For those that are curious: A FILMMAKERS STORY

[mr. cat]

I really appreciate your last installment! Nowadays, or so it seems to me, too many people have a negative perception of so-called "celebrities." It's politically correct to think of celebrities in dehumanizing terms: "Britney Spears is [insert dehumanizing phrase here]!" And so forth and so on, ad infinitum.

Your anecdote regarding Teri Garr ought to help people know we're none of us getting out of here alive; and while we're here we can only do so much. Some people become entertainers, helping make millions of people happy if only for a little while. If there was more tolerance and less check-out-stand bigotry abroad in the land, we'd all be better off.

Thank you and good morning!

=^..^=

 

[threeleggedkat]

MeowMan: Oh, My God, Terri Garr! Wasn't she in Mr. Mom with Tom Hanks? She is one of my favorites. . . . .

 

[meowman]

THE PRODUCTION OF A TELEVISION SERIES - PT I

After producing a spoof of Jaws and shooting my first shot on video short and working on dozens of corporate videos and movies, the opportunity arose for my friends and I to Produce/write and Direct a season of 13 episodes of a fictional television series for Ch-47, an independent station (Now UPN).

It was produced in association with a local, huge camera store that dealt in still photography and video production. The equipment would be supplied by the Camera store (This store was huge, in that it took up the entire space of an old roller rink, including a sound stage and all), including the video editing facilities. The person in charge of the video dept. would be one of the Executive Producers, another Executive Producer was a financial expert to govern the actual money spent and I was the third, the young (23 at the time) whose job it would be to approve and supervise the young filmmakers to be involved.

The series gained the title: YOUR WILDEST DREAMS: FIRST FEATURES FROM FILMMAKERS.

We began production in Novemeber 1989 with THE DATE, the first episode written by a young lady who happened to hate men. Well, that should give you an idea of how well she and I got along, because I was in a position of hire/fire power and she didn't like it too much. She and I were constantly at each others throats and once her 30 minute episode was completed, I was glad to see her go. The unfortunate thing was her episode was amaturish and poor qaulity and I was embarrassed that it had to be our first episode, which aired on January 13, 1990.

The second episode was one entitled THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD, one that I directed (each of these episodes were a stand alone and not a continuing storyline). I finished editing the project aftyer an all night edit session on the day the episode was to be delivered to the station for broadcast in 2 days, but I made it. On the night it aired, I was at a friends house and watched the video begin. The opening credits rolled. But, I noticed something: The video image seemed a little jittery. Then, right after it said DIRECTED BY CHUCK GRAMLING the entire video level went south and started scrambling and you couldn't make heads or tails of the video. But, you could hear the audio. The next thing I see is a graphic from the station: TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, PLEASE STAND BY. Oh, S***! I jumped in my car and raced to the station and learned that in the all night editing process, I neglected to correct and watch my video and black levels (A VERY important process to maintain video coherance and quality). The station manager chewed me out for that and I learned a valuble lesson that night. But, we make mistakes and learn.

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT: THE PRODUCTION OF A TELEVISION SERIES AND HOW I BEGAN TO LOSE MY HAIR - PT II (I have to cut this one short because my moniter is starting to wig out).