A Midsummer Night's Dream!

Over the past two months I've slowly but steadily been growing sideburns.

Over the past two months I've been commuting to Layton, 5 days a week.

Over the past two months I've been rehearsing for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Davis Arts council. Now you don't have to drive all the way to Cedar City to see a great production. And I do mean 'great' in every sense of the word. If I may quote fellow actor Dan Beecher, "It's probably better than community theatre deserves to be!"

There's are a few reasons for that. The first is director Mark Fossen, who has served as my acting teacher, mentor and fellow actor in the past. Mark learned to direct at cool places like NYU, so he knows a bit about directing and a lot about Shakespeare. Second, a good director attracts good talent and this show has some of Salt Lake's best. Mark's wife April Fossen (Mesa Verde at Plan-B) is Titania, Dan Beecher (The Caretaker at SLAC) is Bottom, Rhiannon Ross (An Ideal Husband at Pinnacle Acting Co.) is Helena, Sarah Young (Taming of the Shrew at Salt Lake Shakespeare) is Hermia and Topher Rasmussen (Borderlands at Plan-B) is Demetrius. I myself play Lysander and "here is a play fitted."

These aren't the only talented people involved, the whole cast consists of professionals, students and community members all of whom are incredibly enthusiastic and make a great performance. We open August 24th and run until August 29th, plus the fairy magic of the show really pays off in an outdoor venue.

Tickets are $10 for Adults and $7 for Children and Seniors at the Ed Kenley Amphitheater in Layton UT. You can take the UTA FrontRunner up to the Layton Station and enjoy a nice 20 minute walk through historic downtown and the park on your way to the venue. Click on the post title for a link to the Davis Arts Council website to find directions and info. Or just check out the map below.

Updates to my IMDB page

It's been a while since any real updates but here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to.

-Wrapped "War of the Worlds," my Theatre BA Thesis, which was a great success! We sold out the show in the first 10 minutes and had to pack people in as they came!

-Visited my close friend Gillian Merrill and her family in New York City to see her Off-Broadway debut in "Damn Actors" a new musical comedy. She was quite excellent!

-Was hired to film a dance performance for Salt Lake City Ballet. Their production included the dream scene from "Don Quixote" which was the same ballet that launched my mother's career. It was the first I've seen of it, but I thought it was rather good.

-Worked as Assistant Camera (1st and 2nd depending on the day) on a short film called "A Chair is a Chair" with RIOTentertainment. The film was commissioned as part of the multimedia gallery at The Leonardo in downtown SLC. It will play in the gallery for a year from the museum's opening. Margaret King, DP for "Ten," was my cam-op and got me involved.

-Worked as an assistant teacher at Youth Theatre at the U for my 4th summer in a row. I taught a bunch of kids to dance some bro moves to a Ke$ha soundtrack! I also won "Best Choreography" according to the office assistants at YTU.

-Worked on a commercial shot by Spitfire Studios out of Atlanta. Just a quick 1 day PA job but I got to hold a bounce board and watch a Red One move up and down on a Supertechnocrane!

-Got promoted at YTU. I'm currently in charge of my own company which is nothing but 14-18 year old girls. We're doing an all female Fosse review. Shelby Andersen is my wonderful asst. teacher on this experiment. I'm also teaching 2 sections of film production and another round of "Man Dance." It's a good balance of tasks, and I'm getting paid more!

-Shot a short film for my friend Quita's cousin Kyle. He had an idea about two people getting ready for a date displayed split screen. We shot for two quick days and I handed the footage over to Jim Heiner to edit. Expect to see some soon.

-Auditioning at SLAC for "Course 88b" for their 2011-2012 season.

-Playing Lysander in Davis Arts Council's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Mark Fossen as the director. Sarah Young my wonderful girlfriend plays Hermia, Topher Rasmussen plays Demetrius, Rhiannon Ross plays Helena and a new friend of mine, Dan Beecher, plays Bottom. Expect to hear some more about Dan soon. He and I are up to things!

-Finally, I added my headshot and some credits to my IMDB page.

I apologize for not documenting these things sooner but I'm just about the busiest I've been in a while. Also I'm not working at the computer lab which offers me most of my blogging time. Stay tuned for more exciting Connor Rickman news. I promise it won't take as long next time :S

More Laurels for Wastage

Wastage will be featured in the 2011 Scribendi literary magazine for undergraduate honors students. Scribendi is the official arts publication for the Western Regional Honors Council and features Essays, Poetry, Short Fiction, Visual Art, Photography, Digital Art, Film and Music by students.

From Plugs

Scribendi is the second undergraduate organization to feature Wastage so hopefully I can start entering it into some real film festivals soon. Upon hearing of its acceptance I immediately cut a new version featuring new color grading using Magic Bullet Looks and updated credits at the end of the film. Check out some before and after pictures of the color grading process. Most of the changes compensate for my crappy lighting but the last scene gets a brand new look to it.

From Color Correction Before and After

From Color Correction Before and After

From Color Correction Before and After

From Color Correction Before and After

From Color Correction Before and After

From Color Correction Before and After

Some subtle differences but they really make a difference in the mood. Before the grading some of the images looked a little too "Live Studio Audience," and now they match the rest of film with some added drama. Click below to check out these images and more in motion.

Wastage from Connor Rickman on Vimeo.

Two lovers caught in the turmoil of the Great War.

New Headshot

I got my braces off, and not two days later got called in for an audition for a Disney Channel Original Movie. Therefore I needed a brand new picture of a brand new me!

Behold, Connor. 11 months, and $45,000 later!

News from the Cutting Room

I just spent 4 hours in a dark room with a Steenbeck flatbed editing machine and a grease pencil. My whole life I've always cut my films using Final Cut Pro but the manual nature of editing real film is very different. It requires a lot of organization and a lot of balls because once you make a splice, there's no ctrl+z to get you out of it.

I was nervous at first but I have to say, after an hour or so I actually enjoyed editing on the flatbed much more than editing on a computer. I imagine it's mostly because a computer screen generates a lot of light and tires your eyes out but the flatbed displays only a dim analog image taken directly from your film stock.

The film is looking really good and if everything goes well, I'll have a rough cut by the end of the week. In the meantime please enjoy these secondhand digital photos I took of the flatbed viewer. What you're seeing is my film lit by a small bulb and turned around by several mirrors and prisms until it is projected on a piece of glass. They're not the best quality due to the fact that they're essentially pictures of pictures but perhaps they'll be good enough to make everybody want to see the real thing in its full glory. You'll just have to trust me when I say that it looks much better when projected on a big screen.

From Ten

From Ten

From Ten

Some Positive Press

A wonderful gentleman wrote a letter to the editor in last Friday's issue of the Trib proclaiming his enjoyment of "Hay Fever." On behalf of the entire production staff and cast I wish to tell Mr. Hall "thank you not only for your support of the production but also for telling others of your experience." You can read his kind words below.

From Plugs

This past weekend I saw the Babcock Theatre production of Noël Coward’s play “Hay Fever.” I had never gone to the Babcock before; I thought that productions starring University of Utah theater students would be too amateurish. I only went this time because I love Coward’s songs and was curious to see a play by him, even a non-musical 1925 comedy.

Well, I was in for a surprise. The play was absolutely hilarious. The audience laughed all the way through. The student actors were excellently trained and had good comic timing. They were fresh, talented and vibrant.

While a non-student production would hire actors more approximating the ages of most of the characters, I doubt it could produce more laughs. Kudos to the cast, director Sarah Shippobotham, and the U.’s theater department and its actor training program.

I’m now going to the U.’s other plays. Next weekend at Studio 155 is “Almost, Maine,” a 2004 “comic, romantic roundelay” (according to The Wall Street Journal) about love lost, found and confounded. Can’t wait to see it. Tickets are just $6.50 — a deal for anyone on a tight entertainment budget.

Maurice Hall

Salt Lake City

Awesome Green Screenery

From Plugs

Al is at it again, this time with more green screens, more Red camera and more money! Okay, so I did get paid for this, but more importantly there was some money going towards the use of a Zebra Motion Control Dolly. Think of it as a magical robot that can move a camera over and over again in the same way in order to get several identical takes of the same complex jib or dolly shot.

I'm not quite sure what the project is about, I'll tell you all when it's finished, but I was acting alongside my wonderful girlfriend Sarah Young and the two of us played a young Victorian couple. Check out some of the awesome pictures below!

From Connor Rickman Entertainment Enterprises

From Connor Rickman Entertainment Enterprises

From Connor Rickman Entertainment Enterprises

From Connor Rickman Entertainment Enterprises

Wastage - Film Festival Debut!

Special thanks to Jordan Warsoff for this one!

My film, "Wastage," has been selected as part of the official lineup at Brandeis University's IndieLouies Student Film Festival. Jordan was kind enough to send me an application form so it's due to his efforts that this film is making its east coast debut.

I was so excited about it, I 'shopped up some laurels!

From Plugs

The festival runs this weekend, November 12th through the 14th at Brandeis, in a castle (no, really!) If you're in the area, stop by for some free entertainment as well as my film. I, unfortunately will not be able to make it as my commitment to "Hay Fever" doesn't cease until the 14th. But hey, even if you're in Salt Lake, "Hay Fever" represents a piece of Connor Rickman entertainment available to you locally!...and you can watch the film online below.

Wastage from Connor Rickman on Vimeo.

To lovers caught in the turmoil of the Great War.

"Hay Fever" at the University of Utah

I'm acting again! This time as Richard Greatham in the University of Utah's production of "Hay Fever" by Noel Coward.

We open on Friday November 5th (that's right, Guy Fawkes day), and run until November 14th. Performances are on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 7:30pm.

In addition to play Richard, I'm also the dramaturg for the show, so if you'd like to see some of my research in the program note or my contribution to the lobby display you can if you see the show.

Tickets are $7.00 for students, $10.00 for faculty and staff and $13.00 for the general public.

Check out this excerpt from the press release. You can read the whole thing here.

From Connor Rickman Entertainment Enterprises

Thanks to my wonderful cast; Elizabeth Summerhays, Nathaniel Hinckley, Andy Ricci, Ana Lemke, Drew Baker, Ruth Jones, Marin Kohler and Anna Schovares. Also a very special thank you to our director Sarah Shippobotham and my dear friend and Stage Manager Christine Moore.

"Ten" - My first real film!

I've made a lot of films but I've always made them digitally. This time I decided to make something truly legit and shoot on 16mm celluloid!

From Catch up

The story follows a duel between gentlemen, each taking a pistol and walking ten paces to an uncertain future. It's short and simple but with only 2 minutes and 47 seconds of record time it's about the most I could do.

I have never shot on real film before. I'm currently learning how in my cinematography class but I didn't quite trust myself to do everything completely right. That's why I called in an expert, my friend Margaret King, a graduate of Chapman University's film school and a wonderful DP. I knew I had made the right choice when the first thing she did was start cleaning my lens, something I hadn't even thought of!

Margaret was so great, she even brought in her own expert, a wonderful AC named Al who could set and pull focus like no one I have ever seen.

From Catch up

Very special thanks to both of you for your help. I'm absolutely sure my ambitious plans would not have worked out if it wasn't for my wonderful camera team.

From Catch up

Another shout out to my stellar cast; Jim Heiner, Nels Jorgensen and Stuart Ford. I don't know why you guys keep helping me make movies but it certainly make it much easier when you do. I'm not sure if this film will ever be digitized due to its analog origin but if it is, I'll make sure to post it. In the meantime, I have the daunting task of editing with a razor blade and some glue. A long way off from Final Cut Pro that I promise I won't take for granted any more!