Break a Leg

It's 5:53 am right now -- do you know where your Break a Leg crew is?

Around 50 minutes ago we finished shooting in one of the coolest locations ever -- The Hotel Majestic, a real, supposedly haunted hotel in San Francisco that was built in 1904. I'll include the link in the morning because I'm insanely tired but -- suffice to say, they're amazingly cool to let us shoot there and it's a beautiful, beautiful place.

'Cause the only way to shoot there when the music at the bar is turned off is to shoot it late (that sentence was all kinds of bad), we started shooting at around 11 pm. That's right, 11 pm. You wonder why there is no Jennifer Blog today? It's because he was there too, as was Skip (Sebastian), Flynn (Larry), and of course, Hillary, Dustin, Justin, Dashiell and I.

Why am I still up?

This is how dedicated Justin and Dashiell are. Today is Tuesday (well, Wednesday) and they have work. Because there's just no way they're going to sleep and make it in time for work, they're spending NOW getting ready for what they're doing in.. well, 4 hours. On no sleep. After shooting for 6 hours.

People have asked us what advice we have for filmmakers? Do it because you love it and do it to perfection. Don't complain, work hard, give it all you've got, bleed film and art, and you'll get there. Are we there? Not just yet. Do I think we will be? I think so. I hope so. I think so.

Anyway, the footage looks amazing. I can't wait for you guys to see this episode and all the interesting shots, scenes, etc. that are in it.

And, finally, thanks again for watching us and commenting and, in general, being fans. There's a reason we do this and it's mostly because we know you're there, and you're watching, and you're telling friends, and you're quoting our quotes, and it's damn worth not sleeping a day or two to get the kind of support you've given us.

So thanks!

I'm going to go now and stare at Justin and Dashiell angrily, hoping that, one day, perhaps soon, Justin will take me out of the underground, creepy basement-like place where they work and drive me to my bed, where I will sleep and dream of film, and art, and, not sleeping for all of it.

Night!

-Yuri 

Hey, all!

So, since a lot of you are around that college age and this last vlog of ours touched on school and specifically, going to it, I figured now was a good time to let you know about a site that a good friend of mine created. 

Now, you know I wouldn't advertise anyone or anything I didn't think was worthwhile, and their site is actually really neat (did I just say neat? Oh, yes I did.) It's called CollegeCarrot.com, here's its quick description:

CollegeCarrot.com is the leading online source for human powered college admissions guidance. Currently, over 25,000 students visit CollegeCarrot.com each month to receive personalized answers regarding their college admissions needs. Independent college admissions counselors power the CollegeCarrot.com resource community in answering questions, providing useful links, and offering helpful suggestions.

In slightly more human terms, it lets you ask direct questions to counselors and advisors about college, things like what tests to take and so on. It's actually insanely useful and I wish we had something like that when I was going off to school. Hell, maybe learning to read would've really helped Break a Leg be stronger (I have Vlad read all of our scripts to me.)

Anyway, it's a superb site and I suggest both educators and educationees (I told you, I'm practically illiterate) check it out.

Thanks, guys! Hope it's helpful.

-Yuri

Ever wonder how we make those adorable brooms and knives move in our Broommation segment in Break a Leg? Well, wonder no more -- our new Broommation video introduces our clatmater, Adam Carl Cohen and details the entire process. It also shows you snippets of the next Broommates segment.

Check it out here on YouTube and rate, favorite, comment and subscribe!

Or right on our website.

Also, thanks to Dina Kaplan of Blip.TV and her intern Lauren for doing their Blip on Blip segment specifically about Break a Leg and our Season Finale teaser. Check it out here:



Thanks for watching guys, pass it on!

Thanks!
-Yuri

 

So, while we're prepping for Friday's shoot, Justin (Chase Cougar) says the following: "Yesterday? What's Yesterday?" He wasn't asking an existential question, he was asking about the song.

"You've never heard of Yesterday?"
"Ohh. Maybe in the background of a movie or something."
"It's the most covered song in history."
"Oh. Nope, never heard of it."

Shocked dismay.

Now granted, I'm a big fan of the Beatles and I understand if, say, Justin didn't know that there was a Beatles song called, Everybody's Got Something to Hide, Except for Me And My Monkey -- that's fine, I understand. But Yesterday? Come on.

So, long story short, we've replaced him with the animantronic bear from AI.

---

We shot today in the park. Remember that beautiful, crazy tree that we shot at for Mescapolitan? Well, when we went there, there was a pack (a gaggle?) of teenagers, playing music, drinking, and SPRAY PAINTING OUR TREE. That's right, they were spraying red graffiti on the Mescapolitan tree.

Sometimes, I think evolution is flawed. 'Cause it doesn't really seem that they their line should have survived very far -- and I'm hoping that, ideally, they'll inhale enough fumes today to ensure that if it does survive for a little while, it at least won't continue into future generations.

Seriously? Marking your territory? It's like watching a pack of little dogs marking their territory, drinking wildly and thinking they're just way too cool for nature. Which, truth be told, they really are. 

 

I hope that tree eats them.

---

A little further down that path, we saw even younger teenagers, drinking 40s and SHOOTING BB guns. It's like we fell in a 1940s stereotype. Not only that, but when they left, they literally left all of their trash where they were sitting. 

Now, granted, I don't know the circumstance of their departure. They could've (I hope I hope I hope) shot themselves in the eye and had to rush to the hospital, leaving their delicious cheez-its and beer bottles laying wildly behind. Even nature would be like, alright, that's cool, guys, just come back and clean me up.

But I'm going to guess that it was less an emergency and more of a, "Oh, the trash can is at leeeeast 10 feet away, let's just throw it here. After all, it's so much more majestic when the grass is covered with our waste products."

---

In a very perfect world, both packs of roving kids would bump into each other, and in a flurry of snapping fingers and angry songs, stab one another to death. I'm not saying I wish death on them, I'm just saying their decomposing bodies would probably be much more useful to the Earth than their living, halfway-brain dead selves.

I'm just sayin'.

Shoot went great though!

-Yuri 

“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.”

- Leonard Bernstein

Fresh off of my utter failure of a blog last week, I've renewed my commitment to you, the reader. I'm also not sick anymore and this is column is due tomorrow, so that helps a bit too.

I thought about talking about my ideas for TV shows, because I've been watching this show on TLC called John and Kate Plus 8. It's about a couple that used fertility treatments to help the have kids and, guess what? Ended up with eight (in a batch of two and another batch of six). I'm a parent so this kind of shit interests me.

Anyway, I thought the show should be called What A Fucking Mess.

That got me thinking about the other brilliant show ideas I've had while watching TV, like So You Think You Can Dance, Motherfucker?

I ended up abandoning that idea for a topic, for two reasons. It's a little too derivative of my recent movie post. Also, those two ideas I just told you about? Just came up with them tonight and don't have anymore. So that about wraps that up.

Watching these masochists with the 8 kids got me thinking about my home life and how hard it is to carve out time to get anything done. Just tonight my wife and I managed to finish Vacancy, a mediocre thriller starring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson. Yes, it's exactly as good a movie as it sounds, and you can probably guess the entire plot from the title and the cast.

It took us three days to finish the movie, and not entirely because we didn't really care what happened to the hapless wanderers. That's just how long it takes sometimes.

The other day I was comparing dishwashing to debt management, where you have a sink full of dishes and can't imagine how you'll ever get through them all? You first have to stop the bleeding, and don't create any new dirty dishes. Wash dishes while the dinner is cooking, just enough to eat off of for the meal. Then wash just one more, and slowly but surely you'll climb out of that dish-debt. It might take years, but it will happen. It's like making the minimum monthly payment.

I don't know how I find time to shoot whenever Yuri stamps his little feet and makes demands for my time, but somehow I do. It's like I've always got a secret stash of time tucked away that I can pull out for special occasions.

Speaking of which, I have one day of shooting left for the latest episodes. We love cutting things close more than anything else, that's for sure.