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!
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