Miscellaneous Projects

TV ACTING CLASS PROJECTS
Fall 1996

This class was taught by professors Clare Reidy and Rick Leffel. I took this class to polish my acting skills, but ending up doing work behind the camera instead. More focus was given to other students' talents than mine. I did not fit in, and anything I did to match the charisma of my classmates went virtually ignored or ended in insults or sarcasm by certain fellow students.
The TV studio at CCC (a.k.a. the Communications Learning Center) consisted of editing equipment, as well as two cameras, a control panel to go back and forth between cameras, a soundboard, microphones, and lighting controls. The acting exercises recorded during the course of this semester (and later copied onto tapes for addition to my own archives) included the following:

* Close-Ups: This was a split-screen exercise involving a scripted conversation between Jill Demonstoy and Chad Moon. I didn't get to participate in this exercise--I just watched.
* Ocean Scenes: Reciting two-person scenes from our class books were Penny Appenzellar and Russell Hunsinger, me and Dennis Aiken, and Heather Dunning and Mike Gilboy. The scenes all consisted of two people looking over a balcony, beyond which lies a beach and an ocean.
* Man on the Bench: This was a scene I directed for a class assignment. Within a very fixed time period, we had to rehearse and direct this three-to-four-page scene. The scene was written by A.J., and starred Chad Moon as a dark stranger with evil hypnotic powers, and Dennis Aiken as his hapless victim. Unfortunately, the time constraints made the session very stressful (I think some crew people were late), and the two studio cameras were not adjusted right, so the camera angles bled into each other (giving a partial-dissolve effect that shouldn't have been there). We did manage to put across one decent take, though, for the class grade.
* Fists of Love: An acting exercise similar to the above one. It was written by Penny Appenzellar, and starred Heather Dunning and A.J. as a couple in divorce court. I'm not sure how much I was involved in this one, but I remember watching the sessions from the booth. Things were so relaxed with this session that they managed to make one usable take, and then had enough time to do an ad-libbed "funny" version.
* Death of a Salesman: Another such assignment, this time based on a scene from the classic play. For this one, I distinctly remember being behind one of the two cameras. The scene re-created here involves a conversation between the two sons, played here by Chad Moon and Dennis Aiken. We had so much class time to film the scene, we were able to record one serious take and one funny take (with Clare Reidy ad-libbing from off-camera). My contibution to the "funny" take (moving the camera about as if it were "Homicide" or an MTV show) was mostly left out of the video when the classmates in the booth decided that I was being too stupid, and they kept the focus on the shots being taken by the other camera instead.
* Crimes of the Heart: Another re-creation of a scene from a well-known play, this one starred Penny Appenzellar and Jill Demonstoy. I had no involvement in this project whatsoever (I had already participated in the "Death of a Salesman" scene, so there was nothing assigned to me for this one).
* Bad Men: This was my adaptation of a scene from a story that a Mike Hensel had written for my Creative Writing class of the previous year (It was published in the college literary magazine in Spring 1996). Mike Gilboy opted to direct this scene, making heavy revisions to the script. The scene, in which two mob associates make a deal to assassinate somebody, starred Chad Moon and Charlie in the finished assignment. There was however, a much better set (albeit using only one camera) of rehearsal takes, filmed at an earlier date, with the roles played by Dennis Aiken and A.J., and with me doing a walk-on as a waiter (The scene takes place in a restaurant). One of the takes was a hilarious and ad-libbed parody of the script, with all three of us talking in effeminate voices. Unfortunately, Mike kept that tape to himself, and I never got a copy.

Most of the actual acting I got to do in the TV Acting class went unrecorded. These untaped moments included:

* "Interviews" that Clare Reidy did with members of the class, including me. After my interview, Clare suggested that by the way that I talked, that I was lying about not liking hot dogs, and trying to be funny when I said that one of my grandmothers was dead. Hmmm....
* A split-screen phone scene between me and Penny Appenzellar, in which her character and mine get in an argument, after which she hangs up the phone on me. For humorous effect, I mouthed the word "bitch", but instead of receiving laughs, I got mean and sarcastic comments from another class member.
* Killers: This was a recreation of a scene from a well-known book. It featured A.J. as a suspected killer, and me as a murdered man's father who's out for revenge. Like the "Bad Men" scene listed above, this project was supposed to be filmed. However, because so much time was spent on Mike's precious "Bad Men" scene, we only got one opportunity to run through "Killers", and my dear fellow students in the studio booth didn't press the right buttons on the recorders, so the scene wasn't taped. So, the only existing piece of me actually getting to act in my TV Acting class is that brief "ocean scene" between me and Dennis listed above. For all the ridicule and ignorance I got from most of the people involved that semester, being in the TV Analysis class just didn't pay off as well as it should have (though I did get an A).

TV ANALYSIS CLASS PROJECTS
Spring 1997

Rick Leffel was my teacher for yet another "experience" in the CCC TV studio with other people. As with last semester's "TV Acting" class, some of the people were nice, but most of my classmates were smart-ass guys (more here than the previous semester) and snobby girls.
Taped class assignments that featured me in them (which I later copied onto other tapes for my own collection) were as follows:

* Radio Ad (ISS Stereo System): Students were separated into four different groups to make their own commercials. In my group, Zachary Schoonover and I were announcers for this radio ad (which was captured--without picture--onto video tape).
* Photo Montage: Each member of our class was assigned to direct a montage of still photos (with other classmates taking turns behind the cameras and other equipment). For my montage, I picked photos from my best stage performances (12 of them) from Fall 1995 to Winter 1996. My intention was to show it during a Two-Bit Players cast party someday as a "thank you" to all of the people who cast me or selected me for each of my performances (To push this point, I used Wayne Newton's "Danke Shoen" as background music). However, my classmates made fun of it, and I never got to show the tape to my fellow Two-Bit Players (mainly because they stopped casting me for plays).
* Interview with a Jerk: Another class assignment required a series of two-minute interviews. Each member of the class had to get into groups of two, with one being an interviewer, the other being the person interviewed. I had always wanted to be interviewed about something, so I took up an offer by "Corey" to interview me about "David's College Anthology", an audio-tape compilation (of various college performances by me and fellow classmates) that I was going to give out to friends at the end of the semester. However, during the interview (which was being graded as a group project), he interrupted me, put me down, and spent half of the interview asking me if I'd ever smoked marijuana. As a result, my overall grade for that section of the class (the grade that ended up on my CCC transcipt) went down by half a letter grade. Now, it's one thing if you're someone like "Corey" who doesn't give a damn and goes hurting his own grades; it's another when you make a fool of me--on-camera--in front of the rest of my class, and then get to hurt my grades because of it. I guess I should have seen it coming from someone like "Corey"...or from most of the other people in the class, for that matter. (SIDE NOTE: One minute of audio from this ill-fated interview was put onto my "anthology" tape, just to give the tape a complete overview of the people I had to deal with during my tenure at CCC.)
* News Program: For this assignment (in my group), I was the anchor of this fake news show, and Jamie Kent was the weather woman. There was also supposed to have been someone reporting the sports, but that job was left to me when the "real" sportscaster didn't show up. That missing student's name: "Corey". Behind one of the cameras was Mike Gilboy. Included within this phony news show were commercials created by the previous semester's Broadcasting class (as well as the one from Fall 1995).

After all that, each of the students had a "free" third of the semester to complete independent film projects. I helped Jamie and Chrissy with their Bigfoot movie, and Chrissy helped me tape an unused scene for the film of mine that later became "Gay Cops". Each of the students' films were later shown to the rest of the class during the college exam week at the end of the semester.
Upon showing "Gay Cops" to the rest of my class, I got the most uncomfortable response the film has ever gotten from a group of people. The classmates who had at least a little respect for me didn't know what to think of it. Others looked at it with disgust. And when the copy I brought of it got caught in the VCR halfway through the screening, several classmates applauded (until Mr. Leffel brought in a different VCR and played the rest of the film on that one)!
Nonetheless, my "Gay Cops" film was the accomplishment I had been waiting for, the triumphant end result of two semesters of lousy experiences and lukewarm social interaction that I had received from my CCC TV studio classes with Rick Leffel and the CLC.

FINAL CUT!: SPECIAL EDITION (FALL 1996 BROADCASTING CLASS FINAL PROJECTS)
re-edited version, Spring 1997

In Fall of 1996, Rick Leffel's broadcasting class students each went out and did short film projects, all of which were edited together into a one-hour movie-type presentation. I had nothing to do with any of these projects, though I was present for some of the editing and overdub sessions.
The movie-type showcase--listed as "Final Cut!"--featured Dennis Aiken as the teacher of a college Broadcasting class. Needless to say, he tells his students to make film projects. As he discusses the critieria for these projects, his students daydream about what they will make. The resulting films-within-the-film are:

* The Jane Doe Show: Laura Fusare plays a talk show host who talks with men who act like women.
* The Newlywed Game: A student version of the game show, recorded in the CCC Commons.
* Rap Video: A bunch of the students walk around the studio and spout ad-libbed lyrics about pot.
* Cops: A student parody of the TV reality show, with special appearances by a bong.
* Kung-Fu Boy: "Corey" dresses as Rambo, fights like Bruce Lee, and looks like an idiot.
* Adam's Workout: An exercise show hosted by Adam Youngs, and with music by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
* Mad Psycho Person: Tom Reinhardt and Mike Tice run from a psycho killer played by Lou Binetti.
* Psycho Killer: Bill Cavalier and Bill Meriwether go on a killing spree in a D-grade homage to B-movies.
* Buck Naked's Hunting Video: ...or "How to Hunt and Kill People You Don't Like"!
* Mr. Mooner's Neighborhood: Chad Moon tries to read to a group of kids, but gets beaten up instead.
* Hiawatha and Little Red: Bill Cavalier and "Corey" buy marijuana from "Crazy Joe" (Bill Meriwether).

I was so amused by the collection that I made a copy of it (then intending to make copies for the friends of mine that were involved in the films themselves). Unsatisfied with the copy, I went back to the CCC TV studio to make a "special edition" of "Final Cut!" What I did was copy most of Dennis Aiken's finished master, but made a few changes.
First off, I upgraded the quality of the "Buck Naked" segment, which didn't dub well to the initial master, making it heavily distorted. For my upgrade, I made a dub from the original "Buck Naked" tape, using two standard VCR's instead of the editing equipment that had been the reason for the distorted transfer on the original master.
Then, I found the session tapes for the Broadcasting class's two phony TV commercials (created during their earlier class projects), and inserted them into the film. This was easy to do because the "Newlywed Game" and "Mr. Mooner" segments each had one commercial break--but no commercials. So, the commercials looked like they were supposed to be there all along. And because of their inclusion, the "Final Cut!" movie now represented every video exercise done by the Broadcasting class that year. The commercials were:

* Busch Beer: Adam Youngs shouts, "To hell with the mountains...show me your Busch!!!"
* Holy Rubbin' Vasoline: Bill Cavalier plays a celibate priest who pleases himself with the product.

The 63-minute "special-edition" master was finished, and it was later copied onto other tapes for other people, including Adam Youngs and Lou Binetti. Despite the fact that some of the footage on their copies was four or more generations from the original master, the quality was still good enough, and friends were pleased with the end result.
After this, I also made a special 15-minute version of "Final Cut!", which I intended to have Mr. Leffel show the rest of my TV Analysis class, to give them an idea of what kind of projects could be done. However, after sitting in the TV studio with me every time I re-edited and re-played all of that footage, he passed on showing it, not wanting to see scenes from those particular projects ever again.
Thanks to the editing experience I got from putting all this stuff together, I was now ready to give that extra touch of professionalism to my first film project, "Gay Cops", which I had made later that semester.

TWO-BIT TELECASTS (TELEVISED PROGRAM)
March 1997

In order to get publicity for CCC's Spring '97 production of "Romeo and Juliet", and to get my fellow members of the college's Two-Bit Players drama club to do something besides sit on their asses during meetings, I reserved time in the college TV studio to produce a TV program.
The show, titled "Two-Bit Telecasts", was my idea for a regular series in which tapes of previous plays would be televised to get publicity for upcoming productions. Shown with the play would be introductory segments, hosted by whoever wanted to do them, in which info would be given about the upcoming play, complete with interviews.
In this case, the 1996 CCC production of "Hamlet" would be shown to promote the upcoming "Romeo and Juliet". With only one fellow Two-Bit Player volunteering to help out (Ken Simmons, who did the camera work), I ended up becoming the host. I got fellow WCEB college radio DJ Tom Reinhardt to co-host with me at the last minute (literally--I ran into the CCC halls and found him just before the session).
It took a long time to get the taping session together, and the play was performing the next week! So, with little time to spare, I gave Tom the basic outline of what the hosting segments for the show would be like, and we ad-libbed from there.
My thought-in-advance outline for the hosting segments was this: I, the host, would boss Tom around by making him re-arrange the set and do all my chores for me while I host and give info on "Hamlet". In between the showing of "Hamlet" parts I and II, I present an interview that I've had with one of the "Romeo and Juliet" cast members. Then, after I give performance info on the "Romeo" play, Tom tricks me into bending down to look for a footstool. As a result, Tom sits in my chair and ends up using me as a footstool.
Outside of that outline, the dialogue for my session with Tom was mostly ad-libbed. Tom turned out to be quite funny with his smart-alecky sense of humor and funny comments spoken under his breath as he plays my reluctant and overworked lackey. Ken's camera work, meanwhile, was really good, especially when considering the circumstances in which he was involved. A great running gag that appeared during the session was the phrase, "Tilt it," which I would keep telling Tom to do as he moved set pieces around for me. As for the interview segment, I talked with "Romeo" star Dion Clark at the end of a rehearsal held later that day (Camera work was done by Dennis Aiken). The interview is fairly hard to hear at the beginning because of all the loud talking done by the other cast members (and the director!). "Title" segments were done at my own house, during which I kept the camera aimed at the Two-Bit Players logo while reading off the credits for the project.
All of the footage taped for this project was done on my family's home video camera. "Editing" between segments had to be done via simple VCR-to-VCR dubbing, which I did at my house the following day. The finished master (at a running time of 3 hours and 25 minutes) was then handed in, as promised, to the CCC PR department, who waited a long time to get the tape to Time-Warner (the local cable-access station), and didn't bother to call me when the channel finally aired it.
The program was shown in late morning/early afternoon on a Friday (after "Romeo and Juliet" had been already playing for nearly a week). If it hadn't been for a snow storm that cancelled classes that day, even fewer people (fewer than the few who caught it while channel surfing) would have seen it.
Heavily upset at the treatment of what I thought was a well-packaged program that would have gained me great recognition within and outside of my drama club, I left an angry (but not nasty) note with the PR people (because they weren't in the office when I went there), who responded with utter disgust towards me (though not to my face--they seemed to have a problem with contacting me about anything).
Upset with the whole situation (combined with my miserable experiences with "Romeo and Juliet" and the Two-Bit Players in general), I ended up resigning as President of the Two-Bit Players. And so, "Two-Bit Telecasts" became the big project that should have gotten results, but turned into a mere and forgotten footnote in the history of the college and its damnable drama club.