For the Workflow Geeks ...

An article on how we shot Leverage on the Apple Homepage.

Yes, we made 13 prime time episodes of television with stuff you can buy at your local Apple store. Well, not the 34Tb server. And, of course, the Reds. Odds are, however, you will not be shooting 3 cameras for 14 hours a day.

I will say, however, that lacking the Reds you could do a hell of a lot worse than the Sony XDCAM EX1. There are a quite a few shots in the series shot on this camera, and odds are you'll never notice the difference. They're harder to get now that the EX3 is out (it takes digi-primes) but they're gems.

Manual of the Planes

Apparently Amazon orders are shipping. In my ceaseless quest to become Jack of All Trades, Master of None, I wrote the Feywild chapter for this game supplement. Interesting exercise -- basically creating factions, characters, and locations which may interact in some way in a narrative, but in no predictable pattern. A novel without a protagonist, basically.

Anyway, the WOTC folks seemed happy with my work. If you're of the d20 brethren, the link is below. Oh, and Andy Collins gave me a genial chewing out, so I'll leave the link over in the sidebar for a bit.

If I May Agree With Rick Mercer ...

... fuck the Governor-General on general principle, and double-fuck the current one.

Thank God an unelected figurehead appointed by another unelected figurehead from a whole other country managed shut down the entire government of a sovereign nation before things spiralled out of hand and erupted in a mess of, of ... violent parliamentary motions. Why, there could have been shouting.

[Canadian hat] Why we don't reclaim that land, raze the building and build a public park, I have not a goddam clue.[/canadian hat]

On the other hand, I have to sincerely admit -- way to work the refs, Harper. I never liked it when people called him Bush Lite. He was and has always been way, way smarter than President Bush.

PRIMER timeline

For those who are just now discovering Primer on Netflix -- a timeline. Which is not very helpful at all, actually, but fun to try to figure out.

Hiatus Movie Recommendations

Slumdog Millionaire: I don't care how long the drive is. Go. And particularly for screenwriters -- this thing is a swiss watch. Regardless of how you may wind up feeling about the film as a whole (I loved it), there is not a single moment in the story where you don't desperately want to know, have to know, what is going to happen in the next ten seconds. "Open with a mystery", indeed.

Netflix on 360 recommendation-- Planet B-Boy. International break-dancing and father issues.

Yes, the streaming Netflix is my new obsession. Their available films are a weird mix to say the least, but all is forgiven when you discover that they have every season of The Rockford Files available for streaming.

I can watch any episode of Rockford. At any time. Sweet Jesus.

In the Comments -- your most recent best rental/indie viewing pleasure.

Now where the hell's Riptide?

There Will Be Leverage

Oh, it will be positively tiresome.

The LA Times Hollywood Backlot photo shoot is up. Chris Kane and Mark Sheppard fans in particular will be delighted. The shoot is from the season finale two-parter, "The First David Job" and "The Second David Job".

The Entertainment Weekly review is up, and although I appreciate the B+ grade, anyone who can watch Gina, Beth, Kane and Aldis and not chuckle (the Klingon bit, Ken, the Klingon bit!) has a little dark spot in his soul.