Mixed Metaphors

Barfly: a person who spends much time in bars

Full disclosure: I’ve been visiting bars and have climbed up bar stools to take my place ever since I was a child. I guess that makes me a barfly. Growing up, my parents with their children in tow, would attend Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, then visit one of their regular taverns in Racine, Wisconsin, southern neighbor to Milwaukee, home to immigrant German brewmasters and the beers that made Milwaukee famous.

As children, our drink of choice was orange pop (soda for those of you not from the Midwest). Our parents would bribe us with pop, potato chips, and quarters for the pinball machine so we’d be patient as they’d visit with friends including their favorite bartenders.  As the eldest child when I became a preteen, I began to protest this routine by waiting in the car with my arms folded with a “mad-on” which is how my parents described my behavior. When my parents had too much to drink, it was my responsibility to be an adult and take care of my younger siblings.

When we visited my father’s Uncle Joe, we’d find him tending bar at his tavern, Club 1100, kiddie-corner from St. Patrick’s Church. My great-uncle received a zoning variance so his business could be located close to the church. City alders were concerned that taverns sited too close to churches would divert people from taking a seat in a pew, and choose a barstool instead. The Catholic priests from St. Patrick’s spoke on his behalf because they didn’t want to walk too far to have their beer, boilermaker, or Irish whiskey after Mass. Uncle Joe liked to say that after he served them a few drinks, he heard the priests’ confessions.

My maternal grandmother, when we visited her or she babysat us, would take us to meet Charlie, our step-grandpa, to J.J.’s, the corner tavern for Friday night fish fry, usually freshly-caught Lake Perch before Lake Michigan became too polluted. Factory workers would cash their payroll check at the bar, so on Friday night, the neighborhood taverns featured many food and drink specials. When you walked in the door on a Friday night you could smell the bar’s potpourri of beer, cigars, and fried fish.

A recovering alcoholic walks into a bar…

I stopped drinking over 30 years ago after attending an outpatient recovery program and years of aftercare, group and individual therapy, AA, Al-Anon, and other 12-Step programs. I was born with a genetic predisposition to alcoholism on both sides of my family and I witnessed both tragedy and bad behavior by the generations that preceded me. I saw my future.

When I came out as a lesbian, my drinking became problematic and it was clear to me that to have healthy relationships with others, and a healthy relationship with myself, staying off a barstool and abstaining from alcohol was required.

Soon, I realized I didn’t need to stay out of bars or avoid friends and family who had a few beers, cocktails, or a glass of wine.  I was the one with the problem and if I didn’t pick up a drink I could sit on a barstool.

People in an effort to be supportive of me would ask, “Does it bother you if I have a drink?” I often answered, “I don’t have a problem if you drink, but if I pick one up, you might want to leave. It won’t be pretty!” As it turns out, I’m now a cheap date. A sparking water or cranberry juice doesn’t lend itself to binge-drinking.

Dispatch from the Hotel Bar

For the past three years I’ve been hanging out in the Hotel Bar named The Pearly Gates, if only in my imagination. It began with a whimsical conversation at my friend Laura’s 50^th birthday celebration which we celebrated that year in June at her lakeside apartment.

We discussed everything from our individual beliefs about religion, afterlife, whether there really was a heaven and hell, and who and how our lives would be judged. Since many of us had arrived at midlife or beyond, we speculated about what kind of legacy we would leave when we died.

Soon I was referencing the Twilight Zone series featuring Rod Serling, the series creator and writer, whose show was broadcast on CBS from 1959 – 1964, and I asked how he would treat the Pearly Gates, St. Peter, and the afterlife. As a lifelong television viewer and cinephile, I began riffing on St. Peter as a bartender in a Hotel Bar, a temporary stopover between life and the afterlife.

As mortals, we’re not all good or bad, our lives fall in between the two polls. Peter would make a judgement based on our backstory and the stories we told, the degree of honesty and self-awareness we exhibited. Peter — like most bartenders — is a good listener and judge of character, parsing the truth from fiction, as he conducted exit interviews of the newly departed and decided on their final destination.

Following the birthday celebration, I posted this on Facebook:

“This is a shout out to a group of friends I shared the afternoon with who helped inspire and encourage me to work on a new idea for a screenplay, entitled, Hotel Bar. It’s the story of a nondescript hotel, a stopover for travelers on their way to their final destination. What they don’t know (much like Twilight Zone episodes of the past) is that they entered Limbo and the bartender who serves them their drinks and chats them up at the bar is the gatekeeper who determines whether they spend eternity in heaven or hell, based on the subtle questions he asks when he tests them on their behavior, character and values.”  

“When they need to use the restroom, they’ve actually entered the portal to heaven or hell. It’s a comedy with life lessons. The Hotel Bar is decorated with plaques and signs, adorned with platitudes, slogans, and popular quotes from religious texts and homilies. So far, we’ve cast Willem Dafoe as the bartender. I’m inviting script suggestions.”

Life as a Barfly

Fast forward to August 22, 2017.

“I just finished the outline for my screenplay, Hotel Bar, to submit for consideration on Thursday at the Madison Independent Filmmaker’s Short Script Meetup. The synopsis: The story is a Twilight Zone-inspired treatment of St. Peter and the Pearly Gates and the traditional afterlife, the Roman Catholic view of heaven, hell, and limbo. Instead of an angel at the Gates of Heaven, who reviews the big book record of an individual’s life and decides the newly-dead person’s eternal destination, it’s a chatty bartender in a nondescript hotel bar.”

“It’s a satirical take on how our lives are judged. Think of classic films like Heaven Can Wait and Defending Your Life (a film by Albert Brooks). Unsuspecting travelers, who have just died, believe they are on a journey somewhere and have temporarily stopped off at this hotel and bar for a drink and some conversation before they are on their way. Little do they know the innocent conversation they are about to have with a friendly bartender will determine their ultimate fate for eternity. Wish me luck!”

Thus, began a year as a new member of the Madison Indie Filmmakers, as the creator and executive producer of a local, independent web series, Hotel Bar, and my official designation as a self-appointed Barfly. Shortly after the script-writing meeting I attended my first Madison Indie Filmmakers Project Showcase on August 30, 2017, an opportunity to pitch my project and recruit potential cast and crew where I met a number of people who would later become members of our web series project, including Robert Barhite who is the Hotel Bar head writer.

Here’s my Facebook post the day after the Project Showcase:

“I pitched my screenplay last night as a web series and some Madison Indie Filmmakers creative partners stepped up and expressed interest in working on the project with me. There’s a lot of talent in the room to harness. I have some potential actors, help with a location, a cameraperson, voice talent, and possibly some directorial and producer help. It’s both scary and exciting at the same time. I also heard about other amazing projects in the works and volunteered to help by contributing some network contacts. I’ll keep you posted. Thank you for your support and encouragement. Here’s a little tease, a picture of how I envision St. Peter as a bartender. Be careful how much you drink and what you share with him. It may determine your everlasting destination…”

On 9/20/2017, we held our first Hotel Bar Creative and Production Team Meeting at Cargo Coffee on E. Washington Ave. in Madison. Many members who attended that first meeting play key roles in the project today, including the director and co-producer Gary Dunham, a 35-year veteran of filmmaking in Hollywood, and an instructor and mentor who is now making independent films in Madison through his film production company, 1 Light Short, my friend and fellow writer, Mark Albright, who would later join our writer’s room and become the Hotel Bar casting director, and last and certainly not least, Bob Barhite, the series head writer.

A couple family members also attended that first meeting, my sister Tami Reschke whose Bohemian Bauble jewelry is featured as part of the costume for Lillie, one of our three lead characters, and Tami’s daughter, my teenage niece Gemma, who I’m still trying to recruit as an actress. There was a sing-along group that night at Cargo Coffee which made for the noisiest and most inspiring meeting of my entire life. It got so loud we had to move our meeting outside to the not-so-quiet E. Washington Avenue busy thoroughfare.

Over the span of the next few months our writer’s room grew. Bob Barhite, who had been at the initial pitch meeting and was one of the first people to raise his hand and volunteer to work on the screenplay, became the head writer. We held monthly writer’s rooms at the Madison Central Public Library.

Early on, a core group of writers contributed ideas and backstories for the lead characters, hammered out themes we wanted to address and characters to feature, and outlined the character and story arcs for the series. The pilot morphed from 8 minutes long to 14, back again to 11 or 12, then expanded to about 24 minutes where it remains today.

Gary Dunham, who initially provided reality checks about what would be required to produce a successful web series, soon began researching religious texts, offering alternatives to our storyline and could regularly be heard saying, “I have an idea…” In the end we drafted at least 11 versions of the pilot episode.

Meanwhile, I continued to recruit potential cast and crew members at Madison Indie Filmmaker Project Showcase meetings, pitching the project at every opportunity. Our growing team met once a month and held creative and production team meetings at various coffeehouses or in study rooms at the Central Public Library, until we identified our primary filming location, The Brink Lounge, just down the block on E. Washington Ave. from Cargo Coffee where we held our initial meeting.

Luck and goodwill worked in our favor. Jeff Modjeska, who attended the early creative and production team meetings expressed interest in having a lead role behind the camera and soon became our first director of photography. Jeff worked for a real estate management company and became a liaison with Curt Brink who owned the The Brink Lounge. Curt offered us the space on Monday evenings to hold our monthly meetings, block and rehearse scenes, and later film on Sundays and Mondays when the bar was closed to the public. The Brink became a character in itself, the perfect waystation between life and the afterlife.

Facebook became a vehicle to promote Hotel Bar. I posted updates and meeting announcements on my timeline and on the Madison Indie Filmmaker group page. I selected a photo of a bartender I found online who represented my image of St. Peter tending bar at the Pearly Gates. Soon, I learned that the photo was Charles Joly, a celebrity bartender. Read the full story here: Another Trip to the Hotel Bar. 

Shia Fisher, John Quinlan, and Matt Butler were early partners in helping to promote the project. Shia conducted a series of interviews with me on his WSUM 91.7 FM radio program On Wisconsin. He posted film reviews on his blog. John Quinlan hosted our annual pre-Oscar awards review show on his public access program Forward Forum where we also promoted Hotel Bar and the 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival. Matt Butler filmed an interview with me to help promote the project and our upcoming auditions.

More recently, in the March of 2018, I was interviewed by Tom Ray for his podcast American Bandito, where he interviews artists and makers in Madison. Listen to the interview here. This past weekend, Stacy Harbaugh of Our Lives magazine visited Hotel Bar set during film to gather background for her article to be featured in the November issue of the magazine.

Social media reached experienced and emerging filmmakers, writers, and actors who raised their hands and offered to collaborate on the web series. Soon, in addition to the writing team, and director of photography, I had a co-producer, casting director, behind-the-scenes photo and video documentarians, lighting and production designers, the first assistant director, and last — and certainly not least — my director, Gary Dunham.

This is where I acknowledge that though I’ve been a lifetime cinephile and always imagined how I would make a film — and as a writer the past 30+ years — what stories I wanted to tell — I quickly became aware of what I didn’t know, and what I needed to learn. Though I was competently promoting my project, recruiting team members, and organizing and facilitating meetings, I didn’t know the first thing about directing a film or web series. I had ideas about the art of filmmaking, but completely lacked the technical knowledge required to communicate with lighting directors, camera crews, and sound engineers.

This is where mentors and teachers can make the difference for individuals like me who embark on a new avocation in the third chapter of one’s life. I sought out experienced filmmaking producers and directors from the Madison Indie Filmmakers and interviewed them. I now was no longer an aspiring showrunner, I took steps backwards and became a film student.

In addition to my role as the series creator, I was the executive producer. The title in this case doesn’t accurately reflect the reality of the situation. This was a no-to-low budget production, which meant everyone involved was donating their time and talent. One of the challenges I experienced was how would I underwrite this project.

Mark Albright and Antonia Villalon, our casting directors, designed and facilitated our auditions and call-backs. Both Mark and Antonia recruited people from their theater background in Madison. It became clear that this project was coming to life, first with the development of the story and now viewing potential characters interact with each other and read the lines. Producers, directors, writers, and behind-the-scenes (BTS) videographers captured the auditions in photographs and on video. It’s happening!

Again, I looked to those filmmakers more experienced than I and made some changes in personnel. First, after not finding the right complement of skills and flow in communication in a co-producer, followed by mutually challenging conversations with someone who I liked and respected, I reached out to Gary Dunham again. First, he accepted the role as co-producer, after initially suggesting he could be an adviser, then later he agreed to co-direct when it was clear I had much more to learn.

When principal photography began this past month, I stepped down from the director’s chair and sat down on a barstool again, handing the director mantle to the person who had the chops to make the series a success, Gary.

We cast our lead actors, Brian Belz as Peter, Shaniqua “Nikko” Murphy as Lillie, and Ben Ruyle as Sam, plus reoccurring supporting roles, featured characters for future episodes, and extras, many of them my friends. Over the course of the last couple months we made additional production team changes. We recruited a sound engineer and a new editor. Matt Butler our first editor, BTS photographer, and videographer was relocating to Chicago to find work in his career field. We brought on Robert Chantigian as the new editor and boom operator. Audrey Martinovich of Audio for the Arts, daughter of our head writer, Bob Barhite, became our production sound mixer and engineer.

Additional changes unfolded due to schedule conflicts, competing project commitments, and mismatches in communication styles. We brought on a new assistant director, Aaron Kesller, who I also met during that initial Madison Indie Filmmakers script-writing meeting a year ago. Gary recruited a new director of photography, camera crew, and added to the BTS team with former film students, including Blake Shingleton, Jordan Biagolmala, and Tim Ostrander.

After rehearsals and blocking in June and July, during the last three weekends of all-day Sundays and Monday evenings in August, we completed most of the principal photography for Hotel Bar. We have a couple of key scenes left to shoot, and may need to reshoot scenes after the initial round of editing.

What’s Ahead

Next up for the Barflies is post-production including editing, sound mixing, adding music, and creating the opening credit sequence, plus designing our Hotel Bar website, identifying distribution channels, and seeking financial backing and/or partners. Hotel Bar is a web series, which means when the pilot is completed we’ll begin writing, then shooting, Episode 1. Our next writer’s room is this upcoming Thursday when Bob will assign writers to develop specific characters, plot the story arcs and themes, and over the course of the next few months write and produce 10 episodes. Oh, My!

Gary Dunham recently reflected back on our journey together and my initial inexperience and innocent enthusiasm and said, “I think my first question to you, a year ago, was: ‘do you know what you’re getting yourself into’…. you didn’t…. but now you do…. it’s 90% work 10% fun 110% worry, and 100% satisfaction when you see you hard work on the screen.”

One last note: A THANK YOU goes out to all the creative collaborators who are making Hotel Bar come to life. Yes, the Life of a Barfly continues — stay tuned…

Read, Watch, & Listen to Learn More About Hotel Bar

Hotel Bar

Another Trip to Hotel Bar

Hotel Bar TV (Facebook Page)

Small Screen Heroes Our Lives Magazine. Pg. 24

1 Light Short – In Production

American Bandito – Season 3 Episode 2 – TV on the Internet

Hotel Bar – BTS Clip