David Wilmington's Page
Official Biographical Blurb
David Wilmington grew up in several of the "I" states, and in Dallas and Houston, Texas. He studied music and literature at Washington and Lee University and earned a Master of Theological Studies at Duke University. David is currently a Language Arts teacher, soccer coach, and jazz radio announcer...as well as actor/writer (and sometimes editor/producer/composer/child wrangler/menu advisor) for Sea Shanty Films. Not sure if he can look at himself in the mirror since he realized he was cheering for France from the quarterfinals on in World Cup 2006.
Editing with Sea Shanty Productions
Sea Shanty productions has been in full editing mode for a while now. Matt and/or David Wilmington have trekked down to Pirates Cove studios every weekend since July to take Brigham hostage for long and very productive editing sessions.
Every editing session seems to have its own dramatic arc. Like Douglas Adam's template for the development of all civilization (How can we eat? Why do we eat? Where shall we have lunch?), there are equal parts optimism, despair, danger, and silliness.
The initial impact of seeing all the digitized footage overwhelms us. One of Matt's favorite sayings is: "We really covered ourselves!" This is a good thing - but we can understand why Clint Eastwood stops shooting after 3 or 4 takes on his films. Stage one is best faced with denial and foolish optimism: "I think we could bang this thing out in 2 or 3 hours!"
The second stage in a session is the "let's-toy-around-with-some-of-the-footage-to-avoid-facing-the-fact-that-we-won't- see-daylight-for-the-next-8-hours" stage.
Stage three is usually 6-8 hours long and involves about 5000 decisions regarding lighting, pacing, sound, acting performances, pacing, shot composition, story development, and pacing.
Stage three point five is when Matt runs out of sunflower seeds, Wilmington begins juggling and inventing new soccer moves in the Pirate's Cove living room, and Brigham becomes transfixed with color saturating everything green to show off the smoke effects better.
Stage four is the weird, panicky feeling we all get as Brigham touches up the final transitions between major sections of a scene. We know we're close to seeing the whole run-through, but it always seems to take another 45 minutes to finish. It feels like a 45 minute sprint.
Stage five is when we all watch the scene from start to finish about three times in a row. Without fail, we will each alternate between feeling mildy satsfied, wildly happy, and numbly ambivalent. Luckily...
Stage six is a short walk to the Pirate's Cove Hydro-Therapy and Deep Tissue Massage Facility (installed by Brigham during the rennovation of our production compund after raking in the royalties from "Wingnut"). We float around in a daze for several minutes, and then, like the sick junkies we are, we start talking about....movies! "Who's directing the new Harry Potter movie?" "Have you seen 'Donnie Darko' yet?" "Did you see what Tim Burton said about people comparing Johnny Depp's performance to Michael Jackson?" "Have you seen 'Blue,' yet?", etc. Clearly, we need help.
Stage seven involves food, drinks, and an attempt to pretend that we're NOT going to start this whole process over soon in order to finish 2 scenes this weekend.
Subversive Inspirations for "WING NUT"
"Wing Nut" was inspired by "Mystery Science Theatre 3000", "The Simpsons", the 'News on the March' segments from "Citizen Kane," and some of the filmstrips which were still being shown while I was in elementary school.
Some of those actual filmstrips are so over-the-top that we never had to worry about getting too broad with our tone. We simply kept the same tone the old filmstrips used to describe hydroelectric power, nuclear energy, or new automobile production factories and then applied them to the wing nut. (Imagine our surprise upon noticing the titles before the "Lord of the Rings" movies...we still dream of sending Peter Jackson a copy.)
For me, the satiric core is in the titles - triumphalist epithets, really - I used to describe scientific progress and the scientists themselves. This element derives from critiques that theological ethicists like Stanley Hauerwas and Amy Laura Hall brought to my attention. Summed up, this critique points out that placing the expectations, faith, unique status, and responsibilities formerly reserved for priests/ministers onto the shoulders of scientists and doctors is dangerous for all involved parties.
Several elements of "Wing Nut" are hard to imagine any other way. Austin Neeley gave us a completely unique Little Billy. Brigham's design for the war sequences was a great 'old school' way of solving a big problem, and the end result was real movie magic (as the narrator would say). Dale Baker's music brought everything to life.
Shameless and Amateurish Use of Space for LUKE Photos
Until I add a completely new sub-page just for fans of the inimitable Mr. Baby...
