UNIVERSAL EARLog III: Day 29

Another day of heavy scheduling (thankfully Robin-Tyrek - who, along with Niemczyk, is keeping this daft boat afloat with her/their renaissance-girl adaptability - has taken over this task, it being her 'specialism'), video tests with actors, and trying to rebuild the city in miniature ahead of Saturday's tournage.

Four more actors on set for costume-fittings and video tests finally convince me that we may have something here, if only we can catch their wondrousness on film (it seems to work on video). The progressive nature of the shoot, we learn, will also be augmented by the use of a live vaper on set to behave as a human smoke machine, where Panic & Disgust's cigarette-smoking (Bosnian) smoke machine now seems passé and somehow politically incorrect.

Robin-Tyrek: a lawyer disguised as a painter.

Leray: an intern disguised as a prisoner.

Niemczyk: a unicorn disguised as a horse.

Next couple of days at UNIVERSAL EAR + acoustic ZOOM

A busy bank holiday weekend for the UNIVERSAL EAR crew begins tomorrow. With series regular Tuesday Betts in town and guest star Jonny Addy on set, there are 35 shots to get before the close of play Monday. Join them to help out at Nexus Art Cafe Sunday 12-6 and Monday 10-6.

Here's another interpretation of our anthem, which is sung on set every morning. MC Acoustic makes the controversial choice of leaving out the coda - but he is performing his own accompaniment, so perhaps he didn't know the chords.

Cast, extras & runners needed for UNIVERSAL EAR

This week production starts on the next episode of UNIVERSAL EAR, on an open set at Manchester's Nexus Art Cafe.

"Bloodless Offering in B Minor" is a swedes-and-sandals epic in which our hero Harley Byrne travels back to Greece, 425BC in order to record the pulsating rhythms of an immolated artichoke. But his arch nemesis BEING has arrived ahead of him and spun a web of tangled identity and multiple disguises amongst the religious community. In the balmy, fetid-smelling air of the temple of veg, Byrne finds himself attracted to his host's official greengrocer, Thersites. A boisterous and tender relationship blooms between the two men, compromising the success of Byrne's mission.

We need!

1 chap to play the REAL THERSITES (any age 18+)
->auditions this afternoon and tomorrow (Weds), shooting Thursday and Sunday this week

1 couple to snog in the background of our opening sequence
->get in touch, we'll work out a time to do it

Set decorators, prop/crafts people and runners are also needed Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday & next Monday... however much or little you can do, please get in touch (experience not essential).

Please email info [at] zoomcitta.co.uk or drop into the studio at Nexus Art Cafe, on Dale Street opposite Vinyl Exchange; or leave a comment below.

This week we will be there 10-6 Tues-Thurs and 12-5.30 Sunday.

Extras needed in Manchester this Sunday

Please join us at the UNIVERSAL EAR film studio in Manchester City Centre this Sunday, as we film the final shots of first episode, "A Flea Orchestra In Your Ear".

We will be shooting the Flea Orchestra itself so require extras in smart dress (preferably white shirt, plain black/dark tie, dark jacket), with whatever musical instruments you can bring. We have a few shirt/ties & instruments so feel free to come along and borrow. You don't have to be able to play the instruments as we will add the music later.

The shoot should last from 2.30pm-4.30pm. The cafe will be open before, during and after if you'd like to factor your Sunday mellow into the day. Extras will become a part of cinematic history, and one day receive a DVD of their work.

Please email armend [at] zoomcitta.co.uk or just show up at Nexus Art Cafe on Dale Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter this Sunday from 2.30pm.

& please forward this call-out to anyone who might appreciate it.

If you would like to join us earlier to help make up some costumes, we'll be in the studio from 12 ... please drop in.

Night cafe - extras needed

Tomorrow night 2am-6am (that's Sunday morning to early-risers) production of UNIVERSAL EAR will move into the main cafe area of Nexus Art Cafe, as the crew reimagine the "orange room" as the atelier/hideout of Harley Byrne's degenerate artist brother Santiago.

Each episode of UNIVERSAL EAR opens with a scene in which Harley must convince... his brother, a temporal cubist, to find him a path through time and space to the origin of the track he is to hunt down. This week we will attempt to get three episodes worth of these scenes - and we require extras (dressed as degenerate artists/temporal cubists) and helpers to do so.

Says director Graeme Cole: "We also need a PRIEST and a BRIDE, or at least people dressed up as those. No lines, you're purely extras. In constumes. If we get more than one priest and/or bride, well we can make that work too."

Please drop into the night cafe or message me or Graeme through Facebook if you'd like to be a part of it.

This week at UNIVERSAL EAR @ Nexus Art Cafe

First off, Mr Cole sends his apologies for being unable to contribute a truly comprehensive blog entry at this point. He has the UNIVERSAL EAR crew working around the clock to find a time-efficient blogging technique that can function alongside the day-to-day pressures of working in a film studio alien to one's usual surroundings (the latter being the currently sealed off Zoomcitta complex).

This week the studio is looking to employ short and long term (one hour or three weeks) art department volunteers. There are sets, props, costumes and backdrops that need painting and building out of assorted donations of junk: please drop into the studio or message us via the Facebook group. (There are now also some photos of what we've been up to).

This week the studio will be open:
Tues 11th 10am-5.30 (outtakes, freezedried emotion tinning)
Weds 12th 10am-5.30 (set design & making for "A Flea Orchestra In Your Ear" & "Bloodless Offering in B-Minor")
Thurs 13th 10am-5.30 (shooting some more "Flea")
Sat 15th 10am-1pm (rehearsal with recurring guest character "Santiago Byrne" .. and watch this space for possible Night Cafe action)
Sun 16th 12-5.30pm Tuesday Sundays - shooting with the starlet Tuesday Betts.

Please drop in for a chat about how you can become involved. We need you.

Busy times at film studio from the future

Hello there, project leader Cole here (attempting to channel the spirit of original UNIVERSAL EAR director Francis Dove).

We're two days into prefabrication of the lost UNIVERSAL EAR adventure serial at our temporary home, Nexus Art Cafe. Frankly, between tea-making, wolf-sourcing and epic holistic warm-up sessions, there's been no time to relay much of what's happened so far - I'd advise you, if you can, to visit us instead and see what's going on. We'll be there 10- 5.30 every day until Sunday, and then publish a new schedule for next week.

Thursday 6th May - set making, preparing for grand Lumpenbal (with last-minute rescue guest spot from Manchester's snuggliest band PYJAMA PARTY)
Friday 7th May - exposure of film begins somehow
Saturday 8th May - A.M. we work with Tuesday Betts on her performance as BEING (in the spirit of the original actress, Brigitte Bridges); P.M. come and play a flea and/or a wave and/or a flame as Downing's original production design gets person-al.
Sunday 9th May - the first of our Tuesday Sundays, when we film starlet Tuesday Betts' scenes for the UNIVERSAL EAR episode A Flea Orchestra In Your Ear.

Anyone is welcome to pop in whenever they can; we're in the studio behind the kitchen, we should have some good signage up shortly. Come and say hello, or watch in silence, or volunteer to paint a set or don a costume. We are particularly looking for make-up people and film (rather than digital) cinematographers, but tell us what you do and there'll be something you can turn your hand to. A bit like those ads for the army only with significantly less killing and that.

UNIVERSAL EAR Schedule 4th-5th May

The first episode of UNIVERSAL EAR to be shot on our public film studio at Nexus Art Cafe will be "A Flea Orchestra In Your Ear". Please see previous post for audition details.

Tuesday 4th May 2010

1000 Arrive on set, Zoom Anthem/warm-up, brews

1030 General production meeting, plus intro to Flea Orchestra. Putting stuff here and there.

1115 Tea, cake

1130 What do we know about Harley Byrne? How might this be manifested in his facial hair?

1200 Harley Byrne: defence and attack, with Physical Welfare Enforcer Higginson

1300 Lunch

1400 Harley Byrne’s Flea introduction: beat by clunking beat

1500 Tea, cake

1515 The Harley Spectrum: condensed emotion tinning

1700 What have we achieved today? What went wrong?

1730 End of day.

Wednesday 5th May 2010

1030 Arrive on set, warm-up (simulcast with Strigner on train), brews (simulbrew with Strigner)

1100 Production design meeting: A Flea Orchestra In Your Ear

1145 Tea, cake (put up signs for auditions)

1200 ongoing Fabrication of “Ear Wipe”; Strigner to lead design & building of Flea set/props

1200 ongoing Open auditions for role of Nola Luna

1300 Lunch

1400 ongoing Strigner to lead design & building of Flea set/props

1400 ongoing Open auditions for role of Nola Luna

1700 What have we achieved today? What went wrong?

1730 End of day.