Hilarie Burton: Hey you guys. Hilarie, hanging out here in my kitchen after a long day of work. I mean, it really wasn’t that long, I had two scenes today. I have a pretty great job. And I’ve always had a very great job, and you know, it was announced yesterday that One Tree Hill was coming back for a season seven! That’s very exciting! And I am very excited for everybody involved. There’s all sorts of rumors flying around about me, and whether or not I’m coming back, and I just want to clear up one thing that’s very important to me, and that is: I want everyone to know how much [pauses] I love Peyton Sawyer, and my crew. [pauses] And I have had a really good run, and I wish I had creative control over the show you guys, and I don’t. But, if I did, it would go on for a million years, and Peyton Sawyer would cry for you all the time, cause she does that! I just don’t want anybody to think I’m abandoning a place that has been very good to me. So, with that being said, I want you guys to watch cause another year of One Tree Hill means another year that my entire crew is employed and working, and that’s the reason Kelly and I started Southern Gothic. It’s because we really believe in everything this area has to offer. It is a wonderful place and it is a really wonderful crew, and I ask that you guys support the show, and you support them, and yeah, watch the rest of season six, it’s gonna be really good! And, in the meantime, we have so much going on with Southern Gothic, and your support has meant the world to me, and I’m excited to see what happens, and unfolds for our little company that could in the next year. But I wanted to let everyone know how appreciative I am, and yeah, this is a good thing. So, thank you guys for caring, and we'll see what happens!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Vlog #3: Nick & Hilarie and Southern Gothic Part 2
HB: [hands him a book] Yeah, you can talk about her.
NG: Flannery O’Connor. This is the complete stories, because Hilarie doesn’t mess around.
HB: I don’t! [laughs]
NG: Flannery O’Connor is so good! She is. There’s 31 stories in here!
HB: I know. You’re gonna steal that aren’t you?
NG: I’m gonna steal this from you! No, I have a funny story about Wise Blood… is one of my favorite novels ever. It’s so good. And I’ve had four copies in my lifetime…
HB: But you keep giving them away, right?
NG: But I… I wish I gave them away, I think people steal them! But, I do, I give it as a gift whenever I’m in doubt about what to give somebody, because it’s such a good book. But I’ve had four in my life, and I currently have none. But Wise Blood is… Wise Blood is a really good example of southern gothic. Have you read Wise Blood?
HB: I don’t think I’ve read that one.
NG: Oh, Wise Blood is so good! It’s about this guy named Hazel Moats, and he’s kinda this wanderer who…
HB: Another thing about southern gothic literature is that the names are awesome!
NG: Names as so good!
HB: Lincoln Booth, guys!
NG: Lincoln Booth. Hazel Moats. Asa Hawks. Enoch Emery. All in this book! Enoch Emery is my second favorite literary character of all time.
HB: Beautiful.
NG: Who’s yours?
HB: Um… oh, god… who do I just, love? I mean, I was gonna say, [holds up another book] Truman Capote’s stuff really, really hits me. My favorite book of his was The Grass Harp and I had a copy of it but I’m pretty sure Mr. Austin Nichols has it right now.
NG: What a surprise…
HB: What a surprise! Theivin’ Nichols. But yeah, no, Truman Capote is such a great example of what the South produces. This appreciation of melancholy, and beauty, and Truman Capote is such a master of the short story. People know him for In Cold Blood. Great book, but I don’t think it holds a candle to his fiction. His short fiction is really fantastic. And I would say, some of my favorite characters are… it’s Dolly, in The Grass Harp. That’s such a beautiful story about a boy who runs away with his aunt… his very old aunt, and her best friend. And they go live in a tree house, out in the woods. What a romantic notion. Maybe we can build a tree house in the cemetery?
NG: We may. [Looking in the distance] That’s such a good tree.
HB: Right? It’s beautiful. You know, it’s the south! It’s live oaks and tree houses.
NG: You have to read Wise Blood, because Enoch, well he thinks he has wise blood, and that means he thinks he can see things in his blood.
HB: Alright, I will read it if they read it. [points to camera]
NG: and he dresses up as a gorilla at one point, and he steals a mummified baby from a zoo or something, or from a museum.
HB: Really? [searching] Hey, where’s that other book?
NG: [finds book] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
HB: So not only do we just love literature, which… hey P.S, we are gonna start a book club, and what are we gonna call it?
NG: SoGoPros Book Club.
HB: [laughs] So, once a week or so, we are gonna get on, and recommend something that we feel like will fuel the southern gothic fire. And if you need visuals to go along with that, this was a gift from Gary Wheeler, who directed me in the movie ‘The List.’ He’s a southern writer, director, and it’s [pointing to book] Deep South by Sally Mann and it’s this awesome book of photography. You know, it’s just kinda got that blurred, fuzzy, McCobb feeling to it, you know? Like old, tin prints, and you’ve got lots of swamp photos… and it really is… if you are into photography at all, or visuals, it is such a beautiful book… it’s very dark, you probably can’t see it clearly… but it’s super creepy! It’s a great coffee table find, guys. So yeah, if you guys have any suggestions for us, that you think is something that is southern gothic and you think we’d be into to now that you are learning more about our taste, let us know. We love hearing your feedback, and we really, really appreciate all of the support! You guys have been fantastic.
NG: Do you want to play a game?
HB: Okay.
NG: Alright. Yeah, we will play a southern gothic game. This is like MTV. This is bringing you back to MTV.
HB: [laughs] I know!
NG: I’ll say something, and you will say ‘southern gothic’ or ‘not southern gothic.’
HB: Ooh. Okay.
NG: Alright. And we will get to incorporate some of the newer things that have been inspired by the original southern gothic.
HB: Okay.
NG: Okay… ‘No Country For Old Men.’
HB: I don’t think it’s very southern gothic, do you?
NG: [buzzer sound]
HB: You think it is?
NG: I think it’s southern gothic. I think Corman McCarthy is… I think Corman McCarthy is southern gothic.
HB: I mean, it’s southern gothic. I guess, you know what, violence is something, like crazy violence, is something I’m going to have to learn to get along with in southern gothic culture, right? I’m more into like, you know…
NG: You’re more into the dresses…
HB: [laughs] Yeah, I like the dress end of it, and like, dirty New Orleans streets…
NG: Okay. Moving on, moving on.
HB: Moving on, moving on.
NG: As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner.
HB: Ooh. Southern gothic.
NG: Yes. Southern Gothic… Slumdog Millionaire!
HB: Not southern gothic! [laughs]
NG: Not southern gothic.
HB: Although, very good!
NG: Yes, very good… ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ as performed by Bobby Gentry.
HB: I mean, that’s pretty southern, right?
NG: [whispers] Gothic.
HB: [whispers] Southern gothic.
NG: It is. It is… Xanadu.
HB: Not southern gothic. Although, I do love Olivia Newton John.
NG: Xanadu!
HB: [dances] Yeah.
NG: Alright.
HB: Well, what am I? One and four? Alright, anyway, while we continue to amuse each other, you guys have a great day. Thanks for hanging out with us, and we look forward to hearing from you. Bye!
NG: Thank you guys.
Vlog #2: Nick and Hilarie and Southern Gothic Part 1
watch here!
Hilarie Burton: Oh, hi guys! If you are wondering who the creepy kids, dressed in black, hanging out in the cemetery were in high school, they grew up to be us. It’s Hilarie, and Nick, hanging out.
Nicholas Gray: This isn’t the Oscars…
HB: No, you look fantastic, Nick!
NG: Thank you.
HB: Oh, you’re so welcome. So, we’ve been getting a lot of traffic on our blog website and we want to thank some of the people that are really driving it. We really appreciate everyone’s support. This is something that is near and dear to us. So we have Emma and Sue in the UK, you guys have been awesome. Titania in sunny Spain. We have Missa, in Montreal. Kimbaroo, that’s Nick personal favorite, in Belgium.
NG: Mhmm. Kimbaroo.
HB: Kimbaroo! Podcaster Denise. The YouTube girls Portia and Amber. Geoh and his white piano blogging on the Scratchpad. I like my piano so much better than regular pianos. That’s classy! Megan and Mary, the Minnesota Shamrock Princess. And there can only be one Twitter King, the Pfeiffer. Also, we want to thank Alicia and the Second Life Team for doing a bunch of work for us. Everybody’s been really awesome. We are excited to have everybody along with us. So, one of the questions we got on our blog was where did we get the name Southern Gothic Productions. And Kelly and I got to talking when we first started, and we were like oh, what are we gonna name this company? And I’m a huge literature dork, and southern gothic literature is my personal favorite. Kelly is a fan of it as well, and it really kinda tied into the stories that we wanted to tell. What do you think the definition of southern gothic lit is, Nick?
NG: Well, southern gothic literature I think is, well, it’s a take on gothic literature, refined to the American South, and it uses a lot of morally ambiguous figures…
HB: I love moral ambiguity.
NG: … characters. And sometimes it brings in some supernatural elements to drive the plot. But, even if it’s not supernatural, it usually is at least a bit… weird.
HB: Yeah, it’s really quirky. I think the characters in southern gothic literature are so well rounded and so layered. You know, you have your ‘grotesques’, is what they call them, which are the people that are so extreme in whatever they are. Whether it’s like the bible thumper, or, like in a lot of southern gothic literature, the super racist, or like…
NG: Because right before this a lot of people that were writing southern literature, were using the main stereotypes that are incorporated, like the southern debutante. And in southern gothic literature, you’re not really gonna find the debutante unless she is…
HB: A whore with the heart of gold! And who doesn’t love one of those, right?! [laughs] So, that’s kind of the driving force behind the stories we like to tell, you know. We are very character oriented, and Nick’s writing is very southern gothic to me, you know, you really understand how to take a loathsome person and really draw a full picture of them so they can become redeemable and interesting, and lovable to hate! You’re really good at that.
NG: Hmm, villains.
HB: Villians. I love villains.
NG: [looking at stack of books] Well some of these writers are my favorites, so that’s probably where it comes from…
HB: Yeah, we brought some books for you guys. Cause we’re always doing our homework. We are always looking for new short stories, or just new things to inspire us. So, some of my personal favorites… [to Nick] that’s kinda how we became friends cause we had a lot of the same favorites.. are like Carson McCuller’s. [holds up book] This is the book that made her the most famous, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. She was a really young, southern woman, who, you know, put out a book and nobody could believe that she put out such a textured, really controversial book, at like, what, 21 years old? She was really young… [reading back of book] Let’s see..
NG: [Nick points to book] 23.
HB: 23. I apologize. So yeah, Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. My personal favorite is ‘Ballad of Sad Café.’ I really like that one that she wrote. Have you read McCuller’s?
NG: Yeah, I read this. That’s all I’ve read.
HB: She’s great! She’s fantastic.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Very First Official Transcript!
You can find the actual video at the SGP Blog
Vlog #1: Introduction
Hilarie Burton: Are we rolling?Nick Gray: Yes, indeed.
HB: Hi! I’m Hilarie Burton, you guys, and this is my very dear friend, Nick Gray.
NG: Hello.
HB: He wrote “Pedestrian” and right now Kelly is operating the camera, and if he was cool he’d turn the camera around and say hi. Do it!
[camera turns]
Kelly Tenney: Hi.
[camera turns back]
HB: Okay, so we are having like a little club meeting. Austin is back in LA. I’m gonna make him do our bidding out there. Yeah, we are talking about, you know, the meetings that we’ve had, stuff like that. Nick and I decided to show up today dressed in the same outfit. Blue plaid.
NG: Blue plaid.
HB: It looks really good though, right? Right? We have a lot of things in common, and we’ve just got along like twins [points to clothing] ever since we met, right?
NG: Kismet.
HB: Do you remember when we met?
NG: I remember when we met.
HB: Do you want to tell the kids the story?
NG: It was 1984…
HB: Yeah. [laughs]
NG: Yeah, I moved down here… when did I move down here? I moved down here…
HB: Was it 2005? Was it?
NG: Yeah, I think it was 2005. I had just done this crazy Manhattan trial, and decided to take a little break, down here in Wilmington!
HB: Where it’s beautiful, and we have trains, and like, farms and…
NG: It was such a secret, and then I found it. And then I moved to Chicago, and then I moved back again. But the first time I was here, I met Hilarie through a good friend of both of ours.
HB: Uh huh. I was friends with the lead singer in a band, and he had a girlfriend, and I was a third wheel, and so, he was like, ‘Come out to dinner. My girlfriend’s friend is gonna be there. You two can talk.’ So I show up, and there’s Nick! Aw, my sweetheart! Yeah, we got along really really well, and then I found out you’re a writer. Wasn’t it trivia night? At like, Copper Penny, or something?
NG: It was trivia night. We didn’t win.
HB: No, we’re not smart, but we are really cute and fun!
NG: We had a few good answers though.
HB: Yeah?
NG: Yeah.
HB: I can’t remember that shit. You’re the writer. [laughs] We will bleep that out later, or not. So yeah, you gave me a script for “Pedestrian” not too much longer than that, and I read it, and it was unreal. I get tons of scripts all the time, but this one was really really solid, and I brought it in to the production office of One Tree Hill and handed it around to some people, and Kelly, [pointing to camera] he’s grinning now, is the person that decided, yeah, this is really worthwhile. So, that’s our team, guys. Sometimes you just meet people in a bar and they change your life. You changed my life, Nick.
NG: Mhm. You have changed my life.
HB: [laughing] Alright we are gonna go make out later. See you guys!
Both: Bye!
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