mine

A day without the crew.

Today we shot some pre-dawn and dawn footage for the start of the movie.  It looks fabulous.  Long lens stuff always does.

: : Nice Rolls.  It’s one of the character’s cars.

Day 15

The final two days of the shoot are upon us.

: : Sexy lighting.

: : Sixteen days to get to scene one!

: : Big crane day.

During this shot, a pedestrian keep standing in the background to watch.  From the distance, I can hear Corbin say, “WHO IS THIS GUY!?”  After a few chosen words, he left.  When you’re fighting the clock before the sun goes down, there’s no time for diplomacy.

Austin said something kinda funny today when we needed to charge the dolly – “bump the rump”.  A little “blue” but when you’re as tired as we are, it’s really funny.

The pre-light worked out well for most sections of the stage.  We’re still under equipped for my taste but you do what you can with the budget, time and resources you’re given.  The show’s gaffer, Josh, had to run off to another show so Jeremy is filling in as gaffer.  He did a great job with the pre-light.  We used just about everything we had to light essentially two large stages.  It seems to have worked.

: : Big crowd day.

Day 16 – The Final day.

Luke (Best Boy Electric) mentioned something funny.  During our time off before this weekend, he woke up to find the painting we’re using in this film on his TV.  The channel he left his TV on was playing “Major League” – that’s where Corbin got the painting.  You just can’t get away from him.

: : Leigh (2nd AC) and Marvin (1st AC)

: : Paul pins the tail on the Luke. (photo by Tom M.)

: : Tom (Key Grip) holding the coveted “pin-the-clothes-pins-with-a-note-on-the-crew-member-tail.”  This is why we need a bigger expendables budget!

To close, I want to say “Thank you” to the entire cast and crew for what was a long and hard couple of weeks but through it all a wonderfully enjoyable time.  Thank you camera, grip & electric team for making the show look so good and putting so much of yourselves into the project.  I’ll see you guys in a couple of weeks for the next one.

And now the phrase that pays…
“Can you put a double on that attitude!”

Day 14:

Stunts, long dolly shots, night shots – it all happened today. 

Today is the big day when Corbin does his own stunt flying into a cabinet with glass shelves housing his snow-globes.  We shot four cameras on it.  It looks great I can’t wait to see it all edited together. 

The last shot of the day was a 50′ dolly shot in the back alley of the studio.  Blue-green night light, pools of light for streetlights and people walking in and out of the shot.  Austin (Dolly Grip) did a great job of staying with our actors and a foreground extra that framed the shot.  It’ll all make sense later but for now let’s just say it’s an awesome shot.  Thank you Austin (and Tom) for a great dolly shot and thank you to the electrics for the hustle to get the lights and power up. 

: : the DP-to-dolly adapter (Tom’s joke, not mine.)

: : Last minute preparations for the stunt

: : The group photo (I’m SO glad I was able to get this)

: : The men of Donna on Demand – L » R: Austin (Dolly Grip) / Tom (Key Grip) / Jake (G/E Intern) / Jeremy (Electric) / Josh (Chief Lighting Technician) / Luke (Assist. CLT)

Alas, your moment of Zen.

We’re coming up on the last weekend of shooting.  I’m post more detailed information after the shoot is done.  Here are some pictures until then…

: : order.


: : Our set photographer


: : Susan’s final day on set.


: :One of several bird’s-eye-view shots.


: : Melissa’s (PA) makes it in the movie


: : Melissa’s all night project.

: : Luke (Assist. CLT) on the ready

: : Corbin (dir) and Lindsay (Script Supervisor) talk about our shots

: : the first of the extras days.

: : my friend Toby visits the set and gets asked to be in a shot!

: : a memento from his visit.

Day 9 & 10:


: : Night mode on the “Office” set

: : just over a week into production, what’s this doing on the set!?

: : a tree of lights.

: : Corbin takes a much needed nap.

: : if I have a signature shot, it’s got to be the bird’s-eye-view shot.

: : after the day of playing the “clip the clothespin on the crew member” game, clothespins became a scarce commodity.

: : Corbin takes a quite moment on set.

: : Here’s something I’ve been toying with on this show.  It’s a technical schedule loosely based on an idea proposed by DoP Paul Wheeler.  On a spreadsheet, I typed in the basic information for each scene and added to that information necessary to the camera, grip and electric departments as well as a section for my own notes.  Each night I’d take the call sheet for the next day and set aside the scenes we’d be shooting, adding notes for the various departments as they relate to those scenes and print a copy for each department.  For example, if we’re shooting in a hall, I might put notes about what lights I’d like to use, what grip/dolly equipment we might need, or what lens filters I might want.  It might also be notes about the weather since we might have to light a set based on the conditions that existed when we shot the exteriors.  It worked somewhat.  It falls apart when there are significant changes to the call sheet.  Also, our preproduction planning was limited so knowing exactly what might be needed when and where just didn’t happen.  Still, I like the system and I’ll keep toying with it and trying to improve it. 

: : Marvin’s (2nd AC) artistry on the slate.

Six days on and finally a day off.  Whatever will I do with myself.  Oh, yes, I’ll head back to the set for a meeting.

DAY 7: We’ve crossed the hump!  Or maybe not.  We still have a huge scene with 100′s of extras this coming weekend.  The pressure mounts.

With the crew working so very hard and under tremendous pressure, what better treat than chocolate to ease the tension.  My chefy wife made her delicious s’mores for the crew and I think they were a hit.  Whatever shall I bring next?

: : Fresh out of the kitchen.  Yummy chocolate, marshmallow, caramel, and graham cracker goodness.

: : Finally a picture of me.  (Thank  you Rusty.)

: : Blocking for the dead bodies.  Anyone for a game of pool?

: : Dead bodies everywhere.

: : Neil Dickson does his schtick for our bluescreen plate shot.  Bravo, simply smashing ol’ chap.

: : Screen shot from the process shot.

: : Corbin discusses the scene with Adrienne.

: : For our noir aesthetic, Jeremy (1st Electric) created this blinds gobo from left over leafs from the set’s blinds and attached it to a 4×4 frame.  He said it was inspired from “The Black Dahlia”.

: : Chris C. (PM) takes a stroll around the stage.  Can you hear the circus music playing?

DAY 4: We finally got some clouds for our exteriors.  The script was written with rain but not luck.  If you’ve read the past couple of entries, you know we’ve had planes, trains and today ladies and gentlemen, today we had a truck playing “La Cucaracha” for a very, very long time.  It’s cute at first, but after about a minute, not so much!  By night, we had stoners playing loud music.  Great.  The “night color” mix works really very well – it just doesn’t carry very far because it absorbs so much light.  The mix is Lee 281 (3/4 CTB) & Lee 241 (fluorescent 5700K).

DAY 5: Corbin mentioned something early on by saying he wanted the movie to be a “video noir.”  He didn’t have a clear definition of what that meant and I’ve been toying with the term in my head and I think on day 5 of the shoot it started to come to light.  I know it seems like it might be late into the shoot to have it finally actualized, but given the fact that we only had a few day of prep within the two weeks prior to production, I don’t think that’s too bad.  Also, nothing that we’ve shot prior today has been comprimized.  Just the opposite.

DAY 6:  We had nudity on the set today.  Everyone behaved very professionally I’m pleased to report (not that there wasn’t some hushed humor on the side).

Here’s a funny anecdote – here it is as i remember it.  Our script supervisor, Lindsay, made a New Year’s resolution to not swear.  During on scene, we needed a long section of the script to be read aloud that was loaded to the hilt with profanities.  Ouch, my virgin ears!!!

DEFINITION:  irony (i•ro•ny)  – noun (pl. -nies)  • a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result

One final note, one of our producers is on a one year quest to eat only raw foods.  He said something tonight I thought I should share.  Like a Zen thought puzzle I offer it to you:

You got to eat a lot of blueberries if you want to live off them.

: : Gary (AD) – Love that scooter.  To think he’s been using his legs like a suck all these years!

: : Melissa (PA) & Jesse (Producer) having a fun on the set (what’s with the Coke product placement?)

: : MEDUSA!

: : One of the coolest shots.  Two matching close-ups of Corbin & Dan Lauria.

: : Corbin blocks a scene with Dan.

: : Blocking the shot.  Corbin’s idea inspired by an other shot I suggested and shot.  The actors stand on either side of the gate while the dolly travels either side of the gate passing dangerously close to the edge of the gate.  Super cool shot.

: : Great bunch of guys!

Half way into the first week.  For this show, I decided to try a white promist filter for the day and night exteriors and black promist for all interiors.  The look of the 1/8th white with day exteriors worked wonderfully.  Softening the highlights and flattening the dark areas added to our gloomy “living in the valley” look.

The crew has been so amazing.  They’ve been one to two scenes ahead of production.  We’ve been playing around with varying color temperatures.  It’s subtle but it’ll look great when it’s boosted in post. 

: : from this…

: : …to this…

: : …to this.  It didn’t happen overnight but it did happen.  Great job by the construction crew.

: : aaaahh! Nerds!

I haven’t forgotten your moment of Zen.

Day One: So you’d think that shooting on a stage would liberate us from the oppressive sound delays that happen on location.  Not when the Burbank airport flight path is over head.  We still managed to leave the gate strong with a whopping 15 pages of script covered today.  To facilitate that a teleprompter was hired for a series of dialogue pages that are delivered to camera.  Overall, great performances and good looking footage.  All while on day four of being sick with a cold.  But with every high there is a low and at the end of the day, I found out the my hard drive crashed.  I know what you’re asking, “did you back up your drive”.  The long and the short of it is, no.  I probably didn’t need that data anyways.

Day Two: Inside it’s planes, outside it’s sirens.  We managed to finish 11 pages today.  I almost screwed the pooch by suggesting a shot that should have taken less time but actually took a little longer than we’d hope.  The shot involved two actors talking from either side of a wall.  We had planned on shooting it by dollying into a dark space with on actor and with the other actor, starting in a dark place and dollying to them.  Well the set has a door and I figured we combine the shots by dollying through the door.  After I got Corbin onboard with the shot, came execution.  First problem, will the track fit, well 30″ track can be made to fit into a 27 3/4″ frame by collapsing the track slightly and tucking in the dolly wheels to fit.  Tic, toc, tic, toc… Next, will the camera fit?  With the matte box removed and some finagling, you can get this camera and lens to a length of 28 1/4″  by removing the door jam, you loose an inch or so.  Tic, toc, tic, toc…  When all is said and done, we ended up with about a 4mm clearance in front of the lens and about 2mm in the back.  Have I had a chance to mention that it’s a really great shot!?  Well the delay led to some tension on the set.  The tension led to the AD raising his voice and to the credit of the crew, things ran with military precision and every one ended the evening on a good note.  I truly can’t say “thank you” enough to the camera, grip and electric crew for stepping up to the challenge of making the lighting and camera work so well.  Thanks guys.

One last a silly note to the day happened after hours while the director and producer were discussing the next day’s logistics.  We have some extras that need to come in and they’re slated to dress like “nerds”.  We also have a scene with a detective called Dicks.  As I remember the discussion, it had to do with arranging where the nerds needed to be in relation to the “scenes” with Detective Dicks.  Here’s what I heard and you can decide if it was worth a laugh.

- “We’ll need to take out the Dicks.”
- “But we’ll still need the nerds with Dicks, right?”

Potty humor, I know, but it’s still funny.

: : Nice.

: : Corbin directs actor Adrienne Frantz.

: : 12 feet high and looking down.

: : Koji (1st AC) & Marvin (2nd AC) prep the camera.

: : One of my favorite shots – Corbin blocks some action.

: : Corbin & Gary (1st AD) plan a scene.

: : The Colts win… HA!

: : Josh (CLT) takes an early holiday.

: : Corbin blocks the scene with Susan.

…and so it begins.  The construction on the office set is proceeding nicely.  The first of the removable “4th wall” flats is half way finished.  Set construction is being done by Corbin’s brother, Collin, with the help of a fantastic construction crew.  For the office, I did some calculations based on a proposed floor plan Corbin drew.  The room is going to be 20′x30′.  Given the lenses we’ll have available and the fact that Corbin is just over 6′ tall, we went with a wall hight of 12′.  Later a series of rafters will be placed to somewhat hide the lack of a ceiling as well as some air ducts to match the aesthetic of the stage ceilings and give the room more of a loft feeling.  Window are being cut out of the fly-away walls at a height of 10′.

: : office set

Thursday started out with a meeting with all the production keys to go over the script page-by-page.  After that, another meeting with the crane operator to discuss a big crowd day we have on our last weekend.  Then, a little firefighting action.  It’s shocking (though not surprising) how many fires crop up on a movie of limited means.  But they do and you deal with them as best as you can.  I only wish we had a behind-the-scenes camera rolling to see the constant barrage of problems fired at our producer and the poised efficiency he handled it all.  Chris, it didn’t go unnoticed!

: : page-by-page discussion of the script with the all the keys

On Friday, with most of the jams resolved we start our pre-light and camera prep.  It’s funny to think but, while we’ll save a great deal time and resources by shooting on a stage, we pay for it by needing to light up everything that often nature and a real location already provide.

: : nice and orderly – just how I like it.

: : early look of what the set will look like for the great reveal.

: : my little nook in the craft services room.

By night, it was time for a table read with most of the actors.  Adrienne could arrive due to work commitments on “Young and the Restless”.  Other got there late due to crane that fell on the 405 freeway.  Nevertheless, we marched forward and Corbin got a chance to hear the script out loud and in a different voice then the one in his head.  The best part, is hearing the group laugh at the rights spots, which is good.  The thing that got quite a few laughs was our Canadian actor who couldn’t break from saying, “a-boot” instead of “about”.  Flashbacks of the South Park.

: : table read with most of our actors.

The sets are well on their way to being built and it’s all coming together nicely. At 10AM I met with the Gaffer (Josh D.) to go over the sets and exchange some ideas about the lighting. Then after a quick jaunt to Costco for lunch with the AD, a walk through with Corbin and the Key Grip (Tom) for more of the same. Following that Corbin, the Prop Master (Lance) and I did it all again this time discussing practical lighting placements. A very productive day that has continued well into the night.

At present, I’m reviewing my various options for dimmer packs and consoles. I’ve narrowed it down to a Stand C80 6x 6kW and 12x 2.4kW dimmer pack and an ETC Acclaim control console. Next we’ll have to see if such amenities can be fit in our budget. What we pay in money will be more than saved in time!

We also got word today that we’ll have two days worth of crane shots.

More research, note taking, planning and paperwork this weekend.

: : our Malibu set

: : our office set

: : our alley