Day 22 Shooting- David Lynch Party

I was confident that I would get enough extras this time around, but that didn’t work out.

In this scene, Bethany is sitting by herself at a costume party, dwelling in the fact that she just killed the one man in the world that would probably love her unconditionally. 

Gavin has just broken his fast at the BBQ and enters the party with blood all over him.  He sits down next to her and announces, "I’m sitting here."  Bethany starts lamenting and Gavin rolls his eyes, too drunk and annoyed to hear her sob story.  Finally, he decides she might make a good dessert, plus it would be doing her a favor.

Kellie, my projectionist friend from Arclight called me last minute to let me know she was coming.  She was biking her way over and having difficulty finding the place.  She sounded mysterious the first time she called and I thought maybe she was bringing a surprise, but it turns out she just didn’t want me to know she got lost.

Stu was great about carpooling everybody- he wasn’t in the scene, but he picked up Alex, Amanda and Brenna for me.  Christiane was allowing me to use her apartment again, so before people showed up we went grocery shopping for snacks.  Picked up a pizza, crackers and cheese, grapes and some water.

Set up the lights, I got this groovy disco ball lighting set and soon the room was burning red with little white lights circling the walls, like a cheesy prom.  I set the enormous black light on the floor of Christiane’s porch, since its concrete and there would be no danger of the thing falling or burning anything.  I read that those black lights are pretty hazardous if not handled properly and I wasn’t about to hammer it up somewhere.  I set a couple of strobe lights out there too for the dancers in front of the sliding glass door.

Yet another light in the corner to light Christiane’s backyard fence, which Jarrett (as Gavin) would hop down from.  We had to hang up a blanket to block out some of the light that was leaking over to the "dance floor"  Too much light and the strobe and black light would be useless.  I got a lot of cancellations and Stu tried to round people up last minute from a mass text message, but one-by-one they all gave an excuse.  Couldn’t expect much last minute.

Alex made a point of being hungry this time on set because I bitched at her last time for not letting me feed her.  So she bugged me about making the pizza and immediately fell in love with Amun, Christiane’s purr box cat.

Amanda did herself up with some sad clown makeup, Brenna had a snow white costume and Christiane put on a flower dress and some of my black-light makeup.  She reluctantly agreed to dance for me.  She was done packing for her trip, but she’d have to get up early for a long drive.  Her boyfriend Doug was taking her to a cabin about 3 hours north for some romantic vacation.  I was taking care of her cats again and could have the place to myself…except no Rose this time.

Anyway, back to the shoot.

My roomate Alex Rogals showed up with a full-out bunny costume that would cover him head-to-toe.  We decided on the surreal and had the bunny slicing carrots in the kitchen and when Jarrett enters the party he suddenly stops and looks over…then goes back to slicing his carrot.  The more mundane the acitivty, the funnier it would be, but this seemed like something out of a David Lynch nightmare.  Amanda cracked up during the first take and I told her she shouldn’t look at the bunny if ishe couldn’t control herself.  The only sound in the room was the bunny slicing the carrot at a slow pace, so it was hard no to laugh.  Then the bunny turns to the camera and I swear its one of the most disturbing shots I’ve ever filmed. 

So Jarrett hops the fence, walks through the dancers and pokes his head in the door.  He looks to his left and sees the bunny.  He looks to his left and sees sad-clown Amanda.

Sad clown Amanda was blowing bubbles at the floor- at first we don’t see what she’s blowing bubbles at, but then it’s going to cut to me passed out on the floor and all the bubbles popping on my face.  So there’s my little cameo.  I originally wanted to get amped up and while Bethany is sobbing about her boyfriend I enter the shot completely nude and fall on her, while my not so drunk friends pull me off of her.  That would’ve been a great cameo, but it didn’t happen. 

The bubble blowing was a big issue.  Christiane was afraid the bubbles would float behind and pop over the huge paiinting behind Amanda, which she spent a few grand on.  She thought a bubble could ruin it- fair enough.  So I stood by the painting and Amanda did a test blow, while I readied my ninja hands to take out any wandering bubbles.  After a couple blows, Christiane calmed down, knowing the bubbles were going straight down.

Jarrett modeled for my shot and hammed it up, pretending to be Javier Bardem from No Country For Old Men, strangling an imaginary cop.  Then I got in the shot and took on the bubbles.  Jarrett directed me,

"When you freel the bubbles on your face just go ahead and try to eat some of them."  Good direction- got a pretty shot out of it.

Then if this joke wasn’t enough, I finally put my marshmallow gun to use…that’s right…a gun that shoot marshmallows.

I ordered it awhile ago because I needed something to shoot air for the pillow-gun shot affect where all the feathers fly out.  The gun didn’t arrive on time and we ended up blowing through a tube, which was much simpler anyway.  I grabbed a bunch of props that night and the marshmallow gun could make its debut with a party-goer shooting marshmallows around the room.

So Brenna in her Snow White outfit, volunteered fo shoot marshmallows, but we couldn’t decide at what.  Shooting them at Bethany would be too cruel.  So she shot them at me.  Gratuitous cameo now, I figure it could cut back to me later in the night still passed out and taking marshmallow smacks to the face, but now it seems like too much…might have to cut it.  Brenna did a good job though, she’s pumping the gun and shooting them at me and laughing like she’s completely stoned, but this is the most entertaining thing she could be doing at 3am.

Stu comes by and picks up the extras that are not needed anymore, Kellie bikes home and we FINALLY get to the dialogue portion of the scene.  Gavin looks left, Gavin looks right and then he finally spots Bethany alone on the couch.  He sits next to her.

Christiane went to bed with Doug and we began to shoot.  Alex was concentrating and some takes were better than others, but i got some really good moments of her tearing up.  Her speech is pretty selfish, she’s not really sad about the loss of her boyfriend, it’s more about how it affects HER.  The scene wasn’t really crackling yet, so I told them I wanted to play a bit.  I told Jarrett to respond to her instead of passing out. 

There were some takes where they cracked up and Alex got the giggles briefly, but finally we hit this really interesting note.
<br/>Bethany finishes her speech with, "Loved me more than I ever thought possible…I don’t know….I don’t know."

pause.

Gavin-  "I think you know…EXACTLY…what you were doing."  Her face darkens and he looks at her.  "No, but it is still…very tragic."

I loved it because it takes the steam out of Bethany and shes forced to look at what shes done to her boyfriend- this asshole sitting next to her seems to know that she was responsible- she doesn’t know how, but there he is.

She’s not so weepy anymore and borderline angry.

"And WHAT happened to you," she asks him, looking at his bloody shirt.

"Nothing…" Gavin says.

"Right" she says."

Then I knew we could take the scene back up to the roof top and Bethany can have her release, she finally deals with the loss of her boyfriend in her own way- animalistic or silent, but either way, I want her sobbing.  Against the backdrop of the beautifully lit downtown los angeles.  Then Gavin (having followed her up there) quietly comes out of the darkness and says,

"I can take your pain away"

That almost has a Tombstone, "I’m your huckleberry" feel- hope that doesn’t come off as too silly, but as I see it- Gavin is doing her a favor, BUT she’s also dessert.

Bethany wakes up the next day realizing shes been bit.  She walks down the street with a water bottle full of blood- the last thing remaining of her boyfriend Derek and takes a swig.

Gavin on the other hand, is drunk off his ass, goes back to the club where he sells vampire bites and buys a bullet in the head from the detective that finally caught up with him- also turning into a vampire himself.

A bullet in the head doesn’t kill vampires.

well, this isn’t a vampire movie.

I’ve been doing rewrites to the palm reader scene and the Angela scene.  I met with both actresses and discussed the problems and possible ways we could take it.

I think I got Angela’s scene down, but the palm reader scene is much more problematic.

Everything is slowed down because of the holidays, but it looks like I may finally shoot Gavin’s first vampire-pitch scene with comedian Rob Antus this Thursday night.

A call from Stu reminds me that nothing is happening and I always feel guilty trying to convince him things are moving along when they’re clearly not.

like Eddie Murphy in Bowfinger I need that mantra, "Keep it together keep it together, keep it together."

I sent out another post on craigslist for Special Effects makeup people and got a nice bundle of responses that I have to get back to.

fighting a little cold, going to get coffee with Christiane now.

We make jokes about everyone looking much older by the time the movie is done, but hopefully, it won’t be that noticeable.

-Marty-