Countdown

In a couple of hours Lucy will have wrapped production on her segment of the film!!!!

YIPPIE! One step closer to completion.

I believe as we speak she and the rest of our party are in Venice shooting some kind of exterior action. Last I'd heard they were planning on putting a light and a generator on the sidewalk, although we technically weren't permitted to do anything but shoot and HOLD a light. I imagine shooting in that neighborhood would be tricky since it's so heavily trafficked, but I'm hoping that because Venice is filled with good natured hippies that they'll look the other way.

I haven't gotten to see much of the action since I was mostly running errands for them and/or at my night job so I'm excited to see how things turn out. I don't get down to Venice much but being around there over the last couple of days made me realize what a great location it is for a film about young artsy people. It's cool how LA has become a character in the film, you see so many movies where New York is that, but LA..not so much. Each of our stories take place in a specifically LA centric neighborhood, Venice, Hollywood, Cerritos...(heh heh). If you know Cerritos you laugh, but it actually is LA Centric or is that, OC?

We were able to get permits to shoot in Venice from Film LA, who also hooked us up with the Parks and Recreation Department, and they kindly gave us approval to shoot on the Venice Boardwalk. I thought for sure we'd never be able to do that, and was shocked when it all turned out so easily. But then I realized that it would be crazy to discourage filmmakers here, this is the Movie Capital, after all. The one thing I did notice, however, is that even if people welcome your film making, they aren't going to be throwing around discounts or favors anytime soon. It was impossible to get any discounts or donations from anyone. I could barely get people to call me back, once I mentioned "non profit"! It's so different from my Austin days, when business owners gave out freebies just to get their name listed in the credits. Hell, California doesn't even give tax breaks to filmmakers like everyone else does. I wonder how the ladies would feel about doing a western told in three parts?

Anyway, congrats to Lucy and the rest of our cast and crew for finishing what I know was a hard won week.