2013 was not as busy as previous years for Sine Fine Films, however
there we did shoot four short films in one weekend shoot and a few short films
were completed and posted to youtube.
Filming took place in late September, beginning with Mary Contrary on September
12 and wrapping up with the Out of Time series on September 14 and 15.
Mary Contrary has been a short film that I’ve been wanting to shoot for
at least two years now, if not more.
It’s a great script, funny and charming, written by the ever-talented
Kate Weber. It was originally
written to feature Kate in the role of Mary, but we were never able to get
together at the right time to film it. Since it’s one character in several forms it requires an actor who can
play multiple characters and who is very funny and silly. That narrowed it down to a few options,
and
with Kate’s approval, I cast Jen Weber in the part.
We filmed at her apartment, and she kindly messed the whole place up for
it by adding tons of stuff to different areas (and of course I didn’t help
clean up – my bad! Sorry. Although to be fair I didn’t know where
any of it went). After setting up, Jen read through the script a few times and we started shooting.
We learned a lot of things while filming such as how narrow hallways and
heavy doors don’t help when filming wideshots. Also, Jen discovered how difficult and uncomfortable it is
to look sexy while sitting on top of a table for a long time. 
It took several hours to film, complicated by the fact that she had to
change clothes a lot and – since I finally purchased a lapel and boom
microphone – had to be re-miced every time, so it took longer than either she
or I expected. However Jen was
wonderful and we ended the shoot with dinner from Hot Wok, so it was great day.
I had difficulty getting actors together this year, and since Jen
couldn’t film on the weekend I had only two actors to work with – Syndi Eller
and Rachel Anderson. The short
film I had been hoping to film – Fortunate Ones: Intervention – required more
actors and wasn’t able to be shot, so I had to really quickly (i.e. the day
before) write a script or two that had only two characters and would showcase
their wonderful silliness. That resulted in the Out of Time series.
Out of Time is a collection of short films featuring two average women –
Karen and Amy – with boring jobs who spend their weekends dressing up in
various costumes and playing different characters in a public setting that fits
their characters just to freak out random people.
However, they can only stay in character for so long, so they
set themselves a time limit and go back to their normal selves (albeit still in
costume) when the timer on their phone buzzes. It’s a fun idea, although I
still need to write and film an introduction to the whole series in order for
it to make any sense.
Syndi drove up from the St. Louis area to film and Rachel Anderson was
the only Chambana actor available so I pretty much wrote the scripts for them.
They have fantastic on screen chemistry and comic timing, and seem to have a
blast filming together. They were
both in Eidolon, but never had a scene together and filmed at different
times. They first appeared on
screen together in Twisted Tales: Charming, but it wasn’t until Goddess
Anonymous that they really had a chance to work one-on-one and really clicked
(and ate a lot of carrots). 
The first film was Out of Time: Treasure Inland (the working title was
Pirates’ Tavern, but I liked the new title better, given that it takes place at
a bar in the middle of Illinois). Each
script has two titles just for fun, so it was also called The Adventures of
Captain Keel and the Saucy Devil. We
met around 1pm to get into costume and read through the script a few times,
before filming at Mike & Molly’s in the late afternoon. 
That’s when we discovered that the extremely busty Syndi had problems
being strapped into a corset too tightly – not because she couldn’t breathe but
because her boobs were pushed almost way too high. It was pretty
hilarious. There were a few
adjustments to her costume, including tying her corset looser, and we added a
ragged looking red wig for good measure.
The script was meant to be a starting point and they could adlib for the
designated time, but the jokes were actually kind of funny so we pretty much
stuck to the script. Because it
needed to flow and it wasn’t very long (4 pages), they were able to memorize it
during filming. 
We arrived at Mike 'N Molly’s at little late to discover that,
although I had gotten location approval from the owner and cleared the filming
time with him, he apparently hadn’t told his staff we were coming. A perplexed bartender – Kelsey Parker –
welcomed us in none-the-less after a quick call to Mike and agreed to play the
bartender in script, serving the pirates drinks. 
The script calls for the pirates to drink a shot of rum together, and
since we were at a bar and I wanted to pay them back for letting us film there,
I ordered real rum (Captain Morgan’s of course) for the drinks. The actors –
well over 21 – both consented to drinking real rum instead of tea or something
non-alcoholic that could pass for it.
A single shot of rum wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but we filmed the
part of the scene that required drinking three times from three different
angles in about 15 minutes, so they each had three shots of rum on somewhat
empty stomachs (since it was close to dinner time) in not a lot of time. 
Now this isn’t something I would do normally, but it was a light-hearted
shoot in the early evening with only two actors and we were all having fun, and
I kinda wanted to see what would happen if I got the actors a little
drunk. I’m a bit of a sadist,
remember?
Ever since I started shooting with people who could legally drink
(starting with The Curse in college) there had been a few issues with
alcohol. Mostly it was actors
suffering from hangovers after getting hammered the night before a shoot, and
some might have still been drunk when they showed up I think (hell, one guy
even dropped acid before arriving on set), but there was some drinking on
location later on in Eidolon after filming was over for the day and we were
partying at night. However, I
never sanctioned real alcohol on the set or got the actors drunk while shooting
– until now.
Rachel and Syndi weathered it well and were rather tipsy
post-shoot. So we headed to Dos
Reales for dinner after it was over and I promptly ordered a large pina colda
with rum (I usually don’t drink at all) so I could go through what they were
and “catch up”. I think we were
all a little tipsy at the end of the night. 
Each actress also received a dollar for filming for the weekend – yay
for me finally paying the actors more than a quarter each! It’s such a rare
thing for me to pay actors that they decided to keep the dollars as souvenirs
and we all signed them. Shooting
Treasure Inland was a blast and a half, but I still needed to finish up one of
the scripts for the next day when I got home that night. 
The printer at my dad’s house was out of ink, so Rachel agreed to print
up the scripts for us (thank you!).
We met up at base camp (my parents house) the next day, bright and early
at 10am. The best thing about shooting short films is that you don’t have to
start as early when there’s plenty of time to shoot. Plus I had gotten them drunk the night before, so there’s
that. 
The first script that day was A Walk in the Park (later renamed to A
Stroll in the Park) or (in true lengthy Victorian title fashion) Lady Chestwyk’s Guide to the Reasonable Attributes of
Proper Young Ladies in Acceptable Victorian Society and the Explanations
Thereof.
It featured Karen and Amy dressed as uptight ladies at the turn of the
20th Century strolling through West Side Park – a modern park with
Victorian flair (it was built in 189?) – and commenting on the inappropriate
attire and rude behavior of other people in the park (and we did get lots of
funny looks – it was great).
The script has a few corset jokes, but I didn’t torture the actors with
them this time, however Rachel’s jacket/shirt was not made for movement and she
couldn’t raise her arms above her shoulders, which made it rather difficult for
her when she had to swing the end of the script. She kept saying she had “T-Rex” arms and it became a running
joke during that shoot. Also her parasol kept getting caught in her hat, which
was amusing but awkward and a little painful.
After shooting was over we headed back to base camp, picking up lunch at
Jimmy Johns along the way. Since
the actors were still dressed in costume and Syndi was driving, we thought it
would be funny to weird out the person at the drive thru window. We were sadly disappointed when said
person didn’t even blink an eye at the Victorians in a car, let alone comment,
chuckle, or really even smile. The
lack of reaction at all to the costumes makes me wonder how many people in
Victorian garb drive thru Jimmy Johns in an average week (a lot apparently -
Steampunkers must like sub sandwiches).
The actors changed into their civvies, let down their hair (literally),
and ate lunch while reading over the script for the next film. The original
title for the last film was Timely Entertainment or Onzella Saves the Universe,
but I changed it to Cosmic Bowling because that just sounded better, and Timely Entertainment just sounded a little awkward.
In Cosmic Bowling, Karen is waiting for Amy at a bowling alley for a day
of non-role playing fun, when Amy suddenly runs in and insists she’s Onzella, a
humanoid alien from the future who has returned to the past to warn humanity
about a deadly threat to their existence.
Karen plays along and attempts to teach “Onzella” how to bowl. 
After lunch I did Rachel’s hair in a crazy style to make it look
mock-futuristic, and we read through the script a few more times before heading
out to Western Bowl where the very nice Mark Maidens was working at the counter
and helped set us up with a lane and turned down the loud music. The day before Syndi had helped me pick
out the outfit for Onzella at Goodwill and we had found a kick-ass pair of
boots that Rachel got to keep as “payment” for filming.
Filming went well and quickly since they had mostly memorized the script
(even though it was longer than the other two – 6 pages instead of 4 or 5).
After it was over the three of us bowled the rest of the game for fun and Syndi
won…by a lot. I mostly got gutter
balls.
It was a very fun weekend of shooting where I got to work with three of
my favorite actors – Jen, Rachel, and Syndi.
Other news for the year includes the premiere of two Fortunate Ones –
Faerie Tale and Only You – and The Medea School of Melodrama on youtube, and a complete overhaul and update of
the website – now moved to here on blogger.
It was fun year for Sine Fine Films, although I really need to edit and
upload more of the short films from 2012.
Thank you to everyone who participated in making movie magic and
memories this year:
Rachel Anderson
Syndi Eller
Kate Weber
Jen Weber
and
Christopher and Mary Stasheff
Kelsey Parker and Mike Murphy from Mike 'N Molly’s
Mark Maidens from Western Bowl
Without all of you it would not have been possible to film at all and it
certainly wouldn’t have been half as much fun!
And just for fun here’s a quick recap of the Actors, Locations, and
Techies of the Month for 2013:
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