Last Week, part 1

On June 3rd, I began a week's vacation from my real job to work on my non-paying part-time job that, as times, can be a full time job.

After a few months of filming Star Trek: Operation Beta Sheild on various weekends (and occasional weekday) with the current cast from Hidden Frontier, the cast from Scotland's fan created series, Star Trek: Intrepid arrived to film their scenes for the feature-length epsiode.

Nick, Lucy, and Bobo (and Alex, though he was not playing his Intrepid character) filmed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both were very long days, starting at 9 am and ending on Tuesday just before ten and a little after 11 on Wednesday. Thursday turned out to the longest, with filming on various scenes for OBS and our third spin-off, Federation One.

Becky came down from Seattle to film her scenes as Vindenpawl, the leader on Vrijheid. Becky Woods is a brilliant actress, having played three very important (and different) roles during Hidden Frontier's seven season run. Her return as the beguiling leader of Vrijheid who is thrust into the limelight she likes, is a true test for an actress. The fact that she's returning to the LA area next year fill me with happiness.

Anyways, we finished just before midnight. And I was happy it was over. I was tired. During that 72 hour period, I probably slept about 12 hours. I'm a lite sleeper, and never been one of those people who can sleep anywhere they lay their hat, so I more or less cat slept then any actual deep, sound sleeping.

Plus, during those three days, various fans from around the US came to the studio in preparation for the up coming Excelsior Ball III to be held at the LAX Raddison Hotel on the 6, 7 and 8th of June. Some helped out during the shot, Donald and Ryan both handling slating, while Chris ran tape.

Some just sat around the studio's talking to various members most only know from the weekly chats.

Anywho, I got home at 1:05 am on Thursday/Friday and quicky went to sleep. However, sad as it may seem, I was up at 6am. Don't know why -beyond that being the usual time I would get up if I was working on a Friday - but I could not dfall back to sleep.

So, I got up, and sat in front of the computer, checking email, looking at porn and, you know....

I had zero energy for most of the morning, and by the time the housemate got up to go to his adult porn show in LA, I finally decided I better get my ass in gear to actually go to the EB III convention.

I needed a shower, gas and money.

Oh, and more sleep. But sadly, again, the up coming EB III was not going to be hours filled with sleep.

To be continued...

Random Sunday

Sunday was the better day of the two weekends, but still a bit cool. We did get into the upper 60's with a light wind.

Anyways, had to got to Pasadena to film one pick-up shot for Helena Chronicles 1.02. I suppose I could've not gone, after all the director was there. But as usual, my sense of finishing my job over took the logic that it could've been handled without me. The AD job, at times, can be a little useless. Usually, you're ordering lunch and trying to keep the schedule moving.

Whene I got back, around noon, I did the dishes and decided to go bike riding. The sun was out and despite the coolness, I could not complain. Yesterday was such a bummer, so there.

Next Sunday, besides being the start of Daylight Savings, is also one of the longest shoots of year, as episode 4 of Odyssey's first season begins. As noted, I'm not doing anything with this episode, which fills me with some happiness, yet the feeling of not "being" there and missing things. I sense I will go there, but spend only a few hours there. I'll play that by ear, as the saying goes.

Speaking of Daylight Savings, I still feel odd starting it 3 weeks earlier than usual. Don't get me wrong, like most other people, I enjoy the extra hour of light, but dred the loss of that sleep. And I think the only people who really hate it, are the ones who need to be up super early. Hell, when I leave at 5:30 and see traffic, I'm amazed at how many people are up earlier than me.

People who get up at 7 or 8 to be at work at 9 really should not complain. But they do.

And for Midnight Roamer, Daylight Savings must be a pain in the ass.

Weekend Update

It was a busy weekend, one full of joy and honor and one filled with a little distrust and a growing sense that I may have to exit a fan series I simply still enjoy doing. Well, to a certain point.

Anyways, on Saturday I went to a buddhist memorial at Wat Thai (Los Angeles), located in North Hollywood. It was given for the mother of my friend JT, who passed in January. Of course, I knew nothing of what the monk said about JT's mother, but I was honored to be part of what was his mother's near final journey -her ashes have yet to be spread.

In what I hope was a big surprise to JT's family, especially his dad who still has issues with his gay son, that JT has huge group of friends. I would say more than 20 people -mostly people associated with Hidden Frontier - where there to support JT. Of course, there was Adam's parents (JT's boyfriend) but the majority was HF people.

Later, we had lunch with the monks. Well, they had lunch first, then us. All in all, I was very proud of JT and it made me happy that we could be here for him.

I spent the rest of the day with JT, going back to his place with Adam and Carlos, who's still working on their film, Judas Kiss, together. It was a very nice, but tiring day. I got home early enough to watch SNL, but as usual, I fell asleep before the first half-hour was up. I should've taped it.

Sunday was to be the final shoot on episode 2 of The Helena Chronicles. After recent events -JT's announcemnt that he was stepping down as producer and telling Rob of his personal feelings about HF Productions and a certain person - I was a bit worried that it would be a tense day.

It turned 0ut rather well, as everyone seemed to be extra nice to each other. Other than that bit of oddness, it was an easy day. After we wrapped, I watched the episode of Odyssey I directed, The Lotus Eaters, which comes out in chat on Wednesday and later in the week for general viewers. I'm not happy with it, but that's nobody's fault really. Rob did -as always - an excellent job of editing. Some how, he found all the right material to make the episode work.

It's fault, mostly, lies in what turned out to be the most diffcult scheduling I've yet expierenced with this fan series. Since December 1st, the schedule for ODY 1.03 and HC 1.02 where just a freakin' mess.

And as I said, yesterday was suppose to be the final shoot of HC 1.02, but a sick actress has caused it to be pushed until next Sunday. Of course, it's probably less than an hour, but I was looking forward to be far away from those studios next weekend. Sigh.

And thanks to JT, I'll not be the assistant director on ODY 1.04, which begins on March 9. I plan to spend little time there during its production, just to relax before work begins on Operation Beta Shield (which, I agree with Carlos, is a dumb title) in April/May.

Missed the first 2 hours of the Oscars, but for the first time in years, I could care less.

Lotus Eaters wrap. Finally

We finally wrapped production on my episode for Star Trek: Odyssey. After what has been the most difficult shoots ever (at least according to Rob), The Lotus Eaters is in the can. We filmed all day yesterday, ending with an outside shoot in the studios back yard. But, as usual, the dogs next door caused havoc. After finishing, we had to have the actors do ADR work. Today, I went back to film the last couple of bits with Melodee, and saw some of the footage of the backyard shoot. Rob had applied some of the ADR, but as he said, it was rough and would need to be cleaned up.

Work, thus, will continue on The Helena Chronicles in two weeks, though we have rare Wednesday night shoot to film stuff for JT, who could not be there for filming in January due to the passing of his mother back in Illinois. The February 16 shoot is a heavey day, though. Plus there will be one additional day of filming on HC 1.02 on Sunday, February 24.

Then, filming begins on 1.04 of Odyssey on March 9, a Sunday (all of those shoots happen on a Sunday, which for my old bones, I hate). Rob has already pointed out that I might want to take March 10th off from work, because the first day of this episode has a schedule that runs until 11pm!

And we know that the schedule stopped time is always never met.

After that, filming will begin on Operation Beta Shield, the crossover movie with the our Scottish cousins, Star Trek: Intrepid. All the work that will happen in April and May will be the stuff that does not include the Intrepid cast. Filming with them will take up the first week of June, followed by Excelsior Ball III.

This and nothing

For some reasons, even though I lived alone for over a decade, when Bill is gone for a few days, this place is kind of creepy. I cannot put my finger on how or why, but I just feel weird being here all by myself. And its not like I feel the place has anything wrong with it, no ghosts or what not. And as long as there's no earthquake, this house does not shift or may odd noises.

When the avacado tree was up inbetween the two houses, you would occasionally here the thump , and then the quick role of them as they fell off their branch. But while at times that could be a bit disconcerting, it was never scary.

My cold, by the way, seems to be on the way out. At least I hope. I started feeling hinky on 12/31, and now its the 9th. So, about average length for me. On the scale of colds, this was rather mild. So, I got nothing to complain about. Still, I should be cautious, as we keeping passing this bug around like Halloween candy at work.

Quiet day, week, month so far. Filming continues on The Helena Chronicles 1.02 this Saturday -which may turn out to be a long day. But the good part: it should be warm and sunny. Temps in the 70's in January. Got to love California just for this.

Went and looked at a new bike today. I think I found what I want, now I got to figure out how to pay for it. Well, out of the $500 for it, $250 is covered by Bill's Christmas giftcard to me and the 50 bucks Mom and Dad sent to me.

I'm going to buy it, I guess. Just got to figure out how to pay off the balance.

Oh well, that's the way the world goes.

Star Trek Odyssey trailer with Italian subtitles

Star Trek: Odyssey - Opening Credits

Star Trek: Odyssey

So, here's the opening credits to the fan produced webseries that I work on. The first episode, Illad, is nearly finished.

It's Hour Come Round At Last

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier

Here it is, the final HF episode.

For 14 months, I worked behind the scenes of this online series, helping out when and where I could; eventually becoming an assistant director and then was able to helm the penultimate story, The Center Cannot Hold.

In this time, I've meet some of the nicest people you could ever see, and I have made some dear friends. As a crew, everyone works as a team and as an extended family. I cherish them as I would gold or diamonds. And they are honorable and odd, and that is a great combination.

To all of the cast and crew, I salute you, and love you and will hold you all in the palm of my hand and show the world that there are people who understand that some dreams can come true.

Bobby Rice

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier's Bobby Rice

My Hidden Frontier Family

From left to right:
Top:
Andrew, Beo, Rob and Beau
Bottom:
me, Tim, Adam and JayTee

Hidden Frontier, the series finale wraps on Saturday

I must admit, that I'm approaching tomorrow's final shoot for Hidden Frontier a bit sadly. While it's only been a year that I've been associated with Rob and the cast and crew of the this online series, I feel that I've made the best friends anyone could ask for. And its like the last day of High School or college, while you say "see you soon", deep down you know that this will probably the last time you see them.

Oh, there is another project in the works, one in which I'll be associated with, but there is still a good chance that I'll see very little of the people I've grwon to love and respect. And that fills me with sadness.

But it has been fun, I've learned so much and yet it seems impossible that all ends after Rob calls cut tomorrow afternoon.

I wonder what he feels, beyond the sense that he'll have time to relax with man he loves for a while, before the next project gets underway.

Anyway, while tommorow is the final shoot day, we still have one brief scene to film, and that'll take place at the end of April, at UC Irving. Then its onto EB2.

Engage.