Dang it. I meant our latest ./shutdown video blog got an HONOR on YouTube. Our first. I learned how to play Ballad of Serenity on guitar too
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Michelle “Kenobi” Osorio: Blogging since 2000
Technology, film, music, dance and all things geek!
Browsing in Filmmaking
./shutdown “Ballad of Serenity on Nintendo DS” got a “most viewed today” honr on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjOuh5RJpj8
Very productive weekend! Held rehearsals for ./shutdown episode 4 as well as took a trip to Los Angeles. I got fitted for a corset with Simone. Then I got to visit my talented friend, Café Noir, aka Michael Jones Everett.
Michelle+Café. Reverse MySpace picture? Mirror behind us!
Café’s new 50s retro lamp hanging by Bondage-looking chain.
He showed me some of his latest visual effects work such as the new Resident Evil trailer (titles) and Wall-E. Pretty sweet. It was a busy weekend, but fun. I ended it by staying home and watching Firefly on DVD with David, Cris and Ben from the ./shutdown crew. We also played some Guitar Hero and watched some not-for-children Anime DVDs if you know what I mean. It was mostly comical though.
Just completed the third draft of the ./shutdown episode 4 script. I’m pretty happy with it now. Going back to David for review.
Well, ./shutdown episode 3 production is wrapped and booooy are my arms tired! Wakka wakka wakka! 
We had a full schedule Saturday and Sunday. Saturday consisted of wardrobe shopping with Timothy/Chaz. Then I went location scouting with production manager Cris and actor Mattzog in Zog’s neighborhood. It was pretty hectic, so I’m thankful for having Twitter to update the blog. I also sent snapshots to my Facebook Mobile Uploads Album. Technology is so sweet. It amazes me that the next generation will not remember a time when regular people did not have Internet! Zoiks! Gone are my days of chatting on Compuserve and heated debates on Yahoo Star Wars chat. Though I do stop in to say hi to “the regs” once in awhile. But, I digress, homeslices.
Saturday concluded with a shoot at Morbotech for a brief scene with Ben, as pictured here. It was a very small shoot with only Cris and myself serving as crew. Despite our human resource
deficiency, we finished ahead of schedule and even had time to have a nice dinner at P.F. Chang’s with Writer/Producer David Gonzalez. Oh man, you gotta have the Oolong Sea Bass at Chang’s. To die for! Seriously! Okay, well not seriously. I wouldn’t actually be willing to die in exchange for getting to eat Oolon Sea Bass one last time. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Caturday! So, I went home and planned out the next day’s shooting schedule while David and Ben played Expert-level Guitar Hero II on our XBOX 360.
Who are the mystery men in ./shutdown episode 3? You’ll
have to watch late September to find out… Okay, well actually
it’s Chaz and Zedd… like you’ve never seen them before!
Sunday was all outdoor production. We had scouted a bus stop and some nice looking streets in Zog’s neighborhood the day before so transportation (walking/driving) went smoothly. Tim and Ben were dressed ridiculously (you’ll have watch to find out why)!The reaction of passersby was high-larious. One lady even came out of her house and started taking pictures of them like paparazzi. The boys handled it well. And by well, I mean they totally ignored her. Another guy came up behind us and said “hi” then proceeded to stand over our shoulders for 5 minutes. Finally he got bored and left.
The best part was that there was a church across the street (and it was a Sunday morning) at the bus stop location for a particularly rowdy shot. You can imagine the
stares we were getting as people were heading into the place. Ben, and especially Tim were good sports about it though. I am also really thankful for our wonderful background actors. It ain’t no hooey when I say their attentiveness, cooperation and pleasantness made what could have been a nightmare shoot actually really fun! I mean, we were outdoors on the street with sound issues up the wazoo, changing weather, multiple locations and yet we got all our shots ahead of schedule! High five to Brian, Jason, Aaron, Andrew, Buzz and Jon for being the raddest background actors ever. And Adam, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry you couldn’t find us, but I assure you that we have a big need for extras in ./shutdown episode 4.
Okay, I’m exhausted so I will talk to y’all laters! If you have questions/comments about the show, please remember to sign up and post at the ./shutdown forums!
Is it not a cinematic masterpiece? I just watched portions of the DVD as research for some homages I plan to make (again) in ./shutdown. I’m shooting some episode 3 scenes tomorrow, and I needed to review to make sure I had certain parts down pat. Okay, better get to bed. I’ll only be getting 5 hours of sleep before the shoot. Normally, that’s enough to be thankful for. However, we’re shooting entirely outdoors tomorrow, with extras. It will be pretty taxing, so I am off to bed!
I’m going to a 9am wardrobe meeting with Tim, who plays Chaz in ./shutdown. I’ll be taping it on our little HD camcorder, if I have the energy. Then I’m location scouting in the afternoon with our unit production manager, Cris. Finally, we’re off to DivX in the evening to shoot a scene for episode 3 with Ben, who plays Zedd.
Sunday, we’ll be shooting entirely outdoors in Mattzog’s neighborhood. Zog, who plays Simon, will be helping on crew that day.
I’ll be using my cell phone to update to Twitter, which will automatically cause it to post here. Go micro-blogging! Also, check out my Facebook Mobile Uploads Album. That album is public, so you don’t need a Facebook account. You can see any of my latest photos taken off my Blackberry Pearl and sent to the Facebook photos application.
For example: some of the cast/crew relaxing in between set-ups.
I took it with my Pearl while at Comics N’ Stuff in El Cajon.
I love technology…
<3<3<3
Actually, ./shutdown episode 2 been online since Tuesday, but I was waiting till we embedded it in both Flash and DivX formats. If you didn’t know, I am currently directing a new web series called ./shutdown. It’s a comedy about geeks, by geeks, for geeks. It’s a continuous story (not sketches) about Simon, Zedd, Hally and Chaz, a group of IT people who live their life around video games, comic books, etc.
I just realized I never posted that episode 1 was out either. How lame is that? I was actually so busy shooting at Comic-Con immediately after episode 1 release that I think I forgot to make a blog post. Anyway, don’t forget to watch episode 1 first.
Here’s the Episode 2 summary:
Simon and Zedd try to figure out the truth behind the new girl. Chaz is introduced to Dungeons and Dragons table-top.
Featuring guest appearences by Gamer Girl TV’s Eric Joseph, and TheatreSports improv queen, Barbara Thomason.
Visit the new forums at the official ./shutdown site!
Watch Episode 2: The Truth About Hally now at shutdowntv.com!
If you like it, please let us know by commenting anywhere it’s posted, but preferably on our forums cause it’s hard to keep up everywhere else. If you’d like to support the show, please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube and Stage6 channels and comment and rate! We need your support!
Watch Episode 1: The New Girl while you’re at it…
Okay, that’s enough posts for one day. I’m all blogged out. Have you noticed my Twitter updates now show up on this blog? Oh, how I love you, Twitter Tools! Oh, and one last thing. I’m thinking of starting a video blog. It would be part production diary for ./shutdown and other directing projects. I’m thinking the other half could just be commentary on the latest in entertainment/filmmaking news and any other silly thing that comes to mind. We’ll see if I can manage the time to pull it off.
Article: Music videos go lo-fi as cash dries up
Found this report fascinating. Music video budgets are shrinking, while more home-made style videos are rising in popularity thanks to the YouTube effect.
“The business is changing radically. It does feel smaller, cheaper,” says veteran music video director Samuel Bayer, whose many clips include Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Blind Melon’s “No Rain” and Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” which won six awards at the 2005 VMAs.
Later…
“I said, `We gotta go big,’” says Bayer. “`If I’m going up against an OK Go video with four guys on a treadmill that plays millions of times on YouTube, how can I do something that is the opposite of that?’”
So… tired… Third day straight of editing. Finally had to go to bed at 3am this morning because I got a nasty cramp in my back and the excess caffeine was causing me to start shaking. Not pretty.
Anyway, it will all be worth it soon enough! Once episode 2 releases tomorrow, I can sleep! I really need to get back to the gym too. Haven’t been there since Wednesday. Starting to feel it too…