Monday, August 11th, 2008: Shoot Day # 5 on VH Guitar

Today should be a fun day. We’re only supposed to do three scenes today, and since it’s just the three small scenes, we should be able to pick up the scene we missed on Saturday too, then head to Dunnville with The Steve to check out the concert setting.

One of the scenes that we’re scheduled to shoot today is a situation that is lifted from an experience I had where me, Bill, and a former friend of mine all got drunk and talked the former friend into calling an escort. It was pretty damn funny. Earlier on, Harry called me and asked if it was okay if he threw in some of the “lingo.” I’ll admit, I don’t know any escort lingo, so yeah, I’ll let him throw his shit in provided he gets some key things in his speech that I want.

There’s also a rumor going around that Harry is going to do the scene wearing a bathrobe. I don’t believe it until Alicia shows up with the pink bathrobe. I’m still not sure if Harry is going to throw it on.

Harry puts it on. And it’s short.

I’m having a hard time even looking at the guy in this thing. It’s the equivalent of wearing a mini-skirt. I don’t know whether to laugh or ask him out.

We’re also meeting Arron Henderson today, who’s playing the rehab councilor that owns the home Bulldog is squatting in. Arron is local, and seems like a pretty cool guy. He rocks his scenes out and I think we get some funny shit between him and Harry. We shoot the two scenes pretty quickly, and I think all of us got a little glimpse of Harry junior under that robe.

So with those two scenes down, we wrap my house. It was the last room in my house that we could possibly use in the series, as every other room belongs to another character.

We all kick it on my back porch with Arron for a bit, not particularly worried about the last scene we have to shoot, and the scene that we’re supposed to pick up. The last few days has definitely taken its toll on us, and the laid back nature of today is serving us well.

Finally, we get our asses in gear to shoot the scene where Bulldog walks out of the councilors house. Since the front of my house is Cain McBain’s house, we can’t shoot the scene here, so we move on to Alicia’s. This shit isn’t going to match at all.

Bill convinces me to do the entire scene in one Glidecam move. I had about three or four shots planned for it, and we manage to incorporate them all into the minute and a half Glidecam move. I hope it ends up alright.

We scope out Alicia’s basement for possible future locations, and by the time we’re done, we realize that we’ve run out of time to shoot the last scene we were to pick up in Grimsby. We’ll already probably be late for meeting Steve, which if you’ve been reading, is a habit of ours. We chalk it up to having to pick the scene up another time.

Bill drives Alicia and I to Grimsby while Harry hops in his ride to head back to Toronto.

We get to Bills moms house and see Steve waiting for us. We unload the camera and audio gear from Bills truck and throw it in Steve’s car. We’re off to the Dunner (I’m still trying to figure out a cool nickname for this town. I think I’m sticking with the Dunner) where Steve gives us a tour of fields. Apparently, he’s originally from here and is pointing out the sites. I just see a lot of green.

We also tell Steve and Alicia about the plan Bill and I came up with to end the episode. They’re pretty stoked about it, like I hoped they would be. All day long, I’ve been bugging Alicia about a surprise, and now I’m hoping it lives up to expectations. It does. I told her she would cream a little when she heard the news. She says it happened.

If only it was that easy for every woman.

We arrive in downtown Dunner where Steve treats us to Tim Hortons. How can you not love this guy? Then we head over to the Dunner Community Theatre and scope out the surroundings. The theatre is a lot smaller than it looks on the tape I saw. While we’re trying to get everything set up to record the rehearsal, I notice that we forgot something very important. Video tapes. Sweet. They’re still sitting in the back of Bills truck.

The sound guy that’s there is asking me a bunch of questions, and I just want to get out and get some tapes before the band really starts getting into it. Apparently the building is old and you got to watch the shit you’re plugging in. They have a lighting system here, so I tell him nothing, because our cameras run on batteries, and we won’t need to bring any lights.

Bill and I head out to enjoy the wonders of downtown Dunner while Alicia learns the light system.

As it turns out, on a Monday at 8pm, everything is closed in Dunnville, save a few shops. We decide to hit up the Giant Tiger where the nice saleswoman is confused when we say MiniDV tapes. She tries to point us to the answering machine tapes. Those are nifty and all, but I don’t live in the 80’s so I’ll take a pass on those.

We bounce over to a video rental store, hoping on the off chance they’ll have the tapes. This lady has at least heard of MiniDV tapes and tells us she has none. We then go to a Mac’s and meet the same fate. Well, this wasn’t just a Mac’s. It was more like a three in one store of a Mac’s, a bakery, and another store that I think is a sub shop. Compact is my motto too.

We give up and walk back to the theatre where we meet another great surprise. The lighting system sucks for what I had planned.

None of the lights spot, and they overflow not just onto other parts of the stage, but also the crowd too. You also can’t just turn one light on. When you bring up one light, three of them go on, or two, or four. And they just criss-cross around the stage in no set manner.

This shit might fly for community theatre, but it ain’t going to fly for our purposes.

We talk to the lady that runs the theatre, and she lets us know that we can reposition the lights, but we can’t take any down, and we can’t add anything to the grid. They’re “powered to the max,” but she says we can bring in our own gear and use that. I’m confused because if they have no power for other things, and the shit is already a fire hazard, how can we plug in our own stuff and use that? She also vetoes us replacing some of the other lights with our own.

Alright, so we find out if it’s okay to rig some of our lights on the ceiling exactly where we want them, thinking that we can run our own dimmers along the ceiling and make a budget style dimmer system using our dimmers. She thinks that’s fine.

It turns out Brad is going to be here on Friday the 22nd before the show on the 24th, so we can come while he’s here and rig our shit the way we want it. But we can’t move or replace their lights. This will work out nicely, because by the time Friday rolls around, we should be wrapped on all of our interiors, and therefore, all of our lights.

The rehearsal comes to a close and we pack up our shit and head into Steve’s car, where he takes us to a McDonalds across the street from a pickle factory. My mouth waters at the aroma of Dill Pickle chips, so this made my mouth the deep end of an Olympic sized swimming pool.

We get into Mickey D’s and I debate on getting the Angus burger. I ask Bill if he’s ever had it and he says that it’s crap so I get another meal. At the table, Bill tells me the Angus burgers are awesome and I curse him up and down. I’ve never had an Angus burger before and I could’ve tried something new tonight.

We chat for awhile, and by chat, I mean Steve entertains us. The schedule comes up for the rest of the shoot and Bill would like to shoot one of the two major fight scenes on Saturday, which is the day after Logan’s birthday.

I really don’t want to shoot on Saturday, because for Logan’s birthday on Friday, I have plans of drinking heavily. Also, if we want to park at his girlfriend Cara’s place, we have to leave the bar when Logan and Cara leave the bar, and they plan on closing it. That means that we won’t get back to Cara’s until about three or so, and then we have an hour to an hour and a half drive back home from Toronto, putting us home around 4:30am or 5am.

Both fight scenes take place outside, and outside has the sun, and the sun gets hot. I’d prefer not to spend a hangover outside in the sun in a park for the first fight scene with no chance of shade, trying to direct a pretty long and complex physical interaction.

I’ve directed a few fight scenes before, and they’re pretty intricate, long, and laborious. Everyone has to be on their toes so no one gets hurt, and even then, there’s usually an accident or two that happens.

Besides, I would consider Logan a really good friend of mine, and I’d prefer to enjoy his birthday; especially a milestone like a 30th birthday. I’ve missed many things for shooting, and this is something I’d like to enjoy. I missed Sue’s Aunt’s wedding while I was shooting Wonderland, I missed Sue’s friends wedding while shooting Desolation Row, and there have been other things that I’ve missed that I can’t remember right now.

I also realize that I have the problem that I can’t have just one beer. “One beer” better bring a lot of his buddies, because he’s going to get lonely in my liver. So me only having a couple and then leaving isn’t going to work. I know myself well enough to know that this isn’t an option.

But when Bill gets his head stuck on something, he gets tunnel vision. This is what makes him a good producer, but not someone you want to get into a discussion with when you need a smoke and have to piss.

I go to the washroom and then join Steve outside and have the much needed cigarette while Bill and Alicia continue to argue back and forth inside. I’m tired and I just want to go home. Eventually, and I still don’t know how, they get outside, we pile into Steve’s car, and head back to Grimsby.

It’s decided that Steve will record the band practice on Friday, then leave the tape in his mailbox for Bill to pick up when he goes to work. Steve is jet-setting somewhere in the world for a vacation, and we won’t see him again until the day of the show.

Brad will tape the rehearsal with the string group they have on Sunday, and leave the tape in Steve’s mailbox for Bill as well. That way, I’ll get both groups rehearsing, and I’ll be able to bring up some lighting cues. The stage is too small and the band too big to incorporate any camera movement, and the joint will be too packed to move them off of the stage for movement, so I’m thinking we’ll need some lighting cues to bring this show alive.

Hopefully we can get more cameras and people to run this show like it should be run.

Hopefully.

Screenshots, including Harry in the robe.

Sunday, August 10th, 2008: Shoot Day #4 on VH Guitar

I arrive early again, and as I’m looking over my notes for the day, I see Irish walking up the street towards me. This is a confusing sight to see early on a Sunday morning. We gab for a bit until Jens arrives and then we talk with him for a bit until Bill and Alicia arrive. Apparently, Bill forgot that he would need the truck again for when we pack all the gear up and leave, so he had to turn around and get it. This happened to him yesterday too, which is the reason why he’s late.

There’s not too many scenes to shoot today, but there’s a lot of characters involved, and the actors are coming in at various intervals. The first scene is a quick one between The Mick and Nigel, so we bang that one down pretty quick, but a little behind schedule.

It’s a rainy, drizzling, shitty day, so we can’t get one of the scenes we planned on shooting outside today. It’s not important really, just an establishing scene, so if we can’t get it, no big deal.

My Mom arrives with Rick, who is returning as The Barber, and Lyndsey arrives shortly after, also reprising her small role from Episode 3.. We start blocking the scene out and there’s some confusion to the say the least, with the interpretation of the script. Once this roadblock is cleared, we start shooting.

Just a little note. Trust your director. If he’s telling you the actions, just do the actions. I’ve been doing this for awhile, and I already have how the scene is going to cut in my head, so you don’t need to worry about that stuff. If you, as an actor, think you know how the scene is going to cut in your head, then that’s fine. Make your own movie. If you’re acting in someone else’s movie, don’t sweat it then. The director’s got it under control.

Steve is making a cameo in this scene, but there’s a huge propane plant explosion in Toronto, and he and Cheryl are stuck behind it. We shoot this scene, including Steve’s part, thinking we’ll have to bring Steve back at a later date to shoot his coverage.

We wrap everyone, and give Steve a ring, who’s only about 20 minutes out so we wait for him. When he and Cheryl arrive, we talk for a bit, and Alicia gets him into makeup, and we shoot his part of the scene. It’s always funny when Steve’s around. That guy is hilarious.

We wrap Bills moms house, and Steve would like to check out the Barbershop for our scenes there that he won’t be able to make it to. We go over there and Steve gives us notes as to what to do with the shop.

As we’re leaving we ask Steve when the bands rehearsal is and he lets us know that it’s tomorrow. That’s cool, we’ll already be in Grimsby with Harry tomorrow covering the scene we missed because of the rain on Saturday. We’ll meet up with him in the G-Town, and he’ll take us all to the concert locale in Dunnville, and we’ll peep the rehearsal, stage, lighting, and dimming system there.

Should be good times.

Back at my place, Bill and I discuss the script. There seems to be some discrepancies. I don’t want to give too much away here, but we decide to shoot one last scene for the movie that’ll play after a few credits have rolled that should solidify this episode, and also be a nice lead in for Episode 5.

We’re pretty excited about this idea.

Screenshots yo!

Saturday, August 9th, 2008: Shoot Day #3 on VH Guitar

I arrive early and meet Jens, the guy playing Nigel aka The English Rocker. Bill and Alicia arrive and Harry is stuck in traffic. Steve and Cheryl arrive too, and they dress the set and eventually we scurry them off to start shooting the scenes.

The day starts with us doing a few Glidecam moves and we get them done before it starts raining too bad. Then we move inside for a weird day.

Inside we discover that there’s a fifteen or sixteen year old Yorkshire Terrier that’s been run over by a truck, has no teeth, is going blind, and has a tongue constantly sticking out that looks like beef jerky. The dog belongs to Bills grandparents and I want to take it home because it’s so damn cute.

However, I’d be happy with the dog somewhere else because it’s clicking across the hardwood floors when we put it down, and barking when we put it in another room. Eventually, we wrap it up in a blanket and Alicia holds it like a baby. We elected Alicia to do this, because for some reason, the dog freaks her out.

Like I said, we’re good people.

So with the dog calm, we can start shooting. Wait. There’s a demon cat that is meowing constantly somewhere in this house. The sound seems like it’s coming from the walls. It’s the Baby Reilly’s cat, and it was a problem back when we shot Bills first short here “Simple Crimes.”

For some reason, the Baby Reilly doesn’t want it out of the house. Eventually, we get the damn thing out and start shooting again.

But what’s that I hear now? Thunder? Yes.

For some reason, Grimsby has been getting shit on lately in the form of rain. Rain I can handle. We’re indoors, so no need to worry about rain. But damn if the thunder ain’t shaking the foundation of the house, and damn if it ain’t playing tricks with the power, flickering the lights on and off for brief moments.

We decide to wait it out and go to lunch.

When we get back, we start shooting again, with some mild distractions with the dog running around, the cat finding it’s way back in, and some occasional moments of thunder. For some reason, Alicia got scared when the dog with no teeth tried to bite her. He tried to bite me too, but it felt funny having gums slap on your hand with the weight of a five pound dog behind it.

Bills Mom comes home with her boyfriend as well. Turns out they decided not to go camping after all because of the rain. We shoot for an hour or two longer, then call it a day. I hope they don’t mind us being here at 9am tomorrow.

We missed a scene today where Bulldog is supposed to walk through the house. We couldn’t do it, because by the time we were supposed to shoot the scene, it was too dark out, so if we got any windows in the shot, the illusion of day would’ve been broken. We’ll have to get this scene the next time he’s down.

All in all, a long weird day from elements beyond our control. Hopefully the forecast is sunny in Grimsby tomorrow.

Screenshots

Thursday, August 7th, and Friday, August 8th, 2008

Earlier in the week, I sent Kyle a message asking if we can move the equipment to his house sometime this week before we shoot. The call time is 9am, which is pretty early for us, so the less work we have to do before 9am, the earlier we can get started, and the more sleep we get, the smoother the ride will be.

On Friday when I check my facebook account around one in the afternoon, there’s a message from Kyle, addressed to Bill, Alicia and myself, saying that he’ll be unavailable to move equipment other than in the next twenty minutes. He sent this message around noon.

Well, first of all, twenty minutes wouldn’t even give us enough time to pack the gear into the truck, let alone time enough to unload it. He’s also sending this message with a twenty minute allowance over the internet the day before we need to shoot. So rather than call and let us know and give us time, he sends us a message with a strict timeline that can go unchecked for awhile.

Thanks.

Not only is this a douche bag move, it’s an asshole move. It’s not even inconsiderate, it’s abhorrent. We probably could’ve hit the twenty minute mark with more notice, such as a call an hour or two ahead of time, but as it stood, we’d have to be at Bills around 7:30am to pack up the gear, move the gear, unload the gear, then set-up the gear.

We decided not to.

I’m thinking we’ll have to do the wee hours of the morning thing, and Bill scrambles to get a location. We get his Mom’s house in Grimsby, which will work out perfect because she’s supposed to go away camping the two days we’d need her house for.

We decide not to tell Kyle, and replace him with a light-stand, because to be honest, he’s been fairly useless lately. The last time on set for Desolation Row he passed out while he got there late, just like many times throughout the shoot. And this isn’t Bill or Carey late either. This is “oh, I arrived just as you guys are done loading equipment. Aw shucks.”

For two of the four days on Desolation Row, he was a worker. The other two days, he was just like the light-stand; inanimate.

For this shoot on The Van Halen Guitar, he has said he wouldn’t be available other than the days that we’re shooting at his house because he has to work. I understand people have to work, and they won’t be able to make it to every shoot, but EVERYONE has to work. Alicia has actually turned down work to do this stuff. The actors have missed work, as well as Bill. So yes, I understand that people need to work, but if you want to be part of the show, you need to buy a ticket.

You can’t just come into the locker room after the World Series has been won and expect to drink champagne when you haven’t thrown a pitch. If you want to be a part of us, you have to contribute, not just be there when the dust settles.

So Friday evening, Alicia, Bill and myself load the gear into Bills truck and unpack it in Grimsby. Alicia sends an email to the actors involved in the shoot day and we have changed locations.

Also, earlier in the week, Bill and I went out and purchased a prop shotgun that we’ll need on Sunday for The Barber, and I got some longer screws for the Glidecam system. Since I’m not using the Brevis for this shoot, I need to make my camera heavier to engage the springs of the system. I can make it heavier by adding the camera weight plates I got with the system, but I need longer screws to go through the plates and attach to the quick release plate adapter I got.

I watch a couple of movies and storyboard some more for the project before we shoot.

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008: Shoot Day #2 on VH Guitar

I spend the majority of Tuesday night and this morning working on my idea of a script for the LA director. I think I finally have a cohesive, and compelling enough back-story for the script that I put it all into email form, and send it off. I’m hoping he digs it, because truthfully, I’m kind of digging it. If he’s not feeling it, I’ll work on something else for him, but then I think I’ll get back to this idea and see if I can sell it on spec.

I check my email when I wake up later on to see if he’s replied. There is none. Dude’s busy, so I’m not really surprised at this. I waste some more time on the computer while trying to figure out what to do until the 6pm call time. I can storyboard, but I’m not really up to it yet. I want to keep writing on this script idea, but I don’t want to put more into it and really invest myself into it if the director decides to scratch it. I end up talking to Alicia a bit on messenger, and Bill and I exchange a battle in a facebook thread.

My Dad makes his return to the series today as The Boss, and he’s a little nervous. It turns out that he’s blanking out on a couple of lines every time he reaches them. What’s throwing him off, and has always thrown him off, is the broken English dialogue that I write in. He wants to correct the piss poor grammar that I use for the characters, and has a hard time saying the lines they way they’re written.

He finishes up a lab that he has to prepare for school, and we run his lines. Sure as gravity, he gets to the two chunks of dialogue that he’s always screwing up on, and screws up. We run it a few more times and he’s still not getting it and tells me he doesn’t want to let me down. I try to calm him a bit by telling him this shit ain’t done live and that’s why there’s editing.

I watch the trailer for The Depahded, listen to Diana Ross a couple of times, then pack up my gear and head out to Bills.

Mike is already at Bills kicking it, and Bill and I set up the lights for the last shoot day at Cyrus’ lair, and more importantly, Bills house. We are done shooting at Bills pad for the rest of August. September is looking slow for us, so we shouldn’t be back there until October or November when we shoot Santa’s List. A big thank you to both Bill and Leanne, who can now have their house back.

Once everything is set up, Bill, Alicia and I kick it in Bills backyard and discuss a few things. Our most pressing concern right now is Jukes, who plays Jukes in the series, got hurt at work. Apparently, it’s pretty bad as he told Alicia it was a day or two ago that he could finally stop using a walker.

There’re scenes of him walking, and some of him running, and he said that the running scenes are out of the question. I’m hoping the walking ones aren’t too. I feel for the guy, but I do wish he would’ve told us as soon as it happened so I could’ve written around it. I’m used to having to write around some aspects, especially in this series, but I wish I would’ve had more time to prepare. Had we had more time, we could’ve possibly moved or re-booked the location.

So we head inside to start shooting. Now, I’ve been debating in my head whether or not to mention this, but I’ve decided that I’m going to.

For some reason, and I really couldn’t tell you why, I’ve been cursed with my productions to have actors that show up to set and not know their lines. This is my biggest pet peeve. I really don’t understand this. As an actor, you have some responsibilities. You need to show up, you need to perform, and you need to know your fucking lines. For any actors out there that read this, here’s my biggest piece of advice for you: KNOW YOUR FUCKING LINES.

I don’t care what train of thought you have regarding the benefits of not knowing your lines. Trust me, the benefit of knowing the damn lines is a lot greater. The only real “benefit” that I’ve heard of is that you might come across as more natural. Well, that might be true, but you also come across as someone who has to think of what to say next, or trying to remember parts of the dialogue that are important.

“But Robert DeNiro improvises all the time.”

Well, you’re not fucking Robert DeNiro are you? If you were, I couldn’t afford you, so you wouldn’t be on our set to begin with, which should be your first clue that DeNiro you are not.

Also, just a little more information about DeNiro’s working method. He knows his lines. He knows his lines inside and out. He knows them so well that he CAN improvise his lines. Oh, also another word on improvisation. Improv is done during rehearsals, not live in front of a camera. Improv is done with the directors approval.

Yeah, that scene in Goodfellas where Pesci does the “clown” speech, yeah, that was improv. It was improv-ed DURING THE REHEARSAL period, videotaped, then added to the scene as it was improv-ed during the rehearsal. It was not done live.

The scene in the school auditorium in Cape Fear between DeNiro and Juliette Lewis… that was improv-ed live on camera. But that was using two cameras to get both DeNiro and Lewis’ coverage, AND DeNiro came up to Scorsese before the take and asked if he could try something.

Don’t use improv as a crutch for your laziness to not bother learning your lines.

If you don’t know your lines, you cannot be directed. If you don’t know your lines, then you don’t know the nuances of the scene, and cannot be directed towards them. If you don’t know your lines, you are insulting the writer and the other actors that put the effort into learning the lines. If you don’t know your lines, you cannot do the improv that you might crave, and you cannot get together with the director to discuss changing lines to make the script better. How can you change lines to make it better when you’re not saying the same thing twice? Only when you know the script inside and out can you try to improvise.

I think I’m going to invoke a new rule. If you show up on one of our sets and you don’t know your lines, you’re fucking fired. On the spot. Take your ball and go home.

We’ve re-shot plenty of shit before, and I personally have no problem holding up the production for a day while we get someone else to replace you. I’ve worked with a lot of actors throughout the years, the majority of which want to continue to work with me, so I don’t think we’ll have a problem finding a replacement for you.

Know your fucking lines.

So we start shooting and we run into that little problem. My Dad, who is not an actor, gets a little flustered while doing the scene. To his credit, he did know all his lines. After all, I did run lines with him earlier in the day, so I know he knows his lines. He just got a little flustered at the way we had to shoot the scene, which was broken up. My Dad’s not an actor, but for some reason acted like a prima donna anyway, but this was all understandable. It’s got to be a little weird having your son tell you what to do and doing it with attitude like I like to do.

Hey, there’s not too often I get to boss him around, so you can’t blame me for taking advantage of the situation.

We get the first scene done, then bang off the second small scene pretty quick and we wrap Brandon and Bills house by 9:30. Still a pretty quick day regardless. We also got a pretty cool throwback shot to Inspector Gadget that reminds me of a shot you’d see with Dr. Claw. That’s always a good thing because Dr. Claw was the shit.

Sometime this week, I’d like to pick up the gear from Bills place and bring it to Kyle’s joint, where we shoot Saturday and Sunday. Those are some pretty big days, so I’m hoping it goes smooth. More importantly now, I’m hoping everyone knows their lines.

Monday, August 4th, 2008: Shoot Day #1 on Episode #4, The Van Halen Guitar

Damn, that’s a long title.

As soon as the day started for me I was itching to shoot. I think I’ve been jonesing to shoot this since I first wrote it. Now that the day is here, and the scheduling mess is behind us, I can’t wait to shoot and this 6pm call time is killing me.

I try to get even more ahead of the game and do some storyboarding while I wait. Things go alright. Nothing really to tell here, except that I storyboarded some shit. Alicia also wants me to bring her Season 2 of The Wire for her and Jesse to check out after we wrap tonight. I’m glad she’s digging the show.

I don’t know what it is that when you like something you need other people to dig on it too. Maybe it vindicates that you have taste. I don’t know exactly what it is, but The Wire is the shit, and everyone should see that thing. It’s unbelievable. Ever since Sue and I finished off the fourth season, we’ve been climbing up the walls waiting for the fifth and final season to be released on DVD. August 12th baby!

We’ve also decided not to use the Brevis on this episode. For Desolation Row, we were trying a lot of new things all at once. The Brevis and the whole 35mm adapter game is a pretty steep learning curve in itself, but then throw in the 2:35 aspect ratio and you definitely have your work cut out for you. While I love the look of 2:35, I was thinking that using that, and the Brevis for Lot B, would be too much of a change of the look we’ve already established in the series. I was thinking we could still use the Brevis, and introduce that small change for the series in this episode, and maybe introduce 2:35 later on, but we deferred not to. Bill was actually the defining voice in this logic, and was pretty adamant about keeping the look of the series the same.

I also manage to get some more writing done for the director; continuing to flush out my ideas. I’m going to email them to him before I head out for the call time, but I manage to misplace the pad I wrote his email address on. This bugs me, but only slightly, as there’s a few elements in the whole world I’m going to write about that don’t quite work for me yet.

So I’m about to head out early as there’s some stuff at Bills that still needs to be done before we can roll. I need to change the counter-balance spring in the tripod again, some settings in the camera need to be tweaked, and of course, the lights need to be set up. The plan when I first penned this episode was to use mostly natural light, and slightly tweak it artificially. Well, the first three days of this shoot are in a basement, so natural light down there is going to be shitty light, so lights need to be thrown up.

Just as I’m leaving, Sue arrives home from work with a coffee. The Devil that she is, she tries to get me to sit down and drink the coffee with her while having a smoke. Two of my many vices. I agree to her offer until Alicia calls and asks if I want a coffee. Sue’s been trumped. I grab my coffee from Sue, hop in my car, and drive to the location where another coffee is waiting for me.

When I get there, Bill starts setting up lights to where I want them, and Harry is in makeup with Alicia getting made to look like the shit got kicked out of him. Man, did her makeup brush ever kick the shit out of him. The way I did blood effects in the past was basically to keep throwing more and more blood in their face until I was happy. She’s definitely got me beat.

I replace the counter-balance spring and realize that the plate for the tripod is still stuck to the rails that go on the camera that we used for Desolation Row. I call Sue, but she’s not home, so I have to run home and grab the plate, leaving Bill to set up the rest of the lights on his own.

This doesn’t even faze me now. When this constantly happened on Desolation Row, I would get a little mad and upset at myself. Now, I kind of expect myself to forget shit and act like a retard. Oh well, the next time someone asks me to pack their parachute, I’ll know this about myself, and decline the offer.

When I get back, I ask Alicia if Kyle is coming today. She doesn’t know. We wait around while she calls him, and he tells her that he’s not making it today. Bill comes up with a replacement for Kyle: the ceiling.

So boom mic fastened to the ceiling, we manage to get Pat Murphy, Mike Conley, and Mac Benard away from the window where they were yelling at kids playing soccer across the street, to come down into the lair to start rolling this beast. Pat and Mike are returning in their roles as Boppers, and Mac is playing the new Bopper who goes through an initiation in this episode.

We also have Sean Porter, who I call Irish, playing The Mick and joining the series. It’s nice to see him again. He played a small role in The Weight, but when we fired an actor in those scenes and had to re-shoot them, he couldn’t make it out to the re-shoots, so we were forced to recast him as well.

Down in Bills basement, we’re set up and ready to go. Then the Boppers start…

Shit. I forgot how fucking funny these guys are. I know Pat and Mike have been away at school, but I’d swear they were going to some comedy type school. The shit they’re coming out with is about 20 times funnier than the last time.

Irish and Harry deliver their scene and they’re wrapped pretty quickly. Irish was a little worried about the accent, which made me worried about the accent, but I think he did great. The makeup was nothing short of awesome too. We only have the one scene planned for the day, but I’m thinking we can also bang out tomorrow’s work today as well. We started late, but we’re moving at a really good pace, so we can get tomorrow’s work done no problem.

Steve comes downstairs after preparing all the props and hands me a couple of goodies. There’s the scrap piece of paper with an autograph and a phone number on it, and The Mick’s business card. This shit is tight. Steve is so detail oriented, that it’s great looking at these props he comes up with. Even after everything on Desolation Row, I still can’t get over what this dude comes up with. Steve hands the props off, tells us where everything is for the future, and he and Cheryl head out.

Harry and Alicia have both told me that this is the funniest episode yet. I know all the things that can go wrong with the production, so I take their comments with a grain of salt. I think there’s some funny shit in the episode, but I’m not sure how funny it will actually be. Not everyone checks in with my sense of funny. I was the only one in the theatre laughing towards the end of Kill Bill Vol. 1.

So we move onto the next scene where Pat and Mike finally have lines. Mac doesn’t really have lines because he’s getting initiated into the Bopper gang and hasn’t really earned the right to speak yet. His character is more of the strong, silent type anyway. What he lacks in words he makes up for in lead pipes across the face.

The way that Pat and Mike are delivering their lines is something I never even expected. I think we all had to restrain our laughter during the takes because these cats are just too damn funny. I’ve heard that if the shit’s making you laugh on set, then it won’t make you laugh when you watch it. I hope that isn’t the case.

We wrap The Boppers for the day and there’s one final scene left to do with just Cyrus, played by Brandon Ludwig. We slow down a bit here, knowing that the majority of the pressure is off, but we bang out the scene in good enough time for Bill to still make it to work.

Brandon is wrapped for the day, and we now have tomorrow off.

While we’re packing up, Jesse arrives to pick up Alicia. He informs me that Morgan Freeman has been in a car accident and he’s pretty badly hurt. There’s a Driving Miss Daisy joke in here somewhere.

Bill hears of this news and acts like his uncle just died. For some reason, that guy LOVES Morgan Freeman. He can’t believe the news and hops on google faster than a fat comic book geek virgin on a paid for prostitute to verify the news. He breaths a sigh of relief when he finds out the injuries aren’t as bad as he previously thought. For some reason, I think when Morgan Freeman actually does die, Bill will cease to watch or care about movies ever again.

So why did we move so quickly today? There’re a few reasons why. I think the main reason is because we’re still on top of our game from Desolation Row. Some more reasons is because there were no really complicated camera moves, there wasn’t much movement of actors, and the scenes were pretty short.

Also, Bills basement is not the fiery inferno that his living room is when we get everyone packed into it.

Another reason may, or may not be, because we weren’t using the Brevis. The camera looked so puny on top of the tripod without the Brevis attached, and neither Bill, nor myself, were really used to shooting without it. Bill actually commented at one point that it was harder for him to get focus without the Brevis.

It’s funny when we shoot these things, because I don’t feel like much of a director as much as a guy that tells people where to stand and where to put the camera. Harry has been playing the character of Bulldog since Streets of Wonderland back in 2004, so he knows the character pretty well. The Boppers, well, I don’t know, but they don’t need much direction either. They played these roles before, and for some reason, I don’t think it’s very hard for them to get into these characters of theirs. Brandon and Mac were able to handle their characters without any problems as well.

The first day of the shoot we managed to do two days worth of work, and I’m hoping we got some good shit here. Here’s hoping the rest of the shoot goes this well.

Hella lotta screenshots yo!

Wednesday, July 30th, to Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

So it’s quite a bit of time off we’ve had. Tomorrow we go into production on Episode 4. Ideally, I would’ve liked to have prepared more for the shoot, but my mind is on so many things that I have to do, I manage to do none of them.

Okay, so on Wednesday I did manage to talk to the director. Guy seems pretty cool and we talk for awhile. He asks what I know about the whole shin-dig, and I fill him in on what I know, then he fills me in on how it’s actually going down. There’s a lot of good news in this conversation, and some which is good, but not too good at the time. Let me explain.

When I was told about this gig I was told I got to write about five cats that rob a bank. This was fairly easy because I already have my situation that I can write around, I just got to come up with the characters and the story, but I already have my setting, my set-up, and everything else I can come up with based on this idea. The hard part of writing is pretty much done.

So with that in mind, I start coming up with ideas about how to tell the story of five dudes robbing a bank. I’m more leaning towards writing around the bank robbery, meaning, not showing the actual heist ala Reservoir Dogs, because I really don’t want to go research that part of the whole thing. I wasn’t too keen on going into a bank and saying I was a “writer” and posing the hypothetical of “now, if someone was to rob this bank, how would they do it?” More than likely, they’d kick me and my dollar ninety five in my savings account to the road.

Anyways, it turns out the director isn’t set in stone on robbing a bank. They’re kind of going about this backwards, meaning, they have their cast, they just need to make a story around them now. It’s basically my playground and the director throws some stuff at me that he’s looking for; such as a bit of sci-fi and some graphic novel elements. Other than that, the whole thing is my sandbox.

Sounds like a writers wet dream doesn’t it?

At the time, it wasn’t. I didn’t have an idea for a flick to pen. Again, the bank heist would be easy because there’s the situation, but now I got to come up with a situation and I got to give the five actors equal roles/ screen time. And I have to include some sci-fi/ graphic novel type content. Most of the shit I write is crime driven, and I don’t think I’ve actually touched sci-fi before. Don’t get me wrong, I love some sci-fi movies like Star Wars, Dark City, and The Thing, but I’ve never written it before.

Everything seems alright though. I came up with an idea I’m actually excited about that would incorporate what he’s looking for, but also be something where I can throw my own shit into the mix as well. I’ve got to refine it more still, which I was hoping to do with this time off, and then I’ll send it to him and see what he thinks. I’m pretty stoked about writing this though.

He also corrects me on the budget. What I was told is 2.5 million for the budget. They don’t have it yet, as they’re waiting on my script to seek funding, but he thinks that with the actors he has, he can get five to seven million depending on what I write. Lowest budget they’ll get he says is 2.5 to 3 million.

The last thing worthy to mention is that I won’t get any points on the back end, but when they receive funding, I’ll get paid up front. I like this idea a lot better. This deal is looking pretty sweet, but I don’t think I’m hired just yet. I think it’s going to be a matter of whether or not he digs my idea, and then some of the shit I hand to him I guess. That’s why I want to refine my idea as much as I can before I send it to him, rather than just splatter random thoughts onto an email and hope he can see the awesomeness of it.

I still haven’t got the website stuff figured out yet. I have the account for server space, but let’s be honest here, I’m web-tarded. I tried setting it up so we at least have emails again, but I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. I asked Bob for help, and he said he might have some time on Sunday, but Sunday’s over and the shit ain’t set up yet, so I’m guessing he didn’t have time after all. Or he forgot. I don’t know what the hell’s going on anymore.

Webbernetz people, hit me up if you want to help us out! I will judge you as cool and a lady magnet no matter how many Batman shirts you wear.

I manage to get some storyboarding done. I was thinking that I would go into Episode 4 with no storyboards or shot lists at all, something which I haven’t done on a project since… well, it would probably be mid-nineties or so. I actually don’t remember not storyboarding anything I’ve done.

I storyboarded the first few scenes that we’re doing, which I’m hoping will buy me enough time to storyboard the rest before we shoot them. It’s not like I have shit to figure out really, because the whole movie is in my head. But sometimes you manage to forget some shots you wanted in the chaos of being on set. I’d rather go into the joint with a plan, and then if/ when you deviate from the plan you have something to fall back on, then to go in with no plan at all.

I’ve seen people operate without a plan before. The shit don’t go smooth. I’m not saying our shit is silk, but it ain’t sandpaper either.

Some editing of Desolation Row gets done as well. I can’t really go hardcore into editing mode yet, because I know I have all these other things to do, and I don’t want to switch hats yet. Once I switch hats, it’s hard to take it off and get into another mode unless the job is complete. I half ass the editing somewhat, doing some of the brain dead work that requires time more than anything else.

Of course I don’t get as much done as I would have liked.

I also put forth an email to Zack, who was supposed to score The Weight for us. He’s had the movie for a long time now, so I hit him up asking for a date when he’ll be done. He can’t give me a date as time is a precious commodity to him right now, and he can’t put any of this commodity into scoring. I give up on it. I just want this flick out of my life.

Bill wants to give the movie to Steve’s friend Brad to do the score. On Saturday night, we had, I guess you would say, a private producer wrap party on Desolation Row. Hell, I thought of it as a kick off party to Episode 4 too. Alicia couldn’t make it because she was throwing down with Jesse and his family, so it was Steve, his wife Cheryl, Sue, Bill, Leanne, and myself.

I brought 18 dates to this party and they were all named Labatt Blue. Each one tasted sweeter than the last.

While everyone’s here, I throw Steve a copy of The Weight to give it to Brad and I give him a copy of Taxi Driver too, telling him to tell Brad to emulate that motherfucker. He tells me how Brad will want to work, and I’m into it, but I just want this shit over with more than anything I think. I’m sure my attitude will change and I’ll go for quality of what I want rather than just a musical track when the shit’s ready to drop.

We pick Steve’s brain about the concert coming up a little bit, and it’s at this time, I’m fully conscious of my blackouts. I’m sitting there looking at Steve and hearing him, and then something happens, and I remind myself Steve is talking and I then wonder how long he’s been talking for and what he’s saying. I know I’ve blacked out before while drinking because whole chunks of the previous night will disappear. This is a good thing sometimes, because if I don’t remember it, it didn’t happen. However, this is the first time when I notice it happening while it’s happening. I start to think maybe I don’t have control over myself sometimes and those police reports were right.

Steve also thinks I should get my hand looked at after I show him the lump on it. I still don’t care too much as I can move it and none of the concrete walls have been giving me dirty looks lately, but he says something about bone spurs and surgery in the future, so I’m starting to think maybe I should get an x-ray done.

I think we all had a good time. When there’s the prospect of booze, Carey gets his drink on, but I think it still went well. However, today I’m prevented from doing a lot of the work I wanted to do because my brain is shrunk and flopping around the inside of my skull every time I move.

Today was a pretty lazy day. I storyboard some more, check out Doomsday, and Sue and I head to Wendys for dinner as neither one of us are too keen on preparing a meal. That’s a lie. Sue doesn’t want to cook, and if I’m the chef for the night, we’re going to munch on some toast. That’s a lie too. We’re out of bread.

At Wendy’s we order our food and the little girl behind the counter confuses me when she starts asking what I want on my burger. The only thing I can mutter out is that if there’re onions on it, I will come back and kill her. She takes it as a joke. It’s a good thing there were no onions on my burger.

Doomsday was a little loud and busy for my prune like dried up brain tonight. It was ridiculous and more than a little retarded, but still too loud for me tonight. Man I feel old saying that. I think even if my brain wasn’t doing a mosh pit in my head, the movie would’ve done that to me anyway.

Call time isn’t until six tomorrow evening so I plan on staying up late and storyboarding as much as I can before heading over to Bills to kick off Episode 4.