COVID Film: Reworking the Asteroid

Posted on by Thor

After eight hours of virtual teaching I felt like relaxing, but instead I reworked this scene.I repainted the crowd and added the subtle warm glow in the center. I did this to get the colors to tie in better with the shots of Earth that surround the shot.

Since I was working on the shot anyway I also added a waving motion to the flames coming off the end of the virus. That added the extra spark of life to the scene that was needed.

When adding the shot back into the final edit, I made sure the asteroid lined up with the virus hitting the flat Earth in the next shot. I wouldn’t have considered these edits if I hadn’t just started rethinking every aspect of this one moment.

After this was cut into the film I did zone out on the couch and watch a remake of Stephen King‘s, The Stand. This is the one film I have seen recently that seemed to portray the COVID pandemic. The virus in the film however was 99% deadly so it was harder for society to ignore and minimize.

It is surprising that all the film productions though taking COVID precautions on set, portray the world as if COVID does not exist. This enforces the gaslighting from the white house and media that the pandemic is over. Everyone is returning to life as normal as cases spike once again.

Carrie the Musical at Rollins

Posted on by Thor

Carrie the Musical was presented by Actors Reaching Out at the Fred Stone Theater, Rollins College 1000 Holt Ave Winter Park Florida. The show was by Michael Gore, with lyrics by Dean Pitchford. Book is by Laurence D. Cohen. It was based  on the novel by Stephen King and directed by Eric Scherer.

Carrie White is a misfit. At school, she’s an outcast who’s bullied by
the popular crowd, and virtually invisible to everyone else. At home,
she’s at the mercy of her loving but cruelly over-protective mother. But
Carrie’s just discovered she has a special power, and if pushed too
far, she’s not afraid to use it…

Of course I was mostly waiting for the bloody conclusion of the prom. The song anticipating the prom was fun to watch. Looking back, I realize that some of these talents have appeared again and again in my sketches of the theater scene in town. It is fun to see where some of these talents come from.

Sh*t: An Unauthorized Musical Parody of It at Fringe

Posted on by Thor

Sh*t hits the fan when a shape-shifting evil disguised as a maniacal dancing clown feeds on the youth of Dairy, Maine. When a group of kids discover its true identity, they must destroy it, before it devours them all. From the creators and creative team of last year’s award-winning musical “ThanksKilling The Musical,” this promises to be just as absurd and equally tasteless.

 The play added back in an orgy among the kids that was left out of the movies made from Stephen King’s book “It.” The results were hilarious as the young boys reach climax and squirt silly string into the audience in an endless stream. A prime directive of the show is that it stretches and alters the reality set up by the author. Carrie kept making cameo appearances although she is from another of Stephen King‘s books. She looked magnificent in her crown and bloody dress. Gushing oozing splashing blood is a subtle metaphor for a woman coming of age.

Irreverent and often unexpected the songs added a comical bent to the show. The clown Pennywise had a large penis painted red on his white washed face. The show was a fun romp with singing dancing and plenty of silly string.

Sh*t: An Unauthorized Musical Parody of It is in the Orange Venue in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, 812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL 32803. Tickets are $12 plus a $10 Fringe button needed to get into any Fringe Show. 18 and up – Strong Language, Mature Themes, Violence.

Stuck in Love

Posted on by Thor

A marketing firm asked me to give away tickets to a movie screening. I could give away as many tickets as I wanted, but seating at the theater would be on a first come first served basis. I decided to go to the screening of “Stuck in Love” to see how full the theater was. Terry was going to meet me after work, so I quickly sketched the theater, Regal Winter Park Cinemas 20,(510 N Orlando Ave Winter Park, FL) before she arrived. I saw a line form outside the theater but they filed in before the schedules screening time. Small groups of people were let into the theater at a time. The guy at the front of the line told me it was to avoid chaos and a mad rush to seating.

The writer and director of the film, Josh Boone was there along with actor Logan Lerman to quickly introduce the film and take questions afterwards. The film is about the Borgens family. William Borgens is an acclaimed author who hasn’t
written a word since his ex-wife Erica left him 3 years ago for another
man. In between spying on Erica and casual romps with his married
neighbour Tricia, Bill is dealing with the complexities of raising his
teenage children Samantha and Rusty. Samantha is publishing her first
novel and is determined to avoid love at all costs – after all she’s
seen what it has done to her parents. In between hook ups, she meets
“nice guy” Lou who will stop at nothing to win her over. Rusty, is an
aspiring fantasy writer and Stephen King aficionado, who is on a quest
to gain ‘life experiences’. He falls for the beautiful, but troubled
Kate and gets his first taste of love and a broken heart. A tale of
family, love (lost and found), and how endings can make new beginnings.
There are no rewrites in life, only second chances.

Josh Boone related after the screening that some of the material in the movie was autobiographical. Rusty’s first love is based on his own experiences in high school, of love found and lost. Being fiction he was able to rewrite his family history, having his father wait three years for his wife to return.  Terry felt that no man would wait that long in hopes that love would return. Logan loved working on the film because the entire cast stayed in a hotel during the shooting and they truly became a tight knit family. This is a rare film with plenty of sincere emotion. Josh had written the screenplay many years ago and the true challenge was to find the money to make it. Once he had the backing, things fell into place quickly. He has a bright future ahead of him and he is already onto the next projects, “Pretenders“, and “The Fault in Our Stars“. “Stuck in Love” is in select theaters now. Don’t miss it.