Gregory Lamberson's Blog, page 13

The Long and Winding (Carnage) Road

No breaking news here, just collating tidbits I've posted on Facebook.

I started out as a micro-budget filmmaker who aspired to make bigger films, and when that didn't happen I segued into writing novels I hoped Hollywood would make.  Of course, Hollywood isn't a person, it's a place occupied by many persons, and without an agent  representing your work, it's  hard to get a toe in the door, let alone a foot.  A few years ago, my buddy R.J. Sevin, smarting from long, painful hours doing special effects on my 2009 opus Slime City Massacre, asked me to write a novella or novel for the zombie imprint he and his wife Julia started for their indie press Creeping Hemlock Press.  I'd already written two big zombie novels, Desperate Souls and Twisted Spirits, in my occult detective series The Jake Helman Files, so I chose the novella format, a first for me.  The result was Carnage Road, the story of two bikers, Boone and Walker, who travel across the country during the zombie apocalypse.  For me, the book is about friendship, just like Easy Rider and Lonesome Dove are.  It's a short book, but I consider the ending among my best writing.  It received some excellent reviews (and a few hilarious negative ones from bloggers who didn't see the ending for the dark ode to George Romero that it is, and actually thought it was a cliffhanger!).

One year ago, Chris Olen Ray hired me to be first assistant director on Battledogs, starring Craig Sheffer, Dennis Haysbert, Ernie Hudson, Bill Duke and Wes Studi.  I loved working with Craig, who had starred in Clive Barker's Nightbreed, among others, and gave him a copy of Carnage Road, which he finished in a few days.  A few months after the shoot, he called me to see if the rights were available.  A few months after that, he followed up.  And a few months after that, he came to Buffalo to discuss the possibility of turning the book into a film or TV series. Less than a year after we met, he's optioned the book, with me attached to co-write the script with him.

I have several author friends who can attest that an option means nothing in Hollywood; so few projects ever make it into development, and even fewer actually get produced.  This is all true.  But Craig's idea is to pitch the property as a TV series, and if no one bites he intends to produce and direct it as an indie feature, and he's raised respectable budgets in the past.  Right now I'm writing drafts of a pilot script incorporating his ideas, and if we go the feature route, that will become the first half of a film.  Craig's encouraged me to discuss it at my upcoming conventions, but I won't be posting detailed blogs about the development, just a few details here and there to let my readers know how it's going. If we go into production, it will be a different story. I've already enjoyed writing the script tremendously, these are characters that I love.  And if a film or TV show don't materialize, it's better to be in the game than sitting on the bleachers.

Carnage Road is available as a paperback and as an e-book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Carnage-Road-Gregory-Lamberson/dp/0984739432/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376925802&sr=1-1&keywords=carnage+road+lamberson

SCAREMONGER Reviews

A few reviews of Scaremonger, my new Kindle exclusive e-book novella, available on Amazon for 99 cents, have cropped up.  Scaremonger is "Book One in The Liliy Dale Chronicles," and I've labeled it "A Lily Dale Chiller."  Expect volume two early next year.

Horror Novel Reviews:rates the novella 4/5:

Scaremonger is built around a killer high-concept: the psychic members of a spiritualist community are being picked off one by one, and it’s up to Rosa Thorn aka Lily Dale to crack the case and confront the supernatural evil terrorizing the town. The story was originally based on a screenplay and the 24,000-word novella unfolds at a feverish, cinematic pace. I loved the pulp energy of the piece; there are a lot of short scenes and a ton of cross-cutting, and the dynamic style is perfectly suited for this particular genre effort. More than just a spooky yarn, the tale serves as an origin story of sorts for the titular character who starts out as Rosa Thorn but ultimately adopts the name of the spiritualist town and becomes Lily Dale (great name by the way for a series character).

My one, initial reservation was that Lily Dale was a fun, badass character, but I couldn’t quite tell what made her unique and different from other FBI agents we’ve met before. I shouldn’t have feared as Mr. Lamberson has a killer twist in store that propels the character to a whole other level and raises expectations for upcoming adventures.

Read the entire review here: http://horrornovelreviews.com/2013/08/16/gregory-lamberson-scaremonger-the-lily-dale-chronicles-review/

Dreadful Tales posted:

What you don’t know (because you haven’t read the damned thing yet) is that this book, while being touted as a “thriller”, definitely has all of the markings of a fun romp you’d expect from any of this author’s previous monster stories. And that’s what it is, to me at least. It’s a monster story. It’s got all the gore and scares, and crazily describes yuckiness you’ve come to expect from Lamberson’s imagination. Sure you could argue that this is a ghost or a witch tale… but the main baddie is so reminiscent of many of the horror villains I love, it’s hard to look at the spiritualist side of the tale through all of the badassery this evildoer is committing.

And if you take a look at the titular character, you’ll see a lot of Jake Helman, Maria Vasquez, and hell… even Tony Mace, in her. She’s tough, she’s a fighter, she’s got a shitty past, and she’s ready to do anything in order to get to her goals. Rosa Thorn is a very strong character, but you can bet, in pure Lamberson fashion, she’s put through her paces in this story. Though, she’s is a bit different from the aforementioned characters… but I won’t give that bit away.

In the end, the only downfall to Scaremonger is that it just felt too short. It’s very apparent that it was culled from a screenplay format to fit into a novella-sized piece of fiction, as the action is almost non-stop, and the scenes are described with an eye cinematic touches, but that isn’t harmful in the least.

Read Colum McKnight's full review here: http://dreadfultales.com/2013/08/08/scaremonger-by-gregory-lamberson/

And right here on Livejournal, Ray Stilwell posted on his captainsblog:

Maybe this is a cheat, because the author, a WNY-bred and Buffalo-living LJ friend of mine, glamberson, made clear that it was only a novella. His post about it also explained that it was a diverted screenplay- one which he'd not managed to secure funds and filming rights on the historical site to bring to a screen, but which seemed right to him to bring to a Kindle as his first electronic-only self-pub.

Dude? Ya done good.

I've never been to Lily Dale, but I know from it. One of my earliest law-clerking ventures in law school back in the early 1980s, for the father attorney of a college friend, was to help brief an obscure Religious Corporation Law issue about the Spiritualist Assembly that runs seances and other psychic things in the county an hour to the south of here. So when a powerful Fundie from three centuries earlier starts haunting and (maybe?) killing in that community in the present day, I had to pay attention.

We meet that spectre- along with a cast of dozens from the spiritual grounds; several Mulder-Scullyish FBI agents; and a pair of Chautauqua County sheriffs' deputies who are right out of Twin Peaks down to the pie. They're fun, and scary (but not too), and the work reaches a nice denouement in about an hour if you're doing your cardio right.

You can read other book reviews by Ray in the same blog here: http://captainsblog.livejournal.com/1178236.html

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There you have it - if you're into this whole Kindle e-book realm, and love strong female characters, fast paced action and the paranormal, check out my latest and get my new series off to a strong start.

THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS Day Thirteen: That's a Wrap!

The last day of principal photography on The Legend of Six Fingers was as brief and smooth as possible.  My FanExpo friend Tia Maurice, fresh off her role in Dry Bones, took a bus from Canada for a role.  The bus was late, and me and my family picked her up around 5:00 pm, and then we met Paul McGinnis for dinner.  After a quick pit stop at home, we drove to Andrew Ellis's apartment, where I had scheduled two scenes.  Naturally, we walked in as Sam Qualiana and Andrew were shooting a take for the first scene.  After a couple of takes, I called a picture wrap on Andrew, who did a great job throughout the shoot and was a pleasure to work with.

Sam told me that earlier in the day he had filmed the scene with his father scheduled for tomorrow, so today was definitely our last day of principal.  Tia changed into her outfit, she and Sam rehearsed the scene, we did a few takes of that, and I called a picture wrap on Tia.  Great job, Tia!  And then I called a picture wrap on Sam, and a picture wrap.  Except for two second unit scenes with our last guest star that bookend the film - which will be shot on the other side of the country - we finished shooting the film.  Not only that, but we finished two days ahead of schedule - fourteen, with the second unit footage to come.  And several of those were half days.  Sam's original plan was to knock himself out shooting the film in one week.  Then we added one day to shoot scenes with Debbie Rochon, and another to shoot some with Lynn Lowry.  Michael Raso agreed to be our executive producer and provide matching funds for every dollar we raised on IndieGoGo, so we decided there was no reason to cram all of production into such a short span of time.  I scheduled sixteen days total; one of those was a contingency day in case we got rained out, and we just didn't need the other one.  The shoot was relaxed but focused, and we moved better by having such a tight unit.  Of course, Sam still has to edit the film, and if it comes up short we'll end up using one of those days to shoot some additional material.

Congratulations to Sam on completing his second feature, and for doing what few - if any - others have done: write, direct, shoot and star in a horror film, all at the same time.  He did an excellent job.  Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast was a fun creature feature aimed at a specific audience, and it's a success.  The Legend of Six Fingers is a stronger film - it's better conceived, better written, and very well acted.  It also has a vision, and that vision belongs to Sam.  I'm glad I produced the film, and I'm confident that I strengthened it in many ways.  Roy Frumkes once told me that he saw his job on Street Trash to raise the money, ensure that Jimmy Muro had the time he needed to make the film he wanted, and protected Jimmy from outside distractions that are almost synonymous with the business.  Hopefully I did that for Sam, only on a smaller scale.

We owe a boat load of thanks to all of our IndieGoGo donors and to Michael Raso at Camp Motion Pictures.  Thank you to all of our cast members, professionals, aspiring, and amateurs alike - you all did great work.  Andrew Elias was fully committed to this project and deserves credit for his hard work.  Debbie Rochon and Lynn Lowry brought a level of talent and professionalism to our first two days that inspired the rest of the shoot.  Bill Brown did not surprise me with his impressive performance, I knew he had it in him.  Ditto Daniel Arrasjid.  Alain Alvarex was an unknown quantity to me and showed real charisma.  Alex McBryde, Simeon Qualiana, Tia Maurice and Nicole Ferrara delivered the goods in their scenes.  There were other people I didn't get to work with, like Amie James, CJ Qualiana and Hernan Carabello, but Sam said they were excellent.  Special thanks to Tim O'Hearn: when I said, "Tim, how would you like to wear a hot Bigfoot costume and run around the woods in August?" he didn't hesitate to commit, and he did a great job with zero complaining.

We had a miniscule crew on this shoot.  A self proclaimed filmmaker recently blamed his failure to complete any of his projects on inadequate crews in Buffalo; I call major league bullshit on that.  Slime City Massacre, Snow Shark, Model Hunger, Battledogs, Dry Bones, and now The Legend of Six Fingers all prove that we have dedicated, talented crew people in this town.  On Six Fingers, Andrew and Alain both helped out as crew on days when they weren't shooting; Erica Ladd was a frequent production assistant and big help; Chris Rados pitched in with lighting even while working on The American Side; when Scotty Franklin was unable to help on a day when we needed him, he sent a replacement.  John Renna and Christine Blackman not only applied Craig Lindberg's excellent appliance for Six Fingers to Tim's face, they traipsed around hot fields and mosquito infested woods with us, hauling supplies and slating scenes.  Paul McGinnis and Michael O'Hear assisted with casting.  A damn good crew!

As I noted above, Craig Lindberg, he of two Emmy nominations, created an excellent face for Six Fingers, and obtained appropriate webbed claws for us.  I came up with a pretty novel solution for our monster suit needs and took dental impressions of Tim's teeth.  Rod Durick loaned us body parts, Mike Gesel loaned us animal skulls and bones, and we recycled some props created by Rod and Arick Szymecki for Dry Bones.

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone, the hour is late and we have post production, a wrap party, and a premiere to worry about!

THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS: Day Twelve - It Turned Cold, and That's Where It Ends

A short report from me, since I was only on location for a few hours.

I scheduled ten pages of script for writer-director-star Sam Qualiana and co-star Andrew Elias to shoot today.  To ensure that we had enough time to shoot all of the monster scenes with Tim O'Hearn - mission accomplished -  I piled on a lot of dialogue scenes between Sam and Andrew in the woods, including a dramatic, gory discovery.  My key job was to deliver Alexander Sloan McBryde to location for a scene with him, Simeon Qualiana (Sam's brother), and our leads.  Alex is a talented local actor who appeared as "Pimp Bless" in Slime City Massacre.  He also appeared in three "Black Guy on a Rampage" shorts, and recently performed for me in Dry Bones.  He had a later call time, and since the drive from my house to the Qualiana lot is so far, Sam and I agreed I could just come with Alex.

We met at Qualiana base, where Alex put on his costume and we lathered ourselves in mosquito repellant.  Sam and Andrew, with the help of Erica Ladd and another production assistant, had already completed shooting the eight pages of script that did not involve Alex and Simeon.  They must have done so in four hours, since they also took lunch.  I hope Andrew gets some good notices when the film is reviewed, because he's done an excellent job, which is one of the reasons why the production has run so smoothly.

We traveled all of ten minutes to a nice park in Royalton and proceeded into the woods.  These woods had a different look than those on the Qualiana back lot, which was a nice change of pace: taller trees, spaced wider apart, with a ravine, a waterfall, and a fairly respectable foot bridge sort of like the one in Gunga Din, minus the gaping chasm below.  We rehearsed the scene a few times, shot it a few times, recorded some wild screams, then called a picture wrap on Alex and Simeon and a production wrap on Erica.  Alex and Simeon were both funny.

Sam, Andrew, Alex and I then grabbed a few more shots and that was the end of another exhausting day on The Legend of Six Fingers.  The magic of found footage films!  I may have to direct one of these myself.  Today was a bit of a milestone - it was the last day of shooting in the woods.  Even though I spent less time in the wilderness than Sam and Andrew did, I spent my share there and came home quite a few We with mud on my legs covering scratches and mosquito bites.  It was also the last full production day: tomorrow we have two interior scenes to shoot in the evening, and on Thursday Sam shoots a single scene with his father CJ (the sheriff in Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast).  That will be a wrap, except for two scenes which bookend the film, which will be shot far, far away with our remaining guest star, Tiffany Shepis.

I feel good about this film: the story and performances are there, the monster is good, and Sam has shown real skill as a director.  Between this and Dry Bones, we'll have shot two good features in six months.

THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS - Day Eleven

We had a relatively short day on The Legend of Six Fingers because we got a head start on today's shoot yesterday.  I delivered Tim O'Hearn to location at Sam Qualiana's a little early, and it took less time for John Renna and Christine Blackman to apply Craig Lindberg's make-up (not that it took long yesterday).  We suited him up and did our thing.  Most of the scenes in the film occur on the land behind Sam's house or the land behind his parents' house across the street; both lands were used in Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast as well.  Call them the Qualiana back lot.

Bill Brown arrived on time for his remaining key scenes, and brought his own pump action shotgun.  The Qualiana golf cart is out of commission, but a neighbor/PA brought his, and we used that to transport the talent.  Shooting in snow is not fun, but shooting in sun baked fields and mosquito infested woods have their drawbacks too.  I swear, these are kamikaze mosquitoes, they don't care if the repellant kills them, they just want our blood.  Andrew Elias had no scenes to shoot today, but like a good soldier, he came and helped out as a PA.  I like that guy; you will too when you watch the film.

Tim O'Hearn did not complain once about the appliance, teeth, full body costume, etc.  We did our best to relieve him of as much of the costume as possible between setups, and to keep him cool.  I'm glad the weather cooperated, and we generally had a breeze even when it was hot.  He did a great job as Six Fingers, and I'm glad we finished early so he could make his long drive back to Binghamton.  We shot the climax first, wrapped Bill - who was a delight, beginning to end - shot some additional scenes with Tim, then wrapped Tim.  John and Christine had to leave early - John did some touch-ups before leaving - so Tim removed the appliance himself, but he still had glue on his face, and guy-liner, when we went out to lunch.  Sam downloaded all the pics I took with Tim's camera, then I drove Tim to my house so he could remove the glue and get started on his drive.  Following the plan we've established since the third day of filming, Sam and Andrew shot some pickup scenes scheduled for tomorrow.   Two more days and we're wrapped!

Special thanks to our SFX team, from Long Island to Buffalo.  We never had a delay related to make-up.  Craig on design and fabrication, John and Christine on application and tending to Tim, Sam and John on blood, Rod Durick for loaning us some props, and Rod and Arick Szymecki for Dry Bones props we recycled here.  Also, Tim Gesel for loaning us his collection of animal skulls and bones.  Barring any tornadoes or floods tomorrow, this has been the easiest shoot I've ever worked on, and that's coming right after Dry Bones was the easiest shoot,  We have our shit down, somebody needs to fund us so we can keep doing what we love.

THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS: Day Ten

Yesterday was supposed to be Day Ten of production on The Legend of Six Fingers, but materials we needed for special make-up effects did not arrive on time, so we cancelled our shoot.  Good thing we filmed eight days before the official production start date, or we'd now be 50% behind schedule instead of 50% ahead.  Fortunately, I allowed three days for the two days of filming we need to do with Tim O'Hearn as Six Fingers, so we didn't actually lose a day at all, we just ate up a contingency day.  Moving on to a new deal!

Once we knew the materials had finally arrived, we told Tim to make the three and a half hour drive from Binghamton to my house yesterday, then we swung by John Renna's house to make sure all of the elements fit Tim's face.  After buying some denture adhesive for Six Fingers's teeth, we hit the hey.  I got up at 5:30 am, Tim got up fifteen minutes later, I called John to make sure he wouldn't be late, and Tim and I made the 40 minute drive to Sam Qualiana's house.  We got there fifteen minutes early, which was good because John was half an hour late...

John arrived with an assistant, Christine Blackman, a graduate of Tom Savin's make-up school.  Together they applied Craig Lindberg's Six Fingers appliance to Tim's face, touched it up, popped in his teeth,and we got him dressed in his full costume.  Sam drove Tim through the field to our woods location in a small trailer attached to a riding lawnmower and Andrew, John, Christine and I walked.  Tim looked pretty convincing and opposing, and we shot a few scenes of Six Fingers stalking Sam and Andrew, then switched locations (the field and woods behind Sam's parents' house).  We moved into the woods, where mosquitoes and other insects proceeded to bit the hell out of us despite layers of repellant.  Alain Alkvarez, who acted as Rex in previous scenes, came and helped out as a PA, and today we needed one - there were several runs to base camp and to Sam's.

Ted Haynes brought and grilled steaks and other dishes for lunch, which was swell of him.  We ate well.  John and Christine touched up Tim and we resumed filming in the woods, and the mosquitoes resumed feeding on our hemoglobin.  We finished everything that was scheduled for the day at 4:00 pm, and I pushed Sam to shoot the first scene scheduled for tomorrow - a major scene, it turns out.  We pulled it off.  Special props to Tim for enduring the woods, heat, and insect attacks in the uncomfortable monster suit, and to Sam and Andrew for delivering excellent performances in a climactic, dramatic argument.  We wrapped around 7 pm, twelve hours after call time, our biggest and most complicated day by far.

SCAREMONGER

My second novella, Scaremonger, is now available as a Kindle exclusive for only .99 over on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Scaremonger-Lily-Dale-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00EE05L8I/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1375961424&sr=8-7&keywords=scaremonger.

This is an experiment for me.  It feels strange offering 24,000 words for a buck, but with a 35% royalty rate it feels even stranger.  I have two titles coming up from Medallion this year: Storm Demon in October and The Julian Year TREEbook in December.  Storm Demon will be available in print and e-book formats, and The Julian Year will only be available for iPads and some phones,  After that, it will be a long wait until The Frenzy Wolves, the third and final book in my werewolf trilogy The Frenzy Cycle, is published in October 2014, and even longer until my sixth Jake Helman book, which will be the last in my signature series, is published in the spring of 2015.  I can't feed the fam on one book a year, thus this experiment self publishing e-books.  I also happen to enjoy writing series more than I do standalone novels, and with my two establlished series coming to an end, I'd like to have another in the works.  Scaremonger is subtitled "A Lily Dale Chiller," but it's listed on Amazon as "Book One in the Lily Dale Chronicles."

Lily Dale is a spiritualist assembly located fifteen minutes from where I grew up.  It's comprised of maybe three hundred homes.  Many of the people who live there are mediums, psychics, and healers.  There's a pet cemetery, an outdoor meeting place called Inspiration Stump, and indoor theater where guests like Deepak Chapra speak.  In the summer, it's filled with tourists; off season, it's a gray, hilly hamlet with narrow streets and cottages overlooking Victorian homes.  One road goes into the assembly, and the same road goes out.  It's a great setting for a horror yarn, and Jake Helman visited it for a couple of chapters in Cosmic Forces.  I use Lily Dale and Scaremonger to introduce a new action heroine, Rosa Thorn.  My favorite character to write is Maria Vasquez, Jake Helman's love interest, and I'm going to miss her - but Rosa kicks plenty of ass too, and she doesn't need to be anyone's love interest.

Check it out.  How can you go wrong for a buck?

THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS - Night Nine

Notice I didn't title this entry "Day Nine."

Discounting night time interiors, which have been a snap, tonight was the one night I scheduled for night time exteriors in the woods.  The schedule amounted to seven pages of script.  Under normal shooting conditions, that would be a full day, but the logistics of shooting a "found footage" film have proven far simpler and faster - I may have to direct one of these myself some day.  Still, the idea of traipsing around the woods all night didn't hold a lot of appeal for me, and when the weather forecast called for rain my spirits dampened.  Writer-director Sam Qualiana and I agreed we would shoot regardless of the weather.  Today was co-star Andrew Elias's first day of vacation, a vacation which he's devoting to this production, so we didn't want to squander a day of that for a few raindrops.  Plus, a night shoot requires a turnaround day before daytime shooting can resume, so we would have lost two full days instead of one if we'd rescheduled.

Sam's day called for him to set up two tents for the shoot: one picture tent for the scenes to be filmed, and one for base camp - a place where people could seek shelter from rain or sun.  My day involved showing John Renna the facial appliance, teeth, skull cap wig, and hands which Craig Lindberg created for the film on Long Island (the hands are actually recycled; they were created by Tom Denier, Jr. for another project).  John will be applying these to Tim O'hearn, the actor playing Six Fingers.  I used the opportunity to do laundry at John's because my machine is down, and later I took a nap to get ready for our late, wet night.

When I arrived at the woods location behind Sam's house, he and Andrew had already shot a scene of Andrew assembling the picture tent.  The two of them had actually erected two production tents, one close by and another farther back for wardrobe changes.  We proceeded to shoot a handful of scenes of the two of them bickering around a campfire.  I basically just slated and made dialogue suggestions, as usual,  Although I'd doused myself with deep woods insect repellent, I re-doused at camp: mosquitoes and other bloodsuckers went right for our backs, through our shirts.  Sam's camera had a light mounted on it, and they swarmed over him.

After we completed the sequence and the guys changed costumes, the promised rain came,  We shot one scene of Andrew's character suffering a breakdown and the rain fell harder, ignoring the notion that tents keep people and their belongings dry,  Lightning and thunder kicked in, and I suggested we shoot the remaining two scenes another day.  Say had already secured his camera in some kind of camera bag and wanted to continue, so we did.  We shot a great scene of Andrew pacing and talking to the camera in a downpour.  The rain added production value and made the scene more interesting,  We shot the scene several times, then called a wrap.  The one scene we didn't shoot involves Sam covered in blood, and for continuity reasons should have been scheduled for Sunday anyway.  So we kind of made our day and kind of didn't.

At this point, we've completed shooting half the film!  And today was supposed to be the first day of production.

Like

It's been so long since I browsed my frineds' LiveJournal blogs that I found myself looking for the "like" button - and look, there is one!

THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS Day 8 - Oar You Ready?

Actually, Day 8 is still happening as I file this brief report.  I begged off after one scene - I guess I'm spoiled after yesterday's four hour shoot.  Today I scheduled three scenes starring Alain Alvarez as Rex, a supporting character.  I scheduled them all on one day because Andrew Elias doesn't appear in these scenes, an dhe's working his regular job, and this way we wrap Alain in one day.

The first scene scheduled called for Sam and Alain to paddle out into water on kyaks and have a dialogue scene.  I'd planned to take today off for family business, but I decided I wanted to be on hand for safety purposes.  Erica Ladd, an intern on Battledogs  who's already helped out as a PA on this film joined us.  We drove out to a section of the Erie Canal in Gasport and Sam and Alain took Sam's two kyaks out on the water.  They paddled against the current until they were a decent distance away, then turned their kyaks facing each other and positioned them side by side so their characters could engage in conversation.  Sam had mounted the GoPro on the front of his kyak to cover him, and he filmed Alain.  They did the scene a bunch of times and returned to the dock.  Simple, visual and effective - and a nice change of scenery from the woods.  We stopped at what must have been the only pizzeria or restaurant in town - abandoned houses all around it - then returned to Base Qualiana, where Chris Rados joined us to light the remaining two scenes - an interview with Rex, and a party scene involving several extras.

Assuming everything is completed tonight - and we haven't missed a day yet - we'll be 40% finished with the script, and production doesn't officially begin until next Thursday.

Coming Next Week: the rest of the movie!  An all night shoot in the woods.  Renna in the house.  Two -possibly three days of shooting Tim O'Hearn as Six Fingers.  Terror.  Blood.  Death.  Pressure!  Wrap.