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Damn!
This shoot hit me between the eyes like a wrecking ball. By the
time I got home everyday, updating the diary was not a high priority.
Anyway, enjoy these "retro" entries. I'll add one or
two a day, and keep your eyes peeled for pictures too.
12-21-02
College basement scenes today. Robyn's helping out today and Michelle is present. Good thing because my crew doesn't show up. Good news is we discover shutting off the house lights in the auditorium upstairs eliminates the incessant buzz from the power board in the basement. It opens up some great possibilities for the creepy set. Things get off to a rocky start. I staged all of my lights in an upstairs room to keep them out of the rain until needed. When my back is turned, the custodian moves them into a chain link enclosure behind a bunch of rubbish to make room for the other party setting up in the auditorium. I let them come in on my time as a courtesy. The custodian insists it's the other way around, that I'm there on their time and that I have to accomodate them no matter what. After a heated discussion, I put my lights back, warn him to keep his hands off, and leave the room. I can't shake the anger for the rest of the night. The rain slowly floods the basement making the work slow. I spend way to much time tweaking the lights. The results are passable. I try to hide my frustration. I know it's bad for morale, but I've never been great at hiding my emotions. Monty arrives early. He plays Edison later on. He starts to pitch in behind the scenes and I relax a little. Basement scene looks good, but we're running late. We get one shot off for the Prologue scene before we decide to call it a night. It's a tough call. The period costumes and Monty's character make-up aren't cheap, and we'll most likely never get back into this location. Just not enough time to do it right. Monty knows where I'm coming from and gladly agrees to come back another time. I'll figure something out. 12-20-02 Supposed to rain this afternoon. No word from Will and I don't call Mark because I expect we'll be rained out in no time. We start on the day interiors. After some electrical problems, we make good time and the picture is top notch. Noon comes and goes with no rain. I'm shooting upstairs with Rachel. She turns to me and says this shoot has been a good bonding experience for us. She's right. The next movie I do, Rachel will be the entire cast and crew. I just want to hold her hand all day. Look at this face!
Sun sets. Looks like we might have a shot at a dry night shoot. Then it starts to rain. I scramble to button up the house and electrics. 12-19-02 Supposed to rain today. No Mark and Will. They don't respond to my phone calls. Adonis is on a job for the next several days, so it's just me. We resolve to hang out and keep an eye on the sky, shooting as the opportunity presents itself. We try to mop up the exteriors today. Jeff and Rachel do the CPR scene. It's really windy. Rachel wears only her bra and panties. Her hair is wet. Somehow she puts her shivering on hold for each take. The sky looks clear. Maybe we'll get a break from the rain. Mark calls. Says he just got the message. I ask him to come out. He's an hour away. After he arrives we get one shot off before the rain comes. I gather the cast in the RV for another speech. They're all bleary eyed except for Heather who always focuses on me with rapt attention and a big, shining grin. I'm a little unused to that. It's a little disconcerting until I realize she's the genuine article. Heather's great. I say there's a real possibility we won't finish on schedule. I ask them to think about coming back for some pickups next month. 12-18-02 Robyn, Rachel and I set out early for the Santa Maria Airport to pick up the yellow car. Rachel isn't a morning person. The first time Robyn returned the car, they charged her for two days instead of one because it wasn't returned on time even though the agent said to "return it any time tomorrow." I wish I was there to pound some reason into them. Getting pretty tired of paying for this car. We drive South to Gaviota. It's about an hour from home base, but I'm intent on getting a shot of the car driving through this tunnel, part of a "light at the end of the tunnel" motif I'm trying for. Looks good and we get some good traffic stuff on the way back. Next up is the scene where Rachel pulls off the road and discovers Edison's blueprints in an old trunk. We go to nearby Twitchell Resevoir, the location of a giant bridge and desolate roadside pullout. Rachel and I knock it out really fast with lots of handheld shots. Everything clicks. I'm always underestimating Rachel. Sometimes I still see her as the ditzey 13 year old girl I met ten years ago, then she blows me away with her acting. Shortsighted assholes like me will cast her as the perky friend the rest of her career. I know better now. I can't imagine anyone else in this dark, brooding role. She's just good. We rush back to the Meherin House. Gotta do the tub stuff today, except there's no hot running water. I send Evelyn, Robyn's mom, to fill up the RV with fresh water. We plan to fill the cast iron tub, then warm it up with hot water from the coffee maker. Will devises a drainage system for the tub. While that's all happening, I shoot some dry ghost stuff with Kevin Robb, aka "Boy". He gets right into it. He loves playing the creepy kid. Catherine Barlow is also here today. She's cooling her heels, waiting for her part later on. A bucket brigade has slowly been filling the tub. It's getting cold out. I plan to shoot till dawn, and me in my infinite wisdom fixed it so most of the characters are in short sleeves. The giant coffee maker heats enough water to heat the tub to barely tepid. I ask Kevin if he wants to go for it or wait for another batch of hot water. It's too cold. I don't know it yet, but this is shaping up to be the coldest night of the year, and Kevin is getting cranky because of the late hour. Slow coffee maker. Twenty minutes later we give it another go. The water is about the same temp, but Kevin decides to take the plunge. Too bad mom forgot the trunks. She encourages him to go in wearing only his boxers. That doesn't go over well. Hell, I wouldn't do it either, especially with all the older babes standing around watching (Kevin's about ten). I send Jeff home to pick up my swim trunks. This time we get him into the tub, knee deep. The temp has gone down and Kevin is freezing his ass off. Everyone is tired and standing around watching him. His mom is losing patience with him. There's no way in hell he's going to sit in that water tonight. I feel for him, so I give him a way out. I wanted this to be a positive experience for him, not a traumatic one. We decide to give it a go some other time. Will gets the shakes and goes home early to warm up. The rest of us press on. It's fucking cold! My tripod starts grinding. I'm convinced ice crystals are forming in the fluid head. I start compromising my shots and the acting is suffering. They're in those fucking short sleeves I insisted on. I send everyone home. Never got around to shooting Catherine. I think she's pissed. I'm too cold to worry about it. I'm there with Mark for another hour or so, packing it in. I scrape the ice off the windshield, warm the car up, then I realize I lost the gate key which Frank finally gave me earlier that day. Mark helps me search the grounds. About twenty minutes later we find it in the RV. We lock the stubborn RV door for the second time that night. We both have to shove all our weight into it while one of us turns the key. Sometimes it locks, sometimes it don't. I go home to grab a couple of hours of sleep. 12-17-02 More rain. We return to Michelle's condemned garage for the house basement reshoot. This was the scheduled day off, so I knock off Jasons handful of shots first and let him go to LA while I tackle the Jeff, Rachel stuff. Everything goes pretty smooth except for the leaky ceiling and the light pollution from the windows. We're shooting day for night this time out, but it's easily controlled. Mitch sets Jeff up with some pads for a controlled fall down the Death Factory stairs. Should look painful with some clever editing. As we close in on our 3:00 call at the lecture hall and hour away, I send Will ahead to set up lights and reserve the room. Unfortunately, the shoot goes long and by the time I pull up at the college a few hours later, Will is long gone. I feel bad I left him waiting so long, but kind of pissed he didn't call me. The room is empty, there are plenty of students around. We could've pulled it off. Instead I let Jeff go hang with Lisa Jay and call it a night. The rain lets up by dark. Could've been shooting at the Meherin House at this point. Got some good stuff today, but missed out on a few opportunities to get ahead. 12-16-02 Damn. I wanted to sleep in but I get an early call this morning from Michelle. It's raining hard. She wants to know if the leaky ceiling in the master bedroom set was buttoned up after she left. I don't have the keys to the gate so I tramp up that muddy access road to the house. It's worse than I thought. Leaky ceiling upstairs leaking on Michelle's bed, rain and wind coming in the bay window downstairs soaking the borrowed sofa. Groundskeeper has already evaluated the situation. It's in good hands, but we won't be shooting here tonight. Supposed to rain tomorrow, too. Gotta salvage the day somehow. I hurry home and arrange the diner reshoot for this afternoon and the house basement and lecture hall for tomorrow. Nice and overcast. No harsh shadows to deal with in the diner. Looks good, if a little high-key. Rachel is nailing her part. It's like night and day from the first day. Rachel and Jeff roughhouse between takes. I'm glad they're hitting it off, but I feel a twinge of jealousy. She's my punching bag! It gets dark and we must resort to creative lighting to make it look daylight still. As the hours wear on, my gaffer is getting irritable. I knew full well he gets cranky after a long day, but I don't feel too bad. I expect to be busting ass on his picture in a few months. He's the only director I know who is slower than I am. We wrap out of there and give up for the night. I give my cast a little speech in the parking lot. Tell them they're giving me a great picture, and they are. What a good group. Tomorrow is our scheduled day off. Jeff and Rachel have agreed to work most of the day to help us catch up. Jason heading to LA to take care of personal stuff. Heather will be left to her own devices. Jeff's girl Lisa Jay comes into town and stays over. Haven't seen her since Death Factory. Good actress and a sweetheart. 12-15-02 Show up to rent the picture car we reserved for 8:30am. Turns out the desk doesn't open till 9. Turns out the agent doesn't show up till 9:15. I got the yellow one I wanted. Exterior house stuff today. It goes great. We lose a race with the sun so we'll have to pick up some day stuff later, but there's plenty of night stuff to keep us busy. Heather and Jason have been working on the Bianca, Todd relationship. It comes alive. I'm really liking those characters. Lot of smoke machine. Night stuff looks good to great. We go late but the call isn't till after 4pm tomorrow. Me happy. 12-14-02 Rain on the horizon. Stupid farmer's almanac. Today I was supposed to shoot road stuff with the SUV down by Gaviota and Twitchell Resevoir while Michelle and her team prepped the house for an afternoon shoot. Now it's supposed to rain this afternoon and the house is a much bigger job than expected. I decide to postpone shooting for the day and help on the house. It would've been an easier call if we weren't already a day behind. Robyn, Mark and I peel back about 50% of the chainlink fence. Michelle brings the borrowed RV full of props and art stuff. She assembles the stairs up to the porch which she built from scratch. Once they're stained they look nice and old. Window boards make the place hella creepy. 12-13-02 Reviewed the footage. The camera is not cutting it. The back focus is off. I'm switching back to my big camera. Now I have to figure out how to tell everyone yesterday has to be reshot. Bianca's introduction scene goes well except for some gardeners making noise next door. Picture looks awesome. The day player for today got food poisoning. One of my crew, Mark Eakes, fills in. I give them a little backstory and they run with it. Heather has the hardest part. She has to be beautiful but smart, opinionated but vulnerable. She pulls it off, even with the technobabble I cooked up. I'm so glad I cast her. After viewing yesterdays footage I realized what bothered me about Rachel's performance. She was smiling too much. I tell her to never smile. Veteran actress Phyliss Rodenberger shows up for her day part and does a good job. She's surprised when I pay her the agreed upon $20/day. Says she didn't expect to be paid and seems embarrassed to take it. Before she leaves she gives me $15 back. "Merry Christmas" she says. We waste a lot of time lighting a scene as if from a desk lamp. An eight dollar hardware lamp eventually does the trick. Jeff has a little problem with his terrified close up. During one take I scream at the top of my lungs, "DO IT RIGHT!" It startled him, but not in a good way. I won't be doing that again. We wrap at around 2:15am. 12-12-02 First day of shooting. We film at the diner location. Michelle makes the place look like a working establishment with napkin dispensers, condiments, silverware, and window blinds we found on the premises. Turns out the manager has lost the key to the front door which we must use in the scene. I pay around $68 for a locksmith to open it up. We're using a new digital camera that shoots 24fps. The output looks okay, but we're battling changing sunlight from outside. Will and Mark, my gaffers, have a different style than I do. Will take some getting used to. I'm trying to let them do the job with minimum interference from me. The acting is a little off. Can't put my finger on what's bothering me. Should have been more intensive during the rehearsal yesterday. Lecture hall stuff goes off well. Great location. Dolly and jib arm worked like a champ. Got extras from the campus. House basement stuff shot in Michelle's condemned garage. Not an ideal location. She built a great staircase that leads into the ceiling. I call them Death Factory stairs because we had a set on that movie, too. Shooting in the cramped space is a bear. Man looks sufficiently creepy. Our prop axe is not ready, so we excercise caution with the real thing. It's dull, but it can kill you. Jeff does his stunts well, mostly diving through cardboard boxes. I'm growing increasingly concerned about the camera we're using. I knew it would have it's shortcomings in low light because of the 1/3" ccds, but so much of this stuff is low-key and I'm noticing a lot of chroma noise in the blacks. Should have tested it more thoroughly in low light. I press on just in case it all works out. We're wrapped out of there at 2:30am. Longer day than I had hoped. Feeling very iffy about the results. Will review in the morning. 12-11-02 I got a message on my cell around 5am from Heather Ashley. It was left around 3:30am (for some reason my phone didn't ring) and it said she decided to come up now instead of at dawn and that she was about an hour away. I panic. Will she show up at my parents doorstep, the meeting place for the next day? They haven't seen her. I start to imagine she got lost, slept at the side of the road somewhere and died of exposure. Later that morning, still no word. Robyn calls the Highway Patrol. They haven't recovered the body. Turns out her boyfriend drove her up. They stopped at a motel when they got tired. No word from Jason. He was supposed to arrive in LA from his stay in Hawaii this morning. We hadn't spoken in a couple of weeks. He comes sauntering in on time. Rehearsal goes well. Everyone seems to hit it off. Great chemistry. We seem to be on the same page. Get together with the actors to figure out costumes. I know it's winter, but we decide to stick with short sleeves for the most part. I decide it will be a little sexier. Jason gets to wear a long sleeve thermal to help with FX later. 12-10-02 Yesterday got pretty dicey. Inbetween the mad rush to complete all the last minute stuff, I placed many fevered phone calls in search of a suitable Bianca. I contacted Heather Ashley on a longshot. Like Perrine, I met her on the set earlier this year. She was a last minute replacement on that picture, too, and she did a great job. She read the script in no time and it turns out she was thrilled to do it. The only problem is that she was living in Florida doing her TV show, TASKFORCE. Long story short, I bit the bullet and agreed to buy her a ticket out here. She'll be in LA about midnight and drive up tomorrow. She really came through for us, so my wife and co-producer Robyn and I had a little time to celebrate her birthday today. Everyone say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBYN. Jeff arrives today, everyone else comes in tomorrow. Now we can get on with it. 12-08-02 Easy come, easy go. Perrine Moore, who seemed so enthusiastic for the role and assured me I'd see her bright, shiny face on the 11th has backed out leaving me two whole days to cast Bianca. This might not even be such a big deal if I was in L.A., but people don't flock to SLO County to break into the movie business. They come here to go to school or retire. Trying to cast this role locally was a big mistake. Response to the call was practically non-existent, and the appropriate canidates that did read decided to pursue other worthwhile goals like getting a 9 to 5 or taking a ski trip, but not before wasting my precious time. They have no clue of the lengths struggling Hollywood actors go through for a good role, OR ANY ROLE in a feature film. Then if they're lucky enough to land a part, they bust ass for little or no pay, eat chicken in a bag for 6 days in a row, and all with no guarantee the film will ever see the light of day. Holy cow. Anyway, instead of just turning me down when I first approached her, Perrine Moore has transformed the week I had left to cast the role into two days. It took me half a year to develop the script, find the perfect house, lock this schedule down, and now the brave soul takes on this part will have a matter of hours to prepare. And I was in such a good mood. 12-06-02 Perrine Moore (Maniacal) has been cast as Bianca. This lovely and talented actress is coming up from L.A. on short notice. We met on the set of a movie I photographed earlier this year. Also cast is newcomer Kevin Robb as Boy. Everything else is taking shape, binding insurance, equipment arriving, reserving costumes. 12-03-02 Holy crap! The shoot is like 8 days off. Most everything has fallen into place. The schedule is locked. The house has been set down on its foundation. I got a special fx makeup artist (Mitch Toles, CREEPIES). The tiny details are catching up to me, though, not to mention the role of Bianca hasn't been cast yet. I'm nervous but excited about the shoot. I can't believe I've waited this long to do my second picture. Did I mention the budget is pretty much out of pocket? If we don't turn a buck off of this one, it'll be another 5 years at least before we do a third. It's tough to make movies when you live in a van with 6 cats. 11-21-02 Still no Bianca cast. I published an ad looking to fill the role. Casting calls are kind of hit or miss around here. Never know what kind of turnout your gonna get. Was hoping to avoid it, but hopefully we'll dredge up some good actresses. Plenty of good looking young folks thanks to the colleges and a fair size theater community. The house should be set on it's foundation next Wednesday. 11-13-02 The Meherin House folks and I have come to an agreement! Waiting for the signed release to arrive. Got a verbal okay for the diner set. It's a real coffee shop in the old Vandenberg Inn. Now it's never used and scheduled for demolition sometime next year. Great location. Also, turns out the Ethel Pope Auditorium at Santa Maria High (where we're doing our basement scenes) has the perfect location upstairs for our 1931 prologue. The whole thing looks great and we're getting it for a song. Got a promising line on a makeup artist. He's only been at it for a year but has some strong pictures in his portfolio. I'm having him do a demo that will decide if he fits the bill. Monty Wall of The Omega Diary has agreed to play Thomas Edison. He's not to thrilled about shaving off his mustache, but hey, we all suffer for our art. Still interviewing for the role of Bianca. I thought I found the right person, but she lost interest and dropped out of the running today. Just as well. I need someone super committed if they're going to survive this shoot. It's going to be cold, wet and dark for the majority. Everything else is falling into place. 11-08-02 Scouted the "creepy basement" we intend to shoot at Santa Maria High School. It'll double for both the university and the house basement (the Meherin House doesn't have one). It's a great location, but the power board makes a lot of noise. We'll loop it if we absolutely have to, but I'm going to try to get permission to shut it off. I have something new to worry about. I intended to shoot this thing in August, and here it is November and the start of rainy season. According to the Farmer's Almanac, I have a shot at a couple of dry weeks in December. Don't know how much stock to put in that. Doesn't matter. We're shooting December 11-23 COME HELL OR HIGH WATER... literally. 11-06-02 I'll know tonight or tomorrow if we have our key location for sure. I'm 95% confident we're in. The chairman of the board is totally for it, but I never assume anything. Still no special fx make-up artist. Growing increasingly worried about that one. On a positive note our production designer has committed. Locked down the bio class lecture hall location yesterday. Interviewing more actresses for the role of Bianca later this week. Tony Freeman of Blink Productions has agreed to produce some behind the scenes material for our press kit and DVD extras. Our custom built Jib Arm is finally working properly. It'll help make this thing look like a million bucks. Keeping my fingers crossed. 11-02-02 This thing is finally coming together. Between gun for hire gigs, I managed to hammer out a tight little script with John "The Evilmaker" Bowker. Then I spent over two months scouting two counties, scouring desolate backroads and farm country. I thought we'd never do it, but one flat tire and over a thousand miles later, we found the historic Meherin house in Pismo Beach. The only problem is it's still up on blocks from when they moved the whole house a year ago. It should be ready to go in time for our Dec 11 start date. Should know if we have the go ahead from the board of directors on Nov. 6. Still have to line up a special fx makeup artist. Hoping for a local artist since I already have to put up three cast members from L.A., but as time grows short I'm thinking of hiring an out-of-towner. Feeling pretty positive. It's been awhile. |
