We were interviewed recently on a wonderful web series called The Web Files. Kristyn Burtt is a wonderful interviewer and we all had a great time. Check it out!

To say it was hot in the studio that day was an understatement - and there’s nothing like wearing sweaters to really make you feel worse. You can also read about the time we spent together on Kristyn’s blog.

Feast your eyes on this! The Cabonauts trailer featuring Nichelle Nichols and revealing that in our pilot, it’s guest starring none other than Dollhouse’s Miracle Laurie (Mellie) and Buffy’s James C. Leary (Clem). The Scarad 27 has been cleared for take-off. Glad to have you all on board

There’s quite a few sites reporting on the announcement that Nichelle’s co-starring on The Cabonauts; thought I’d list a bunch in case you want to see what people are saying (and commenting).

http://trekmovie.com/2009/07/07/nichelle-nichols-joins-sci-fi-comedy-web-series-cabonauts/

http://newteevee.com/2009/07/07/star-treks-uhura-to-boss-around-hayden-blacks-cabonauts/

http://news.tubefilter.tv/2009/07/07/star-treks-nichelle-nichols-to-star-in-the-cabonauts/

http://www.shadowandact.com/?p=7078

http://www.podcastingnews.com/2009/07/07/hayden-black-snags-star-treks-nichelle-nichols-for-cabonauts-web-series/

By the way, that picture above is a snapshot of CJ (Nichelle’s) office. The Cabonauts offices are stationed in orbit around the newly  terra-formed Titan (one of Saturn’s moons but you all knew that).

The days leading up to the pilot often seem more fraught with problems than the bloody shoot itself does. 24 hours before shooting, we were still finishing up the set, installing A/C in the green screen studio, and having to deal with finding a new wardrobe stylist because the one we’d had decided to take a different gig at the last second. Nowt like people. Anyway, believe it or not, all was dealt with and a new stylist was found within 15 minutes (gotta love Twitter).

I woke up at 5am the day of the first shoot, and in the news: Dr Who’s signed on a new companion. So instead of learning lines, I’m on the web trying to find who she’s repped by to see if there’s a chance of getting her on the Cabonauts.

Back to reality. The day went as days in production normally go - fraught with problems. We were using an HD camera for the first time and that means everything is shot digitally – no tape. But that also means that you have to take the filled up card and download it to a hard drive, dump the contents onto it, then begin shooting again. That wasn’t the problem. It was discovering that the particular camera we were using had just had its firmware uploaded and the drivers that the computer needed to be able to recognize the HD card…were nowhere to be found. So while camera whiz Paul Wojciak worked on that problem, we all had to wait around for 3 AND A HALF FRUDDING HOURS. But it wasn’t all bad. We had lunch. We shot lots of behind-the-scenes stuff. We learned – rather Monica and Norm learned – the unbelievable dance moves that Monica McSwain our amazing choreographer had come up with. I sort of wimped out and grabbed the synth and stood behind that nodding.  Then Paul called us all back ‘cause he’d figured it out.

By 6pm or so, we’d gotten a few scenes in the can – some stuff with Cyril and Harry in the cab, some stuff of Lolita and some intense dancing for the music video. We were all very hot, sweaty and ready to collapse but I was over the moon. Finally, I am starting to see my vision come together and it’s looking pretty damn good dare I say it myself. It’s colourful, it’s vibrant, it pops - and then you throw in music and dancing and you’ve got something so unique that…Well, I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself (but I’m so damn excited!!!). Our next shoot is scheduled for next Wednesday and we hope to pick up all the stuff we missed. And while we won’t have to deal with HD drivers next time,  trust me - there’ll be something entirely new to screw it all up.