SQL Aloha

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 10

Brad M. McGehee — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Alien Brad is not looking very well (more boils), or very happy (there are tears on his face if you look closely). This is because he realizes that he has been “outed” by Miss Friday, and because of this, probably won’t make it home back to Mars. Then alien Brad tells the audience that Miss Friday won’t be joining them today because Miss Friday has Rigelian fever. In fact, we are left with the impression that perhaps alien Brad has permanently gotten rid of Miss Friday. Alien Brad continues to talk about the competition, where the winner will be able to “escape this rain-soaked planet, away from the constant noise, the damp smells, and the awful food. A chance to drift in the tranquility of space.” On that last sentence, Alien Brad’s voice becomes high-pitched and his eyes turn black. Apparently, for a moment, he forgot he was before the camera and reverted partially to his Martian self. After he catches his lapse, he continues to provide the week’s question.

Other than the very first scene of the episodes, this was the most difficult for me. First of all, there were a lot of lines to memorize; second, I did the scene all by myself; third, I was supposed to act sad; fourth, I had to have tears; and last of all, the scene was one, long take. So that meant that every time I goofed up, the camera would have to be reset (it was set to truck into me throughout my monologue). I guess that Will, the director, knew this would be a difficult scene for me, so they allocated 2.5 hours to do it in. But I surprised myself and everyone else, as it only took me 4 takes to get it right, well, as right as it will ever get for a non-actor. In fact, we were done so fast that we ended up being able to shoot an extra scene that day that had been planned for the following day.

When I smile, the makeup just doesn’t seem to have the same alien effect. This was taken shortly before this episode was filmed.

Of all the scenes I did, I think one of my best “acting” performances was after my voice raised in pitch, and my eyes went black, and then I realized I had drifted off, and then shook it off, and then continued on with the question. I thought this particular action was actually believable. Well, sort of.

Originally, this scene had some additional complexity, but it was cut from the script at the last moment. In the original script, I was supposed to take a tissue and eat it (as alien Brad did not know what to do with a tissue). In addition, alien Brad was supposed to wipe his tearing eyes with his hand, and in doing so, tear off some of his human skin, but then reform it back onto his face once he realized what had happened. While these would have been funny gags, not doing them made the scene much easier to do. Oh, how did I cry? Using a glycerin and water mixture that was placed on my eyes just before each take, and thinking about how bad an actor I was. Unfortunately, unless you play the videos at a high resolution, the tears are hard to see.

In my next installment, I will talk about filming question eleven.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 9

Brad M. McGehee — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:00:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Episode nine was filmed in the “Mars” exhibit. In this scene, alien Brad is feeling very homesick. Miss Friday starts the scene talking about the Mar Rovers, and alien Brad makes a bad joke about rovers breaking Martian traffic laws. Miss Friday continues the conversation, and then alien Brad’s attention wonders off, with him thinking back about how wonderful it would be to be back on Mars. Then alien Brad makes a big mistake. He takes a meteorite from a display table and takes a deep breath in, smelling it, helping to remind him of Mars. But finally, finally, Miss Friday finally adds 1 plus 1 and realizes that alien Brad is not really Brad, but the alien. It has taken her all this time before she has come to this realization.

So Miss Friday tries to trick up alien Brad by saying “No place like home, eh, Brad?” This catches the attention of alien Brad, who now is beginning to realize for himself that perhaps that Miss Friday has finally caught on to who he really is. As they continue to talk, they begin to stare each one down, with Miss Friday trying to trick alien Brad into incriminating himself on camera, but it doesn’t work.

Alien Brad picks up a meteorite in order to smell it, and remind himself of what it is like to be back home on Mars.

This was a relatively complex scene for me, as there were a lot of lines, and we shot it wide angle, and then with close-ups of both of us. One goal of this scene was to indicate that alien Brad was homesick for Mars. I don’t really think this came across very well, as this requires a lot more acting skill than I have. Another key goal of this scene is that Miss Friday finally realizes that Brad is the alien. It took a long time, but she finally puts all the pieces of the puzzle together. In addition, alien Brad realizes that Miss Friday is on to him. In the next episode, we learn what alien Brad does as a result of being caught in his masquerade.

I want to comment that the Mars “meteorites” on the display table were not really meteorites, just common Earth rocks. The one that I picked up and smelled was the one that I thought looked most like a Mars meteorite. So how come real Mar meteorites weren’t used for the scene? Mainly because they generally cost over $1000 a gram, and large Mars meteorites cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you want to see one of the largest Mars meteorites discovered, check out the British Natural History Museum in London. It is hard to find, but if you check out the minerals room, it is located at the back of the room in a vault, along with a very large lunar meteorite, and other expensive meteorites.

This is the famous Nakhla Mars meteorite. I took this photo at the Natural History Museum while I was in London for the filming. The black outside coating is called fusion crust (created during ablation when entering the Earth’s atmosphere), and inside are chondrules (grains of matter that are made up of the oldest material in our solar system).

In my next installment, I will talk about filming question ten.

December Question: When reflecting on this year, what has gone well, and what would you do differently?

Brad M. McGehee — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:00:04 GMT

December is the last month of the year, and is often a good time to reflect on the past year and think about the upcoming year. So, for this month’s question, “When reflecting on this year, what has gone well, and what would you do differently?”, tell us what went well for you, and why; and feel free to share with us any experiences that you learned from that will affect how you might do them differently in the future.

Post your responses to the SQL Server Question of the Month in the comments section below (at www.bradmcgehee.com if you are viewing this from a syndicated newsfeed). And don’t forget to enter your e-mail address when you post your response, so I can contact you if you win.

Because there is no right or wrong answer, this month’s winner will be selected randomly from all the entries that are received.

This Month’s Prizes

The prizes this month are an Amazon.com voucher worth US$50.00 and a license for SQL Backup Pro 6.5 with one year of support and upgrades. SQL Backup Pro compresses, strengthens and encrypts SQL Server backups – as well as giving you network resilience, backup verification and much more. To download a free trial, visit the Red Gate website.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 8

Brad M. McGehee — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Part 1 of Question 8—The question.

Part 2 of Question 8—The follow up to the question.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Episode eight is another Friday task-related question. On the previous Fridays, I wasn’t involved in any of the scenes. But on this Friday I performed my longest dialogue of all the episodes, although you never see my face. That’s great, because I didn’t have to memorize any lines. All I had to do was read them.

The scene starts with Miss Friday (aka Verity Blunt), telling us that she has intercepted a communication between the alien at the Roddenberry Launch Center and his Martian boss, and that she needs your help. She asks you to view the intercepted communication to see if you can help her find out where the alien is storing a database and SQL Source Control software discussed in the intercepted alien communication.

Next, you see a fuzzy video of the Martian boss, who is having a conversation with alien Brad, in which you find out that alien Brad accidently crashed to Earth, and really, really wants to get back home on Mars. You also learn that the Martian boss is really alien Brad’s father. “Look, I am your father!” Alien Brad’s father is not really interested in helping out his son, so Alien Brad tells his father that he has found some Source Control software that is better than what they have on Mars. The father finally relents, and agrees to pick up alien Brad from Earth, but only if alien Brad can upload the software back to Mars first.

After viewing the transmission, and the task-related question being completed, Miss Friday comes back on screen, confirming that alien Brad stored the database and SQL Source Control software in the communications center, and hopes to use the equipment there to send the software back home to Mars.

Alien Brad’s father has some sharp teeth.

I wasn’t involved in the scenes with Nell, but I was involved in with scene where Alien Brad talks to his father. It was interesting to see how the scene was done. The alien father is just a rubber mask worn by an actor that is covered with a lot of slime. The lighting, camera focus, slime on the lens, and additional CGI was used to make it look like a very bad video connection, kind of like Live Meeting would provide between two planets. While the actor read his lines and moved around accordingly on screen while wearing the mask, his words were not used for the video. Instead, the voice of the alien father and alien Brad were done in a sound studio, then dubbed in later during post-production.

The alien father’s voice was played by actor Philip Madoc, a famous Welsh movie and television actor. He has appeared in The Bourne Identity, The Last of the Mohicans, Doctor Who (the TV series), Space 1999, The Avengers (the original TV series) and dozens and dozens of more roles.

Philip Madoc and me in a sound booth, recording our conversation.

When the director, Will was looking for a voice to use for the alien father, he had many to pick from, but Philip was his first choice, and Philip was more than willing to do the voiceover. To do the voices, Philip, Will, a few people from The Mill and Red Gate, and me, traveled to a sound studio in London near Heathrow airport. This was done the week after all the main shooting. The studio was very small, barely large enough for two people. In fact, I think it was designed only for one person, but both Philip and I managed to squeeze into the sound booth together. Interesting fact: Philip has never used a computer in his life, and has no plans for ever doing so.

Before showing up for the recording session, Philip had read through his part of the, but he had not seen the entire script, so he had no idea what the lines meant, as they were out of context for him. So Will explained the motivations behind the lines, and Philip quickly understood what he needed to do. Philip was a consummate professional and did his lines with great passion. We recorded the conversation three different ways. First, Philip and I sat in the booth together and read our lines several times, trying different things. Then I left the booth, and Philip did his lines inside the booth, while I read my outside of the booth, with him listening to me with his headphones. This way, only Philip’s voice was recorded and not mine. Once Philip was done, he was on his way home. Next, I got back into the booth so I could record my lines by myself. This time, the sound technician played back Philip’s lines through headphones so that I knew when to speak. Once we were done, the sound editor had many takes to choose from to create the final voice track. This track was then matched to the video shot of the other actor inside the rubber mask, bringing everything seamlessly all together.

It’s my turn to do the lines of alien Brad talking to his father.

One of the things I liked about doing this scene was that I didn’t have to worry about memorizing my lines. If you listen carefully to my dialogue, you will hear a little bit of acting in it, as I made an attempt to use my voice to express some emotion, something that I rarely did when acting before the camera.

In my dialogue in the video, you will probably also notice that I sound a little different than usual, as they lowered the pitch of my voice somewhat. I guess this is because, in a sense, what you are hearing is a “translated” conversation from Martian to English, and the voices would be what our normal Martian voices would sound like, assuming we spoke English. The universal translator was hidden from the camera’s view, in case you were interested.

In my next installment, I will talk about filming question nine.

SQLServerCentral.com Track to be Offered at 2012 SQL Server Connections in Las Vegas this Spring

Brad M. McGehee — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:22:10 GMT

As we have done for the last several years, SQLServerCentral.com will be offering its own track at SQL Server Connections (a part of the greater DevConnections event) in Las Vegas, NV, on March 26-29, at the MGM Grand Hotel. This is in addition to the SQL Server tracks that are being chaired by Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp.

The SQLServerCentral.com track includes the following speakers and sessions:

Grant Fritchey
Grant Fritchey is a SQL Server MVP with over 21 years’ experience in IT, including time spent in support and development. He has worked with SQL Server since 6.0, back in 1995. He has developed in VB, VB.Net, C# and Java. Grant volunteers at PASS and is president of the Southern New England SQL Server Users Group (SNESSUG). He has authored books for Apress and Simple-Talk, and joined Red Gate Software as a Product Evangelist in January 2011. He blogs at www.scarydba.com.

Common Backup Problems and How to Deal with Them
SQL Server backups can be burdensome to set up and maintain. All sorts of different problems can occur. This session targets the most common problems encountered while working with SQL Server backup and shows you how to identify these issues in your environment. In fact, I’ll walk you through how to prevent these common issues from ever cropping up within your systems in the first place. Be prepared for information you can take back to the office and put to work right away making your system backups more reliable. With backups running correctly all the time, you’ll be protecting your systems better, and feeling a lot less stress when it times to perform an emergency restore.

Top Tips for Writing Better T-SQL Stored Procedures
T-SQL provides many different ways to accomplish the same task, and as you might expect, some ways are better than others. In this session, you will learn specific techniques, that if followed, will make you a better T-SQL developer. The session is jam-packed with practical examples and is designed for administrators and developers who want to bring their T-SQL skills to the next level. In fact, you will be able to immediately implement these tips in your current projects once you get back to your office.

T-SQL Deployment and Continuous Integration Best Practices
While most T-SQL developers focus on writing quality T-SQL code and efficient queries, what they often forget is how it should best be deployed. This includes deployment of new applications, as well as upgrades and bug fixes. In this session, you will learn many best practices involving the principles of continuous integration, such as maintaining a code repository, automating builds, self-testing, auditing, automated deployment, and much more. This session is designed for both DBA administrators and developers who want to optimize their T-SQL deployment process.

Steve Jones
Steve Jones is the founder and editor of SQLServerCentral.com, the largest SQL Server community in the world. Steve has worked with SQL Server for two decades, starting with v4.2 and continuing on to SQL Server 2012. He has worked for a variety of small and large companies in that time in different industries, allowing him to learn how SQL Server can solve many types of problems. He currently works for Red Gate software, the owner of SQLServerCentral.com. He blogs at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/steve_jones/default.aspx.

An Encryption Primer for SQL Server
SQL Server has a number of encryption features that allow you to better secure your data. This session will examine the basics of encryption and cover the various ways in which you can encode and decode your data to protect it from unauthorized access. Cell level encryption, Transparent Data Encryption, and backup encryption will all be discussed. This session is designed for those who want to learn the basics of how to protect their data.

How to Take Advantage of Contained Databases in SQL Server 2012
One of the problems with databases in SQL Server is the dependency of the database on various parts of the host instance. In SQL Server 2012 there is an enhancement to the database format that allows for partial containment of your database, and will make the movement, migration, and management of the databases much simpler. This session, which includes many demos, introduces the new database structure and explains how it can be used in your environment.

How to Manage Unstructured SQL Server Data
More and more of our data does not fit neatly into a structured, relational model of rows and columns of data. In this session, you will learn about how SQL Server stores unstructured data, with a special emphasis on how to use Filestream, which integrates SQL Server with the NTFS file system by storing varbinary(max) binary large object data as files stored within the file system. You will also learn about the new SQL Server 2012 filetable feature, which builds on Filestream and provides the ability to read, write, and update Filestream objects directly through the file system. This session is designed for DBAs and developers who need to learn how to manage large quantities of unstructured data.

Brad M McGehee
Brad M. McGehee is a MCSE+I, MCSD, and MCT (former) with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Masters in Business Administration. Currently the Director of DBA Education for Red Gate Software, Brad is an accomplished Microsoft SQL Server MVP with over 17 years SQL Server experience and over 8 years training experience. Brad is a frequent speaker at SQL PASS, European PASS, SQL Connections, SQLTeach, devLINK, SQLBits, SQL Saturdays, TechFests, Code Camps, SQL Server user groups, and other industry seminars. Brad is the author or co-author of more than 16 technical books and over 300 published articles. He blogs at www.bradmcgehee.com.

How to Monitor Your SQL Server for Performance & High Availability
Is your phone ringing off the hook your first sign of SQL Server performance or availability problems? Let’s hope not. As a proactive DBA, it is your job to regularly and thoroughly monitor your servers. In some cases, close monitoring can help you detect small problems before they become big problems. In cases outside of your control, you will want to be notified immediately of the problem so you can take quick action to resolve it. In this session, you will learn what aspects of your SQL Servers you should monitor, and how best to monitor them. In fact, you will be presented with a checklist that you can follow to help ensure that you are monitoring the right things in the most efficient manner. This session is designed for novice or accidental DBAs who are still learning how to best administer their SQL Server instances.

How to Defragment Indexes for Peak Performance
Over time, as indexes experience INSERTs, UPDATEs, and DELETEs, a normal process called index fragmentation typically occurs in OLTP databases. Index fragmentation takes two forms. First, it can cause gaps on data pages that waste disk and data cache space. Second, it can scatter pages throughout the database as the logical and physical order of the pages get out of synch. Added together, both of these can result in heavy index fragmentation which can reduce query performance. In this session you will learn the best ways to identify and correct index fragmentation. This includes learning how to identify which indexes need defragmentation using sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats, how to determine if rebuilding or reorganizing indexes is the best approach, and how to create index defragmentation jobs. The session will include many demos to show how fragmentation occurs, how to detect it, and how to remove it. This session is designed for all DBAs who still have yet to master the fundamentals of index defragmentation.

How to Configure Database Options for Optimal Performance
Each database has a collection of individual properties, many of which can have a significant effect on a database’s behavior, performance and availability. Most of the time you want to leave these settings at their defaults, but there are some cases where you might need to make some changes. As the DBA, you should be familiar with all of the settings and what they do. In this session, we will explore every database setting, spending extra time on those settings that are most critical to SQL Server databases. In addition, you will be provided with a script you can use to identify your current database settings, which can be used to help you determine if your database settings are optimally set for your environment. This session is designed for all DBAs who still have yet to master the specifics of database configuration settings.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 7

Brad M. McGehee — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Episode seven is filmed at the “Animals in Space” exhibit at the Roddenberry Launch center, and alien Brad is becoming more comfortable in his human skin, although he thinks he is better than he really is as he impersonates the real Brad. The scene starts off with alien Brad pointing out the various animals that have been sent to space. He is a little awkward in his movements, he appears to have some new boils on his neck, and his knowledge of Earth animals is not the greatest, but Miss Friday is still none the wiser.

Alien Brad confuses a dog with a pony. Common mistake, right?

As alien Brad finishes up showing off his knowledge of Earth animals, Miss Friday makes a joke about money business, and as you might expect, alien Brad takes the joke literally, and from his response you can start to tell that perhaps alien Brad might be a little lonely, being away from home. Miss Friday suddenly gets a message on her phone (in the middle of taping the contest question) and needs to find an excuse to get off the set to do something urgent, so alien Brad asks the question of the week. The reason Miss Friday has to leave right away is not explained in this episode, but is explained in the following one.

This scene had a lot of lines for me to memorize, but it was filmed later in the week, and I was beginning to feel a bit more comfortable “acting” in front of a camera. As I walked along the photos of the animals that have been sent to space, I goof up the last several as a joke. But at the last minute, Will, the director, decided that it would even be funnier if I changed a couple of the lines, and if they moved some of the photos around. Fortunately, the line changes weren’t too bad, and I was able to do them right away. In other cases during the shoot, when lines got changes shortly after I had memorized the older ones, forgetting the old lines and remembering the new ones was a serious challenge for me.

We were able to get the first part of this scene in a couple of takes. Once all of the wide angle shots were done, then the camera was moved for close-up’s. The key close-up, and the biggest joke of the scene, was when Nell had to find an urgent excuse to leave. The key line was “I need to make it rain on Arrakis, if you get my meaning.” If you don’t get the sci-fi reference, it is referring to the planet from the book (and movie) Dune. Arrakis is a desert planet with no natural precipitation, so raining on Arrakis would be something that would be out of character for Dune, but in the case of this script, refers to Miss Friday needing to find any excuse to get away from the camera, as she has some urgent “business” to do. The nature of Miss Friday’s business is left up to your imagination, but she acts as if she is in great discomfort.

I think Nell had too much fun with her Arrakis scene. She did a lot of takes, improvising differently in each one.

This was a fun scene to watch Nell perform, per her usual self, she decided to improvise this scene a lot, with some takes showing only minor discomfort, while other takes she had excessive discomfort. In fact, as she is moving away from the camera, you can hear her saying something about “spice”. She adlibbed this line, which was another Dune reference, as Dune was a planet where spice could be found, which was the greatest treasure of the universe. Of course, spice, on Earth, can lead to other discomforts, as you probably can imagine. Nell is a huge sci-fi fan, even much bigger than me. I thought I was a sci-fi nerd, but she easily out-nerds me every time when it comes to sci-fi. Don’t tell anyone, but Nell likes to hang out at Comic-Con when she can.

This is the first episode where boils are added to enhance my appearance.

In the previous episodes, you may have noticed that alien Brad’s skin tone was changing some, and in this episode, boils begin to appear on his skin. What are these boils and what do they mean? As you probably know, while alien Brad is becoming more human-like in his social skills (well, sort of), his human body begins to reject his alien presence. As future episodes occur, you will notice that his human body deteriorates more and more. Eve, out makeup artist, did most of the makeup for me. Fortunately, the makeup used for the boils was easy to apply and take off. For the most part, after it was applied, I forgot I was even wearing it.

Actually, the worst makeup I wore was the base makeup that was used in every scene. At the end of the day it would be removed by the makeup artist. But once I went back to the hotel, I had to scrub my face four or more times to get it all off.

In the next installment, I talk about episode eight.

DBA in Space Spoof Interview and Review

Brad M. McGehee — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:01:21 GMT

If you are a DBA in Space fan, and in case you missed them, there have been two items published on Simple-Talk.com that you may be interested in reading.

The first is “Stars of the DBA in Space Webisodes Revealed”. This is a spoof interview where Miss Friday and I are interviewed by Bob Cramblitt, and we respond as our characters in DBA in Space. While Bob asked the questions, Nell Mooney (Miss Friday) and I provided the actual answers. As you read my responses, try to figure out which information I share is real, and which is fake. You might have a hard time figuring out which is which.

The other item is called “The DBA in Space Videos: A Film Critic Writes”, which is written under the pseudonym “Hugh Bin-Haad”. I won’t tell you who Hugh Bin-Haad is, but if you read Simple-Talk a lot, you will figure it out. While Hugh Bin-Haad put a lot of effort in analyzing the webisodes, I kind of think he missed the underlying symbolism the webisodes actually portrayed.

Both of these are fun pieces to read if you have some extra time to kill.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 6

Brad M. McGehee — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Episode six is filmed at the “Visions of the Future Exhibit” at the Roddenberry Launch center, and it is time for another question for the DBA in Space Competition, so Miss Friday and alien Brad are ready to offer up the question. As you may notice in this scene, alien Brad seems to be a little more comfortable in its new skin (which also seems to be turning a little green) and is learning how to speak a little better. On the other hand, he still doesn’t have any street smarts, not quite realizing that his job of pretending to be the real Brad is not really working out all that well. On the other hand, Miss Friday is still clueless as to why Brad is acting so odd. She still hasn’t made the connection that Brad is really alien Brad.

Notice the pretend ray-gun above. It is used in the thirteenth episode by Miss Friday to try and shoot alien Brad as he transports away.

Alien Brad begins the scene by welcoming the audience back to the DBA in Space Competition, although its speaking skills are still not so great. Then Miss Friday makes a little joke about robot pals, and then alien Brad shares the non-politically correct fact that it had slaves. Miss Friday is offended by this remark, but alien Brad is clueless, and takes whatever Miss Friday says as literal. When Miss Friday asks alien Brad if he wants a drink of water, alien Brad laps up the water like a dog. Miss Friday ignores Alien Brads odd behavior, again, and proceeds to ask this episode’s question, which by coincidence, is naming one of the first dogs in space.

I hope the glass the prop people gave me was clean. I never asked.

Now that Alien Brad is speaking better English, now I have to go back to remembering lines again. Fortunately, there were not a lot of lines, and even if I messed them up, it would be hard for the audience to know if I was making a mistake or not. The hardest part of this scene was trying not to laugh as I was lapping out of the cup of water. We did a lot of takes for this scene, wide angles and close-up’s, so I did a lot of lapping, to the point where my tongue got tired. The crew on the set were also laughing, which made it even harder for me to keep a straight face. Nell, of course, kept her straight face, and as usual, did a great job.

For a couple of the takes, I think Will, the director, intentionally left my lapping up water longer than needed for the scene, just because he thought it was funny. In fact, a little later after filming, Will commented to me that this was one of his favorite scenes.

In the next installment, I talk about episode seven.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 5

Brad M. McGehee — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Part 1 of Question 5—The question.

Part 2 of Question 5—The follow up to the question.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Episode five (the longest of all the episodes) aired on a Friday, so that means it’s time for another task-related question from Miss Friday. I don’t appear in this episode (other than on the cover of my book), but another actor does. I never got his name, but he is a comedy actor based out of London. In this particular episode, Miss Friday, in her Verity Blunt persona, thinks she has captured the alien, who just happens to be the Roddenberry Launch Center’s DBA, the DBA identified during the previous Friday’s episode.

She interrogates him, trying to get the truth out of him. Unfortunately, the DBA is not the alien and he is clueless as to what is going on. Towards the end of the scene, Miss Friday gets an alert from SQL Monitor that she finds a bit embarrassing. The alert tells her that the alien is actually making contact with the servers in his spaceship at that moment, which means that the DBA she was torturing can’t be the alien.

Will (director) wearing black ear phones, and Sam, (first assistant director), in the white ear phones, watch the monitor and listen as Nell tortures the DBA.

Of course, Miss Friday won’t admit she made a mistake of accusing the DBA of being the alien. She runs off to catch the alien, leaving the poor DBA to fend for himself. At the end of the scene, we see that Miss Friday has “jacked” the alien’s computers to prevent the alien from using the spaceship for any nefarious purposes, and she asks for your help to use SQL Monitor to identify what query was being run over and over again. In the follow-up scene, Miss Friday finishes up destroying the computers on the alien ship, and the poor DBA is left in the room, all tied up, with nobody to help him escape.

While I didn’t participate in this scene, I was able to watch all of the takes live from a monitor. The initial scene takes place in a small office. Because of the lack of room, only Nell, the DBA actor, the cameraman, and the sound boom guy could fit in. Because both Nell and the DBA actor are both professionals, they did a huge amount of improvisation, much of which will never be seen. In fact, they were so funny that Will, the director, was cracking up for virtually every take. One of the best examples of this is when Miss Friday puts her foot on a chair with wheels, but the chair begins to slowly move from under her, causing her to nearly do the splits in midair.

Nell, and the DBA actor, between takes.

When the scene starts, you will notice that the DBA looks beat up (all makeup of course), and Will was worried that some viewers might think this was too much for a light-hearted video. But we all told him that we thought the makeup made the scene all that more funny and ludicrous, which I think was the right decision.

This scene also has some of the best dialog in the script. For example:

FRIDAY

One more time…what exactly do you do here?

DBA

Ha! How long do you got? I’ve been married 18 years, and my wife still doesn’t understand what I do.

I think most DBAs will be able to relate to this scene. I know my wife of 16 years doesn’t really understand what DBAs do.

Ben Reese and Tom Russell (far left) are both from Red Gate, and attended all the filming. Here, they are watching Nell interrogate the DBA.

In my next installment, I talk about filming episode six.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 4

Brad M. McGehee — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:00:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

With each episode, DBA in Space becomes goofier and goofier. Episode four is also set at the “History of Computing Exhibition”, as the previous episode, but from a slightly different angle. At the right side of the screen you can see an Osborne 2 portable computer. I used to sell these many years ago at a local Computerland store in Springfield, MO, for $1,995, which included a free copy of dBase II, among other software.

When the scene starts, neither alien Brad or Miss Friday (Nell Mooney) realize the camera is running, and Miss Friday is talking to herself. Actually, Nell is improvising, as there were no lines in the script for her to say. Each different take resulted in substantially different improvisations, and it was difficult for me to keep from laughing at what she said. Most of Nell’s funniest improvisations were not used, and some of them were not fit for family viewing, but she was hilarious.

More often than not, I was smiling as Nell improvised her lines before the scene began. Fortunately, you can’t see my face.

Eventually, Miss Friday realizes the camera is on and she begins to speak. Once alien Brad sees her turn around, alien Brad, or I should say, alien Brad’s head, turns around to see what is going on, and then alien Brad’s body follows suit. Miss Friday doesn’t notice this as alien Brad is standing next to her and she is focused on the camera.

Alien Brad still doesn’t fully understand how to use Brad’s human form.

The 180 degree head turn was a result of lots of practice. I learned an ancient Yoga technique that allowed me to perform my own stunt. Well, not actually, it was done using a simple green screen technique and a little CGI. To perform the stunt took two different takes. In the first one, I simply scooted my feet slowly around so that my body and head followed as well. Then I repeated the same thing, but this time, in front of a green screen. By using a little bit of CGI magic, the two images were combined, allowing it to look like my head was turning 180 degrees. You may have also noticed the grinding sound as my head turned. While it might have sounded like my neck cracking, it was only sound added in post-production added for fun.

Although it may not be obvious, but in this scene, alien Brad is beginning to get used to his new human body. Although the skin tone is still off, the slime is gone, he controls his body slightly better, and, just barely, begins to talk a little bit better. As Miss Friday talks about computers, alien Brad notices something above his eye line (alien Brad is supposed to be on a set filming the DBA in Space questions) and notices the boom microphone, and being inquisitive, grabs it to take a look. But as alien Brad examines the microphone, it notices that Miss Friday says Mars, which gets alien Brad’s attention, and it releases the boom. Miss Friday continues with the question of the day, and when she refers to the question as being a real head scratcher, alien Brad takes her literally and it scratches her head. While alien Brad is getting better at being human, it still has a long way to go. In spite of all of alien Brad’s odd antics, Miss Friday still doesn’t really seem to notice. I guess she thinks DBAs are just a little bit odd, and she polity ignores the unusual behavior.

It was odd to be scratching Nell’s head, over and over again, take after take.

Because this scene was so goofy, it was hard to keep a straight face during all the takes. I felt really odd grabbing the boom microphone and then scratching Nell’s head, over and over again, as we did multiple takes at both wide angles and for close-ups. And in spite of all the rumors you may have heard, Nell does not have head lice.

After this episode ran, I got a lot of e-mail and Tweets about me looking a lot like Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. While this was not intentional, I can certainly see that now.

In my next installment, I talk about filming questions two and three.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Questions 2 & 3

Brad M. McGehee — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Part 1 of Question 2—The question.

Part 2 of Question 2—The follow up to the question.

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

In this blog post I am going to talk about filming questions two and three.

Filming Question Two of DBA in Space

Question two features Miss Friday only, where she reveals that she is actually a top operative (perhaps she exaggerated a little) of the National Space Defense Network, and whose real name is Agent Verity Blunt. Unfortunately, Verity is not particularly very bright, but at least she is ambitious. She has discovered the crashed alien space craft and hidden it away so the alien who escaped from it can’t find it. She hopes that by finding the alien, that her job prospects at the National Space Defense Network will improve. We also learn that the spacecraft landed on Jar Jar, which doesn’t seem to be of much concern of Verity. At the end of the episode, Verity gets an alert from SQL Monitor, which tells her that someone, the alien, is searching the spaceport’s servers for the location of the craft, and that it is your job, the viewer, to identify who it is.

Question two was a Friday episode, so it featured a task-based question. Task-based questions include two videos, an initial video where the question is asked, and a follow up video that is played after the contestant completes the task. You can view both of them above.

While I wasn’t involved with this scene, it was probably the most complex scenes that was shot for all of the episodes. This is because Nell Mooney (Miss Friday) not only had to talk to the camera, but she also had to move backward through a labyrinth of corridors and curtains, all in a single take. This also meant that the camera operator had to strap on the camera and follow her along, leaving a lot of room for mistakes. If Nell, the camera operator, or any of the crew who were helping out made a mistake, they had to start all over again. I can’t remember how many takes it took, but I think it was only about 6 or 7, which is not too bad, considering how difficult the scene was to film.

From left to right: The script supervisor, Will (Director), and Nell Mooney waiting for the shot to be set up.

When filming question two, a hand held camera was used by the the director of photographer, Chris Sabogal. While Nell was walking backward through the corridors, Chris had to follow Nell while looking at his screen.

There was a controversy about this scene. Want to venture what it was? Will thought that “killing” off Jar Jar, and the remains put in a “doggy bag” might offend some viewers. In the end, Will lost out and the joke was kept in the scene.

Filming Question Three of DBA in Space

Question three occurs in the “History of Computing Exhibition” museum at the Roddenberry Launch Center. This is the first time you have seen Brad since the alien craft crash-landed. As you may have noticed, Brad doesn’t seem to be himself. And that’s because, as you probably now know from watching later episodes, that you are really not seeing the real Brad at all, but the alien, who has taken the form of Brad’s human body.

Because the alien has just taken over Brad’s human form, it doesn’t know how to properly control its body. It can’t speak, it moves oddly, the skin color is a little off, and there seems to be a bit of slime around the neck. Apparently the alien had some difficulty creating the duplicate body, but apparently it is not conscious of the fact that it looks a little odd. In fact, Miss Friday (aka Verity Blunt), isn’t exactly sure what is happening. She is just thinking that Brad is acting just a little bit odder than normal, but she has no idea she is standing next to the alien.

As you might imagine, this scene was fun to do, especially as I did not have to remember many lines. My first few attempts at speaking sounded more like I was grunting and burping (some sound effects were added). Later, when alien Brad hears Miss Friday mention Jar Jar, I am able to utter Jarr-Jarr, but this is only the alien repeating what it is hearing, not because it knows who Jar Jar is. The same thing happens later when Miss Friday tells us that Steve Jones will be asking the questions, as certainly alien Brad is not up to the task. My “Steeeevvveee” line was an improvisation I added during our rehearsals that Will, the director liked, so it was added to the script.

Steve asked the question from his home studio where he does his regular podcasts. That is why the quality of the scene is not as high as the other scenes which use high-end hi-definition studio cameras.

The microphone you see here actually belongs to Steve Jones.

In the scene you may also notice that Miss Friday lies about what really happened to Jar Jar. This is because she doesn’t realize Brad is the alien, and she doesn’t want to upset Brad with the bad news about Jar Jar’s demise.

As with my scene in episode one, we first shot this scene with a wide angle shot, then shot the scene twice more, each with close-ups of Nell and myself. Since this scene was fairly easy, we only needed a couple of takes for each different shot. This scene is also the first one where I begin to wear a lot of makeup, and as time progresses over the episodes, I wear more and more makeup as the fake human Brad body isn’t up to the task of hosting an alien, and the human Brad body begins to deteriorate.

The two mainframe tape drives in the “History of Computing Exhibition” were fakes made out of wood, but in the far right hand side of the screen you can see an Apple IIe in full working order. There were a lot more classic computers in exhibit, but they ended up being excluded from the scene.

The fake mainframe tape drives drove the sound men crazy as they made so much noise when they were running.

In my next installment, I talk about filming questions two and three.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—Question 1

Brad M. McGehee — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

In the opening of the first episode of DBA in Space, I am playing myself, or at least a future self, as I am talking from the Roddenberry Launch Center. I introduce myself first, and then the launch center’s mascot, Jar Jar. Then Miss Friday introduces herself. We banter a little bit, and I finally ask the first question of the competition. Miss Friday finishes up the introduction of the first episode, then a large explosion occurs, and I jump for protection on the floor. As you probably know by now, the explosion was actually an alien craft crash-landing at the Roddenberry Launch Center. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, you can view it above.

While that first scene takes less than two minutes on screen, it took many man hours to prepare. The call sheet for the day had Nell Mooney (Miss Friday) and me arriving at the location at 7:00 AM for breakfast, then from 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM, we had our makeup done, put our costumes on, got fitted for sound, and rehearsed our lines.

This room was where costumes and makeup were put on, and Nell and I used one of the tables for rehearsing. That is Georgina and Emma in the photo.

I have already introduced the two costume crew members in a previous blog post, Emma and Georgina. A makeshift dressing room was located at one end of a large room where all the costumes were stored and where we changed. The other side of the room was where the makeup was done. The Roddenberry Launch center mascot, Jar Jar, was played by Poppy, who is owned by Emma. Poppy, as mentioned in my last blog post, did a great job, considering all of the activity on the set.

The lead makeup artist was Eva, who was with us all five days of the shoot. A second makeup artist, Amanda, helped out on two of the days with the makeup visual effects, which are seen in later episodes. Both were a delight to work with.

Eve, the makeup artist, starts to apply makeup on Nell.

Besides doing makeup, Eve also styled our hair.

While I had expected the costumes and makeup, what I had forgotten about was the need to be wired for sound. So each time after putting on a costume, the boom operator, Oliver, would wire us for sound with a hidden microphone and battery pack. Some costumes were easy to conceal a microphone in, which others were much more difficult. In fact, Oliver was often fiddling with the microphone to be sure that they got good quality sound during all of the takes. If Oliver wasn’t fitting us, then the sound technician, Aiden, helped out. In fact, Aiden was in charge of all of the sound for the filming, while Oliver was his assistant, helping out with placing our microphones and recording sound from the boom microphone.

Oliver was constantly at the ready to ensure our wireless microphones were fitted, working, and not visible to the camera. Note the “Tote Betting” sign. As we were filming at a race track, there were lots of places to bet.

We had about two hours to get prepared before being on camera for the first time. Nell and I took turns with getting our costumes on, our makeup on, our hair arranged, and the microphones placed. During this time I noticed that Nell was rehearsing her lines out loud during this whole procedure. This seemed like a great idea, so I also started rehearsing my lines as well, out loud, even while my makeup was being put on. While I had learned my lines, what I had forgotten to do was to learn Nell’s lines as well. Why would I need to know her lines? Because I need to know when to say mine. This wasn’t obvious to me at first, but I quickly realized that I needed to know her lines so that I could say mine at the right times. Fortunately, we had enough extra time that Nell and I were able to go over our lines together before facing the camera.

Rehearsing my lines in my head. Really!

The first scene of the day was scheduled to take 2.5 hours to shoot. When it was time to begin filming, a runner (someone who ensures that the actors are where they are supposed to be on time) lead us to the set for the first time. All the time while we were prepping, the crew had been staging the set, setting up the lighting, and setting up the camera on tracks to follow our action on the set. The wardrobe, makeup, and sound crew followed along with us, always there to ensure that everything was perfect before each take.

Leaving the dressing area to go to the set for filming (in costume).

We started with a rehearsal, where for the first time I saw where I had to walk, the marks I had to hit (spots on the floor marked with tape; blue for boys and pink for girls), and where the camera was located, all while holding Poppy (aka Jar Jar). It was about this time my mind went blank and I forgot every line that I been practicing for several days now. Walking onto the set for the first time was very intimidating.

Nell and I are on the stairs, as we descend to present question one.

Once we walk down the stairs, we stop on our marks and begin to speak. Notice that there is a blue mark for me and a pink mark for Nell. To the left is the column I hide behind after the explosion, and to the right is a light diffusion panel.

Will, the director, lead Nell and me through the scene, letting us know where to move, look, and so on. Once that was done, it was time for a rehearsal shot, where not only did Nell and me got to practice, but so did the camera crew. The director of photography was Christopher, and he, along with several others, operated the camera. This included framing the shot, moving the camera, and focusing the lenses. Sometimes all three had to be done in unison.

Here’s what it looks like, from my point of view, when acting in front of the camera. Looks intimidating, right?

Once everyone was happy with the rehearsals, we went for take one of the wide shot of the scene. A wide shot covers all of the action from a wide angle. After the wide angle takes were completed, then we repeated the same scene with close ups. First of Nell, then of me. That way, the editors have the opportunity to cut the scene together as they feel it plays the best on screen.

As you might expect, it took more than one take for each shot before Will was happy. Some of the shots were bad because either Nell or myself (usually me) goofed up a line, or perhaps because of a problem with sound or the camera. In other cases, we tried playing the scene different ways to experiment with different options. Between each take, the wardrobe and makeup crew would come up and touch us up so that we always looked our best. It is a little strange to having people fussing all about you, but it was also a little fun getting all the attention. (Please don’t quote me on that.)

Getting my makeup touched up.

I can tell you, during the first take of the wide angle shot, that my heart was literally beating so fast that I could not only feel it, but hear it. Between takes, I had to close my eyes, focus my thoughts elsewhere, and breath deeply. I had to do this when I could, as I didn’t have the luxury of stopping the action and asking everyone to take a break.

This was a live screen shot of me, waiting for filming to begin. Emma was checking my wardrobe at the time this photo was taken. Live monitors were used by many people, including the Red Gate representatives on the set, to watch the action at a distance.

To add to my anxiety during the filming, two of Red Gate’s marketing staff were on the set watching the filming as it was occurring live, along with several members from The Mill. So every time I was on the set, I was being watched. In fact, because I was wired for sound, everything I said could be heard and/or recorded. This meant that even though I wasn’t much of an actor, I still had to be professional at all times. I guess I must have carried off the professionalism well, as I was told that one of The Mill’s creative staff said that I was more professional than many of the “actors” he had seen on sets in the past.

After each take that seemed good, Will and several others would review the take to ensure that it was OK. Generally, Nell would also watch. On the other hand, I was too nervous to watch. Now that I have had time to reflect on the filming, I now realize that I should have watched the takes, as they would have given me good feedback on how to do a better job. For example, in this first scene I forgot to smile, I spoke too fast, and I didn’t enunciate every word as clearly as I should have. While Will could have corrected me, I think he was just thankful that I remembered my lines, let alone trying to make everything perfect.

Nell and me waiting between takes. Notice the race track in the background.

While everyone on the production crew knew I had never acted before, what was really great is that not anyone ever said anything negative to me about my lack of acting ability. Instead, I received positive support from everyone, which was great. Although I knew many of the nice things I was told about my performance were just polite talk, it still was comforting to know that everyone supported me.

After about 2.5 hours the first scene was done and it was time for lunch. Breakfast, lunch, and two snacks a day were provided on the set for the cast and crew. A catering truck was on the location all of the time, ready to feed anyone. In spite of it being English food, most if it actually was good, although I was too nervous to eat a lot.

This is one of the grandstands at Epson Downs where we filmed. The silver truck was the caterer.

If you are not familiar with how a film is shot, it is a large crew of specialists who all have a very specific tasks to perform. What is very interesting is that each shoot usually has different team of people. In other words, it would be very rare for a crew to have worked together as a team before, unless it was an on-going television series. What is fascinating is that although many of the crew didn’t know each other, everybody worked together like a well-oiled machine. This is because each person has a specific task, and they know their job very well. While Will is the director, Sam, the 1^st AD (assistant director), was essentially in charge of the crew, having the crew execute Will’s decisions. It was great to see such teamwork. I also noticed this same thing when I did the still photography for the film I photographed many years ago. If only other organizations could work so well together, and with such cooperation and professionalism, they would be much more productive.

In my next installment, I talk about filming questions two and three.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes—The Trailer

Brad M. McGehee — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

In this next series of blog posts, I am going to change the format somewhat. In my previous posts, I wrote chronologically, as it made the most sense. As is common in film or video production, filming is generally done out of order. So if I chronicled my experiences in their actual order, it might be a little confusing, so I have decided to talk about my experiences in the same order they occur in DBA in Space episodes, starting with the DBA in Space trailer.

Nine Questions and Five Tasks

On the DBA in Space website, as part of the competition, you were asked to answer 14 questions in 14 different episodes. Technically speaking, there were 9 direct questions and 5 task-related questions. The 9 direct questions had to do with your knowledge of science fiction and space, and could be answered by searching the Internet, and in some cases, using a little math. The 5 task-related questions were tasks that you had to perform with Red Gate’s products in order to answer them. These tasks used essentially fake versions of Red Gate products that did not have to be installed on your computer, and were very easy to answer correctly if you just carefully examined the screens.

We referred to both types of questions simply as questions on the DBA in Space website so people would not be confused. The direct questions were asked on Mondays and Wednesdays, and the task-related questions were usually asked on Fridays. The direct questions were asked by me or Miss Friday, and the tasks were generally asked by Miss Friday (aka Verity Blunt). In fact, Miss Friday gets her name because she presents the tasks every Friday.

In case you missed this from watching the episodes, the Roddenberry Launch Center has a museum with lots of exhibits, such as the Lunar Exhibit or the History of Computer Exhibit. All of the direct questions were asked from one of the many exhibits, while all of the task-related questions were asked in secret, non-disclosed locations found throughout the Roddenberry Launch Center.

Filming the Trailer

The trailer was filmed in the Lunar Exhibit of the Roddenberry Launch Center. If you haven’t viewed the trailer yet, do so above before reading any more. While most film trailers promote some feature of the film, we decided to take a different route and film a trailer that deviated from the script, as we didn’t want to give away any clues about what might happen in future episodes. What was also interesting was that I didn’t know what the teaser was myself until the night before the filming. They had been considering two different options that I was aware of, and it was only the day before the filming of the trailer that the decision was made to go with the astronaut concept.

This is not me, but a prop for the set. Doesn’t the building used for the set look futuristic?

At the 7:00 AM call on Wednesday, after two days of filming, I walked into the dressing area to see a huge box. Inside the box was a very good replica of an Apollo spacesuit, which I was going to wear.

Putting on the suit was a big challenge. It had many, many parts and they all had to be assembled according to the instructions that came with it. First, I put on the outer suit, which had about an half an inch of insulation. As you might guess, it was very hot inside the suit, and I ended up being in the suit for nearly three hours. Putting on the suit was the easy part. All of the rest of the pieces had to be installed for me by others, as the suit was so bulky.

I am all suited up, except for my helmet.

The next piece to be put on was a hard plastic piece that you can’t really see very well, as it is mostly covered up by the suit, although if you look hard in the above photo, you can see the top part of it around my neck. It is used to attach the helmet to the suit. The only problem was that the hole cut out for the head was too small for my big head. After a lot of contortions and stretched facial parts, I finally got it on.

Later, the front pack was installed, the large backpack was installed, gloves attached, and various tubing attached to all the correct places. The only things left were the boots and the helmet. Inside the fake boots were tennis shoes about three times smaller than my own feet. I managed to force my feet into them, but it was painful to walk with them. And last of all was the helmet. It attached to the piece around my neck. Once I was sealed up in the suit, it was very uncomfortable. Not only was it hot, there was no ventilation, my feet hurt, and piece around my neck forced my back into a strange shape which caused my back to hurt. Overall, the suite weighed about 40 pounds.

The suit was very restricting and it made it very difficult to move around. In fact, I had to get someone to lead me around so that I didn’t bump into anything. In addition, while I could close the helmet’s mask, I was unable to open it, needing help because the gloves prevented me from getting a grip on it.

The face plate of helmet became fogged up very quickly. Between takes, someone came and wiped it clean. Imagine a strange hand between your face and the face plate, and you will know how I felt.

Although you couldn’t tell it from the trailer, there were lights inside the helmet that lit up my face. Notice that there is a fan in back of he helmet for ventilation, but it wasn’t used. Don’t know why.

Unfortunately, after the suit was finally all assembled on me and ready to go, the set wasn’t ready to go. So I took off the helmet, gloves, and boots and waited by an open window to try and keep cool. Eventually, the set was ready, I was then reassembled and brought to the set, where you see the action that takes place in the trailer.

In most parts of the episodes, I literally followed the script to the letter, not improvising, as it was hard enough as it was to remember my lines without having to think about improvising. Nell Mooney (Miss Friday) is a great improviser, and many of the scenes with her were improvised and very funny. I only mention this now as there were three times in the film where I did some improvisation, and this trailer was one of them. The script called for me to just stop walking on the fake moonscape after I am “caught” by Miss Friday. This is what I did for the first two takes. But in the last take, instead of just standing there, I decided to continue to pretend to walk on the moon, even after being caught. This was funnier than the previous takes, and was used in the trailer.

Miss Friday (Nell Mooney), Jar Jar (Poppy), and me in the space suit on the “Lunar Exhibit” at the Roddenberry Launch Center.

Above you can see Jar Jar (Poppy) in her costume. Although Poppy had never “acted” in a video before, she did very well, even with the silly space suit on. In fact, I think she is a better actor than I am.

Poppy (not in costume) is owned by the costume designer who worked on the set.

There was one part of the trailer that cut from the final version, Originally, as part of the trailer, you were supposed to hear me say, “It’s one small step for DBA, one giant leap for DBA kind. This line was recorded in a recording studio—more about the studio in a later blog—and then modified to sound like Neil Armstrong’s version when he first set foot on the moon. You might ask why I said “DBA” instead of DBAs”? This is because when Neil Armstrong said his famous words, he used the singular word “man”, not “men” which is the correct grammar. So we decided to go for authenticity and also make the same grammatical mistake. But in the end, it was not used in the trailer. I think it was cut because it did not fit it well with the music, which, by the way, was an original composition from someone at The Mill.

After nearly three hours in the suit, when I finally got out of the suit, I was drenched in sweat. But in spite of it being very uncomfortable, being in the space suit was one of the best parts of participating in the filming of DBA in Space. After all, how many opportunities in life do you get to wear a space suit?

In the next installment, I talk about filming question number one.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes Part 3

Brad M. McGehee — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:05:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Friday, September 16, 2011

OMG. (This is the first time in my life that I have ever used OMG, so you must know how overwhelmed I felt.) What have I gotten myself into? I got to sleep in late today, as my call time was not until 2:00 PM, where I had to return to the American Church again, but this time, it was for rehearsals. As of those who have seen the video, I am not an actor. In fact, I have never attempted to act in my entire 54 years of living on Earth. But today, Nell and I rehearsed the key scenes of the script, under the guidance Will, our director. Both Nell and Will were very kind and never made a negative comment about my lack of acting ability. In fact, they both offered as many acting tips as they could, trying to cram years of acting knowledge into my feeble brain in the four hours we rehearsed.

Unlike the previous day where we just read our lines, this time we acted out the lines. While I had read the script, I had yet to memorize the script, which meant that I had to read/act from the script. For the most part Nell had memorized most of her lines, which made it much easier for her than for me.

Me, Nell Mooney (Miss Friday), and Will (Director) working on a scene.

While we didn’t have a set to rehearse on, we improvised a set and props as needed, going over each scene over and over again until we more or less mastered each scene. The director didn’t want us to over rehearse, as he felt that it was best to save your best performance for the camera (yea, like that would make a difference for me). For the scenes where I read into the pretend camera, or when doing the physical comedy, I felt fairly comfortable, although it was often difficult for me to remember what to say (even with the script in front of me), hitting my marks when moving, and using pretend props. I would get confused as there was so much to remember. And to think, this would even get worse when being in front of a live camera and the film crew the following week.

We were experimenting how it would be for me to “act” as an alien.

Licking out of a glass always got Will laughing, although Nell would always stay in character.

As an aside, while I have never been in front of a camera before, I have been behind a camera many times, and in fact, I was the still photographer for a feature film originally called Goodbye Paradise. The film was also released under the name of Moon Over Paradise, and if you visit here, you will see a movie poster. I took all of the photos of the four actors at the top of this poster. The photo of Waikiki Beach was a stock photo.

Will and I taking a break during rehearsals.

Even though my film experience is very limited, I am familiar with how films are made, including all of the terminology and how things work on a film set. This made it much easier for me, as I didn’t have to ask a lot of “dumb” questions about what was going around me during filming.

After the four hour rehearsal was over, I felt physically and mentally exhausted.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

A day of rest, sort of. I spent the morning exploring the British Museum, and in the afternoon and evening studying the script. I also had to arrange my travel to Epson Downs, which is located in Surrey. I had hoped to take the train on Sunday so I could get there early and check into my hotel. But as I was planning for my train ride for Sunday, I discovered that no trains run on Sunday to Epson Downs. So I had to arrange for a driver to pick me up on Sunday at my hotel in London and drop me off at my hotel at Epson Downs.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

I sleep in late again, still adjusting to the six hour time change. At noon, my driver comes by the hotel and drives me to Epson Downs. When I arrive at the hotel, it is a disappointment, with no food service, no wireless Internet, no closets, no safe for my valuables, a bed that felt like it is stuffed with rags, and a room barely big enough to turn around in. The only advantage of the hotel was that was within walking distance of the Epson Downs grandstand, and being out in the country, it is relatively quiet. I spent the afternoon and evening memorizing and rehearsing my lines. As you might imagine, my anxiety level was rising, hoping that I don’t make too big a fool of myself this upcoming five days of shooting. I kind of felt like I was cramming for a test at college. Unfortunately, I have text anxiety, and I don’t do well with tests.

In the next installment, I begin to discuss the filming.

DBA in Space: Behind the Scenes Part 2

Brad M. McGehee — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:00:00 GMT

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Monday & Tuesday, September 12-13, 2011

Today I make my “secret” journey to England for the filming. While I explained to my family where I was going, and what I would be up to, they were given specific instructions not to talk about it, or give any hint to anyone I was in London. In fact, I had to maintain my “social networking” in such a way as not to let anyone know I was traveling.

I make the one hour flight from Springfield, MO to Dallas, then from Dallas to London, arriving in London at 8:00 AM on Tuesday after an 8 ½ hour overnight flight. After spending almost an hour waiting to pass through immigration, I took the Heathrow Express train from the airport to Paddington Station to central London, where I then waited another 15 minutes in a taxi line to take a taxi to my hotel. When I arrive at my hotel, the room wasn’t ready, so I spent nearly 3 hours in the hotel’s club lounge until the room was available. It was now past noon, and once I emptied my suitcases, I took a “short” five hour nap to catch up. Once I got up from my nap, I had dinner and spent the rest of the evening getting caught up with e-mail, then went back to sleep.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Wednesday was a leisurely day, allowing me to overcome my jet lag. I had lunch at a Soho burger joint with Richard, my manager from Red Gate Software; Haydn, the Senior Creative from The Mill; and Kris, the line producer. I also got a quick tour of The Mill and met Anna, the Senior Project Leader; Will, the video’s director; among many others whose names I have already forgotten. The Mill is a fast growing company that is literally bursting at the seams with people.

I also got a newer copy of the script and a call sheet for Thursday, describing where I would be going for my costume fittings and initial rehearsals. I also learned, for the first time, who the lead actress would be, an American named Nell Mooney. She appeared in, and won, the reality series InTurn on CBS. The prize was a 13 week role on the soap “As the World Turns”. She has also appeared in the movie Enchanted, an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, among others. Nell also appears in the yet to be released film, Hyde Park on Hudson, starring Bill Murray.

At this point I am unable to keep from thinking about the fact that I was soon going to be “acting” in front of a camera. The reality of it all has began to sink in.

My call sheet for the initial rehearsal. Contact information has been redacted for privacy.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Today is the costume fitting in the morning, lunch, and a script read-through in the afternoon with Nell Mooney, my co-star (or stated more accurately, I am her co-star, as obviously I’m not a star). The Mill, which produced the video, is located in the Soho district in London. Because of the lack of room at The Mill for costume fitting and rehearsals, they rented the choir rehearsal room at the American Church in London, which is located near The Mill. The church must be over 100 years old, and the choir room was in a grungy basement. Not a very glamorous first introduction to film making, but perhaps more realistic than most people think.

We rehearsed at the American Church in London.

So at 10:00 AM, I show up and get to meet Nell for the first time. Nell has a bubbly personality, is a natural ham, very intelligent, great at improvisation, has no inhibitions, professional, kind, and swears like a truck driver (for which she apologizes for). She is married to a London-based executive with Facebook, and she and her husband have been living in London for just under a year. Before moving to London, they lived in New York. I was told that about 45 people tried out for the part of Miss Friday, but that she was the obvious pick from the first time they saw her. I wasn’t around when the casting was done, so I don’t know anything about the others who didn’t get the part. But after working with Nell, I must say that she was a great choice.

When I first met Nell, she asked me if I was a real DBA. I said, “Yes, I am a real DBA, but I just pretend to be an actor”. I spent a little time talking with her about what DBAs were, but she had actually done some homework and already knew a little about what a DBA was. In fact, she is very adept with Microsoft Excel and other Microsoft products from a part-time job she had in New York before moving to London. In addition, she is a science fiction movie fan and technology geek, and she virtually recognized every sci-fi reference in the video. She also likes to visit Comic-con. If you ever meet up with her, challenge her to a game of the Legend of Zelda, as she claims to be an expert at playing it on the PlayStation 3.

At the costume fitting, besides Nell; there was the costume designer, Emma; and the costume assistant, Georgina. Will, the director also showed up to approve the costumes. Emma and Georgina were great to work with, and for nearly the next two hours, Nell and I changed into dozens of different outfits, while Will looked us over and selected which costumes he thought best fit the story line of the video. While I had sent my measurements to The Mill before arriving in London, all the pants they had for me were of the “skinny” cut, which apparently is the “in” thing in London. Of course, I’m not skinny, so all of the pants were too tight. Once the clothing was selected by Will, the “skinny” pants were returned and “regular” pants were purchased for the filming.

From left to right: Costume fitting with Georgina (Costume Assistant), Will (Director), Emma (Costume Designer), Nell Mooney (Miss Friday), and me.

After the costume fitting, I had lunch with Nell, Will, and Kris (the line producer). It was a lovely sunny day, so we ate at an outside Italian restaurant in Soho. I got the opportunity to get to know everyone much better.

From left to right: Lunch with Will (Director), Nell Mooney (Miss Friday), Kristyna (Line Producer), and me.

After lunch, we went back to the American Church and did a read through of the lines with myself, Nell, Will, and Haydn (Senior Creative). Essentially, Nell and I read through the script, which was apparently the first time it was ever read out loud. As we went through the script, all of us pointed out minor problems here and there, which we changed as needed. Will also explained the motivations behind the two storylines in the video, which helped me to make more sense of the script. The first story-line is about the alien who crashed on Earth and is wanting to get back home. The second story-line was about Miss Friday (aka Verity Blunt) who wants to gain recognition so she can be promoted at the National Space Defense Department. And of course, these two story-lines are set against the background story of the DBA in Space competition.

From left to right: Read trough with Nell Mooney (Miss Friday), Haydn (Senior Creative), and Will (Director). I am taking the photo.

Given that the video is actually a series of many short episodes, the story can be a little hard to follow, unless you watch the entire video from beginning to end. Now that the videos have been released, you can view the videos here. There are several follow-up videos that aren’t currently on this page, and hopefully they will be added soon.

As the story unfolds, one of the fun things was trying to identify all of the various sci-fi references in the script. While I knew most of them, I did have to Google a few of them to learn where they came from. The humor in the story consists of silly jokes, physical comedy, sci-fi references, Nell’s improvisation, and visual effects. I am sure that some viewers find it silly and corny, while others find it clever. But overall, I think the script was entertaining, which is the entire intention of creating the video in the first place.

Before I go any further, I want to talk a little bit about the director, William McGregor (Will). He is an award winning director and works at The Mill on various video productions, and on the side, he also directs short and feature films. He just turned 24 (I attended his birthday party at a pub in Soho), and he has already developed quite a reputation as a director. He was great to work with, and he was especially patient with me, given my lack of acting ability. Watching him direct, you would think he had been doing it for many years. He is very soft spoken, but was always in complete command of the filming, with help of his 1^st AD (assistant director), Sam.

It took about three hours to read through the script and provide feedback, then it was time to head back to the hotel. Now, returning to a hotel doesn’t seem like a hard thing, unless of course you are a country boy like me, who has no idea of how to get around central London. After some advice I received, I learned the proper way to flag down a taxi in London. The first step is to find a location on a street where there is lots of traffic so finding a taxi is easier, but at the same time, you have to consider the location, as busy London streets rarely have any room for a taxi to pull over and pick you up. I was told that taxis will pull over virtually anywhere, but I didn’t want to push my luck. Next, you watch out for the lights on the top of the taxi. If the light is off, then it is not available. If the light is on, it is available. Unfortunately, not every taxi driver follows this policy, and in other cases, it is very hard to tell if the light is on or not, depending on how bright the sun is. Once you see a taxi with its light on, you have to stand at the streets edge, raise your hand as high as you can reach, and point your index finger up in the air. As you do this, many taxis rush by, ignoring you. But when a taxi wants to pick you up, they will flash their parking lights, which means they see you. Once the taxi pulls over, they roll down the window and you tell them where you want to go, and if it is some place they are willing to go, they let you in, otherwise you find another taxi. Fortunately, all the taxis I used in my London travels did pick me up, but not every one of them were familiar with the address I wanted to go. In several cases, I had to help them out with directions so they could find the right location.

A lot of my time in London was sitting in the back seat of a black cab. I spent over US $500 on taxi fares on my visit to the UK.

In the next installment, I talk about my first rehearsal.