King Me

Rounding Third

geoff — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:03:50 +0000

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

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

geoff — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:57:34 +0000

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

Day 5 We’ve Been Suki-d

geoff — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:27:26 +0000

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.

Day 3 - We’re Huge in Barbados

geoff — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:20:03 +0000

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

Day 2- School and Government

geoff — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:19:09 +0000

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.

Barbados Day 1 - drip..drip..drip

geoff — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:16:33 +0000

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

Day 4 - The Sun is Back

geoff — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:08:13 +0000

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.

Last Day at the U.S. Nationals

geoff — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:20:45 +0000

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!

Still sweating it out at the U.S. Nationals

geoff — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:27:37 +0000

The dog days of summer are definitely here in Tennessee. The air is pretty thick down here, 97 degrees and God knows what the humidity percentage is. We’re still having a great time as we continue to mingle with some of the top ranked players in the world (The U.S. nationals is an open tournament).

Hollis "Sheriff" McClard was once the sheriff of Macon County, TN. He's just one of the great personalities we've met.

A high angle of "Sheriff" making his motion picture debut. For my production wonk friends: that's a Joker 400 HMI on the key.

JIbbin' with Justin! Look for it on CMT next Fall y'all!

Keith and Justin love the jib almost as much as Joe Schwartz loves his cigar.

U.S. Nationals

geoff — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:49:22 +0000

Sorry for the delay folks. It’s been a couple of long days and about a million degrees down here in Tennessee. We’re having a great time and getting alot done and as expected we’ve met a wide variety of great people. I’ll save the text and just show you a few pics.

Ladies and Gentlemen: introducing Bachelor at Large, Mr. Perry McCracken.

The card says it all.

I don't know what Justin and I are looking at here but I'm sure it's as serious as it looks.

A little bit of the scene at the U.S. nationals.

Alex Weaver came all the down from Hackensack, NJ to try his luck at the Nationals. You can check out his checkers and boxing videos on youtube by searching callmedeathstroke.