1/20/2002

IT ALL BEGINS

The first day of shooting was on Sunday, where star Jason Wauer and I went to a big, spooky hallway located in Annandale, VA and basically did lots of shots of Jason walking up the hall, then down the hall, then back up. It was so exciting.

Are you as interested as I am? I know I am as interested as I am!

1/23/2002

DEBBIE ROCHON IN NEW YORK

In the middle of the week I headed up to the wilds of New York City to shoot Debbie's scenes. She appears as the woman that Jason sees on the television and spends the whole movie searching for. I hooked back up with old patriot Teddy Chao and stayed at his place in Brooklyn, where I ate all of his food and some of his comic books.

So around ten in the morning we picked her up...we're talking four-star treatment as I drove her to Teddy's place in my dirty Dodge Neon.

Here's a bit about Debbie...she is very committed to building her character. So we were discussing what she would look like. You see, in the movie she wears a wig because in reality her hair had been streaked for a photo shoot. And since she was playing a nice, regular character, we figured a wig would be the way to go. So she tried a few on, and we settled on the red one that she wears now. And then I suggested that at some point, after she's introduced, maybe we could take the wig off to reveal her hair. And we spent some time trying to figure out how to justify that for her character...why would she have streaked hair? Debbie wanted to create a character and stay consistent with it, and she was having trouble justifying the hair. And it's true, there was no justification for it. But at the time, all I was thinking about was "I think that wig will look fake!"

But then Debbie did her magic and the wig ended up looking great, so I didn't have to come up with a real bullcrap excuse and force her to lose it, which even though it might have made no sense, I would have done it anyway, because that's the kind of take charge guy I am.

Debbie was even a good enough sport to supply her own wardrobe. Of course, we hadn't even met before, except for a brief encounter at the first Sub Rosa Film Festival, which I didn't mention. I had only contacted her through e-mail and I was going by her other work. For one scene, she brought a vinyl catsuit, and I have to say that not one thing on this earth is sexier than hearing a loud "Grrunncch!" every time she moves in it. Well, maybe there is. I'll just have to take the sound out. YOU be the judge!

I think the NY weather has something against Debbie. In the morning, it was nice outside. Perfect day. Then we all went out to shoot some outside stuff, and suddenly it was completely freezing, and Debbie had to wear a dress and she didn't even have any stockings on. Then we got that done and later that night, when Teddy and I were wandering the streets aimlessly, it was again really nice. Not very cold at all. What up wit dat?

I gotta say, it was great shooting with Debbie. She's a total pro. She had to do a couple of somewhat rough scenes, and she did them perfectly. In one scene she was crying, and when I cut, she was wiping away her tears. She actually cried on cue! With real tears! That's so much better than what I'm used to. I mean, Jason Wauer insists on only speaking to me in Esperanto, Cash Flagg Jr. is a barely functioning alcoholic, and the little-known secret about David Stewart is that he is in reality a small zebra who dresses in a David suit. And the one woman I work with often, Christ Etcher...when I tell her to do something, she just laughs and throws butterscotch candies at me.

But honestly, I gots to give it up to Debbie, because she is an actress who actually makes a living at acting. And lives in New York! And I mean real New York, not New Jersey. I think the average rent in New York is approximately eight thousand dollars plus six souls of virgins true per month, so that's pretty steep. Plus she's easily one of the better actors I've ever worked with...excellent acting plus great to work with, and super nice. And anyone like that deserves respect.

See, I can be serious.

1/26/2002

ON TO DELAWARE! AND THEN BACK HOME! THEN BACK AGAIN! AND THEN BACK!

So here's the deal. We had a scene to shoot. Gordon DelGiorno set me up with an empty apartment building in Delaware that was cruddy and run down, and best of all, looked like it was from the 30s. Plus it had a big room with freaking ugly 60s furniture in it. But here's the rub: it was being renovated. We had to get in there! Stat!

I arranged through Gordon the weekend to shoot, which I had planned out as one day of filming. He hooked me up with a bunch of actors and friends whom I had not met, so I had to trust in his judgment in getting me some good people. And I had a fairly large speaking part, and no one to play him. I figured surely someone out there would be able to do it. And if we needed, Gordon could play the part. So I got myself, Jason Wauer, Christi Etcher ready to go and we'd shoot the scene. In the script, one of the other characters who will be played by Jerry Chen was supposed to be there as well, but he couldn't make it that weekend, and no time to wait! Let's go!

We get there, and everyone who Gordon brought is prefect. Great! Get ready! Jason, Gordon and I will set up the room! We were also helped out a lot by Anthony, who is the caretaker of the building. Hmmm...he seems like he might be good at that speaking part. He's never acted before. He's perfect! Anthony agrees.

The room is the penthouse, and it is completely empty. We have to bring up chairs, props, all of the costumes..everything. Then we eat lunch. And holy crap, it's already two in the afternoon!

We start shooting, and things are going all right. Anthony takes some time to get warmed up, but eventually he starts doing the part exactly the way I wanted it. Couldn't have cast it better.

Problem: it's now four. The sun will be gone in an hour. We've shot a third of the scene, which is long and fairly complex. Christi can't come back the next day. So I make quick plans...a shootout was planned for that day, but that takes place at night. Anyone who can stay we will kill that night, and kill the rest the next day. We shoot all of Christi's stuff right then so she doesn't have to come back. I would have liked her to be in more of the scene, but too bad. We just shoot her lines and for the rest, she disappears. Which isn't too bad because there's a lot of activity going on so it's not like an empty room where she just disappears in thin air. That night, we kill off a bunch of people and anyone who had to leave, we will kill the next day. We shoot until eleven at night. Luckily Anthony lives there, so he was going to be around, so we shoot with him late at night, and Jason and I shoot a bunch of stuff alone. It's all good. We decide to go home. We leave by eleven and get home after one in the morning.

1/27/2002

DELAWARE pt 2!

The next day we meet at seven in the morning and get out there by 9:30. Gordon asks why we didn't call and stay at his place. Hmmm...good question. Who knows?

Shooting is ready to start, but gets off slow due to the COMPLETELY NAKED GUY STANDING IN HIS WINDOW NEXT DOOR MASTURBATING! He must be a shy exhibitionist...to scared to go out. I predicted that he'd be there at least an hour. Guys like that don't do their business and then be finished really quick.

Shooting commences. It's going really smoothly today. We shoot a lot of blah blah blahing, and everyone is coming up with great ideas for their characters.

It's a heck of an intricate, weird scene with a lot of character stuff in the background. My favorite type of scene...just introduce a bunch of weirdos, and let the actors suggest what they'd like to do to add on to what I've already planned. Great stuff always comes out that way. We have white Valentine's Day mint M&M's for drugs.

It's an hour and a half later. The nude guy is still there.

We finally wrap the penthouse set, and head off to kill the last few people who didn't get whacked the night before. Luckily, an extra guy showed up. That means more killin'!

One slight problem: we're shooting off guns and such in the hallways, but there is still one last family in the building. They have refused to leave, and the building's owners had to get a court order to get them out. But today, they're complaining about us shooting off the guns. We basically defer to them, and then keep doing it. At one point, the guy comes out and basically tells us to stop. I just ignore him, and he leaves. No time to stop! No time to be nice! You're not even supposed to be there!

So we finish and everyone's dead, and Jason and I clean out the room again. Jason complains that he's the star and shouldn't have to do this, but I tell him to shut it and he complies. I could see the hate in his eyes. I laughed.

So now it's late again and we head back home after thanking Anthony for letting us wreck the place. Jason might be able to see his wife for 30 seconds or so before he has to go to bed. The night before he didn't see her at all. I heard the weather was really nice, but I have no idea if this was true or just an ugly rumor.

Remember in the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI, when the Millennium Falcon has put that last shot into the Death Star, and is barreling toward the only exit as a gigantic fireball is inches behind them? Making these movies always feels like that.

2/2/2002

WALLPAPER = IMPORTANT

Let's say you're making a movie that's a little more abstract than the usual fare. You could maybe even classify it as a bit experimental. But you don't want to alienate the audience. What do you do?

Make sure you shoot in a room that has big, flowery wallpaper!

Wallpaper is really important to how a movie comes out. Now don't get me wrong. Actors, props, lighting, script...these are important factors, sure. But without the right wallpaper, the perfect wallpaper, you might as well throw the movie in the garbage. A truly great wallpaper print can elevate a mediocre movie and make it great, and can turn a great film into Art.

We have that wallpaper, so even if no one likes the movie, they'll say "Dig that wallpaper, Jack!" They would say this if their friend was named Jack. If the name of their friend was different, they would simply substitute "Jack" with another name, possibly "Bill" or "Jimmy." Or maybe they were on a date, so the name would be a girl's, such as "Jane." And maybe after the movie, Jane and her boyfriend would go home and make out, but the whole time she would really be thinking about the wallpaper.

Oh yeah, filming went fine. It was basically Jason and me alone all day in the great Wallpaper Room set that we put together in Alvin Ecarma's huge house with the help of Art Director Rotunde', and we shot until three a.m. Alvin made a great label for the prop liquor bottle that we bought, that is full of real liquor. So when Jason takes a swig of booze, that's the real deal.

We shot a few scary scenes, I hope. I've never shot something that was supposed to be scary, so we'll see how that works out. And I made Jason smoke unfiltered cigarettes, and they made him cough, which I found hilarious. We wasted lots of time lighting that stupid smoke so it would come out just right. And I made Alvin crawl under the bed and pull a plastic sheet under it over and over.

2/16/02

MOODY GOODNESS IN PENNSYLVANIA

Me so sad.

That's what Bizarro Eric would say is he were talking right now. Because in reality, me so happy. Why? Because we just finished the last scene that we needed to drive a good number of hours away for. So now everything else can be shot in the relative closeness of home. Or at least only an hour away as opposed to four.

This weekend we traveled to State College, PA. That's where good friend and music guy for SHOCKHEADED, Jason Russler lives. He's working on his Master's in Music, and reluctantly agreed to act in a small part as well. I wanted to have Jason in the flick because he used to act in my old crap in college, at one point even stooping to starring in a really bad science fiction movie where he had to wear a gas mask most of the time outside in the heat of summer. So I decided to repay him by letting him be kind of cool for once.

We left that Saturday morning and arrived in the afternoon. Jason's friend Mel (short for Melanie by the way) was going to be playing an underground porn dealer. So she was fine with that as far as I knew. Remember that. As far as I knew.

So we got together and had dinner, then went over to Jason's apartment, which was going to be playing the role of the porn dealer's apartment. We showed Mel some of the prop tape boxes, and then she got cold feet. A couple of the titles are "Women in Peril volume 6" and the one that really repulsed Jason Russler, "Toilet Drinkers," complete with pictures of a girl's head being forced into a toilet. The in-joke with that one is that the picture is from a scene we shot with Christi Etcher for FIFTH CITY. I just thought "Toilet Drinkers" sounded like a funny title for a box that you'll never even see anyway.

Well, Mel wanted to get her friend to do the scene, but I wanted her, so we got her to do it. Mel objected to the porn stuff, but then she flipped through the script and saw that in reality porn isn't really the subject, or even mentioned all that much beyond being the villain's profession. So it's hardly a porn movie. In the end, I'm glad that she did it because she brought an interesting quality to the scene, which was originally written for a man. It's more unusual to see a female porn dealer. Plus she has really cool hair.

Hair is really important in my movies...just look at all the great hair in this movie. Jason Wauer and I went over a bunch of different styles for his hair until we settled on what he has now, I've got the spiked hair, Christi has the sort of bird's nest hair, Debbie has the wig, and on and on.

So we shot Mel's scene. In the scene, Jason Wauer comes in to buy tapes, and Jason R. plays a second part, that of a drunk sprawled out on the couch. You can't tell it's him because he wears a really ugly stocking cap over his head. The lighting scheme in the scene is great, with only a few key lights on specific areas, and candles barely filling the rest. Something that ended up adding a bit to the scene that was not in the original script was a small mirror-ball that I found in a corner. I decided to have Mel holding it during the scene, and the play of the lights off of it makes for some nice shots. We shot most of the scene in long takes, about 40-50 seconds of dialogue with a lot of shaky camera movement. It's actually hard to get shots that look at sloppy as what I was trying to get. You'd think it would be easy to shoot stuff crapily, but this is faux crap.

So we finished that scene and headed out to shoot the exterior night stuff, which was basically Jason W. stalking Jason R. And there we found The Best Alley in State College. The alley is great, full of red and blue lights for a colorful noir look. The interesting conundrum is that this great alley was host to The Worst Cover Band in State College. I'm going to have to replace all of the sound in that scene because a band was playing in the bar that the alley led to, so of course that screwed up the audio. But the worst part is that the band was so toweringly awful, the singer so off-key and stinky, that it was hilarious. Maybe I'll have to make an mp3 of their version of "Living on a Prayer" and put it on the site.

The rest of the night we spent getting mood shots of people walking around and standing.

2/17/02

MORE PENNSYLVANIA JUNK

The next day, we went to the library and shot more scenes of Jason stalking Jason. I wanted to shoot in this library because it is like a maze, and very tightly put together. If there was a fire, most people in there would not make it out alive, because the place is almost impossible to navigate. We did get one shot that was really nice, which is an uncut take that winds down several different stacks, sees Russler put a note in a book, and then leave, and then Wauer looks in the book and gets caught. The shot lasts for about a minute, which is ten seconds shy of the super shot we did for FIFTH CITY. That one was more complicated too. But all of these are about three minutes short of the super-duper shot we did back in college, that was four minutes uncut and followed several characters from the top of a building to the bottom as they hold a conversation.

Then Russler corners Wauer, and they have a conversation and advance the plot. Russler wasn't too keen on playing a speaking role, but I wanted him to do it because I knew he could handle this kind of lighter part because of his past acting in college. Hey Russler, you did good! Very shifty.

And fun fact that no one cares about: the gun that Russler wields is the same pistol that David Stewart used in 23 HOURS, so long ago. And of course it's real.

And then we were done, and we headed back, only about five hours later than Jason Wauer had wanted to leave. Sorry Jason! Sucker.

2/23/02

CLIMAX STUFF

This day we went to Walter Reed Park to shoot the climax. We didn't get it all finished, so we'll go back another day. Not munch info to put here, as this is super secret. So there.

3/2/02

SEVERAL PEOPLE IN A HOTEL ROOM SET

This past weekend we basically trapped ourselves in the hotel room set. Of course, it was very nice outside, except for the times we went out to shoot a few bits, and then it was freezing. We had Jerry, Christi, Jason and I.

This day we shot what is easily the most intricate and long scene in the movie. It lasts around 6 pages, which in Piranha Pictures land is forever, considering the entire script is about 40. So it goes on and on, and will hopefully be a great scene and full of menace. The only problem was, Jerry had to leave by three. So I had to be sure to get all of his stuff shot first. And then we shot Christi's stuff. So by the end, it was only Jason and I by ourselves talking to each other. But it's all good, because we shot all that I wanted. However, it was really hard because I don't storyboard. Storyboarding scenes is the standard practice of movies, but I've learned not to bother because by the time I get on set and start shooting, I end up tossing those pages full of little boxes with stick figures in them anyway. So now I just don't waste my time.

But as promised, I did get Jerry out by three. And as a gesture of my good will, I even let him buy lunch for all of us.

We also came up with a new technical innovation, called the "Kick-o-cam." Here's what you do. To make a punch really register in a big way, when you administer the punch, you have someone lightly kick the tripod. The ensuing shake makes a simple punch look like a bone-shattering blow. Try it! It's fun!

So basically we shot from 9am to midnight, and I won't go into detail about what happens to Jason, but when the scene is over, he is several ounces lighter.

3/3/02

TWO MEAN DETECTIVES

The next day, we had Demetrius Parker and Pete Smak join the cast as the detectives Riegert and Munch. In the movie itself, they are never given names, but I gave them names to differentiate them in the script. Demetrius has all the lines and is just a big jerk, whilst Pete basically stands there looking angry. I wish they were in every scene. Plus Demetrius looks like Wesley Snipes! Well, not really, but people tell him that a lot.

Not as much interesting stuff happened with them...these are simpler scenes. They show up, talk some trash, and leave again. But they're definitely great characters, and the closest to being pure characters from the 40s movies. The fun thing is that I got to tell them a few things that aren't written out in the script and that I wouldn't tell Jason, so while Jason thinks his motivation is one thing, the reality is something else. That's fun to do, and most likely no one will even notice! My hard work in vain!

By the way, Pete is wearing an official "Untouchables" brand fedora.

3/9/02

THE EMPTY MAN ARRIVES

Here was my problem. I wrote this part for a character called the Empty Man, who is this creepy guy who shows up every now and then to bother our hero. But I just couldn't find the right actor to play him. I needed someone weird and freaky, but I couldn't find the right person. So I did what I always promised myself I wouldn't. I decided to reach deep into my subconcious, grab the mental image I had of him, and pull him out of my head into the real world. It's a real pain to do because it takes a lot of mental strain, but in the end it was worth it because this way, the Empty Man is exactly how I imagined him. The problem in doing this is he's kind of hard to control. He's not like an actor where I could tell him to play the scene a little bit differently...I mean, who am I to argue with the actual character?

Now I have my Empty Man, who plays himself. Makeup expert Danny Fielding had to be brought in to touch up his face and make him a little less horrifying, because the Empty Man's true visage would just be too much.

But I digress. That day we braved the winds of Bethesda, MD and shot Noble speaking with the Empty Man for several scenes. Jason kept telling me he didn't like the way Empty Man licked his own eyeballs and smiled at him between shots, but what was I supposed to do about that? I had a movie to shoot! I did get the Empty Man to promise not to steal Jason's soul, but only until the movie is done shooting. After that, Jason's fair game.

Then we headed over to the hotel room set and shot Empty Man's first meeting with Jason. This is a fairly longish scene, and was played nicely between the two of them.

We shot until around ten that night, and then the Empty Man promised he would be back to finish his part, and disappeared in a wisp of smoke.

3/10/02

MORE DETECTIVES

Anyway, that night we went back to the hotel set and shot Demetrius and Pete meeting Noble again. In the bloodbath that is the last twenty minutes of this movie, they are the first to go. And yes, the black man is the first to get shot, but we bucked the trend because he isn't the first to actually die. So take that, cliche'! Pete and Demetrius proved their manliness by letting me stick firecrackers to their chests and set them off. I must say, the gunshots in this movie are the best I've done...nice and juicy. Jason wanted to be finished by seven in the evening so he could do something with his wife, and I accommodated him by finishing at eleven.

3/12/02

LAST OF THE HOTEL JUNKS

Our deadline for being in the hotel set was Wednesday, so we got in there Tuesday and finished all of the boring crap with Jason sitting in the room, looking out the window, watching television, creeping around, and seeing a ghost under the bed. Probably a full third of the movie takes place in the hotel room, which made it easier to shoot. That night we had to go out to buy a flower for one of the scenes, and we got to shop with Ted Koppel. He was buying produce.

3/14/02

BACK TO WALTER REED

We get back to Walter Reed this day, seeing that the trees are still nice and dead. Good. I was going to order some black market Agent Orange, but now I can save us the sickness and such. Spent the day doing more top-secret climax stuff. I'll just say it's super nutz.

4/9/02

ODDS AND ENDS

The next day Jason and I were going to shoot some stuff in and around Baltimore. First we went back to Walter Reed where we shot the very last stuff we needed, including some artsy nonsense involving him and a mask, and then we taped firecrackers right next to his head on the trees to simulate gunfire. First some art, then things exploding. It was a day of contrasts.

And then off to the Block!

For those of you who know nothing of Baltimore, allow me to elucidate. Basically, there is the world, which is filled with goodness and light. Then you have the black hole which is known as Baltimore. And inside that swirling cesspool of darkness, you have the evil center, which is known as the Block. The Block is literally one block of porno stores and strip clubs. Since the movie is set in that world, we had to shoot there for gritty reality. There just isn't anything like it in D.C. or the suburbs.

To further illustrate the surroundings of the Block, it's just a little ways away from where I got mugged at gunpoint. And that whole area sucks. Heading out there I was on edge because I couldn't find my good fighting knife, which I used to carry when I lived for a few months in Richmond. Oh good fighting knife, how you protected me from the scuzbags who tried to attack me in that other festering dungheap. I miss you.

So now we were on the Block itself. Luckily I happened to get a parking space right on the main drag, so we didn't have to walk through the deserted areas to get there. I was really on edge because it was only Jason and I there by ourselves. Originally, my friend "Chicago" Al was going to come with us as backup, but he got stuck out of town and I didn't feel like rescheduling. I really wanted Al to come because as a guy who grew up on the South Side of Chicago, he knows how to take care of bizness. Just a year ago a guy tried to break into his house, not realizing that Al was home. Now you or I would call the police or make some noise and make the guy leave. Al just left the lights off and waited for the guy to make his way in, so he could take care of him. Luckily for that idiot, he couldn't bust the lock and gave up. I have tons of other Al stories, and they're all gold!

Without Al, it was just the two of us. With Jason doing his acting stuff, I had to both look through the camera and watch my back, so I had to split my concentration. When it's really cold outside, and you see guys just standing on the corner watching you, you suspect something. It breaks down like this:

A guy in the Block is a possible target.

A guy holding a two thousand dollar camera in the Block might as well be holding a sign that says "Dear Robber: Please steal this fine piece of technology away from me, and while you're at it, I sure could go for a bullet in my neck!"

This is why I wanted someone watching out for me, so I could concentrate on getting my shots. But since I didn't, we quickly got the bare minimum of shots I needed, and we'll shoot the rest in a safer place I know of that will work for close-ups.

Then we went around a few other spots in Baltimore and got a few more shots of this and that, and got out of there and ate at a cool 50s diner in the suburbs, where all good-hearted people live.

5/11/02

BODY DOUBLE PT 1: IT'S A GOOD THING ASIANS LOOK ALIKE

We had a big shoot planned for Friday evening that took several attempts to put together. Finally we got it all figured out...the cast included Christi Etcher, Jerry Chen, Jason Wauer, and myself. Unfortunately, a few nights before shooting Jerry let me know that he couldn't make it. Well, I couldn't reschedule because Christi is extremely busy due to her impending wedding, and soon she would be in Texas and I'd be all kinds of crap out of luck. What to do? This was the scene that the three bad guys first show up, so I needed three bad guys.

Calling Cash Flagg Jr.!

As many of you know, Cash Flagg Jr. is the star of my friend Alvin's movie LETHAL FORCE, as well as my own FIFTH CITY. I thought of having him stand in for Jerry because they both have black hair cut short in back, same skin tone, and are Asian. Plus I thought from the back, Cash's head shape wouldn't look awfully different than Jerry's. It's not like Cash weighs 90 pounds. Of course he's about five inches shorter than Jerry, but who would notice that? Not me! I gave him a frantic, whining call begging him to come. Fortunately, Cash just finished the run of his one-man stage show "Butterflies are Free," which, by the way, is the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

So that night, we threw Cash in an outfit vaguely similar to Jerry's and shot the scene, always shooting Cash from the back, and then he shot a cameo appearance for the movie where you see his face. Not much interesting to say about the shoot, which went smoothly except for the fact that at one point Cash screamed at an innocent dog.

5/12/02

BODY DOUBLE PT 2: IT'S A GOOD THING WHITE PEOPLE LOOK ALIKE

This night, I was in trouble. I needed the Empty Man for one last scene, but my will couldn't summon him from the ether of the universe like usual. What to do?

Now this is why it's good to have characters that are identified by their iconography. In the Empty Man's case, he is identified by his umbrella, shades and suit. So I just thought, we'll throw some makeup on another guy, put him in the suit and umbrella, and backlight the crap out of him. All you need is to see that umbrella to know who you're looking at. Who to get?

Calling myself!

I thought I could pass for the Empty Man as long as I was made up and shot from far away, plus it was easiest. So FX maestro Danny did a job on me, doing the white makeup and even sticking false hairpieces on my head to give my noggin the same shape as Mr. ?'s. Ah, hairpieces...they reminded me of the time I didn't have a receding hairline and had thick hair. Takes me back...sniff.

Anyway, we went to a spot in Bethesda, MD, which by the way is apparently the windiest place in a hundred mile radius from my house. Every time we go there the wind blows constantly and ruins my precious, precious audio. So we shot the scene, which was really easy, and Danny made a cameo as a pimp.

5/26/02

FUN AT HOME

On this day I chased rats in the basement with a baseball bat.

5/26/02

ROTUNDE' BECOMES A DIRECTOR

Now usually you guys know that I shoot everything myself. However, I had Jason Wauer scheduled to shoot a day of inserts and other small boring crap, and our Art Director Rotunde' asked if he could come and direct a few shots. I said he could, mainly because he's an excellent Art Director and he works for me for free. Plus I'd be there to watch him and make sure he was getting what I needed, and I'd only let him do a few minor shots. But he was fine with that.

Since Rotunde' was there that day, I asked him if he'd like to write the update. He said yes, and I just got it via regular mail, because he refuses to own a computer. I have put his writing in italics, and then my stuff is in regular font in case I need to explain things. And here goes!

What he's talking about here are a number of shots we took at Jason's place that I let him shoot. Pretty self-explanatory.

I let him take a shot of Jason walking up to a building. I don't know what he's talking about after that. I think he had burned a doob.

Originally, his letter goes on like this for about three pages, but I cut them because...well, they're boring as crap. But what he's talking about is when Jason was walking into some sex shops in the Georgetown area. I did the shooting for these shots, and Rotunde' just watched. Which is probably why he wrote so much...he had nothing to do but think of this stuff. As for the fake people, I imagine he's either talking about the mannequins in the store windows, or the very pretty people walking around the area. I'll have to ask him. Actually, he probably doesn't know the answer to this himself.

6/9/02

THE ONE GOOFY SCENE

The next day, we left Rotunde' at home and met up with Dave Nuttycombe to do his double cameo scene...both for Shockheaded and Fifth City. The scene he plays in Shockheaded isn't in the script, because I wasn't 100% sure if it was going in or not, but after watching the rough cut I decided the movie could use a little bit of comedy and stuck it in. In the original script the comedy scene came from a different character, but at a very bad time and a very bad spot, so I never shot it.

So now Dave is the focus of one of my patented "wacky walk and talk" scene. This phenomenon started in college, where you have the lead character walking, and suddenly a crazy person walks up to them and talks on and on for anywhere from one to four minutes. There's one in Fifth City starring Christi and Todd Rohal as the crazy person. For some reason, these scenes are my addiction.

Anyway, Dave played a great crazy guy, and now we have one scene that takes place in the first half hour that isn't someone staring at something.

7/1/02

DULL CRAP

This day, Jason and I got together to shoot the end scene, so of course I won't be telling you what we did. Just sit there with a hole in your heart and wish, suckers.

7/2/02

FOILED BY JERRY

I went by Jerry Chen's place and shot a few inserts that I needed. Hopefully they won't be astoundingly obvious. Afterward we ate dinner, and this time I intended to pay for the meal, and when Jerry went to the restroom I figured I had my chance. But he gave his credit card on the way, so I was foiled once again.

7/3/02

DAVID STEWART SHOWS UP

David Stewart made a special trip from Charlottesville to make a cameo appearance as Nick Miles, the lead character he played in 23 Hours. I like this scene a lot...it's the only one that doesn't advance the plot in any way. It's simply there for color, and to give a breather from the plot.

It was an easy scene to shoot in theory. We just had to do our takes around the semi trucks and street sweepers that are surprisingly abundant in the suburbs at three in the morning. But eventually we got the scene in the can, and a least I got to force David to smoke again, so that made everything worth it.

And that, as they say, is that. Principal photography has wrapped. Left to shoot are some inserts for a television program and some small odds and ends, but that's all for now folks! See you suckers later!