MAKING HERMAN
Latest entry: Entry 32,
Friday August 12, 2005
Entry 16. By David,
Wednesday October 15, 2003
Here's what I've been doing for the last three months instead
of HERMAN:
So I reckon I have an excuse for not finishing the voice
recording and getting stuck into the animation. That's next.
Entry 17. By David,
Thursday November 20, 2003
So I've recorded almost all the dialogue now. Pauline, Santo,
Kate, Jim, Adam and Loc all came in to do their thing. All
sounds good to me, although I've only skimmed through what
we got. The only problem is that we accidentally recorded
over about half of Santo's dialogue, and didn't realise it
until after he'd left. So I called him up and he graciously
agreed to come back in the next day at 9am to redo it.
I got in my car at 8:15am to head into the city. It wasn't
long (but still too long) before I realised that my front
left tyre was flat. Very flat. Without a jack, I was very
very stuck. Not having Santo's number, and it being too early
in the morning for his office to pass on a message, I was
having visions of Santo turning up at a dark, empty studio,
possibly frowning. Thankfully, that was when he called me
to make sure the recording was still on. Better make it another
day, said I. Then Dad arrived with the jack.
A few people in my street have seemingly been irked of late
by my choice of parking spots. Every time I park somewhere
in our street, some motherfucker gets pissy. One couple (who
used to park their car under a carport on their property)
moved their car permanently out onto the street so I couldn't
park there any more. Another guy asked me (nicely, mind you)
to move my car from another spot because his wife, who apparently
is unable to turn a steering wheel, had a problem getting
out of her driveway ACROSS THE STREET. Some brave soul put
an anonymous note on my windshield asking me to park elsewhere
because I am making life difficult for their GUESTS.
Then my mysterious flat tyre, which, since it was unpunctured
(it's back on the car now), could really only have been flattened
on purpose. Conspiracy theories as to which neighbour did
it, if any, abound in my household.
Well into animating the opening sequence of the film now.
Will have it done (well, basically done) by next Tuesday to
show people at Next Wave.
I checked out the Old Magistrates Court for the first time.
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 10:19:34
+1100
From: David Blumenstein <david@nakedfella.com>
To: Hannah Mathews
CC: Marcus Westbury, Jake
Subject: Re: What's going on with HERMAN
So I've checked out the Magistrates
Court. The room we're talking about is Courtroom 2, currently
an echoey, cavernous space, a little bit decrepit but very
cool looking. Nicole from Property Services told me that
by May next year the room should be carpeted and repainted,
so the "echoey" and "decrepit" should
be gone by then.
The room contains a movable
witness stand, plus a humongous judge's platform/canopy
which is reputed to be the one under which Redmond Barry
sat when he sentenced Ned Kelly (it's been moved here from
the old Supreme Court). The screen I think will be easy
to put up where the judge would sit, and the projector at
the front of the standing room at the back. There's no pillars
or other architecture to interfere with this.
There's one or two benches for
seating, more of which can be taken from other parts of
the building and put back in the room. The room looks as
if it will seat somewhere around 50-60 once the benches
are moved in, so not huge. Marcus wondered if a small capacity
like this would be a problem given the number of people
I'd be inviting along myself, but consider that the film
will only be 20-25 minutes long: we could do three screenings
in an evening, easy. 7pm, 8pm, 9pm?
Another possibility would be
to do a screening at the courtroom, then one at Kaleide
around the corner (which seats 180), but I like the idea
of using the courtroom as much as possible (we would have
it for the night, after all). Fri. night = courthouse, Sat.
night = Kaleide?
Colin from A/V quotes the cost
as $275/night, equipment (and GST) inclusive. Nicole said
they just need an approximate date to pencil in. As I said
to Hannah, my first reaction would be to go with Fri/Sat
night (which would be either 21/22 or 28/29 May), but maybe
there's a reason not to? Or maybe: courtroom premiere 21/22
May, then further screenings (Kaleide, Monash Clayton, Monash
Caulfield, Melb. Uni, ACMI, ???) through the rest of Next
Wave?
Mmm. Thoughts?
And today Santo came back to rerecord the stuff
we fucked up last time. Sounds great. I also did my bits (Herman
barking, mostly). Barking and making vomiting noises for half
an hour can really take it out of you.
Entry 18. By David,
Sunday December 21, 2003
Animation/background art is moving along. Here's
screen captures!
Herman at home. Note visible back legs
Chuck (Adam Wajnberg), annoyed
In court: Danny (Loc Nghe) and Herman. In
the gallery, Chuck and some old lady knitting
Prosecuting attorney Leonard Palumbo (Shaun
Micallef)
Attractive assistant Sabrina Lloyd (Katrina
Mathers)
An angry judge (Brian Millership)
Also been working on the exciting "end
credits" music.
Ever since hearing Pegazus
for the first time earlier this year, I've known that the
only way this film could possibly end is with an explosive
burst of unvarnished POWER METAL. That's why I informed the
other members of METZENGERSTEIN that their services would
be required for this very special project.
METZENGERSTEIN could be charitably described
as an "experimental side project" for a group of
otherwise disparate musicians. In reality, it is a cool metal-sounding
name for a band that doesn't exist outside a rehearsal room.
It consists of:
BEN SULLIVAN -- classy drummer, art-painter,
bum.
JESSE Bear -- fruitfully employed in some
field of biological research of which I have little grasp,
Jesse is also a talented and modest (as opposed to "modestly
talented") guitarist.
NICHOLAS CHARLES IVES -- boy do I love typing
his full name. Nick plays bass.
and ME -- like all non-musician types, I play
keyboards.
When METZENGERSTEIN gets together (extremely
infrequently), what results is hard to describe. Ben and Jesse,
as "gigging" types, are well-versed in band playing,
with leanings towards da funk. Nick is an experimentalist,
with one eye always on the Mike
Patton playbook. And I enjoy playing stupid instruments,
like kazoo, melodica or "the red thing" (one of
those little keyboards shaped like a guitar that hangs on
a strap round your neck). So everything we play turns into
a 15-minute distortionfest in 13/4 with the Super Mario theme
dancing around the edges.
While disorganised, this group is not lacking
in chops (although I function much better in a "producer"
role than as somebody expected to play notes correctly). So
I called on METZENGERSTEIN to deliver some Pegazus/Motorhead/Deep
Purple power metal to the floor. Having written some suitably
metal lyrics involving dragons, hordes, wizards and a chorus
stolen from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", we got
together and chiseled some marbled power chords into a song
called "DOGS OF LAW".
Having recorded Ben's drum part with the production
expertise of his brother Dan at the Sullivan studio downtown,
I then got Nick and Jesse down to Rancho Del Animación
Muy Impresionante to thunder and wail respectively. METAL
VOCALS are last on the agenda. I tried to do them myself but
they sounded both piss and weak. It has become evident that
if this track is going to sound convincingly METAL, I'm going
to have to keep my voice and my silly instruments off it.
Thankfully, in the western world there is always a metal singer
within one or two degrees of separation...
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