NOTES FROM HOLLYWOOD: PART 4

Reflections on the Journey to Make a Feature Film

We survived the rain deluge. Filming is underway. Our crew of 40 hard-working grips, electrics, PAs, ADs, producers, DP, production design, costume, makeup, plus a studio teacher, a blacksmithing team, 8 featured actors and 30 back ground actors (including one baby!) pulled long days at three different locations, covering 11 scenes and 81 shots to complete our first week of principle photography.
 
I woke up at 5:30AM on Tuesday, February 6, the storm still bringing record rain to Los Angeles. Dylan and I drove out to Simi Valley, where our production team had spent a long Monday constructing a garage workshop inside a film studio from scratch (Hana filming in the workshop, below). Niko and her team delivered! We started the day with a safety meeting, led by our props master, Chase Wright, who reviewed our on-set weapons policy (only replicas or non-operational weapons). Then we rehearsed with Josh for the first shot of the day, lit the scene and rolled camera. Shot-by-shot everyone worked diligently through the long day, and by 7pm we wrapped. Day one. Check.

The second day we shot in a house on the same studio lot and our newest hire, actor Gilbert Owuor, got to slip into the narrative stream with Josh. It was fun to see the beginning of their on-screen connection. Our third day we moved to a church and were joined my Mike Martin of Raw Tools (photo right with Aaron and production sound mixer Aaron Kesler) and his associate Joy Fire, two blacksmiths who create garden tools from firearms. I was inspired by Mike and his collaborative partner, Shane Claiborne, when I read their book Beating Guns, a few years back as part of the research process for the film. It was a delight to have Mike on set and the scene we shot at the pop-up church-side forge they created with the help of our production team was magic. My dear friend, actor Deb Fink, came down for a cameo and aside from her performance, immediately made herself indispensable as ancillary crew.

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We continued filming at the church the fourth day when Dylan finally got to put down his producer hat and pick up his actor hat. I had written a role for him from the get-go and this was his day. We lined church pews with background actors, including my daughter, Zoe, a friend of hers and one of my oldest friends. It’s fun to have visitors on set (and sometimes they wind up in the movie). Dylan captivated the church “congregation” with his sermon, and then followed up with a sweet scene between him, Josh and Jamir. The sun came out and we finished the week strong. 

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A few weeks ago Dylan said, “filmmaking is a young person’s game”. Now I know what he was talking about. I woke up before dawn each day, made coffee, and drove out to our location with Dylan. My attention was focused and in demand until 7pm when we wrapped. I spoke with every department head off and on throughout each day, making tiny and consequential decisions; I was blocking, rehearsing and working closely with actors; I was consulting with Hana on every single shot. We didn’t get home til around 9pm each night. Beauty rest? Forget about it. By Saturday I felt like I had been run over by a truck.
 
And week one was supposed to be the easy week...

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