Marculations

The script is weighing in at around a hundred pages. From what I hear, rehearsals are taking place now. We’ve got everything inventoried as far as gear, and I’ve started putting together notes on how to execute various shots. A shooting schedule is imminent.

I’m on a plane to El Paso in 11 days. Cameras roll in 17 days.

The clock is running!

The latest script is clocking in at 89 pages.

I’ve had several people who have never actually produced indie film tell me that we don’t have enough photography days scheduled to shoot all of the script pages. Today, I talked to someone who’s produced a couple of indie films.

She thinks we’ve got plenty of time.

As an aside, if we set the lofty goal of 8 script pages per day, we can do it in 11 days. Of course, there’s going to be days where we only shoot a page.

Scheduling sucks.

Here’s a couple of shots of Brooks and I playing with the camera crane. There’s a couple of crane shots in Whip Cracker, and after playing with this baby, I almost want to go back and add a couple more.

Woo!

Casting for Whip Cracker is going quite swimmingly.

Or so I hear.

This is definitely a new experience for me. I’m used to running the show — I’ve always been “producer” of everything I’ve ever shot, down to the simplest little skits. If I wasn’t in charge of coordinating everything, I was at least around, and had a say. At the very least, I was in the loop.

This movie, though, isn’t being produced anywhere near where I am. It’s out in El Paso, and I’m here in Los Angeles, powerless to do anything. Last week, I turned in my script pages. I didn’t hear anything back. Today, I got some feedback — not much, but some — and watched audition tapes for a few of the principals.

Other than that, I’m in the dark. There’s not much for “Ye Olde Los Angeles Production Office” to do. I inventoried what little equipment I’m bringing out to the shoot: a Behringer mixer, a monitor headset, a lavalier microphone and my grip kit. That took about ten minutes. Weehaw!

Over the next week, I’m going to be working on the “back end paperwork” — templates for call sheets, shot lists, and stupid little stuff like that. For some reason, I like doing that sort of thing, even though I really don’t. It’s a cross-wire in my brain. I enjoy the appearance of having my shit together, but I don’t enjoy the work required to actually have my shit together. Beyond this week, though, we’ll have the shooting script to put together. That should eat up a lot of time, and make me feel like I’m actually still working on this movie.

I suppose I should be grateful for the relief. I’m usually overworked on stuff like this. It’s sort of nice to have the bulk of the “real work” being done by someone else. That is, until I get out to El Paso at the end of the month. We should really kick into high gear by then.

Until then, it’s all quiet on the western coast.