More Pictures!!

Hi everyone, 

Here are some more pictures.

Kelly and Farah

Kelly

Dusty

Kelly and Dusty

Kelly and Dimitri

Kelly and Dad

The production team.

Emory the sound man.

Special FX RCM style

Some Pictures...

Hope this tides you over...I'll put some more up soon.  

All photos are by cornershopstudios.com  

Kalvin the makeup artist. 

J.S. the Gaffer.

Emmanuelle Francoeur as Kelly

Me giving Emma some direction.

Val: the grip, Faisal: The producer, Roberto: Art Dec

Gabi the Director of Photography with 1st AC Blair.

Bourbon as Dusty

1st AC Blair putting together the camera.

Day 3

How do you rent a trailer at 6:00 in the morning on thanksgiving day?

I could see the budget in my head clicking high like the numbers on a gas pump. The bus driver says: "I'm going to pour water into the radiator and see if it holds. I'll call you back in ten minutes and let you know what's up"

Faisal and I decide to start heading to the first location. It's outdoors so we can shoot it without any equipment if we have to. We get in the car and 20 minutes later the bus driver calls. He says "I'm on the way! I don't know how long it will stay but I'm moving now!" Relief!

Everybody is late today. With only a few hours of sleep, the cast and crew are tired. It's a wonder anybody got up at all. People are so dedicated to their jobs! Even Craft service!! I wanted to mention that The night before, our caterer made a turkey dinner for everyone in honor of Thanksgiving. That is a ridiculous amount of work but WOW!!

We get to the first location of the day. We are shooting behind a high school. What's amazing is that everyday has been beautiful outside. Sunny and warm! The one time we need it to be nice, it rains. And of course, we shoot for 3 hours and when we pack up, the sun comes out and stays sunny the rest of the day.

We got some amazing shots here, some of my favorites so far. Roberto, who is playing a guy getting beaten up (and is also are Art Dec man!) took so many hits to the face (willingly and against my wishes) that he had a swollen face for the day.

We finish at the high school and head to the last location. Everyone is sluggish and moving with anti-gusto. The first shots take hours to set up and now we are late. The issue with this location is we have to be out by 11:00. Not wrapped but packed up and cleared out. I can literally feel every muscle in my back tense. I'm staring at the story boards and shot lists and I'm cutting things left, right and center.

The room we are shooting is supposed to imply cleanliness to a sterile degree so we are shooting in a white room. This was the only place the DP did not see and I clearly made a huge mistake. DP's don't like white rooms. Check, gotcha, in the vault.

Things trudge along. I give myself time limits to complete a series of shots and I'm pushing everybody to go faster. A smile and a thank you go a long way. We keep getting closer to 11:00 and we are pushing along when all of a sudden it hits me; nothing I have shot over the past few days is going to fit. Nothing is going to make sense. OH GOD!!

We break for dinner and I need to get out of the location. I tell Faisal, "I'm going out and I'll be back in about 20 Minutes. Only call me if it's an Emergency."

As I walk around the neighborhood, I feel drained. My movie is going to suck and I just threw away thousands of dollars. I should have just stayed as a 1st AC. This is going to blow so hard!! I can feel myself loosing control and I want to run away.

I find quiet back street. As I'm walking down it, I start to visualize my movie filled with every shot we have done. I am editing the movie in my mind. I'm really concentrating and focused. When it's done I've gone from panic to relief and from relief to excitement. This movie looks pretty cool!

I get back to the location and I'm feeling much better. We get the rest of the film in the can. We push each other and nip at each other and get on each others nerves but we get it done with out anybody taking it personally!

By the time we finish packing up, bringing everything back to the rental house and I finish driving people home, it's some time in the A.M again.

The next day I go to work. I'm a Zombie at best. But every time I feel myself slipping away into sleep or craving my bed, I just think about what I did that weekend.

I directed a movie...That I wrote...and Produced! (Co-produced w/Faisal at the helm)

I'm 28 years old and I can't remember the last time I felt so good about something I worked so hard on.

Next stop: Post production!

Day 2 of production

Day 2 went like this.

I get to the meeting spot early again and notice only one person there today. Everybody else trickles in. Meeting time is for 6:00 and by 6:15 we are still missing a few people. We start making some calls and realize one of the crew just woke up. We figure it will be easier to drive across town to pick her up in my car then to wait. Darn, this means we are late again.

We get to the location and we have two things to do. We have to set up for the dinner scene at a location next door while shooting an outdoor scene. It seems a like everything is going well but a little tension is building. People are tired from yesterday but still, spirits are high.

We manage to get these great dolly shots inside the kitchen and we only break one thing. A clock from the rental house. Oh well...that's why I have a contingency section in the budget. Art dec did feel bad but stuff happens.

After the kitchen shots we head back to the original location and set up for the next scene. The actor in this scene is fantastic. I gave her a lot of freedom to add lines here and there and some of them were gold! I think it's going to be a really funny scene. We all had to cover our mouths a few times to hold back the laughter. Even our lead actor broke character a few times because of the great things we were getting.

The day continues... after lunch things start to slow down. I'm not sure why but we had so much to shoot and we just could not keep up. At one point I find a quiet spot and hide. I'm looking at the story boards and I'm trying to cut out what I absolutely don't need. I have to take a few key scenes and rework them. This is really tough of course because I'm moving things around to make it work but I can't see big picture. I'm staring and staring at these story boards and looking at the script.... I'm sweating. I need to cut some stuff but what?

Finally, it hits me. In fact it came to me in such an exciting wave that I became really pumped to get this new way on film. Less shots and more punch! Perfect. It's great because this is the climax of the film and I was really worried.

Everyone slowly trudges along and we get shot after shot. Then comes time to film the big finale. It involves "something" in the oven and we need smoke. We are basically burning newspaper under the camera to get smoke effects but when it comes time to film the actual oven, we need there to be more. So we make this tin tray and put it in the oven, throw some newspaper in there and light 'er up!

Now let me just say that nobody thought there was much in there. We start rolling. The flames look great on film. The smoke is great. The flames or looking really good, nice and big. Big flames....uh oh....

Now I'm thinking to myself: If I call cut, we won't be able to get the shot, If I keep rolling we risk a fire.... The shot is good so I keep rolling. I can feel the crew staring at me waiting for me to call cut. I'm still rolling....

Finally I call "Cut" and the crew get to work, they drag the tin tray out of the oven and into the sink, smoke fills the house, the fire alarm goes off! Everyone grabs flags and opens all the doors and windows and starts fanning out the house. Oh yeah and it's probably 10:30 at night now so neighbors I'm sure could hear this all and are wondering if they should call the fire department.

After the excitement I decide we need to have a meeting. Things are getting late and we only have this location untill we leave for the night. We have to be elsewhere tomorrow. so I explain we have 2 options. We either Finish shooting tonight what we need or I have to organize another at another time to come back and finish the job. If we finish tonight, it means we won't finish before 1:00 AM. The crew are clearly spent and completly exhausted as am I. The crew talks a bit and come back. They tell me they will stay to fiish the job provided I get some beer and choclate. DONE!

We shoot till about 1:00 AM and start loading up the bus. Now the issue is once we pack up the bus and head back to Montreal, we have to stop by my place and bring everything inside so we can leave the bus outside for the night. Then in the morning pack up the bus all over again and head out to the new location. This blows! I'm thinking about how to avoid this when the bus driver comes to see me. He tells me he is going to just sleep on the bus.

This guy is going to sleep on the bus to save everyone two painfull hours. Maybe cause I was tired or maybe cause I was releived but as soon as he told me that I started to well-up. I could not beleive that he was willing to do this for the production.

we get back to montreal and it's 3:00 in the AM. I drive people home and as I get to my last destibation (Faisal the producers house) I say decide to sleep over which will save me a half hour drive home plus another half hour drive back there in morning. I think I get to sleep around 4:00 am. Faisal is still working on call sheets when I crash. My dreams are even stranger than the night before's.

The next morning I wake up, turn my cell phone on and hear this from the bus driver:
"ADAM!!! I've been trying to call you all night. This is not a joke. we have a huge problem... The radiator from the bus has a huge leak in it. I've been trying to fix it but it just keeps spraying. It's thanksgiving Day at 6:00 AM and I can;t find a mechanic... we may not have a bus today!"


I feel my teeth clench.

Production Day 1

Now that I have had a day or so to recuperate, I'm ready to talk a bit about the shoot.

Day 1:

I wake up at 5:00 in the morning. Strange, but I slept like a baby last night. I was exhausted so I'm sure that helped. I start packing the car up with my equipment and drive over to the meeting spot a few blocks away where the rental place is located. I get there are 5:45, 15 minutes before we were supposed to meet and there are already 6 people waiting. Awesome!

when the bus arrives so we can start getting loaded up, another group was there first and it took longer to get all the stuff out. By the time we hit the road we were an hour late. We played catch-up for the rest of the day.

We arrive at the location and get our bearings. The two dogs meet for the first time and they are instantly friends. Perfect!

I look around and everybody is doing something and I think to myself "What do I do?" Very strange feeling to go from Camera crew or PA to Director. I went to move some stands and the Grips told me to put it down. I went to help with some Art Dec and they told me they have it covered. I went to check the camera settings and the DP said it was done. So I stood there, a little lost.

A few hours later we are getting ready to get our first shot. I call ACTION and I'm grinning like an idiot. I can't help it. After the first few hours I start to fall into a stride and by the end of the first day I'm working hard and completely comfortable at the helm.

The actors are doing great and we are getting some really good stuff. The dogs are stealing the show but the lead is doing so well it's making the crew pumped. The sun is shining outside and everyone is in good spirits. The owners of the house we were shooting in were so generous. They basically gave us free reign of the entire house and then left for the day.

We did have a small accident where somebody leaned against the oven and turned one of the top elements on and it burned a cloth to the oven. Woops. But we cleaned it the best we could and we'll let the owners decided how we can make it all better.

By the time we wrap for the day people are tired of course. We pack what we need (most equipment was staying behind in the location for the next day) and head back to Montreal. After driving some people home, I get in at about 1:00-ish. I'm out like a light!

That night I have dreams of shot lists and story boards and I wake up from time to time thinking about how to set up the next shot. My dreams are technical yet nonsensical. How can I get a more shallow depth of field if I use some diffusion over a Kino? HUH?? Is the dog looking at the proper eye line or do I need to use an HMI? WHAT?? Nothing makes sense and I wake up the next morning on edge.

Time Machine!

I am only a day away from the production of Dog Sitter.  We start early Saturday morning and film for three days.

Last night I had the final round of rehearsals as well as a production meeting.

Today I visited a prop house for the first time.  Although I found it incredibly interesting and could probably stay there for hours, I think it's quite boring to explain and I'll spare you the details.  But it was cool!

It sounds little silly but when I came home tonight I found a call sheet waiting for me in my inbox.  It was very exciting.  I've seen a whole whack of theses papers in the past but this time my name was next to Director.  I don;t know why I feel like I shouldn't be excited but I am.  And I am going to ride this feeling because who knows when the next time this will happen. 

Tomorrow I am filming some stuff for the contract that gave me my jump start.  I kinda wish I didn't have to do it but its got to get done.  I probably won't sleep very well tomorrow night. I bet I'm going to wake up a half-dozen times checking the clock to make sure that I won't be late.

I found the first peace of writing I did for this movie.  It was just a document that I made where I brainstormed some ideas I had.  It's amazing because some of the ideas, in fact exact sentences were transposed into a script and about 8 drafts later it was made.  The thing that really fascinated me is that it was created on July 24, 2007. Over a year ago!

I never would have thought that over a year after writing this brain storm on a slow mac clamshell computer while sitting by a beach in Sutton, would this movie ever be made.  And here I am.  On the verge of creating this film that so far, I'm proud of.

Truly unbelievable.

The Dog Sitter Bus!

Today I confirmed my transportation. Since we are shooting a little ways away, we need to transport a lot of people as well as the equipment. I thought renting a van and a truck for three days was too expensive so I decided to ask around. I found a band that has a touring bus made out of an old school bus. They basically found an old school bus and guted it. They made room for sleeping, eating and storage.
I asked if they could lend it to us. They said yes. So now for a mere $400.00 we get this bus which can transport people, transport equipment and act as our production office/trailer/infirmary for the shoot. (Infirmary?)
Anyway...it's so awesome and I'm so excited to get it that I wanted to share it with you.
Here are some pics: