"Hey A.J.?" I said as we stood on set the first day with almost half a million dollars of technology and equipment around us, cables everywhere, and lots and lots of little lights blinking... "How do you like the view from up there?"
"From where?" he asked in return.
"The cutting edge" I said with a smirk.
After two years of playing World of Warcraft and being the first Warlock in my guild to achieve level 80, I thought it was time to put down the staff and actually do something worthwhile.
That's when I said, "That's too easy" and made a movie instead.
What really happened is that one day I had an idea to tell the truth. People are usually tortured or put to death for that, but I figured, hey... I've survived the entertainment industry for ten years, God-knows how much back-stabbing and of course, the Bush Administration, so... why not?
I debated how I was going to do it, so I asked Jolene Kay (the brilliant writer and actress), about it and she recommended I do it through the comedic device of sketch comedy. She was right, of course. I mean let's face it, if we just sat there on camera and spouted verbatim what it was like to work in movies, one of two things would happen: A) You'd either be bored out of your mind and stop watching, or B) You'd be so appaled by what really takes place that you'd demand change and that people be accountable for their actions, you might even let Director's make movies again instead of studios and let's face it... we just can't have that. After all, if we did, you might start seeing quality entertainment being made again, and we all know what would happen if that came to pass... pure anarchy: People being nice to each other, the economy flourishing, the cost of living actually being reasonable and "Firefly" and "Farscape" back on the air for a guaranteed minimum five seasons.
Jolene stepped in as co-writer and took my ideas and helped refine them into these brilliant skits whose foundations lay in actual reality. Her magical touch has helped bring this movie alive and her work on set as the Assistant Director, an actress, and a writer, was truly phenomenal.
We assembled our team of really talented friends, actors, actresses and crew, and did something very few productions ever do... and finished on time.
Not only that, but I think it's very important to point out that our crew and cast are so awesome at what they do, that we shot and recorded 23 pages and over 106 shots in two days with quadruple digital backups and some sequences shot with 4/4/4 uncompressed greeen screen keying on location. If you're in the industry, those statistics speak for themselves, so there's no need to tell you that most Hollywood movies waste extraordinarily inordinate amounts of time and money and average only a half of a page to two pages a day.
I also want to give a very heartfelt thank you to our friends at E.L.S. and Panasonic for helping us shoot this baby literally on the afore mentioned cutting edge of technology. We were fortunate enough to shoot on Panasonic's latest brand new HD camera system and also use Philips latest lighting technology, the Color Kinetics system, an all L.E.D. series of lights that give off almost no heat and use only 300 watts of power for six light heads! They are at the forefront of environmentally conscious and forward thinking technology as well as an indication of what's to come, the new change in how all film and television will be lit soon and conserve energy in massive ways.
Finally, in case you're wondering which skits are based in reality... that's easy.
They all are. :-)