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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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