week 1

THURSDAY JUNE 18, 1998, Shooting Day 1 of 16

Just got in from the first day of shooting. Things went well, we finished early and got everything I wanted. Well, almost everything. There were a couple of shots that I had planned and we didn’t get. While on location, it seemed as if they were either too difficult, too time consuming, or I felt that I could do without them. I should perhaps rethink this and try to get those shots if at all possible. We probably could have shot most of them and still left on time.

On the bright side, we finished early, had no great technical problem and shot the allotted amount of film.

I was curious to see how working with Jackson would be. From getting to know him recently he seems like a likable character and he means well. This proved to be mostly true while on the set. Granted this is our first day and we have an inexperienced crew. The crew not knowing their jobs seemed to frustrate him, and I think I can understand why. Jackson is a pro, a hired gun and more recently, a pal. On the set, he is a take charge kind of guy. He helped tremendously to get today underway and keep it a pleasant and workable experience.

Keeping the crew busy helps with morale, I think. The folks came out to help for free and I want to keep them happy. Everyone worked out great. Speaking of working, Tony Linder (Art Director) is working like a dog. His sets look great and he’s doing an excellent job, but I fear he will kill himself in the 110 degree heat index. The poor bastard looks beat. Speaking of beaten bastards, Barna is like a walking zombie. He is also working his ass off, not only producing, but now he is bringing the food to the sets, because no one else wants to do it.

Today, on the spot, I changed the script. The most recent version had a tear gas gun as the weapon used to disable Ned (the original, had a real gun). So here’s the deal, my brother David has a black Smith & Wesson .32 revolver, Barna found a chrome Colt .38 revolver. Having two guns brought up an idea: have Lupe pick up the .32 and wave it around. Paco gets mad because that’s his mom’s tear gas gun

Maybe, when Lupe, Paco and Toe are outside the Tejano Bar, Lupe flashes the gun as he gets out of the truck. Paco and Toe see the gun. Lupe and Paco walk up to the bar and Toe lingers, wary about continuing.

Paco bitches at Lupe under his breath: "You got the wrong gun."

Lupe: "I know, but it looks meaner."

Paco: "Gimme the fucking gun. That’s not tear gas. That shit’s for real."

Lupe : "I know." to Toe: "Let’s have a fucking beer."

Toe follows and they enter the bar. So then, Ned is hit with a bullet. But at the beginning, we still don’t see who gets shot by Lupe. The second time around we see that it’s Ned.

I think that will work. The only dilemma with the new plan is whether or not the scene when Lupe and Paco decide to terrorize Toe is still a flashback or if it’s better off when placed in it’s linear position. The good thing is that I can decide that in the editing room.

In other news, the money came in. At least four thousand of it, with the promise of three thousand a week until the entire fifteen grand has been invested. That is GOOOD news.

We filmed Dave Prewitt’s part yesterday. He forgot to bring the videos, but left them in his mailbox and Jerry went and picked them up last night (I hope). Jerry is a great help, he’s going to hook up with Ross (Russell Porter) and Stu (Steve Gurvich) on the days when he’s not on location and he will go over their lines.

I am much more relaxed today than I have been for the past three weeks. I had been stressing out hard. I couldn’t sleep at all last night and nearly worried myself sick about the production. Now that the first day is complete and there were no major disasters, I feel great. There is still a ton of work and many unanswered questions, but at least it started out good. I’m sure that if we all work hard and the record breaking high temperatures don’t kill us, then we will be able to pull it off.

By the way, Rob and Luis’s acting was great. The Witchbanger boys did a terrific job as well. Tomorrow, it’s Tad, Toe, Jarvis and Fine Ass (Chad Holt, Jerry Clark, Alycia Howell, and Paul Wright respectively).

Now, I must go eat and consider tomorrow’s shots.

SATURDAY JUNE 20, 1998, Shooting Day 3 of 16

Okay, so I am learning how to be more efficient as a director. Today was better than yesterday. There was a good feeling on the set. No lag after lunch like yesterday. Oh, yeah, yesterday.

Yesterday was fairly good. The fact that Fine Ass (Alycia) had to be somewhere soon after she showed up forced us to shoot all out of schedule. If that scene cuts together then luck is most certainly with us. The continuity of all the shots are all out of whack. I think it will work. We shall see.

The acting is right on. Tad is great as a pilled up dope man. Jerry is doing great as well, he seems natural and relaxed. I think Tad stole the show, but his character is more of the type. Toe is kind of weasely, but still very likable as the lead. He will be great, and Jerry’s all hyped up on the show. Jerry has been helping all around on the shoot. He’s helped other actors with their lines, helped Tony with setting up locations and just about everywhere else he can lend a hand, he does. If only all the actors were so helpful…

Today we shot the scenes with Ned (Ted Jarrell), Tad (Chad Holt), and Toe (Jerry). Toe and Tad were great as usual. Ted seemed nervous during the rehearsals. He would forget his lines and not put a lot of feeling into them. The fact that he called me from a bar last night at near midnight demanding that me and Jerry go out for drinks made me worry. He then called back about a half hour later and begged for a ride, but I was on the verge of collapse at that point and could only wish him luck.

Despite all this, once the camera was rolling, Ned was amazing. All of a sudden he remembered all his lines and performed them perfectly. He was laughing and having a good time. It was great.

We did some cool shots today, most of the stuff that I storyboarded worked out. Only a few shots did not work mainly because of the lighting. I forgot to get one cutaway shot, but I think the scene will work without it. We’ll see.

Later, we shot the scene where Jarvis finds Toe scrounging for weed. It was fun and fast paced. The sun was falling fast and we had little time to shoot. I grabbed the cam and shot the whole scene in a hand held master. I saw a light in a part of the shot, but it looked terrific. I can’t wait to see the dailies. If it comes out like I think, I will shoot most of the film like this.

Paul Wright was another gem. He scared people with his performance as Jarvis and left the crew talking when his scene was complete. He’s a natural.

We shot Slim’s (Jim Isaacs) scene today and pulled it off with one angle and a cutaway. Very fast. It looked good too. I had Jackson add some color and I liked what it looked like.

I think we need more color everywhere. It seems as though Jackson is playing with the blues of sunlight, green florescent, and warm light from lamps, a lot of the color isn’t as noticeable to the eye as it will appear on film, I hope. I definitely want a lot of color in the film. I’ll talk to Jackson about it.

Tomorrow we’ll shoot the Witchbanger house and I have some fun shots planned, a couple of time lapse shots and off speed things. It should be a good finish to the first week.

A couple of thoughts before I turn in. I should talk to Jackson about being a grumpy old man on set. Especially when he deals with the actors. Ted complained about him and said he overheard others talking about him. I can’t have Jackson pissing everyone off. I understand that he is a pro and is used to a crew with some sort of experience, but if he runs off everyone then we have no crew at all. These folks are gracious enough to take time out of their schedules to help with the film, they don’t need abuse. Jackson is being paid. He needs to shape up. We can’t afford to lose these people.

The other beef is the grip truck. We’re paying for a big three-ton truck that we all looked at and agreed upon. What pulls up to the location everyday is a U-Haul with a bunch of equip on it. Apparently the real truck has transmission problems. I understand that shit like this happens, but when you don’t get what you pay for, it can piss you off. Especially when you run out of light and there should be more lights on the truck, or some of the gels were left on the real truck or some other piece of equip was forgotten. I hope it is fixed soon.

And the heat. It’s fucking hot. We are experiencing record highs. It’s in the hundreds everyday with heat indexes over 110. They are having heat warnings on the news saying not to be outside or doing strenuous activity.

All things considered, everything is going great. The actors are good, the crew is good and no one has walked. I hope the good luck sticks with us.

1:39A.M. sleep.

SUNDAY JUNE 21, 1998, Shooting Day 4 of 16

The first week of shooting is complete. Things are going along pretty well. There were two short scenes scheduled for the first day that were bumped so it would seem as if we were behind. But Andrew (First Assistant Director) informs me that we shot 28 pages this week. If that’s true, then that would put us ahead of schedule. However, we did schedule easy stuff for the first week. We’ll see how prepared I am for week two, three and then four (and hopefully, little or no pick ups).

So, another Jackson Saunders (or Jackass Saunders as I overheard someone call him) episode. Gonzo Gonzales (First Assistant Camera) was told to put in an 85 filter, then an 85N3, and as Gonzo heard it, they were combined. Jackson, of course, meant to replace the 85 with an 85N3. So, in front of the entire crew, Jackson made a shitty remark about the inexperience of his camera crew. Something like: "That’s what you get when your First A.C. has no fucking experience." What an ass. I mean, yeah, Gonzo should know not to have two 85 filters on the camera. But I bet that the fact that Jackson constantly makes the camera crew feel like stupid pieces of shit for asking questions makes them wary of second guessing his instructions. It seems that a lot of the time, asking only brings about insulting and sarcastic remarks. I had intended to talk with him, but he left while I was recording wild sound. I will speak to him tomorrow. Maybe I should talk with Gonzo, Richard McIntosh (Second A.D.) and Jason Casillas (Film Loader) to see how they feel about Jackson.

My thoughts are that he is a grumpy old man. He needs to realize that the "inexperienced" camera crew that he does has is all he has. If they walk, he has no one.

Another thing, yesterday, I asked Jackson about his thought on how I was doing as a first time director. He said I was doing a good job, and how I was doing my job and not trying to do the jobs of others. I guess that’s good (Ted had similar thoughts). But today, Jackson was all over my turf. Calling for the sound to roll, and calling for the slate in to come into frame in what I thought was an attempt to rush things along so we could break early yet again. It’s funny how we always break early and then I feel as if things were rushed. Part of it is from the sun and the simple fact that it goes down, but I think there’s more. Every now and then I wonder if Jackson is saying the light wont work because he wants to get finished or because it really wont. In his defense, he is really anal about the lighting, so I believe him when he says it won’t work. But I have to wonder. We need to schedule better so we have stuff to do when the sun does go down.

I wonder if the low price we paid for Jackson was worth it. Maybe someone with more to gain would serve the project. Maybe someone who I might enjoy working with (like Marc Wiskemann) would be a better match. I might have better answers when the film comes back from the lab (hopefully on Tues., the 23^rd). If everything looks good then it’s worth it, and his camera is bad ass, he seems to want the light to be right. Only time will tell.

Still no full truck from Tom, but at least he’s always in a good mood. No complaints about Dennis Meehan. Kurtis seems to enjoy working with him.

Did I say things were going along pretty well? On the good side of things…

Naw, but really. Dylan (Chicken) was acting well for the most part of the day. Towards the end, about the same time we were trying to haul ass to finish while we still had sunlight, he wasn’t so hot. I think there’s stuff we can use. Kurtis was good and Ted did well too. Ted seems to act well with other good actors.

I can’t wait to the footage.

Another thing, I started operating the camera most of the time. I hope I am doing well. I feel good about it. Every now and then I do something I don’t like but I try to shoot coverage to cut to in those situations.

In the next few days, I hope to rehearse with all the actors, shot list and all that other good stuff. There is a show on the t.v. about sleep deprivation and I think I am learning about why I have brain freeze up at times. I need more sleep. I get about 4-6 hours a night. It’s 2:18 A.M. now. Goodnight.

E-mail from Marc Wiskemann, Fri., 19 Jun 1998 19:28:56 -0600:

Letter to Marc Wiskemann:

Maybe, at this very moment, Jackson is writing in his journal about how fucked up I am. Maybe I should have my shit more together. But that still doesn’t change the fact that he needs to be nice, right?

MONDAY JUNE 22, 1998

No shooting today, thank goodness. I slept for eleven hours and it seemed as if I was worse off for it. I was more tired after than before the sleep. I took a nap and am all better now. It’s like an emotional roller coaster ride.

I think the sleep deprivation and the physical and mental exhaustion brought on some depression. I was considering throwing in the towel. The nap and some food helped. I’m glad I made no rash decisions while in that state.

So I guess I’m kind of eating all my words from yesterday. I’m not so suspicious of Jackson and his motives. I think he is down for the cause. He needs this job for his union hours and his reel. He called today to check up on how I was feeling and that made me feel better.

Another thing that will help is rescheduling the shoot to keep it in a more chronological order. That would make week 2 easier, but week 3 & 4 would be more difficult, but hopefully I will be more prepared for them when they come around.

My Isuzu truck is still not fixed. And we need that for Toe’s truck in the film. Johnny said he would look at it tomorrow. Speaking of trucks, Tony got a $200 ticket last night after leaving the location, the poor bastard is working his ass off for the film and he got a ticket on top of everything.

Floyd’s kids, Max and Mars get into town tomorrow and Jerry will be staying at Tony’s house. Jerry has been a great help. He’s hooking up with Steve Gurvich (Stu) tomorrow for rehearsals. He’s also been helping Tony with the set dressing.

A lot of my friends a lending a hand. Bucket and Steve Jeffers are taking photos. Mike G. and Scott Pate are helping Tony. Nicole, my loving wife is helping with food and emotional support. Floyd and David are pitching in and David is a regular prop master, especially with weapons. Bill is lending me his big-ass diesel truck. Shannon is the script supervisor. Kurtis is doing sound. Rob Gasper, Alycia Howell, Rob Thompson, Gabe Ornelas, Beth Sams, Susan Alexander, Paula Easly, Bobby Wheels & the Goose are all letting me film at their houses. And the list of friend appearing in front of the camera is too great to write out. You’ll just have to read the credits at the end of the film.

GSD&M is allowing us to use their million dollar meeting room to hold our investor meeting. Barna pulled that one off and it’s scheduled for July 6^th or 7^th. We will send out invitations soon.

I picked up the second in a series of checks that are allowing us to continue to shoot. Without this investor, there would be no film. We now have secured enough cash to shoot for another week.