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Geoffrey Gould
Reports from the set/s...
Trinity Shi's USC Student Film
Sweet Tooth
Sweet Tooth

Sunday March 18, 2012
Audition
I was contacted by Trinity Shi, my having been strongly recommended to her by Jerry White, who'd directed me in his comedy short Greeters, and worked crew (running audio) on Dog-Eared, and The Films of Avi Krum, also on which I'd worked. Trinity was working on her own short, the sans dialogue comedy Sweet Tooth, and she wanted me to audition for the lead role of Carl, a very fussy eater having to deal with hospital food.
Friday March 16, while waiting my turn to be interviewed for a USC-based documentary on the paranormal (sadly for which I was not selected), I was approached by USC student film maker Einar Baldvin, who was looking for a good voice for the lead in his animated student film short Locust. I gave him my information and he emailed me the script and after some discussion we agreed to meet.
As I had the Sweet Tooth audition Sunday the 18th, Einar and I met beforehand and discussed the project at length, and eventually Friday the 30th was set up as the recording date.
After meeting with Einar, I met with my friend Tracy Ann Chapel, who'd to Trinity I'd recommended for the female lead Martha, and when Tracy arrived we went over to the Zemeckis building where we met Trinity and Tracy and I auditioned together.
I was cast while sadly Tracy was not.
I was aware the shoot dates would be Saturday and Sunday March 31st and April 01, and the following April 07 and 08 weekend. I let Trinity know that Saturday the 31st I was planning on attending the Memorial Service of my good friend Donn Shy down on the Queen Mary in Long Beach (I was surpised I'm in a memorial video, at the 4:46 mark). As it was, Trinity assured me we wouldn't have to run overly long that day.

Sunday March 25, 2012
Co-star
Trinity emailed her cast members, indicating pre-production was going well, and asked after schedule times for a rehearsal this week. As she was hinting strongly at Tuesday or Thursday I conveyed my availability thereon, and, noticing the return emails, I asked as to which role (Martha or the Lunch Lady), my friend Rhoda Pell was playing, my having worked with her on such projects as Avi Krum and Santa Croce, et al.
Trinity replied Rhoda would be playing Martha, my co-star and, I'd presume, the film's female lead.

Thurday March 29, 2012
Schedule change/s
Shortly before heading down to USC, Trinity called to notify me the woman playing the Lunch Lady had bailed on the project. As she was scrambling for a replacement, tonight's rehearsal was canceled, and shooting would start Sunday. I was a bit surprised as I thought the first day of shooting was Saturday, but at least this freed me up to attend my friend Donn Shy's Memorial Service on the Queen Mary.
I did suggest to Trinity she see about the availability of my good friend Maria Olsen, with whom I've been friends since we met working on the USC project The Tell-Tale Heart together (for which neither of us ever got our contractually owed DVD copy), and eventually working on her feature film Live-In Fear which she produced.
If Maria was available and interested, she'd be perfect.

Saturday March 31, 2012
Last minute notice/s
Trinity had conveyed she'd acquired a replacement for the Lunch Lady role; the project's producer Charles Leisenring had emailed the afternoon before that that night the location and callsheet would be emailed.
As I was about to head down to the Queen Mary for the Memorial and Ghost Hunt for my recently passed friend Donn Shy, before heading out I replied to Charles pointing out I'd not received the information the night before. He sent it along, and I pointed out as I could be on the Queen Mary until the wee hours (the ghost hunt itself would begin at midnight), I might need to go to the nearby-USC location directly from the event, as I was aware it'd be a 9am calltime.
I stressed that the location was to be texted to me, if the location could not be emailed before my departure time towards Long Beach, and I provided my phone number, knowing it was in their possession anyway.
Charles was able to get me the location before I left, so I was good to go for the 9am calltime.

Sunday April 01, 2012
When another quarter hour of sleep would have been precious
The Ghost Hunt wound down at 3am, and thankfully my good friends Joe and Vikki were awesome enough to drive me all the way back to Hollywood, considering the surprising brutal winds that had kicked up; I was prepared that I was going to have to wait 35 minutes or so for a 3:50am #60 bus to get me up to downtown for one of the first Red Line trains to get me back. As it was Joe got me back by 4am, providing me with much needed three and a half hours of sleep before having to get down towards the location.
Thankfully I checked my email on waking and found that while Charles had conveyed the location before I left, around 3pm he'd emailed me that my calltime was pushed to 9:15am. Due to the Sunday-times buses run, this was almost negligible, but actually knowing this (e.g., had I'd had 13 hour's advance notice), it would have provided me with another 15 minutes of sleep before my alarm needed to go off.
Also emailed was the cast list, so I was aware that Kyla Garcia was the new Lunch Lady, and that the subsequent weekend's shoot would contain Barak Dada, Dave Edward and Carmen Hayward as the featured background of the lunchroom.
I arrived ten minutes early while Rhoda a few minutes earlier, her finding the address too but it being locked (the front gate, at least). Calling Trinity, as Charlie's phone was going to voice mail, we let them know we'd arrived. Charlie came out and let us in, assuring me he had phone-texted me the location; based on results the text simply was not received, which would not be the first time for MetroPCS, which now and then will provided texts hours after they were initially sent.
We met the project's cinematographer Andrew Peat and Justin Ling who's doing wardrobe.
Trinity was able to acquire about $400+ worth of donated cakes and patries for the set and the scene... unfortunately not a one of them was angel or devil's food cake/s.
We filmed the fantasy sequence, montage and inserts, etc.; I did my best, and rather quickly realized I would have to not swallow the food. A small coffee cup was used for me to expel the stuff held in my mouth.
Lots and lots of production photos were taken, copies of which I look forward to receiving.
Rhoda was wrapped around 2pm, the rest of us had lunch; Charles got my regular Wendys order for me. After more filming, we wrapped around 4pm.
When we spoke of the next Saturday shoot date, it was probable we'd wrap by 4pm, as both Rhoda and Kyla had plans, as well as my own weekly Saturday plans, which understandably I prefer not to miss.

Thursday April 05, 2012
Inserts
Trinity had asked if I could come down to do a few more inserts Sunday of which hadn't been thought. It was to be between three and five, and after stopping at Tom's Burger Restaurant to get a good burger combo deal, I arrived at the location at 2:55'ish. They had been doing some of the inserts before I'd arrived; Trinity had been gently scooping bits of cake with extreme close-ups on the cake, until her Very Painted Nails began to show up in frame.
Trinity explained that when dailies had been shown in the class, various shots of which they'd not thought had been suggested. Apparently there was a bit of a metaphorical "squee" effect when I came on screen, specifically from film makers in the class before with whom I'd worked such as the awesome Jerry White and just a few months ago, the like-minded Luke Pennington.
Of all the cakes but a bit left they had, they had to have the carrot cake. Now I like carrots: cleaned and steamed. Not as and/or in... a cake. So I got to pull out all my acting chops to bring across how "wonderfully, orgasmically tastey" this was.
We were done by 4:25, and Trinity was cool enough to scoot me home.

Saturday April 07, 2012
Food; wrapping
I arrived at the USC location at about 9am'ish for my 9:15am calltime. They had scored a minature cafeteria in the Religious Studies complex right across the the Lucas Building.
The callsheet said 9:15 calltime; 9:30am First Shot.
The first shot was more like around 10:30...
I met Kyla, who slightly reminded me of Nadine Velazquez, in that they could play cousins or sisters. Kyla had a good sense of humour and comic timing, and Trinity filmed Carmen, Barak and Dave first, along with Kyla.
Rhoda and I were brought in and we managed to hammer out the rest of the shoot before Kyla and Rhoda had to depart, and I had my weekly radio show I hoped not to miss (thankfully I was scooted over to my bus stop where I was five minutes ahead of the bus, I got home with just enough time to logon and be part of this date's edition).
Trinity showed me some production photos from the previous weekend, a few of which she posted on her Facebook profile. Originally we were thought to have the location Saturday and Sunday, but with Sunday as Easter, we had to get it done this One Day, which thankfully we were able to pull off.
Along with the other student films in this block, the screening would be at the Norris Theatre in early May...

Click on thumbnail for Full Image
Andrew Peat's living room location:

With Rhoda Pell

With Charles Leisenring, Andrew Peat,
Trinity Shi and Justin Ling.
Click on thumbnail for Full Image
Third Day of Shooting on USC campus location:
Rhoda Pell and Geoffrey Gould working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Rhoda and I, ready on set.
''Prop'' breakfast for the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Breakfast of Champions...
Pie filling used as hospital food for the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
... in reality: pie filling.
Andrew Peat and Trinity Shi working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew Peat and Trinity Shi
Charles Leisenring working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Charles Leisenring
Andrew Peat, Trinity Shi and Kyla Garcia working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew, Trinity and Kyla Garcia
Trinity Shi, Kyla Garcia and Justin Ling working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Trinity, Kyla and Justin Ling
Fresh Flavoured Saccharin Juice prop for the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Fresh Flavoured Saccharin Juice, like
the wall posters, props they created.
My ''food'' for the shoot [mashed potatoes, yams, tapioca, vanilla, banana, chocolate]: for the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
My serving.
Yam pie filling for the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
The brownish sludge is yams
Andrew Peat, Trinity Shi and Charles Leisenring working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew, Trinity and Charles
Rhoda Pell working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Rhoda Pell
Andrew Peat, Trinity Shi and Charles Leisenring working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew, Trinity and Charles
Barak Dada and Kyla Garcia working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Barak Dada and Kyla Garcia
Dave Edward working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Dave Edward
Barak Dada working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Barak Dada
Rhoda Pell working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Rhoda Pell
Andrew Peat, Trinity Shi and Charles Leisenring working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew, Trinity and Charles
Andrew Peat, Trinity Shi and Kyla Garcia working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew, Trinity and Kyla
Andrew Peat, Trinity Shi and Kyla Garcia working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew, Trinity and Kyla
Charles Leisenring working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Charles Leisenring
 working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Cerise [Reese] Robinson, set PA
Justin Ling working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Justin Ling
Andrew Peat and Trinity Shi working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew Peat and Trinity Shi
Andrew Peat, Trinity Shi and Charles Leisenring working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew, Trinity and Charles
Andrew Peat, Trinity Shi, Charles Leisenring and Justin Ling working on the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Andrew, Trinity, Charles and Justin

Saturday May 05, 2012
Screening
The MTA did its best to delay me from getting down to USC easily, but it turned out it was the universe putting method to its madness. As I passed the Lucas building, Kyla Garcia espyed me, unable to find the Norris Theatre, and was about to follow very flawed directions to send her in the totally wrong direction, so my "delay" was to assist her in getting there on time as well. Once there she went to the ladies room and I didn't see her again the rest of my time on campus.
My friend David Schroeder was in attendance as he was in one of the shorts to be shown as well, albeit the last of the program block.
Trinity found me and I sat with her, Justin, Charles and Andrew. On one hand the screengings were rather practically lined up; as there were five sets of three-student teams, each team creating three shorts each, they showed them in trilogy clusters. However, the streamlining fell apart when, instead of showing a team's three films, then letting them say their Thank Yous, they raised the light after every single short, so the same three would "have to" do their thank yous, which quickly became redundant as they had the same crews on the same projects. Had they waited for a team's three films to finish then have them each speak, they'd each be able to thank the collective crews for their work on the three films, and thank their respective films' performers.
As it was, the Thanks aspect taking thrice as much time as it could have, the 20+ minute delayed event ran to about 4:15pm. Plus, as David Schoeder's film was the final of the last three films, I couldn't simply creep away at the end of my group's three films.
Comically, the (hastily created?) program had a few typos, ironically in Charles and Andrews's films, Assisted Living omitting the third S, while in the description of Breaking, the word Break was spelled BBreak...
The second team-trio shown included Luke Pennington with whom I'd worked on his powerful Someone Talked! project; afterward Luke conveyed how during reviewing the Sweet Tooth dailies in class, I consistantly had the students in stitches due to my expressive eyes and facial expressions. I was curious about one thing: each of the film makers seemed to refer to thanking "all the essays," and I'd wondered if that had meant written-out reviews and suggestions from the classmates. Luke clarified it was actual jargon: they weren't saying essays, they were thanking all the S.A.s: the Student Advisors, neglecting to take into account that the audience was not completely made up of film making students.
As he was attending a wedding, Jerry White was not in attendance, but as he was one of the Student Advisors, it was cool to see his name in the credits of all fifteen shorts (for the David Schroeder short, Leaving for Mexico Jerry provided the voice of a radio announcer).
Trinity had on hand our DVD copies of the film, and after congratulating her, Charles, Andrew, Justin, Luke and David, I hastened to Vermont Boulevard where I just managed to catch a northbound bus, but it was clear I would not get home before about 5:15pm, making me a bit late for The Paranormal View. As it was, the Para-X website had been under cyberattack by hackers since early in the day, and was inaccessable, but thankfully Henry is one of those commendable Show Must Go On sorts, and we just did the show as though we were on the air, albeit knowing we weren't, essentially creating a real-time recorded podcast, sans chat room participation.

Click on frame-grab thumbnail for Full Image
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''
Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth'' Geoffrey Gould frame-grabs from the USC student film ''Sweet Tooth''

Wednesday, June 06, 2012
First Film Festival
Trinity posted on Facebook that the film had screened the previous Thursday at the Southside Cinematheque in Chicago, and that it was well received.
By being accepted in that film festival, Trinity was able to create for the short its own official IMDB entry.

Sunday June 09, 2013
I become a Meme
Jerry created and posted this comical image on Trinity's and my respective Facebook pages:
''Cheer Up, It's Sunday'' meme photo


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