7:41 PM - Okay... so it's scary that July is already over... but then again... we've only been shooting for two months.. and we're already 1/4 of the way through principal photography. We're getting faster and more productive. I like to think of these first two months as my ramping up period. Now Lance and I plan to tighten the belt and refocus. I now know how much I can accomplish... I know what to expect of people.. I'm more confident about how and what we can get... let's cut to the chase... we're nearly out of the amateur woods. Here's a more detailed run down of our productive three day weekend.

Saturday the 26th... Eric LaRowe.. the ownder of Movies 2 Sell was most gracious and accomodating to let us shoot at his store. We we're in and out of there fairly quickly.. and we even signed up an on the spot extra. The scene was written without dialogue.. but Julia and Ian improvised some nice stuff. We shot most if not all of the scene with available lighing... and it turned out nice. We returned to my house and shot Ian and Julia's reaction shots to watching the videos... we tried some interesting lighting that I feel people will either love or completely loathe... but that's how it goes. We then proceeded to get lunch and a number of props including the all important black cowboy hat from Boot World. We returned home and regathered ourselves. We then headed over to Mission Beach to shoot some montage stuff... We were'nt allowed to shoot on the coaster.. but we did shoot some coverage where we can fake it... We got a number of shots that will cut together nicely. Again, we headed home to compose ourselves.. we were all tired.. but Lance, Shane, Ian and Julia were supertroopers and we headed up to Lance's to shoot Dex's bedroom scenes... We decorated the room to make it look and feel like Dex and then shot a number of shots.. Inearly had a break down from lack of sleep.. but I some how got my head together.. and Lance and the guys were patient enough for me to figure out a good solution. Basically I decided to leave the camera and equipment with Lance and Julia and I had Ian stay up there.. Shane and I headed home to finish some real work and get some sleep... phew... exhaustive... Anthony showed up... and we talked script and movie... and the night gave way to sleep....

Sunday the 27th... Ahhhh.... sleep good... anyways... Jimmy showed up first.. then Shane... then Lance Julia and Ian.. and Claudia was incredible.. she cooked everyone pancakes and eggs... an army marches on it's bellies... I sent a portion of the crew over to the location to start setting up and get ready for hair and make up... Anthony and I then headed down and found the location. The original location I wanted fell through.. but Shane's and my friend Glenn hooked us up with his office... an incredible office with a view of Mission Valley and the trolley.. .We set up and shot Dex/Ian's scenes... Jimmy got suited up and Anthony ran through some ad libs/additions to his character that were really nice. I sent Lance, Ian and Julia back to the house to meet Steve, Ron, Lance and Audrie for the afternoon shoot. While I was shooting Anthony and Jimmy's scenes (which are gorgeous by the way) I noticed a round lunch table two flights down... I went down and talked to the owners of the local deli and they hooked me up with a bunch of free sandwich's and I decided on the spot to change locations.. this location was much more like my script. I called Lance and had the cast come down and meet Shane and I back in Mission Valley. The guys all showed up looking like they did for the comic store.. and Audrie showed up in her Toy Corral... she looked great. We shot the scene over and over.. getting as much coverage as possible. I was worried about the light and the sun going down.. so I was adjusting the apeture as we moved through the day. Actors were brilliant... and we added a lot to the Ron Reel... hee...We headed back to the house.. .and I started to realize we wouldn't be able to shoot the "Kirk's House" scene on Monday night.. experience was now steering my brain in the righ direction. A number of us watched dailies for Saturday and Sujnday... everything is looking very good.. and people are laughing... that is good.

Monday the 28th... Ron showed up with the black Miata for a car scene in the afternoon. everyone lelse showed up and we headed over to the Muse (Awesome record store and art gallery on University near 30th) Carollyn the owner was there.. and really set us up. She was incredibly kind to us. My cousin Jess and Lindsey showed up to be extras and Linda and her new son Jacob also showed up to add texture to the background. Glenn was there to play the part of the record store patron and Ron was in good form for his first major singular scene. We shot plenty.. and got some nice coverage... everyone but Shane and I headed back to the house. We walked over to George's camera and picked up some lens cleaning apparati... we headed home and prepared to shoot some exteriors of Dex leaving his hour and calling Grant to get a ride... we were also planning to shoot the entire driving sequence... but Madre Nature and a number of other problems decided against it... we snuck in some shots... and tried to shoot around traffic noise... but we'll see. At one point.. the unexpected rain proved to be perfect for a telephone booth shot that I wanted.. so we hopped in the jeep and headed over to a phone booth I had been eyeing... rain looks good...

Like I keep saying.. a most productive weekend... I've learned how much we can do without breaking down and making the quality suffer.. and I'm more confident than ever about our schedule and our quality. 1/4 of the way through... ahhhh.. feels good... now to ratchet up the loose ends and finish this puppy... Thanks to everyone involved... we're doing great.....

Oh yeah.. check out the photos section.. lots of new photos.. more tomorrow....

Merry Christmas,

Jeromy

Today's recommended film "Full Frontal" Last year at the DV Expo in LA... the buzz about Soderbergh's new film was rabid... high expectations of a film being shot on DV... then it came out and I heard a ton of bad press and negative reviews... so I delegated it to my "wait for video" list... well, I did wait... and I love the film... I'm a big fan of Mr. Soderbergh... I really didn't care for Traffic (I liked Blow much better) and I hated Ocean's 11.. but this film was really intriguing... I loved all of the stars... really great performances... if you want to watch a really different narrative.. this is a great film... oh.. and you have to see this for the Hitler scenes and the stuff from the Limey.

6:30 PM - So we had a pick up shot to make that called for either a slew of tricked out cars or a troop of scooters and vespas... I talked to some friends.. namely Chris Frandsen and Jon Flores to see if I could get any help... phew... I would have been happy if just three scooters showed up... I could make the scene work... needless to say... I pulled up to Gelato's and there were like 15 to 20 scooters... thanks go out to the Pharohs and the Secret Society. The scene looks incredible... I can't wait to see it on a larger screen. The distintive sound of the scooters rumbling over the horizon... ahhh.. cool... what are scooters doing in my Gothic Cowboy movie? Trust me... it will look cool.

We also wrapped Weed's scenes with some hillarious shots at Parkway Plaza and a Dumpster and a fire ring? Ah.. now you're totally confused... hee...

So just because I haven't been updating... it doesn't mean production has halted. I've been doing a ton of location scouting. Lots of good news... some bad news.. but I have my network working on it... if you know someone that has access to a toy store storage area... or any kind of storage area... let me know...

Tonight I'm going to Kadan's and Lancer's to check out how I can and if I can use them for the movie.

We made a ton of contacts at the Comic Con. We have our new cloisne pins and stickers... we're looking at some cool new music... Okay.. I'm rambling now...I'll let you go and hopefully I can post tomorrow with some shooting specifics for this coming weekend.... Here's the run down just in case you've forgotten.

Saturday the 26th... we shoot Dex's (Ian's) house scenes... montage scenes between Julia and Ian.. and hopefully a dinner date... we need cast (Ian-Julia) crew (Lance-Shane-Ben-Jason)

Sunday the 27th... we shoot Dex's work (need to lock down location)... we shoot the guys lunch scene... Toy Corrall scene (location TBD)... we need cast (Ian-Lance-Steve-Ron-Audrie-Bozzi-Tom and Jimmy Kelly-Jesse Mackey) crew (Lance-Shane-Ben-Jason)

Monday the 28th... we shoot the record store (Muse Records on 30th)... we shoot Grants car (Ron's friends or Julia's car)...and lastly we shoot Kirk's House (Ron Wilson's house)... we need cast (Ian-Lance-Steve-Ron-Audrie-Mark W) we need extras (Todd-Linda-Jacob-Jessica-Lindsey-ect.) and crew (Lance-Shane-Ben-Jason)

For more details or specifics.. please check the calendar...

Merry Christmas,

Jeromy

Today's recommended film "Pirates Of The Carribean" Okay.. this isn't cinema verte... but the movie is a lot of fun. Jonny Depp is great... and Geoffery Rush is really cool. Not much to say... fun movie.. go watch it.

11:34 AM - Film production is fun. Film production is difficult. Film production makes you feel alive. Film produtcion is highly stressfull. Film production is eveything I wanted it to be. Heh...I spoke with Bryan Pollard last night about perhaps shooting at his Klubs in September... long story short.... Bryan is great and totally behind helping out. Phew... we haven't decided on complete dates yet... but my idea of shooting at a number of clubs to make one uber Goth club... looks like it is going to work. Me breaking apart the goth scenes into smaller bite size pieces and then storyboarding them... should work out fine.

I'm nearing completion of the re-write of the script... I'll be sending out a rough version of Acts one and two.to the actors and crew today. This version hasn't been proofed... but getting words into heads is dangerously important at this point. We start filming again in two and a half weeks...fingers crossed.

July shooting schedule

Saturday the 26th... we shoot Dex's (Ian's) house scenes... montage scenes between Julia and Ian.. and hopefully a dinner date... we need cast (Ian-Julia) crew (Lance-Shane-Ben-Jason)

Sunday the 27th... we shoot Dex's work (need to lock down location)... we shoot the guys lunch scene... Toy Corrall scene (location TBD)... we need cast (Ian-Lance-Steve-Ron-Audrie-Bozzi-Tom and Jimmy Kelly-Jesse Mackey) crew (Lance-Shane-Ben-Jason)

Monday the 28th... we shoot the record store (Muse Records on 30th)... we shoot Grants car (Ron's friends or Julia's car)...and lastly we shoot Kirk's House (Ron Wilson's house)... we need cast (Ian-Lance-Steve-Ron-Audrie-Mark W) we need extras (Todd-Linda-Jacob-Jessica-Lindsey-ect.) and crew (Lance-Shane-Ben-Jason)

For more details or specifics.. please check the calendar...

Merry Christmas,

Jeromy

Today's recommended film "Lost In La Mancha" This may be jinxing my film by picking this as ne of my fav/recommended films... but on the one hand it shows the incredible fun you can have making films and the out right devestation one can experience.... like life. I vacillate between who is my favorite director.. but it usually orbits about and around Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott and Terry Gilliam. Lost in La Mancha is about Terry's failed attempt to get Don Quixote to the big screen. Excellent documentary and extremely poignant. Seeing the post prodution on this film makes me cringe that I'll never be able to see the actual movie. ugh....

1:40 PM - So much has happened since Friday.. I'll have to itemize this journal entry...

Friday: Drove with Ben to the Show Biz Expo.and perused all of the cool new equipment. Right as you walk in, you have Canon to your left and Panasonic to your right. Panasonic was swamped... everyone was clamoring for their stuff. I cornered one of the Panasonic guys and asked him all the questions I could think of with my camera. No more floating f stop.. but.. also no auto zoom in 24p advance... he did set me off in the right track to find a second party part you can attatch to your lens.... other highlights... I bought the JVC mini dv deck I wanted from Promax and it arrived today. Microdolly has some wonderful toys that I'm going to have to look into. Bogen had this awesome fluid head for tripods... I think Ben remembers the part number.. (fingers crossed)...I attended the Expo last year and was still in the dreaming phase of movie making... here it is a year later.. and I'm now knee deep... joy.

Saturday: Ouch... 7am call time... and I set it.. what an idiot.. well.. actually it worked out great. Lance, Julia, Shane, Ben and I headed down to Frock You to shoot the girls shopping scene. Shannon showed up and her and Julia got into hair and make up. Shane and Ben kicked ass setting up and Lance was perfect in wrangling people. The lighting was difficult but I tend to like lighting for effect. i.e... I like when windows and doors are blown out by outside light... we'll see how it looks in editing. We did a ton of takes and for the third time we finished early and the stuff looked great. Curtis and Kristin we're incredible... Frock you looked beautiful and Wil was great with Sip This next door.. you should go check them out.. they're over on Park between University and El Cajon in Hillcrest. They's good people. The crew and cast all hoofed it over to City Deli (because Jeromy's an idiot and forgot to remind his mom about catering < don't laugh, my mom is an incredible cook.. just ask my friends>) City Deli was good. Lance, Julia and I came back to the house where I proceeded to work and Lance smartly began counting sheep. Around 9, I set the work aside and Lance and I banged out the new graveyard scene... it came out pretty cool. Later that night , some of the actors and I made a field trip over to Sabbat. Sabbat and Therapy are huge inspirations for some of the look and feel of my movie.. at least while I was writing the script. Ian, Steve, Ben and Ron seemed to have a blast and I think they further understand the characters now. We hung out there for awhile. Our friend was celebrating her birthday that night, so there were lots of friends.

Sunday: Ahhhh.. I got to sleep in til 10... Actors and crew showed up at the house (I need to get an office) and we did hair and make up checks and rehearsed the Grave Yard scene and the Comic store scene. Around 3pm, half the people left and we focused on Ian and Cody's grave yard scene. We then headed over to Greenwood cemetery and shot for about 15 minutes. Then we got kicket out. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!! First snafu of the shoot. We tried out two other ghastly places and came up empty... Ahhhhh.. dejection.. denied... demoralized.. defuckingpieceofshit.... well, we came back to the house and circled the wagons until sun down. We then headed back out in search of fresh plots. Dropping down the 163 into the valley in Shane's Jeep felt like the drop scene in Aliens. Really cool. We found out headstones and began setting up our high tech coleman lighting equipment.. heh heh... We shot from 8:30 til midnight... wow.. Ian and Cody are incredible.... they nearly had me crying at the rehearsals.. but this was even better... great sound.. great color... depth... people are going to dig this scene. We wrapped up and heaed for slumber.... well, actually I came home and worked some more.. and then...

Monday: I woke up at 6am to be ready for actors and crew at 7am... we were all running a little late ton Monday morning.. but spirits were lively. We staggered over to Comikaze (Robert.. what's your URL?) to shoot the comic store scene. Lance Ben and Shane were already there before me and had lighting and camera all set up... (SWEET CREW) This was to be the first scene involving alll of the guys... could be difficult and could be difficult.. heh... The store looked awesome and Robert, the owner of Coikaze helped out acting... Everyone did a completely kick ass job except for Ron.. ha.. I'm kidding...I'm kidding... seriously.. the guys were all prepared and actually had some kinks worked out of the script with some great ad libs. I got testy towards the end of ths shoot.. but we got some great footage.We didn't get to shoot the exiting the sandwich shop scene and we rand about 2 hours past where I wanted to be.. but it was worth it... We tried out some Stedicam stuff and I liked it a lot... shit.. it's nearly 3 in the morning and I haven't posted the pictures yet... well that will have to be all for now.... THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE... IF THIS PAST WEEKEND IS ANY REFLECTION ON HOW THE REST OF THE PRODUCTION WILL BE... WE'RE GOING TO BE REAL HAPPY WITH OUR FINISHED PRODUCT....

Merry Christmas,

Jeromy

Today's recommended film "28 Days" Haaaaaaa... that movie was cool.. and it was shot on DV.. I think they used a Canon XL1. Camera doesn't matter.. it's the story and the characters. Ben Dimag was relaying a story to me that the producer and director said they didn't need big actors because the script was so good. I think big actors would have ruined the film... I want to see it again already.