Christine Deitner is Production Coordinator with Film Roman/Starz where she happily finds herself working for The Simpsons. A relatively recent transplant from the East Coast she has worked throughout the Animation, Theater and Music business.
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July 11, 2008
It just sounds so lovely, doesn’t it? Yes, it’s where I find myself on this Friday evening [wasn’t it just afternoon?]. But sadly no, this is not a vacation. This is the lay-off that was supposed to be the time of regrouping and relaxation turned into another lucky adventure that I find myself kind of shocked by. I never been particularly good at being idle - it’s not an unusual thing in this work-focused world we have created for ourselves. So since taking a hiatus [permanently? hmmmm] from the wonderful world of animation I have found myself beginning a new freelance reading job, assisting with coordinating details as needed on a really wonderful documentary film that my friend Eleonore is working on called ‘Dirt the movie’ based on William Logan’s book ‘Dirt: the ecstatic skin of the earth’, and now on set for a major motion picture assisting some really amazing guys who happen to be producers. And all in Malibu. I alternately feel like the luckiest, and the most exhausted, girl in the world. That and my little three month old kitten is realllly not loving me right now for now being around that much.
Not much else to say - except Hellboy, hells yes! No amount of tired can keep me away from that movie! And don’t even get me started on the Dark Knight. And then geek mecca in the form of Comic-Con. Somewhere in there I turn another year older and can’t even be bothered to organize a single event for it. Too many other exciting things going on. Life in the land of uncertainty can be fun! Let’s see what next week brings me.
peace y’all
July 6, 2008
Too much to do. Who knew hiatus would be so much less relaxing than working!
Life has been slightly altered since I adopted this kitten, by accident, a couple of months ago. When I say, by accident, I do not mean I regret it, I just hadn’t set out to do it. It was a particularly exhausted shipping day, and a co-worker said - hey! want a kitten? And for a moment I thought she was being hypothetical - but no, she was 100% serious, and to prove it she brought her over to me…. kitty love at first sight. Now as I try to get some writing done, I find myself wondering - will she grow out of this? every single time she jumps up onto they keyboard, tries to eat my cable wires, generally wishes to prove to me how strong her little kitty teeth are by biting my hand every once in a while. She’s adorable - and probably the source of my looking at Wall E as if he were a cat. Still can’t believe how great Wall E truly is.
Then, on a break between assignments - just one long weekend of assignments, I tell you - I read Christopher Nolan’s interview with the LA Times about Dark Knight, and Heath Ledger - and my respect and admiration for Mister Nolan and his integrity grew in leaps and bounds, like the Grinch’s heart right before he found the strength to save the sled and his puppy from an icky squishy fate. So yes, looking forward to that film. It is the summer of superheroes - hooray for us!
Okay - have to go save the kitty from what just sounded like the oven. Interesting kitty behavior indeed. More later friends.
June 22, 2008
Back to some theatre, as promised [or threatened, perhaps?] on this yet again late blog … [uberdramatic sigh]
The Blank’s Young Playwrights Festival is now wrapping up week three, but there’s still one more week of work that I can only believe must be as refreshing and inspiring as the plays I witnessed last weekend. I had been interested in attending the festival, then discovered that a friend from college, the fabulous Joe Roseto, was going to be in one of the pieces and that clinched it.
The room was packed at the Hudson - which is exciting enough for live theater. The last play I had been able to attend was ‘Beaverquest: The Musical’, another fabulous piece of work from Sacred Fools that featured yet another friend, this one from ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. That still sets me slightly offkilter when I think of it - dear Alyssa Preston. That house was packed as well - this one at The Blank was charged. The caliber of actor that was featured in each of the three short plays may have had something to do with it for there is something truly special about a room full of performers/theater people coming together to support each other. Artistic Director, Daniel Henning, welcomed the crowd as we all settled into every open seat, and told us a little bit about his experience with the festival, including one story that just killed me almost as much as I could see it did him. During a rehearsal for the short he is directing, three of the young playwrights were in the house together, discussing their work. It sounds simple, even silly - but the sense of pride and hope and just pure inspired energy it tapped into immediately for me took me be surprise.
That said, I don’t want to review the plays. I just want to say for the blogosphere record that they were wonderful. One deeper than the others - one much more experimental along the vein of work I choose to do which sent me right back to college with this gigantic understanding smile on my face [ah, the truly young… another dramatic sigh]. Maturity, complexity, energy - I went home and started revising a play I’ve kind of, frankly, abandoned for the last year in the face of production deadlines and work that just kept going and going, Energizer bunny style. So no reviews, save to say that The Blank is brilliant for sponsoring the work of young writers - and thank God for that because I was beginning to wonder if there were any. As if theater would ever fail to gain hold on the young an imaginative - let’s hope it never does.
Work has been less exciting as we near the end of the grind that comes upon all of us when shipping retakes. Some of our timers definitely have the air of one in need of a vacation - or at least a drink - as we push push push along. Some sad news comes with finally accomplishing all this work, however - all save the Producer and Editor are going to be laid off - some to come back when color returns - others… we shall see. I might pursue options during the break, especially since I’m not certain how much more there is to do. The good news out of that is the sense that we are finally going to see this totally killer movie in the theaters. No exaggeration, and I shall never tire of saying it, Rob Zombie is brilliant and this movie [THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO for those of you just tuning in] is going to blow your mind. I’ll keep y’all posted… there’s still so much to talk about, like finally seeing the Incredible Hulk, going to see yet another college friend in a festival of 10 minute musicals [we live in festival land, don’t we], and the ASIFA screening of Wall-E this weekend… oooooo good stuff. So never fear - more ramblings are near.
Thank you for reading - and commenting you guys! I love hearing from people about what they like/hate/want to hear more about - blah blah blah Ginger. Take care till next time - C
http://www.youngplaywrights.com/index.htm
June 13, 2008
It was a bright sunny morning in the big city. Squinting eyes set behind sunglasses a moment too late as cars backed up along Sunset Boulevard conducted their own orchestral meld of horns pounded in God knows what - anger or celebration. It’s a strange time. Slog into work, unfold the paper and find that the Celtics took the first game against the Lakers [sorry Lakers - go Boston!]. Then open up the Outlook to discover that the shipment to Korea had been totally jacked. Somehow four people, self included, completely overlooked the fact that scenes were being called out with the same numbers - scenes 1 and 10 were both being called 0010. Not the best feeling in the world on a Friday when the weather’s like this. Our incredibly good-natured Production Manager had the unenviable task of going through each x-sheet, looking closely at the storyboards and the quicktime to figure out just where things went pear-shaped. It’s not the end of the world, but for a small team hoping to keep some momentum going and morale up, it can sting a bit. Though this project has been going on for four years this July, we are a small team indeed. I’m looking at a contact sheet from the Simpsons Movie from March of 2007 and there were upwards of 175 people working on that project here at Film Roman full-time - alone. Nevermind the team working at Rough Draft Studios in Glendale. At this moment, with all of the retakes scheduled to ship to Korea by the end of this month, I count 14 people working on this one - not including the director/creator. A very different world.
So, back to Philip Marlowe, and why the hell I chose to refer to him today - it’s flatshoe investigation time as we piece together not only what happened to that ill-fated sequence… but also what we have left to design, whether it be prop, character, background or effects. That’s my task, and with three reels down and two to go, I’m finding there’s quite a bit of it. Don’t want to upset our hard-working friends in Korea again with another slightly askew bit of work, so it’s back to that for me shortly. Off the animation topic, I had to post something about the Young Playwrights Festival at The Blank. It’s the Theater girl in me just dying to get out of the cubicle farm that is our beloved animation studio/home. But I still have to post a little somethin about the Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Good stuff y’all.
June 4, 2008
It’s a little off my usual topic, that’s true - but I have to just send out the Blog word that The Blank Theatre Company’s 16th Annual Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival opens this week. It’s a great line-up of material with a killer lineup of actors and a theater company that consistantly does good work.
Check out their stuff. I will, and will most likely be talking about it here.
The Blank Theatre Company’s 16th Annual Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival OPENS THIS WEEK!
SEE THE STARS OF:
Arrested Development, JJ Abrams’ “Star Trek” movie, Entourage, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, My Name is Earl, The Riches, Guiding Light, 7th Heaven, Prison Break,
What About Brian, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, My Wife and Kids, Reefer Madness, NYPD Blue, Jericho, Unscripted, Diagnosis: Murder and Honey I Shrunk The Kids!
THIS WEEK (June 5-8): Nicholas Brendon, Dale Dickey, Garrett Brown, Aaron Himelstein, Paul Anthony Stewart, Mae Whitman
Week Two (June 12-15): Kurt Caceres, Emmy Award winner Gordon Clapp, Maureen Flannigan, John Kassir, Constance Zimmer
Week Three (June 19-22): Emmy Award winner Barbara Bain, Beth Broderick, Tom Lenk, Aidan Mitchell, Parker McKenna Posey, DB Sweeney
Week Four (June 26-29): Krista Allen, Chris Pine, Charlie Schlatter,
Marcia Strassman
Learn More at YoungPlaywrights.com —
FESTIVAL PASS COST:
[1 perf per week for 4 weeks = 4 shows] $50 per Pass plus $7.00 service charge = $57
SINGLE TIX COST:
[if tix available] $15 per ticket plus $2 service charge =$17 —
FESTIVAL PASS HOTLINE: 323.661.9827
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DANIEL HENNING Artistic Director · NOAH WYLE Artistic Producer · JOHN HOLLY Chairman of the Board
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more later….
cmd
