We’re making a film starting next month. It’s about an assassin who’s haunted by a ghost. Funny thing is, the he didn’t kill the person who haunts him. The ghost attaches to him because he was trying to be nice.
Progress is fast, which is good and bad. It’s good because both I and Jerry tend to procrastinate. With a deadline looming we have to get a move on. It’s bad because the script still needs work. But we’re getting things lined up. We’ve secured some locations. We’re in the middle of casting. We’ve got the equipment we need except for dolly track. (One thing about the film is that all of the equipment is owned by us, so we don’t have to worry about rentals and getting the gear back to equipment houses on time.) A SteadiCam has been bought.
The one thing that’s been a bone of contention has been the camera. It would be fun to shoot on my Éclair NPR, but 16mm film and processing is expensive. Obviously, shooting in 35mm is right out. We use JVC broadcast digital cameras in the studio, even for weddings. Jerry can make it look just like film in post. ‘Why not use them?’ I ask. ‘We’re getting great images, and your post-work is incredible.’ ‘Yeah,’ says Jerry, ‘But we can get better images with [insert camera here].’ We needed another camera so that we could send out two crews, so I bought a Panasonic AG DVX100A. This is the same type of camera that was used by another local production, and the images are wonderful. Let’s shoot on the Panasonic. But then we attended a demonstration of the new JVC HD camera. Jerry’s eyes lit up and he decided we have to use that one. But it costs six kilobucks. Now, I’d always said we should use what we had. Save the money for the film. But the JVC HD is awesome… Finally, I this is what’s going to happen: The JVC broadcast cameras will be used for some shots. The Panasonic will be used for others. We’re probably going to shoot some 16mm as well, since I have some stock in the freezer. We’re giving the HD camera a bye for now, since we ‘need’ the SteadiCam.
I’ll be the DP. Jerry also wants me to play a role. I was okay with that until the other day. We had people reading for roles, and I read another character. ‘My’ character is rather unlike me. And he plays his part sitting down. Lots of ‘face acting’ as it’s written. Unfortunately my facial expressions tend toward the comedic. (Besides which, Jerry says I sound ‘English’ sometimes. :dubious: 
) And I’m not sure of my voice. I told Jerry that I’d rather not have the part than to do a poor job. He says I just need to see what’s in his mind and I’ll get it. There’s another part that was written ‘for me’. I had more fun reading that part with the actors that were trying out for other roles. That character is more like me. But fat bastard as I am, I’m still not ‘big enough’ (or dark enough – the character should be Italian or Mexian looking) to fit the role exactly. In any case, I’m more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it. I have a good face for radio. We’ll see how the casting goes. If we can’t find anyone better, I’ll play one of the roles.
We were planning to shoot 20 days straight. Some people actually have jobs and families though, and we’re only offering deferred pay. Scheduling will be difficult. So instead we’ll be shooting when we can. The lead actor (who is really cast against type) is in all of the scenes, but the others will only be available for a couple of days each. The lead is a stay-at-home dad. His new baby will be five months old next month. His fatherly duties are probably going to cause scheduling conflicts. Finger crossed it works out.
Since this is a very low budget picture we don’t have a large cast and crew. That will make things easier to coordinate and it will make it cheaper, but I know from experience how hectic things can be when ‘everybody does everything’ vs. having a full crew. But we’ll get it done. Since we’re shooting on DV we can do things over and over until it’s right. Yeah, we have no budget to speak of; but this is going to be one low-budget film that looks like a ‘real movie’.
An actress called the other day who says she’s SAG so she can’t be in it. But she did give us a line on a distributor. I’m dubious, since it sounds like a CaféPress sort of outfit. A distributor can’t just have product. He has to sell the product. The producer has a relative who owns a Blockbuster or two. She thinks we can at least get a copy in there. Jerry has a contact who makes a film a month and wo has a distributor who buys each piece of crap he puts out. We’re certain our film will be much better than his, and he says that he’ll connect us with his distributor. I suggested that we try shopping the film in L.A. We’re going to have some test screenings. We want to make sure people like it before we go after L.A. distributors.
For now we have to tighten the script. I want to show the naked woman having her throat ripped out, but Jerry doesn’t want the audience to know that she was killed by a ghost yet. It’s his script, but on a low-budget film in this genre I think the audience might be cheated if we don’t show the killing. We’ll hash that out. We’re going to watch a few thrillers to see what we like and what we don’t like and try to tailor our script for best results.
And we need to get the lead comfortable with shooting guns. He’s an assassin, and he’s still flinching. Fortunately there’s a range (who has agreed to let us use it as a location) a few miles away from my home, and we have about 1,500 rounds of 9mm plus 900 rounds of blanks.
I’m a little tense about the film. I want to start shooting now! We’ve been working on this thing for months, and progress has been too slow. But I know we need to be prepared first. Three weeks to go. The waiting, like the name of the film, is Agony.
I’ll try to remember to post updates as they are needed.
