The Team
Well… we did it!
In my previous post I mentioned I was going to produce a short film while I was back in the states. I was in LA for less than 2 weeks, I personally only had 5 available days to film not even mentioning other people’s schedules.. but… well…. we did it!
I’m not even sure I can express my excitement for this project. I guess I’ll start with how difficult and unlikely this project was to shoot so you can understand where I am coming from with my excitement. My friend Dave and I had this concept a year back while getting some delicious Taiwanese food for lunch.. suddenly at the blink of an eye I get whirlwinded to China to work for Jet Li and Dave discovers that editing the pilot he had finished filming was going to take more work than he had expected. We are both pulled in separate directions so the idea gets pushed to the back of my mind. Though in the back of my mind.. it was always there and I thought it would be a fun idea and an interesting challenge so… practically A YEAR LATER when I discover that I am coming back to the US for a few weeks, I immediately call up Dave.
Mind you, I was only sure that I was coming back to the US 2 weeks beforehand.. Dave and I know we want to shoot something fun while I’m back, but he is not 100% sold on our original idea. We fiddle with a few concepts.. all pretty cool.. but eventually come back to the original one.
Now let me give you the time crunch countdown. We know we want to work on THIS project 1 week before I come back from China. I fly back to LA for about 3 days, then nor cal to visit my family for 1 week, then back to LA for about another 7 days. That gives us 1wk+3days+1wk.. roughly 10 actual days in LA.. but some of which I have to run errands, see family/friends, etc. Also I sold my car so for part of the trip I had no transportation to even get to and from set (just cuz I didn’t want things to be TOO easy u know)… and jet lag? That’s not even part of the equation.
The Stunt Crew
Pre-Planning Pre-Return
So although we had a cool premise in front of us.. it was purely a concept. Dave and I started off big with an entire feature length movie before us with spectacular characters and hyper realistic fx and the whole nine yards. After many 3 hour long conversations it dawned on me.. we had to be precise and narrow it down to a key moment in our story – suddenly the entire short visualized in my mind. We remained practical to our timing and budget limitations, but not in any way that would short change what needed to happen in the movie. I yapped away with Dave and told him what I saw the beginning of the film to be and after I finished he said.. he felt relieved because now we had a more solid grasp on the direction we were going.
In my mind, this is when everything started moving… kinda like in the opening credits of Fight Club.. you knew you were going to be taken for a wild ride. With the specific scenes in mind, Dave went to work on the script and I started planning the action sequences. Yep, I just spilled the beans that there will be some action in this.. is that a surprise? =P
This is all while I’m in Asia. One week passes and it’s time to return to the US of A.
(1 week – 1week) + 3 days + 1 week = 3 Days and 1 Week Left
I’m only in LA for 3 days before going to Nor Cal. Draft 1 of the script is ready and draft 1 of the fight concept is ready. We meet up and discuss. When it comes down to details everyone is going to have their own vision and subtleties… we go the distance on our thoughts for EVERYTHING and it’s good because a day later I have to go back to nor cal.
Bonus Week – Nor Cal
I wouldn’t really call this a bonus week.. this is the heavy lifting week for Dave and Al – our other producer. While I go back to nor cal, I work on revising aspects of the script, revising the choreography going in line with what elements we agreed to add in, and work on getting various equipment and stunt actors. Meanwhile Dave and Al are casting for additional roles, picking up props, dressing sets, and revising the script.
Game Week – 7 Days Left
“You can get a good night’s sleep the night before the shoot.. when you’re well-prepared”. – Al Brocca
Day 7 – I get back to LA in the evening. I’m able to jump start my bike and it starts running after sitting idle for 8 months. I have wheels now.
Day 6 – I go to the studio and we hammer out the final kinks to the script, characters, and to the choreography. Al films the action blocking for reference. We make functional adjustments to the set. Call times go out!
Day 5 – We film! I know, yet I don’t know how these guys did it, but in that 1 week we managed to get 2 camera operators, 1 sound, 1 super-grip (lighting, sound, slate, etc), 1 makeup artist, and all the actors/actresses. We were cautiously pessimistic, but somehow we got through the first day.
Day 4 – Action day! I mean.. it was all action with how much running around we did for the shoot, but today was the heavy lifting in terms of a lot of the stunt work and action choreography. Though I gave all my energy each day to my performance and work, I was the most daunted by this day because all of the action choreography was my responsibility… and everyone was working at such a high level in all other areas that I could definitely not disappoint. We got off to a rocky start.. and at some points I wanted to kill someone more than my character did. haha… but in the end we wrapped for the day and pretty much got the shots that we needed without too many casualties.
Day 3 – Could it be that we only had 1 more major day of filming left? People were feeling a little worn down by Day 3 of filming. The actors were on set for a while, but even after they left we stayed behind to plan for the next day. This week we had probably consistently been doing 15 hour days. With a little Emergen-C, coffee, zipp fizz, and fresh & easy we made it through our last major day of filming. I slept at the studio this day.
Day 2 – Backing up the footage and just getting some much needed rest. We felt pretty pumped that something purely in our head was captured in a digital box now. I asked Dave if it was possible that everything worked out? We had such a crunched time frame and had 1 thing not gone right the project would have been on hold indefinitely or never finished. I would’ve had to go back to China and we would have to wait until I got back and then try to get EVERYONE back maybe 6 months to a year later. He said sometimes you just get pumped and everything happens and it’s like catching lightning in a bottle. You capture the energy of everyone around you and that essence hopefully can be felt in the film.
Day 1 – I come in to the studio for some voiceover and sound work. This is a couple hours worth of work and its an opportunity to come off our high.
Countdown Over
I pack up and fly back to Asia. There will be more thanking to come, but for now let me briefly thank Jeff our super grip, Jacqui our talented actress, double Brocca time, Nelson runnin the 1s and 2s or more like As and Bs, Pej for the equipment, and Phil and Yanwei for taking hits and doin it in style.
So if you ask me what this film is.. I can’t even respond right now.. not because I don’t want to but because… I don’t even know. It’s like what Sean Parker in “The Social Network” says.. we don’t even know what it is yet.. we just know it’s cool. For me, I just know we wanted to make a short and it all came together. There is still going to be a lot of editing, filming inserts, sound, and other work.. but we know it’s cool and we had fun.
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