Thursday, July 2, 2009

Diary of Production - Day 02

Ok, second day, a new set back! Andrew, the actor I cast on a club, remember? Couldn't make it today, due to a court hearing.. great! I had to rewrite the scene where we was supposed to be in, and we still made it work!

This was one of the longest days we had. We started at 8pm, and were supposed to shoot into late at night. We had three long scenes...

The first one was long, but fairly simple: Alex and Fernando are just hanging out, smoking weed and listening to music when Emilio gets home with Cecilia and confronts him about his drug smuggling into Emilio's school.
We shot this outside, in the Patio. We kept the lighting simple: a 1200HMI blasting through a silk and some CTO to give that hot effect. The reason it took so long to shoot this was because I needed a lot of coverage, so we got 10 shots out of this scene.




Meanwhile, everyone was complaining about a strange odor in the air... Actually, it didn't smell that good there, and I probably know why. When me and Alvaro (the gaffer) were doing some location scouting, when we went to this house we saw this almost dead dog roaming around. He ended up entering a small door leading to the basement of the house, and we never saw the dog ever since. Even during this entire shooting day, we never saw the dog once. So it's Alavaro's theory that the dog went into that basement door to die, and it's still there till this day.

Second scene, fairly simple also. We jumped into the kitchen and we did the scene where Emilio kicks his brother out of the house. Really good acting! Moving on!

Third scene. This was a little bit more complicated. This scene was about a bonding moment between the two brothers, and I wanted a really cool mise-en-scene. Only one shot, no cuts. We had to make that house and patio look beautiful and warm. We took a loooooong time to light it, but it paid off. The scnee looked amazing, and the performances, once again, were right there!



And that was a wrap for day 2!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Diary of Production - Day 01

And here we go... First set back: one day before starting to shoot, I lost my 1st AC. Due to lack of money and time to hire another one, Chris Summers, the 2nd AC was promoted to 1st.

We checked out the equipment in the morning, picked up the rental equipment after lunch, and started to shoot at 5pm. But did we? No. Why? The RED camera just didn't work. At all. The very same camera we tested that same morning, failled to boot on my first day. Ok, try to disguise it. Chris Gibbons, the grip, went to NYFA to get another one, while we tried to distract the actors. When he got back, we were done with lighting and rehearsal, and we started shooting right away. And it went pretty well for a first day.
We shot the scene where Alex and his friends talk about the drug deal they're about to make. The location was a great Mexican restaurant in Downtown LA. The owners were incredibly nice, and they didn't speak 1 word of English. Communication was hard, but fun.
Andrew, the actor playing Carlos (the guy on the third picture), was really nervous: this was his first film. I cast him at night, in a club. I saw him, and I just thought I had to have him in the movie, he was perfect for the part. So I talked with him right there, he agreed and came on board. I guess he started to get it right after a couple of warm up takes.

By the way, Samantha - the make-up girl - did a really great job with the tattoos!

Let day 2 come!



Diary of Production - Pre Production

Yeah, I shot the movie already. I'm starting the post phase now. But I'll still post a short diary of production. Let's pretend I'm still shooting the film :P

A little pre-production intro: the casting went great, got amazing actors! I got some really cool locations: a restaurant and a house in East LA, perfect for this scenario. The house belongs to a Mexican Family, with the nicest family guy ever! Julio, thanks so much for your help!
I also got a really cool place to shoot the drug deal scene: an industrial lab, full of airplane turbines and engines.
Also, I'll be shooting in a catholic (!!!) school in Downtown LA. I'm glad they never asked for the script, otherwise they wouldn't allow me to shoot there...
Finally, the other gang's house: I'm doing a shot there, that I have in my head for almost two years. This was actually the shot that originated the whole feature movie, so it needs to be perfect!!! I have a steadicam shot going on, music, sex and drugs! What else could anyone ask for?!

Actually, there's some nice stories about this scene... I had to cast for nude extras, and believe me qhen I tell you, I had a lot of weird submissions... Girls, they were mostly porn actresses. But guys... oh man.. I had an actor telling me: "I just want to let you know that I might get a huge boner.. I haven't had a girl in a while, so I'm gonna be pretty excited with being with a naked chick.. is that a problem?"
Oh yeah, professionalism above all....
Oh, he didn't get the part.

I got two producers: Jenn and Nicole. Incredibly, I never managed to get them to meet before the shoot. So basically we were doing the same things, dealing with the same problems, and both producers never met. But we made it work!

Getting permits was a pain... The city required cops for the night shoots, but I just couldn't afford them... So I had to change my shooting times, into "regular shooting hours" - 7am to 10pm. Or at least that's what I told Film LA...

Another great news! Three friends from Portugal decided to join me to help me! Ricardo Guedes and Joao Sousa came to LA do to sound, and Antonio Morais decided to come help me with lighting! Great great help guys!

Besides spending a lot of money on gas, location scouting, meeting with people, etc, pre-production went pretty smooth. I felt I was ready to go! Let the shoot come!

CAST:

Emilio: Danny Molina
Alex: Julian Chapell
Cecilia: Gloria Sandoval
Fernando: Alejandro Edda
Carlos: Andrew Millan
Alli: Heather Tocquigny
Villanueva: Eloy Mendez
Gang member 1: Rob Martinez
Gang member 2: Rob Macias
Gang member 3: Eliezer Ortis
Girl 1 and 2: Victoria de Mare
Girl 3: Christine Lee


CREW:

Producer: Jenn Rindler and Nicole Exposito
Director/DP: Frederico Beja
Assistant Director: Mike Maguire
Camera Operator: Jordan Roberts
1st AC: Chris Summers
Gaffer: Alvaro Serna
Electric: Antonio Morais
Key Grip: Chris Gibbons
Grip: Temitayo Boroffice
Sound Mixer: Ricardo Guedes
Sound Boomer: Joao Sousa
Make Up: Samantha Ward
Steadicam Operator: Javier Costa
Fight Coordinator: Jack Huang


EQUIPMENT

Camera: RED One
Lenses: Zeiss Glass, Arri barrels, Super Speed Primes: 16mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mn
Fischer Dolly
Porta Glide Jib Arm
Lighting: 1200 HMI; 575 HMI; Mole Richardson 2K Junior; 3x Mole 1k Babies; 2x Mole 650; 2x Mole 300; 2x Kino Flos
Grip stuff - flags, silks, nets, frames, solids, bla bla bla...

Why "Blood Diaries"?

Hello all

First of all, why a blog? And why a blog named "Blood Diaries"?
Well... a blog because I felt like sharing some of my filmmaking experiences with anyone: all the frustration, stress, hard work and poverty an indie filmmaker goes through to bring a little film to life.
"Blood Diaries" because the title of this short film is "Brothers in Blood". And it's taking me blood to make it happen....

First of all, a little introduction. I'm a master student at New York Film Academy, in LA. I just wrapped my thesis film, a short called Brothers in Blood, shot on location, with the RED One camera (yeah, I'd shoot 35, but... no money :S)

This short film is based on a feature script I wrote. Hopefully, with this short I'll try to get some investment into the development of the feature...

But first things first. This one. Tells us the story of two mexican brothers: Emilo (32) and Alex (20). Alex keeps getting in trouble, trying to be a respected gangster in East LA, but keeps screwing everything up. His Brother Emilio, a respected teacher in the community ends up ruining his life to save his brother, after he messes with the wrong people. That's when we realize Emilio was, 10 years before, the guy his brother is trying to be...

And where does this story fits in the feature script? The feature is an ensemble piece about three families, each one of them with enough disfunctionality. They don't know each other, but events lead them to the same place by the end of the movie. This short is one of these three stories.

I figured the best way to get financing to do the feature would be shooting part of it.
Because I have three stories in the feature, each one of them works independantely, and that way work by itself on a short format.

With this blog, I'll try to tell a little bit the hardness of trying to get a movie done with no money... Believe, no money at all...