Thank God, praise Allah, and heap glory upon whatever other gods had a hand in helping the post team meet their deadline on time.

Supposedly, the PR machine has been been started, and the gears are slowly turning. That can only mean one thing: a trailer is on the way.

Master samurai!

A huge thanks, of course, to Brooks, for both giving me this opportunity, and for never getting discouraged. Without him, I would’ve been sitting in my apartment in Los Angeles, plodding away at screenplays I’d never produce.

Next, of course, is Tammy, without whom none of this would’ve happened. She’s far more worthy of a Producer credit than most producers ever are. She kept us fed, she secured our locations, she got us extras, she organized things that I would never have even known existed, and she only yelled when she had to. All while pregnant!

Catrina was awesome. Between script supervision, assistant directing, costuming, and a multitude of other jobs I’m not aware of, she still managed to keep her cool and stick it out through pre-production and photography. I’m sure she’s involved with post, as well. It would be a privilege to work with her again. Her husband, Robert, was great to us as well — he was and continues to be known by many on this crew as one of the nicest men you’ll ever meet in your life.

Where would we be without our stars, Jerry and Kenneth? They were fantastic. They were not actors, no, and that much was obvious at times. But they stuck it out, and they endured things that “real” actors wouldn’t tolerate. Extra, extra special thanks to Jerry, for putting up with wearing that armor. Good lord. I didn’t even like carrying it around.

I can’t talk about Jerry and Kenneth without mentioning Darcy, our “straight man” who kept the film anchored in a semblence of reality. Her struggle was to play a somewhat normal character in a sea of anarchy, and she pulled it off very well. Not only that, but she was a total delight to have on set, and she definitely kept us entertained off set, as well. I truly miss her.

Our supporting cast was fabulous. Cameron got into the character of Smitty so much that he started to see clearly through his prop glasses. Doug could seriously have a future in comedy. Daniel’s improv was always top notch. And Justin brought a level of professionalism to the set that far outweighed that of the crew. On top of that, his portrayal of Galahad far, FAR exceeded anything I could’ve ever imagined. Without these supporting actors, we would have no movie.

All of this talent would be wasted without a production staff that was up to the challenge, and we had that. Joaquin, our Key Grip, went above and beyond what would be expected of any volunteer, and some would say, beyond what would be expected of someone who was being paid.

Ben was a crack lighting ninja, and he had no problem telling people what they needed to hear (sometimes, to his detriment.)

Brett stepped up to the mammoth task of being our “Ninja Sound Guy” and managed to withstand many verbal beatings from both myself and the rest of the crew without any permanent emotional damage.

Andy, in addition to being “the other sound guy”, could probably build a time machine out of a toaster — and he’d be able to tell you how many seconds it would take him.

Bug went from having never been on a film set, to being my 1st Assistant Camera, in a couple of days. If he had been on the crew for the entire shoot, we would’ve stayed on schedule much more than we did.

Chris, our junior grip, managed to hold every job on set at some point, I think. I couldn’t help but laugh that night at the goofy golf, when he picked up the slate and nervously asked us to roll cameras.

I didn’t find out until later than Luis and Ahmet, our production assistants, were aspiring filmmakers in their own right. They managed to make the trek up from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico every day to be on set, and they were willing to do almost anything once they got there. They’re working on a short film right now; I look forward to watching it.

To anybody I’ve left off of this list, you did a great job as well, because nobody on our set really did a bad job (except maybe me!) An extra special thanks to Virginia, for stepping into the role of Horchata at the last second, plowing through her lines as best she could, and for serenading us on set. That made a hot, aggravating day go by that much smoother.

I hope to see everybody at the premiere, later this year.

Thanks, everybody!

It’s insane that we shot the entire thing in under a month. Of course, it involved a lot of 16-20 hour days. Yesterday was particularly grueling — starting at 7am and not wrapping until 4am the following morning. That’s what it took, though, so that’s what we did. It was worth it, too.

Onward to post-production! This is the part where I sit back and watch the real magic happen. Woohoo!

Back in Los Angeles tomorrow morning. It’s going to suck working a real job again.

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!

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.

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.

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.)

Later on, I noticed she’d written something.

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”