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.

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

(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.

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.

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).

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.