Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Got up early to go meet with the hotel guy. We were supposed to be there for 9:30am, and we get there at about twenty to ten. Late again. That’s okay though, because after the person behind the desk lets him know that we’re here, he doesn’t show up until about 10 to 10 anyway. Maybe I put too much thought into this late business as it seems everyone else is later than us. By that definition, I guess you can say we’re always early.

He shows us the hotel room and it’ll work for what we need it for. Should be minimal, if any, set dressing. The set’s supposed to be a hotel room, so I can’t see what you can do to a hotel room to make it look more like a hotel room. Leave it to Steve though, he’ll find a way. Anyways, what I was hoping for was a long distance from the foot of the bed to the wall. Ideally, I’d like to have one shot of the lead actress silhouetted at the foot of the bed while a couple of people are passed out on the bed. That’s not going to work here.

So while we’re there and Bills taking some snaps of the room to send to Steve, I figure out how to shoot around our limitation, so it’s not a big deal. The room actually has a sliding door to the parking lot, so I’m still in the air about having Dana just go out that way instead of the main door like she’s supposed to in the script.

Anyways, changing my storyboards around won’t be a big deal. I find that I really get to know the context and what the scene is about when I storyboard, so as long as you know what your scene is about, you shouldn’t have too many problems as to where you should put the camera. I know what the mood is I’m going for and what the shots mean, so as long as I can keep that in mind, I can adapt it.

Bill drops me off and he’s off to go celebrate his birthday. Sue’s still passed out in bed on her day off, so I decide to take my laptop outside and take a crack at the script for Santa’s List that Bill sent me the treatment for while I wait for the Federal Express dude to come (hopefully). I finish off the first scene which I don’t think is too bad, then fire it off to Bill as a birthday present. Before you know it, I’m done the entire script and send that off to him as a birthday present to get his thoughts and opinions on it. I changed it a bit and gave it more of a resolution that his original treatment, so I hope this doesn’t bug him too much.

He manages to read it and we communicate via messenger that he loves it and wants to start firing it off to people like Alicia, who will do the makeup effects for it. I’m glad he digs it, so I download a couple of fonts for the title page, attach it all as a pdf, then fire it off to him. Cheapest birthday present I ever gave away.

We also heard back from the shirt guy. Turns out the long sleeve shirts that Bill and I had in mind, and for that matter, the short sleeves as well, are going to be a bit more. A buck or so more per T-shirt, and I don’t know how much more for the long sleeves. Bill’s taking care of that, and he’s the one that’s gung ho about the long sleeves, so I’ll wait for him to tell me how much it is.

I’m patiently waiting for my tripod, which I’m hoping will come today. It was a relief when I finally settled on a make and model of tripod, and felt like it was a weight off my shoulders. That weight has returned somewhat as the thought of maybe I got ripped off on the interwebz crosses my mind. I’m still a little worried that the stuff won’t arrive by the time we have to shoot, and I refuse to go handheld. That shit just irks the hell out of me.

Anyways, emailed the company that I ordered from asking for a tracking number. I hope they get back to me soon with it, because I hate the feeling of having been taken.

Yesterday, Kyle let me know that he might have someone that is willing to do some behind the scenes work for the movie. I really want one, and possibly go so far to create an online diary to be posted on the site once a week or so while we shoot, and then have a bigger, more elaborate behind the scenes for the DVD. I’m not sure though, because we tried it for The Weight, and I don’t think it came out that well. The person doing it needs to be annoying with their task, getting us to cooperate with them for a couple of minutes at a time.

During The Weight, it was just anyone that had a free hand would pick up the doc camera and start shooting random footage. Bill managed to salvage it with interviews with the cast during setup times, and with the main crew afterwards. I should talk to him and see if he’s still got it on his computer, and if he’s made any changes to it. Not today though, as it’s his birthday. I’ll talk to him about the possibilities of this one too, and also talk to Alicia to see if she wants to organize this aspect as well. Basically, I’ll feel the two of them out and see if they want to proceed. My thinking is that if it’s not going to be done right, then we shouldn’t waste our time with it at all.