Bugs and biting back
We got through two more days at the Oaklawn School, the first being an action-heavy scene where two final zombies attack me and the good zombie, who is called Stupid.
But we didn’t have access to the school this day, so we did makeup beforehand, with Jack and our friend Zach coming to my place to do his prosthetics and Megan going to Wade’s place to do his makeup and our friend Dustin’s. Megan, typically, did fantastic work, and so did Jack (we made a head cast of Zach a couple months back).
We all get to the school grounds in the afternoon and blocked out the action. We started with the action right after I pull a stake out of my gut and crawl on the ground until I run into Stupid’s feet (a really nice dolly shot).
Then Dustin knocks me to the ground and we wrestle a bit until Stupid comes and drags the other zombie off of me.
And poor Dustin! He got dragged so many times this day, but he was such a trouper!! And so was Zach, who waited patiently in his makeup in 90-plus heat (we were in the shade the whole time, but still).
And an action director I am not, but now I guess I am. We did a lot of handheld shots for all the movement, and it worked great. Jerod, again, is simply superhuman.
So we got the stuff all the way up until the mean zombie gets “shot.” Then we’ll pick up Saturday from that point on with the special effects stuff (which scares me — again a new learning curve, but we’re devoting more time to it to get it right).
So it was a great day, and everyone did really good work. Awesome.
We went back to Oaklawn the next day to do another scene that happens after the zombie kill, where Guy’s character, Ray, helps me try to get back to the car. And I knew we were going to have to isolate the scenes along the tree path so we could shoot them without having to have everyone there all at the same time, and I think it works beautifully.
This day, though, was a heavy acting day. And I wasn’t happy with my acting at all until the final few takes. I still wasn’t thrilled with it, but we had to move on, as we were losing light. So it is what it is. I didn’t want it to be too melodramatic, but still effective. It’s a hard line to walk, but I hope I got it right.
After that we got some beautiful stuff with Ray and Stupid saying goodbye. And finally, with Stupid heading into the corn field (which was Wade’s idea), with some amazing, gorgeous light right at magic hour. Very cool.
Then yesterday we headed out to our friends’ farmland near Udall to get some stuff with Guy and Randall on a country road at dusk and then dark.
And getting everyone together and ready to go was a chore. It just is. And Brandon had a last-minute meltdown at work, so he couldn’t go. That meant the people riding with him needed to be picked up. We needed to get one scene right at sunset and it’s an hour’s drive, so I had hoped to leave by 5. After I picked up everyone, we didn’t get out of town until almost 6:30. I blazed on the highway.
We made it to the farm with no problem, then hopped out and immediately got ready to get the shot on the country road at sunset. I’m amazed, but we got it, and it looks great. We lost the really cool light, but we got it and it’s fine.
Then after that, I went to see Sir Chris, who owns the land, and his son Chris, an aspiring filmmaker himself and film critic. Really great guys. I apologized for not doing proper hellos before since we needed to get the shot, but they were both so great.
So was their family. Much later on, Sir Chris’ wife, Teresa, even made the whole crew homemade pizzas — completely from scratch. Absolutely delicious. Their graciousness was warm, inviting and humbling. All because they’re interested in films (the two Chrises were zombie extras for us at the Independent Shoot).
And Sir Chris even turned over an old van he had on his property so that it would look like it crashed. And let us use his power generator that he had parked on the back of his truck so it would be mobile. Incredible.
It was a difficult, unruly shoot once it got dark, though. Jerod was struggling with the lighting and really getting frustrated. And we had some lights malfunction, and we needed every one of them.
But Jerod finally got it to where it would work (though he still wasn’t pleased, but we worked with it), and we finally got to block the scene.
And the generator was LOUD. Really, really LOUD. We did our best to muffle it, but it was still overbearing. Finally, I moved my mom’s SUV and parked it in front of the generator. That actually helped a lot, and hopefully I’ll be able to doctor the audio in post. Scary stuff being so uncertain, but we work with what we have (in my first feature, “Dancing on the Moon,” I had no choice but to leave the sound of a generator in, because at the time I didn’t have the audio skills to fix it). It would be great to have a noiseless generator, but, ah, the benefits of having no budget.
Anyway, we got through the night, fighting off bugs the whole time and dealing with some unruly crew members (that’s a different matter). And Guy and Randall gave great performances. I think the scene is really going to be funny.
It all, of course, took much longer than I had hoped. Especially since Jerod had to leave for Kansas City immediately after we were shooting since he’s working on a shoot today and his call was 7 a.m. That means that he’s working straight through to tonight with no sleep. And Randall was leaving at 6 a.m. this morning for Kansas City, also, but for vacation with his family. I dropped him off at 4:30 this morning. I felt terrible for keeping them both so late, but they charged through it all. Jerod keeps telling me, “Don’t worry about me, I’m in this for the long haul, and I’ll be here for however long it takes.”
And Randall said, “Eh. I’ve done worse with less sleep.” Amazing…
So we had hoped to go back to Udall tonight, but like I said Jerod took that job in KC, which it turns out is fine ’cause it’s rainy. Don’t think we’ll get to do anything tomorrow, ’cause he’ll really need a day off. But then we still have Oaklawn and the bar shoot on Sunday. And hopefully something on Monday, but gotta figure that out. Then Guy goes home, TJ comes home and we regroup after we figure out schedules.
So … a little more done, and much preparation needed for Saturday and Sunday. Stay focused, stay on the road, stay on target. We’re getting there…
-r.
