Preproduction

This was an extremely busy week for us. Much of our time was spent playing ping pong with our cast over email, matching up everyone's schedules, and going over each of our eight scenes in meticulous detail. We've locked our cast, with minor shifts to account for a dropout, and set about techscouting our locations.

All that remains until we're ready for production on the rapidly approaching 2/28 is a few props and a couple minor crew positions. Still filling out a few of the bones on our skeleton crew if anyone knows of some filmkids who will be around for Springbreak and want to spend time on a set instead of a couch.

Our biggest concern now is not for production but exhibition. The theatre department is still stonewalling us on loaning out the SRO building, so we're going to have to get really creative really soon on where we're setting up the installation.

Next Monday is our promoshoot at Ortons. We'll have our murder victim lying on the bar and all our suspects drinking over her body in nonchalance. I told John, who owns Ortons, about it. He got really into the theme and had a couple of ideas of his own on things we could add to the shoot. They were morbid.

Development into Fast Approaching Production

This weekend was a bit more busy as we went through our first round of casting. We had a really great turnout and locked in almost all of our cast. Normally, I prefer to do cold reads, but in this case I thought it would be nice to send everyone sides as it forces them into actually learning their lines.

Next stop is the promo shoot to get some traction going with our marketing campaign. If we can get access to a police line-up, we'll go with a Usual Suspects theme.

Locking in a space on campus is still in the works, but the lifespan of this project is looking up as we talk with The Calico Room, Gypsy, and my inside woman at our longshot, The Bellamy.

Here's our script. It's 32 pages but don't forget that the majority of our content will be overlapping with itself, so we shouldn't have a problem fitting it all in. 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67740648/Killing%20a%20Southern%20Belle.pdf

The Installation Space

AUDIENCE WALK THROUGH:

The experience of the installation begins when our live actor ushers participants through the atrium and into the space. He’ll half ignore, half guide them as he looks through his notebook for clues. On a table, will be a series of ‘ballots’ that each participant can use to take their own notes and guess as to the identity of the murderer.

After a short introduction played over the TV’s, participants can freely roam from witness to witness or follow the detective as he meanders around the room. Following the overlaying segments, there will be a conclusion scene broadcast across the TV’s.

Lastly, the TV’s will return to static and the PA system will play an outro song as participants file out.

LOGISTICAL CONCERNS:


INSTALLATION DESCRIPTION:
Killing a Southern Belle is a 15 minute, looping installation. The setup revolves around six distinct TV’s that each portray the account of a murder suspect. Participants are encouraged by a live actor to walk around the installation, gathering clues as to which suspect committed the murder.


INSTALLATION INGREDIENTS:
Exhibition Format Details:
- The project will require 6 Televisions of no particular make.
- Material will be looped after a brief credit to intro sequence (1min) comprised of “Wolfe on the River” (working on acquiring rights)  playing over the PA and static on the TV’s


Audio Details:
-sounds will include effects and VO over the PA and stereo sound from the TV’s


EQUIPMENT LIST:
-6 televisions of arbitrary make
-two actors: one Detective; one Corpse; (both have been cast)

POSSIBLE SETBACKS:
               -actor tardiness
               -TV sync errors (but not without thorough rehearsal)
               -our live corpse has to sneeze