On the Road!

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:29:20 -0700

Well, it’s been a while since I wrote a blog, and obviously a lot has happened. Sudden Death! has been accepted into 22 film festivals thus far, and has already played at 8 of them (and we’re playing at 4 more of them this week). We’ve won Best Original Music at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, Most Innovative Filmmaker at HATCHfest and Best of Fest - Best of International Shorts at the Atlantic Film Festival. So, things are going well so far.

Melanie and I have physically been able to make it to Rhode Island, Temecula Valley International Film Festival, HATCHfest, and this week, Socal Independent Film Fest and the San Diego Film Festival. I won’t go into details right now, but it’s been a great experience thus far. Rhode Island was kind of a crazy whirlwind sort of deal, and it was great to win something at our very first festival. Temecula was just a lot of fun - we had several other friends down there supporting their films as well, so it was nice to be able to hang out with some great other filmmakers at that fest. It was a very well run fest, and it was pretty cool riding in a vintage 1957 Thunderbird up to the red carpet, then getting introduced and flashed by a bunch of cameras. Their awards ceremony was pretty crazy too; Kenny Loggins performed, Raquel Welch and Eric Roberts were there to accept awards, and Stone Cold Steve Austin was a presenter. So, Temecula was a great experience... we had a great audience for our two screenings as well.

Then, HATCHfest in Montana was amazing. They only take 5 films each year, and they paid for us to come out. Then, they treat those 5 filmmakers like royalty. It was a great experience, and we were sad to leave when it was over. Montana is amazing as well. Major thanks to Yarrow, Rosalind, and all the volunteers at HATCH. We also met Phil Rosenthal and his wife, (and friends) - creator of Everybody Loves Raymond - a great producer named John Woldenberg (he produced Phil’s documentary) and Rodrigo Prieto, one of the great working cinematographers. So, yeah, it was an amazing experience.

This week, we’re in San Diego. We’re screening in Huntington Beach on Saturday around the same time as San Diego, so we’re going to San Diego, while Kenny and Kahle are going to Socal. We’re also screening in Louisville and Georgia on the same day, but we obviously won’t be able to make it to those.

Then, we’ve got a few weeks off (we won’t be able to make it to Secret City FF in Tennessee, Jacksonville or our first screening at Fort Lauderdale) until the very prestigious Hollywood Film Festival in late October, and then NewFilmmakers LA, which will also be great. We’ll be attending both of those.

After that, things get really crazy. The Savannah Film Fest has been gracious enough to put us up for their festival in early November, so from there we’re going to rent a car and hit the Orlando Film Festival, our second screening at Fort Lauderdale, and the Greater Reading Film Festival (and maybe one other... we’re waiting to hear) all in a period of two weeks. Should be fun... and exhausting.

And then, we go to St. Louis for Thanksgiving... and we’ll see, we might be cooking up a screening in STL. We’ll see.

Yep, so things are crazy, but great. More info as it comes!

Where are we now?

Mon, 24 May 2010 14:21:23 -0700

“Where are we now?” is a question I’ve been getting a lot lately. Well, we’re a week or two out from finishing the film altogether. We recorded the orchestral score all last week with our composer, Kenny Wood, and a 24 piece orchestra (which we recorded over a few days). Some instruments, such as the tuba and the harp, were recorded separately, others, like the 16 string instruments, were recorded together. Kenny and our music mixer are working on mixing all the music together as we speak. They’ll be done with that in a day or two. Ben Starkey, our colorist, is just about done doing the primary color correction, then I’ll go in this week and we’ll finesse it and make any creative decisions we might want to make.

Mark Williams and our sound design team are working on the sound. Mark’s finished editing the sound, our foley editor and artist will be recording the foley tomorrow (for those that don’t know, foley is the sound effects that are created in a recording studio to match the action on screen. You’ve probably seen something like it on DVD special features or if you’ve ever been somewhere like Universal Studios). Then, Alexey, our sound mixer, will mix all that together. Finally, we’ll sit down with the music, dialogue, foley and sound effects and have a final mix session, where we’ll decide how loud music should be versus effects, dialogue, etc...

Sounds like a lot, huh? It kind of is, but we should be all done with that in the next week or two. Then, we’ll get the title and end credits all ready, we’ll export the film and put it on DVD (which we’ll be having someone design the cover, as well as the poster for the film, etc...) and start sending it out to festivals. As some point during all of this, we’ll also be recording the vocals for the song that will go over the end credits.

After the film is totally done, at some point it will be available to purchase on this site (probably sometime in July... which will also be when we’ll probably start shipping the DVDs out to the people that donated $25 or more... but it could be August, so don’t hold me to that). Then, we ride the festival circuit for a while. Hopefully at some point in there, we’ll get representation and sell the feature script (which is 2 drafts in now, by the way), but that’s another story.

And that’s where we are now. We’re getting really close and really excited to show people the result of about a year and a half of hard work.

The Help! Drive: Or we need money to finish this thing!...and what’s happening in the world of Sudden Death!

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:36:10 -0700

I know you’re all sick of hearing that Sudden Death! needs donations. Believe me, we’re sick of talking about it.

THE HELP! DRIVE

The bottom line for where we are at the moment, is that we simply can’t finish the film as it needs to be finished with the amount of money we’ve raised.

THE FACTS:
- We have raised $10,000 from our incredibly gracious donors, and we couldn’t be more thankful.
- At this point, we’ve put $25,000 of our own money into the film, through a combination of our savings and student loans.
- The initial budget for the film was to be more than $50,000... that dropped to less than $40,000 through some amazing kindness from vendors and crew who gave us enormous discounts or worked for free.
- Although we have raised enough for all of production (which is by far the most expensive part of making a film) and much of post-production, thus far, we haven’t raised enough (and we simply don’t have enough of our own), so we’re a few thousand short of what is actually needed to finish Sudden Death!
- For our composer to get the score and sound he really wants, he would need 60 musicians for 6 hours. Each musician costs $25 per hour. Add to that a minimum of $1000 for mixer and sound stage (all of this is at a heavy discount), and we’re talking about $10,000.
- We currently have $2500 at this moment for the score, and that’s coming entirely from our pockets (meaning, it’s money we’d be normally using for food and rent).
- Short of a unprecedented outpouring of donations, we’re not going to get close to that 60 piece orchestra. What we’re shooting for is a 24 piece orchestra, which comes out to $4600. Obviously, we’re short of that mark.

So, we really, really, really need your help! I know most of you probably thought that we needed all donations by December, but that’s simply not true. We really need them now, as post is expensive. I know many of you have already given, and many of you meant to give, etc... and I hate to keep asking, but we really need to finish this film!

HERE’S WHY

We’ve already gotten a ton of pre-buzz about this movie. We’re also poised to get this thing seen by a lot of the right people. I’m not going to get into details here, but the bottom line is, we’re in a potentially amazing position to break in with this film... even better than I thought we’d be. So, the right people are going to see it... so that’s even more reason that this thing has got to be as amazing as it can possibly be.

We’ve recently held a series of test screenings with a variety of people (most of whom we’d never met), and Sudden Death! scored remarkably well... seriously, like amazingly well, especially for a short film. And that was an unfinished version of the film with no color correction (the movie is going to look so much better than it does now...although it already looks great), no sound editing or design, no visual effects (there’s literally still green screens visible), and without an orchestral score. And yet, even without all of this, we scored very highly (8.5 out of 10 on average). We’ve already made several changes that will bring that score up a lot, and having a finished product that looks and sounds completely professional will bring that score up even more.

We’re so close to something amazing here, guys, that it would be such a shame to not quite make it because we were short a few thousand dollars. I hate to even ask, and we’re doing everything we can to get it short of selling ourselves, but the reality is that we just can’t do this without you.

So: here’s a bit of an incentive. The $1000 Executive producer credit is still there, and if you haven’t already done so, any donation of $25 dollars or more gets you a copy of the film on DVD when it’s finished. The new thing we’re adding to this drive, however, is a special link for anyone who donates from here on out... the first footage of the film to be released on the web or seen anywhere... our outtake reel. It’s a great sneak peek at our sets, actors, set design, etc... as well as some really funny outtakes. I know that’s not earth shattering, but it’s just our thank you for those that help us out when we need it the most. Once we receive your donation, we’ll send you a special link along with the password to view the outtakes.

We’ve also added Rehearsal Footage of both the dance sequences and the music recordings to the site today to whet your appetites a bit. No one’s seen this stuff except for Melanie and I.

PLEASE HELP! WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE! DONATE!

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?

Ok, enough of the charity talk. What’s going on in the world of Sudden Death? As I said, we recently had a series of extremely helpful test screenings with some great feedback. Why do we do that, you ask? Well, the primary reason was to see where the laughs were coming and where they weren’t. Especially in comedy, you often run into important dialogue getting missed because people are laughing too loudly, so you have to time the edit as such. We definitely ran into that, more than once, and we’ve since corrected for it. The other thing is to see which scenes people are really liking, which characters, etc... so we handed out questionnaires after the film... and they’ve proved invaluable. It really shone a spotlight on which areas of the film still needed a bit of massaging and confirmed several things we had already thought, but wanted to be sure. So, again, we’ve gone back and since rectified all of that, and I think the result is a much better film.

PICTURE LOCK

We’re probably a week or two (and one more test screening) away from “picture locking.” What that means is that at that point we can’t change the timing or picture any more. We then hand the film off to the sound design team, our visual effects guy, our color guy and our composer, all of whom begin work on their aspects of the film... all of which I’ll of course be overseeing. The film seems to be working really well already, but this stuff takes the movie to another level... I’ve seen it time and again.

SUDDEN DEATH! THE FEATURE

On another front, I’ve been working for the last few months on a feature, or full length script for Sudden Death! For those of you that don’t know, Sudden Death! was a feature film idea that I’ve had for several years that I decided to make into a short film for my thesis. The idea being that the short film will serve as a calling card, not only for my skills as a director, but also for the feature. It just makes it a lot easier to see what we’re going for and that I can pull it off as a director. Well, the news on that front is that I finished the first draft of that script a few days ago, and while it naturally needs a lot of work (first drafts always do... the short went through 16 drafts), I’m really excited about it. I find myself wishing I’d been able to get parts of the feature into the short film, and I love the short.

THE MUSIC

Kenny and Kahle (who wrote the music and most of the lyrics for the short) are off working on the music for the feature version. Basically, I wrote the script and came up with the stories and ideas for the songs for the most part, then I handed it off to them, and they’ll come back (as always) with something more complete and better than what I’d asked for. Then, Kahle and I will get those lyrics exactly where I want them to be, then Kenny, Kahle and I will rework the music until it’s where all three of us are happy with it, then, it’ll all go into the script. This is basically the same process we went through in creating the short. The feature version will have a total of 14 songs.

FESTIVALS

Finally, we’re going to be touring the festival circuit for the next year, building buzz and hopefully winning a few festivals. The ultimate goal here being Sundance. We’ll see what happens. If you want to know more about what we’re doing with festivals, check out Melanie’s Blog on the subject. She’s the festival guru for the film.

Other than that, we’ve had some really exciting things happening around here, and we’ve met some really great, really important people recently. But I can’t get in to any of that yet. We’ve got to finish this thing first. So, not to drop any hints or anything, but DONATE!

What’s next?

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:44:53 -0800

People keep asking me, “What’s next now that you’re done with your film?” Well, first of all, the film isn’t done, not even close. We’re now knee deep in post, which is going to take until June. June 1st is our deadline (self-imposed) for having the film complete and festival ready. I basically took the footage, watched through it an made notes on it, basically which takes I liked, etc... and labeled all the footage. I also synced up all the sound... which is a long and painful process. I also went ahead and did a rough cut of the opening musical number (which looks great, by the way... and the cut is very, very rough) before passing the footage off to our editor, Graham Fisher.

Basically, the plan is for Graham to go through and do the Editor’s cut this month. Hopefully that will be done in the next few weeks. After that, I’ll come in and function as the second editor (don’t worry, I have a ton of experience editing (I even edited one of the big USC films a few semesters ago), and I’ve edited all but one of my films. So, don’t worry, this isn’t a vanity thing, I actually know what I’m doing (and it just saves time as I won’t have to explain what I mean... I can show). Graham and I will work together to really get the film into shape on this cut... in the editor’s cut, nothing can be cut, no scenes, lines, etc...

By the way, sorry if you already know all this... I’m explaining out this works for the uninitiated.

Anyway, once that cut’s complete (the Director’s cut), our producers, Melanie and Nick, will come in and give notes, and we’ll work to polish it even more. Also, at some point in this process we’ll have friends and people we trust view cuts of the film (people that haven’t read the script or seen any footage) and give notes. This next cut, where we’ll take all the notes into consideration and change what we feel needs to be changed, is called the Producer’s cut. Finally, my mentor, John Watson, will check it out and will give us his notes. Maybe you’re picking up a pattern here: lots of notes. However, on this film, and this probably won’t always be the case, but because it’s my thesis film, I have final say on everything. If only I can be so lucky throughout my career. In all likelihood, the producers will have all of the power on features in the future, as opposed to having to share it with me here. Luckily, my producers are very smart and have a good eye for film, and better yet, they trust me, so we’re in very good hands.

We’ll also have to do a small amount of VFX work (mainly chroma keying to add the backgrounds in to the scenes that were shot with green screen (3), and the scenes where we have to superimpose an image on a TV screen (2). There’s also a small amount of CGI to be done (if you know anyone with expertise in this arena, send them our direction).

At some point in this lengthy editing process, we’ll have a final cut, and we’ll lock picture (meaning that we won’t be changing anything as far as the video goes from that point on. Then, Mark Williams, our sound designer, will come in and do all of the sound design for the film. This includes cleaning up all of the dialogue, adding sound effects, recording foley effect if necessary, and any ADR (extra dialogue recording) if necessary (though I really hope it isn’t). Concurrently with this, our composer, Kenny Wood, will be writing the additional score for the film. Then, we’ll be going into the studio with an orchestra to record the score and an R and B version of “Love at First Sight” for the end credits.

Once all of this is completed, we’ll output everything to DVD, work on promotional materials (a poster, stills, etc...), and then it’s on to festivals! We plan on really running the festival circuit, with the ultimate goal of course being Sundance. But that’s another blog for another day. I’ll keep you updated on the post process as we move along!

The other thing that’s happening as we speak is the writing of the feature version of Sudden Death! As some of you know, the goal of Sudden Death! the short film has been, from the beginning, to make this unique musical into a feature film. Yeah, it’s going to be my calling card film, and yeah, hopefully it will get me an agent and work, but the whole goal is to sell this thing so I can write and direct the feature version. The USC connections and pedigree help, but it’s really difficult to get something like that done. Basically, it requires a great script. Luckily, SD! has been a feature idea from the get-go (some of the early drafts were 35 pages and I was still trying to squeeze things in to a small space) that we pared down to the essentials for the short. Long story short, I’m currently writing the feature version, and things are going very well. Things that I was really sad about having to cut from the short are happily being added back, and I can’t wait for you guys to see what I have in store for the feature version of this thing. So, I’m working on that as well, and Kahle and Kenny will be working on the songs as soon as I officially tell them what the songs are going to be about and what’s happening in them story wise.

That’s way more info than you needed or wanted to know, but hey, it’s your own fault for reading this whole thing.

Nine! Count 'em, nine days! Ah ah ah!

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:38:22 -0800

Just so you know, that title’s supposed to be said in the Count’s voice (from Sesame Street). Go ahead and say it. I’ll wait.
...
...
...
...

I know you didn’t say it. And I’m not happy about it.

Day Nine! AKA the last day! AKA I don’t have to do anymore of these set reports!!! Huzzah! And coincidentally, you don’t have to read anymore of them! Not that you did in the first place. And I guess you could just keep reading these over and over again, just because. But why would you do that to yourself? I don’t even read these things. Anyway! For our last day, we were finally out of the meat locker and off to two separate locations: Global Cafe (coffee shop) and Burbank First Methodist Church (swing set scene).

Global Cafe was a quick coffee shop scene during the song, “Love at First Sight” featuring Matt and Autumn that turned out really well. And it was really quick. We shot it in only a couple of hours, and we even had time to pick up a shot that we owed from the lab stuff (a POV shot up at the ceiling that we could get pretty much anywhere). Lunch was from Bob’s Big Boy (big thanks to them for the massive amount of food they donated to us), so it was automatically a good start for the day. Not a lot to say about the first half of the day, except for the fact that it was really starting to sink in that I wasn’t going to be seeing these people every day anymore... and the fact that they’d become a family in such a short period of time. Break out the violins. Ok, I’m done now.

Off to First Methodist Church! This location presented us with a few more challenges. As a result of another location falling through last minute, we had to change to this location... and we’d never seen it before. I was pretty nervous when I first saw it, actually. It’s a very small swing set on a small playground right next to one of the main thoroughfares in Burbank. Not only that, but the way the swings were oriented, if we sat the people in the swings like we had intended to, we’d be shooting this really busy street in the background. Now, besides the fact that it would have been a straight up ugly shot (it would have), it wouldn’t work for the movie at all. At this point in the film, a good portion of the people in LA are already dead, and it wouldn’t make any sense to see a busy road full of cars driving around like nothing was wrong. So yeah, big problem. This is why you always go to your locations in advance. And we always do, but we couldn’t in this case because it was so last minute. Anyway, luckily Stacey, our gaffer, is a jack of all trades, so he was able to take the swing set apart and turn the swings around (don’t worry, we put it back like it was... there were no kids freaking out that the swings were all messed up the next Sunday) so that the background was more pristine.

Now, of course, the way I’d set up the shot list, we were planning to shoot both ways, which of course was no longer an option. So, we had to think on our feet and I quickly adjusted the shots... combined a few of them, cut a few, and in general just made it work with this location in mind. The only issue was of course that we recorded the constant traffic drone during the scenes... but hey, that’s sound designs problem, right? (Just kidding... please don’t make me do ADR, Mark! They live in New York!) Hopefully, that will be easy enough to pull out, though.

Anyway, that wasn’t the only issue. We were quickly losing light. Oh, and the whole thing was basically a mulch/sand pit... which of course meant I was asking the camera crew to set up a dolly on the sand. Not super easy. Sorry guys. But, they’re very talented and never complained (to my face, at least), and they made it happen. But we were still racing the sun. So, we hurried. Got what we needed I think, but still hurried. And then, as we’re getting to our final two shots, we had to set up a few lights to keep the same light temperature. Which is not ideal, but still works. And should have been fine, if the power hadn’t gone out... three times. Yep, so this was not an easy finish to the shoot. We had planned so it would be, but nope. In any case, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, even with all the problems, we got it all shot, and I think the minor issues (changing light, traffic on the soundtrack) should be easily fixable in post. So, we’re good! And that was a wrap! So... cue the violins: I’ve made like 25-30 short films, ranging from me and my brother and a camera, to the crazy elaborate production of Sudden Death! And, granted, this was the longest and most intense shoot of my life (the next longest being 6 days), but I’ve never, ever, not wanted a shoot to end. I’m almost always ecstatic that we’re done and I don’t have to worry about production anymore. That wasn’t the case here... as crazy and unbelievably stressful (for a year!) as it was, I didn’t want to end. I had a blast making this movie, and I really loved all of the people we worked with. Yeah, there were minor disagreements here and there, but everyone seemed to have a great time and really get along well with each other... I know I did. So, thanks to any of you guys that are reading (although, you were there, so I have no idea why you would be), you made this thing awesome to make. And that’s it! End of set reports! Thanks for reading, the one or two of you that have read all the way through (thanks mom!)

NEXT: NOTHING! Well, actually, Post Production.

Day Eight!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:38:20 -0800

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!)

Day Seven Report

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:10:44 -0800

Ok, ok. I know what you’re all wondering (all 3 of you). How many 5 time Emmy award winners have you worked with before? I know, I get that questions a lot. And the answer is 0. Well, not anymore. 1. The one and only John Larroquette. I don’t think I probably have to explain who he is to any of you, but if so, go check him out on IMDB. I’m fairly certain a few members of our crew were intimidated by having such a big “name” on set with us, but I won’t mention any names. That, and like many, I’ve heard rumors of John being kind of a surly kind of guy, which I want to say just isn’t true. I found John to be a very unassuming, nice and humble guy (he’d have to be to agree to work on a student thesis film for free), and I thoroughly enjoyed working with him and getting to know him a bit. John has a very dry sense of humor, which is great for me, because I’m the exact same way. I thought him to be a very funny guy before hand, and my impression was confirmed in that regard. Regardless of any of that, however, John did a great job as Commander Jenkins. It was the very last role cast, and before we cast it, I was beginning to fear that we weren’t going to get the right person in the role, which turned out to be completely wrong.

We really wanted to get a very recognizable actor in that role, as it’s a really funny cameo and would simply add to the part. We very nearly cast several very famous actors, but in every case, for one reason or another (the most common thing we heard was that they would have done it, except they were in another state or country shooting a film), things just didn’t pan out. I hadn’t even thought of John, mainly because I wasn’t aware of any connection we had to him... but once we got him in there, I can honestly say that I can’t imagine anyone else in that role now (which is high praise considering some of the other high profile actors we were talking to). John was extremely funny, and just really nailed the part, in many cases, adding touches that I never would have even thought of. So, great experience there, and I can’t wait to let you all see that scene.

Couple of other fun things happened on this night. Well, first off, the not so fun. We were outside on a freezing rooftop in the middle of downtown LA. The good part of this is that the view was absolutely spectacular, and looks amazing on film (or the Viper. Whatever.). The bad part is that A) it was freezing and B) We were in LA, which meant circling helicopters every 20 minutes, ruining the sound. Not a huge deal as we still got everything we needed, but it was incredibly annoying to have to sit there and wait for the helicopter to leave (especially when it was just circling).

The cool stuff... my brother, Wes, flew out to play Billy in the movie. For those of you that have known me for a while and have seen all my earliest “films,” you know that Wes was the original leading man in all of my early shorts like “Run Kitty Run,” and “The Ringer”, adding quite a bit of humor to those films. But, once I got to the point of making “real” films, you know, the kind with an actual crew, equipment and actors, I hadn’t had the chance to put Wes in any of my films. So, to have him fly out was pretty cool. I know he was probably nervous, as he’d never acted in a film of this size (read: an actual movie), but he did a great job. He got to work with a prop weapon, act opposite both of the leads, and get hit over the head with a breakaway glass beaker 4 times. Yep, that was pretty fun. And it looked great. Was also another first, as I’d never worked with any sort of breakaway prop (when we were making our movies back in the day, the props didn’t break, but we still hit each other with them). Everyone kept asking Wes if he was ok, not realizing that he’d done far, far worse in my early films. I also think Autumn really enjoyed getting to hit Wes repeatedly. Sure, she acted like she felt bad, but secretly I think she loved it. Although she was probably visualizing the face of the director who was making her stand in freezing weather in a skirt all night.

So, that was cool, and obviously working with John was very cool. Add to that filming Matt Lutz doing a very girly form of ballet at 2 in the morning, and you’ve got yourself a fun night. At this point, we were all pretty tired. Night shoots suck. We were there from 4 to 4 in the morning that night, I believe, and you start to hit the wall after midnight. Gets hard to get performance and keep everyone awake. But Matt did an admirable job of staying awake and dancing on the roof for a few hours. The whole “Cure” scene is going to be really cool... you can check out the song on the Music page if you haven’t heard it yet. But picture Matt dancing a ballet while singing his part of the round and you’ll get an idea of where we’re headed.

We wrapped out at about 4 am and we all went home to get some sleep. The next day was indoors, but we had to schedule it as a night shoot as well, as you legally have to give your crew a 12 hour break between days. And we’d all be exhausted the next day anyway.

NEXT: Adam takes on Godzilla! (or day 8?)

Day Six Report

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:10:43 -0800

First of all, huge thanks are due to Panavision, who graciously donated the use of one of their 50 foot cranes to us on this day. If you don’t know, a crane like this is what’s used for those large sweeping shots you see in most films. Obviously, for a musical, we really needed those types of shots, especially in the two big musical numbers, and with Panavision’s help, we were able to do that. Their operators were amazing, as well. We never had to wait for them to set up and they never blew a shot (of course the same can’t be said for us, but hey, it was our first time with a 50 foot crane). Some of the sweeping shots we got with the thing are amazing, and I can honestly say that our movie wouldn’t be the same without them. It just added a ton of production value and made many of the shots much more dynamic and interesting, which the music really required. It was also really cool to draw up a bunch of shots that I thought would be cool (“thought” being the key word as I had no experience with a full on crane and was pretty much just guessing what would work well) and then see them come alive. There’s one shot that I really love that is really perfect for the end of the song, but we weren’t entirely sure it would work or that we’d be able to pull it off. We did though, thanks to our awesome crane operators, Dave (the DP who was sitting back in a tent with a monitor and controlling which way the camera was pointing with two metal steering wheel type levers) and Mark (our AC, who was remotely controlling the focus). It was a great experience for all of us, as complicated as it was, and was totally worth it.

So, I guess the big question from the day before was whether or not we’d be able to get all the shots we needed to since we’d been rained out the day before. I think most of us were thinking probably not. We’d give it a shot, and if we made it, cool, if not, we’d just have to come back the next Friday for another half day (and no one wanted to do that, least of all me, because it would be several hundred dollars extra). So, we set up to go. Basically, we had to shoot the two major dance numbers (which were luckily both in the same location with the same people (beginning song and reprise at the end), a scene featuring a tap dancer and a very complicated one off where several people sang individual lines to the main character, following him as he walked down the street. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, it is. Like really a lot. Like I didn’t think there was any way we could get through it.

Let’s take a quick step back. First of all, we had something like 16 ensemble dancers (not including any of the primary cast or the extra people in the final scene), all of whom were working for free, and all of whom did a great job and seemed to be having a blast with it. To put this in perspective, they had I believe 3 or 4 4 hour rehearsals with our amazing choreographer, Sarah Scherger, before we even began filming. Then, they were on set with us, dancing away for several hours... and that dancing included falling onto the ground repeatedly... something like 20 times. So yeah. Dedication. It all paid off, though, as the dance turned out really well. Better than I could have hoped, especially as I’m not a choreographer and had only a few distinct images in mind (Sarah filled out everything else). The music and dancing in this thing was way better than I ever could have hoped for, and I owe a lot to my amazing collaborators.

Anyway. After lying and falling down a lot on a cold street, we got all the shots we needed. Both dances covered. And we had a blast doing it. I’ve said it before, I think, but it’s worth saying it again, I’ve had a lot of fun making almost every movie I’ve ever made, but nothing comes close to this. Everyone was so optimistic and such a pleasure to be around, and everyone seemed to really believe in the project. It just made it so much fun to make this thing. OK, off the tangent. Dancing for those two scenes, done. And look at that... we were doing really well on time. Ok, time to really rush things and do the tap dancing scene. This scene was all shot in one shot on the crane, which meant we had to get it absolutely perfect. But, there wasn’t too much movement or anything, and it was a pretty short scene, so after several takes, we got it.

Well, would you look at that. The sun was in the process of setting, but we only had one shot left. Unfortunately, it was the most complicated and least prepared shot of the day (possibly the whole shoot). It was the least prepared because I had shot listed and story boarded something completely different than what we ended up doing. Once I got on set, I decided I wanted to do things differently (I know, I know, I’m a jerk), so Dave and I had to quickly figure out how to shoot it. What we ended up with was a long tracking shot of the whole scene... following Nathan on the crane as he walked down the road, with people popping into frame at just the right time to sing their line. Really tough stuff. But, we set it up and gave it a shot. Take 1 was an absolute disaster. Seriously. I just watched it again the other day, and it was miserable. At that point, I was probably thinking that we were screwed. But, we sucked it up and tried again. Re-positioned some people (with the help of Sarah, the choreographer, who really didn’t have to help out there, but that’s just the amazing kind of person she is), and tried again. Still no good, but not an abject disaster this time.

And so it went. In the freezing cold, as the sun was setting for probably 15 takes. With the cast and crew literally running back to one (first position where everyone starts at the beginning of the take) in between takes. Craziness. But y’know what? We got it, and it turned out really, really well. It’s kind of an amazing feeling when a team comes together to make something happen when you don’t really have time or the light to get it accomplished. It’s even cooler when it’s such a big team (the cast alone in this scene was like 8 people... add the crew in there and it’s a lot of people). But yeah, we did get it done. Don’t ask me how, but we did, and we got everything we needed. We even wrapped out of there an hour early when all was said and done, and best of all, we didn’t have to go back to Raleigh for that half day.

NEXT: John Larroquette on the roof at night!

Day Five Report

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:21:35 -0800

Friday was an off day. We had to do it, legally, but we also really needed it. Let me explain that legal thing first, for those of you that don’t know the ins and outs of SAG agreements. According to our agreement with SAG, none of our actors could work more than 5 days in a row. Which was no problem for everyone except Matt, who was the lead, and was in basically every scene of the film. So, we had to take a break, and because of when we could get locations, Friday ended up having to be our off day, and we had to shoot Saturday and Sunday.

This was where things got interesting. You plan things months and months in advance, but sometimes things just end up waiting til the last minute. Which happened here. Because it was threatening to rain all day Saturday and Sunday, our two big outdoor dance scene days, we didn’t know where we were going to be able to shoot (either Sony on their main street or Raleigh Studios, where Marvel shoots all their stuff (they were shooting Thor there at the time)). So, when we wrapped on Thursday, this was the scene:

“Hey guys, are we going to shoot on Saturday?”
“We’ll let you know.”
“Ok... do you know where we’re going to shoot on Saturday?”
“We’ll let you know.”

Which was frustrating for us, because it was really the best we could do. With all of our prep and all the thousands of hours we put into it, we just didn’t know. As it turned out, through some really great stuff that happened last minute (we were very blessed), we were able to secure Raleigh Studios. Basically, we were able to use their Main Street, with the Panavision crane (that they donated to us), with our own generator (saving a ton of money), with a rain day for no extra charge the next week if it happened to rain us out on Saturday. Everything that we needed. It worked out really well. We also decided to take a giant leap of faith and shoot on Saturday even though it was supposed to pour. We just kind of felt like that’s what we were supposed to do, so we risked it.

And it was pouring when we got up at 4 (we were shooting at 6 am down in Manhattan Beach, which is like an hour from Burbank)... not what we were hoping for. And yet, when we got to Manhattan Beach, it was barely even sprinkling. Crazy. So, we immediately got going and shot one of the scenes we had to shoot. Awesome. Things were going well. The dancers were starting to arrive, and so we began to shoot the closeups of the dialogue during one of the musical scenes. We got through that also... things were going really well. And then we realized that Matt had been wearing his hoodie (which he should not have been wearing) through the entire 2nd scene we’d shot. All of that was now unusable. It’s just one of those things that no one (including me) noticed when we were doing it. So, we quickly ran out and reshot that stuff... and it really started to rain again. But, we got through 2 scenes, which is better than none.

So, we all waited inside. Sarah, our amazing choreographer, ran through the dances with all of the dancers inside. After an hour or two, it was really coming down and the forecast didn’t call for it to die down anytime soon. So, we spoke to the very nice people at Raleigh Studios, and they agreed to count this day as a half day... and we could shoot the other half on the next Friday for no extra charge. Which was very kind of them. Obviously, that wasn’t the best solution for us, however, as it involved an extra day of shooting (which means more money as far as food and crew goes), and it would mess up a couple of our actors’ schedules. But, better than nothing. So, we decided to try and shoot all that was left the next day, and if we couldn’t get through all of it, we could always shoot on Sunday.

Did we make it? Find out next time!! If you want to. No pressure.

Day Four Report

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:03:16 -0800

Did I mention that our set was like a meat locker? I’ve heard that many of you have looked at the pictures and wondered why on earth we’re all wearing winter coats inside in Los Angeles... and well, our set was like a meat locker. It always happens this way, but it had been nice and warm in Southern California up until December, and it literally hadn’t rained in almost a year. But of course, it rains the first day we start shooting, and threatened to rain for most of the shoot. Not only that, but the mornings were in the low 30s, and it was pretty cold all through the shoot. Well, the several times we went to Central City Studios (which I can’t say enough good things about... the set or Lucy, the owner), it was warm out. Normal LA weather. I was in shorts, and so the sets were plenty warm. I never considered the fact that this is basically a warehouse, and when it’s cold out, it’s cold inside. And it was freezing.

No heat, except for a tiny space heater we brought and put in a small green room... which we didn’t even know existed until day 3, and once we found it and put the heater in, was constantly stuffed with people (especially the actors) crowded around the heater. The actors probably did have it the worst, however, as the rest of us could wear warm clothes at all times, whereas they had to take them off and do each take in their costumes, which of course weren’t nearly as warm. Doug was sick for much of the shoot (though he’s such a pro you can’t tell it at all on film), and I felt terrible for making him wait in the cold. And poor Autumn... her costume consisted of a skirt and heels... so she had to be just dying. In any take where you didn’t see her feet, we let her wear her fur lined boots, which helped a bit, but still. I felt bad for all of them.

Anyway, on to day four. We were in the main laboratory set for much of the day, trying to get every shot we needed in there, as another production would be taking over the next day. We’d be coming back to the location in a week, but we really didn’t want to have to tear down all the lights and everything, only to have to set them back up in exactly the same configuration. So, we didn’t. We really pushed and got everything we needed. This day really doesn’t even stick out that much in my mind, except for the cold and the way the day ended.

Everything went well, and we realized we were catching up to the point of being in a good spot for our last day of shooting, which would be the next Tuesday. And that’s when we did the FX shot. The shot in question involved a shot tracking from left to right (for the uninitiated, that means the camera was on a dolly... basically a cart on a track that allows the camera to move smoothly). The hard part was, the shot involved a beaker tipping over, the liquid spilling out and running down the table, past a sight gag and into another bin, which in turn reacted with the liquid, causing smoke to pour out in front of a working fan. Yeah, not easy. We had to figure out how to get the liquid to go where we wanted it. This involved a huge team effort, involving Lia, the production designer, Ben, the art director, and everyone from Scott, the boom op, to Mark, our AC, and everyone in between. The really came together and figured out how to make it work after several tries. Actually, the first try working almost perfectly, except that once the liquid got near the end, due to the way the fan was positioned, the wind blew the liquid off track.

Anyway, after several attempts, and figuring out how to use the natural grease off of one’s skin (gross I know, but brilliant), they got it. 5 takes. More than 2 hours to do it. Which is what threw us off track. It just takes forever to reset something like that in between takes... clean up all the liquid, reset the “track” for the liquid to flow down, clean out the bin and reset the dry ice, reset the camera, etc... Just a lot of work. But they did it.

However, while we had been way ahead of schedule, this put us way behind. We were finished in the lab, but we had one shot we really needed to get done in the office before the day was over. Luckily, Lia and Mike, one of the lighting crew, had been over there setting the room up, so we quickly rushed over to try and get the shot. This was a shot with Doug and Beth Castle singing, so that added to the rush... trying to get playback as well. But, we moved quickly and got the shot, and I think everyone was pretty pumped that we’d gotten what we needed and really caught up on our shots (especially after the 2nd day).

If you want to read a very detailed report on this day from another perspective, check out Anoray’s report at The Doug Jones Experience!