Success follows doing what you want to do. There is no other way to be successful.
Malcom Forbes
This month, Give Your Walls Some Soul celebrated the taping of it's 50th episode.
If you watch the show, it seems pretty simple. Just me, art supplies and a camera or two. Yet it takes a lot more than that to produce a show. (For details on how I got started and what it takes to put a show together, check out the article I wrote for Art Calendar Magazine a few years back at the end of this blog.)
Usually I supply the crew with sandwiches and cookies. This episode however, I went all out with delicacies from the Inn at Tres Pinos. And normally I never eat before the show. (Hey I don't want food in my teeth or to have to reapply my makeup. ) But this time I just couldn't help myself.
The menu was this:
Sauteed Calamari Strips with a Vine Ripened Tomato and Balsamic Vinaigrette Grilled Italian Sausage with Cream Laced Whole Grain Mustard Sauce Portabella Mushroom "Pizza" Roasted Portabella Caps topped with Zesty Marinara, Basil Pesto, and Melting Mozzarella Chocolate Mousse...
Our crew is SO worth it! Month after month, year after year, they show up, do an excellent job, and make the process fun. The people behind the scenes that make Give Your Walls Some Soul possible are:
Director: Jan Janes
Technical Director: Jan Janes
Production Manager: Shawn Mulcare
CG: Dee Guerrero, Amanda Marshall-Kapp, Alma Mathis,
Audio: Bruce Lee
Lighting: Shawn Mulcare
Camera: Larry Talbot, Ron Winingar, Jesus Avelar, Robin Egbert, Charisy Mathis
Dubs: Cristina Lee
Over the course of the years, just about everything that could have happened during the taping has occurred. You see the show is filmed live- to- tape. That means there is no editing. No "do-overs". Once the camera is rolling, we keep going until the show is done. To quote Geraldine from Flip Wilson, "What you see is what you get!"
Most of the time I pride myself on my professionalism. I'm usually able to go on with the show and pretend like nothing is happening when:
-a crew member is belly crawling on the floor towards me and proceeds to move my pallet table while I'm mixing paint.
-a camera person has to leave the set due to the stomach flu. (I promise I won't go in to details on that one!)
-a boisterous. deeply inebriated individual is knocking on the studio doors to gain entrance.
-an audience member decides he can no longer be silent.
-my easel is held together by duct tape because I left an integral part at my home studio.
-security decides my van must be moved during the middle of taping and they keys are in my pocket.
Speaking of pockets, it was that very container that got me in to trouble during the last shoot. Crew member Larry Talbot's birthday fell on the same day of the shoot. So during the taping I played Happy Birthday to him (and the show) on my kazoo.
Well in to the show, Shawn Mulcare shows up in my periphery with a white- board sign that says, "TAKE THE KAZOO OUT OF YOUR POCKET!" It just struck me funny and I burst out laughing. In my head I heard it spoken in the manner of, "STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR!"
I tapped every pocket I had with the palms of my hands.
Thankfully, the director always makes sure the camera is on something other than me during these situations. But there was and is no disguising my laugh. And I laughed even harder when I realized it must have looked like I was frisking myself. I can't even tell you what I said to the audience. It's all a blur.
After the show I learned there was some strange audio disturbance and the crew thought the source might have been my kazoo. But my kazoo was not in my pocket. It was near my sock monkey. Maybe he was playing it! Our search was in vain. We never did discover the source of the audio issue.
So how did I get 50 shows in the can? Same way I get everything else done. I set a goal and every day move in the direction of my dream. Here are some pics of the people who have helped make my GYWSS journey possible:
Director Jan Janes at the helm in the control room.
Jesus Avelar, Robin Egbert, Ron Winingar and "Birthday Boy" Larry Talbot
Today they are running cameras, however they are capable of anything. Did I really say that?
Cloth napkins are a rarity in the studio. This one is courtesy of The Inn at Tres Pinos. (We ate the fantastic food before I could get a picture!) Robin Egbert serves up smiles.
Larry Talbot hiding behind, I mean running, camera 2. By the way this is the "Shannon's Eye View" as I'm shooting the show.
Jean Talbot, Jesus Avelar, Jan Janes, Robin Egbert and
Larry Talbot right before the show.
Larry Talbot, Ron Winingar, Jan Janes, I love being behind the camera for a change.
Yes, we do have fun.
Shawn Mulcare and the sign that made me lose my composure.
Dee Guerrero and Jane Janes in the control room.
Bruce Lee running the audio board. Bruce does
Marvin the Martian imitations to get me to laugh before the show.
If your eyes are not glazed over yet, check out the article below that was originally published in Art Calendar Magazine. It documents my the initial stages of my public access journey:
Gettheeontv.docLabels: Bruce Lee, Dee Guerrero, Give Your Walls Some Soul, Jan Janes, Jesus Avelar, Larry Talbot, Malcom Forbes, Public Access Television, Robin Egbert, Ron WIningar, Shannon Grissom
