He just released his new reel, which includes several shots from Causality. In honor of his hard work, and as a sneaky way to get you to watch his reel, we’re giving away free “Causality” T-Shirts to anyone who catches ALL of the Causality shots that Seth included in his reel. Now, keep in mind, you can’t be a member of the cast or crew to win this! That wouldn’t be fair (and you guys are getting tshirts anyway!)

So, watch this 2 minute reel, and in the comments, list all the shots that you think are from Causality. Make sure your email address is listed, so we can contact you if you win! Good luck!

And if you’re in the business, hire Seth! He’ll make your project better, and entertain you along the way!

I just did another snappy, funny podcast appearance, this time with Tim Keaty and Meescha Dare of Surfing Aliens. SA reports on webseries, and it was great to be included with some of their (awesome, talented, and prestigious!) guests.

Go here for the post and audio, and listen to some of their other interviews while you’re at it.

We have only 5 more shoot days to go until ALL OF SEASON ONE IS IN THE CAN! Well, on the hard drive, as modern filmmaking tends to be, but still WE ARE SOOOO CLOSE TO FINISHING PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY!

Sorry about all the caps, but I’m excited. And we’ll all be even more excited if we can see those views keep moving towards quadruple digits while we shoot.

So please, watch, share, watch again, tell your friends to share. And thank you for being part of this journey! There is SO MUCH MORE TO COME!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnd8tyJtzm0
Vimeo (better quality): http://vimeo.com/61045062

The website that you can catch us on: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gregwhall/2013/03/15/episode-twenty-nine-interview-with-glynis-mitchell

The call-in number:  (347) 215-6325

Hope to hear from you!

Yesterday, we got to premiere our new trailer to a surprisingly large and enthusiastic audience at Emerald City Comicon, and it got a great response — including from our cast and crew, who hadn’t had a chance to see it yet! This version has clips from scenes throughout the season (since we’re now more than two-thirds done with filming!), and it has better color grading and special effects than last year’s sneak preview. We really think this one finally shows off what the actual finished episodes are going to look like, and we put a lot of work into getting this done for you on time.

Everyone who didn’t get a chance to see it yesterday has been clamoring for us to put it online, so without further ado, here it is! We hope you like it — let us know what you think, and tell your friends!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnd8tyJtzm0
Vimeo (better quality): http://vimeo.com/61045062

CAUSALITY: HOW TO MAKE A WEBSERIES AND NOT LOSE YOUR MIND

Room: 3AB
Start: 3:00PM
End: 3:55PM

Webseries: they are so in right now! “Causality” is a long-anticipated series debuting in 2013 after almost two years of hard work, setbacks, and major buzz. Why did it take this long? Was it worth it? How did we get through it? And why choose the webseries format? Join Glynis Mitchell (Writer/Producer/Actress/Art Department), Ralph Fontaine (Director/Producer/Actor), Michael Montoure (Writer/Producer/Props Lead/Editor), Carolynne Wilcox (Actress), Gabriel Sedgemore(Actor) and Seth Wessel-Estes (Director of Photography)for a frank discussion of the joys and challenges of creating original, high-quality video content for the internet, with a bonus viewing of the pilot episode.

That last part is not strictly accurate — we thought we would have the pilot episode ready to show for this convention, but we weren’t able to make it happen in time. instead, we’re going to have our first full season one trailer, which will finally give you the best look at how the show is going to look and feel when it’s done. We can’t wait to show it to you and we look forward to seeing you all there.

I hope to make up for the lack of posting by sharing some GREAT stills from recent shoots. And some numbers. Now, I bet you’re like “What? Numbers?” How about more stills, fewer numbers.” Unless you’re some kind of math nerd, which is entirely possible, in which case you’re like “Get to the numbers already, enough with the yipyap!”

At any rate, here it comes:

When Talent Collides: Trin Miller as Lisa gives Gabe Sedgemore’s Mason a talking to.

A bit of gothic horror? Do you see that creepy bed behind Pearl Klein as Emma? That was a bit of set-dressing good luck gold that made Pearl’s haunting scene even creepier.

Carolynne Wilcox as Dr. Genesee uneasily agrees to wear a mysterious device placed on her by Jude, portrayed by Ralph Fontaine (or in this case, his hands.)

Holly (Glynis Mitchell) shows Mason that she means business.

Aaaand, the numbers:

Pages in Script: 126
Pages shot to date: 77
Amount of footage shot: 838.28 GB
Average Cast & Crew size per day: 14
Shoot days to date: 17
Shoot days remaining: 9
Red Bull, Cherry Coke Zero and String cheese consumed: Unknown

Wow. I’m tired just thinking about all of that. Time for a nap. Then more filmmaking. Thanks for following along, and don’t miss our panel at Emerald City Comicon on March 3! We’ll tell you how to make a webseries without going crazy. Wait until you hear the secret…

But wait. Uh oh, guys. It’s another SRS GLYNIS POST.

This weekend we filmed one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever written. I didn’t know it at the time, but I wrote it for our partner Ralph Fontaine. I’m in it, but I’m silent, no dialogue. I can’t really tell you what it’s about, of course. But writing, producing, stunt choreographing, and acting it made it the most personal piece of art I’ve ever created. Or, in this case, helped create. Because as much as I sometimes felt like it, I was never once alone.

When I was younger I was heavily influenced by Absurdist playwrights like Beckett and Pinter. I also started my writing life as a poet, heavy on imagery and repetition. Now, you can write abstract, poetic dialogue like that, but it sounds pretentious and full of shit if you just play it straight. You have to have that cliche thing: motivation. A scene, as abstract as the words might be, has to be about something.

We made it about something. It’s a dream sequence, and it drives the action of the next scene, which gives our main characters action and agency and some pretty fine heroics.

But the dream. The dream. The nightmare. It was horrific. The entire week leading up to it I began having rolling panic attacks. There were things, traumatic things, that I drew on from my life and the lives of people I knew and loved to make just two goddamn angles of one goddamn shot that half a dozen people told me not to do at all.

It was a closed set, just four people, for privacy and adult themes. While performing, I didn’t feel one single kind of pain except the adrenaline of acting during the work itself. I watched playback for the technical aspects of our stunts. I talked with our director about which take felt the best. I got up after every stunt and did it again, padless and covered in dirt.

I came out the other side of the shoot bloody, bruised, and feeling like I had been shot in the gut and left to die slowly in the sun. I couldn’t even feel human. Not the rest of that day, not the next day. I had nightmares, waking dreams, trauma flashbacks. I barely slept. I couldn’t stop crying. I was an embarrassing mess on set the next day.

That night we were going to watch the rough footage. For reasons irrelevant to this narrative, I didn’t get to. But I knew — I knew — that I had to. It wasn’t about exorcizing inner demons. I think most of the time when people say that about their art it’s a crock. (Not all the time. There is great art spun from pure suffering.) Go take a boxing class if you need to punch your demons in the face. Or get a LiveJournal account. Whatever. (I run, and lift weights.) I think my partners may have worried about me seeing the footage so soon, that it wasn’t the right time, maybe I should wait and heal up. But I just knew.

The panic didn’t stop that night, and got bad enough that I asked a friend to drive me to the hospital. By that time, the scenes had been uploaded to our Dropbox. She and I watched them on my phone while sitting in the ER.

And suddenly, the pain I had felt went away. All I saw was something beautiful. Not pretty, no. Terrifying, sure. I could hardly imagine the bravery of my crew, my acting partner. They were magnificent. And I helped a little, by writing a stupid bunch of words that could have meant nothing, or worse than nothing. Who cares about a skinned knee when you see that light, that angle, that camera move, that expression? Why would I give one flying fuck about my pain when they performed such alchemy?

My therapist asked me earlier in the week: Why do it at all? Why retraumatize yourself?

I guess I did relive some trauma. For a weekend. One weekend. But finally seeing what we’d done, I got it. This hurt wasn’t about me. These weren’t my “demons” or my issues or whatever. This was about everyone I knew who had been hurt by other people. I couldn’t claim this story. It’s not just mine. It belongs to many, now including the artists who made it happen.

My friend that I watched the footage with said, “Wow. That was…I wish I had a camera so I could have captured every expression on your face as you watched that.” I don’t know what I looked like, but she was the one who originally told me about the difference between pretty and beautiful.

I wish scary things didn’t happen, but they do. As artists it’s our job to be honest about them. Being honest is hard. But in the end, somebody has to tell the scary stories.

But this weekend we had not one but TWO great photographers taking behind the scenes pictures: Regan McStravic and Matthew Bodaly. I’ll be putting those out in the next couple of weeks to tantalize you.

And! And. We’re going to have a full Causality panel at Emerald City Comic Con on the first week of March with myself, Ralph Fontaine, Michael Montoure (who has a new book out!), Director of Photography Seth Wessel-Estes, and hopefully a couple more actors. Watch this space or our Facebook page for more details!

But we did discuss the deoderant of the future, Rule 34 and a whole heck of a lot more. Have a listen, won’t you? And don’t hold it against me.