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.