Friday, August 27, 2010

Progress





Rryan IM'd me the other night and asked when we were filming again. Ry never contacts me! Motivation seemed to have inspired my star.

So today I drove to Victorville and picked up Ry and Johnny then returned to Redlands to get Jesse. Another lovely day at the peak of a heat wave. We stopped so Ry could get some cigarettes and then we were off to the location.

I needed the entire back seat to move around so I could get the angles I needed on Rryan, so Johnny was gonna stand on the side of the road. No way. Too hot and he'd get harassed by Mentone rednecks, or cops. We dropped him at the coffee shop and hit the road.

It went pretty well. Got everything I needed in about an hour and twenty minutes. Mostly for the opening of the movie, so long shots for superimposed credits. The important thing was establishing Rryan visually. I'm pleased with what I got.

We had to get a shot or two at the bridge, so we also shot some more on Maleina's scene, mostly Jesse's reaction shots. Also a shot of both Ry and Jesse together with the car. Easy stuff. Naturally, local yokels had to be speeding across the bridge every three minutes.

The best part was when Rryan saw a bee fly inside the car. There are several beekeeping hive boxes maintained out in the open about fifty yards from the bridge. Unfortunately, the bees are working the flora under the bridge. Last week, Maleina and I started a swarm. Today wasn't so bad -- but it was funny. Rryan suddenly screamed like a frightened girl and ran away from the car. It was too fucking funny!! Jesse and I enjoyed it. We checked out the car, no bee.

Hopefully we'll be shooting next Wednesday, two key scenes. Looks like we're gonna get rolling on the picture again. I might be able to make the end of September release date, but it's iffy.

The more we inch along and get shot, the better I feel...

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Progress Slow



OK,

We shot the big final scene and it's looking good in rough cut. I listened to it with a general fit of the song that will play, and it works so far. Rryan looked great in costume, Jesse was in usual pro form. I was grateful for Hoski and Johnny playing crew. They are troopers.

We were supposed to shoot again a couple days later but Jesse wasn't available, then on the next scheduled day, Rryan flaked or something, I can't recall. I think it was a flaking, damn it. Another fucking week passed before I had another day with commitment and Rryan didn't want to get out of bed. Are you serious?!? I made the trek to pick them up and that's when I learned Ry was pussing out. At least Hoski was being a pro that day. We got one scene partially done at the bridge, Hoski's shots anyway.

I had Hoski under the bridge, looking pretty. Once we were done, we managed to walk through a swarm of bees! No joke, it sucked. It is a miracle we did not get stung. After that, we went to Victoria Gardens, had some Chinese for lunch and then saw Scott Pilgrim. On the way taking Hoski back to the desert, I found out financing for my real movie, Secret of the Amazon Queen, is looking solid and the budget might get doubled! Holy shit!

We're supposed to shoot again this week, especially now that I don't have jury duty. Seriously, I need to shoot more than one fucking scene a week or this film won't be done until New Year's Eve.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Here We Go!

Friday will be the day we shoot the closing scene of GREENSPOT ROAD.

Rryan and Jesse will be in top form, no doubt. Hoski will be there, too. I went and bought Ry's costume tonight. He's gonna look awesome.

I'm glad to be back shooting this picture. Working on a film allows me to forget everything else and just absorb into the world I've written. It's a good script, GSR. It's gonna be a good film. Because of the hiatus while Jesse was gone, I want to work steady, as steady as possible, to get it shot. I was going to edit as I went, but I think I'm just gonna shoot it all first. I'll extract snips here and there for stills and trailers, but having it all in the can will allow me to relax and know it is shot.

Shooting the final scene early allows us to get Ry's big visual moment shot. In the rest he can relax, knowing that he looks great for the final scene. He and Jesse are actually so good I'm anxious to get more of them on film.

I was very frustrated the last couple days. We were supposed to shoot on Wednesday and Ry was incommunicado. Pissed me off because we had set it up the day before to shoot a bunch of car stuff. Jesse was on hold and so was I. All fucking day. I get a text from Hoski finally that night. They were in LA. Must have had some important business I suppose.  Hoski's lucky he's got such a nice ass! Anyway, we agree to shoot either Thursday or Friday and I find out Jesse can't shoot Thursday, so I spend all fuckin' day today trying to get a confirmation outta the boys for Friday. I'm so pissed that I seriously consider recasting the movie! I decide that if I don't hear from them by 7 I'll recast the fucker.

Hoski texts at 630. They want to know what time Friday!

Fuckin !@#$#@!@#$%$#@!! My beard got grayer today I swear.

But we're back on set tomorrow. Victorville. Abandoned motel. Cool.

I love these guys. They make me laugh. That's why I work with them...