Friday, July 4th, 2008: Last Day Before Production

So what would be my ideal situation before going into production? Ideally, I’d like to kick it with a movie or two that inspires me for the shoot ahead and to look over the script again, and to look over my shot lists and storyboards and think about what I would like to accomplish tomorrow.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

The plan is to wake up, head to Cinequip in Toronto, come back to Niagara for a last minute meeting with Steve and Alicia for 12:30, then be done for the day. That would still allow me to kick it with my notes and a quality flick.

I get a message from someone in the company in the morning informing me that a riff has formed that has put me smack dab in the middle of it. I’m really not one to say that I’m busy, even if I can only have about 2 hours to sleep (incidentally, after I finish this diary entry, that’s probably what I’m looking at), but truth be told, I really have too much shit on my mind right now to have to worry about this. I don’t bother with it for now. Bill and Leanne come and pick me up, and it’s off to the T-Dot.

We get to Cinequip, and Bill grabs the gear he needs. I figure I’ll rent a tripod here as well, as that’s what I’m forced to do now. You thought it would be that easy? Have you learned nothing yet?

Turns out that one of the largest renters of film equipment in the country, if not the largest, doesn’t have a tripod suitable for me. Who’d a thunk it? What they have is too small for my rig apparently. They send me next door.

We go next door. They ask if we have an appointment. Um no, but I have money to give you that I don’t want to spend. Isn’t that good enough? Apparently not. They want an appointment AND insurance. We have neither. Luckily the dude we dealt with was pretty cool, and he gave us a name for a guy that might have the tripod we’re looking for, and he may rent it to us without insurance.

Let me just say this to all future rental houses I may frequent in the future: You don’t want me to have insurance. If I have insurance I’m beating the shit out of whatever you give me and by the time you get it back it’ll look like a Snakes and Ladders game. This is good if you rent me a Snakes and Ladders game, bad for everything else.

So this new place, I can’t remember the place or I’d give them props, is further into Toronto, but it’s either go there, or go to a place I vowed I would never do business with again. We go to the new place.

He rents us the tripod. Yay! We’re off, of course going to be slightly late for our meeting, but that’s the norm. Well, wouldn’t you just know it we get stuck in some bullshit traffic on the way back.

By the time we meet up with Steve at Jimmy’s Red Onion, we’re about an hour and a half late. Oh yeah, we picked up Alicia too who brought a presentation with her for us and a note pad full of wonderful musings, questions, and observations I can’t remember right now.

Get to the restaurant and my lighter doesn’t work. Sweet. I go in with the gang and ask for matches. I get the matches and go outside to give my lungs the blessed burst of nicotine they so desperately crave right now. I come back in to find out that Alicia finished her presentation. Oh well, it was worth it.

Basically, we go over stuff for the shoot, go over stuff for Santa’s List, as well as a potential project that Steve scribed that Bill is to direct called “Pricks.” We’re going to be hella busy just on these shorts alone for the next half a year. Alicia also talks about a short she wants to pen and talks about adapting it to winter.

So we’re here for awhile, we talk to Jimmy and eventually split. Steve is following Bill back to his place to dress the set as he won’t be available before we start shooting to dress it then. Bill forgets to drop me off on the way to his place so he just lets me off on the corner, like the good little whore I am.

I walk back to my place, and the plan is to get Kyle to my house, drive us both over to Bills, grab his truck because he’s off to work, take his truck back to my house, load it up with our gear, then unload it at Bill’s house, get my car, come back to my place, play with the V-16 a bit more, then kick back to a flick.

I come home and tell Kyle to come over and we’ll peep the flick after we unload at Bills. Then my Mom shows up, and she talks with Sue and I until Kyle finally shows up. Finally. Apparently his version and my version of quick are different. Sue, Kyle and I unload at Bills pad and we’re finished at about eight or so. I get to see the set that Steve dressed. My favorite is the fabric softener stuck to a small fan. That cat’s mad detailed. Set looks awesome.

We get back to my place and Sue heads out with Chevonn to do some wedding stuff or kill goats I don’t know. Kyle and I start screwing with the V-16 and Sue and Chevonn come back and kick it by themselves while I still try to get a handle on this beast. Kyle and I decide to check out the flick outside, and I settle on American Psycho, one of my favorite films, as a finale to my 2.35 learning experience.

Everything gets set up and Kyle heads to Wendys to grab something for the movie. Again, our ideas of “quick” are different. Kyle finally comes back, we watch the flick, then decide to call it a night at about a quarter to one. We were going to have a double header and watch Gangs of New York after, but that’s like, almost a 3 hour picture, and that’s just too much.

Now, instead of just coming down here, doing this diary entry and going to bed, I decide to get the ball rolling on repairing the riff. This takes a lot longer than I had thought it would, or wanted it to, or cared to, but it gets done because I think it’s important.

So now it’s a little bit after four am as I close off this chapter for pre-production. Tomorrow we start shooting. Tomorrow the script starts to come alive. Tomorrow begins the make or break process.

It just hit me that we still need a title for this thing.