Production and Travel Blog
By geoff
We recently held a private screening of King Me at the Capitol Theater here in Cleveland, Ohio. After over 2 years of work, it was both nerve wracking and a great relief to finally view the project with an audience for the first time. We could not have hoped for a better response. Thanks to the approx. 300 friends and family who turned up to support us.
So, what’s next? The search for a suitable venue to hold an official premier of King Me is on. In addition, we are also in the process of securing distribution for King Me so that we can take our story to a worldwide audience. Stay tuned.
Private Screening poster created by Pat Walsh for the event.
The crowd settles in at The Capitol.
Executive Producer, Brian Glazen and Director, Geoff Yaw deliver introductory remarks.
As it turns out, the iphone makes a pretty decent cheat sheet for people with public speaking phobias.
American Checker Federation, President, Alan Millhone basks in the afterglow.
By geoff
Seamus McDonald is the newest member of the King Me team. He was created by our motion graphics guru, Ryan Hardy. Seamus makes a few very special appearances in the opening minutes of King Me. We were glad to meet him this week and are having a good time watching his on screen exploits take shape.
16 days until deadline.
By geoff
The fact that I forgot my login and password to this blog was a painful reminder that it has been way too long since we’ve posted any updates. Back in January we predicted that we’d be finished with editorial by April. We’ve obviously missed this self-imposed deadline. Paying the bills and keeping up with our little production company’s workload have put us a bit behind schedule. We won an Emmy and an Addy for some of our work for clients this winter.
Do not despair King Me anticipators. Danielle, Keith and I have been steadily stealing time and are closing in on a finished King Me. We are using the late submissions deadline for the 2011 Sundance International Film Festival as our new benchmark. That date is September 24, roughly 5 weeks away. Danielle is deep into the final scenes of the movie at this point. Next comes story tweaking, final music selection, final sound mix, motion graphics and color grading. We will make this deadline and we’re excited to mix it up with the 10,000 or so other entries from which roughly 185 are chosen to play at Sundance every year.
In checker news: we congratulate Alex Moiseyev for defending his U.S. 3-Move Restriction National Champion title at the recent match held in Springfield, Illinois.
Finding and selecting music for projects is a personal passion of mine. This spring I ran across Canadian act, Timber Timbre. Budget permitting (fingers double crossed) we hope to be able to include a few of their songs in the movie. Click below for a sample.
timber-timbre-demon-host
By geoff
Sorry for the gap in posts. Just a quick update:
Principal photography for King Me is complete and editorial is in full swing. With that, we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Miller. Danielle is currently combing through our 350+ hours of footage and will serve as Lead Editor. Our production office gets pretty unruly so Danielle is currently exploring various concentration retention devices and techniques. Target date for first cut is mid-April, stand by.
Danielle "spider monkey" Miller
By geoff
We started the day shooting broll in various locations, including Bridgetown, with the plan that we’d be meeting Suki in the afternoon for some more face time. As the afternoon arrived it became clear that the day would not necessarily go as planned. Anyone who has met Suki knows that the man has no use for our uptight American standards of scheduling and time management. To be honest, I fully anticipated that a moment like this would arrive. In his defense, he and I have a considerable accent barrier when we speak on the phone. His particular patois is thick even by Bajan standards. A few wasted hours is a small price to pay for a week with the king. Things eventually got back on track. Here’s some pics from beautiful Bridgetown.
By geoff
Today marks our very first news conference in conjunction with King Me. I’d like to say that I did a good job but Keith reminds me that I don’t watch enough Sports Center to really master the technique. Something about not mentioning giving “110% on the field” or something. In all seriousness, print and broadcast journalists turned out to hear about our movie and the plans that Suki has leading up to his silver anniversary as Go As You Please Checkers Champion. Here’s some pics.
We covered a lot of ground today. We topped the night off with a true Barbadian (Bajan) creation, Road Tennis. It’s super fun, especially with a galley of hecklers telling you that you look - but don’t play like Andre Agassi. Here’s some Quicktime.
roadtennis
By geoff
We’re falling into a bit of a rhythm. We spent the morning at Grantley Adams school watching Suki pass on his knowledge to a bunch of eager kids.
Once again Keith is the pied piper of children. That's him with the headphones.
We spent the second half of the day interviewing Barbados Minister of Tourism, Richard Sealy and Director of The Barbados Sports Council, Erskine King. We thank them for their time and hospitality.This is a beautiful place but the weather isn’t exactly cooperating with us. Despite the weather, St. Lawrence cove is pretty scenic at dusk.
The cove at St. lawrence Gap
A few inches to the left.
Apropos of nothing: Rock Cakes definitely live up to their name.
By geoff
We arrived on Barbados late last night. We will be spending the week with the undisputed King of Go As You Please Checkers, Ron “Suki” King.
In keeping with the time off year (hurricane season) Day 1 was wet but that didn’t keep us from our first get together with our man Suki and some extremely helpful people from the Barbados Ministry of Tourism. We spent the remainder of the day doing some location scouting with our new friend Roger Moore who will be with us for the trip. We’re here all week. Stay tuned
Bathsheba Beach, East Coast
Bathsheba from the hilltop.
A St. George Parish cemetery
Misty Mountain
By geoff
We were pretty excited to wake up with some sunshine this morning. I was starting to worry. We spent the morning shooting some island broll before meeting up with Suki on the top of Cherry Tree Hill for a long chat. Sunscreen is no match for the Bajan sun. I got scorched.
Keith and Roger, South Coast
Speightstown Marketplace
Beachside Snacks, South Coast
Setting Up on Cherry Tree Hill
Tonight was a spectacle. Bajan track and field star Ryan Brathwaite recently won a gold medal at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin effectively making him the World Champion in the 110 m Hurdles. The nation of Barbados threw him a huge celebration at Kensington Oval Cricket Pavilion upon his return home. Music, speeches some dancing….and then more speeches. The Barbados Government was kind enough to grant us access to the event.
Kensington Cricket Oval
Feelin' it Barbados style.Keith notes that this man looks very much like Cap n' Crunch. I agree, I'm sure you will too.
A nation celebrates
School children line up to receive dignitaries
none of the journos standing next to the stage realized that this marching band was going to cruise through and kill all of our shots of Prime Minister Thompson and Ryan Brathwaite arriving. That's Ryan in the blue suit, the PM wearing sunglasses and a clarinet player in red and white. Guy blew a mean clarinet.
By geoff
We’re heading home today. Yesterday was a pretty major production marathon. If you ever get a chance to attend a checker tournament I highly recommend the experience. We thank the folks of the American Checker Federation for their positive attitude and their willingness to help us with our project. We’ve met some great friends this week.
Kim Willis is the ACF's Secretary, Treasurer and all around Mother Hen. In addition to complaining about Justin's haircut on a daily basis she was a big help to us. Thanks Kim!
