Week 5 Gallery

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A Message from Peter Rand

By Peter Rand production sound mixer

Were getting close to the end of production so I thought I’d put in my two cents worth. I’m the production sound mixer and the old man of the set with experience. I came to this project having worked two days last summer with Brad, Tony, Dan and a few of the other crew members. I knew that the majority of the crew was young and coming up film makers but I never thought I would see such enthusiasm and to watch them go through such an amazing learning curve. The first days on set they were tripping over there own feet, they didn’t know the names of the equipment or how to use it and here we are 5 weeks later, they are as proficient as they can be learning everything on there own without the help of anyone with experience. Needless to say after reading the other blogs you are aware of the trials and tribulations in the making of this film but when all is said and done the final product will speak for itself.

Two Locations in One Night

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

The other day we filmed at two exterior locations. This meant that we needed to set up the generator and the big lights, break down the generator and big lights, move, and set up the generator and big lights a second time - all in the same night. Usually the set up and break down is the biggest thing we do on a regular night.

We shot the exterior of the abandoned house at an amazing location. Sam will point it out for you.



It was really spooky and awesome at the same time. just look at it.



It had a huge front lawn where Ladybird (production design) decided he'd try and fly. It inspired me to write my next film:



After the Abandoned house location we went to yet another location where we were filming pickups. The tricky thing about pickups is that we need to make sure the lighting matches exactly. For that we used reference pictures that were taken that day and in this case dailies from that day.



We also filmed out the back of a car and it required wranglers. The car was basically on a tether because we needed to feed power to the light that was mounted to it. this meant that Kenny and Vince had to wrangle the extension cord as the car drove by. 6mph might not seem that fast but when you are wrangling cable it is pretty ridiculous. Look how tired they are:

Creative Blog Title

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

Today is the first blog in awhile because, as I predicted, my macbook broke a second time and I needed to send it in for "repair". Lets just hope it survives this time.

The first part of this entry is going to be mainly about what happens on set that isn't filming. If you sit and think about it for awhile, we don't really film for that long when we are on set. Most of the time we are getting ready to film. When we are not filming we do things like take pictures of ourselves pretending to work:



Our best boy likes to steal my camera and take his zoom+long exposure shots of himself in the mirror. I don't know why he does this because the pictures are on my computer - he can't even add them to his myspace or anything.



Here you can see vince and sam. Enough said.



Look at that big smile on Dan. Normally I wouldn't put up this picture but he has been bugging me about putting more photos of him on the site. check.



This is me after only getting a few hours sleep for two nights in a row. Either that or I just fell asleep watching a poorly scripted scene... (ha ha).



But that night we did actually get a lot done. We filmed three scenes in one night that covered nearly 8 pages of the script. to make it work we had to black out the windows when the sun started to come up so it still felt like night time.



Brad and I even took over camera for a few takes - Brad operating and I focusing. Not because we needed to, just because we wanted to. Here is a picture of us really working for real.



Next up is a picture of the close attention to detail our production design team has. We a million pictures of our two actors in various boyfriend/girlfriend poses. That was a fun afternoon. We took the best ones and planted them around the room.



We also needed to work in a crude dolly shot into the scene. It worked by making a sled out of an old wheelchair.



It was a fun night.

A Message from Dylan Chapgier

By Dylan Chapgier grip, boom

It’s 6:14 in the morning on Saturday the 12 of August. Today, or Friday night, was an off day, and i have recently been informed that Saturday night will also be a night off. We have filmed for nearly a month and a half. It is exciting to hear that we are nearly complete with the film. I must say that at times, it is really hard to say that I enjoy making this film, especially when we have to begin and end the day unloading the truck with extremely heavy lights. But, at the end of the day, or at least after watching the daily’s, i must say that i feel proud of the work the crew and cast has pulled off.

Since this was my first time on a movie set, I had no idea what to expect, and boy was I surprised. When you watch a movie, you don’t realize the work and pain that went into making each individual shot in the film. As mentioned before in Rachel’s blog, setting up lights for each scene can take hours of labor. We usually don’t start rolling film until 11 at night, and the crew comes on set at 6 to start working. It’s a lot of back-breaking labor that, in my mind, the crew should receive more credit.

For this reason, I will take this opportunity to introduce you, the reader, to some of our crew.

Kenny is our key electric. He is in charge of the distribution of electricity along the set. This is a very tough job that he excels in very well. He’s in High school and loves to go long boarding. He’s done a bunch of other films and knows a lot about the technology used in the film-making.



Porgie is key grip. He has a this great talent of getting himself injured. His leg got stuck in our grip truck’s platform and recently had a 2 x 4 beam fall on his head, just to name a few. When he’s not hurting himself, he is an awesome guy to chill with.



Ichiban is the gaffer. His job to assign all of us jobs and make sure the scene looks pretty. He has blown me away with his knowledge of film making, especially at the age of 19. He has a great sense of humor and makes all of our jobs easier when he talks about his relations with our mothers.



Cody is boom. He took my job because he is more interested in sound and editing, and I am more interested in the photography and lighting of a shot. He is a great guy to have on set, especially when talking about the superiority of apple computers (if you can’t tell, I’m a mac owner myself).



Luis was on our team. He had to leave early because he needed to start making money on his own, and couldn’t keep up with both a day job and a night job. He is lives close by and is a great person to chat with. I wish we could still have him on set. He made our lives easy with the music played from his cell phone to the walkie talkies.



Vince is a great guy to have on set. He is super tall and has a belching ability that rivals that of Brad’s. Having him burp on the walkie-talkie gets me through the day. He also decided to leave early, but came back, and has been a great helping hand.



Rachel is AC 1. She has worked on a lot of other films and is quite experienced in film making. Being one of my house-mates, I usually give her ride to and from location everyday. Usually when we come back from location, we like to watch an episode of our favorite show, Arrested Development. She is a super-awesome person who has an equally awesome music selection.



Matt is AC 2. Like me, this is his first film shoot, and is doing a good job loading film magazines and running errands for both Rachels. Just like Georgie Porgie, he also has an extraordinary ability of getting himself hurt. One day it’s a door that falls on his face, another day he hurts his hand somehow. The crew recently pitched in to buy him a helmet, but for some odd reason, he doesn’t want to wear it.



I have had such a great time working close with these people. I only hope they enjoy my stupid jokes and annoying awkwardness. And i also hope i didn’t just embarace them.

Bringing You Guys up to Date

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

It has been awhile since my last blog entry which is just as well because I have been really busy. Luckily I’ve had some other people sending me entries to lighten my load. So this entry will attempt to bring everyone back up to speed with what we’ve been up to.

We filmed at my old high school with all four of our guys. Aaron Ashmore (Alec), Justin Mentell (Ryan), Johnny Lewis (Nolan), and Ben Savage (Patrick). We were filming the opening scene in the story where they all break into their old classroom to steal something that was confiscated by their teacher.



It was great to have them all here because they get along really well and in the scene I felt that they truly were good old friends. In reality they’ve only all just met.

The next night we went to a different high school to film all the boys before they break off for the night. It is there that we took this great picture of all of them together:



After that, everyone but Justin Mentell flew back to LA and we filmed some more car rig stuff. This time it was a little more sophisticated with a generator ratcheted to the front of the tow car. Brad had also spent his free time in the previous week welding on platforms for lighting and camera.





The following night was pretty intense. We were shooting another scene at our abandoned house which had since been completely cleaned up. We had to match the exact placement of ALL OUR PROPS. Down to the position of the very last beer can and the aggressiveness of its crumpling.



The night after that we filmed a slight throwback to American Graffiti. It included a familiar car character:



The night after that was more car stuff. The last of the Geo Metro car stuff. Justin and Eve were glad not to have anymore long dialogue scenes in that car. I don’t know what the big deal is, I liked it. The funk lingers on your clothes longer than any other car I’ve driven.



That brings us to yesterday where we filmed a crane shot. No dialogue and only one shot. It took us 4 hours to set up, 15 minutes to film and an hour and a half to break down… but believe it or not it was worth it



So that is the big update from me. We have about 12 more days of filming and then it is back to LA and back to seeing the sun for more than an hour or two each day.

Thoughts from the Boom Operator

By Cody Foltz boom, grip

Finally someone new on this page..naw I’m just joking, I love all you guys. Hey everyone I’m Cody Foltz AKA Cujo and I have been working as boom operator for most of the picture. I started out as a grip and maybe that’s why my poor arm had taken such a beating, not to mention my ankle. Yes it’s been tough but if life was always easy…well that just wouldn’t be any fun now would it. We’ve all been through a lot of adventures along the way. Just yesterday one of our key grips got taken to the hospital after suffering a blow to the head from a 2x4 but I’m happy to report he’s doing just fine, kudos to porgy :) (George M.)

One day we were shooting a bus stop scene and as we had done for street shoots; we would have grips blocking the surrounding streets to keep the area clear. I was working as a grip at the time and had been blocking traffic most of the night. Our A.D. Ian calls picture up and all of a sudden a vehicle comes around the corner, so I walk out to have the driver stop. Only this vehicle kept coming at me. Then right behind it was a cop car with its light blaring. I had to literally jump out of the way to avoid being hit, the driver hit his breaks, and before I could even process what was happening I heard a voice yell “get out of the car now!” I turn around to see two police officers with their guns drawn and pointed in my direction, I moved away as quickly as possible while trying not to draw any unnecessary attention. Soon about six more cop cars flood the streets and our key gaffer Ion M. had to hold up a black flag inches away from a patrol car to block the flashing lights from ruining our shot. That was one night I will certainly remember when we are all wrapped and done, if that ever even happens… It seems that each day our wonderful producer Dan is always adding more and more work days to principle photography, I guess he just loves the show too much to let it end.

Well if nearly getting run over wasn’t enough, I sprained my ankle and my right arm just one day decided to stop working. I suddenly found myself not being able to lift anything anymore. I couldn’t even lift the Chinese noodles with chopsticks to my mouth to eat one night, no joke. Peter I knew I should have listened to you about how to correctly hold a boom pole. Peter is our head sound mixer; he’s an awesome guy to work with and I really appreciate all his help and hard work.

Now to wrap this thing up finally, this has been one of the most fun and exciting experiences of my life. Working with such a talented cast and crew and just getting the opportunity to experience filmmaking firsthand has been absolutely unforgettable. Even after nearly four weeks of filming there’s always something new to learn, you can never learn enough. I hope all of you who are still reading this by now will go see our film once we make the Cannes Film Festival…YES WE CAN DO IT! Thanks for reading :)

“I couldn't sleep one night and I was sitting in my office and I realized that I was an independent filmmaker”. (Darren Aronofsky)

More Cinematographer Stills

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

Rachel sent me some more pictures. Once again these are stills she takes are taken with a camera that tries to match film camera to help her communicate with the colorist who is transfering the film to video.

Renting a Back Lot: Anchange Style

By Dan Engelhardt producer

This entire film has been shot on location in Palo Alto. No sound stages, standing sets, or back lots. The reason for this is twofold – we are hoping to hold true to the feel of Palo Alto, and it is for the most part cheaper to shoot on location.

Yesterday, however we need a fairly controlled and empty environment. It was a car scene in which the actors needed to stop in the middle of the street – so El Camino didn’t seem like a good idea. In order to light the scene properly we needed as much available light as possible – street lamps, store fronts etc. Unfortunately for us most streets with lots of lights are busy. The solution we came up with was downtown Los Altos, which empties out at 7pm. You have to love small town, USA. By 8pm we had Main Street to ourselves. We used one of the large parking lots for staging our equipment, and craft services. Our picture car was on a trailer stationed on Main. We used one of crew members Golf’s to transport actors from set our staging area, and essentially had a back lot for free. The city allowed us to use the street throughout the night, and a restaurant left its exterior bathroom open for us. Who says you need millions in overhead to have control of your filming environment?

The Ever Changing Schedule

Dan Engelhardt producer

We are amazingly lucky to have a cast young, but extremely credible actors. Our five leads all have major credits, and are constantly working on big budget productions. While this fact is great for the quality of the film it presents a huge challenge for me as the producer. Every few days I receive a call from an agent needing us to revise the production schedule.

Last Wednesday, for example, I received a call regarding one of our actors who was suddenly unavailable for a shoot set to take place the next day. To make matters worse it was a scene that had been lined up on one of the only days that our four male leads were available. In order to not fall behind schedule I had to move shoots set for the following week forward - this meant calling locations, actors, equipment vendors etc. - hoping that all the resources would align in under 24 hours.

Shortly after this call, we found out that another one of our actors was unavailable to shoot a couple weeks down the road. Again days had to be moved, and the schedule had to be heavily revised - flights, accommodation plans, you name it. I was literally on the phone from 1pm until 8pm making these changes. Another issue that was introduced a few days later was “facial hair.” One of the leads was recently booked on a big budget movie that requires them to have facial hair. A day after we wrap with him he needs to be on another set with a beard. Because our budget is smaller, and the date we are shooting with him was moved from a previously locked date we have little leverage to require him to shave. For this reason Brad, Tony and I are trying to come up with creative ways to either to explain the beard through story points and /or shift the schedule in a way that eliminates the issue. So far we have moved one of the chase scenes to the day in question. This will hopefully allow us to avoid seeing the facial hair, but still allow us to get the scenes we need.

To compensate for these major shifts we have setup a week break during principle photography. During this time frame we will return some of our equipment to Los Angeles, undergo pre-production for the revised shoots, and take a few pickups that normally would have taken place well after production. Making this shift could potentially affect the budget, but hopefully returning some of our gear, and shifting to guerilla style filmmaking for the last week will minimize the added expense…. as luck would have it the scenes that will be left to shoot during this final week are pretty simple, and do not require huge lighting setups.

In the end the time spent to shift the schedule, and any added cost is well worth it. We have a talented cast signed on, and one that will be giving us a huge amount of exposure based on the other projects they are involved with.