So what is the big new deal with “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre“?

OK!  Aright!  I know you’ve been on tenterhooks!

The suspense has been killing you!

But only figuratively.

Not literally, as in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story.

Not literally, as in stone, stone dead, like the old man with the vulture eye.

I doubt the suspense has made you nervous, very very dreadfully nervous… or has it?

So after one, two, three tease posts, I am finally revealing what the new Tell-Tale plans are:

I’m making a movie!

Jonathan, engineer this last Thursday at the JahRockn studios, where I recorded vocal tracks for “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre” film.

I’m filming a short film of “The Tell-Tale Heart – a musicabre”.

What was a literal, musical and theatrical experience will now also be a cinematic one.

The text, a very faithful adaptation (very very dreadfully faithful) of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, and the music I composed and performed, will remain the same, but this won’t be a straight forward filmed stage performance; the plan is to make the 30 minute film as much a full cinematic experience as it was a literary, musical and theatrical one.  I’ve got over a dozen pages of shot lists, and over 150 story board images (so now you know what those pictures in my second Tell-Tale tease post are).

A director of photography is hired, as is an editor, sound mixer and editor, production designer, costume designer… the cello tracks have been recorded, and now I am going into the studio to lay down pre production vocal tracks.

The photos here are all pictures of my first day in the studio.  That was Thursday, while a snow sleet storm blanketed the city.

We shoot early in 2019.  The film will hopefully be completed by the Spring.

For now you can still read the stage libretto and listen to an edit of a live performance of the piece on the Tell-Tale Heart homepage, but not for long.  Eventually I will remove those recordings in favor of teases and clips of the film.