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Our First Car Rig

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

The other night we had scheduled our first car rig shot. We had plenty of other shots to get done that night and only about 2 hours to make a car rig and film the scene. Now a proper car rig requires a bunch of different considerations.

Lighting
At night, the actors need to be seen, so there needs to be light. How are you going to get lights on/in the car? Will it be enough light? Will you be able to light it nicely?

Power
All those lights will require some juice. A standard construction generator will give you about 4000w which is enough for maybe two of the lights you'd want to use.

Sound
Wind noise? Generator noise? noise from light fixtures? If there is dialogue in the scene then you need quiet everything.

Camera
Will the camera be fixed? Will the camera operator need to fit in the car?

Safety
hah. not important.

Here are some photos of our success.

Teaching Shoshana Stick

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

One of our prop cars fell through and at the last minute we secured an old 66 mustang to fill the roll. Only trouble was that it has a manual transmission and our actress Shoshana could not drive it. The car also had a really harsh clutch, no power steering, and something like 300 horsepower - so it wasn't the easiest car in the world to drive.


As soon as she arrived on set I took her to an empty parking lot and we practiced driving a litte bit. All she needed to do was drive out of frame and around the corner so it wasn't all that difficult. We practiced for about 20 minutes until I thought she had it down. It was important that we see her in the car driving off because we wanted to take it all in one shot.

However, when the time came to actually shoot the scene, Shoshana had to practice again. The tricky part became timing, because Shoshana could launch off alright but it took about 4 seconds for her to get the clutch in a comfortable position. We took the drive off shot about 7 times until we got the timing correctly. In the end I was very impressed with Shoshana's skill. She was even able to chirp the tires a little.

Photo Shoot

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

A couple days ago we got our set up early and had some time to kill. Our DP took her digital still and grabbed a few pictures of our crew. I thought it might be fun to share a couple so that you don't think it is crazy stress all the time.

Set Dressing on the Cheap

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

So earlier in the week we had to film a scene in the ballroom of an abandoned mansion. Pretty easy in a sound stage but pretty impossible for a found location. Brad (director) had the crazy idea to film in his old elementary school, which he remembered had an auditorium we could use.

Now if we had lots of cash and time we would prep the location for a couple days before shooting. What happened was we showed up at call time and found the auditorium filled with junk. Files, toys, equipment, etc. It ate about 3 hours of prep time just emptying the room but we had to keep it organized because the room needed to go back to the way it was.

Before the shoot Brad had gone to some rummage sale and bought a lot of random items that might be found in an abandoned house. Once again we don’t really have a dedicated production design person, so set dressing is pretty much the hardest thing ever. But we pulled it off I think:

Typical Shooting Day

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

So I thought that on production’s “day off” I’d write a little something about why we need a “day off” and why I am putting “day off” in quotes.

Crew Schedule
Call for crew is typically 6pm everyday which means they need to be up by 4:00pm in order to get ready to leave the house by 5:30pm. Once they get to location at 6pm (they’re usually late) the crew start to unpack the truck. They need to power up the generator, set up the power distribution, set up preliminary lighting, etc. This usually lasts until 9pm when it’s dark and the gaffer (Eon Mora) and the DP (Rachel Morrison) can start really lighting. Once lighting is tweaked and actors rehearse blocking we start filming in the first set up at about midnight. Basically 6 hours of prep for the first shot. Every time we reverse the angle lighting needs to change so we don’t catch all our old lights in shot. Once the sun comes up at around 5:30 the crew spends the next two hours breaking everything down and packing it into the truck. They are all usually in bed by 8:30 am. Little over 14 hour day.

Cast
The talent shows up at about 10pm every night once the lights are set up. They go work through blocking and rehearse the whole scene. They are finished by about 11pm and at that point they go to wardrobe and make up. While in make up the lights get tweaked and we run through some rehearsals with the camera in position so the DP can practice her motion and the AC (Rachel Lassee) can mark focus points. If we are lucky the first shot starts at 12am. Each shot takes about 15 minutes depending on the number of takes and the length of the shot. After 15 minutes the actors leave set and crew spends the next 30 min setting up the next shot. When the sun comes up at around 5am the cast gets wrapped and they get to go hone and sleep. A 7 hour day.

Special People
Some special people, like production design, DP, director, and often I have to be at set earlier to go over logistics. The director (Brad) and I usually try and figure out blocking and if there is any way to minimize our shots for the night. The DP figures out an efficient lighting set up that would require the least amount of resetting between shots, and production design works on dressing location to make it look like what we want. We then stay through the night until the set is broken down. 16 hour day.

Producer Dan
Dan schedule is tricky. He is on set every night to deal with logistics like facility managers, neighbors, catering, etc. He also needs to be up in the mornings because he has meetings with locations that are coming up later in the week. Basically by about 4am he usually falls asleep on set or we send him home because he needs to be up by 10am most days. 18 hour day.

Now I say this is my “Day off” because it isn’t really. Crew has the day off but higher ups have plenty to do. I am updating the website, sending out picture approvals, backing up tap, working on securing big equipment and props, and trying to fit in the latest episode of Top Gear and Entourage somewhere in there. Dan is running around securing more locations probably. And chances are Brad will call me tonight to go over shots at location for tomorrow night. I don’t blame him we have a lot to do.

So that being said, anyone in the Bay Area want to join our crew?

Flagging a Cop Car

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

Last night we were filming at a bus stop when all of a sudden a police chase went right through our set. A guy in a BMW was driving drunk and was stopped by one of our crew members because we were taking and didn’t want anyone driving through. Luckily the BMW stopped but was quickly surrounded by a couple cop cars. We had to cut because the light from the cop cars was falling into our shot. We decided to wait out the commotion.

The thing is, in Palo Alto (in this case Menlo Park) there isn’t much for cops to be excited about. Most calls they get are “suspicious shadow seen” or “lost chapstick reported”. When this drunk driver was stopped just about every on duty cop came for a piece of the action. Before long about ten police cars showed up trying to arrest this guy.

We were behind schedule like usual and decided we absolutely needed to take. Eon (gaffer), brave/idiot that he is, decided he would volunteer his life and try to flag the light from the cop cars. He went into the middle of the street with a giant 4x4 black flag to block the light. He was essentially carrying a shadow with him. So there he was, in the middle of the street, carrying a gigantic shadow. If any car decided to pass through they would not see him at all. Fun stuff.

Can you find Eon?


There he is!