UCF: Abstract Messiah: November Filming Report
This is going to be a long one, guys. Check behind the cut to see how our five-day filming week went. WARNING: Massive spoiler alert here. I talk about sets (and thus locations) as well as how the actors did and my interactions with them (and thus plot details).
I AM NOT KIDDING. TURN BACK NOW.
Steph came into town on Monday. We ate at Mom and Dad's, left my car there, and went back to Utica.
Tuesday, we left for Buffalo. We got going a bit early, but whatever, the ride went fine. We met Bryan at the Larkin Warehouse, also known as the Seneca Industrial Center. I met Jerry, the owner, who had already given Bryan a key for a room that we could not only keep stuff in for the duration of the shoot, but use as a green room for actors and crew to congregate in when they weren't busy. It would turn out during the week that I wouldn't have much chill time - between getting started fro the day and wrapping up, and putting all five days together, I got perhaps three or four hours in the green room. It got pretty crazy. But more on that coming up.
We went to get Vapes at the airport, then continued to bring stuff in. We hung out in the green room while waiting for Laz and Christina to show up and generally had a good time, taking a look around the building and already plotting out various locations for scenes. We had more or less free roam of the building. Though it's about 70% full of tenants, the rest was free for us to use, as well as the hallways (so long as we stayed out of the way, of course). After Laz and Christina got in, Steph, Vapes and I went to Matt Nardone's place for the night. It was about 2 AM.
Wednesday. 6 in the morning came too early. We got up and headed out to what was our standard 7:00 call time. Bryan had already picked up Craig Helfer, who had come in by bus. It was great working with him, I hadn't seen him since graduating SUNYIT in Spring 2008. The morning was only setup. We started cleaning out a huge empty room that would become our cell blocks (with lots of push brooms and some help from Jerry to get an awning out of there). We needed face masks because of the dust. Dust became a theme of the building for us - after the first day, I stopped trying to clean it out from under my fingernails and whenever someone blew their nose, the result was black. *shudder* (Note: We might have started that on Thursday, not Wednesday - anyone who was there, feel free to correct me.)
STAR Mobile Command was also set up that morning (the other contender for dustiest set, as it was the only one on the completely unused 8th floor [though apparently Ghost Hunters filmed there quite recently]), and was the first set shot. We started off the week using a clapboard. That, coupled with the XH-A1s, the Spider Brace, and Aaron's audio equipment (shotgun mic on a bamboo boom pole, plugged into the camera), it set the tone - this is a bigger movie than the last one, the biggest we've worked on. We celebrated doing the first shot, then pressed onwards. Quote, me to Vapes, who was holding a flashlight for a light effect: "Vapes, I need you to get lower on the floor... I can't ask you to lie down, but, could you lie down?" Later in the afternoon we filmed the Police HQ scene, the first scene filmed that the protagonists filmed together. Lisa is amazing as Sue, she really fits the role well and is doing so much with it. I couldn't be happier with or, or indeed any of the other actors that were cast. This scene was also the source of the bane of my existence for four days. In a quiet moment of reflection for the chief (with Adam "The Balloon Pirate" Lohnes reprising his role from the first film), he notes, "Cyborgs to the left of us... Luddites to the right. How long can we hold on?" And I could not read the scene, nor hear his perform it, without thinking of, "Stuck In The Middle With You". Some of us were joking, "Cyborgs to the left of us, Luddites to the right, here I am - stuck in the middle with Sue!" I don't know if I've ever had a more irritating earworm.
When it comes to casting, I'm especially blown away by Tim Dugan as Enoch Chrom. I believed it when he walked in the door back in September for auditions and I believe it now. Enoch Was Right. Tim took this role so well, it's like it was written for him. He wasn't the only one - Constable Mortinsen was written for Aaron Krygier before we'd even met him as well - but the props have to go to Tim because of the role he played, the depth of it. The first scene filmed with him was a hospital scene at the end of the movie. Somehow, the clapper had broken off of the slate, but we were still using it to mark shots. The location was perfectly dressed - random stuff on the desk, a clock and fire extinguisher added, a makeshift hospital bed, a room divider (made out of a shower curtain)... and then add to that some great acting on Tim's part for a really wrenching scene... when, as a director, you're too choked up to say, "Cut," at the end of the take, you know you've got something special. (Don't give me that look, I gave you the spoiler warning.) I'm very glad that Laz approves of how it came out - I know that it's something that has a lot of emotional weight for him, especially after the loss of his grandmother, and that he approved of the result makes me very proud.
I have to say this, just because of the quote. One of the bulbs burned out on my dual halogen worklight stand, so while trying to replace it, I needed to unscrew something. I'd already used keys to stand in for a screwdriver, but I didn't have any on me at this point. I asked Jaqueline, who was helping me set the set up at the time, "Do you have any keys?"
"Yeah, what kind do you need?"
"Phillips?"
We wrapped around midnight and went to bed around 1, Craig joining us at Nardone's.
Thursday. Our crew slept in an hour and a half >.< But we got in, did more work on the cell block stuff and I started setting up the prison operations room. I took every monitor that was lying around the place - including from the Chief's office, a couple that were holding open doors, and the one that we brought down to the hospital set. We scrounged up nine monitors in total to place on the metal racks in the room, grabbed a desk and a chair, and grabbed a map of the northeast US to place on an otherwise blank wall. Vapes and I wanted to put it in the Chief's office, but we forgot; in the end, it worked better in prison ops. After that second crew-only morning (and the second of three days eating lunch at the Larkin Street Cafe in the building, that place was really good), we started filming the morgue scene. I had very little to do with the setup on that one. Laz and I had seen the walk-in freezer and were considering it previously for STAR Mobile Command, but a passerby in the loading docks (where it was shoved, unused and out of the way) said, "Is that where you're going to hide the bodies?" Laz stared at him for a moment and had a, "Duh!" moment, and the morgue setup commenced. It got a lot of help from Krispy Kreme, of all places - when they went out of business, their stuff went into a room next to our green room. Pastry racks were used to hold various grisly instruments of dissection. The place looked cold and frightening - in short, perfect. As we started filming it, we still used the slate, but by this point I'd felt that it was slowing us down - always separating takes when we could have just kept it rolling and going. There came a point, after one of the scenes, that Laz took over so that I could go with Craig to keep putting together Prison Ops, which was shooting in the evening block. Then I was called back down... during the morgue shooting, Laz had forgone the slate. It was filming faster, though it was still going over time. I want to say that it was our longest set - five hours (not counting shooting all of the cell block stuff on Friday, but we'll get to that). Once Bryan was shot out of that, he went down to the basement to film a scene. As soon as morgue was done, we did a quick Prison Ops scene with Lisa so that she could leave, then I filmed the rest with Craig in the evening block. The slate wasn't used for the rest of the entire shooting week.
This was the day when I truly realized that the boots I'd gotten years ago for End of the Order, and wore a lot for Stargate: Hades, were no longer comfortable. In fact, they were just short of causing blisters. That's a good thing to know >.< But, seeing as Laz jumped feet-first into a hole filled with sewage or something, had to take off his boots and socks and go around in ill-fitting boots sockless, I don't get to complain about blisters. It certainly helped his acting, though, so there is that.
Of all of the sets put together, I consider Prison Ops to be mine - my little baby that I put together right from the start and shot the whole way through. I certainly enjoyed it, as well as going around on Friday evening filming random stuff with Vapes to fill it up (again, more on that soon).Thursday evening was also an interrogation room scene that was filmed right after Prison Ops. This is where Aaron Krygier really showed us who Constable Mortinsen was, and man, that dude scares the shit out of me way more in person than he did on paper. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Another late wrap, maybe 1 AM, though that was partially because we wanted to see the interrogation room scene on camera. Just had come in around midday, and he joined us back at Matt Nardone's house for another abbreviated night of sleep.
Friday. Up at 6, arriving on time at 7. This was the first day where the morning wasn't just crew setup, there was actual filming going on three hours after setup. We finished off the cell block set (Vapes, Craig and I found some abandoned grating downstairs a few levels, dusty and rusty, but someone came out of a door and was close to throwing a fit at us since it was theirs, but they calmed down when I told them we didn't know it was theirs and started putting it back). After setup, and they started filming, I actually started to get some chill time. Then was lunch, and then, the scene that everyone had been waiting for - the Cell Block 06 fight. Ngami Tsiu fights five cracked out berserker cyborgs. The result was amazing, the experience filming it exhilerating. For raw emotional impact, I was to say that Wednesday night's hospital scene was the best scene I was involved with behind the camera, but for pure adrenaline-pumping fun, it was definitely Cell Block 06 that was the most fun. I figured out camera choreography as they did the fight a few times and got some amazing stuff captured. I can not wait to see it edited.
As more stuff was filmed in the cell block in the evening, Vapes and I wandered around the building with his camera recording footage to go in the Prison Ops security monitors. This will become a feature which we are calling "The Little Lost Luddite". There is footage of random areas and just a single guy walking around in all of them - me. There's some just walking down the halls, some with running, and then I started getting silly. There was an area where a freight elevator was in the middle of the floor, a wall on one side of it. I came out of the door, looked around, then went down another passageway... coming out of the first one again. I stand, perplexed, and try again. I then sprint around it three times, drop to my knees, rip off the headbands I was wearing, and yell, "We're just going in circles!" There were others, but man. That'll be a fun one. And of course, it will go on those security monitors, even the funny ones. Friday ended around 9:30, and then we all went to Duff's. It took a while, with Zack making it into town late because of troubles with the bus at customs. It's been a long time since I've been to Duff's and had their wings, but man, it was awesome.
Saturday was busy. No extra crew setup time whatsoever, just get there when the actors do at 7 AM and start shooting. We filmed the final main scene of the movie, and got a really good "Hero's Exit" shot in. Lisa, Vapes and I then ran up to film a quick scene that takes place before the Block 06 fight... we waited for Giselle, playing Ruddy, for a while, but we finally started. When Vapes wanted another take one time, he said, "One more time," and all of us tried to employ Daft Punk to the rid of the prevailing earworm. No dice :( The shootouts in the afternoon went rather long, but they'll come out great - and as long as we weren't horribly over schedule, I guess we were fine. Michael O'Hear, who played Professor Michael Vanguard, was telling me that he'd been on sets where the posted schedule was a joke - ours was rather timely by comparison. So, that helped me breathe a bit easier.
The afternoon was STAR Team stuff. Basically an extrapolation of Jess Sayer and Jen's roles in Toronto Cybercide, the all-girl STAR Teams (plus Chief Addams) had a ton of great action scenes and might just steal the show for a couple minutes as we move away from the protagonists for a few precious moments to get the big picture of what's going on. Steph was one of two heavy weapons gals, using a modded Nerf Vulcan. I reprised my role as the Little lost Luddite for the ending shootout, which again took a while but came out great.
The evening block of Saturday was supposed to take forever. All of the exterior shots needed to be done, crowd scenes and everything. BUT. We had two people - Craig and Vapes - that had their own cameras, and we'd already done some second unit stuff. So, I grabbed Craig and his camera and we shot STAR Team outside around the back lot while Bryan and Laz filmed around front of the building with the crowd. I don't know how those crowd scenes came out - I really hope they're locked off. We're replacing the Larkin building with the Canadian Pool Elevator at the South End Marina. If they took the camera off of the tripod while pointing in that direction, I'll be quite annoyed. They already did it when we filmed a couple of insert shots after those two scenes were done... but. I'll wait to see how the footage came out before I quietly fume about it. Anyways, I have people on my effects team that cam more than likely motion track far better than I can, so I personally probably won't have to worry about. Still, I like the rule of thumb, "If I can't do it, I won't ask anyone else to." But, as for the shooting itself... it was blocked for 4 PM to midnight. We started getting people outside around 5:30. We finished everything at 10:30. The power of second unit - we cut filming time in half. It was amazing and gratifying. We watched some dailies of the cell block fights from the previous day, during which I had my first bite to eat all day. (Well, no, I had a single bite of Steph's sandwich around 4:30.) I wasn't hungry at all. Got to bed at midnight.
Sunday. Last day. While some were out getting breakfast, those of us that remained - me, Laz, Justin, and Vapes, with Steph filming - cathartically destroyed the cell block set in a nice, big, fun brawl (and I got a cinder block on my foot, adding to my limp, yay). We slowly got things going to start filming. The morning was me and Laz as James and Farkash as they wander around, James trying and failing to be cool and Cash being a dick. So, you know, standard for the characters. But again, emotional intensity that really came through. Laz pushed somethign really hard against the bridge of my nose... he seems to enjoy doing that. Nothing broken, just bruised, but that's enough when you wear glasses. Small scrape on the hand from that scene too. But again, nothing big. Steph's bruise from when she fell during a STAR Team scene? That's big. Laz's blisters? That's a biggish injury. Even Lisa after repeatedly punching something got worse. So, my "injuries", such as they were, were small refreshing things. That good feeling when you're out doing something physically thrilling and not just being safe and boring sitting at home.
In the afternoon, we filmed the university lecture scene. I was supposed to bring the Wiimote Whiteboard stuff, but forgot... so Justin put together a powerpoint slide that we made look interactive - Vanguard tapped the wall and the display changed, no mouse needed. Don't look at Adam, sleeping on his desk, with a laptop under the table hitting the space bar. (Shit, I just realized that I wanted dates changed on Vanguard's slide in the classroom, it was never resolved, and now we're left with dates that are way too early. Dammit. Again, possible to fix, but it was a handheld shot and... well, my rule of thumb. If I tried to fix it, it'd look like crap. Maybe we'll just intentionally change dates in every movie so as to be obtuse.) We had five people for students in a room that could hold about eight (again, I did a fair bit of scouting with Jacqueline for supplies and a good room, and while my involvement with it didn't go beyond "here are tables, here's a room", it came out really nice). It felt like a classroom. That's the thing with a lot of these sets - it wasn't cheating, like with End of the Order's cargo hold set that could only be filmed from certain angles. These felt like what they were trying to be. Chief Addams had a real desk, not a board of plywood draped across two chairs.
Three of the students, including a small speaking role, were played by minors that Bryan drummed up from Exxcel, the talent agency he works for. They came in time for the 1:00 call time... but of course things were going late, so we didn't start filming until 3:00. Once we did, though, things went quite fast. The five cast students were on one side of the room, and when the camera showed the students, they were awake and (mostly) attentive. Then the other side of the room... was Adam, Christina, and me, fast asleep. It was the most laid back directing I'd ever done o.o And of course, with the camera not on him but the students still needing someone to look at walking around the room, Michael sounded as if he was reading from an... adult novel. Sigh, man. Sigh. Mad, mad kudos to the kids for not even cracking a smile - professionals, and they show it. When leaving that set (where the camera had run out its tape, down to the last frame, on the last shot), I took my phone out of my pocket - sometime during the Farkash and James scenes, the front screen had cracked. (Take this as a note - I won't be bringing it places with me, so if you call, leave a message and I'll check it when I get home.)
The last thing I filmed was a commercial. See, on the first day, a bottle of cleaner was found. It was called Starspray. And so, in STAR Team uniform, we filmed a commercial with Chief Addams, Captain Cain, and Sergeant Reeves for the product STAR Spray. It was the silliest fun all week I think, including Little Lost Luddite... and it will also make its way onto the security monitors.
We wrapped up the classroom shoot and started packing up the green room. Steph and I left around 6:00, opting to leave early and eat on the road so that we could get some decent sleep instead of staying behind and watching a few more dailies.
The shoot was amazing fun. It's the most professional anything has ever felt, even when we got rid of the slate. The slate seemed... almost too pretentious. With the writers, directors, and editors being almost one and the same, there was really no need. We upped the quality of sound with audio equipment, we got better stuff for the handheld camera, we just generally upped everything. And it worked. I worked with people that I'd only met during auditions, and it all came out together. The crew worked great, the cast was awesome... perfection. I said before the shoot that, with everything that had gone on, the shoot had better go as smooth as butter.
And you know what? It did.
I AM NOT KIDDING. TURN BACK NOW.
Steph came into town on Monday. We ate at Mom and Dad's, left my car there, and went back to Utica.
Tuesday, we left for Buffalo. We got going a bit early, but whatever, the ride went fine. We met Bryan at the Larkin Warehouse, also known as the Seneca Industrial Center. I met Jerry, the owner, who had already given Bryan a key for a room that we could not only keep stuff in for the duration of the shoot, but use as a green room for actors and crew to congregate in when they weren't busy. It would turn out during the week that I wouldn't have much chill time - between getting started fro the day and wrapping up, and putting all five days together, I got perhaps three or four hours in the green room. It got pretty crazy. But more on that coming up.
We went to get Vapes at the airport, then continued to bring stuff in. We hung out in the green room while waiting for Laz and Christina to show up and generally had a good time, taking a look around the building and already plotting out various locations for scenes. We had more or less free roam of the building. Though it's about 70% full of tenants, the rest was free for us to use, as well as the hallways (so long as we stayed out of the way, of course). After Laz and Christina got in, Steph, Vapes and I went to Matt Nardone's place for the night. It was about 2 AM.
Wednesday. 6 in the morning came too early. We got up and headed out to what was our standard 7:00 call time. Bryan had already picked up Craig Helfer, who had come in by bus. It was great working with him, I hadn't seen him since graduating SUNYIT in Spring 2008. The morning was only setup. We started cleaning out a huge empty room that would become our cell blocks (with lots of push brooms and some help from Jerry to get an awning out of there). We needed face masks because of the dust. Dust became a theme of the building for us - after the first day, I stopped trying to clean it out from under my fingernails and whenever someone blew their nose, the result was black. *shudder* (Note: We might have started that on Thursday, not Wednesday - anyone who was there, feel free to correct me.)
STAR Mobile Command was also set up that morning (the other contender for dustiest set, as it was the only one on the completely unused 8th floor [though apparently Ghost Hunters filmed there quite recently]), and was the first set shot. We started off the week using a clapboard. That, coupled with the XH-A1s, the Spider Brace, and Aaron's audio equipment (shotgun mic on a bamboo boom pole, plugged into the camera), it set the tone - this is a bigger movie than the last one, the biggest we've worked on. We celebrated doing the first shot, then pressed onwards. Quote, me to Vapes, who was holding a flashlight for a light effect: "Vapes, I need you to get lower on the floor... I can't ask you to lie down, but, could you lie down?" Later in the afternoon we filmed the Police HQ scene, the first scene filmed that the protagonists filmed together. Lisa is amazing as Sue, she really fits the role well and is doing so much with it. I couldn't be happier with or, or indeed any of the other actors that were cast. This scene was also the source of the bane of my existence for four days. In a quiet moment of reflection for the chief (with Adam "The Balloon Pirate" Lohnes reprising his role from the first film), he notes, "Cyborgs to the left of us... Luddites to the right. How long can we hold on?" And I could not read the scene, nor hear his perform it, without thinking of, "Stuck In The Middle With You". Some of us were joking, "Cyborgs to the left of us, Luddites to the right, here I am - stuck in the middle with Sue!" I don't know if I've ever had a more irritating earworm.
When it comes to casting, I'm especially blown away by Tim Dugan as Enoch Chrom. I believed it when he walked in the door back in September for auditions and I believe it now. Enoch Was Right. Tim took this role so well, it's like it was written for him. He wasn't the only one - Constable Mortinsen was written for Aaron Krygier before we'd even met him as well - but the props have to go to Tim because of the role he played, the depth of it. The first scene filmed with him was a hospital scene at the end of the movie. Somehow, the clapper had broken off of the slate, but we were still using it to mark shots. The location was perfectly dressed - random stuff on the desk, a clock and fire extinguisher added, a makeshift hospital bed, a room divider (made out of a shower curtain)... and then add to that some great acting on Tim's part for a really wrenching scene... when, as a director, you're too choked up to say, "Cut," at the end of the take, you know you've got something special. (Don't give me that look, I gave you the spoiler warning.) I'm very glad that Laz approves of how it came out - I know that it's something that has a lot of emotional weight for him, especially after the loss of his grandmother, and that he approved of the result makes me very proud.
I have to say this, just because of the quote. One of the bulbs burned out on my dual halogen worklight stand, so while trying to replace it, I needed to unscrew something. I'd already used keys to stand in for a screwdriver, but I didn't have any on me at this point. I asked Jaqueline, who was helping me set the set up at the time, "Do you have any keys?"
"Yeah, what kind do you need?"
"Phillips?"
We wrapped around midnight and went to bed around 1, Craig joining us at Nardone's.
Thursday. Our crew slept in an hour and a half >.< But we got in, did more work on the cell block stuff and I started setting up the prison operations room. I took every monitor that was lying around the place - including from the Chief's office, a couple that were holding open doors, and the one that we brought down to the hospital set. We scrounged up nine monitors in total to place on the metal racks in the room, grabbed a desk and a chair, and grabbed a map of the northeast US to place on an otherwise blank wall. Vapes and I wanted to put it in the Chief's office, but we forgot; in the end, it worked better in prison ops. After that second crew-only morning (and the second of three days eating lunch at the Larkin Street Cafe in the building, that place was really good), we started filming the morgue scene. I had very little to do with the setup on that one. Laz and I had seen the walk-in freezer and were considering it previously for STAR Mobile Command, but a passerby in the loading docks (where it was shoved, unused and out of the way) said, "Is that where you're going to hide the bodies?" Laz stared at him for a moment and had a, "Duh!" moment, and the morgue setup commenced. It got a lot of help from Krispy Kreme, of all places - when they went out of business, their stuff went into a room next to our green room. Pastry racks were used to hold various grisly instruments of dissection. The place looked cold and frightening - in short, perfect. As we started filming it, we still used the slate, but by this point I'd felt that it was slowing us down - always separating takes when we could have just kept it rolling and going. There came a point, after one of the scenes, that Laz took over so that I could go with Craig to keep putting together Prison Ops, which was shooting in the evening block. Then I was called back down... during the morgue shooting, Laz had forgone the slate. It was filming faster, though it was still going over time. I want to say that it was our longest set - five hours (not counting shooting all of the cell block stuff on Friday, but we'll get to that). Once Bryan was shot out of that, he went down to the basement to film a scene. As soon as morgue was done, we did a quick Prison Ops scene with Lisa so that she could leave, then I filmed the rest with Craig in the evening block. The slate wasn't used for the rest of the entire shooting week.
This was the day when I truly realized that the boots I'd gotten years ago for End of the Order, and wore a lot for Stargate: Hades, were no longer comfortable. In fact, they were just short of causing blisters. That's a good thing to know >.< But, seeing as Laz jumped feet-first into a hole filled with sewage or something, had to take off his boots and socks and go around in ill-fitting boots sockless, I don't get to complain about blisters. It certainly helped his acting, though, so there is that.
Of all of the sets put together, I consider Prison Ops to be mine - my little baby that I put together right from the start and shot the whole way through. I certainly enjoyed it, as well as going around on Friday evening filming random stuff with Vapes to fill it up (again, more on that soon).Thursday evening was also an interrogation room scene that was filmed right after Prison Ops. This is where Aaron Krygier really showed us who Constable Mortinsen was, and man, that dude scares the shit out of me way more in person than he did on paper. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Another late wrap, maybe 1 AM, though that was partially because we wanted to see the interrogation room scene on camera. Just had come in around midday, and he joined us back at Matt Nardone's house for another abbreviated night of sleep.
Friday. Up at 6, arriving on time at 7. This was the first day where the morning wasn't just crew setup, there was actual filming going on three hours after setup. We finished off the cell block set (Vapes, Craig and I found some abandoned grating downstairs a few levels, dusty and rusty, but someone came out of a door and was close to throwing a fit at us since it was theirs, but they calmed down when I told them we didn't know it was theirs and started putting it back). After setup, and they started filming, I actually started to get some chill time. Then was lunch, and then, the scene that everyone had been waiting for - the Cell Block 06 fight. Ngami Tsiu fights five cracked out berserker cyborgs. The result was amazing, the experience filming it exhilerating. For raw emotional impact, I was to say that Wednesday night's hospital scene was the best scene I was involved with behind the camera, but for pure adrenaline-pumping fun, it was definitely Cell Block 06 that was the most fun. I figured out camera choreography as they did the fight a few times and got some amazing stuff captured. I can not wait to see it edited.
As more stuff was filmed in the cell block in the evening, Vapes and I wandered around the building with his camera recording footage to go in the Prison Ops security monitors. This will become a feature which we are calling "The Little Lost Luddite". There is footage of random areas and just a single guy walking around in all of them - me. There's some just walking down the halls, some with running, and then I started getting silly. There was an area where a freight elevator was in the middle of the floor, a wall on one side of it. I came out of the door, looked around, then went down another passageway... coming out of the first one again. I stand, perplexed, and try again. I then sprint around it three times, drop to my knees, rip off the headbands I was wearing, and yell, "We're just going in circles!" There were others, but man. That'll be a fun one. And of course, it will go on those security monitors, even the funny ones. Friday ended around 9:30, and then we all went to Duff's. It took a while, with Zack making it into town late because of troubles with the bus at customs. It's been a long time since I've been to Duff's and had their wings, but man, it was awesome.
Saturday was busy. No extra crew setup time whatsoever, just get there when the actors do at 7 AM and start shooting. We filmed the final main scene of the movie, and got a really good "Hero's Exit" shot in. Lisa, Vapes and I then ran up to film a quick scene that takes place before the Block 06 fight... we waited for Giselle, playing Ruddy, for a while, but we finally started. When Vapes wanted another take one time, he said, "One more time," and all of us tried to employ Daft Punk to the rid of the prevailing earworm. No dice :( The shootouts in the afternoon went rather long, but they'll come out great - and as long as we weren't horribly over schedule, I guess we were fine. Michael O'Hear, who played Professor Michael Vanguard, was telling me that he'd been on sets where the posted schedule was a joke - ours was rather timely by comparison. So, that helped me breathe a bit easier.
The afternoon was STAR Team stuff. Basically an extrapolation of Jess Sayer and Jen's roles in Toronto Cybercide, the all-girl STAR Teams (plus Chief Addams) had a ton of great action scenes and might just steal the show for a couple minutes as we move away from the protagonists for a few precious moments to get the big picture of what's going on. Steph was one of two heavy weapons gals, using a modded Nerf Vulcan. I reprised my role as the Little lost Luddite for the ending shootout, which again took a while but came out great.
The evening block of Saturday was supposed to take forever. All of the exterior shots needed to be done, crowd scenes and everything. BUT. We had two people - Craig and Vapes - that had their own cameras, and we'd already done some second unit stuff. So, I grabbed Craig and his camera and we shot STAR Team outside around the back lot while Bryan and Laz filmed around front of the building with the crowd. I don't know how those crowd scenes came out - I really hope they're locked off. We're replacing the Larkin building with the Canadian Pool Elevator at the South End Marina. If they took the camera off of the tripod while pointing in that direction, I'll be quite annoyed. They already did it when we filmed a couple of insert shots after those two scenes were done... but. I'll wait to see how the footage came out before I quietly fume about it. Anyways, I have people on my effects team that cam more than likely motion track far better than I can, so I personally probably won't have to worry about. Still, I like the rule of thumb, "If I can't do it, I won't ask anyone else to." But, as for the shooting itself... it was blocked for 4 PM to midnight. We started getting people outside around 5:30. We finished everything at 10:30. The power of second unit - we cut filming time in half. It was amazing and gratifying. We watched some dailies of the cell block fights from the previous day, during which I had my first bite to eat all day. (Well, no, I had a single bite of Steph's sandwich around 4:30.) I wasn't hungry at all. Got to bed at midnight.
Sunday. Last day. While some were out getting breakfast, those of us that remained - me, Laz, Justin, and Vapes, with Steph filming - cathartically destroyed the cell block set in a nice, big, fun brawl (and I got a cinder block on my foot, adding to my limp, yay). We slowly got things going to start filming. The morning was me and Laz as James and Farkash as they wander around, James trying and failing to be cool and Cash being a dick. So, you know, standard for the characters. But again, emotional intensity that really came through. Laz pushed somethign really hard against the bridge of my nose... he seems to enjoy doing that. Nothing broken, just bruised, but that's enough when you wear glasses. Small scrape on the hand from that scene too. But again, nothing big. Steph's bruise from when she fell during a STAR Team scene? That's big. Laz's blisters? That's a biggish injury. Even Lisa after repeatedly punching something got worse. So, my "injuries", such as they were, were small refreshing things. That good feeling when you're out doing something physically thrilling and not just being safe and boring sitting at home.
In the afternoon, we filmed the university lecture scene. I was supposed to bring the Wiimote Whiteboard stuff, but forgot... so Justin put together a powerpoint slide that we made look interactive - Vanguard tapped the wall and the display changed, no mouse needed. Don't look at Adam, sleeping on his desk, with a laptop under the table hitting the space bar. (Shit, I just realized that I wanted dates changed on Vanguard's slide in the classroom, it was never resolved, and now we're left with dates that are way too early. Dammit. Again, possible to fix, but it was a handheld shot and... well, my rule of thumb. If I tried to fix it, it'd look like crap. Maybe we'll just intentionally change dates in every movie so as to be obtuse.) We had five people for students in a room that could hold about eight (again, I did a fair bit of scouting with Jacqueline for supplies and a good room, and while my involvement with it didn't go beyond "here are tables, here's a room", it came out really nice). It felt like a classroom. That's the thing with a lot of these sets - it wasn't cheating, like with End of the Order's cargo hold set that could only be filmed from certain angles. These felt like what they were trying to be. Chief Addams had a real desk, not a board of plywood draped across two chairs.
Three of the students, including a small speaking role, were played by minors that Bryan drummed up from Exxcel, the talent agency he works for. They came in time for the 1:00 call time... but of course things were going late, so we didn't start filming until 3:00. Once we did, though, things went quite fast. The five cast students were on one side of the room, and when the camera showed the students, they were awake and (mostly) attentive. Then the other side of the room... was Adam, Christina, and me, fast asleep. It was the most laid back directing I'd ever done o.o And of course, with the camera not on him but the students still needing someone to look at walking around the room, Michael sounded as if he was reading from an... adult novel. Sigh, man. Sigh. Mad, mad kudos to the kids for not even cracking a smile - professionals, and they show it. When leaving that set (where the camera had run out its tape, down to the last frame, on the last shot), I took my phone out of my pocket - sometime during the Farkash and James scenes, the front screen had cracked. (Take this as a note - I won't be bringing it places with me, so if you call, leave a message and I'll check it when I get home.)
The last thing I filmed was a commercial. See, on the first day, a bottle of cleaner was found. It was called Starspray. And so, in STAR Team uniform, we filmed a commercial with Chief Addams, Captain Cain, and Sergeant Reeves for the product STAR Spray. It was the silliest fun all week I think, including Little Lost Luddite... and it will also make its way onto the security monitors.
We wrapped up the classroom shoot and started packing up the green room. Steph and I left around 6:00, opting to leave early and eat on the road so that we could get some decent sleep instead of staying behind and watching a few more dailies.
The shoot was amazing fun. It's the most professional anything has ever felt, even when we got rid of the slate. The slate seemed... almost too pretentious. With the writers, directors, and editors being almost one and the same, there was really no need. We upped the quality of sound with audio equipment, we got better stuff for the handheld camera, we just generally upped everything. And it worked. I worked with people that I'd only met during auditions, and it all came out together. The crew worked great, the cast was awesome... perfection. I said before the shoot that, with everything that had gone on, the shoot had better go as smooth as butter.
And you know what? It did.