Carte Blanche - A Feature Film Written & Directed by Matt Kieley

Well I guess I'll reveal the name of the girl who is the basis for Helena, since she's involved in the project now. Well, it's only her pen name anyway. Fred call me the other day saying that Coryn told her she doesn't have time to create any of the paintings for the film, so she volunteered her own. So I guess that'll add a more realistic element to this film, seeing the real artist's work on screen. It's weird. I remember when I asked Fred to play Helena and create paintings for the film over a year ago. Now the character has been re-invented with more of Fred's personality and voice (the character was always an artist, and eerily similar to Fred in real life, which is why I cast her to begin with). Her birthday is tomorrow. I'm going to have to call her.

Since it's slightly related to the film, here's a short documentary I made with Roscoe and Fred last April, if anyone is interested:

http://www.vimeo.com/2029205

It's about 12 minutes long.
 
Went to Kinko's and made a fake poster for a non-existent movie to hang in the background of the scene we're shooting today (oh yeah, tonight is the first night of shooting, by the way). I thought it came out well. And it only cost $4 and change. It would have been more expensive to buy a poster (both in the $8 it would cost to buy it, and the thousands I would likely have to pay to clear the rights) to hang in the scene.

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I was too lazy to create a new title, so I used the unused title for this very film.
 
They both smoked quite a bit beforehand. Seriously. Like, I'm not just going with the joke. They really were stoned. Although even when he's not stoned, Roscoe says stuff like he does in the doc. He's REALLY into philosophy...and weed.
 
Had a great first day. We shot from about 11:00 pm to 2:00 am. And no one ever complained. Roscoe and Coryn definitely have great chemistry. The takes ended up having a lot of improv, so I have a lot of footage to work with. The scripted scene was 6 pages, and we'd wind up with 10 minute takes. We shot about an hour and a half of footage. Roscoe was surprised and pleased with how it went--more so than he thought he would be. Hopefully we can keep this up for a few more weeks. I also showed Coryn the set-dressed bedroom for her character, and she loved it. Her first response was to ask if she could move in. So I'm glad that it has female approval. I was afraid it would look like two guys dressed it. I'll post some grabs of the footage later tonight.
 
EDITED 4-11-09: As this post had contained grabs featuring an actor who was re-cast, I felt it was appropriate to remove them.
 
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I say get them away from the walls. The shots would be a whole lot more interesting if there wasn't a wall directly behind them.

But then you'd say, "but that's where the couch is". And to that I say, "move the couch."
 
Filming has been going well so far. We've shot about 17 pages in 5 days. I don't know if that's good or bad in the professional sense, but it feels good to me. I feel like we're shooting at a good pace and getting a lot done, and everyone has been great. There's still 46 pages left to shoot. Last night I shot my first make-out scene. I've never had to ask, or direct two people who barely know each other to make out and lay on top of each other before, and from multiple angles. I felt vaguely perverse, but I'm happy with how the scene turned out.
 
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Mere seconds before making out for the camera.

I had an idea for a brief pre-title opening tonight, and I like it quite a bit.
 
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Matt - The pictures are looking great!!

I'm happy the film is finally getting made (and that you got a boom operator :D)
 
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