9.27.11
10:37 pm
About a month ago, my friend and professional filmmaker, Ray Zablocki, told me of a short film contest sponsored by the Producers Guild of America (PGA).
He said it would be in the vein of a 48 hour film festival in which the entire product must be written, shot and edited within forty eight hours.
On Friday the 23rd at 5:00 pm, Ray, his cousin Pete and I got together and began to create.
The PGA requirements were as follows:
The setting had to be Halloween.
One or more of the following themes had to be expressed: Grace and forgiveness, escape and/or the unlikely hero.
The film had to feature, in some manner, the following three object, one serving as a key plot element: a knitting needle, a knight chess piece and a cassette tape.
From about five to about midnight, the three of us threw out ideas, bouncing them back and forth at one another.
Over those five hours, certain ideas became clear.
We were almost sure what to do with the cassette tape, 100% sure what to do with the chess piece and undecided about the needle.
The two of them left to write the actual script and I went to sleep, readying myself for the twelve hour shoot the next day.
Turned out to be a twenty hour shoot, but, who's counting?
The next morning, my co-star, the amazing and resplendent Jessica Howell showed up a tick after ten.
The "crew" (consisting of Ray and his second cousin/filmmaker Phil), showed up a bit later and the day officially began.
First of all, we were crippled from the start for lack of a larger team.
Our director of photography was with his wife who was having a baby and the other two assistants that would have made this thing go faster were also unavailable.
This would end up being a problem...
The first handful of hours were spent mostly hanging out with Jess while Phil and Ray did film things.
Later, Ray's friend and our first assistant, Laura, showed up and also hung out.
Understand, we did what we could, but we were really just waiting for it to get dark.
We showed up on location about forty five minutes before our first shot so Jess helped stretch the fuck out of me (she is a Yoga instructor) and then Ray got some turkey while Phil, Jess and I shot a short, improvised film entitled "Dog Balls".
Hopefully that will pop up somewhere sometime.
Eventually, Ray returned with his turkey and the sun began to set.
Our very first shot was to be the opening shot of the film; Jessica carrying a bag of groceries while being followed by a large, trench coated figure down by the gantries near the Long Island City Pepsi-Cola sign.
After a full day of uniform gray skies, the sun showed up to astound us; not only an amazing sunset, but exploding with Halloween oranges and, eventually, deep, unsettling bruise purples.
We ended up not using that footage as the start of the film.
Total bummer.
As we were wrapping that location, our second assistant, Steve Earthman, showed up and accompanied us back to our second and final location: my apartment.
Once we retuned, work began in earnest, spending about a half hour shooting Jess arriving home and me watching her from outside.
Then some interiors in the hallways, then, finally, the apartment scenes.
I won't give away the plot, but a big old mess was made, some screaming occurred and some shit got serious.
Jess' day ended around two in the morning and mine ended at five.
And her and I were the lucky ones.
Ray, that poor bastard, had yet to edit the footage we had shot that day.
Edit, color correct and everything else...in less that fifteen hours.
The whole thing was due, no exceptions, by 8pm on Sunday, September 25th.
I awoke on Sunday and created some unsettling background ambience for Ray to drop in behind some piano music Steve's girlfriend had provided.
Ray called once, asking for me to record my door bell, and I did so.
Then, I waited.
Around 10:40 that evening, Ray sent me a link to the finished product, a tight, well-shot slice of disturbing questions called "Bitter Sweet".
Overall, I personally feel like one or two things are missing, and I preferred the alternate ending proposed by Phil Tucker, but this is Ray's baby and I've also heard a lot of positive feedback as well.
In the end, it doesn't really matter what we think, but what the six judges think.
The judges, Steve Buchemi, Leslie Ann Warren, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul Reubens, Shirley Sher (producer of "Pulp Fiction") and Bruce Coen (producer of "American Beauty") will watch all the submissions and post their decision by November 15th at the very latest on the Producer's Guild of America web site.
Aside from the whole film aspect, the day of the shoot was an excellent opportunity to bond further will Jess, someone who will always do her best to pop in at the parties Chris and I throw, but also someone who is always gone too soon.
I've worked with her a few times, as both an actor and as her director and she's like a tiny sun, constantly warming and energizing those in her presence; it was, as always, a pleasure to work with her.
At some point soon, we're going to have a wrap party/screening.
At said party, we're going to watch "Bitter Sweet", "Dog Balls" (hopefully), "Eels" from The Mighty Boosh (as Jess has just gotten into the show and we were making references all day) and "The Dark Knight", as Jess has never seen it.
I know what you're thinking: what, she hasn't seen "The Dark Knight"? What? WHAT?! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL??!?!?!?!?!?
Check it out though: Jess is the kind of person who you wouldn't judge for not having seen "The Dark Knight".
Heck, she doesn't even remember if she saw "Batman Begins" or not.
Which is fine.
Seriously.
But only because she is Jess Howell and she is amazing.
And she opened my shoulders.
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