"Dead Drop"

[dougspice]

DEAD DROP

TAGLINE
How far would you go to get back the one you love?

SYNOPSIS
Mark Granger never imagined that he would betray his country – until shadowy agents kidnapped his wife. Now, coerced into trading in secrets, he's in over his head and ready to do anything to get her back.

Written and Directed by Doug Spice
Produced by Doug Spice
Associate Producer Jasmine Moeller
Associate Producer Ryan Sturz

Director of Photography Natasha Bedu
Production Sound Nick Lentz
Production Assistant Aaron Bennett
Editor Keith Schwebel
Music by Austin Wintory

Special thanks to Charla Teeters at the Imperial County Film Commission, Maria Timpani at SAG, Brian Feeney, Mike Celestino, Kevin Schwebel and everyone here at Lead Balloon or elsewhere who reviewed scripts and edits and gave me notes along the way.


Want to read the script? HERE IT IS.

[dougspice]

Production updates!

– 01 February 2010: Pending final casting and a read-through by the actors, the script is now locked. This is the seventh or eight draft; it's a very different beast from when I started. It is also dramatically better – I cannot stress enough the importance of having a good feedback loop of smart people. Unfortunately, this is also the longest draft, at 6 5/8 pages. It is possible that the official festival version will be a little bit more confusing to some viewers than I'd like. ;)

– 01 February 2010: Crew is coming together. Had a lengthy meeting with my DP last night, and bar some scheduling catastrophe that she has to check on, I am very excited. We are now totally on the same page as far as tone, style, color palette, movement, and so on. She's actually excited about the run-and-gun limitations I am imposing on her. It is my goal to shoot this movie with nothing but practicals, if possible. Lucky for me, 2/3 of it is daylight exteriors! In any case I know it will be gorgeous. Sound is on board, as are a few swing crew. We're going to do this whole thing with about a half dozen person crew, I think. As much as anything I'm using this as a testbed to see how fast we can work and what images we can get with this small of a crew and almost no budget.

– 02 February 2010: Cast read-through was a great success and casting for the two principal roles is now final. I'm excited to be working with these guys.

– 12 February 2010: We wrapped principal photography Wednesday and the footage is now off to my editor! Poster is up and BTS stills have been added.

– 17 February 2010: We have wrapped all production! Tonight I will be viewing the first rough cut of the film.

– 21 February 2010: Picture lock! The edit of the 6-minute version is complete.

– 24 February 2010: The film has been handed off to the capable hands of composer Austin Wintory.

– 25 February 2010: All VFX are now complete!

[dougspice]

Cast!


Chris Starr as Mark Granger

From the script:

Our driver walks hurriedly to the side of the cafe:  MARK, 
clean-cut but haggard, 30.  Hard to pick out of a lineup. 
Capable, a Type-A pushed to his limits, on shaky ground.

Bud Watson as Solomon Teague

From the script:

The man standing here, TEAGUE.  Corpulent.  Sweaty.  
Everything about him unappealing.  But there’s that flash of 
genius in his eyes, a weird smack of charm.

Alisha Seaton as Celia Granger

From the script:

CELIA, young, beautiful, but exhausted and grungy.  
A trooper in extraordinary circumstances.

[dougspice]

Some BTS stills (all photos courtesy Aaron Bennett):


This is our camera. It may be a bit silly, but it is ours. Unless you're speaking in terms of literal ownership, in which case it isn't.


Myself and Ryan Sturz observe the shot while Nick Lentz prepares to taze Natasha Bedu in the head for no good reason.


People in the desert doing something shady. Imagine that.


I try not to get hit by yet another car while Natasha Bedu and Nick Lentz don't do anything to help whatsoever.


Nick Lentz reviews a shot with me because I told him it would look cool. Probably, it was actually a rickroll.


I direct the hell out of some serious action, in a way that is not at all posed, I swear.


The enormity of the sky makes all of our futile gestures as humans unimaginably irrelevant, yet again.


I direct Chris Starr while Natasha Bedu and Nick Lentz do the whole crew thing.


Natasha Bedu shows me an elegant frame, full of promise and hope.


Nick Lentz and Natasha Bedu bring the flavor.


Chris Starr and Bud Watson rehearse their showdown. This moment was so pure and raw that we decided it would be a disservice to actually film it.


Bud Watson lifts yet another luxury coupe. Later he discovers he has no way to drive them all back to L.A.

[dougspice]

Grabs!

[ZazaCast]

Originally Posted by dougspice

We're going to do this whole thing with about a half dozen person crew, I think. As much as anything I'm using this as a testbed to see how fast we can work and what images we can get with this small of a crew and almost no budget.

First...welcome to the fest!

Second...you think a 6 person crew is SMALL? Damn, I'd be overjoyed to have a crew of one!

[dougspice]

Yeah, I guess it's all relative. I've found I'm most comfortable with a crew of 15 or so. I've done much larger shoots and definitely much smaller. But I find with less than 10 people it can be pretty hard to keep track of everything and stay focused on the task at hand, especially on location. When I'm directing I like to concentrate on just that and nothing else – but life is imperfect after all!

Thanks for the welcome! Excited to be a part of it.

[Nitsuj]

Welcome in. I'll be using my cast as the crew for this one. Well pretty much always been the case. Maybe I should start looking for some crew. hehe.

[MSpencer]

man the only budget we had was 60 bucks for lunch. haha good luck though..

[Rodney V. Smith]

Doug!!! Good to see you in this fest. I was wondering if you were goign to throw down this tme around. Welcome!

Now: where's your poster? :-D You of all peopl I;d expect to have one already on the way...