Day 6: Back To The Future

Today's shoot was totally improvised. I had nothing planned, no storyboards, no clues. It's background stuff for a voice over by Luis where he explains...well, you'll just have to see the film.

Luis, the male lead, is at home with his new wife, played by the lead actress, Naomi. They're doing bills, watching TV and reading mysterious emails.

My particular favorite was the stuff we did with them watching TV. The living room can get very dark when you close the shutters in both the dining room and the living room and turn off the lights. It could almost be night. So, we closed every one of them, turned off the lights and put the TV on. I wanted to give the sensation of them watching TV without the sound. You know how the light reflects back onto you when you're in the dark. Depending on what's on the screen, the room can be dark or kind of lit. It's a real mood setter.

We sat Naomi and Luis on the couch and then I proceeded to find something in my movie library that might have lots of lights and darks. I came up with "Backdraft". I figured that with all the explosions and fire sequences, it would be great. It sure was. We filmed one take with just the light from the TV. Then Hank, my DP, suggested we try one with a bit more light from a clip lamp we had with a low watt bulb. Hank had constructed these reflectors from cardboard and aluminum foil. We bounced some light from the lamp onto the actors and some from the TV screen. That worked well. Then we tried doing some just from the clip lamp, hitting them directly from the front. We had tried other options and the homemade reflector was casting a shadow from a different angle than the TV. Bouncing the light from the carpet to the reflector, to the actors worked great. I watched the monitor and Hank did the effect. Fantastic. I'm gonna be especially careful with that scene. The mood it sets is just awesome.

We also reshot the internal mailbox scene that I fucked up before. I used my Sony, opened up the view screen and flipped it around so that the actors could see what they were doing and how they looked. Before, it was kind of hit and miss as to where they were on frame. This way, I could look at the camera placement and they could see that they were where I wanted them. I haven't looked at the footage, but it think it will be great.

We have a really heavy day tomorrow. I've got to find some glass and break it for a scene with Theo. Rumbo didn't ever email me back about coming up to the office, so I'm guessing that they don't want me back. We'll just have to find a way around that. We have footage of them leaving the building. I'll just have to find some creative way to add something where we don't have to even set foot in the Milam building. I think I have an idea. *Insert evil laugh here*

Tomorrow is also the coffee shop scene. I think it's so cool that we got Sip, a popular downtown coffee shop, to let us shoot there. It's gonna be fantastic. It's a real trendy place that's gonna look so good on camera. Nevermind that it's in a really great. We've got two scenes there tomorrow. Naomi with Luis and then Luis with Theo.

Then on Sunday, we have the ambitious, yet action packed Frantic Man scene and the "Fight" scene. I'm still chasing down the actor to play Frantic Man. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. Then I have to rig something for the fight scene. A roll of quarters that will explode as Luis hits Jared, the drunk guy.

It's down to the wire. If I can pull this off, I'll have Luis come by the house and record the voice over stuff Monday and Tuesday. He leaves for El Paso on Saturday. I still haven't told him that I'm not sure we're gonna have a wrap party.

This is kind of nerve-racking and exciting all at once. Man oh, man.

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