Friday, September 4th, 2009
Time usually goes fast. But while working on this film, time has just ceased to exist.
I just honestly can’t believe it’s September, it’s all gone by amazingly quick. I thought we would be wrapped by now, but we’re not, and that’s fine. We’re back on track and moving right along. We got another quick scene with TJ on Wednesday, the weather actually looks like its going to give us a break for the weekend, and we’ll get another lengthy, dialogue-heavy scene done on Sunday, an important one, and then we’ll be completely wrapped at Oaklawn elementary.
And things look good for Tuesday to get the final scene with Stupid. (We’re getting to use the word “final” a lot more now, which is unfathomable.)
It also looks like things are going to work out for us to have the rest stop on Sunday the 13th, and we’ll also get some road scenes in the car done on the 12th.
Going to turn some energy back to the radio announcer part very soon, and also get that stuff shot and recorded in a couple of weeks.
Still needing to confirm a convenience store/gas station for the last scenes we’ll shoot, but we should be able to get that done in about 3 days. Otherwise, there’s some small pick-up stuff needed, of course, but if everything goes right, we should be wrapped by early October — not a moment too soon before the chill of fall sets in. The ‘Dead’ will be done dancing. Hallelujah. Then we can head full steam into post production.
Things feel good. Positive. Everyone is still in a good mood. Everyone also has more commitments now, with school started, other projects looming over us and new jobs. But they’re all still committed to seeing this baby through. Everyone has a personal stake in it now. Amazing…
So, heading into fall. And loving it.
-r.
Posted in Inspiration, The Dead Can't Dance, Writing, production, title sequence | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
Well, it was a very productive weekend. I did a lot of driving around the area to scout various locations.
Most importantly, though, I drove to Yoder, KS, to try to get permission to shoot at the old airport there. I had found the airport location many months ago, and loved its expansiveness, its isolation. This would be the location for the rendezvous scene near the end of “The Dead Can’t Dance,” where our heroes try to get to for safety and medical attention.
Originally, I had the scene set in Wichita (somewhere). But when I saw the airport I started thinking about it. “Officials” would really want to set up such a haven in the middle of nowhere, away from infested populous cities, in spaces where they could see things coming for miles. So the old airport seemed ideal. And the place had a certain spooky, doomsday-like charm to it.
But the problem was how to get permission to use it. As our shoot date neared, I turned my 2nd A.D. Craig onto it and let him loose. Now Craig is great, he’s a natural talker and is good at networking. But even this was proving difficult for him. I also reached out to the very cool Peter Jasso at the Kansas Film Commission, and he did some calling, as well. Eventually, I gave Craig the info that Peter found through the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce. Whew.
Craig then spent hours and hours on the phone trying to get ahold of the actual owner of the airport, but kept hitting walls. Eventually, he got ahold of someone from a gliders association that meets at the airport every weekend, and I called him (a very nice man named Bob), and he agreed to meet me at the airport on Saturday and take me to the owner’s house.
I timed it on Saturday, and the airport is exactly 45 minutes from my apartment. I met Bob and we chatted as he drove me around the airport premises and to the owner’s house. But he wasn’t home, and Bob suspected he may be out of town for the summer. He suggested I go back to the airport and talk to the rest of their gliders group, some of whom knew the owner better than he did.
To make a long story short (too late, I know), I talked with the group and they were great, very game and very interested in what we were doing. One of them, Ray, said he’d check with the rest of their board, but that it should be OK if we shot our scene there. Hallelujah!!! An approval, at last.
And while it was a preliminary OK, it was still monumental, especially after all the work Craig and Peter and others had put into trying to get us there. So it was a huge victory, indeed!
Several days later, we now have the official OK for shooting on the premises. We’ll head out there this Sunday, which kicks off the next phase of our shoot (which will conclude August 10 — after this phase, we’ll be about 3/4 of the way done). We may have to work around the gliders on Sunday, but that also might be cool to have them flying in the background. We’ll just have to wait and see.
We’ve also got about 4 people lined up to be military extras (they’re actual military guys who are on a paintball team, so they have the fatigues and very real-looking weapons), and we’ll have a few Native extras, as well. And Loni is looking into getting us gas masks. It’s amazingly just all falling into place!!!!
Well, that’s not true at all, but you know what I mean. But it does feel really, really positive. I can’t wait to get this next phase under way, and the airport shoot will be a great, exciting way to get the shoot kick-started again (especially since I was stressing about how to keep the overall momentum going and keep everyone pumped about the project).
Last night, I stayed up until almost dawn tweaking some scenes in the script to now match our actual locations (the rendezvous scene included). I rethought what will happen with the zombie attack still to be shot at Oaklawn elementary, and I’ve completely rewritten our bar scene, where Guy and Randall discover zombie exotic dancers. It’s gonna be a blast!
I also have a tweaked ending, which I like a lot better and is centralized in one interior location now instead of a road and hospital exterior. Just trying to make it simpler but effective.
Because, WOW, this is a lot of work, and it’s very, very hard. I love it all, but WOW. I gotta keep focused and keep myself pumped, too, and remember to breathe. Sometimes it’s all so very overwhelming. But it’s great.
Taking flight,
-r.
Posted in Inspiration, The Dead Can't Dance, Writing, zombies | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
A very cool article by Karen Long about “The Dead Can’t Dance” hits Naked City magazine’s online edition today. Read “The Zombie with A Heart of Gold.”
Nice interview with Wade and color from the Independent shoot. Karen informs us that this will be an ongoing series in the mag. Excellent! Our plan for world domination is in effect. Zombies unite!!
-r.
Posted in The Dead Can't Dance, Writing, zombies | No Comments »
Saturday, December 16th, 2006
OK. So I started feeling worse yesterday, and my sis took me to an immediate care facility, and they gave me some numbing drugs and I went home and watched movies. It took me forever to fall asleep, just couldn’t get comfortable, but I did at last and sleep until almost noon. Finally got some rest.
But the coolest thing happened at the doctor’s office. The nurse was a nice man who took my blood pressure and temperature and all that. Then all of a sudden, he said, “I really like your work.”
Oh, I said. “Thanks. You’ve seen one of my films?”
It turned out he hadn’t. But he’s an avid reader of the newspaper I work for, and had read about my films. But he was referring to a column I wrote a very long time ago.
It was around the time that we were having a special powwow here in Wichita honoring our elders. And I had written a column about how important elders are to our people. And I had mentioned a book I read, “Wisdomkeepers,” and how one elder in particular explained life.
That elder just happened to be a relative of mine, “Uncle” Frank Davis, a Pawnee man who was a cousin of my grandma’s (he has since passed away). He talked about how his mother explained life’s journey to him.
” ‘Life is like a path,’ she said smiling down at me, ‘And we all have to walk the path. … As we walk down that path, we’ll find experiences like little scraps of paper in front of us along the way. We must pick up those pieces of scrap paper and put them in our pockets. Every single scrap of paper we come to we should put in our pockets. Then, one day, we will have enough scraps of papers to put together and see what they say.’
‘If we never pick up those scraps of paper and never read them, we will never become wiser.’ ”
Then I mentioned in my column what it was like traveling to Oklahoma with my grandma. I would drive, she would enjoy the ride and look at the scenery. Every now and then, maybe, she would mention a place she went to as a little girl, or the trips her and my grandpa would take. Of the many dances they went to across the country and the good friends they met. Of the old Ghost Dance, and how they don’t do that anymore, and of how she’d ride her horse to town when she was little and play softball, then ride at home at dark.
I likened it to her looking at her scraps of paper from time to time. And how I was gathering my scraps of paper with every journey we took together. How priceless it all was. And how I looked forward to gathering much more wisdom, and looking back on it one day.
The nurse at the doctor’s office remembered that column. He said he showed it to one of his patients at the time, and how that elderly gentlemen really connected with it. He said that gentleman called his family and people he hadn’t spoken to in quite a while, told them hello and told them about the column I wrote.
He later died, but his daughter, I think, told the nurse that she was never as close to her father as in those last few years. That reading that column really made him open up and share his life experiences.
So the nurse told me, “I said if I ever met you, I wanted to tell you about that. And thank you.”
My sis smiled at me. And I didn’t quite know what to say, except a very underwhelming “Thank you.”
Then the nurse escorted us into another room and left. I’ll probably never see him again, and I’ll surely never meet that man’s family.
But life is funny. We think we’re just all spinning around in our little bubbles that are our complicated lives, unaware how we might accidentally touch someone. Or inspire.
Here’s hoping we can all gather wisdom — and share it with whoever will listen.
Because what’s the good in knowing it if you can’t pass it on?
-r.
Posted in Writing | 2 Comments »
