Alright, I wanted to say this after Sundays shoot, but decided to wait and see how today went before I said anything. We have the coolest cast ever. There, I said it. Today was the last day that I worked with someone new on this project. Dave Andrews showed up to play Detective Baldwin, and that sealed it. This cast is as cool as a tundra.
Don’t get me wrong, there are very cool people that I’ve worked with before. But this entire cast is cool. I don’t think I’ve ever had that before. There’s usually one or two people on a project that you’re just not crazy about, and most of the time they’re workable. But this time out, I’m in love with the entire cast. Just too fucking cool.
At the rehearsal, like I said, everyone kicked around afterwards when they could’ve went home, so I definitely knew there was some chemistry there with the entire cast. I can’t believe the entire cast has even more chemistry with one another. It’s amazing. This is only our third day in production, and I feel like I can actually call everyone in the cast a friend already.
In my experience in the past, this chemistry is largely set by the lead actor in the film: he or she will usually set the tone the rest of the cast follows. If the lead actor is a lazy dick and doesn’t seem to care much, the rest of the cast will follow suit. With this production, Joe Vomvas is the lead actor, and he’s a hard worker who puts everything he’s got into scenes and is always ready to go, but he’s also a really funny dude that likes to laugh and have a good time. The rest of the cast is the exact same way. They all like to have a good time, but they’re ready to work when it’s time to work. A perfect example is yesterday with Keith. We almost ran out of light, and they both did the scene against time, and they did it well.
Everyone here has the quality of the production as their first priority. We’ve been running really late, and the only person that complains about it is me. Usually someone in the cast will be the first one to bitch, but I haven’t heard a peep out of any of them yet, and we’ve ran really late, and it’s been really hot.
Sorry I spent so long on the cast, but I just can’t believe how lucky we are with them. Shit, this is just an amazing experience.
So today the call time for the crew was 6:30am at Bills joint. I thought I planned it so I’d actually be early, but when I got inside Bills I found out it was 6:32. No biggie right, but this irked the shit out of me at the time. I had thought I was early when I arrived, but no. Maybe we’re just not supposed to be on time.
Melon and I got there at the same time, so Melon, me, Bill and Bills little brother Kyle (who I now refer to as Baby O’Reilly, based on The Who’s great track, “Baba O’Reilly”) start loading up the truck with our gear to take over to The Red Onion, where we’re supposed to be at 7am.
While we’re doing this, Alicia starts doing whatever it is Alicia does. I think she packed up her makeup and needed wardrobe for the location. I really don’t know what exactly she does, but I know she’s doing a lot because she knows this script in and out and is able to provide answers that I just don’t have, such as costume changes, scene orders, the schedule etc. All the things I didn’t want to dedicate mind-power to (I have little to make stretch) that she said she’d do, she’s done it, and she’s done it a lot better than I could ever have, even if I did dedicate 100% of my feeble mind to it. I can’t begin to tell people how awesome it is to have a right hand that’s as on top of their shit as Alicia is.
We pack up Bills truck and throw the spillover gear into Melons van, and we’re off the Red Onion, racing against time so as not to be late.
We’re late. But only by maybe ten minutes.
Again, it’s not a problem, because Jimmy the owner is later than us. Maybe we are always early.
We get in and start setting up some equipment and Steve rapes this set with his set dressing. Steve is so meticulous and good at this, it’s sickening. I couldn’t believe the stuff he was pulling out, how he never missed anything, and how much detail he put into this. Every time I see this guy work, I’m blown away. He’s now referred to as “The Steve,” because there can be only one.
Kyle meets us at the Red Onion and says that he’s having a bad day. Cool, I understand that, that’s all I need to know. He gets his audio gear plugged in and ready to go. He also arrives with one of the newer Rockstar drinks, and I’m pretty jealous. A friend of mine, Nick, introduced me to the pleasures of Rockstar a year or two ago, and I have to say, they’re quite the delicious drink.
As for lighting, there’s not much we can do until it’s closer to when we shoot to find out where the sun will be and how much of it will come through the window. Since the scene will take place beside a big window, how much light is coming in will determine how I shoot it. I set it up thinking not much light is going to come through, so we slap a couple of 1K’s up with dimmers.
Alicia whips Justine, Joe, and Harry Mouratidis, who’s playing Seth, in and out of wardrobe and makeup and we’re ready to go. Wait a second. There’s more light coming in through the windows now. We quickly rush to a new setup and start shooting, a little late of when we wanted to start shooting I believe.
Something worthy of note though. For the entire shoot thus far, we’ve all been joking about old 80’s movies. I forget the movie that it all started with, but we’re currently stuck on Bloodsport, which I think Steve has the whole movie memorized. It’s a blast being a part of this conversation. Yesterday it was brought up that Joe has a shirt with a picture of Chuck Norris’ face and the caption “Chuck Norris doesn’t take showers, he takes bloodbaths.” I thought that was awesome and that I’ve never heard it before. Joe shows up today wearing the shirt. It was just as awesome as the expectation of it.
We quickly do the one side of the scene with Melon serving as an extra, then we pull over to the other side and dabble the crew around as extras. I haven’t looked at the footage yet, but from what I saw, I think it looked pretty tight.
In my mind, we’re running behind, because I was hoping to be out of there by 11am, even though we had until noon until we had to hit the bricks. We end up finishing at 11:30. We all kick around for a little bit before heading off. I’m in a hurry as I have a doctors appointment at three, and I know we’re going to lose an hour there. We also have Dave arriving at five to shoot his scene, and I’m determined not to go as long today as we did on the first day.
We get back to Bills where we’re going to spend the rest of the day, and he and Alicia bomb out to go get some stuff for lunch. Like I said, it’s great having Alicia around to take care of this stuff. She’s a really amazing asset. The rest of us unload the truck and start setting up. However, it’s so hot in Bills place, that setup goes pretty slow, and he and Alicia get back about twenty minutes away from us shooting the first shot.
We slowly chip away at a two page scene that takes place in three different stages, and two different locations in the house. We get two out of the three stages off before I have to head to the doctors. It’s just too damn hot in this house with all these people crammed inside, and we have to take breaks to cool off, clear our heads, and get some energy back.
I boot to the doctors, and about fifty five minutes later I’m at my place grabbing more tapes, a couple cases of pop, and I’m off to Bills again. I get back and people are still chowing down. Bill lets me know that for some reason, he had a hard time cooking the meat. I think it’s funny, and fitting so far, so about twenty minutes after I get back, we start shooting again. We also push Dave’s call time back an hour to six.
We keep shooting and plugging away in this heat and eventually get to Dave, about an hour to an hour and a half after he arrives. Like I said man, these people are all cool as hell, and he didn’t once complain, or even ask me when we’d get to him. I even told him that it would be cool if he left and came back in an hour. He didn’t want to and just waited patiently until we got to him.
When we did get to him, he blew us all away. Man, this guy just slides into the Detective role like nobody’s business. We shot his scene, which was also actually complicated as it was four stages and in three different areas of the house (I originally wrote the script thinking we’d shoot it in a one room apartment, not a house with multiple rooms) and he was on his way.
I think it’s a common consensus among all these actors too that none of them can believe how good each of them are. There’s a lot of respect among all the performers to the other performers, and a lot of respect from the actors to the crew. Sorry for bringing up the cast again, I couldn’t help it.
So Dave leaves, and we continue to bang out the rest of the scenes between Harry, Joe, and Justine. Apparently Justine got a ride in with her mom because her car broke down on Sunday, so Justine’s mom has been waiting since 5:30 to pick her up and take her home. I had no idea. She didn’t complain to me once. The only reason I knew is because Alicia came up to me and asked if we could shoot Justine’s final scene next as her mom is waiting for her.
I say no problem, so I take a break outside to give everyone some down time, and I simplify my storyboards from the nine planned shots to four. I think it might turn out better, but I won’t know for sure until I see the footage and how it all cuts. We rock out her last scene and she takes off, leaving us with one last scene to shoot between Harry and Joe.
Again, we take a small breather from the heat, and the fatigue that’s settling in, and I go outside and talk to Harry and Joe for a few minutes before they rehearse the scene for me. I think on days like this it’s better to take more breaks so people can get some fluid in them and they can give their minds and bodies a rest, rather than trudge through it without stopping. It’ll probably even out the same, time-wise anyway, because by trudging through it, you’ll just end up burning everyone out, and the work will definitely suffer.
So we go back inside and shoot the last scene in four shots. The acting in this scene between Harry and Joe is really good from what I could tell. Man, every time I cast Harry in something, he just gets better and better each time. Joe really brought his “A” game to this last scene as well.
We finish the scene, Harry and Joe leave, and the rest of us tidy up a bit to end our sixteen hour day.
So much for not being as behind today as the first day.
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