Whew! Not that his personality really matters, but I’ve never been much for the irresponsible bad-boy type… 
(Ok, I feel a little weird talking about the poor guy like this when I only saw him for all of, what, 5 or 6 seconds in the trailer? But it’s also kind of fun. :D)
The article is kind of ‘Meh.’ Basically ‘We’re not “Hollywood North” yet, but indie filmmakers are trying to make a go of it up here.’ There are a couple of quotes from our producer, and from others who have made or are making films in the area.
The actor was high-strung. Mostly he was just hanging out. Fortunately for him, the role was not much of a stretch. But enough of this gallows humour. If you haven’t guessed already, one of the characters had a bit of a neckite party last night.
I woke up after 0800 yesterday morning. I’d slept for ten hourse, which is not a good thing. Sleeping too much always makes me logy. I’d planned to get to the studio around noon, but I had to get some Christmas presents wrapped and mailed. Got there closer to one or so. The producer was editing a wedding, and the director was ‘in his zone’. There wasn’t anything for me to do. I piled up some sandbags and lay on the floor and closed my eyes. (Talk about sandbagging it!) I would have taken a quick nap, but the director popped out of his zone. We went out to the location, another alley for which we’d obtained a city permit, and talked about shots.
Now, we needed to hang someone. There’s a fire escape. And the building is one that is used by the film and arts community. Besides, we know a guy who has a videography business in it. He wasn’t there, but I’m sure he would have let us do anything we want. So we’re outside talking, and a woman comes out onto the fire escape where she had been drying died wool. She asked us what we were up to, and we told her that we were shooting a film in the alley. (We neglected to tell her about the specific gag.) It would have been very useful to have access to the building, for power and rigging and whatnot, so I asked if there would be access later. She said not unless we had a key.
Well, we could call the guy we know; only his real job is tending bar. Probably not much chance of reaching him. We could have asked the building owners for permission to hang an actor from a fire escape. But they would have said no. Oh, well. Easier to obtain forgiveness than permission.
Back at the studio people are nervous. The director was nervous about not having permission to use the building, and about our untested rig. I was a little nervous about the rig, though I couldn’t see how it wouldn’t be safe. The actor was nervous because these two yahoos have constructed a ‘hanging’ rig but haven’t tested it and we haven’t actually figured out how we were going to hoist him yet. He was especially nervous when he discovered the only reasonable way to lift him was to hook the other end of the cable to the tow hitch of my Jeep. :eek: ([Rainman] I’m an excellent driver. [/Rainman])
We had loads of help for this scene. Lots of willing hands to load and unload. Made it a lot easier. It’s great when your scene calls for cops, and you can get cops who also make and work on indie film projects. After much setting-up time and shooting the earlier parts of the scene we were ready to string up… I mean hook up the actor. Hey, he knew the risks when he signed up! We hooked the cable to the tow hitch. I inched the Jeep forward to take up the slack… In reality we didn’t hoist him up with the Jeep. Once the cable was tight we just had three guys haul down on it, pushing it to the ground. This raised the actor about four feet off of the ground. We told him that if there was an emergency and he needed to be let down, just to flail his legs and clutch at his neck. There’s one shot I really liked. After a bit of struggling (much more than you would normally see in a film – we’ll see how long it is in post) he goes limp and his legs just dangle as he swings. Creepy.
Once that bit was out of the way, we did the easy stuff. Still took a while. It was near freezing in the alley, and there was a breeze. The guy who was hanged earlier had to be dead. On the ground. On the cold ground. And this is a ‘time lapse’ montage, so he couldn’t move. He thought he’d be warm after they put a blanket under him and covered him up with a sheet. He was wrong. But the kid is a real trouper.
After everything was packed up ‘The Core Four’ of us went back to the studio and watched the dailies. I only made it through the first tape before deciding to call it a night. It was 0400 when I pulled into the driveway and shut off the Jeep.
And for some perverse reason, my body decided to wake me up at 0830. :rolleyes:
Just an observation, but in the trailer you have a leaf stuck in a guy’s collar. It sucks.
I’m not really fond of it, but it fell from a tree and landed there. So we left it.
Shittim wood is also local slang for the cascara tree, whose bark is used to make certain laxatives. Some people make extra cash by walking in the woods, stripping the cascaras they find, and selling to pharmaceutical companies.
There are stories of unfortunates who cut cascara branches to roast their marshmallows with on camping trips. Of course, they gave themselves the worst case of the trots one could imagine.
Shittimwoode is also a shire of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group of medieval re-creationists. Though they live in the habitat of the cascara buckthorn, they are named after the acacia from which the Ark was made.
As it happens, the Shire of Shittimwoode is based in Bellingham, so I’m guessing your border guard is an SCA member and is more used to using the former than the latter name when referring to your town.
In fact, there’s a story told in the kingdom of an American who won the Crown Tournament and travelled to his coronation, which was held north of the border (the Kingdom of An Tir has branches in both countries). When he was returning, a border guard asked why he’d gone to Canada. He said he’d gone to an SCA coronation, and expected to have to explain what he meant. But the guard knew what he was talking about and asked who’d been crowned. The new king said, “As a matter of fact, I was.” The guard then surprised him by falling to his knees and calling him ‘Majesty.’
Johnny, you may have met that guard.
I’m loving this thread, by the way. If I ever get rich and want to finance a film, I’m calling you guys.
Now now, no need to be snarky. It’s a silent homage to the character “Biff” from Back To The Future, who said " Why don’t you make like a tree and get out of here?"
See, the leaf represents leaving this life, this mortal coil. It’s resting on his collar because it is near his carotid artery, and in the full-length version, he dies when his carotid is severed in a street fight with a man who took a one quart glass bottle of milk and tapped it against the curb, creating a dangerously long sharp knife and attacked him with it.
It’s called foreshadowing.
Fuckin’ brilliant, for my money. 
Cartooniverse
What’s the latest on the film, Johnny?
(I hope 4 months doesn’t a zombie thread make…)