DRY BONES Day 9
Due to a casting change, I'd planned for us to take this weekend of from filming, but then I realized we're off this coming weekend because I'm going to C2E2 in Chicago, and that we're off the following Saturday because Sam Qualiana and I are guests at ParaHorror Con on the US side of Niagara Falls the Saturday after that. I didn't want to lose five days of shooting, so I scheduled a light day for Saturday. I scheduled some scenes with my partner on this project, Michael O'Hear, by himself, and two short scenes with Paul McGinnis. My thinking was that we'd have to rush all of these scenes if they were lumped in with bigger scenes on other days, so I added a day to the schedule so we could take our time with them and give them a little pizazz.
We started with three scenes in my kitchen, and wrapped that location. One shot was supposed to have a camera set up inside my refrigerator when Michael opens the door and looks inside ( a shot I wanted in the original Slime City but never got). We didn't have a monitor to frame the shot, so Sam suggested we remove the shelves in the frige so he could climb inside it, which worked beautifully. Sam shot much of Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast himself, but I really think he's come into his own as a cinematographer on this project; he's been detail oriented and has made some good suggestions.
We "finished" in the kitchen with a bit where Michael pops the cork on a bottle of champagne, and I directed Michael to play the sexual symbolism for all it was worth. Up until now, he's basically been the exasperated straight man to Paul and John Renna, who are both funny in the film. Michael has some really funny stuff coming up, but this was his first time being the center of the comedy, which I believe he enjoyed. I was pleased to wrap on the kitchen because its a hassle moving all of the equipment ("staging") from one to another, then back again when we switch rooms. Now the kitchen will always be available.
Tim O'Hearn, who is one of the co-producers on the film (along with his Cro-nan Productions partner Tim Walton), came by for an unscripted bit in a larger scene. I believe his appearance in this scene will elicit strong laughs, and he went for the gold. That's a wrap on Tim, who acted with Michael and Amelie Mckendry in an earlier scene.
Into the living room we went. We shot bits of Michale cleaning my house which will become part of a montage, and added a funny bit with him battling an off screen fly. These bits allowed us to see different parts of my house; I was getting sick of seeing the same walls (in the script, Michael's character removes photos and posters from the walls because he's cleaning the house to sell it;the idea - which may be working too well - was to have the house become drab except when he's in his childhood bedroom, where the colors really pop; I'm glad I painted hills, a tree and sky before Kaelin was born...
Next we did a scene on the dolly in which Michael reacts to the reappearance of the "Dry Bones" graffiti. The dolly shot I had wasn't working until Sam made an alteration, and the scene ended up looking really nice. That was a wrap on the graffiti, which Rod Durick designed so they could go onto the wall and come off, so we wouldn't have to keep re-painting my wall.
Finally we did two scenes which were additions to a scene we shot previously, with Michael panicking after seeing the graffiti for the first time. The first involved a dolly, and Chris Rados, who did a great job on lighting, acted as Sam's AC. The second was a handheld shot.
We had a celebrity visitor to our set: Craig Sheffer, who recently starred in Battledogs. which I worked on with Sam, Paul, Kash Costner , Scott Franklin and John Renna. Craig was really interested in the equipment our small crew was using, and in Rod's graffiti and the husks he and Arick Szymecki created.
I wanted to keep the day down to six hours, so we didn't make our day, and we're still not quite halfway finished with principal photography. Special thanks to Paul McGinnis for not complaining because we didn't get to his shots, and for running some errands that weren't planned. I was pleased with everything we got.
We started with three scenes in my kitchen, and wrapped that location. One shot was supposed to have a camera set up inside my refrigerator when Michael opens the door and looks inside ( a shot I wanted in the original Slime City but never got). We didn't have a monitor to frame the shot, so Sam suggested we remove the shelves in the frige so he could climb inside it, which worked beautifully. Sam shot much of Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast himself, but I really think he's come into his own as a cinematographer on this project; he's been detail oriented and has made some good suggestions.
We "finished" in the kitchen with a bit where Michael pops the cork on a bottle of champagne, and I directed Michael to play the sexual symbolism for all it was worth. Up until now, he's basically been the exasperated straight man to Paul and John Renna, who are both funny in the film. Michael has some really funny stuff coming up, but this was his first time being the center of the comedy, which I believe he enjoyed. I was pleased to wrap on the kitchen because its a hassle moving all of the equipment ("staging") from one to another, then back again when we switch rooms. Now the kitchen will always be available.
Tim O'Hearn, who is one of the co-producers on the film (along with his Cro-nan Productions partner Tim Walton), came by for an unscripted bit in a larger scene. I believe his appearance in this scene will elicit strong laughs, and he went for the gold. That's a wrap on Tim, who acted with Michael and Amelie Mckendry in an earlier scene.
Into the living room we went. We shot bits of Michale cleaning my house which will become part of a montage, and added a funny bit with him battling an off screen fly. These bits allowed us to see different parts of my house; I was getting sick of seeing the same walls (in the script, Michael's character removes photos and posters from the walls because he's cleaning the house to sell it;the idea - which may be working too well - was to have the house become drab except when he's in his childhood bedroom, where the colors really pop; I'm glad I painted hills, a tree and sky before Kaelin was born...
Next we did a scene on the dolly in which Michael reacts to the reappearance of the "Dry Bones" graffiti. The dolly shot I had wasn't working until Sam made an alteration, and the scene ended up looking really nice. That was a wrap on the graffiti, which Rod Durick designed so they could go onto the wall and come off, so we wouldn't have to keep re-painting my wall.
Finally we did two scenes which were additions to a scene we shot previously, with Michael panicking after seeing the graffiti for the first time. The first involved a dolly, and Chris Rados, who did a great job on lighting, acted as Sam's AC. The second was a handheld shot.
We had a celebrity visitor to our set: Craig Sheffer, who recently starred in Battledogs. which I worked on with Sam, Paul, Kash Costner , Scott Franklin and John Renna. Craig was really interested in the equipment our small crew was using, and in Rod's graffiti and the husks he and Arick Szymecki created.
I wanted to keep the day down to six hours, so we didn't make our day, and we're still not quite halfway finished with principal photography. Special thanks to Paul McGinnis for not complaining because we didn't get to his shots, and for running some errands that weren't planned. I was pleased with everything we got.
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