DEUCE OF SPADES hotrod movie - photos and updates

Thank you so much ... Was Saugus dragstrip still around when you were here? (I believe it was shut down late 50's?).

 

UPDATES

Wow. What a week-end.

Started shooting Thursday at 5PM after a long day at work. the shoot was extremely challenging and by 12PM we realized we had to wrap without being able to finish. fortunately since I was filming at my friend's house we were able to leave all the gear set-up and came back the next day FRIDAY at 4PM and worked until 4AM to finish all the coverage.

I was working with one Dad who has never acted in his life and one son (13), who has only done extra work. His dream was to be in a movie so I decided to grant him his wish. His scene was extremely challenging. He played ZAK, a 15 year old kid who is abused by his alcoholic father. He worked very hard and so did I, directing him and helping him find his character. After much coaching and many takes we ended up with an awesome performance.

I felt sorry for the kid, we really put him through hell for this scene. He got thrown across the room onto his bed about 50 times (50 take of the same action), slapped no less than 20, had to run onto the street, late at night, bare foot... He was a real trooper.

As for me, by the time Saturday morning came I was DEAD. The bad news was: I still had a big shoot that day.

I went back to work Sat at 2PM, carrying all my heavy gear and created an entire record company set. I even made fake gold records and producer trophies . I arrived Saturday on the location at 2PM and never left until 3AM.

By then I must confess I no longer was able to even walk. Sleep deprived, exhausted and having stared at a tiny screen for over 30 hours in a 3 day span, my eyes fell out of my face and I basically melted into a puddle.



I cancelled the Sunday shoots and slept until 3PM. Realized I now had eye strain and so I took it easy, took the DEUCE out and went cruising with a good buddy of mine and his 28 Essex coupe to an all you can eat seafood buffet in Simi and WENT TO TOWN. I had not had a real meal in 3 days.

Went to bed at 9PM and woke up this morning sore as hell. Maybe I am getting too old for all this non sense.. But as they say; THE SHOW MUST GO ON... One thing is for SURE: I NEED A CREW.

Now that I know just how intense, time consuming, draining a shoot is, I have relooked my shooting schedule over and paced it a bit better.

One thing is for sure: I am starting to realize that doing this short was a NECESSITY. I am learning A LOT. All of this will be essential when I start rolling for DEUCE OF SPADES. What a great learning experience!

When I arrived at the first shoot, Friday, I was anxious. Not knowing if I had what it takes to pull it off, or if I was going to crash and burn. But by the Saturday shoot I waltzed in fully confident, knowing what to expect and how to do it. This last shoot went very smoothly with a gorgeous opening shot using once again my loyal dolly .

PHOTOS:

I will be posting some succulent screen grabs tomorrow. I must say I have outdone myself with the lighting on the kid's scene. It is very DRAMATIC and gorgeous looking. Maybe I will become a Director of Photography in the end! When I looked back at the shots, I could not believe I was the one who filmed this and did the lighting. In film LIGHTING IS EVERYTHING. The results exceeded all my expectations. You have to remember I have NEVER done this in my life. never went to film school and have no one on the set to advise me / show me what to do. And I have to tell you: The footage looks pretty daaarn good. So visit the thread again tomorrow to see some of the shots.

 

Maybe you should get all crafty and grab some iron-on letters... or a spray bomb and stencils?

...what a crime.

Sister, that is a goddamned cryin' shame right there, that's what it is. Ah, but your life, your love, and your lady (or man, as the case may be) is the sea... with all the time with the deuce & especially this movie, if'n ya had one, they'd better end up bein' your shadow/partner in crime. And they'd better be a part-time massuse, too. Yeah, that would be awesome...

Oh, and maybe they also work for freakin' Calgon as a product tester. You seem like you could use it.

Can't wait to see the short. It sounds like y'all have been working your asses off on it. By the way, what's your estimated feature length, without the credits?

Also, in an earlier post, you mentioned you had a fish tank - not to get too off-topic here, but what kind of fish do you have?

I won't even ask if you've jumped all over those Rochesters yet. You've got enough on your plate. Hmmmm... maybe you'll have some "expendable minions" to take care of your light work someday. If you ever do make it to "Evil Overlord" status and actually get said minions, you might want to print this out and put it on the fridge:
http://quoll.uwaterloo.ca/mine/overlord.html

~Jason

Wait a sec...

 

lol, i just remembered, I made a "short" once. Playing around after I got a new digitial camera and movie maker. What can I say, I was bored....

http://britishinside.com/archive/2006/01/27/HelloWorld.aspx

 

Man, you're killing me! That is SO FUNNY !! You guys gotta read that link he posted.

 

I downloaded it and watched it... Yop, it definitely qualifies for being a SHORT.

I bet you had fun making it though, didn't you?

 

PHOTOS:

Ok here they are, screen grabs from the footage from my second scene filmed from the short THE BENCH. There are beautiful shots there, but as I said some are disturbing. Depicting physical and emotional abuse is not a walk of a park - and not for the faint of heart. Note that there was no sexual abuse in that scene what so ever, I did not want to go there. So if some of the images may look like it is going down that road, know that the scene does not depict that.
















This one is by far my best shot in the entire scene:



Worry not, before the dad has a chance to beat the crap out of him, Zak gathers the courage to, for the first time in his life, stand up for himself and makes a run for the door, hitting his dad right on on the way out and almost knocking him off his feet. Then it is down the dark staircase as we see below as he yells: "I HATE YOU!" on his way out the door... And from that moment becomes a runaway for the duration of the short.




I love how we lit the room upstairs, very blue and how you see the doorway at the top of the staircase and the dad's silhouette inside the doorway... We lit the staircase so it would cast shadows on the wall like prison bars and then we lit the kid so his face would be lit for a few instants as he comes down the stairs, just as he yells out his hatred for his abusive alcoholic father. It was pretty brilliant.

I did all the lighting, framing and camera work and was assisted by Jim Miller who is working on this short with me, to prepare ourselves for the full feature DEUCE OF SPADES.

 

I bet he was feeling pretty abused after all those takes!

 

PS: As you can see, good things come to those who stop watching TV and instead watch instructional DVDs to study filmmaking and lighting .

In the ends, the hard work pays off.

Hope you like the cinematography.

 

What can I say? It's been on my fridge since like 1997. LOL!

~Jason

 

OMFG - the lighting is f'n beautiful! I'd expected it to be pretty good, but WOW!

And you're right - the blue IS pretty rad. (Yes, "rad".)

~Jason

 

very nice. that silhouette against blue is very clever. it's like building a car - regular people wouldnt know how much work it was if you didnt tell them.

 

We worked on that 2 minute scene Thursday from 5PM until 12PM and Friday from 5PM until 4AM.

That's a lot of hours.

 

You should keep a log of how much was shot vs how much ended up on the virtual cutting room floor. But hey, the best photographers will tell you, burn media like there's no tomorrow - for every good shot, you have to pick through a few not so good ones.

~Jason

 

I don't recall just when it closed down. I never did make it to Saugus, it was out of my area. Most of our time was spent at Fontana, with a little bit of Pomona and the old Irwindale strips.






http://www.clarksvillecinema.com

 

UPDATES

Had an interesting day yesterday. The young Director of Photography who had accepted the position to film DOS with me a few weeks ago sent me a lame email filled with lame excuses as to why he now had to flake on me. The short version is: Something paying came along and he immediately forgot his previous commitments and dumped the no paying film to grab the paying gig. Only a week ago he was expressing how grateful he was that I was going to give him a chance to be the DP on my full feature film. How quickly people forget ...

So I got kicked in the teeth, but I got back on my feet, dusted myself off and laughed it off. BRING IT ON! I will do my own DPing for my feature. I actually really love lighting and camera moves are, to me, what making a film is all about so in fact I ALREADY am doing the job of a DP, so now it's official I am taking the wheel in that department as well. What the hell.

Now on a lighter note, my friend Daniel and I went shopping. For shoes? for clothes?

NO.

For lighting gear and film makeup . Yep, so I am a gear head and this shopping WAS fun. First stop: CINEMA SECRETS, which is right across from Bob's Big Boy. there I bought make up for actors that sweat (so they won't shine) and then asked to be shown how to do make up to create bruises, which I will need for both my short and then the DOS. I bought the paint and Daniel was the guiney pig. Pretty soon the poor guy's arms were covered in red and bluish bruises, he looked like he just had a serious motorcycle crash. We walked out of the shop with him looking pretty scary... THEN he put a dab of the special "magic stick" which makes actor CRY... Secrets revealed... Ahhhhhhh... So THAT is how they do it!! A couple dabs later Daniel's eyes were filled with tears which soon started rolling down his face....

The poor guys cried his eyes out for 10 minutes straight

Imagine the face of the people at FILM TOOLS (our next shopping stop) when Daniel and I walked through their door, Daniel covered in bruises and crying...



My God we laughed our heads off all afternoon. It really was a GREAT time, and took the stress of the morning right out.

Wait. The stress came right back when the cashier At Film Tools rang me up...

WHAT????? Did you just say $550???? But I didn't buy anything! Just little nick nacks: Couple light bulbs, a few gels, clothes pins and one articulated arm to support my 7 inch monitor...

She was serious...

I was broke BEFORE I walked in and when I left I was BROKERRRR...

Basically making a film is like hemorraging. You're bleeding like a PIG and you just can't stop it.... (deep sigh)...

 

PHOTOS

THE BENCH screen grabs from the third scene we filmed, in which a very successful (but not very honorable) music producer offers fame to a struggling artist... But there is a price tag: He will have to sell out and give away 50% his writers credits to the producer .... So our musician is faced with a dilemma: Fame and fortune? Or stay true to his art and remain a struggling, broke musician. What will he do? Find out when THE BENCH comes out.

1. Robert Garrette is today's top producer (what, didn't you know?), as his many GOLD records attest: (I made these myself hehe thanks to Goodwill and Pick and Save and one can of gold paint )




2. he offers a seductive deal to Hyland. (note the very expensive vintage RCA microphone on the desk - at left - which was loaned to me by the actor who played Zak's mean father - and who is in real life really a VERY NICE guy)




3. When Hyland hesitates, Garette is quick to show him the PILE of CD submissions, all from unsigned bands DYING to get signed:



4. Close up on Garette (PS: This actor actually audition for the DOS and will probably be part of the motorcycle gang (after a good hair cut that is LOL)



5. Will Hyland, our struggling musician, take the bait?



6. Reality sinks in as he hears the details of the crooked deal

 

THAT is so F'n AWESOME!!!!!

~Jason

 

Sorry to see that this won't be available in a 35mm format. Will there be any trailers in 35mm? What about point of sale materials?

 

Everybody is going digital these days , and with the 35 mm adapter you get the film look on a shoe string budget. When you are done, if there is interest for a theatrical release you do a film transfer, so you can still have a film on film type of deal. It's the only way to go for the tiny , struggling indie filmmaker.

 

UPDATES

Shoot #6 of THE BENCH. remind me to not only fasten my seat belt, but also put a crash helmet on. And while we're at it, let's add a roll cage to this endeavor.

This has been a ROUGH ride. Everything and anything that can go wrong, WILL.

NO technical booboos though , and Jim and I are kicking serious butts, but everyone else around us are dropping like flies. One actor got kidney stones and had to be rushed to the hospital, so I cancelled 3 shoots and shuffled all my shooting schedule around. My other actor did one long shoot and got crucified by his wife for staying up late that night and now is postponing the next two shoot for this week end... Probably to avoid a divorce . I hired two P.A and BOTH didn't show up at the shoot. That was AFTER promising and swearing by ALL Gods that they would NEVER flake on a director. And then did just that.

Expect 95% of your help to flake on you, lie to you, let you down. In fact let me rephrase this: Expect NO help. Then if you are VERY lucky you might (I said might) get some.

Expect to have a 24 day like I did yesterday. Up at 5AM, do your day job so you can pay your bills and keep a roof over your head and then pile up another 12 to 14 hours straight filming.

Expect that you will not have time to eat a single meal that day. Also expect that you will, more than likely, not sit down a SINGLE time during the entire 12 hours.

Expect that you will, invariably, after about 8 hours of straight work (and realizing you are NO WHERE NEAR done with the scene), think about quiting.

In fact I think that filmmaking is pretty much like giving birth. Painful and ugly. You go through labor pains and swear by all Gods that you will NEVER do this again. Then you get to see your "baby" and a couple of days later, you have already forgotten how painful it was, all you remember now is just how beautiful your baby is... And that you will cherish it for years and years to come... And suddenly it seems to be all worth it...

And next thing you know you are pregnant again , loading up your truck and heading out to the next shoot...

And do it ALL OVER again.

PS: More screen grabs from the short coming soon.

 

you make it sound so appealing. just like building one these damn cars then...sucks that you keep scaring away the help though.

 

wish i lived on the west coast and was around when you were casting charactors and extra's so i could have been part of the motorcycle gang. would have been a perfect reason to borrow my uncles 47 harley . cant wait to see this movie it sounds awsome

 

For what it's worth, Faith, there's alot of moral support from your silent
crew (us) who are sending positive vibes your way.
Hang in there & know we're supporting you.
Thanks for the updates!

 

...and they know that like 40,000 of your friends are willin' to go out and kick their asses, right?

~Jason

 

Im in!! I got nuthing going on and it's -10 deg. outside... Lets rumble!

 

Ah you guys are so funny ... OK, you're all on. I'll get the P.A's home addresses from now on before hiring them and tell them if they flake we will send a hord of crazy mofo tatooed hotrodders to beat the crap out of them ... Boy I bet ya they'll show up one hour early then!

 

I love you guys!!

but don't worry, I am a heck of a resilient little beast.

 

Yeah, it aint pretty, but I think I am starting to get the hang of it. yesterday shoot I had the lighting dialied in.... 15 minutes????

I walzed in the office where we were to shoot at, looked at the bay window, the desk and chairs and said.

OK. I want my dolly set up here, angled like this. I will be using my 100mm lense on this shot, I want 2 500K lights here and here. I want 216 diffusion gel on both. I want one aimed low, this direction and one pointing up to the ceiling, this direction. I also want a flag here and one small light to light the books there.

WOW. I almost sounded like I know what I am doing.

My grip put it together and we turned the lights on and sat the actor down and BINGO. Instand beautiful lighting. perfect from try one. (??Pinch me, I must be dreaming!)

Talk about beginners LUCK ! ... Actually, I need to give me more credits, it was not luck, it was studying and having already 6 shoots under my belt as a mini DP. I am starting to get the hang of it (I am a very fast learner).

 

PHOTOS :

BEFORE AND AFTER

This is what the Zak scene REALLY looked like BEFORE I did my creative magic on it and massaged it with lights, angles and depth of field:

BEFORE



AFTER



BEFORE:



AFTER:



BEFORE: This is the bed light area before



AFTER:




BEFORE: This is what the wall really looks like in Zak's room.



AFTER: This is what I made it look like:





Ahhh the magic of cinema....


I REST MY CASE, YOUR HONOR