My Head is Stuck on Something Precious

This post first appeared, in a slightly different form, in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

Had a brisk 42-page three-day weekend to wrap SMART HOUSE, including a 27-page shooting day.  It helps that we were mostly shooting a single person in one location.  I had much of the crew from the first weekend plus a few old friends, which also helps.

We didn't write it as a Christmas movie, but as the fates would have it we were shooting at various homes at Christmastime, so I thought we might as well lean into it.  The DP, Henrique Couto, has a snow machine, and when Iabou Windimere is outside at the denouement after REDACTED, we decided it should start snowing.  We both recognized it also snows when Jimmy Stewart comes back to the real world at the end of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, so if we accidentally made a Christmas movie, at least those have legs.

There were a number of difficult shots, but I left a close-up for the very last one, in film production called "the martini shot."  Simple enough, Iabou gets startled and drops a plate.  I thought I was set by going to Dollar Tree and buying two matching 99-cent plates; we could drop one on a pillow in a wider shot and the other we could drop on the floor in close-up. 

But damned if that 99-cent ceramic plate didn't bounce three times in a row, clanging like a frying pan.  So Henrique ended up banging on it with a hammer for while, then roughly super-gluing the pieces back together until it was loosely assembled and somewhat dry.  Then it broke in one more take, and we were done with SMART HOUSE and even finished a little early.

It doesn't seem like a huge accomplishment right now because there is so much more work to do, and I'll update you on that as we go along.  Thank you for following this adventure.  Here are a few fresh screen caps to wrap this one up.

A Hole in the Sock Of

This post first appeared, in a slightly different form, in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

 I was a little worried about jumping back into the director's chair after over two years out, especially when the air sort of went out of me after COVID put the brakes on my last project, literally the night before principal photography.  But it turns out it's like riding a bike--a large, multi-gear bike that is speeding on a downhill road faster and faster, with that rock from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK closing behind, and people along that road shouting out questions that need answered as you go past.

Since me and the writing team of Richard Pierce and Luka Nikolic first put pen to paper in September, with a December production date looming quickly, I knew I would have to load up cast and crew with people I've gone to war with before, like director of photography Henrique Couto, actors Tom Cherry and Iabou Windimere (and her husband Joe), make-up artist Chelsea Swinford, and utility players like Eric Widing, Erin Hoodlebrink, Andy Britt, and Ashlee Brown, who can all do a little of everything.

I was happy with how the first weekend went.  I purposefully loaded the schedule with easier things up front; one location and two actors and not too many set-ups.  I thought we had a rather breezy 16 page day and 17 page day, ending early both times. 

Mentioning this on social brought a small ripple of shock from people who wondered how we were shooting so quickly.  I remembered that when I was girding up to shoot THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE a friend who was making his first movie at the same time told me he was worn out from shooting ten-page days, and I had a sinking feeling realizing I had scheduled a couple of 20-page days.  But that one worked out, and the next one, and half (or maybe 40%) of this one so far.

New crew member Jake Baker told me he had worked on two 14-day sets this past summer in a variety of roles, and I had to tell him this was my third film, but only my eleventh day of directing.

I think it certainly helps that I started volunteering at the local PBS TV station in Muncie, Indiana (the home of Bob Ross) in I think 1981, and got my first part-time paid production job around 1985, going full-time in 1988 and working in various video and IT jobs clear through to 2009. 

It definitely helps that I have worked a lot with Henrique Couto as a DP and he pretty much knows what I like--which is rooted in the 70s auteur style that I drone on about--and I have a shorthand with several crew people who have been on sets with me before, as well as cast people who always come prepared.

I think I'm still a good live TV director, and I feel like I used to be a really good linear editor, but the tech goes by in dog years so I don't know anything anymore really; though I think I still have that feeling for it, which helps you shoot if you know how it needs to cut together.

But it really starts with writing a super-tight script with minimal actors and locations, just knowing what can be done easily and what is difficult, what has to be real and what can be shemped, what is expensive and what is cheap, overall thinking about what resources you have on hand.  And I have written A LOT of screenplays like that.

Today I am headed to Dayton to shoot the other 43 pages over three days, and there is a lot of running around and spooks and jump scares and such so we will really have to knuckle down and grind this one out.  Watch along on social to see how we are doing, and thanks for following along so far. 

Here are a couple of EXCLUSIVE screen caps from the first weekend that you won't see on social media, including that split diopter shot I always try to figure out where to drop in.

Tora, Tora, Taxi

This post appeared, in a slightly different form, first in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP. 

Although principal photography on my new feature SMART HOUSE really starts on Saturday, I feel like I pre-gamed a bit this past weekend.  I drove to the Farmland Community Center, where I shot scenes for both THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE and SCARECROW COUNTY, to record some voice over with Katy Wolfe. I got to see that the Cake Walk, which my late beloved dog once won a cake for me on, is still there; that this exists confounded many of my Ohio cast and crew, who could not understand our ways.

It was neat to be back in that space where I had several long days but good memories.  Katy and several people from the cast of both of those previous movies perform in plays and recreate old time radio shows there, and I arrived on a performance day and got to catch up with some familiar faces.

You only hear Katy on the phone, but she has a big role.  A lot of SMART HOUSE is about people trapped in various circumstances, physical and psychological, but even though Katy's character Alicia is blind and seems housebound she in fact galvanizes the other characters into action.  Naturally, she is named after Alicia Masters, the blind sculptor in the FANTASTIC FOUR comics.

Then I raced over to Dayton for a last-minute production meeting with producer/director of photography Henrique Couto to go over gear and crunch the production schedule, even though the main thing is that I wanted to eat at Marion's, the legendary Dayton pizzeria.

I've been getting up early, working through lunch, and working every night (while my wife is working out some Hank Williams Jr. on the guitar) so we can go straight to post and deliver this film sooner than I have my previous two.  The main reason is we have been fortunate to already secure streaming and physical media distribution for the film, based on the strength of our previous films under the Midwest Film Venture banner, so not only are you loyal readers hopefully eager to see this movie, but some people who are giving us money are, too.

I updated the production schedule Sunday, based on notes from that glorious pizza meeting, wrote out a prop list Monday, figured out the food for the weekend last night, and still have a ton of things to do. 

Tonight I want to spray paint a coffee can to hide the logo and then find a bunch of old thumb drives to put in it (IT MAKES SENSE IN THE MOVIE--maybe).  Then tomorrow I'll go hunting two cheap, identical plates, one I can smash on the floor, for another scene.  I've got dinner with writer/producer Richard Pierce on Friday, all the way from Vegas with his family, and some of the crew is coming in to sleep in my grandsons' room.  We will have a lot to talk about, for sure.

Speaking of props, I like including art from people I know in my movies.  In CRAWLSPACE, all of the "Outcast Swords" RPG art was from my friends Ray Otus and Dyson Logos as well as actor Tom Cherry.  There was a tee shirt from Tim Shrum (who did the killer's mask) and one from Steven Paul Judd.  They are all blink or you miss it things, but I was glad to have friends represented in there.  Same with SCARECROW COUNTY, with cartooning from actors Tom Cherry and Rachael Redolfi as well as director Joe Sherlock and screenwriter Dan Wilder.

For this one I decided to use a shirt designed by Ashlee Britt, who worked on the crew of SCARECROW.  It just sort of caught my eye, and I am going to have Tom Cherry wear it throughout.  If you think it is cool also you can get it on sale right here.

Speaking if shirts, if you want to look hip in front of all of your friends this holiday season you can also grab this boss Midwest Film Venture tee now.

If you don't already follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, go hunt me down at @johnoakdalton to ride along with all of our adventures, big and small, this first weekend of shooting.  And I will check back in with more secret content, on the other side.  Thanks for reading.