MJ here. We have logged over 900 gigs of footage in 6 states over 17 days. In the coming weeks we will shoot the only remaining scene in New York and that will be the end of this phase. But truthfully we are wrapped. The final scene is a brief but important TV interview that DW will be doing on his own. Big breath. In the end we were able to use over 20 amazingly talented actors who all delivered shining performances that really elevated this project to another level. We are so proud and happy for this last week in Seattle. It was another marathon round, but this time we had the advantage of having homes to return to and familiar locations that were right in our backyard.
I will be posting production stills soon with a lot of familiar faces. Just wanted to update quickly. Now I have some sleep to catch up on.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Will pay for sleep
MJ here. I have now been back in Seattle for two days. Half of that time has been spent sleeping.
My last post, which layed out the intricate schedule for the middle days of the shoot, quickly became totally inaccurate...
Due to weather and availability of location we had to shuffle a few things around. But here and now at the end of the trip I can declare that there was nothing left out that was essential we get on the road. Great news. Here are a few highlights of out trip:
1. Watching Nick O'Donnell open tiny bags of corn chips and dump them in a camp fire at Arches National Park.
2. Strolling around the Sundance Institute wearing a suit and having a guy with a camera walk behind me. Everyone was looking at me like I was someone to look at.
3. Visiting Atomic City (pop. less than 100) and shooting under a building that said LUBRICATION.
4. Standing at the top of the highest part of Craters of the Moon National Monument as the sun set and saying goodbye to Jane May.
5. Filming one shot of my brother chasing Don Darryl Rivera into the distance.
I have added some low res captures from some of the footage just so you can see how cool it all looks. Enjoy - and tell others to join this blog...
Saturday, August 29, 2009
somewhere....
in Oregon MJ is attending a wedding wearing the same. exact. suit. he wore all week filming. Somewhere above this vast country we spent the last seven days driving around DW is flying home to New York City and hopefully some well deserved and needed healthy food. And somewhere in Seattle, this writer is sitting contentedly typing away, home from a once in a lifetime kind of adventure.
I got a decent night of sleep and am now drinking a cup of joe (something that had been axed out of my diet until it became necessary last Sunday morning). I can't believe a week ago I was driving from the National Redwood Park to Yerington, NV in a race against the sun. Now I have a whole day to myself and feel that I need to be out racing around getting ready to shoot! But that will all be put on hold for a wee little while until we figure out what comes next...
We still have about 35-40% of the movie/episodes to film here in Seattle. Over the next week, the Three Amigos (producers), are going to figure out when that can possibly be done and we'll go from there! The Seattle stuff should be great, we're using a whole host of Seattle actors and I can't wait to work with them.
Speaking of Seattle actors, one very famous karaoke king/rodent player/rock star extraordinaire joined us for our last day of road shooting. That's right, Don Darryl Rivera graced us with his presence on Thursday night so we could film a scene together on Friday morning in Idaho City. One lone Filipino in a sea of pick up trucks, gun stores and off road vehicles. I'm happy to say he made it through. Check out his website at dondarrylrivera.com Also- coming in 2010/11 GOONIES: THE MUSICAL Music by DDR, Book and Lyrics by Jane May!
Goodbye for now dear lambs. More info soon! OH!!! and finally some pics of us on the road as promised.
xo Jane
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
haven't had real food in four days
It’s sort of a strange conversation with the universe, this making a movie thing. Over the last four days I can safely say the universe has cursed and blessed me. Curses have included: erasing an afternoon of footage (first day of shooting), (as previously mentioned by the lovely and talented Jane May) reaching into a burning fire in search of $300 in cash, and running into a thunderstorm while looking for blue skies. Representative blessings: a free parade of dancing white horses and marching musicians that, when surreptitiously filmed, turned into an orchestrated dream sequence; a perfectly placed, abandoned drive-in theater; and the bright red burning sunsets that come with the unexpected thunderstorms.
Thankfully the blessings are winning.
Onward.
DW
Thankfully the blessings are winning.
Onward.
DW
a pudding pop f*cked a can of spagettios in there
Monday, August 24th
We spent the night in Fernley, NV after racing the sun to get to Yerington and the amazing abandon drive-in. There is only so much research one can do when finding locations that are in the middle of nowhere. Three years ago it would have been impossible, but thanks to Google Earth we were able to see the drive-in from above, and unless they knocked it down very recently, it was a good bet it would still be there. It was and it was perfect. The footage looked great and it erased any tiny doubt I might have had about our ability to make a such an ambitious endeavor work.
We returned there this morning to film the first part of Episode Three where Jane and I see the sign about aliens (something that will make much more sense when you see it). As we were shooting the last part my brother, Sean, had found his way into the old dilapidated concessions building and found letters that used to be for the marquee. We spelled out the title of our movie on the overgrown desert ground of the drive-in. It looked awesome and may end up being our new poster. Thanks Sean.
And now we are back on the 50 highway heading across Nevada toward Ely (EEL-e) where we will find a little motel with a pool and shoot all of Episode Five before the sun goes down. Then, tonight, we will Skype with Nick O’Donnell in Salt Lake City and go over his scene with Jane which we will be shooting in Arches National Park, UT tomorrow.
One may ask, how will we accomplish so much in so little time. Well…
After we Skype I will be taking a short nap and then at midnight Sean and I will take the tiny rental car (a Yaris, which we have already written a song for) and drive all the way out to Arches so that we can get there early to secure a campsite and set up for the shoot that day. We hope to sleep till about noon or so once we’ve arrived. Then Jane, DW and Randy will show up and we will venture into the thick of Arches and film Jane wandering around and eventually passing out. Nick will arrive at 6:00. We will shoot the last half of his scene with Jane. We will camp and gaze at the stars. We will wake again early and finish up with Nick and then travel up to the northern part of Utah and shoot Episode Two. That is, providing Sean and I are still able to form full sentences.
There has been a wonderful trend lately. There will be some minor to major setback that will discourage us briefly and then we problem solve and end up shooting something better, and often times unplanned. It happened at the Redwoods and it happened today at Yerington. If we are able to find a golden moment for each of the episodes I think we will be in great shape.
As tired as I am it has been hard to sleep knowing that the next day will be filled with another day of filming.
Onward!
MJ
We spent the night in Fernley, NV after racing the sun to get to Yerington and the amazing abandon drive-in. There is only so much research one can do when finding locations that are in the middle of nowhere. Three years ago it would have been impossible, but thanks to Google Earth we were able to see the drive-in from above, and unless they knocked it down very recently, it was a good bet it would still be there. It was and it was perfect. The footage looked great and it erased any tiny doubt I might have had about our ability to make a such an ambitious endeavor work.
We returned there this morning to film the first part of Episode Three where Jane and I see the sign about aliens (something that will make much more sense when you see it). As we were shooting the last part my brother, Sean, had found his way into the old dilapidated concessions building and found letters that used to be for the marquee. We spelled out the title of our movie on the overgrown desert ground of the drive-in. It looked awesome and may end up being our new poster. Thanks Sean.
And now we are back on the 50 highway heading across Nevada toward Ely (EEL-e) where we will find a little motel with a pool and shoot all of Episode Five before the sun goes down. Then, tonight, we will Skype with Nick O’Donnell in Salt Lake City and go over his scene with Jane which we will be shooting in Arches National Park, UT tomorrow.
One may ask, how will we accomplish so much in so little time. Well…
After we Skype I will be taking a short nap and then at midnight Sean and I will take the tiny rental car (a Yaris, which we have already written a song for) and drive all the way out to Arches so that we can get there early to secure a campsite and set up for the shoot that day. We hope to sleep till about noon or so once we’ve arrived. Then Jane, DW and Randy will show up and we will venture into the thick of Arches and film Jane wandering around and eventually passing out. Nick will arrive at 6:00. We will shoot the last half of his scene with Jane. We will camp and gaze at the stars. We will wake again early and finish up with Nick and then travel up to the northern part of Utah and shoot Episode Two. That is, providing Sean and I are still able to form full sentences.
There has been a wonderful trend lately. There will be some minor to major setback that will discourage us briefly and then we problem solve and end up shooting something better, and often times unplanned. It happened at the Redwoods and it happened today at Yerington. If we are able to find a golden moment for each of the episodes I think we will be in great shape.
As tired as I am it has been hard to sleep knowing that the next day will be filled with another day of filming.
Onward!
MJ
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Road Head...oof.
Hey all-
It's Jane here and I'm thisclose to not blogging cuz I'm so beat! So far so good on the roadie. But like any road trip there have been some speed bumps...bigguns in this case....and here is where the title of this post comes in.
A couple (two, three?) days ago while driving the looooong drive to Ashland, OR for the first leg of my trip I bought a bottle of water and started to walk out of the food mart without it and the cashier hollered at me not to forget it, I walked back over to him and said, "sorry, I've been driving all day. Ya know...road head..." I MEANT "road brain" but my road brain made me say "road head." It's the general brain melt one gets after staring at the road for too many hours in a row.
Some examples of road head thus far:
*Switching cars (there are two) in Ashland without letting me know and taking my headshot and resume in the car heading to California two hours before my big audition. Auditors= very understanding. Audition=meh.
*Generally stupid jokes (generally made by me).
*Misplacing $300 in cash. "Hey guys, while we were setting up the shoot, I kinda just threw this envelope with $300 in it up there...do you see it?" "ummmm....check the fire, did we burn it?" (It was found)
*Plugging in a cell phone on the side of a gas station and leaving it there. (It was retrieved)
*In getting set up for shots, it takes at least three of us four trips each to the car b/c we constantly forget what we're going back for.
*Writing these last few items are a perfect example of road head, I don't think they are particulary articulate or clear at all!
But haven't written all that, we have been doing incredibly well. We've seen some amazing scenery and gotten some incredible shots...in fact we are watching some daily stuff as I write and it looks like a real movie! It looks really good, wow! Nice job us!
Good night nurse. I gots to sleep soon. I think MJ might post some pics.
xs for now,
Team awesome
It's Jane here and I'm thisclose to not blogging cuz I'm so beat! So far so good on the roadie. But like any road trip there have been some speed bumps...bigguns in this case....and here is where the title of this post comes in.
A couple (two, three?) days ago while driving the looooong drive to Ashland, OR for the first leg of my trip I bought a bottle of water and started to walk out of the food mart without it and the cashier hollered at me not to forget it, I walked back over to him and said, "sorry, I've been driving all day. Ya know...road head..." I MEANT "road brain" but my road brain made me say "road head." It's the general brain melt one gets after staring at the road for too many hours in a row.
Some examples of road head thus far:
*Switching cars (there are two) in Ashland without letting me know and taking my headshot and resume in the car heading to California two hours before my big audition. Auditors= very understanding. Audition=meh.
*Generally stupid jokes (generally made by me).
*Misplacing $300 in cash. "Hey guys, while we were setting up the shoot, I kinda just threw this envelope with $300 in it up there...do you see it?" "ummmm....check the fire, did we burn it?" (It was found)
*Plugging in a cell phone on the side of a gas station and leaving it there. (It was retrieved)
*In getting set up for shots, it takes at least three of us four trips each to the car b/c we constantly forget what we're going back for.
*Writing these last few items are a perfect example of road head, I don't think they are particulary articulate or clear at all!
But haven't written all that, we have been doing incredibly well. We've seen some amazing scenery and gotten some incredible shots...in fact we are watching some daily stuff as I write and it looks like a real movie! It looks really good, wow! Nice job us!
Good night nurse. I gots to sleep soon. I think MJ might post some pics.
xs for now,
Team awesome
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Step one: COMPLETE!
The idea for 'haven't seen a soul in years' came from numerous conversations between Jane and I about 7 or 8 months ago. In that time time got my old buddy DW Gibson on board to help develop the script and co-direct with me, planned all the locations, travel, crew (including my brother) and finally...well...everything else.
Step one was completed yesterday when we arrived in Ashland. OR. After so many months of making this movie a reality in preproduction we are finally on to step two: filming on the road.
This step will take us into California where we will shoot in the Redwood forest, then over and across Nevada where we have found two other stellar spots, then into Utah and Arches National Park where we will be joined by my buddy Nick O'Donnell who will act in Episode 4. So one and so forth.
Have to go now cuz Jane is standing over me. Onward!
MJ
Step one was completed yesterday when we arrived in Ashland. OR. After so many months of making this movie a reality in preproduction we are finally on to step two: filming on the road.
This step will take us into California where we will shoot in the Redwood forest, then over and across Nevada where we have found two other stellar spots, then into Utah and Arches National Park where we will be joined by my buddy Nick O'Donnell who will act in Episode 4. So one and so forth.
Have to go now cuz Jane is standing over me. Onward!
MJ
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