If you’ve been following the blog very long, you’ve probably figured out that I type exactly what I’m thinking when I’m thinking it… and right now I’m thinking “What’s next?”  I’ve outlined what I want to do next, and the subject comes up between me and Mike quite a bit, but truth be told, I don’t know how I’m going to put together a group of people as talented and dedicated as this group has been.  I know I need a break, and I know they deserve one.

I also start to think, “Why do people make movies?”  There are easier ways to tell stories.  There are less expensive ways to do it too.  At the end of the day, I don’t even want to think about what this has cost… but, I’m sure Karen knows down to the penny.  I won’t lie and say “Why am I doing this?” hasn’t crossed my mind.  There’s only one answer for that.  Because I wanted to.

If someone had told me I was going to spend 21 months making a movie, I would have said, “That’s a long time to shoot a porno.”

Seriously though:
I’m fascinated and terrified at the idea of death.  I tend to reconcile this with the notion that the universe existed before I got here, and it will continue after I’ve been.  But what I find even more terrifying is the idea of death (or even some semblance of life) with all loss of persona.  To become a non-sentient thing.

The zombie genre has pretty much taken this as a reason to horrifically and graphically smack down humanlike substitutes in the most gratuitous ways possible.  And, it seems, that’s all that has become of it.  A game of oneupsmanship.  How can we creatively kill something that looks like a human, but without the stigma of it being a human?  Zombies, sadly, have become a cipher, and I guess that’s what really bothers me the most.  It’s sad that a genre with so much potential has been relegated to splatter and spectacle.  Of all the zombie films out there, there really is only three that have stood up to the test of time.  The Night of the Living Dead, it’s remake (which I actually prefer), and the original Day of the Dead.  The rest pretty much fall into the same mold.

Outbreak>panic>survivors>survivors lost>things go back to normal.

It’s tired, and cliche, and that was really the inspiration for this.  Then came the realization that 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead  are the same story (even down to both protagonist waking in abandoned hospitals).  And even worse are the films where people walk around with seemingly endless supplies of food and ammo.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this, was because I felt it was time for the zombie genre to grow up a bit. The real genesis of this project was, it always seems, whenever you watch a zombie film, there’s always someone in the group that proudly claims that they would survive, and then usually go on to tell you how and why they’d survive.   Needless to say, most of these notions, I find to be pretty thin.  But more than that, if you did survive, would you still be you?  With the collapse of the culture we live in, how many people would remain functional and intact?

No one ever deals with the idea of  the trauma an event like that would really have.  The notion that “If your daily life became a tooth and nail fight for survival, with no technology and no communication and no way out, what would those people who where lucky(?) enough to survive be like?” has never really been addressed to my satisfaction.  How easy would it be for them to adjust to this new world?  PTSD doesn’t exist in zombie films, at least nothing a quick open-handed slap in the face wont fix.  Nobody is ever bothered by the idea that they are finishing off things that once upon a time were their father, brother, sister, friend, co-worker.  Sorry.  I call bullshit.

There’s a realization in all this.  That after this is all said and done, my life will be profoundly changed.  The movie could succeed.  It could fail.  Either will impact me pretty drastically.  I hope, when it’s all said and done,  I remain functional and intact.  I tend to take everything personally, and this is something that I really have poured heart and soul into, and in doing so, I’ve also discovered a lot about the people that are a part of my life.  Some good.  Some bad.  The good is as good as it ever gets.  There’s a lot more that goes along with this, but I can’t explain it to you.  You either have to experience it for yourselves, or don’t.  Sorry, but words can only carry certain kinds of ideas.

If you’re a fan of movies you  might have seen Fight Club.  Chuck Palahniuk brilliantly wrote  “This is your life, and it’s ending one second at a time.”  That’s an absolute truth.  In the same film there is a scene where Tyler Durden asks two men sitting in the back seat, “Guys, what would you wish you’d done before you died?”

Well, at last,  I can finally say “Nothing Tyler.  All good here in the back seat. Go ahead and let go of the wheel…”

And with the completion of this movie, that’s what I have to do.  Let go of the wheel.   People can like it or not. It is what it is.

I guess all I can do now is wait for someone to splice single frames of pornography into my movie.

Thanks for letting me ramble….  more to come

Int:
Oh, you know where I’m at.  The same damn kitchen, sitting at the same damn computer….

There’s something strange about finishing editing all this snowy footage together in a week where we are having heat warnings.  After hours and hours and hours of work, the rough cut of segment 4, Winter, is finished.  Can you guess what the rough cut run time is?

It will be trimmed down a bit, hopefully to about the 35 minute mark.  I’m afraid it will feel long, but honestly, I won’t know until we screen if for the crew, and start getting some brutally honest feedback.  What I do know is, there won’t be any pickup shots needed.

So now, there’s only two items that remain.  The pickup shots for this weekend.  Roughly 15 shots.  Just enough to make a day of it.  Then three shots for the intro, which equals about a day of running and shooting.

I can honestly say I’m exhausted, and a little worked up, and even a little nervous about this weekend.  So much to do… one day to do it.  It’s going to be a long day… but apparently a fairly nice one.  85 degrees is the forecast.  A nice break from the 90+ degree days we’ve been having.  I know the Summer cast is rip roaring and ready to go, and Karen has been busting ass for the last three weeks getting every detail sorted, in between running around getting the intro shots done.

Speaking of the intro shots, we actually shot the very first shot of the movie Saturday evening.  Funny that it would be so close to last.  So a huge shout out to our intro shot cast members Arron, Hannah, John, Kayli, Liz and last but not least Greg.  Thank you all for showing up and shooting in the dark, and thank you even more for nailing it in 4 takes!

Don’t worry, there’s still plenty more to do, and plenty more to talk about.  And I do mean plenty…

Int:
A windowless office decorated with movie props and posters.

Sorry no update last week.  I was in editing hell. I had started an entry, and by about the middle of it, I decided to do you all a favor and not post it.  Boring stuff, is boring…

So, this hasn’t been the most action packed of weeks. It’s been a lot of editing and preparation for the upcoming June 11th shoot. At the end of the day, it’s a good thing we didn’t schedule because we’ve been inundated with rain, and not the gentle spring shower kind.

We also picked up our cut acrylic on Friday, which will be used for the title sequence.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that. I wonder if it will survive the shoot…

Saturday, however, was action packed and we started the day with lots to do.  I was up late (of course) and we went and shot some publicity stills with the lovely Trinka, who couldn’t possibly have looked any prettier, and we had a stand in for Stan.  Set up seemed to took forever, but once we were rolling things went well.  After that, some quick audio recording to dub over some bad audio from Spring.  There’s a fine line between ambiance and racket. The bugs were too loud, and they had to go., ironically, to be added back in on a second audio track, and turned way, WAY down.

A farewell hug to my lovely leading lady, and we were off to Clayton to shoot one of the intro shots with Scott.  We found the perfect spot, I told everybody what I wanted, helped position all three of the cameras, and we were shooting.  Got it in eight takes.  Not a record, but speedy.  Then it was off to the airport to shoot a second intro shot.  Found the perfect spot, and we’re shooting again.  Afterwards, despite the fact that we were in a location where it’s okay to shoot, everyone confessed they were afraid that security was going to pull up and confiscate all our gear.  It didn’t happen, but everyone thought it.

Then it was back to home base to pull footage and start editing.

How do I know editing is action packed and a thrill a minute?  Because everyone was asleep by 11:30 on a Saturday… except Tina.  Who actually watched with some interest while the sequences we shot were put together.

Editing is the least exciting and most crucial part of this whole process.  It’s a frame by frame game that every film maker has to deal with.  With some films, they’re worried about being short, so they tend to pad out scenes.  Not so with us.  I’m worried about running long, and so every frame counts. If it doesn’t forward the story, onto the virtual cutting room floor it goes. I’m trying to keep each segment to 35 minutes or less, but that’s proving difficult sometimes.   There’s so much great stuff in there, you want to use it all.  It’s a matter of choosing the best of the best, and it can be a painful experience.  There may be some great facial expression or movement that you really want to use, but you only get to choose one.  And with our spectacular cast, they didn’t make it easy.  Watching the same two or three takes over and over to see which one is the best to use, or which parts of each take to use is as tedious as it sounds.  But it’s also pretty fulfilling.  When you string together a bunch of great pieces, and you set a scene for output,  you can’t wait to actually see it all put together.  This frame, cut, that frame stays, that one gone.  It’s all very intuitive and feels like painting in a dark room sometimes.  You never really know how the finished piece is going to come out until you’re all finished, and watching it for the first time is like seeing it all for the first time.

Anyways, that’s enough rambling.  This week we have a full schedule, and it’s a short week.  We are doing the last of our prep for the June 11 shoot, and we’ll be shooting two intro sequences this weekend.  Almost there.  Just the sprint to the finish line….

Stay tuned!

Int:
The Turn of the Century Warehouse in Hannibal

One last long drive to Hannibal.

I don’t quite know why, but normally the drive to Hannibal seems to fly by, but this being the last time we’d have to make the trip, it felt like an eternity to get there.  None of the regular cast had to make this trip.  This was just crew and some extras.  Maybe it’s because the Fall shoot was such fun, and I’m sad to see it end.  Great cast, great location and just a general light hearted feel about things on set.  No major technical hurdles.  Even though it was cold, and long days, it was still a much easier shooting environment than  Summer.  We could control everything we were shooting and that meant far fewer headaches.

The big reason this Saturday was such a big deal was we were using a lot of the folks who have been working behind the scenes on the film.  None of them are actors by trade, but I really wanted to include them in the film.  They’ve earned their time in the spot light.  I can only assume that spending all the time around so much talent, that it’s rubbed off a bit, because we really did get some spectacular performances in the three brief scenes that we needed to wrap up Fall.

I know the crew folk were a bit worried.  If there’s one thing they’ve learned, it’s that I will shoot and shoot and shoot until I get the exact scene that I want.  So you can only imagine my surprise when the most takes we had for a shot was five.

So we arrived at a little after noon, and set up at a leisurely pace.  We had a lot of makeup to be done, which is always a time consuming process.  And after all the set up, three hours later we were ready to roll.

The first sequence is just gross.  No makeup, just a lot of nastiness.  There’s some moving around as we’re trying to get the best shots, and in thirty minutes we’re wrapping that up.  On to sequence two.  The makeup was done, and after a bit of directing,  moving some lighting around, doing a walk-through and a few test shots.  Everything looked good.  And we’re rolling again.  Five takes, and we got the one we wanted.  Next shot.  A bit more directing, finding marks, lighting adjustments and boom, we’re wrapping sequence  two up.  We are a run away freight train today.

There’s a bit of a pause as we wait for makeup. Sequence three goes just as fast (now that I have my second camera person back, cleaned up and out of makeup…)  Finally finished, this one took a bit more to get right, but still moving in a timely fashion.  We get it lit, and blocked out, and we’re ready to go.  We do two one take wonder shots back to back, and they’re brilliant, and the room is a bloody and disgusting mess, as are the extras. The behind the scenes pictures on the last one, look like crime scene photos…

Honestly, it took longer to get them cleaned up then it did to set up and shoot it.

And with that, we are officially wrapped on Fall.

The long drive home, and I’m immediately pulling footage and dropping it into the edit.  By Sunday evening, I have the rough cut of Fall ready for review.

So it’s been a long weekend, but a fun one.  Up next, we begin the final shooting for Winter.  We’re somewhere between third base and home plate now, so not much longer.  By my estimate, we have two shooting days left on winter, and then some pickup shots and we’re wrapped.  The main credit sequence is nearly finished as well, so it’s been a busy, busy week.  Very satisfying.

More to come as always!

Don’t forget to check out the teaser trailer! And we’re down to one small crew shirt left, and four mediums.

Ext:
A turn of the century warehouse in Hannibal, MO

And with a BANG! shooting with the fall cast is done. We had just a few shots to do, that required a lot of setup, but after a late start due to having to pack up a huge prop, that had to be partially disassembled, we headed for Hannibal. I know what you’re thinking… “You guys… start late…. impossible.”  But alas, it is so.

This was one of those days that I knew was going to take a while to get ready for, but it was also one of the most enjoyable days of filming.

Jeff, Julian, Rhonda and Devin were ready to roll. Two big scenes. Getting people in makeup and props in place took some time, and after seven hours of prep work, all that for what would wind up being roughly five seconds of finished footage and only one chance to get it right. And that was the real fear. Having to do it again. There were several local store owners that came out to watch. Without giving too much away, we got the scenes shot, they are incredible, and everyone was in a great mood. We wrapped up, and took pictures with everybody, a round of applause for the Fall Cast, and there were hugs and goodbyes as the cast left Hannibal for the last time.

There’s a weird thing that happens when you start working on a project like this. You start to feel like there’s two of you. There’s the Monday through Thursday you, with concerns and issues just like everybody else you know. But come a filming day, the movie is all you care about. It becomes the center of the universe. And then the shooting days are over, and you have to readjust to Monday through Thursday you. As excited as I am about this project, I guess that’s why I don’t talk about it much outside of the circle of people involved.

There’s a real rush that comes along with it, and a real crash. Those weekends of rushes and crashes are almost over. There’s only four filming days left. Most of those are interiors. It will probably seem a bit anticlimactic on wrap day. But there’s a real joy in this whole process. Despite the hours spent driving, and setting up, for just a few seconds of film here and there, there is a real sense of accomplishment, not just by me, but from the crew. They braved the heat, the cold, the water, the snow, the heights. All that to get this done. So here’s a shout out to Mike, Karen, Tina, Kelly, Tim , Maria, and Justin. Each and every one of them has earned so much respect.

I’m rambling, and I’m still exhausted from the weekend, so I’m calling it a night.

More soon.

Ext:
Hannibal Missouri

There’s an old joke about Missouri.  “If you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes.”  After a week of sunny skies and 60 degrees, a lot of stress and even more antacids being taken, a lovely freak weather pattern answered my wishes. Regardless of the sunny and soggy weather outside, as luck would have it, Hannibal got hit by a freak snow storm with 6 inches of glorious white fluffy snow in 12 hours.  And this worked for us two-fold: 1) we couldn’t actually film the last scenes for fall, because they are exteriors, and everything was covered in snow; and 2) but we didn’t have to lose the weekend because the gentleman who is letting us film in our Hannibal location was going to allow us to film on his property.  So after much organizing and phone calling and arranging we packed up the van and headed to Hannibal with Winter cast in tow.  (Actually Mandy met us in Hannibal, but you get the idea….)

When we got to Hannibal, Chad had news.  He spoke to his neighbor, and his land is much flatter, and easier to access, so he got us permission to film there.  Needless to say, Chad rocks!!!  And a big thank you to the Gary Denn for permission to film on their property and his sons Dillon and Dalton who pitched in and helped us move props and equipment.  (Sorry about almost waking the baby.)

So after taking a guided tour of the property, we figured out where we would be shooting which segments, and got started.

First up, reshooting the intro scene with Mr. B.  “Do you have anything like an open field with tall grass?”   A few minutes walk and Dillon took me to a perfect spot that matched what was already in the can,.  So that one went like clockwork.  Mr. Barrister shot his scene and retired to his trailer, and we moved on to the next items.  (Mr B is a nice guy, but he has a serious stick up his ass!)  …. Sorry…. inside joke.

I have to give all the credit here to Clark and Julian.  They showed up prepared, were ready to switch gears at a moments notice, and were able to just concentrate on the performances.  If it wasn’t for them both being quintessential professionals, we would never have been able to get this done this fast.

At the end of the day we wound up getting everything but two brief sequences shot.  The snow wasn’t the problem.  The cold was.  We had some technical difficulties because of the cold, the o-rings were not sealing and holding pressure, so we called it a day.

We’re pretty much home at this point. I can finally turn off the 3 AM circus that keeps me awake.

Sunday gave us a sudden rise in temperature, and almost like it never happened, the snow was gone.   We spent Sunday prepping the interior location for shooting.  Moving stuff we’re we need it, cleaning up, and getting the location ready for dressing.  But I’m looking most forward to this weekend of shooting the last bits of fall this weekend, and then moving to the winter interior stuff.

In other news, the rough cut of Summer is done, and the rough cut of Fall is started.  So we’re quickly nearing the finish line.  There’s so much going on at the moment I’m having trouble keeping it all straight.  Lot’s more to come.