Stream of unconsciousness
Filming was less stressful than it ought to have been, which was a very pleasant surprise. In fact, we finished up about an hour early yesterday and a whopping five hours early today, which nearly drove me mental with excitement.
It has to be said, however, that improvising with people who are less used to improvisation brought its own challenges, especially having to improvise a scene and then replay it half a dozen times for angles. One person in particular would play a pretty good first take, but then all the replays would sound hollow and forced. She also had a peculiar habit of not remembering what order a conversation had happened in, which meant that on one notable occasion there was a large pause as I waited for her to deliver a cue line like she had the previous four or five times, and when I pointed this out she made some icy comment about "being in the moment".
The film won't be awful, although with its subject matter (and, indeed, the title) I think a large chunk of its fifteen minutes will be kind of cringe-worthy. I have also regained an iota of the respect I lost for Ricky Gervais (which as nearly all of it) when I watched the out-takes for Extras and found it to be just 25 minutes of Gervais not being able to avoid laughing at his own jokes. Should be edited in two weeks, with a screening at the end of November.
In other news, my sister is either very definitely engaged, or very good at scamming a lot of people out of vases and tableware. My other sister is far too good at DDR-style games (I believe this one was Flow: Urban Uprising): but then, she is a percussionist. My brother is doing well in his new job, and has been given a payrise approximately 90% ahead of schedule. His girlfriend believes it is possible that I am slightly less conceited now than when she met me: a somewhat backhanded (although almost certainly tongue-in-cheek) compliment which I am nevertheless utterly unable to fathom the motivation behind, especially since it wasn't conveyed to me directly.
Æon Flux is nowhere near as impressive on the small screen, especially in widescreen on a standard television; still, it's fun.
Oh! kphoebe: Top Gear tonight featured a race through Liverpool between a man in a car and two Parkour enthusiasts. Guess who thought he had won until he looked up and saw his opponents doing handstands on the top of this building?
Improv Deathmatch VI is on Tuesday. We have an MC, one confirmed judge (possibly two: Mr Johnson?) and, as of this writing, two three-quarters-full teams. But no audience? And where is the trophy? Another week is almost full; I believe Thursday is my remaining free evening so far.
My final thought goes out to all of you haters complaining that Mello Yello is "just like Lift, but without the kick": perhaps this is why it is not being marketed as Tangy Yellow, nor Ascerbic Yellow, nor yet That Yellow Drink We Stopped Making Just Long Enough That You Wouldn't Realise Lift Was Exactly The Same Thing. It tastes like my childhood.