Vlog #35: What's in a Title...

first vlog on the new site! Enjoy!

[Hilarie is laying on a couch with Nick sitting on a chair behind her]

Hilarie Burton: Nick, I am so tired.

Nicholas Gray: I bet you are.

HB: Aren’t you so tired?

NG: I was tired a few days ago.

HB: Do you want to tell everybody why we’re tired?

NG: Well, we are tired because we have wrapped on our first webisode of our web series.

HB: Totally.

NG: “Friendship Union Community Theatre.”

HB: [whistles] Probably the best theatre company…

NG: Good whistle!

HB: Thank you. The best theatre company ever, right? I mean, at least that we’ve worked in.

NG: Yeah. Best, or the worst, depending on who’s looking at it.

HB: Sometimes that’s the same thing. [Nick agrees] Yeah, we wrapped… we shot for two whole days. How many actors did we have on this thing?

NG: Eight.

HB: No ego. Well… [Nick wiggles his eyebrows] There’s that one… [mutters] Anetta…

NG: [groans with a smile] Anetta Jenkins…

HB: [laughing] No. We had such an awesome, awesome crew, and such an awesome cast. We shot for two days in a location downtown… on the fifth floor… with a broken elevator… which was awesome! And you directed your little ass off, Nick!

NG: Yeah!

HB: Did you have fun?

NG: I did have fun. I think it was… you know, I think we really put that whole thing together in a little over two weeks.

HB:… which was not the right amount of time. [laughs]

NG: No, but it happened!

HB: Ideally for the second one, because there will be a second one, how much time do you think we need to get that set up?

NG: I mean I’m not really sure, because Kelly always tries to get me to do things really fast…

HB: Yeah… [whipping motion]

NG:… and then he won’t let me do it for a longer time later. [laughs and smiles at Kelly off camera]

HB: Yeah, now you’ve set a precedent and now you’re only allowed two weeks from here on out. [both laugh] God, that sucks!

NG: I mean, I don’t really know. You know, I haven’t started writing the next episodes yet, but once we do that… I mean, it might be nice to have, like, three weeks.

HB: [sarcastically] What? Three whole weeks?

NG: Well, I mean on and off.

HB: What was your favorite part about directing?

NG: My favorite part about directing was…

HB:… wrapping? [both laugh]

NG: No, I think I… you know, I enjoy learning things, because I’m a student.

HB: What did you learn?

NG: Well, I learned about… you know, I’m really comfortable with a lot of theatre stuff. I mean, this is really the first thing that I’ve directed for film besides for… because I never paid attention in college when we were supposed to be making films.

HB: [laughs] You were going to be a director!

NG: Yeah, something like that.

HB: [laughing]… but you never paid attention to directing before.

NG: Yeah, I was in a dining hall. They had awesome waffles in there and stuff.

HB: Oh, we love waffles! We love breakfast for dinner in general.

NG: But, no, I mean, when you’re directing for film it’s an entirely different process, and it wasn’t something I was entirely comfortable with, but I learned a lot, and maybe I’ll do the finale.

HB: So, who else is gonna direct?

NG: You are…

HB: I don’t… oh, I’m scared!

NG: You’re gonna do the one that’s gonna be an entire steady cam shot for the whole…

HB: Oh yeah! We are gonna do one webisode where we take one whole day just to rehearse the whole thing, and then the whole five minute webisode is all one shot. I think we can do it.

NG: Happy birthday, Grandma!

HB: [does arm motion] Happy birthday, Grandma!

NG: [laughs] You guys will have no idea what that means.

HB: Nope, but you’re gonna love it when you find out!

NG: You, and Billy…

HB: Kelly’s going to direct. Billy’s going to direct. We will probably make somebody out of the bar, at some point, that we’ll let direct, because we make poor choices when we’re out. [both laugh]

NG: No, we don’t!

HB: No, we don’t. Yeah, I mean, we’re all gonna take turns and play and I’m sure we’ll all have different styles, so look forwards to you guys figuring out who’s doing what! But yeah, we’re gonna nap for, like, the next couple days, and when ‘Friendship Union Community Theatre’ is good and ready, it’s on kids! ‘Till then… Nighty night!

Vlog #34: SOGOPRO.COM!!!

The day we have all been waiting for... THE NEW WEBSITE IS UP!!

Go look around, check it out, and enjoy the new look.

sogopro.com... check it out!

Hopefully I will be moving these transcripts onto the website soon, so the new Transcript home base will be there as well.. looking forwards to that!

Enjoy the welcome video!

[Nick, Hilarie, and Kelly on screen on the new SOGOPRO WEBSITE!]

Hilarie Burton: Hi everyone. Welcome to the Southern Gothic Productions web page. I’m Hilarie Burton, and these are my business partners, Kelly Tenney and Nick Gray, and together we have built this website to give you an all access look at what goes on with the building of a production company. So please feel free to join us. Hang out in the chat room. Make new friends, and we’re really glad you’re a part of our team!

Vlog #33: Hilarie and Denise

Give a warm welcome to Podcaster Denise (as we know her =] ) who will soon be hosting the fabulous Southern Gothic Productions Podcast!

But since that isn't up and running YET, go visit her One Tree Hill Podcast in the meantime.

[Hilarie and Denise are sitting at a restaurant table]

Hilarie Burton: Well, good morning everyone! I don’t know if it’s morning where you live, but it’s definitely morning where we are! It’s Hilarie, hanging out here with Denise Gideon, known as Podcaster Denise on all of our sites.

Denise Gideon: Well, yup, most of the time. I did get a new one from my syndicator.

HB: Okay!

DG: Are you ready?

HB: Yeah.

DG: Podcaster Rock Star.

HB: Well! There it is. She’s got a tour bus and everything. You should have seen her when she pulled up into town. It was ridiculous. You have been taking such good care of us, and really promoting us, and that’s even before Southern Gothic took off, you know, you were taking care of me way back on One Tree Hill and have been such an advocate for everything we’ve been doing here in Wilmington. I’m so appreciative of that, and we’re really stoked to have you on board kind of guiding our Southern Gothic Productions podcast. Do you want to tell everybody at home kind of how the podcast world works?

DG: Well, you go in and you do the recording, but you’ve got to make it pretty and make it sound pretty, right?

HB: Yeah, that’s all you. I just show up and run my mouth, man.

DG: We had a little bit of a test run. The fans are going to be able to hear two podcasts when we finally get it launched. Oh gosh.

HB: Okay! What is that, like, three hours of programming?

DG: No, the first one was 50 minutes because we had a lot to say.

HB: Yeah.

DG: Right? We had a lot to say. And the next one was 30, that’s going to be our format.

HB: Okay.

DG: 30 minutes a time. Don’t want to spill too many beans at once, right?

HB: And then, I’m constantly traveling around and having to go here and there for work and stuff, and so, we’re doing everything over Skype, which is cool. What a neat invention! Technology’s crazy!

DG: Also, you gotta be able to have that mixing board just right, you know?

HB: Yeah.

DG: I got my new stuff to make it sound so pretty.

HB: How did you learn to do all of that?

DG: I taught myself.

HB: Awesome. Dude, I don’t know, computers. [waves hand]

DG: I was supposed to be a writer. I was supposed to be, you know, media relations and write pretty words.

HB: Is that what you went to school for?

DG: Yeah, communications and journalism and somehow I found myself speaking into a microphone. A year ago, right? You were just on that One Tree Hill Podcast’s 1^st anniversary…

HB: Yeah, man.

DG: … and so, you helped us celebrate a year. I started all of this on May the 20^th, 2008.

HB: Awesome. You’ve come a long way in a year. You’re syndicated for two shows now?

DG: Well, when we sign the deal! [laughs]

HB: Well, we’re working on it. For anybody at home that doesn’t understand syndication and stuff like that, walk them through this last year a little bit. You know, you decide to start doing this podcast, you just started doing it on your own, and then at what point do you get a phone call where it’s like, this is bigger than it used to be?

DG: Well, I was going through Podbean, and all of a sudden… I was using the free version… and then all of a sudden, it exploded, and I started having to pay for it. Right after the 4^th of July, I get a call, and the guy goes ‘Are you the host of this podcast?’ and I said ‘Yeah.’ I was thinking, ‘what did I do wrong?’

HB: ‘Am I in trouble? I didn’t say anything I sware!’ [both laugh]

DG: And so, and then all of a sudden, he says ‘hey, my name’s Jeffrey, and I’m co-owner of FarPoint Media, and we would love to syndicate you. We’re not pressuring you, but we would love to.’ ‘Okay, no problem.’ And then they tell me ‘you need to step it up a little bit. You’re just talking about the show, and you need to step it up.’ ‘Step it up? Okay. Well, music is a big part of the show, I’m going to start this Artist’s Alley.’ ‘Hey, why don’t you just go big, and start big?’ Called and got in contact with Jarrod Gorbel from The Honorary Title.

HB: Yeah, awesome.

DG: And he was my first guest, and, you know, interviewed two people you may know, like, you know, Ben Wysocki from The Fray.

HB: Oh, yes, it’s just the Fray, no big deal.

DG: It’s no big deal.

HB: None. None at all. And then, you know, you came and visited us on One Tree Hill, and got everybody while you were there, and so, yeah, as we truck along with Southern Gothic…

DG: Well, everybody but you. Because, I don’t know if you know this, but it was a joke that, you know, it was kind of my goal to have you on my podcast…

HB: [laughs] Girl, I was holding out until I got a show of my own.

DG: Exactly!

HB: [dances] And now look what happened? Check me out!

DG: [laughing] That’s exactly what it was! But, you know, I learned patience, and learned that no really doesn’t mean no, it just means someday.

HB: Just not yet! But here we are now, hanging out at a bar in the morning, shooting our very first webisode, and getting ready to launch this podcast series. I’m really happy you’re here. Thank you for being a part of the Southern Gothic team.

DG: No problem.

HB: And yeah guys, we’re going to be bringing you all sorts of fun stuff so stick around! Bye!

Vlog #32: Gator... Theatre and webisodes...

Love theatre? Go let Hil and Nick know what your favorite shows are!

[Hilarie is sitting on stairs, playing with a gator head, Nick enters from top of the stairs]

Hilarie Burton: Hey Nick!

Nicholas Gray: Hey Hil! What’s up?

HB: I’m just talking to Kevin.

NG: Your gator?

HB: Yeah.

NG: You know what rhymes with gator?

HB: No, what?

NG: Theatre!

HB: Oh my god! You’re right! Theatre!

NG: Yeah!

HB: Oh, we love theatre! And gators, obviously. [holds up gator head] Kevin. Yeah, we’re doing our web series about theatre, which is coming along. How late did we stay up last night with you doing your shot list?

NG: I don’t even know because I’m not even done with my coffee yet.

HB: Yeah, he’s still gotta wake up. It’s early in our neck of the woods. So yeah, we stayed up, we did the shot list last night. We watched some stuff that’s inspired us. What’s some stuff that’s inspired us lately? We watched ‘Summer Heights High’ last night, which is... [begins to quote show] ‘She’s a naughty girl with a bad habit…’ [both start laughing] If you haven’t seen Summer Heights High, please do yourself a favor and watch that. Also to inspire us with our series we watched ‘Hamlet 2.’

NG: Oh, yeah.

HB: Great film. Great film. You know, I…

NG: Caftans.

HB: Caftans are fun. So yeah, we’ve been watching some stuff that is inspiring us, but also stuff that we don’t want to get too close to. You know, we’re watching everything else that’s out there so we’re not derivative, and we’re doing something different.

NG: And then we also, you know, we’re always doing work and then we distract ourselves by talking about other things, and last night we were talking about our favorite roles in theatre that we would like to play.

HB: It’s so true.

NG: And what was yours?

HB: The Burton family as a whole, and this includes my three brothers, really, really loves ‘Les Miz.’ And is started off like, oh god, like 15 years ago, there was a PBS special on, it was like the big 10^th anniversary special of ‘Les Miz,’ and they would air it on PBS every five minutes, and my brother John wanted to call in and sing on T.V., so my big, strong brother John called in, he was like five years old, and I think he sang that song [quotes song] ‘Damn their warnings! Damn their lies!’ just so he could cuss on the phone in elementary school. So yeah, we’re obsessed with it. I love it. I think about those songs all the time, you know, just walking down the street, ‘empty chairs at empty tables,’ god, it breaks my heart! [laughs] What’s yours?

NG: Well, I think I would be a really good Alan Strang in ‘Equus’ because…

HB: You’re so highbrow.

NG: … I’m such an exhibitionist. [gives the camera a look, both start laughing] And, you know, I probably would like to play Boq in ‘Wicked.’

HB: Oh yeah!

NG: Because I’m such a little midget.

HB: What? That’s so not true. [moves down one step] Look, you’re so much bigger than I am! [both make noises] Yeah, ‘Wicked’ is such a good show, Kristin Chenoweth is fantastic.

NG: Kristin Chenoweth rules!

HB: Yeah, she really does. We should get her for ‘Pedestrian.’

NG: Yeah we should. Let’s call her… you listening, Kristin?

HB: [makes phone dialing noises] Calling. [puts gator head up to her head as a makeshift phone] Oh, hello Kristin. Oh sorry, that’s Kevin. Anyway, so those are our favorite shows, you guys have been really cool about talking to us about your favorites, but for those of you who haven’t written in, let us know which shows you’re into. Oh, and, just so you guys know as far as t-shirt sales goes, the girls shirts are selling like crazy, and we are running out of those. But, the men’s shirts are equally as cool, [whispers] they’re softer, [stops whispering] and we have a lot of those left, and we have them in small sizes, so they fit you cute little petite things. So yeah, order those if you can’t get your hands on a female size. [looks at Nick] Anything else? [long silence as Nick thinks] I guess not. [both start laughing] See you later. [they continue to laugh]