"Splitting Hair" to start production the 21st of June

U

USLatin

Panamaniac
"Splitting Hair"
A first act, 18 to 22min. projected TRT
Produced by Earth & Fire Ent.
Directed by Roberto Lequeux
Photography by Garrett M. Benson
​

Here is my first official project. And I mean first cause I co-wrote, am producing, will direct and will edit,
color correct, mix, do follies, and record and mix the ADR.

So... I guess I have to take accountability for this one, which will be an Ensemble Drama sprinkled with
ludicrous, self deprecating comedy.

All I have learned has mostly come from you, DVXuser members. I have been on set a few hundred
times, but always from a stand-in, photo double, or actor's point of view. Then about February 2005
I decided I would learn how to make films instead of just participate in them. It obviously had been
brewing in me for years before that.

And that takes me here... with just a few projects under my belt in few positions at a time I now
embark in trying to entertain you... DVXusers... I want to not only entertain the audience, but hope
to make proud those who taught me.

I will have help in that my DP, Garrett Benson, is not a noob like me. He has been in the camera
department, working in Los Angeles and wherever his job takes him for quite a few years... and now
that he is actively working on his reel he has placed in me the trust to pull in some favors and spend
5 days shooting a script he hadn't even read yet.

The Script was written with one of my closest friends, who shares my same type of humor and is very
creative... I guess it comes from writing and recording at least a song a month. But the best about having
written it with him has to be that he will not settle for anything less than original. The script itself turned
out to be 21 pages, and we hope to shoot all of it.

Wish me luck. :thumbsup:
 
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I won't have a blog but I'll get my 10 BTS pictures here every day... well maybe not all 10 :thumbsup:

I am off to a "meeting" (Indiana Jones) Garrett who, again, is the DP... and I just talked with Cordvision and decided to ask Siniarch for his RR follow for back up, and for his gears. It seems it might be a waste to use the Panavisions though. After all we will be recording about 1/7 the resolution of 35mm.
 
$0.00

Well, I might be paying for these election buttons that we will need as props and the food... but other than that, zilch.

EDIT: Read on to see how big the budget had to grow to keep up with the scale of the project.
 
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Ok, it seems we should have the Steady cam Op from Grays Anatomy and countless other credits come over with his steady and give us a half day of work which would work perfect for the first and opening scene where our lead isn't yet frustrated at all... he progressively get's frustrated to the point where he blows up on a friend, so it should work out nicely to start very smooth... have to think about that one.

We will also have a nice head, skate board dolly and a short jib... so we should be able to do anything we want. Is there anything else I am missing in terms of support?
We don't have any car shots... and that's all I can think about right now.


I do need to find some sort of water-proof enclosure for an HVX+adapter and short lenses... just for the intro where we see surfers and for the end where we see out lead paddle out to the surf where I want to put the camers under water with the lens sticking out to see his face lit by the sunset reflecting off the water... is there a housing that would work? maybe a long bag?
 
I must say, you have some sweet connections. Best of luck on your shoot!

Prepare, prepare, and prepare more when you think you're prepared.
 
Thanks for the encouragement... and honestly I don't, this is practically my only one and I am gambling with burning it it it flops. I mean, the guy hasn't read it yet... and he doesn't know how much of a hard time I am having finding a solid lead... the rest of the cast is already booked though. click clock click clock... and time passes by...

BTW, just submited the project to S.A.G. as signatory.
 
Thanks guys! I am literally working 24/7 on this... I only have Michelle (fiancee) helping a little with the scheduling and giving me great opinions on the guys we are casting... it helps that she did casting for a few years... but I have to admit that even though we do have a limited pool to chose from due to the suddenness of it all, I still do have the final say for all of the parts. I feel the pressure mounting higher and higher
:)
 
Good Luck with your shoot mang. Garret has some nice AC credits. I can see why he's ready to move into DPing now.

By the way, is the title actually SPITTING HAIR or is that a Typo?
 
Thanks Kholi! Hope to work with you soon too :thumbsup:

No typo, it has like five meanings for the story, however we are considering it a working title and hope to find something even better... I'd like to show it to you with a poster but I haven't done any of that yet cause I am SWAMPED in pre-production.

BTW!

We might be putting up the lead on L.A. Casting if this last read doesn't pan out. We've read about 12 guys that fit the part so far for it but nothing that was both perfect for the part and a good schedule. I have someone in mind, I am reading an other promising guy tonight, and I am waiting on an other guy who is trying to see if he can fly in for it, but then we'll either have the guy, or put it up on a Casting Director's register and keep looking ourselves.

But this is even more important than it sounds because the script is from his point of view.
 
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No problem mang. Just so you know the title says S P I T T I N G HAIR... not S P L I T T I N G.

That's what I meant. And your other thread says SPLITTING.
 
AHAHA!!! yea dude! He he... yea, that's not it at all hehehe

EDIT: Thanks dude, I put the title on the top of the first post nice and big.
I'll see if someone, like Jason, can change it for me.
 
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Ok... so I am filling in the S.A.G. paperwork now and we are off to FL Saturday at like midnight. I got all of my stuff that I am not bringing with me in a nice and safe storage space down the street. But I am taking my bare HVX, mics boom mixer and XLR's all with my Fig Rig so I should be able to do it all... if you set the Fig on a trashcan you get an automatic "shoulders on the table" hand-held.

I got a buddy with crazy Mustang and we plan to ruin some rear rubber. This thing does like 12's or something like that. He's got it all ready for a supercharger, and a BIG one. He should end up with like 800bhp at his phat ass rear wheels, and like 97% of it available at like 3000rpm, but it doesn't stop there, it also will pack like 650bhp at like 2500rpm... but right now he might have like 450bhp where the rubber meets the road. That's cause he is running compression for the supercharger, but he's got it all tweaked, supercharger cams, balanced crank, bored out intake and exhaust valve port holes. And I think it is safe to trust that it was shaved precisely for the mathematical compression needed for all that mix to come.

Translation:
IT IS GOING TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE IT IS ABOUT TO RAIN. CLOUDS OF RUBBER BABY!!! But right now it is only wicked fast.

Back on Topic:
Yea... eh... sorry about that.
So right now we still haven't found the Comedy CLub, we only have a few leads too... it is scary, but I'll "produce it"
 
Just heard that we will likely have an Arri Matte Box (smaller one).
Also and we will likely be borrowing the 180mm from Siniarch and getting the Nikkor 600mm for the surf sequence. I am guessing the 180mm will help so the transition shots of the surfer coming out of the water and arriving at the building so that there isn't a crazy-abrupt change in perspective. Probably will use the 600mm to the 180mm to the 85mm then to the 50 or wider for most of the rest.
 
Ok... after so much work we are finally starting production this Saturday at 7:30am with a full cast and crew call at 8am... we shoot four big scenes plus a few small sequences including a day-dream sequence that we go into from a ramp that I hope to get done by someone with twixtor... I will shoot at 60fps and make the beginning 24fps then the back end higher than 60fps, as overcranked as possible... I'd love 120fps! But I have no clue of how far you can take a 60fps with twixtor... anyone know?

We have one long steady cam scene, and the rest use the dolly a lot, or sticks, hardly any hand-held throughout the movie, which is why it will be so cool to do some here and there when it calls for it, steady hand held... other than for the punch! We will jerk it hard for that :)

WISH ME LUCK MY ON-LINE TUTORS!
 
Ok... so we shot last weekend and... we were severely understaffed in the Grips and Electic department, also, we didn't have a Camera Op but we had Michael (CordVision) doing a million things with extremely satisfactory results, I helped with everything I could to the point where I was drenched in sweat at one point in time... we moved slow due to all of this, but we didn't compromise on the quality much, which is a great thing other than the fact that we will have to shoot more now. So while this was not a surprise I must admit that I didn't see so many people bailing on us and that I could not focus enough on my directing... not sure if it is an excuse or just plain truth but I thought I'd mention it. Also, the Matte Box didn't have a rail arm so we didn't use it, and the cable for the 24" CRT monitor was not there so it sat in the box!!! aghghhhhh!!
:)



We were lucky to have Chuck Whelan operating steadycam who obviously brought his own gear and ended up raising the level of production. It should not go without saying that he also came up with some cool ideas that Garrett incorporated into his photography.


Here is the parking lot scene, we used 2K two bulb soft lights to create pools of light in the dark areas where we wanted them to stop in our blocking... it was a walk and talk on the steady with two stops, the other stop being under a silk draped in the roof over a big center patio opening. We still could have used a second 3000W genny for an other 2K and a Tweenie to paint with.

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The rig as we used it last weekend, an HVX with an SGpro Rev.3 and a Zacuto Universal Baseplate with 19'' rods and an Arri Follow Focus that was geared to pull Nikkors like Cinema lenses, courtesy of Michael Althouse (CordVision).
We used it with a full set of Nikkor Primes, 24mm 2.8f, 35mm 1.4f, 50mm 1.4f, 85mm 1.4f, 135mm 2.8f, 180mm 2.8f all courtesy of Luis Sinibaldi (Siniarch) who also gave us his CARRION with a pile of batteries for it and a Noga Arm.
The Fluid Head is an O'Connor 100 which is an Oldie but a Goodie! It did the trick with ease. We had a high hat, short sticks and long sticks.

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Michael (CordVision) getting the rig set up for Chuck who was nice enough to come over to shoot the scene we wanted to have a steady cam for.

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Someone tell the Director to stop turning around for f@#ing pictures and pay attention!

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Here is one I took for my DP, Garrett Benson, too bad I couldn't ise one of the Tweenies to knock down that flash shadow.

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2x4's on apple-boxes was enough to get my Rowe Cine skateboard dolly over our lead for the opening scene where he wakes up. It was completely NOT my idea, give that credit to my DP, Garret Benson, who knew exactly what the scene needed... the shot fit like a glove for the purpose... all I am saying is thank god I had him there, cause he completely elevated the quality.... if only we had enough crew for his shooting standard we would have stayed on schedule... but it sure is a good problem to have

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Sorry about the quality of this one, I didn't take many myself. Now that is a Carrion, ohhhh so sweet that we had it, what a saviour... we didn't miss the 24" Panavision CRT too much because we had one of them babies.

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Makeup Artist and Michelle who is acting and producing with me

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