Gregory Lamberson's Blog, page 14
August 2, 2013
THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS: Day Seven - There Will Come Soft Rains
First, an update: yesterday, Sam and Andrew found the poo they were looking for. They also filmed several insects copulating. This is beginning to sound like a John Waters film, isn't it?
Today was an easy day. In fact, if all film set days were like this, working on films would be even more popular than being a union sanitation worker in Cheektowaga (we have the highest paid garbage collectors in the country; they get paid for working a full 8 hour shift when they only work 3...and they still leave my garbage cans in the middle of my driveway).
The only thing I scheduled for today were scenes featuring Daniel Arrasjid as Bryce, a man with an axe to grind against Six Fingers for eating his chickens. Schedule-wise, we needed to get these scenes today. Yesterday, we learned rain would strike around 10 am, so we moved our call time to 8:00 am instead of 9:00 am. The sky was beautiful! Today we actually had an extra pair of hands on set - Ken Consentino, who directed CRIMSON: TH EMOTION PICTURE. Three feature film directors made up 60% of the personnel on location. We shot everything we needed to. Daniel was great despite his aversion to chickens. The chickens were fine after Sam chased away the rooster. On the last take, the rain came. We made our day.
Apparently Sam's dog didn't get the message that Sam and Andrew found the poo, because she left us some art direction.
After tomorrow's shoot, we'll have covered 40% of the script - and production officially begins next week, when we'll get to see Tim O'Hearn in full Six Fingers make-up.
Today was an easy day. In fact, if all film set days were like this, working on films would be even more popular than being a union sanitation worker in Cheektowaga (we have the highest paid garbage collectors in the country; they get paid for working a full 8 hour shift when they only work 3...and they still leave my garbage cans in the middle of my driveway).
The only thing I scheduled for today were scenes featuring Daniel Arrasjid as Bryce, a man with an axe to grind against Six Fingers for eating his chickens. Schedule-wise, we needed to get these scenes today. Yesterday, we learned rain would strike around 10 am, so we moved our call time to 8:00 am instead of 9:00 am. The sky was beautiful! Today we actually had an extra pair of hands on set - Ken Consentino, who directed CRIMSON: TH EMOTION PICTURE. Three feature film directors made up 60% of the personnel on location. We shot everything we needed to. Daniel was great despite his aversion to chickens. The chickens were fine after Sam chased away the rooster. On the last take, the rain came. We made our day.
Apparently Sam's dog didn't get the message that Sam and Andrew found the poo, because she left us some art direction.
After tomorrow's shoot, we'll have covered 40% of the script - and production officially begins next week, when we'll get to see Tim O'Hearn in full Six Fingers make-up.
August 1, 2013
THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS: Day Six - The Search for Poo
Today was the sixth day of production on The Legend of Six Fingers. For those keeping score, we're shooting ten days in advance of our planned week the middle of August; two to accommodate guest stars Debbie Rochon and Lynn Lowry, and eight simply to get a head start so that any inclement weather doesn't set us back. Writer/director/co-star Sam Qualiana has set us four scenes ahead of schedule on top of that.
This morning I met Sam and lead Andrew Elias, the cryptozoologist in Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast, at Andrew's apartment, where the three of us shot scenes of documentary filmmakers Neil and Drew in their natural habitat. As predicted by "meteorologists," it rained outside - a downpour. Fearing the rest of the day would be a washout, Sam found another interior scene to do, and by the time we'd finished the sun broke, so we proceeded to shoot our first scenes in the woods where most of the film takes place. The woods were wet of course, and my new sneakers are no longer sneakers. Worse, the air was thick with mosquitoes, and the insect repellent Sam provided seemed to attract the bloodsuckers. Sam and Andrew performed their scenes well, and I slated the scenes and ducked behind bushes, out of sight.
A brief paragraph about Andrew, who was an extra in Battledogs and operated the boom on one day of Dry Bones. He's an extremely likeable guy, which is crucial to the story. His good sense of humor, nervous energy, and twitchy awkwardness remind me of Woody Allen. His character, Neil, is the earnest dork of the pair, while Sam's character, Drew, is a bit of an asshole. Because Sam and Andrew are best friends, they already have chemistry. While Sam's character is largely off camera - behind the camera - Andrew's is front and center. The key to this whole endeavor is to make the audience care about these guys as friends, and I'm sure we've nailed that.
After lunch at the Chinese Buffet, we went back out to shoot montage footage of the filmmakers exploring the woods. One of our chief goals was to locate poo on the ground for a humorous scene in which the men are searching for evidence of "Six Fingers," the legendary monster they're documenting. We didn't find any, and the search goes on. With the sun high and my skin unprotected, I ducked out before the final shots of the day. A simple day, but we made our day. The search for poo goes on.
This morning I met Sam and lead Andrew Elias, the cryptozoologist in Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast, at Andrew's apartment, where the three of us shot scenes of documentary filmmakers Neil and Drew in their natural habitat. As predicted by "meteorologists," it rained outside - a downpour. Fearing the rest of the day would be a washout, Sam found another interior scene to do, and by the time we'd finished the sun broke, so we proceeded to shoot our first scenes in the woods where most of the film takes place. The woods were wet of course, and my new sneakers are no longer sneakers. Worse, the air was thick with mosquitoes, and the insect repellent Sam provided seemed to attract the bloodsuckers. Sam and Andrew performed their scenes well, and I slated the scenes and ducked behind bushes, out of sight.
A brief paragraph about Andrew, who was an extra in Battledogs and operated the boom on one day of Dry Bones. He's an extremely likeable guy, which is crucial to the story. His good sense of humor, nervous energy, and twitchy awkwardness remind me of Woody Allen. His character, Neil, is the earnest dork of the pair, while Sam's character, Drew, is a bit of an asshole. Because Sam and Andrew are best friends, they already have chemistry. While Sam's character is largely off camera - behind the camera - Andrew's is front and center. The key to this whole endeavor is to make the audience care about these guys as friends, and I'm sure we've nailed that.
After lunch at the Chinese Buffet, we went back out to shoot montage footage of the filmmakers exploring the woods. One of our chief goals was to locate poo on the ground for a humorous scene in which the men are searching for evidence of "Six Fingers," the legendary monster they're documenting. We didn't find any, and the search goes on. With the sun high and my skin unprotected, I ducked out before the final shots of the day. A simple day, but we made our day. The search for poo goes on.
July 28, 2013
THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS Days 3,4 & 5; DRY BONES Progress Report
After shooting one day of The Legend of Six Fingers with Debbie Rochon and another with Lynn Lowry, this week Sam Qualiana shot three days on the film. My set report will be brief since I was only present for one of the three days (due to Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival duties and my daughter's first play - she played King Louie in The Jungle Book Kids).
Right now, we're shooting scenes in advance of our planned August 8th - 16th shoot, so everything we cover is gravy. The real advantage to knocking off scenes early relates to the weather. Most of this film takes place outdoors, so we're at the mercy of the rain. The more we shoot ahead of time, the more leeway we're giving ourselves if Mother Nature decides to have her way with us.
he
On Thursday, Sam shot scenes between himself and Andrew Elias which take place in the young filmmakers' apartment throughout the film. Not only did the guys make their day, but they shot four scenes beyond what I had scheduled for them. On Friday, they shot several scenes of their characters driving around in a car, and re-shot one they had shot on Debbie's day, preventing a continuity error. On Saturday, they shot an encounter with Beer Man (Hernan Caraballo, who kindly allowed us to use his home as a location). much later in the day, after Andrew had worked a full shift at his job, we shot a scene in which Sam's character attempts to convince a young woman (Nicole Ferrara) to strip on camera. Since we were there anyway, we decided to improvise an additional scene with Nicole for later in the film. So far, the "found footage" style of filmmaking is proving extremely easy.
We have a similar schedule this coming weekend; in the meantime, Sam will edit what he's shot so far.
My other film project for this year, Dry Bones, is currently being edited by my friend Phil Gallo, who co-composed the score for the original Mother's Day and directed West New York and Mattie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe. Phil edited Naked Fear and Slime City Massacre for me, and I consider him an essential collaborator. I insisted on recording sound directly into the camera we used (a T2i) to cut down the synching of dailies in post, and I'm glad we did. The portable mixer we used did a great job on the audio, and Phil was able to dive straight into editing. He cut about one third of the film, then took a week off to work on an assignment, and now he's 80% finished with the first cut. Based in NYC, he emails me sections of the film, I tell him if I want any changes, and we move on. The film looks really good, the acting is excellent - not a weak performance in the lot - and the laughs are there. He's now at the point of editing some really outrageous special effects scenes, and I can't wait to see them. Dry Bones will be finished this August, and The Legend of Six Fingers soon after. They'll make a great double feature!
Right now, we're shooting scenes in advance of our planned August 8th - 16th shoot, so everything we cover is gravy. The real advantage to knocking off scenes early relates to the weather. Most of this film takes place outdoors, so we're at the mercy of the rain. The more we shoot ahead of time, the more leeway we're giving ourselves if Mother Nature decides to have her way with us.
he
On Thursday, Sam shot scenes between himself and Andrew Elias which take place in the young filmmakers' apartment throughout the film. Not only did the guys make their day, but they shot four scenes beyond what I had scheduled for them. On Friday, they shot several scenes of their characters driving around in a car, and re-shot one they had shot on Debbie's day, preventing a continuity error. On Saturday, they shot an encounter with Beer Man (Hernan Caraballo, who kindly allowed us to use his home as a location). much later in the day, after Andrew had worked a full shift at his job, we shot a scene in which Sam's character attempts to convince a young woman (Nicole Ferrara) to strip on camera. Since we were there anyway, we decided to improvise an additional scene with Nicole for later in the film. So far, the "found footage" style of filmmaking is proving extremely easy.
We have a similar schedule this coming weekend; in the meantime, Sam will edit what he's shot so far.
My other film project for this year, Dry Bones, is currently being edited by my friend Phil Gallo, who co-composed the score for the original Mother's Day and directed West New York and Mattie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe. Phil edited Naked Fear and Slime City Massacre for me, and I consider him an essential collaborator. I insisted on recording sound directly into the camera we used (a T2i) to cut down the synching of dailies in post, and I'm glad we did. The portable mixer we used did a great job on the audio, and Phil was able to dive straight into editing. He cut about one third of the film, then took a week off to work on an assignment, and now he's 80% finished with the first cut. Based in NYC, he emails me sections of the film, I tell him if I want any changes, and we move on. The film looks really good, the acting is excellent - not a weak performance in the lot - and the laughs are there. He's now at the point of editing some really outrageous special effects scenes, and I can't wait to see them. Dry Bones will be finished this August, and The Legend of Six Fingers soon after. They'll make a great double feature!
July 23, 2013
Preview: STORM DEMON: The Jake Helman Files Book Five
Storm Demon , Book Five of The Jake Helman Files, will be published by Medallion Press on October 1st. To my knowledge, it will not be available as audio book from Audible.com. I encourage Jake Heman fans and anyone else who's interested to pre-order the book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I'm posting the special excerpt that will appear on the first page of the book below, to lure you into my web. Storm Demon is the penultimate installment of the series - the sixth book, which won't be published until 2015, will probably be the last, at least for now, With these six titles I've told the serialized saga that I set out to tell, and many of the mysteries I set up in the second book, Desperate Souls , and developed in Cosmic Forces and Tortured Spirits , will be solved in Storm Demon , setting the stage for what I hope will be a thrilling and satisfying conclusion. I've developed an entire follow up trilogy in my head, but that will have to wait. I'm grateful to Medallion for publishing this entire run, and to everyone there for supporting it. Now I know how TV show runners feel going into their final season - the pressure to deliver a punch that will knock fans on their asses!
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Demon-Jake-Helman-Files/dp/1605427462/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374600782&sr=8-1&keywords=storm+demon+lamberson
Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/storm-demon-gregory-lamberson/1114986811?ean=9781605427461
Plot description:
In the fifth book in the Jake Helman Files series, private investigator Jake Helman returns to New York City after fighting the battle of his life on Pavot Island to save his best friend, Edgar. He’s anxious to start a new life with NYPD homicide detective Maria Vasquez, but first he must search for psychic healer Laurel Doniger who disappeared while he was away. As Jake investigates Laurel’s secret past, he’s drawn into a conflict with a being that has existed since the dawn of mankind. This creature is known by many names—Lilith, succubus, witch—but Jake and his allies will come to know her as the Storm Demon, and she’ll destroy New York City to take revenge on those who interfere with her plans.
Jake Helman returns to New York City, anxious to start a new life with NYPD homicide detective Maria Vasquez. But the supernatural forces making his life hell have no intention of leaving him alone.
When psychic healer Laurel Doniger disappears, Jake lays his life on the line to bring her back alive. With time running out, he must uncover the truth behind Laurel’s secret past. He’s drawn into a conflict with a being who has existed since the dawn of mankind. She’ll destroy New York City to take revenge on those who interfere with her plans. This beautiful creature is known by many names—Lilith, succubus, witch—but Jake and his allies will come to know her as the Storm Demon. And the world will never be the same.
- See more at: http://medallionmediagroup.com/books/storm-demon/#sthash.m9OaFNjU.dpufEnticing blurb:"Jake Helman keeps getting better and better."
Desomd Reddick, Dread Media (home of the hits!)
Jake Helman returns to New York City, anxious to start a new life with NYPD homicide detective Maria Vasquez. But the supernatural forces making his life hell have no intention of leaving him alone.
When psychic healer Laurel Doniger disappears, Jake lays his life on the line to bring her back alive. With time running out, he must uncover the truth behind Laurel’s secret past. He’s drawn into a conflict with a being who has existed since the dawn of mankind. She’ll destroy New York City to take revenge on those who interfere with her plans. This beautiful creature is known by many names—Lilith, succubus, witch—but Jake and his allies will come to know her as the Storm Demon. And the world will never be the same.
- See more at: http://medallionmediagroup.com/books/storm-demon/#sthash.m9OaFNjU.dpufJake Helman returns to New York City, anxious to start a new life with NYPD homicide detective Maria Vasquez. But the supernatural forces making his life hell have no intention of leaving him alone.
When psychic healer Laurel Doniger disappears, Jake lays his life on the line to bring her back alive. With time running out, he must uncover the truth behind Laurel’s secret past. He’s drawn into a conflict with a being who has existed since the dawn of mankind. She’ll destroy New York City to take revenge on those who interfere with her plans. This beautiful creature is known by many names—Lilith, succubus, witch—but Jake and his allies will come to know her as the Storm Demon. And the world will never be the same.
- See more at: http://medallionmediagroup.com/books/storm-demon/#sthash.m9OaFNjU.dpufAnd here's the promised excerpt. As a tease, I'll tell you that I drew inspiration for this novel from two filmmakers who had a tremendous influence on my imagination when I was a child: Ray Harryhausen and Irwin Allen.
The door crashed open behind Jake, and the sound of hissing
filled the corridor, drowning out the sound of his footsteps.
Jake skidded to a stop and raised the gun to his shoulder.
Through the night vision scope he saw a creature with the upper
body of a woman and the lower body of a snake bearing down
on him at an incredible speed. He aimed the gun in the other
direction and saw a corner fifty yards ahead. Dropping the
weapon on its strap he sprinted, his boots pounding the tiled floor.
The hissing grew louder and more frantic.
Jake turned the corner and slid to a stop. He freed the
ATAC’s strap from around him and raised the weapon to his
shoulder. T rough the scope he saw the creature whip around
the corner and look in his direction. He lowered the barrel
over his stump and lunged forward, thrusting the knife on
the barrel’s edge.
The knife cut into something solid, and the beast unleashed
a hideous sound. Jake drew the blade out and thrust
again, cutting into her sternum a second time. He pulled the
blade out again, but this time something smacked the ATAC
out of his hand with a whip-like snap, and he knew the monster
had used her snake body to disarm him.
Jake backed up, ready to run, but something ensnared his
ankles and jerked his legs out from under him. He landed on
his back with a grunt, then clawed at the floor as the creature
dragged him toward her. Lightning flashed outside the
windows, illuminating her as she released Jake’s ankles and
wrapped her snake body around his legs and torso, pinning
his arms to his sides.
July 17, 2013
THE LEGEND OF SIX FINGERS: Day Two (the heat is on)
It seems a lot longer than one month since we shot Day One of The Legend of Six Fingers. Back then - two days after we wrapped Dry Bones - we filmed three scenes with Debbie Rochon before she left Buffalo again. During the interim, Sam Qualiana completed his screenplay, we held auditions and cast most of the roles, Craig Lindberg designed and sculpted our creature, Phil Gallo edited the first third of Dry Bones, and we ran a successful IndieGoGo campaign for the project - we reached our $4,000 goal one week early, and have raised a additional $430. It's not too late to contribute to the campaign, which remains live for seven more hours: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-legend-of-six-fingers/x/78828?c=home .
During the campaign, I made the same point I did during the Dry Bones campaign: we're not raising money for a trailer, but for an actual feature film. I have never produced a movie which was not completed, and I've never produced one which wasn't released on DVD by an actual distributor. Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast had a distribution deal in place before it premiered here in Buffalo, and the same will be true of Six Fingers. Your contributions will not be squandered. In any case, in seven hours there will be no more pleas for help (cyber panhandling, a friend of mine calls it). Thus we resumed production of our monster movie more or less on the second day of production.
My day began as usual: first I delivered my seven year old daughter to her summer theater workshop (she's playing King Louie in The Jungle Book Kids), and then I took my wife to her job. But instead of picking up one large coffee from TIm Horton's, I picked up a "ten to go" box, and instead of going home and hopping on Facebook, I drove to Buffalo and picked up Lynn Lowry. Readers of my blog may recall that Sam and I worked with Lynn one year ago, on Debbie Rochon's directorial debut, Model Hunger (which just locked picture; that means picture editing is done, and sound design and scoring can begin). I'm on record with my belief that Lynn's performance in that film rivals Terry O'Quinn's in The Stepfather, and I was looking forward to working with her again. If anyone had told me when I moved to Buffalo to become a novelist ten years ago that I would be making films with Debbie Rochon, Lynn Lowry, Tiffany Shepis, Craig Sheffer, Dennis Haysbert, Wes Studi and Ernie Hudson I'd have checked them to a hospital for psychiatric observation.
Lynn and I arrived at Sam's house on time at 9:45 only to discover he and the crew had moved across the street to our location, so Lynn had to change over there. I give Sam credit: this was a great location. The front of the house was decorated with animal skulls and antlers, very relevant to our storyline. Sam plays one of the two leads, Drew, the cameraman on our found footage film. He's shooting the A camera in character, while getting additional coverage with a Go Pro, a small camera designed for easy, unobtrusive handling (it can be worn on the head, a miniature version of the camera heads used in Albert Brooks's brilliant mockumentary Reel Life). His co-star is Andre Elias, who played a likeable cryptozoologist in Snow Shark. The fourth member of the cast today was Bill Brown, a Scottish actor who impressed me in a local stage production of Treasure Island. Our crew included Erica Ladd, who had worked with us on Battledogs, and Ryan Bress, who filled in at the last minute as our lighting director when our original guys got paying gigs (it happens!). That's it. We move small. We move well. We move fast.
First up, Neil and Drew (Andrew and Sam) walked up to the antler house and Andrew knocked on the door. Butch (Bill) answers the door, and after introductions are made, takes the filmmakers out back. We shot the scene four times and the actors nailed it each one, The first shot went off at 10:11, just under half an hour after call time. That's how we roll!
Next, we moved into the backyard, where Butch tells the guys the story of how he once saw the title creature in action, and his wife Ester (Lynn) invites everyone inside for some refreshments. The scene involved a decent amount of movement, and Bill - who was worried about ruining our film - did a fantastic job. Good actors breathe life into a character, and Bill made Butch larger than life. I feel the cast of Snow Shark never got the credit it deserved for that film, but I know no one will knock the performances in this film.
We moved inside for the big scene, when Ester regales the filmmakers with... the legend of Six Fingers. Her role is not a cameo; like Debbie's, it provides a solid foundation for the film's main action. It also wasn't easy: Sam has written a really good script with an excellent structure, but this supposed Native American legend is no easy bill of goods. Lynn had her lines down pat, and like Bill, tweaked them for effect, but she brought much more to the table, as I knew she would. It's fascinating watching a professional actor create a character, especially when you have the luxury of discussing the role with them (even via private messaging on Facebook). The style of a found footage film calls for the camera to drift from character, often using "shaky cam" for effect. I'm sure we'll have some of that in this film when the shit hits the fan, but for now Sam has kept his camera smooth and steady, and I was pleased today that he was confident to let the camera stay on Lynn, There was no air conditioning in the house, and the heat was pretty unbearable, so after a few takes we took a break, powered on the fans, cooled off, then did two more. Each one was fairly riveting. I love working with actors of differing levels of experience, but it's exciting to work with professionals.
Andrew Elias had his lines down pat, and I'm glad we cast him. Unlike Sam, his character is almost always on screen, so he's carrying a lo ton his shoulders. He was excellent today and really delivered. With the bulk of our day completed ahead of schedule, we broke for lunch - the same Chinese buffet where we took Debbie. For the rest of the shoot it will be hoagies and cold cuts.
Back at the ranch, we shot a final scene between Lynn and Bill, and called a wrap on Lynn: 9:45 am to 3:00 pm - five hours and fifteen minutes, minus an hour for lunch. Almost six pages of material. Quality footage, Except for the heat, it was a great day! Between Debbie and Lynn, we've covered 10% of the screenplay ahead of our official start date.
During the campaign, I made the same point I did during the Dry Bones campaign: we're not raising money for a trailer, but for an actual feature film. I have never produced a movie which was not completed, and I've never produced one which wasn't released on DVD by an actual distributor. Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast had a distribution deal in place before it premiered here in Buffalo, and the same will be true of Six Fingers. Your contributions will not be squandered. In any case, in seven hours there will be no more pleas for help (cyber panhandling, a friend of mine calls it). Thus we resumed production of our monster movie more or less on the second day of production.
My day began as usual: first I delivered my seven year old daughter to her summer theater workshop (she's playing King Louie in The Jungle Book Kids), and then I took my wife to her job. But instead of picking up one large coffee from TIm Horton's, I picked up a "ten to go" box, and instead of going home and hopping on Facebook, I drove to Buffalo and picked up Lynn Lowry. Readers of my blog may recall that Sam and I worked with Lynn one year ago, on Debbie Rochon's directorial debut, Model Hunger (which just locked picture; that means picture editing is done, and sound design and scoring can begin). I'm on record with my belief that Lynn's performance in that film rivals Terry O'Quinn's in The Stepfather, and I was looking forward to working with her again. If anyone had told me when I moved to Buffalo to become a novelist ten years ago that I would be making films with Debbie Rochon, Lynn Lowry, Tiffany Shepis, Craig Sheffer, Dennis Haysbert, Wes Studi and Ernie Hudson I'd have checked them to a hospital for psychiatric observation.
Lynn and I arrived at Sam's house on time at 9:45 only to discover he and the crew had moved across the street to our location, so Lynn had to change over there. I give Sam credit: this was a great location. The front of the house was decorated with animal skulls and antlers, very relevant to our storyline. Sam plays one of the two leads, Drew, the cameraman on our found footage film. He's shooting the A camera in character, while getting additional coverage with a Go Pro, a small camera designed for easy, unobtrusive handling (it can be worn on the head, a miniature version of the camera heads used in Albert Brooks's brilliant mockumentary Reel Life). His co-star is Andre Elias, who played a likeable cryptozoologist in Snow Shark. The fourth member of the cast today was Bill Brown, a Scottish actor who impressed me in a local stage production of Treasure Island. Our crew included Erica Ladd, who had worked with us on Battledogs, and Ryan Bress, who filled in at the last minute as our lighting director when our original guys got paying gigs (it happens!). That's it. We move small. We move well. We move fast.
First up, Neil and Drew (Andrew and Sam) walked up to the antler house and Andrew knocked on the door. Butch (Bill) answers the door, and after introductions are made, takes the filmmakers out back. We shot the scene four times and the actors nailed it each one, The first shot went off at 10:11, just under half an hour after call time. That's how we roll!
Next, we moved into the backyard, where Butch tells the guys the story of how he once saw the title creature in action, and his wife Ester (Lynn) invites everyone inside for some refreshments. The scene involved a decent amount of movement, and Bill - who was worried about ruining our film - did a fantastic job. Good actors breathe life into a character, and Bill made Butch larger than life. I feel the cast of Snow Shark never got the credit it deserved for that film, but I know no one will knock the performances in this film.
We moved inside for the big scene, when Ester regales the filmmakers with... the legend of Six Fingers. Her role is not a cameo; like Debbie's, it provides a solid foundation for the film's main action. It also wasn't easy: Sam has written a really good script with an excellent structure, but this supposed Native American legend is no easy bill of goods. Lynn had her lines down pat, and like Bill, tweaked them for effect, but she brought much more to the table, as I knew she would. It's fascinating watching a professional actor create a character, especially when you have the luxury of discussing the role with them (even via private messaging on Facebook). The style of a found footage film calls for the camera to drift from character, often using "shaky cam" for effect. I'm sure we'll have some of that in this film when the shit hits the fan, but for now Sam has kept his camera smooth and steady, and I was pleased today that he was confident to let the camera stay on Lynn, There was no air conditioning in the house, and the heat was pretty unbearable, so after a few takes we took a break, powered on the fans, cooled off, then did two more. Each one was fairly riveting. I love working with actors of differing levels of experience, but it's exciting to work with professionals.
Andrew Elias had his lines down pat, and I'm glad we cast him. Unlike Sam, his character is almost always on screen, so he's carrying a lo ton his shoulders. He was excellent today and really delivered. With the bulk of our day completed ahead of schedule, we broke for lunch - the same Chinese buffet where we took Debbie. For the rest of the shoot it will be hoagies and cold cuts.
Back at the ranch, we shot a final scene between Lynn and Bill, and called a wrap on Lynn: 9:45 am to 3:00 pm - five hours and fifteen minutes, minus an hour for lunch. Almost six pages of material. Quality footage, Except for the heat, it was a great day! Between Debbie and Lynn, we've covered 10% of the screenplay ahead of our official start date.
July 15, 2013
Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival: a Cornucopia of Film Genres
Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival will run for one full week, November 8th - 14th, at Dipson's Amherst Theater, 3500 Main Street in Buffalo, across the street from the UB South Campus: http://www.buffalodreamsfilmfest.com/. Submissions are open through early October, but because we're going through Without a Box, the submission fee gets more expensive the closer the deadline. We have three sponsors lined up so far: Alternative Cinema/POP Cinema Studios (http://www.alternativecinema.com/?pg=il&category=16), Seeley and Kane's Books and Comics (http://www.seeleyandkanescomics.com), and WNY Grip & Lighting (http://www.wnygriplighting.com/ ). Sponsorships are only $200. Alternative Cinema will offer a non-binding contract for worldwide distribution to the winner of our feature film competition. Film production is growing in Buffalo, and the Queen City is less than two hours from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
When I wrote Cheap Scares: Low Budget Horror Filmmakers Share Their Secrets, film festivals were fairly new to me, and the information I provided came from the interviews in the book. I've attended Eerie Horror Film Festival in Erie, PA several times (http://www.eeriehorrorfilmfestival.com), and I attended the amazing Beloit International Film Festival (http://www.beloitfilmfest.org) twice, once as the Honorary Chairman. BIFF really showed me what a film festival should be: filmmaker friendly and supported by the community so it becomes an identifying component of the community. But it takes years to build a successful festival, and there are several in Buffalo already. With Chris Scioli and another partner, I helped build Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival into a successful international film festival. At the height of that fest's three year run, we booked thirty hotel rooms for visiting filmmakers, and Isaac Ezban and his party came all the way from Mexico to screen the incredible Cosas Feas. For a variety of reasons, Scioli and I split off on our own, and the result is Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival. We've made a long term commitment to making this the top festival in Western New York.
For Buffalo Screams, we always made room to screen "More than Horror" films - science fiction, fantasy, crime drama and even a western - so it made sense to expand the scope of our programming to include multiple genres. The Amherst caters to a specialized film audience, and its college audience seeks diversity. Our mission is to bring the best independent short, medium length and feature length genre films from around the world to Buffalo, and to shine a spotlight on local filmmakers whose work merits attention. We will continue to provide support and encouragement for young and developing artists. As indicated on our website, the genres we're programming include Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Action, Thriller, Animation, Cult and Fan films.
Science Fiction and Horror are probably the easiest to define genres. Action can include martial arts, western, war, crime drama and boxing. A Thriller can be a non-supernatural horror film, a stylish noir, or any manner of suspense. A Fantasy film can involve dwarfs and fairies, but it can also be a musical, or a film about dreams - imagination and a sense of wonder are the key ingredients.
Animation is a category we'd really like to see thrive. Any kind of animation is acceptable - cell, CG, stop-motion, claymation, or any of these combined with live action - in any genre, aimed at any age group. With the announcement of a new post production company in Buffalo which will employ 150 people, and the development of a visual effects program at Daemon college, animation is about to become an important part of the Buffalo dreamscape.
A film can't really become a Cult film until its found a rabid audience (Eraserhead, Donnie Darko, The Toxic Avenger), but for our purposes, a cult film is a narrative film which defies easy categorization, a film which celebrates the weird and the bizarre, and uses the language of film to tell a unique story which may not be embraced commercially. It can also be a campy film aimed at an audience which prefers their entertainment as different from the mainstream as possible. Cult films can leave an indelible impression on the minds of viewers.
A Fan film is a film based on characters or stories created by someone else. Because of copyright issues, they cannot be legally distributed. However, fan films are made by people with great passion for their subject matter, and as a result some really strong films are being created in this area. We feel they deserve to be seen, and another aspect of our mission is to drum up an audience for unique entertainment.
There you have it. We've already received a large number of submissions for consideration, and are working our way through them. Keep them coming! We look forward to programming the best festival possible.
July 12, 2013
PACIFIC RIM Job
Guillermo del Toro is a brilliant filmmaker, but I'm no fan of his English language films and Pacific Rim is no exception. Fans of his - and they are legion - salivated at the announcement that his first big budget film after the collapse of his H.P. Lovecraft adaptation At the Mountains of Madness and his departure from The Hobbit would be a giant robots vs. giant monsters movie. The first sign of trouble was when the film didn't "track well" in Hollywood speak, and the studio released clip after clip. We've become a nation preoccupied with box office figures, as if that in any way measures the quality of a film, so the fanboy sites have been directing their readers to SEE THIS MOVIE! I don't think it will make much difference.
I wasn't particularly looking forward to this - I 'd made up my mind about del Toro's English language films long ago - but my excitement grew this week, which is what usually happens with big films that I should know better than seeing. When my friend Chris offered to treat me to a matinee (I insisted on 3D IMAX for the full experience), I decided I'd see it twice because I wanted to take my wife and daughter to it as well. After sitting through this giant miscalculation of a movie once, we'll be seeing Despicable Me 2 instead.
First, the good news: Pacific Rim features moments - fleeting though they are -of genuine, awe inspiring monster mayhem. I stopped being amazed by special effects long ago (as someone else pointed out, now that any effect can be achieved with a computer, there's nothing special about them). The robots and monsters look familiar, but they're incredibly well executed, and they move with mass and weight, unlike the giant monsters in any Peter Jackson movie and the robots in Transformers. The 3D was impressive too, although the rapid fire action editing resulted in overkill. Still, I sat there with my mouth open at times, and sat up with excitement when something really excited me, but quickly slumped down as the fights went on and on, and even dozed off during the problems that dwarfed the monsters and robots.
I guess that maybe 40 minutes of screen time are devoted to the robots and monsters, and most of those scenes delivered. Unfortunately, they alternate with the dullest scenes of bland actors trapped in weakly written melodrama. Why the hell does a movie aimed at the 12 year old in each of us have to be 2 hrs and 11 mins long? My kid would be bored out of her mind, like I was. Not one single character is interesting, and several of them are downright annoying. After seeing Idris Elba play a commanding character with his natural British accent, I recant my wish to see him play James Bond someday, and I don't ever want to see Ron Perlman play another weirdo, that will be enough to scare me off. The dialogue isn't bad, just hokey, like some old cliched World War II movie (we've seen almost the entirety of Elba's call to battle in the trailer). The leads are as interesting as dirty socks.
I can hear the apologists now: "It's a movie about giant robots and giant monsters! Who cares about the people? They're just filler, like in the Japanese films that inspired this." Okay, sure. Then why force us to sit through such tedium? Give us the good stuff. This film could easily have been half an hour shorter, but Hollywood seems incapable of producing blockbusters with humane running times.
But the two biggest failings of this film - and they're colossal - have to do with the robots themselves. The central conceit of the film is that it takes two pilots to operate one robot, and they meld minds in the process. Huge mistake. When there's one pilot in the robot, the robot becomes an extension of that character in the big action scenes. When there's two people operating a robot, that doesn't happen. The protagonist is then a lumbering machine with less personality than the monsters it battles.
I was willing to overlook it all for the sake of an amazing climax, a robot vs. monster battle royale, Rocky III times five hundred, It never comes. Astoundingly, there is no real climactic fight that tops everything that came before it, but a corny finale that's telegraphed as soon as Elba comes on screen. Epic fail
As Chris said, westerners never seem to realize what makes the real kaiju films work. Sure, Pacific Rim trumps Roland and Emmerich's Godzilla (I guess), but it falls far short of the last giant monster movie I loved, The Host. It's not terrible, it's just over long with zero human interest and zero awareness that a big action film needs a big action climax. They say Hollywood ruined F. Scott Fitzgerald, and while I have no idea why any studio would spend $200 million on a film that's barely more sophisticated than Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox, del Toro seems to be solely responsible for this, given a free hand to do what he wanted. I look forward to del Toro's next Spanish language film, but I could care less if he ever makes At the Mountains of Madness for another $200 million. In the meantime, I'll satisfy my yen for robots watching robots with The Iron Giant and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.
I wasn't particularly looking forward to this - I 'd made up my mind about del Toro's English language films long ago - but my excitement grew this week, which is what usually happens with big films that I should know better than seeing. When my friend Chris offered to treat me to a matinee (I insisted on 3D IMAX for the full experience), I decided I'd see it twice because I wanted to take my wife and daughter to it as well. After sitting through this giant miscalculation of a movie once, we'll be seeing Despicable Me 2 instead.
First, the good news: Pacific Rim features moments - fleeting though they are -of genuine, awe inspiring monster mayhem. I stopped being amazed by special effects long ago (as someone else pointed out, now that any effect can be achieved with a computer, there's nothing special about them). The robots and monsters look familiar, but they're incredibly well executed, and they move with mass and weight, unlike the giant monsters in any Peter Jackson movie and the robots in Transformers. The 3D was impressive too, although the rapid fire action editing resulted in overkill. Still, I sat there with my mouth open at times, and sat up with excitement when something really excited me, but quickly slumped down as the fights went on and on, and even dozed off during the problems that dwarfed the monsters and robots.
I guess that maybe 40 minutes of screen time are devoted to the robots and monsters, and most of those scenes delivered. Unfortunately, they alternate with the dullest scenes of bland actors trapped in weakly written melodrama. Why the hell does a movie aimed at the 12 year old in each of us have to be 2 hrs and 11 mins long? My kid would be bored out of her mind, like I was. Not one single character is interesting, and several of them are downright annoying. After seeing Idris Elba play a commanding character with his natural British accent, I recant my wish to see him play James Bond someday, and I don't ever want to see Ron Perlman play another weirdo, that will be enough to scare me off. The dialogue isn't bad, just hokey, like some old cliched World War II movie (we've seen almost the entirety of Elba's call to battle in the trailer). The leads are as interesting as dirty socks.
I can hear the apologists now: "It's a movie about giant robots and giant monsters! Who cares about the people? They're just filler, like in the Japanese films that inspired this." Okay, sure. Then why force us to sit through such tedium? Give us the good stuff. This film could easily have been half an hour shorter, but Hollywood seems incapable of producing blockbusters with humane running times.
But the two biggest failings of this film - and they're colossal - have to do with the robots themselves. The central conceit of the film is that it takes two pilots to operate one robot, and they meld minds in the process. Huge mistake. When there's one pilot in the robot, the robot becomes an extension of that character in the big action scenes. When there's two people operating a robot, that doesn't happen. The protagonist is then a lumbering machine with less personality than the monsters it battles.
I was willing to overlook it all for the sake of an amazing climax, a robot vs. monster battle royale, Rocky III times five hundred, It never comes. Astoundingly, there is no real climactic fight that tops everything that came before it, but a corny finale that's telegraphed as soon as Elba comes on screen. Epic fail
As Chris said, westerners never seem to realize what makes the real kaiju films work. Sure, Pacific Rim trumps Roland and Emmerich's Godzilla (I guess), but it falls far short of the last giant monster movie I loved, The Host. It's not terrible, it's just over long with zero human interest and zero awareness that a big action film needs a big action climax. They say Hollywood ruined F. Scott Fitzgerald, and while I have no idea why any studio would spend $200 million on a film that's barely more sophisticated than Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox, del Toro seems to be solely responsible for this, given a free hand to do what he wanted. I look forward to del Toro's next Spanish language film, but I could care less if he ever makes At the Mountains of Madness for another $200 million. In the meantime, I'll satisfy my yen for robots watching robots with The Iron Giant and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.
July 11, 2013
Film and Book Updates
Dry Bones is being edited as I key this in. My friend and editor Phil Gallo, who edited Naked Fear and Undying Love for me, and who directed two features of his own - West New York and Mattie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe - and who composed the score for the original Mother's Day with his friend Clem, spent a week transcoding the footage and has already cut the first ten minutes of the film. The first scene really kicks ass and sets the tone I want, both scary and funny, and the performances are wonderful. We'll have our world premiere in Buffalo in late September, and I'm planning a one-week local theatrical run in October.
The Legend of Six Fingers reached its $4,000 fundraising goal one week early. This is the second successful campaign I've run this year - I sought $3,000 to supplement Dry Bones's budget and that one reached its goal one week early as well. One of the louder and more critical voices in the Buffalo film community - someone who's never made a film himself, of course - likes to post that only one (talented) group of filmmakers in the area knows what they're doing when it comes to crowd sourcing, but since I scored matching funds for the contributions to Six Fingers I must be doing something right, Our second day of shooting is next week, with the amazing Lynn Lowry, and my NYC pal Craig Lindberg has created a fantastic creature for us. Anyone who still wishes to donate to the campaign may do so until Wednesday:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-legend-of-six-fingers/x/78828.
Some of you may have read in an earlier press release that I'm developing a film adaptation of Frankenstein, which has long been a dream of mine, Last weekend I watched a DVD of a local stage production of the novel, and I was blown away by some of the brilliant choices the playwright, Don Swartz, made in adapting the material. I'm thrilled to announce that Don has granted me permission to incorporate some of those choices into my script, so Frankenstein's Monster will be based on both Mary Shelley's novel and Don Swartz's stage adaptation. Will you think me mad if I say this is going to be something special?
Just tonight I had dinner with my friend Ted Haynes, with whom I have several irons in the fire.
I've almost completed my second novella, Scaremonger, which will be my first e-book exclusive. This is an experiment, and it's good to test the water. Scaremonger is a supernatural horror story featuring my new paranormal heroine, Rosa Thorn. Or is she? I'm finishing the second draft now, and then it heads to my wife for feedback/editing. I have to find a way to format it - I no longer have Microsoft Word, just Word Starter, which I hate. It should be available late next week, or early the following week.
Dread Media's Desmond Reddick just posted what I'm highjacking as my first blurb for Storm Demon, Book Five in The Jake Helman Files, which will be available (online anyway) in October: "Jake Helman just keeps getting better and better." Pre-order the book on Amazon now - please!
It appears that The Julian Year will indeed be available this December. There was some question about that because of the technology involved. The Julian Year is the first TREEbook (Timed Reading Experience E-book) - an e-book for iPads which employs time triggers and other triggers to launch branching technology: a character could live, die, switch forces, or become a bitter meanie depending on your reading habits. There will be heavy ad campaign for this, but Storm Demon will be my focus until Thanksgiving or so,
I've been waiting months to make a big announcement...and I still can't make it.
Get your films in to Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, which runs No. 8th - 14th at Dipson's Amherst Theatre.
The Legend of Six Fingers reached its $4,000 fundraising goal one week early. This is the second successful campaign I've run this year - I sought $3,000 to supplement Dry Bones's budget and that one reached its goal one week early as well. One of the louder and more critical voices in the Buffalo film community - someone who's never made a film himself, of course - likes to post that only one (talented) group of filmmakers in the area knows what they're doing when it comes to crowd sourcing, but since I scored matching funds for the contributions to Six Fingers I must be doing something right, Our second day of shooting is next week, with the amazing Lynn Lowry, and my NYC pal Craig Lindberg has created a fantastic creature for us. Anyone who still wishes to donate to the campaign may do so until Wednesday:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-legend-of-six-fingers/x/78828.
Some of you may have read in an earlier press release that I'm developing a film adaptation of Frankenstein, which has long been a dream of mine, Last weekend I watched a DVD of a local stage production of the novel, and I was blown away by some of the brilliant choices the playwright, Don Swartz, made in adapting the material. I'm thrilled to announce that Don has granted me permission to incorporate some of those choices into my script, so Frankenstein's Monster will be based on both Mary Shelley's novel and Don Swartz's stage adaptation. Will you think me mad if I say this is going to be something special?
Just tonight I had dinner with my friend Ted Haynes, with whom I have several irons in the fire.
I've almost completed my second novella, Scaremonger, which will be my first e-book exclusive. This is an experiment, and it's good to test the water. Scaremonger is a supernatural horror story featuring my new paranormal heroine, Rosa Thorn. Or is she? I'm finishing the second draft now, and then it heads to my wife for feedback/editing. I have to find a way to format it - I no longer have Microsoft Word, just Word Starter, which I hate. It should be available late next week, or early the following week.
Dread Media's Desmond Reddick just posted what I'm highjacking as my first blurb for Storm Demon, Book Five in The Jake Helman Files, which will be available (online anyway) in October: "Jake Helman just keeps getting better and better." Pre-order the book on Amazon now - please!
It appears that The Julian Year will indeed be available this December. There was some question about that because of the technology involved. The Julian Year is the first TREEbook (Timed Reading Experience E-book) - an e-book for iPads which employs time triggers and other triggers to launch branching technology: a character could live, die, switch forces, or become a bitter meanie depending on your reading habits. There will be heavy ad campaign for this, but Storm Demon will be my focus until Thanksgiving or so,
I've been waiting months to make a big announcement...and I still can't make it.
Get your films in to Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, which runs No. 8th - 14th at Dipson's Amherst Theatre.
June 30, 2013
DRY BONES Day 21 - The Wrap
Day 21 of Dry Bones was scheduled for two shots only: a close up of Kathy Murphy delivering one line to John Renna, and the big special effect when she reduces him to...but that would be telling. We were supposed to grab these shots last weekend, but my key effects artists Arick Szymecki and Rod Durick were working around the clock between their regular jobs and this assignment, and I didn't want them dropping dead, so I pushed the shots back one week. As it turns out, we needed to re-shoot some of the shots from the last shoot anyway, so I'm glad I made that call...even though they still ended up working around the clock before this last shoot.
The Big Effect involved a full head bust of John Renna, my pal who plays brokenhearted cop Carl Denham. Throughout the film, we see the husks of the victims of Lilim, our succubus (played by Debbie Rochon). For Carl's demise, we wanted to show exactly what happens during this process - in other words, it's a "money shot" (both figuratively and literally). When Michael O'Hear (star, co-producer, co-director) and I met with Rod and Arick to discuss the effects for this project, we agreed to pull out the stops for this effect. I don't know how many man hours went into the creation of this gag, which will probably last all of three seconds in the finished film, but it was labor intensive to say the least. I visited them several times in the lab late at night, and Stacey Book contributed to the effect by adding the Renna mustache, soul patch and eyebrows.I've posted a zillion photos of Renna's head, along with some funny/nasty pics of my wife Tamar wearing the venereal diseased succubus breasts, on Facebook: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/breaking-disney-just-gutted-their-hand-drawn-animation-division-81043.html
Set call was 5 pm, and I'd scheduled the wrap for 10 pm. It was fun to see everyone's reactions to the Renna head; they'd followed its progress,but there is something about incomplete effects heads which make sit impossible to believe they will ever look like the actual person they're modeled on...even when the actor's head was cast in the first place. Then we dressed him/it in his police costume. Kathy delivered her line, then engaged the head in the effect, which involved a shop vac. The effect worked flawlessly. We did three takes, moved in closer, did three more takes, then shot two close-ups of its painted eyes doing their thing. I'd been looking forward to shooting this sucker for weeks, and the guys worked so hard on it, and it was over in minutes. Movie magic, baby!
With Kathy and Michael wrapped (Michael is seen in the b.g. of the big effect), we moved on to our second unit agenda. First we shot Tamar - wearing one succubus hand glove - closing a bedroom door for our opening scene. It looked great, so I'm glad we did it. Then we re-shot angles of our borrowed lava lamp, incorporating a new idea from me and a week old one from Sam Qualiana, our DP. Again, they looked great, and I'm glad we re-did them. That's a wrap on the lava lamp!
Because John Renna was two hours late - something about a friend passing out on his living room floor - Rod gracious grilled hotdogs for everyone. Fortunately John showed up in time to eat, and to pose for a series of increasingly obscene pics with his latex alter ego. John was helpful on several days in addition to his acting, and I'm glad he made it for our last day.
Next we re-shot a bit with Tamar wearing the succubus breasts again. The shot worked great last week, but we forgot part of the costume, so it wouldn't have matched the other shots in the same scene, The breasts looked as good as hairy succubus breasts can, and we wrapped Tamar. We had to wait for the sky to get dark for our last two shots, establishing shots of my house. Chris Rados lit the house from within and outside, Sam practiced the dolly moves, and we wrapped the film and everyone was on their way by 10:00 pm. It was a fun, pressure-free day (like most of them on this show), especially for Kaelin, who loved having so many creative people around.
I've looked over the new footage, and I'm satisfied we're really done. Phil Gallo will start editing any day (he's transcoding the footage now), Arick is doing a couple of visual effects shots, David McCreery is doing our score, and someone will help me do sound effects. The entire film will be done in August, we hope to screen it at several festivals, and we're planning a one week theatrical run in Buffalo in October. We came in on budget and on time.
I try to learn something new with every film experience, and here's what I took away from this one:
It is only necessary to say "Cut" once; "Cut! Cut! Cut!" will put people on edge.
Never assume people will return emails in a timely manner. Some will, others need to be hounded.
Never shoot without a monitor.
Next, Sam Qualiana and I are moving on to The Legend of Six Fingers, featuring Debbie Rochon, Lynn Lowry and Tiffany Shepis. Michael Raso is providing matching funds for every donation made to our IndieGoGo campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-legend-of-six-fingers/x/78828
The Big Effect involved a full head bust of John Renna, my pal who plays brokenhearted cop Carl Denham. Throughout the film, we see the husks of the victims of Lilim, our succubus (played by Debbie Rochon). For Carl's demise, we wanted to show exactly what happens during this process - in other words, it's a "money shot" (both figuratively and literally). When Michael O'Hear (star, co-producer, co-director) and I met with Rod and Arick to discuss the effects for this project, we agreed to pull out the stops for this effect. I don't know how many man hours went into the creation of this gag, which will probably last all of three seconds in the finished film, but it was labor intensive to say the least. I visited them several times in the lab late at night, and Stacey Book contributed to the effect by adding the Renna mustache, soul patch and eyebrows.I've posted a zillion photos of Renna's head, along with some funny/nasty pics of my wife Tamar wearing the venereal diseased succubus breasts, on Facebook: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/breaking-disney-just-gutted-their-hand-drawn-animation-division-81043.html
Set call was 5 pm, and I'd scheduled the wrap for 10 pm. It was fun to see everyone's reactions to the Renna head; they'd followed its progress,but there is something about incomplete effects heads which make sit impossible to believe they will ever look like the actual person they're modeled on...even when the actor's head was cast in the first place. Then we dressed him/it in his police costume. Kathy delivered her line, then engaged the head in the effect, which involved a shop vac. The effect worked flawlessly. We did three takes, moved in closer, did three more takes, then shot two close-ups of its painted eyes doing their thing. I'd been looking forward to shooting this sucker for weeks, and the guys worked so hard on it, and it was over in minutes. Movie magic, baby!
With Kathy and Michael wrapped (Michael is seen in the b.g. of the big effect), we moved on to our second unit agenda. First we shot Tamar - wearing one succubus hand glove - closing a bedroom door for our opening scene. It looked great, so I'm glad we did it. Then we re-shot angles of our borrowed lava lamp, incorporating a new idea from me and a week old one from Sam Qualiana, our DP. Again, they looked great, and I'm glad we re-did them. That's a wrap on the lava lamp!
Because John Renna was two hours late - something about a friend passing out on his living room floor - Rod gracious grilled hotdogs for everyone. Fortunately John showed up in time to eat, and to pose for a series of increasingly obscene pics with his latex alter ego. John was helpful on several days in addition to his acting, and I'm glad he made it for our last day.
Next we re-shot a bit with Tamar wearing the succubus breasts again. The shot worked great last week, but we forgot part of the costume, so it wouldn't have matched the other shots in the same scene, The breasts looked as good as hairy succubus breasts can, and we wrapped Tamar. We had to wait for the sky to get dark for our last two shots, establishing shots of my house. Chris Rados lit the house from within and outside, Sam practiced the dolly moves, and we wrapped the film and everyone was on their way by 10:00 pm. It was a fun, pressure-free day (like most of them on this show), especially for Kaelin, who loved having so many creative people around.
I've looked over the new footage, and I'm satisfied we're really done. Phil Gallo will start editing any day (he's transcoding the footage now), Arick is doing a couple of visual effects shots, David McCreery is doing our score, and someone will help me do sound effects. The entire film will be done in August, we hope to screen it at several festivals, and we're planning a one week theatrical run in Buffalo in October. We came in on budget and on time.
I try to learn something new with every film experience, and here's what I took away from this one:
It is only necessary to say "Cut" once; "Cut! Cut! Cut!" will put people on edge.
Never assume people will return emails in a timely manner. Some will, others need to be hounded.
Never shoot without a monitor.
Next, Sam Qualiana and I are moving on to The Legend of Six Fingers, featuring Debbie Rochon, Lynn Lowry and Tiffany Shepis. Michael Raso is providing matching funds for every donation made to our IndieGoGo campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-legend-of-six-fingers/x/78828
June 23, 2013
DRY BONES Day 20
What? Dry Bones is still filming? You thought it was over, especially since Sam Qualiana and I are already in some weird amalgamation of development, pre-production and production of The Legend of Six FIngers? (Donate to our Six Fingers fund here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-legend-of-six-fingers/x/78828), When we wrapped principal photography on Dry Bones on Day 19, I knew we had one more day of pickups to do, and as it turns out that became two, so we still have one more to go. Pickups are a normal part of the filmmaking process; when Woody Allen makes a movie, he budgets for two weeks of pickups after principal photography wraps. I've done one day of pickups on most of my films, usually after the first edit was completed and i saw where we needed to add or clarify things. In this case, I knew we had to get one key effect, so our day was built around that, and thanks to the wonders of digital filmmaking, I saw what else we needed while logging the footage for my editor, Phil Gallo. It's been three weeks since we wrapped, and during that time my partner on this project, Michael O'Hear, was hospitalized for a full week, so yesterday was a bit of a mini-reunion.
We started late in the day - 3:00 pm - because I needed one night shot exterior, and the sun is setting later now that summer is here. We started with three simple shots involving Michael: a shot of him exiting frame following a dialogue change we'd already shot; a re-shot close up of a family photograph;and a close up of Michael reacting to the big effect still to be shot. I joked that Michael's shots won't match what we shot before because he now has color in his face following his hospital stay. In any case, we called a "provisional picture wrap" on him, because there's a chance he'll be glimpsed in the remaining effects shot.
Our effects men on this show - Arick Szymecki and Rod Durick, both veterans of Slime City Massacre, worked mad hours last week getting the big gag ready: they worked their regular jobs Wednesday, then worked all night on the effect, then worked their jobs Thursday, and were working all night again, and intended to work their regular jobs Friday and work on the effect all night again. They were prepared to do this to meet their deadline, and didn't complain about the prospect of working 100 hours straight with just a few naps between, but I made the call to postpone a week; there is such a thing as "too much work" on a film, and the cost in delaying another week is negligible. On the plus side, they tested the effect and it worked great. I'm really excited about shooting it.
After grabbing Michael's three shots in my living room, we made a company move to Jenn Brown's house to get two exterior shots: one of Michael pulling into her driveway, and one of him getting out and listening to an argument inside the house. These shots will lead into one of the final scenes of the film, between Michael, Debbie Rochon and Tommy Sweeney. They were actually unscripted, and really only give us the option of including an improvised, voice over argument between Debbie and Tommy that had us rolling when we shot it.
We returned to Casa Lamberson, and shot - for the third or fourth time - the succubus hands grabbing Paul McGinnis's ankles. The first time, we used temporary monster hands created by Rod when the more elaborate hands made by Arick weren't ready in time; the other times didn't work for a variety of reasons, including a matter of sequential order (which ankle gets grabbed first) - my fault, but chalk it up to not having a script supervisor or a first assistant director. We got the shots - now broken in two - and called a picture wrap on Paul for the third time. Yay, Paul!
We moved into my daughter's room for the remaining interior shots; this is the key location of the film. First, we shot an introduction to the succubus breast gag shots (which I believe will earn the film a reputation). The shots we already got, involving green pus spraying out of venereal diseased breasts, worked fine, so we didn't need to re-shoot it, but I did want to shoot a reveal. My wife Tamar wore the breast appliance over a shirt, then put on the upper half of the succubus costume and the succubus gloves, and revealed the nasty, latex boobs. She did a great job and I was impressed, but at the end of the night she and I realized we had neglected to add a key piece - a neck chain - to the costume, so we'll have to do this one again.
Amelie McKendry returned to Buffalo, and we shot the lead in to her character's death for the third time as well. Because the silicone succubus gloves weren't ready the first tine, I asked John Renna to improvise something on Tamar's hands so Amelie wouldn't have to come back. The hands were effective, but didn't match the overall creature design. After we shot them, and Amelie had left, Rod arrived with an alternate pair of gloves, and we later re-shot the scene with those. They looked good, and I could have lived with the scene as shot, but then Arick finished the high end gloves, and I decided to go for the gold once more, I'm glad we did, the scene will be stronger, and we called a picture wrap on Amelie for the third time. That's showbiz, just ask Brad Pitt.
With the sky darkneing, we drove out to Clarence Center to re-shoot an establishing shot of Kathy Thiel Murphy's house. This was actually the first thing we shot, and the shots were beautiful; the only problem is that there was four inches of snow on the ground, and there's no snow in the rest of the film. We returned to my neighborhood, where we shot Michael entering a bar. We'd shot this before too, but too early in the day. Finally, we grabbed two establishing shots of my house at night, on the dolly. These shots will open the film, so we had to get them right, and we did.
All in all, an easy but productive seven hour day. Special thanks to Chris Rados for coming out to do the lighting even though he had an early morning call for his short film They Call Him Clownface. Kaelin had a great time with Paul as usual, and Michael was in good health and spirits. Next week: we shoot the big effect, one close up, and re-shoot the breast gag reveal - three shots - and wrap!
We started late in the day - 3:00 pm - because I needed one night shot exterior, and the sun is setting later now that summer is here. We started with three simple shots involving Michael: a shot of him exiting frame following a dialogue change we'd already shot; a re-shot close up of a family photograph;and a close up of Michael reacting to the big effect still to be shot. I joked that Michael's shots won't match what we shot before because he now has color in his face following his hospital stay. In any case, we called a "provisional picture wrap" on him, because there's a chance he'll be glimpsed in the remaining effects shot.
Our effects men on this show - Arick Szymecki and Rod Durick, both veterans of Slime City Massacre, worked mad hours last week getting the big gag ready: they worked their regular jobs Wednesday, then worked all night on the effect, then worked their jobs Thursday, and were working all night again, and intended to work their regular jobs Friday and work on the effect all night again. They were prepared to do this to meet their deadline, and didn't complain about the prospect of working 100 hours straight with just a few naps between, but I made the call to postpone a week; there is such a thing as "too much work" on a film, and the cost in delaying another week is negligible. On the plus side, they tested the effect and it worked great. I'm really excited about shooting it.
After grabbing Michael's three shots in my living room, we made a company move to Jenn Brown's house to get two exterior shots: one of Michael pulling into her driveway, and one of him getting out and listening to an argument inside the house. These shots will lead into one of the final scenes of the film, between Michael, Debbie Rochon and Tommy Sweeney. They were actually unscripted, and really only give us the option of including an improvised, voice over argument between Debbie and Tommy that had us rolling when we shot it.
We returned to Casa Lamberson, and shot - for the third or fourth time - the succubus hands grabbing Paul McGinnis's ankles. The first time, we used temporary monster hands created by Rod when the more elaborate hands made by Arick weren't ready in time; the other times didn't work for a variety of reasons, including a matter of sequential order (which ankle gets grabbed first) - my fault, but chalk it up to not having a script supervisor or a first assistant director. We got the shots - now broken in two - and called a picture wrap on Paul for the third time. Yay, Paul!
We moved into my daughter's room for the remaining interior shots; this is the key location of the film. First, we shot an introduction to the succubus breast gag shots (which I believe will earn the film a reputation). The shots we already got, involving green pus spraying out of venereal diseased breasts, worked fine, so we didn't need to re-shoot it, but I did want to shoot a reveal. My wife Tamar wore the breast appliance over a shirt, then put on the upper half of the succubus costume and the succubus gloves, and revealed the nasty, latex boobs. She did a great job and I was impressed, but at the end of the night she and I realized we had neglected to add a key piece - a neck chain - to the costume, so we'll have to do this one again.
Amelie McKendry returned to Buffalo, and we shot the lead in to her character's death for the third time as well. Because the silicone succubus gloves weren't ready the first tine, I asked John Renna to improvise something on Tamar's hands so Amelie wouldn't have to come back. The hands were effective, but didn't match the overall creature design. After we shot them, and Amelie had left, Rod arrived with an alternate pair of gloves, and we later re-shot the scene with those. They looked good, and I could have lived with the scene as shot, but then Arick finished the high end gloves, and I decided to go for the gold once more, I'm glad we did, the scene will be stronger, and we called a picture wrap on Amelie for the third time. That's showbiz, just ask Brad Pitt.
With the sky darkneing, we drove out to Clarence Center to re-shoot an establishing shot of Kathy Thiel Murphy's house. This was actually the first thing we shot, and the shots were beautiful; the only problem is that there was four inches of snow on the ground, and there's no snow in the rest of the film. We returned to my neighborhood, where we shot Michael entering a bar. We'd shot this before too, but too early in the day. Finally, we grabbed two establishing shots of my house at night, on the dolly. These shots will open the film, so we had to get them right, and we did.
All in all, an easy but productive seven hour day. Special thanks to Chris Rados for coming out to do the lighting even though he had an early morning call for his short film They Call Him Clownface. Kaelin had a great time with Paul as usual, and Michael was in good health and spirits. Next week: we shoot the big effect, one close up, and re-shoot the breast gag reveal - three shots - and wrap!
