DEUCE OF SPADES hotrod movie - photos and updates

That would be great... except my mom won't let me get a tattoo.

Jeezzzz, I'm what - 34, mom? Come off it, already!

~Jason

 

Damn... it DOES sound like you know what you're doing. You could be dangerous...

~Jason

 

Faith,we have no doubts,you will succeed! I'm also enjoying the film education vicariously, through your excellent posts. Thanks, Don.

 

UPDATES:

I will recap last week's shoots with photos .

Today I will cover last wednesday. We were shooting at my co-worker Lynn's beautiful home in Calabasas. As you know, I had hired a P.A that did not show. So it was basically Jim and I to do everything. Personally, I can do the work of about 5 people, no problem. I think a crew of 3 to 4 is all I will ever need to do a primo job. but we were short at least one guy that night.

We unloaded and I scoped out the kitchen and hallway were the action takes place. Everytime I arrive at a location I scope out what's already there that I can use in creative way, to my advantage. In this case it was 3 nice small lights above the center table, as well as a nice vase that had a cool kalaedoscope effect when you looked through it. I immediately zeroed in on it and said: "Mmmmm... I'm gonna have to use this somehow and film through it". I also spotted a fruit bowls with 2 avocados, as well as a few oranges on another table (off frame). So I asked Lynn to give me any colourful fruits (red or orange) he had and I concocted a fruit basket to add a splash of color to the otherwise dark scene.

This was a night scene, low lights, just a lonely, successful single, middle age doctor coming home to noone, but his very old dog Shadow.

the opening shot is a very long dolly travelling shot, starting on the painting in hallway and crabbing (travelling sideways) past the wall into the kitchen:

the painting:



travelling sideways into the kitchen "through the wall"



We see the doctor open his cabinet in the far background and pull out dog food. As I travel sideways he walks to the center in the kitchen, so we travel together for a few instants... Then I pass right in front of the vase and see the doctor through the vase, then past it we see the fruit bowl and the doctor to the left:



he is engaging in a casual conversation with his dog while preparing the food, telling him about his day...



A few close up shots of Dr. Brooks:





We see the dog, sitting at the entrance of the kitchen. well, let me rephrase this: WE COULD NOT SEE THE DOG sitting at the entrance of the kitchen because the darn dog is BLACK as the night and the floors at lynn's house are off black hardwood floors. RATS. That lead to a huge headache and we wasted a good 30 min trying to figure out how to make the dog visible. His curly poodle hair ABSORBED all light making it impossible to have even the faintest reflection from any lights on him ... My solution: A white rug, strategically placed under him.



Lynn's little dog, who's name is really Shadow, is 14 years old, blind and deaf... It was VERY HARD to make it do anything, he has no idea where he was. We wasted another hour trying to do one simple shot of the dog sitting there. I kept going: "CUT!!!! the dog just walked away from the set!" or "CUT!!!! The dog is walking towards me!" or "CUT!!! Where is the dog gone??" ... Many pieces of chicken later we were able to get a couple Ok shots.

Insert on Dr. Brooks hands as he prepares the food:



As I pan up a bit, we also (hopefully ) see the dog, listening to his master talking...



We took great care in lighting even the smallest things, such as the dishes (which otherwise were too dark to be seen clearly):



And the sink were the doctor adds a little water to the bowl:







Each shot was treated as a painting, and lit to create a low light feel. My goal was to convey a sense of loneliness: The lonely man who walks in his nice luxurious kitchen but is not going to eat in it, has just turned on a few tiny lights over the center isle and is just giving food to his dog... There is a sense of his coming home late, tired, and of the place being empty and quiet. This was all conveyed with the dim lighting. I hope I succeeded.

Jim and I worked our butts off until about 4AM that day. We were BEAT. It was hard to wake up the next morning at 8AM and zip to my day job. But the show must go on!

More scenes, comments and photos tomorrow.

 

Hells yeah, you succeeded! Kind of reminds me of coming home. Only my very young miniature dachshund and very old beagle are likely better conversationalists than 'ol Shadow. No offense, Shadow.

The lighting tells the story, as always. You really ARE getting good, both from practice and through the zen of doing it over and over in your head.

Hopefully, the chicken y'all bribed Shadow with was cooked...

~Jason

 

UPDATES:

Today I will tell you about the saturday shoot. This was a daytime interior shoot. I trained my friend and fellow Hamber Jeff to be a grip and he did a mighty good job. It was just the two of us on the job that day.

Mike, another fellow hamber, was a total sweetheart and, the day before, loaned me some lighting stuff I so greatly need right now. Mike is a long time hotrodder himself and owns a Special Effects company in Van Nuys. They build wonderful models that they usually then enjoy blowing up for various films. For exemple they built models for the films "What dreams may come" and also "Mars attack" to name just a few. I visited his facility Thursday and was like a kid at a candy store. It is amazing! I am so grateful for the kind hotrodders that are stepping in to give me the hand I so greatly need to pull this off THANK YOU!

I arrived at the shoot to meet a couple new challenges:

1. A large miror in the room I was to shoot at (RATS) and that forced me to have to shoot with the large window BEHIND my actor, resulting in a backlight situation which is less than ideal. Thanks to the orange gel Mike had loaned me we were able to cover the entire window so match the blue daylight to our orange Tungsteen inside lights. Then it was a matter of having enough light on the actor and making it look like it is coming from the side of the window... Also I closed the blinds to avoid the glare from the window and create an interesting background.

2. A large white blank boring, fugly looking wall. And not having permission to hang anything on it. My solution? Simulate a flare of sunlight from the window onto the wall. not only did it make the wall look pretty but it also conveyed a "ray of light" coming from the musician, depicting a victorious character, bigger than life, a guitar hero or even a rock star of his own. It worked real well.

3. I had him put his large guitar amp behind the bed but we could not see it it was too short so we propped it up on a box. Hey, whatever works .

Otherwise the shoot went smooth, but we did lose the direct sun on the blinds so I had to compensate a bit here and there by opening the blind more on some of the later shots...

All in all, I am well pleased with the composition, lighting and acting on this short scene:

PHOTOS:

Opening shot starts with a close up on guitar while we hear the musician talk on the phone and hiring a roadie:



we pan to the photos tossed on the lid of his suitcase, which I lit with a small 40W spot light:



Then pan up onto the musician himself who is packing his suitcase while talking.







Insert on lashious colored shirt he is grabbing:






here are the close ups: I had him stand so he creates a demarkation between the blind background and plain background. Note how the light seems to be coming from that window, but in reality is not, he was lit with a 500K hard light with a diffusion gel on it:



the results are very convincing:



I also shot a second version, where he stands closer to the (fake) splash of sunlight




Note: the splash of sun came from a garage floodlight hehehehe... 500K with a daylight balanced bulb and some black cinefoil to give it it's shape. Great tool for only $20 . (+ $13 for the bulb)

 

The lighting is really awesome, by the way - and keeps getting better!

~Jason

 

UPDATES

Drove under POURING rain to my next shoot location, only to find out that one of the actor is sick and was unable to come. I am not having any luck with this one scene, this is the SECOND time we have to reschedule it. Last week it was another actor who had to be taken to the hospital because of sudden attack of kidney stones . So we rescheduled for tonight. Now the other guy has the flew...

They are dropping like flies ...

We unloaded the three tubbs that were in my truck bed, filled with electrical stuff (accent lights, gels, extention cords etc etc...). They had been sitting all day under pouring rain. I was pleased to find that no water got inside, the tubbs have nice lids that latch and although they are not "water proof" or water tight, they did keep the rain out very well . OK, so at least ONE thing went well today !!

Now we wait until Friday to shoot the scene. This gives me a couple more days to gather a few more set decoration items. Good, cause we need it, the dinning area we are filming at is BORING... No beauty there, if beauty is to be had in my shots I am going to bring it with me and manufacture it from (pretty much) scratch.

So the schedule right now as we stand with the rain on the forecast for the next 5 days is: Friday interior night scene and Saturday, the remaining of the doctor and Shadow scene, also a night (probably all nighter) scene.

Sunday I have more scenes scheduled for outdoors, but it will depend on the rain. If it rains i am filming the park and bench under the pouring rain, which I need for my short towards the end.

On another note I have been writing material for the soundtrack. Geese, another hat yet . I hear the song in my head, and wrote the lyrics as well as arrangements... It's about 80% done. So that's cool.

I don't know if I ever mentioned that to you guys, but music was my first love and something I pursued all my life until about 3 years ago. My music project ALTERNATE FAITH (please see: www.alternatefaith.com to see photos, read the bio and listen to cuts from my last album) kicked some serious butt at college radio in the mid 90's, charting as high as number one on at least 2 stations and staying on the top 30 for 9 weeks straight on KSJD! Yop, and I still could not get signed. Oh well...

This is me with platinum blond hair on the big stage at the Key Club on Sunset:



here's another one from that same show



This one taken at the Whiskey on Sunset



This is me performing accoustic and playing my Sitar this time



And another shot playing my Oud:



Geese, I'm full of surprises, aren't I??



As ar as the short film goes, I'm really curious to see how everything is going to mesh together to create a complete film / story (a short film, but a film nonetheless) once I am done filming / editing.

OK, got to go back to work, I'll post more photos tomorrow.

 

I wouldn't guess these pics are the same person...



...and...




BTW, I'd never seen a sitar before; had no idea how HUGE they are. Betcha' could beat your way thru a bar fight with that thing way better than any telecaster ever made!

Keep up the good work.

-bill

 

Sister, that ain't no damned lie!

NEVER MESS WITH A CHICK WITH A SITAR, MAN.

Had I known about this fact, I'd have had one comment to those dudes that ditched: GAME OVER, MAN...

Like Toulouse says, I only tell the twooth.
http://www.geocities.com/charminglybohemian2/icantremembermyline.jpg

Let's see how many catch that one...

~Jason

 

Thanks for the updates and Wow!

You could be a spy or something with that kind of skills in different disguise.

I wonder what you´ll reveal next...

 

If your looking for locations. Hogs n heifers saloon Here in Las Vegas is a known Biker and hotrod meet up location. Great wooden Old school facade on the front of the place. You might have to do some tricky shots to keep th fremont street experience out of the film but it's very possible.

the interior Is much like you would have seen in movies like "coyote ugly" down to girls dancing on the bar. bras from girls & ties stolen from businessmen hung around everywhere.

Anyhow just a thought.

 

yeah it's amazing what hair style and hair color will do... I was blond for 20 years straight and finally went back to my natural hair color. the dark hair photos are more recent than the blond photos, which date back to 1999.

As far as the Sitar, yes it is BIG (and yes, I am afraid I have to break the news to you gentlemen but size does matter )

OOps the thread is becoming X rated!

But seriously, nothing was as funny as the drunk at this local bar that looks at me pulling the sitar out of it's case (I had a gig there) and goes: "what's that? A bong??"

(sigh) And then you wonder why I quit music?

 

Thanks for the heads up, however I don't have a bar scene in my film. Johnny is only seen getting plastered once, and he does it alone sitting on the beach next to his faithful roadster.

I'll keep it mind though for another film

 

Wow. Since you can play the oud, why not add a little Sandy Bull style music for the atmospheric stuff. Never heard of him? Check this out:
http://www.sandybull.net/

 

UPDATES.

Today I will tell you a bit about my previous Tuesday shoot. Sorry I am backtracking a bit time wise.

That night I had the opportunity to film my character Hyland (from above scene) and his two band mates performing live at the Kodak theater. I left work early and arrived for their rehearsal at 2PM. Waited and waited and waited and by 6:30PM they were told they will not have a rehearsal afterall, the producer was running out of time. I was then asked to stay in the sound booth to film. So I had no close access to the stage to really film like I wanted to: Up close and personnal, with dramatic angles ...

After rehearsal everyone left the theater to go eat and prepare for the show, but I stayed with my gear (what leave all my investment unattended? I don't think so!!) . So there I was, ALL ALONE, sitting by my gear and looking at the Kodak theater, which is, in case you didn't catch this, where they give the Oscars every year.

I day dreamed a bit... And practiced my speech for when they are going to give me my Oscar for DEUCE OF SPADES :

Really? No, not really Like I care about an Oscar. Pchhhht! Hey But if they ever gave one to me I would not spit on it .

But it was nice to be in that huge room alone. It was quiet, beautiful, majestic and gave me a good buzz.

Quiet? Not quite, because there was a real weird sound going... What the heck? A gargle?? Ah, I get it., My stomach.. In the heat of the action I had forgotten to eat. I was told the show was going to be catered, but no such luck. And my friends had left for California Pizza Kitchen and promised to bring me back a pizza but they soon forgot all about me and my feeding needs. ... As I waited for my pizza which never did show up, I wondered what the wine colored velvet theater seats would taste like... I was about to take a bite when they opened the doors and the public started to flock. Rats. So much for a snack.

I then got to watch the whole show (hungry), which included many acts, and at some point between the dragon dance (it was a Chinese festival) and the chinese opera singer, I finally got my cold pizza. I then filmed the band performing their 2 songs. Then everyone ran out the door and i was left behind to carry all my gear by my self. manoeuvering the two cases and tripod through a crowd of Chinese people, all of which were snapping photos faster than an automatic weapon on speed.... Oh fun it is to film without a crew ...

Got home at midnight, tired but happy: I had the footage I needed. And cold pizza doesn't taste that bad after all .

PHOTOS:

No need for comment much, I shot some lights to use as layers in the final edits, and then just the band, which was very far away from me (boohoohoo)...

Some lights:







THe band:





here you see Hyland and the guitar from teh previous scene, on the big screen:



here is the cute gal that plays the lead singer of his band (she is actually a known artist "Marina V"






That's about it for today folks, come back tomorrow for more stories and photos!

 

I'm still blown away by seeing you with platinum blond hair and leather short shorts, lol.

 

You are a "naughty girl" and we appreciate that quality!!!LOL

 

Oh yeah I clean up good... Well, used to anyways

 

UPDATES

Just a quick update to let you know I will not be able to post updates today ..

Wait!

I just DID !

Anywhoo, still raining cats and dogs here in "sunny" Southern California (I want my money back! ) and heading out to my shoot right after work at 5PM. I anticipate that I will be done VERY late (2,3 or 4AM) and that loading up the gear at 3AM with pouring rain is going to be entertaining at the very least, and COLD ...

May I please have a little cheese with that whine??

OK, those who are about to rock (hopefully) salute you! Wish me luck - no wait... To break a leg!

tata.

 

Cold!?!? It was -19 here lastnight! And "yes" thats a minus in front of the 19. Anyway...keep up the good work(when you can).Good luck!

 

UPDATES:

Oye oye oye... Interesting shoot last night.

See? This is why I am filming a short right now, before getting started with DEUCE OF SPADES. To work out all the kinks. Regardless of how much you spend on gear, and how brand new it is, it is bound to come up with a few surprises, usually SMACK IN THE MIDDLE of a shoot.

So here we all were last night, I actually had a crew this time, 3 actors and a shit load of gear, all ready to go. I experimented with a different lighting set up this time and that tok about 4 hours to dial in. I then rehearsed the actors (actually non actors, which I favor), and they did very well after a bit of directing on my part. Good, so next we roll camera. We do a few good takes, so far so very good. Then every piece of gear I have started giving me trouble .



First we blew a light bulb in the 500K key light. I was in luck I had ONE last spare bulb so we fixed it and went on with the shot.

THEN my dolly started acting up, due to the kitchen floor not being leveled. We wasted about 30 min trying to figure this out. Continued with filming.

THEN my brand new monitor started shutting off , turns out the connector to the camera is lose. Go figure.

Meanwhile we ars still filming and we are now on to the close up section of dialogue...

THEN the EL BIGGO. My beloved, wonderful 35 mm adapter gave up the ghost. Just like that. POUF.

WHAT????????????? That thing is brand new? And cost me my left kidney!!!

Posted on my filmmakers forum today and found out that a few units were shipped defective, and guess what? I know where one of them ended up! .

By now it is 2AM and I must admit defeat. RETREAT! RETREAT! The troops scattered every which way and we folded and went home, without being able to finish the scene and get all the coverage I had planned for.

But I did not leave without good footage. And because I had taken a more artistic approach to the master shot, I can actually use it for the entire scene and get away with it, quite well . So maybe all is not lost.

Meanwhile I am now officially DOWN until adapter is fixed by manufacturer - and who knows how long that is going to take?

My plan is to start editing what I got so far and assess what I did well and what I need to still work on... See where we're at. Also I have 5 new books to read about lighting and cinematography.

And when I klook at the deuce now all I can say is:

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! But I love you for it."

This is by far the most challenging, scary and also most crazy, exciting thing I have ever done in my life.

OK kids, going back to sleep, need to rest I am exhausted. I will post more photos of the short probably tonight or tomorrow.

 

PHOTOS

A few behind the scenes photos:

In action:



I can't believe how BIG my camera has become and all the freakin' wires hanging from it now... Boy oh boy, good thing I am a gear head / nerd (and always have been)...

here assessing what lens to use on dolly shot: Nope, I don't think the 50mm is going to do the trick...





Jim Miller is assisting me with props. He just earned a new nick name: "EAGLE EYE JIMMY"; that's because he can see any problem in the frame, even the tiniest one. Any glare, reflection, boom, mic, spot, stain, ant... He'll spot it right away and want to fix it . Here he has noticed a very small stain on frame and removed it so it would not be visible in the shot. thank you Eagle eye Jimmy!




My camera, on the dolly, ready for action, notice the very expensive focus marker set-up: two wooden clothes pins alsoknown as C-47s.




Opening dolly move: Notice the whip in my left hand. NO not THAT kind of whip , a film whip, it turns the focus ring so you can adjust focus even from a distance.



Here, assessing where I want to place my key light:



yes, it's BIG and yes, as discussed recently, size matters



Above shots are from the doctor's office scene coming up soon! the scene featured Jim Miller as the patient who finds out he only has 2 more months to live. Screen grabs from this scene coming up next!!

PS: Rats, meawhile, I am missing the GNRS

 

MINUS 19?????

I don't know how you guys do it.

 

........in one of the above pics, you're wearing my favorite color.......LEATHER!
Keep up the good work Faith!!

 

Need help with sound or foley or anything like that? Licencing maybe?

Let me know...that's my day job and I'd love ot help out.

Can't wait to see it!

 

lol, THREE different outfits during one shoot?

 

I caught that, too.

I thought, "Jeez... she's so glam she sweats glitter."

J/K. LOL!

~Jason

 

Yes, I usually change outfits every 5 takes.

NOOOOOOOOOO, these are from 3 different shoots you guys! When I said "above shots" I meant the ones JUST above the line...

The black outfit is what I wore during the abused kid's scene. The red I wore during the musician and producer scene. The crappy beige sweatshirt during the doctor's scene. I actually look like hell usually when I am filming. No time to waste so I grab whatever is at the top of the drawer and wear that, whatecver it may be, some flats and little to no make up. That's the cool thing about being BEHIND the camera hehe... At least for now.

 

Hey I need ALL the help I can get. PM me and let me know how you can help...