DRY BONES Days 3 and 4
For our second weekend of filming I scheduled a heavier day for Saturday, by which I mean a standard twelve hours, so we could do a shorter Sunday and everyone could have Easter dinner with their families if that mattered to them. We already pushed the shoot for St. Paddy's Day, and i didn't want to slow our momentum. Special thanks to Scotty Franklin for helping out with lighting on Saturday, and Chris Rados and John Renna for jumping in on their day off from The Romans on Sunday.
Saturday marked the first day that Paul McGinnis, John Renna, and Amelie McKendry appeared on camera for the project. Everyone was excellent, and Renna looked great in his cop uniform. We shot our first exteriors, first with Renna in the daytime and then various shots of Michael, Amelie, and the house at night. We also did our first dolly shots for the film, using a homemade dolly and PVC track which had been sitting in Rod Durick’s backyard for a year (or was it two?). Dolly shots are fun and add production value. Our DP Sam Qualiana’s been getting some nice shots lit by Kash Costner, and Paul McGinnis has been recording audio when he’s not on camera.
For a scene in which Paul wakes Michael up by throwing a rock through the bedroom window, we raised my daughter’s bedroom window and removed the screen, and I climbed an extension ladder and threw a rock through the blinds. Nailed it in one take, and the scene should be funny. I didn’t fall and break my neck, but I did endure Rod’s jokes about my ass. Rod provided custom made stick-on “Dry Bones” graffiti so we don’t have to paint my living room wall ten times.
Our first big effect came when Michael’s character rolls over in bed and discovers that his bar pickup has been reduced to an emaciated corpse. Specifically, he grasps her breast, which my script describes as a “rasin tit.” It was funny seeing Rod walk in with the corpse, which is on top of my entertainment unit now. That night Rod assembled the platform that our key bed will sit on; the platform elevates the bed so the succubus can pull her victims under it without anyone suffering scrapes, bruises, or unplanned belly reduction.
Sometime on Saturday Kaelin got sick, and I don’t think I got more than an hour’s sleep.
Sunday morning we shot a funny scene between Michael and Paul outside, then moved on to delayed shots of the succubus grabbing Amelie so Amelie could make her flight.
We moved downstairs and did a couple of non-effects scenes on the dolly, one with Michael and Paul and one just with Michael. I cut some scenes from the day’s schedule to get everyone out at a decent hour as promised, so we didn’t make our day, which means we’ll have to simplify scenes down the road so we can squeeze in what we missed. That’s showbiz, and the show always goes on.
