Thursday night met up late with Kip Pastor who is considering producing 'She Cried Alive' he is very positive about the script but has prior commitments. So still in limbo. Friday Kip gave me an answer. It's a shame as it would have been interesting work with him, but was pleased and impressed he honoured his prior commitments - seems to be a man of his word.
Finally met up with La Monde, who has stepped into the breach and is eager to produce - so all good things come to he who waits. He is very motivated and pro-active so I believe we will be in safe hands.
So with relief went in to Watch the tail end of 'I am Cuba' - extraordinary movie. There was one tracking shot of a funeral and the camera follows at street level, travels upstairs and through a cigar factory and then floats outside over the funeral cortege - it was phenomenal - no cgi, no steady cam all hand held and wires!!
Evening went to Bill Dill's class and he continued to review bootcamp scenes - alas we weren't selected. Interesting comments including: we are more sensitive to the vertical axis rather than the horizontal. With the progression of a scene how is that translated into the visual stroy telling.
Saturday - had breakfast with La Monde, he was late, it was at a little diner next to the DGA. Good conversation.
Then into college to help John Ford & Stephen Paratore - I have agreed to be their 1st AD. Never realised what a mistake this was!! The production was not well prepared primarily from a Cinematography stance. Benji Bakshi was the Cinematographer.
Poped in to see Dave Herman on his set - he is such a great character - bags of fun and energy and very funny.
Ok so whats been happening.
We are shooting in a subway on Tuesday. We will have 4 hours to shoot 4 pages of an 8 page script! So timing is tight. Held a rehearsal of the scene so that the crew involved will hav some comprehension of wht is going to happen. Crew call was 5pm and first location being the sound stage. We wrapped at 11pm out by 12 - one set up under our belt! the shot list had indicated that it was going to be four set ups 3 being cut aways.
Back home late - there was a skunk in the street!
Sunday we were at the Department of Water and Power in downtown. What a great location. Officer Gray our monitor for the day was extremely helpful and the days soot went smoothly though again very slow. Was an interesting dynamic on set. Stephen Paratore the producer spent his time squirreled away doing his 'paper work' and not keen to be amongst the crew. John Ford the Director was very laid back and Benji Bakshi (Cinematography) over stepped the mark and ended up running the show. It was very interesting and frustrating to watch. For example they were doing a simple OTS to cover a scene. So there was on actor in the doorway and another in a room. Well, camera set up in the doorway focus puller blocking on side, operator the other, sound directly behind them leaving no room for the actor. The actress in the room worked her cotton socks off, well it could have been more supportive. Have a look at the photo!
Oh and we didn't take our first shot until 13.30 - crew call was 10.00. It was slow.
Good days shooting in the end and they seemed to get everything they needed. Great views from the window - Disney music hall, County Building etc
There were lots of moans about the producer, so an odd feeling on set. The thing was Stephen was working his but off, he just wasn't strong enough to control Benji especially when made sarcastic comments during the safety meetings.
An evening of homework - watched Magnolia for examples of photographing the subtext and 2+2=5.
Monday on location and the introduction of steady cam - Robert from Las Vegas. This slowed us down even more. Again call time 10.00 first shot 13.45. Disappeared for the afternoon for a prouction meeting with Neil Canton - our script is in good shape, so no third meeting. Came back at 18.00 and they were still shooting teh same scene! They still had one more small scene to do but teh light was dropping fast. Anyway at this point things started to break down as Benji rushed off to get his car and we heade out on to the street. I walked to the next site with the actors, director, ADs etc. It was at a staircase next to a four lane highway at rush hour. So we waited for Benji and the camera, no sign, lights dropping. I finally spotted him as he pulled up on the opposite side of the dual carriage way on a 'no stopping at any time' zone and proceeded to kick out Tal the camera operator and expect him to carry the camera and the equipment across the four lanes of traffic. I went beserk as I was responsible for safety. I still can't understand how anyone could make such a stupid decision especially as safety at the AFI is rammed down our throats. So concerned about shooting in a subway!
Early start. Off to NOHO MTA terminal. Herman the mentor from Film LA finally showed and our four hours was whittled down to 3 and a half hours. I ran around like a blue ass fly ensuring that we didn't get in the way of teh public and acted as safety for the steady cam. It was rushed but we pulled it off.
Moved locations down the street. This section was really unthought out and dissolved into Cinematographer and Director running up and down the street taking shots which the crew were unclear about - those last frantic shots. Had to speak to Benji again for undercutting the safety meeting. It was a challenging shoot.
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