gets hired as policeman, gets sent to restore law on Easy Street, matches wits with 8-foot-tall troublemaker. The jokes in Easy Street are side-splitting and arranged in the perfect order, and they continue to inspire me when thinking about physical comedy. The best joke involves the use of a lamppost light in hand-to-hand combat. No, seriously.
The Gold Rush (1925): Of all the genius he used for all his films, Chaplin poured 98% of it into this hour-and-a-half thrill ride of a movie. In 1890s Alaska, an endearingly clumsy prospector (Chaplin) drifts into uncharted Arctic territory and finds himself sharing an isolated cabin with an equally goofy gold-digger (Mack Swain) and a cutthroat fugitive (Tom Murray). A love interest (Georgia Hale) shows up for Chaplin later on.
No other work by Chaplin can better prove his talent. The Kid (1921), his feature-length debut, was weighed down too much with scentimentality, and forgot the humor. The short subjects he made before that were really really funny, but they lacked heart. Gold Rush blends comedy and emotion with enviable ease. The cabin material all has a well-deserved place in comedy history: Swain & Murray wrestling with the rifle (and Chaplin dodging the barrel), the shoelace dinner, the jumbo-chicken hallucination, the dancing pastries, and (in the finale) a snowstorm that places the cabin halfway off the edge of a cliff. This material is interwoven with the time Chaplin spends in a Klondike village, and the complicated friendship that develops between him and Hale ... whose character proves to be one of the most intriguing female roles in silent cinema, lovable and unbearable at the same time.
Chaplin was married to Hale during filming. Chaplin ended up married to most of his female co-stars throughout his career. And he had MANY female co-stars.
BUSTER KEATON
Porkpie hat, baggy emotionless eyes, persistent frown, dorky striped suit
Cops (1922): At a length of 17 minutes, Cops is nevertheless the definitive Keaton masterpiece. Picture a day where everything in your life goes wrong. What you just pictured probably pales in comparison to the events in Cops. And the worst part is that Keaton, playing a regular guy setting out to impress his girlfriend with some business skill, fails to notice the snowball effect of bad things happening .... that is until the ENTIRE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT starts chasing him for no good reason. The super-fast, super-loony chase scene is crammed with brilliance. The punchline that resolves the chase is a pure assault on the funny bone, followed by a last-minute twist of fate that is completely heartbreaking.
Keaton based Cops on the tragic final years lived by his close friend Fatty Arbuckle, a former comedy superstar. The shit that happened to Arbuckle is historical proof that the life of a celebrity should NOT be envied.
The General (1927): What can I say about General? Misunderstandings. Wheel rides. Cannonballs. Bear traps. Train wrecks.
General has no heart whatsoever, despite its insistence on mixing in heavy levels of drama and seriousness. The parts of this film you NEED to see are the jokes, because let me tell you something, there are only so many train jokes that can be done, and Keaton did all of them. All of them.
The setting for General is the American Civil War, with the Southern side portrayed as the victorious heroes. Even though the Union won! Also, when this film was first released, the Civil War was still a relatively recent event. So, not too surprisingly, audiences turned their noses, and within a few years Keaton found his career reduced to ashes.
Bowler hat, thick eyebrows, tiny mustache, bamboo cane, tight-fitting jacket, oversized pants, oversized shoes
Easy Street (1917): The film is 22 minutes long. The plot: short, skinny bum gets hired as policeman, gets sent to restore law on Easy Street, matches wits with 8-foot-tall troublemaker. The jokes in Easy Street are side-splitting and arranged in the perfect order, and they continue to inspire me when thinking about physical comedy. The best joke involves the use of a lamppost light in hand-to-hand combat. No, seriously.
The Gold Rush (1925): Of all the genius he used for all his films, Chaplin poured 98% of it into this hour-and-a-half thrill ride of a movie. In 1890s Alaska, an endearingly clumsy prospector (Chaplin) drifts into uncharted Arctic territory and finds himself sharing an isolated cabin with an equally goofy gold-digger (Mack Swain) and a cutthroat fugitive (Tom Murray). A love interest (Georgia Hale) shows up for Chaplin later on.
No other work by Chaplin can better prove his talent. The Kid (1921), his feature-length debut, was weighed down too much with scentimentality, and forgot the humor. The short subjects he made before that were really really funny, but they lacked heart. Gold Rush blends comedy and emotion with enviable ease. The cabin material all has a well-deserved place in comedy history: Swain & Murray wrestling with the rifle (and Chaplin dodging the barrel), the shoelace dinner, the jumbo-chicken hallucination, the dancing pastries, and (in the finale) a snowstorm that places the cabin halfway off the edge of a cliff. This material is interwoven with the time Chaplin spends in a Klondike village, and the complicated friendship that develops between him and Hale ... whose character proves to be one of the most intriguing female roles in silent cinema, lovable and unbearable at the same time.
Chaplin was married to Hale during filming. Chaplin ended up married to most of his female co-stars throughout his career. And he had MANY female co-stars.
BUSTER KEATON
Porkpie hat, baggy emotionless eyes, persistent frown, dorky striped suit
Cops (1922): At a length of 17 minutes, Cops is nevertheless the definitive Keaton masterpiece. Picture a day where everything in your life goes wrong. What you just pictured probably pales in comparison to the events in Cops. And the worst part is that Keaton, playing a regular guy setting out to impress his girlfriend with some business skill, fails to notice the snowball effect of bad things happening .... that is until the ENTIRE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT starts chasing him for no good reason. The super-fast, super-loony chase scene is crammed with brilliance. The punchline that resolves the chase is a pure assault on the funny bone, followed by a last-minute twist of fate that is completely heartbreaking.
Keaton based Cops on the tragic final years lived by his close friend Fatty Arbuckle, a former comedy superstar. The shit that happened to Arbuckle is historical proof that the life of a celebrity should NOT be envied.
The General (1927): What can I say about General? Misunderstandings. Wheel rides. Cannonballs. Bear traps. Train wrecks.
General has no heart whatsoever, despite its insistence on mixing in heavy levels of drama and seriousness. The parts of this film you NEED to see are the jokes, because let me tell you something, there are only so many train jokes that can be done, and Keaton did all of them. All of them.
The setting for General is the American Civil War, with the Southern side portrayed as the victorious heroes. Even though the Union won! Also, when this film was first released, the Civil War was still a relatively recent event. So, not too surprisingly, audiences turned their noses, and within a few years Keaton found his career reduced to ashes.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
New Sezar Salad Members
New members of the team include Adam Turgeon (who will be playing Travis Green in the upcoming 15 Eyes), Bohdan Onushko (who will play Mr. Mort), and Izzy Lawson (who will take charge of cameras and lighting).
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