test footage

 I have now spent some time in front of the camera, in character as Professor Crisp, for the upcoming film, Three Slices of Delirium. It was only some test footage, but still...

A bit of background is warranted. Anyone who has followed this blog at all is aware of the cinema history class I attend. It's taught by film historian, Keith Crocker. In addition to teaching this class, lecturing at libraries, speaking in featured "extras" on DVDs, and the like, Keith has produced and directed two feature films: The Bloody Ape (1997) and Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 (2008). Though it's been a while since that last one, but Keith has completed screenplays for (I think) two features, and he has started work on the first of them.

Three Slices isn't a new idea. In fact, Keith put a teaser up on Youtube more than ten years ago. And I've had a copy of the screenplay for about five years now, waiting...waiting...

Given the changes in technology and personnel, I don't know how accurate a representation of the movie the trailer will prove to be. OK. That's wrong. I believe that, when all is said and done, the movie will look much better than the trailer. I am amused by the enumeration of the beasts: "Vampires! Werewolves! Wicked women!" At any rate, Three Slices will be an anthology of three short films, each based loosely on a Poe story. I am to play Professor Crisp, a predatory anatomy professor, in "The Premature Burial." Having read the script, I can say that this appears to be Keith's most ambitious film yet. I don't know details, but he is working on trying to get funding. Also, with the improvements in technology, you can certainly do more with less.

So, last week, we started doing. Keith had Chris Gullo and me over to read lines in front of a green screen. As near as I understand it, this is to see how we look on camera, and to test to see how we look with a background thrown behind us. Chris will be in "The Last Kiss of Ullalume," so we won't be interacting onscreen.