Special Edition Yankles Video Blog: "How did I know what to say....?"

So throughout the week, we found ourselves discussing and quoting various videos. I've provided a central location for you to see what we were laughing about so much...


EXTRAS: Sir Ian McKellan Discusses his Method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKDbu3grA0Q

Doo Dah Doo Doo: The Dance Instruction Tape for Children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=todQtQrOUZs

Richard Simmons on Who's Line is it Anyway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTxkxG3DF4k

The Yankles Day 5: "Who the Hell is Lynch?"

Current mood:energetic

Today marks the completion of Day 5...Week 1...Dollar Days! It's amazing how much work has been put into this week already. I barely remember what happened on Monday. It seems like soooo long ago.

So back to Dollar Days, which will also explain my title for the day. Each Friday is "Dollar Day." We have a giant bucket, which in this case was an old bubble gum bucket. P.A.Tony, who is the one that always get to yell out, "Rrrrrrolling! Quietpleeeeaasseeee?!?" was running the bucket around. Everyone puts in a dollar bill...or 2 or 3 if they wish....with their name on it. After the final shot of the day, a dollar bill is drawn out, and the person who's name is on the bill, gets the entire bucket of money. So the anticipation was growing...we were all anticipating the final shot so we could have the drawing, and all I kept thinking was, "I should have put a freaking dollar in the bucket!" So finally, the time had come...David (our director) had the honor of drawing the name. The suspense was killing me...and Daivd called out the name "Lynch!" And all of the sudden you hear Dusty (1st A.D.) yell out, "Lynch? Who the hell is Lynch?" haha no one knew who this guy was, until finally a P.A. yelled out, he is in the Transportation Department. haha David thought..."Let's re-draw...he's not even here," but it was too late. P.A. Hailey had already jumped on her trusty radio and ruined everything by announcing that Lynch had one. So all of us gave a big "cheer" for Lynch and that was the end of our day.

But back to the beginning of our day. I was happy because I actually got to sleep in today. Call was at 1:30 PM which was awesome. I went by the eye doctor to pick up some more contacts, and then met the carpool at 12:15 to head down. We actually didn't end up leaving Smith's until like 12:45 because again we were waiting for "Peter Pressure Penis Wipe" (inside joke) Matt, and his trusty sidekick "Peter Pressure Penis Wipe" (inside joke) Jr. Nick. I volunteered to drive down today, and so Garet and Matt jumped into my car. We all knew that Matt wasn't actually in the scene we were shooting today, but for some reason they called him anyway. So as we were leaving the smith's parking lot we were thinking "Well, maybe you should drive just in case you DON'T have to stay, and then that way you won't be stuck sitting around." He thought that was smart so he drove himself down. He got a little jealous when Garet and I escaped traffic by using the carpool lane. He wasn't allowed....HAHA!

So all afternoon the big joke was, "I bet money that Matt won't be used today." We all arrived to the set right at 1:30 PM. There were no extras today so it was really quiet and deserted. We got dressed, and ended up sitting around until...oh about 7pm or so. We did the usual, sat at a table and just talked and laughed. We decided we should start a T.V. show with all of us called "Talking Shit!" haha cause it seems to be all that we do haha.

Even though I managed to sleep in, I ended up taking a couple hour nap in the trailer, and came out all disorientated. After the nap, we waited maybe 45 more minutes, and we finally got the good news that we were up to shoot. I learned the new term of "Martini Shot." That means the LAST shot of the day. We ended up finishing at about 9:00 tonight which wasn't too bad. Garet and I drove home and there was lots and lots of traffic.

We have the weekend off...YAY...and we'll be in Payson one more day, on Monday. Call time is early (7:45 AM). Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Peace Out!

P.S. I've created a new photo album in my pictures with shots on the set. Enjoy!

The Yankles Day 4: "Hi David! I’m your cinematographer. Remember me?"

Current mood:exhausted

There is such a good story behind that title, let me tell you. But first..."DOO DAH DOO DOO!" we have come to the end of Day 4!!!!! haha Is it weird if it seems to be going by fast, but at the same time you think, "It's only day 4?!"

Well, today was a crazy long day. I met the carpool at the Smiths in Draper (12300 South). We lounged on the cool picnic chairs on display out front while waiting for freaking "Peter Pressure Penis Wipe" (inside joke) Matt! So he drove up, and the same folks that drove down yesterday together were going to hop in the same car that Matt was driving. Well, I ran to my car to get my stuff out of my car, and all of the sudden I see them driving off into the distance!!!!! Yeah thanks alot jerks!! So I rode down with my real friends, Tyler and Mark. As usual we arrived early (this time about a half hour) so that we could enjoy a nice breakfast cooked for us by Pig Boys...well for some reason, they thought, "Well, they are here, we are not going to let them eat, and make them get ready a half hour early!!" WTF!?!?!? I am never going early again. I had fixed myself this nice plate, and it was all wasted....WASTED I TELL YA!

So...needless to say, my day started out a little rough. lol But they managed to put us right to work, which was nice not having to sit around doing nothing. So we began to film a few scenes using an old classroom in the Peteetneet Academy. (oh yeah, by the way...we are STILL in Payson!) haha Garet and I sat by each other most of the day. The classroom we were in was pretty warm, and he taught me a trick to keep myself cool using my hands as a sort of vent. So I was pretty excited about that. Also during this time...Garet, Boris (The Director of Photography, and myself) all decided that Dusty really just likes to yell....almost like it is a fetish of his haha. For those of you just joining us, Dusty is our 1st Assistant Director/Line Producer on the show. He says funny things like "Roll sound for god's sake!" He's great. The really cool thing is he has a lot of connections, and invited us all to give him our headshots/resumes & e-mails so we can all stay in touch and he can hopefully hook us up down the road.

They wouldn't let us go back to Base Camp (Where our Trailers were located) if we weren't being used, so in between shots and what not, we found ourselves across the hall in another room. It was much cooler in that room (they had A/C piping in). Speaking of A/C...they use those really cool temporary silver tubes to pipe it in...they almost look like slinkys. haha So during the break we played around with it a bit...discovered that I can actually fit inside the tube, so we put it over me, and it was like a walking slinky. Look for it on the behind the scenes takes on the Yankles DVD. It was pretty funny.

Also while we were waiting we ended up on the subject of 80's bands. It basically came down to the point that we felt like most of the 80's bands were pretty "Gay" haha...Erasure, Wham, Queen, etc. haha It was a funny conversation that seemed to keep us singing constantly. haha I love the 80s and there is no changing that.

We then had a nice long break and they decided to let most of us head back to our Trailers if we would like. So we did!!!! It was much cooler over there for sure. So Garet and I went and chilled on the grassy hill, and Susanne (the lead female) and her little dog blue, came over to visit and we all just talked for a while. It was nice, and fun to get to know her a little more. Then of course after maybe an hour, our time was up, and they took us back over to set.

Here we started filming a scene that takes place in the Jewish Synagogue (sp.) haha Garet and I headed straight for the front pew so that we were sure to be in the shot!! hehe Now, I get to tell you the story behind the title...I can't remember if I have mentioned it before, but David (The great Director) and Boris (The Director of Photography) always have cute little arguments on set. It seems pretty typical to have differences of opinions, and we all just laugh when it happens because it is just so silly. Well, today...David mentions something, and then all of the sudden you see him walking somewhere, and Boris is running after him and you hear Boris say, "Hi, David? I'm your cinematographer. Remember me?" It was sooooo funny and we couldn't stop laughing about it. Then of course Dusty chimes in later on with one of his "Dusty-isms": "Make no mistake...I - AM - THE BOSS!" haha He kills me.

So we're filming this sequence, and we are all suppose to be singing this Jewish Prayer out of our Prayer Books, but they didn't bother teaching us the song, and were just planning to dub the voices over later. Well, it seemed funny to me that if we were all mouthing our own version of the song, we weren't going to look together, so I hope it turns out well. We finally wrap on this big scene for the day. It involved a ton of extras and what not...and got out of there at like 9:30 or so.

It was a long day, but thankfully we have some really fun people in our little circle, and we just keep each other etertained! Only two more days of shooting in Payson (Friday, and Monday!) So not too bad. Tomorrow I don't have to be there untile 1:30 PM!!!!!! It's a miracle!

Anywho as always, thank you for reading, and be on the look-out for some pictures and even video coming soon!!!!

Much Love To Ya!

The Yankles Day 3: "Just Like a Real Movie"

Current mood:bouncy

Good evening Ladies and Gents! So the pressure's on...the Yankles Blog has climbed to a whole new level...*drum roll*...we're on Google! That's right, if you search for "The Yankles" guess what's first on the results...none other than Trevor Jerome's Yankles blog. CONGRATS TO ME!!!!!! hehe Thanks to Dusty our 1st A.D. for discovering that last night. He was trying to see if we had made it onto the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) yet, and came across it hehe. Now, Dusty has to be the coolest guy ever. He's good at what he does, and he's freaking hilarious as well. He's the guy that usually calls action and gets everything set up for the shot. Each time we get ready to shoot a scene he says something along the lines of, "Alright, let's do this baby! Just like a real movie!" hehe it makes us laugh everytime. So much, it made it on as today's title.

We just finished filming Day 3 (out of 15 for me). What a day. We took ourselves down to BFE...the middle of no where...to a land where no man seems to go anymore...the lovely town of Payson, UT and the old Peteetneet Academy (now a museum). I'm not sure that this town has seen this much action before. We had worked out a carpool and it made the drive much more fun. It actually didn't take us very long at all to get there (maybe 40-45 minutes)...we got there over an hour before our call-time hehe.  So we just hung out and had some awesome breakfast (Thanks Pig Boys)...they're our caterer!! YUM YUM!!!

For the first little while we Yankles got to just hang tight at our Trailers as they filmed "Gus the Bus Driver" (who actually isn't Black like the script says) painting new lettering on the school bus. I was able to get some really fun shots while they filmed that scene

After they shot that, we moved over to the Exterior of the School to get shots of everyone arriving for School, etc. This was particularly cool because of the fancy equipment such as the camera crane. Nicholas was pretty excited about it actually. He pretty much wet himself over all the cool stuff. He's way into that!! I was one of the "lucky" ones chosen to be seated on the bus. As it pulls up, me and a few others step off of the bus and walk down the walkway into the school. And I say "lucky" because I seem to be put in the most hot and steamy of places. The extra's kept complaining about how it was really hot outside, and we kept saying "Well, it's worse on the bus so you have it easy!" But then they naievely stated, "Well, if the bus was on, I would be jealous." What they didn't know that the bus didn't have A/C, so turning it on would....oh, make no difference what-so-ever...in fact, it would probably make it worse with the heat from the engine. I was getting much better at the accent, when I remembered to use it, so that was good. I need to practice as much as I can before my close up shots with the lines I have hehe.

Once we were done with that shot, we made our way over to the eating/lounging area/shade while we waited for them to film some other things. This was the beginning of a lovely 4.5 hour wait. A few of us managed to sit and talk and laugh about a lot of stuff during this time. Britt the P.A. who just happens to be Dusty's daughter is sooooo great. She caught on that we LOVED the Twizzler's Nibs that craft services made available to us, so she packed a bunch in her little pouch, and was constantly asking us if we needed some. SHE ROCKS!!!

So...we waited and waited....and waited. It was finally like 12:30 and we asked "When's lunch?" they said..."3:00 PM!!!" YIKES!!! That was too far away, so Britt took orders of what types of Sandwhiches we wanted, and had them make some for us. Again...she ROCKS!! :)

As we sat there and talked, and laughed many funny things came up....We tried picturing Sir Ian McKellan as Eddie Murphy and how it would come across. It had us laughing really hard. Then Michael Buster (Who plays one of our leads...Elliot) came to the table with a freaking HUGE pickle!! I was sooo jealous of his Pickle. It was much better than mine on set yesterday...just a nice, big, juicy pickle, and he just kept rubbing it in my face!!!

Soon after that, I can't even remember what we were talking about, but all of the sudden Nicholas said something (pretty much out of nowhere) that would end up being my favorite quote of the day: "Rape is Fun *cricket*cricket*" LOL it's one of those situations where you just had to be there, but it was hilarious.

Lunch FINALLY came at 3:00 PM, after we had still been waiting to do something. It was a good lunch. I had Lasagna and Chicken and Salad, but seemed to put WAY too much food on my plate. They gave us 30 minutes for lunch and then we had to change into our Baseball Uniforms to take a "Team Photo" for the movie. After the 30 minute photo, we had to change back into our school outfits, and continued waiting for another couple of hours again. As we were waiting, the dark storm clouds were rolling in and it started to rain...so we ran for cover and 4 of us piled into my trailer to wait it out. There we discovered that old people have dust farts, and we sang to Matt's wife on the phone. He called her mom by accident and we laughed pretty hard.

The time finally came for them to shoot one final scene for the day (a shot of me, Malasa, Eliezer, and Elliot coming up the stairs and walking in the hall. haha piece of cake. After that we were wrapped...THANK GOODNESS! No more sitting around and waiting. And we made our way home. It was a really fun day, and I'll upload some pictures to show you how crazy it was. This blog got really long, and it's way past my bed time. Tomorrow, we'll be down in Payson AGAIN, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

CIAO!

The Yankles Day 2: "I’ll Trade my Pickle for a...Nickel!"

Current mood:tired

Well folks, here we are; at the end of Day 2 of the big shoot. What a long day!!! Call time this morning was 7am at Granite High School in Salt Lake, and my portion of shooting ended at 7:20 PM. Gotta love 12 hour days.

As I pulled up to the shoot this morning, I was thinking "Oh this will be great. We are inside, and out of the heat, this will be soooo nice." Well, apparently, schools don't believe in A/C during the summers, and it ended up being hotter than Africa (my homeland) in there. Today we were in black suits and wearing black hats, and so we seemed to sweat quite a bit.

But at least it was a fun day. The guys and I really got to sit and talk/bond a lot, and it made it a really good time. Most of today's filming took place in the school cafeteria. The "Arts Department" had everything put together for us....trays of what seemed to be sandwiches....but really, I'm pretty sure it was a big wheat roll with a long pickle and a piece of lettuce on the side...oh and a bowl of pineapple. And I'm also pretty sure I DIDN'T receive any dessert hehe. Well, that's ok, I assume it's "Kosher?" The funny part is, I was trying to get someone else to trade my pickle with something better of theirs. I guess they weren't having it! haha After about 5-6 hours of shooting that scene, the pickle became really gross and yucky....I surely didn't eat it haha.

After we were done with the cafeteria shots (it was about 6:30pm by now) we moved into the Kitchen of the School for one final shot. As they were setting the lighting and getting everything ready for this shot, the guys and I found a walk-in freezer that we managed to get into and keep ourselves cool for a minute haha "How Many Yankles can you fit into a walk-in?" It was pretty funny, and maybe you'll end up seeing those on the behind the scenes footage haha

Tomorrow we are shooting down in Payson...anyone know where that is, because I sure don't! I hear it is about 20 minutes SOUTH of Provo, so basically about an hour and 1 hour and 15 minutes or so from SLC. We arranged a carpool down there so we all don't have to drive ourselves individually at the end of each night. Our call time tomorrow is 9:00 so not too bad...but I wonder if that means they'll keep us super late tomorrow!!! OH JOY! haha

Thanks for reading....stay tuned!

The Yankles Day 1: "10 Minutes!" x 5

Welcome to the "Yankles Blog Series." Here I will give you daily stories from being on set for the big movie. But first, I should probably give you some background about what this project is.

So about 3 weeks ago, I got cast in this feature film called "The Yankles." I originally wasn't planning to audition because the auditions were clear down in Provo, and it was a busy day at work, so I told my agent I wouldn't make this one. Well a few days later they called back pretty much saying that I had been requested this time, and so it seemed like they really needed me. So I said, ok...and went down to audition. The character I was going for was "Teshome" an Ethiopian who joins the baseball team. He is suppose to have some type of accent, and so I attempted to deliver what I thought was a rendition of an ethiopian accent...well really it ended up coming out more "Russian" than anything, but it worked well, and....I got the roll.

In a nutshell...the film is about The Yeshiva (A Jewish College) who forms a baseball team. Well, they don't have any direction or guidance, so they turn to an old ball player who is on Parole and needs some community service time, to lend a hand. In turn he is adapting to this whole Jewish culture that he is obviously not used to at all, and the team is learning a little bit about baseball.

Today was our first day on set. We filmed at the Mulligan Batting Cages in South Jordan. Nothing had really hit me yet until I was driving on 106th South approaching the location and saw all the many trailers and equipment out and ready for us. It was sooooo cool. I checked in, and went to my assigned "TRAILER!" That's right....I have a trailer!!!!! Inside the trailer, my costume for the day was waiting along with my contract. So I got dressed, and headed over to Hair & Make-Up. Basically they said I looked great, and all they needed to do was apply sun screen on my face and I was good to go....that was easy!

So after my 3 minute visit in Hair and Make-up I was ready to get started. They were already shooting another scene with a couple of the leads, so we had to just hang out and wait. A bunch of the other "Yankles" players were done and waiting around so we all just got to talk and hang out. This was about 9:00 when I was done and just hanging out.

The crazy part about shooting a movie is that there is a lot of hurry and wait...or just wait haha. We pretty much waited around for about 2 - 2.5 hours before we began our portion of filming. The 2nd Assistant Director kept coming around saying "Just about 10 minutes away from beginning." haha I think she came around maybe 5 or 6 times saying "10 minutes." So all of us guys kept joking about it..."Don't worry you guys, just 10 more minutes." haha SO by the time it was REALLY 10 minutes away, we didn't believe it haha.

11:30ish rolls around, and we finally get to head over to the set, and shoot our scene at the Batting Cages. I was one of the guys in the cage at bat. And they just shot a bunch of clips of us hitting balls in the cage. I was pretty excited when I actually hit a few balls. It had been a little while since I've played ball, so it was fun when it all started coming back to me. After shooting that scene, we were wrapped for the day haha....easy 4 hours work/ half hour of shooting hehe.

This is truly the beginning of 3 intense weeks of work/fun! I'm really excited to keep you updated on how things go :)  STAY TUNED.....

Celebrating the Yankles!

So through the Yankles Facebook Page, I just found out that the Producers/Directors have finally found a North American Distributor. This is a huge deal. It has been almost 5 years since we actually filmed the movie (Summer of 2007) and of course they had been working on the script for years and years before that. What an amazing landmark in this long journey.

To celebrate, I have decided to repost my blog series about the show for all to read. It's been fun looking back at all the memories. It was one of my favorite experiences I have had to date, and can't wait to share the final result with you all. Stay tuned for all the blog updates....

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