week 2

THURSDAY JUNE 25, 1998, Shooting Day 5 of 16

The first day of week 2, we’re 5/16^th done. Things went pretty well today. After rehearsals yesterday, I thought Russell was going to suck as an actor. He said that he wasn’t into it because he was in a bad mood during the rehearsals, so I still had a little hope. When we started rolling film, he was much better and he continued to get better as the day went on. As someone said of his performance, "At first I thought he wasn’t going to work. Then as he continued, he kept up the monotone readings and it worked like a sort of quirky character."

Brian "McGoo" stood in for Sean Powell as Ron (later changed to McGoo). He did good and came through for us in a pinch.

The lighting in the living room was real colorful and neat. We used a BDM filter for the scene where Toe first sells Ross a dime.

We couldn’t shoot the exteriors today and had another short day. Maybe we can make it up on Sunday.

Tomorrow we shoot some Super8 stuff, I’m looking forward to it.

I am more relaxed this week. I realize that with a production of this size and with such a short shooting schedule, I cannot shoot like all my in-camera edited shorts. Every time we change camera angles it’s a big deal. All the lights must be tweaked, then rehearsals, boom placement, and all other kinds of time consuming details. The idea I think is to maximize every shot for interesting looking comps, and getting the most coverage out of each shot. With all my super8 stuff, I shot in existing light and had a lot of edits in the cam, it just isn’t the same with a big production. Even when we use practicals, they are used in conjunction with film lights and every camera move take re-tweaking.

Jackson is real anal about the light and well he should be. The timer lady at the lab was raving about the footage. We’ll see it tomorrow if we have time. I hope it’s good. I hope my operating is good. I hope it’s all good.

Jeremy came into town and was impressed with the digital slate we now have. I though he would be since he went on and on about the one they used when filming their music video. He says it all looks good for the Nashville Pussy appearance in the film.

Sleep now.

SATURDAY JUNE 27, 1998, Shooting Day 7 of 16

Not a bad day, like yesterday. We started off yesterday by traveling all over town. We started at Aaron Mueller’s house at 11 am. The message on my machine that morning said that he was having his house painted and that he was leaving for New Orleans early the same morning.

So I show up with this in mind. Toe comes to my car as I pull up and confirm that the house is being painted. We try to figure out where we can shoot. We decide on Yuri Campbell’s house and go there. No dice, it wont work. Not upscale enough. Andrew, the 1^st AD, said he just cleaned his house and we could use it. It’s worth a try. But, again, no dice. We lost half a day.

We saw dailies and the transfer sucks. Or so we thought. Everything was flat and pale and there were no blacks. I thought I was going to commit suicide with a spork, the hard way. I had thought of throwing in the towel. I mean what the hell am I working so hard for if it’s going to look like crap?

I had realized earlier that I wasn’t going to be able to have the freedom I was accustomed to on all my super8 films. I would not have the freedom to shot all the angles I am use too. I would have to make the most out of every set up.

It seems that moving the camera even six inches means adjusting all the lights. Not very liberating. Not like I'm used to. I hope my style isn’t swallowed up in the production

Back to the transfer, it turns put that Barna had the settings wrong on his Media 100 and all the colors were stripped out. He says it look beautiful. He also says that he thinks we need more coverage. I don’t think we have the time for more coverage.

We lost another scene today. The WB van broke down and we couldn’t shoot the Pawn Shop scene. We didn’t pick up the Jarvis in his truck scene like planned. But we picked up the Laundry Mat scene.

Tomorrow we shoot Jarvis’s house and Stu’s house. That leaves the pawn shop. Exterior Ross’s house and the Jarvis truck scenes to pick up.

Other than that we’re doing good.

I didn’t feel too hot about yesterday’s shoot. But I realized last night that I need to take more control of the situation and get what I want out of it. there is a lot riding on the project and I need to keep it going and going smooth. I am the leader, right?

Told Jackson to not be so grumpy.

Gave Jerry my truck so he could rehearse with Paul (Jarvis). Still haven’t seen Jerry, he’s MIA as usual. With my keys, truck, script, backpack, etc. Jerry will be Toe.

Barna says the scene w/ Tad, Ned and Toe edits together well.

I think the crew is jelling nicely.

We had to deal with drunk and belligerent folks at the Showdown.

Chad used 3 pounds of marijuana as the prop for the Frat Café scene at Trudy’s on 30^th Street today and we saw two cop cars while shooting. Got nervous. Very illegal production. Weed everywhere.

Shot Tad’s laundry mat jack off scene with Melanie and Scarlet.

Must sleep now, it’s 1:39AM.

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 1998, Day 8 of 16

Last day of week two. A pretty good day at the end of a fairly good week. We got some really cool shots.

Toe took my truck last night and didn’t bring it home. We were supposed to meet at the office after he rehearsed w/ Paul. He wasn’t there and neither was the truck, my script, shot list, production notes, daily planner, phone book, house key, truck key, wallet, cash, and weed. No phone call to say what’s up. I felt like a mom freaking when her kid stays out all night. Did he get a DWI? Crash the truck? Get arrested? Die? Or was Toe being Toe?

As usual, it was Toe being Toe. He decided to party and, in fact, he got laid (not so usual after all), still not a good enough excuse. I couldn’t sleep or be properly prepared for today. I was dead ass tired. Would we shoot at all? Is our leading man dead? What the fuck is going on? All so Jerry could get laid. I wish him all the pussy in the world, but at least let me get some sleep god damn it. A phone call would have put me at ease. But Jerry only thinks of himself and if he thinks of anyone else, they’re lucky.

Now to deal with the weasel. I didn’t want to bitch at Jerry because I didn’t want any friction between us on the set. I told him that he cost me several hours of sleep and ran off with all my shit, but left it at that.

The scenes at Jarvis’s house shot today. The scene where Toe bums weed from Jarvis went well. It seemed convincing. But the scene where Jarvis slaps Toe around was great. And Jarvis really slapped Toe around. They talked a lot about the action and how far they would push it, but it still came as a surprise to me when Jarvis slapped Toe for real during a rehearsal. Not some sissy ass movie slap, a real slap. And they kept it up for about four takes. Toe was cool with all the abuse. It looked and sounded great. I think that will be a powerful scene.

At one point, Toe and Jackson were at disagreement with one another. Jackson though he was setting up for this tight shot that he thought I wanted and when Toe come up, we widen it to see all the action. Jackson was pissed that Toe got his way and said, "Here, if you wanna do it, then you shoot it." I said "fine, gimme that camera" and I shot the damn thing. It looked great. After we finished the shot and started to pack up, Jackson said that he thought the tight he thought I wanted shot would’ve been better. I suggested that next time he speak up about what shot he thinks would be great instead of getting pissy and giving up. We could have easily gotten both shots if only he spoke up.

Stu (Steve Gurvich) was surprisingly good. He nailed his first scene. It was great. His second scene didn’t go as smoothly. His attention deficit disorder was taking over and the Ridalin was fading fast. I had to feed him lines. I think it will work in editing. I hope.

So we’re on the last shot of the day. A real tight shot of Toe getting his w/ a dart. Toe is in a fucked up position, he can’t move an inch or he’ll fuck up the framing. Toe fucks up the shot about four or five time and his legs are falling asleep. He gets pissed after the sixth take and walks off "Fuck this, that shot will work. Fix it in editing." I call him back, we do a seventh take and wrap for the day. It was a hard shot, but I think it’ll be worth it.

I need to talk w/ Andrew about acting like a 1^st AD, so I or Jackson don’t have to.

Does it seem as if Jackson takes all the time he needs to do his work and then rushes everyone else through theirs?