Break a Leg

Hey all,

 If you're desperately searching for a new conversation -- we're keeping the Teaser out for one more week so that more people can see it, love it and spread it around like some kind of virus-ey forest fire that will burn and kill its way into the hearts of millions. Or something like that.

As always, you can either watch it right here, on our website, or on our YouTube page where we ask, nay beg, of you to comment, rate, subscribe and spread it to your friends!

We have two bits of news to share as well:

1. There should be a story about Break a Leg in the famed San Francisco Chronicle newspaper sometime this week. We'll definitely link to it when it's available.

2. The Friday before the Monday, June 30th release of Episode 11, you will not only be able to watch a screening of the episode but be able to talk, pixel-to-pixel to some of your favorite characters from Break a Leg. More on this next week.

Now, without further ado -- more pictures from the next episode -- perhaps they'll help you fuel some of your predictions for what will happen in the finale.

Click to enlarge them!

Amber tries to make a call...

Chase and Amber look aghast... that's right, May 13th, 1919!

 Trouble is brewin'...

And, here's some behind the scenes shots -- oh the fun we have.

Welcome to Georgetown!

So many people!

Yes, Francesca is half cartoon...

Shooting with us brings out uncontainable joy in our actors.

Lost Boys!!

Thanks, guys! 

-Yuri

I'm sick. Dammit. The upside is that this is likely my shortest blog posting here, ever.

I was going to discuss internet... stuff this week, the good and the bad, and the just plain retarded. In mulling over what I'd talk about and what I'd say about it, I kept coming back to one simply asinine concept in particular: Twitter.

Don't get me wrong, there are stupider things out there on the internet, but I think Twitter and its ilk represent the bottom of an empty septic tank that hasn't been cleaned in decades. Check out the Twitter box on my personal blog and you'll see.

Twitter is one of those things that is a solution in search of a problem. Maybe it's just that I was raised in a different time, but I simply do not remember sitting around the house on a weekend thinking "I really wish everybody in the entire world knew what I was thinking right now."

I got a Twitter account mostly to see what all the fuss was about. I didn't think I could possibly care less what people were doing or thinking that weren't within my line of sight. Turns out I was wrong: I did care less. Much less. Actually knowing what's on someone else's mind does nothing but lower my level of interest.

There are alternatives however! If Twitter's nonsensical voluntary waiving of your right to privacy doesn't get you going, check out these other sites.

Oh, and I found these sites on Twitter. Thanks Nick!

Pheltup: The first social network that not only tells you WHO is doing WHAT; but also WHY.

Plurk: Plurk is a social journal that let's you publish, share your thoughts, emo-ness, "!%#%"#" and loves.

Okay, so I don't even understand the sentence structure of Plurk, or what exactly I'm expected to do there. Pay a visit to the site too, it makes it even more confusing. There's some existentialist comic illustrating... fuck all.

Pheltup at least has proper grammar, and I think I understand what they have in mind. I just don't understand why I'm supposed to care. I also find it wildly amusing that it's a private beta, as if people are clamoring at the gates to tell everybody WHY they are doing whatever the hell they are doing.

Can't I just do that on Twitter anyway by, you know, typing why I'm doing something?

I get crabby when I'm sick, so I'm sorry if someone here is a Twitter fanatic and just can't understand why I'm attacking your best friend. I still use the stupid thing, so I'm just a grouchy hypocrite with a sore throat.

Damn that trailer is hot, isn't it?

Happy Jenday, everybody.  Jenday: Good.  And Good for you.  Just remember that the worst part of the week is over and the best is yet to come.  And you say "But I thought Jenday was the best day."  Oh no, my friend.  The is just the marker, the road sign, the milestone.  From the lofty heights of Jenday you can look back out over Tuesday and all you can say about Tuesday is at least it wasn't Monday.  And looking farther back you see Monday itself, crouching like some malignant creature.  It did it's worst.  It took a chunk out of you, or maybe just tore your pants at the very least.  But you fought and won!  And now as you look down slope you see the verdant, rolling Pastures of Thursday spread out before you like a comforting blanket.  And just beyond that, the Hills of Friday rise like angels into the sky.  Oh sure, it may be rocky at the foothill, but by noon you'll find the climb much easier.  By evening you'll have reached the summit.  What glorious splendors, what untold-wonders, what delicacies of creation await you there.  And beyond the Hills of Friday, that mystical land called Week's End, where freedom is celebrated sided by side with self-indulgence.  Roam free, my friends!  Roam free!  Be not slaves to the system!  Go!  Search, play, explore, laugh, sleep, drink, eat, screw, then sleep some more!  For the wheel ever turns.  And there are not always moments to live the way you love: with abandon and passion.  Go, and when you return, keep that freedom - the memory of it as a shield against the darkness.  Know that others with join their shield to yours, and perhaps one day, we can build a wall against tyranny.

Ok, I don't know where the hell that came from.  Sort of a stream of consciousness, I think.  Anyway, that was fun. 

Wow...that finale teaser was friggin' amazing.  Did you guys see my combat roll?  That was awesome.  If nothing else comes from all of this I need a tape of that.

Oh yeah, so once upon a time I mentioned that I would have pictures of WAR, but it turns out, I didn't really take many, and most of them were of people none of you know anyway.  I hate pictures like that.  But at least I can show you one. 

 There you go: Pirate Me.  Or, as known in the SCA:  Reverend Mochran Killington - The Horny Bard.  And yes, that is a bottle opener on my belt.  Really, I would probably dress like this every day if I could get away with it, but it does get to be a bit cumbersome and police officers often frown on people wearing 10" long daggers.

I don't have much for today's blog...the week after War is always sort of a let down, but it's also vitally important recovery time.  I've been very lazy in the last week and can't say that I regret it.  I have that luxury.

But soon, I should get to work.  When I say "work" I don't mean my 9-5:30.  I mean writing more, putting more songs together, maybe doing some laundry.  Ha ha.  Oh man, I almost said that with a straight face.  Hi-diddle-dee-dee, the bachelor's life for me.

Here's an interesting tidbit about how small of a town I really live in:  This last Friday night, some friends and I decided to go out to a bar.  Normally we just party at my house because it's cheaper and the bar tender is a friend of mine.  So we decided to go to a local pub.  And I mean A Pub.  It's called the Mayflower.  All old wood panelling; English, Irish, and Scottish paraphernalia on the walls, real beer on tap, and the best onion rings I've ever had in my life.  I decided to wear my kilt.  This isn't a crucial point in the story.  I just like to point it out.  And I thought it fitting since we were going to a pub.  Oh sure, there was all that stuff about the English oppressing the Irish and Scottish for hundreds of years, but hey!  That's all over now.  Now like I said I don't go out to bars often.  So it was completely coincidental that we choose this night and this bar.  Not long after we get there and order drinks some other guys come in, one of which looked vaguely familiar.  Turned out he was a good friend of mine back in junior high.  Also turned out he was getting married the next day. 

Its things like that that always make you take a step back and look around at your life.  Seems a lot of my friends are getting married lately, and I suppose this is the time of life to do it.  Me, I can barely take care of my self, let alone a whole other person.  But, really as long as I get to go to the reception, then I really can't complain. 

And Dictionary.com's word of the day is bagatelle \bag-uh-TEL\, noun:
1. A trifle; a thing of little or no importance.
2. A short, light musical or literary piece.
3. A game played with a cue and balls on an oblong table having cups or arches at one end.

Incidentally, "piraturg" is not a word in the English language...yet 

Have you seen the teaser for the Season Finale of Break a Leg? No? Sacrilege!

Take a peek at what the next episode has to offer! Remember how we promised you epic? Well, the teaser shows you just how epic it is. Watch it here, on the website or go to YouTube and, as per usual, comment, rate and subscribe! Help us get the teaser bigger than, well, let's say one episode of Roommates!

Also, there are many hints of many things in the teaser, of the plot, of what to expect, etc. etc. -- feel free to discuss and take wild guesses!

Thanks guys, enjoy!

-Yuri

First I want to kick things off with a few words about, and a small picture of, our shoot this weekend. See I'm torn, because the landscape where we shot on Memorial Day is breathtaking, but Justin was so excited about it that I don't want to spoil its impact in the episode. So, a compromise.
 

Enjoy!

I've always wanted to write my own screenplay. Who hasn't, right? Some years ago, frustrated by my lack of ideas, talent, and motivation, I decided to just try and come up with the worst possible idea I could think of and write that.  It’s painfully obvious that talent is not a prerequisite for getting your dream picture made, and all storytellers basically use the same ideas over and over again.

My legendary lack of motivation proved my downfall in this exercise in mediocrity, but I still from time to time mull over my list of Bad Hollywood Stories and add to it. Someday, I hope to be hated by all decent writers by seeing one of these monstrosities on the big screen.

Dumb Luk

This was the original idea, the first one I really attacked after having my epiphany. I just free-associated Hollywood essentials into a mish-mash of clichés, stereotypes, and action sequences.

Luk is a Danish-Thai ne'er-do-well living on the mean streets of Providence, doing whatever it takes to get by. He finds out his long-lost grandmother is sick and dying on the West Coast, but has neither the money nor the resources to get there and visit her.

Throwing caution and his future to the wind (I even write this in cliches) he steals a car to make the tip, but little does he know that the car he stole is a top secret government urban combat vehicle.

You see where this is going, right? Cannonball Run, Knight Rider, and Shanghai Noon all meet for a cocktail as Uncle Sam chases Luk across the country to take back his ride. Luk manages to turn a few heads, save a few lives, and win over a few hearts before reaching the promised land and saving his grandmother's life, too.

Chicken-Fried Stake

I actually came up with this one today, and this is from the "come up with a title first and we'll figure out the plot later" file.

Stanley works the graveyard at Wooster's Roosters, a second-rate fried chicken joint along a deserted highway in rural Utah. His life didn't exactly turn out the way he'd hoped it would, but he's doing the best with what he's got. Even though Stanley has worked for Wooster for 12 years, he's ever hopeful that fate will soon remember that Stanley is destined for greatness, just like he and his mother always thought he would be.

Fate does indeed glance Stanley's way one evening, when just after dark one lonely evening 3 strangers enter Wooster's, looking for more than just the Family Bucket Special. You see, these 3 strangers are vampires.

So you take Die Hard, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Chariots of Fire, toss them all in a blender for 90 minutes and then watch vampires get their heads deep-fried in the, um, deep fryer. I can see it all in my head, it's just getting it all down on paper that's tough.

One last one!

Zoo Hard

I'm really proud of this one, because it has the ridiculousness of Dumb Luk and the fantastic title of Chicken-Friend Stake. Marlon Perkins (his parents were big fans of Wild Kingdom) is a second-rate zoologist (and ex-Navy Seal!) who never managed to rise above care and feeding at the petting zoo. He wants to propose to the woman he loves, a fellow zookeeper, but she's a rising star in the zoo circles and he feels he's being left behind.

Fate, love, and his two disparate careers all come to a head one day when eco-terrorists take over the zoo. Their demands are simple, if not completely thought out by this author: do something or other regarding the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or something, or other, or they will kill one endangered animal every 30 minutes.

Cue awesome action music, a bad-ass zookeeper armed with only a tranquilizer gun (and of course every fierce predator in the zoo!),  and bad dialogue along the lines of "we're going to make you extinct" instead of "we're going to kill you".

Hope you like those ideas because I'm working on them, and I've got a dozen more where those came from. I figure if I can't conquer Hollywood with quality I'll fire bad scripts like shot from a shotgun until I kill somebody. Or somebody makes my movie. Whichever.