4B - Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

4B - Thursday, March 12, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

PAPER FRAME
From page 1B
laborator of Charlene Kaye's, sang with Kaye in
the video and also enjoyed the working dynamic
the team had on set.
"When you're doing these kind of things,
whether it be putting on a play or shooting a
video in a student environment where no one's
really getting paid, it's all just for the sake of fun
and creating something," Criss said.
The video was eventually screened through
M-agination Films, a student-run film group, but
Thom, Mark and Liann were still working inde-
pendently. The decision to actually form Paper
Frame Productions and consolidate the group's
work under a single banner was less motivatedby
profit and more by a desire to develop a distinct
identity and connect with other people in the
creative community. And as Mark notes, "You
have to have a name to do that."
For Paper Frame Productions, the decision
already looks to be paying off. Since the "Skin and
Bones" video, the group has done commercials
and video work for MUSKET, the student-run
musical theater group, and has upcoming video
shoots with local electro-pop group My Dear
Disco and singer-songwriter Danny Freeman.
After releasing the first videos online this Janu-
ary with the official Paper Frame Productions
name attached, the group received offers from sev-
eral bands to film their live shows. Even the work
with MUSKET came about thanks to the "Skin

and Bones" shoot, as one of the stagehands for the
video, MT&D sophomore Josh Beurer, worked for
MUSKET and asked if they could collaborate.
To all three members, the interconnected
nature of the Ann Arbor arts community has
been beneficial. The group has called on a net-
work of friends and contacts - ranging from
writers, dancers, actors and bands - to help out
with Paper Frame projects. In turn, Paper Frame
Productions is more than willing to do the same
for their contacts.
"We wouldn't have anything to shoot if there
wasn't a music scene in Ann Arbor," Thom said.
"It helps that it's a really good, strong music
scene and it gives us an opportunity to actually
work with good artists and make a product that's
actually decent and something people would want
to watch even if they aren't familiar with the art-
ist," Thom continued. "It also helps us to actually
want to put out a high quality product ourselves."
As the night ends, the team behind Paper
Frame Productions leaves the deli with an espe-
cially busy agenda ahead of them. The "Magnolia
Wine" video is shooting this weekend, and two
days from now, Paper Frame will be filming a live
show at the Blind Pig. Nevertheless, the ambition
and vision that fueled Paper Frame Production's
growth in these past two months is still plentiful.
"People - creative people especially - want to
be a part of something," Mark said. "So the pro-
duction company isn't so much a company in that
we're trying to make money or be a business, at
least not at this stage, but so we can just organize
projects and have an outlet for creativity for us
and for our friends."

A cold day in Hollywood hell

By RACHEL HANDLER
Daily Arts Writer
You know things have taken a turn
for the worse when Oprah is funnier
than Ellen DeGeneres. I learned this
tragic truth over spring break in L.A.,
when I had the distinct pseudo-honor
of being an audience member for both
daytime talk show queens. I say pseu-
do-honor because being in a talk show
audience is essentially ahumblingexpe-
rience. After clapping on cue, practicing
laughing, dancing frenetically between
commercials and being moved in and
out of seats according to attractiveness,
one feels less like a human and more
like a circus monkey. But I performed
accordingly, hoping to at least produce
an interesting story.
Monday was Oprah's after-Oscar
special at the Kodak Theatre. My
mom and I were VIPs, which we later
learned meant nothing. Oprah was
slated to interview the Oscar winners
post-post-party, before many even had
a chance to sleep. Scandal and intrigue
felt imminent. Yet none of this seemed
worth it at the ungodly arrival time of

5:30 a.m. We came, we saw, we parked,
we waited. While waiting, I learned a
few things. One: Even regulars on CBS
detective shows have to wait in line for
Oprah. Two: If a VIP falls in the forest,
but everyone else is also a VIP, no one
really gives a shit.
Five hours after my brutal wake-
up call, I stumbled, half-dead, into the
Kodak.
First up: Hugh Jackman, large and
clean-shaven. Always combating those
Oprah vs. Ellen:
who's funnier?

took three more imaginary shots and
sat down, thinking things couldn't get
much worse. But five minutes later, my
mother ended up dancing on stage alone
for three minutes in hopes of winning a
T-shirt. I learned a third lesson here: In
the real world, T-shirts aren't so heavily
commoditized. But in the world of the
talk show audience, they are luxuries
worthy of self-exploitation.
Finally, Ellen entered the stu-
dio, a ray of golden sunshine. Relief
descended over the audience as we
were finally allowed to sit down and
stop awkwardly shaking our imagi-
nary Mardi Gras beads. Until we were
told she'd be refraining from her usual
parade through the aisles, and had to
push Fabio from "Top Chef" to tomor-
row's show. Hopelessness ensued.
Ellen's first guest was a woman who
had stopped a burglar by giving him a
wedgie. I waited for the witty repartee,
for Ellen's biting commentary - but
there was none. Between takes, she sat
forlornly in her chair while a team of
makeup artists dusted away at her fore-
head. A phone callto Sean Penn began a
lengthy,mutualpat onthe back between
the two in which they congratulated
one another for being proponents of
the gay rights movement. Denise Rich-
ards moaned about her hard-knock life
while simultaneously whoring out her
reality series and children. And stun-
ningly, Ellen didn't make fun of her.
Rather, she commiserated.
At the end of the show, Ellen stood
and thanked the audience, almost
apologetically. We sat in shared, hor-
rified silence. Had that really just hap-
pened? Had Ellen and Denise Richards
just bonded? My mother and I quickly
invented stories for her. "Her back
hurts." "She's probably sick." "Maybe
she's fighting with Portia!"
As we trudged forlornly out of the
studio, I decided that the entire expe-
rience had been sort of surreal. When
Oprah can crack jokes about her finan-
cial status between commercials -
"When you're rich, people adjust your
shirt for you" - but Ellen can barely
crack a smile. When celebrities are
chipper at 10 a.m. after the Oscars and
a still-drunk Sean Penn doesn't even
make an off-color remark, the uni-
verse feels out of whack. Perhaps I had
somehow entered the "Twilight Zone"
without realizing it. Shit got weird that
week in L.A., and I wanted a refund. I
couldn't catch a break, though - our
tickets had been free.

0

0

4

I

4


4