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BackPage, the movie
BackPage, the Movie
rmassey @ June 27, 2011
Ethan Norris
Me, Angela Gant, Charles Statham, Ethan Norris
I met Ethan Ward in June of 1991. He was wearing a white shirt and jeans. Joe Brown introduced us.
Ward was actually his second last name. Also, he was named Richard at one point for some reason. I think he kept the middle name, Daniel. Thank God he didn’t take the stage name he was planning: Ethan W. Denmark.
We were attending Texas Wesleyan University’s Theatre department and we incoming freshmen. Joe was hooking me up with, well, you see.. Joe hooks everyone up with a bright future and Ethan and I were both there to get in on the deal.
A few weeks later we were hanging out at the Coop and we started a bitch session about our acting instructor. We were fast friends ever since.
(The Coop was what we called the Co-op apartment that the theatre department used at the university. It was this outrageously great brownstone building donated to the school by a nice old lady. It had four bedrooms, a restroom and a kitchen/dining area upstairs and a large kitchen/dining area, office, bathroom, and huge den/living room downstairs. It was a wonderful club house. Unfortunately, it only lasted a year the dean was tired of being landlord to a bunch of punks and gave it to the art department to destroy as studio spaces.)
Here we are hanging out at the coop:
Soon, we were spending every Sunday night watching Start Trek the Next Generation at his house. He had a huge stereo and the foley of the ship would rattle the windows. That’s how he kept trying to sell it, going over to his house to watch Star Trek in his bedroom because he had the program on stereo. I thought it sounded pretty gay. And as it turned out, it was. I’m still pretty gay over it to this day.
I was the best man at his wedding eight years later.
In the spring of ’93 we performed together in Sweeney Todd. He was Judge Turpin, I was in the chorus.
We had a lot of fun the previous year in Pirates of Penzance.
No, that’s not a picture of me and Ethan. That’s Brian Herrera. I just wanted to show how bitchin’ my pirate costume was.
Ethan’s the pirate in the back on the left. I’m in the back on the right.
Here we are on our way to the only toga party ever. After that night, everyone everywhere realized what a horrible idea they were and discontinued to practice.
After Sweeney was over. I kept that beard as a goatee over the summer. Here it is with Ethan and Angela at my 21st birthday party.
I wish I had a picture of the time me, him, and Angela broke into Six Flags Arlington, Texas where he insisted upon saving my life when I would not back down from a suicidal stunt.
A few years later we went to Maryland to meet his father. They let me make a documentary about it for one of my grad school projects:
http://www.richardmassey.tv/media/personal/ethanwmv.wmv
After that, he changed his last name from Ward to Norris (his father’s name) just in time to get married a year later.
Once, we hauled ass to South Dakota to get Ghosts and Goblins arcade game he had won on Ebay. On the way back we had to outrun a thunder storm that was chasing us. We barely made it to a covered gas station. The tarp was useless. Each one we bought was shredded by the wind within twenty miles.
Here we are on Halloween ’07:
Here we are jumping from a plane on my 35th birthday:
http://www.richardmassey.tv/media/personal/ethan%20and%20rich%20step%20into%20the%20blue%20wmv.wmv
Here we are on the set of BackPage about to shoot one of the music video scenes:
Here’s us and Kelley Beaman on the set of BackPage trying to remember how to make love to a woman:
I like this photo of us playing Putt-Putt in college. I had just cut my leg with a circular saw the previous week, building Ethan’s future wife a loft in her dormitory. Angela is in this pic, too.
This is Ethan in Casa Manana’s production of A Little Night Music back in ’91.
But this is how I’ll always remember him. Eastern Hills High School’s production of The Diviners ’90. This is the ideal image when considering Ethan, expressive, dramatic, cathartic, undeniable.
Over the Christmas break in ’07, I mentioned in passing that Angela and I had yet to cast the lead in our pending movie. I was elated when he showed interest. (And frankly shocked, I thought this would be beneath him. He was having success working for the RadioShack studios productions.) I was always jealous of Angela and Charles, they had had so many opportunities to collaborate with Ethan. This was finally my chance and it was a dream come true. Our four scenes together were so much fun.
Directing him was amazing. He was indestructible. I pulled Ethan like taffy and he never complained.
We still exchange Christmas presents even though we are the most militant of atheists.
Our families vacation regularly together from. Our kids love to play together.
I remember when we shot the train monologues on Wednesday after the raid. I had this great location by the river at one of the public parks. It was great to be out and away from the most stressful day of my life.
http://www.backpagemovie.com/2010/the-most-stressful-day-of-my-life/
http://www.backpagemovie.com/2010/the-most-stressful-day-of-my-life-part-two/
That scene was such an oasis. Angela joined us and we just chilled into that scene. Ethan did his two monologues and then we shot the music video scene, running around the hillside like madmen. Good friends are gold.
rmassey @ March 30, 2011
BackPage Lost Tape
I forget why I needed to use the Hi8 equipment the other day…
I think I needed to get a program off my DVR for Ethan, the pilot for Young Justice, and none of my new solid state cameras would function as a VTR.
I knew I could at least get a composite source out, so I grabbed the SONY D8 Walkman and realized I had no stock. So I went searching and found no blanks. I remembered that I always kept some in with the VX3. I was disappointed when I found none in the bag. I was just about to re-shelve it when I just happened to glance into the window of the tape transport bay: there was a cassette still loaded in the camera.
A small tingle shivered down me… I don’t recall using this since… Years maybe… What would have been the last project? Time lapse for TWU? No… later…
Wait, when I was editing BackPage, wasn’t there a couple of scenes that were deficit a few camera angels? Back then, I suspected a lost tape. But was certain that I had exhausted every search option. I remember going through every box, every place I’d stored gear, props, costumes, files…I left no stone unturned looking for the missing footage.
No, way. Impossible.
I powered the camera and played the tape. Goddammit!
There was Joshua in the car talking to Adam (who was operating the camera.) It was obviously footage from the last scene we shot on Thursday: the last stake out where Josh and Dylan spy on Bill’s interview with Sandi (the one that gets interrupted by Honey.)
Yep, it all made sense, that was the last time that camera was used.
It was the day we had Grace Holley. We were so busy shooting her seven scenes that day: from the divorce to the interviews, from the train date to the wedding and reception… we were all over Fort Worth and Dallas. That camera got thrown into a bag as we raced from headquarters to the train station. I was the one who unloaded, downloaded, and digitized all footage. I wanted to make sure it all ended up in the same place. Organized. This was the one mistake I made.
So, I found this footage, in the most obvious place to look but was the last place I never did.
It contains Adam’s camera from three scenes: where Honey interrupts their production meeting, the scene where the guys hide out in the control room from Bill and Honey’s meeting (while they plan their wedding), and the stakeout scene I mentioned earlier.
It was 51 minutes of footage. It features some of the best antics from Adam Dapkus and Joshua Cox (even though they were worn out from six days of shooting and partying.) I cut this seven minute reel from it:
If I would have had this footage during post, I would have been able to include into the edit the joke about Bill not liking Dylan’s camera, the Oreo-teeth joke, the guys annoying Mike in the control room, the creeper neighbor (foreshadowing the obnoxious neighbor scene) and many others. I would have squeezed about three minutes worth of run time out of this footage.
It’s been three years since the martini (since principal photography wrapped on the film), two years since the final cut, and a year since the DVD release. And now that I’ve found this golden reel… I’ll cut it, post it, blog it, and file it. It’s yours now.
Ah, c’est la vie!
rmassey @ March 1, 2011
Roger Ailes reads everything written about himself?
Having read everything ever printed about myself, I can completely understand that. The only reason anyone would be able to give a rat’s ass in exchange for the opinions of others is an existence on either end of the personality spectrum: either they have such low self esteem that their worth must be defined solely by others and must look to them to know it, or they are such narcissists that any attention (positive or negative) is what they wholly subsist on. I can’t decide which one I am. All my relatives would claim the former and all my ex-lovers would swear the latter. (But no, I differ to beg, my personal aim is at curmudgeondom, I’m just allergic to everyone. Humanity is toxic to me.)
The reason I mention this is that I read Alex Pareene’s article in Salon:
Which analyzed Steve Doocy’s attack on Ben Smith as he was being trolled on his blog’s comments section due to an link he had posted to a Vanity Fair article about Roger Ailes. Sigh, Bowling For Soup was right, High School Never Ends. Who could foresee that the pinnacle of out advancement in communications would culminate in little better than locker room gossip and truck stop bathroom stall scribblings.
The quote from that Salon blog that got me thinking:
“Smith seemed baffled by the attack, though he acknowledged that Ailes himself is said to read everything written about him. (Hi, Roger! It would be hilarious if you hired Olbermann. Just a thought!)”
So, I’ll plagiarize that pandering effort to say:
Howdy, Mr. Ailes. My name is Richard Massey, and I’m from Texas. I made a film you will like. It’s called BackPage and it’s mighty keen. I’d like to send you a DVD screener. Or you can find BackPage for sale at Amazon.com on either video on-demand digital download or live stream:
http://www.amazon.com/BackPage/dp/B003DLCQAU/
That’s right, own it on your PC, MAC, phone, iPad, or DVR for only $2.
Or you can own your very own DVD copy:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003A02O4W/
The DVD version comes with bonus features: 15 deleted/extended scenes, gag/outtake reels. I look forward to your patronage.
The reason I think it would appeal to you is this: As vulgar and insipid as the movie is, I’ve been lately brewing a theory on the film to defend it as a conservative message. I think you would be very interested in my thoughts.
Please feel free to contact me at:
info@backpagemovie.com
Thanks.
Richard Massey
rmassey @ January 27, 2011
Wannabe Cops Pwned
Police Pwned Not By Gansta Pimp But By Biker Chaparon
Mad Ivan Stober Pimp Pwns Cops
These aspiring Private Eyes (Private Investigators, Private Dicks) attempt to spy on escorts and get a right thumping from an offended chaparon.
This is the “Mean Pimp” Scene from BackPage.
You can see the entire film, either streaming or digital download for your DVR of phone from Amazon. Click on this picture:
buy this film now or the director dies
Seriously, if anyone’s listening, I apologize for not concluding this blog as promised. I still have those last six posts planned and then the promised self-destruction. Now that the new year has begun, it’s pressing upon me to get on with it. I will soon head for that exit, I promise.
rmassey @ January 22, 2011