Week of Wet Hot

Wow so many memories this week.  I watched Wet Hot American Summer on a big screen for the first time in many years and I don't think I've ever enjoyed it more.  I think the combination of nostalgia for when I was at summer camp as a kid combined with the nostalgia of making that movie ten years ago...plus I found it to be very funny! Then there was a fun Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith afterward, which will be online soon as part of his new podcast.

Then the next night was the opening of "Camp Firewood", an art show at Gallery1988 in Venice where over 60 artists did pieces inspired by the movie.  I didn't expect ever to be so moved by the inspiration and talent and spirit in these pieces of art!  You can see a bunch of it here including this awesome one from Allison Reimold:

And here's a write up from Huffington Post

And here's me, Ken Marino and Joe Lo Truglio at the show:

We're putting together a big 10th Anniversary event in New York at the Music Hall on July 26th, hosted by STELLA (Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and me).  Unfortunately it sold out (in 90 minutes!) but stay tuned for some ticket giveaways or something!

Meanwhile in my day job - still editing Wanderlust 24/7 - can't wait for you all to see it!

But you CAN watch Childrens Hospital right now - a NEW episode airs this (and every) THURSDAY at midnight on Adult Swim.  You can also catch up on what you've missed of the new (third) season online and/or pick up the awesome Seasons 1 & 2 DVD.

and on and on...

Editing slowed down in May as we spent some time conceiving, writing, prepping and finally shooting some extra material for the movie.   Now back to furious editing so we can lock picture before getting deep into sound, music, etc. A few things also to look out for...The Childrens Hospital DVD is now available - we worked hard to make this look and sound as good as can be and it's a great way to see the whole first two seasons while you prepare for the 3rd season to premiere on Adult Swim June 2nd at midnight!

And Wet Hot American Summer is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this summer and there will be some fun events around this.  I will try to keep them updated here.

And for you Mac geeks out there, you can hear me talk for over an hour about how I use my computer all day on a new episode of the Mac Power Users podcast!

Getting Away From it All by Going to Manhattan

I live a strange life, in that I live in New York, but work (for the most part) in Los Angeles.

I always knew I wanted to live in New York.  So I went to NYU (from Cleveland) in 1987, lived a dozen apartments over the next 24 years, but never left the city.  In fact I've never lived outside of Greenwich Village.

But as time has gone by, it seems that the work opportunities have increasingly come from L.A. And one by one, most of my creative collaborators have made the move.  The majority of The State, my producing partners, my manager - they all started in New York and are now in L.A.

So I've gone back and forth.  Never had a place in L.A., but I've spent at least half of the last 12 years on various couches and guest rooms all over Southern California.

Ken Marino and I wrote the first draft of Wanderlust in a week together at his house in L.A.  Then spent many, many months over two years rewriting and rewriting on separate coasts over Skype.

I spent most of last spring in L.A. casting, then prepped and shot in Georgia from August to November.  Then all winter it's been editing in L.A.  I considered editing in New York, but schedule coincided with the Childrens Hospital Season 3 shoot, which involves both my wife and me, so we brought ourselves and our son out west for the winter, had another son in January, and now we're all finally back home.

The cliche is true: the energy in New York is different and I prefer it.  I walk to work, stopping at a coffee shop (where I am as I write this) for breakfast. I run into friends on the street.  I'm connected to L.A. via Skype and email during the work day, then when I shut down, work (and Hollywood) is 3000 miles away. The pace of postproduction on this movie has been brutal, so having this moment to breathe in New York is life saving for me!

This weekend I'm going to see Craig Wedren (moved to LA a few years ago from NY) perform at City Winery, Book of Mormon on Broadway, take my kids to the park.

ALAS, the reason I'm here is NOT because the movie is finished. Far from it. The process is ongoing, but I'm just taking needed week or two working remotely here in the city to recharge my batteries.

Kathryn Hahn doing some ADR voice recording, her son in tow.

Late night music recording session with Craig Wedren
at the legendary Ocean Way Studio in Hollywood:

Day off at the beach with Kerri Kenney

Okay I also came to NY for one night in March for my summer camp reunion.
Here's Alan Klein, Craig Wedren and Me posing with our younger selves.

And if your'e interested in bloody whacky and insane animated fun,
the long awaited second season of SUPERJAIL is now on the air!

That guy in the purple hat is the Warden.  
It's my voice and they drew him to look sort of like me.

Every Sunday at midnight on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim,
and/or there are a bunch of clips here

Director's cut is complete...

...which is to say, the day has come where I show the movie to the studio for the first time.  We've worked our asses off the last few months getting it in shape and I'm happy with it.  Depending on how well it goes tonight they will either:

A) Praise my work, and send me off to do the sound mix and color correct for final release.

B) Fire me and bring in a new editorial staff to save the movie.

C) Dump the project and cut their losses.

My guess is it will be something between (A) and (B)

Some Stuff

Great to see people out at Michael Showalter's show in L.A. the other night.

He was promoting his new book Mr. Funnypants

So Ken Marino and I came by to promote OUR new book:

In other news...we're deep deep in the editing process on Wanderlust.  Most of it is Ken Marino and I sitting in a room with editors David Moritz and Rob Nassau slogging through the footage, swapping out jokes, lines, improvs, tightening then loosening.  I've been editing video on a regular basis since I was about 12 years old and I'm still totally amazed how a moment can go from not funny to funny after an adjustment of 3 frames (1/8 of a second).  It's unbelievably time consuming but there's no substitute for going back through every single thing we shot, making sure we're exploiting all possibilities.

I really can't imagine how they did this before the advent of non-linear editing on a computer.  I did my first student film Aisle Six in the traditional film process, editing on a flatbed machine, literally cutting each shot with a razor blade and splicing it together.  Doing a feature this way, even with a great staff, would drive me insane.  As it is, I'm going insane every day having to use the Avid editing software (one of the two industry standards) which I find to be woefully antiquated and non-intuitive compared to most modern Mac applications.  I'm hoping that my next feature I will either be able to (A) edit on Final Cut Pro OR (B) they will have redesigned the Avid.

Meanwhile we're also deep in editing the next season of Childrens Hospital which debuts this summer and it's gonna be great.  I hope you'll all check it out.  Plus a DVD of the first two seasons packed with cool extras will be coming out May 24th!

AND - if you want to audition for my next project you can BUY yourself the privilege if you're the highest bidder and it goes to a very good cause. Info here

And finally - if you're interested in reading a pretty long interview with me, there's a nice one in the current issue of the (awesome) magazine The Believer.

The coolest part about it is seeing my face drawn in one of those cool etching illustrations.

Okay that's it for now - back to editing...if you have anything to say post a comment here on the blog I will try to respond!