12 Films. 12 Weeks. There are worse ways to spend a summer.

I met Thomas Sullivan at the Esper Studio on Tuesday, January 6th 2004. A lanky 6’2” with a mop of brown hair, he was an inexperienced actor at the time, but already an exceptional musician. He was forever jetsetting to some exotic paradise to perform and he displayed the skills with which he paid the bills during many of his Meisner activities. He could sing, he could play the guitar, the trombone; he was a triple threat! At the time, I didn’t have any threats at all. I was quite non-threatening, completely harmless really.

Thomas and I hit on some crazy actress girl. The lesson? NEVER HIT ON CRAZY ACTRESS GIRLS

Seeking to make myself a danger to humanity, in the summer of 2004, I wrote and directed and starred in a film for the Amazon.com shorts competition with my friends and fellow classmates Byron Beane and Kenneth Lee. Thomas saw it and mentioned he’d made some films as well. “I’d like to work with you” he said. “And when you see what I’ve done, I think you’ll want to work with me too.” He said this plainly, without a hint of pomposity and I was struck by his sincerity. He suggested I watch his animated short, Spotlight.

So I did. It’s a simple film; with a drab color palate, 2-D animation and distinctly unflattering protagonist, there is nothing flashy about it. But there is something special in it, a real sweetness that is very rare.

Over five years later, when I dared to make another short, I called Tom’s number for A Summer’s Day and again for the credits music on Script 2. Keith was so impressed with Tom’s work that he offered him The Proposal, to which the score was absolutely crucial. Not only did Tom knock that out of the park, he also wrote and performed, on his own initiative, the tone-perfect credits song, “Wish I Was Fish,” which summed up the entire film so simply and beautifully that it brought tears to my eyes when I listened to it for the first time. It’s the only piece of music we’ve received from a composer that we did not change at all.

When I finally directed again, Thomas was the first man I called to score the film. Sadly, he was in Oregon for a wedding and even sadly-er, everyone else I called after Tom was unavailable too. Old Love’s Graham Stone, Queen Bee’s James Bruffee, Captivated’s Michael Redfield – all busy or on vacation. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for Tom (and his mostly understanding girlfriend), he said one little thing that you never want to say to an opportunistic bastard like myself.

If you’re really really in a pinch, let me know and I can probably whip something together.

Whoops.

So, in my pinch, I called him. He proceeded to spend the few free moments of downtime he had in his hotel room audio chatting on iChat with me. It was extremely fortuitous that he had with him the KORG NANOPAD. which is in fact not a model of Cylon, but a crazy musical instrument digital interface thing. Apparently, there was no way for him to alter on the computer what he played, so he had to time every layer of each instrument out perfectly; he sat there doing this magical dance of math and music for me and I would shout notes at him through the Internet. In his tux, time ticking away, he labored with me, good-naturedly (or so I think) muttering things under his breath, like:

• I’m sorta doing it blind over here – just need to do the math…
• Twenty-three minus six is what? Seventeen?
• We’re going old school here.
• I’m in fucking Oregon for Christ sakes…

In the end, he pulled through for us, yet again.

Thomas Sullivan, 12in12 salutes you!

Korg Nanopad, 12in12 cowers in fear before you!

Posted by Mike