NEW DEVELOPMENT

December 9th, 2009, was a very important date for me. It marked the one-year anniversary of my first letter to Great Grains. Who knew so much could happen in a year? It was a year of new friendship (me, Kim, Collies), a year of marketing (my Canadian Great Grains shipping program has at least 9 non-active participants), and ultimately, a year of disappointment (no Great Grains for me or Canada).

In case you haven't been following my year-long quest with Post Cereal, I've been involved in a letter writing campaign with Post to convince them to begin shipping my favorite cereal, Great Grains, to Canada. Or at least to me. I've sent 4 letters, each with helpful ideas and urgings to begin a Canadian Great Grains shipping program (see my original post earlier in my blog for actual letters). While I have yet to receive a single box of cereal, I haven't deemed it a total failure, as I've made some friends along the way.

I recently wrote to Great Grains again to wish them a happy Halloween, receive a status update, etc. It had been a few months since my last letter so we had a lot to catch up on. See my letter below:

I expected a nice, formal response from Collies as usual, but man, just when I thought I really knew Collies, my world was rocked by scandal.

Honestly, this was the last thing I expected to read. A new owner?! That really throws a kink into my plans. Part of me thinks that Collies, Kim & Co. are most likely pretty happy to be rid of me. Except they're not.

I'm currently waiting back to hear if Collies wishes to pursue our correspondence. I'm also gearing myself up to begin back at step one in a new letter writing campaign for the new owners in 2010. I think this new campaign needs to be more aggressive--which is why I'm inviting YOU, dear readers, the most intelligent people I know, to join me in my campaign. I promise if we are successful, I will share my boxes of Great Grains to everyone who has contributed (except for people in the USA; you guys have unlimited access and should really be helping to ship them to Canada).

Send me copies of your letters, your t-shirt designs, protest pics, fan-art, etc. I will proudly post them (please see my first piece of fan-art from a reader who's got it going on--the picture at the top is courtesy of the lovely Leslie U.). Got any ideas for a better campaign? I'd love to hear them.

As well, anyone care to elaborate on whether Collies is a man or woman? In my head, I picture a 30-something woman but apparently it may be a man's name. Collies in my head is also a little bit exasperated, maybe a bit of a stern taskmaster, but in a still-secretly-rooting-for-me kinda way. It's like a zen thing, you know?

Buffy: Day 16

Day 16 was a small shoot with just me, Rob and Amy (or Buffy, Xander and Willow), but it was particularly exciting because it was our first day of shooting actual DIALOGUE! We did a scene set outside of Sunnydale High (University of Toronto did a pretty nice job of subbing in).

Mood: Freezing

The day started with some location scouting and apparently a Chinese Lantern festival.

Ready for your first glance at Buffy, Xander and Willow? Dream Team!

We did some publicity photos and took a few shots to test the lighting before our rehearsals and filming.

Hey, look! We're having a perfectly normal conversation! Pretty good acting, huh?

Sunnydale High? Sure.

Rob's wardrobe as Xander consists almost entirely of polyester shirts. And strangely enough, Wardrobe found most of them in the women's section. You certainly can't tell.

It was a short scene that we shot, but it was so cold outside that I had goosebumps all over my skin. Note Zak's winter jacket, which probably kept him pretty warm against the wind. Note my bare arms, which did not. I'm sure people in California sometimes shiver and have chattering teeth while in the sunshine, right? This episode is going to be picked apart by the critics.

Nice socks, Amy!

All in all, once we got a few rehearsals out of the way, the scene went well. However, I'm slightly worried that I may be a horrible actor. I'm still surprised by how long it takes to film even the shortest scene--this one took at least 2 hours. Now we have 1 page of the script done--46 to go! We're still working on scheduling issues but hopefully the next update I have will include some Spike & Drusilla footage and some graveyard scenes. My current project is working on creating the 'Vampyr' book that's featured in all of the Buffy openings and making more tombstones (the invitation for fan-art tombstones still stands!).

So just a quick update from me; keep an eye in the media for us, I think word is starting to spread after some interviews. But don't worry, I promise that artistic integrity will remain our primary focus!