Final Wknd of Shooting

Hitting the home stretch with principal filming of Season 1 of "Days of Joy! with Gene Moonfeather."

Amongst other places, we'll be spending some time at Gunt's apartment, Om Skool studio and the always festive streets of Williamsburg Bklyn.

Irony is we are really just hitting our stride and getting the rhythm down.  Such is mango, I guess.

While I will be mired in ye ol edit bay for the next few weeks, my colleagues will be revamping our site and taking www.GeneMoonfeather.com LIVE.  We'll also be branching out to the social networking arena, with some FaceBook action and a little MySpace (which, I have been told by web marketing guru Vicky Ayala, is still relevant).  And watch out Twitter.  You're next on the hit list...though I'm not sure how people actually have enough time in their respective days to "twitter."

Karma. Karma. Karma.

I have several gems in the realm of karmic tales from my life and this weekend I added a couple of new gems to my bodice.

First, the unfortunate karma. While shooting the reiki scene (re-shooting, actually) an ambulance pulled up right in front of the location where we shot. About half an hour later, an elderly man was wheeled out. He seemed to be cogent and I'm not sure exactly what happened, but thankfully there were no white sheets. We lost an hour of daylight, but considering the nature of the situation, I wasn't discouraged or upset in the least.

On Sunday, as we shot a crucial scene requiring a town car, a town car pulled up and into the exact spot where we needed it. I had not called to order a town car yet because we were still shooting the portions leading up to it. Perfect karmic timing.

And so, balance was restored and all was right. Good times.

Death to Mr. Softie!

Overall, the best three consecutive days of shooting yet for DOJ. We gathered on a rooftop in Williamsburg at the crack of dawn on Friday and shot Evan (Gene) working on some Tai Chi. Considering the delicate nature of the location, we shot guerrilla style. I manned the boom and Dieter tried out the SteadyCam. Nice, relaxed morning garnering some (hopefully) great shots.

After a lil breakfast stopover, we three met up with AD Vicky and producer/pa Maria, as well as Jen (Summer) at the waterfront park in the Burg (which apparently is going to serve as the new location for summer concerts, since McCarren Pool is refurbished to serve as an actual pool) to shoot the falafel date scene.

Things were moving along smoothly until a local park "ranger" (or someone playing dress up) asked about our permit. "Permit? What permit?" was not the right answer and we were forced to break down and head to McCarren and shoot the scene.

McCarren proved to be a bit nosier than the waterfront and despite my deep breathing exercises, I experienced an overwhelming urge to throttle Mr. Softie, who felt it necessary to circle the park about sixty times while we shot. The jingle is still in my head and he's still out there, soft serving kiddies.

"Days of Joy! with Gene Moonfeather" the production blog

All the kids are doing it and being that I am part lemming decided "what the hay?" I'll whip up a lil production blog for the masses (all five of you).

This is the production blog for the web series I have been working on for the past 7 months called "Days of Joy! with Gene Moonfeather."  

Here's our logline: A yoga teacher with a repressed rage issue

Here's our website: www.GeneMoonfeather.com

Here's our budget: ***see Chris' Visa bills and collection notices

We are actually two thirds through shooting season one of the show and all things considered, it has been a great experience.  At times grueling, but a true learning experience and, I think, something special.

"Why a web series?" you may ask.  Well, everybody and their grandma is picking up the old Super Eight and recording squirrels humping cats, looping it and calling it a series.  So, I figured, why not make my own series?  Being that I know more actors than cats and squirrels, I resorted to a narrative driven, comedic model.

Truth be told, I think we are at a crossroads with new media and despite the confluence of crap on YouTube, Blip, Veoh, etc, there is some good stuff and talented people putting that stuff together.   Unfortunately, rising above the din ain't the easiest thing to do and we all want to rise above that gosh darn din.   Hopefully, there will be some standard of excellence applied to web video at some point, and viewers won't have to sift and search.  I mean, the porn channels do it.  At least, that's what my, uh, cousin told me.   

More to come...details about on set exploits....show release dates...screenings...how to win the bendable Gene Moonfeather action figure, with interchangeable headbands, etc.  Until then.

~C$