Day 23 Shooting- Speak Easy Rob
This particular scene had been canceled week after week because of scheduling conflicts and when the two actors finally became available, the space wasn’t. Then Jarrett’s father suddenly passed away and he had to go back and forth to the bay area for awhile. Jarrett is fine and he made it clear he was ready to go back to work, so we did.
I finally managed to work out the time and space and for once I told Rob we were shooting and it stuck. It was getting embarassing running into Rob at work and always saying, "We’ll shoot this week- what’s your Tuesday like?"
So I snagged a couple of outfits from my roommate’s closet since I was still up in the air on how to dress Rob and Jarrett already had his shit together. Rob agreed to pick me up after work and then swing by my place so we could grab all the equipment. Casey was free so he came along to do the grunt work.
We got some free posters at work, I snagged, "No Country For Old Men" and "The Brave One" that Jodie Foster flick. Someone gave me shit and said the poster looked like the cover of a Melissa Ethridge album. Casey walked away with an "I’m Not There" poster.
We grabbed my stuff from the pad and parked at the Kodak theatre, lugging our stuff across the street to Stella Adler, where Jarrett was waiting for us. Alex Aves was rehearsing at the shool so she came down in the elevator to take us up. We moved over to the Speak Easy bar and I made a run to Famima for some snacks.
This is the 4th time I’ve been involved in some kind of shoot where we used the Speak Easy- this place is truly whored out by students, but it has an authentic upscale look and feels like a secret room. We shot part of a Sun Never Sweats episode there where Jarrett discovers his partner has tricked him into eating his own balls. I’ll leave it at that.
Rob and Jarrett really hit it off because Jarrett has been starting to perform as a stand-up comedian and Rob has some good experience, so they swapped stories while I unpacked. To my horror I discovered that a missing cable would keep me from using the boom mike. So I could go home and waste an hour or just bite the bullet and use the on-camera mike.
The Speak Easy has great sound capabilities, so I decided with the latter. We did battle with some sound issues later- a porter with a vacuum cleaner down the hall and a club next door with techno music blasting, but I figure it was appropriate, since the room was supposed to be in an underground club and the muffled techno would make sense.
I set up lights and took my time- I wanted to get this right because its an early scene that sets up Jarrett’s character and I didn’t want a whole lot of light surrounding Jarrett. I actually preferred to surround him in darkness, almost like its candelight illuminating his face.
Anyway, I finally got it down, we had some clunky rehearsals because the guys haven’t said their lines in awhile and they kept improvising around them. So I told them to stick to the lines so they could get back on track and they quickly got in the zone and the scene spoke again.
After a few early takes I noticed a reucurring problem that would again fuck me over- the image kept shifting to the left and right ever so slightly- I could see this through the viewfinder and at first I thought it was my caffeinated hands shaking the thing, but then I let go of the camera and it still shifted. Like a mechanical error. I tweaked a bunch of settings and I still got the same problem. Turned out to be the fucking STABILIZER button of all things- if you don’t turn it off, it shakes the image, because of the low light! So much for stabilizing.
With that out of the way, I got some great slow-zoom takes on Jarrett giving his, "This is why it’s great to be a vampire" type of sales pitch. We got the close-ups of Jarrett smiling with his fangs. Then we had him try the pitch in different ways- more showy, more annoyance, more boredom, etc.
When we were done with his angle, Jarrett informed me that his throat was closing up quick and he was quickly getting sick. I dug out some ancient cough drops from my backpack and hoped he would make it through Rob’s stuff.
I fucked up Rob’s lighting…I’ll get that out of the way- I should’ve lit it more. He’s out of the light through most of his lines and leans in the perfect spot near the end of each take. I can still use it and tweak the color correction in post, but it’s something I could’ve prevented and I think I was more frantic because of Jarrett’s condition, so I let it go. With that said, Rob gave some great takes, we made some little adjustments and I had to encourage him to really scream when Jarrett tricks him,
Rob- "So all this stuff- the garlic- it’s all bullshit?"
Jarrett- "Well, not all of it. Can you see my reflection in that mirror back there?"
(Rob looks and sees Jarrett’s reflection, but his eyes have turned black)
Jarrett- BOO!
Rob- Aww! FUCK..fucking vampire guy!
Jarrett- (laughs) yeah, it’s all bullshit.
So Rob really screamed for the last three takes and it helped his performance because he’s clearly shaken up and annoyed that Jarrett got the best of him. Jarrett warned me that he only had a couple more takes left in him and I felt panicked…because I didn’t want to torture Jarrett, but I wanted to make sure I gave Rob plenty of takes. Jarrett pushed himself though for a couple extra and I told him he didn’t have to give his half of the lines full throttle. I thought if worse came to worse I’d get Casey to read his lines just so Rob had someone to play off of- didn’t come to that though.
Casey was awesome- he just sat in the corner, in the dark and waiting for the word if I needed any help. He did little light adjustments, broke down equipment, turned the fan on and off- those kind of things, but the guy is patient and always cool about it. Whenever I thank him for a night’s work he says, "Of course!"
When we finished for the night Jarrett took off and the rest of us packed up. IT was a journey, getting back to the car and to the correct parking level, but a lady in the pay booth took pity on us and sent us in the right direction. We got back to my place, I gave Rob a hundred bucks for his ultra low budget SAG fee(under the table for now, until I send him a check and figure out this legal bullshit) and Casey helped me take my shit back up to the apartment.
Very satisfying to complete a big scene like this right before the holidays. The next week I was taking care of Christiane’s apartment and Jarrett’s place, feeding the cats and one bunny. Running around every day and with the big movies coming out I was pretty exhausted. Looks like I may be taking a trip to Arizona very soon to see my Grandma- she’s still hanging in there. Be such a relief to leave Los Angeles for a few days.
On New Years I went to Chris’s (coworker) apartment and had about 30 minutes to spare before the countdown. I was sceduled to work until 11, butthey tried to fuck me over with an 11:45 showtime in which I was to greet. No fucking way- I was pissed. Luckily, Loren took the bullet for me and said he would greet since he was closing anyway. I couldn’t be any more grateful and my bad mood was replaced with urgency.
Everyone was stoned and more people came with beer. I stuck around for awhile and had some laughs. I had some rum and I was drunk before countdown- the moment came and went so suddenly I knew I had to be drunk to barely feel it. I headed over to the Power House where Alex and Yvette were to meet. I sat at the bar alone, getting depressed and some dude named Pac-Man toasted me. Alex emerged from the sea of celebratory drunks and smiled in my direction. It felt so good to see her. Her acting buddy Nick was at her side.
She seemed pretty plastered already and told me how much she missed me. Even so, it was nice to hear that- drunk or not. She got this significant haircut that’s going to fuck up shooting- I don’t know how we can hide it, but she reassured me,
"Don’t worry, it looks the same when I put it up."
She looked gorgeous though, so I didn’t really care. Some guys flirted with her and she took it in stride, humoring them and avoiding any chance of being cornered. She saw Sweeney Todd with Nick earlier and they both disliked it. I gave Nick a free ticket in case he wanted to go back and watch something else. Alex tried to snatch it from us and I told her, "I can get you in at any time!"
We ended up at this house party, but I mean- there were five people there. I actually knew one guy Brian from work- who works in the cafe. We all had friendly drunken exchanges, Alex had to go upstairs to puke so I escorted her up there without killing ourselves- stairs can be treacherous, yes. I didn’t notice at first but there was this dude sleeping face down on the floor in front of the bathroom and on the way out, Alex lost her balance and fell on top of him. She was laughing and I apologised to the guy and he said, "No, that’s fine" and got up, totally unaffected.
I have to admit, I savored every moment where I had my hand around Alex. She gets to me sometimes.
Anyway, that’s all for now folks.
-Marty-