Omega Cinema Props, Hollywood

Omega Cinema Props, Hollywood
Originally uploaded by K!Mberly.

Truly, there's no business like show business! Today I visited this humongous warehouse of every possible kind of prop you could imagine. And did a little people watching. Hollywood entertainment types are an interesting breed.

'Karate Kid' actor makes movie on faith

Billy Zapka's "Most"
The Orange County Register featured a frontpage article chronicling the amazing story behind Billy Zapka's Academy Award Nominated film "Most." If you want to be inspired as an artist, read this article! It is an amazing story of risk-taking, courage, faith, and perseverance.

This was posted by Joey at The Grove who's recently started a new blog for artists:

Join for free...
The Artist's Heart Wiki by
The Grove Center for the Arts & Media
You're invited to join and become a contributor in The Artist's Heart Wiki...a place where you can post your comments, thoughts, artwork, favorite authors and reflections on developing a deeper life in Christ as an artist.

If you haven't used a wiki yet (Think Wikipedia), you'll love this new interactive forum where you can meet and dialogue with other artists, creatives and dreamers. It's free to join and participate!

I'm looking forward to seeing you at The Artist's Heart from you.

Want to be a better Screenwriter?

Act One trains and mentors Christians of all denominations for careers in mainstream film and television. They prepare students to produce film and TV projects that combine mastery of craft with great depth and meaning. Here's the latest news from them:

Do you have a story to tell?
Is your script ready for production?
Do you have what it takes to make it in Hollywood?

It’s time to find out.goes in each post:
The Act One Screenwriting Weekend is coming to Grand Rapids, Michigan!


What:
Two days of fun, fast-paced instruction from Hollywood pros

*Story *Formatting
*Structure *Visual Writing
*Character *The “Biz”
*Dialogue *Christianity and Culture

PLUS – The Hollywood Insider Event … and much, much more!

Dates:
Friday and Saturday, October 19-20, 2007

Location:
Trinity Reformed Christian Church
60 Port Sheldon Road
Grandville, MI 49418

Scheduled To Appear:
Writer/Producer/Director Thom Parham (JAG, Touched By An Angel)
Writer Chris Riley (After The Truth, 25 To Life, The Hollywood Standard)
Producer and Act One Executive Director Thomas Deason (Fool’s Errand Films)

Registration:
$195 – (includes study materials, Saturday lunch and Hollywood Insider Event)
$175 – Early Birds (before October 1st), Students (with ID), and Groups (10 or more)
$10 – Hollywood Insider Event only

Act One, Inc. is proud to partner with our co-sponsor, Compass Film Academy
and additional sponsors Pepperdine University and Baker Publishing Group


SPACE IS LIMITED – Visit www.actoneprogram.com to register online NOW!
$20 Early Bird Registration Discount extended to October 1st!

Don't Scale the Walls of Hollywood, Go Around Them!

Being a great fan of YouTube, I was thrilled when I recently learned about a new show called "The Interior." Casting was done on YouTube, and the fan base is being built by allowing the public to see and comment on episodes as thy are broadcast on the internet as webisodes. Season one will go directly to dvd once it's completed. Something else that makes me love it: The protagonists are contemporary young missionaries who don't seem to have it all together (read: oh how well I relate!). One of the creators is an MK who has made some successful documentaries. Enjoy the link!

Enacted Prayer & Playback Theatre

Enacted Prayer is a style of improvised physical prayer developed in the 90's by the Theatre Department at Northwestern College in Iowa (under the direction of Jeff Barker). I was first exposed to it at the Christians in Theatre conference in Irvine, (CITA, 2003), and subsequently had one of the Northwestern graduates teach a workshop with some of the Christians I work with from Singapore churches. I've since had a chance to teach Enacted Prayer with Senior Theatre Majors at the Wesley Institute for Ministry and the Creative Arts (Sydney, Australia), at the CRM Worldwide conference (June 2006), and the new course I teach: Performing Arts and Ministry Applications at TCA College in Singapore (Theological Centre for Asia, Certificate in Creative Arts Ministry).

Enacted Prayer came out of a form of improvised and highly ritualistic theatre called Playback Theatre. Playback is used in community settings to improvise plays from stories told by the audience. It was originally developed in the 70's by Jonathan Fox in New York State (they have numerous annual residential training sessions at Syracuse University). Though I haven't had a chance to study in New York, I am a member of the International Playback Theatre Network and spent a year training and performing with Tapestry Playback Theatre in Singapore. I've had a chance to explore it as a means of expressing Christian faith and our Christian experience in an orphanage in Cambodia, with children in an International Christian School, and in the college classroom. I've found a link to one video online that gives & shows a decent description of it, while expressing the heart of what playback practitioners are hoping to accomplish.

I'm excited to meet with church drama leaders in USA and have another chance to share about some new theatre forms with great ministry potential. It will be fun to give it a try, if you're game, and discuss how you see it being used in the American church context.

Pulitzer Drama Readings of the Week

1. Our Town
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1938, Our Town may be the most popular American play ever written. It explores traditional American values of religion, community, family, and the simple pleasures of life, while employing innovative elements such as minimalist stage sets, a Stage Manager who narrates and controls the action, and a character who speaks from the grave. (see link to more from enotes). Enotes, also says, "It is quite possible that on almost any given day of the year, somewhere in the world, Our Town is being performed by either a professional company or an amateur troupe of actors."Now, that's one popular play!



2. The Skin of our Teeth, (1942) "Thornton Wilder's unconventional drama about the history of humankind.... Disrupting traditional notions of linear time, Wilder's play tells the story of the twentieth-century American Antrobus family in three acts which recount such epochal events as the onset of the Ice Age, the start of Great Flood, and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Ending exactly as it began, the play illustrates the cyclical nature of existence, celebrating humanity's resilience, inventiveness, and will to survive." (see link to more from enotes)

Wanna read what i have to say about them? It's not much, but you can...

I have to admit that while I was moved to tears by Our Town, and my immediate life lessons are resonating with what Becky learned in Act III, I'm going to have to go and re-read The Skin of Our Teeth again, now that I've looked at enotes and searched out someone else's explanation of the play. I found it amusing, and indeed unconventional, but wow, i just didn't get most of it. As I read I knew that it was burgeoning with allusions to all kinds of juicy deeper meaning. It was a harvest of subtle clever fruit that was admittedly just over my head, so i went online to wrap my mind around it. Here's my favourite quote, from Act III ""Oh, I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is a struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for--whether it's a field, or a home, or a country.
All I ask is the chance to build new worlds and God has always giving us that."

Have you ever read either of these plays? Go get a copy of one today. Really terrific literature. Inspiring creative genius. I'm liking this pulitzer prize reading quest!

BOUNTY

Andy Silk (calls in a panic): i need a female vo for a section of a video. can you do it for me by tomorrow afternoon?

me: love to, but i don't have the tools. just the internal mic on my ibook.

but, i tell him i'll look into it. i'm attending a class on Sunday mornings with Entertainment ppl: "The Bridge" so before class next day i ask one of the guys

me: do you know if there's anyone here who lives nearby who may have a usb mic? i need to do a quick vo.

guy: sure. me. i just got a new mic, need to try it out. give me an excuse to clean my room.

recording later, guy offers to show me the trailer of the film BOUNTY he's almost completed. wow. really not bad! captured a photo from watching the trailer again. check it out! excited for him to be so close to finishing his first feature film. thankful for his help on the last minute recording need for crm.

click on title of this post to see the trailer. click here for BOUNTY website.

Learning Your Way Around the Shop

Measuring/Marking Tools:
Tape Measure, Pencil - duh
Mitering gauge - the red thing
Chalk line - the yellow tool
Bevel (Swivel) gauge - used for transferring angles from one pc of work to another.
Carpenter's level
Roofer's square/ speed square - a 45' triangle
(on R in 3rd photo, below)
Framing square or Trim square - L Shaped steel 16" on bottom, 24" tall, checks 90 corner joints combination square.

Saws:
"Cross cut" cutting against grain
"Rip cut" goes w the grain
Less teeth means a smoother cut
Jack saw - angles down
Mitre saw - rectangular shaped blade
Hack saw (far L) various sizes, cuts metal small ones used more 4 carving
& Clamps to temp hold stuff together:
Grip clip or spring clip - used in tv film a lot
C clamps
Wood clamps/Yorgenson clamps

Hammers:
Claw framing hammer - 16oz, or rip hammers (not shown, have the straight top)
Tack hammer
Rubber mallet - deliver force w out damage, shape thin metal
Ball peen hammer - used in metal work
Sledge hammer - not often used in theatre


Painting Tools:
Ladders, scaffold (ha, not shown!)
Rollers + texture roller
sponges - hide flaws
Chip brushes - a nice disposable brushes
Paint tray or pan - "charging" the brush
use a W or x pattern when painting
5 in 1 one tool - scrapes rollers, open pant can,a staples out
Extensions - tools to screw onto rollers to give longer reach.
Planes - shown L in photo
Paint dryer - (not shown) looks like a hair dryer
Water based paints contain VOCs: volatile organic compounds. Meaning? They can rot.

Pliers & Wrenches (R-L):
Wratchet or socket Open end wrench Box wrenches - really a circle, have the measurements on them
Pipe wrench - 4 used in hanging lighting (big with red handle)
Vice grip/locking pliers
Ice tong thing is really just "fancy plyers"
Dikes are the curved pliers Long-nose/Needle nose - Slip joint - popular, multifunction, the pliers with the red handle
Box/combo/open ended wrench, Crescent or C wrench -wow so many names!


Various:
T50 hand stapler/staple gun - hangs curtains temp
Crimping cutting tools 4 metal
Wire strippers - (bottom L, black)
and a pencil (duh)

various chisels



What are the red and yellow handled tools at top of this photo?
Pop rivet gun (black & red) - don't use much
Alan wrench/hex head screws (silver L's)
Black Crow bars & "wonderbar" (not shown)

scissors - duh

Blades:
"Exacto" or Matte knife - most common accident tool has a string cutter & place for extra blades. handy.

Stock flats:
2' 3' & 4' width stock flats are the often used flats you keep "in stock" to always have on hand.

"stock" also refers to the material you're working with

Power Tools:
Battery operated screw guns 'deWalts'
Dry wall Phillips screw
Battery chargers 9v to 18v
Keyless chuck to tighten chuck which holds the drill bits
Michitas are the older brand
Angle drill

Panel or circular saw - Battery op power, saw plywood Luan sheets, light duty cutting
Less teeth for rough cuts
can pivot to make beveled cuts
Worm drive saw - corded has more power
Sawsall or reciprocating saw -
Bosch saber saw (not jig or scroll saw) - can cut curves better than the michita brand, better for handling

Router - shaping tool flush cutter

Numatic staple and nail guns:
Portable compressor uses air pressure for...
finish nailers (the big one)
pin nailers doesn't hold as well as staples but use it for crown moulding or other items you'll want to pull off the stock sets later.

Sanders
Square ones , name?
Belt sander
grinder - will cut metal use composite blades Metal is bcoming more popular in theatre

Stationary Power Tools:
Band saw - blade is a band
Drill press -
radial arm saw makes many repetitive cuts, has a rip fence and you c clamp a 'stop block' as guide

**Table saw - unisaw, delta makes good table saws, generally used for rip cuts- along the grain of wood. Tracks are for holding rip fence always use blade guard.
Make sure to see that the bolt is locked down

Push stick don't get within 4-5" of the blade
Don't cross your body while running power saws

Chop saw or mitre saw, the yellow one Dewalt brand specialty cuts angled etc.

Disk sander

'doesn't make sense' notes on framing:
in lumber, a 1 x 3 is actually a 3/4 x2 1/2
use 1 or 1 3/8 staples for framing, change the staples for 'skinning' putting the luan on the front of the frame.

Romancin' the Blues

I just realized I never posted this video. One of the songs I sang last for our concert last April. I've got to find an outlet for more sining here so that I don't start making this my theme song in California. I snatched an hour yesterday in a practice room at school. The instrument has gotten a little rusty with all this moving and traveling. Hope you enjoy this song from Linda Eder's album: It's No Secret Anymore. Wish I sang it as well as she does, but I sure enjoyed singing it, which made my audience love hearing it. -K!M

Scenic Design: Assignment 1

Eric Larson wanted to get to know his new students, and what is our raw knowledge of his area of expertise. So, the link (click the title) is to my first completed assignment.

Pulitzer Prize Winning Dramas

Year in USA entry 2:

As everyone else in my immediate and extended family immerse themselves in American Football,
especially College football,
well even more specifically UCLA football,

I've hunkered down with a GRAND OBSESSION for myself:

Reading the Pulitzer Prize winning dramas
I've not yet had the chance to read or see.

So, my INPUT strength has kicked in full force and I've just taken most of the day to compile a list with links to the best descriptions I could find for now. (See the link underlined above, it's pretty nifty...well, if you're as nuts as I am about theatre).

A few days ago, when I got the inspiration, I made my first visit to our local library.

The Central Branch of the Pasadena Public Library is one of the magnificent 1920's buildings of downtown Pasadena. It has tremendously high ceilings, reading tables with pull string-green shaded lamps, dark wood paneling, crown molding, and carved quotes of literary masters surrounding the grand main hall. Each room of the library is a place I'd like to spend hours hunkered down in a chair or wandering the stacks.

Of the 6 I checked out the first one I tackled was THREE TALL WOMEN by Albee. Finished it last night. Really amazing. Genius. You come to find out in the second act that the three women of the first, aged in their 20's, 50's and 90's, are actually the SAME WOMAN who are getting to know one another just before she dies.

I seem to be on a roll with plays about aging. Before this Pulitzer quest, I read a play from my library that I've been intending to read since an old friend David Calkins gave me a copy of the script more than 15 years. ago. Though it didn't win a pulitzer I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER it should be better known. It is also a powerful play about growing old and father/son relationships. (It was produced off-broadway in 2003 and made into a movie in 1970)

So, what do you think of my obsession?
Anyone interested in joining me in reading some of the best American plays ever written?

Back to School

Year in USA 1:

What an unusual year this is for me. I have a break to be able to study whatever I'd like until next summer when we plan to return to Singapore.

I've gone back to school at 45. From the very start of our dreaming about a year in USA, I knew WHAT I wanted to learn about. There are some gaping holes in my undergraduate theatre education. But I'd wrestled long and hard with WHERE to study. Do I commute to school a bit further to take 2 semesters of upper division Theatre History (etc)? Do I apply for an MFA at Cal State Long Beach...or somewhere else? Somewhere that would offer me graduate level academic challenges coupled with an excruciating daily commute on the congested LA freeways!

Choosing Pasadena City College in our neighborhood is certainly not the most prestigious or career advancing choice. But it is a school in Los Angeles County that produces more than 8 shows a year and a convenient, and cheap option.


An MFA would take more than one year to complete, and it will be another 4 until I could continue on the course.

So with PCC I'll learn as much as I put into it while studying near the children's schools and actvities. It will not only be a replentishing sabbatical year of study, but a rich and rewarding year for us as a family to enjoy. PLUS I'll not have to endure sitting on highways looking at red tail lights. Maybe I'll take on that MFA when Cameron is in 9th grade and Tyler starts college.

But I'm posting this entry to say:
I've survived my first week back to school.

Yes, there were the students on the first day who stopped me in the halls to ask directions or advice because I look like a TEACHER.

But I'm off and running. Here's a link to my first assignement, a Scenic Design Survey. Our instructor wanted to get a feel for what we know before he launches into lectures. Next week we'll choose the play that we'll all work on for this first semester. I'm excited to learn a little about drafting, and white model making, and pushing my realists' head to more theatrical, abstract ideas.

Besides Scenic Design, I'm taking courses in: "Theatre History, Technical Theatre & Music Theory. It was hard to choose from the catalog of offerings. I was a kid in a candy shop. Prudence limited me to 12 units.

NOTE: The photo above was taken on my new iphone - yes! i got one! and it'd very very cool! But back to the photo: I was sitting in this cool spot under a tree after I'd hiked up a the foothills near our home. I'm loving living at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. They are breathtaking in the early mornings and at sunset. I'm discovering all kinds of places for early morning hikes and quiet time with the ipod of my new phone tuned to favourite worship songs. I admit I'm crying a lot these days, just overcome, and I'm not sure why. On this day I'd imagined that the rolling of the hills on either side of me, as I was sitting near a canyon, were the folds of the Saviour's garments as he held me in his strong arms.