Part 2: Getting Started

We needed to make a game prototype with a real video that actually was
CLUE. Which means we needed a script, actors, a mansion and a video
production crew. Also a director and a producer. The jobs kind of naturally sorted
themselves out between me and my wonderful, methodical, cool and calm
boss Sam Kjellman (pronounced "Shellman").

I took all the creative tasks like writing the script and directing and
editing the video. Sam did all the business things like arranging for
the use of a local mansion, hiring camera and sound crew and betting
our whole department's budget on the project (A fact which he only revealed
months later, bless him)

So I wrote this awful, long, semi funny script. The 4 new characters
would be Madam Rose - a wacky medium and sister of the late Mr. Boddy.
Sergeant Gray - an amnesiac homicidal maniac who was the secret love
child of Boddy and his maid Mrs. White.
Dr. Brown - a crude loutish MD who belched on command. And nurse Peach
-
a total air head with nice legs. My main qualification as a mystery
writer was by that point in my life I had already read everything ever
written by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, John D. Mac Donald, Dick
Francis and a whole bunch of others. I knew every murder cliché in the
book. Also there was no one else to do it.

We posted a "casting call" on the Parker Brothers employees bulletin
board and held tryouts for the parts. This is the kind of thing that
really causes a buzz inside a corporation. Suddenly my project was
gossip topic #1. ("I heard that strange woman who wears harem pants to
work {me- creatives never dress corporate} was in charge".)

A night shift data entry clerk was Scarlet. A costing administrator was
Green. That handsome marketing exec would play Plum. And our favorite
adventure game dungeon master  must be Brown. We
knew he could belch well. The mansion was in a nearby seaside town. Sam paid a very trusting
couple to let us have it for 2 days and promised it would be returned
in the same condition we found it. We had a semi-pro videographer and
sound man. Everyone did their own makeup and costumes. I don't even remember
where we got the props. I had official cast T-shirts printed.
This was starting to be fun.

On the morning of the shoot I got totally lost. Couldn't find the
mansion and finally arrived 40 minutes late and hysterical.
Some director!
Everything else went really well.

To be continued...

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