Our last random image for August

Bob Greeley and Kip Weeks play two new characters in Ragged Isle. Who they are and what their impact is will remain a mystery for now, but I can tell you how extremely lucky I feel to have them in our series.

Random image 8/30/11

Adam Cogswell returns next season as Louis Gilbert. No hat this time for the young man. And a tie! Pretty fancy schmancy for the island.

A new face in todays random image

There are over 10 new faces in our cast as we capture seasons 2 & 3 this summer. We'll try not to spoil any surprises for fans with these images but we can say that this mystery character is being played by Allison Gray.

A Beautiful Gift

So, today was a great lesson in shooting in the uncontrolled outdoors. We had boat noise in a plethora of sounds and distances, dogs barking, people talking and yelling, boats being hauled out, a CB blaring, the wonderful smell of fish, just people and boats everywhere, and potato salad with no silverware. Okay, so the last one was just me being forgetful. Still, I think I have shown that we had a day of challenges but not altogether unwelcome ones for me and the kind that you have to roll with because it is what is it. Sure, there was some impact on the sound and maybe things are here and gone in some shots but I would not have changed it for anything. It was fun in a way that had my continuity hat spinning and me sputtering but fun all at the same. I was in my element. There is nothing I would rather do than hang out on a smelly fishing dock and watch the action and I am not kidding. It was wonderful. A real Maine working waterfront that is this side of Ellsworth. It is a part of Maine that I do not see day-to-day as I did as a child but one that I miss dearly and was so glad to see in full swing today. It is a welcome part of Ragged Isle and we have April Joy Purinton, 2nd AD, to thank for this beautiful gift. Oh, did I mention the air show nearby?

Random image of the day

Erik Moody returns as "Deputy Dan Therrien."

Random image of the day

We spent the afternoon at Madame Clelia's today. Great to be back!

The Ragged Isle is coming from inside the house!

A motley crowd of "Ragged Isle" cast and crew descended upon my home on Sunday morning to shoot a few pivotal scenes for season three in my basement.

I can't reveal much more than that -- like for instance whose basement it is on the island, or what's down there, or what happens to the people who venture down the stairs -- but I will say that there's at least one sequence that's absolutely wild, and the actors involved proved to be more than game. I can't wait for people to see it, but that won't happen for more than a year.

Meanwhile, my wife, who remains unspoiled for everything that's to come in upcoming seasons, did her best to ignore what was going on with the shoot, not to mention all the off-camera chatter among the crew.

On Wednesday, I get to utter my first line as an actor on "Ragged Isle." After more than a year of watching these talented folks serve up such great performances, I'm more than somewhat nervous.

Gothic Romance

Caption this image

New Ragged Image

The man who runs the Ragged Isle Star, Vance Trundle (Denis Fontaine) got himself in the middle of a sticky situation at the Lobster Festival on the island. What could be next for this character?

Now I'm Gonna Get Pumped Up!

I have not yet chosen a "get pumped up song" for this year. I have to get on this. Last year it was Sinead O'Connor's, "No Man's Woman." I shall consider this matter closely this week. Very important as this song would propel me into Ragged Isle, "go mode," no matter what.

I will share the quote, though, that really sums up Ragged Isle to me:

"Little by little, one travels far." - J.R.R. Tolkien

Now I believe it is about that sleeping time.

Oooo. Update. Barry just put "No Man's Woman" on my phone and one quick listen to the chorus left no doubt that this song will be my, "get pumped up song" once more. Yes!

Barry is now sharing one of his with me. Excellent.

A Meandering Update from Karen

I have been a bit silent recently because we were ripping down our old deck and starting to put up a new one, in Bar Harbor for our family camping weekend, building a new deck for a second weekend (this upcoming will be the third), and then my computer's power source died and cannot be repaired without intervention from Toshiba or perhaps Best Buy. Tested again. That is okay... now. I would not have said it was okay when I discovered the issue and Barry could not fix it. There was a mad dash to get all of my Ragged Isle files off that computer before the power died. We just, just made it. There may have been cursing.

I am back with a computer on loan from the very generous, Rick Dalton, that can read all of my files. Happy times for now. I will take it. I spent most of the evening putting the files back onto this computer and organizing them. Once that was done, I was able to work on schedules and other Ragged Isle communications. There will be more updates soon as we are still communicating with some locations for some scenes and trying to find the perfect location for others. We are much closer to completion. I say completion lightly. The schedule, as the script, is never completed.

We are also preparing for shooting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Barry has been very busy with shot lists, shot lists, shot lists.

Anyway, that is where we are right now. Thank you Gordon Ramsay, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the X-Files for entertaining me as I work on Ragged Isle.

And we're off!

Two big happenings on the Ragged Isle front this weekend: On Friday, we began shooting seasons two and three, including the final words spoken in the series! Out of respect for the characters who might (or might not) survive both seasons, I won't reveal who spoke those final words, but I will say the the actors involved brought their A game.

The second big happening this weekend was the screening of season one at the KahBang Festival in Bangor. This was a blu-ray version, projected onto the big screen, and the series has never looked better. As always, it's fun as heck to see the episodes with a crowd, and hear genuine audience reaction. Rick Dalton, Meghan Benton, Barry Dodd, and I were in attendance to represent the show, and we took questions from the audience afterwards. A good time all around.

It's awesome to see new Ragged Isle being shot once again. There's so much more story to tell, and I can't wait for folks to see it (sometime in 2012).

Small Wonders

Hello, hello. Tomorrow is the first day of principal photography for Seasons Two and Three of Ragged Isle. It is going to feel so good to get this going. For those of you that were with us last year you will notice that the camera setup is, well, much smaller (look left). It's a whole new deal that should really amp up the quality of picture and sound (not pictured). We are entering the next generation of HD SLR filmmaking. It should be pretty cool. No tapes and no digitizing. What?!

On another front we are scheduling, working on costume ideas / shopping, rewriting bits here and there, looking for some locations, and all of that sort of thing. We have made a number of fantastic inroads this week and are terribly excited about where this project is heading.

There will be e-mails to the cast and crew about all of this over the next few days. This is a complicated thing we are involved with that is composed of many moving parts like the Zipper. It's a really fun ride and it makes you really dizzy and sometimes, a little sick.

Kicking Things Off With a KahBang

We're so excited to be screening the entire first season of "Ragged Isle" at the KahBang Music & Art Festival this Saturday at 1 p.m. at The Brick Church in Bangor.

A Q&A will follow, so if you have any burning questions, especially as we gear up to shoot our second and third seasons, this would be the time and place to ask them.

KahBang Festival founder Josh Whinery has some extremely kind words for us in the Portland Press Herald today:

Barry Dodd's webseries "Ragged Isle," this year's lone entry in the "MaineStream" category, points to KahBang's evolution.

"A number of festivals have cropped up for Maine talent, so we wanted to showcase the newest, freshest, most innovative thing on the scene this year," Whinery said.

"And 'Ragged Isle' -- what an effort by Barry. Look at the production value, creativity, cinematography -- he's a true indie artist.

"That's the plan for the future, to focus on the one big thing in Maine. We had some great Maine submissions, but 'Ragged Isle' really set itself apart."

All we can say is: Wow! (Read the whole article about the festival right here.)

We hope to see you this Saturday. It should be a blast to see every first-season episode back-to-back up on the big screen -- and in high-def to boot!

Update

Working on costumes. Working on schedules. Working on locations. Working on casting. Working on organizing. Working on a lot of stuff.