The first day of shooting was 3-14-10, at the clinic office. Kurt and I and all the camera equipment got lost, so we were late. No problem since they weren't ready to shoot, anyway. Pat had arrived with the craft table and everyone was fueling up for the day.
We were allowed to shoot in the rooms where the "Research Fellows" at the clinic study. It has a room that's lined with study carrels which we used for Dewitt's cubicle at Oligarch Computer Games.
They started with the clinic scenes which show Maria at work dealing with unruly patients, especially Ron, who shoves past the others. I played "Old Patient", a cranky old guy who's "not used to all this...ladies bein' docs". They moved on with one of the last scenes where Maria sees Ron again, this time alone in the exam room. He hits on her until she receives a phone call from Dewitt. He then quiets down as Maria displays her new-found ability to handle tough situations after Dewitt's call.
Dewitt shows new-found confidence dealing with his boss, Max, and the recalcitrant software product, LoveSoft.
On into the week. Monday's shoot at the restaurant went well. We got through all but one of our scenes. Dora kicked us out at 7PM before we could shoot the last scene where Tony and Maria leave the restaurant as Kurt is smiling at them from the bar.
As we got into Monday and Wednesday, shooting at our place, it began to feel like a week-long party, with something (the shoot) to keep it going. Everyone became fast friends. By Thursday and Friday, I was beginning to be a little worn down.
We had a problem downloading the camera tapes to Kurt's computer which caused me some consternation. Finally, we got that resolved and by Sunday AM we had 18 (all but one) of the tapes digitized. After the last shoot day, Monday 3-22, we had 27 tapes.
We had a lot of problems on Wednesday with the outdoor scenes because they were so long and noise from blowers, wood chippers, airplanes and passing cars slowed us down. Also, the dinner/dancing scene took a long time to shoot because of the need to shoot lines. I learned to be very careful of the length of outdoor scenes with lots of dialog.
Thursday was exciting. We shot the street scenes and the plumber shop. The street scenes involve the donut shop. I had a confrontation with the owner of the donut shop, but he seemed to be OK wth the shooting as long as it wasn't inside, which I assured him it wasn't. I ened up giving him $50.
On to Sunday and Monday which will be long days.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Making the 82 Minute Limit
The full reading revealed that we are still short of the 82 minute threshold that separates a "short" from a feature-length film. Dennis, Director, pointed out a hole in our schedule where we have Maria, Tony and Jean for a short shoot in the restaurant and then nothing for the rest of the day. He wanted four or five new pages to shoot in that spot.
Transitioning from production mode (lining up locations, contracts, lawyers, financing, etc.) back to creative mode (choosing themes, writing dialog, ensuring I wasn't screwing things up) was tough. I'm going through the same emotional stuff I was when I produced the play under the $2000 New York State Grant. I like writing the stuff better than managing and administering the production process. Film is much more "industrial" than the stage, so there are more elements to coordinate. It's good I have Dennis and Tom to help me keep everything organized.
When I did re-enter creative mode--about two days of cogitating on it--I focused on two areas that have appeared weak to me: 1) the second scene with Maria and Ron seemed to need more after the transition from Dewitt's phone call to Ron's conversion to a good patient, and 2) there seemed to be need for resolution between Maria and Tony about his efforts to get her a date and also her views on Tony's romance with Jean.
I was able to write a new scene (unfortunately another restaurant meal scene) with Tony and Maria worth about 3 pages, and I extended the Maria/Ron scene by having her actually examine him. I got a physicians' assistant abdominal exam procedure from St. Francis University via Google. It was very detailed, I integrated the action and dialog for it into the script and it added about two pages.
The Tony/Maria scene I wrote as light-hearted, bantering conflict--hopefully funny. At that point, both Tony and Maria have love in their lives, so I don't think they would have a heavy argument.
I think we now have the 82 minutes we need.
Transitioning from production mode (lining up locations, contracts, lawyers, financing, etc.) back to creative mode (choosing themes, writing dialog, ensuring I wasn't screwing things up) was tough. I'm going through the same emotional stuff I was when I produced the play under the $2000 New York State Grant. I like writing the stuff better than managing and administering the production process. Film is much more "industrial" than the stage, so there are more elements to coordinate. It's good I have Dennis and Tom to help me keep everything organized.
When I did re-enter creative mode--about two days of cogitating on it--I focused on two areas that have appeared weak to me: 1) the second scene with Maria and Ron seemed to need more after the transition from Dewitt's phone call to Ron's conversion to a good patient, and 2) there seemed to be need for resolution between Maria and Tony about his efforts to get her a date and also her views on Tony's romance with Jean.
I was able to write a new scene (unfortunately another restaurant meal scene) with Tony and Maria worth about 3 pages, and I extended the Maria/Ron scene by having her actually examine him. I got a physicians' assistant abdominal exam procedure from St. Francis University via Google. It was very detailed, I integrated the action and dialog for it into the script and it added about two pages.
The Tony/Maria scene I wrote as light-hearted, bantering conflict--hopefully funny. At that point, both Tony and Maria have love in their lives, so I don't think they would have a heavy argument.
I think we now have the 82 minutes we need.
The Full Cast Reading
Everyone got together in our living room for a read of the whole script.
We could barely find enough chairs for the 15 people. In addition to the eleven actors, Director Dennis Devine and his Assistant Director, Jan Morris were there as well as Art Director, Tom VonLogue Newth, and newly hired Make Up Artist, Cat Alfonso.
It was like a big party. Some of the actors had just been on another production together, so they were sharing on that subject. Others were just getting acquainted. I was rushing around trying to get everyone's contract and gov't forms signed and copied. Pat was busy with refreshments and snacks. This kind of happening can be overload for me, but I love meeting new people, especially when we share something in common.
The reading seemed to start slow. A lot of the first part of the story is setup. That could be a big mountain to climb when we get to distribution. I'm hoping the suspense, the visuals and the music will carry it along.
Things started to pick up at the first dancing lesson scene. Dewitt trying to absorb dancing into his rational mind turns out to be funny. So is Maria's phone call from the bathroom. Things got even better with Dewitt's scene with his mother and aunts. Marguerite Sawyer and Jean Alden killed as the two aunts. The emotional scenes with D&M were good and carried right through to the end.
Afterwards, people were getting along so well, they had no problem staying for the final dance scene which Dylan directed skillfully. They all had a marvelous time with that.
We could barely find enough chairs for the 15 people. In addition to the eleven actors, Director Dennis Devine and his Assistant Director, Jan Morris were there as well as Art Director, Tom VonLogue Newth, and newly hired Make Up Artist, Cat Alfonso.
It was like a big party. Some of the actors had just been on another production together, so they were sharing on that subject. Others were just getting acquainted. I was rushing around trying to get everyone's contract and gov't forms signed and copied. Pat was busy with refreshments and snacks. This kind of happening can be overload for me, but I love meeting new people, especially when we share something in common.
The reading seemed to start slow. A lot of the first part of the story is setup. That could be a big mountain to climb when we get to distribution. I'm hoping the suspense, the visuals and the music will carry it along.
Things started to pick up at the first dancing lesson scene. Dewitt trying to absorb dancing into his rational mind turns out to be funny. So is Maria's phone call from the bathroom. Things got even better with Dewitt's scene with his mother and aunts. Marguerite Sawyer and Jean Alden killed as the two aunts. The emotional scenes with D&M were good and carried right through to the end.
Afterwards, people were getting along so well, they had no problem staying for the final dance scene which Dylan directed skillfully. They all had a marvelous time with that.
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