Damian’s Feed

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Laura began to schedule the weekend shoot, draw up call sheets, script breakdowns, the endless tasks of a production office of one. We searched for props: gass mask hazmat suit, sighting telescope. Laura wrestled with Mandy and Craigs List for crew and we contacted a few but due to technical problem they didn’t receive their call sheets and so I was left to dress, light, and shoot scenes by myself.  Despite this setback we otherwise used Gmail calendar and Google docs with great success for organizing and sharing information.
The day we got access to the LIC studio, just under a week before the deadline, we began our load in.  In addition to helping my friend move, I also had to transport all my cinematography equipment: lights, stands, sandbags, etc. In a day there was perfect chaos of stuff beckoning work for the next day.

The studio had one obvious problem.  It had been painted very poorly. The linoleum floor had been removed but the black tarry glue remained just under a coat of cheap common house paint. It easily came up and got over everything, so we covered the floor with as much Masonite and cardboard as we could. Already the dirty part of the project was introduced.

Production began on Saturday, the day before the Super Bowl.  The night before I had set dressed a “stake out room” improvised with cardboard milk crates and anything else I could find, and set up my lights. That morning, as I prepared to work with my actors I was elated and all my fatigue faded away as I plunged into the project. I forgot about the contest, stopped worrying, and entered into a happy here and now with Jason and Ray working through nuances of expression and dialogue.

That night I reviewed some of the dailies and attempted to color grade a still in Photoshop. Half of our shooting time was over and we had only covered one page of pretty static dialogue. I quickly had to reformulate, cut out an extra character, condense what I already had, and prep for day 2:  Super Bowl Sunday.

I was amazed to learn that Ray had been a football player in college and he had been invited to watch the game at the house of someone very important but instead he chose to be making movies with us. All throughout I thanked my lucky stars for this cast who suffered but never complained. It was almost too much fun, but hard on the body. The long hours all evaporated like water on a hot day.

Sunday started with a decision: Whether or not to include a van for the get-away scene.  I had not been able to get a van donated, so we would have to come up with the money.  At the last minute a beneficent angel investor came to the rescue, so Jason and I had to take time out from acting and directing to go rent a van.  We walked through misdirection all over Long Island City, but we finally found the rental company even though it strangely had a different name, and the van, which I thought was going to be unmarked had large logos.  At this point, I was just going to have to find a way to shoot around them.

Back at the studio, shooting went up quickly.  My shot list was the loosest it’s ever been. I shot some MOS pickups, Directed them through a dream sequence I hadn’t storyboarded. But this wasn’t about storyboards and previz this was more flowing the actors dogma style and using natural light and simple studio light.
I shot and shot. I had a van, a few hallways, the elevator—there must be a way of using that too.  I began to experiment with different shots and dialogue, and working hand held. We worked until late at night. When we finally wrapped Jason and Ray promised to give me more time if needed.

I had been looking forward to working with Sofia since we met in casting. Her grace and professionalism were second to none. We set up to shoot as the news promised a huge blizzard. She trooped through the long cold streets in heels just to capture a few moments on film. She brought her own magnificent wardrobe, gave to the camera, and worked like a star.
Finally, I was alone, on the roof in the middle of a snow storm shooting a scene where I was both camera person and subject at the same time. The film needed a strong last still.  At 8am after being awake for over 24 hours I finally got the opportunity I had been looking for: The water tower amongst the smoke and snow: