Mark and Ted's Excellent Adventure in Drama

Jack Daniel Stanley said:
This is my favorite pic among all the awesome ones you have posted, because it's what it's all about: wearing guys 15-20 years younger than you into the ground :grin:
n1318080032_30084333_4816.jpg
Click to expand...


I swear I won't be caught dead like that! (Asleep)

Those two guys are awesome... ready to do anything! :thumbsup:
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
holy shi* you guys are blowing my mind.
Already looking forward to this.
NOW I CAN'T WAIT!
Click to expand...
Thanks Jack, that means a lot!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Yes, folks. I haven't been on much and will be breif here (as it is 2:52 am and I have to leave at 6:30 am to get on set.

Progress had been amazing. The footage is spectacular (Kevin is a God!). The crew just rocks da houze. And the actors are fantastic.

I am very happy and proud of what I am seeing here.

Congrats to everyone on TTN.

Good night,

Ted
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
This is my favorite pic among all the awesome ones you have posted, because it's what it's all about: wearing guys 15-20 years younger than you into the ground :grin:
Click to expand...


... in the case of some of us, 25 - 30 years younger!

We are working everyone pretty hard. It is a lot of long setups and a very high scene count (46) so our page coverage per day looks like we are slacking but I assure you, we are not.

Today, we need to get the grip truck organized and we have a bunch of daytime exteriors to shoot. I don't have a really large butterfly (only a 6' x 6') but do have enough grip equipment to double bounce so should be able to get things within the dynamic range of the HVX.

Call time is 8:00 AM, with traffic I will likely be a bit late (but I still seem to be earlier than everyone else so far). My goal for today is to pound out a large number of scenes and be off set in time get some sleep tonight. These long days are beginning to add up and I would love to get more than 3 1/2 hours one of these nights.

See everyone in a bit over an hour.
 
Ted, Scott, Alex and Kyle got away on time (6:30 a.m.) to make the run to the set. I have a work-related meeting with a client and an expert witness this morning so that I won't be there until late morning. Our biggest concern is the wind, which is stated to be gusting up to 60 mph at times. Forecast says winds diminish but remain strong tomorrow while Sunday is to be gorgeous. We've got exteriors to shoot and I'm not sure how we'll pull them off in high winds. Good luck team. I'll see you later this a.m. as soon as I can get there.
 
Oh yeah, the Santa Ana winds are whippin' out here. And these aren't the nice and warm ones. Layered clothing is recommended.
 
Just a note regarding the final scene we shot last night. The script called for showing the scene of a fatal highway collision. We had been bouncing around different solutions that ranged all the way from trying to do something with CG compositing to putting some strobes off camera that simulated flashing lights. We pretty much gave up on being able to have a real crumpled vehicle in the scene and decided to focus on the possibility of somehow getting our hands on an ambulance.

Since we are shooting at an airport I hoped there might be some sort of emergency equipment that we could beg to use. That turned out to be a dead-end because the airport contracts with the City and gets coverage from a nearby firehouse rather than having their own vehicles.

On the perimiter of the airport are a whole fleet of world war II vehicles and I was vaguely aware that a guy keeps them to rent out to Hollywood. While passing by them on our way to the hangar where we were shooting one day I saw a contemporary ambulance parked among them. I made some inquiries with the airport management and found out that it was owned by Eric Ryan who runs Hollywood Fire Authority. Eric is a fireman who has collected vehicles over time and he has a nice side business providing emergency equipment as well as fully costumed firemen for Hollywood shoots. When I explained to Eric what we were doing he turned out to be one of those angels who seem to often appear out of nowhere to help an indie film shoot.

My personal office is here at the airport and all of us tenants have a bond that is almost like being a family. Thus, Eric (kind of interesting that he has that name, huh?) said that he'd be happy to help out another airport "sibling" and he agreed to bring an ambulance over for the shoot. Since he lives 5 minutes from the location I invited him to come meet the crew and join us for the dinner break during the interior scene we were shooting last night. Eric loves the film biz and he came early and sort of got wrapped up in our enthusiasm. When he saw how professional the crew was conducting itself and found how friendly everyone was, he said he was willing to bring "a few other toys" to the party.

Meanwhile, Scott Bullis, who has always been my "go-to" guy for resourcefulness, came back to report that he had spotted a wrecked mini-van on the airport property just 500 yards or so away from our set behind a berm. Eric and I walked over to look at it and he said he'd be able to get his vehicles there next to the wreck. Therefore, while we were shooting the interior scene, Eric moved down a Battalion Commander's SUV, a fully-equipped ambulance and a huge ladder truck rig! He looked the crew over and said that he had with him two full firefighter outfits that would fit Scott Bullis and Alex Jeffry. Thus, we had a complete scene donated to us by Eric in exchange for one tank of diesel fuel!

Things got ugly as the shoot progressed, though, because the clouds began dropping rain. Blaine suggested that the inclement weather was likely punishment for not having red vines on the prior night's set and there may be merit to that. Moreover, the "crash site" had no power nearby and the firetruck's taps required commercial prongs that we did not have in our inventory. We didn't want to scrub the whole scene because it was unlikely that Eric's schedule would allow us to have those vehicles before wrapping this weekend. Kevin suggested we might have to shoot with available light using a static digital camera and do some Ken Burns-style slideshow.

However, when we finished the interior scene the rain stopped and Kevin figured out how to get that huge HMI "sun" up on the berm shooting a focused beam onto the crash scene. Our boys suited up and we snagged the girl who was going to give Tim a ride home and put her on a gurney in the back of the ambulance and put another "body" under a sheet on the ground. Just then a light sprinkle of rain began and I thought we were screwed. Nevertheless, Kevin and Ted called action and the camera rolled even as a steady pelting of rain lit up in the beam of the HMI. It turned out to be a serindipitous moment as the damp ground and glistening droplets on the vehicles really looked great. As Eric said, "Hey, you guys got a free wetdown for this set!"

When we finished the martini shot Ted had Brandon pull the HVX and shoot some handheld run-and-gun stuff before we lost the light and vehicles. That footage looks awesome, guys!

I'll close by giving the website for Eric's company: www.hollwoodfire.biz

You've seen him and his hardware without realizing it. He and his firemen buddies are all over Oliver Stone's World Trade Center flick for instance and he and his trucks are regulars for all the big studios and television shows (he's on 24 this weekend so we were really lucky to catch him with a free night). Also, Eric was wearing an EMT outfit so we added him to the scene as well (he did request that I darken his tennis shoes since any pros would really be offended at the lack of professionalism of an EMT or Paramedic wearing tennies!
 
Last edited:
Wow, great story Mark it's sounds like the lack of redvines didn't lose you too many points with the film gods. Sounds like this will be one hell of a scene.

Brandon, this picture is great. It could be a poster of a movie.

Brandon Rice said:
n500600447_12869_5550.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Guys, it seems like you've got so much going on in this story; is it all going to fit as you'd like in six minutes or are you going to have an extended version released in the future? Just curious...

Forgive me if this has already been discussed somewhere in the thread, I do try and keep up on it but it's difficult :)
 
Thanks for the BTS image Brandon. Not too much to mention about this one, no lighting, just some 4' x 4' bounce and some scrims to cut it down to a reasonable level. The floppy by the camera was used as a camera courtesy to keep the LCD usable for Ted.

We had a lot of wind to contend with today and it made for more than a few exciting moments. One nasty little "wind devil" hit our bounce boards and traffic control marker and despite a lot of bags, knocked them all to the ground. After reviewing some of the footage, I am sure that today's scenes will require some ADR as the wind was really playing havoc with the sound.

Tomorrow is the last day of principal photography and we have an early (7:00 AM) crew call.

One of the cool highlites of the day was when a B25 landed for tomorrows air show. A real sight to see; what a graceful old war bird, very impressive.
 
Guys, it seems like you've got so much going on in this story; is it all going to fit as you'd like in six minutes or are you going to have an extended version released in the future? Just curious...

Forgive me if this has already been discussed somewhere in the thread, I do try and keep up on it but it's difficult
Click to expand...

We were very aware of instances where we felt people tried to compress or chop down a longer short into the 6-minute requirement for the DVXUSER fests. Thus, we started with a treatment and worked through script revisions until we were satisfied with a 6-minute production. Once we had that version, we did expand several scenes with the intention of shooting footage useable for a longer cut. We felt that it was imperative to create the short version from ground up rather than attempting to chop down or compress a longer film. We'll see how successful we are in the end. Also, some of our scenes that took lengthy setup will be very brief in the final edit. That's the reality of film-making, of course.
 
I definitely fit into the group of people trying to compress things down...heh. I'm almost done with the authentic cut of my horror film (being scored!) and it's clocking in at 13 mins. I've learned my lesson and my drama fest entry will run at approx. 5 mins, nothing more!

No matter what, I feel like TTN is going to be one of the most memorial DVXuser fest films. You've got so much energy and passion working collectively...It's going to be a great film.
 
Mark Harris said:
Ah that's cool Geoff, I wondered why project 47 wasn't on your site...

TTN is definitely the LOTR of Dramafest
Click to expand...

1168063283.jpg


LOTR... I thought I noticed something weird in Brandon's BTS photos...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top