DRY BONES Days 1 & 2
This weekend we started shooting Dry Bones, a feature length horror comedy about a man who returns to his home town 35 years after being traumatized by an imaginary monster under his bed only to discover the monster is real, it's a succubus, and she's been awaiting him. Michael O'Hear hired me to write the script for him to direct and star in, and I decided to produce the film and serve as the 1st AD as well. This is what I call a "weekend warriors" shoot, meaning we're only shooting on weekends. The advantage to shooting on weekends is that you have five days to prepare for each two days of filming, eliminating "the train has left the station" urgency that kicks in with a standard shooting schedule, where you're constantly fighting to catch up.
My screenplay is 85 pages long, and for a variety of reasons I've decided to keep our shooting days light. I usually schedule six and a half pages a day, and on this film I'm scheduling only five (I think we aimed for twelve pages a day on BattleDogs). On indie films the goal is to try to shoot twelve hour days. If everyone does his job, it can be done. We shot mostly twelve hour days on Slime City Massacre, but I've worked on films that should have been twelve hour days and went to fifteen because something went wrong in the chain. An executive producer once told me, "I have yet to work on an indie horror film that had twelve hour days." Well, there's a right way and a wrong way. My feeling is that if your cast and crew are volunteering because they believe in the project and want to be a part of it, you shouldn't work them to death. People don't do their best work when they work a fifteen hour day. When you're paying people and have to meet a budget, it's a different story - movies are expensive propositions, even cheap ones like ours. We worked 10.5 hours on Saturday and 9.5 hours on Sunday, and "made" our days with ease.
For the first weekend of Dry Bones I only scheduled four pages a day because I wanted us to have a weekend to get our act together before the crew gets bigger and we start working with special effects. We're working with a minimal crew which was even smaller for this weekend. Sam Qualiana, who wrote and directed Snow Shark, is the DP (director of photography), and Kash Costner, who worked with us on BattleDogs, is the gaffer (a gaffer lights the scenes); on our first day he also held the boom. We're shooting this film on a T2i, which is a DSLR camera. For laymen, this is a HD camera that looks like a still camera. The advantage to using it is that you have access to a variety of lenses. Lighting a scene properly and using multiple lenses is how you get a strong image - a "film look." We shot some really nice footage.
The disadvantage is that the T2i has no real capacity for audio recording other than the "on board" microphone, which is no different than a built in mic on any camera you might own. On board mics are not suitable for recording professional sounding audio. Typically, sound is recorded separately from picture, and an editor (or assistant editor) marries them together before he begins "cutting." On Slime City Massacre we ran the sound through a mixer and into the camera so the audio was already synched for the editor. I was pleased with how this worked and wanted to employ a similar technique on this film, so Michael ended up buying an "audio box" which attaches to the camera and feeds the audio signals into the camera. This plan caused a lot of concern (and some frustration) during pre-production but worked out fine. We're basically eliminating the person who mixes the audio. Since all of the scenes in the script involve one, two, or three characters, and we're booming almost everything, mixing different levels isn't as big a concern as it might be on another shoot. On the first day we left the box attached to the camera and Sam listened to the audio while shooting, and Kash held the boom. The audio box added a lot of weight to the camera, so for the second day Paul McGinnis - a supporting actor and co-producer on the film - bought a cable which allowed him to hold the unit while booming. For next week we'll get a pouch for him to wear the unit at his side. See? The "weekend warrior" plan allows us to improve our set operations as we go.
Our actual on set crew for this weekend was three people plus Michael and myself; we also had three cast members - Michael, Kathy Murphy, and Tia Maurice, I'm essentially directing shots and Michael is directing cast. Kathy plays Rebecca, Drew's sister, and Tia plays Carly, his niece. Kathy was an extra on Slime City Massacre and played a key role in Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast. I wrote her role in Dry Bones for her and she did even better than I expected. She also allowed us to shoot in her beautiful home on the first day, and provided us with lunch, which was going above and beyond the call of duty. In one scene, she sings the title song ("Dem Dry Bones") and dances with Michael in the kitchen; the scene shows that Drew is close to someone, and makes both characters likable, Kathy was quick to point out she's no singer, but she did a great job: over and over. We shot multiple takes from different angles, really fun stuff. For Carly, I wanted someone who looked young enough to be a teenager and had a resemblance to Kathy. In real life, Kathy's sons are approximately the same age as my seven year old daughter, so her cinematic daughter had to resemble a real teenager for this to work - we couldn't go the 90210 route. We cast TIa Maurice, who I met at FanExpo Canada in Toronto back when Johnny Gruesome was published (she wore the Johnny Gruesome Tattoo). Tia experienced a few hiccups getting here from Toronto, but everything worked out. She did a great job, and the chemistry between her and Kathy and Michael kicked right in, which was important for these "family friendly" scenes, and now she has her first feature credit. Networking!
A funny side note: 60,000 - 100,000 people attend FanExpo each year, and when Paul picked Tia up at the bus station they figured out that one year they had actually taken a photo together when Paul went in costume as Shaun from Shaun of the Dead.
On Day Two, we set up in my house, which serves as the principal location for the film. I shot Slime City and Undying Love in my Brooklyn apartment, and this is the first film in 22 years that I've shot where I live (excluding some backyard shots for Model Hunger). This will be the first film I've shot in my home since getting married... and having a daughter. Tamar has been doing more production work with me on each project, and did the schedule for Dry Bones. After working on two films in 2012 which kept me away from my family - it's what we all do - I wanted to shoot in my house so I could still be around them. It's a big inconvenience to home owners to turn their home over to a film crew, and I knew shooting here would make things easier overall. Kaelin has a small role in the film, which she's looking forward to, and I let her slate some shots to keep her involved. She loves having the people around (for one day she had a big sister in Tia, and a peer in Paul), but it will be a challenge shooting around a seven year old who demands to be the center of attention. It's going to be a great experience for her, though. Her room is the bedroom where the succubus lives, and the green hills, blue sky and corner tree I painted on the walls are going to look great on film.
As small as the crew sounds, there were quite a few people working behind the scenes. Shannon Kramp is our costume designer, and she's doing a great job. On a shoot like this, the costume designer chooses and obtains the wardrobe, sews additional costumes, etc., and creates a system which allows the actors to know which costumes they need to wear in which scene. Right now our wardrobe department is a clothing rack which we roll back and forth between my kitchen and living room depending on where we're shooting. Rod Durick and Arick Szymecki are our special make-up effects artists; Rod is also our production designer and Arick is our visual effects artist... and our technical adviser. They've been doing their work at their respective labs and will be on set soon. Chris Rados is a co-producer on the film and is loaning us equipment, and will be helping out with lighting when he's not on another shoot. Scott Franklin, who worked on BattleDogs, also loaned us equipment and is going to help with lighting. Chris Santucci, my SCM DP, loaned us some stands. This is going to be a very well lit film! Chris Wroblewski, who's an associate producer, and "MonsterMatt" Patterson loaned us some retro toys for the key bedroom.
Thanks to everyone who helped out this first weekend. We were a cohesive unit, very laid back with no egos, and we did good work - this is going to be a special film.
My screenplay is 85 pages long, and for a variety of reasons I've decided to keep our shooting days light. I usually schedule six and a half pages a day, and on this film I'm scheduling only five (I think we aimed for twelve pages a day on BattleDogs). On indie films the goal is to try to shoot twelve hour days. If everyone does his job, it can be done. We shot mostly twelve hour days on Slime City Massacre, but I've worked on films that should have been twelve hour days and went to fifteen because something went wrong in the chain. An executive producer once told me, "I have yet to work on an indie horror film that had twelve hour days." Well, there's a right way and a wrong way. My feeling is that if your cast and crew are volunteering because they believe in the project and want to be a part of it, you shouldn't work them to death. People don't do their best work when they work a fifteen hour day. When you're paying people and have to meet a budget, it's a different story - movies are expensive propositions, even cheap ones like ours. We worked 10.5 hours on Saturday and 9.5 hours on Sunday, and "made" our days with ease.
For the first weekend of Dry Bones I only scheduled four pages a day because I wanted us to have a weekend to get our act together before the crew gets bigger and we start working with special effects. We're working with a minimal crew which was even smaller for this weekend. Sam Qualiana, who wrote and directed Snow Shark, is the DP (director of photography), and Kash Costner, who worked with us on BattleDogs, is the gaffer (a gaffer lights the scenes); on our first day he also held the boom. We're shooting this film on a T2i, which is a DSLR camera. For laymen, this is a HD camera that looks like a still camera. The advantage to using it is that you have access to a variety of lenses. Lighting a scene properly and using multiple lenses is how you get a strong image - a "film look." We shot some really nice footage.
The disadvantage is that the T2i has no real capacity for audio recording other than the "on board" microphone, which is no different than a built in mic on any camera you might own. On board mics are not suitable for recording professional sounding audio. Typically, sound is recorded separately from picture, and an editor (or assistant editor) marries them together before he begins "cutting." On Slime City Massacre we ran the sound through a mixer and into the camera so the audio was already synched for the editor. I was pleased with how this worked and wanted to employ a similar technique on this film, so Michael ended up buying an "audio box" which attaches to the camera and feeds the audio signals into the camera. This plan caused a lot of concern (and some frustration) during pre-production but worked out fine. We're basically eliminating the person who mixes the audio. Since all of the scenes in the script involve one, two, or three characters, and we're booming almost everything, mixing different levels isn't as big a concern as it might be on another shoot. On the first day we left the box attached to the camera and Sam listened to the audio while shooting, and Kash held the boom. The audio box added a lot of weight to the camera, so for the second day Paul McGinnis - a supporting actor and co-producer on the film - bought a cable which allowed him to hold the unit while booming. For next week we'll get a pouch for him to wear the unit at his side. See? The "weekend warrior" plan allows us to improve our set operations as we go.
Our actual on set crew for this weekend was three people plus Michael and myself; we also had three cast members - Michael, Kathy Murphy, and Tia Maurice, I'm essentially directing shots and Michael is directing cast. Kathy plays Rebecca, Drew's sister, and Tia plays Carly, his niece. Kathy was an extra on Slime City Massacre and played a key role in Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast. I wrote her role in Dry Bones for her and she did even better than I expected. She also allowed us to shoot in her beautiful home on the first day, and provided us with lunch, which was going above and beyond the call of duty. In one scene, she sings the title song ("Dem Dry Bones") and dances with Michael in the kitchen; the scene shows that Drew is close to someone, and makes both characters likable, Kathy was quick to point out she's no singer, but she did a great job: over and over. We shot multiple takes from different angles, really fun stuff. For Carly, I wanted someone who looked young enough to be a teenager and had a resemblance to Kathy. In real life, Kathy's sons are approximately the same age as my seven year old daughter, so her cinematic daughter had to resemble a real teenager for this to work - we couldn't go the 90210 route. We cast TIa Maurice, who I met at FanExpo Canada in Toronto back when Johnny Gruesome was published (she wore the Johnny Gruesome Tattoo). Tia experienced a few hiccups getting here from Toronto, but everything worked out. She did a great job, and the chemistry between her and Kathy and Michael kicked right in, which was important for these "family friendly" scenes, and now she has her first feature credit. Networking!
A funny side note: 60,000 - 100,000 people attend FanExpo each year, and when Paul picked Tia up at the bus station they figured out that one year they had actually taken a photo together when Paul went in costume as Shaun from Shaun of the Dead.
On Day Two, we set up in my house, which serves as the principal location for the film. I shot Slime City and Undying Love in my Brooklyn apartment, and this is the first film in 22 years that I've shot where I live (excluding some backyard shots for Model Hunger). This will be the first film I've shot in my home since getting married... and having a daughter. Tamar has been doing more production work with me on each project, and did the schedule for Dry Bones. After working on two films in 2012 which kept me away from my family - it's what we all do - I wanted to shoot in my house so I could still be around them. It's a big inconvenience to home owners to turn their home over to a film crew, and I knew shooting here would make things easier overall. Kaelin has a small role in the film, which she's looking forward to, and I let her slate some shots to keep her involved. She loves having the people around (for one day she had a big sister in Tia, and a peer in Paul), but it will be a challenge shooting around a seven year old who demands to be the center of attention. It's going to be a great experience for her, though. Her room is the bedroom where the succubus lives, and the green hills, blue sky and corner tree I painted on the walls are going to look great on film.
As small as the crew sounds, there were quite a few people working behind the scenes. Shannon Kramp is our costume designer, and she's doing a great job. On a shoot like this, the costume designer chooses and obtains the wardrobe, sews additional costumes, etc., and creates a system which allows the actors to know which costumes they need to wear in which scene. Right now our wardrobe department is a clothing rack which we roll back and forth between my kitchen and living room depending on where we're shooting. Rod Durick and Arick Szymecki are our special make-up effects artists; Rod is also our production designer and Arick is our visual effects artist... and our technical adviser. They've been doing their work at their respective labs and will be on set soon. Chris Rados is a co-producer on the film and is loaning us equipment, and will be helping out with lighting when he's not on another shoot. Scott Franklin, who worked on BattleDogs, also loaned us equipment and is going to help with lighting. Chris Santucci, my SCM DP, loaned us some stands. This is going to be a very well lit film! Chris Wroblewski, who's an associate producer, and "MonsterMatt" Patterson loaned us some retro toys for the key bedroom.
Thanks to everyone who helped out this first weekend. We were a cohesive unit, very laid back with no egos, and we did good work - this is going to be a special film.
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