What a gas I had on Daingerfield. We had four awesome days shooting the pilot for Michael's show. I can't wait to see the finished product after post production. Jason, the director, said it would take roughly a month. We laughed a lot (and in all the right places) throughout the entire process. Even though we were only together as a team for 4 days, it had the feel of a family at the end. We all got along famously, which isn't the way things always go. When things gel like that it does show in the work, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the show gets picked up quickly.

I actually had a line in the show. It was the first spoken line in the whole thing other than Michael's voiceover. I was playing a casting director reading a line to Michael in a bathing suit on a couch with two fully dressed women. My line: "How's the problem with the diarreah?" Can you beat that? LMAO! I guess as well as my 2nd Assistant Director credit I'll probably get an acting credit as "Casting Director - Diarreah". LOL!

One really cool thing was Michael telling me that he really appreciated my energy and sense of humour, and that he felt I added a lot to the shoot. I told him that it wasn't welcome everywhere and I appreciated his compliments. He also told me that when the show gets picked up he would bring me back to play a character in it! I can't wait to work with him and everyone else again. Hard work, but fun work. Actually it really didn't seem like work that much at all.

I was exhausted after long days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I tell you what though. I've been having a blast. The cast and crew oin the show are great. Especially the people I've been working really closely with. Michael Daingerfield, the writer/producer/star and I hit it off well. Being 2nd AD I had to hang out with him a lot. We spent most of Sunday laughing our asses off doing impressions and other insanity. He said he appreciated the energy that I brought to the set. Finally a place that I fit. He even wanted me in one of the 'audition waiting room' scenes. That was fun too. I also did some 'shadow acting' keeping the shadows in a long hallway active during a shot.

Another bit of fun was doing walla for the hallway scenes. 'Walla' is film sound slang for the sound of a group of people talking. Group walla is when a number of actors create background crowd sounds in a studio against edited picture. We were saying all kinds of crazy things. I was talking about a fetish for smearing peanut butter on cats.

John Penhall is going to be 1st AD again this weekend. He stepped off set a few times on Saturday and Sunday meaning I was on as 1st AD and got to run the show for a few takes. I didn't feel as unsure of myself as on Gang of Love. I've done it a few times now. This group especially is very encouraging. The DOP Kim Miles and Director Jason Bourque have been patient and helpful. Kim said, "The show's yours, Mike. Call it like you stole it." Nice!

I just got done with my work for the day. Had an interesting production meeting this morning at Remy Kozak's place (Co-Producer and Prodcution Manager). I spent the afternoon with John Penhall, the first AD on the shoot this weekend. John seems like a pretty cool guy. Weird but he worked on Bloodhounds 2. That MOW is the one I got invited on set as a guest of the director, Stuart Cooper, who was staying at Viva Tower at the time. I got to site with him while they shot scense in a restaurant with Nia Peeples and Corbin Bernsen. Corbin Bernsen was in a really shitty mood and was assholey to eveyone around him. Der! Anyway, I digress, I'm learning lots from John already. I'm like a sponge taking it all in. Next weekend 1st AD is Aibi Okundaye. I'm looking forward to working with him too.

We worked on call sheets for the next two days and then I took the train home and made phone calls to crew for their call times, then emailed directions and call sheets to cast and crew. I'm bagged. It's bedtime. I have to be on set downtown at 7:30 am. Funnily enough tomorrow's location is my old agent's office, Kirk Talent. Bad memories. Ugh. Auditions after a night of being a security shlub watching cars in a parking lot. "Oh what a feeling!" ARGH!

Here I sit in the Blenz Coffee shop on Hamilton Street in Yaletown. I paid the 10 bucks to Fatport for 24 hours of access to the WiFi here at the shop. Why am I here you ask? I have a production meeting for the TV pilot I'm working on as 2nd AD this weekend and next at the production office here on Davie Street. The show is called Daingerfield. Yes the spelling is right and there's no relation to Rodney the now deceased comic who could 'get no respect at all'. The show stars it's writer and producer Michael Daingerfield. The story is loosely based on his life as an actor trying to make a go of it here in Hollywood North. I didn't blog at all yesterday as I was reading the script and going over the 1st AD's cast and crew lists One Liners (Used by everyone to remember how the scenes relate), DooD report (Day out of Days - A chart of days of work for each actor on a project) and Call Sheets (Used to let cast and crew their timings and scenes for the next day). As this production has 42 actors (not including background extras) the logistics involved in having everyone in the right place at the right time could be crazy making, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to.

Today we have to go over the creators' vision for the project and get everyone straight on roles timing and locations. I'm really looking forward to this. It's exciting to get involved at this level. There's lots of work ahead but fun all the same. Any script that has the word diarrhea in a joke on the first page is good in my books. :)

I just finished a script for a teaser trailer for a film I'm writing called 'Zone 63'. I'm still writing the full screenplay and I plan on using the trailer to help me get funding for the rest of the movie. The teaser is like most, just a snapshot of the bigger picture. I want to shoot it as soon as I can. I have a MiniDV camera, now the script and the will to do it. All I need now is a rainy day in the woods and an actor to kill off. I'm sure I can find those things here in Vancouver. If I can't find somone else to act in it I'll do it myself. I would love do the Hitchock/Peter Jackson/Shyamalan thing and show up in bit parts in all my films. Perhaps my own death will be my trademark.

Once I'm done with all the post production, editing, adding sound and titles, I'll share a link to it here. I've already reserved the domain name zone63.com, although there's nothing on the site yet. Once I have all the copyright stuff squared away I'll let everyone in on the storyline. All the posts on this subject will be in the Zone 63 category on my blog so you can isolate them from my usual crap.

It's cool that it's finally happening. I've realized lately that the only thing truly holding me back at all is myself. the cool part of that revelation is that it opens up the door to limitless possibilities. Who knows where we'll land, but if some of the really bad films I've seen can get made then so can mine.

I just wanna make movies.

Baby steps...