The producer/director worked tirelessly organizing, planning and preparing for the shoot on nights and days off, while working full time as a pilot domestically in China during the day. Much of the time (from Sept 2011 through July 2012) he was immersed in learning to fly a new jet (referred to as a type rating in airline industry jargon). Often, rehearsals and crew meetings would occur early in the morning or late at night via web-cam to accommodate the 12-hour difference in time zones.
Early on in preproduction, the opportunity arose to shoot using the anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.39. The producer/director actually flew to Melbourne Australia (from China where he was working on long term contract) to take possession of the lenses. The trek from Southern Australia, through post-authoritarian China to Colorado was epic to say the least. Being that the production company was shooting on B/W 35mm negative, this feature added yet another unique twist to the movie: only 11 or so productions have ever been shot anamorphic B/W 35mm since the technique was applied in the 1960's.
The opening and closing lines in T2S (as well as countless references throughout) are derived from opening and closing lines of Dickens' classic novel.
Ian Floodgate was cast as Yendis Notrac but had to drop out.
A Tale of Two Sillies (T2S) was one of the last films to be developed at Alpha Cine in Seattle before they sadly closed their doors in late 2013. The film was processed and digitized by them and is now in the process of an offline edit at low resolution as of January 2014. Upon reaching a picture lock, a high-res (4K) selective scan will be made at another lab for the final master.
Brutus J. Lee, Brandon Esten: The writer and director, respectively, make brief appearances as Admin 1 and Admin 2 in scene 2 and scene 6 (both at Da Far Joe's coffee house). A pet peeve of the two in the 90's was going to coffee houses with other friends who would invariably order tap water with no ice. The concept is incorporated into the dialog of Admin 2. It's become a cosmic irony that the writer developed a health condition that has prevented him from enjoying coffee and now at cafes he is forced to order... you guessed it, WATER. But, he does get ice with it.