Greta's Blog

Summertime and Dolls

Fri, 6 Aug 2010 11:11:39 -0500

Hey everybody!

Long time no blog! I am in WI right now, but the neat thing about the website is that it can keep going whether we are physically in Pleasantville or not. I thought that I wouldn't be able to keep updating, but I've managed to find enough wifi at restuarants and such to keep them coming.

I was really happy this year to actually have a little bit of our summer that we could play dolls in. The county fair was lots of fun to put on and last year we got to do the Gala ball. What do your dolls normally do during the summer? Hopefully it is not too hot to get some good quality playtime in.

It was fun to re-order the chores page this week, since we took those pictures somewhere around three years ago, a lot of peoples' chores have changed. We should take some new pictures sometime to share some of those with you, especially since some of the new characters who have chores (like Ana and Tomas) weren't even in the town yet!

I am working on plans for several big updates in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes out for some new additions to the site, including a *new contest* and a new episode of NafyCast, to start with. :-)

Take care everyone, don't get too sunburned!
:-)
Greta

Hi all!Well it has been a long...

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:44:59 -0500

Hi all!

Well it has been a long time since I last wrote a blog. I guess we are always busy on Fridays or something, but for some reason Willow gets to write all the blogs these days! lol

As you've been hearing a lot lately, we are working on everyone's projects for the County fair, although Lisa roped all her friends into going down to the river for a party the other day and it was fun except she kept telling everyone exactly what they were supposed to do next. Angelica and Alex really wanted to go get summery drinks at the Grumpy Troll, but Lisa insisted they stay by the river (even though it was practically raining) and play volleyball because it was fashionable.

Suzi went along with her on everything but at the end of the day everyone was pretty happy to be "allowed" to go home from Lisa's "party." haha!

We put together a rough cut of the movie yesterday and watched the whole thing. We determined that it is too long right now, but it is really hard to choose anything to cut. :/ I think that in the long run it will make it better and tighter though, so it must be done! I also started on the blooper reel- there are seriously so many bloopers that if I put them all in they would be longer than the actually movie, lol! So only the most classic bloopers will be making it to the final cut. ;)

We have a lot of plans for the website this summer, so a lot of pictures have been taken and you'll be seeing the results in the upcoming few weeks. I hope you enjoy them, we're really excited about them.

How are your Summers going so far?
:-)
Greta

The Movie is Coming Along....

Fri, 14 May 2010 09:20:56 -0500

Hello everyone!

I have been having the most enjoyable time in the last few months editing through this movie, "Nafy's Christmas." It has been such a learning experience (so far) and also is so enjoyable to see all the bits and pieces finally coming together!

I'm working on one of the most fascinating scenes right now. It has many, many parts and it took us almost two weeks to film (which you could never tell by watching it... alas....) and with all the bits and pieces coming together it is turning into a full world and story. :)

A few people have been disappointed with the release date announcement being in December. Let me explain why it has to take that long. The process is slow for editing, because this time I am sorting through hours of footage for every few minutes of actual video. I've been editing since early February and I'm only about halfway done. So the editing could go on through the summer until early September.

When the editing is done, it is time to do all of the sound editing. This means making sure all the audio from the characters talking needs to be balanced and mixed with other sounds and sound effects to make sure that a banging door is not going to blot out the sound of someone talking, which is the more important sound.

After sound editing, we get to start working on the music for the movie. We're already talking about many ideas we have, but it will take watching the whole completed movie all the way through to decide on most of the musical exerpts.
Once we have decided where to put the music, it is time to write it, learn it, record it, and sync it up with the movie.
When all that is done, I have to put everything together and print the movie onto a disc, figure out the cover art for the DVD case, and upload the pictures to the website so you all can see it!

Probably with all of that going on, the most realistic date we can hope for is December 1st. And it HAS to come out in time for everyone to watch it around Christmas, so you can get in the spirit! :)

So, hopefully you are ok with the Dec 1st date, and I appreciate everyone waiting so patiently for the movie to be done. It will be worth it, I promise!!

:-)
Greta

That Elizabeth Cole

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:56:51 -0500

Hello everyone!

It has been a long time since I wrote a blog. How did I skip so many Fridays? That's just not fair. Anyway, here I am now, hopefully some people still read this blog. ;)

Elizabeth Cole is a really funny character. I didn't used to know exactly what she was like, but I've realized that she is just a grump. She likes just being herself and doesn't listen to anyone else's opinions or orders. Right now she is sitting on her bed with her head stuck in the bell of her Victrola (Rebecca's music player from AG) and listening to "Take me out to the ball game" nonstop.

Elizabeth actually has had quite a lot of influence on Nafy over the years. In fact, I think it is probably safe to say that Elizabeth is one of the only people that Nafy listens to and takes advice from. The two of them are the crazier two of the four kitties, and they don't care what people think of them. Nafy has to try and fit into her time period though, so she has to use manners and wear the right kinds of clothes. Through reasons and means unknown, Elizabeth has managed to bend the time period rules of the Parkingtons' house just enough that she can wear the fashions of about 10 years ahead of them and listen to more modern music than they do. Needless to say, it drives them all crazy because she is such a radical.

hehehe! On Easter Elizabeth spent the whole afternoon after finding her Easter jelly bean eggs putting them on top of the spinning record on her Victrola one by one and letting them fly off as it circled around, then laughing at where the jelly bean landed. Soon there were jelly beans all over her bedroom! The maids didn't really enjoy that too much, lol!

Hopefully you all have been well and enjoyed hearing a little bit more about Elizabeth, she's quite the character.

:-)
Greta

The Parkingtons' house is finally decorated for...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:18:30 -0500

The Parkingtons' house is finally decorated for Spring instead of Christmas - that took long enough! Heather got out all of the boxes from the attic and replaced their winter clothing with Spring dresses that have been packed away for the last six months. It was so refreshing to fill up their closets with pastels and white lace after the months of dark plaid and long sleeves.

The Larson family is trying hard to get going on a planned schedule, even though none of them are really that type of person. Anna is the only one who continues to successfully do their chores.

Lisa and Suzanna had a race at the clothes boutique the other day to see who could come up with the best reason to buy a bolt of blue satin. They both wanted to have Cristal make it into a ballgown, so they fought hard. In the end, Lisa won because she thought her red hair and blue eyes would look better in it than Suzi's blonde. So Suzi settled on a different bolt of fabric to be HER new ballgown, and they both submitted their orders to Cristal forthwith. They have also been gathering sewing projects together to make fashionable modern clothing at sewing circles.

Mei Mei and Vera are VERY happy with their new home in the new bank roof, and have decorated it with carpets and hanging silks. They don't bother Lisa too much unless they feel like things are getting boring, and they spend most of their time hanging out of the roof and looking around town square.

Laura and Paul went rock climbing by the river, which was a great idea until Paul let go of the line because he "saw a fish." Laura slipped sideways and was soon hanging by her harness out over the river, yelling at Paul, who was a little sheepish.

So town square is having a good 'ol time, and around here in Pleasantville the dolls could not be happier that Spring is coming at last!
:-)
Greta

Hello all.We finished another long-awaited movie scene...

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:46:21 -0500

Hello all.

We finished another long-awaited movie scene yesterday, and now there are only a few left. We might be able to finish by next week if we work hard enough, and then I'll get to start editing, yay! I hope the movie isn't too long, lol! I have no idea how long it is right now, actually.

I've been getting all of your Valentine's day entries in the last few days and they are great! I love how creative you are with doll-sized decorations and different combinations of pink, white and red with hearts. All of your dolls look so cute, too!
It makes me wish that we had time to actually do something Valentine's-ish with the dolls in Pleasantville, since they are still so wrapped up in this movie. Oh well, things like that happen every once in a while. They'll just have to really decorate a lot for St. Patrick's day!

We played in the Montoyas' house the other day and it was really fun to clean it up and get the family organized. Mrs. Montoya worked on making some big "jumbo recipes" that would make large amounts of food for all of the eleven people she has to feed at the rancho now, and made a few dishes (one of which was the Mexican rice that Clara and Nan successfully knocked over in Nan's 7th video blog, unfortunately.)
I also sewed together some of their weavings on some cardboard to make a large "lunch box" and lined it with some nice ivory fabric inside so the boys can take a hot lunch to the fields with some plates and napkins. It is really cute, even though some of the girls got mad that so many of their weavings got used up. But that's what weavings are for, right?

Anyway, big day today! Lots of practicing and filming and list-making to be done.

See ya later!
:-)
Greta

Whew!  Just got back from a jog...

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 11:55:12 -0500

Whew! Just got back from a jog and I'm all refreshed and ready for a day of dolls! I'm really lucky as far as blog days go, because I always get to write a blog on doll day. I have no idea what we're going to do today (with the dolls), but I think it is going to be at the Merriman's or Montoya's houses and it may just be a day full of getting things back to normal and re-organizing things like each of their chores and all of their jobs and duties like the laundry and making Nafy's jammies and fun stuff like that!

There are also lots of photos to edit on my laptop, but I'll save those until a day that is not designated for playing dolls. I'm excited! We haven't really had a doll day just to PLAY dolls for a while, since it has been mostly for movie filming whenever we get the chance lately.

Hope you all are staying warm for those who live in the cold parts of the world right now! We haven't had a single inch of snow this entire year and it is practically as warm as May around here now, so I guess we skipped Winter entirely. :( Oh well.

Love,

Greta

Blogging from the set :)

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:52:33 -0500

Well-

We have today tentatively marked as our last day filming this particular sequence of scenes, although that does not guarantee it. We said we would be done with these shots by this time last week, and now look at it! Still all over the living room. haha!

So, unfortunately there has not been much activity in Pleasantville itself since this has pretty much everyone in it, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting everyone home and making them do some everyday stuff since they've been going strong on celebrating holidays since halloween! lol

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas photo stories so far, there are quite a few of them still to come and the pictures are all so cute! I'm sorry that we weren't able to get them out during Christmas itself, but I think it's probably better to work on them and make them really good instead of just publishing them for the sake of getting an update out there.

Everyone is getting their entry ready for the Valentine's photo contest, right? I hope we can get all the dolls home, take down their Christmas decorations and clean their houses in time to allow them to celebrate Valentine's day just a little bit. Maybe they'll have a sewing circle again so the Parkingtons have an excuse to put up all their decorations. They packed them all away in a separate little pink box marked "Valentine's decor" and it sits up in the attic for most of the year along with all seven or eight of their Christmas decorations boxes. But Valentine's day is such a Victorian holiday that the Parkingtons love going completely overboard with it.

Anyway, I hear the call of the two sisters who need me to film the next scene here! Wish me luck, I hope we can finish today.

:-)

Greta

I have a theater in my house.

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:23:55 -0500

Hey guys!

Well today is another big filming day since we're on the final stretch of the movie here. I can't WAIT to show you the movie though, some of the shots were getting now at the end are so adorable... but I cannot say too much. We've been filming things in the living room for a Nutcracker section of the movie, but I'll say no more.

I love it when we get to do a big project like a movie. I don't know how many of you know this, but we actually made about four feature-length stop-frame movies before Kitty Kapers over the course of about 2 years... the first one was about the dolls going to school, doing chores, doing soccer, swim team, drama class, all that good stuff. It was called "A Day in Pleasantville." The second one was about the Larsons, and it was called "Anna and the Barn Dance." The third one was "Our Dolls and the Great Outdoors," which I've got the first ten minutes of up on youtube right now (the full movie is actually about two hours long..I'm hoping to get the rest of it up on youtube eventually, don't worry.) And the fourth one was the last Christmas-themed movie we made, "Pumpkins and Candy Canes." (that's where the ballet class and skater's waltz clips are from.)

Every time we did one of those projects we would be forced to make things a little better and a little more realistic, so our whole town would start looking better. We'd notice what was in the background of a shot and replace it with something doll-sized that made sense in the room.

It wasn't until we moved to this house (around 2002) that we really started changing the dolls' houses around to look more and more realistic. Then Kitty Kapers stepped it up in 2005, followed by all of the photo stories we made whenever we hosted a traveling doll. So now it has been four years since we made a movie, two years since we stopped doing the Nutcracker, even. And this new movie is bumping each house and the detail level up another notch. That's all I'm sayin'! heehee!

I'm hoping to share those first four movies with you all eventually, I just want to fix them up a little bit. Great Outdoors is lots of fun with huge mountain and river sets and stuff, and Anna and the Barn Dance has some fun dancing sequences. We shall see!

And then you will get to see this latest movie, which I love watching, even all cut up and boring the way it is when you have to watch 15 takes of the same shot in a row. lol!

OK, have a great Friday, everybuggy! (As Nan would say.)
:-)
Greta

Back in Pleasantville!

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:45:55 -0500

Howdy, everybody!

Well, today is the long-awaited "doll day" in our schedule that we've been waiting for for quite a while. I don't know what's on the list, but it is sure to be fun. Solana has been working intensely on all the schoolwork she normally misses when we're gone for all our shows, and now she is taking a day off and we're going to play dolls all day. ;)

I'm also busy printing, but this time it isn't a new CD or a new piece of promo material for the trio- it's a special item or two for the website! So expect some cool new things to be added to the store in the next few days.

I've also discovered youtube recently. lol. Not that I didn't use it before, and we have lots of videos up on there already, but I just didn't know how to use it very well before. Now I'm finding all these great people and their videos and adding them as friends and all that good stuff. I guess I just didn't realize that people treat youtube as a fourth wing of the myspace-facebook-twitter trio. :P

I hope everyone is going to join us for the group chat this afternoon? There are going to be some fun contests and prizes as well.... like, good prizes from the doll store and other goodies! So make sure you're doing some research and remembering all your ourdolls.net trivia before you come, because it'll help! That's all I'm sayin'.

We are just about finished watching all the dailies from the movie, so the first leg of post-production is just about finished. There are a few scenes that we want to do over again, plus a few that we haven't even shot yet, so we'll do those and then it's time to start the editing process! You are going to love this movie, it is the cutest thing.... I love it.
I can't wait until we can share it with you, but there's a long road to go down before we can get there.

Alrighty, take it easy everybody and I'll see you next week!
:-)
Greta