Day 2: Office Space

Let me just say that working without a net is exciting and frustrating. I didn't storyboard or video storyboard the office sequence like I wanted to. And it bugged me all day.

We got into the office fine, but after we got there, we were short two actors. One of which had a bunch of lines. I stepped in front of the camera for my director's cameo. A little more than Hitchcock; a little less that M. Night Shyamalan. My big line is:

"This town is full of freaks."

I'd like to thank the Academy...

We moved all kinds of stuff around to dress the desks a little better. The phone on my old desk still had my name on it when you picked up the handset. It's only been a few months. LOL. There was no one there at all, so you'll see me walk around a bit during the office scenes. If I'd have had a wig and another shirt and pants, I would have gone that route.

We got some great footage. Theo, who plays a secondary role, really came through with his part. He really explored his character. Luis gets better every day. I noticed a few times that he dug in and pulled out little gold nuggets in every scene. My DP, Hank, was full of ideas and suggestions. That makes my job a thousand time easier.

I'm not gonna say that I didn't get upset with any of them. There were a couple of times that I didn't feel I was getting what I wanted. I mean, this is my material. But I don't say anything or dwell on it because I know that I have my faults too. I took the lazy approach a couple of times and we had to take some pick-up shots to compensate. No one is perfect. But we worked great together.

We did get to walk down to the coffee shop I had in the script, "Sip," and managed to get the green light from the owner to shoot there. That was really good news. The bad news was that we had to cancel Day 3. Lacking the skinny, nervous guy for the first part of the day just killed that. Not to mention the fact that I have yet to get clearance to film across the street at the parking lot between Travis & Houston streets.

By now you've noticed that I've never really said what the film is about or dropped any hints as to the genre. I won't. In fact, if you don't know anything, you'll have to keep coming back here to get more info.

I'm going to have to get to work on some storyboards for the shoot between Luis and Naomi, the lead actress. I want this to be intimate and sincere. They're both good actors. Now I just gotta get them good, together.

I'll post screenshots of the shoot as we didn't have anyone there to shoot behind the scenes stuff.

Day 3 is cancelled. Day 3, Take 2 will be this Friday.

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