Gearing Up

About a month to go till we shoot *The Mustache.* We have pretty much the entire cast and crew set. This is easily the largest group of people, biggest budget and most talent on any project IdRatherBeHere has been involved with.

CAST:

Jared Delaney as Alex

D'arcy Fellona as Lauren

Jared Nelson as Peter

Amanda Siebold as The Floozy

Ian Sullivan as Evan

CREW:

Eric Balchunas: Writer/Executive Producer

Gisela Aydin: Director/Executive Producer

Tony Obfenda: Director of Photography

Taka Ogawa: Director of Photography

Ken Jordan: Lighting Design

Dan Plunkett: Producer

Gus Milligan: Producer

???: Sound Recordist

Jim Philbrick: Boom Operator

Ken Jordan: Lighting Design

Bonnie Quick: Wardrobe Director

Wayne Johnson: Electric/Grip

Trang Balchunas/Dan Lewis: Top Chef

Goals for 2010

I've drawn up four simple goals for 2010 for IdRatherBeHere:

1. TV Show Pitch
This weekend I wrote an 8 page first draft of a treatment for a TV show about South Jersey. Possible title(s) are "SoJo" or "The Hometown Heroes." The premise of the show is a guy who moves back to SoJo from the city and tries to acclamate amongst the cast of characters down there. I have a wealth of stories, characters and ideas for this. I have mapped out 10 episodes and love how easily the writing comes for this.

2. Short Film Festival
The short film we are shooting in February called *The Mustache* may act as a pilot or a preview to be used in concert with the Treatment in a TV show pitch. BUT, we want to see this shown in at least a few film fests. We think we have a good shot.

3. Wawapalooza 4
Also planning Wawapalooza 4. This year should be the best yet, as we've brought in some experienced, new blood to add to show's content. I'm also looking to make the show more diverse by adding modern dance, stand-up and even artwork, in addition to the short films and sketches. I've got about 12 scripts in the bag so far. And, I'd like to start using musicians' songs for transitions and pre-show.

4. Give birth to one full-lenght script
My final goal for 2010 is to just complete a long play and have it produced in some way, even if it's just a reading. The main idea is to get done a 60-70 page play. It is very difficult for me as I get bored easily so I gravitate towards shorter pieces. I have 2-3 plays that I can expand, just need to stick to it.

Tackling Earl Campbell

Last night I was searching for a decent old school Earl Campbell jersey on eBay. It got me on youtube watching some old highlight films of Earl as a running back for the Houston Oilers. This one is insane:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfJybuzkMT0


I am writing a longer piece called "Tackling Earl Campbell" which is a personal story about struggling with something. I mean, no running back today ran like Earl Campbell. He was a monster. Hence, trying to tackle him is the perfect metaphor for overcoming a huuuge obstacle in life.

Grizzly Bear

Getting into Grizzly Bear's album "Veckatimest" It takes a few listens, but wow, it's tremendous.

A great album to spark the imagination.

Youtube the song "Two Weeks" or "Ready, Able"

Here We Go...

Ok, I'm going to dedicate a lot of the blog for the next few months to tracking the production of the short film:
“THE MUSTACHE”
Written by Eric Balchunas
Directed by Gisela Aydin
SYNOPSIS:
Evan, a hometown guy who has moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn and turned into a hipster, comes back home to South Jersey for the weekend sporting a trendy new mustache. This new facial hair triggers a whole chain events with his old friends, ex-girlfriend and a floozy, resulting in a thorough and comedic deconstruction of Evan’s identity.
*****
With this short we will be going into a new area of real production and plan to submit to Sundance Film Festival and many other national film fests.

The two big things going on now are:
1. Auditions - We are holding auditions on Nov 7.

2. Equipment - We are looking at renting a camera called the Canon 7D, which will literally come out right before our shoot. It shoots 24fps, which will give the short a film-like quality.

Two Things at Once

All the sudden there are two projects developing at once:

1. HELIUM - Working with the typical crew to get ready for a show at Helium. We are allowed one sketch and if judged as the best we get a slot in the Philly Sketchfest in December. Doesn't that sound like the plot of some 80s movie? Anyhow, I'm still debating what sketch we should perform. Right now I'm 40% Inner Child, 40% Kmart and 30% Camping Sketch. Going to get some input.

2. SHORT FILM - Working with Giz to cast The Mustache short film using outside actors. Already we've received some decent resumes. It will be fun to mix it up on this project and swing for the fences. Giz is key, with her the end product will be elevated and we intend to submit to some festivals. We are using no copyrighted music or pics or anything. A first for me!

The Mustache

I am doing some editing on a short play I wrote 18 months ago called *The Mustache* which is about one of the hometown heroes, who moves to nyc, and then comes home for a long weekend sporting a mustache. He thinks it's cool cos he sees hipsters in the East Village bars wearing them and his friends think he's an ass, trying to be cool. There's also a love triangle involved.

We are having a rehearsal in a few weeks. I hope it reads as well I think it can. I am trying to do this new thing where I thread into a short script a plot of a real popular movie, so that it becomes a play that literally plays out the "life imitates art" concept. I am so affected by pop culture especially as a kid, that it makes perfect sense that my writing reflect that, almost becoming unreal, or a halfway zone between reality and pop culture.