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...

The RED, Editing, Casting

This past weekend I worked on a shoot with Brian and Matt, we shot on the RED. I say WE because I worked in the camera department. I was responsible for downloading the footage, clapped the slate or the claqueta (in spanish, I'm trying to learn all the right terms because I want to make a movie in Argentina!) and pitched in where ever it was needed, but mostly, I stayed by the camera. Mike was the first AC, he's a friend of Jarred's (the sound mixer from Love Song). Mike visited the Love Song set one day, I had a good feeling about him. Working with him on someone else's set was great. He was very familiar with the RED, he works at a rental house and he's seen the workflow a ton of times. He was really nice and explained a lot of the functions of the camera to me. He told me that my job was basically the 2nd AC. I was so happy because coming from him that meant a lot. It's always good to work on a set with Brian and Matt. As usual, Brian was always imparting knowledge, that's why I call him the Master. I met some other nice people that I'm sure Brian will adopt and make part of the family.

The footage was recorded onto a hard drive instead of card. This made shooting a lot smoother because you didn't have to worry about swaping cards as often. There were two drives, one for high speed (which will give you slow motion) and another drive for the normal speed footage. What a concept! One camera, two drives = no frame rate issues!!!!

I really like the camera and the workflow. It was so easy to download and easy to view the footage. I took my assignment very seriously, in my opinion, I had one of the most important jobs on the set. Based on my prior experience w/the HVX, the person who was in charge of downloading my footage (Frederick) had one of the most important jobs - if there was a screw up and something got erased then all the hard work we all put in would be out the window. I digress; I want to shoot my next project on the RED and use the super speed lenses. We used the normal speed lenses on Love Song because Indie Rental only has 5 sets of the super speed (they were all rented), the normal speed lenses worked well but the super speed would have been better particularly during the night scenes.

I'm about halfway done labeling and organizing my footage. Matt surprised me today with a rough cut of the end of the film. He set the footage to Mazzy Star's Fade Into You - ofcourse, now I have that song in my head and I want it, Matt decided to change the song because he didn't want me to get attached to it and he wanted me to see that the possibilities are endless. The scene is just beautiful.



Onahoua and David have so much chemistry, they look great together and they are so talented. As I watched the footage I was turned to mush, my eyes got watery and my heartbeat was super fast. Matt always tells me that shooting is fun, then you look at it and that's great, but when you watch your work edited and set to music, that feeling is just priceless, he's absolutely right. I had so many emotions running through me, it's been one of the most gratifying experiences of the process.



I'm so proud of this project, I can't believe we've come so far. I met with Christine and Laura today and we discussed our upcoming battles with post and trying to get the feature done in time to submit to festivals for next year. I have one day to shoot the opening of the film and get establishing shots, Christine has 2-3 days and she's shooting in late August. Stay tuned for the new cast of Christine's film; Ma and Grandma are going to be super fierce - wait 'till you hear who'll be playing them... Let's hope Christine doesn't keep us in suspense much longer before she makes the announcement.



xoxo,

Lucy

ps
yes, Matt the Cinematographer is the Editor, I am the Assistant Editor - That's how it's done in IndieWood!

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

Working 9 To 5 To Pay The Rent - Working 5 To 12 To Make Love 10 To 1

We’ve been in pre-production on Love 10 to 1 for a while now. From the beginning, there’s been at least a weekly meeting pertaining to the movie, usually between Christine and I, mostly on the hiking trail on Saturday and/or Sunday. Besides this, I'm also involved with Movies By Women, I take classes , go to seminars etc. My schedule's pretty packed right now. I'm taking an editing class on Tuesdays and the other six days, have been filled with meetings for the film.

I work full time, I'm an executive assistant in Santa Monica. I live close to work in Brentwood. My commute is usually 15 minutes. The way home is usually more congested. Most of the times, it takes me between 20 – 30 minutes and on a few rare occasions, (though they are becoming more frequent) the trip home from work has taken, at times anywhere from 1 hour to 2. Yes, that’s traffic in LA.

I’m not digressing. The point is that I work full time – 9am – 5pm and then I focus on film stuff. The last month, it’s been non-stop meetings after work and on weekends. I’m slowly feeling the burn.

Most of the production meetings take place in Hollywood, around 7pm. So after a day at work, I sit in traffic for 2 hours. I’ve tried taking different streets, Olympic, Venice, Santa Monica, Wilshire, Sunset etc. Most of my time is spent crawling from Bundy to Sepulveda and again at various points in Beverly Hills.

The meetings used to last until 10pm – now, they are lasting closer to midnight. There are times when I’ve gotten home at 2am. For the most part, I’m typically home by midnight but then I have to check my email (I don’t have access to personal email at work), so I’m usually in bed by 1:00am. I get up around 7:45.

The gym and hikes are now a luxury that I try to squeeze in about once a week. I barely speak to my family because of the time difference (they are mostly on the east coast).

I’m no stranger to hard work. I’m the oldest of 4 children. When I was 16, my parents gave me a decent allowance but I wanted more money to go to concerts and shop. So I got a job after school. I worked as a telemarketer from 4pm to 9pm three days per week and on weekends I did one eight hour shift sometimes two (depending on how much those boots cost).

I’ve always worked hard for what I want. I don’t have the sense of entitlement that a lot of people have in this town. So, if the end result is going to get me what I want, then I’ll work hard for it. However, I’m also very impatient and I feel like I’ve been working towards this goal most of my adult life. When is it going to pay off?

Unlike a lot of people, I’m not depending on filmmaking to make me rich. If it got to that point, I’d keep my day job but cut down my hours so I can dedicate more time to filmmaking. I like having a job that has nothing to do with film. It keeps me balanced.

I’m ok juggling the full time job, the two hours in traffic, the meetings – I can do it. BUT, what if I had a child? How would I fit all of this around a human being who would be depending on me? One of the coolest things I saw at the LA Film festival were two female filmmakers (they had a doc at the festival) and they walked down the red carpet with their bundles on their hips.

I think documentaries tend to be more women friendly than narrative filmmaking. My next project after Love 10 to 1 is a documentary and I’ll also be working with Christine on her feature. So, it looks like for the next two years (plus) I’ll be doing the 9-5 gig, followed by the 2 hours in traffic followed by 3 hour meetings.

Here’s to the art of multitasking.

Lucy

This Is It - Part II

Just to clarify.....I'm NOT the one with a penchant for popcorn - I'm glad I got a few phone calls asking if it was me, sorry to disappoint - at least my friends are reading the blog. I wish we got more readers who don't know us & who find this helpful.

The blog was # 2 on the Google search engine the other day - now we are on page 2:-(

Lucy

This is It

Location scouting for Love 10 to 1

We met with the general manager of a local club/bar last night who gave us a great price break for this location as well as pearls of wisdom about karma and life. What more can a filmmaker ask for in a location scout? Looks like we found our club! It's a reasonable size and we'll need about 25-30 people to make the club look crowded, rather than the bigger-sized clubs that we looked at before where we'd have to get at least 50 extras. For us to secure this location, we have to put down the deposit by Monday. Yikes! This is it. Our first big expense thus far. There is no turning back now. I wonder if I still have my Valium pills. Kidding.

Prior to this, we stopped by a sound studio that can be turned into a "radio station". The owner was very nice, especially after one of us (who shall remain nameless) seductively batted her eyelashes, thrusted out her big boobs, and asked the owner for some hot, fresh popcorn. Now ladies and gentlemen, you may be thinking, popcorn isn't sexy--but if you were there you'd give her popcorn too. So yes, we got the "radio station" for a great rate too. And the owner promised to make us popcorn during the shoot.

Justin Klosky as Jim - Local Rock Star & Swimming Instructor

Justin Klosky as Jim

Greetings Love 10 to 1 fans;

I promised to post a picture in one of the older blogs - click on the label "JIM" if you are interested in reading about the grueling search for THIS MAN!

Let this be a testament, that if you want something bad enough you will get it. We went through 4 grueling rounds of auditions to find someone who totally embodies Jim.



"Klosky’s big break was when he made his television debut on Guiding Light as Joey Lupo, the star high school baseball player on July 1, 2003 as a guest star. After coming back and forth and guest starring as his own original character, he earned a 3 year contract and a spot on Daytime Television. Playing on the show from 2002-2005, Klosky was acknowledged with a Daytime Emmy, Pre-Nomination for Outstanding Younger Actor in 2004 and was just recently brought back to the cast of Guiding Light after a leave of a year to spice up the younger generations story line."

Stay tuned for tomorrow's or Friday's blog on how to survive making a film while working a full time job.

Lucy

How Screwing on a Light Bulb is like Filmmaking

I met up with another filmmaker who was a former attorney many years ago. We were talking about leaving the security of a corporate job to pursue a career as a filmmaker (writer, actor, artist, etc). She said something that I found quite interesting. She said, pursuing your passion is like screwing on a light bulb. That is, if you're going to screw on a light bulb, screw it on all the way. If you do it half-assed, the light won't turn on. She left her cushy corporate job years ago and never looked back. Anyway, this isn't technical advice about how to make an indie film, but I think it's important for a filmmaker to keep their passion alive for the project even when they don't know where next month's rent will come from. Heck, JK Rowling had to sleep in her car before she became a gazillionaire, didn't she? Or was that Jewel?

Other headaches

I'm going through the various insurance company brokers to see what is the most affordable coverage available. This is an expense that falls around the $2K+ bucket. When we were contacting people for use of their locations, an important thing to mention was that we're obtaining third party property damage coverage. So getting insurance is something that we definitely need. An aside: it's amazing how many people mentioned that prior productions have trashed their locations and that they're now wary of letting people shoot at their locations. So we are hoping to set a good example. Best case scenario is that we won't need to utilize any of the insurance coverages.

Also just found out that we lost a couple of our key crew because they are off to work on bigger budget productions, i.e., more pay. Bastards. Haha... Two steps forward, three steps back. That is life in the big city and right now I don't even want to think about it. We need to go over our budget again. Should add "finance whiz" as one of the hats an indie filmmaker needs to wear.

Film Geeks @ Work

Friday night I spent an evening watching movies with Leah. Well, we saw one movie and watched scenes from a few other movies. The film we saw was A Slipping Down Life with Guy Pearce & Lily Taylor.

This is a gem of a little movie and it's one of my favorites. I can watch it over and over and the soundtrack is amazing. Guy sings all the songs on the album. The soundtrack makes me melt. His voice is raw, gentle and pure. It's a blues album sprinkled with a bit of honky tonk. Only someone as talented as Guy can pull this off. I often wonder why Guy Pearce isn't more famous. He has such a diverse body of work, from Priscilla Queen of the Dessert, to Memento, to LA Confidential, The Proposition etc. I can't believe that he was in LA Confidential and Russell Crowe is the one who became super famous! I digress....

Leah really liked the movie, it's a very offbeat film and it's not for everybody. I personally love it. The film is beautifully and artfully directed by Tony Kalem (an actress and writer). What I love about the film is that the camera is always moving. So now on top of all the camera equipment we need, we also need a jib arm and a steady cam, plus a steady cam operator!!! Why does art cost so much????

I showed Leah a scene from Grace of My Heart. There's a psychedelic club scene with a band on stage, the crowd is dancing, they use a lot of strobes and it's very '60s. I told Leah that for Dirty Virgin's gig on Valentine's day I wanted to do an homage to that time period. The Grace of My Heart clip was the closest I've seen to what I want to accomplish but I was afraid that the strobe lighting along with the song we are using would make it look like an 80's metal video. I told Leah that at the club scene I want to capture the emotion and the feel of a 60's rock show. I love the 50's and 60s but especially the late 60's and this is my way of acknowledging and thanking the music from that time period.

What I love about Leah is that without much articulation on my part she knew exactly what I wanted. She showed me the opening scene from the movie Ali and there it was. I told her that's pretty much the lighting I was looking for. It's basically a big spotlight and it's mostly shot from the back of the singer into the audience. I told Leah that I wanted similar lighting for the club scene and that the lead singer will perform about 40% of the song offstage singing into the crowd. This is the scene with the 5 cameras and now you can add steady cam and a jib arm to that as well. Luckily, the package we have comes with a dolly.

Next up was Some Kind of Wonderful. I've always LOVED the kissing scene in the garage. It's right up there with the best of them. I told Leah, I want that to be my kissing scene. I had no idea how they got the camera to move around them that way, it turns out that it's just a dolly shot. Leah had never seen the film so I left it for her. I think it's one of John Hughes' best (he wrote it). The ending was a bit abrupt for my taste but I can live with that. I've heard people say that it's Pretty in Pink reversed, there was something about Pretty in Pink that I didn't like. When I watched it as an adult it hit me, Hello, she's in love with an a$$hole and she ends up with the a$$hole! I think I need to watch the Ducky edition and see if I like that better.

The last film we watched was In The Mood For Love. I know, every filmmaker's wet dream is to make a movie like this. How do you demystify a Wong kar Wai film? How do I dare emulate or draw inspiration from even one scene from this film? I love the rich texture of this film, the longing and desires of the two main characters. It reminds me of Shane and Dustin. They long for each other but do they destroy their friendship? Would Shane give up her music to be with Dustin? Will their relationship work? Shane, an up and coming rock star about to go on tour for 8 months and Dustin, a corporate accountant who leaves his job to start a video game company - can they make it work? If not, can they go back to being friends? They are roommates, best friends and do everything together but they withhold their romantic love from each other. It's the withholding and the longing of these characters that makes them similar. I'm not claiming in any way to come close to the genius that is Wong Kar Wai but if I see something in my story that reminds me of his film, I won't close myself to the possibility of using his palette as an inspiration for my canvas.

I love the scenes in the alley way and I told Leah that I want a scene of Dustin and Shane walking down a street in Venice the way they do in this film. Of course it's going to cost money to light such a scene. The scene I showed Leah is what's called slow motion with a stutter, a few of the scenes that I liked from A Slipping Down Life also used this technique. Luckily, the camera we have can do this but again, it comes down to $$$$$$$$$$. So, I need to think of a way to get this shot using what we already have. Plus, I now need to figure out how to get a permit to shoot in Venice at night on the cheap or for free!

So here's what I learned from my movie watching with Leah:

Guy Pearce is super hot
I like dolly shots, jib arms and steady cams
I like slow motion stutters
I can speak Lucy and Leah understands what I want
I have expensive taste, everything I want requires more $$

Lucy

Securing Locations

Now that we were able to secure another location for FREE, I've finally gotten around to interviewing for some of the other critical positions, including a sound person, production designer and script supervisor. I asked a friend who's an indie producer for referrals, and he gave me several names. Funny thing is, I called up this sound guy and it turns out that he knows our DP! Small world indeed. She thinks he's a kick ass sound guy, and he thinks she's a kick ass DP. So we're crossing our fingers that he'll come on board as our sound person.

Also interviewed a couple of production designers. One quoted us a fairly high daily rate (high for us, that is), and said she wouldn't work for less. The other one said that he only works on projects he believes in, and for those projects, he'll make it manageable for us. This is what I love about indie filmmaking: meeting the people who believe in our project, and are willing to do what it takes to make it work. Meeting people who are passionate about your project is so important. Perhaps that's an idealistic thing to expect, but I can't imagine doing this without having passion for the project.

Hopefully, both guys will come on board and work with us. Yeah, testosterone coming in, but I think that's a good thing. :)

Christine

How Much Is This Going To Cost?

A lot. But all we need at this point is an additional 20K. It is our hope that with all the wealthy people in LA we can find a few kind souls who can invest in our film. Otherwise, it'll be Christine and I borrowing the money from either credit cards or family - no, we can't be that cliche, we have to get people to invest. How hard can it be to find 4 individuals to invest 5K each?

It also seems that things tend to cost either $500 or $2,000. I am grateful for all the favors we've managed to get (a lot). Not to mention the free locations and the discounted locations. We are having a hard time securing a radio station and it looks like we may have to build one. I'm pretty sure that building a radio station will fall in the category of "Things That Cost 2K". We can't afford that so I hope we find a radio station that can let us shoot there for free!

We can't afford to go even $1 over budget.

The other location I'm having a hard time securing is the nice house that Shane & Dustin share. I may have found something but again that falls into the category of "Things That Cost 2K", and most of our locations are requiring that we get 1M in third party property damages (this isn't as expensive as one would think), and Christine and I are of the mind set that you're better safe than sorry.

In order to get the film done in 18 days, we will mostly be shooting with 2 cameras, there are a few 3 day camera days and a club scene with 5 CAMERAS! We are using the Panasonic HVX 200 which is also freaking me out. IT"S TAPELESS!!! The footage gets captured with a P2 card. The footage from each P2 card gets downloaded to a drive. We will back up our footage to two drives and 2 dvds to be on the safe side. I hope I explained all this correctly. Of course the 5 camera day is in the segment I'm directing. I have never worked with such a big camera crew. I was freaking out but my DP put my mind at ease because I only have to deal with her and she'll be in charge of the 5 camera operators and all the people power that comes with that. Besides the HUGE camera crew, there's a pretty big Grip & Electric crew, plus the 3 assistant editors who will be downloading all the footage.

We have yet to find a sound person. Another challenge of the five camera day is going to be the sound. We need to figure out how to synch the sound to all 5 cameras. Maybe it won't be that difficult. The 5 camera day is the day we shoot the club scene. It's a pivotal scene in the film. It's where all the characters come together, like the airport scene in Love Actually. The band is playing at the club (I'm negotiating to try to get The Gig on Melrose). The band's performance will be shot using the playback of the song from a cd but I need to make sure that our sound person and our DP can figure this out on the cheap, no renting of additional expensive equipment. The one day at the club scene is eating up almost 1/2 of the budget allocated to Love Song.

Love Song is the new name of my piece. It used to be Californication, like the RHCP song but I'm sure you've all heard of that Showtime series starring that guy from the X Files! It's actually a pretty good show. I still get annoyed when I see the billboards all over town. I like Love Song, it's the name of Dirty Virgin's single (the band in the film), the song is courtesy of The Fabulous Miss Wendy. I'm using another song called Love Song Yo! by someone I found on myspace, his name is Jason Keeton. Hooray for myspace music. There have been so many changes to my story that it's appropriate that there's a new title to go along with the current version.

Our actors are AMAZING. We have been so privileged to get so many talented people attached to our project (we will announce our full lineup shortly). We had a reading the other night. It was an emotional ride because I saw these characters come alive, and the stories finally felt right. The film felt tight. We will be making some minor changes and then we will be ready to lock the script. This is the first time that Laura (our third director) heard the entire script. We were all very pleased with the results of the reading. I can't say it enough but our cast ROCKS.

The other thing that TOTALLY ROCKS is the fact that as of now our entire crew is made up of WOMEN. I found our DP through one of the job boards of www.moviesbywomen.com. Leah has done so much for us, helping and guiding us along the way, and yes, she laughed her ass off when Christine and I told her we were intending on shooting all 3 stories for 15K (including post).

The best piece of advise I can give a filmmaker is to surround yourself with competent team mates that you respect and get along with. We have worked so hard but we've also had a lot of fun. Our production meetings tend to last a little longer than they should because we get along so well and we always digress into other subjects. It's a good feeling when you are working hard towards something you are passionate about, and it feels even better when you have like minded people at your side.

On Saturday we are meeting with our web designer, we hope to have the website up and running shortly.

Did I mention we still need 20K.

Lucy

Under Water Scenes Etc.

Just talked with our DP this morning about a couple of underwater scenes that we have in Diving Lessons. Why does everything seem like it will cost at least $2K? I'm sure that every producer/director has faced this problem: cut the scene and save the money for more practical concerns, such as paying our crew, or else try to raise even more money? Art vs. commerce. What to do? I sent an email to another friend today asking her to hit up her rich friends to help a sistah out. We'll see. So far the super wealthy have kept their purse strings tight, while close friends and family have been quite generous. I don't get it. If Leona Hemsley can give $12 million to her dog, what's a measley $20K to invest in our film??? In my next life I would like to come back as a rich person's pet, I think (with the exception of Michael Vick). Though I wouldn't be able to type very well without fingers. Sorry, I digress. Money! We need a bit more to get all the cool scenes that we dreamt about. So here's to putting the law of attraction into place. Positive thoughts of money rolling in!

Christine

Progress!

Progress! We've been location scouting for various places that will agree to give indie filmmakers a break. It's been a tough ride, but we've had several HUGE breaks. We were able to secure a great location at a community pool for a reasonable price, and they've been incredibly helpful. We had scoured all of LA for a pool and this pool in Cerritos was our one and only hope. They came through for us.

The Pleasure Chest in West Hollywood gave us a great deal. They are wonderful to work with and you better believe we'll be plugging their condoms and lube whenever we can. No pun intended. :)

We were also able to secure a retirement home in they Valley. It's been fun meeting some of the residents who are very curious about our production. We met a 92 year old woman who looks like she could be 70 and had the spirit of an 18 year old. Love it!

Still working on a few more locations, so we're crossing our fingers.

Synopsis of Love 10 to 1

Synopsis of Love 10 to 1

Love 10 to 1 is a romantic comedy that explores the highs and lows of relationships and love in the city of Los Angeles. The film is told in three vignettes--each with colorful characters facing both painful and hilarious circumstances. The film circles around a report on Jackie and Jared's radio show about the men shortage in the city and the single women who outnumber them by 10 to 1. The statistic serves as a profoundly motivating factor for the characters and as a constant reminder of the harsh reality of dating in LA.

The first story explores the life of a 29-year-old virgin, Jenny, who desperately wants to lose her virginity before her 30th birthday. As she encounters one loser after another on dates, Jenny pines after her boss, Dustin. While at her grandmother’s retirement home, Jenny learns a powerful lesson from her grandmother about sex and the meaning of life.

The second story revolves around Shane, the lead singer of the L.A. rock band, Dirty Virgin. Shane has her pick of admirers but it’s her roommate Dustin she wants to be with. Shane confesses her feelings on Jackie and Jared’s show but when Dustin meets Cali, Shane’s shot at love starts to dwindle. With Dirty Virgin about to embark on a world tour, will Dustin realize that he’s the object of Shane’s affections? Will they risk their friendship to give this Love Song a chance?

The final story picks up where the first story left off, but from the perspective of Jim, the guitarist of Dirty Virgin. Jim sees Jenny at a swimming pool, trying desperately to overcome her fear of diving. In fact, he finds out that she’s making a list of everything that she’s afraid of and trying to overcome them, one by one. He is instantly smitten and tries to convince her that he’s not just a rock star who ‘loves ‘em and leaves ‘em’. Can a rock star find love with a virgin?

The tone of the film is akin to "Sex and the City" meeting "Love Actually," but with a diverse cast that truly reflects the face of Los Angeles. The project is a collaboration of three women writer/directors Christine Le, Lucy Rodriguez-Watson, and Laura Somers. The filmmakers bring together their unique experiences and perspective to tell a compelling story that is truly universal.

The Search For JIM

We had auditions for one of our leads in Love 10 to 1. Jim, will be the hardest to cast. He's in all 3 stories and Christine, Laura and I need to agree on who we get. This will be challenging because while the 3 of us see eye to eye on a lot of things, we have very different opinions on who we want in Jim. I want a sleazy rocker type, think of Slash in the early days of Guns N Roses, mixed with Jim Morrison. I think that's hard to find today, do people even know who Slash or JM are? Is this too tall an order?

I showed Christine and Laura a myspace page of a musician that I think would make a great Jim. Christine thought he was too sleazy looking and not hot. I never saw Jim as hot, but he definitely has to exude a raw sex appeal that makes women throw themselves at him. Oh, and he also has to have a kick ass body because he's a swimming instructor for little kids. So ideally, a rocker dude with a hot bod....definitely a tall order.

We saw really good actors, some better than others. We are calling 4 of them back and there was one that I was absolutely mad for, but for the role of Dustin. That's going to be another challenge. A while ago I auditioned someone that I totally loved for the part, but because this has taken us so long, I'm afraid he's no longer interested. Dustin is a story for another day.

My sister, who is cast as Shane, helped us with the reading. Thank God for small favors. Over all the auditions went well. I'm hopeful for the call backs but I think our search must continue.

I always sign my name so people know which one of us is posting - hint, hint ladies:-)

LUCY

So, if you know a Jim, please send him our way. We shoot on August 25 for 9 days and then on October 13 for another 9.

Pre-Pro Baby

Yes, it's true. Planning to shoot Love 10 to 1 over two periods of time, the first in late August, and the second shoot in mid to late October. It has been a long journey but I'm sure not atypical of an indie feature where financing is hard to come by and schedules get pushed back for numerous reasons. We have been fortunate that the main cast have stuck by us from the beginning. No wonder people tell us to work on what we're passionate about--it has to be a labor of love.

So we brought on a new writer/director to take on the challenge of penning a new third story in our three-story "trilogy". She met the challenge, and it's great! The third story will be told from the perspective of "Jim", a hot, young rocker stud who is looking for love in all the wrong places--until he meets Jenny, a virgin (and our protagonist from the first story). The rest of the story--you'll have to tune in...

Auditions will be held this Sunday to cast for Jim. This will be challenging we think. Where can we find a hot stud muffin who can look good in a speedo, yet also oozes intelligence, sensitivity and charm? Ability to play the guitar would be a bonus. And of course, would need to have sizzling chemistry with our "Jenny".

We are optimistic (and crossing our fingers).

Christine