as the title indicates, i have nothing significant to report. then why am i posting, you ask? good question. the answer: i don't know. maybe to dispell any romantic notions you may have held about the editing process (it's really just a whole lot of me sitting at a computer screen watching take after take of the same shot and trying to decide which of joe's slightly varied inflections of "what are you doing here?" is going to sound most natural and create the illusion of emotional continuity between the three or four other shots i'm using.) not that it's not fun - it's actually really engrossing work (especially when you're editing something that's yours). but the physical details of it are very minimal and the work/fun is primarily mental. in any case, i've starting closely watching the cuts of every film or television show now. and it's clear that editing (like all of the filmmaking process) is about 50% craft and 50% art. most of the decisions you make are to keep pace and continuity, but every once in a while, things come together and continuity is not an issue and you can make cuts that actually elevate a scene (the rest of the time, you must rely upon the script or the acting or the photography to serve the story and deliver the goods). and then there's the middle ground where you might not have perfect continuity, but by trimming a frame here or there and bleeding the audio from one take to another, you can cheat a little and hope that what you're really trying to do, creating that moment, distracts the audience from the fact that mike's right hand went from being on the table to under the table between shots. but it's coming along nicely so far. and the feb 26th self-imposed rough-cut deadline should be no trouble at all.
additionally, i sent in our articles of organization today and within a week or so, we should be an official business. wahoo.
also: still no new name for the movie. not that we've been trying that hard, but still...
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
who wants to name our movie?!?
so, we (i) have kind of cooled on the title (drift) and am more or less coming up blank for potential new names... we had this issue during the writing phase too and cycled through about seven or so names before settling (settling) on "drift". so if anyone has any bright ideas they'd like to share, please to post them in the comments section for this entry. if you happen to suggest a title that we fall in love with, we'll probably steal it from you and make no mention of its true origin in either public or private conversations. but there's always the off-chance that we'll throw you a bone and give you an associate producer credit or something.
checking in
not sure if anyone's still reading this (esp since i haven't posted in nearly a month) - but there's nothing major to report right now. i'm still editing (it's going well) and i've got about 35-40 minutes worth of scenes rough cut. sequences are starting to form. characters are coming to life. and the plot coheres. highlights: (1) joe's nose whistle. it's everywhere. EVERYWHERE. i can't think of a single scene i've cut where at least one take of each angle doesn't prominently feature a nose whistle. BRILLIANT. i'm thinking of stealing from mike nichols and inserting the nose whistle at key moments throughout the film. (2) the subtle variations of mike johnson. as per a previous post, mike excells at tweaking reactions and delivery just enough to change a line's mood without breaking continuity. BRILLIANT. (2) alicia's attention and energy. i've not cut many of her scenes together yet... but in the few that i have done, alicia carries herself extremely well. once a take gets going, there are no breaks in character or blank expressions - she's incredibly focused on each scene. BRILLIANT. (3) lisa's versatility. admittedly, we didn't give her any slapstick or broad comedy, but lisa nailed everything else we asked her to do. from kissing joe (ewwwwwww!) to striking a balance between sarcastic/hurt/angry/embarrased (all in a single moment) to being motherly, she pulled it all off. BRILLIANT. (4) jim is funny. as the dad, jim is really funny. and soft. and you kinda feel bad for him. but he's funny. BRILLIANT. (5) erick is a punk. as with alicia, i've only cut a few of his scenes together, but erick plays a pretty good asshole. which is nothing like him in person! BRILLIANT. (6) dylan is cute. BRILLIANT. (7) dennis is cute (but dumb). BRILLIANT. (8) bob ham can walk-out-of-a-bathroom-and-give-a-disapproving-look like a sonuvabitch. BRILLIANT. (9) mollie definitely looks like she thinks joe is weird. BRILLIANT. (10) all those high school kids in eugene are crazy and young and hip! BRILLIANT. (11) ashleigh is crazy and weird! BRILLIANT. (8) payam is EVERYWHERE. BRILLIANT. okay... i'm done for now.
Friday, October 14, 2005
how it's done (right)
so just after midnight last night, i sat down to cut together one last scene for the day... i'd been working on stuff from early in the shoot (which was also from early in the script) with joe and mike's characters and it was going okay. mostly, i was just lining things up to be polished at some point in the future when there was more context around the scenes. but so i start cutting together this nice little bit - it's the first time that colin and aaron (best friends 4ever) have to themselves after recently reuniting. it's a simple, two-shot scene set in a very cramped hallway at the basement pub where the characters just sort of chat and establish the situations for the first act. but, damn, those boys knocked it out of the f-ing ballpark. i digitized two takes from joe's angle and three from mike's and between those five times through the scene i had a terrific and uncommon range of reactions and emotions to select from - and without needing to cut around continuity! contrary probably to what i was telling him, mike gave me a slight variations of frustration and playfullness and cockiness without fully changing character. and joe did the same thing with his frustration, depression, and absurdity. both of them provided me with perfect little clips that can be interchanged and shuffled around without disrupting the flow of the scene or causing any awkward breaks of character. it was really fantastic and surprising putting that scene together with so much ease. so, hats off to joe and mike. additionally, hats off to bob ham (bobham!), who hid in the bathroom for several hours that morning, flushing a toilet on cue and then squeezing his large manly frame into an impossibly small gap between the camera and the wall (you can read his version of the story here: HERE! (scroll down to July 11)). i'm really excited to see this all coming together...
Sunday, October 09, 2005
even more pictures!
and also here's a few pictures from the wrap party...
andy, gerry, and joe bicker in the kitchen.
joe continues bickering. peter is bemused.
gerry schemes, as mollie and alicia enjoy something someone else is saying.
joe, ashleigh, and yona admire mike while an unidentified person enjoys some liquid courage.
ashleigh and mike converse.
jim looks away from bob and lita.
joe and bob share a "moment".
gerry holds court in his living room.
andy, gerry, and joe bicker in the kitchen.
joe continues bickering. peter is bemused.
gerry schemes, as mollie and alicia enjoy something someone else is saying.
joe, ashleigh, and yona admire mike while an unidentified person enjoys some liquid courage.
ashleigh and mike converse.
jim looks away from bob and lita.
joe and bob share a "moment".
gerry holds court in his living room.
more pictures!
since there's no new news to really report, i thought i'd catch up with posting some pictures from the latter days of production. enjoy.
joe attempts to put a shoe on.
joe and andy survey the scene.
matt moves incredibly fast behind the camera.
joe attempts to put a shoe on.
joe and andy survey the scene.
matt moves incredibly fast behind the camera.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Saturday, February 25, 2006
that's the answer to your question. on that day, we'll hold a rough cut screening for the cast and crew of the film with the intent to gather critical feedback, test temp track music, etc. also, we should probably have another party that night at gerry's house. i'll have alicia put in a few more calls to widmer and liquid. see you then.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
don't eat the bug
a brief note on our recent wrap party (brief: since i'm sure most of you (1) were in attendence or (2) are not at all interested in this aspect of the production):
it was fun
we didn't drink anywhere near the amount of beer or vodka we had available
gerry told fantastic stories about everything from ghosts to drunken chemistry teachers
some jerk ate a bug
everyone got a free t-shirt or two
peter drank so much he was hungover
peter also gave matt and alicia a fantastic scrabbleboard as a gift
everyone was drunk enough by the time we showed the footage that they were unable to fully express their disapointment/shame
it was fun
that's all for now... i'll try to keep everyone posted on the post-production, but i'm not entirely sure how interesting that's all going to be... additionally, i'll post some more photos and link to some on-line galleries of photos that people have taken on-set and at the party.
l8r.
matt
it was fun
we didn't drink anywhere near the amount of beer or vodka we had available
gerry told fantastic stories about everything from ghosts to drunken chemistry teachers
some jerk ate a bug
everyone got a free t-shirt or two
peter drank so much he was hungover
peter also gave matt and alicia a fantastic scrabbleboard as a gift
everyone was drunk enough by the time we showed the footage that they were unable to fully express their disapointment/shame
it was fun
that's all for now... i'll try to keep everyone posted on the post-production, but i'm not entirely sure how interesting that's all going to be... additionally, i'll post some more photos and link to some on-line galleries of photos that people have taken on-set and at the party.
l8r.
matt
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
um... we're done.
almost. pretty much. basically.
there are a few shots to pick up on saturday before the wrap party - mostly joe driving around on various freeways.
we pretty much went out with a whisper. the last full day of production consisted of myself, joe, alicia, and lucy in salem shooting scenes in which joe was mostly in a single room, had no actual interation with other characters, very little dialogue and a lot of repeated shots. it went well and was a reasonably short day. no major issues or concerns or weirdness.
and like that [poof] it was done.
(at least for most of the other people. joe and i still have a lot of work to do (me: editing; joe: music) and we'll still have to call on our friends mike johnson and lisa wells to fill in a few gaps (mike for music/lisa for adr (we had some microphone failure in one of her scenes)). and, of course, there's the building of the ambient soundtrack as well as securing the rights to source music (most of which we're hoping will come from our good friends parks & recreation... but we won't know exactly what we need until the cut is assembled (unfortunately, we are no martin scorsese). then there's all the business of film festivals and publicity materials (and, oh yeah, we've got to try and arrange cast photos before anyone else changes their appearance too drastically) and trying to find a way for people to actually see this movie.)
but for now, we can give ourselves permission to breath again. most of us have our weekends back. and the work becomes much calmer and almost meditative (at least, the editing seems that way). they say that every movie is written three times - once in script form, once during production, and once in the editing. the first time, with the script, was fantastic - mostly joe and i sat around in bars and argued over the details and thought of things to make ourselves laugh (then i went home and typed it). the second time was (to borrow a term from the poetess, b. spears) chaotic, but fun, but still crazy and too fast and too slow and stressful and brilliant. and now we're back to beer and laughs. hopefully.
sorry... do i sound pessimistic and/or "bummed out"? really, i'm not. i feel great about everything and the scenes i've cut together so far look terrific and i'm excited to see all the moments that we worked so hard to capture all lined-up and playing off of each other. it should be a lot of fun. really.
(maybe this is the whole post-partum thing flaring up. and i wasn't even aware i had a birthing canal. (sorry, is that too graphic?))
there are a few shots to pick up on saturday before the wrap party - mostly joe driving around on various freeways.
we pretty much went out with a whisper. the last full day of production consisted of myself, joe, alicia, and lucy in salem shooting scenes in which joe was mostly in a single room, had no actual interation with other characters, very little dialogue and a lot of repeated shots. it went well and was a reasonably short day. no major issues or concerns or weirdness.
and like that [poof] it was done.
(at least for most of the other people. joe and i still have a lot of work to do (me: editing; joe: music) and we'll still have to call on our friends mike johnson and lisa wells to fill in a few gaps (mike for music/lisa for adr (we had some microphone failure in one of her scenes)). and, of course, there's the building of the ambient soundtrack as well as securing the rights to source music (most of which we're hoping will come from our good friends parks & recreation... but we won't know exactly what we need until the cut is assembled (unfortunately, we are no martin scorsese). then there's all the business of film festivals and publicity materials (and, oh yeah, we've got to try and arrange cast photos before anyone else changes their appearance too drastically) and trying to find a way for people to actually see this movie.)
but for now, we can give ourselves permission to breath again. most of us have our weekends back. and the work becomes much calmer and almost meditative (at least, the editing seems that way). they say that every movie is written three times - once in script form, once during production, and once in the editing. the first time, with the script, was fantastic - mostly joe and i sat around in bars and argued over the details and thought of things to make ourselves laugh (then i went home and typed it). the second time was (to borrow a term from the poetess, b. spears) chaotic, but fun, but still crazy and too fast and too slow and stressful and brilliant. and now we're back to beer and laughs. hopefully.
sorry... do i sound pessimistic and/or "bummed out"? really, i'm not. i feel great about everything and the scenes i've cut together so far look terrific and i'm excited to see all the moments that we worked so hard to capture all lined-up and playing off of each other. it should be a lot of fun. really.
(maybe this is the whole post-partum thing flaring up. and i wasn't even aware i had a birthing canal. (sorry, is that too graphic?))
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
long way down...
the second to last weekend has passed. so we say a hearfelt (production) goodbye to our dear old/new friends: michael george johnson, actor/musician; lisa wells, actress; erick custodio, actor; gerald lewis, director of photography; peter huszagh, production assistant/grip; yona prost, extras coordinator. you will be dearly missed.
but yeah... the weekend went well. the short version: we lost our coffee shop location on wednesday - but everyone kept their cool and raced to fine a replacement. the winner of the race was alicia, who had a new location (la razza tazza) secured by 4pm that afternoon. we shot there on saturday (they actually locked out customers during business hours so that we could get what we needed!). then we shot a few quick things outside mike johnson's apartment before heading off to berbati's pan with 'the band'. a few minor snags getting the tascam to connect to bob's laptop so that we could get a soundboard recording were ironed out relatively easily. in warming up, mike played 'yours' in a lower key and it sounded fantastic, so we went with that at the last minute. the dolly-pan shots of mike on the stage were damn near impossible to coordinate and may not work out at all. we had just enough extras to provide the illusion of a crowd. and it all looks and sounds fantastic. sunday - we got together around 8am and realized our exterior location for april's apt would not work due to construction in the area. so we cruised the neighborhood and "borrowed" the front door from another building in the area. joe and alicia were great in a break-up/argument scene (which is always tough). we picked up a few other pieces and headed back to april's apt for the remainder of the day. all went smoothly from there on out - there was some fun 1st person perspective shots that involved a group hugging of joe and alicia's arms suspended above her head. and we wrapped at a reasonable hour.
i'll see about posting some actual screen shots from our dailies within the next day or two.
one day to go...
but yeah... the weekend went well. the short version: we lost our coffee shop location on wednesday - but everyone kept their cool and raced to fine a replacement. the winner of the race was alicia, who had a new location (la razza tazza) secured by 4pm that afternoon. we shot there on saturday (they actually locked out customers during business hours so that we could get what we needed!). then we shot a few quick things outside mike johnson's apartment before heading off to berbati's pan with 'the band'. a few minor snags getting the tascam to connect to bob's laptop so that we could get a soundboard recording were ironed out relatively easily. in warming up, mike played 'yours' in a lower key and it sounded fantastic, so we went with that at the last minute. the dolly-pan shots of mike on the stage were damn near impossible to coordinate and may not work out at all. we had just enough extras to provide the illusion of a crowd. and it all looks and sounds fantastic. sunday - we got together around 8am and realized our exterior location for april's apt would not work due to construction in the area. so we cruised the neighborhood and "borrowed" the front door from another building in the area. joe and alicia were great in a break-up/argument scene (which is always tough). we picked up a few other pieces and headed back to april's apt for the remainder of the day. all went smoothly from there on out - there was some fun 1st person perspective shots that involved a group hugging of joe and alicia's arms suspended above her head. and we wrapped at a reasonable hour.
i'll see about posting some actual screen shots from our dailies within the next day or two.
one day to go...
Thursday, September 15, 2005
big pictures
i thought rather than me rambling this week, you might enjoy some fine photography from the good folks on our crew... and per the requests of you fine readers, some explaination of each photo: 1. matt knapp (left, director/co-writer/producer/editor) and joe ballman (right, actor: colin/co-writer/producer/music supervisor) discuss the blocking of joe's hands in a very delicate scene. 2. alicia tolman (producer, actress: april) and lisa wells (actress: keira) hang out between set-ups outside pizza schmizza on sw yamhill. 3. andy mills (sound recordist) does his traditional pre-take good luck shuffle. 4. joe "acts" like he's perplexed by what's on a computer screen in colin's childhood bedroom.
Monday, August 29, 2005
blocking the john
it was a good little weekend coming back to the film.
on saturday we were scheduled to shoot the scene where joe's and alicia's characters silently flirt at a coffee shop as well as alicia's "oath of honesty" bit. however, due to unfortunate timing issues, we were unable to confirm the location. which is bad because alicia's scenes seem to keep getting pushed around and shoved into the odd corner of the schedule more and more. but it wasn't so bad because it meant that we didn't have to be at the coffee shop at 530am (yet). instead, we all met up at the basement at 8:30 to finish off the final joe-and-mike-have-a-beer-and-chat scene. and it went really well... we had way more extras than we needed (a nice surprise) and tim, the owner of the basement, was, as always, so great for coming in early and letting us have our run of the place. joe and mike were totally on the ball and solid with the scene and we finished up in a timely manner. there was one amusing anecdote, but mike stole it and already posted it on his blog, so i'll just refer you there (www.reclinerlandhq.com/blog.html) to read about payam's mad pinball skills.
sunday, joe and mike and alicia and myself all met-up down in eugene to shoot at the airport (we were originally planning on shooting at the portland airport, but... i'll keep this diplomatic and say it "didn't work out" much the same way our conversations with the doug fir "didn't work out" - i may rant about certain conversations with certain parties later on down the line... but not now). much to my suprise (i had only been there once - more than seven years ago) the eugene airport is pretty scenic and i don't think it will look to small or woodsy (which was a minor concern for me). plus, the only trouble they gave us was via a pompous lady janitor who advised us that we were "blocking the john" by setting up the tripod seven feet out from the entrance. also, since we weren't directing foot traffic in the place, we had a number of takes ruined by jet-lagged travelers walking toward us, craning their necks to look into the lens and then, a good thiry seconds later, realizing that they might actually be IN THE SHOT and suddenly shifting directions and walking off screen. but it would out extremely well... mike did a top notch job and everything looked great.
then... we drove the two hours (actually two and half thanks to an accident on I-5) back to portland to re-shoot the dreaded basketball scene (it had a smudge on the lens last time and a bad audio cable) as well as joe's close-up in the stalking scene (also a shabby image with no audio). the basketball scene was... frustrating to shoot. people say you shouldn't try to shoot a movie with kids and animals. i'd like to amend that adivce to include basketballs. even joe, who's got a gentle touch, had a hard time as a stunt shooter for mike and at one point an errant shot sent the ball right into the side of the camera. luckily nothing was broken, but the stress levels went through the roof after that. but you wouldn't know if from the performances. joe and mike were so much more relaxed and natural this time around (amazing how much easier it is when the weather cools down and you don't have the afternoon sun in your face). but yeah, we ended up shooting the scene more or less in chronological order, with mostly singles to cut-away to and the occassional two shot to keep things in perspective. when were starting i had decided to keep things fluid by not over-blocking the action (and going slightly off-book for some of the less important physical beats). again, all this was much more difficult that you might imagine and it took us a good couple of hours to get it right, but i'm very happy with how things seem to have turned out.
and gerry rigged up a very nice make-shift flag to help us get a better image on joe's stalking close-up.
props for the weekend:
1. alicia - for toughing it out in spite of a pending fever.
2. mike - for nailing a half-page of convoluted dialogue in one take at the park.
3. jason hughes - for changing colin's car's alternator in time for us to drive to eugene
4. joe and mike - for getting up early and driving 4 hours (round-trip) to shoot the airport stuff and then still being fantastic during the afternoon scenes.
5. gerry and peter - for being excellent c-stands.
6. everybody else.
on saturday we were scheduled to shoot the scene where joe's and alicia's characters silently flirt at a coffee shop as well as alicia's "oath of honesty" bit. however, due to unfortunate timing issues, we were unable to confirm the location. which is bad because alicia's scenes seem to keep getting pushed around and shoved into the odd corner of the schedule more and more. but it wasn't so bad because it meant that we didn't have to be at the coffee shop at 530am (yet). instead, we all met up at the basement at 8:30 to finish off the final joe-and-mike-have-a-beer-and-chat scene. and it went really well... we had way more extras than we needed (a nice surprise) and tim, the owner of the basement, was, as always, so great for coming in early and letting us have our run of the place. joe and mike were totally on the ball and solid with the scene and we finished up in a timely manner. there was one amusing anecdote, but mike stole it and already posted it on his blog, so i'll just refer you there (www.reclinerlandhq.com/blog.html) to read about payam's mad pinball skills.
sunday, joe and mike and alicia and myself all met-up down in eugene to shoot at the airport (we were originally planning on shooting at the portland airport, but... i'll keep this diplomatic and say it "didn't work out" much the same way our conversations with the doug fir "didn't work out" - i may rant about certain conversations with certain parties later on down the line... but not now). much to my suprise (i had only been there once - more than seven years ago) the eugene airport is pretty scenic and i don't think it will look to small or woodsy (which was a minor concern for me). plus, the only trouble they gave us was via a pompous lady janitor who advised us that we were "blocking the john" by setting up the tripod seven feet out from the entrance. also, since we weren't directing foot traffic in the place, we had a number of takes ruined by jet-lagged travelers walking toward us, craning their necks to look into the lens and then, a good thiry seconds later, realizing that they might actually be IN THE SHOT and suddenly shifting directions and walking off screen. but it would out extremely well... mike did a top notch job and everything looked great.
then... we drove the two hours (actually two and half thanks to an accident on I-5) back to portland to re-shoot the dreaded basketball scene (it had a smudge on the lens last time and a bad audio cable) as well as joe's close-up in the stalking scene (also a shabby image with no audio). the basketball scene was... frustrating to shoot. people say you shouldn't try to shoot a movie with kids and animals. i'd like to amend that adivce to include basketballs. even joe, who's got a gentle touch, had a hard time as a stunt shooter for mike and at one point an errant shot sent the ball right into the side of the camera. luckily nothing was broken, but the stress levels went through the roof after that. but you wouldn't know if from the performances. joe and mike were so much more relaxed and natural this time around (amazing how much easier it is when the weather cools down and you don't have the afternoon sun in your face). but yeah, we ended up shooting the scene more or less in chronological order, with mostly singles to cut-away to and the occassional two shot to keep things in perspective. when were starting i had decided to keep things fluid by not over-blocking the action (and going slightly off-book for some of the less important physical beats). again, all this was much more difficult that you might imagine and it took us a good couple of hours to get it right, but i'm very happy with how things seem to have turned out.
and gerry rigged up a very nice make-shift flag to help us get a better image on joe's stalking close-up.
props for the weekend:
1. alicia - for toughing it out in spite of a pending fever.
2. mike - for nailing a half-page of convoluted dialogue in one take at the park.
3. jason hughes - for changing colin's car's alternator in time for us to drive to eugene
4. joe and mike - for getting up early and driving 4 hours (round-trip) to shoot the airport stuff and then still being fantastic during the afternoon scenes.
5. gerry and peter - for being excellent c-stands.
6. everybody else.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
don't look me in the eye
i've developed a twitch in the bottom lid of my left eye. it's not enormous - my eye stays open and the bottom lid just kind of vibrates for a few seconds every two minutes or so. this is not the first time this has happened. during post-production on the short films, a brave new victoria and i want to tell you, i developed a similar twitch. it lasted for a few days (until i was done editing) and then went away. unfortunately, we're looking at a few weeks until we finish production and then months of cutting and scoring and tweaking in post. my hope is that, as things settle and the picture comes together, the twitch will fade away. but if not, i'll survive. the twitch isn't too terrible and it hasn't become overly irritating. and if i'm mentally occupied, i can pretty well ignore it.
so i think we're all excited to jump back in for another weekend. it sounds like everybody had a nice break and i know, at least for me, it was a good chance to open a few windows and let some fresh air in. i've got a few new ideas for the remainder of our scenes and a tweak or two for some stuff we've already shot.
i think the hardest part about this production has been the distance between the first day and the last day (as well as the distance between each spurt of production - 2 on, 5 off is officially not the way to go). it'll be nice to have the full effect of two months' worth of shifting weather... but next time i think we'll try to keep things compact. (and hopefully, next time, none of us will have to suffer through day jobs during production.)
so yeah... nothing terribly interesting to say at this point... i'll let you know how the weekend goes. we do have a few pictures to show off, tho, and maybe a still or two... i'll get those up soon.
-m
so i think we're all excited to jump back in for another weekend. it sounds like everybody had a nice break and i know, at least for me, it was a good chance to open a few windows and let some fresh air in. i've got a few new ideas for the remainder of our scenes and a tweak or two for some stuff we've already shot.
i think the hardest part about this production has been the distance between the first day and the last day (as well as the distance between each spurt of production - 2 on, 5 off is officially not the way to go). it'll be nice to have the full effect of two months' worth of shifting weather... but next time i think we'll try to keep things compact. (and hopefully, next time, none of us will have to suffer through day jobs during production.)
so yeah... nothing terribly interesting to say at this point... i'll let you know how the weekend goes. we do have a few pictures to show off, tho, and maybe a still or two... i'll get those up soon.
-m
Thursday, August 18, 2005
(silence)
hello all,
in case you haven't noticed, we've been quiet for a few days. that's because we're officially taking our fist production break since july 4. last weekend was swell - we got to party with some high school kids, concoct vomit out of strawberry sobe and crushed pretzels, and watch joe deliver a three-page monologue with about twenty pounds of production equipment stacked on his chest. we're not totally avoiding all film work... but for now, we're going to try to get some sleep, enjoy the sun (although not in portland, apparently), catch a show or two, watch the bill murray, celebrate the nuptials of some good friends (nate and stacia; bob and lita) and try not to gamble away the entire production budget while in las vegas.
see you in a few days.
matt and co.
in case you haven't noticed, we've been quiet for a few days. that's because we're officially taking our fist production break since july 4. last weekend was swell - we got to party with some high school kids, concoct vomit out of strawberry sobe and crushed pretzels, and watch joe deliver a three-page monologue with about twenty pounds of production equipment stacked on his chest. we're not totally avoiding all film work... but for now, we're going to try to get some sleep, enjoy the sun (although not in portland, apparently), catch a show or two, watch the bill murray, celebrate the nuptials of some good friends (nate and stacia; bob and lita) and try not to gamble away the entire production budget while in las vegas.
see you in a few days.
matt and co.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
the up-swing
so right now, i'm feeling very good about the film. joe and i had a nice lunch meeting where we talked frankly about our concerns regarding the production and i think we both walked away realizing that we're actually in really good shape. there are so many logistical issues and the expectations we have for the project and ourselves and each other are so high that it's easy to sometimes lose sight of how much fun this is. yes, it's true that none of the constant cast/crew has had a very relaxing summer. we've pounded out over 17 hours of footage (which is actually a little embarassing, but i do like to just let the camera roll - afterall, mini-dv is relatively inexpensive even for the high def masters we're buying) and easily logged more than 120 production hours (not including the off-set work of rehearsing and scheduling and securing locations and rescheduling and collecting extras and communicating with our sponsors etc). but now we're on the home stretch... we've got just about 40 pages of script left to shoot. almost everything is scheduled and reserved and locked into place (everyone cross your fingers that our discussions with the doug fir are fruitful).
and after this weekend we get a break - one weekend off with which to rest and restore our mental and physical resources for the last big push. i think we're all definitely staying focused on the production... but i'm also (not so secretly) looking forward to getting into post-production. we've been watching the footage on a semi-weekly basis, but that's still no substitute for actually stringing it together. generally, i prefer to edit some footage at the end of each day of filming, but this has been such a demanding experience (physically and mentally) that i just haven't had any time or energy to divert toward post work.
switching subjects: i really can't say enough good things about our cast and crew. andy, our sound recordist, has been extremely dedicated and laid back throughout the entire shoot. gerry, our dp, has given us as much time and energy as he can spare. alicia has been relentless in keeping things organized and flowing smoothly and has made a jaw-dropping transition last weekend from producer to actor as we shot her first few scenes. and joe, as fatigued as he gets and as hard as i make it for him, is always willing to give us one more take if we think we can do better.
i don't want to get too sentimental in front of everybody, so i'll cut short the compliments for now...
so let's talk about a shirtless mike johnson. you see, what happened was: we were at dot's saturday morning to finish up our last scene there. and mike, having just been handed his usual wardrobe consisting of an extremely tight t-shirt and fairly snug jeans went into the restroom to change. and when he emerged, there was two or three sizable water spots on the shirt from the sink in the restroom. now obviously, we'd have a hard time justifying a wet t-shirt at this point in the narrative (not to mention the continuity issues it would cause), so we removed his shirt and started working on drying it. in the meantime, i had joe and mike rehearse the full scene, just as we would shoot it, except, of course, mike was shirtless. and it was actually an interested exercise - how does it change the dynamic of an on-screen relationship if one of the characters is half-naked? the dramatic core of the scene survived in spite of the partial nudity and after a few runs through, mike even treated us to an improvised diatribe on everything there is to love about david hasselhof. at that point, we gave him the shirt back. but all the fooling around gave us a nice opportunity to incorporate a hillarious star wars improv between joe and mike into the beginning of the scene. i won't spoil it for you - but i will say two words: dartha stewart.
and after this weekend we get a break - one weekend off with which to rest and restore our mental and physical resources for the last big push. i think we're all definitely staying focused on the production... but i'm also (not so secretly) looking forward to getting into post-production. we've been watching the footage on a semi-weekly basis, but that's still no substitute for actually stringing it together. generally, i prefer to edit some footage at the end of each day of filming, but this has been such a demanding experience (physically and mentally) that i just haven't had any time or energy to divert toward post work.
switching subjects: i really can't say enough good things about our cast and crew. andy, our sound recordist, has been extremely dedicated and laid back throughout the entire shoot. gerry, our dp, has given us as much time and energy as he can spare. alicia has been relentless in keeping things organized and flowing smoothly and has made a jaw-dropping transition last weekend from producer to actor as we shot her first few scenes. and joe, as fatigued as he gets and as hard as i make it for him, is always willing to give us one more take if we think we can do better.
i don't want to get too sentimental in front of everybody, so i'll cut short the compliments for now...
so let's talk about a shirtless mike johnson. you see, what happened was: we were at dot's saturday morning to finish up our last scene there. and mike, having just been handed his usual wardrobe consisting of an extremely tight t-shirt and fairly snug jeans went into the restroom to change. and when he emerged, there was two or three sizable water spots on the shirt from the sink in the restroom. now obviously, we'd have a hard time justifying a wet t-shirt at this point in the narrative (not to mention the continuity issues it would cause), so we removed his shirt and started working on drying it. in the meantime, i had joe and mike rehearse the full scene, just as we would shoot it, except, of course, mike was shirtless. and it was actually an interested exercise - how does it change the dynamic of an on-screen relationship if one of the characters is half-naked? the dramatic core of the scene survived in spite of the partial nudity and after a few runs through, mike even treated us to an improvised diatribe on everything there is to love about david hasselhof. at that point, we gave him the shirt back. but all the fooling around gave us a nice opportunity to incorporate a hillarious star wars improv between joe and mike into the beginning of the scene. i won't spoil it for you - but i will say two words: dartha stewart.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
once more... in a black wig
remember last week when i mentioned that lucy ellen moe had her cameo in the film (as a waitress who flirts with aaron/mike). well... funny story... on saturday she actually filmed her second cameo in the film: a waitress serving colin/joe and aaron/mike at another bar - which was fine because you don't get to see her face in that scene, just her shoulders/back). then on sunday she filmed her third cameo in the film: one of april's yuppie friends who attends her vegan barbeque and cocktail party. now why is lucy now vying with payam (have i told you about payam? probably not - more on him later) for the most non-speaking appearances in the film? several reasons, actually... we are running short on extras (if any of you anonymous readers are interested in appearing in a minor motion picture - please drop us a line asap) and our extras coordinator, yona, was out of town this week and therefore not as effective as usual at rounding up the strangers. additionally, the 48 hour film project was in portland this weekend, and seemed to consume a good portion of the city's resources. plus, the apartment we were shooting in is apparently not very easy to find and so one or two of our volunteers lost their ways. so we were one party-goer short of our minimum - and, being that we had a black lady's wig lying around, and lucy was our only spare crew member... anyway, the shot turned out pretty well, with a nice variety of people and, without much direction from myself, the few extras we had did a fantastic job of not only looking natural in their environment but coordinating their actions with the dolly and pan of the camera. i only hope that my handling of the camera was smooth enough and at an appropriate speed (oh yeah, i was running camera again this weekend as gerry was out of the country on family business).
so there's plenty more to talk about, i'm sure. but i'm rather fatigued and have a large stack of papers staring me down right now... so, i'm going to let you all go on with your lives and i will share more later (including our plans for payam and insight into the shirtless life of mike johnson).
so there's plenty more to talk about, i'm sure. but i'm rather fatigued and have a large stack of papers staring me down right now... so, i'm going to let you all go on with your lives and i will share more later (including our plans for payam and insight into the shirtless life of mike johnson).
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
motocross
advice to all you aspiring filmmakers out there - don't schedule any exterior shooting within ten miles of a motocross event.
this weekend actually went pretty smoothly (and, as such, i'm at a loss for hillarious/interesting stories). we shot a couple of joe/mike scenes at the laurelwood pub on nw 23rd - there was some concern over the quality of the sound, but i think we at least got consistent audio (e.g. cutting different takes together shouldn't be a problem). mike and joe both did well. lucy ellen moe got her cameo (as a waitress flirting with mike's character).
also, i had a healthy debate with pretty much the entire crew and a good portion of the cast about my insistence upon joe wearing a tweed jacket on a sunny september day. they all had good, logical points against my decision, but i strongly felt that the needs of the narrative overrided a minor/debatable logistical issue. and, in the end, i think at least joe and alicia understood where i was going with it (e.g. colin is trying really hard to be a grown-up in this particular scene - and, as such, it makes sense for him to put on his grown-up clothes before he heads out into the harsh world to make amends. plus this is the nw - and it's not unheard of for people to wear sweaters or jackets in september (even while other people are wearing only t-shirts and tank tops. right?)).
and we more or less wrapped lisa's scenes (as keira). there are still a few pick-ups left here and there (some montage footage and the big parks & recreation show that we're still trying to schedule), but for the most part, she's done. and done well. she did a terrific job, frequently under less than perfect conditions (e.g. the motocross incident, etc), and really carried her role extremely well. i'm very happy to have her in the film.
and, while i'm at it, how about a round of applause for jim becker as well. we took care of all of his scenes as colin's dad in a single weekend. and he pretty much rocked the role.
also, three cheers for mike johnson! who is masterfully applying a much-needed dose of humanity to his exposition-filled dialogue.
okay... i really can't say enough good things about our large cast and small crew... but i'll try to squeeze in some more compliments (not ass-kissing, mind you, just sincere compliments) later.
this weekend actually went pretty smoothly (and, as such, i'm at a loss for hillarious/interesting stories). we shot a couple of joe/mike scenes at the laurelwood pub on nw 23rd - there was some concern over the quality of the sound, but i think we at least got consistent audio (e.g. cutting different takes together shouldn't be a problem). mike and joe both did well. lucy ellen moe got her cameo (as a waitress flirting with mike's character).
also, i had a healthy debate with pretty much the entire crew and a good portion of the cast about my insistence upon joe wearing a tweed jacket on a sunny september day. they all had good, logical points against my decision, but i strongly felt that the needs of the narrative overrided a minor/debatable logistical issue. and, in the end, i think at least joe and alicia understood where i was going with it (e.g. colin is trying really hard to be a grown-up in this particular scene - and, as such, it makes sense for him to put on his grown-up clothes before he heads out into the harsh world to make amends. plus this is the nw - and it's not unheard of for people to wear sweaters or jackets in september (even while other people are wearing only t-shirts and tank tops. right?)).
and we more or less wrapped lisa's scenes (as keira). there are still a few pick-ups left here and there (some montage footage and the big parks & recreation show that we're still trying to schedule), but for the most part, she's done. and done well. she did a terrific job, frequently under less than perfect conditions (e.g. the motocross incident, etc), and really carried her role extremely well. i'm very happy to have her in the film.
and, while i'm at it, how about a round of applause for jim becker as well. we took care of all of his scenes as colin's dad in a single weekend. and he pretty much rocked the role.
also, three cheers for mike johnson! who is masterfully applying a much-needed dose of humanity to his exposition-filled dialogue.
okay... i really can't say enough good things about our large cast and small crew... but i'll try to squeeze in some more compliments (not ass-kissing, mind you, just sincere compliments) later.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
joe ballman and the folding of socks
as per my promise at the end of the last post, i am expanding upon the brief mention of a sock folding seminar.
context: for those of you who haven't read the script or visited the website (www.grammarschoolpictures.com), joe's character, colin, lives with his tragi-comic, agoraphobic father (played by jim). throughout the film, colin tries to ask advice from his dad, who, due to his mental state is unable to provide colin with the kind of sound, parently advice he craves. about 3/4 of the way through the film, colin tries one last time to pull some guidance from his old man, who, at the time, is unable to draw his attention away from the three newly-washed, unfolded socks that his housekeeper left on the kitchen table. after a few brief exchanges, colin gets frustrated at his father's inability to sympathize and grabs two of the socks, quickly folds them together, tosses them on the pile of laundry and storms out of the room.
so we start shooting the scene... it's a really simple set-up: only two shots (a pan from a cu of the socks to a medium shot of colin and his dad, and a reverse that highlights joe's folding of the socks). as we start shooting the medium shot (effectively the master), joe opts out of actually folding the socks (they are off screen at this point) so that he can get a solid rhythm to his action. i didn't think much of it, but he had also refused to fold the socks during the rehearsals earlier in the week. so, that's fine, he gets the rhythm and we switch to the reverse. and, it's during the dry run that we all realize that joe doesn't actually know how to fold socks (at least, in the classic, middle-class, american way wherein two socks are broght together, side-by-side, and peeled inside out (almost like a banana), so that the elastic from the (partially inside-out) dominant sock almost fully engulfs both it's own exterior as well as the length of the subordinant sock). as best i can tell, joe folds his socks by laying one on top of the other, then there's some kind of rolling of the socks together from top to toe, after that, i don't know really what happens. i think maybe he rubberbands the rolled socks together or uses scotch tape, maybe. anyway, it's totally convoluted and takes about twenty seconds and, frankly, it looks terrible on camera. and also it's a process totally incapable of expressing frustration (which is the whole point of the action). so we stopped shooting and spend about 15 minutes trying to teach joe how to fold socks the right way (and quickly). at first he had some trouble picking it up, so we tried different methods of teaching him... we had him mimic us slowly, we physically manipulated his hands for him, and we even tried the spooning method often employed in golf or tennis lessons. but all this was to no avail. our dp, gerry, then suggested a different technique (of welsh origin, i believe) that was very quick and ultimately resulted in the same sort of fold. joe would have to stick a hand fully into the sock, then grab the second sock (with his socked hand), then use his un-socked hand to pull the elastic of the sock that was on his other hand over the sock the he was holding in the socked hand. and it was a move easily capped off by an aggressive toss of the folded socks onto the table. the only problem with that method was that joe was having a great deal of difficult getting his hand into the sock. gerry suggested starting the shot with his hand already in the sock, but that option really limited our editing choices for the scene. finally, joe got frustrated and insisted that we just start shooting and he would figure it out. sure enough, he got a quick, frustrated, aggressive sock fold and toss on about the third take. we tried to get two more takes of the action, but he just couldn't repeat. the boy had one good sock fold in him, probably forever, and we were lucky enough to catch it on video. and that's what real acting is - pushing yourself to levels of accomplishment that you never even knew existed. our hats off to you, mr. ballman. for that day, you were an Actor.
context: for those of you who haven't read the script or visited the website (www.grammarschoolpictures.com), joe's character, colin, lives with his tragi-comic, agoraphobic father (played by jim). throughout the film, colin tries to ask advice from his dad, who, due to his mental state is unable to provide colin with the kind of sound, parently advice he craves. about 3/4 of the way through the film, colin tries one last time to pull some guidance from his old man, who, at the time, is unable to draw his attention away from the three newly-washed, unfolded socks that his housekeeper left on the kitchen table. after a few brief exchanges, colin gets frustrated at his father's inability to sympathize and grabs two of the socks, quickly folds them together, tosses them on the pile of laundry and storms out of the room.
so we start shooting the scene... it's a really simple set-up: only two shots (a pan from a cu of the socks to a medium shot of colin and his dad, and a reverse that highlights joe's folding of the socks). as we start shooting the medium shot (effectively the master), joe opts out of actually folding the socks (they are off screen at this point) so that he can get a solid rhythm to his action. i didn't think much of it, but he had also refused to fold the socks during the rehearsals earlier in the week. so, that's fine, he gets the rhythm and we switch to the reverse. and, it's during the dry run that we all realize that joe doesn't actually know how to fold socks (at least, in the classic, middle-class, american way wherein two socks are broght together, side-by-side, and peeled inside out (almost like a banana), so that the elastic from the (partially inside-out) dominant sock almost fully engulfs both it's own exterior as well as the length of the subordinant sock). as best i can tell, joe folds his socks by laying one on top of the other, then there's some kind of rolling of the socks together from top to toe, after that, i don't know really what happens. i think maybe he rubberbands the rolled socks together or uses scotch tape, maybe. anyway, it's totally convoluted and takes about twenty seconds and, frankly, it looks terrible on camera. and also it's a process totally incapable of expressing frustration (which is the whole point of the action). so we stopped shooting and spend about 15 minutes trying to teach joe how to fold socks the right way (and quickly). at first he had some trouble picking it up, so we tried different methods of teaching him... we had him mimic us slowly, we physically manipulated his hands for him, and we even tried the spooning method often employed in golf or tennis lessons. but all this was to no avail. our dp, gerry, then suggested a different technique (of welsh origin, i believe) that was very quick and ultimately resulted in the same sort of fold. joe would have to stick a hand fully into the sock, then grab the second sock (with his socked hand), then use his un-socked hand to pull the elastic of the sock that was on his other hand over the sock the he was holding in the socked hand. and it was a move easily capped off by an aggressive toss of the folded socks onto the table. the only problem with that method was that joe was having a great deal of difficult getting his hand into the sock. gerry suggested starting the shot with his hand already in the sock, but that option really limited our editing choices for the scene. finally, joe got frustrated and insisted that we just start shooting and he would figure it out. sure enough, he got a quick, frustrated, aggressive sock fold and toss on about the third take. we tried to get two more takes of the action, but he just couldn't repeat. the boy had one good sock fold in him, probably forever, and we were lucky enough to catch it on video. and that's what real acting is - pushing yourself to levels of accomplishment that you never even knew existed. our hats off to you, mr. ballman. for that day, you were an Actor.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
fear of potatoes
nothing too terrible happened this weekend. and in honor of that, i'll keep things short and sweet here with a list (in no particular order) of things that were great about this weekend's shoot. (though, i reserve the right to expand on things in a future post.)
- the father/son chemistry between jim becker and joe ballman
- the endurance of the crew
- air conditioning
- the patience and generousity of my family
- the patience and generousity of one michael george johnson, actor extraordinaire
- dr. moe's gumbo
- finishing everything we had scheduled
- jim's wardrobe accidentally matching joe's wardrobe - perfect!
- the dolly shots!
- the dolly-zoom shot!
- the make-shift green room in my mom's garage
- muffins instead of bagels
- sour patch kids
- potatoes and potato related products (because, if you think about it, they're everywhere)
- natural light!
- lucy hiding in the back seat with a 3-iron
- our brief seminar on different sock-folding techniques*
* i'll expand on this later in the week.
- the father/son chemistry between jim becker and joe ballman
- the endurance of the crew
- air conditioning
- the patience and generousity of my family
- the patience and generousity of one michael george johnson, actor extraordinaire
- dr. moe's gumbo
- finishing everything we had scheduled
- jim's wardrobe accidentally matching joe's wardrobe - perfect!
- the dolly shots!
- the dolly-zoom shot!
- the make-shift green room in my mom's garage
- muffins instead of bagels
- sour patch kids
- potatoes and potato related products (because, if you think about it, they're everywhere)
- natural light!
- lucy hiding in the back seat with a 3-iron
- our brief seminar on different sock-folding techniques*
* i'll expand on this later in the week.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
something
yesterday at approximately 1:20 pm, pacific daylight savings time, joe ballman noted: "i feel like we sort of accomplished something this weekend." indeed, joe, we did.
(i'll try and keep the record short this week.)
saturday, we were back up in washougal at 8:30am. again, invading the home of dennis and misty plock. we were (supposed to be) wrapping up keira and colin's scenes at keira's house. which also featured zach (keira's son) and keith (keira's loser anarchist brother)... funny story about keith... we didn't hold any auditions for this role because we already knew someone who would be great in it. we contacted this person, and were happy to find out he was interested and would make himself available. then we had more than a month of radio silence. none of our phone calls or emails were returned. we thought that was a little odd (he's not the kind of guy to just flake out like that), but we really couldn't afford not to explore other options. in our brainstorming, we came up with a second name - another old friend who would bring a totally different energy to the part, but who would be perfect in his own way. we contacted him and, luckily, he was interested. his schedule was tight, but he would try to make it work. as the date approached, it seemed less and less likely that he could make the time to shoot for a full day with us. so we started brainstorming for third options. and alicia suggested her brother-in-law dennis (whose house we shooting at anyway). i liked the idea - he actually looked like he could be lisa's (keira's) brother; he was the correct age; and, from all reports, he was not entirely unlike keith back in the day. but he had no acting or performing experience. we talked to him about it and he agreed to help us out, if it came down to it. the next day, joe ran into the first person we had lined up for the role. his phone number and email had both changed (and he had changed jobs) and somehow our contact info had been lost in the mix. he was still very interested, but we were only two weeks away from shooting. at that point, we got a pretty firm commitment from him. the following day, i got an email from the second guy saying that he really really wanted to do it and would, happily, play the part... if we could schedule the scenes on sunday instead of saturday. since we had the first guy in place, i told the second guy that we were pretty well locked in and that we appreciated his enthusiasm. five days later, the first guy had to drop out. his new job was sending him out of town for the weekend. normally, we may have considered rescheduling the scenes, but this was the last weekend we were going to get with dylan before he left for a three-week vacation and that was just too much time to break between locations. so we called dennis... and after an hour of rehearsal on wednesday, he had it down. additionally, he had wardrobe that would work for the character and was more than happy to cut his hair into a pretty sweet mohawk for us. and he did extremely well - even with the difficult physical comedy that was written into his scenes.
the rest of saturday went pretty well... there were some difficult times as we were shooting a couple of intense, intimate scenes between joe and lisa (who really don't know each other very well). and we slipped just a little behind schedule (but only a brief couple of scenes didn't get finished). andre, the founder of pizza schmizza, actually delivered our lunch to us that day - it was good to finally meet him after all the back and forth between him and alicia. and the big weird moment of the day - gerry was feeling a little fatigued after lunch and excused himself to get some fresh air. a few minutes later, when i checked on him, he said he had it all figured out. before we ate, he went to his car to take some pain pills for his back. however, he accidentally popped a couple of sleeping pills instead (half a pill usually knocks him out at night). luckily, dennis had a rockstar in the refridgerator. so gerry chugged that and was a-okay (especially for the first hour or so). we wrapped the day just after 11pm.
sunday was hot. we started 9am at sewallcrest park shooting a basketball scene between colin and aaron as well as the scene where colin get caught stalking keira. we got off to a slightly rocky start as i had given nearly everyone the wrong cross-street for the park. but eventually people wandered the four blocks down and we got going only a few minutes behind schedule.
the basketball scene was really tough to shoot. as a lot of the continuity depends on the bounce of the ball, it's almost impossible to match action from the (wide) master shot to the (medium) sub-masters. we got plenty of cut-aways, though. and a few bridging shots and worked out the dialogue so it wasn't falling in the middle of any major movement and it should cut together pretty well. but it was incredibly stressful for everyone. (and it was bright too - the sun was incredibly harsh that day.)
so after lunch we moved on to the stalking scene and, inspite of the heat and a few tricky angles, and working in a public space, it all turned out just fine. and we took a nice three hour break.
that evening, gerry had to excuse himself for a family commitment, so i was handling the camera as we shot colin and keira's first date at the wine/coffee bar at southpark. the staff there was extremely accomodating and the crew really worked to keep things efficient. and so, we managed to a 2.5 page scene in 3 hours and wrap a pretty grueling weekend at 11:30pm.
and so yesterday, at approximately 1:21 pm, joe, having just noted that we did accomplish "something" this weekend, insisted that we not shoot for more than 24 hours in a single weekend again. i think that's not an entirely unreasonable request...
(i'll try and keep the record short this week.)
saturday, we were back up in washougal at 8:30am. again, invading the home of dennis and misty plock. we were (supposed to be) wrapping up keira and colin's scenes at keira's house. which also featured zach (keira's son) and keith (keira's loser anarchist brother)... funny story about keith... we didn't hold any auditions for this role because we already knew someone who would be great in it. we contacted this person, and were happy to find out he was interested and would make himself available. then we had more than a month of radio silence. none of our phone calls or emails were returned. we thought that was a little odd (he's not the kind of guy to just flake out like that), but we really couldn't afford not to explore other options. in our brainstorming, we came up with a second name - another old friend who would bring a totally different energy to the part, but who would be perfect in his own way. we contacted him and, luckily, he was interested. his schedule was tight, but he would try to make it work. as the date approached, it seemed less and less likely that he could make the time to shoot for a full day with us. so we started brainstorming for third options. and alicia suggested her brother-in-law dennis (whose house we shooting at anyway). i liked the idea - he actually looked like he could be lisa's (keira's) brother; he was the correct age; and, from all reports, he was not entirely unlike keith back in the day. but he had no acting or performing experience. we talked to him about it and he agreed to help us out, if it came down to it. the next day, joe ran into the first person we had lined up for the role. his phone number and email had both changed (and he had changed jobs) and somehow our contact info had been lost in the mix. he was still very interested, but we were only two weeks away from shooting. at that point, we got a pretty firm commitment from him. the following day, i got an email from the second guy saying that he really really wanted to do it and would, happily, play the part... if we could schedule the scenes on sunday instead of saturday. since we had the first guy in place, i told the second guy that we were pretty well locked in and that we appreciated his enthusiasm. five days later, the first guy had to drop out. his new job was sending him out of town for the weekend. normally, we may have considered rescheduling the scenes, but this was the last weekend we were going to get with dylan before he left for a three-week vacation and that was just too much time to break between locations. so we called dennis... and after an hour of rehearsal on wednesday, he had it down. additionally, he had wardrobe that would work for the character and was more than happy to cut his hair into a pretty sweet mohawk for us. and he did extremely well - even with the difficult physical comedy that was written into his scenes.
the rest of saturday went pretty well... there were some difficult times as we were shooting a couple of intense, intimate scenes between joe and lisa (who really don't know each other very well). and we slipped just a little behind schedule (but only a brief couple of scenes didn't get finished). andre, the founder of pizza schmizza, actually delivered our lunch to us that day - it was good to finally meet him after all the back and forth between him and alicia. and the big weird moment of the day - gerry was feeling a little fatigued after lunch and excused himself to get some fresh air. a few minutes later, when i checked on him, he said he had it all figured out. before we ate, he went to his car to take some pain pills for his back. however, he accidentally popped a couple of sleeping pills instead (half a pill usually knocks him out at night). luckily, dennis had a rockstar in the refridgerator. so gerry chugged that and was a-okay (especially for the first hour or so). we wrapped the day just after 11pm.
sunday was hot. we started 9am at sewallcrest park shooting a basketball scene between colin and aaron as well as the scene where colin get caught stalking keira. we got off to a slightly rocky start as i had given nearly everyone the wrong cross-street for the park. but eventually people wandered the four blocks down and we got going only a few minutes behind schedule.
the basketball scene was really tough to shoot. as a lot of the continuity depends on the bounce of the ball, it's almost impossible to match action from the (wide) master shot to the (medium) sub-masters. we got plenty of cut-aways, though. and a few bridging shots and worked out the dialogue so it wasn't falling in the middle of any major movement and it should cut together pretty well. but it was incredibly stressful for everyone. (and it was bright too - the sun was incredibly harsh that day.)
so after lunch we moved on to the stalking scene and, inspite of the heat and a few tricky angles, and working in a public space, it all turned out just fine. and we took a nice three hour break.
that evening, gerry had to excuse himself for a family commitment, so i was handling the camera as we shot colin and keira's first date at the wine/coffee bar at southpark. the staff there was extremely accomodating and the crew really worked to keep things efficient. and so, we managed to a 2.5 page scene in 3 hours and wrap a pretty grueling weekend at 11:30pm.
and so yesterday, at approximately 1:21 pm, joe, having just noted that we did accomplish "something" this weekend, insisted that we not shoot for more than 24 hours in a single weekend again. i think that's not an entirely unreasonable request...
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
answer: 19 hours
question: how long was the shooting day on saturday?
so even with the best intentions and the most meticulous planning, things fall apart. on thursday evening, i found out that our dp, gerry, would not be joining us on saturday as he was stuck in eastern/southern oregon on a paying shoot that was running long. that left me the option to either (a) cancel saturday's shoot or (b) shoot that day's scenes myself. it was odd getting that information, because just the day prior, i had found out that my friend jered was having to cancel on us for the weekend. and when i told alicia about jered, she thought i said gerry and we both had a laugh about how terrible that would be... however, neither of us laughed thursday evening, when gerry actually did cancel. there were already too many balls in the air to cancel saturday's shoot, so i chose to stick to the schedule and handle the camera myself. and it actually turned out pretty well.
we started out at the basement, where a narrow hallway forced us to use an extremely wide lens and simple, stark lighting. the inimitable bob ham (bobham!) was kind enough to join us that day and spent the better part of two hours hiding in the bathroom and waiting for his cue to flush the toilet and exit. mike and joe were in top form and we were off to a solid start.
then we drove up to washougal, where we were shooting the first half of keira's scenes at home (using dennis and misty plock's duplex). shooting slowed just a little at that point largely because we started on the exteriors and therefore had to wait on things like trains, airplanes, and pimped-out ghetto-blasting mini-vans. but we pushed through and slowly but surely got what we wanted. dana and dylan showed up around 2 o'clock for dylan's scenes as zach. being that we were running a little slow, there was a lot of down time for dylan. the kid's a trooper, though, and it helped that his dad brought along his bike and scooter. he mostly seemed to entertain himself by gawking at an earless cat that was wondering around the neighborhood. (it was pretty creepy.)
i've always felt the mid-evening was the perfect time for nepotism. and sure enough, at 8:30, my mom and sister showed up in washougal to prepare for shooting mom's cameo that evening. her scene was to shoot in vancouver, but since we were running late, they drove the extra 20 minutes or so to hang out and observe while we finished up. two hours later, we were finally at a solid stopping point and we packed up as quickly as possible, and re-opened the house to misty and her kids.
then came the really fun part. at the 16th hour, i realized i was out of dv tape. i had only brought two fresh tapes figuring we wouldn't shoot more than 2.5 hours of footage. i was wrong. so after a minor detour in which i led a three-car caravan astray for 1 mile or so, i dispatched my sister to track down a store that sells dv tape (keep in mind it's after 11pm at this point), in a town she doesn't know very well, while we set-up the scene. luckily it all worked out and by the time we were ready to shoot, she had returned with two consumer-grade tapes (on which the footage looks just fine). the pov of first shot was from the street, and a little scary since all of the equipment and crew were in the middle of the road. luckily there was only one close call wherein some jackass either didn't see us or didn't feel like slowing down until he was right up on us (in spite of our yelling a waiving flashlights). he got close enough to running us down that, apparently, lucy briefly considered having to jump up on the hood of the car so as not to get run over. then he called us dykes and faggots and honked his horn all the way home. some people, eh? so we got back to work as quickly as possible, finishing my mom's scene first, then wrapping up with dylan (who was passed out in his dad's car for most of the set-up time) around midnight. finally, reduced to a four-person crew and two actors, we shot the last scene of the day and wrapped around 2am.
(wow. this post is almost as long as that shooting day. i had a coffee this morning - which i usually don't do - and also i haven't been writing lately. those are my excuses. sorry, if you're still reading this.)
so, sunday... i got to dot's at 6:15 (only a few minutes late) on about 2 hours of sleep. alicia was right behind me (what a trooper!) after stopping to pick up some batteries and creamer for the coffee she was going to make on set. everyone slowly filtered in and gerry (not having suffered through our 19 hour day) started working on sorting through the minor mess we made out of his equipment. mike arrived at about 7:30 and we start running lines. joe was not there yet. at 8am, i tried calling joe and lucy. no answer. at 8:30, i started to get more than a little concerned as there was nothing left to do but wait. so alicia (again, doing the dirty work (isn't she great!)). set out to go wake them up - and this involved knocking on someone's door so that she could ask permission to get into their back yard at 9am and throw coins through joe and lucy's window while shouting their names. apparently the coin thing worked and they showed up on set only a few hours late. but again, it worked out probably for the best. joe had it seemed just enough rest to get through the scene and we wrapped for the day at about 11am, canceling the scene we had scheduled for the afternoon.
i'm hoping that was the worst of it.
so even with the best intentions and the most meticulous planning, things fall apart. on thursday evening, i found out that our dp, gerry, would not be joining us on saturday as he was stuck in eastern/southern oregon on a paying shoot that was running long. that left me the option to either (a) cancel saturday's shoot or (b) shoot that day's scenes myself. it was odd getting that information, because just the day prior, i had found out that my friend jered was having to cancel on us for the weekend. and when i told alicia about jered, she thought i said gerry and we both had a laugh about how terrible that would be... however, neither of us laughed thursday evening, when gerry actually did cancel. there were already too many balls in the air to cancel saturday's shoot, so i chose to stick to the schedule and handle the camera myself. and it actually turned out pretty well.
we started out at the basement, where a narrow hallway forced us to use an extremely wide lens and simple, stark lighting. the inimitable bob ham (bobham!) was kind enough to join us that day and spent the better part of two hours hiding in the bathroom and waiting for his cue to flush the toilet and exit. mike and joe were in top form and we were off to a solid start.
then we drove up to washougal, where we were shooting the first half of keira's scenes at home (using dennis and misty plock's duplex). shooting slowed just a little at that point largely because we started on the exteriors and therefore had to wait on things like trains, airplanes, and pimped-out ghetto-blasting mini-vans. but we pushed through and slowly but surely got what we wanted. dana and dylan showed up around 2 o'clock for dylan's scenes as zach. being that we were running a little slow, there was a lot of down time for dylan. the kid's a trooper, though, and it helped that his dad brought along his bike and scooter. he mostly seemed to entertain himself by gawking at an earless cat that was wondering around the neighborhood. (it was pretty creepy.)
i've always felt the mid-evening was the perfect time for nepotism. and sure enough, at 8:30, my mom and sister showed up in washougal to prepare for shooting mom's cameo that evening. her scene was to shoot in vancouver, but since we were running late, they drove the extra 20 minutes or so to hang out and observe while we finished up. two hours later, we were finally at a solid stopping point and we packed up as quickly as possible, and re-opened the house to misty and her kids.
then came the really fun part. at the 16th hour, i realized i was out of dv tape. i had only brought two fresh tapes figuring we wouldn't shoot more than 2.5 hours of footage. i was wrong. so after a minor detour in which i led a three-car caravan astray for 1 mile or so, i dispatched my sister to track down a store that sells dv tape (keep in mind it's after 11pm at this point), in a town she doesn't know very well, while we set-up the scene. luckily it all worked out and by the time we were ready to shoot, she had returned with two consumer-grade tapes (on which the footage looks just fine). the pov of first shot was from the street, and a little scary since all of the equipment and crew were in the middle of the road. luckily there was only one close call wherein some jackass either didn't see us or didn't feel like slowing down until he was right up on us (in spite of our yelling a waiving flashlights). he got close enough to running us down that, apparently, lucy briefly considered having to jump up on the hood of the car so as not to get run over. then he called us dykes and faggots and honked his horn all the way home. some people, eh? so we got back to work as quickly as possible, finishing my mom's scene first, then wrapping up with dylan (who was passed out in his dad's car for most of the set-up time) around midnight. finally, reduced to a four-person crew and two actors, we shot the last scene of the day and wrapped around 2am.
(wow. this post is almost as long as that shooting day. i had a coffee this morning - which i usually don't do - and also i haven't been writing lately. those are my excuses. sorry, if you're still reading this.)
so, sunday... i got to dot's at 6:15 (only a few minutes late) on about 2 hours of sleep. alicia was right behind me (what a trooper!) after stopping to pick up some batteries and creamer for the coffee she was going to make on set. everyone slowly filtered in and gerry (not having suffered through our 19 hour day) started working on sorting through the minor mess we made out of his equipment. mike arrived at about 7:30 and we start running lines. joe was not there yet. at 8am, i tried calling joe and lucy. no answer. at 8:30, i started to get more than a little concerned as there was nothing left to do but wait. so alicia (again, doing the dirty work (isn't she great!)). set out to go wake them up - and this involved knocking on someone's door so that she could ask permission to get into their back yard at 9am and throw coins through joe and lucy's window while shouting their names. apparently the coin thing worked and they showed up on set only a few hours late. but again, it worked out probably for the best. joe had it seemed just enough rest to get through the scene and we wrapped for the day at about 11am, canceling the scene we had scheduled for the afternoon.
i'm hoping that was the worst of it.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
the fun part
so last night a few of us headed out to northeast portland to hang out with dylan rosemus, the seven-year-old who's playing keira's son in the movie. it went extremely well - the kid is just about perfect. he's got a great attitude, gets over his shyness really quickly and even looks like he could be related to lisa (keira). and he's hillarious. given our good luck with dylan, we'd been brainstorming ways of making his character a little more visible. the current idea is that he should be obsessed with pirates. so we went out and bought him an eye patch and plastic sword to carry around for the bulk of the film. i gave them to him yesterday and he immediately went into character - running around the park growling at people and trying to chop off his dad's leg with the sword. good times.
afterward, we got some food and beer and rehearsed this weekends scenes with joe (colin) and lisa. so far, the rehearsals have been the fun part. there are no technical glitches to work around, no locations waiting for you to leave so they can open, and no crew or extras to keep busy and involved. just the actors and the script. and the cast has really taken an active interest in the development of each beat. just last night we worked two or three new character driven jokes into a scene without having to actually rewrite anything. it seems at this point that we've been extremely lucky with our cast.
afterward, we got some food and beer and rehearsed this weekends scenes with joe (colin) and lisa. so far, the rehearsals have been the fun part. there are no technical glitches to work around, no locations waiting for you to leave so they can open, and no crew or extras to keep busy and involved. just the actors and the script. and the cast has really taken an active interest in the development of each beat. just last night we worked two or three new character driven jokes into a scene without having to actually rewrite anything. it seems at this point that we've been extremely lucky with our cast.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
in the beginning...
to whom it may concern:
hello. you've landed (mistakenly?) at the production blog for drift, a high-definition feature currently being shot in and around portland, oregon. drift marks the feature directing-debut of myself (matt knapp). the script was co-written by myself and joe ballman, who is also the lead-actor. i won't trouble you right now with a full list of credits or a story synopsis or our resumes and credentials. if you're interested in all that, you can visit our website (www.grammarschoolpictures.com) for the full run-down. but, i'd prefer that this blog concern itself more with the day-to-day operations and the creative life of the project. so, here we are. and as much as i hate to get off on the wrong foot... i'm going to stop writing now and get back to work. but i promise, there will be more to come...
hello. you've landed (mistakenly?) at the production blog for drift, a high-definition feature currently being shot in and around portland, oregon. drift marks the feature directing-debut of myself (matt knapp). the script was co-written by myself and joe ballman, who is also the lead-actor. i won't trouble you right now with a full list of credits or a story synopsis or our resumes and credentials. if you're interested in all that, you can visit our website (www.grammarschoolpictures.com) for the full run-down. but, i'd prefer that this blog concern itself more with the day-to-day operations and the creative life of the project. so, here we are. and as much as i hate to get off on the wrong foot... i'm going to stop writing now and get back to work. but i promise, there will be more to come...
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