I Have Been to the Mountain

Tonight Carl and I gathered at my house for the official viewing of Murder by the Book. Earlier in the week I had attempted to capture the video and transfer it to DVD. This exercise proved to be too difficult for my freshman editing/authoring skills. I have the video captured, but making a DVD out of that was taking too long.

We wheeled the TV onto the porch, mainly because we wanted to smoke cigars in true Columbo fashion while watching the movie. Halfway through the wheeling exercise we both decided that it was a wholly stupid idea. But in the spirit of this wholly stupid project we decided to proceed with reckless abandon. It was a great atmosphere for watching the movie, and when my wife came home halfway through the movie she got a good laugh out of the sight of a couple of morons watching Columbo on the porch.

The movie was great. We are both excited and frightened by what we saw. It's good that there are no Matrix-level special effects, but right away we know that there is going to be work involved in shooting these scenes:

• The midnight rowboat body dumping
• The theatre lobby in which a woman is screaming in a crowd
• The general store
• The restaurant
• The cabin

Since we don't own rowboats or a theatre or a general store or a restaurant or a cabin, this is where we'll have to flex our creative muscles. I have a friend of a friend who owns a bar... that might cut it for the restaurant, but we'll have to ask really nicely... We know a place where we can rent a rowboat, but not at midnight. There is a nice theatre in Cincinnati, but it will take quite a salesman to talk them into this. We could rent a cabin for a weekend. The general store.... I have no idea.

So that's where we are. Overwhelmed but giddy.

The next step is to watch the movie a thousand times. Also we need to document a list of the scenes, identify the hardest ones and start pursuing places to shoot them.

Oh, and we've decided that we want to be done by December.

I Have the Tape

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you... I'm making a pest of myself... It's because I keep asking these questions, but, I tell you, I can't help myself.
--Columbo

Today Carl and I had lunch (at The Works in Loveland, delicious pizza) and he handed me The Tape. It's an official VHS copy of Murder by the Book. Tonight I will take it home, transfer it to DVD (fair use and all that) and then Carl and I shall begin picking it apart.

It has been decided that Carl will play Ken Franklin because he's a big fan of Jack Cassidy. I guess that leaves me to play Columbo. We will have to be the main characters because it is so hard to get people's schedules to line up. In fact we might have to play other characters as well.

I'm not crazy about playing Columbo, just because I know it will be a lot of work. I actually look forward to working up a laughable impression of Peter Falk, but it will still be a lot of work.