ASK ED THE HEAD #3

Entry 2.2
So we re-shot "ASK ED THE HEAD" # 3 yesterday, We had some technical difficulties on the previous one, so we went ahead and re shot it. This time the end result was much better. Even Mr. E, de Le Tette' was happier. This installment should be up some time after new years, ETH #2 should be coming to you shortly after XMAS.
We took some more stills of the shoot and after we release #3 there will be an out take installment as well. Stay tuned for "ASK ED THE HEAD #4" we have special guest coming in to visit Mr, Head. You're not going to want to miss this one.

My own head directing my actors.

The intricate workings behind the scenes of any "Ed the Head" shoot.

Steve doing what he does best ... whatever that is.

Clearly he is evil, just look at his eyes.

Erin in a happier moment .... Those moments never last...

Me trying to coax our 13 year old monitor into giving me one more day.

A Digression

My friend Amber just to took up the cause in her blog "http://amberbensonwrotethis.blogspot.com" to  ensure that someday auto-flush toilets will be available to all, not just the rich and lavatorially privileged, I support her fight as should all of you.

However, i do have my own horse in this fight. My own privy pariah, my water closet war.

The dreaded air hand dryer. Yes the one and the same.

For generations we have been given these "sanitary options" for drying our hands after a trip to the toidy. Wash your hands, soap em up good with pink ooze that looks like something from the X-Files. Then, when it is time dry those nice, clean and SANITARY hands you move over to the conveniently, wall mounted, hot air dryer. You don't want to touch it with your newly washed and SANITARY hands, so you hit with your fabric covered elbow and  you are off to the races. HOT AIR FLOWS FORTH.

Well yes, it is hot. No doubt about that. However i believe in my heart of hearts that you could stand there with your hands under that blower, rubbing them together gingerly as is suggested, and you will grow old, the paint will peel off the walls and you will still have two very damp hands. So what do you do?
You wipe them on your pants, which you could have just done originally and saved yourself one more disappointing encounter with the air dryers from hell.

But wait there is more.

Someone, I believe he was a rocket scientist or possible an aeronautics expert, has now developed a new blower. This one certainly does get your hands dry. Unfortunately it also takes you shirt, your pants, your hair and skin with it. It has the power of a jet engine, without the directionality, if it wasn't bolted to the wall with titanium hardware, the thing would surely take flight. It's not a hand dryer, its a restroom black hole.

There is never a happy medium and after all - isn't a happy medium what we all really want anyway?

Ed The Head - installments 2& 3

Entry 2.1

So yesterday we managed to bang out two web installments of "Ask Ed the Head". The usual cast of characters were there as well as an old favorite Erin Callahan (who can be seen as Maddie in Accidental Heroes and Molly in Chronicles of Bob) who has joined the team to pick up the mantle of Oola Galubi. She will also be playing the role of Oola in the webs series as well, opposite AMBER BENSON. The shoot went fairly smoothly after we spent a good bit of the morning getting the green screen and lighting just right, Mr. Head was his usual grumpy self. and Oola was splendid as usual. We have some behind the scenes photos and there will be some out takes as well.

Steve telling me something very important, and me not so much interetsed.

I heard you Ed, and no you can't go and tinkle.

Erin wishing she hadn't answered the phone when i called her to come and play.

Erin thinking how glad she is Ed is in the box.

Chris stroking Eds lovely flowing locks.

Happy Oola

Mr. Ed de Le Tete' - Thespian

Paulie who makes the green screen magic.

A Steve and his camera.

As you can see, we were all thrilled and no pineapples were injured in the making of this web series.

It's a whacky whacky world.

Another Round of Funding

Entry 2.0
Our Indie gogo campaign ended and while we didn't meet our financing goals, we want to thank everyone who did contribute and we want everyone to know that we are still moving forward, For those of you who did not have the opportunity to contribute on Indiegogo, we are giving you another opportunity. We have launched another funding campaign on Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/722416784/maries-zero-gravity-bar-and-grill
Help us make this happen,
Stay tuned, Ask Ed the Head Installment #2 is on it's way.

A MESSAGE FROM A VERY SPECIAL PERSON

Entry 1.9
The video says it all.

Thank You Amber!

Comicon Day 4 - Wrap Up

1.8
Well it's done. After a good nights sleep, I can look back at NYCCC 2011 and say we had a great convention. We accomplished everything we set out to do and then some. We got the word out to bunch of people, made some new connections and re-connected with others. All in all we all had a good and exhausting time. Next year if all goes well we will have our own booth. Seems convention wandering is a young person's game and us old farts need reclyners.

Chris and Charlie at the end of Day #2 -- Needing to sit down.

His Ed-ness .... Doing what he does best!!

Look ma, we have T-shirts!

Monkey working the crowd.

Charlie and the lovely Jill Pantozzi aka The Nerdy Bird, her blog "Has Boobs, Reads Comics" is very cool.

Ed and Charlie, Day #4, we have had just about enough.

Ed working the phones. "No, I don't care what Charlie told you."

Jacob Javit supporting the cause.

That's about it. Can't wait for next year. Well maybe i can....

Comicon Day 2

Entry 1.7
Another really great day. Met some really cool people and gave out a ton of Marie's postcards to a number of Buffy and Amber fans. Hopefully that will help the word spread. I had a great conversation with Eddie McCIintock from Warehouse 13. Great guy, really down to earth, We talked a bit about the show, and some other stuff.

 I have two podcast interviews scheduled for some time tomorrow and a Sci fi news website wants us to come and do an interview when the con is over.

The best news of the day, I finally had a chance to talk to Felicia Day, and we had great catching up "Nice to finally meet face to face" conversation, while 500 people behind me were waiting for autographs. We both decided we would like to work together on something, and are talking about doing a project together in the future. That was pretty cool.
I am exhausted and too tired to write more.
We might have some video to put up from the con tomorrow.
Keep watching.
Keep donating to the cause as well.

Comicon Day 1

Entry 1.6
The day started out wonderfully, My brand new white C-squared polo shirt had coffee on it before we walked out the door. White, not so much a good color for me. But i digress. Ed, Chris (our production manager) and myself get on the train and find ourselves at the Jacob Javitz center at about 10:30am. We made great time in, and the doors open at 11am. Right? Wrong. You can hang around the lobby and go to some panels at 11. The actual con floor does no open until 4pm. Joy and rapture. However we did spend the interim hours walking around, getting interviewed by various wandering Vide-azzi, and a good friend of ours who came down from New England hung with us and the time magically flew by. yep..

At 4pm the masses lined up at the entrance to the hall. Which was lost on me but was explained clearly that they want to be the first to get to the collectibles. Ah, now i understand. I guess i still have a ways to go to hone my geekiness. So after the crowds thinned (took all of 15 seconds) we wandered onto the con floor, in search of the Podcast aisle. One of the objectives of this convention was to hit as many podcasts and web-bers a possible to get Marie's out there. As it turns out it was still early and only one podcaster  was set up. Ian Levenstein, from "Comic Timing" was more than happy to interview me. As soon as i sat down we both realized that he had interviewed me first at comicon a few years back when we made Accidental Heroes. I began to tell him about our project, and as he put it in his own words, I had him at "Amber Benson playing Marie". It was a fun and pleasant interview, and I managed to get out all the info that we needed, website, facebook and indiegogo. He is going to let me know when the interview will be played and i will post that as well.

Later in the day as my feet were starting to hurt and my knees were starting to  demand they be taken back to brooklyn and put in bed, I ran into wonderful woman. Well I didn't actually run into her, I was admiring her mostly covered tattooed body, when we struck up a conversation, and as it turns out she is in production as well and may very well be joining the C Squared Family shortly.
So all in all the first day was a success despite the shaky beginning.
I think we are dying those shirts blue tonight.... This is why we don't wear white after labor day ... or ever!!

Me in white shirt (conveniently hiding the stains) at NYCCC.

CONTEST TIME

Entry 1.5


Ok the time you have all been waiting for with baited breath has arrived. Official Rules and guidelines for the "Great Inter-Galactic Maries Zero-Gravity Bar & Grill Drink invention Contest" have arrived.

GROUND RULES:

The goal of this contest is to find 15 new drinks. Not just drinks, but concoctions that would wow beings who have traveled the lengths and breadths of the galaxy. A screwdriver ain't gonna cut it. Unless it's the Doctors Sonic Screwdriver. So get creative.

Must be alcoholic. I know I shouldn't have to specify that, but one can never be too sure.

Any edible food may be used in creations, Keeping in mind the more bizarre the better.

And here is what the winners are gonna get:

1^st prize – 15 winners:

- will be included in the MZGB&G official Drink Guide. Winner’s name will be credited in the Guide 

-Winners will also be listed in the credits of MZGB&G theatrical presentation under “RECIPE PEOPLE” in alphabetical order by last name.

-Winners will be notified via the supplied email

-

Winners local to the NYC area or who can get to the NYC  area without any assistance from C-Squared Pictures LLC, will be invited to set and will be “bar patrons” in the shoot.

2^nd prize – 20 winners – will receive an official MZGB&G coaster.

OK, now read this next part really carefully. Our team of high priced lawyers spent hours and hours going over, reading, citing precedent (whatever that is) voir dire-ing, and barristering. 

*****************************************************

OFFICIAL RULES:

1. All winners are at the sole discretion of the judges.
2. All entries become property of C-Squared Pictures, LLC and by entering the contest all contestants agree to be bound by these rules and assign any and all intellectual property rights to C-Squared Pictures, LLC for commercial exploitation
3. No further compensation will be given to any winner other than that which is listed.
4. All contestants’ recipes submissions must be original concepts and creations.
5. All contestants grant C-Square Pictures, LLC permission to use their names and likenesses in any and all promotional material related to the Marie’s Zero-Gravity Bar and Grill  (MZGB&G) project.
6. All persons over the age of 18 may enter the contest and will supply C-Squared Pictures, LLC the following information with their submission:
1. Name
2. Address
3. Email address
4. Age
5. Certification that their entry is their own creation.
6. The person’s name will be used in the Published Bar Guide
7. Only one entry per person is allowed.
8. The official entry form must be used for all submissions. This form may be found on the MZGB&G web page. 
9. PRIZES
1. 1^st prize – 15 winners:
1. Recipe will be included in the MZGB&G official Drink Guide. Winner’s name will be credited in the Guide – 
2. Winners will also be listed in the credits of MZGB&G theatrical presentation under “RECIPE PEOPLE” in alphabetical order by last name.
3. Winners will be notified via the supplied email
4. 1^ST prize winners will also receive an official MZGB&G T-shirt
2. 2^nd prize – 50 winners – will receive an official MZGB&G coaster.
10. VALUE – 1^st prize value is estimated at $15.00 USD; 2^nd Prize is valued at$2.00
11. Contest starts Sept 28^th 2011 and ends 11:59 PM EST Nov 30th

Ok you got through all of that. Once you are happy with your creation, send the official contest form that you downloaded from the MARIE'S ZERO-GRAVITY WEBSITE http://www.marieszerogravitybarandgrill.com/ TO INFO@CSQUAREDPICTURES.COM.

Ok that's it, go invent something amazing.. Oh and one last thing, if you have not been to our indie-GoGo site yet, please go to the link on the side of the blog. 

WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET AND EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS!!!!!!

THE BAR & GRILL HAS LANDED ....

Entry 1.4

Yesterday, the fearless production team scouted a potential shooting location for our shoot. Low and behold it was sitting right under out noses. The perfect location for our space station is the same place where we put on armor and hit each other with sticks. Yup, super geeks, we are also in the SCA and our weekly fighter practice takes place in a lovely wide warehouse and it is available. Our Art Department, Sal Tagliarino (Production Designer) and David Weller (Art Director) are working on the space station design as i write this and my DP; Steve Gladstone and I have already begun talking about how we are gonna light and shoot this thing in the new space. We took some action photos for everyone to see the space.

Here we see (left to right) Chris Barra our Production manager, Sal (back to camera) David(fashionably in black) and Steve (way in the back) surrounded by lots of armor, conferring intently.

Here we see our Producer E.F. Morrill in a fetal position desperately trying to figure out to say "NO" to me one more time.

It was a good day for the C-Squared Team and it was a good day for Marie's Zero Gravity Bar & Grill.

And I promise, Ed will be ok ... eventually.

OK, This is the fun stuff.

Entry 1.3 
So, the cat's out of the bag, It's no secret, there is a bar in "Marie's Zero Gravity Bar and Grill". An intergalactic bars need a drinks menu. So we are going to have a contest. You come up with a winning drink for the bar, and it will be used in the series, named for you, included in the "Marie's Zero Gravity Bar and Grill" drinks guide and there will be a special prize to go along with it.

Now, all you good geeks out there, the process should be as much fun as the result. We are planning on inviting friends over to "Experiment" with colors, consistencies and flavors. You should do the same.

Remember it's all about the journey.... To quote on of the great thinkers of our time (well a time)

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

BB


Contest rules and requirements will be forth coming once the team of C-Squared Pictures Lawyers has had chance to write them.

5,4,3,2,1 .... Action .. WE ARE LIVE

Entry 1.2

Well,  we launched the “MARIE’S ZERO GRAVITY BAR & GRILL” website and the indieGoGo site. We already got our first donation. Thank you Mr. Ronald Bradley for busting the seal and your generosity. On behalf of all of us and Amber, we thank you. We are really excited about this project and the karma seems to be really good.

There many things that need to happen between now and rolling camera (hopefully in mid November or Early Dec ) and my plan is to keep you all updated as the process continues, right through production and post production.


Pre-Production begins this week. We have budget meetings and we are going over to the location where we are shooting with our production team to start working out the nuts and bolts.


Ed and I will be attending NYC ComicCon all 4 days so if you are gonna be there let us know, We may have some MZGB&G swag to hand out.


One of the most important things to do right now is raising the funds. You will notice at the bottom of this page there is a link to our INDIE-GOGO site where we are raising the necessary funding to produce “MARIE’S ZERO GRAVITY BAR & GRILL”.  Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell anyone with ears. 

You'll be glad you did.

CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET GEEK ... THE SAGA BEGINS

Entry 1.1

Hi everybody, my name charlie and I am a geek.  

(Insert group “Hi Charlie”)

To those of you who are reading this, this statement of fact is neither shocking nor all that interesting. However, it may shock you to know that I was not always a geek.

Well at least I didn’t think so.

Lets go back a few years. It’s 2005 and one of my very good friends decided that myself and another friend (who is a huge comic book and sci-fi geek) should attend Shoreleave. I truly had no interest in going, but the promise of parties and beer was enough to convince me to check it out. I had to admit that despite being surrounded by geeks, (of which I did not consider my self one, despite owning a number of versions of the star wars trilogy, 4 sets of the lord of the rings books, the full box set of LOR and holding my own in a various geeked out conversation about Star Wars, Star Trek and why I liked Stargate the movie better than the series) I had a great time, yet there was no way I was a geek.

An invite later that year to Farpoint, pretty much had the same end result but this time I knew a few people. Yet still not a geek.

To me geeks were nerds. I was a musician, played sports, I am a filmmaker, I have always had girlfriends, didn’t live in my mothers basement etc. I did however , name all my computers and hard drives after places in LOR and my two flash drives are named Bill & Shadowfax.  To me this was just cool, no proof of geekdom here.

Not long after, a friend of mine came to me with the idea for a TV show/Web series called “Accidental Heroes” about a bunch of gamer geeks who get mistaken for superheroes, and find that it’s easier to try to be superheroes then convince the public they aren’t. This was before Kick Ass and all the superheroes shows that followed, except for the show “Heroes”,  which I didn't watch because, I, was not a geek, We shot AH as a pilot series, my partner  Meredith adding the geek element to the script (as she is a total geek) and it came out damn good and damn funny. We aired it as webisodes on Stay tuned TV and won an award of actual cash for the amount of hits we got. Making AH was one of the most fun shoots we had done, and while I was sure I wasn’t a geek, I was pretty sure I wanted to do more stuff like AH. 

At this juncture it began to be pointed out to me that I was in fact a geek. Evidence to support this absurd theory, my LOR named software, my replica Harrison Ford pistol from Blade Runner and last but certainly not least my attendance at.. Conventions.

Yes I was dragged to Arisia in 2009 so we could get the word out about Accidental Heroes, Lunacon 2009 followed with me being on a number of filmmaker panels. 

HOWEVER … Still not a geek … I think … Just a sci-fi filmmaker playing among the fans. Yeah right,

Another year, another scifi pilot called Chronicles of Bob. More Cons, more panels, now moderator on panels, now panels that have nothing to do, or little to do with filmmaking, with names like, “Serenity, almost a perfect movie” and “Why do great shows like The Dresden files get axed after one season when survivor is on season 38?) and what is worse these panels were suggested …. By me.

Yes it was a long road to come to terms with my inner geekdom. It wasnt easy, and at times, frightening, but as I sit here starting this blog wearing my Serenity T-shirt doing pre-pre-pre-production for Maries Zero Gravity Bar & Grill I realize I am a geek, and I am fine with it.  

ghaj ghobe' taHvIp!