Simon Fraser (IV)

Glenn Beck: “America, I’ve got to shoot straight with you. I think I’ve wasted your time. I think this is the first time I have wasted an hour of your time. And I apologize for that.”

America: “Not the first time, Glenn. But thanks.”

If you’re going to cheat labels away from camera and you have multiple labels in the scene, make sure that the labels are not all facing the same direction. It is a highly uncommon experience to see all beer labels at a party (for instance) all facing the same direction. It destroys the reality of the image you’re trying to pass off as real.

An actor rises to stardom and falls from grace over the course of one night. Produced by Paul Andrew. Written by Simon Fraser. Directed by P.A. Castel. Starring Simon Fraser, Lisa Burling, Peter Ivaskiv, Mick Southon.

I returned from Los Angeles late last night where I was shooting a 7-minute version of a sitcom pilot I’ve written with Ben Brooks and Renée Percy. The name of the sitcom is “Stay at Home Dan”; the name of the pilot episode is “Chick Magnet”.

The three of us financed, produced, directed and starred in it ourselves. We had a wicked crew consisting of director of photography John Schmidt, production manager Brandi Wright, sound recordist Sean Oakley, gaffer Carlos Jackson and grip J.R. Latouche. We also had a great supporting cast with Jessica Sattel, Pete Gardner and Jay Malone.

Now begins my favorite step in the process: editing. It’s the part where I finally get to write the story.

Here are some production stills:

Ben Brooks and Renée Percy in Stay at Home Dan

Simon Fraser in Stay at Home Dan

Jessica Sattel in Stay at Home Dan

Pete Gardner in Stay at Home Dan

Jay Malone in Stay at Home Dan

cast & crew in Topanga State Park

I think it’s possible to let your problems work for you. They can affect how you tell a story, but any story can be told any way.

The simplest possible method to tell the story is for you yourself to deliver the story directly to camera. And there’s even different ways of doing that – video/film diary, home video/movies, various styles of news report, documentary/mockumentary, etc.

That’s the simplest. Everything else is an expansion of that.