I’ve noticed that the titles for these reports are getting shorter as we go along. I must be getting lazier. If that’s possible.
This was our final day at Central City Studios, and our last day on the lab set. We spent a total of 5 of our 9 days at Central City, and they (and Lucy, the owner) could not have been kinder to us. Today, we moved out of the main laboratory set finally, and moved to the entrance of the lab, and then on to the observation room. Seemed like it would be a pretty easy day. Ha! It never is. Either way, we couldn’t start shooting til like 5 pm because we didn’t get off of the roof until so late the night before. And we were all just exhausted (me included). Definitely had the coffee pot going all night (and I consumed more than my fair share of Monsters). Everyone fought through the wall, though, and we got some great stuff.
On one scene in particular, that was part of “The Cure” song, we really adjusted it and made it really work well. Basically, I just wasn’t happy with any of what I’d planned for it... it was boring, I didn’t like the staging, nothing. Part of that was it just not being what I’d had in mind, part of it being that we hadn’t had time the night before to get the shot I really wanted. But, that happens sometimes, so you try and think of something else that can work. In this case, I sat down with Matt and Kahle, the two actors in the scene, and told them the scene wasn’t really working for me, and asked if they had any thoughts. Now, for those of you that don’t know, Kahle, apart from being my roommate for a year and in my wedding, is also a frequent collaborator. We’ve written quite a bit together and he co-wrote the music and lyrics for Sudden Death! So yeah, I think he’s a funny guy and he often sparks good ideas in my head, even if what he’s just said has nothing to do with what I come up with. In any case, Kahle suggested an idea (I think he was joking, actually, because it was going to give him more screen time) that I immediately latched onto and we developed into what I think turned out to be one of the funnier scenes in the movie. Sometimes it just works like that.
Anyway, we shot the rest of the stuff downstairs, and then moved up to the 3rd floor to the Observation room (taking an elevator up that was built in 1914). By this point it was very late, and the actors were starting to get the giggles... especially Doug and Autumn, who had to watch Randy McDowell do a ridiculous redneck dance with a completely straight face over and over again. All that went well, though. We even had an effects shot where one of the patients head explodes. Don’t worry, you won’t see the actual explosion. Just the blood splattering against the window. I think that turned out pretty well.
But yeah, besides that, and briefly getting locked out of the observation room (and there was apparently no key), things went rather well. Although, I say that, when 5 am rolled around, I think we were all ready to go home and die. And never, ever shoot a night scene again.
NEXT: Day Seven again!! (just to mix things up!)
