The Simplest Things Rarely Are

So, yesterday I had planned to shoot TWO episodes of a new web series I'm producing, "The Simplest Things".  It's not as crazy as it sounds.  The episodes are only about 4 minutes long, there's very little dialogue and the cast members all live in my house.  I've done more in less time, but yesterday was not meant to be.

Little things throughout the day conspired to make me start later than I had hoped.  I could have shot well into the night, but my wife was operating the camera for me (and very well too) and I didn't want HER to have to work into the late hours with me.  We did manage to get the footage for the premiere shot though and I just finished editing it today.  Pretty funny stuff, I think.

The basic premise of the show is simple.  An Alien, named Pratt, crash lands on Earth and encounters all of these "simple things" we all see and use every day.  To Pratt these things are, well, ALIEN.

The first short I shot based on the premise will likely be the second or third episode we air in the series.  Pratt can't figure out how to operate the front door of a  house.  Flying saucer doors are automatic and slide out of the way.  Pratt tries everything, including some 70's style Disco dancing.



Jethro undergoes and alien scan.

 But the Premiere was different.  We had to get Pratt to Earth.  Strand him here.  Make it funny.  Keep it short.  And, if possible, fit it to the show's format.

You'll have to wait until Wednesday to see the episode premiere on "The Weird World of HFP" (http://www.weirdworldofhfp.blip.tv/) to see what happens.  I can tell you this though, there were some special F/X involved.  Let's say that Pratt isn't really all that skilled with the alien equipment either and the human he abducts doesn't have a good day.  In the end, a shot I really wanted to get resulted in my cracking the skull of my plaster skeleton.  I got it on a popular auction site, but for me, it was pretty expensive, so I spent quite a bit of time piecing him back together.  Not to mention we needed him for one or two more shots.

Today's edit took about 2 hours longer than I expected also.  Partially because I had to do some of the virtual set building on my old computer.  My new one can't run the software I used.  I can't see why it's out of date.  I've only had it since 1997.  So, with every production things pop up, but the things that go right make me smile and in the end I think we wound up with a funny first episode of this show.  It's sort of like a live action cartoon.  You don't have to be a sci-fi to like it, but it probably won't hurt.  Might be worth the 4 minutes just to see me play Jethro.

We have more shooting to do this weekend and I have lots of editing to do on CGM-TV and the latest "Alien Vengeance" short, so keep your eyes peeled for this blog to be updated.

Thanks for stopping by.