KILLER RACK Day Two
7:00 am call. First shot: 7:48 am. That's called effective set management!
We began Day Two shooting the portions of the surgery scene we didn't complete the night before. These sots focused on Bob Bozek as nurse Herbie East, and allowed him to perform slapstick. Bob never gives anything less than his all, and he was - ready? - hilarious.
Next, we shot Assistant Director Sam Qualiana's first scene as Dutch, Betty's insensitive boyfriend, The scene called for him to interact with Debbie and Bob, and the three of them were great. So was Joel Resnikoff's art direction, and I think I did well by Paul McGinnis's script, which is my chief goal.
Next, we moved onto the first scene in the film, which introduces Herbie and Dr. Thulu (Debbie Rochon). The space was tighter than I'd expected, so we were limited in what we could do, but Director of Photography delivered an effective dolly shot and the chemistry between Bob and Debbie was spot on.
Moving down the hall, we returned to Herbie's domain, the waiting room, and grabbed a pickup shot for the big (biiiiiiiiiig) schene we shot the da before, a needed reaction shot from Debbie, Worth the time to get.
And then co-producer Rod Durick took Debbie outside to shoot some second unit footage for the title sequence. This was an instance where Debbie used her make-up to create a funny gag. She does her own make-up on a lot of films, not by choice but because so many of these indie films don't have the budget for a hair/make-up stylist. Guilty as charged. Anyway, Debbie created a cool look for Dr. Thulu in our film, and worked all the tools in her arsenal to mine extra laughs.
We had down time next, because we were waiting for SFX artists Arick Szymecki and Stacey Book to escort Jessica Zwolak to set in the Boobs. I never expect SFX on time, it just doesn't happen. I'd intended to shoot first unit while Rod shot second, but that didn't happen. Using the time before lunch, Debbie, Jessica, Bob and I rehearsed the climactic confrontation between Thulu and Betty. I thought it was a page and a half long scene, but it was three. My bad. So the rehearsal was much needed, and a better use of time than if we'd shot the scene I'd planned next.
Jessica and the SFX team arrived, and the Boobs were spectacular. Wide screen spectacular. And we shot their first scene after lunch, when Betty storms into the waiting room and demands to see Dr. Thulu. At this point, I was keenly aware of our time limitations: this was the last day Debbie and Bob were scheduled to shoot, and the last day we were scheduled to shoot in the mad scientist lab and waiting room. When you're paying for locations, you don't have the same luxury as you do when you film in your house to postpone what you don't have time to get. We ended up shooting more limited coverage of this scene than we had, but when Jessica is wearing the Boobs I want to limit that coverage anyway.
FIially, we moved on to the next scene, which could have been a monster like the one the day before. I used the tighter space to create some masters which covered all the action - always tougher with three actors than with two - and we punched in for close ups. All three actors were great. But I'd planned for this scene to feature a climactic reveal of the Boobs nekkid. This was the perfect place in the script for that. And they just didn't look good enough undressed. Arick said he would fix them digitally, but I just didn't want to rely on that. So I made the decision to keep Betty clothed, and I saw the relief on at least one actor's face. A subpar effect her could have sunk the whole scene. The four four hours spent by Arick and Stacey applying the Boobs prosthetic o Jessica weren't wasted, though: without them, we wouldn't have had boobs at all, the silicone versions I bought just wouldn't have worked. So we went with our strongest option and everyone was happy. Debbie worked the scene, giving us plenty of options, Bob got to do his funniest bits, and Jessica proved she's going to be excellent in the starring role.
The schedule was for 7 am - 7 pm, meaning we were supposed to stop shooting at 7 pm. Everyone would have worked longer, but I didn't want that to happen. We're shooting on location next weekend, so we had to pack up all our equipment and set operations, and move most of it to Paul's and unpack it. We finished the big scene at 6 pm, which gave us just an hour to shoot the next big scene: the post surgery scene in which the Boobs are revealed without really being revealed (that comes later). As written, the scene spoofed jack Nicholson unwrapping his bandages in BATMAN. For me, it always had to be more of a reference to THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, an idea grew stronger when we discovered our surgical table had a mechanism enabling it to rise.
With the clock ticking, we had to rearrange Joel's impressive laboratory set to get the wide angle behind the table I wanted. This wasn't a continuity issue, since I wanted this scene to be noirish, and Chris and I agreed it should be lit by an overhead light Joel had strung up The scene calls for the table to rise, keeping Jessica mostly hidden with Debbie and Bob on either side of it. The master looked gorgeous. Then we got a two shot of Debbie and Bob, and that looked gorgeous. Then we shot a three quarter view of Jessica staggering off the table, shrouded in shadows, falling down because her new boobs are so heavy, and stumbling out of the room. And that looked gorgeous. More important, the prosthetic boobs were glimpsed ever so briefly, teasing the audience, and they looked great in this shot, We shot a close up of Bob and called a picture wrap on him, then a close up of Debbie and called a picture wrap on her, and finished our shooting day at 7 pm, right on schedule. So we made our day, plus made some pickups leftover from the day before, and got some fantastic footage.
Now we have five days to prep next weekend's shoot, which features all local actors.
We began Day Two shooting the portions of the surgery scene we didn't complete the night before. These sots focused on Bob Bozek as nurse Herbie East, and allowed him to perform slapstick. Bob never gives anything less than his all, and he was - ready? - hilarious.
Next, we shot Assistant Director Sam Qualiana's first scene as Dutch, Betty's insensitive boyfriend, The scene called for him to interact with Debbie and Bob, and the three of them were great. So was Joel Resnikoff's art direction, and I think I did well by Paul McGinnis's script, which is my chief goal.
Next, we moved onto the first scene in the film, which introduces Herbie and Dr. Thulu (Debbie Rochon). The space was tighter than I'd expected, so we were limited in what we could do, but Director of Photography delivered an effective dolly shot and the chemistry between Bob and Debbie was spot on.
Moving down the hall, we returned to Herbie's domain, the waiting room, and grabbed a pickup shot for the big (biiiiiiiiiig) schene we shot the da before, a needed reaction shot from Debbie, Worth the time to get.
And then co-producer Rod Durick took Debbie outside to shoot some second unit footage for the title sequence. This was an instance where Debbie used her make-up to create a funny gag. She does her own make-up on a lot of films, not by choice but because so many of these indie films don't have the budget for a hair/make-up stylist. Guilty as charged. Anyway, Debbie created a cool look for Dr. Thulu in our film, and worked all the tools in her arsenal to mine extra laughs.
We had down time next, because we were waiting for SFX artists Arick Szymecki and Stacey Book to escort Jessica Zwolak to set in the Boobs. I never expect SFX on time, it just doesn't happen. I'd intended to shoot first unit while Rod shot second, but that didn't happen. Using the time before lunch, Debbie, Jessica, Bob and I rehearsed the climactic confrontation between Thulu and Betty. I thought it was a page and a half long scene, but it was three. My bad. So the rehearsal was much needed, and a better use of time than if we'd shot the scene I'd planned next.
Jessica and the SFX team arrived, and the Boobs were spectacular. Wide screen spectacular. And we shot their first scene after lunch, when Betty storms into the waiting room and demands to see Dr. Thulu. At this point, I was keenly aware of our time limitations: this was the last day Debbie and Bob were scheduled to shoot, and the last day we were scheduled to shoot in the mad scientist lab and waiting room. When you're paying for locations, you don't have the same luxury as you do when you film in your house to postpone what you don't have time to get. We ended up shooting more limited coverage of this scene than we had, but when Jessica is wearing the Boobs I want to limit that coverage anyway.
FIially, we moved on to the next scene, which could have been a monster like the one the day before. I used the tighter space to create some masters which covered all the action - always tougher with three actors than with two - and we punched in for close ups. All three actors were great. But I'd planned for this scene to feature a climactic reveal of the Boobs nekkid. This was the perfect place in the script for that. And they just didn't look good enough undressed. Arick said he would fix them digitally, but I just didn't want to rely on that. So I made the decision to keep Betty clothed, and I saw the relief on at least one actor's face. A subpar effect her could have sunk the whole scene. The four four hours spent by Arick and Stacey applying the Boobs prosthetic o Jessica weren't wasted, though: without them, we wouldn't have had boobs at all, the silicone versions I bought just wouldn't have worked. So we went with our strongest option and everyone was happy. Debbie worked the scene, giving us plenty of options, Bob got to do his funniest bits, and Jessica proved she's going to be excellent in the starring role.
The schedule was for 7 am - 7 pm, meaning we were supposed to stop shooting at 7 pm. Everyone would have worked longer, but I didn't want that to happen. We're shooting on location next weekend, so we had to pack up all our equipment and set operations, and move most of it to Paul's and unpack it. We finished the big scene at 6 pm, which gave us just an hour to shoot the next big scene: the post surgery scene in which the Boobs are revealed without really being revealed (that comes later). As written, the scene spoofed jack Nicholson unwrapping his bandages in BATMAN. For me, it always had to be more of a reference to THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, an idea grew stronger when we discovered our surgical table had a mechanism enabling it to rise.
With the clock ticking, we had to rearrange Joel's impressive laboratory set to get the wide angle behind the table I wanted. This wasn't a continuity issue, since I wanted this scene to be noirish, and Chris and I agreed it should be lit by an overhead light Joel had strung up The scene calls for the table to rise, keeping Jessica mostly hidden with Debbie and Bob on either side of it. The master looked gorgeous. Then we got a two shot of Debbie and Bob, and that looked gorgeous. Then we shot a three quarter view of Jessica staggering off the table, shrouded in shadows, falling down because her new boobs are so heavy, and stumbling out of the room. And that looked gorgeous. More important, the prosthetic boobs were glimpsed ever so briefly, teasing the audience, and they looked great in this shot, We shot a close up of Bob and called a picture wrap on him, then a close up of Debbie and called a picture wrap on her, and finished our shooting day at 7 pm, right on schedule. So we made our day, plus made some pickups leftover from the day before, and got some fantastic footage.
Now we have five days to prep next weekend's shoot, which features all local actors.
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