You People...Coming Soon!

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Last Day of Principal Photography

So today is the last day of principal photography for "You People". And I'm happy and sad. It has been a lot of hard work and I didn't even have it the hardest. But with juggling who would watch The Graminator and starting a new business, it was a bit hectic. But I'm sad because it was a lot of fun.

Film sets, like many a theatrical production, create a lot of camaraderie. There are inside jokes and shared experiences and you become close to people very quickly. I understand why so many actors 'fall in love' on movie sets. You are around someone ten to twelve hours a day, you bond. (For the record, I did not fall for any of my co-stars. But I do love them all dearly.) And on an independent film, everyone pitches in to help wherever they can. It's a very "Andy Hardy, let's put on a show" kind of feeling and I always feel sad when it's over.

Not to say it's always roses and sunshine. There is a lot of waiting on a film set, while lights are adjusted and camera angles are changed. It's hot (especially in the Vegas summer and your character is wearing a Christmas sweater in every scene.) All that closeness and familiarity can cause tempers to be shortened. But for the most part, it's a fun collaborative effort and this one made even more fun because most of us were good friends going in and those that were new to our 'family' soon became our bosom buddies too.

So thank you to the cast and crew of "You People". Making a movie with all my friends was a BLAST! I can't list everyone here but here's a partial list. I love you....Kelly, Charisma, Mark, Jon, Max, Erica, Denise, John, Will, Elly, Nathan, JP, Henry, Jimmy, Lou, Holly, Lincoln, all of the extras who gave their time and anyone I left off the list (just because I didn't have any scenes with you doesn't mean I don't love you!)

Today, the last scene on the last day of principal photography is my character getting hit in the head with a kitchen sink...do you think there is some kind of significance? Viva la Tango Box!

Pictures, Pictures Everywhere

Here are some more movie pics.

This is Kelly shooting scenes of me in "my bedroom" as I try to come up with things about the game. Christmas PJ's in this one.

This is me going through the mail. Note the stuffed animals. Kelly called me the night before this shoot and asked me to bring my stuffed animals with me. I said "Do I look like the kind of girl who has stuffed animals?" So I had to bring my mom's stuffed animals. It's a strange assortment. A turtle, a dalmatian, a dog with a diploma and graduation cap and a gopher that sings "I'm Alright". Don't blame my mom, they are all ones Will and I bought her over the years.

Here I'm reading the "Moron's Guide to Ethnic Stereotypes".

And the "Moron's Guide to Racist Stereotypes"

This is Will Edwards and I in a scene where we both are anticipating something intently (can't you tell?)

Now for some other pictures. I bought a new camera for the business. The one I had was old (in digital camera years it was 965 years old) and had no image stabilization so even when I shot with a tripod some pictures would come out blurry. So I broke down and spent money on a new one (My brother and his wife paid me some money for my wedding services so I didn't feel too guilty) I got a Canon Powershot and I LOVE it. These are some pictures I took only minutes after I got it out of the box so forgive them for not being perfect but I'm still learning. But it shoots great from any distance and in any light.

This is the Java dog. Isn't she cute? She's almost 14 but she's still spy enough that she stole the toy I bought her out of the bag when I got home from PetsMart yesterday.

Here is The Graminator on 'her couch'. We still haven't gotten a new couch here or painted the walls but we do have the color picked out (and I bought ceiling paint so we are sort of getting started)

And this is my beautiful Mom. She'd kill me if she knew I was posting this (but we just won't tell her will we?) You can see the new desk and the new curtains in this shot. But we are still in transition so forgive the mess.
I'll post more pics as I play with my new toy, er, I mean my knew business camera, not a plaything but a serious business expense.

Now, for Maura, who is DYING to see wedding pictures...I don't have any. Will and Val have a disk of pics which we saw on Sunday but they took it home with them. I promise I'll post a couple when we finally get a copy. But I'll be honest, I HATE the way I look in most of the pictures. I think I look better in the movie pictures. I had these false eyelashes at the wedding and do you know how some things look good in person but in photographs not so much? (I had an adorable haircut in the 90's, it was asymmetrical and totally rocking. But in photographs I just looked mentally challenged and like I cut my own hair) Well, that's how I feel I look. The eyelashes make my face look weird and I look ENORMOUS. But there are a couple of shots I don't hate (and there are some AMAZING shots of the cake and cupcakes and kids eating the cupcakes that will go on my new website they are so incredible) so I'll post those. Val is still going through the 1000 (yes, thousand) photographs to pick out the best ones. So please be patient and I'll get them to you, I promise.

Moving Pictures

Hopefully pictures really are worth a thousand words because then this column will be over five thousand words long. Here are some photos from the "You People" shoot. (Thanks to Charisma Schwarze for the photographs!)


This is a scene we shot Monday at Egg Works. I have know idea what I'm doing in this picture but I know it's the scene where I flip out on the waitress (I can tell because I'm wearing the red sweater in this one.)



Here is a picture of some of the principal cast members, taken at the CineVegas offices. From left to right there is Nathan Ferrier (Stephan), James Germano (Danny), Me (Patty), Will Edwards (Felix), Elly Brown (Nancy) and John Baniqued (Jerry). Note the red sweater with penguins on it.


Here we are at Egg Works doing a different scene, because I am wearing a different sweater (blue with snowmen this time). Will, Jerry and I are in this scene, while Kelly (in the red t-shirt) gives us some of his expert direction (I'm actually not kidding, he is a really great director, he's very clear on what he wants but gives his actors room for their perspective) and Mark (in the green t-shirt) tells Kelly how to do his job - just kidding. Mark is a producer and our lighting guy extraordinaire and he does tell Kelly when he sees something amiss. See how I'm eating soup? This is one shoot I didn't mind the sweaters, it was really cold in the restaurant. I had my sweater off between takes and I got so cold I put it back on even when we weren't filming.


Will and Val came down again on Monday to be extras (we missed you Dyann!) and here he and I are in the craft services room (craft services is the movie way of saying food) I don't know what I was saying when Charisma took this picture but it looks like I'm lecturing Will but I'm not. We actually had a lot of fun on this shooting day and he liked all the food I brought (as did the rest of the cast and crew that day. I'm pleased to say that all of the food I made was gone while the Jason's Deli food was still left over - no offence to Jason's Deli, I'm just better, that's all.


Another picture at the CineVegas offices, this time with expanded cast and extras (see Will and Val behind me? Aren't they good siblings to help me out? Yeah, they rock.)

Okay, today I have to shoot as well as tomorrow plus tomorrow is the hospital benefit. But next week I'll write more, I promise. I have some new products for the Glitter City Sweets line to share with you. Bless you Loyal Readers, and have a great weekend!

Making Movies

Sorry Loyal Readers, to neglect you so. My life has been in such turmoil lately that I'm grateful you stick around!

My filming started Thursday. It was an easy scene for me to get started with because I only had one line. But I did have a funny costume and makeup. My character, Patty, and John's character, Jerry have just gotten back from Mexico. So I look like I have a sunburn and the poncho I'm wearing has a Christmas themed cactus on it. (My character ALWAYS wears Christmas themed clothes!)

Here is the picture

I love the suitcase Charisma found for me to carry. It's a hard-sided round American Tourister. I offered to buy it from her but she wants to keep it for herself. I guess I'll have to start scrounging thrift stores!

Friday I had three scenes but I only had dialogue in one of them. It was an important scene though (since it introduces my character) and I think it went well. Kelly was happy and Will (who plays Felix) liked it too. It felt very comfortable to work with him. I didn't get any pictures on Friday and then I left my camera on set (do you think my desire for a new camera is causing me to subconsciously leave my camera behind everywhere I go so that I have to buy a new one? ) But we had fun and I kept cracking up because the actor who played the Game Company CEO (I think his name is Lincoln) had these really expressive eyes and he would make me laugh by just looking at me funny. He is from England and we had a great time talking with him.

Saturday we filmed at the CineVegas offices at The District. (CineVegas is a large film festival and their offices were really nice. They had a cool coffee bar area in the back, it was neat.) We had a lot of extras on set that day and Will and Val came down to be in the movie too. One of the scenes is where I find out I've been fired and I don't take it well. My brother always teases me about my acting (he sniffs the air and says "Does anyone else smell ham?") so this was right up his alley to make fun of me. Hey, I give the director what he wants, and if that requires a little ham, well then stud me, glaze me and serve me up. Charisma took some cast photos so I'm hoping I can grab some from her (since I still didn't have my camera at this point.) Mark took a picture and I stole it from his Facebook. In it you can see Kelly shooting the scene where Jimmy's character is firing us. I look interested, don't I? My knees hurt from that day because Kelly had me dive to the floor multiple times in the scene.


This afternoon we shoot another of my 'big scenes' where I flip out on a waitress. Dyann said she would come by and be an extra and Will and Val are going to show up again. Hopefully we will get enough extras. I have more filming on Friday and Saturday (plus I'm MC'ing and performing at a charity benefit on Saturday night) then I don't have any scenes to shoot for two weeks. I'll be working on Glitter City Sweets, to get the website up, plus I have a couple more ideas to work out. Then I resume three more weeks of shooting. Oh, and I know I have been cryptic about the title of the film, mostly because I wasn't sure how public to make it, but since the title has appeared on cast and crew Facebook pages I guess it's okay to say. The title is "You People". Hmmm, can you see the comic implications?

Okay, I gotta go make rice crispy treats for the crew, plus hair and makeup and all that jazz. I promise to try to have more pictures for you!!!!!