There’s no question about it. Get this… Monday night was our first meeting, our cast and crew get-together, overview of the flick, answer any questions, that sorta thing. I am expecting anywhere from 16 to 19 people, not including my wife and myself, plus one guy brought his girlfriend. So Pam and I get some cases of soda, big honkin’ bags of chips, 5 pizzas
The meeting goes about two and a half hours, and you know what? I wind up with *more* than three pizzas left and half the chips. What the hell? Are they kidding? You *can’t* leave three and a half cold pizzas here, I’ll be a goddamned blimp by the time we roll cameras! And chips? Don’t these folks hit the http://www.chantingmonks.com site where I bitch about all the water-drinking and low cholesterol food and shit I have been doing to slim down a little? Is this a concerted effort to return me to my overeating, carb and fat downing self?
Hey, folks, we’re not getting paid here, take advantage of the craft services–as they may be–every chance you get!
Well, a day and a half later and a pizza and a half later and a half bag of chips later, I can confirm, they *are* out to get me…
The meeting itself was great. I think we got a handle on what we want to accomplish, how we will be going about it, and the upside. I doled out a bunch of copies of the first Flowers on the Razorwire DVD, which I think is reasonably impressive. It isn’t some home-duped piece of shit we’re banging out on our computers and sticking in Wal-Mart jewel cases. Using the same company VIVID (the porno company) uses to dupe their stuff is a good plus to have. These guys produce a nice, slick package and everybody who has seen just the packaging thinks it is totally pro, and totally pro is good every time.
Laura, our make-up artist, wowed everybody with one of the unsettling special effects from the film. This is more of a horror/thriller, not a lot of blood ‘n guts, but this is something I thought up while writing the script simply for the impact it will have when it happens on-screen. Of course I can’t share that with you because that would ruin it, but it is jarring and just comes out of nowhere and I like the way it plays in the flow of the script. If we do it right and translate the flow of the words on paper to the flow of the film, then I think we will make the most of it. It certainly had everybody cringing…maybe that explains all the leftover pizza… Did I mention not much of it is left over now?
The Sight Unseen Pictures site is just about ready to go live. Big announcement coming about that, hopefully by week’s end. That site will be devoted exclusively to our film projects, and it is being tested and content is being heaped in so it doesn’t launch with nothing but our tag line and a couple of cast pics. It’ll be a pretty decent surfing experience, and it will be frequently updated, especially once we get the blog going.
Our computer issue is now settled. We will be investing in the iMAC, so that we can capture our footage right to computer. It’ll save us loads of time and should help cut down on amateur continuity mistakes big time. I am stoked about this. Even though it is a MAC (I am not a MAC fan) it will also help my wife’s on-line business in web development so she can test run her builds on MAC and PC at the same time, so for her, it is also gonna be an effective tool, but for right now it is gonna be the hub at the center of the film, the brain attached to the camera.
The date for building the set has also been firmed up. My brother in law is coming in on the 30th to help me saw and drill and pound together the bunker, which will take over my living room for approximately 5 weeks. I specced out the cost on most of our raw materials, think I can bring this puppy in for less than $200 bucks and maybe include our lighting for it as well. That should be settled tomorrow morning (Thursday) when I meet with our lighting guy and try and work out the fine details about making this set come alive with the illumination. Home Depot is gonna love me this month…
Wardrobe. Pam is taking Saskia out for wardrobe this Friday, which is really important. Not like this part requires a lot of clothing–just the opposite in fact–but it does necessitate the right clothing and I want that taken care of in advance so we don’t run into any problems once we start shooting. With our principal photography dates less than 6 weeks out, this is one of the final details that needs to be nailed down so that I can just shake it out of my hair and move on to our shoot scheduling for principal shooting and try to work it out so that we maximize every minute of Terry (West’s) time here.
A cop buddy of mine is looking over the cop material for authenticity, make sure procedurally it is tight and consistent and most importantly, realistic. He is also gonna supply me with some stuff to add more realism to the scene, so that is a big plus. The more that comes across and plays natural and looks legit? The easier it is to suspend disbelief.
Still a few wrinkles to iron out. My main props guy has disappeared, might need to replace him, and one of our PAs just didn’t show, no answer, no return phone call responding to the message I left, nothing. Another replacement project. But on the upside I am locked now with my docu-cam guy, and I think that our DP issue should be resolved tonight or tomorrow.
All right, back to work. That’s the update. Check back this week for more, including the launch info for Sight Unseen’s spiffy new site. It’ll be worth it, believe me.
