BEHIND THE SCENES

This section of my site will be devoted to chronicling me and my hard working crew's journey to make, what we now call the "hardest smallest film" I have ever shot. Will I be able to shake the rust off? It has been nearly six years since I shot a non-documentary film.

Get ready to be entertained....

February, 27th- The Premiere

The only thing I can say about my premiere was that I didn't get to film any of it and my opening speech sucked. The whole week before I was a nervous wreck as early reviews came in and I realized this film may not go over too well in the heart of the "Bible Belt," we've come to know as Hickory, NC. I was petrified. The night before the premiere I watched The Departed. (Best Movie I've seen since... Maybe the English Patient.) Anyway, this movie relieved me for the simple fact that it was up for Best Picture and had every cuss word known to man it. There was blood and guts and well-- A hugely opinionated movie like Meter is really not all that bad. The next day, I found myself worried again, but as Mark and I took a break from lining chairs, Mark had a really good point when he said that, " Intelligent people come to these sort of things. They are open minded and we should not have an issue." As two people strong filed into the CAST Theatre. I began to get nervous. My introduction was terrible. My mouth was dry. My eyes wouldn't focus and I kept saying, "Uh..." The lights went down and I stepped out of the theatre and watched from outside the doors. As the final blast went off I stepped back in as the credits began to roll. We had a small response and three people got up and left before the credits were over. As the lights went up and I drug Freddy and Mark up to the front the ovation was loud. In fact they were standing. I spotted friends of my parents up on their feet applausing the movie. My nervous level shifted to relaxed and controlled as we began the Q & A. As people asked questions I realized that this film had become much bigger than I had ever imagined. It may do OK at film festivals. If nothing else put us on the map in North Carolina, so when the time was right we may be able to garner a couple of investors to take a chance with us. I walked out of the theatre with perma-grin. It was over. Now, we would only have to do it again when we entered and were excepted to festivals.

I hadn't felt this good and inspired since I showed Jobbers to the cast and crew and we realized that the movie nobody understood had become a cult classic. Mandi said the day after that she had never been so proud of me. My father had not shown in fear that if the film would have gone the other way his reputation and standing in the community would have been jeopardized, but I found out later he had stepped off the slopes, (he went skiing,) to call Mom because he couldn't wait to find out how it went and Mom had to tell him... " Your son did it. They all loved it." I had made my mark. Three days later, I'm still having a hard time sleeping. I just can't shake that moment when we walked to the front and people were standing, smiling, overwhelmed.

When one was asked, "How did you like the film," his response was, "words can't describe it. It was something you are just glad you were apart of." I was glad I was apart of it too. This is the last entry I will do in the 'Meter Journal.' If this film is excepted to Film Festivals, I will begin a new journal of the journey it takes. I almost can't wait to see what happens next...

Here is a small video tribute of the process of 'Meter.'

January 14th, 2007 - Meter's Up

"Creating your vision on film is a dream. It's watching the vision you created that is the nightmare. " -Me

Well, as soon as I thought there was no end to post production of my film is as soon as I finished it. The final clean up, color corrections, score and sound effects went without incident once I arrived back to square one, (ie Audio Foul Up.) I'm not out of the muck yet. I have to run the film on a regular television, dolby surround set up and a 720 x 480 internet stream to make sure all the audio levels, colors and brighness stick to all consistently. (Not to mention, I don't want to embarras myself.) I have confidence there will only be minor adjustments made. With that said, the premiere will be held two Saturdays from now. I'm excited to feel like I've accompished something I never thought I would do again. I'm stoked because I've managed to see yet another project through to its entirity and most of all, I'm appreciative of all the great people who made it happen like the generous business owners to the city officials who still promote and believe in self expression and ingenuity. And let's also not forget Freddy, Mark, Mandi, Phil, Amanda, Muki, Karry, Chuck and Ryan who all in their own magnificient talents kept this movie from being filed away as a "nice try video." I don't have any pictures to match the talents with the faces but I did manage to snap off this picture during the reshoot. (May be the only thing good that came out of the reshoot.) This picture in itself can speak for the understanding and respect we all had for the project and each other. For Meter is only the first movie-movie I've done in years but also will be known as the movie that put together 'One Roof Production Group', a small band of actors and filmmakers who will collaborate on all sorts of projects. The buzz has already recruited five more talented people. There are four set to do through 2008.

The well oiled machine is being built. I look forward to working on it.

After the film is premiered, I have a cool in depth vignette that will show the whole process of making the short film. You, if you are or are interested in becoming a filmmaker, may find it insightful. I can't show it now. It's a movie spoiler.

P.S.- If you live in the NC area you should come out to The Green Room Community Theatre in Conover and watch Mark in 'Lost in Yonkers.' You will get a prequel of the talent that gentleman has. His shows start on January 19th.

January 2nd, 2007 - Adderall & Audio

For two months I have been abusing my prescription of Adderall. I don't know if it has helped or actually made me more of a mess. This film has taken its toll on me. From trying to find time to edit the film, to being a full time dad, to re-editing Jobbers, to the basic, "hustle and bustle" of my "paying"jobs, I have never felt more up to ears and unorganized in my entire life. I missed my scheduled premiere date by nearly two weeks and the clock is still ticking. I have worked on three hours of sleep, doubling and tripling up on my Adderalls to keep me going. New Years Day, I crashed hard. I realized I was going to have to postpone the preproduction stages and writing stages of the next two. I will not take all the blame for the delays, but nonetheless, this production was still on my shoulders. I paused post-production after reaching a stopping point where I almost needed my reshoots to continue. The reshoots were postponed two Mondays in a row, due to conflicting schedules leaving me on December 26th, (the coldest day of the year so far,) finally getting out there. To add to our frigid problem, two cabbies called in sick, so there was only one Cab in use that night. Leaving me having to transfer the shoot from downtown to the back parking lot of the Yellow Cab office. Nothing matched. We were pressed for time and of the forty minutes we shot, I ended up only using about fifteen seconds of it.

Some wasted tape of the reshoot.

Rewinding a little--

When I managed to work the editing magic to the point where I was set on picture, (minus the tedious color correction process,) I ran into the biggest problem yet. I had gone to a friend for help on my sound issues. I had uploaded a small clip for her viewing. The clip I demonstrated to her was the clip where I had the worst issue. She sent this elaborate tutorial with screen captures, and the works. I tested it and it didn't seem to work all that well, but I wrote it off as being new to sound editing and I had probably not done everything exactly right, so I pushed on. I imported the picture cut into Soundtrack Pro and nearly six hours later I still was unable to make any of that sound work. It sounded like they were speaking into an answering machine and not one effect or background ambient noise would change that, so I spent the next ten hours going back to Final Cut and figuring the fucking sound out myself. A day later, I did and once I did, had to track down every single clip in my timeline that had the first botched sound filter on it and change it. Upon finishing that I reimported the movie back into STPro and oddly enough, coasted through many of the background sound effects. There was only one issue... All the EFX I was using would all need to be tweaked so they sounded like we were hearing them from the inside of the cab. I told myself I would come back to that. Two days later, I had come to the finale, where again, I had my friend in Sound sending me some Grade A SFX straight from the HBO Series, 'The Wire.' I knew I would get every gun, scream, clip, cock sound I could possibly want and then we would be near the end of the grueling post period. I then got an email from Ryan who had just watched the film nearly two weeks after getting it. It was understandable. He was knee deep in work and we had a couple of jobs on the horizon ourselves and the last thing I should have done was burden him with the request for him to do the score. I began experimenting with instruments, trying to find a sound-- I gave up quickly-- "Well, we'll see what he comes up with," I said after realizing I don't have the foggiest clue how to play any instrument WELL. I had to wait on my SFX anyway, Ryan and I had some time to buy. Two weeks later-- Still no SFX. I guess somethings never change in my life. I had always stuck to the theory, "if you want something done, do it yourself." It's cliche' but I had gotten use to it over the years. Everybody from friends, girlfriends, employees, and employers had all promised me something and delivered nothing. (That's not saying a couple here, couple there. That meant 75% of the time. It was all talk. It always had been.) So needless to say, it had always taken me three times as long to finish a job, mostly because I had to do everything myself... This film... Would be no different. I began shopping Gunfire sound effects etc and to this moment still can't find what I want. I had shot some actual sound of the same kind of gun used in the film, but leaves, wind, and lack of echoes have me scrapping it. (Trust me--- I've already tweaked it every way possible. It's not what I want.) Here I am. Strung out on Adderall and lacking the energy to push on. I was so close to the end-- Maybe. The week off (of everything else) I devoted to this film had come and gone and I had unfortunately made a movie I couldn't submit to "On The Lot." I couldn't finish in time to start 'Tag Along' with a fresh mind and if I didn't watch it, the year it took me to find my creative spark and energy to make another movie, would burn back out. I hate to sound like a cry baby bitch, but I hate this shit sometimes--- Who knows--- I'm so tired, I don't even know if this makes any sense.

The Raw Sound

My Friend's Sound Fix

My Fix

*These sound clips will best explain themselves if you have stereo speakers etc on your CPU.

December 26th, 2007 - Forget Tom Cruise...

The picture, effects and sound editing is complete. It's been a hella' two weeks, but the film is shaping up.

The next steps: 1) Sound Effects
2) Score
3) Color Correction

Then the movie will be done. ANYBODY and I mean, ANYBODY who plans to shoot an independent film, I will tell you if you have $100,000 to spend on one thing for your production and Tom Cruise will do your movie for that, forget him. Use the money for a PROFESSIONAL SOUND GUY. We had picture issues where people walked through our frame, lights and signs in frame and they took no time to fix. We had to generate gunfire effects from scratch, because I decided last minute not to waste money on another effects program and they took no time to do. But then, came sound.... It has killed me dead. We shot in a cab with a boom mic on each actor with the windows up and it did not stop our audio from having somebody else laughing from a half mile away in it or in another instance, the bar down the way. It was quiet until somebody went in or out of it. We had little bursts of band music in and out of shot after shot, that I could not hear, because I was not sitting behind a soundboard with ambient proof head phones on or a stereo mixer in front of me. This issue has not only caused hours upon hours of audio fixes, but ultimately will also hurt the film all around because it doesn't matter how well I cover up the blemishes, if somebody plays this movie on DVD with a stereo surround system they will hear the inconsistencies. The only option I may have left is to try and use sound effects in the bad spots and hope it works. My timeline for this movie, (audiowise,) is shot to hell already if you take a look at the screen shot underneath. All this and I still have the mastered sound, surround sound, and dolby digital bullshit to go through.

Somebody told me once, if you shoot bad sound, you get bad sound. I listened and knew that and did everything in my power to keep us from having bad sound, but because of the elements and uncontrolled environment of even something as small as the inside of a cab, I managed to record bad audio. Do not sacrifice this step in anyway. Hire somebody who knows what they are doing and do it right the first time. It will make everybody's job easier.

Here is an example clip of the raw audio we captured. You would have thought I would have heard this-- I didn't.

December 17th, 2006 - The Website Teaser is complete

I had planned on doing the trailer as I waited for Ryan to complete the score, but I actually finalized the special gunfire effects late Friday night and had not scheduled a babysitter to complete the Sound Editing sessions, so I thought I would utilize this time to make a quick teaser. I have an alternate I will throw up here next week, but I tried to tell a little bit of the story without giving away the twists so... I hope it's a little coherent.

SEE THE TEASER WITH FLASH

December 12th, 2006 - Alfred, where are you?

You know whatever happened to creative expression? I finished cutting picture on Meter Friday night and have showed it to a couple of the producers, family and friends and their first remark is, "What's with the out of focus shot?" When I was writing this film, envisioning it, explaining it and storyboarding it, this shot during the finale was to be out of focus and hazy. It always had. I drew this shot out and storyboarded it. I've shown everybody this shot. This is one of the first that stuck out in my mind to make sure it was done properly. OK, sure their points are valid--- NOOOTTT!!! They asked me why I didn't shoot it in focus and blur it in post--- Because that's not an out of focus shot. They asked me why I didn't go out of focus and the rack back in right at the end--- Because that's not an out of focus shot. They asked me why I didn't shoot one in focus to just make sure it works--- Because--- I didn't need to. I wanted my out of focus shot.

Now they've all got me worried that everybody is going to think that. Maybe they are looking to hard, because honestly in the midst of the chaos taking place it works great. I mean surely people watching my film aren't going to walk out saying, "What the hell was the camera man thinking? That second to last shot was out of focus." I mean really? I've ran camera for many years now. If I had not intended that shot to be out of focus I would have turned the ring and you have a twelve minute movie with not one out of focus shot in it. There is not one frame that is not dead on and then in the midst of the chaos I spoke of, we have an out of focus shot-- Wouldn't you think it was intended. Surely, people who know a little about movies would know that we probably shot that take a handful of times and the "camera man" didn't notice all six times that the camera was out of focus?

Please tell me American Cinema hasn't come to this. Hitchcock would never have to explain that shot. Hell, Soderbergh or Mann would not either. They're camera movements and tactics are revolutionary. My one of out of focus shot is a fucking scab!!!

Filmmaking can suck an egg.

*I would tell you why it's out of focus, but it would spoil the ending.

November 23rd, 2006 - POW! POW!

I knew I would have to do it sooner or later and Thanksgiving day seemed like the perfect time. I was at my Father in Laws house and Travis, Chuck and a gun were there too. Travis had borrowed my camera to shoot his all star game that I couldn't make so the camera was there as well. Needing real gun blasts because I wasn't into spending lots of money on gun effects that may not even work or work but need three to four hours of special sound effects tweaking. So we went out in the back yard and Chuck and Travis fired off seven rounds and I recorded the sound from different directions of the shooter. When I tested the gun shots with the film they worked. The only issue was after Chuck stepped out of the shot, you can hear leaves being stepped on during the echo of the blast. This may cause trouble. We'll see. Here's the Gun Test footage.

*ALSO- I am moving over to using Flash Video for some of these smaller vids. They take up less space and are easier to play on DSL lines. If you don't have the Flash Player, (you should have it,) you can get it HERE.

November 18th, 2006 - Aaaaarrrggghhh!

As I began piecing this movie together I run into all the reality of independent filmmaking. Shots that were missed, little consistencies missed and the worst of all, the vision you had is only about half of what you made. They say that happens to everybody. Well I found myself Friday night, nearly frightful to go any further in putting my film together. I feared I would have to reshoot. I feared the movie sucked and the worst of all, I realized my Canon XL was now a dinosaur and if I was to shoot another film and have lie in the standards for independent filmmaking with a video camera, I would have to buy a 24p camera. So instead of depressing myself anymore, (and the liquor store already closed,) I chose to piece together clips that were fitting to a Garrick Lane Film.

November 12th, 2006 - A Tribute and Post Production Begins

As I finished up the odds and ends of my other paying gigs, I managed, (thank goodness to Payton's new and improved sleeping habits,) to even push out the little behind the scenes footage we had from Meter. Due to three of our crew men bailing on us, we did not have the luxury of somebody running BTS camera the entire time, so my wonderful better half, in between running cabs, coffee and complaining of the cold managed to capture about twenty minutes, so I condensed it to seven and sure the edit is very loose, but why not. It's just another dumb video that takes up space on a web server in Silicone Valley somewhere. I'm paying for it. Why not use it. Today... Logging clips from the real movie for next weekend's trip to "The Asylum."

November 11th, 2006 - 243 Studios Delivers a Treat

Muki, the actor who played "The Lover" last minute in my film is a fantastic portrait, fashion photographer on the side and I had no idea from running all over the place last Saturday that he was taking pictures. He emailed me this picture on Thursday and I thought it was rather cool considering we had only snapped off four pictures the entire shoot. Check his site out at Studio2:43.

The Talented Mark Alton Rose playing Charles

November 9th, 2006 - The Production Hangover

A year after beginning an attempt at shooting Meter, principle photography is complete… Maybe.

The shoot went rather smooth despite all the disasters we had if that makes any sense at all. The day started off with me right on schedule and the last minute resources filling in with every stop I made. I even had time to visit with the folks awhile.

The only worry of mine at the time was the article that was published in the paper earlier that day. The article had come off that we were actually firing off a gun in downtown and that was obviously not the case. The gun fire and blast were to be CGI’d in post, so I was a bit worried that we would garner a medium sized crowd downtown that may interrupt our shooting if they could not be contained.

I pulled up to the square at 3:45pm and immediately began unpacking. Freddy and Mark began rehearsing as I put up lights etc. We were to pick up the Taxi at 5:30pm. With the newspaper ad making it clear that we were using a fake gun we decided last minute to do the “Action” scene first and get it out of the way. This may have been the wrong move because as three of our crew members bailed on the project last minute, we found ourselves short staffed with our primary electrical connection dead, we lost nearly an hour and a half of production time.

Then we ran into trouble with the taxi rental where the cost went up and the cab had to be back by midnight and so we rushed through some setups with the alternate plan to send this cab back and then rent another one at the standard, $20.00 an hour rate, but my wonderful wife smoozed the man and we got away with keeping the cab all night for $100.00, but it did not change the fact that I had rushed through four set ups and we had broken our momentum with driving the cab off the lot and putting it back on again. By the shoots end it was closing 4:00am and I had not gotten all the shots I wanted and I worried that I had missed a couple of key shots for the action scene, due to the extreme pressures of the time loss, but I was confident that I had indeed made a descent film on a shoestring budget and with what I had seen on the video assist, the film looked and felt great through Phil Vaglia’s pristine Cinematography and the performances were tremendous and dead on through Mark Alton Rose and Freddy Robinson’s talents and I could appreciate that no matter how simple and little this film was when I was typing it up three years ago, I had followed through. I had not compromised and had dedicated myself to completing it and succeeded if only to have suffered a few, “rusty spots” in the filmmaking process that now, would carry on to a better production next month.
I was depressed that it was over, but relieved to know I still had what it took.

November 4th, 2006 - The Newspaper & The OK Corral

A small newspaper article may sink my ship!!!

I had stated in the interview with Josh with the local newspaper that I didnít mind onlookers to come down and check the shoot out considering I had also said this was a very small film and that they wouldnít really see much if they were to make a trip down. Josh and I must have miscommunicated in some way, which I tend to do from time to time, so the paper came off as if we were having an ìOK Corralî slash ìHollywoodî style shootout which is definitely not the case. With a small crew, I cannot afford to have to utilize them as crowd control instead of what they are meant to be there for. I can only hope that nobody reads the paper or that nobody really gives a shit.

Otherwise, six hours from now, I will begin shooting my first FILM, film in five years. I'm curious to know if I have matured any.

Read the article via internet here.

October 24th, 2006 - Second Read Through

Here are some clips that were shot on our third rehearsal. We are in the exact location that the film will be shot in, but do not have all bells and whistles nor the cab. I shot this more to see how the wide lens would do in tight quarters and to also find the shots I envisioned plus maybe find a couple of bonus ones, (which I did.) The dialogue has been cut off in places to conceal the story twists so this is what it is.

October 20th, 2006 - First Read Through

October 3rd, 2006 - Budgeting

OK, I don’t want to toot my horn or anything, but I have successfully managed to prep my fourth film at an absolute shoestring budget. When I say prep, I mean the production is ready to go and is air tight-- And has cost me anything, (figuratively speaking.)

After fifty phone calls, good manners and meetings I have managed to get every resource needed, (film equipment excluded,) that I needed to make my film. Granted, I have attempted to shoot this film for almost a year now, but what I said about the film when I first thought about doing it, I have managed to stick with: Don’t spend any money, just get out there an make it. November 4th, the film begins principle photography at Sundown. This is my budget so far.

PRE-PRODUCTION

Xerox Copies: $20.00

Prop Gun:$30.00

LOCATION

Street and Parking Lot Sealed for Production-$0.00

Electricity or shared power for lighting kit-$0.00

Taxi Cab Rental or Use-$0.00
*Although I will be buying everyone dinner that is working at Yellow Cab that night. ($40.00)

Expendibles: 1.Foam Board-$6.00
2. Party Gels for lights-$30.00
3.Batteries-$10.00
4.DV Tapes-$70.00(Master Quality)
5.Poster Board(Signs)-$2.00
6.Floor and Masking Tape-$10.00
7.(2)Flourescent Lamps $20.00

PRODUCTION
Dinner for Five/Snacks-$70.00

FINAL BUDGET: $308.00

*Now lets not forget that I own, (from years of working in this business,)the lighting kit, cameras, bounce boards, boom mics, editing bay etc.. So I do not pay for any rentals on actual equipment. That helps a lot.

--Now if I can figure out how to shoot the inside of a car in the middle of the night, I’ll be money.

September 29th, 2006 - All Hail Yellow Cab

Like the City of Hickory, Yellow Cab has been generous enough to provide an off duty cab to us for the evening. In fact, Ron, the boss down there told me to remind him a couple of days before the shoot and he'd clean it up nice for us. I mean that is great. The original deal was $200.00 for the cab all night and the cabbie would stay on the set with us the whole time which means I would probably have to be generous and tip him a $100.00 to cover his wasted night. After this letter, we reached a much better deal.

September 20th, 2006 - I Love This Town

You know I love Hickory, NC. It’s my hometown for one, (obviously,) and yes, I’ve had my times of doubt and hated it, (and still believe that with the profession I’ve chosen have no business living here.) But one of the reasons I love Hickory is the people are genuinely nice and good people. In this instance, I submitted a Special Events Application to assure myself the approval of blocking of three parking spots and acquiring necessary electricity to run my lights from their power for my shoot. I was skeptical at first, that the City of Hickory would reject my application being that I needed the resources on a Saturday night. If you’ve  ever been downtown Hickory on Saturday night, there this place called ‘Olde Hickory Tap Room’ and this is where sixty-five percent of the people go to get salsed after a long week of work. It may very well be THEE most populated bar in Hickory on that particular night. Maybe the City of Hickory thought that my proposal was a positive thing given again, that my production would be blocking four parking spots hence keeping four less cars full of drunks into the heart of our town. Then again maybe they are just that nice, because not three days after my submittal, I was given a green light and carte blanche for my small production. AND—Would not even be charged for power? Hunh? That’s it? Really? Just like that?

Yes, just like that. These are the perks of small towns. This why so many people migrate here.  The important people of our town are open to any idea and do spend the time to make sure their townsmen are given what they need to succeed. That is a valuable commodity and I will never speak badly about this town again. In fact when it’s time for the feature, “Debauchery,” to go into production, you can best believe it will shot in and around Hickory and will be promoted there within.

Thank you to Teresa Hamby and the many others that assisted me in this approval. Your kindness will not go unnoticed.

With this goal easily accomplished it is on to the Hickory Police Department’s approval on the PROP GUN. This one may not as easy---

Here is the email I received from Teresa not a week after I submitted my application:

Good Afternoon Mr. Lane

Good news! Your Special Event application has been approved by all departments. I will be mailing you a letter from the city manager's office that officially gives your company permission to film in our downtown area. There will not be any charge for power used with your temporary lights. Please call Phillip Rocket or Alex Brittain (who are with our Public Utilities Department) @ 828-323-7500 as soon as possible to arrange a meeting so that they can discuss the area where filming will occur and power connections that you may use. If you have any further questions or problems, do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks and good luck on your movie!!

Teresa Hamby
City of Hickory
Development Assistance Center

 Here is a schmetic of downtown Hickory and a birds eye view of where we’ll be that fateful night if you would like to stop by and check out principle photography:

September 12th, 2006 - Storyboards

Like all my films I’ve done before, I shoot my own camera. I’m a lot of productions, (big or small,) the director focuses on directing  the actors and reasoning behind the camera frame, while the Director of Photography focuses on painting the Director’s canvas. My theory is yes, “The Michael Mann Theory,” which I’ve come to call it. I am not so much a control freak but more an observer and who knows best of what action is and will be taking place in front of the camera. When I am shooting camera I have my real time playback. It makes it faster and more efficient. But I don’t just pick up the camera and wing it. There is a method to my madness and those are my storyboards. I am a visual freak of nature. Everything I do from writing, shooting, editing and well everything is drawn first. I’ve over the years gotten real good at sketching things out in detail without losing a lot of productivity time so it makes it easy to convey my vision. I’ve always written better that I speak. Something happened a couple years back and I lost my ability to explain… I don’t know exactly what happened, but it got lost and I can’t do anything about it. So I have sketched out my scheduled shots on a couple pieces of neon paper for my cast and crew to understand. (The neon paper stands out so that they are easily found during the shoot.) I will probably add shots as I go, but the ones below are my main objective shots for the INTERIOR of the cab. I have yet to storyboard the finale.

September 5th, 2006 - Amateur Actors

Although this situation won’t postpone production but maybe a week, I have to rant on yet another situation. My theory for North Carolina was this: It was cheaper and easier to produce a film in my hometown because you don’t have to get permits and have resources upon resource to make it, BUT finding crew and talented actors is impossible. Making films in LA, your crew and cast is as easy as snapping your fingers but resources and finances are impossible. This was my ‘Catch 22’ theory. It has always been proven.

This production fits the criteria. The biggest thorn in my side is finding a lead and a couple of guys who do what I do and love it—Hell, they don’t even have to love it. They can just like it and I’d be a happy man. As of today, I have yet to find one crew member.
So I campaigned a different way, at least for the actors. I received twenty -two headshots. Yes, that’s right. I received headshots. They were actors from Wilmington, NC(5 Hours away,) and Knoxville, TN(at least four.) There were about seven in an hour away radius, with the exception of one who was two and a half. I narrowed that down to five actors. ONE in Hickory-- Instead of having these guys come in from all over, (with gas prices and busy schedules,) I asked them to shoot themselves with a ‘podunk’ camera or whatever acting my sides out. In this day and age, everybody and their mother has a video camera of some sorts and I thought I was being considerate by only costing these guys an hour of their time, a DVD, tape or some shit and a 65 cent posting fee, (yes that’s right, I’ve sent out plenty and that’s how much it would cost.) They all praised me for not dragging them to Hickory for a whole afternoon.

Here’s the rub--- These “starving actors,” some with actual “agents” don’t send me an audition. What? And when I resent out the email, thinking maybe they didn’t get the first one due to maybe the PDF of my script being too big this is what I got: Three confirmed that they had received the sides. The others never replied. The three that confirmed, again, never sent an audition tape.

So here it is guys—This is from a guy who has been in LA and NYC, who has had to send audition tapes, demos, short films to every contest, festival, agency, and studio you can imagine. And yes, I’ve received probably 65% rejection letters, but the other 35% got me work. I’ve been in front of the camera, behind the camera, and know the way ‘Hollywood’ works. Hollywood is a very small place and if you get called in on an audition and miss it, if you are not Brad Pitt, they do what they call a ‘Red Flag.’ You get too many of those Red Flags you will—well as cliché as it may be, “never work in this town again.” You don’t have to worry about me on this situation obviously but remember that.

Oh wait, that’s right. You are AMATEURS. You are actors who try to scoop up these big movies who pass through Charlotte, Wilmington and the other cities of North Carolina. You are looking for that big break-- That one second of being in the frame behind two extras behind a lead. You wait and wait---

Keep waiting. I, (and I’m not the best example, but will do,) have put hours and hours, years and years of hard work into my craft. I have lost relationships with loved ones, lived in a mental hospital seven months for research, lived in a Jeep with my hundred pound lab, and studied every book, camera, editing system there is out there for the love of my craft. After almost ten years, I can finally say that all that hard work has paid off. Are you guys ready to do that for what you love? Are you ready to live in your car for a week to be the first in line for an open audition? I honestly don’t think you are and if I could be so rude, you should go back to your job at TGI Fridays and start campaigning for the Managerial Job, because you will never make it. Even in North Carolina you don’t stand out as a performer. Nobody cares. You should take the time to. Otherwise, you can keep waiting for the chicken suit extra role, so that you can tell your girlfriend or mother that you are a superstar. I personally will never use you for anything else again and actually may return your third rate headshots back to you to show you how little effort it takes to do anything that makes you feel good.

Anyway, since I began writing this rant my luck, (OR HARD WORK,) has paid off; Both roles are cast and we’ve picked up two crew members. I just need a couple more and it’s red team go.

AUGUST 14th, 2006 - A Little Break

The film is actually rolling this time around. I have kind of slowed down and set up appointments, meetings, and location testing yada, yada, for when I get back from Ryan's wedding in Las Vegas. But the City of Hickory was more than happy to allow me to shoot downtown if I did not obstruct any roads. A nice cabby at Yellow Cab by the name of Marty has giving me a deal to rent him and his cab for $20 bucks an hour which in all sincerity is not a bad price. Since Yellow Cab is a block away from where we're shooting I might try and work out a better deal with them. Maybe drive an older not in use cab up to the location and let us use it for cheaper. I am meeting with them after Labor Day to see if that will be possible.
And my arch nemesis from my high school years, Officer Grace, (now Sergeant Grace, of the Hickory Police Department has agreed to meet with me to get an arrangement made and give caution flags to the prop gun that will be used in the public for the final scene. I plan on filming all this. I always purchase the DVD's that have a lot of "how they did it" featurettes and behind the scenes on it, so I figured I would do what i love and document everything.

I also have the front runners for the lead role submitting sides on video to me in the next week or two and I'll be posting those talented guys as well. So anyway, as I blabber on, I'm stoked. I've waited too long to make the "hardest, small movie to make."

I'll keep you posted.

August 2nd, 2006 - LAST MINUTE CHANGE OF LOCATION

*SEE THE FIRST LOCATION THAT HAD BEEN DECIDED ON PRIOR TO PRODUCTION GETTING POSTPONED. CLICK HERE