Is Grimm just Bound?

This week in Matt's world of independent movies. I updated the merlot website with more pictures. Watched the rough cut of Chaointe again. Its getting close. I have had dialogue with Richard Temple about temp tracks. I am still trying to figure out exactly what that is but I think it’s a good idea. I know that probably makes no sense to anyone but me. I spoke with Sharon about wardrobe for Sans Vie and talked with two French musicians for soundtrack material. I also bought a bottle of smoking loon merlot and I am debating using it as a prop in my press kit for the next film festival I submit to. Trent has finished the crow and rabbit drawings for the opening of Chaointe and they are very cool. Iam gearing up to take a break from everything for a week and hang out play some video games and this upcoming Friday watch the Brothers Grimm. Matt Damon? I can only guess Terry is playing Hollywood to recover and then get back into the La Mancha Saddle again.

Merlot Commentary and Spoilers IV

We now come to my favorite shot and that is of Miriam sitting at the table alone and we are hearing a conversation from the mental ward bleeding through. The conversation is between an older woman and a somewhat patronizing doctor. If I haven’t mentioned this already The name Miriam means wife of the sea. The Dr. now reveals the punchline and that is that Miriam's husband and son are dead, Miriam is actually had a breakdown because of it and has left reality. Miriam only responds by telling a poem that she remembers her husband reading to her. Finally we hear Miriam speak with her own words and in the real world and all Miriam has to say to the Doctor and the audience is "Memories are my only vision" This is not only a comment of don’t take this away from me but also a cry for help. Shannon did an excellent job in delivering this line. Are last shot is the same as the first shot it is of the boy washed out playing at the play ground. Her last memory of her son. We hear the Doctor in the background calling for Miriam but she is gone. There were two other stories that actually tied into merlot. Merlot is related to the Wednesday woman in kind of a prequel fashion and a 45 minute short I wrote called May and June actually wraps the story up with a happy ending. I have decided not to do those projects at this point. Wednesday woman overlaps on some of the plot points and would be redundant in places while May and June effort would be to much for me to undertake at this point. Oh the painting behind Miriam is Picasso’s the Dream oh and if I havent mentioned this the clock does not move and is the time of death for her husband and son. I think that wraps it up for explanations. Susan, Shannon, Robert and the crew did a great job. This was originally going to be Jeff heading to the store to get chips so we could figure out how to do shots. Although the effort was bigger I am happy we did it this way. I cut about 5 minutes out of short to make it a bit quicker and may add it back in sometime in the future, along with our stair decent shot that was so cool.

Merlot Commentary and Spoilers Part III

Next she pours the wine and stares at Robert this is where she delivers the line "I had a dream we were married, we had a son, you use to read to me" In reality she was married to him they did have a son and he would read to her. In her fantasy she has kept something that use to bug her and now she wishes she could have it back.

There is the story of a man who would come home from work late and leave his shoes outside the bedroom door. Every morning when the wife left the room she saws these shoes and it drove her to rage. One night the man had a heart attack at work and never came home. After a couple of nights the reality of his death hit the wife when she did not see his shoes there in the morning. Something she hated became something she wished she could have. Much in the same Robert's reading of Poetry would drive Miriam crazy but now she wishes she could have it. Her Yelling Shut up is a great scene for two reasons one is he is reading a poem about his death and she wants him to stop and two him reading poetry drove her nuts and when she yells shut up she immediatly is lost and would not mind if he was there to keep reading.

The music by Richard Temple is perfect here. When working with Richard he provided several peices of music to set moods of tension, or despair. In the end we ended up combining all of those sketches together to make an entirely new sketch. Richards compositions really help set the tone for the emotional state of Miriam.

"I dont want this anymore, I have cheesecake" After Miriams flash of a dream or memory she comes back to the dinner and the mood has changed she starts breaking down, reality is seeping into her fantasy, the fact that her husband is gone is seeping in. We can hear heels walking down a hallway and hear and see images of a fan. The fan.....The fan is actually a fan from the hospital and as she sits there trying to escape the reality of her loss this fan is buzzing in the hallway of the hospital as a reminder of where she really is. Showing the fan with the grate off was one of many ideas Jeff generated. Thank you Jeff. So Miriam finally gets Robert to tell her his story that he has been writing.

Roberts story
A painter named James met a woman named Elizebeth. Her beauty inspired him to paint her. As they would meet and James would paint her, Elizebeth began to fall in love with James and assume James must feel the same way about her. The last time James and Elizebeth meet James fiance stops in to talk briefly. Elizebeth is crushed and feels humiliated for having these feelings for him. In the end Elizebeth kills James.

Robert tells this to Miriam in a poetic way and just like the story we hear Roberts cell phone ring and relize that Robert is actually in love with someone else already. *note mortally blassant - wounded to death
Miriam excuses herself from the table and heads to the bathroom to escape thru medication. The pills fall on the floor, she picks them up and looks in the mirror. This is where she begins the decent into reality, She begins to have flashes of her lost son. Not only has she been humilated in her fantasy that she takes as reality but her reality haunts her. In the end she wants the fantasy to be over and she wipes everything out. You see her come out and the condo is now empty except for Robert and it is implied that she kills him. Bringing to life the story he was writing, and the story he was writing is a bit telling on how she feels responsible for his death and her sons death. Its not as easy or two dimensional as that either her killing off Robert could also be the rage she feels for him doing this to her, or that she is being cold blooded in ending the fantasy to try a different version. Ultimitly she is grieving more for the loss of her son then her husband. In this fantasy she feels as if somehow if they had just been friends and not married they would still be alive. All of this fantasy we have been watching is not the first time she has tried to create this alternate universe this is one of many versions.

more to come ... (but not much more)

Merlot Commentary and Spoilers Part II

We start the movie off with a washed out image of boy playing at a playground this is Robert and Miriam's son.
Next we see Miriam dressed very nicely in her bathroom. What we are actually looking at is a reflection of her in a mirror. So our first image of her is really not of her but just a reflection. She picks up a small cup and two pills. The two pills represent Robert and her son. The cup is your first clue. It is not a normal Dixie cup but a cup you would find at a hospital, normally people do not have these cups in there homes. After taking the pills she looks back at a clock on the wall. The time is 9 minutes to 7 clock.
Miriam now leaves her bathroom and walks down the hallway, as she walks down the hall she passes a ledge filled with model ships. The ships show up again throughout the short story and are a clue to how her husband and son die. Next we see Miriam light 1 candle. Although there are other candles lit in the condo this lighting of one candle is suppose to reflect back to the days when a woman would light a candle and put it in the window when her husband was lost at sea. Next we see Miriam putting pearl earrings in. This is another reference to the ocean. As she is doing this we see three images. One is of trees that are dead and look like they are on fire. These are images of the Park where the her son would play at. No one is expected to know that as shots were lost to associate this memory with her son. It was kept for for a couple of reasons mainly it helps establish her being tormented by memories that are painful. The next image is of water to give a clue associated with the boats and drowning. And finally you see a boat far in the distance with a bird flying over. This is her last memory of her son and husband.
The lyrics by Shelley Dael Walker that are playing are also helpful in understanding Miriam's story and state. Miriam desperately wants to hold on to whatever memories she has of her son and husband.

When the doorbell rings the movie alters from her having control to her losing control immediately she is put off balance attempting to put her heels on as she is descending stairs. When Robert first sees Miriam he is taken back by how nicely she is dressed and we establish that there is more of a professional relationship between the two. As they head up the stairs you may notice dead roses on a ledge. When making choices on the set I removed all living plants and wanted only the dead roses. This to me helps with the mood of showing death instead of life. The shot of Robert standing at the top of the stairs is a great picture for many different reasons. Robert is nothing more then a memory of her husband. He is standing next to the model ships and does not want to enter for two reasons. 1) as a memory he probably would not want to see her going thru this over and over and 2) as part of her fantasy his character would be uncomfortable when seeing a table obviously set for a romantic dinner.
When Robert sits at the table there is a picture of a Japanese man using a bridge to cross a river. My understanding is this is a symbol of the passing of ones life. Miriam Drops the food off on the table. Robert is eating shrimp. Of course seafood. Next she retreats to the kitchen to find the wine. At this point it can be mistaken for a romantic soap opera. The distraction is you think this is a story about a woman who has fallen for this guy who is writting a love story and she thinks the love story is about her. At anyrate when she knocks the wine bottle over we are reminded that she is mentally not stable. Just before this scene when she opens the cupboard you will notice a "virgina is for lovers bumper sticker" This was place there by Jeff Creasey, he is soon to be married to Holly, who is from Virginia, I would say what county but this is a family friendly blog. When I held auditions for the role of Miriam I was first envisioning someone actually about 10 years older then Shannon. Her performance and her femme fatale look won me over in the end. The scene where she is happy she found the corkscrew and then immediatly is brooding is a good example of why I cast her.


more to come.....

Merlot Commentary and Spoilers Part I

I have been asked by many people, "what the heck???" after watching Merlot for the first time. Typically people think they are watching a sappy mellodramatic soap opera then the end comes and the whole world flips upside down. Watching the movie a second time will be like watching hopefully an entirly different movie. The scenes that seemed overly dramatic now have new meaning and new levels of drama that are easier understood and appreciated. I was told by one person its deceptive because you are watching an independent movie so you are already geared up to be critical and the story plays out so its easy to be critical, the end hits and you relize you haven’t even watched the movie and you have completely missed the actual story. So here is some background and some spoilers for those who are interested. One friend told me the third time watching the movie was by far the best. That to me is the best compliment I could ever receive.

*Background
I sat at my computer staring at the blank screen looking for inspiration. Six months ago I had spent an exurbanite amount of energy trying to bring a script to life The Wednesday Woman and it ended up tanking at the last moment. Did I really want to try and do this again. I enjoyed writing scripts. I had even started a tradition of writing the names of scripts on bottles of wine and when the script was finished I would drink the wine. Did I really want to try and take a script and try and shoot the whole thing from start to finish.
I knew it had to be short, it had to be simple and the concept had to be hi. Concepts are free so the higher the concept, hopefully the higher the audiences interest or acceptance.
So I sat there staring at the blank screen. Looking over I noticed my bottle of Merlot with no script title on it and decided to write a script based off of just that, a wine, and more specifically Merlot.
When I look at wine I don’t think of snobbery or different oaks or vintages or years or whatever it is that wine coinsurers think of. I think of bitterness, dry vapors and dark colors all created by grape that is crushed. The grape that was once sweet is now dry and bitter. So in the story I wanted to recreate what I saw in the wine, a dark, bitter dry story.

Miriam, Robert and thier son are the grapes crushed to make this happen.

more to come......

Updates, spoilers and much more coming soon.

Merlot
Spoilers and explanations for Merlot are on their way. Most of the reviews I have received for merlot are "what the heck, I need to watch it again I must have missed something" That is exactly the response I was hoping for. However, what I did not take account for is the fact that people may only see the movie once at a film festival and from what I have heard you really need to see it at minimum 2 times to really understand what is happening. So for this reason I have been putting together a commentary or explanation of the story and scenes.

Chaointe
Eric is into the editing as we speak it is exactly 4 minutes. He is super fast and super good. We will try to get that as close to 3 minutes as possible. Most of it cuts together very nicely and some of it needs to be reworked mainly the beginning and end. Trent has finished two sketches for the flick and his art concepts are better then what I was imagining, yeah Trent.

Sans Vie
I met with Sten and Jeff to discuss our Trash o matic or the stencreasey 2000. If they pull this off I will have to make like an award of some kind, possibly out of brake pads and ceiling fans. I have received quite a bit of French music. All of it is really good. Some is very pro but just not the style I am looking for. I have one that is perfect but is male vocals and I am really debating using but I really want female vocals. I will be going through all of it the next two weeks and getting back to the various artists. Thank you to everyone who has been sending in music. Lets see Melissa and I are going to be doing a shoot in about 3 weeks for the main portrait in the movie. And I think I found someone to help with wardrobe.

Websites
still looking for a website designer wink wink.

Merlot Reviews

We had the show and it was a lot of fun. Our first screening the projection was quite dark however by the second show we resolved our lighting issues and it turned out good. If you were at the screening and would like to review the show, Merlot, or make a comment on the event feel free to post here. Thank you to all of our friends who came out to support our efforts!

Mockstreetfilms Possible Mission Statements

Mockstreetfilms mission is to.....

Make it to mars and back on time and under budget!

Create a softer softball and a harder hardball.

Unveil thee doorway to the abyss(directly under the AMPM on Union and 6th in Tacoma)

Invent a time machine to go back and burn the set of Full House. Saving the minds of millions from inhuman torture.

Build the fastest wooden race car in cub scout pack #68

Get Conan O'brian on Prime Time.

Build a portal to the mainstream film dimension and sneak as many Seattle artisans through as possible.

Convince the emperor of Japan that Blade runner is the best movie of all time thus moving us closer to world domination

Develop an andriod for release in 2015 that we can send back to 2007 to stop the production of inevitable sequels to the Terminator series.

Read the minds of birds

To the rhythm of the boogie beat

I talked with Shelley Dael Walker last night. I am a huge fan of hers, her songs are on a par with how I view life and that is rare for me to find someone like that. I also spoke with Michal Cross about his movie "How to Kill time" It may not play because I have to pick the tape up from Kirk founder of www.storypipe.com
I dont know if he will have time to meet which would suck I think that short is great.
I have now completely finished the opening promo for the show so as people sit they can listen to music and watch some promos for local artists and yes Sans Vie. I relize what some of you are thinking yes matt yes this is all fine but you said you were going to post pictures of using sims as story boards....What the hell? where are the pictures. I know blogs are more interesting with pictures. Oh well not today to busy. We did use Sims story boards for Chaointe and it worked quiet nicely for framing shots.
Oh yes I knew if I blabbed long enough I would get to more news. Chaointe has a small portion of it cut together. I watched it last night and there is a bit of work that needs to be done but it looks good. I havent devoted really the time Chaointe needs this week mainly due to getting everything ready for this show. Eric is working on the edits though and its all coming together.

4 movies became 1

Last night I worked on putting all 4 movies into one movie. This is to make it so I dont have to flip DVD's in and out and mess with all of that I can just plug and play. This turned out to be a bit more difficult then expected. All of the movies are in different formats and different video editors would recognize some of the movies but not all of them and visa versa. So like anything else with my computer its not going to be easy. I had to convert one file. I will have to create cards out of the program Iam using to in between the movies. Man alive. Cant anything with the PC be easy besides video games. I have yet more confirmations for the show and I just remembered I invited a bunch of people that are not on the evite. oops. So should be fine. I hate event planning but I like throwing events.
That s it for movie related news. Iam still so freakin far behind on everything I need to get done between now and Saturday.

Crystal Ball Event Planning II

So funny after I had my brilliant idea of how to combine shows I had a flurry of confirmations. Not enough that both will be packed out but enough that combining them would break the fire code law. And although I like the whole sid vicious bad boy thing, which I totally am the oppisite of, I think I will go with keeping the shows separate.

I should warn you the above sentence was just a taste of my run on sentence power that I posses. I have been storing up my ability to run on and on, in a secret silo, under an abandon K-Mart in Lacey Washington and when the time is right, I will release its furious run on sentence glory over the unsuspecting world, forever changing the lives of grammar student teachers everywhere and placing me on the thrown of run onness(on ness, I made that up)using my septer a red pen, to correct sentences that today are socially acceptable but in my world will get you an F.(evil laughter) Who will join me!

For those about to sleep we salute you

So here I sit two hour past my bed time (insane laughter) I just finished creating 2 promos for the show. I went to kinkos to have them printed out only to find that they were not on the disk(insane laughter again from a nother region in my head) So I decide to get Jack in the box instead of Teryiaki because I'm the king of bad decisions these days. I came home had a very long conversation on the phone got none of the million tasks done that I needed. oh Eric has finished the teaser for Chaointe, now before you get all excited there are know visuals The teaser is really meant for our show this saturday. If you listen really close you can hear a cat in heat in the wind noises and is lo not the high screaming sounds. Dont worry my Doctor put me on vitamn C he said it should take effect in a week. Anyway the teaser is up at

www.mockstreetfilms.com/chaointe/chaointe.htm

I will leave you with a poem I wrote in 8th grade.

in this poem I probably wont rhyme
and if I dont its not a crime
I couldnt rhyme ref
I will probably get an F
I think Iam just wasting my time

See I had a positive attitude even way back then.

crystal Ball event planning

I am planning an event for this upcoming weekend. The theatre seats 60 people and I have about 64 completly confirmed I have about 45 unconfirmed. hmmmmmm Do I combine the two shows. Its always funner with a crowd or do I keep the shows split. Echo echo echo. My inclination is to combine the two for many reasons. One is I can ensure Iam cleaned up and out of there before the next gig comes in and I get to hit the after party sooner. Plus two the second show could be fairly sparse which would be lame. However......However I run the risk of having the other 45+ people showing up AAAAAHAAAAAA!!!!!! I just figured it out I am so smart. I will have the first show be for everyone who has confirmed moving the confirmed 5PM people to the 4:15 show making it a fun and comfortable 64. Then for all the bad boys and girls who did not confirm for the 4:15 show well they will have to wait for the 5PM show. "YES its perfect" said the man as he strapped the mattress to the truck."yep that aint going anywhere"


woooooosh!

my inbox runneth over

I promise I will get back to everyone who has been emailing and if I dont I'm emailing you now in thought.

Jessica, Dom, Coffee, French Toast and Zombies

I just came back from meeting Dom Zook and Jessica Baxter, two super heros movie makers from seattle. Both are very low key and very cool. It was nice meeting more people outside my circle of friends. I love my circle of friends but I also love meeting new people. Anyway we talked about mainly seattle and movies. I did pick up the trailer for Snow day and we talked briefly about the Snow Day Chaointe coffee shop party in October. I say in October because I dont know if it will be on the 28th or 29th or possibly maybe the 30th. Anyway, visit thier websites.

http://www.gadzookfilms.com/

http://www.tangentproductions.net/

and Jessica if you read this Moulin Rouge was awesome!!!

Eloise

"As I lay here and look into the darkeness, I can still see her face. With all of the horror that surrounded me her face brought me comfort. She brought me peace."

The good luck doughnut guy.

When I played music I always shared the stage not as a gimmick but because that is who I am. I love having fun with people. I never looked at myself as a musician or an event promoter or producer or agent or manager even though I did all of these necessary evils to get the things done that needed to be done.

I look at this much in the same way. If I get to keep doing it, I want to make sure it is just the same feeling I had when I was doing music and I think to do that you have to not stand on the stage your standing on but let the good luck doughnut guy stand on it.

the good luck doughnut guy is my favorite guy or woman. In music her name was Rosie. She would always be there with yum yums and goodies and all kinds of fun things and always have a smile and always be wishing us Good luck. I later talked Rosie into singing on a CD then I got to be my own favorite person, the good luck doughnut guy. the good luck person is my favorite person anywhere in life.

a note to my future self

So I have reviewed the rough cut of Chaointe and its wierd I'm not overwhelmed with technical frustrations of trying to get things loaded or dumped or anything techinical its just wierd. I can focus on the story and the look. I will have to try and get use to not worrying about my dumb PC. Ok so the shots. Many things many much. They look beautiful for one Eric is a master of lighting know doubt and the clarity of the camera is very nice. There were some shots we were unable to get but that happens. Eric told me once the first shot you cut is your favorite and well that deed has been done as of 5 minutes ago. RIP. I had to cut 3 of my shots for Merlot that were my dream shots. We Unfortunatly did not get any good signage shots for the store that we made the movie at so this will be a problem as it was part of the deal I made with the owner. I think I may put the logo for his store big at the end of the credits hopefully that will suffice. I just couldnt film with good concience outside and tripod on the sidewalk. Tripod on sidewalk = permit. So the outside one of the building was to shakey and wont look good I should have brought my fake steadi cam out. Its not a real one but it does help quite a bit with shaking and bouncing. I need to make some more adjustments to really get it working well. Its pretty heavy though kills your back after 3 takes.
Ok so back to the rough cuts.
It was about 40 minutes and I am debating whether or not to go for black and white or color. I did this on my TV I went back and forth and its hard. If it was black and white and bring the contrast up it could have a real sweet effect. I'm rambling lets see what else ohhhhhh. Eric has already finished the trailer and it is very nice its more of a teaser then a trailer. Dennis if you are reading this you sound great.
Ok I'm talking to people who may or may not read this that is the sign its time for bed. I have no more notes to myself. Except to tell my future self to make my favorite shots my least favorite and then I will get to keep them.

Jeff Likes Cheese

So lets see, I started talking with a French translator last night for Sans Vie.
I need to clean up the Chaointe website. I have to send some wind sounds I like to Eric.
Eric has taken on the Chaointe edit. I hope I dont drive him crazy with my indecisive nature. Do I like it like this or like this maybe like this oh what about this what if I did this you know I think I like the way you had it originally.....maybe. I'm psycho. Anyway I'm sending sound to him. for wind then I have to clean up a few more audio things for merlot before we screen it on th e 13th finish up the promotions for Sans Vie and Merlot for the screening. Confirm all the evites. I am not going to get this all done tonight argh! Maybe I will just go to the lake with my kids and pretend I'm done with everything.
I did have lunch with Sahra today. She is a great woman, I really look forward to working with her on Sans vie. I am always anxious that a shoot wont be completed until well its completed. And I really really really really want sans vie to be completed I'm in love with this project. So that means I will be even more psycho.
More randomn thoughts on the shoot with Chaointe
Tataina Breger
Tataina played the banshee and I was really freaked that the scream wouldnt sound good and man was I thankful I heard her scream and it was better then I expected. It was an opera type of cry. So totally perfect.

Dennis Kliensmith
Dennis delivered he was solid as a rock. He sat quietly reading his book and when it was time he was on point.

Eric Thomas
Eric was a buzz with activities his hands were all over the lights and the camera. It was wierd not having to worry about any of that. the shots were pretty much framed just like the story boards and it was a go. Very wierd how easy the technical end works when you have someone there that takes care of it.

Sten Ryason
Sten is very cool. All I know is he helped Eric and Jeff. Sorry Sten I suck wait no I remember you did save that lady that fell from the building. Oh and sten helped me with blood. It was nice to finally get a chance to work around him and I'm looking forward to building our trash contraption for sans vie.

Jeff Creasey
Jeff Likes cheese

Adam Van Lueven
Adam took on the role of Script supervisor and Location Manager. Both of these jobs I think are some of the most important jobs and he did them excellent. It may not seem much to someone doing those jobs but they dont even know how cool they are and how important it is.

Josh
I already gave him a cool write up below. Josh is my bro. and I dont use the word bro lightly

Mike
Did I mention the owner..... Go now to Capital Hill Cafe Internet lounge and eatary and by all of his muffins.

Any other notes on the shoot mmmmm I'm sure I'm forgetting something. OH when I returned the equipment I forgot to return the camera so I had to drive back to return the camera. If you were on I-90 at this time you were sharing the road with someone that thought he might be dreaming. Ok time to get busy.

Mother Theresa and the Blues

I am to tired to update. I need more hours. Well I have started the Chaointe website. I 'm not a web designer at all and I break all kinds of rules like putting a website out there that isnt finished. I know I shouldnt do it but oh well what are you going to do. Wait you can contact me and offer your flash web desiginign experiance and then I wont break that rule anymore. Regardless there is something there to look at and read. http://www.mockstreetfilms.com/Chaointe/chaointe.htm

Chaointe is a micro short so I didnt give it its own website. The one cool thing about this one is it allows me to summon my Co-op nature and collaborate with anyone out there checking things out. There is a link on the site for submitting Banshee art and stories. If you have something like this send it in and I will post it. ummmm granted not all will be posted but if you keep it clean it will be. I have many updates but I am tired oh oh oh
A tip I learned from Eric,
Clap when you wrap an Actor, I didnt know this but it makes sense. There is so much to learn from books, the web, friends those with mountains of experiance but I think ultimitly it boils down to a blues lesson I got when I first learned how to play guitar.

If you get trained you will sound like your trainer
Dont write it down if it aint worth rememberin it aint worth playin
your not a guitar player tell you make it sound like a train

Love those words of wisdom. I can see how this would work in film and as mother theresa once said "if you dont understand it I cant explain it to you"

10PM shooting Chaointe

So its 10pm and now we are still setting up but we are getting closer to shooting. Tatiana and I are going through different wardrobe options. In retrospect I should have done the dress shopping thing I did with Shannon, I just didnt have the time. I think the look we came up with was good. I didnt want to go with an over the top banshee but more of a believable normal woman. We ended up spending about 3 hours on the opening scene. There was a lot of movement the barista moves from behind the counter to the front of the counter takes an order and then walks away, Anthony then notices the banshee stands up and walks over to her. This sequence took 3 hours mainly due to all of the movement. Oh we also shot the end as well where Anthonly leaves and the banshee follows half way. So once we were done with that they were sitting in the booth. This went fairly smoothly.

I did learn something really important for me. I have to say action and cut. In pre-production Eric asked me if I cared who said it, and I said nope dont care which I didnt. I know it all depends on the director. My man Terry Gilliam doesnt do his actions or cuts unless he is going to crazy town. So I dont have an ego and dont really care. However, now I do care. Mainly because I found out I just feel so totally disconnected from the scene if I dont. So now I have my own wierd thing.

Note for anyone not sure about the action
the AD or Director should yell
"Sound Ready"
Sound man"sound ready"
"Talent ready"
Talent "talent ready"
Camera ready
Camera Operator"Camera ready, Camera rolling"
"Slate in"
"Action"
A this point if the camera bumps the camera man can yell cut if the an airplane flies overhead the sound guy can yell cut and if the director sees or hears something he does not like he/ she can yell cut. Actors should not yell cut. I had an actor yelling cut in the middle of all of thier best takes. In editing this was making me want to burn all the material it was madening.

So we went through the big chunk of dialogue fairly quickly. It was tough because each segment of script each phrase could have had direction and mood given for it but we just did not have the time. Not giving direction sometimes is the best direction you can give. If you have 2 hours and have to get through a big chunck of dialogue that has a confusing amount of emotions letting your actors no they can just flow with it may discourage them but in the end you will discourage them less then if you give them all kinds of confusing motivation that they have to try and remember along with really wordy dialogue. The actors I worked with on this I'm sure were more then capable of me throwing a ton of different moods and emotions but with 2 hours and it bieng 2 in the morning I went with just explore what comes natural, rather then doing what I like which is breaking every sentance down. I think if I did that we would have been shooting until 10 in the morning meaning it would have not been finished. So minimual direction is something else learned from this set. Oh and I got a chance to work with fake blood.

Getting Sick

Getting sick sucks. This happened last time. Its wierd but when we shot merlot everyone came down with the flu. On Chaointe everyone was fine the next day I came home and my son was sick the next day today I'm sick. I would say it may be dehadration but my son wasnt on the set. So I will chalk it up to coincedence. We will see if anyone gets sick on Sans Vie. and now to go get 3 dimensional. I dont feel well.

Shooting Chaointe continued

Ok so I went up to Capital Hill and dropped off Gels, Cstands etc at the location. I talked with Mike to let him know what we were planning. It is ultra important to I think almost annoyingly make sure everyone at the location is happy, you dont want to burn a bridge and you want to be respectful of there business and grateful throughout the shoot. After talking with Mike a bit I ....Oh I still didnt know how many extras we would have to fill the coffee shop. could have been 2 or 20 no idea. So I am sitting there and I see Adam walk by. We hook up and start picking up things like safety pins and markers. We were looking for streaks and tips, you spray this on your lights apparently to diffuse them. We never found them. I also bought a dress and a hood that I never ended up using. So Adam and I pick up more miscellanous things that we will need for the shoot. A notepad oh and gum mmmmm gum. You use this for freshing your breath at 3AM after many much muffins and coffee and pretzels. So Adam and I get back to the location and we started to set up some of the paintings for the shoot. Oh yes I also called the artist to introduce myself and make sure it was Ok to show his art. I will put his name on the blog later I dont have it in front of me but his artwork sells I believe from 125 to 250 depending on the peices. Some of the work really complimented what we were doing and looked good. Actor 1 shows up Josh.

Josh
Josh is a good friend of mine from a long time ago. We use to do music together. not in a band but more like we did music around eachother. Anyway, I hadnt seen him in forever or about 4 years. then the other day when I was not buying thai but buying teryaki instead I ran into him at Fred Meyer. I totally forgot he acted so I called him the next day and said in about 24 hours were shooting, you would have one line and get to stay up all night eating muffins and gum. So he came up and it was great so Josh was the first one on the scene. Honestly after that it was a blur by 1opm everyone was there.

I have to stop there because my pillow is calling my name but I wanted to say white balance.
In merlot whenever the camera is unplugged and plugged back in or whenever you need to white balance this is where you are telling the camera what is white. I still dont have the hang of exactly how far or where the white card should be and what was great is I didnt have to think about it on this set. Eric, Sten and Jeff were a machine. Ok so I will pick up at 10pm The cast and crew all there and the store closing.


Oh I did have this cool woman come up tami or tani or toni maybe kelly I'm horrible with names she was interested in being an extra but never showed up we had no extra's. none . 0 not even with free muffins and gum could I get extras. I could have had them for sure but I didnt want to have to be working with a ton of people and I figured coffee shop staff may be interested. but none of them showed up. Mike could have been an extra but the night ended up being similiar to taking a hallucinaginic for me and it didnt happen, sorry Mike, but thanks again for letting us use your place. Ok so next post will be what happened after 10 PM on Saturday.