It hit me early this morning, at 4:15 am on the dot, rousing me from a deep slumber and striking me with the sheer obviousness of it all. The seemingly unconnected pieces actually came together in my dream, snapping together to offer an answer to a question I hadn’t even asked. Or even thought to ask. But now…NOW it makes perfect sense. I shared my theory with someone and, while he preferred to offer the benefit of the doubt, there’s no denying the “coincidental” nature of the seemingly unrelated developments. Damn. This may get ugly.
But that’s a confrontation for another time. Today, it was all about a rare Saturday shoot that saw me catching a lift to the deep freeze wilderness of Rockton with Episode 211 director Mairzee Almas (pictured above, imagining ahead during a location scout).
Mairzee hails from Vancouver where she’s worked on productions like Smallville, Lucifer, and The 100.
Mairzee is also an alum on a longtime Toronto production, a little show called Lost Girl, that some of you may be familiar with. So, when she rolled into the office the other week, there were smiles all around. I put an immediate stop to that. After all, as 1st Assistant Director Brandon Tataryn will tell you, there’s no smiling in prep.
Since you asked – you DID ask, didn’t you? – prep week went swimmingly. We discussed cabins, markets, llamas, clones, and, of course, guns.
Day 1 of production saw us on our standing Raza sets – infirmary, mess, bridge, corridors.
Day 2 saw us on our swing stage – transit room, corridor, and Marauder.
And our third – well, that was today. We had the chase. We had the talk. And the tearful farewell. It was quite a moment – and one I’d been planning since the summer of last year. Great, great performances. And a great, great director.
Llamas, huh? Interesting. Can’t wait to see how you work those it!
You’ve been pretty cryptic lately.
Mairzee is one of my favourite people in the industry! She gave me my first shot on screen as an actor. She is always kind, respectful, and is hard working. I am glad you get to work with her. She is awesome! 🙂
“And the tearful farewell.”
Just what the heck does this mean?? Who is leaving??
Mairzee Almas… girl power!
For a second there, I thought that was my filmmaking and animation prof Shereen Jerritt, lol…. I hope to someday work on an episode of one of your shows (hopefully Dark Matter!) because when I read your blogs, I can see the really positive synergy going on there, it looks like each and every day!
Of course, I had a friend of mine (and someone I’ve done some substantial acting with in the past) tell me that before going to Vancouver in the fall to attend UBC (I just wish if he’s going to transfer out of the University of Winnipeg he’d simply transfer over to the University of Manitoba, but that’s just my own little wish!) that he wants to do another *substantial film project* with me. No pressure, lol….as I have a script I”ve been working on for the better part of 8 years (it’s been in mothballs the last couple of years but I plan on reworking the script a bit once finals are over!) which he would be a PERFECT fit for…..now to locate some production funding for it by late June (when another actress, whom I know would be FANTASTIC in a suporting role, but wil be doing some touring with a theatre comany until then) so that I can actually get a really *decent* job done of it, and yeah, I guess that’l be my summer project!!!
I would ask if you have any words of advice (because although in Manitoba, we currently have a decent film & tv production tax credit, if the government changes here, we could lose all of that, so it’s a tad unstable for planning things!), to please pass them along to me. I know I need to concentrate on finishing my 4 projects in film (actually, 3 in film and 1 in animation, which I shall be shooting tomorrow all day), plus madly playing catch-up in an on-line course which had material which, for me, was very INaccessable and I am only NOW getting the majority of the materials for….well, looking to the future and plans of having fun with one of my most trusted friends and honestly favourite co-star of all time gives me something to look forward to, big time!!!
Didn’t mean to ramble so much, but yeah, any words of advice would be great (regarding the project this summer — aiming to shave my 93 pg scrript to about 75-80 pages before going to camera!).
KathyC calls it cryptic… I call it “damnit J Mallozzi spill it already” posting. What confrontation? Hopefully the “tearful farewell” was about the director, not something else.
How is Fondy and Stewie doing? How’s your mom and sister?
Hmmm. Interesting, this is…
Llamas, clones, swing set, transit room, chase, tearful farewell? Nah, no idea … But can’t wait to see this episode!
You sound good today, Joe. So pleased.
‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on’
Joe, does the first paragraph have anything to do with the random things that appear on your balcony from the building site opposite you? I am intrigued.
Chev
Oooooh clones. Can’t wait.
Cheers, Chev
Infirmary, mess, bridge, corridors, transit room, corridor, Marauder, cabins, markets, llamas, clones, and, of course, guns – Wow!
Eh…..llamas? Is this a code word for…..? 🤔
I love Mairzee’s work. She’s definitely another of my favs. She also worked on Beauty & The Beast, Haven, Sanctuary, Secret Circle, The Last Ship and this year all will see her work in 12 monkeys.
Hope the day went well on location with the chase and you are getting some relaxation time in today. 🙂
Arthur Dent once said: ” All my life I’ve had this strange feeling that there’s something big and sinister going on in the world”.
To which Slartibartfast replied: “No, that’s perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe gets that”.
But enough with the cryptic – SPILL IT ALREADY, eh!! or at least give us some better clues as to what’s going on! 😀
Question for your next Q & A: How does one go about selecting all the directors necessary for filming one season of a TV show?
Do not go gently into that goodnight.
Rage! Rage! I tells ya! -As you take one more chocolaty bite outta life! 😀
Hmm. I don’t like the sound of that conspiratorial thing going on. Don’t take any crap from anyone!
In other news, got out of the canyon yesterday and had a good time. I’ll update more later after I’m home. Have to rattle around here in Vegas before heading home on the flight tonight.
@PbMom Hope you are able to get taxes done today. Your mention of coffee ice cream the other day gave me a craving so I went and got some today.
Good stuff! 🙂
PS to All: Some have been attempting to correct my grammar of late. Quite especially when I covered the “re-landing” for Space X.
While I do appreciate the concern
The wording is intentional. It is simply my sense of humor.
Sounds ominous 🙁 .
I thought there was “no crying in baseball” and now I learn “there’s no smiling in prep”. Love the pics. Hope all went well. Not liking the phrase “tearful farewell”. Very ominous! Hopefully it refers to the last day of shooting.