Blog Part Two -- Shooting Actors, New Vampire & Other Fun

Year of Fun -- On the Set
Warning! Link to a Hasselhoff Video below!

Actually, when thinking about my experiences on sets, fun does not immediately come to mind. I didn't have to plunge toilets this time. But then, Jon pointed out that was only because we had been part of the crew that made the bathrooms usable at the new studio. Ah yes, caustic chemicals in extreme heat. I'd never scrubbed a urinal before. Motion pictures, dahling. At any rate, I never seemed to have nearly as much fun on my sets as my crews had. Well, there are a few elements that made this photo shoot tons of fun. First, Craig was working on the same floor. I spent his lunch break with him patiently listening to his numerous and dubious reasons as to why I should read Neanderthal. It's like Michael Crichton but with psychic Neanderthals, he said. That wasn't a really good reason for me. I had read a couple of Crichton's books during my last hospital stay, Prey and State of Fear. I was keenly disappointed. I really didn't think that the addition of psychic, cannibal Neanderthals would help matters. What I suspect is that he had been extremely annoyed by the book and wanted to visit it upon me. His thirst for vengeance likely stems from my sending him a video of David Hasselhoff doing Hooked on a Feeling (I take no responsibility if you click on that link). Thus, I understood his urge for revenge, but I wasn't taking the bait.The next key to Deb's fun factor on the set is a loose crew. I've found some folks who are super fast, really professional, laid back and damned funny. Which is really good, because the last element to the fun is Garett Maggart. I've never met an actor that can be so really crazy in one second and then completely focused in the next. Luckily, Cat Elrond, make-up artiste extraoridnaire rolls easily with this. The rest of us (Ralph, Jon and I) know the drill. I was very impressed that our new vampire, Simon Molinar, is laid back and quite funny himself. More on him in a moment. We were shooting images to go with a promo for both the books tied in with Demon Under Glass and for the web series we'll be shooting later this year. The promo is designed like a book trailer in which brief images are blended with voice overs and music to quickly tell a story and set a mood. I picked images from the voice over script, and we got to work. Hopefully, there will be the paranoia and desperation that will be in the series, but the humor as well. The photos are mine. We're saving the official ones ones that Ralph took for the launch. Those are extraordinary. Mine were snapped from a slightly different angle with a far less powerful camera and just after Ralph took his, so my flash wouldn't interfere. We got some amazing stuff from Ralph as he sandwiched us into his typical day of doing 80,000 things at once while remaining relaxed. It was nuts, but I had a very good time.

Meet the Vampire

Though more than one person was involved in making this decision, I know that I will take the brunt of the heat for it. So be it. Let me say straight off that we were all quite happy with Jason Carter's choices in playing Simon Molinar, and he was great to work with on set. His choices created a cultured and charming vampire. When we decided to mount a series for Demon Under Glass, we decided to take advantage of the passage of time to go back to the original vision for the character Simon Molinar. He had been written for a very young actor who had the calm maturity of almost two thousand years. It was to be an unnerving juxtaposition of incredible patience and maturity in an very young package. The original Molinar was written to be much more overtly sexual. We want him to be the type that could succeed in seducing a room full of disparate people no matter their sexual orientation.

When we were presented with Owen Szabo, we found his training to be exceptional. He is certainly very good looking. My only real hesitation was his hair color. I strongly considered having him dye it, and he was quite willing. But then, I was online with Facebook friend, Geraint Wyn Davies, formerly of Forever Knight. He had directed me to one of his interviews that happened shortly before Forever Knight premiered. It seems that the Powers That Be at CBS didn't want him for the part primarily because he was blond. I realized that was not a good reason to pass on a casting choice or change his hair when he looks great as is. To digress, we kept Garett's silver hair for much the same reason – he looks good with it. Cat said he had a George Clooney thing happening. Garett likes Cat a lot. Back to Owen, He's got the acting chops – though from Boston, he did a very good British accent. Actually, until he told me, I didn't know he was from Boston. He has a wonderfully expressive face. And he naturally exudes the old soul in a young body that we wanted Simon Molinar to possess. He's got a deep, bed-roomy voice that can work a girl's nerves. The big question then was how would his chemistry be with Joe McKay. That Simon didn't run for the hills over Joe's frequent questions about when they were going to 'do it,' calls for lube and complaints about bottoming was encouraging. But when they managed to raise my scolding eyebrow as a pair, I was certain that they would work well together and that I'd be sighing a lot. Still, I was quite pleased. We look forward to working with Owen and hope that Demon Under Glass fans will embrace him as well.

A Soldier's Destiny

I had hoped to put up an excerpt today. I'll likely do it mid-week. It's been a little crazy. However, in developing the time line for Demon Under Glass, I have bridged the two works. I've also realized that there will have to be a fourth Soldier's novel to cover all of that and the plots I have going. I plan to write them straight through and have them released a few months apart. I have the time line between the Delphi Project and the Altered Soldier's Program in the updated writer's guide. It also contains the canon fate of Joe and Simon. I will put up the link, but strongly advise only those who want to write stories or script to read it. To say it has spoilers is a gigantic understatement. The Writer's Guide Link .

DraggonTV

The debut is Saturday. Information on the site will be on this blog, my lists and face book pages starting Wednesday. Please, spread the word everywhere you can think of. Many filmmakers, actors and crew will really appreciate it.

Finally

I start chemo on Thursday. I have no idea how it will affect me. As always, I appreciate any spare prayers or good thoughts.

Stay Tuned.