There were some changes on the cast and crew line up. First, because of scheduling conflicts with our original D.P., Hakim, we brought in Nick Bilz in. Nick was a real joy to have on set. He really busted his ass this weekend and we appreciate that. He somehow managed to come in, and blend seamlessly into our little group, so well it felt like we have been working with him for a long time. He really fit right in, and we hope to have him back in the future.
Our second line up change up came during the previous, when Jan Lefrançois-Gijzen, the actor we cast as “Vernon” regrettably informed us that due to personal reasons, he could not make it in to film his scenes. It was unfortunate, but luckily, we managed to enlist Chris Parsons to play the part. We had already filmed a very short scene with Chris in our first weekend, so that had to be added to schedule again to be re-shot with a different actor. We we’re very fortunate that Jan managed to come in and shoot the short, but very funny, scene and we got to have him in the film after all. I do want to apologize however to Kelley Roark, who was in the original scene with Chris. Unfortunately, I could not manage to get in touch with her to ask her to come in to re-film the scene, but we we’re lucky enough that Jan brought his girlfriend, Katie Causey, along to sub for Kelley. They both did a great job, and I really look forward to seeing that scene on film.
Ok, so here’s a little breakdown of what happened this weekend on set.
Saturday:
I don’t think anybody got any sleep Friday night. Most of us drove done to our shooting location in McDonough the night before filming. Trent and I had to work Friday night, so we didn’t even get on the road until almost 1:30 a.m. We arrived roughly around 3:00 a.m., with sound guy Matt Levy and Chris in tow. We were met in the driveway by Director Jeff Kaminski, who couldn’t sleep. We filed in, and everyone choose a place to sleep, but it was no use for me; I was up until call time. It sucked having to sit around while everyone else slept (or tried to) waiting to start shooting. I never was good at getting any sleep the night before a shoot. I think it’s a mix of being excited and a little nervous.
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long for call time. After the numerous delays, we had decided to move our start time up a little to 6 a.m. in order to accommodate a few of our actors, Diane Dicker and Steve Pryor, who had to be wrapped for the day around 10:30 a.m. This seemed like a daunting task, as will all of our past projects, we’ve had a little problem with meeting our pre-decided wrap time. I have no idea what got into us this past weekend, but we somehow, seemingly out of nowhere, morphed into a well-oiled independent film production machine. We pulled a Barry Allen (or perhaps a Wally West) and moved faster than we ever have in the past. Everybody pulled far more than their own weight. Actors we’re nailing it take after take, not a line forgotten. Crew was setting up and striking down sets in the blink of an eye. We were able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. OK, not really, but you get the picture. I guess after being delayed for three weeks, we all had a lot of pent up aggression, and wanted to get this thing in the can.
There were a couple of times though, where we got held up for a minute or two, here and there. One of the most memorable was when one of my contacts fell out during a very physical scene I shared with Craig Zeiss. I had to run down stairs to the basement/our holding area, and grab my contact solution. When I came back up stairs, everyone started feigning concern for my well being, each time calling me by a different famous actor’s name. Needless to say, this became a running gag. Everyone was ragging on me, calling me everything from Al Pacino to Michael Cera to Whoopi Goldberg. Some of my favorites include Larry David, John Goodman, Zach Galifianakis, Betty White, Kevin Smith, and Snooki. I eventually egged them on even more by challenging them to guess which name I was thinking of, Don Knotts, which Craig finally got.
Despite the little eyewear annoyance, I still have to say that that scene in particular, our big finale, is probably my favorite one we filmed. There was a lot to this scene, and it took a good chunk of the day Saturday, as well as a little time on Sunday to film. The majority of the cast we’re involved in this scene: myself, Craig, Chris, Diane, Steve, Steven, Trent, and Dasha Jordan. I think Dasha might have had a little too much fun. We could all see how holding a prop gun, and getting to push me and Craig around went to her head a little. I kid… a little.
We got a lot of other great scenes on Saturday, including several scenes between Chris’ “Vernon” and Diane’s “Wilma.” These scenes were very pivotal to the plot, but there were no worries, as they both nailed each scene. Another really fun scene we shot is a promo for a wrestling event we filmed featuring Johnnie Holland (who you may remember as the landlord from Tim and Katie) and a priceless director cameo from Mr. Kaminski himself. I went to sleep on the couch right before they started shooting this, and was woken up by screams and whoops from the two, not realizing that they had set the green screen up right in front of me, and was filming the scene just two feet away from my sleeping head. It was strange looking back at the footage and realizing all this was going on right next to me while I dozed.
We managed to get Diane and Steve, who were both exceptionally fantastic, out on time, which is a KREJ first. We then went on to wrap for the day very early (another KREJ first), and when we were done we didn’t really know what to do with our selves for the rest of the night. We did get to sit down and watch all the footage on the projector downstairs in the basement. It’s a real bonding experience sitting down with some of the cast and crew watching all of our hard work from the day on the wall in front of us.
I wanted to try and write up my blogs for both Saturday and Sunday, but somehow it is already 5 a.m., and I may or may not have a doctor’s appointment early in the morning, so let’s finish this up tomorrow, shall we?
Stay tuned for Sunday’s Production blog. Same KREJ time. Same KREJ channel.
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