The Gathering Storm
WEDNESDAY, MAY 28: I forgot to mention one other thing from Tuesday. I had been trying for days to put Brian my sound mixer together with Leland to talk about how they would work together on the shoot. On Tuesday they finally connected and, well, I'm afraid we kind of sprung a big surprise on Brian. He was informed for the first time that we were using a three-camera setup. This made him uncomfortable because as he saw it there was no way for him to get close enough to the onscreen action while keeping himself and his mic offscreen and get good sound. Brian called me Tuesday night as I was in the midst of finding a replacement for the part of Davis, and he shared his concerns -- Brian had been under the impression that we were going with one cam and we weren't going to get too elaborate or crazy with our setups. The decision to employ the 3 camera setup came about in my meetings with Leland the week before, and Leland had done a phenomenal job of selling me on it. But listening to Brian I started to wonder if we had basically incapacitated our sound guy with what we had devised for the cameras. Leland's solution to the problem wasn't altogether heartening -- he suggested we rent some bug mics and plant them around the room. Sure, if I've got the $$$$ to do this, which I didn't. Renting additional mics was going to run me much more than what I was paying for the two wireless and one boom that Brian had ordered. Leland's lighting kit was already three times as much as Will and I had budgeted -- Karin saw it and was surprised by how much stuff there was (though the bulk of it was really in the lights Leland wanted -- 4 Kino flows and 2 Dedos) -- I told Karin that the costs didn't matter but what Karin was worried about was how much time Leland and Chris the gaffer would spend playing with all the gear they requested. I was fine with getting good lighting for our project, but at the same time I was starting to feel like this production was getting out of hand, and Brian's and Karin's apprehensions were beginning to rub off on me. Not the state of mind I wanted for going to sleep.

Next morning I woke up with the overriding idea to find an actor to play Davis. Filmmaker Greg Pak (see www.gregpak.com as well as www.asianamericanfilm.com), who has come to my aid many a time before, recommended Ron Domingo, who had a role in his first feature Robot Stories (www.robotstories.net). I got Ron's number and left word. Then I started shopping around the rental houses for the camera and lighting equipment Leland had requested. Managed to get a package for $625, which wasn't too bad. Then Ron called and I gave him the pitch (it was probably the single best pitch I've given to anyone this whole time). He said he'd love to do it, he was all for crazy spontaneous fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants projects. He sure got one. All that had to be worked out was whether I could wrap him no later than 7PM on Saturday so he could sing at his cousin's wedding in Jersey. The schedule looked like it would work, so it was a deal. Then I set him up with a rehearsal that afternoon with Kevin. Looked like the boat was back on keel.

Then Craig called, finally back from vacation in Newfoundland. I wasn't sure where to begin catching up with him, so we set up a conference call with Karin and Will for that evening.

Met Kevin J and Ron at Karin's for their rehearsal, and they hit it off in an instant. A very rewarding session. Ron is very energetic, charismatic and eager, and it really added something between the two characters, a kind of rapport, as if the two characters knew each other. Kevin really dug it though we weren't sure if it was true to the story and how the characters were conceived. But I definitely wanted there to be some kind of bond between them that would form -- it would be a way to humanize what would otherwise be a stereotypical supervisor, and make us connect with someone other than Kevin's role. Anyway, it was nice to see another spark between Kevin and someone -- I didn't want this movie to be Kevin/Robert never being able to connect with anyone, some absurd parade of people passing by as he sits back and watches impassively -- I wanted to mix it up and have people trying to tease him out and see what happens. So with Ron I felt I finally had a key to help unlock that humanizing potential between Robert and the ensemble.

I got home, had cold pasta salad leftovers from Julie's graduation party, and then called Karin, Will and Craig for a production meeting. I think we were all impressed by Craig and his ability to bring up and talk us through a number of logistical concerns -- between him and Karin we steered through pretty much everything. We decided that our friend Janet, who volunteered for both days of the shoot, would help as "2nd AD", that is someone who would coordinate the 50 odd extras that would come through the set over the two days. We discussed staging areas, craft service, and setup times -- the 12 hour days that Will and I had scheduled looked overly optimistic in Craig's view; we had to talk through it to really see how long it would take to rehearse and shoot each scene -- but at best we were all taking an educated guess. We fixed on a 6AM crew call for Saturday to be safe, and prayed that it wouldn't take us any later than 8PM.

The conversation came to the dilemma of camera vs. sound that I'd been dealing with between Leland and Brian -- and in the course of the conversation it became evident that Karin and Craig hadn't been apprised of the 3 camera setup either! Eesh. Well Craig had been away so he didn't know, but somehow Karin and I hadn't communicated that. Craig and Karin immediately expressed concerns over how much time Leland and Chris would need to set up cameras between setups -- I assured them that no more than one camera would be moved from setup to setup so it really wouldn't take more than 1/2 hour. But I had the increasing feeling that I was over my head, with everyone looking to me for information -- it was time that the different sides finally got put together. So immediately after our meeting I called Leland and set up another production meeting between Leland, Craig, Karin and myself. We would meet the following afternoon, look at the shotlist and all get a collective sense of how the day would play out.

With that, I went to bed with a sense that things were really starting to come together...