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Monday, November 12, 2007
"Lower Learning" shoot
Late Sunday afternoon
(November 11th),
I got called, booked for the next day on the feature film comedy
Lower Learning,
described as a "raunchy" comedy.
Considering Jason Biggs
is the lead, it's not overly surprising.
Sadly he was not scheduled for the day, so I wasn't able to see him, or see if I could covertly indicate he and I are from the same home town...
(Remember that I do not believe in providing storyline spoilers myself [such generally currently and/or eventually being
readily available Elsewhere
notwithstanding], in my report/s I only convey indications of where I can be seen.)
Co-stars
Eva Longoria
and
Will Sasso
were also absent, though I did catch a good look at the devestatingly cute Jill Latiano, who plays Gretchen, the elementary school nurse.
I did get to work directly with the pleasant
Nat Faxon
of
Beerfest and other Broken Lizard films
(though he told me he's not an actual member of the group officially: just a good friend).
Nat plays Turner Abernathy, who suffers from a family curse (rendering romantic overtures to Gretchen unsuccessful).
I was part of a flashback scene in which we see how the curse came about: Nat also plays his Grandfather in a tavern of unspecific location or precise time period (it's Sort Of the 1930s). Being such a period scene, with five or six other guys, they did our hair, gave all of us moustaches
(our bartender got a larger 'stache, and muttonchops),
et al.
On the set, I was selected to sit next to Nat.
As always, I never give away specific story spoilers, but it's no spoiler than I play Grandfather Abernathy's friend sitting next to him at the bar, as he wagers me that another patron would be unable to complete a rather specific "bar trick," as it were.
Writer/director Mark Lafferty had me Just Nod, as opposed to my at least saying the word, "Done!" as Grandfather Abernathy and I shake hands on the bet.
So far (as of the original above-date posting on my then
MySpace blog,
and as of March 18, 2008 re-posting it here at
geoffgould.net),
for Lower Learning, there currently was no set, scheduled release date, other than sometime in 2008; the above took place on the production's second to last day of principal photography
(and Nat was wrapped for his principal photography).
Until I was to receive any updates, as of this entry, currently Lower Learning was listed as being in post-production.
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Saturday, October 11, 2008
Viewing
I was one of about five people at the first Saturday morning showing.
From what the group seemed to be saying afterwards, they may have worked on the film in some aspect, but it was unclear as to what.
They did not seem to love it, nor hate it: they just saw it.
As for myself, I was surprised at how strongly mean-spirited the "humour" came across.
I enjoy dark to jet-black humour, but subjectively, to me this was not as funny as it was just seeming mean.
There were maybe two to three moments that actually had me laugh but generally, as much as the film just made me uneasy.
Not overly surprising, the flashback scene on which I worked was omitted.
As it could be considered a non sequitor, the removal of the small subplot backstory did not affect the film overall.
I decided as the DVD was scheduled to be released, I would see if it was included amongst any bonus features.
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Sunday, December 07, 2008
DVD
As with movies in which I am or could be very visible, I added
Lower Learning
to my
Netflix
queue.
When it became available, there was really no long or even short term waiting time involved.
Checking out the bonus features, the flashback bar scene was included, from which I frame-grabbed much of Nat and my interaction.
There are two shots of him as Grandfather Abernathy in the Making Of featurette, but not wide enough to show me as well.
A bit surprisingly, in the same Making Of featurette, Nat is not interviewed
(nor were the majority of the other principals).
Not surprisingly, based on the Netflix user reviews, they were unanimous in one respect: you either love this film or you hate it.
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