I knew I
wouldn't be able to handle it. So much would happen
with the first shoot, that my original plan of the
first 2 TVs being "Part 3" would go right out the
window, and I'd do an indiviudal entry for each
character. So it's a 7 part series instead of 5. Which
is better anyway, 'cause the seventh game is always
the SHIZnit. Damnit, I still gots a little G-DAWG
stuck in me from last nizight. Heh.
Well after
I sent my last entry...and I mean
RIGHT after. Like I hit SEND, and the phone
rings. "Adam, the guy with the lights got confused
with the dates and can't give us the lights until the
7th."
(sigh)
I should've known
not to say we were shooting tomorrow. But what could
you do. All these delays...so what was one more day.
At least we had them for tomorrow....
So Charlotte
drives over there - actually calling me from her car
and saying she's finally excited about this. She's
been dealing with all of the technical shit as have I,
and to know this was actually the DAY - just felt
awesome. Except the lighting guy...he wasn't there. He
was in San Diego until 1. Good GOD. Ok, we're getting
smaller!!! 3 weeks, a few days, one day...3 1/2 HOURS.
I can handle that delay. Except 1 oclock rolled
around, 2....3....4....finally at 5 Charlotte quit
waiting and went home. What THE HELL.
Dear Murphy,
Please fuckin'
stop RIGHT NOW. I can't deal with your laws ANY
MORE. Essentially - EVERYTHING in the world can
go wrong my brotha...but not every second. Some shit
in this world does HAVE to get done. So can you gimme
a break? I do deserve it...
Charlotte gets a
call around 6 PM and the guy is almost in town. He's
early he says. Apparently his wife speaks german,
chick who told Charlotte 1, and didn't catch on that
we work on an AM/PM system here. LOL. 1 AM was
when he was due back. What's funny is Charlotte said
she'd chill at her office until then (this being at
9:30 AM) - and his wife said "OK". HAHAHA. As if 15
1/2 hours is a reasonable time to sit in an office and
wait. WHATEVER.
So the shoot
Saturday was completely blown, but we could at least
set some things up and make save some time for Sunday.
That we did, and saved ourselves nearly 3 hours. So
the day we shoot the first TV is....
Sunday, July
8th - Top Left - "Gary"
And we did it...It
took over 12 hours, but the first TV is complete.
GARY (G) IS FINISHED. HOLY HORSESHIT!!!
My braids are OUT! We're on to TV #2!
THANK YOU SWEET LORD!
I actually thought
it would take a couple of hours once we set up. My
lord I was so wrong. Murphy reared it's head once
again, screwing up the audio portion ROYALLY.
I mean - getting RADIO signals on your mic?
HOW THE HELL does that happen? I think
I fixed it, but we may end up using the camera on
the mic...have to compare eveything and see. As well
we're both just perfectionists. But truly in a good
way. Charlotte's first couple of comments were quite
dead-on. I felt like they were what I would've
said, had I been watching myself which is such a
great feeling. There were also quite a few things
I NEVER would've thought about, that really made
it shine. And the hours, just kept flying by... 12
hours? Daaaammn...
It's really just
amazing to me how much I prepared for this shoot,
after the script was DONE, yet it still took that long
to do a few tiny scenes. Oh well....it's good to know
that that was easily one of the hardest. The others
will be harder because there will be less and less
room for error when it comes to saying my lines. The
first guy you can be a bit off, since the others will
be playing TO those lines. But when we get to the
3rd and 4th tvs...whew. I gotta be DEAD-ON. It gets a
bit tricky, but THAT I can prepare for ahead
of time. It's the technical stuff that is always a
concern. Man, I cannot wait until the day that
I get to walk onto a set, and worry only about my
performance. The thought of that is mind boggling. The
audio doesn't work right? I'll be in my trailer - LOL.
HAHAHAHA. Heh, OK.
Then the
quintessential fuck-up in all VIDEO shoots: Taping
over something. Son of a bitch. Well as you may
already know with consumer cameras if you just leave
it on and don't record anything, it'll shut itself
off. Needless to say this is quite fucking aggrivating
when you're trying to set up shots, and watching the
screen on the monitor. Half my time is spent turning
the camera off and on. Well guess what happens when
you do that? (AND I KNEW THIS)...the
tape rewinds just a bit. Well if you do it about 20
times, your tape could easily have rewound up to 40
seconds. And we completely erased the end of a REALLY
difficult section. Nothin' to do but do it over, and
then leave minutes upon minutes of space at the
beginning and end of each take. Live and
learn.
So onto what you
really care about, a few sneak peeks at what we did.
I must tell you though, these will kind've be
spoilers for you. Then again, the MAJORITY of you will
not be able to see this show, so it doesn't really
matter. But for anyone planning to fly out to LA
sometime in the next year - these pics and video will
ruin some tiny suprises. I feel like I'm a "Star
Wars" website for Episode II. LOL.
G stylin'
at the beginning...
G stylin'
in his chosen threads...
G as a
Backstreet Boy...
G beatin'
Adam down with his
rap...BLING BLING!
The coolest part
about those 4 pictures, is that you can now start to
see just how difficult this has been. Not only are
there 5 seperate and completely individual
characters...each character has seperate looks. And
what's funny, is none of these pictures show what G is
SUPPOSED to look like as a member of The Trinitrons.
I hate to say much more without giving away the
plotlines, but basically these "looks" are a complete
suprise to the audience at each juncture of the show.
Then again you all knew I was in cornrows
already, so I consider you "insiders". The people that
NEED to be suprised couldn't give two shits about
4tvs.com right now, so as G would say: "It's all
good".
So finally at 9:30
PM I got to say those three beautiful words: "That's a
rap". Marshall's fiance came by and took some promo
shots of G for the website and flyers, and G was
history. I was gonna keep the cornrows and everything
until I checked every ounce of footage, but I
noticed some rather big WELTS at the base of my skull
from my cornrows being too tight, and we made the call
to take them out ASAP so they could heal before
I get my hair lightened for DEWEY. Besides
hurting like hell, my hair could just give me the bird
and FALL OUT. And that would be BAD. Actually a
good deal of hair DID fall out. The most hair
I've ever had fall out in the shower in my
life...every time I ran my hnads through it, they'd be
filled with hair - kinda scary. That GODDAMN hair
chick. The lady who put my cornrows in was having
quite a good time showing the "white boy" who'd never
had his hair braided, just how tight she could make
'em. It was so bad that the next day I was actually on
prescription Ibuprofen just to handle the pain. Then
to find welts under my hair - jesus. Mostly right in
the back , but my whole head was in bad shape.
I shall NEVER...EVER do that again. Well,
unless a part calls for it. LOL. I've never had a
problem killing myself for a part. I'd even gain the
50 pounds back if something called for it.
I really love the intensity within a project.
Doing all you can to make even the minute details
shine. Shit most people will never know or see - just
adds to the MAGIC.
And for the MAGIC
Part 2 - we have Dewey. My eyebrows will be waxed, my
hair will be lightened, my beard will be shaved, and
my attitude OH so different. The true "stoner" of the
group. If I had to make a guess, here would be the
remaining schedule:
Wednesday,
July 11th - Bottom Left - "Dewey"
Sunday, July
22nd - Top Right - "Cameron"
Wednesday,
July 25th - Bottom Right - "Spencer"
Of course a delay
in one, will mean a delay in the others as I have to
grow back my facial hair after Dewey. I feel a bit
better about everything now though. Getting that first
one under your belt is just such an incredible
relief.
So I
leave you with a very nice
video
peek
at G's TV, and direct my thoughts to
Dewey.
