$5 Cover Seattle – The Screening!

Last night, after an afternoon of shopping for the perfect dress to wear to the MTV screening (a pink tiered lace shift dress for under $30) I arrived at the entrance to the SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival) Cinemas to get a preview of all 12 Episodes of $5 Cover Seattle with my fellow cast and crew.

For those of you who don’t know about the series, here’s a short description taken from the MTV’s $5 Cover Seattle Website:

Set in the thriving contemporary music scene of Seattle, this musical series will invite viewers to tag along with the hottest up-and-coming bands for a wild weekend as they work, sweat, perform, and party in Seattle’s clubs, bars, after hours speak easies and crash pads.

Both a long-form rock musical and 12-part series, $5 Cover Seattle will capture the color, flavor and texture of Seattle’s real nightlife – as well as the hairy-tongued mornings after. With all the musicians playing themselves in stories drawn from their actual lives, the show will emphasize the authentic intimacy of a living, breathing musical community, as a well as a sweet, deadpan sense of humor.

Season 2, Seattle will be directed by Lynn Shelton, the award-winning filmmaker, who’s a longtime fixture of the Northwest-Pacific film and music scene and the director of the 2009 indie comedy, “Humpday” which premiered to premiered to critical acclaim at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. “The idea is that it’s a way to experience a particular city through the city’s music that’s happening now. That’s what’s so cool about it,” she recently said.

A little late, and a little flustered with traffic, I walked up to the entrance to be checked off the guest list. Upon entering the cinema, I was overwhelmed with the smell of popcorn, and the crowds of hundreds of people all waiting in anticipation for the screening to begin. However, with a little searching I found a group of people I knew towards the front of the theatre and sat down to view the show.

It was great seeing everybody again, and being in such close quarters with so many talented people was quite a rush. You never realize how truly tight-knit the Seattle film community is until you get them all in a room together.

I must say, I am quite proud of the work I did on the project, wrangling extras and what not, and I even caught a glimpse of myself making a little cameo in a few of the episodes!

All 12 Episodes were screened, as well as sneak peak of some behind the scenes documentaries on Seattle as well as all 13 featured bands. It all turned out so amazing, and I am so proud to have been a part of the project. In reference to my last post berating MTV about their lack of music, I do say that with these soon to be released “webisodes” chronicling the Seattle music scenes, MTV has slightly redeemed themselves.

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to see the episodes, keep your eyes peeled for the world premier this Summer!

Also, check out the trailer!

The Jersey What? An Examination of American Youth

So…
I was just mindlessly watching a television talk show titled The View this morning and one of the featured guests on the show was the cast of the MTV reality series The Jersey Shore, and I could not go through my day without saying something about it.

Now, I don’t watch much reality TV, nor have even had a chance to watch much television in the past few months, but from what I observed in the 20 minutes or so they were talking with the ladies of The View, I was flabbergasted, and disgusted as to how disconnected these people were from the real world.

So I did a little more research…

Now, if you are unfamiliar with the show like I am, here’s a little background as quoted from Wikipedia:

The show examines the lives of eight young cast members living and vacationing on the various resorts along the Jersey Shore, more specifically the town of Seaside Heights. In exchange for living and partying in the shore house, each member of the cast is required to work shifts at a local boardwalk t-shirt store. Failure to comply with the ground rules set by their boss, who owns the shore house in which the cast resides, results in termination and eviction from the shore house.

Now as I see it, this is a show about these twenty-something year old, Italian-Americans (or Guido’s), living a lifestyle of partying and promiscuity with little to no consideration of the ramifications. Much like past reality shows, such as the Real World, The Hills, and the like, I can see how people can be drawn to this kind of “entertainment”. It’s a glimpse into a lifestyle that few people can even imagine experiencing, and it’s exciting to behold. Viewers are on the edge of their seats waiting to see what is going to happen next, but they don’t realize how unsustainable this lifestyle they envy truly is.

Given some consideration that there is still a level of “scripted-ness” when dealing with these kinds of shows, it is still a portrayal of the lifestyles certain people actually live.
In addition, with how quickly information is disseminated nowadays, the people on these shows attract wider attention and fame than ever before.

They are loved and they are hated. They are an obsession, a fad. Fans envy them, they want to be them, and they emulate them. Now, the emulating, is what I’m really worried about.

This is how I see things playing out…

These characters take their $5000 an episode and 15 minutes of fame, and then what?
People don’t see that 10, 20 years from now, most of these reality “stars” will be burnt out, and virtually forgotten while the next hot, young thing takes their place.

So, do they have a plan?
My guess is probably not.

Given the recent removal of the words “Music Television” from MTV’s iconic logo, (Read more about it Here), MTV has truly made the shift from a priority on Arts and Music to something more… I can’t even think of a word for it.

In my very frank opinion, I see this as another example of the dumbing down of America. Thanks to the broadcasting efforts of television networks such as MTV, the world sees America as a country full of partying, uneducated, and spoiled youth.
It is a stereotype that my generation is quickly becoming, and I feel near helpless in stopping it.
This is the youth of America, the future of the country, and I am genuinely concerned about the direction we are heading in.

I understand that I am talking about only one demographic of America, but considering that we are constantly bombarded by these images and ideas through every source of information out there from television, radio, and internet, this needs to be addressed.

It seems that all we see are extremes, we’re essentially becoming an extreme culture thriving off of the ridiculous celebrity lifestyles portrayed on television.

We want to see people make a fool of themselves on national television.
We want to see how screwed up people can be.
We want to be just like them.
Americans are ridiculous!

What has happened to the American Youth?
What about an education and establishing yourself as a responsible adult?

Yes, there is a time for partying, but there is also a time to show some accountability.

Now that’s something that I’d be interested in watching.

We’ve fallen down the endless rabbit hole, and there seems to be no chance of getting out to see reality, and by reality, I mean REALity.
Say goodbye to entertainment as you know it, and hello to a new era of televised absurdity.

I’ll end this rant before I get even more upset, but don’t think this is the last you’ll hear from me about “Reality” TV.

Any thoughts?

Until next time…

Ted Kennedy Died.

I just saw that on breaking news twenty minutes or so ago.

Wow.

Not that I really knew that much about him, Cancer, scary stuff.

All I really know is that he was a Senator, and killed someone. My dad always said, “Never forget Chappaquiddick” – I just learned how to spell that two minutes ago.

Well, I don’t really know what more I can say on that subject…

In other news, this week is going to be really busy again. More MTV work this Sunday, this time I’m on my own. Cool! But I’ll talk about that some other time.

It’s my mother’s birthday tomorrow, I’m taking her to Seattle for a special lunch, she doesn’t know where yet, it’s a surprise. Then to the Market to shop. Shop Shop Shop.

I was talking to this girl the other day, and I’m thinking she might just become one of my newest good friends. Everything is so subjective these days, objective? Subjective? Like fashion, for instance. I might think that I’m super cool and stylish, but some other person might think I’m a bimbo or completely square.

This morning as I was prepping myself for the day I was thinking of how cheesy my blog title is; and then I was thinking of how completely un-clever I am. I kind of thought I was being clever then, I mean, I like that movie, Sleepless in Seattle, maybe it would have been funnier if I had chosen “Styleless in Seattle”. Oh well, I’m just not one of those types I suppose. You know, the clever and original ones. What crap. Who’s ever truly original these days? Anything you try to do you’re fitting into some sort of mold whether you like it or not.

You might be wondering, what the hell Michelle? What’s with this pissy attitude?

I’m not being pissy, I’m just being real.

Uh, well, I started a sewing project the other day, I’m making a Romper.

Look it up.

Oh, and…

Casual Tuesdays

(Urban Outfitters V-neck Shirt, Forever21Tank, Banana Republic Bootcut Jeans)

After one very busy Monday, it’s nice to have a day off to sleep in and stay at home. The weather is beautiful and life is good.

Yesterday, I had the amazing opportunity to help work on an MTV web series shoot called $5 Cover Seattle directed by Lynn Shelton with director of photography Ben Kasulke (Here’s a link to the Memphis Series) . Needless to say, it was an awesome experience.

I was enjoying a nice afternoon with my good friend Liz on Capitol Hill; we got Indian food, people watched in Cal Anderson park, and got some iced drinks at Caffe Vita. We decided to go for a walk and explore some parts of the Hill we’d never been to, it was then that I ran into another friend, Ben. Ben had been working as an extras coordinator for $5 Cover Seattle, and they were shooting that afternoon at Chop Suey with the band Thee Emergency.

It wasn’t long after that I got roped into helping out with the shoot, and I gladly did. This was not only an opportunity to gain more set experience, but also to be on MTV!

Ben had been working extremely hard trying to gather extras for this shoot, yet we had only managed to get about 20 people, and it was half an hour before we had to shoot. We needed to get creative, so I volunteered to hit the streets of Capitol Hill and get more recruits. Yes, little me, roaming the streets of Capitol Hill, talking to complete strangers, trying to get them to come to the MTV shoot, and trying very hard not to sound like I’m insane. Crazy? Probably, but it worked! By the end of the night we had a great turn out, not as much as we wanted, but much more than we started with.

The best part of the night? I got to be an extra too! As they began setting up the shot, I stood in the back of the crowd, admiring my job well done; it was then that Lynn Shelton herself came up behind me and pushed me to the front and center of the crowd. The only word I remember her yelling at me was “Dance!”. So I did, and I danced my arse off for what seemed like an endless amount of shots and had fun doing it. The music was great, the people, the crew, everything was amazing.

So it seems now that I am Ben’s official unofficial Extras assistant, so hopefully I’ll be bringing back more behind the scenes MTV stories in the next few weeks.

That’s it for now!