NOTES FROM HOLLYWOOD: PART 3

Reflections on the Journey to Make a Feature Film

The Pineapple Express is here. Our first day of the shoot was scheduled for today, on an exterior location. The last 24 hours saw the most rainfall in one day in Los Angeles County in the last 20 years.  
On Tuesday we learned that this “atmospheric river”, that foreboding term, was scheduled to hit Sunday. Never mind the continuity problems and sound problems with shooting our first day in the rain, the expected wide-spread flooding could pose problems for cast and crew even getting to set. What’s a production team to do? Change the schedule. But at this stage of planning, changing the schedule is dependent upon location availability, actor availability, production design’s scheduled prep time, and expense considerations. This is next-level Tetris, friends. You move one square on the grid and the whole thing changes.

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So on Wednesday, while we rode around in a passenger van with our production team for 12 hours for our Tech Scout--a visit to each location with key department heads to prep the details for each day of the shoot (Hana and I, right)--we were simultaneously reevaluating the various permutations of a major schedule change to avoid the “the largest storm of the season,” according to NOAA. Gotta stay flexible. Can’t fight Mother Nature.

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So we're not shooting today to buy time for the storm to pass and we juggled a few locations to start on interiors. But this morning our production team arrived on set to prep for tomorrow only to find that our location for the new first day, an old garage, is completely water-logged from a leaky roof. We loved the run-down feel of the place for the story, but on practical terms, it's now unshootable. Niko and her team have come up with an alternative and are at this moment building the set in an interior, dry and secure studio space. They are indefatigable and working their magic to keep us on track. We cannot afford to lose two days before we've even rolled camera. 
 
I'm not worried. Last week got off to a terrific start when I met Gilbert Owuor, an actor our casting team proposed to fill the role that was vacated the Friday before. Gilbert and I connected immediately, and in addition to his body of film and television work, his theatre training and experience gave me great comfort that he could step in immediately with the care and intention needed to embody the character. We offered him the role that afternoon and we closed the deal within 20 hours of his scheduled rehearsal. I’m delighted. Turns out he’s the man meant to play the role. You just never know what the universe has in store for you. So with that part finally filled, thanks to the diligence of Meg and Sunny, our stellar casting team, we completed a process started in early December, and all 20 characters are cast.

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All of the unpredictability aside, the past week was really all about rehearsal. We’ve got two kids with speaking roles in the film and they’ve got pretty intense scenes with Josh, so I wanted to be sure we had time to connect before we shoot. (Josh Close and Jamir Vega, in rehearsal, above). So often film and television projects only give time for brief rehearsal on the day of filming, and actors are left to invent years of backstory and intimate relationships on-the-fly. I don’t get it. I mean, I get it. But I don’t get it. If I had my way, I’d work for weeks with the cast to build rapport and relationship and explore the material so there’s less pressure on set, and more creative and expansive possibility. I sound like a naïve theatre-maker. Well...
 
Anyway, I insisted on a few rehearsals with our key actors and it paid dividends instantly. The kids were fantastic as we explored the scenes and I was able to make some changes to the dialogue here and there. By taking the time for discussion, sometimes about some heavy themes (we are making a film that explores gun violence after all) these young actors got to understand what’s going on underneath the text and they’ll be better equipped to go home and work on it before their shoot days. We also spent a terrific rehearsal with Josh and Gilbert exploring their scenes together. Theirs is a primary relationship in the film and it was a delight to finally feel these two characters that have been in my head for two years come alive in the room! Just wait til you see the dynamic energy between these guys. Very powerful.

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​We also had a props show-and-tell where Chase Wright, our prop master, laid out a host of props used in the film, from replica rifles (photo right--not one of them is actually functional) to luggage, cigarette boxes, lighters, and so on. My job: sign off on every single item.

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Finally, I ended the week with Hana, reviewing our shot-list for the first week, making adjustments to be sure we’re using our time efficiently, looking at the overheads, and confirming our day-to-day plan. (Overhead for our first location, above, showing all the camera positions for the day). Even now that the location has moved, this shot list stands and everyone is gearing up for our first day TOMORROW. 
 
Rain or shine, it’s time to shoot this movie.

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