Shooting Day 5

There was a ton of energy on set today. Everyone has performed the movie so many times now, it's feeling like a real party. During the day time scenes, another party of girls down the street started screaming incessantly. I had to send producers over to ask them to quiet down. So if there's screaming in act one of the movie, you'll know it was the neighbors down the street.

During the time lapse, it started raining. In the middle of July in Los Angeles. The sound and camera teams had to cover their equipment in plastic. And the usual suspects started telling me to cancel the shoot.

Things get worse

Our set parakeet, James Jamison, died during the time lapse. Just keeled over and died. Richie and I got rid of the body without the cast noticing. The dead bird and the rain clouds seemed like a pretty ominous sign.

So I asked God, a character in the movie, for a miracle. God (Martin Kelly) put on his sunglasses and pointed at the sky. Then we waited another ten minutes.

And I kid you not, this really happened.

If you watch this movie, look for the strange purple lighting during the time lapse from daytime to nighttime. Who knows, maybe we'll just color correct it.

But possibly, at one point in the time lapse, you will see the whole cast and crew pose for a photo and point at the sky. We're pointing at the double rainbow off screen (that's the camera filming in the middle of the group).

Shooting Day 4

Everyone was relaxed today.  Cast and crew have settled into the rhythm of the shoot.  I think we got some of our best performances. Everyone is going to different parties tonight.  I hope the actors still have their voices tomorrow.  Shooting this movie is fun like summer camp.  I feel like I could do this for years.

Teamwork

A film crew is a group of teams working together. Some of the department heads report directly to me (Art, Makeup, Wardrobe, Sound) and some report directly to Chuck, the director of photography (Camera, Grip, and Electric). If the director is the commander in chief, then Chuck is a four star general, and all the department heads are major generals commanding their own divisions. Chuck's Team

Typically, the director of photography has a gaffer to implement the lighting design, and a key grip to help put everything together. The gaffer's assistant is called a best boy electric, and the key grip's assistant is called a best boy grip.

The camera team consists of a camera operator, a first assistant camera (focus puller), and a second assistant camera (clapper loader). Unofficially, when the DP is also the camera operator, the DP takes the title of Cinematographer.

Shannon Mita (2nd Assistant Camera), Me, Joe Segura (1st Assistant Camera)

Shooting requires the teamwork of all departments. As Chuck's camera navigates through the crowd of extras, he is trailed by the boom operator, the first AC, the second AC, the first AD, the second AD, and sometimes the script supervisor and me. As soon as the camera shifts away from an actor, makeup and wardrobe swoop in to keep everyone looking pretty.

As the party grows throughout the night, Shane Richard's production design team sets props, moves scenery, and makes sure continuity keeps everything in its proper place. Tiptoeing just behind the camera is a well choreographed ballet.

My Team

During the shoot, I am supported by Amy Arter, the script supervisor, who watches for missed lines and continuity errors. Each day I come on set with over 100 actor notes from the previous day's shooting. A lot of these come from Amy - spotting where actors are deviating from the script!

The producers and PA's support me in myriad ways. For The Last Hurrah, all of the producers are on set as extras for the entire movie. Richie Molyneux has the responsibility of corralling the background extras to fill each shot. In costume, he is able to amble through a scene, quietly whispering directions to the extras to position them where we need them.

Jason Kennedy (1st AD), Chuck DeRosa (Cinematographer), Me

The first assistant director, Jason Kennedy (pictured above), is my rock of Gibraltar. Someone has to be the barking dog to get everyone into position, and if the director does it himself he looks like a ninny. Jason sets call times, pushes the actors through wardrobe, makeup, and micing, and then polices the entire shoot.

Each day before shooting, Jason, Shane (Production Designer), and I walk through the entire set inspecting every inch. We are generals surveying the battlefield. Once we start shooting - that's it for the night. So we must examine every scene set up to make sure everything is perfect. For some reason, it's one of my favorite parts of the day.

Shooting Day 3

Today we got a good take. I ran across the lawn and hugged all the actors. We did it.

Shooting Day 2

Today we shot through to the end of the movie. I think the actors feel a sense of accomplishment. That we can do this. I told the actors that we now have a good movie in the can. So we can relax tomorrow and just aim higher. This is a good feeling.

The truth is, I don't think we've shot anything close to our best yet.

Watching the shoot from video village

I need a little bit of rest and a little perspective. I feel like I martyred myself for this movie today. That I fell on my sword. My producers have still not raised any money. I quit my job to direct this movie. I have given every penny in my bank account, and now gone $42,000 into credit card debt. I have given everything now.

All I Need

I can't tell the actors I've just sold everything I own to keep them on set. The director must project confidence. I put on a relaxed face, and smile and joke with everyone. Today actress Heidi Johanningmeier caught me off guard. She walked into one of the bedrooms and found me catnapping on the floor, worn thin. Spent. She knelt down and gave me a hug. She never spoke a word. Silently, she understands.

An actor like that. I will walk through fire for an actor like that.

$28,712.28

My producing team has negotiated all fifteen of our actor contracts as "most favored nations." This means that our smallest actor gets exactly the same deal as our biggest actor. I can't imagine how this works in our favor, but it seems the producers were just muscled into it. Our actors have signed four contracts now and two of the managers have rejected every one of them. Now we're already into filming and still no signed contracts, so the managers just have us over the barrel.

And there's not a ton I can do to help the producers negotiate because I'm sort of busy directing a movie.

Finding $28,712.28 in two hours

Step 1) I sold all my stocks today. My beloved Google and Apple. I was going to hold them for a decade. The best laid plans of mice and men...

Step 2) I liquidated all my savings. $20,000 I painstakingly saved as a piano teacher. It will all go into the pockets of my actors now. At least I'm supporting the arts.

Step 3) I called my mom and dad and told them I'm making a movie. I told them I need to borrow $8,000 today or my movie gets shut down. My mom and dad agreed. They were setting money aside to buy a new car in September.  But instead they're wiring the money directly to the actor payroll company. I will pay them back by borrowing $8,000 from credit cards.

Wiring Information

I need to wire this money to the payroll company immediately and none of my producers is answering their phone this morning. What are they sleeping? It's 10am! I am all alone in this.

Sublimation

I'm trying to decide how to feel about the two actors' managers that cost me all of this money. Their actors do deserve their own trailers. I would get them if I could. They do deserve lots of money. I would pay them a king's ransom if I could. But those actors should understand that I am paying for this movie on my credit cards. That we are all here for love of the game.

It is illogical for me to be upset with these actors. My job is to work well with them and bring out their absolute best.

I am emotionally tired. But my mind is working at lightning speed. I am not thinking about myself or my producing team. I am thinking about working with my amazing actors. I am thinking about what I can emotionally give to rally them to be their best.

Shooting Day 1 (Part Two)

11:00pm. I had to tell all the actors to go home. If I kept them I'd have to pay them overtime and serve them another meal, and I don't have any more money. We didn't finish the movie. And nothing for the day is usable. I tell everyone they did a great job.

Then I sit down with the producers.

It gets worse

Me: Alright fine. So we're going to pay $11,000 to our actors for rehearsal days. How about the shooting days? We already paid them that money, right?

Producers: No.

Me: What? What happened to the $17,000 we set aside for that last week?

Producers [in various equivalents]: We don't know where it went. We spent it.

Me: When were you planning on dealing with this? We have actors on set and we haven't paid them anything?? What happened to our budget?

Producers: "..."

Me: How much money do we need to pay the actors?

Producers: We don't know.  But we were supposed to pay them by today.

At this moment, one of my team members boils over, yells at me, and runs away. I tell Chuck, "What's she so upset about? I'm the one who's going bankrupt." Chuck chuckles.

It gets even worse

3:00 am. Back and forth with Anthony on the phone. After a lot of math and detective work we figure we owe the actors $28,712.28. I need to come up with this money by tomorrow to keep my actors on set.

Shooting Day 1 (Part One)

Four minutes before I yell action to start the movie, one of the producers pulls me aside in a panic. I tell him, whatever it is, don't tell me now. I'm about to direct. Tell me in six hours. Producer: We need to shut down the movie tomorrow.

Me: What now?

Producer: We need another $11,000 to pay the actors.

Me: Why?

Producer: We have to pay the actors their rehearsal days.

Me: Why? We read the SAG handbook - there's nothing explicit on rehearsal days. Besides, in their auditions, all our actors specifically agreed to work for free.  Why are we suddenly paying them all this money?

Producer: We didn't get the actors' contracts signed in time.  Now that we're shooting, their managers have us over the barrel. Two of the managers won't back down. One of them won't have their actress come on set tomorrow if she doesn't get her own trailer and makeup room.

Me: A trailer? Are you kidding me?  That's more than our entire budget.  How did this happen?

Producer: I'm trying to work it out with her manager.

Me: You need $11,000 by tomorrow morning?

Producer: Yes.

Me: I'll get it for you.

Producer: How?

Me: Don't worry about it. I'll get. Now don't bother me with this stuff before I'm about to direct! I'll talk to you in six hours when I'm done for the night.

On our first day of shooting we still haven't signed actor contracts.

It gets worse

As the actors take their marks and I prepare to call action, the homeowner pulls me aside and starts yelling at me. It seems one of the producers lost the garage clicker. The homeowner swears he will shut down my production if we don't find his garage clicker.

I patiently listen. I nod my head. Everyone wants to shut down the production today. Even for a garage clicker.

I make sure the actors are still pumped up for a 100 minute take. I slap fives with the actors and call action. What else can I do?

Peter Marr

Peter Marr (The Last Hurrah Producer) is one of the best people I know in Los Angeles.  A great guy and a hilarious person, Peter has encouraged me with my writing for many years.  Years ago, when I was thinking about giving up on comedy writing, Peter helped convince me to stick it through.  He always said he wanted to produce one of my scripts, and sure enough, here we are.  I don't know where I'd be without Peter's help. Peter is the opposite of a Hollywood producer.  He doesn't sit around sipping mochachinos and trying to get invited to parties.  Peter rolls up his sleeves and works.

Peter did all our set construction in two days, building a make up room, video village, sound department, and craft service station.  He bought all the props for the movie.  He bought all our licenses and insurance.  He placates the neighborhood association when they get upset with our noise level.  He ordered the porto-potty and single-handedly carried it across the property.  And every night he lugs a truckload of our smelly trash down to the dump.

And he never once complains.

How many producers would do any of this?

(Peter in a pensive moment)

Most of all, Peter keeps everyone laughing.  It's good to have a strong team on set.  And most of all I'm grateful that we have a happy set.  Everyone seems to be getting along great and I believe that vibe on set comes from the top down.  It's best to work with nice people.

The Set Comes to Life

It's so exciting to come on set every day and find two new truckloads of equipment. For some reason, the big moment for me was when the generator arrived. Then it felt like a movie. Granted, I was reluctant to spend the $1,000 for the generator cost. But since Chuck needs to light every setup in the movie simultaneously, it seemed like the safest way to avoid short-circuiting the entire neighborhood.

The photo above shows how the sound team hid receivers and transmitters on the roof. This relays the lav and boom radio signals over to video village. Finding 16 free radio channels in the middle of Los Angeles was a challenge, but I'm told we got lucky with our location.

Chuck and his team are flooding the backyard with light, so we can shoot at night time. The lights above are blue gels. We're trying to pull a Steven Soderbergh and assign different color moods to every scene set up.

This is me with two very dedicated actors: Gary Cairns II and Heidi Johanningmeier. Gary grew a beard for his role, and tells me he sleeps with the script next to his pillow every night. Heidi read Carl Jung's "An Answer to Job" because her character references it in her dialog.

Hanging out on set is an incredible amount of fun. Working together with all the teams: art department, wardrobe, makeup, sound, and camera, we are creating a unified concept for this movie. It's really coming together!

Shooting Strategy

This is the strategy Chuck (Cinematographer) and I have come up with. We are going to shoot the entire movie once a day, for seven days in a row.

Monday: Entire Lighting Set up. Sound Testing. Full Dress Rehearsal.

Tuesday: Lighting improvements. Sound Testing. Full Dress Rehearsal.

Wednesday: Shooting Day 1 (All the way through to the end; expect kinks)

Thursday: Shooting Day 2 (All the way through to the end; get movie in can)

Friday: Shooting Day 3 (Scenes that need work)

Saturday: Shooting Day 4 (Whole Movie)

Sunday: Shooting Day 5 (Whole Movie)

Drunk On Set

The homeowner left us with clear instructions: "If my friend Sam shows up at the house and I'm not home - no matter how much he begs you - do NOT let him inside."

"How come?"

"Because he will steal all my alcohol."

The past few days, Sam never showed up and I didn't think much of it. We found it odd when producer Peter found an empty bottle of Tequila and a 12 inch chef's knife hidden behind the set porto-potty. But none of us put two and two together.

Today during rehearsal, Sam showed up. I was outside on this nice patio with six of our actresses...

The department heads, hard at work...

Sam lumbered up to the house like a bear that had been hibernating for the winter. He was filthy - covered in leaves and mud. His hair stood on end and his eyes were heavy-lidded and unfocused. He wandered past the actresses and into the house.

I waited a few Mississippis, excused myself, and called producer Richie. "Code blue! Sam's in the house!"

Producer Richie and his trusty cell phone

Richie arrived a few minutes later. I told the actors to keep running lines. Richie and I crept into the house, softly calling Sam's name. No response. We couldn't find him!

Finally, we discovered him in one of our shooting locations, passed out, and - get ready - covered in his own excrement. Poor Richie had been through so much by this point, we just looked at each other and started laughing. Exhausted, desperate laughing.

Back outside I resumed rehearsal. The actresses kept suggesting we rehearse inside, in the actual location. "But," I'd rejoin, "the weather is so nice out here."

Inside, Richie and Lisa carried Sam out to Richie's car, laid down newspapers, and drove Sam back to his house. Richie tells me the smell was unbearable. The next 45 minutes Richie and Lisa ran fans inside what we now call the hobo room. It's the room where Jason and Melissa have to kiss...

The "Hobo Room"

Finally, as night fell and the smell dissipated, I casually suggested to the actresses that we rehearse inside. Now I know why large budget sets are always guarded by police officers. Because of guys like Sam. With any luck our actors will have no idea the degree to which we are running this set by the skin of our teeth.

Full Cast Reheasal 3

Today we had a small miracle. The actors and I blocked the whole script Monday and Tuesday, and today we needed to run the entire movie. This was our last chance before Saturday to solidify the blocking in everyone's minds.

I have a number of actors who will only agree to come to a few select rehearsals. So tonight was essential. It was also essential for Chuck to film the whole run through so we could finally get an accurate run time for the movie.

At 8:00pm, the power went out for the entire neighborhood.

As night fell, the actors grew increasingly anxious. Would they be able to read their lines? Would they trip and fall in the dark?

By 9:00pm, the summer sun had set and the backyard was nearing complete darkness. Some of the crew ran to their cars and grabbed flashlights so we could keep filming the run through. Some of the actors shined their cell phones on their scripts to keep reading lines in the dark. It must have been a strange spectacle, this bubble of lights floating through the backyard.

But some of the actors grew increasingly upset that we were rehearsing in the dark. Some of my producers felt I was being self-indulgent, forcing everyone to work in these conditions. They took sides with those actors and kept begging me to stop the rehearsal. To give up and send everyone home. I refused. I've run enough rehearsals in my life to know never to send people home on a down note. This rehearsal was too important.

As night dipped into complete darkness around 9:15, the power returned. Everyone cheered as the backyard lit up like Vegas. Spirits revived and we finished the rehearsal on an emotional high note. The actors went home with a sense of accomplishment, having performed the entire movie on their third rehearsal.

In a quiet moment, actress Heidi Johanningmeier passed me and whispered in my ear, "You did the right thing." This simple sentence means all the world to me. Tonight identified the type of people you just want to work with again and again. Guys like Chuck who stuck through it unquestioningly, because he understood what was at stake. I think the job of a strong producing team is to support the director in his or her decisions and spread that positive message to the actors.

With all humility I got very lucky tonight. Another five minutes of darkness and I would have had a mutiny on my hands.

I am incredibly grateful for this lucky break. And for our first run time: 100 minutes.

Full Cast Rehearsal 1

I spent the day in back-to-back meetings with wardrobe, set design, sound and camera. Super fun. However, when I emerged from the living room/office at 5:55 pm for our first full cast rehearsal I was in for a shock. All of the producers were gone.

No unit production manager, none of our three producers, no production assistants, no one. They were all out shopping for props or doing God knows what.

None of the props were set, no craft service was laid out, no chairs or tables - nothing. The actors would not be walking onto a movie set, they'd be walking into a vacant house.

When I called the line producer I felt like Michael Corleone desperately trying to save the Godfather in the hospital scene. "Nobody's here! I'm all by myself!" Nobody had even thought to put up street signs directing the actors to the location. I had asked for someone to stand at the front gate and guide actors into the backyard. But no producers were even at the location. Nada.

"All by Myself" by Eric Carmen played incessantly in my head.

By 6pm a dozen actors had arrived. What choice did I have? I gave my daily opening speech, explaining our goals for the day, and got to work. Blocking fifteen actors across a 61,000 square foot location with no assistance, no props, no tables or chairs, required some energy. To make things more complicated, several actors missed rehearsal and I was counting on using my producers as stand ins. This is critical for a blocking rehearsal, as someone is eventually going to have to teach those actors their blocking.

In the end, I have to give credit where credit is due. With enormous thanks to our amazing actors, we blocked 52 pages in four hours.

Think about that for a minute. 52 pages in four hours.

Tonight I sent a very, very gentle e-mail to my production team. All I can do is hope tomorrow will be better.

Tech Rehearsal

Today the crew shot the entire movie as a test run. We only had about six producers and crew people to fill the roles of fifteen actors, so it was like a three ring circus. Watching Phil Napolitano play a leading woman is pretty hilarious. And Peter Marr (Producer) performing three parts simultaneously had me wetting my pants. I will post some footage of this when I figure out how to embed video.

Because everyone's acting was a little goofy, I still have no sense of how long the movie is. But at least I can see how the hand held looks. Chuck assures me that the actual Vericam will be 17 pounds, and therefore much more stable. We're still discussing the possibility of steady cam.

Blocking

Sun Tzu says a battle is won in the preparations. Chuck DeRosa (Cinematographer), Phil Napolitano (2nd AD), and I are blocking the movie, start to finish. We have to block it and rehearse it like crazy before a single actor sets foot on set. There's nothing worse than actors standing around bored while the director scratches his head.

(Phil and Chuck at work)

Phil is a work horse, and drew up battle maps of the whole location. Chuck and I are trying to come up with creative ways to navigate from scene to scene, while preserving the integrity and momentum of the script.

We've divided the script into 23 "scenes" and mapped each section accordingly.

Chuck and I have been watching a flood of movies to prepare for the camera blocking. We're using "Elephant" traveling shots a la Gus van Sant, "Masculin-Feminin" medium close ups a la Jean-Luc Godard, "8 1/2" swiveling tracking shots a la Federico Fellini, and static "Before Sunrise" two shots a la Richard Linklater.

My two biggest sources of inspiration for The Last Hurrah are Woody Allen and Richard Linklater. Not only is their often neurotic and philosophical dialog an influence on the script, but I'm drawing enormous creative sustenance from their style of shooting.

"Slacker" uses handoffs and reveals to pass the POV from character to character - a narrative style I've enjoyed performing hundreds of times in improv. And nearly every single scene in "Annie Hall" takes breathtaking risks of cinematography and sound design. Long shots, 360's, POV's, tracking backwards through a crowded party - all elements we will incorporate into The Last Hurrah.

For sound design, Chuck and I are watching a lot of Robert Altman. We've had some discussion on how to cross fade from conversation to conversation throughout the party, and I've strongly decided I want the sound to motivate the camera, and not vice versa. Chuck shares my religious convictions on POV. I don't even like establishing shots. A single instant of unmotivated camera movement creates massive POV issues.

For lighting design, Chuck and I are assigning thematic moods to each section of the map, to make the movie feel as if it has distinctive scenes, even though we never cut. Thus we have a map divided into sections labeled "Heaven," "Hell," "Eden," "Police Interrogation," "Limbo" - it would probably seem like nonsense if I posted it here. Best to keep some things hidden.

The weather is scorching hot, but Phil is a trooper and I love how fast we can bust through our work.

General Patton

I've told Chuck (Cinematographer) my strategy for blocking and rehearsing The Last Hurrah is the "General Patton." Basically, we're going to drive straight to Berlin without stopping. George S. Patton's genius as a World War II general is that he didn't pause to clean out every Nazi battalion between Normandy and Berlin. He skirted past some of them so he could quickly strike Nazi Germany at its heart. Then, other allied armies filled in the gaps Patton skipped along the way.

For The Last Hurrah, we're doing a fast blocking pass all the way through to page 108. Then, we'll fill in the trickier details in subsequent passes. I want every shot in this movie to be well composed and visually interesting. But I don't expect to solve them all sequentially without costing valuable time.

For what it's worth, this is basically my writing process as well. Speed is of the essence. The faster I work, the more confident I am that my intuition is guiding me.

Rewrites

I've done six script rewrites in the past two and half weeks. Because we are shooting in one take, there will be no room to make changes in the editing room. I've got one chance to get it right. Our producer table read two weeks ago timed out at 67 minutes, which was terrifying. I did some math on my 88 pages, figuring out exactly which halves of the three acts were light, and added 20 pages in my first rewrite. I had one day to do this rewrite because I'm so busy finding a location and actors.

What's funny is that this script - garnering all this nice attention and momentum - is a first draft written in one weekend. So up until this first table read, I had never actually read the script I wrote.

The next few rewrites I did were for pacing and character arcs. Not every moment needs to be incessant dialog. I've also rewritten the script to accommodate our location and better fit the actors we've signed on. During each of the auditions I listened to how the lines match each actor's personality, and fine tuned accordingly.

For Valerie, I entirely threw out most of her scenes and wrote brand new ones that I think work better. For Gary, I nearly doubled his number of scenes because I think his character is one of the bright spots in the story.

As a writer, I crave feedback and script notes. It's interesting to see where good notes come from. My manager and agents did not offer any notes on the script. Meanwhile, our film editor, Jay Trautman, gave me extremely useful and specific notes.

For this last rewrite, I read all 108 pages out loud with my stopwatch, and timed in at 76 minutes. This is somewhat unsettling, but Chuck (our cinematographer) insists the pacing on set will add a lot of time to the script. Chuck seems confident and I have no choice at this point but to go with his gut. He has much more experience than I do.

On a personal note, I can't wait to mentally switch from playing the introverted writer to playing the extroverted director. The first actor table read is July 2nd. By that day I need to switch hats, analyzing and interpreting the script as if it was written by someone else. This is the process that feels natural to me.

Casting Will

I am so happy we have found Zack Bennett to play the lead role of Will. Special thanks to Gary Cairns for the introduction. Zack is 19, and from what I can tell, some sort of prodigy. He is incredibly natural - a completely unselfconscious actor. When he delivers lines, I see the thought process in his eyes, I see the wheels turning in his mind. He seems to be coming up with his lines extemporaneously, and only in retrospect do I realize that I wrote what's coming out of his mouth. We're incredibly lucky to have him onboard.

(Zack with beard, Jon without)

Zack's Backstory

I auditioned Zack for the role of "God," a random Los Angeles hipster who crashes the party. Zack's first cold read was magnificent, and in his second try, I noticed he wasn't even looking at the page anymore. He'd already memorized it. Keeping my face calm, I politely asked him to read for the lead role of Will.

And in a cold reading, with no preparation, Zack knocked it out of the park.

Zack's Call Back

I wanted to give the producers the chance to say "yes" to Zack as well. So I brought him in for a call back. I also wanted to see how Valerie worked with him, and give her a voice in who we cast for the lead.

Zack and Val were so relaxed together. As I filmed their audition, I gradually let it devolve into actor exercises because it was so much fun to work with them. I had them improvise their own conversation and gradually segue into their scene once they were comfortable. This is how the camera will find them when we shoot. They played off each other wonderfully.

Zack is so unselfconscious he will lean his head back and close his eyes for half a scene. He will make choices so human that it seems I've never seen them on camera before.

I was hoping to cast a young Woody Allen, someone with big vocal arcs, strong dialog punches and fast comedic delivery. But in Zack I feel we've found something different, more dramatic, and possibly, new.