That's a wrap!

I know I'm getting to this a day or so late, but it's been extremely busy since we've wrapped shooting. Day two went off without a hitch and we got out of the site ahead of schedule and home early. It seems everyone working and those just watching all had the same thing to say: it is all so organized and smooth. I believe that comes from the realistic schedule with great people to work the machine.

The nice thing about the second day schedule was that we left time to really nail down the visual shot of the store. I think there is plenty of room for the audience to apply their own history to the picture and add to the experience.

Now it's time to sit down and get busy. I have already roughed together the material and can see how the film will shape out. It's going to play out nicely. I need to polish up my news graphics skills and fill in the rest of the screen with horrid eye candy. Should be fun. A little music and sound and we can call it done. ... Except the credits ... we did a quick pass in front of the camera and I'll see if I can't pull out something interesting for the roll.

As I start to develop the graphics I'll try and give you a taste. But now it's back to the grindstone ... we're sponsoring a part of the San Francisco Short Film Festival by doing the back-end video production for the presentations. They're having a charity event this weekend and I'm busy encoding a number of short films.

Day one in the can

A wonderful day one. Superb performances by all of the actors and the lighting and camera work looked great. We got some really good takes in the can and it will be a dream to edit this together. There's a nice difference between the lighting, composition, performances that will all gel together in post. I really commend the actors for having to deliver basically a soliloquy as there is no cutting off the angle. One to two pages of dialogue that have to be perfect ... not an easy task.

I put up the first picture to give an overall idea of the scene (plus I think the uniform and mic help tell the story). Then this body shot is a defining moment of what the film is trying to communicate. Below, Reggie Steele helps to round out the different aspects from which we were approaching the scene.

Now we get down to business on day two and bring the whole show together. Tonight is three shots, but the visuals are tremendously important to communicate some ambiguity to allow room for the audience to interpret it in different ways. The two main shots are covering the same action from unrelated angles. It provides us the perfect opportunity to rehearse while shooting and get the perfect take for the final. I’m looking forward to how the lighting and framing will look tonight.

Amos Wright Jr. - Sgt. Wittens

amos wright jr. ( web ) - sgt. wittens - Raised in Sacramento, CA, Amos Wright Jr. has been acting professionally for the past two years. During this time, Amos has appeared in several independent films, commercials, and music videos. He recently finished work on the short film The Morning After in San Jose and The Final Showdown in Sacramento.

Leo Rodriguez - Victor Feliz, Store Clerk

leo i. rodriguez ( web ) - victor feliz, store clerk - Leo makes his film debut in this topical project. Other Credits include performing in Galway, Ireland at the International Women's Playwright Festival; Cairo, Egypt with Golden Thread Theater Company for the International Festival for Expiramental Theater; Limmosol, Paphos and Nicosia, Cyprus for the 1st Annual Amathus Festival. Leo currently can be seen in MART's production of Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi and will be performing his original one-man show, Chosen in July.

Jacket mock up

Here's a great example of how the little details make the big picture so much better. This is a network logo Stacey created to go on the parka worn by the character Michael Willis. Such fine detail is especially necessary in HD as we've learned from our previous experiences.

This same treatment will be applied to the microphones the local reporters will be holding. More importantly, it will correspond with the news graphics that will be accompanying the imagery of all the reporters. We’ve planned a nice progression of sophistication to the graphics to keep drawing in the audience.

Final script revisions

I (finally) dropped in the reporter names and signoffs and made the final revisions to the script. The call sheets have gone out and we are ready to go. I've updated the script here for the final time.

Stacey has put her art department hat back on and is busy building the mic flags for the reporters. The graphics look great and should really see the shot. I’ll post some graphics later to give you a better idea.

Joe came up with a nice lighting diagram that will pull off the existing lights and add a nice touch to give them a more film look.

All of the actors gave great reads on their parts (which has made my job so much easier). I’m really happy with the level of talent that has come to the project.

Enough jibber jabber ... so let's off to the show.

Pre-production meeting

Our main pre-production meeting went down and we are ready for the show. All the departments look good for shooting Monday and there are just a few tweaks to go over.

Myself, Joe, Leo, and James (Director, DP, Gaffer and Key Grip) went out to scout out the power and talk about specific lighting setups. I've always found a little bit of time going in saves a lot of time day off. Joe did a great job of specing out the overheads with the lighting setup. And at least this site visit wasn't as cold or as wet as previous nights.

While there, I met the owners of the shop tonight and they were quite charming. The store is a family owned business and the kids are working the counter throughout the day. The owner was very proud to show me how the building was used in a film 40 years ago.

John Cornwell - Reporter #5

john cornwell ( web ) - mac freeman - John D. Cornwell is a full-time actor, with a variety of film, stage and voiceover experience. His most recent project was a leading role in the sold-out run of "Not Even a Mouse," premiering in San Francisco before moving to New York.

His character Mack is a well-known reporter, veteran on the scene but is gunning for his own show ... only if it's in primetime. You can catch his own personal leanings quite clearly in his reports.

Permits and Insurance

We've partnered with Complex Corporation again for our production insurance. Best rates in town and great turnaround. They're enjoying great success with their latest Devil and Daniel Johnston.

I also went down to City Hall today and paid for our permit. We had to run through some extra steps because we're shooting in across the street from a residential block past the normal 10pm. It took some walking in the rain over a couple of days, but we were able to collect the necessary signatures.

The look ahead on the weather has us drying up before the shoot and I certainly hope so. I overheard someone talking today how their production is two weeks behind so far because of the rain. I'm not sure that's a luxury that we'd have.

Omied Far - Screenwriter

Omied and I have known each other for a couple of years now. When I was not making time available to pen the script, I knew he would be a good fit for this project. His first draft was stunning and immediately raised the bar for the film.

Omied Far is a writer from San Francisco, where he is an original member of the sketch comedy troupe Tossing Alice as well as cast member of the theater troupe Primitive Screwheads and is a staff writer with the improv/comedy troupe The Last Laugh.

More progress

We're moving closer to principal photography and are in the process of fine tuning the details. The script is being polished after rehearsals ... the overheads are being mapped out. And I'm finding opportunities here and there to put up bios of the cast and crew. I'll keep up the information flow, especially the bios.

On a side note ... it has been wonderful collaborating with the actors on developing the various characters. Each has brought a new dimension to the story, making it much richer than before. I am very thankful for their efforts.

Jennifer Dean - Reporter #3

jennifer dean ( imdb ) - kara o'brien - Jennifer Dean has a B.A. in Theatre from UCLA and has done postgraduate studies at The Central School of Speech and Drama in London and Circle in the Square in New York.  She has performed with various theatre companies in the Bay Area. She is a member of SAG and AFTRA and more information about her commercial and independent film work can be found at www.practicalmysticproductions.com/mov/jenniferdean_reel.mov and by viewing a recently completed trailer for a feature film called The ESP Affair by Murray Suid.

Mackenzie Firgens - Reporter #1

mackenzie firgens ( web / imdb ) - charli stokes - Mackenzie Firgens made her feature debut starring as Harmony in the underground hit Groove, which was an Official Selection at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, and released by Sony Pictures Classics. Most recently Firgens originated the role of April in the film version of the Tony Award winning Broadway musical RENT, directed by Chris Columbus. As April, Firgens had the opportunity to create a new character for the classic musical, and shares the screen with Rosario Dawson, Taye Diggs, and Adam Pascal. Firgens starred in Broken Arrows with Lori Petty (Tank Girl), and Quality of Life, which won Best Youth Film at the Stockholm Intl '04 as well as the Special Mention Award at the Berlin Intl' 04. She also appeared in a leading role with Brittany Daniel (Joe Dirt) in The Hamiltons which won the Golden Vision Award at the Santa Barbara Intl' 06. Firgens has performed with the Tony Award winning San Francisco Mime Troupe and attended the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University Theatre School.

Synopsis

I figured it would be helpful if I told you a little of what the project was about. I began as a simple idea of how different people can interpret an event. Stacey and I brainstormed a scenario that would take advantage of the medium to allow a number of different stories to be concocted.

To then drive and color the story, I incorporated a number of journalists providing an ever increasing bias on the story. This satisfies a couple of requirements for me. It allows me to lead the audience's perceptions in a direction to then shatter that assumption. It also makes a direct comment on the sorry state of what passes for journalism in corporate-funded newsertainment.

The payoff is having the whole story communicated with the addition of the audio track from the event, capped off with splicing together the reporters words to tell the truth of the story.

Overall, I'm really excited at the level of quality that has come to this project in every facet and am egger to see the results.

Crew Locked Down

We've put together an awesome crew for this project. A number of people have identified with the script and have agreed to help pull the project together. I'll try and spotlight some of the members in future posts. I'll also draft up the cast list which includes a number of talented people. We had the first table read today and worked through most of the reporters. Everyone came to the table with an interesting take on the characters and I could see how this is going to click.