IT'S A WRAP!
After two days of shooting, we have finished enough to make the first rough cut of the movie.
I will be sending this to a program down in Florida where I would go there for a week and study film.
It is muy exciting.
So I will detail the two days for you:
SATURDAY
7:00 AM - Wake up. Shower. Fun.
8:00 AM - I showed up to John's house and awaiting outside was Miss Emylee Covell.
For those of you NOT aware of the casting change, Emylee is now playing Gwen because of scheduling conflicts with Kayla.
So, we arrive there and Luke shows up minutes later. I got all my stuff out of my car and moved them to John's room. Apparantly, John hadn't informed his mom that we would be showing up at 8, which is fine, I just love them all for letting us use their home for the setting of the movie. It has been an incredible help.
9:00 AM - We begin filming. This was to be the most intimate of all the filming, which was appropriate for the scenes in the movie. For those of you who haven't read the script, Gwen is Joe's finacee who died two years before the day he learns he is going to die (Don't worry, you are informed of this in the first five minutes so nothing is spoiled). Basically Gwen is the entire motivation behind the movie and the subplots and themes I worked into the script. In fact, I re-wrote a scene after I realized that Gwen was the center for this entire movie. So it was VERY important that these scene's be correct and be intimate. In fact, we only had three people on the set this day: Emylee, Luke and I.
We got some really awesome footage and Emylee captured Gwen perfectly. I'm not going to think I'm extremely good, so I will say this: dialouge in those scenes could come off very cheesy, but Emylee and I's interaction took out much of the cheesiness. In fact, only one line now, in my opinion, comes off as cheesy. One, which bothered me that I wrote forever and was thinking about cutting, was made into a sarcastic line and makes the scene come off very well. I don't know why this is, it could be that Emylee and I have always had the same sort of fast talking and bouncing off eachother in real life also. It is also interesting to note, that even though Emylee and I have done several shows together, this is the first time we have interacted acting wise as friends for more than one scene. It truly seems that anytime before this, if we had a fair amount of lines with eachother she was trying to expose me for not being a woman. I don't know, interesting thing I noticed (sort of like how Kyle and I have known eachother almost all my life and we have both been actively involved in the Woodland theater community for a very long time and this is the first time we have acted together).
So, we finished all of Gwen and Joe's stuff together in only an HOUR AND A HALF! Yup, by 10:30 we were done. It was a great experience and really, truly rocked. I've finally perfected this style of directing I've been using on this movie that is very much along the directing feeling of a Judd Apatow film (now, this movie is no where near as good as his films, but it looks sort of like one). We have it down to a science and it adds much more to the script than was there before. It creates a very colloquial feeling to the entire movie and not just "look at us, we are just saying our lines really well." There are pauses and there are stumbles, but everybody does that in real life and it works very well in bringing the script to life and I will definately try to adapt it somehow with the play of "The Death of Joe Britz."
SUNDAY:
7:00 AM - I woke up after being out until about 11 the night before and hunting for the gun that is featured in the film. I looked through my entire closet and took almost everything out of it. So, on the off chance that I put it in my desk, I check it... and it was there. I quickly shoved everything into my closet and got out of the house (I took a shower and that stuff also).
8:00 AM - Luke and I get there right on time and John's family is just leaving. That day, John did join us. This was the day that we had a lot of different things to pick up.
Kyle was the first person to show up at about 8:30 AM. I'm surprised he even made it to the house without getting into a crash, because the moment he stepped in the house he fell asleep on the sofa. I quickly woke him up with gun shots from John's airsoft gun.
So we filmed it, the infamous Jesus Rant. We finally got it on tape. It took maybe and hour and a half. Now, the scene is not that long, it is only 5 pages, but it is a difficult 5 pages for Death. Mainly because the scene goes as follows:
ONE PAGE = Death Speaking.
ONE LINE = Joe sets up Death's next part.
Not only that, but Death has to go from being very funny to very serious in this 5 page segment. It really has to show that Death does care about Joe, for some strange reason (once the movie is shown I will unviel why unless I already have).
Half way through this scene we did have an accident. I'm not going to lie either and say it was minor, because I almost killed Luke for it: Luke dropped my nice camera. Now, I've dropped cameras before and usually they get some chips in them, but nothing serious. So after the initial shock of "HOLY SHIT THERE GOES MY CAMERA!" I wasn't worried.
Until Luke tried to turn it on and said, "Um... Robbie... the screen isn't working." Neither the LCD screen or the Viewfinder was working which was NO GOOD. It ends up that it is only a minor problem though, thankfully.
Truthfully, this has been the scene I've been waiting to shoot since I said we would make this a movie. I know Kyle's acting is awesome and hilarious and I knew that he would rock it. And he did. In fact, he added one of my favorite parts to it now which I will blatantly steal for the play version when I play Death.
After that scene was done we went on to the scene with Michael and Padrutt which is the scene that I knew would have to be the most visually engaging and create tension. Luke (first time actor in a movie for us that hasn't been for school) and Sam did very good jobs as Michael and Padrutt and there are parts of their performance that is very eerie, just the way I wanted it. I tried to shoot it to create tension which I hope it does. This will be about the only scene with a lot of talking that isn't a monolouge that has music underneath it and it should be really good.
Ray showed up, we did his reshoots and BAM! I got to say the three words: "That's a wrap." It is the first time I've ever been able to say that with a feature film (I looked up the time and over an hour is a feature). Now, it isn't technically 100% complete, but for the florida project it is. We only have one more scene to shoot for the regular version and that is the date scene.
I'm also hoping to do a showing somewhere for the movie and while the cast memebers know where I hope I can have it, I won't unviel it until it is 100% certain.
Thanks,
Rob
Monday, October 15, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Woes of a Student Filmmaker
Rob Blake here once more:
Last week I was posting ECSTATIC comments about "The Death of Joe Britz." Pretty much orgasming over how this thing that started shaping in my head last December was coming true. All the acting is incredible, we are moving along right on schedule everything is going just the same... except for the editing.
The editing, which was going spectacularly next week hit a snag on Thursday. I ran out of memory on my lap top to keep editing. Of course, I did not have any more memory available. Thus, I decided to go to my capture scratch and delete clips I had already finished. If any of you are familiar with a Mac, you know you have to drag most things to the trash to delete them. So I did, and played the clips without any trouble, thus I emptied my trash. I had only done this with a few clips, in case problems would arrise.... and boy did they.
I went right away to opening up Final Cut Pro again and BAM! "11 Clips Are Now Offline." FUCK!!! What have I done?! I can't recover that! (If I can, please somebody tell me).
Truthfully, we only lost about a minute of stuff, not that bad. I mean, it could be a LOT worse. Most of it is Ray's stuff (sorry Ray), but I still haven't checked if I have it on any tapes, but I believe I taped over the first days stuff.
So after this disaster, I decided to go get an external harddrive. There goes 100 bucks down the drains. Last of my birthday money, and delving into some of my "Once on this Island" money. So I have it, and now I'm transferring all the files over.
Seriously, I used to wonder things like "Why did it take Sam Raimi 4 years to make The Evil Dead?" Now I know why. Re-shoots and re-editing and re-a bunch of other random shit.
I mean, it is hard enough being a student filmmaker. You can't pay for locations to shoot, so you are left trying to scour the city and friend's homes for the perfect locations (which we found in John's house). You can't pay actors so you better hope you know people in community theater willing to help out, which luckily I do (thank you Kyle), or your friends better be willing and wanting to be in a film. You can't pay for equipment, so you have to use handheld video cameras and tripods you bought from Target and to top it all off: Nobody gives a rats ass about what you do unless it is under 10 minutes. Seriously, there is no student film festival that have over 10 minute limit. Especially Joe Britz will be stuck at a very awkward running time of about an hour and 5 minutes (65 pages in the script = 65 pages of screen time). It isn't long enough to be a feature, but not short enough to be a short. So where does it fall? Well, from research, it is technically a feature, but seriously, how many hour long movies are out there? Not many.
I'm still in love with this project, and am working on it everynight, but god damn. It gets frustrating.
Last week I was posting ECSTATIC comments about "The Death of Joe Britz." Pretty much orgasming over how this thing that started shaping in my head last December was coming true. All the acting is incredible, we are moving along right on schedule everything is going just the same... except for the editing.
The editing, which was going spectacularly next week hit a snag on Thursday. I ran out of memory on my lap top to keep editing. Of course, I did not have any more memory available. Thus, I decided to go to my capture scratch and delete clips I had already finished. If any of you are familiar with a Mac, you know you have to drag most things to the trash to delete them. So I did, and played the clips without any trouble, thus I emptied my trash. I had only done this with a few clips, in case problems would arrise.... and boy did they.
I went right away to opening up Final Cut Pro again and BAM! "11 Clips Are Now Offline." FUCK!!! What have I done?! I can't recover that! (If I can, please somebody tell me).
Truthfully, we only lost about a minute of stuff, not that bad. I mean, it could be a LOT worse. Most of it is Ray's stuff (sorry Ray), but I still haven't checked if I have it on any tapes, but I believe I taped over the first days stuff.
So after this disaster, I decided to go get an external harddrive. There goes 100 bucks down the drains. Last of my birthday money, and delving into some of my "Once on this Island" money. So I have it, and now I'm transferring all the files over.
Seriously, I used to wonder things like "Why did it take Sam Raimi 4 years to make The Evil Dead?" Now I know why. Re-shoots and re-editing and re-a bunch of other random shit.
I mean, it is hard enough being a student filmmaker. You can't pay for locations to shoot, so you are left trying to scour the city and friend's homes for the perfect locations (which we found in John's house). You can't pay actors so you better hope you know people in community theater willing to help out, which luckily I do (thank you Kyle), or your friends better be willing and wanting to be in a film. You can't pay for equipment, so you have to use handheld video cameras and tripods you bought from Target and to top it all off: Nobody gives a rats ass about what you do unless it is under 10 minutes. Seriously, there is no student film festival that have over 10 minute limit. Especially Joe Britz will be stuck at a very awkward running time of about an hour and 5 minutes (65 pages in the script = 65 pages of screen time). It isn't long enough to be a feature, but not short enough to be a short. So where does it fall? Well, from research, it is technically a feature, but seriously, how many hour long movies are out there? Not many.
I'm still in love with this project, and am working on it everynight, but god damn. It gets frustrating.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The Bloopers of Joe Britz - Day 2
Enjoy. Plus, there is some stuff that is going to be used hidden in it.
Monday, September 3, 2007
UPDATE: The Death of Joe Britz
Rob here.
Today we, once again, filmed some of Joe Britz and today, we got a LOT done. Not just short comical scenes either. We got some great, hilarious, story pushing and dramatic scenes done today and I loved every minute of it.
The day began, for me, picking up Kyle. I knocked on his door, rang his door bell, and knocked on his door again. No answer, I ended up having to call Kayla (sorry Kayla) and get his number. I finally called, and got him. From there we made our way over to Johnny Boy's house.
Luke was waiting outside for us when we arrived. He looked distraught and angry... as Luke always does when he is just standing there starring into space. We made our way in and set up the house as we needed it.
Daniel Brian showed up at 1 and we began filming. We started with Death's first scene which was very funny. Took us about an hour to film. Boy was it worth it. A lot of very funny stuff and well...
As I have stated before, I wrote the role of Death for myself but decided to forfeit the role for the movie because I felt Kyle would be perfect. At the read through he proved it to me 100% that he would be able to do an incredibly good job at it, but after filming Kyle has proved something else to me: He is the only person who can play the role to its true level of what it can be. The looks he gives, the way he uses his hands and body. It is all perfect and he adds things that, well, I would never think of doing. Kyle has elevated Death from simply a comical role to a real person. Kyle has always been a big inspiration for me. We have a very similar build, and when I was younger I admired him in all the shows he used to do. I can remember him vividly in "Kiss Me Kate", "Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", and "Grease" (he stole the show in each.)
We also filmed the final scene in the movie between Death and Joe and it was a very sweet scene. Touching and the fitting end to the movie. Simple, nice, and with a level of understanding between Death and Joe that I was hoping for.
Speaking of touching, Ray had to deliver the most touching monolouge in the movie today. When you see it, you will know what I'm talking about. It is my 2nd favorite bit of the show (the 1st being, what is now being called, "the Jesus Section" which we have yet to film) He did a great job of it. He really worked hard on memorizing it. He really does deliver it with a lot of power and anger at his friend who is seemingly ruining his life over a girl.
Also, Ray and I filmed a scene between Joe and Russel after Joe has spoken with Death. It is very funny, especially Ray's dance of victory. A lot of Ray pelvis, right in my face. I know what you are thinking: "Damn, that's hot" and, oh boy, it is. It was hilarious to see Ray do that. Seriously, I think Ray just likes to try and make me break character. Luke looked like he was almost in tears behind the camera during that dance.
We have finished all of Ray's stuff at the house. We have almost finished all of Kyle's stuff. All we have to do to film at the house now is Gwen's stuff. A big scene between Death and Joe, well, most of it and one scene with 2 smaller characers. Then we just have 1 day of location shooting.
I love this. Unlike my last 2 films I tried to get going [Passing Period(Finding Emo) and Night of the Teenage Zombies), we are so going to finish this.
On time even!
Today we, once again, filmed some of Joe Britz and today, we got a LOT done. Not just short comical scenes either. We got some great, hilarious, story pushing and dramatic scenes done today and I loved every minute of it.
The day began, for me, picking up Kyle. I knocked on his door, rang his door bell, and knocked on his door again. No answer, I ended up having to call Kayla (sorry Kayla) and get his number. I finally called, and got him. From there we made our way over to Johnny Boy's house.
Luke was waiting outside for us when we arrived. He looked distraught and angry... as Luke always does when he is just standing there starring into space. We made our way in and set up the house as we needed it.
Daniel Brian showed up at 1 and we began filming. We started with Death's first scene which was very funny. Took us about an hour to film. Boy was it worth it. A lot of very funny stuff and well...
As I have stated before, I wrote the role of Death for myself but decided to forfeit the role for the movie because I felt Kyle would be perfect. At the read through he proved it to me 100% that he would be able to do an incredibly good job at it, but after filming Kyle has proved something else to me: He is the only person who can play the role to its true level of what it can be. The looks he gives, the way he uses his hands and body. It is all perfect and he adds things that, well, I would never think of doing. Kyle has elevated Death from simply a comical role to a real person. Kyle has always been a big inspiration for me. We have a very similar build, and when I was younger I admired him in all the shows he used to do. I can remember him vividly in "Kiss Me Kate", "Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", and "Grease" (he stole the show in each.)
We also filmed the final scene in the movie between Death and Joe and it was a very sweet scene. Touching and the fitting end to the movie. Simple, nice, and with a level of understanding between Death and Joe that I was hoping for.
Speaking of touching, Ray had to deliver the most touching monolouge in the movie today. When you see it, you will know what I'm talking about. It is my 2nd favorite bit of the show (the 1st being, what is now being called, "the Jesus Section" which we have yet to film) He did a great job of it. He really worked hard on memorizing it. He really does deliver it with a lot of power and anger at his friend who is seemingly ruining his life over a girl.
Also, Ray and I filmed a scene between Joe and Russel after Joe has spoken with Death. It is very funny, especially Ray's dance of victory. A lot of Ray pelvis, right in my face. I know what you are thinking: "Damn, that's hot" and, oh boy, it is. It was hilarious to see Ray do that. Seriously, I think Ray just likes to try and make me break character. Luke looked like he was almost in tears behind the camera during that dance.
We have finished all of Ray's stuff at the house. We have almost finished all of Kyle's stuff. All we have to do to film at the house now is Gwen's stuff. A big scene between Death and Joe, well, most of it and one scene with 2 smaller characers. Then we just have 1 day of location shooting.
I love this. Unlike my last 2 films I tried to get going [Passing Period(Finding Emo) and Night of the Teenage Zombies), we are so going to finish this.
On time even!
Monday, August 6, 2007
UPDATE: The Death of Joe Britz
Hey everybody,
Rob here again with more news on The Death of Joe Britz. Today I have spent mostly editing this movie version of it, and I must say I'm loving everything about it.
The film is turning out better than I thought it would. I mean, I really like the script and think it is very good (DUH! I wrote it), but I was worried about my skills as a director with a script that is mostly just dialouge. How was I going to keep it visually interesting? Well, not to toot my own horn, but I think I've done it, for at least the scenes we have filmed. It is largely thanks to John Lee. My DP (director of photography, not double penetration) for that day. I love his floating camera. It moves to exactly where I need it to with ease and grace while creating a very smooth and strangely elegant feel to the film. John also supplied his house which is perfect for what we needed. Also to largely thank are Butch Morales and Luke Koushmaro who were the camera people that day.
I must say that I'm overjoyed with the way it looks, feels, moves. It isn't just all about the dialouge either, there are some subliminal visual things throughout that help put you in the right mindset. It is partly on purpose, and partly on accident.
We still have a lot to film, and a lot to edit, but man do I love it.
I will update when we get the pictures from the day.
Rob here again with more news on The Death of Joe Britz. Today I have spent mostly editing this movie version of it, and I must say I'm loving everything about it.
The film is turning out better than I thought it would. I mean, I really like the script and think it is very good (DUH! I wrote it), but I was worried about my skills as a director with a script that is mostly just dialouge. How was I going to keep it visually interesting? Well, not to toot my own horn, but I think I've done it, for at least the scenes we have filmed. It is largely thanks to John Lee. My DP (director of photography, not double penetration) for that day. I love his floating camera. It moves to exactly where I need it to with ease and grace while creating a very smooth and strangely elegant feel to the film. John also supplied his house which is perfect for what we needed. Also to largely thank are Butch Morales and Luke Koushmaro who were the camera people that day.
I must say that I'm overjoyed with the way it looks, feels, moves. It isn't just all about the dialouge either, there are some subliminal visual things throughout that help put you in the right mindset. It is partly on purpose, and partly on accident.
We still have a lot to film, and a lot to edit, but man do I love it.
I will update when we get the pictures from the day.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Joe Britz and J-Lo Update
Hey people,
Rob here. Last week we began filming "The Death of Joe Britz." For those of you who don't know what that is yet, it is a movie version of a play that I wrote.
Filming began at 12 o'clock at John Lee's residence. But the adventure began right as I picked up Ray. We had some classic conversations and Ray hit me with the question to end all questions:
Would you rather fuck Michael (the State Theater guy) if he had a penis or if he had a vagina?
What you really have to ask yourself is this: which image is worse, Michael with his legs spread apart waiting for you or Michael jackhammering away inside you?
Now that I have put the worst imagry EVER into your mind. We got to John's house at 12, when we intended to get there at 11. (That is what I get for saying I will give everybody a fucking ride). Ray and I then hit Eric and Butch with the question on the way to filming. To which Eric has now become permanately scarred. In my opinion: mission accomplished already.
Filming was a very good day and we got a lot done. Mainly just comical scenes with Russel and Joe. We did tap into ONE emotional scene, which was infact simply a scene with Ray by himself. Nothing to heavy for the first day, but we did get a lot done.
I have given myself over a week before going back to the footage, and there is a lot of good stuff there. Some things are going to be difficult to lose. I will put up a blooper reel for each day of filming on youtube, I believe. Gives people some fun things to look at before they see any ACTUAL footage, which we will not be releasing until completed with filming the movie.
Just wanted to let people know how that is going.
J-Lo, our next short, will begin shooting as soon as possible. The script is hilarious, as I have said, and I can't wait to shoot it. We have run into a problem though: The building where we were going to film the climax, has burned down. So we are now on a hunt for another abandoned house, and one that doesn't have hobos living in it.
Thanks for your time,
Rob
Rob here. Last week we began filming "The Death of Joe Britz." For those of you who don't know what that is yet, it is a movie version of a play that I wrote.
Filming began at 12 o'clock at John Lee's residence. But the adventure began right as I picked up Ray. We had some classic conversations and Ray hit me with the question to end all questions:
Would you rather fuck Michael (the State Theater guy) if he had a penis or if he had a vagina?
What you really have to ask yourself is this: which image is worse, Michael with his legs spread apart waiting for you or Michael jackhammering away inside you?
Now that I have put the worst imagry EVER into your mind. We got to John's house at 12, when we intended to get there at 11. (That is what I get for saying I will give everybody a fucking ride). Ray and I then hit Eric and Butch with the question on the way to filming. To which Eric has now become permanately scarred. In my opinion: mission accomplished already.
Filming was a very good day and we got a lot done. Mainly just comical scenes with Russel and Joe. We did tap into ONE emotional scene, which was infact simply a scene with Ray by himself. Nothing to heavy for the first day, but we did get a lot done.
I have given myself over a week before going back to the footage, and there is a lot of good stuff there. Some things are going to be difficult to lose. I will put up a blooper reel for each day of filming on youtube, I believe. Gives people some fun things to look at before they see any ACTUAL footage, which we will not be releasing until completed with filming the movie.
Just wanted to let people know how that is going.
J-Lo, our next short, will begin shooting as soon as possible. The script is hilarious, as I have said, and I can't wait to shoot it. We have run into a problem though: The building where we were going to film the climax, has burned down. So we are now on a hunt for another abandoned house, and one that doesn't have hobos living in it.
Thanks for your time,
Rob
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
