KILLER RACK Day Eighteen: Return to Medina
Today was one of our biggest days on KILLER RACK. On paper, our two bar scenes totaled only 6 and 2/8 pages, and average day for me. But screenwriter/co-star Paul McGinnis and I added so many characters to the script, and most of those characters converged in today's two scenes, and I had a bunch of little bits I added myself, so it was much bigger than it appeared to be. We returned to the Medina Theater, 40 minutes away, where we shot the bar scenes for DRY BONES. I was a little hesitant about reusing the same location, and made it a personal goal to make it look as different as possible, so I staged every piece of the puzzle as if we were in a new location. My key team - Paul, Rod Durick, Jessica Zwolak, Chris Rados and Sam Qualiana had all been part of the BIONES shoot, and so had our swing gaffer, Scotty Franklin. Our liaison was again "O'Mick Donald," who really made sure we were set to go.
Right off the bat, we had an enormous cast, including many extras who had performed bit parts in previous scenes; I was pleased so many of them made the drive to be with us today. Having so many people return for our last day with extras made it a bttersweet day. I was also pleased that Jennuifer McMahon, formerly Jenifer Bihl, the lead from SLIME CITY MASSACRE, joined us, I can't name them all, or my blog will resemble an IMDB listing, but it was a great bunch, includig newcomer Erika Instead, who came as a jouirnalist. Chris and I did a lot of scenes in a manner I haven't done before: dollying from one conversation between two characters to another cnversation between two others, and sometimes to a third. It reallya added a fluidity to the sequence, and sped up the day at the same time. I also added a brief musical number - our second! - and Kim Piazza helped me stage it.
By the second half of the day, I started calling "picture wrap" on so many people who have been helping us from the start. Our set call was 10 am, and we were done with the bar by 6 pm. But we weren't finished shooting. We still have to shoot the endingto our climax, even after two all nighters in the alley at Pierce Arrow Film Arts Center. We hope to finish this Saturday, but one of our actors, Alexander McBryde, will be out of town. Alex plays one of our two detectives, Michael O'Hear plays the other. We need to shoot their ending together, or not at all. I wanted to get them in the same frame as Jessica and Paul, but that just wasn't possible. So we either needed to get their pieces of the climax tonight, or reassign their dialogue - including each actor's most important lines - to Paul. My plan was to shoot in back of the theater, and cut the shots into the footage shot elsewhere. And then the forecast called for rain and thunderstorms. But it didn't rain, we got the shots, and called picture wraps on Michael and Alex. And then we shot one bit with O'Mick Donald, whose death went from being off screen, to somewhat onscreen, to full on screen - shot over three nights.
We wrapped at 8:22 pm and were on the road by 9:00 pm - one houir ahead of schedule!
One mnore day of principal photography to go...
Right off the bat, we had an enormous cast, including many extras who had performed bit parts in previous scenes; I was pleased so many of them made the drive to be with us today. Having so many people return for our last day with extras made it a bttersweet day. I was also pleased that Jennuifer McMahon, formerly Jenifer Bihl, the lead from SLIME CITY MASSACRE, joined us, I can't name them all, or my blog will resemble an IMDB listing, but it was a great bunch, includig newcomer Erika Instead, who came as a jouirnalist. Chris and I did a lot of scenes in a manner I haven't done before: dollying from one conversation between two characters to another cnversation between two others, and sometimes to a third. It reallya added a fluidity to the sequence, and sped up the day at the same time. I also added a brief musical number - our second! - and Kim Piazza helped me stage it.
By the second half of the day, I started calling "picture wrap" on so many people who have been helping us from the start. Our set call was 10 am, and we were done with the bar by 6 pm. But we weren't finished shooting. We still have to shoot the endingto our climax, even after two all nighters in the alley at Pierce Arrow Film Arts Center. We hope to finish this Saturday, but one of our actors, Alexander McBryde, will be out of town. Alex plays one of our two detectives, Michael O'Hear plays the other. We need to shoot their ending together, or not at all. I wanted to get them in the same frame as Jessica and Paul, but that just wasn't possible. So we either needed to get their pieces of the climax tonight, or reassign their dialogue - including each actor's most important lines - to Paul. My plan was to shoot in back of the theater, and cut the shots into the footage shot elsewhere. And then the forecast called for rain and thunderstorms. But it didn't rain, we got the shots, and called picture wraps on Michael and Alex. And then we shot one bit with O'Mick Donald, whose death went from being off screen, to somewhat onscreen, to full on screen - shot over three nights.
We wrapped at 8:22 pm and were on the road by 9:00 pm - one houir ahead of schedule!
One mnore day of principal photography to go...
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