The Credits:
CREW
Me - struggling creative type, wanting to write and direct.
Winnie - Producer and ex-gf
Mel - my ex DoP
Lester - The New DoP
Ned the Assistant Director
Boris the Assistant Camera Guy
Tony - the Sound Guy
CAST
Herb, the American Jock
Ash, the Quiet One
Tim, the Joker
Demi, the Native Girl
Rachel, the Trophy Girlfriend
Amy, the Angry Woman
Pestilence Part 3.
So, we're now in production. We have a 3 man crew, not including me. I can't recall much of that first week - it's a blur of waking early, driving 45 minutes to the set, lighting the stove in our crew/cast cabin.
But this isn't really a memoir, this is my memories of some of the struggles I went through, most of it after filming so I'm going to skim through most of this.
I recall near the end of the week thinking we were in a deep hole. The cast was great, I was barely holding on to an image of things were going swell. My DoP and I were the only ones who had been on actual film crews before. One of the cast had experience as an extra and wanted to make acting a career.
I called up an old friend from film school who wasn't working at the time and willing to fly up and help out. 'Tony' stayed at my mom's place with me. After his first day he pointed out a shitload of problems I was facing, none of them new to me. It was the reason why I called him. I was taking on too much of the AD role, not through any fault of Ned, just more because I had experience and wasn't able to properly delegate things to him.
So I patiently listened as he told me everything wrong. It was tough to sit through and not lose my shit. I knew all the problems. I needed someone to hold the boom and be an all around grip. Ironically, by the third day Tony had severe bowel problems and came down with the flu, causing him to hole up at my Mom's for a day or two.
Days later, Tony and Les the DoP ge in a huge shouting match one day, far from civilization. I don't know what it was about but it was just another small thing to try and mend. They managed to stay civil to each other for the rest of the script but you bet your shit there was tension building between 'them' and 'us'. The us being me, Winnie and Tony, who was guilty by association. I have no doubt there was a lot of shit talk after we'd call it quits for the day back at Herb's basement suite. Why? Because it's human nature to bond over things we are mad about and here I am, trying to make them famous through an indie film during a typical Canadian winter.
I recall one day Winnie came to help. I was especially tired. She was wearing snow pants. They swished when she walked, like a pair of corduroy pants. I wanted to tell her she was setting herself up for ridicule from the others. I get why she was wearing them but I think it's better that we all experience the same shit - if my cast was cold, I was cold. If they didn't have gloves, I didn't have gloves. Plus, she couldn't move when we were shooting as the swish swish of her pants could be heard on the boom. I wanted her learning on what to do after we were finished shooting - the promotions, the entries into film festivals. By that time, I admittedly didn't want her there with her swishy pants and throwing ideas at me like 'we have a dream sequence where X is in a car with two naked women - I know a couple of girls who will take their tops off - and they go through a car wash'.
True story.
Then... the Big Fight.
To me, it was a trivial matter, one of those 'I can't believe we are seriously fighting about this' but that's because I'm selfish. One day, we finished filming about an hour early. We were waiting for Winnie to come with dinner. Talk started going around but going somewhere warm to eat. I agreed, thought it would be a good idea so we piled in our cars and went for pizza. We passed Winnie coming out. I had left a note back on set telling her we went for pizza and to meet us there.
She never showed. When we finally met that night, she lit into me, saying I was ignorant and rude and her and I were over as a couple. We'd get the movie finished but then she didn't want to see me ever again. I reiterated I left a note but that meant nothing to the situation. She was feeling excluded from the set, from the shooting. I felt bad for her - I knew I was excluding her but justified it by believing she was learning more about the producer role - production was probably the easiest part of the process.
But she was pissed off and no matter how I tried to justify it, it was my fault. I couldn't fight this. I just wanted the shoot to be over. I was cold, tired, losing weight (in the month I lost 28 lbs) rapidly. I felt I was barely holding onto my sanity. In the end, I agreed with her, and just begged for her help in finishing the shoot. I confessed the problems I was having, why I didn't want her to know. She finally cut me some slack and listened. I would have given anything to not have even started this. If I had a choice between her and the movie, it would have been her but I felt I had all these other people, including the investors counting on me. I had no choice but to finish the movie.
This is what she wanted to hear, I guess. I wasn't having any fun, I wasn't enjoying this dream come true. We briefly made up at the Wrap Party but that argument was simply foreshadowing of the bigger fight to come.
It's been over a decade and I only have a few specific memories of filming, troubles that we had to work around.
Wardrobe continuity - This was humorous in it's own way. One day after filming, "Tim" took off his sweater at my parents house. The next day at set, we can't find it. He doesn't know what happened to it. We search everywhere. No luck. So, we continue on without it. Later we find one of my parents picked it up and put it the wash. Quick fix is we later added a scene where he's taking off the sweater on a sunny day. Nothing much but it helps continuity.
Then we have 'The Flare' discussion. My idea is to shoot this scene in the dark, using only a road flare, one of those ones that glow and spit red flame. My DoP insists it is not going to show up on film. I think it will. We go around on this for a little bit before he finally relents to give it a try. It works totally as I wanted.
The Underwhelming Totem Pole. Okay... this was more than frustrating. We paid the local theater special effects guy $500 to make 2 things; a severed head and a human totem pole. I didn't think either would be too hard. On one of the cold days, the guy came over and did a cast for the actress's head in question. Then we started filming, a few days behind schedule and I didn't check up on him again.
My bad.
We get to the final day of shooting - the Totem is the cliche 'gruesome discovery'. I'd envisioned about a 10 ft pole created by body parts. The head would be at the top. I arrive to see the 'mound of body parts is maybe 5 ft tall. It barely came to my shoulders. The guy simply stacked body parts together, no back pole, anything. So much for my gruesome, symbolic discovery. The head could have simply been a mannequin head with a wig for all the realism we paid for. It was like an elementary school art project. I should have given him a sketch, in hindsight. It reminded me of that infamous Spinal Tap bit about stage props.
But then - film school to the rescue. Eyelines and POV!
I had the actor look at where the 'head' should be. Then I had the DoP basically lay on the ground and shoot up, spilling light up the 'pole'. It made our 5 ft totem look a lot taller and ranked right up there with 'creative problem solving'.
The martini shot was of Tim and Demi in the cabin, staring off into the horrifying night, an ambiguous ending. The rest of the cast had started drinking in the cabin - even Lester. It was only Boris and me, in the dark, up to our knees in a snowbank as he slowly pulled out to show the two in the window, surrounded by darkness. Over by the cast cabin, beers were flowing around the campfire. So as my two survivors stared out the window into the darkness Boris pulled back focus, and because of the dark, it made it look like a long reverse tracking shot. It was a nice shot.
And Cut. I recall thinking I wish I had Winnie to share this moment with but instead, I had nobody but the ass't. camera guy who I barely knew. I thanked him and told him to go get a beer.
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| How I felt throughout filming. |
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