After an excruciating and very emotionally taxing waiting period, Paul officially has a kidney donor. We are thrilled beyond words, and I am more grateful to the donor than I can express in words. Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered to be tested.
Please come and celebrate with us this Saturday at PAUL-A-PALOOZA, 8 p.m. at The Woodshed (60 E. 800 S.).
Thanks,
Patrick
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Lessons Learned From Shooting
1. You cannot underestimate the importance of a crew with a good attitude.
2. Feeding the cast and crew is the hardest part of making a low budget film.
3. Cute girls on the crew can be a serious distraction.
4. Be open to to suggestions and ideas, but know when to stick to your guns.
5. Tauna Price doesn't even know what the word "tact" means.
6. A fig rig is much more reliable than a Glidecam.
7. If you treat your exrtas well, sometimes they volunteer to do more. Being nice really gets you places.
8. Practical effects can be just as hokey as CGI. Be careful.
9. Stay committed, no matter what, or you'll never get it done.
10. Plan ahead as much as you can, but don't be fraid to improvise.
2. Feeding the cast and crew is the hardest part of making a low budget film.
3. Cute girls on the crew can be a serious distraction.
4. Be open to to suggestions and ideas, but know when to stick to your guns.
5. Tauna Price doesn't even know what the word "tact" means.
6. A fig rig is much more reliable than a Glidecam.
7. If you treat your exrtas well, sometimes they volunteer to do more. Being nice really gets you places.
8. Practical effects can be just as hokey as CGI. Be careful.
9. Stay committed, no matter what, or you'll never get it done.
10. Plan ahead as much as you can, but don't be fraid to improvise.
The Last Few Days
One of our biggest, most challenging days of shooting came near the end, when we shot the fantasy battle sequences. We were dealing with real swords, and $15,000 worth of borrowed chain mail and other armor. Once again we were in the spectacular locale of Silver Lake, and the mix up props, costumes and locations made for a spectacular scene. I don't think I've ever felt more inspired as a filmmaker then on the day when we shot those battles. And the sight of Rosie Bertrand with a chinbeard still makes me laugh. The show of Brandie's leg hacked-off is surprisingly grotesque, especially since it's just kethcup. Shawn Rose really threw himself into the physiciality of the battle, making an incredible prescence as a villain. He's like our own Pat Roach or Igor Jijikine.
The hardest location to secure was the hospital for the denouement. We eventually got the okay from SLCC's Nursing lab to shoot there, and it couldn't have been better. Porter and Brandie nailed the bittersweet emotion, and Bob Walkingshaw (Dr. Mallory) added a spark and poignance that reaffirned that I was right to stick to my gut and cast him over some other candidates.
The final day of shooting consisted primarily of two last minute additions which redeemed the character of Lance. Not only did it just leave us with a better feeling to have the kid turn out not so bad, it simply fit the Lancelot character more justly. Chase McKnight proved again what an amazing young actor he is, effortlessly rolling with this change in direction. Rain threatened to be a problem for these final outdoor shoots, but never materialized. Beau Gorley and Tauna Price got stuck in an elevator, which held us up. Andy Baker asked if we were going to have to wait until after they were rescued to break for lunch.
But we finished on time, and I was left with a mix of pride, excitement, relief, and a tinge of sadness. The most rewarding, best film I had ever shot was completely finished shooting.
Now, the adventure of post-production begins.
The hardest location to secure was the hospital for the denouement. We eventually got the okay from SLCC's Nursing lab to shoot there, and it couldn't have been better. Porter and Brandie nailed the bittersweet emotion, and Bob Walkingshaw (Dr. Mallory) added a spark and poignance that reaffirned that I was right to stick to my gut and cast him over some other candidates.
The final day of shooting consisted primarily of two last minute additions which redeemed the character of Lance. Not only did it just leave us with a better feeling to have the kid turn out not so bad, it simply fit the Lancelot character more justly. Chase McKnight proved again what an amazing young actor he is, effortlessly rolling with this change in direction. Rain threatened to be a problem for these final outdoor shoots, but never materialized. Beau Gorley and Tauna Price got stuck in an elevator, which held us up. Andy Baker asked if we were going to have to wait until after they were rescued to break for lunch.
But we finished on time, and I was left with a mix of pride, excitement, relief, and a tinge of sadness. The most rewarding, best film I had ever shot was completely finished shooting.
Now, the adventure of post-production begins.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Nudity and Rain
It's been a while since I had a chance to write here, so I need to catch up a bit:
The wo faux nude scenes (Rosalie bertrand's Tristan and Hayley Schaffer's Nimue) were extremely succesful shoots. In reality, the still photographs taken on the set give the impression that far more flesh is exposed than actuall is. Rosie was, in fact, wearing an off the shoulder dress and really quite well covered. Hayeley, admittedly, wasn't wearing much, which made this a memorable experience for most of the crew, as Haylet's body could be the basis for a major world religion. But she is a great sport about these things, and we tried to do as much as possible to keep it from getting two uncomfortable. The exception to that is assistant D.P. Tauna Price, who tries to make as many porn and sexual references as possible, but because she's female she manages to make the actress think THE GUYS are the ones being inappropriate. I love Tauna, but she has all the subtley and social graces of a community bedpan.
The real-world battle sequence was pushed back a day because of intense cloud cover, which we were afraid would wreak havoc with lighting. We went to great trouble for this and the Nimue sequence to secure an HD camera which shoots at 60 frames per second, creating a very cool clow motion effect Patrick and I will always call "Renny Harlin slow motion", due to his effective use of the technique in "Die Hard 2." Originally, the battle was only schedule to include two or three of these shots, and the scene was actually quite dialogue driven. However, as we began filming, cloud cover increased again, and it actually began raining as we were taking the first slow mo shot of the Knights. D.P. Johnny O kept commenting on how great the storm looked. I remarked 'If we cuy the dialogue and shoot it all in slow-mo, this might look better in rain." Johnny, Patrick, Brandyn Cross and exchanged glances, talked briefly, and decided to go for it.
As it turned out, this was a TORRENTIAL storm, complete with hail and mudslides, and concentrated almost exclusively in the neighborhood where we were shooting. The cast and cre banded together like men under fire, sacrifing warmth, dryness, dignity, and, to a very small degree, saftey, as we did an off-the cuff reimagination the sequence that know adds a sort of Ridley Scott-like visual flare and makes the film twice as good. That rainstorm that nearly killed our film turned out to be the best thing that happned to it.
The only major obstacle as capturing the kiss between Arthur and Jenny. Porter and Kayla are, after all, kids. I offered them $20 each to a real kiss, but they were too uncomfortable (in retrospect, their parents probably would have freaked and I would have been in big trouble). i maintain that Porter, at least, will find within two years that this missed opportunity keeps him up nights, but the fake kiss worked.
Of course, reimagining the real life battle means reimaginig the fantasy battle. It simply won't do to have the goofy Knight in the park have a more visually stunning battle than the mythical Knight of the Round Table have. Which means we have been stuck with the massive headache of rescheduling the fantasy battle for a day when we can once again secure the slo-mo cam, and that means wrapping a week later than expected. I wish to make it clear that number of shooting days remains the same as projected, two of them just take place later than planned.
The rain battle will always be one of my favorite filmmaking experiences. We were hit with a challenge, ran with it, and made the film better because of it. In the words of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, "we have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
The wo faux nude scenes (Rosalie bertrand's Tristan and Hayley Schaffer's Nimue) were extremely succesful shoots. In reality, the still photographs taken on the set give the impression that far more flesh is exposed than actuall is. Rosie was, in fact, wearing an off the shoulder dress and really quite well covered. Hayeley, admittedly, wasn't wearing much, which made this a memorable experience for most of the crew, as Haylet's body could be the basis for a major world religion. But she is a great sport about these things, and we tried to do as much as possible to keep it from getting two uncomfortable. The exception to that is assistant D.P. Tauna Price, who tries to make as many porn and sexual references as possible, but because she's female she manages to make the actress think THE GUYS are the ones being inappropriate. I love Tauna, but she has all the subtley and social graces of a community bedpan.
The real-world battle sequence was pushed back a day because of intense cloud cover, which we were afraid would wreak havoc with lighting. We went to great trouble for this and the Nimue sequence to secure an HD camera which shoots at 60 frames per second, creating a very cool clow motion effect Patrick and I will always call "Renny Harlin slow motion", due to his effective use of the technique in "Die Hard 2." Originally, the battle was only schedule to include two or three of these shots, and the scene was actually quite dialogue driven. However, as we began filming, cloud cover increased again, and it actually began raining as we were taking the first slow mo shot of the Knights. D.P. Johnny O kept commenting on how great the storm looked. I remarked 'If we cuy the dialogue and shoot it all in slow-mo, this might look better in rain." Johnny, Patrick, Brandyn Cross and exchanged glances, talked briefly, and decided to go for it.
As it turned out, this was a TORRENTIAL storm, complete with hail and mudslides, and concentrated almost exclusively in the neighborhood where we were shooting. The cast and cre banded together like men under fire, sacrifing warmth, dryness, dignity, and, to a very small degree, saftey, as we did an off-the cuff reimagination the sequence that know adds a sort of Ridley Scott-like visual flare and makes the film twice as good. That rainstorm that nearly killed our film turned out to be the best thing that happned to it.
The only major obstacle as capturing the kiss between Arthur and Jenny. Porter and Kayla are, after all, kids. I offered them $20 each to a real kiss, but they were too uncomfortable (in retrospect, their parents probably would have freaked and I would have been in big trouble). i maintain that Porter, at least, will find within two years that this missed opportunity keeps him up nights, but the fake kiss worked.
Of course, reimagining the real life battle means reimaginig the fantasy battle. It simply won't do to have the goofy Knight in the park have a more visually stunning battle than the mythical Knight of the Round Table have. Which means we have been stuck with the massive headache of rescheduling the fantasy battle for a day when we can once again secure the slo-mo cam, and that means wrapping a week later than expected. I wish to make it clear that number of shooting days remains the same as projected, two of them just take place later than planned.
The rain battle will always be one of my favorite filmmaking experiences. We were hit with a challenge, ran with it, and made the film better because of it. In the words of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, "we have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Week 3
The third week of shooting stands out for the fact that nearly every scene we shot was based around kids between the ages of 10 and 14. Patrick and I have worked with kids dozens of times. Between the the years we spent supervising City Rep's Children's Theatre School, and our time at Lowell, Nibley Park and Wasatch Elementary schools, we have supervised, in a creative capacity, over 1000 kids. So, we're pretty used to the ups and downs of the situation. Of course, film is a bit different from stage, so there unique new challenges.
Probably the biggest advantage to kids on stage or screen is that they tend to be more excited about what they're doing. A kid doesn't differentiate between community theatre and Broadway, student film and Hollywood Blockbuster. A kid is thrilled to be in a movie. You don't get the sort of half-hearted work from them you might you sometimes get from adults on a low budget film. They are both taking it more seriously and having more fun, and both of those things rub off on the cast and the rest of the crew.
The biggest disadvantage is that kids can be hyperactive, noisy, unfocused, demanding and whiny. They can also push very hard to make themselves the focus of every scene. We've experienced all of these problems this week, and to be honest, most of them came from one out of the approximately 30 kids we've been using (I won't mention the particular performer by name in case anyone actually reads this).
By and large, though, working with the kids on "Dreamworld" has been a great experience. During our two days at East Hollywood High School, where we shot all of the school sequences, we were dealing with large numbers of kids, most of them extras. It was very important to us that the extras have a good experience on this movie. Often, visiting a movie set can be like visiting Dickensian London: there is a complex class system, and extras rank dead last, almost as sub-humans. We refuse to ever let that be the case on a film we make. Fortunately, the crew, particularly Brandyn Cross and Johnny O, were like-minded, and we all worked well together (I did place a temporary ban on jokes about "The Clap"). One particular crowd scene took 15 takes to get right, but considering the number of kids we were working with, that's not bad. Kids have to be reminded repeatedly not to look at the camera, and that came up a lot this week, but, in the end, much of our best work was done this week. The production value we got out of the East Hollywood location was immense, and added immeasurably to the film.
Probably the biggest advantage to kids on stage or screen is that they tend to be more excited about what they're doing. A kid doesn't differentiate between community theatre and Broadway, student film and Hollywood Blockbuster. A kid is thrilled to be in a movie. You don't get the sort of half-hearted work from them you might you sometimes get from adults on a low budget film. They are both taking it more seriously and having more fun, and both of those things rub off on the cast and the rest of the crew.
The biggest disadvantage is that kids can be hyperactive, noisy, unfocused, demanding and whiny. They can also push very hard to make themselves the focus of every scene. We've experienced all of these problems this week, and to be honest, most of them came from one out of the approximately 30 kids we've been using (I won't mention the particular performer by name in case anyone actually reads this).
By and large, though, working with the kids on "Dreamworld" has been a great experience. During our two days at East Hollywood High School, where we shot all of the school sequences, we were dealing with large numbers of kids, most of them extras. It was very important to us that the extras have a good experience on this movie. Often, visiting a movie set can be like visiting Dickensian London: there is a complex class system, and extras rank dead last, almost as sub-humans. We refuse to ever let that be the case on a film we make. Fortunately, the crew, particularly Brandyn Cross and Johnny O, were like-minded, and we all worked well together (I did place a temporary ban on jokes about "The Clap"). One particular crowd scene took 15 takes to get right, but considering the number of kids we were working with, that's not bad. Kids have to be reminded repeatedly not to look at the camera, and that came up a lot this week, but, in the end, much of our best work was done this week. The production value we got out of the East Hollywood location was immense, and added immeasurably to the film.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
"The Clap"
Somehow, the Slate/Clapboard/Marker has become known on this set as "The Clap." There is an endless series of jokes about this: nobody says "where is the Slate?" when they can say "Who has the clap?" Even better is to speculate on WHO GAVE THEM "The Clap."
Patrick Gibbs made the first of these jokes, but it has now caught on to the point of being a minor obsession. Sound Mixer Beau Gorley has been known to do this joke as many as 25 times in 4 minutes.
I have no doubt this will be the longest last influence this film has on the people who made. All of us, not matter where we go or what we do in the world of film, will always call the slate "The Clap" and specualte on who gave it to who.
Sigh.
Patrick Gibbs made the first of these jokes, but it has now caught on to the point of being a minor obsession. Sound Mixer Beau Gorley has been known to do this joke as many as 25 times in 4 minutes.
I have no doubt this will be the longest last influence this film has on the people who made. All of us, not matter where we go or what we do in the world of film, will always call the slate "The Clap" and specualte on who gave it to who.
Sigh.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Week 2
The second act of a film is where the conflict is introduced. Week 2 of shooting "Dreamworld" was an appropriate second act. Massive budget problems arose, enused, were overcome (I prefer not to go into detail). Shooting on location rather than in a studio proved far more challenging. Sound was a major problem. The so-called "Glidecam" gave the effect of the cmaera strapped to the head of a hyper-active seal (and while I enjoy the shakicam effect in "Saving Private Ryan" and the works of Paul Greengrass, I am going here for the visual style of old school Spielberg, along with George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis and Ron Howard. Shakicam doesn't fit). Flubbed lines caused us to take half an hour and 12 takes on a simple low-angle dialogue shot. A fauly gas grill delayed lunch on Tuesday's shoot by nearly three hours, which threw off production to the point where ended the day three shots behind schedule. I don't deal well with falling behind schedule. I have been adamant on this production that we stay on schedule. I was so upset about this that I had difficulty concentrating Tuesday night when viewing a critic's screening of "Hellboy II" a truly great film. Tuesday as a very frustrating day. On the bright side, we got some fantastic crane shots, and the scenes with Arthur's Mother had just the right warmth. Provided I can salvage something of the steadicam shots, the film will not reflect the trouble we had that day.
Wednesday we started early, and dashed out the three missing shots by 10:30 am. And I love the shots. Then we traveled to Silver Lake, a truly gorgeous location, where we shot the sgements of Arthur at the Lake (Hayley Shaffer, our drop-dead gorgeous Nimue, will be added later in close-ups shot at another location). Using a device called a "Fig Rig" (a small steerin-wheel shaped camera mount), we got the sort of shots I wanted from the Glidecam. They wobble a bit, but in a style more reminiscent of Kevin Reynold's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", which much better suits my vision of this film. The open shot tilts down from a glorious lens flare about the trees to a slow approach of Arthur by the lake. Definite "Money shot." While this was the day this week that we did the most physical labor, it was perhaps the least tiring because the tempertaure at Silver Lake was so much cooler. Other than falling in the lake, I had a good day (I only feel bad that I yelled "sh*t" when I fell in, with young Porter standing nearby. But, come on. You fall chest deep in a muddy lake, you yell "sh*t." I don't care who you are.
On Thursday, we got began the day with the stress of the budget troubles hitting us full force, which distarcted and detracted from what should have been one of the most fun days of the shoot, exteriors of Camelot at Castle Creek Inn. But, despite the stress, the shots were terrific, featuring exqusitie costumes rented from Hale Cente Theatre, a beautiful castle, and the luminous Erica Bryce as Guenevere, the hot and evil Anna Crowe as Morganna, and the regal Loren Lambert as Arthur. Thye results we far more than satisfying. The film is looking great, and line producer Brandon Arnold did me a huge favor by begining to capture footage for post-production. We fought back from the troubles, kept control, and ended the week on a high note. The future of "Dreamworld" looks bright.
But I could really use some more sleep.
Wednesday we started early, and dashed out the three missing shots by 10:30 am. And I love the shots. Then we traveled to Silver Lake, a truly gorgeous location, where we shot the sgements of Arthur at the Lake (Hayley Shaffer, our drop-dead gorgeous Nimue, will be added later in close-ups shot at another location). Using a device called a "Fig Rig" (a small steerin-wheel shaped camera mount), we got the sort of shots I wanted from the Glidecam. They wobble a bit, but in a style more reminiscent of Kevin Reynold's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", which much better suits my vision of this film. The open shot tilts down from a glorious lens flare about the trees to a slow approach of Arthur by the lake. Definite "Money shot." While this was the day this week that we did the most physical labor, it was perhaps the least tiring because the tempertaure at Silver Lake was so much cooler. Other than falling in the lake, I had a good day (I only feel bad that I yelled "sh*t" when I fell in, with young Porter standing nearby. But, come on. You fall chest deep in a muddy lake, you yell "sh*t." I don't care who you are.
On Thursday, we got began the day with the stress of the budget troubles hitting us full force, which distarcted and detracted from what should have been one of the most fun days of the shoot, exteriors of Camelot at Castle Creek Inn. But, despite the stress, the shots were terrific, featuring exqusitie costumes rented from Hale Cente Theatre, a beautiful castle, and the luminous Erica Bryce as Guenevere, the hot and evil Anna Crowe as Morganna, and the regal Loren Lambert as Arthur. Thye results we far more than satisfying. The film is looking great, and line producer Brandon Arnold did me a huge favor by begining to capture footage for post-production. We fought back from the troubles, kept control, and ended the week on a high note. The future of "Dreamworld" looks bright.
But I could really use some more sleep.
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