Rain, Rain... Puppets and Cosmo's

What's twelve feet high, eight feet wide and can't get wet? An awesome monster for "Ghost Sniffers" that takes three puppeteers and an enormous amount of upper body strength to come alive for Episode 5! We've learned that animals are tricky to work with... but we still love working with cats, dogs and talking ravens :) We've learned that puppets get really heavy after five or six hours... and yet I continue to write scripts that call for them ;) But there's something else that animals and puppets have in common. Neither of them work in the rain. *sigh*

Everybody now: Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day (after we wrap Episode 12, perhaps). "Ghost Sniffers" want to play. So rain, rain, go away!

One great thing about rainy days that stop us from shooting is that we can catch up on all our email and phone calls. Ready for the good... no, great!... news for this rainy day?

Christina, the co-owner of Cosmo's Restaurant (a family restaurant where we DiMarcos have eaten since Maxwell was a tiny baby stuffing meatballs in his mouth with both hands), let us know today that "Ghost Sniffers" is welcome to come shoot an *amazing* scene at Cosmo's. How incredibly awesome is that? Just wait until you see Episode 6... you'll rush to Cosmo's just to sit in the same seats as our twenty new characters :)

Jennifer

Episode 3 is Live!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a1jenXTfzY

Thank you... one and all. What a twist for the series... what an amazing journey.

Episode 3 Update

To prove that directors are not immune to all things, I confess I am fighting a stupid rainy day cold :( But the show must go on!

First up for today was paying some bills; always good for a laugh, yeah? :)

Barreling ahead, fortified with Vitamin C and CS (chicken soup), I sat with Brianne and reviewed the rough cut of Episode 3 one last time. Since I'm in a confessional mood, I will also admit that reviewing rough cuts has, in the past, been something I dreaded. After days of writing and envisioning, then days of shooting, then even more days of tweaking and editing and polishing, no one wants to see or hear that something isn't quite right. Though Brianne and I have never come to blows or even shouting, we have resorted to long, silent glares and a certain gnashing of teeth, that would surely destroy the friendship between any two people less dedicated to "Ghost Sniffers."

However, today was totally and thoroughly different. There wasn't a single glare, our teeth are ungnashed, and neither of us made my trademarked angry tisking sound even once. Progress!

It took us about an hour and a half to watch, pause, discuss and notate the episode into perfection and as I write these words, Brianne is implementing the changes, polishing the CC track and readying the HD file for upload. Today? Tomorrow? Probably tomorrow because the processing of the final HD file actually takes many hours of processing then there's several hours to upload. You'll know we're in the final stretch when the thumbnail image for the episode gets uploaded to the front page of the website :)

I've had questions about the next two episode -- Episode 4 and 5. They will absolutely NOT take so long to upload because, in short, they aren't as long :)

Episode 5 Shooting Day 2

Though a short day (only two hours) we took full advantage of our only dry day this week (Wednesday) to secure all the footage between Forge and Captain Snakes, played by my awesome mom, Carol DiMarco. Mom was so easy to work with she totally spoiled me; after just a day with the script, that includes several long exchanges and one very lengthy monologue for her character, she arrived off-book and in-character, completely game to climb around our tall ship play structure.

I am very quickly casting every DiMarco in my family! At least I know I'll never spell their last name wrong ;)

Valentine's News

The feature film (LOL!) that is Episode 3 has finally been assembled with visual effects, music, sound effects and transitions. Now I need to view this rough cut and give Brianne my dreaded notes :)

In the past, we've uploaded this draft so that a version of the episode reaches viewers as soon as possible but we've decided to stop that practice primarily because so many of our viewers really rely on the closed captioning and the CC can't be done accurately until we have a final draft. To be fair to them, we'll all wait and watch together :)

So, yes, we'll be working on Valentine's but it will be together as a family and only for the first part of the day. I know that today, more than once, I'll find myself thinking about Jack and Oceana... "Ghost Sniffers" most romantic couple ever :)

Business Sponsors

Today begins two days of rain during which Cris, Brianne and I will work out, draft and produce packets for business sponsors. Each packet will be created with a specific local business in mind as Port Orchard businesses will be our first focus. We have the funds to finish shooting Episode 5 but unless we can secure support we won't be able to move the production onward from that point.

Once more, I feel hopeful and also thankful for how well the three of us are willing to allow ego and any type of false "sales pitch" type approach fall away. We are willing to be what we truly are, three women who believe this show is important to the kids we're trying so hard to reach.

Episode 5 Shooting Day 1

The waves coaxed us out to the shore along the Puget Sound today to shoot more than half of Episode 4. For five chilly hours I worked together with Dolores Rogers, Christopher Harris, Kristie Gronbreg, Maxwell, Faith, Cris and Brianne to craft an episode with a sweet, romantic heart and a substantial amount of poetry. Though we weren't as cold as we had been when the temperatures were in the low 30s up at Fort Worden, the wind off the water made for some blue fingers and toes for sure.

It was, overall, a very productive day and so wonderful to work with Christopher and Kristie again and Dolores for the first time -- though absolutely not the last! As a matter of fact, we took a little extra time to shoot enough footage to include Dolores' character in Episode 6 (good thing we had the writer with us *wink*).

Episode 4 Shooting Day 5

Accuweather.com has won me over. I never knew how truly unreliable weather forecasts were until I started to count on them for planning shoot days. I know. We all joke about weather forecasts being wrong but I never knew how absolutely and utterly wrong some of the networks and services were until I started comparing their reports to Accuweathers hourly breakdown. In short, our three hours of outdoor shooting today was perfect. Cloudily and cold, yes, but no glare, no rain, and no wind. Episode 4 wrapped after four hours with Kara and Erin's outstanding dancers -- Anika, Aundrea, MacKenzie and Korin. Thank you once more to the Gallery of Music and Dance! They were chilled to the bone (there's a joke there when the episode airs) but they danced on!

Another unexpected blessing today was MacKenzie's mom, Leah, did elaborate hair dos for all the dancers. The various styles came across the camera as wild effects and were interesting to frame and work with visually.

One expected but still wonderful part of the day was that Cris got to see her original composition, "Skeleton Faire," through the eyes of Kara and Erin's choreography. She was able to tell them how amazing she felt the routine was as we all got to watch them work live with their dancers to craft a performance that was unique, engaging and spot on for the episode.

Tomorrow is Day 1 shooting Episode 5 with Kristie, Christopher, Dolores, Cris, Brianne, Maxwell and Faith. Want to hear a secret? I think we're going to wrap Episode 5 in just two days. We'll see :) For right now? Time to sneak away for a nap! Brianne is editing Episode 3. Cris is practicing her live number for tomorrow on guitar. Maxwell and Faith are doing school work. Coffee or nap for me? Hm. Hard choice :)

Send in Your Questions!

Have you ever see those neat interviews with talk show hosts or tv chefs or actors where they answer questions sent in from the viewers? We're about to film an great segment like that -- our first in a series that we hope to grow to include all the Season 1 actors and crew. The first subject (victim?!) is me so we can work out the bugs :)


Do you have any questions about Episode 1 or "Ghost Sniffers" in general that the director, writer or cinematographer would answer? Does anyone in your family or among your friends have a question? We'll credit people asking by first name and last initial on the screen during the segment.

Ready? Ask away! ghostsniffers@gmail.com 

Episode 5: Complete!

I started writing the script for Episode 5 at midnight last night. At 8:30 this morning, "Eight if by Sea" was done. Before jetting out to prop shop with Brianne (while Cris watched over the sleeping kiddos) at 9:00, I quickly PDFed the script and sent it off to the actors involved. Once we got home, I went back over the script one last time, added in the second half of the music and sound cues, a plush parrot, the ghost sniffing bees, and altered one line -- tada! Fini! :D

The questions now are: Will the weather cooperate and allow us to shoot the last day of Episode 4 on Saturday? Will the weather cooperate and allow us to shoot the first day of Episode 5 on Sunday?

One cool thing about Episode 5, is that is utilizes some of the awesome effects we're rolling out in Episode 3 and Episode 4 but bringing you all a viewing experience that won't top out over 30 minutes. A nice change. It will also be shot in just three days instead of our normal five. Two days will be at an away location and one day will be here on the property. I'm really training myself to accommodate the high cost of gas and new props without sacrificing quality or entertainment.

Speaking of entertainment...

Episode 5, our pro-military episode, starring our first full (expansive!) cast, is coming right along under Brianne's careful assembly. There are several effects in the episode and a ton of sound and music cues. Plus we were fighting with kill wind on several days that's making the dialogue editing very difficult. Brianne said to be today: "I am doing every single trick possible to make the sound as clear as it can be. But short of someone giving us $2000 for new sound equipment, there is only so far I can take what we have." I valued her honesty, and her comprehensive list of the equipment we'd need if I won the lotto tomorrow. Another way to increase the sound quality on the episodes is to stop the wind from blowing so I'm also going to pray really hard about that *gentle smile*

In addition to Episode 3 (which is almost like two episodes in one at 55 minutes), we'll also have the wonderful new public service announcement with Faith and her real-life (and on-screen) Grandma Lynn. In Episode 3, Lynn plays Lynn Athena Forge, a retired US Army veteran who Forge adores and who now runs a honeybee farm. In the PSA, Lynn just plays herself, a veteran and grandma who loves her granddaughter... well, okay, she also plays someone else in the PSA, too, but that's a surprise ;)

Back to Episode 5... one of the interesting things that happened when I was writing this script was something that used to happen to me when I was a teenager. I would be writing a new novel (remember, that's what I started out doing at 10 -- eek! -- and stopped writing and publishing novels at about 19) and a "minor" character would suddenly open up for me in a new way, suddenly have a deeper meaning and a greater importance. It was always a surprising and amazing moment.

There is a character in Episode 5 who originally only had one line (you'll know which one when you see the episode, I promise). But when I started writing, this character spoke to me. I realized that she had a lot to say. That she was far more than she had first presented herself (in my mind) to be. She went from a great one-episode character, to a character I can now envision playing a pivotal, vital role in Episode 12 -- the epic battle of Season 1.

Isn't it nice when we can still surprise ourselves? :)

Episode 5: Writing Day 1 of 2

Yep :) You read that right. Two days to write the Episode 5 script and make it (do we have this part memorized yet?) *better than the last one.* Can we do it? We just raised almost $1000 in 24 hours! We. Can. Do. Anything!

One of the best parts about being about to dive into Episode 5 (though, to be honest, I outlined the episode a few days ago in the middle of the night by writing on my pillow case in ball point... no, I'm not kidding -- kids! Never write on your pillow case until you're a grown up mommy or daddy doing all the laundry... or your ideas might get washed off before you have a chance to photocopy them!) is that I'm not writing alone any more :)

Faith is writing (in the voice of Forge -- her version of Forge) at A Whiff of the Sniff. Faith is crafting mini investigations complete with clients, assistants, sniffs, and scents :) She has challenged herself to write one every day (which I think is huge for a nine year old who doesn't write stories naturally) but I'll be thrilled if she writes even one a week. Actually, I'm proud of her just posting her very first *applause* Good work, Faith Aoibhinn.

And Maxwell wants me to remember that he's been writing in the voice of that wicked and wooly Maximilian for more than a month at Talk Amongst Yourselves: The Greatest Forge. His biting and super pokey lifestyle blogs are styled to be ridiculously mean and Maxwell says that's what fun about them because he (Maxwell) doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Plus, he says, Maximilian's meanness just hides his utter stupidity. LOL!

Is there anyone else out there who would like to officially blog in-character? If so, drop me an email!

Jennifer

Matching Funds: Secured

Anthony Swinsinski, Jacqueline Swanson, Bridget Gronberg, Chris Gronberg, Roy Relethford, Rebecca Fitzgerald, Maxwell Kier DiMarco, Faith Aoibhinn DiMarco, Daniel Relethford, Perry McVay, Kristie Gronberg, Ryan Gronberg, Jo Ann Swanson, Barbar Haueisen, and Joel Relethford... so many amazing, generous, and supportive producers for Episode 5. I'll be writing to everyone emails as soon as I've fed the little ones, but I just wanted to thank you all publicly, as well. Many of you donated between 7am Monday and 7am Tuesday, so your donations (whether made by check, PayPal account, or credit card) were doubled -- a total of $483 that instantly turned into $966!

I picked up the matching funds check today, deposited it, and have lowered our goal on the widget so it reflects our true remaining needs. All of you helped make this happen. No matter your reason behind your donation, the message you sent was clear:

Don't let "Ghost Sniffers" end. Our kids need this message.

Let's empower them all by helping them empower others.

Nighty, Night Episode 5 Prop Shopping

Learning to write a script in the proper format that gives us a perfect 30-minute episode escaped me for Episode 2 (50 minutes) and Episode 3 (55 minutes), but I got it mastered with Episode 4 :) Limiting our prop needs to fit a no-prop-budget production (without limited quality or sight gags) has been even harder. But, once more, the goal of "better with every episode" has been reached.

As of this moment, we've secured all the props needed for Episode 5 -- all for under $50. And let me just share this one sneak peek: A giant sea monster is NOT cheap ;)

The only props remaining for the episode are eight standard size pillows. I've found them locally for just $2.50 each. Anyone know a better deal? Let me know! It's team shopping :)

Edit: Pillows purchased! All props secured.

Matching Funds Starts... Now!

For the next 24 hours, we have an incredible offer from one of our repeat supporters: Every donation made through the fundraising widget will be matched 100%! Donators will still receive the reward they choose for their original amount, but we'll be carried that much closer to our goal. Spread the word, sniffer friends :) Only donations made between 7am today (Monday) and 7am tomorrow (Tuesday) will be doubled. Have questions? Just email ghostsniffers@gmail.com

One Cause Helping Another

Black Wolf Paranormal is a Kitsap local ghost hunting and investigating organization that holds an annual fundraising event for the North Kitsap Fishline Food Bank. All the speakers volunteer their time and the event is open and free to the public for just a suggested donation of canned goods.

Come on out on April 14, to the Clear Creek Community Club in Silverdale, Washington, and guess who'll be speaking at 4:30? That's right -- Forge, Maxo and the crew :) Find out more at:

http://www.blackwolf-paranormal.com/haunting-for-hope.php

The Day Between

There is always a day between when we wrap or pause shooting an episode and when I start on a new script. Just *one* day, but that's often enough to recharge, refocus and slightly shift my view to include a new idea, new characters and new locations. Today is that day and I'm hustling around the house gathering props, altering props, trying to pay bills (insert chaotic laughter -- LOL!), and doing my best to play email catch up :) But I wanted to take a small pause to sip some coffee (yum, lunch) and say:

THANK YOU!

If you head over to the website (www.ghostsniffers.com) and click the "D" button on the fund raising widget on the left hand side of the page, you'll see why I'm so excited :)

Thank you so much Anthony, Bridget, and Roy for helping to keep "Ghost Sniffers" on the air (Err, on the web? On the disc? Just on!). I've learned (much to the worry of Erin Jennings who wrote the wonderful article about "Ghost Sniffers" and pretty much all the moms who asked about my schedule) to exist on four hours of sleep and to get seriously creative in home-schooling and in the kitchen in order to keep the show moving forward and to show my kiddos that dedication, hard work, and all-encompassing love for a cause can conquer any challenge. There's no whining here. And a math lesson that teaches fractions, ratios, and budgeting an episode simply cannot be a bad thing! As for that creativity in the kitchen? Well, it's amazing how far a bag of potatoes, eggs from Grandma's farm, and soynut butter can take a family. We're proud (and so blessed) to be one of the families keeping "work" part of "working class." *wide smile*

As little Forge would say, "For the sniff!"

Episode 4 Shooting Day 4

Cris tells me that I shouldn't just share the good news in the blog. She's right. I suppose I just want to focus on the positive. We did have some setbacks this week though; challenges we had to face and overcome. The incredibly fancy tripod gifted to us by a producer literally broke in my hands. We have used it three times. I called three places, trying my best to replace it for under $200, and the only "helpful" comments I received were, "Oh yeah. That brand sometimes does that." Um... not actually helpful at all.

We managed some very basic split screen work in Episode 2 but we wanted to take it up a notch for Episode 4. More advanced split screen work requires a quality tripod with the proper head and stabilizer. So... that we really hard.

The same day, as I turned to close the safety gate at the top of the stairs, the light tree took the trip I was trying to make sure the kids didn't take -- down a flight of stairs with a phenomenal sprinkling of pure white, high voltage lamps and a squeal-snap of one can bending and giving up the ghost.

To top off the week, today (Friday) marked half way through Episode 4 so the KickStarter funds are done and we're back to square one in terms of funding. We were very thankful that KickStarter took us so far -- the second half of Episode 2, all of Episode 3 and the first half of Episode 4 -- but we'll continue fighting for this series. (As an aside, which Cris tells me is important, there is a great big donate button right on the first page of the website on the left hand side -- www.GhostSniffers.com.)

But enough of the challenges! Time to report on the unrelenting progress forward!

We woke this morning to brilliant golden sun. Faith changed into her alternate costume for the episode and we were out the door after a breakfast of eggless, wheat free French Toast for the kiddos and coffee for the grown ups.

Brianne stayed home to continue editing on Episode 3 which is coming in long (like Episode 2) because it was also written before I established the series formula and script format that would give us the perfect 27 to 30 minutes that we need.

Maxwell stayed home with Brianne to work on Maximilian's blog. Yep. The infamous blog that evil Maximilian writes for a living is actually online already with more than twenty entries. The link will be posted at the website when Episode 3 posts, but if you want to check out just how ridiculously asinine Maximilian is right now (because you're a blog reader and so you deserve sneak peeks), head on over to thegeatestforge.blogspot.com :)

Oh! That reminds me! Guess what? The website is about to be reorganized to include a wiki! We'll call it WikiSniff, I think :)

So Cris, Faith and I head out. Remember, shooting never happens on our schedule. We are slaves to daylight and we have to move swiftly. Plus, with two natural night owls in Maxwell and Faith, starting at the crack o' dawn is never an option.

When we three reached the slue, the tide was high, covering the rocky shore that had been visible the last time we shot here. Luckily, the scene we're shooting today is set on another day from the first one so the change won't be seen as an inconsistency.

After the slue, we hiked up into the woods to our final away shooting for the episode. Just before hiking up, a rancher stopped his big truck on the country road at the trail head. "Ladies, just so you know, we'll be slaughtering a cow shortly." Good thing he told us, too, because they echoing gun shots would have been a show stopper!

Episode 4 Shooting Day 3

Today we secured another ten pages of Forge, Maxo and Maximilian and Maxwell and Faith got to try something new -- spontaneous hugs! LOL! Neither of the kids have ever been real huggers; they would much rather very eloquently tell their grandma or their aunt why they're thrilled to see them than exchange embraces. Of course, they do put up with hugs but they have an unspoken agreement never to hug each other. Why? Probably because Faith doesn't want her hair messed up or the lace flower on her dress crushed, and Maxwell finds hugs difficult when mousing, drawing with a Sharpie or button-mashing in the old school N64.

Today involved shooting in the house from new and strange angles. Shooting longer, and longer single shot scenes with tons of volleying dialogue. And puppets. Yes, more puppet work today ;) Then we were off down the road to shoot on location at some picturesque spots that were so atmospherically sad that some stranger actually showed up and played Country music the whole time *sigh* We'll need to track down and purchase some soothing nature sounds to loop over the scene (which we've certainly had to do before).

Tomorrow? Our last day of shooting without the dancers. Wow. An entire episode shot in five days. Maybe we're becoming pros?

Episode 4 Shooting Day 2

Four pages? Not enough! Let's go for TEN! Today we shot in and around the house because of the threat of rain. Cris swore she spotted scattered rain showers... but I think she spotted them on the Weather Channel ;)

Today, Maxwell and Faith experienced a new approach to scenes as I strive to deliver new and better and different episodes. We tried longer exchanges in a single shot and also running scenes multiple times with different inflections to different lines. They loved it but I'm still undecided. I do enjoy the experience though.

The day was broken into nice parts by a break to give hair cuts to Cris and my mom, Carol, a producer and the actor who will play Captain Snakes in Episode 5. The next break came when Faith had to go to her dance class which really helps further deepen her attention span and discipline. Of course, we did continue to shoot scenes that Forge isn't in so I suppose that wasn't a full break :)

Funny, but you'd think I'd have learned by now that animals and puppets are had to work with... yet, I keep writing them into the scripts LOL! Tom Tita just wouldn't behave. I finally had to call in her mommy, Brianne, and then the scene came together quickly.

The yummy icy on this quite excellent cake of a day was when my fabulous little sister called and hinted that she just may have found us a wonderful theatre space that believes in our cause enough to allow us to shoot scenes for two episodes in their space for free -- wow! I think I will always think of these types of miracles as Debbie Effects, for Debbie at Sk8Town who was the first to really go out on a limb for us.