Pandemic Film: Waning Immunity

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This is the depth map for Waning Immunity, a shot that lasts just about a second in the film.Light objects in the foreground are the bodies of several fallen knights. The dragon is breathing fire at the standing knight whose shield is melting. I am describing this since you cant see the painting and most detail except depth is lost in a depth map.

The camera pivots from the dragon’s open jaws to the melting shield. I have been dialing up the parallax in recent shots and I am amazed at how the musculature in the shoulders rotates with the camera move. The problem is that adding more parallax boosts the render time which leaves me sitting on my hands waiting to see the result. I am trying to find the balance between time invested in renders versus finishing the film on time. I have 12 days before I need to turn in a final edit for a screening at Orlando International Fringe Festival,  3rd Annual Film as Visual Art screening on May 19, 2023 at 6PM at the Shakes outdoor courtyard. The screening is free and this will be the world premiere for this 2.5D animated short.

 

Bullock and the Bandits

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Kangagirl Productions presented Bullock and the Bandits at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. A $10, reusable button is required to enter each performance. You may purchase online or in person at the box office. This show is at the Abbey, 100 S. Eola Drive
Orlando, FL.

Step inside the haunted saloon at the World Famous Bullock Hotel for a rhythm and blues, country, and rock fueled ghost rider romp across the Wild West! Orlando Fringe Festival Lifetime Achievement Award recipient David Lee’s new band performs with special guest stars Tymisha Harris and Eddie Cooper.

“I’ve always been fascinated with Deadwood, South Dakota, which is a world-famous destination for ghost hunters. Sheriff Bullock built a hotel there in 1894. It still stands and is known to be haunted with all types of bandits and heroes of the Wild West”, explained David Lee. The talented Bandits band: David Lee, Eddie Cooper, Tymisha Harris, Tanner Kasier, Bryce Hayes, Matt Lyinx, Tom O’Hern, and Randall Scandal.

Tickets are $15. The remaining show dates are today, Saturday 28 May 2022 at 4:15PM and Sunday 29 May 2022 at Noon.

The Origins of my Magic at Fringe

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Cody Clark who is from Louisville Kentucky had his second appearance at the Orlando International Fringe Festival this year. In this show he answered the question  of where his magic comes from. It consisted of traditional slight of hand tricks like knotting a rope and having the knot slip off of the rope.

Cody’s show isn’t all about the tricks. he is on the Autism spectrum and he described how his love on magic helps him in his very social choice of a career as a magician. This was a unique biographical magic show that showed how he saw things as a person with autism. Autism affects fine motor skills, so card tricks and
other sleight of hand can be hard for Clark. But having autism benefits his craft as well. He said his tendency to fixate on things,
whether it’s rehearsing or marketing, makes him very disciplined. He was loud and direct in his delivery and under that lies an undeniable enthusiasm and charm. Part of his earnings from the Fringe would go to an autism awareness organization. The rest he joked would go to his beer tent fund.

On his first trip to  the Orlando Fringe he stayed with Gail and Al Pergande‘s home. On that occasion the transmission on his car died out which could be an emergency for any performer on the road. It set him back $3500. He set up a Go Fund Me and bravely set that problem to the back  of his mind as he drew in crowds to his show. Gail and Al were in this audience and happy to be hosting him again.

One of his tricks consisted of making lemonade from a single lemon, a cup and a lemonade canister. I included those props in my sketch. Just like his lemon of a transmission, Cody accepted that when you get a lemon you make lemon aid. One lucky audience volunteer got to taste the results. We were all lucky to get to watch Cody’s enthusiasm. He knows how to find mentors and continues to grow as a magician and performer. He recently got to perform with one of his idols in Las Vegas. Sometimes dreams do come true if you acknowledge the difficulties but keep performing with plenty of faith.

Dandy Darkly’s All Aboard at Fringe

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Dandy Darkly’s All Aboard was a high energy hour of sinister story telling. “Where were you the night the Gaybird Steamer ran off her tracks?”
Resplendent storyteller Dandy Darkly served up another audacious hour of
hypnotic Southern Gothic grotesquery: creepy robots, African spider
gods, beauty shop gossip and inbred redneck freaks. Oh, also trains!

An ongoing stream in the flowing story line was the mass marketing of Lollybot, a toy that every child had to have. It had a hypnotic single eye. Of course, I couldn’t help but think of the pink Lollybot of Dog-Powered Robot fame. The mastermind behind his marketing mania was similar to Henry F. Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life. He only cared about the money that could be made. Greed ruled supreme.

The story told was delivered at a feverish pitch the entire show, much slipped by me as I concentrated on the details of costuming and the set. Giant golden spiders embellished Dandy’s shoes and lapel. Tassel’s waved and Dandy gestured. Glittering golden tights and puffy sleeves fully engrossed my attention. A golden goblet on a tiny side table lit by candles, was used to quench Dandy’s parched lips when he needed to pause to let a story point sink in.  A quilt of spiders, pumpkins, top hats, Easter eggs, presents, and a one-eyed robot acted as a backdrop for all that unfolded.

The existential world of the south he painted was dark, mysterious, and sinister. Danger loomed at every turn.

Tickets are $12 plus a $10 Fringe button.

Remaining show times are:

9:00 PM

2:45 PM

Showgirls at Fringe

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On May 14th the Orlando International Fringe Festival begins. It will be 14 days of fun and theatrical fancy. Fringe is the longest running Fringe Theatre Festival in the United States. It is founded on the principle of being 100% uncensored, unjuried, accessible, and inclusive. 100% of ticket sales are returned to the performers.  To Fringe you need to get a Fringe Button, necessary to get into any show. No button = no entry. Tickets are around $12 and most shows run for about an hour.

The first show I saw was A Showgirls Musical presented by JMEG Theatrical, Winter Garden, FL. The show featured sequins, sabotage, and sex in the pool. Nomi Malone arrived in Las Vegas with a dream of being a famous showgirl. When she arrived, she caught a ride from a stranger and immediately had all her possessions stolen. She took her anger out on a random car and in the process met a girl who took her in.

The first club she worked in was a total dive. When told to show her breasts she said she wasn’t getting paid enough and stormed out. She changed her tune over time – for the money – and she did a disgruntled lap dance for a customer. As a 20-somethinglearning for the first time, she yearned to fit in on the strip. She saw a woman walk by in a dress she loved. She wanted the dress, which she bought with money borrowed from her friend. It was $900.  Though she bought it, she didn’t bother learning how to pronounce Versace. “Ver-sayse!”

A musical-sex-in-the-pool number brought an audition opportunity and advancement. But, even a better showgirls’ troop was far from ideal. There was plenty of glitter and cat fights in the dressing rooms. She fought her way to the top only to find it wasn’t really what she had even wanted.

The press preview I saw had technical difficulties, in that the mics kept cutting out, so I didn’t hear half of what some characters said. That said, This is still a show I would recommenced for fun dance and plenty of sass!

Tickets for the remaining show dates. The show is in the Orange Venue in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Don’t forget to get your Fringe button as well.

10:00 PM

8:00 PM

10:30 PM

8:15 PM

6:30 PM

10:15 PM

God Bless Cambodia at the 2018 Fringe

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In God Bless Cambodia, Randy Ross is a chronically single man who decides to travel the world through four continents after the loss of a job. He hopes to change his luck with love. Yet as he highlights his many relationships it becomes clear why he is hopelessly single. His world travels world result in more sexual misadventures.

Reading a travel guide book he learns that you can travel cheap if you travel like a backpacker. On a trip to his local camping store he meets a colorful sales person. He asked for a 60 liter backpack with a waterproof cover, and the salesman had him covered. He added “I don’t know if your going to Bangkok, but if you are, I highly recommend a massage at a place called tugs.” Taken aback, He noted the info and decided to ask for a travel shirt. “In Ko Samui there is a body spa called the curious finger.” The salesman sniffed his pinkie to relive the memory. TMI but in the end Randy spent $500, but as he left the shop he decided not to shake the salesman’s hand.

Much of the show was laugh out loud funny. I can identify with this middle aged man’s desire for travel after the loss of a relationship. It was like Eat, Pray, Love, minus the praying and with high class literary sex instead of love.

What If at Fringe

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What If by Caitlyn Wisser dealt with tow workers starting their jobs at a new office. The female had plenty of past experience while the males only credibility came form the fact that he belonged to the same fraternity as the boss. The male was immediately promoted to the position of account executive while the female was asked if she could get the men some coffee. At the water cooler she met a female executive who recognized the injustice but suggested that she just tow the line until an opportunity arose.

The two new employees faced off about the injustice which the male couldn’t recognize. The theater lights flickered and dimmed and they both set their heads on the table. This was a time shift and they both woke up in a world where all their expectations had changed. Woman were paid equally to men and the only requirement for advancement was talent and ambition. Men were granted maternity leave along with woman and since women were the primary politicians, there was peace and prosperity.

It took the male worker a long time to adjust to the new world order but in the end he found he too was happy. When they slipped back to the old world order he defended his coworker when she was was disrespected by other male co-workers. The premise of the show was sound but some of the writing felt labored and forced. On top of this, the musical Along the Way, was in the theater next door and the paper thin theater walls allowed the boisterous musical numbers to seep into each scene in this show. What if, What If had been a musical?

Save Me, Dolly Parton at Fringe

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Beth Marshall’s Husband presented Save Me Dolly Parton written by Megan Gogerty. This was a one woman show featuring a witty stories of politics, pop Culture parenting and how Dolly Parton saved the day. Theresa Smith-Levin as Megan described her trip to a record store and picking up her first Dolly Parton album. She and her beau thought it would be a joke, but the music resonated with her. She didn’t want to over state, but simply put Dolly Parton is the greatest woman alive in her mind.

Megan and her husband decided to have a child and of course this loaded multiple new challenges and responsibilities into their lives. She read all the parenting books she could find, book marked the pages and figured she had this parenting thing down, at least in theory. Probably her most funny story came when she described a plane flight she needed to take. Her husband was busy so she had to take the trip alone with her baby in tow. At first the flight was pleasant with passengers glancing at her child lovingly. Then as the flight wore on her child grew tired and cranky. The next part of her story was shouted over the recorded sounds of a baby crying. She screamed that that noise has been ingrained into mother for centuries and that moms would do anything to stop that sound. Passengers were no longer glancing over with affection everyone looked annoyed.

The screaming dilemma didn’t stop on the plane. After landing she had to lug all her bags through the airport to the luggage claim. There she willed the bags to appear on the conveyor. The baby carriage arrive first thing and she lunged to get it off the line. Then she saw her bag. It had been wrapped by an airline employee in industrial grade plastic, like Seran wrap but bulletproof and terrorist proof. To quiet the baby she needed to get inside the bag. She couldn’t lean over of the baby which sounded life a fire alarm right now would fall out. She had to squat down, back straight and try and rip the plastic open with her bare teeth. She decided to place the baby in the carriage so she could complete the task and in an instant he fell asleep. In her relief she started to cry. This was something she hadn’t prepared herself for. And this wasn’t the only time this might occur. she imagined it playing out again and again each time she traveled. Hadn’t feminism solved this? She wanted more feminism.

This was a highly polished one woman show that seemed to flow without a hitch. Theresa Smith-Levin is a powerhouse of a performer. I have seen her working behind the scenes on many shows I have sketched over the years and this was the first time I got to see her raw force on the stage. If you are a young parent you needed to see this show. If you aren’t a parent like myself, you still would have laughed out loud and enjoyed the ride.

The Haunting of Saint River at Fringe

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Bremner Duthie from New Orleans presented The Hauting of Saint River a dark eerie one man musical with mysterious original songs. The haunted house in his tale is located in the deep south of New Orleans. The buyer essentially felt he had sold his soul to the devil to acquire the property. At first he is able to live with the hoes few creeks and groans but in time he becomes sleep deprived and the time spent at the edge of sleep become moments of absolute terror.

A female neighbor across the river become his one refuge as he slips into the houses depths. It sits on the edge of the river banks and seems ready to slip into the rivers grip taking him with it. A small box was used as a screen for historic flashes but the projection also slipped around the box onto the back wall of the theater.

The show felt like a work in progress. To me it seemed like the kind of shows a ten year old might throw together in the bedroom. It was mad and experimental. flashlights were used for the typical campfire under-lit face effects and a ghost puppet danced to the New Orleans Jazz while members of the audience held flashlights to illuminate her. Unfortunately the puppet wasn’t menacing or scary at all, detracting from the intended mysterious thrust of the story.

The story was most successful when Bremner asked the audience to imagine the ghostly threat as he described the characters slip into madness.

Jon Bennett: Fire in the Meth Lab at Fringe

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Jon Bennett from Melbourne Australia wrote a play about his brother called Fire in the Meth Lab. His brother is in jail and in various letters he warned his brother not to write the show. In general this on man show was a coming of age story. We all have had siblings who acted like bullies. His brother was a life long bully. He showed us a clip from the Wonder Years, a TV show in which most people identify with the young boy Kevin. His brother identified with that young boys jerk of an older brother, Wayne. The older brother is picking up the younger brother after a date. Each time the younger brother reaches for the car door his jerk of a brother pulls away. The date watches the nonsense and the lad is mortified.

Jon’s brother did far worse, like sticking his dick in his brother’s ear. I can’t imagine. Things got silly when Jon shared clips from his brothers favorite pop star.  It was some Australian singer and the lyrics left little impression. He read some cards from the pop starts board trivia game and the answers were obscure and impossible to guess. Only a rabid fan might have a chance.

Things got serious when his brother decided to start a meth lab. A fire broke out and rather than leave the product to burn, his brother went in to save the meth. He then drove away before police arrived. When he was later picked up the police ordered him to get out of the car. He couldn’t. He had third degree burns and his flesh had melted onto the car seat effectively gluing him in.

Jon lost his pet dog and then befriended a dog down the street. He felt so close to this dog , that he decided to take him home. On that trek, a neighbors dog barked violently. He turned to the dog at his side and barked as well, in his mind saying “It is us against the world.” The dog misinterpreted his barking and lunged for his face, violently biting him and intending to kill. he woke up in a hospital bet with multiple stitches, deeply wounded. The dog was put down. Only much later did he learn that his brother had followed him on that day and saved his life from the attacking dog. His brother might have treated him like a jerk most of his life, but in the end brothers stick up for each other.