Costumes, More Dopplers and Ohio Boys

Warning: If you find yourself here via a google search for such things as TV shows or films, recipes or cities, this blog has some facts. However, this blog is one author’s very twisted musing on many weird things. It is sometimes graphic in content. If you read on, don’t write to yell at me.

Multi-Tasking

I’m even more distracted than usual doing this blog. I’m an hour late getting started, because I was processing photos from the great costume sojourn for the short films. I’m not nearly as technically savvy as the hubby, so figuring out how to remove red eye and other things took me a while. I’m also building a myspace page for Hidden Passion Films(HPF). The website is the official voice for the projects. The myspace is more for fans of the actors and romance novel fans to see the behind the scenes stuff. It’s the fun place. Again, not tecchy savvy, so everything takes longer for me. I’ve just finished uploading the first photos and blogs there. It’s a public site, so you don’t have to join myspace to visit. However, if you are a myspace member, please friend us for updates that may not make it to this blog.

Costume Fun

On Wednesday, we took the four leads of HPF to hunt for costumes at one of the larger costume houses in the area, Western Costume (not named for costuming westerns) click on the link and check out the film and galleries. For all costume photos, so to http://www.myspace.com/hiddenpassions and click on pic under the dime novel photo. As I said last week, they buy tons of leftover outfits and accessories in bulk from the studios then rent them to big and small productions for a great price. That day, we found costumes from Charlie Wilson’s War, and there is a whole aisle of costumes from Waterworld. Its a massive facility with aisles that go on and on. Each aisle has three tiers of racks stuffed with costumes. We’ve used it for the Privateers and other projects. Funny, this photo seems familiar – oh, it is. I still don’t like going up those ladders. That day, we were searching for authentic looking western era clothing for The Gunslinger, and I wanted to eliminate that costume house as a source of costumes for The Gift of Surrender (GoS). I had a feeling, I would do better finding fantasy costumes online. We had Jennifer Sparks (KD Delaney, the Gunslinger) the least amount of time, so we were all business finding her a frontier dress and a cowboy hat. A group of four guys nearly broke their necks (actually passed us then backed up in a group), to get a look at her. She’s nearly six feet tall and quite stunning. When Travis Willingham (Shadow Smith/Matt, the Gunslinger) arrived, David Matthiessen (Nikulainen, GoS) and Lisa Lee (Sarianna, GoS) were already trying on capes. Thus, we were all together when we reached the aisle of hats. Actors in an aisle full of all sorts of hats leads to only one thing – utter silliness. And the fun went on for a while. It was all we could do not to join them. Somehow, we managed to find all the costume pieces for Travis – save for the gun. I’m told that’s a prop, so we must look elsewhere. And we found amazing capes for both David and Lisa, but I wasn’t happy with the dresses, tunics and such. If I wanted cod pieces – there were plenty of those, but overall, online shopping is my best bet for GoS costumes.

As I write this, I’m searching for links to fantasy costumes and accessories and researching pet friendly motels in our shooting location. I’m also still looking for oil lamps. Ack!

More Doppler Fun

While we were doing all this running around, it’s been raining – hard. It’s been raining so much that the Doppler-crazed LA weather folks have calmed down into resignation. It’s actually been worse this week than when the storms first started, but the rain is routine for a while. Jon and are reminded of the Albert Hammond song ‘It Never Rains in Southern California.’ Seems it never rain in Southern California, Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before, It never rains in California, But girl, don't they warn ya, It pours man it pours. Before moving out here, we thought that was a metaphor. Nope, it was literal, man was it literal. I mean, the LA river actual water in it. Yes, it’s that big canal they had the drag race in Grease. Most of the year, one can walk in the LA river. Last night, not so much. Long story short, it’s been a chore getting around. I’m really tired.

Why Ohio Matters

And I don’t mean as a political belle weather. I’m talking about film. We’ve often said that we know we have a good script concept if our Ohio friends like it. They are the middle America, all American guys that big studios covet. I bring this up because of the great debate over Cloverfield. Though I wasn’t interested in the concept, Jon was jazzed as an experimental film maker. It was a refreshing, bold take on the old monster movie. There was huge buzz and huge box office the opening weekend. But in the film biz, it’s the second week that tells the tale. How much the film will or will not drop off in box office accurately predicts what a film will make over the complete theatrical run. I was speaking to my Ohio posse last week about Cloverfield. One said that he and his friends thought they could shoot the film better. The other said too Blair Witch – done that. Neither is a good sign for the next weekend. It had a drop off of 75% -- ouch. The chic flick, 27 Dresses that Cloverfield crushed last week made more money and the over 60 year old Rambo made even more. When Hollywood is hiring all of those expensive audience consultants, they would do well to spend the money on a few phone calls to some regular Ohio guys.

Caption Contest

More than a few folks were confused with the two images for a caption in the blog. Thus, I’m extending it a week. You can find the image here.

Soldiers Fate Excerpt

I’ll post a link for that later today. Stay tuned.