Craziness and Magic, Pt. II

The Retirement Home Throwdown, Day 2:  On Sunday we arrive at the retirement in Woodland Hills.  Lisa and I tried to arrive earlier than the call time of 8am to set up first, but once we got there, the rest of the crew quickly arrived.   Takayo Fischer, who plays Grandma, also arrived early.  She brought a wig in order to make herself look older.  Emily and Shireen arrived shortly thereafter.  

Lucy called and said that she knew someone who has the adaptor that can read the P2 cards, but this woman lives in Marina del Rey.  So after she dropped off the walkies, she drove all the way back to Marina del Rey to pick up the adaptor.  Day 2 and we were in the same stressful and entirely desperate position of figuring out how to download our footage.  Luckily, we had a number of extra P2 cards.  

So we set up production central in one of the rooms in the retirement home, next to the reception area, where we plan to shoot later on.  Shortly thereafter, the residents start to drop by and asked about the shoot and when they could stop by to be the extras.  I find out that at least 12 women had signed up to be extras.  Yay!  I tried to recruit one of the women for a speaking role and she immediately agreed.  Double yay!  I asked Lisa to help her rehearse the lines, because at this point I needed to leave to shoot the first scene of the day:  the confrontation between Jenny, Ma and Grandma.  

The scene among Ma, Grandma and Jenny is a very special scene for me.  To me, it represents three generations of Asian American women, each with their own personalities and histories, and their relationships to one another.   It is hard to describe the magic that happened in that room that day for me, so I won't even try (especially because my brain is completely fried).  All I can say is that to have Takayo, Emily and Shireen in the same scene together was just awesome, and humbling.  What talent!

During a break, Suzi, the most wonderful make-up artist EVER, tells me that downstairs, the elderly women residents who wanted to be extras in this film started fighting over the speaking roles.   Yes, a throwdown at the retirement center!   So the two women who stopped by earlier in the day decided to drop out, because they both got mad at one another.  The one who didn't get the speaking role accused the other of trying to steal the part.  Real life behind the scenes drama!

I check in with Lucy re: P2 cards.  The adaptor that she picked up in Marina del Rey didn't work!!!!  Arggggggg.... So Lucy and Lisa start calling people again, to see who had a laptop we could borrow and/or extra P2 cards.  Finally, the situation became dire.  We were running out of cards and nowhere to download.  Lisa was about to drive to Samy's to pick up 4 additional 8G cards at $50/card.  Yikes!!!   Brian, our DP, came downstairs and looked at the P2 store again (or original solution to the issue).   To our surprise and joy, Brian figured out a way to make it work on the laptop!!!!   WHEW!!!!!  P2 problem solved!

Coming up next... Retirement Home Sex Scene with Grandma...to be continued...

Gratitude & Reflection

For me, December has always been a time for reflection and a time to write down all I am thankful for. I am grateful every day for all I have, but at Christmas I have always taken stock of my good fortune and I make an extra special effort to let the universe know how appreciative I truly am. I was raised Catholic so no pc bs from me, I LOVE CHRISTMAS and I also love St. Pattie’s day but that’s more from being a NYer and loving the color green than anything religious, oh and Halloween, those are my favorite holidays but Christmas is by far, my favorite. One of the things I’m most grateful for is the fact that we FINALLY started shooting. I am grateful for all the people who contributed to getting us here. The support of our friends and family was invaluable and our cast and crew are an amazing and talented group of people. I will forever be grateful for everybody’s support and encouragement.

So this being a blog about our film, I wanted to share with you what this film means to me, the story rather than the making of. Someone asked me what the three stories mean to me and if I can relate to the characters, especially the ones I didn’t write. The answer is yes, I can relate to Jenny as much as I can relate to Shane and as much as I can relate to Jim (Laura’s and my version of him). My friend was not surprised that I related to characters I wrote but found it odd that I would be as passionate about characters I didn’t write. I explained to her that the appeal of the film is that the characters are universal and can speak to everybody because these characters want what we want.

There are three stories that make up Love 10 to 1. The film delves into the lives of three individuals who all want the same thing, LOVE. It’s about the people they come in contact with, and the coincidences that bind them. Even though they live in this big city, they cross paths with each other, frequent the same places and on occasion, interact with the same people.



Jenny is constantly surrounded by friends, family and strangers, yet, there’s something missing. For me, this first story represents the vast world we live in and our quest for happiness.



While Shane’s life as an up and coming rock star has her interacting with a bigger world than Jenny’s, she limits her personal life to people that she trusts; her band, her manager and her roommate. It represents the smaller world we create for ourselves. This story is about realizing that sometimes, what’s missing is usually right in your own back yard.



By the time we get to the last story about Jim, Shane’s guitar player, the world is even smaller, much more personal and raw. When Jim, the groupie magnet randomly meets Jenny, the 29 year old virgin they both come to realize that while their lives and experiences are substantially different, neither can pass up what could be a rare chance for a heartfelt connection. It’s about carpe diem, seizing that moment and staying there for as long as you can.



For me, the film is about opening yourself to the possibilities that the universe sends your way. It’s about being aware of opportunities and realizing that most of the times, what you want most has always been there. It’s about accepting those rare encounters when they are presented to you and seizing that moment. People who come from a different place, physically and emotional can get along and even fall in love. A relationship with a foundation built on tolerance, compassion, and understanding can lead to a lifetime of happiness no matter what your bliss is.

So with this sappy sentiment, I hope you all have a Great Holiday, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Joyous Kwanzaa and a Fantabulous Festivus.

xoxo,
Lucy

In Case You Are Wondering What We Look Like

Christine, Lucy, Shireen & Laura

We Lived!

Oh my god. I just got home and had to sit down and write about the insanity that occurred today.

But let's start with yesterday.

No better, let's start with two weeks ago.

After the pool scene, Christine finally put her foot down about the expenses that were going into my project. She had only intended on putting in a minimal amount so that we could get mine done without breaking her bank. So when I asked her how much she had to spend for my two last days, she told me, "$1,000". And when Christine puts her foot down, it makes this really echoey BOOOOOOMMMMM sound, like a giant. Or remember that cartoon with the beautiful Bambi that gets smashed by the ginormous Godzilla foot? I was the Bambi and Christine was the foot. Or my budget was the Bambi and Christine....was still the foot. Christine will always be the foot in this scenario.

A good foot, a necessary foot. (I don't want to hurt Christine's feelings. Christine, I obey your foot. Ok, now we're getting wierd.)

I digress...

Ok, I have $1,000 to make the rest of my film. Which means I call in my dear old friend Erik Forssell, (a brilliant and talented cinematographer) to do me a favor. And he calls his friend in for a favor, and then we call in other favors, and suddenly, poof, we have assembled a skeleton crew for my two days. Ok, done.

We decide it's better to leave the truck in Brian's possession for the days off and we decide to simplify the lighting as much as humanly possible, which we'll see how that goes off tomorrow.

Cut to yesterday:

I meet Brian at the top of a very tall hill where he parks his truck which is like some kind of resting ground for those big old eighteen wheelers. He's generously pulled a bunch of lights and grip equipment and he's going to somehow squeeze it all into my little Saturn. He was totally dismayed when I opened my trunk and there was lots of stuff in it. He even groaned, "Oh, Laura..." i replied, "It's not there, it will disappear." And I did a little rearranging and POOF. Room.

We filled my car with six lights, three c stands, a couple of other stands, ten tons of sandbags (or felt like it), some flags, a reflector, and I don't even remember what the hell else. My car can hardly accelerate, it's so weighed down. I managed to slowly manuver my little Saturn down that steep hill and into traffic.

When I get a call from Jenna, our producer, who tells me I have to go Downtown to Film LA to pick up a permit. So I sit in freakin bumper to bumper traffic at 5pm on a weekday. Just to pick up a stupid piece of paper. I get to Film LA and they want $5 to park. I don't have $5, I'm an indy film maker! Waited around for a half an hour while they "found" my permit. Because we're going under 10 different alias' because we're piggybacked by ten different companies because it's how we save money.

By they way, I don't end up paying the $5. I guess the guard saw my pathetic look and waved me on.

I storyboard the pool scene while sitting in traffic on the way home.

I make it home. I drink two beers and watch Telia Tequila for three hours and contemplate my creative masterpiece that I'm to shoot in the morning.

I wake up. I'm supposed to make breakfast for the crew. I scramble eggs and wrap them in tortillas. I pack the coffee pot, and rush into the car. I'm running late. I forgot styrofoam cups and call Erik (the DP) to pick some up. I wonder if Spielberg and Kaminski do this kind of shit.

I get a call from Justin who tells me the address on the call sheet (which I did, since I'm also AD) is wrong. There's another freakin Woodland Park retirement home just blocks away from ours! So we get the crew back on the road and to the correct location.

We were told by the facility we'd have two rooms available to shoot in for the balcony. We're doing another pool scene, this one Jenny jumps into the pool at the empty apartment in her clothes and Jim goes after her. It's her way of avoiding having to have sex with him. No, that never happened to me in real life. I usually aim for the hot tub.

Erik, Jacob (the sound guy) and I trek to the designated rooms we're supposed to use for the balconies. the first one is locked. When we arrive at the second one, we hear an old woman (this is a retirment home, remember) screaming at someone at the top of her lungs about "get out of my room". Jacob, deadpan, looks at us and says, "I guess we won't be going into that room either". When I asked the staff about it, they just shrugged and did the crazy sign with their fingers. You know the one where you point and your brain and turn your finger around and around. They're used to it. They were like, "Oh, she'll forget all about it in five minutes".

Hold my finger up to my brain and turn my finger around and around. That's about how I felt right then.

Thank god Justin's so cute because he was our saving grace. Our screaming granny, turned into seductive granny. She loved him! Here's his sacrifice for the day, having to listen to the same stories over and over and over....

His other sacrifice? Today was Justin's turn to jump into the pool a hundred times. They are such troopers. The pool was supposed to be heated. It wasn't. Nuff said.

we were supposed to be at the food truck on Melrose avenue by 12 Noon. By 12 Noon, Shireen and Justin's clothes were being thrown into the dryer at the retirement home. Our brilliant plan? Lunch at the food truck and then Christine follows us with dry clothes.

I really have having to rush. It scares the crap out of me, and it gets me agitated. Plus I don't have AC in my car and it was really freaking hot on the 101. Traffic was a nightmare. Why did I think we could do all this? Sometimes I imagine myself physically stretching time out to last longer than it does. Like times a piece of salt water taffy between my fingers and I pull. I really do visualize that. It's the only thing that keeps me zen. I call the food truck guy's daughter, and tell her we're on our way, and she tells me they're worried about getting a ticket because they're supposed to leave at 1:30pm.

It's 1pm.

And I get a call from Erik. He's been in a wreck. Some lady sideswiped him. Bad. That's what the traffic has been about. We all pull over to the side of the freeway in our caravan. Erik gets her insurance and he's back in the game. Pissed as hell, but back in. We're on our way.

1. Late
2. Wrong location
3. can't get into rooms
4. walkies are dead
5. filter on camera doesn't stay secure
6. wrecked truck
7. food cart guy out in half hour.

I'm thinking we're totally fucked. It gets worse. We had planned on shooting at the top of a garage on Melrose and I had spoken with them two months ago and got approved. I call them yesterday to follow up. They're still ok. They call me at 1:15pm while I'm in traffic, to tell me they need $250 for me to shoot on their roof for a half an hour. Me and Erik. Thirty minutes on their roof. $250.

Remember Christine's big Godzilla foot? BOOOOOOMMMM.

I hang up with the rooftop people. Fuck them. We'll figure something else out. I call Erik and tell him our delimma. He's on the other line with the insurance people for his truck and he'll call back.

By the time we're on Highland and the Hollywood Bowl, he calls me back and he's devised a brilliant plan. Do The Graduate long shot when Dustin Hoffman comes running up to the camera. Brilliant!

We arrive at the food truck at 1:30pm. Crew orders double decker cheeseburgers and fries and drinks. We slam em down. I lie and tell the food truck people we'll be done by 2:30. I know it's more like 3:30. They're worried that they're going to get ticketed and I convince them that we're fine because we're permitted. The police can't touch us. And they don't. They never even show up. Our food truck people are so freaking sweet to us, and they even end up in the movie! They were so impressed with our "power permit" they asked if we could get them one for everyday! I wish. They got a lot of business, not just from us but from the streams of people coming by to watch.

Of course, the scene was so cute and perfect. I love this location and this situation. The truck is so colorful and it's such a lively location. Loud, and lively! We got our makeup artist, Erik to stand it for us as an extra. He wore a kilt today. He was pleased with himself getting on camera wearing that. Erik thought he was only doing makeup, but he acted, gripped, the whole shebang. I hope he comes back tomorrow.

We wrapped at 3:30 like I knew we would. We sent our truck people (her name was Olga, I never got his name, shame on me) off for the day with a great story to tell their friends and family, and we still had one scene left before we wrapped for the day.

The Graduate shot.

the light had shifted so perfectly by this point in the afternoon that I really believed all the pitfalls and hold ups were worth this one shot. They had this gorgeous rim of light playing on their shoulders as they walked up Melrose avenue, and the streets were filled with the local flavor. It may be my favorite scene in the film. The acting is so adorable, the light, the shot everything is perfect. It's one long two minute take of them walking and talking. And as I watched it, I thought about how moments like these caught on film is why I enjoy guerrilla style. It's all so natural. I love the chance you take each take, you're playing with so much possiblity when you throw your actors into the middle of chaos like that.

Thank god it worked out.

For today.

On to tomorrow.

Laura


Pic of Sergio Leone - he's the one operating the camera - His spirit lives in our Laura:-) xoxo, Lucy

"My legs have more stubbles than his face."

I just directed the first two days of my vignette over the past couple days. Time was tight, due to the lighting challenges of each location. On Sunday, we shot at an office location. Because there were a lot of reflective windows and we were dealing with two cameras, we found ourselves battling camera/boom reflections in our shots. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to fit in Lucy's scenes on this day. Other than the time issues, I thought the day went well--our actors were fantastic and looked hot on camera (thanks to their parents' genes and of course, our talented crew's hard work).

Yesterday we shot Jenny's dating sequence. We were on a shortened schedule because the restaurant opened at 5pm (and we had to be out by 4:30p), so we were working on a 10.5 hour day rather than a 12 hour day. We were able to shoot all the dates that Jenny goes on, and Shireen (who plays Jenny) had to change into seven different outfits over several different periods of time. I told my actors to feel free to ad lib some of the lines so that it would really feel like they were on a date. However, this will likely cause some continuity issues in editing. I was aware of this and thought that it would be okay because we were using two cameras. For this day, the two cameras were definitely a time-saver. I'm glad that my actors improv'ed some of their lines because they came up with some funny stuff.

I also wanted to get shots of the Thai waitresses at the restaurant commenting on Jenny's dates. Because of the limited time, we weren't able to get shots that established their location vis a vis Jenny and her dates, even though we did get a chance to shoot the waitresses. So it's not clear if I will eventually be able to use this footage. I hope so. Laura helped me with the lines, and she had some funny dialogue. So if you're wondering why the title of this blog is "My legs have more stubbles than his face"--all I can say is, let's hope that makes it into the film!

Tomorrow and Thursday are the big club scenes days. Lucy will be directing tomorrow and Laura will be directing on Thursday. We're hoping that we'll have enough extras to make this look realistic. Otherwise, all our crew will have to jump in and be extras!