Winter's last gasp

The weekend brought a reminder that it's still -somewhat - winter here in SolCal. While yesterday was a nice, if cool day, by late afternoon it began to rain. I was in Pasadena, at the studio, at a production meeting for the upcoming feature-length crossover episode Operation Beta Shield when it started to rain.

And, hail and thunderstorm. Both very rare here. Being up in the hills, somewhat, causes this, but it still was interesting. Anyways, got what we needed to get done, including seeing the schedule.

Due to some actors availability, we'll be shooting two days during the week. Both are suppose to be done by 11pm, which is when I'm suppose to be in bed because I'm up at 5. But we'll see how it plays out.

The rest are on Saturday until the three day shoot in June. I'm taking the week off, so no problem there. Plus, one of the three days of those June shoots includes beginning work on the next project linked to Odyssey and The Helena Chronicles.

Anyway, today has been cloudy, a bit breezy and cool. It's 60 now, and I don't think it got much higher than 65. Just a reminder, that while winter is almost over, its still winter none the less.

The pics above are of the clouds above my house. I thought they were interesting. Of course, I'm under no illusion anyone else will find the interesting.

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.

Boring Saturday

After 3 weekend of working on ODY/HC and other things, I've have a weekend to myself. And I'll be damned if I'm not bored out of my mind. Granted, today was crappy weather day, which is just ironic, but I'll let that pass.

Still, got a bit time reading over at Starbucks and got caught up on all four episodes of Torchwood I'ved DVR'd. So yea.

It's funny, really. Kind of missed not working over at Rob's, even though I bitched about working too much there. On Wednesday, The Lotus Eaters, the third episode of Odyssey was released in the chat room. This is the first episode I've directed for this show, and while I'm satisfied with it, I'm not completley happy with it.

The writing was fine, and Rob's editing really saved it, but I felt something was a bit wonky with it, as it featured way too much exposition and not enough clear explanation as to the main plot. The good thing that came out of this was seeing Brandon and Michelle work together. They have great chemistry and it comes across when they're on the screen together.

And Brandon, completing his second episode as Ro, seems to be settling in very nicley. He seems more confident and relaxed. So, with the exception of an actor, the acting of the others -including the secondary cast members -were better.

The Lotus Eaters should be out for general release sometime next week. In the meantime, production on 1.04 begins in a week. I'm not working on the episode too much, and will be the first time in 2 years I've not worked on an episode, but that was my choice.

Now, BTW, I've got a headache.

Crap

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.

Whirlwinded

There was a point in yesterday's shoot, that I wanted to leave and just chuck it all into the drink. I felt drained and stepped upon. Most of it had to do with not being able to shoot on location as planned, due to the rain that saturated the area starting on Friday. Thus, by default, the studio became a caged pen for me; locked in and tied down.

Then came the skills of certain actors who could not remember their lines. I would grant you that most actors have trouble with the techno-babble of Trek, but some just choose to remember some and hope to bluff their way through the rest.

And that, in my opinion is what causes most of our delays (the ironic part, maybe, is that even if the day was sunny, with all the blown lines, we might've run out of light to film). I can accept lighting issues, but topped that with the actors line issues, and we got a long ass day.

Still, that being said, I'm hopeful Rob will find good performances. Brandon was great, settleing nicely into his role as Ro. I have some serious worries that we'll have issues with him when it comes to Ro's sexuality, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Michelle, of course, was brilliant as well as our guest-actress, Melodee. She is a find, which is why after filming on Odyssey's Lotus Eaters episode, she'll pop-up in the next Helena Chronicles episode we film on 2/16.

When we wrap this coming Saturday on 1.03, it should be another year before I can get behind the camera again as director. At this point, I'll probably helm the second season opener of The Helena Chronicles.

But, unlike yesterday, I know this last shoot of The Lotus Eaters will go long. But, I'll have all of Sunday to recover.