CrashCam CineProductions
a wise man once said, "find it, don’t grind it!"

WEDNESDAY JULY 1, 1998

Well, everything sort of fell apart today. We had never confirmed the Broken Spoke and today we found out that if there weren’t any stars in our movie, it would cost $1000 a day to film there.

Also, the Austin Music Hall which had previously granted us permission to film decided that they needed $50 and hour. That puts us around $300 since I think it’ll take us at least 5 or 6 hours.

Also, Vic’s diner which is the Gas Station and the pay phone locations was downright pissed that we even asked, apparently some one had filmed there before and just wrecked the place.

Not to mention that Paul Wright might be taking a job on Walker, Texas Ranger from July 6th-12th. Leaving us Jarvis-less.

So we shut down production for a week and decided to rally the troops, circle the wagons, get our shit together.

Tack on a week at the end.

 

THURSDAY JULY 2, 1998

Realized I need:

More set ups.

More coverage.

Lighting set ups that allow me to shoot wherever I want.

More depth in front of the camera.

More contrast.

More color.

More handheld.

To reposition the camera in between an actors lines on occasion.

The investor meeting was written up by Marjorie Baumgarten in today’s "Short Cuts" section of the Austin Chronicle. Very illegal At least we’re consistent.

"CrashCam Productions invites anyone interested in providing completion funds and/or learning more about filmmaker Bob Ray's project, Rock Opera, to a meeting on Tuesday, July 7, 6pm, at GSD&M Idea City (826 W. Sixth). For more info, contact Barna Kantor at 469-0114..."

Went location scouting with Jerry. May have found replacements for exterior Tejano Bar, a couple of options for the Drop Site, the Pawn Shop, and one for the Pay Phone that Toe uses to call Ross.

Watched Raising Arizona, Wild at Heart, El Mariachi, and Fargo. It is impressive how many set ups Robert Rodriguez had in El Mariachi. I also watched this tape Barna gave me where he talked about his first Hollywood feature, Roadracers. He complained that having a crew slowed everything down. He was used to running and gunning. It was good to hear someone else relate to how I feel.

It seems that I can’t shoot Rock Opera in my normal style. I am used to lighting set ups that allow me to shoot in every direction. The camera is the most valuable tool to me. The lighting is secondary, in my opinion. Having total freedom with the camera is what I crave. I am used to having a lot more freedom with the camera. Somehow, I need to re-capture that freedom. It would seem that more simple lighting set ups would help. I also think that I need to storyboard all the action. I need to shoot my style. That’s what got me to where I am now and I can’t afford to sacrifice it.

I let myself become caught up in how immense the ordeal was that I started to give up too many little things that make up my style. Cutting shots because they took too much time to pull off or compromising my vision. I MUST NOT DO THAT AGAIN!!!

I don’t want to sound like a whining prima donna, but I feel like I’m in a strangle hold here. I feel as if I am not performing up to par. Like I’m letting everyone down by compromising. I think it’s better to work harder and longer and have a great film in the end than to shoot fast and finish early. The most important thing here is the film.

I think I let my style suffer in the first two weeks. I would sacrifice it so I could have interesting light. Most of the stuff we filmed in the first two weeks was in houses in the middle of the day and consisted mainly of dialog. If there is any time to let my style slide I think it was here. We shot a little more traditional. The last two weeks consist of a lot of action and camera moves. It sucks that it took me two weeks to realize what the hell’s going on and fix it, but at least I did it before it was too late. We’ll find out in the long run if I am right.

I need to be better prepared for the last two weeks. I need to fill Jackson in on what’s going down and what I want to capture on film and then have him help me to make it happen. Grab the damn camera and shoot this fucker!

 

FRIDAY JULY 3, 1998

Today I learned that the Blue Flame (our location for the Fuckemos, Nashville Pussy, and PigPoke scenes) is closed. Ken Lieck, writer of the Austin Chronicle music column, Dancing About Architecture wrote:

"Dousing the Flame:

Fireworks, aside from the "official" ones, aren't the only glow that won't be around this Fourth of July. With a whimper, not a bang, the Blue Flame was doused as of last Friday night, apparently never to return. "I was called Friday and told that we were closing," says booker Justin McCoy, "and that was the last show." He says the owners told him they were shutting the doors due to "lack of funds," but McCoy insists the club was doing all right financially. Someone might have guessed that the club was history as of that night, since members of bands in attendance (Night Vandals, Preverts, and Vidi Vitties) tell me that the only thing the club had to drink was wine coolers - until Preverts frontman Nathan Fish supplied a case of beer to the other bands. In fact, to paint a more complete, and not particularly pleasant, picture of that night, I'm told that the club was serving up "used" (half-full) wine coolers for free and was enforcing Texas' obscure "if you're under 21 you have to drink in the bathroom" law. Furthermore, the bartender was said to be dismayed that attendees did far too little in the way of trashing the place... Future plans for the building which held the Blue Flame and the Blue Flamingo before it are still up in the air."

Just your typical no-budget, first time filmmaker experience, right?

I guess we’ll film at the Bates Motel. Jackson doesn’t like it, but I think it can work and it even opens up some opportunities for different stuff. Like this spilt screen, time lapse stuff I was thinking about doing.

 

MONDAY JULY 6, 1998

Talked to Jeremy, he said that Nashville Pussy would be in town in late August or Early September. He also said that since Blaine hasn’t said no, then it’s pretty good for a yes. Not much of an answer.

Rehearsed with Paco, Lupe, and Toe and things went great. Rob (Lupe) was not so into it at the beginning, but by the end he was doing great. He really seemed pissed off, real convincing shit.

 

TUESDAY JULY 7, 1998

We had the investor meeting and six people showed up. It was interesting to see how things went. We showed Jackson's reel, the Split Screen interview, Sweetroll’s, and Kung-Fu Zombies. I think things went well, despite the lack of investors. It gave us a run through for the next investor meeting. We now have a better idea of what to do next time.

Jackson said some nice things about the production about yours truly.

After the meeting Jackson and I scouted the G&S Lounge. It’ll work perfectly. I went there on Sunday with Jerry and talked to Jimmy, the manager and owner (I think). Jimmy’s all for letting us use the bar as a location. He offered to block the parking lot and aid us in whatever way he could. My theory is that he thinks he can cash in even more on the young hip crowd that hangs out there. A while back it was a neighborhood drunk bar with nothing but a bunch of blue collar drunks occupying the stools. Now there are a bunch of twenty year olds hanging out, it’s like the south Austin version of Casino El Camino. Today, while me and Jackson were checking the place out, he comped me a beer and Jackson a soda. Jimmy’s gung ho for the project. We’re shooting there on Monday and Tuesday.

After the location scout Jackson and I talked about the upcoming weeks and how to approach them. He bitched about the lack of organization. There are suspicions that Barna is a crisis junkie. He always has about six projects going at once and some succeed and others suffer. Because he has a million things going on at once, he puts everything off until the last minute. Sometimes the quality of his work suffers because of this. So, tomorrow, I will talk to Troy Anderson about taking up some of the slack. My goal is to make Troy the Production Manager. He will be in charge of making sure that everything we need is on set, ha can work with Andrew to keep everything flowing. We badly need help in this department, maybe if Troy is not interested, then we can convince Sandy Coco to do it. Who is Allison Wait and what does she do?

Jackson's money than him (they are charging us a weekly rate, and Jackson agreed to a price for the whole shoot). It does seem a little lame that the sound guy is getting more than the DP. I wish we had more money to pay him, but he did hire on first and agreed to be paid the amount we offered him. I think it’s only fair that he get an even share, but what can we do? He was just fine before he found this out.

 

FRIDAY JULY 10, 1998

Rolls 13, 14, and most of roll 15 are not in sync. Jackson says that one day Gonzo noticed the frame rate was off. It was something like 24.9 frames per second. Gonzo noted the roll numbers, so I’ll call him tomorrow and see if they match up.

Jerry has to work on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of week 4. We had planned to shoot Sat, Sun, Mon, and Tues. On top of that, the Bates Motel said we can shoot there on that Sunday because there are no bands listed that night. Otherwise we’d have to do it after hours. Tomorrow, I’ll call Jerry and see exactly what time he works on Sun. This also sucks because we can’t rehearse on the off days.

It looks like week 3 (Sun-Wed) is coming together. I have a completed shot list all typed up so both Jackson and I can have a copy. Hopefully this will speed things up. I need more coverage. More cutaways. More color. Etc


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