Making a movie PT I

Making Movies, Day 2

The next day was a Sunday. Still raining, though not as much. I brought a few prints from the day before to show around, and since the reception was fairly positive, I felt a little more confident that they wouldn't just arbitrarily throw my ass out, and so I walked around taking pictures for several hours. This was not at Steve's house, but instead it was at some old mill that now houses a "test research facility" and also an "'Exotic' Pet Store". Coincidence?
I think not.

It was intended to look like some part of New Orleans (WAY Pre-Katrina), and while I was there, a few different scenes were shot.

I start the page with a few of my awkward attempts to create ART, as opposed to snapshots. I didn't say it was GOOD art...

Steve and his friend... ummm... Dan? Dave? Frank? (Steve tells me this is his pal Mark Slayton again, the guy with the bug eyes from page one) in an effort to recreate a Civil War era portrait, and an example of what went on behind the scenes. This is a good opportunity to judge the real beard vs. the fake beard look. Can you tell which is which?

This is "General New Orleans outdoor location set place #1" . The guy on the right is a stunt man, as is made obvious by his remarkable Michael Boltanishness

The first shot I was there for involved lots of extras walking about while the "Massachusetts 54th", an all black Union troop marched through the city. They only had so many extras, so they would just walk back and forth over and over again, just like the winos at the bus station in Worcester but without so much peeing.

And here they come, don't screw with the Mighty 54th. I believe the 54th Massachusetts is also the troop that the movie Glory is about (though given the end of Glory, I don't think it was the same actual soldiers). if you want to see a GREAT movie, see Glory sometime.
These guys actually get together as a group and go to re-enactments and stuff together.

Nope, no hicks here...

The guy in the green shirt on the lower right in the left photo is our friend Bob Computerguy Cooney again, and the guy on the left in the right photo with the not quite matching fake beard is his faithful sidekick, who I think also builds computers. They are both musicians too by the way.

Shhhhhh.....
Be veeeeewy quiet...
I'm hunting wabbits....

My name is Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht.

Steve had an actual part as a guy named Abner who kills someone. The person he kills will evidently be inserted later, but for now, Stevie was just out there whacking the hell out of empty space and loving every minute of it.

Now THAT'S a camera. The guy in the gray in the background is David Padrusch, the director. Seemed like a decent guy from what little I spoke to him. I'm hoping he will like my pictures enough to maybe hire me for future projects.

THAT'S A HINT DAVE... HINT HINT HINT!
Some people just can't take a hint.

That's David again on the left. He watches everything that's filmed through these little monitors. For some odd reason, the stand that the monitors is on uses a foam coffee cup as a counterweight. Must be pretty sensitive.

Capturing Steve as he does his Elmer impression. The guy on the right is the sound guy. I talked to him a few times, what with my interest in sound and all. very nice guy. He brings this little green rocking chair everywhere he goes.

And now we see the magic of framing. Instead of some backwoods in New Orleans, we get shitpile USA behind the vinyl window installer. None of that crap will be visible in the movie of course. The things they can do with technology these days.

I don't know who this is or who it's supposed to be, some guy who gets his throat cut. They just shot some inserts of him quietly expiring. Actually looks sort of like me after the all you can eat chinese buffet. The blue pad is like a big depends, because of course, the first thing you do after you die is shit yourself. No, not really, I guess it's there to keep ants from biting his ass while he pretends to be dead.

Below is the "Directors View" of the two little monitor screens. You can see the two different camera angles. In one of the new Star Wars DVDs, you can see George Lucas watching the same kind of monitor arrangement, except his are like 52" screens. Of course, it's not the size, it's how you use it...

The big scene of the day was the attack on the soldiers by a bunch of white trash civilians. This was rehearsed the entire time Steve was in another part of the property doing the Elmer Fudd scene.

The story is that a bunch of civilian's get some weapons and attack the 54th. This was rehearsed for a long time, and every time they did the fight, every single person had to do exactly the same moves. The guy on the steps to the right rear was the head stunt guy Tim Weskie. He and the stunt guys come from a company called "SWORDPLAY Inc."
I got a kick out of this little girl in the dress who had to jump on this guy every time. They ended up making her up like a guy in the end. Maybe it seemed a little too unfeminine for her to act like a member of the WWE.

Update

My name's Leslie and I was
the woman in the enormous green dress with white blouse and weird white
"snood" on my head. I also got to be a boy for awhile in the rumble and
thenbe a girl again (but I didn't have to wear a mustache like the other
girls,waah ha ha ha!) I didn't really get to meet Steve because he was busy
either acting or trying to keep people from parking on his lawn. But I am one
of many who thanks him for opening his home to such a great project!

Could you by any chance post my thanks to the 54th for their patience
with being so sorely abused? I had a straight razor and got to kill Emmett,
Jason, and Dane. Thank you so much gentlemen, for being so polite and
dying so nicely so many times! Especially Dane, with whom I got my big "kill
shot." All kidding aside, it was a crazy, moving experience to perform
all this hate and then dust each other off and make friends again.

The guy in the white hat was one of the stuntmen by the name of Brian Danner. I don't know if anyone ever calls him "Danno", but I think they should. He seemed to be second in command after the head stunt guy who isn't actually in the scene. He was actually kind of a little guy, but I'm sure he could kick my ass all over the map, so I'll just say he was a tough son of a bitch and leave it at that. I'm sure he gets laid more than I do too... Other stuntmen included: T.J., O'Ryan, Nate and Rusty. Not sure who is who though.

MobCam™

The picture on the top left shows the scene as it was acted out, the one on the right shows how with a little extra screwing around, it can be made to look pretty real. I like that shot. Closest I'll ever get to being a photojournalist.

On the left you can see Computerguy Bob again along with one of the Bolton Boys Synchronized Stunt Team psuedo-beating the hell out of some poor 54th guy with a rubber wrench.

I don't really know who this girl is, she had something to do with the wardrobe dept. I think her name is Anna. In any case, She is very beautiful and she didn't throw rocks at me when she saw me taking this, so I shall be forever grateful. I would love to do a full shoot with her, so...
if you're out there, and you're interested in having a portfolio done, contact me and we'll make it happen.

Yes, I'm serious...

By now, rehearsal was over and the fight scene was being filmed for real. Lots of grunting and oofs and flailing about. Of course, one of the Bolton Boys is right at the heart. The real stunt guys were sprinkled around the set like jimmies on a cupcake (mmm... cupcake) to keep the more rambunctious locals from kicking the crap out of each other. No teeth were harmed in the filming of this movie.

And the last scene I was there for was of the 54th first entering the city (Movies are not filmed in sequence, for the more dense among you who's mind just went into convulsions trying to figure out how I warped the space time continuum). The scene was simple, the soldiers walk through while pissed off townies yell and scream insults.

Course, the 54th got to scream insults too (though I question whether they would have done so in real life, I would think soldiers of that era would have been too well disciplined for that). Anyway, lots of bad words and epithets are being freely tossed about here.
Sort of like the gay pride parade on it's way through South Boston...

Two guys shouting. Screaming. Saying really awful things about each other. it was pretty intense, though I imagine it's nothing compared to what really went on back then.

So, we leave all this horribleness and look at the pretty rubber guns and bottles.... ooooooooh.... rubber bottles....

Finally, after all is said and done, we come to what everyone really wants to see (judging by the expressions of the spectators in the background). Two pretty girls happily pretending to kick the crap out of each other. Now that's a movie I'd pay to see...

Ah well... so ends my tale of two days on set. I made another appearance a couple of days later, but without the camera, and ended up being an extra in a scene, though if they show anything at all, it will likely just be my hands. Course, once they look at dailies and realize my hands are about half the size of a normal human male's (with all that that implies) they'll probably just cut that stuff right out.

Update:

Filming continued for a few days after I had to go back to work, but Steve had his glorious death scene a few days later. He was hung for the murder he committed during the Elmer Fudd scene. Here he "hangs out" with some of his new friends... get it? hangs out? Ha ha ha ha, boy is he "Well Hung".. Whooooaaaa ha ha ha, stop it, you're killing me... I guess he had time to just "Hang Around" Hee hee ha ha ho, boy oh boy, the mirth is endless...

You can tell Steve is starting to "Get the Hang of it", ha ha ha, man, I just kill myself... Steve is a real "Swinger", huh? ha ha ha, cut it out, I can't, I can't, I can't breath, He just looks so... so... "strung out" Wow, ha ha ha, I guess the movie producers were just "Stringing him along" HA HA HA, ha ha, jeeze.... hoooooooo wow, that was some funny stuff... I am a funny bastard...

Anyway, these two pictures were sent to me by Scott Lefton, who I assume also took them. So Thanks Scott, until he saw these, Steve was.... "Hanging by a thread" AAAAAH Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa hhhooooo boy...

I'll make a note of when this thing will be on TV assuming that somebody out there tells me. Till next time...