THE POSTING OF THE REPLY PICTURES
Well, after the shoot was all over and we were back home, we knew what was lying ahead...the editing of the film and posting of the pictures.
I left all that to hubby to tackle. Slowly he began to go through the film and capture pictures. He had to reread each reply post, and then grab the pictures that pertained to that request. It was a tedious process, as there were special requests or gestures that he needed to make sure were in the pictures that he was capturing. It took over a week to do all of it.
At the same time I was taking each individual request from the forum post, putting them on a word document and editing them with html text, so that all we would have to do would be to copy and paste the request on the thread and post their pictures underneath it. We thought it would be cool to have it that way, and then the other viewers could see the request and the resulting pie. We also thought about attaching the reply pictures to the original post, but thought that it might take too long to go through, or possibly that the band width might not support it.
We were ready to leave for vacation in a few days...a much needed rest. We wanted to make sure all the pictures were posted by then; we did not want that hanging over our heads when we got back. But we wanted to get them out there in time so that we could see the response. We finally posted them on the UMD forum...670 images, over a span of 7 days...each day's post taking about about 2 hours of time. Finally we were finished! It felt great! And the response was awesome! Everyone had such nice comments about the pictures...and seemed so appreciative too.
We also thought it would be nice to post a comment from each of us about the whole process.
So I posted:
"Wow! This has been absolutely amazing! When we first came up with the idea, we thought it was pretty unique…and it was! But planning and executing something of this magnitude began to sink in after we closed down the voting. 119 replies! 119 pies! What were we thinking?
Purchasing and storing the supplies, finding the right location (now I know why running a WAM business from home would be a lot easier), the expense, the preparation as well as the clean up, were nothing ,compared to taking the time to look back over all the requests, capturing the video frames to reflect those requests, transferring, then posting the original replies along with the pics. It literally took us a week to do, in addition to the running of our ‘regular’ household.
But when it was all said and done, we were quite proud of our ‘little production’. It was fun and exciting, besides being labor intensive.
Now it is time for me to express a few thanks for all of the help I received to pull this thing off.
First, thanks to the UMD.net, for providing the venue to post our topic and idea. Next, a special thanks to the moderators who helped with all the duplicate posts, the changes to the thread, as well as their patience with all my emails and chats! Middy, Bob and Lib (and anyone else who may have helped that I didn’t know about), you were great! I sure did create some extra work for you that weekend! Sorry!
Next, to the forum members who responded to, as well as viewed my thread. Without you, this would not have been a success. I appreciate your participation, your nice comments and wonderful accolades.
And finally, to my hubby…my producer, director, screenwriter, photographer, grunt guy, pie wrangler and pie thrower, as well as film editor. I don’t know if you really know how grateful I am for all of this. I couldn’t have done it without you! There would not be a piegirl if not for you! Love always…
Kay
P.S. Maybe we’ll do this again sometime! How about the ‘First Anniversary’ shoot?!!! Ha Ha!!!'
And hubby posted:
'60 cans of shaving cream.....X no. of dollars
Tarps.....X no. of dollars
Hotel room.....X no. of dollars
Pie shells.....X no. of dollars
Piegirlkay laying in that kiddy pool.....Priceless
Well Mudbuddy, you stole my thunder!!!
...but like you said to me on YIM, "Someone had to do it." So credit to you and here is what I was going to post to the thread...
Tarps, shower curtains, white chair, garbage bags, kiddie pool, buckets...$95.00
Pie shells, shaving cream, chocolate brownie batter, pancake syrup, cake batter...$180.00
See through black top, celebration dinner, 2 nights stay at local hotel...$260.00
Hard Drive Digital video camera, tripod, editing software*... $625
Grabbing and posting 670 images...one lost week of time
Getting to pie my wife 120 times…FUCKING PRICELESS!!!
* we needed a new vid cam anyway!'
And then we were done! A first anniversary shoot? Well, at this point...who knows?!!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
'A PIE FOR EVERY REPLY': PART 7
ONE MORE PIE SHOOT...AND A SURPRISE ENDING!
The next morning, we decided to shoot one more scene, since we still had the hotel for a few more hours and wanted to take advantage of filming once again. We still had the back drop up, so we only had to put a few tarps on the carpet around the area. We decided to shoot a 'Room Service' type of scene, where I am finished doing the 119 pie thing and I am relaxing, waiting for room service to bring me a steak. Needless to say, the waiter brought some more pies (what did you expect, I am the piegirl and we still had left over supplies!) and proceeded to push my face in them, and then throw the rest at me. There were only 12 in that scene...a mere pittance of pies and mess!
One last shower and finally, we were ready to check out of the hotel. I had one more bag of garbage to dispose of, so I said I would meet hubby at the car while he checked out and packed the car.
Well, as I approached the garbage dumpster, turned out there were others who were interested in my 'Pie For Every Reply' mess! There, standing next to a few garbage bags, were two hotel workers in their uniforms, talking to each other. Oh no, I thought! Don't look guilty or suspicious, I said to myself, you are just taking garbage to the dumpster. As I got closer, they turned towards me and motioned to me. "Look in there!", one of them said, as he nodded towards the inside. "Be careful, there are raccoons in there. We have to clean out the dumpster and get them out. Give me your garbage bag." I peered inside as I extended by arm towards him and handed him the bag. There, sitting in the corner, were 3 little raccoons! They had made a hole in a few of the bags I had thrown out the night before, and were covered with pie crusts and shaving cream! It was all over their faces and fur...my mess! They looked so cute, though! It was on their heads and their claws, and some of it was dripping off their chins! Oh my! I laughed at the thought of what the combination of the food and shaving cream would do to their little bodies...bloat and then bam! I hoped that they would be OK! I wished now that I had taken a picture of those little guys to post on the UMD! First animal WAM? Nah, let's not go there!
A funny ending to my messy story!
END OF PART SEVEN...TO BE CONTINUED...
The next morning, we decided to shoot one more scene, since we still had the hotel for a few more hours and wanted to take advantage of filming once again. We still had the back drop up, so we only had to put a few tarps on the carpet around the area. We decided to shoot a 'Room Service' type of scene, where I am finished doing the 119 pie thing and I am relaxing, waiting for room service to bring me a steak. Needless to say, the waiter brought some more pies (what did you expect, I am the piegirl and we still had left over supplies!) and proceeded to push my face in them, and then throw the rest at me. There were only 12 in that scene...a mere pittance of pies and mess!
One last shower and finally, we were ready to check out of the hotel. I had one more bag of garbage to dispose of, so I said I would meet hubby at the car while he checked out and packed the car.
Well, as I approached the garbage dumpster, turned out there were others who were interested in my 'Pie For Every Reply' mess! There, standing next to a few garbage bags, were two hotel workers in their uniforms, talking to each other. Oh no, I thought! Don't look guilty or suspicious, I said to myself, you are just taking garbage to the dumpster. As I got closer, they turned towards me and motioned to me. "Look in there!", one of them said, as he nodded towards the inside. "Be careful, there are raccoons in there. We have to clean out the dumpster and get them out. Give me your garbage bag." I peered inside as I extended by arm towards him and handed him the bag. There, sitting in the corner, were 3 little raccoons! They had made a hole in a few of the bags I had thrown out the night before, and were covered with pie crusts and shaving cream! It was all over their faces and fur...my mess! They looked so cute, though! It was on their heads and their claws, and some of it was dripping off their chins! Oh my! I laughed at the thought of what the combination of the food and shaving cream would do to their little bodies...bloat and then bam! I hoped that they would be OK! I wished now that I had taken a picture of those little guys to post on the UMD! First animal WAM? Nah, let's not go there!
A funny ending to my messy story!
END OF PART SEVEN...TO BE CONTINUED...
Saturday, July 12, 2008
'A PIE FOR EVERY REPLY': PART 6
THE CLEAN UP
The clean up...ugh! What a nightmare. It took almost as long as the set up and the shoot! If I was the type to swear on paper, you would certainly get an eyeful here!
We had prepared as best we could, by putting tarps on the carpeting and walls...that part worked out fine. Even though it took a while, thank goodness we put in that extra time for the set up. If we hadn't, it would have been a disaster. We also made sure we had a room with a kitchenette in it...that gave us the second sink to aid in the disposal of 'the mess'. We thought it would all be fine, but there were a few glitches along the way.
As I mentioned before, we had the type of bathroom where you literally had to enter it, and turn around, in order to close the door. This didn't help make things any easier. We probably should have planned for that better when we rented the room. Another problem was moving the mess from the shooting area to the kitchen and bathroom. First, we had to get the mess out of the kiddie pool and over to the sinks and bathtub...what a pain! Turned out we had to perform a two man bucket brigade (well, one man and a piegirl!). We took the tubs and buckets we had used to mix and pour the slime over me, scooped the slop out of the pool, and then carried it over to the sinks. That seemed to take forever. What a mess...and to think it had been all over me!
Then, we had to deflate the pool and get it into the bathtub, to wash away the last of the stuff. That was like a circus clown scenario! I suppose we could have just thrown the pool away, but we still would have needed to deflate it, in order to fit it into the garbage bag. And gosh, there were so many memories attached to that pool...we just had to keep it! So we needed to clean it there at the hotel, because there would have been some "splaining to do, Lucy", if we took it home full of pie mess and the kids saw that!
Then the sinks began to act slow...well, what did you expect with 119 crusts, shaving cream, syrup, chocolate sauce, cake batter gunge, banana cream, cherry pies, and the like? Finally, we had to scoop up the tarps, spot clean any areas where the mess got on the carpet, clean the counters and put back the furniture. Oh yeah, did I mention somewhere in there, that I had to take a shower?!!
After if was all said and done, there were 8 bags of garbage. Now I am not the type to leave that many bags sitting there for the maid to dispose of. Nor did I want to leave them in the hotel's soiled utility room. I know, we would have been gone, but I didn't want there to be any questions. So we took turns taking the garbage bags outside to the hotel dumpster...I'm sure if security was watching, hubby probably looked pretty suspicious...like maybe some sort of serial pie killer!
We had rented the hotel for another night, so we went out to dinner to celebrate our achievement. It was a great ending to a very eventful day!
END OF PART SIX...TO BE CONTINUED...
The clean up...ugh! What a nightmare. It took almost as long as the set up and the shoot! If I was the type to swear on paper, you would certainly get an eyeful here!
We had prepared as best we could, by putting tarps on the carpeting and walls...that part worked out fine. Even though it took a while, thank goodness we put in that extra time for the set up. If we hadn't, it would have been a disaster. We also made sure we had a room with a kitchenette in it...that gave us the second sink to aid in the disposal of 'the mess'. We thought it would all be fine, but there were a few glitches along the way.
As I mentioned before, we had the type of bathroom where you literally had to enter it, and turn around, in order to close the door. This didn't help make things any easier. We probably should have planned for that better when we rented the room. Another problem was moving the mess from the shooting area to the kitchen and bathroom. First, we had to get the mess out of the kiddie pool and over to the sinks and bathtub...what a pain! Turned out we had to perform a two man bucket brigade (well, one man and a piegirl!). We took the tubs and buckets we had used to mix and pour the slime over me, scooped the slop out of the pool, and then carried it over to the sinks. That seemed to take forever. What a mess...and to think it had been all over me!
Then, we had to deflate the pool and get it into the bathtub, to wash away the last of the stuff. That was like a circus clown scenario! I suppose we could have just thrown the pool away, but we still would have needed to deflate it, in order to fit it into the garbage bag. And gosh, there were so many memories attached to that pool...we just had to keep it! So we needed to clean it there at the hotel, because there would have been some "splaining to do, Lucy", if we took it home full of pie mess and the kids saw that!
Then the sinks began to act slow...well, what did you expect with 119 crusts, shaving cream, syrup, chocolate sauce, cake batter gunge, banana cream, cherry pies, and the like? Finally, we had to scoop up the tarps, spot clean any areas where the mess got on the carpet, clean the counters and put back the furniture. Oh yeah, did I mention somewhere in there, that I had to take a shower?!!
After if was all said and done, there were 8 bags of garbage. Now I am not the type to leave that many bags sitting there for the maid to dispose of. Nor did I want to leave them in the hotel's soiled utility room. I know, we would have been gone, but I didn't want there to be any questions. So we took turns taking the garbage bags outside to the hotel dumpster...I'm sure if security was watching, hubby probably looked pretty suspicious...like maybe some sort of serial pie killer!
We had rented the hotel for another night, so we went out to dinner to celebrate our achievement. It was a great ending to a very eventful day!
END OF PART SIX...TO BE CONTINUED...
'A PIE FOR EVERY REPLY': PART 5
THE SHOOT
Well the big day was here! It was over a month in the planning stages.
We woke up at 7am and started to fill the pie tins with shaving cream. It took about 45 minutes to get that all completed, and to make sure that everything else was ready too. We had two cameras ready (didn't want to chance that something would go wrong if we only had one) and we were excited to begin! What we didn't plan for though, was an overcast, rainy day. What natural light we had hoped to use (in addition to the hotel's lights and what we brought with us), was gone. Oh well, there was nothing we could do about it, we had to move on.
We had talked about how we would coordinate it all, since hubby had to make sure the cameras were working at all times, make sure I was always in the frame, change the back up batteries when needed, hand me the posters, read our extra copy to see if there any additional requests that needed to be followed...AND pie me!
We were ready to start with the first pie! I took a deep breath, smiled and we began. After I was hit, I asked, "How many more are there?!" Ha ha! After that, it went pretty well...extremely well, I might add, for two amateurs doing a massive pie shoot!
It was exciting to 'take a pie' for all the people that had replied...some I had chatted with, others that I recognized from the forum, and some that I did not know at all. And although, I had asked for their preferences (thrown or pushed, on a clean face or messy), it was still very interesting to see the different responses.
Then there was my record breaker...# 79! I had sent him a message, asking if there was anything special that he wanted me to do (um, within reason!) since he was a record breaking 'notch' in my pie history! He added syrup to the mess, and it just kept going from there!
There were some additional requests too...and I tried to accommodate what I could. For some reason, lucky 100 was hubby (hmmm, I think that might have been planned!) and he decided to pour chocolate frosting on me. There were other requests too...cherry pies, banana cream and they went on and on.
I even had a request to get my feet pied! Well that took some doing. Since we knew that the bottom of the pool would be full of mess, by the time we would get to that request, we brought a white plastic chair with us. We put it in the pool and I sat on it as I wiped off my feet. Then I moved up and positioned myself on the back of the chair as I rested my feet on the seat. But I kept slipping off and had trouble keeping my mark! Finally, I was able to hold it long enough to get my feet pied...and then oops, a big slide off! I think I broke the back of the chair! I laughed!
Another interesting one was the cake batter green slime request. It was the first time that I had ever done slime, and I was clued in by a fan to make sure it was nice and warm. Well, it was, and what a feeling! I want to do that again real soon!
All in all, it took two and a half hours to do the 119 pies and stuff...it was fun, exciting and exhausting! At the end, I sat down in the kiddie pool to just mellow out for a while. I didn't want to think of what was ahead!
END OF PART FIVE...TO BE CONTINUED...
Well the big day was here! It was over a month in the planning stages.
We woke up at 7am and started to fill the pie tins with shaving cream. It took about 45 minutes to get that all completed, and to make sure that everything else was ready too. We had two cameras ready (didn't want to chance that something would go wrong if we only had one) and we were excited to begin! What we didn't plan for though, was an overcast, rainy day. What natural light we had hoped to use (in addition to the hotel's lights and what we brought with us), was gone. Oh well, there was nothing we could do about it, we had to move on.
We had talked about how we would coordinate it all, since hubby had to make sure the cameras were working at all times, make sure I was always in the frame, change the back up batteries when needed, hand me the posters, read our extra copy to see if there any additional requests that needed to be followed...AND pie me!
We were ready to start with the first pie! I took a deep breath, smiled and we began. After I was hit, I asked, "How many more are there?!" Ha ha! After that, it went pretty well...extremely well, I might add, for two amateurs doing a massive pie shoot!
It was exciting to 'take a pie' for all the people that had replied...some I had chatted with, others that I recognized from the forum, and some that I did not know at all. And although, I had asked for their preferences (thrown or pushed, on a clean face or messy), it was still very interesting to see the different responses.
Then there was my record breaker...# 79! I had sent him a message, asking if there was anything special that he wanted me to do (um, within reason!) since he was a record breaking 'notch' in my pie history! He added syrup to the mess, and it just kept going from there!
There were some additional requests too...and I tried to accommodate what I could. For some reason, lucky 100 was hubby (hmmm, I think that might have been planned!) and he decided to pour chocolate frosting on me. There were other requests too...cherry pies, banana cream and they went on and on.
I even had a request to get my feet pied! Well that took some doing. Since we knew that the bottom of the pool would be full of mess, by the time we would get to that request, we brought a white plastic chair with us. We put it in the pool and I sat on it as I wiped off my feet. Then I moved up and positioned myself on the back of the chair as I rested my feet on the seat. But I kept slipping off and had trouble keeping my mark! Finally, I was able to hold it long enough to get my feet pied...and then oops, a big slide off! I think I broke the back of the chair! I laughed!
Another interesting one was the cake batter green slime request. It was the first time that I had ever done slime, and I was clued in by a fan to make sure it was nice and warm. Well, it was, and what a feeling! I want to do that again real soon!
All in all, it took two and a half hours to do the 119 pies and stuff...it was fun, exciting and exhausting! At the end, I sat down in the kiddie pool to just mellow out for a while. I didn't want to think of what was ahead!
END OF PART FIVE...TO BE CONTINUED...
Friday, July 11, 2008
'A PIE FOR EVERY REPLY': PART 4
LAST MINUTE PREPARATIONS
It was the day before the shoot. In order to get everything ready, we both decided to take the day off of work. First, I went to the salon and got all ‘dolled up’. I don't know why I paid to do that, since the next day, no one would be able to tell the difference! Then, we lugged up all the supplies from our hiding place in the basement and packed up the car before the kids started swarming around. It felt like we were going on vacation…the car was filled to the gills. Just the boxes of pie crusts alone took up a huge amount of trunk space! Thank goodness we didn’t get 500 replies; we would have had to rent a U Haul!
Then, we got the kids all set, making sure there was enough food in the house to feed the teenagers and money for a fast food meal, if they forgot how to cook! The oldest was going to supervise and spend the night. “So where did you say you guys were going again?” “Uh, I’m not sure. You know it’s one of our milestone anniversaries, and Dad has decided to take me somewhere locally. He wants it to be a surprise.”
We said goodbye and headed on our way, hoping for a safe trip. We already knew that it was going to be a messy one! We could just picture getting pulled over by the cops…“The pie crusts in the trunk, officer? Uh, hard to explain. But if you check out this website…!” We checked into the hotel and laughed as we filled the transport cart with all the supplies. The boxes of pie crusts looked pretty suspicious, so we draped some beach towels over them to get past the front desk without too many looks from the clerk! A few more trips for the rest of the stuff, then finally ‘the white chair’ was brought in through the back door! We kept reminding ourselves that we were going to leave most of it down the drain!
The room was plenty big enough, and we had asked for one with an eastern exposure to take advantage of the morning light. Little did we know, that it would be overcast and rainy all the next day. The room had previously been a smoking room, and you could still smell the lingering scent in the carpet and furniture. But we figured the shaving cream would probably take care of that! The only other challenge was the layout of the bathroom. It was the kind that you had to enter, then turn around and close the door in order to get step in the shower. It was not what you would call 'user friendly'! But we did have a kitchen with a sink, so between the two areas of running water, we hoped that it would be fine.
We decided to get all the supplies ready that night, because we wanted to get up the next day, fill the pie crusts and start the pie barrage. We still needed to get a few other things, so we went out to dinner, then hit the local grocery store to buy the pancake syrup, chocolate syrup, cherry pies, banana cream filling and everything else that we needed to complete the list.
Then we went back to the room and started to set up. This is where we realized a pie wrangler would have been nice to have! Taking off the plastic covers and bending back the sides of 119 plus pie tins was literally a pain. I ended up getting a blister on my thumb, that to this day, instantly reforms every time I get near a pie crust in a tin! I must have sat crossed legged on that hotel floor for hours too. Actually, I did - the preparation ended up taking us nearly 4 hours. We had to move the furniture, tape down the tarps from the shooting area to the bathroom, put up the backdrop, set up the tripod, take the tops off the cans of shaving cream, get the signs in order, blow up the kiddie pool, and get all the extras ready in order of the replies, like the cigar, glasses, syrup, banana cream, chocolate syrup, cake batter, etc. We took a picture of the ‘Wall of Shaving Cream’ as I like to call it – it was amazing to see! We were exhausted, so we called to check in on the kids, then went to bed.
END OF PART FOUR...TO BE CONTINUED...
It was the day before the shoot. In order to get everything ready, we both decided to take the day off of work. First, I went to the salon and got all ‘dolled up’. I don't know why I paid to do that, since the next day, no one would be able to tell the difference! Then, we lugged up all the supplies from our hiding place in the basement and packed up the car before the kids started swarming around. It felt like we were going on vacation…the car was filled to the gills. Just the boxes of pie crusts alone took up a huge amount of trunk space! Thank goodness we didn’t get 500 replies; we would have had to rent a U Haul!
Then, we got the kids all set, making sure there was enough food in the house to feed the teenagers and money for a fast food meal, if they forgot how to cook! The oldest was going to supervise and spend the night. “So where did you say you guys were going again?” “Uh, I’m not sure. You know it’s one of our milestone anniversaries, and Dad has decided to take me somewhere locally. He wants it to be a surprise.”
We said goodbye and headed on our way, hoping for a safe trip. We already knew that it was going to be a messy one! We could just picture getting pulled over by the cops…“The pie crusts in the trunk, officer? Uh, hard to explain. But if you check out this website…!” We checked into the hotel and laughed as we filled the transport cart with all the supplies. The boxes of pie crusts looked pretty suspicious, so we draped some beach towels over them to get past the front desk without too many looks from the clerk! A few more trips for the rest of the stuff, then finally ‘the white chair’ was brought in through the back door! We kept reminding ourselves that we were going to leave most of it down the drain!
The room was plenty big enough, and we had asked for one with an eastern exposure to take advantage of the morning light. Little did we know, that it would be overcast and rainy all the next day. The room had previously been a smoking room, and you could still smell the lingering scent in the carpet and furniture. But we figured the shaving cream would probably take care of that! The only other challenge was the layout of the bathroom. It was the kind that you had to enter, then turn around and close the door in order to get step in the shower. It was not what you would call 'user friendly'! But we did have a kitchen with a sink, so between the two areas of running water, we hoped that it would be fine.
We decided to get all the supplies ready that night, because we wanted to get up the next day, fill the pie crusts and start the pie barrage. We still needed to get a few other things, so we went out to dinner, then hit the local grocery store to buy the pancake syrup, chocolate syrup, cherry pies, banana cream filling and everything else that we needed to complete the list.
Then we went back to the room and started to set up. This is where we realized a pie wrangler would have been nice to have! Taking off the plastic covers and bending back the sides of 119 plus pie tins was literally a pain. I ended up getting a blister on my thumb, that to this day, instantly reforms every time I get near a pie crust in a tin! I must have sat crossed legged on that hotel floor for hours too. Actually, I did - the preparation ended up taking us nearly 4 hours. We had to move the furniture, tape down the tarps from the shooting area to the bathroom, put up the backdrop, set up the tripod, take the tops off the cans of shaving cream, get the signs in order, blow up the kiddie pool, and get all the extras ready in order of the replies, like the cigar, glasses, syrup, banana cream, chocolate syrup, cake batter, etc. We took a picture of the ‘Wall of Shaving Cream’ as I like to call it – it was amazing to see! We were exhausted, so we called to check in on the kids, then went to bed.
END OF PART FOUR...TO BE CONTINUED...
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