DRY BONES Days 7 and 8

For Day 7 of Dry Bones, I scheduled two thirds of the scenes set in a bar frequented by Drew (Michael O’Hear); the final third will be shot when Debbie Rochon arrives in May. Bar scenes can be tough to shoot because you need to find a bar that’s closed in the day, and in this economy most stay open. You shouldn't shoot in bars when they're open, even if they're slow, because the noise is too great.  It takes an hour to load in and an hour to pack up and load out of any "away" location, plus you need an hour for lunch, so that’s three hours’ worth of down time going in. We had a couple of decent options, but neither panned out, so at the last minute I asked “Mick O’Donald” if he could arrange for us to shoot in the bar at the Medina Theatre, where we screened Slime City Massacre and Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast a few months ago, and he and the theaters owner, Joe Cardone, came through for us. Picture a movie theater balcony overlooking a bar which faces a dance floor and a movie theater screen. The challenge was to make the space look smaller, and we got some great angles looking down on the bar and one with the camera far enough back on the dance floor so we could see the entire bar.

In the first scene, Drew meets up with his best friend Tom (Paul McGinnis); in the second, he meets a love interest, Rachel (Amelie Mckendry); and in the third, he has conversations with Tom and his date Cindy/Mindy (Jessica Zwolak) and with Rachel and her most recent pickup Mickey (Tim O’Hearn). In all three scenes, he interacts with the bartender, Gary. At the last minute we cast Daniel Arrasjid, whom my family recently saw as Long John Silver in a stage production of Treasure Island, in which which Paul appeared. The fun thing about this day was that all of the scenes were comedic in nature, so the focus was really on the acting. For the last scene, the master shot followed Michael into the bar, past Paul and Jessica, over to Amelie and Tim, then back over to Paul and Jessica with Daniel crossing the frame. The bar was a 40 minute drive from my house, but everything went pretty smoothly inside and the actors were spot on. We’re shooting so much of the film in my house that it’s always nice to get away.

For Day 8, we started at a location in Niagara Falls affiliated with Michael’s job. The two scenes we shot featured Tammy Reger (from SLUGS!) as Dr. Lawless, Drew’s psychiatrist, in her office. Each scene covers one half of the dialogue in telephone conversations between Drew and his shrink. These are easy to do, and we burned through them, but again we had to load in and load out, then drive back to my house; this is called a company move.

At my house we shot a number of exterior scenes. In the first, Michael covered his half of the dialogue for one of the telephone conversations while sitting in his car. After he hangs up his cell phone, Carl the cop (John Renna) surprises him and they have a conversation. All of the shots in this scene played nicely. Then we had another scene of Drew talking on the phone while driving; for this one, Sam Qualiana sat beside Michael while Michael drove around the block saying his lines; another nice looking shot. Next we shot montage shots of Drew cleaning up: carrying garbage outside and opening the garage door to reveal another huge mess. I actually had to throw some junk in there because I’m one of the few people in Buffalo who actually parks in his garage.

Finally we did some pickup shots of Rachel’s murder scene. We shot the bulk of the coverage previously, but needed to get two shots of succubus/monster hands grabbing her. For these shots Tamar wore gloves fabricated by Rod Durick and Stacey Book, based on Arick Szymecki’s sculpts for some silicone gloves which Debbie Rochon will wear. These were Amelie’s last shots in the shoot, and when we were done I called it an early day rather than look for other pickups we need to get of Michael; everyone left by 4 pm, an hour ahead of schedule. It was a fairly easy weekend, but a rewarding one. We made our days and came out a little bit ahead of schedule.

A few words about our crew: Sam Qualiana wants to act, but may find himself in demand as a DP after this film is released. We’re fortunate enough to have three talented people working as gaffers and grips: Kash Costner, Scotty Franklin and Chris Rados. Scotty and Chris have provided us with much needed equipment. All three guys know what they’re doing. Sometimes we have all three on set, sometimes two, and sometimes only one; there are other films being shot in the area, so they’re schedules are based on availability. We’re recording audio into a mixer which goes directly into the T2i we’re shooting on, so we don’t have a mixer per se. Paul McGinnis usually booms when he isn’t acting, and when he is one of the guys takes over (I boomed for a day as well). Our costume designer Shannon Kramp, and our effects people (Rod Durick, Arick Szymecki, and Stacey Book) primarily work off set and make appearances when needed.

So far the shoot has been a pleasure, and we're almost halfway done.