A gloomy week leading up to Saturday day 2.
Vague weather promises of a "partially cloudy" for the shoot Saturday and Sunday. A few years ago, summer in Seattle started out very promising and then fell apart in august.
But then again, during most Seattle summers, August is simply hot n' sunny.
But then again... we will see on Saturday.
Saturday
EARLY CALL for first big scale cast/crew shoot on Sat, met at production house to get/finalize the BULK of the costumes.
(Cool and better-than-I-could-think-up props already delivered from Jennifer Dice)
Morning is dark and cloudy. Promise still pending.
Down to the beach with Jon, who helps me stake out the set and then stands watch for hours until we're ready. Thank you Jon!!
Also thank you to Karin Rathert and boys, in town to help with production/be extras. Stayed at Production House.
Also thank you to add'l extras: director's kids and friends Andrew, Jenny, Joe, Caroline, Babu and Jeannette.
Evaluating the sky every 20 minutes or so. Weather report unchanged, clouds remain thick and dark.
Co-producer Anna also serving as costume co-ord, props co-ord in addition to producer and creative consultant ongoing. Also holding down the fort and providing off-production support like crazy. THANK YOU ANNA.
This morning, Costumer Barbara in the house also. Clever and lovely stuff going on right and left.
Makeup Carmen, she with atom bomb blast on the arm, doing a great job and hey, she actually staffs her dept. for the days that she can't make it herself. Gotta love that extra perk.
So far we've also had Marina and Joul. (sp?) All very charming and talented.
8:45, Gloomy morning and waiting.
Sun makes a spot in the clouds at 9 ish, and we give it a "go" 10 minutes later.
By the time we're on the beach the sun is out in much of the sky.
Not warm though. Not yet.
Actor playing "Dave" is stranded in Oregon, engine dead.
Hardworking AC Iain agrees to stand-in, lying down as the "feet" of Dave in shot. Thank you Iain.
[**addendum: "Dave" decided to quit by not returning any phone calls or email. Classy! Maybe he got locked in the car somewhere... Fortunately, we were able to rent drums for a day and Mel offered to step in. and it is Mel Café who is whaling the drums in the final film**]
Actor playing "Charles" is a no show. Email later says couldn't get off work. What about tomorrow, when we'd also scheduled possible pickups for today if cloudy (we'll need them anyway, it turns out).
No response.
Sun out, shots go beautifully. Camera works perfectly. AC Iain and I have a good rapport going and he can pretty much do anything.
Later, the response from "Charles" is that he's available after 3... starting from Tacoma.
So with traffic, really, the best case scenario is he shows up at 430.
Obviously we can't stop everything just for one shot if/when he happens to arrive.
Q: What to do now?
A: continue to move on, get everything else.
Later, running solo with just Sarah and Ahren, we steal the Bolex shots on the marina. (well, not really
stolen, but that's another story).
Shots seem to go very well, hard to tell with the puny viewfinder.
Handheld with the Bolex is a LOT easier/more graceful than with the otherwise-superior-in-every -way Aaton. Hmm.....
AD Mel keeps us on the clock. Mel is a guy at home with the machine -- balances calm reliability and production oversight for such a youthfully enthusiastic guy.
Actors Sarah, Ahren, Riley, Maya, and Emily -- consistently excellent performances and screen presence. Hard working -- but easy to work
with.
Drama stays on the screen, never once on the set.
Ya dig?
Part of my job is to keep that hard/easy atmosphere going, but man, it's been easy so far.
Sun remains out for the rest of the day.
We get
a lot done. Everyone exits production house in good spirits, albeit kind of exhausted and fried by the sun.
After an hour of decompressing, I sadly respond to Charles actor email (there was never a call).
I simply tell him we can't surgically insert his scenes into the shoot day, and having missed this day (a good portion of his role) it isn't going to work to have him in the film.
So now we have no Charles.
But wait...
Game volunteer again, is hard-working AC Iain
Now aka: "Charles" -- thank you Iain!
Sunday
Sun is out first thing, as promised by Seattle Times, Weather Channel online, Weather Underground online, Accuweather, and the US climatology report.
We begin by picking up the few shots we missed on Saturday due to late sun, absent Charles, and one insert /re-shoot for a slight wardrobe malfunction.
Morning on the now-crowded beach is more complicated w/o Jon to keep place for us, but Seafair downtown has syphoned off a lot of the usual crowd considerably. Lucky lucky.
Get our "Charles" pickup. Iain is very different, but he is believable, and that's the end of that concern.
Here's a different one: the restrooms at Golden Gardens beach bathhouse are all closed for some sort of plumbing disaster.
Glad the production house is 5-minute drive away. (however, parking and hauling gear add about 15 minutes to that, so...)
Still on the beach. Several shots take a bit longer than they should because I continue to underestimate the level of precision needed for a surgical pan at full zoom.
Dammit, I
am working that knowledge into later shots that day and rest of shot list. (starting Wednesday!)
As we exit Golden Gardens for the day, a truck is unloading 10 porta-potties The deodorizing chemicals smell horrible.
Group splits: a trip to production house for mag reload/wardrobe change (and nap for Maya) --- while Sarah, Ahren, David (location sound ) and I, go to public pier to pick up the last Bolex shot on the Marina.
Crab fishers in our spot. All over the place, actually.
I'm coming back later to get ambient footage of these guys, I swear.
Anyway, new spot on public pier is probably better than the original, but a bit of added work on framing, plus uncertainty which lens on the turret... blah blah blah.
This is kind of a difficult scene for the actors. All about body language, once again. A certain je ne sais quoi (sp?) is required. First couple takes are good, but I think we can get better.
Sarah sees a seal in the water. I run over to get footage, winding the Bolex as I come. But it wisely ducks out before I arrive.
Four takes, David waiting patiently with naught to do. Audio has been sounding great and David is great guy to have around in general. Getting a LOT of ambient. Perfect for a beach movie of the mind, yes?
Ironically, we're planning to some ambient MOS footage of David juggling on the beach after the main production is over.
On the fifth take everything comes together, and it's beautiful.
Then we find a shady spot for wild takes of "Leif Erickson" bit shot yesterday on Bolex (camera is too loud for audio recording).
We still make it back to Little Coney before the rest of the crew. Milkshakes for actors and everyone else. Probably just in time. "Hangry" is the new word. Only used in concept, though, not acted upon.
Spend a lot of time with the Little Coney shot.
This bit has always been a bit optimistic in favor of "it'll work"...
It worked in rehearsal, in a black room under the earth, with some reblocking and moving around of dialogue.
But on set the dialogue doesn't seem right again, too on the nose, and the location is giving us too few options...
I am running out of new ideas and time, but really have to at all times avoid the whif of cliché, and it's feeling like we're trapped with what we've got.
Work with actors, suggestions for Iain and Mel.
Over and over we try new things.
Schedule is getting tighter. It's later than I thought. Dialogue modified.
Then again. And again.
New frame - out with the perfect frame, in with the perfect frame PAN TO story-relevant frame. Better.
Another new frame. Better.
New dialogue for new frame.
Better! But still...
Finally it clicks and all of a sudden it's perfect and hey, it's late enough now that the light looks awesome behind the actors. Not exactly time of day-accurate... But :
"No one will ever know" -- Ed Wood.
Next is downbeat scene on sidewalk, under shade (a relief). A big scene. Disappointment and confusion.
That goes very well.
Ahren and Sarah. Yes!
Then straight to
Ballard Surf while Mel exits and returns with Anna (with all props and costume on hand in in head) with now-awake Maya.
We are trusted by Andrew the owner with putting away the boards, and locking up when we're done,
and with being on roof while Andrew and Hansa are gone to dinner.
Holy cow.
Thank you Andrew!!
(We are meticulous.)
Wardrobe change in the dark surfboard closet. "Better than the port-a-potty," Sarah points out.
Getting later ... Mel suggests we blast through all shots then eat dinner.
Cast and crew are game.
Sun is setting quickly. Surf board inventory shot harder to frame correctly than I thought. Actors nail it each time.
Up on the roof next. Lots of hauling. Faster, faster.
By the time we are set to shoot the master, we're down to f5
By the time we move to the FAV. Valerie shot, we are down to f2-something.
MAG CHANGE! --- Iain works like a lunatic, taking care of camera in general while I remind the actors that we are rushing but THEY do not have to rush, this shot is very important and we will have the light we need (that last bit: a small lie, we may not)
FAV Noelle shot, literally 5 minutes later, we're at f1.4
Two minutes later, second take of same is at f1.0 -- and underexposed a bit for the mighty Aaton lens now, but we get it.
Sarah and Maya nail this sensitive scene again and again. Makes me a bit sad, even watching it from behind the camera in these conditions.
We wrap and eat dinner by the Surf Ballard firepit.
It's 930, I think? by the time we are unloaded for the day at production house.
Drop film at Alpha Cine around 1130 pm.
A perfect day of shooting / acting/ everything, as far as these things go.
Thank you thank you again, cast and crew.
I'm skipping the update this week because I decided to stop for a moment and figure out some of the image control features in AfterEffects. These are utility features, not special effects, and my thinking is that I'll take the time to learn them the right way, rather than just muscle my way in until I've knit myself into a straight jacket, like I usually do.
