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A shoot and some loot in 2011

12/20/2011

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Ok, so, that first shoot, the prom sequence. Wow, what an undertaking that was, for all of us- from myself, I suppose (directing and art directing simultaneously are sometimes not fun when you have to make a blank area look like a high school prom in very little time thanks to locked doors and cranky custodians and I'm rambling), to the crew (lots of equipment, lots of shots, lots of things and people to be organized, lots of lots of anything), to the cast (emotion, emotion, emotion), and even having to wrangle enough extras to make a believable dance floor (thank God for the blessed Loomings kids; Norwegian film majors; and a few others who ended up becoming named extras; that showed up looking fresh on a Friday night before Finals week!)...I mean, it was crazy. I wrote a lot of more "intimate" scenes for 'Us & Them', scenes between two people, or ones that take place just in one house or one classroom. There's  a few other scenes that'll require some extras (Cole's class through the years when he's teaching, the baseball field fight), but this was the biggie in terms of just about everything. And with the help from all the above that pitched in, we filmed it, right up until midnight but we got it DONE, and man, I can't stop watching this raw footage, even just with camera audio. Can't believe how hard my crew worked to get things going and looking as well as possible, and how amazing (see below post where I gush uncontrollably) the actors were at diving into the scenes when we were ready. I am so relieved. We likely won't be filming again for about another month (as I may have mentioned before, this is a pretty spread shoot til around the end of March considering a couple other Theses have to be worked on as well, and I aint no Thesis Grinch), and it truly makes me sad because no matter the insane stress and pressure leading up to the first slate call, once it gets going it's kinda like magic. And it was really nice to feel that again.

A little tidbit about something that happened recently. Some of our core crew (Marc, Rob, Nugent, myself, and Alan) submitted a comedic famous film quote-themed short awhile ago to The History of Movies Film Festival sponsored by Pass the Popcorn. It was accepted into a bracket-style tournament which was voted on by the public until a winner would be announced. That winner as of December 2011 was us! We won the grand prize ($$$!) and will be splitting our winnings for use in our Thesis budgets. Woohoo!

In case this is my last post of the year 2011, and what a damned fine, damned crazy, damned stressful, and "I'll be damned!" year it's been, have the happiest of holidays. See you on the flip side.

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The benefits to finding wonderous people

12/20/2011

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Well, we shot our first scenes (47-49...don't those scene numbers just make you SHUDDER?) of 'Us & Them' this past Friday the 16th, but I won't start with that juicy bit just yet, that'll be in a new post...
First off, I have to say that I can't believe how lucky I am that I- and we, because I got some major assistance here- found such awesome people to act in the film. Of course the crew is superb [and I'm sure I'll write BIG POSTS about them later!], and we've worked with each other mostly on 'Super/Heroes' and 'Raw Umber' before, with some new additions, and I love them to death and they're really at the top of their game here at Post. But with a cast, unless you've worked with them before (and I had with Steve in both of those, and Lindsay in the first, and sort of admittedly wrote Cole and Allison with them in mind begging God they'd take the roles) you have no idea if someone will blow you away at an audition and be a complete nutcase on set, or if no one will suit the part at all and there will just be a big black hole.
Danny proved to be hard to find the right actor for, but luckily I found a great guy right  on campus who gets his combination of charm, swagger, and douchiness (Ian) without going over the top in the moustache-twirling villain department. Lauren came in for, well, "Lauren", and while she hasn't shot yet she was such fun at read throughs and has been great to talk to, so on top of things- and has made a role which could have also been a gossipy stereotype a layered one. Danny and Lauren aren't stereotypes, they're archetypes of the kind of people you meet in high school (the charming class clown, the outgoing best friend who you may not keep up with too much after college rolls around), and a lot of people didn't understand that. But Ian and Lauren do, and I can't wait to do more with them. Paul brought a LOT more gravitas to Phil than I was expecting from anyone. Phil is a goof who also quietly envies Cole and his steadiness, then doesn't know what to do when he sees that slowly fall apart from the sidelines. Many people up-played the goofy part. Paul plays it differently than I saw anyone else play it, and I love it. When we filmed, I knew he was perfect. Lindsay hasn't been able to be here much for portraying Allison, but her initial reading with Steve absolutely seared with tension and sadness and I know it'll be perfect.
We had a rehearsal with Elizabeth (Margot) and Steve (Cole) the Friday before the first shoot. I was nervous, because I wanted the right amount of tension and history between these characters before such a pivotal scene (prom, the emotional climax of their story) would be shot, and a scene that occurs after so much has happened between them and in their lives. I needn't have worried. They absolutely understood the perspectives of the characters, and while I didn't want to give too much away from the writer's POV because their acting was just so GOOD I didn't want to mess anything up, it was obvious come their dance scene on Friday that they understood exactly where their characters' feelings were at the moment (oh sweet LORD the beautiful tension!). It didn't matter that we weren't shooting chronologically or hadn't shot any of their school scenes or other pivotal scenes before this. They were able to leap into the characters at 18 and 26, after experiencing so much; her about to graduate and him on a precipice of the unknown.

I couldn't be more lucky to have found these people.

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    A blog about writing, film school, and all that etcetera.

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