Day 8: The End

The last day of principal photography started with me being nearly an hour late for the first scene.

Fortunately, I made up by bringing cold water and lemon lime sodas to the location. It was a hot mother fucker. My wife, Tonya, got good and cooked. When we got home her face was dark red. My forehead, neck and even my nose were red. But I digress.

Theo, one of the people I credit with really helping me realize this film, found a piece of broken glass on the street a day before that we were going to need for a scene in which he arrives to his car to find the window broken out. What he found was actually a pane of glass with some kind of tint film on it. The glass was broke, but stuck to the tint. Hank and I broke it apart and scattered it on the hot asphalt to better simulate a window break. I think it worked out well. Theo had a blast yelling out cuss words as he walked into the scene.

In the last post I mentioned that we'd still be short one actor. It was for one of the pivotal scenes for the protagonist, Luis. Fortunately, I found a guy to play. Will came to the cattle call IFMASA had sometime back and I wondered if he might be the guy for the gig. At the time, the part was built a little different. Now I just wanted to fill the spot with the best person possible.

Everything was set. Or so I thought. I called Ariel, the guy who would play the drunk angry guy. I couldn't get a hold of him, at first, but when I did, he told me that he would be unable to make the shoot.

*sound of needle scratching the record*

Yes. I lost the actor I thought I had locked in. My back-up plan was a flimsy one. I would ask one of the Rumbo guys, Bruno, to come downstairs and fill in. Hey, it was better than no plan at all. Bruno's doesn't speak great English, but since it's an alternate take, he doesn't have to.

In the middle of my preparations for ritual siboku, I decided to continue with the shoot. I got Jared and Britney squared away for the fight sequence. We did a few takes of the punch, some close-ups and then the wide shot.

Britney is a really sweet girl. Unfortunately, she doesn't have much experience and not a lot of range. But I wanted her to cut her teeth on something simple. I think that I'll have to be very careful on her scene. The wrong cut and everything will fall apart. Her partner in the scene, Jared, is fantastic. He's got energy and he really got into the part. I hope to work with both of these people again.

Will sat off set and rehearsed his part with my wife's help. Then a crazy thing happened.

While I was setting Jared and Britney up for their alternate take, a guy walking by recognized Jared. Turns out Quinn, the passerby, was an actor friend of Jared's. He's a stout guy. Smaller than Will. But he had the look of a guy who could commit a hate crime, lol. The scene had originally called for Will's character to be the short one and the part of the drunk would be the tall one. The tables were turned, but what was about to happen worked out better than I had planned. Well, not better, but it worked out.

Quinn's an actor. I'm a director needing an actor. The decision was simple.

I offered Quinn the part on the spot. I gave him the scenes, let he and Will rehearse off set, in the parking lot and I returned to Jared and Britney. There's an alternate take where Britney is to be slapped. I blocked them so I could get the hit, but not the fall. In fact, I really wanted not to get a lot the action at all. I wanted the audience to imagine the rest. But I shot it win Britney taking the hit and falling off frame.

After we wrapped Jared and Britney, we moved onto a shot we missed with Theo and Luis. They would walk out of the Milam building and down the street. Knocked it out quick.

Then came Will and Luis. I'm not sure how many productions or films Will has been involved in, but he was a bit green too. He had the right instincts during his rehearsals, but when he got in front of the camera, it was a bit stilted. I don't feel I got his best performance, but I can't expect perfection when I'm not perfect either.

I have to say, Luis has become quite the veteran. Each time he got into his part and gave me a take, it got better and better. I can't wait to see what else he does.

Luis and Will went through their scene a few times. More than a few. We struggled with them hitting their marks and with the lighting situation not being optimal. Hank, my DP, was his usual, inventive self and gave me the most of what he and the environment had.

When we got Luis and Will done, we had to set up our walk on, Quinn, and Will. This one took a little more doing since we didn't have any real rehearsal time and Quinn didn't know he was going to be picked off the street for this. Hank and I set them up and reset them and reset them until we both felt we had something worth shooting. Still, we got some interesting takes.

Quinn is a good actor, but he turns it up too much. Once he found his groove, it was good. He and Will found a happy medium to their scene and I think we got some usable footage. I want to be happier about their scene, but considering all the trouble I had to get it shot, I'll take what I can get. The magic of editing will be on my side.

The last thing we did was a pick up from the Jared/Britney scene. It's the interaction between Luis and Britney.

Britney took a lot of coaxing. I don't think she fully realizes how she has to become another person. I think she just hoped that delivering the lines would be enough. We all had to basically give her some motivations. At one point, Tonya took her and made her jog around the parking lot to help her fake a sense of panic and distress. The breathlessness helped a little, but when she got her wind back, we had to give her more cues.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not from the Actor's Studio. I just wanted the girl to succeed first time outta the gate. Both Tonya and I felt that we should give her a chance to break in.

The martini was a gag take. It actually worked out pretty good. And on Hank's prompting, I found a perfect spot for it.

If felt good to get it all in the can. Well, not all of it. The real shooting is through. I need to fix that internal mailbox take that I've been screwing up. That and Luis' narration.

But other than that, principal photography is done!

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