We started production by shooting the flashback sequences that involve Frank and Claire because we wanted to get a few shots of our lead actor, John Howell, with hair. And we're off...
JULY 19, 2004
Saturday I sent out John, Jessica and Shogo to run all over town and shoot while I took Tyler over to the secret lair of our special effects guys. They did a face cast and dental molds. I'm probably using the wrong terminology. I would be way too claustrophobic to do this myself, but he seemed to handle it well.
Sunday, we got together in the morning for more flashback footage. I needed a kiss between John and Jessica. I think we got a pretty good one. Then we went to a shady pool hall and got footage of them shooting pool and goofing around. Going into a poolhall at 10:00 am on a Sunday morning is an interesting experience. The parking lot was trashed with broken bottles and other debris. Inside there were a few people shooting pool and a shaggy character passed out face down on the bar. While we were shooting a girl in her late teens came up to us eating some kind of sour candy out of a little pouch and asked us if we were from ESPN. I told her we were from ESPN 8 "The Ocho" before going back to our cover story - that we were shooting footage for a family reunion video. She was still curious but lost interest when she found out that all the guys were in their late twenties or early thirties.
There are a few more flashback shots of Jessica that i definitely need to get, as well as a few more of Sheridan.
We came back for lunch. Turkey sandwiches were far more popular than the pimento cheese sandwiches that nobody besides Leah had seemed to have ever heard of. We ran a few scenes with Jessica and Sheridan. The scenes are coming along really well. Jessica pretty much has it nailed. I don't want to over-rehearse her. Howell shaved his head while wearing sunglasses Richie Tennenbaum style - look for it on the DVD extras.
Then in the afternoon it was back to the special effects lair for more head casts, this time of Stewart and Howell. They almost killed Stewart by not giving him straws to breathe through. It was pretty intense. I definitely could not do it. We lost the first one and after a heavy dose of Afrin and straws to breathe through he nailed it. Howell was a Jedi. He was motionless and cool as ice despite the fact that he got his entire head and neck cast. He didn't even use straws.
This week we have to scramble to get a few more things ready - costumes, sound equipment, etc. But this weekend was a good warm-up. Everybody is getting to know each other and getting a little more comfortable with their roles. I want this to be a loose production to a certain extent. I may be deluded, but I think there is a way to do these productions in a low-stress style. A lot of it depends on picking the right people for both cast and crew.
I truly believe the next couple of months are going to be life-altering for everybody involved. And I don't mean that in some kind of bullshit - hollywood - get - discovered - get rich - get famous --- way. I mean something more along the lines of individual empowerment, self-esteem, repaired relationships, etc. But maybe I am full of shit.
JULY 27, 2004
I'm just now almost recovered from our first weekend's shoot. It went really well and we have lots of beautiful footage in the can. This weekend's gold stars go to Joseph French and David Grizzard for coming out of nowhere and kicking serious ass as crewmembers. Everybody did an incredible job and had great attitudes and energy throughout, but those two get extra thanks. Shogo went above and beyond the call of duty, not only shooting beautiful footage, but letting us shoot at his house on Saturday. If you've ever had a film shoot at your house, you will know what a sacrifice this really is.
For those who are keeping track, we shot just under ten pages. I still want to go back and get a few inserts where time and locations allow, but we could make it happen with what we got. I've already started editing. The following photos represent a tiny fraction of what we shot this weekend. Wait until you see the Mandy Moore inspired telephone sequence. Beautiful stuff.
AUGUST 02, 2004
Pre-shoot - Thursday
I completely freaked out. This is some stressful shit.
Principal Photography Day 3 - Friday
Friday is normally the least busy day for 66 Bowl, so we arranged to shoot there in the morning. Unfortunatey, just as we got set up to shoot a field trip from a pre-school or something showed up with 50 screaming kids. This made getting sound a nightmare, but we got some beautiful shots. This was the first shooting day for John Howell (frank) so I asked him to walk in to the bowling alley in full costume. The result was a bunch of freaked out pre-schoolers who were convinced that Michael Myers was there to bowl and kill them. We knocked out two scenes, but as mentioned before, the sound is pretty bad. We will have to figure out a plan B for getting these shots.
After that we headed back to Sharpe central for the big "undressing" scene between Frank and Claire. This took most of the rest of the day to shoot because the make-up application took about three hours. While we were waiting, Shogo and I banged out some footage of Jessica (Claire) for use in a flashback sequence. Shogo was feeling sick so I gave him some Non-Drowsy Cold medication which soon had him buzzing like a crank addict. With his renewed energy we finished off the undressing scene and decided to go ahead and get the scene we had planned for the next morning. We set up some 2k lights outside the bedroom window and blasted them in. This was around 1:00 a.m. But we got the scene and it looks amazing.
We were all dead tired when we wrapped at about 3 a.m. I had to wash the sheets because John's black arm had left brown marks all over them.
Principal Photography Day 4 - Saturday
We started shooting a little bit late, probably a mistake to push back the call time. But our first scene, the kitchen scene looked great. It starts out with a cool LEON inspired dolly shot. For inserts we put the camera inside the refrigerator and inside a cabinet on a lazy susan. We got a lot of coverage and Kassy was really good as the tired, stumbling into the kitchen Zoe. After that, we set up in our living room set and got two more scenes involving Frank, Claire and Zoe. We were losing sunlight fast and decided not to go for the exterior shots. We sent most everybody home and then shot the build-up to Zoe's murder scene. I don't want to give anything away, but Shogo shot some great footage. By the time we wrapped up, it was about 1 a.m. again and we were all in need of gin and tonics. This soon led to further misadventures which I can will only describe as FIRST TIME PORN WRECKED. It was all documented and should appear on the bootleg DVD as an easter egg. It will be well hidden, but you won't want to miss it. Joseph is now the officially designated supplier of contraband for this production.
Principal Photography Day 5 - Sunday
Joseph continued his contraband duties by provided a switchblade today for an upcoming fight sequence. We started out with Claire and Dirk's makeout scene which went really well. Jessica and John were both great sports The resulting scene is really great, but maybe a little less dark and evil than I had intended because they were both obviously having a good time and laughing a lot. Then we moved on to the Frank wake up and attack and the hallway scuffle. I've already edited this sequence and it looks really good. Dirk's pummelling is very visceral and real. Maybe less comic-booky than I had intended. I had originally envisioned lots of cuts, but these guys look like they are really fighting and it works better in one take. You'll know what I mean when you see it. The whole scene somehow ended up as an Argento tribute with red and blue gels and dark lighting. It looks pretty amazing. Once again, not what I had originally envisioned, but better I think. We need to re-shoot Claire and Zoe at the end of the hall because we shot that first without knowing what the actual fight was going to look like. It's much scarier and more intense than what they were intending to react to.
Also, Leah suggested a good script change that will cut down on a driving at night scene, so I am pretty excited. I think we will take care of this during the reshoots this upcoming weekend.
John Stewart went above and beyond the call of duty in his stunts. Not only did he actually hit himself in the head with a baseball bat (on accident), he broke in one of my walls, even though his fall was cushioned with a futon mattress. Dave Curd saw him at work the other day and said he was hobbling around like an old man with a big bruise on his forehead. Way to take one for the team, John. But his performance is great and Dirk is funnier and more hate-able than we had hoped.
Despite all the long-hours, energy was still high after our first few weeks. But little did we know, things were really just getting started...