The schedule has been way too hectic for me to get on the computer and blog, so I’ll be doing plenty of it when I get back.
The dailies are looking great, everything is on schedule, everybody on set LOVES the movie, and we’re three days from wrapping.
Onward, and upward!
Shot from morning until just now. Long, long day.
Went really well until the end, which didn’t go nearly as well. In the end, we got everything we needed though. It just took us a while. Miraculously, we stayed on schedule all day, shot six pages, and then, completely blew the last scene we were shooting, going off schedule by two hours.
Luckily, our actors are fantastic.
Back at it at 5am.
Phew. First “full day” of production today.
With a schedule this tight, there’s none of that “we set up at the location, we stay all day, and maybe, we can come back tomorrow to finish.” It’s more like, we scream up to the set in the trucks, open the doors, let all the shit fall out, throw up our flimsy tent, run power from the nearest outlet, and start barking and screaming at each other.
And then, it’s off to the next location.
Four times.
Yeah, we hit four locations today.
The first location was one that we’d been to before. We needed a generic exterior, and we realized there was part of that exterior we hadn’t seen, so why not go back? I’m pretty sure that before it’s over, we’ll have dressed up every side of that house as a different place. You can’t tell, though, so it works out well.
Next, it was off to the desert, and I’m really, really sunburned right now, so that went great.
One of them involved shooting a highly choreographed “skirmish” in a parking lot with 30 extras and tons of camera angles, shot on a single camera, at dusk.
We got it. Dear god, I don’t know how we got it, but something went so, so right, and we got it. Everybody hit their mark, the extras cooperated, the weather cooperated, the actors knew their lines, and by god, we wrapped about sixteen seconds before the sun dropped behind the mountains.
And then, it was off to the next location. Some park, somewhere — I don’t even know where it was. It doesn’t matter. Whatever the scene was, it got shot, and it’s done now. The main thing is that everybody is constantly laughing their asses off during production. That’s always nice when you’re shooting comedy! We got some really hilarious stuff today.
So ended the first day of shooting. We shot everything on the schedule. We made it to each location within an hour of the time listed on the schedule.
Back at it tomorrow. We’re in the groove, now.
Weehaw!
Day two of photography went much better than day one. Seriously. Everything just clicked. We were shooting outside, which is always kindof a, pardon the pun, crap shoot. But, the sun cooperated. It was blistering hot, but this is El Paso, so it’s always blistering hot. (Incidentally, I’m really starting to like it here.)
The first obstacle of the day was one of the principals. We were headed out to set at 7:30am, and she had to be gone by 11am. She had some dialogue, and she was in quite a few angles. Yuch. And, she was a little late, because of traffic. BUT! We got it done. Miraculously. She was seriously getting into the car moments before she needed to be gone. We got it, though, and we never have to get it again.
After that, it was an uphill battle against our lead passing out from heat exhaustion. His costume is so big and bulky, and he’s a pretty hefty guy to begin with, so we have to be super careful. Again though, we got it all, and it was quite beautiful. We’re pretty much shooting this whole movie through a 50mm lens, which can be good and bad. If you’re close to what you’re shooting, it’s great. If you’re far away… not so great. It took a bit of time to adjust, but we’re rocking and rolling now. Setups are taking far, FAR less time, and we’re moving through the work day without skimping on anything we genuinely need.
Our Assistant Director is awesome as well, even if she does give the impression that, among other people, I’m not needed on set. (Much love.) Incidentally, I think that’s the hallmark of a great AD — even if she isn’t playing, and feels like the crew isn’t necessary, she still gets the job done like a pro without constantly complaining or trying to wrestle control away from anybody. She definitely makes it a joy to be on set.
What really capped off the day, though, was the “kickoff party” to celebrate principal photography officially starting. Although we’ve already shot two days, tomorrow begins our long stretch of full days, during which we’ll shoot the bulk of the movie. We had most all of the cast and crew at the party tonight, which blew my mind, because I had no idea how big the cast and crew were. So many people! It really helps add to the pressure — we have to do a great job on this.
Overall, the party went great. In anticipation of everyone coming over, I ran upstairs to the editing bay and secluded myself with umpteen DVDs full of the footage we’ve shot so far, so that I could edit the sequences we’ve already shot and show them to the assembled crew. I got them all done, and it went over great. It was awesome to screen a little footage from the movie to everyone, and hear them laugh and clap. Our director/producer/movie god Brooks also gave a speech that really helped motivate everyone, including myself.
We’ve assembled a fantastic cast, an amazing crew, and we’ve got a solid script. We’ve already got shots “in the can”, and it’s only going to get better from here.
Highlight from Day 2:
Actor farts during take, and keeps going. Fart makes us laugh so hard, we keep it in and use that take when editing the sequence.
What I Was Called on the Slate Today:
Fun Dip! (I’m wearing a blue Fun Dip hat on set. It soothes me.)
So, early on in the first day, I jokingly complained to the Assistant Director that on the slate, where it said Camera, it was just blank (as opposed to having my name written there.)
Later on, I noticed she’d written something.
Today was our first full shoot day on Whip Cracker. It was scheduled to be a short, easy day — three scenes at one location, a quick scene at another, and a quick scene at a third.
Overall, it was a great day. A skeleton crew was up at 5am to load the trucks and haul the gear off to the location. The first shot, a dolly shot, took way too long to set up and execute. The subsequent shots took just as long. They were all amazing, but it was just… too long. In the end, we trimmed some angles from the final scene and made it out only one hour behind.
The final location was scheduled to be at a highway overpass. It seems pretty damn obvious NOW that it was a stupid, stupid location. Of course, at the time, it seemed cool. Here’s a tip — you can’t record sound under an overpass. We relocated to a much more controlled environment, and with the time we had left over from cutting a scene out, we had plenty of time to improvise.
Improvisation is a great thing, especially when you have a team of funny people standing around. The script called for a rather mundane, but plot-advancing discussion between one of the supporting characters, and a “strange bum.” With some improv, some handwritten script pages jot down in the back of the equipment truck, some quick trips to the store and some great actors, we turned the “strange bum” into a named character with some hilarious lines, and a boring sequence into hilarity.
We headed out to the first location just after 7am. We wrapped just after midnight.
No shooting tomorrow — just rehersals all day.
Good times.
Highlight from Day 1:
Catrina, the Assistant Director, forgets what comes next… bear in mind that this is after we’ve been shooting practically non-stop for 9 hours.
Catrina: “Lock it down. Picture’s up.”
Marc: “Picture”
Catrina: “Sound”
Andy (the Boom Operator): “Sound okay”
Catrina: “Roll camera”
Marc: “Rolling rolling”
Catrina: “…oh god, I forgot what comes next, I’m serious, I forgot”
I can’t stop eating Goldfish.
Please, someone help me stop eating Goldfish.
You know the ones I’m talking about — the little golden baked snack crackers. They come in a few sizes at the store. You can get tiny bags of them, that can fold up in your pocket. You can get medium sized bags of them, which are great for sharing. And of course, you can get massive, two-pound cartons of them. Cartons that have a goddamned pour spout on them.
At what point did the United States reach the point where we need a fucking pour spout on our cartons of crackers? Do we, as a society, need to not only ingest THAT MANY CRACKERS without going back to the store for more, but we need to eat them so fast that they must be POURED INTO US VIA A SPOUT?
I don’t run on crackers. My body doesn’t need crackers to lubricate its’ inner workings. There’s no danger of crackers not filling my mouth fast enough. What’s up with the spout, guys? I know I can use the spout to pour crackers into everybody’s hands, sure. That’s fabulous. But come on. We can all have our own little bag. We don’t need the pour spout, so that we can take it to the feed trough and fill it up.
Honestly, I don’t know where I’m going with this. I need to find my center.
If you need me, I’ll be the one in the bathroom, puking Goldfish into the bathtub.
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!