Friday, February 27, 2009

FOTO FRIDAY 2/27 - Workload Edition

FOTO FRIDAY is here ladies and gentlebeans! Things here at LAN'ded: The Blog have been hectic and fun! First off, I, your trusty writer Aaron came down with a horrible illness this week effectively halting most of the happiness in my life. But fear not! The script shan't be neglected! As you can see from the above FOTO, I'm assembling the episodes together into a final reading script for our cast to use. They'll be taking a much needed break this week with Spring Break starting on Monday. 

When we return from break, we'll have a number of little surprises for both you (our faithful readers and "viewers like you") and the cast. Kyle and I have been working on a pre-show for the reading and we may have some special guest stars...

Off I go!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

An Exciting New Announcement!



On behalf of the cast and crew of LAN'ded, I'm very excited to announce our affiliation with one of the most promising new puppet companies in the U. S. of A.: Fisticuff Puppets! 


Sound familiar? I've known the guys from Fisticuff for a while now, Kyle as one of my best friends and David a newly founded one. You may have heard me mention them all under-the-radar-like some previous posts, but now we're ready to fully unveil the extent of our affiliation. "LAN'ded" is a show all about interacting with your imagination, and what could be more imaginative than a puppet? We plan on utilizing puppets are a key resource in giving the show a distinctive look and feel, and with the guys over at Fisticuff, things couldn't be more fun or creative.

Check out the guys over at Fisticuff, and stay tuned to LAN'ded: The Blog for more info!

Friday, February 20, 2009

FOTO FRIDAY 2/20 - Zombirific Mime Edition


JON ROONEY SHOWS US 'WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A ZOMBIE'
One thing I've been continually impressed with from the cast is just how eager they've been to totally throw themselves into the material. I think the above picture says more than I could ever articulate. 

BEN PALMER AS 'CHRISTIAN' STARES IN WONDER AT MIME.TV
Mime.TV is the device we've created as the portal for how the Mimes actually are manifested in Christian's world. It's the guilty-pleasure website that Christian watches (like Hulu) in his spare time. Little did he know engaging in such entertainment would spell certain doom for he and his friends...

THE ENSEMBLE PERFORMS SOME MIME-IE ACROBATICS AS THEY BATTLE WITH CHRISTIAN AND FRIENDS
It goes without saying: where there are mimes, mime fights are sure to follow. As evidenced from the photo above, you can see the stakes are raised. I can't go into detail concerning the weaponry we're supplying our mimes with, but if you're familiar with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat then you've probably got a good idea...

IZZY AND CHRISTIAN FACE OFF IN PSYCHIC ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS WHILE NATALIE PLAYS REFEREE
Rock-Paper-Scissors is a pretty friendly game to play with your friends to settle small grievances, but when the game goes to the psychic level you know the gloves are off. Being Christian's imaginary friend, Izzy knows his every move. Who will prevail? You'll just have to wait and see.

TO BE HONEST...I'M NOT EXACTLY SURE WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS PICTURE, BUT HOW ABOUT THAT ENSEMBLE, EH?

Thanks to our fearless director Jackie, we have been able to play some acting games before jumping into rehearsals. I couldn't resist posting the above photo, which is all of us participating in an acting exercise. We were tasked with lining ourselves up in order of height (tallest to shortest) while we had our eyes closed. I decided to join in on the game because it just looked like too much fun.
How do you think we did? ;-D

That's it for this week's Foto Friday guys! Check in next week for a few announcements and some other special news...

~ Aaron J.

* A very special thank you to Mal Campbell for assisting us with her uber-cool photography skillz. I used a "z" there because she's just that good.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

ACTOR SPOTLIGHT - Ben Palmer as Christian

WHAT'S YOUR ROLE IN LAN'DED? ARE THEY SIMILAR TO YOU? ARE THEY DIFFERENT?
I play Christian, the Red-Bull drinking, nonstop 360 playing, and wildly imaginative and complete anti-social. Christian has a fear of what is un-known. To him, that is the outside world. When I was younger I shared a lot of similar issues to Christian. I was extremely anxious and depressed and stayed inside watching movies and playing computer games as a way of life. Only I didn't have the awesome imaginary friends. Or the mimes….those are pretty cool too.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SCI-FI MOVIE?
Star Wars. It gets no better. Preferably episodes 4 and 5.

ROBOTS OR NINJAS, WHO'D WIN?
Robots!!! Are you kidding me? Those ninja stars couldn't hurt even the robot from Lost in Space!

WHAT'S THE DORKIEST THING YOU'VE EVER DONE?
I waited for 3 hours in line get tickets to see Episode 1.  I was the only one not in costume, which was slightly embarrassing.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ROLE YOU'VE EVER PLAYED, AND HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM CHRISTIAN IN LAN'DED?
I played George Tesman in a production of Hedda Gabler my senior year of high school. He is a total dork, very much like Christian. His obsession with knowledge rivals Christian's obsession with knowledge of mimes

Thursday, February 12, 2009

FOTO FRIDAY 2/13



This is the start of a segment here called FOTO FRIDAY where we'll upload a different picture taken during rehearsal every friday. Pictured are Brittany and Dan, who're currently playing our Emo Vampire and Pizza Delivery Guy respectively. One has a look of joy and glee, and the other has a look of innate confusion. Those seem to go hand-in-hand during any rehearsal process right?

Right?

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

We just like tearing our hair out...

Above is a snapshot from our latest vid-conference over iChat. We have these conferences at least twice a week to talk about the show, how rehearsals are going, where the characters are headed, and any ideas we have for upcoming shows.

Tonight, however, I initiated a vid-conference to gloat about how proud I was of our actors in today's rehearsal, and the excellent job Jackie (our director) was doing her first day in rehearsal. Tonight's rehearsal showed what it's like for actors to fully turn themselves over to material that is foreign to them, so great job guys!

I would hope that the picture posted above wouldn't reflect the overall tone of our meetings...I was just taking a snapshot of the meeting to show how unhappy we all were with the current length of our hair. I've heard of starving artists, but artists with long hair? It doesn't seem to fit...hair-cuts will be necessary soon.

*In the photo, from left to right - James, Dave, and Kyle. I'm below them, sporting a mop-top only the Beatles wouldn't find offensive.*

Saturday, February 7, 2009

ACTOR SPOTLIGHT - Alex Etling as Izzy




WHAT'S YOUR ROLE IN LAN'DED? HOW IS HE DIFFERENT OR SIMILAR TO YOU?

My role? Izzy? Actually, he can be very similar to me. I guess he's static though, so I should say that I can be very similar to him. When I am in certain moods (over-excited, happy, etc.) I tend to go into the little "fits" of over-the-top excitement and random ping-ponging thoughts and impulses that Izzy does. In that way, we can be very similar.

ROBOTS VERSUS NINJAS, WHO'D WIN?

Wow. I would have to say Ninjas. Much like the Tall Tale of John Henry (The Steel-Driving Man) I think that the human ingenuity and creativity and the ability to think creatively would enable the ninjas to win, but they would die too in the end. Not sure how...maybe the robots self-destruct, if that isn't too cliché.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ROLE YOU'VE EVER PLAYED? HOW'S IT DIFFERENT FROM IZZY IN LAN'DED?

I really enjoyed playing "Ethan" in The Full Monty. While he has some of the same innocence and youthful energy as Izzy, he is not as consciously funny. Izzy is more focused on being funny and making jokes, while Ethan is slightly more unknowingly funny. Still, they both seem like very "simple" characters, only in the fact that they like to have fun, and are not always overly concerned with issues larger than the world immediately surrounding them.

If you had an imaginary friend, what would be your favorite activity to do with them?

I would love to physically get into fights with them and take out my aggression, maybe even kill them. It would be tremendously therapeutic. Or perhaps completely psychologically unhinging. Because they would look exactly like me. Yeah.

What's the dorkiest thing you've ever done?

I understood a couple references in LAN'ded...does that count? Wow. This is a tough one. I mean, not a tough one to come up with an answer, but to choose an answer. Let's see. I played Donkey Kong on an Apple IIc. I used to carry tiny, TINY Star Wars MicroMachines in my pocket, everywhere I went. I am obsessed with different kinds of metal. I used to collect rocks. And stamps. And things I found on the floor of the mall when I was little. In little piles. I was VERY interested in rocks and minerals when I was little, and still have the (large) collection. I used to like bugs when I was little, and had little rubber actual-size models of them. I have seen most episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I cried in fifth grade when someone deleted my almost-finished Pokémon game. I thought that Zelda: The Ocarina of Time was EPIC. Oh, yeah, and I own an Ocarina, handmade of clay, and purchased at a Renaissance Fair. I play it sometimes. I will remember where the invisible floating blocks are in the original Mario game for REGULAR Nintendo, long after have grown old and forgotten my childrens' names. I once tried to take apart an MP3 player and fit it into a different case that I made for it. For a while, I tried to become adept with a butterfly knife. I make balloon animals. And I list it on my special skills. I replaced the hard drive in my iBook myself, a major operation involving a butterknife, and took pictures. At any given point, all of my music and files are backed up in at least 3 different places, and separated. Just in case. I am aware of the benefits of cloud-computing, and think it sounds like a great idea. Right now, my new obsession is "Sprouting", which is pretty awesome, in addition to being pretty dorky. Look it up.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

If these walls could talk...

I have been informed that the first media blitz has been launched!

With the staged reading currently in rehearsals, the walls of Point Park University have now become our canvas...  MUA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!!!

In other news -

The story is progressing well!  As Aaron has already mentioned, the "season" has now been expanded with a legendary "two-parter" - which fulfills TWO dreams!

1.  We wanted an excuse to write more...
AND
2.  We finally get to use the words "To Be Continued..."!!!

Also, keep your eye out for some new cast and crew information coming to a blog near you!  (THIS blog... or maybe THIS blog... but definitely NOT THIS blog...)

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

if it worked for Tolkien...

It's February and all's well! Aaron here! Just thought I'd drop a line for you guys to look at. Here's a few photos from our last rehearsal. We read through the first draft of Episode 6 and eventually tried to get it on its feet to see what it may look like.

Episode 6 turned out to be a bear of an episode. Y'see, a few months ago we mapped out what we had planned for every episode and throughout the development process some things have been changed around. For instance, the show was originally intended to be just Christian and Izzy, but we wanted a female in there so Natalie was born. We originally had Episode 6 being a regular episode. A clear start, end, and finish, but as we tinkered with it (added zombies, vampires, and other various notches of ridiculosity) the story evolved and well...what I ended up with was a 55-page Episode. To put it in perspective, we usually have episodes be about 20 pages at their longest. I tend to write alot of stage directions and some of them are more illustrative than informative so a 20-page episode can (sometimes) be read in as little as 10 minutes. 
So...Episode 6 was this crazy hulk of an episode. After discussing it with Ky, Dave, and James, I proposed that the episode be split up into two parts and now we have a 25-ish page Episode 6 and a soon-to-be-edited Episode 7. I'm going all Peter Jackson on these episodes right now, but it is fun because I can leave room for cliffhangers and such.

I should have some cast spotlights up this week so you guys can see just who is playing who in the reading. Just wait til you meet the cast though, they're all amazing. I'm incredibly proud of everyone. Hopefully when we get this up on its feet, we won't be saying goodbye to the cast for the reading forever...

Hope these pics get you guys a little more excited for the reading in March. I'll have some more to upload next week too.