KRAKOOM! 

Killer Fan Art

Check out this awesome drawing of me and Tyler (Sock) by Reaper’s #1 artistically inclined fan, Cheri Nowak.  Thanks, Cheri!

If you’ve got something you’d like to share, send it along.  I love this kind of stuff!

Bret
May 30, 2008

The Difference Between TV & Film

Before I really get into this blog, I want to comment on the recent news about Reaper’s future.  Some people are down about Reaper’s midseason status, but I wanted it to be out there that I’m not.  In fact, I’m excited.  The way I see it, midseason is better than no-season.  And who knows what the future holds… Maybe one of the CW’s new shows will tank early or something crazy will happen and we’ll end up back on the air before 2009.  But we can talk more about that when the timing is closer.  For now, let’s talk about what I’m up to right now.

Currently (as I type this, in fact), I’m sitting in a hotel in the Big Easy (New Orleans to most of us) in between shooting days on a new Sony feature film called, what else, “Mardi Gras”!

The movie is a buddy comedy about three friends who head down to Mardi Gras to blow off some steam and so far it’s been nothing but fun.  We’ve been down here filming for a few weeks now and what I wanted to talk about was the difference between shooting a TV series and shooting a film.  Let me apologize in advance if this gets too “inside.”See, when you shoot a television show, it’s all about speed.  You have to get it done as quickly as possible because there’s never an end in sight (at least not if you’re doing well).  Every day, the goal is 8-9 pages of script (which translates to about the same number of minutes of screen time).  It’s a lot to tackle from a writing, directing, producing, crew and acting perspective, but it’s the way it’s done – you gotta constantly feed the beast.

But in film, at least with a big studio film like Mardi Gras, we get to take our time.  So far we’re shooting 2-4 pages a day.  That’s 4 minutes of screen time tops.  The biggest positive to this is that the actors (and the director) get to really play around with the scenes.  I mean, it’s a comedy, so there’s certainly no harm in doing a scene over and over and over, with the actors constantly trying new deliveries or reactions or even lines.  If the crew doesn’t laugh on the first take, change it up for the second and see if that works.  Not only does this result in funnier takes, but, as an actor, it really keeps it fresh as we do shot after shot of the same line readings.  Add to that the fact that I get to play a character who is not the same one I play every single week for 6-9 months and you can understand why I’m finding this refreshing enough to write about.

You can read a little about the movie here:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1083462/.  It’s due out next year.

As always, thanks for reading.

Bret
May 27, 2008 

Sock it to ‘em

Wow.  I was planning to write a blog on summer movies, but I guess that’ll have to wait.

What the sock is going on?  I mean, one seemingly harmless post on this tiny microcosm of the webiverse and all of a sudden the entire ‘net is reporting on it???  I’m talking, of course, about the whole “Save Reaper with Socks” campaign.

When Dave (Editor’s note: David Baldy, Bret’s writing partner and majority contributor to krakoom) first suggested the idea, I loved it.  Not because I thought anyone would actually do it, but because it made me laugh – and that’s really all I strive for here.  But now… well, now I see this site as so much more.  I mean, it’s a powerful thing to be able to share a few words with your fans and have literally thousands respond to it.  And, well, I just want you all to know that’s not lost on me.

As for the actual campaign, whether it works or not, I’ll still be happy knowing we did all we could do to keep the dream alive.  That said, the CW doesn’t announce their new fall schedule until May 13th so that gives us 8 more days to make our voices heard.  Keep those letters, emails and foot warmers flowing.

We’ve come this far, let’s finish this.

Bret
May 4, 2008

My Favorite Things!* (*right now)

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about stuff I like, so I thought I’d use this week’s blog to answer a few of those.  Let me know if you like this feature by emailing me at questionsforbret@krakoom.com and maybe I’ll do it somewhat regularly.  Oh, and thanks to everyone who wrote about the “Deal” trailer. 

My favorite movie right now is Eastern Promises.  Viggo Mortensen’s performance is amazing.  Especially the naked fight scene.  Very raw, real and “ballsy.”  Go Viggo!

For television, look no further than The Wire.  I realize I’m late to the game with this one, but I recently purchased season 1 on DVD and watched half of it in one day.  That’s 6 hour-long episodes.  And I’m not talking about 42 minute network “hour-long” episodes, like Reaper.  These are really a full hour… and worth every minute.  LOVE IT.   

My favorite book right now is A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore.  It reminds me a lot of Reaper in tone, mixing humor with horror. 

And finally, music.  Right now, I’d have to say my favorite song is Air Aid by Menomena.  I can listen to it all day.  “People of the future will remember…” 

We’re back!

Well, it’s certainly been an interesting few months. In case you didn’t hear, the writers strike is over and many of your favorite shows are back in production – including us! We’ve been picked up for 6 more episodes and, as I write this from my trailer in Vancouver, we’re almost done with the second one and I have to be honest, these two episodes are hands down the best of the entire series so far. I suspect I’ll be amending that statement in the weeks to come as we motor towards our season finale, but for now I can honestly say that’s 100% true.

In other news, I’ve got a lot of exciting projects in the works, both acting and writing. I can’t go into detail on most of them yet, but one I can tell you about is a movie I shot a while back with Burt Reynolds called “Deal.” You can view the trailer here. It’s due to be released to limited theaters on April 25th. If you watch the trailer, email me at questionsforbret@krakoom.com to let me know what you think.

Talk to you soon…Bret