End of shoot and wrap party

Alsodann...

It has been a busy few weeks since production wrapped on Into Temptation. It's in the can and we got to see a rough 5 minute edit at the wrap party. Nice looking stuff, I like David Doyle's style as a photographer. I'd let him shoot my movie. Heh. And, as always, Jim Morgan and Lion Thompson kicked it -HARD- in the sound department, delivering some rich tonage for post production to work with. I think this movie is going to be a serious player. Last I heard was there were going to be meetings between some people.

The overall experience was terrific. I had a blast and did my best to work hard and stay out of the way. At least by the end of the shoot I wasn't walking into shot carrying 4x4 foot reflector cards... anymore. Everyone on the shoot was very tolerant of us noobs and wannabes. Well OK, one guy wasn't very patient, but he was by nature a little grumpy.

Hopefully, more work will come. I'm still learning, so I will work 4 cheap. Hell, this beats going to school, and when i think of the student loans I am still paying off, for education I never use... "free" sounds like a bargain. Unlike my virgin day on Nocturne, I think I actually know what most of the stuff on set is called, at least generally. I need to get a good book on lights and electric. One of the Nicks on the crew went for a full electrician's license. I don't think I will get that hardcore.

I also need to spend a shoot on the production side, seeing how a movie gets prepped, organazized and executed. If I am going to make a cheap, CHEAP movie, I should at least know how you do it when you have some money.


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mid-shoot update

So i have been gripping on a feature being shot in Minneapolis. The film is [currently] called Into Temptation: imdb.com/title/tt1232824/. The crew has been great, and we work under a hard working, capable Key Grip named Dean Woytcke. If you can afford him, he's worth it. globalproducer.com/ID14948. Crew chiefs Dean and Gaffer Greg Niska have been very supportive and go out of their way to thank the crew and comment on their day's performance. The Best Boys on both crews are competent and smart.

I don't want come off as a name dropper, so I will just say that the lead actor is a peach of a man. He has been consistently polite, gracious and congenial. He fraternizes freely with the hired help and says "Thank you" to his stand in. A generally affable guy who smiles a lot off camera.

This shoot has been an ass-kicker. I never knew what I wussy I was until I started slinging metal with this crew. I look like a victim of spousal abuse. I need to find some British Commando Pullovers with those built-in shoulder pads. On two days, we got rained on hard and fast. It quickly turns into an exercise in emergency prioritizing and execution of critical tasks ...like getting your electrical cables out of the gutter before you blow out the generator or kill somebody stepping into the street. I also miscalculated the length of shooting days... they have been more like 12-14 hours. But seriously, I would rather do this for free than most jobs I have gotten paid to do.

I got to crew with Gabriel [myspace.com/fargosuckcity], who knows Bambi [myspace.com/bambikhan], my Chatterbox Pub sister. Gabriel did a Zombie Human Rights mockumentary as a student film project.

Talking to Gabriel has spurred me on to kick this script's ass one more time! I am about half way though stripping the direction out and have been tweaking as I go. I have determined not to avoid the parts I haven't been able to fix. I am plowing straight through, hammering away until I beat the story into submission. Anything I don't like I either kill or fix. I am to a point where I can read it through without cringing, and at a couple points actually chuckle or sigh.

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More work!

I just got a call back to grip on another local feature. It's short notice, starting this Monday, and I am on injured reserve with a broken or sprained toe. But damn the torpedoes, I'm doing it! The shoot is scheduled for a month of 10-hour days. But since I am interning, I will have to work at the pub for cash money. Fortunately the President gave me $300 of national debt [plus postage] to play with! It was going to go to Incorporation and search fees, but that will come around. I can't pass up an opportunity to work, even if it's for free!

I have been devouring Micheal Uva's Grip Book, and will have at least a working vocabulary to start the day. I wouldn't want to rig something a person had to hang off of, but I am fairly confident I can put lights up. Uva was thoughtful enough to include a section of on-set etiquette, which I should have read before I went out the first time.

So the chance of getting help on any of my projects just grew from a little seed into a seedling. Friday I went to a gallery opening for Oni Sakti. He does some lovely, obsessive work in a blend of traditional Japanese, Manga and Art Nouveau. Think Mucha watching Ninja Scroll while illuminating monastic manuscripts with Hans Arp. Dawn Wagner was there, radiant as ever, and I got her brand new CD! Yess...



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BIG habeas corpus UPDATE!

So the third revision of the script is finished, and it's on to number four! Now I am going through and stripping out camera direction and excess character notes. I hope to lose about 100 pages. Even as I rewrite for direction, I find places to tighten up grammar, correct spelling and fix continuity problems.

The most important revision was the addition of a MacGuffin for the main character, Todd. Sadly enough, this is mostly to support ONE visual gag at the end of the movie! But I can justify it as vital to the climax, and I hope it will be scary as hell!

In the next revision, I have decided to develop the relationship between the main character and his girlfriend. I had a hard time feeling sympathy for him. After all, he is kind of a prick, but his G/F loves him in spite of himself, and will try to find him when he gets in trouble.

Tomorrow night is the sneak preview of the Hagstone Demon starring Mark Borchardt of American Movie. It was written by Harrison Matthews, a regular at the bar I work at. I am excited to see more local film; The arts community in Minneapolis is just explosive right now!

I saw Nick Wanserski this week, and he has agreed to do our key poster art! I am stoked. Nick is a very talented illustrator and I have some solid ideas. We should have T-Shirts and stickers by this summer.

I got the opportunity to grip on a local film last month. I spent 12 hours on the set of Nocturne, produced by Crist Ballas and directed by Paul von Stoetzel with Geoff George as director of photography. Everybody was very patient with my total ineptitude onset. I never knew how much I didn't know about shooting film until that day. Tried to not make a fool of myself, and be as helpful as possible, but about the best I did was score some folding tables for Craft Services from my parents' house three blocks away. Thanks to everybody involved for the crash course. when I got home, I immediately bought Michael Uva's Grip Book and started learning what everybody was asking me for all day.

I registered habeascorpusmovie.com and orthiconpictures.com but they both currently redirect to my MySpace space. I am shopping around for hosting to have streaming video on there.

I have also contacted Scott Taylor to do some voiceover work on a demo reel of location scouting, wardrobe tests and storyboards. His rates for non-broadcast are too good to pass up!

http://www.taylormadeproductions.com/demos.html

I figure if Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright could sell Shaun Of the Dead with a narrated pad of stick figure drawings, I should have a fighting chance.

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The Slough of Despond...

Well, the 1st major revision of the screenplay is finished, and as soon as I finished it, I started blocking scenes. It just sort of started by itself... Almost every scene plays out in great detail in my mental theater, with very specific blocking and framing. I realize how much camera direction I had written into the body of the script, and am trying to trim it out and use note cards. A few who read the script said it was confusing to read around.

...and so it goes.

I have been watching the films of George Méliès, and find myself thinking about Point Of View and what it suggests to the audience. While his films were a direct extension of his [and Houdin's old] magical theater, the audience was constrained by artifice to narrow point of view. I am excited about what can be done in terms of perspective, with light cameras and fast lenses.

To the person that posted to my last web.log, please send me a note and ask for an invite on my My MySpace:

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Wow... I hate this movie!

I am having an experience that I have heard described in expectant mothers in their last trimester. I just want this thing out! Things are progressing slowly, and I am having horrible fits of procrastination. I need these plot lines and characters to get out of my head! I am so sick and bored of everything and everyone in this story.

...except Colleen. She is all innocence and purity, and also the Point Of View for much of the film, especially for scenes of violence. I feel like watching violence from a child's perspective intensifies the terror of it. It's kind of a dirty subliminal trick, but I think it will be effective.

I have been listening to my computer read the script to me, and either tweaking [the horrible] dialog or moving whole scenes around. But I am only 1/3 done. I just want the story to be done and then polished by more capable hands. Bob and Tristessa, hopefully working in some collaborative fashion, will do a dramatic overhaul and dialog writing.

But so far, I am happier with the flow of the story now that there is an extra day in the story. I got some time issues fixed, and used the extra day to establish a sense of place, set up plot devices and introduce characters and their dynamic with Todd.

Since I am writing for myself to direct, I have written a lot of camera direction and back-story into the script. In some instances, I have shot by shot direction if it's a scene I have clearly in my head. I am up to 164 pages, and I'm sure it will gain another 20-30 more with this revision. When the second draft is done, I will have to pare it down to a regular 90-110 word screen play, so we can shop it around for money. I have find a production assistant...

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More Connects!

Gordon, a mutual acquaintance, is associated with a local special effects company. I am hoping that I can get him to help on some practical effects. He is also a puppeteer... and a damn good one. He introduced me to Crist Ballass from http://www.metamorphosismakeup.com/

Crist does some amazing work and shows examples on his website that match anything I had imagined for the movie! In fact, he shows three specific things I need: A fake chin, a whithered female corpse, and really good hair appliances! And... he is local!