The Felony College of the Streets

We’re having breakfast at the new moon cafe in Olympia. Good stuff. Had to run indoors after the rain doused my tent.

Well, after an awesome 8 1/2 hour drive, I made it back home to the bay area. I’ve been decompressing for a week. Couldn’t just go right back to technology and city life, it just didn’t feel right instantly. We’ve got the last of the bay shots and Alex and John have started doing some super rough edits to see how the movie comes together. I should start to see some scenes that will need some foley work in the next week or so. That means this marks the transition to phase II. I’ll thank everyone that helped us and made it an amazing experience. I’ll just leave you with a couple of last photos that are the way i’ll remember the desert.

The skyline

The clouds above

Day 14
Call Time: 7:00am
Martini Shot: 7:00pm
Location: Amboy Rd. and the Palms bar

Today the Sibley’s brought us breakfast. French Toast and home fries. Not a bad desert breakfast, mind you. I wasn’t needed to get some driving shots with Walter and Ron. Walter sang to sabor a mi and I missed it. Bummer. We cleaned up the house, did some dishes and went into town to grab some supplies. I couldn’t find a pouch of Bali Shag to save my life, so I’m stuck with some stale Drum. That seems to be my only complaint. We all met up at the Palms bar for lunch (catered by the Sibley’s once again) and met the 4th Sibley. She stayed around to extra in the bar scenes we shot, and we wrapped Walter and the Sibley’s for the win.

A couple of Production stills:
Earmuffs required when filming with live rounds


Bill the “cowboy” Coy

Day 15
Call Time: 7:00am
Martini Shot: 6:30pm
Location: Rancho Relaxo (The desert house we’re staying at)

Today starts the last stretch for us and this film. We basically have this final climax scene to shoot over the course of the next two to three days. We have a shot list of 60 assorted shots for these 3 end scenes. We will also have to do a pickup shot in Yucca Valley and finish shooting a couple of driving scenes that we had to push all week. We were awakened to breakfast again by the amazing Sibley’s. The location is the house we’ve all been staying at for the last week, so it made it a little bit easier to grasp attempting 60 shots in a day. We’re done shooting at night, and the rest of the shots are all exterior, so we wrap when the sun starts to go down and the shadows become a problem. These final scenes have it all. Live weapons, blood gags, stunt work, POV, slow motion, and a couple experimental shots with the jib.We actually got through 4 of the 6 pages of the shot list, which was very good and will only require a few hours tomorrow to get them all. The actors really knocked it out of the park today. The stunts all look great, the gun play went off like clockwork, and the blood gags really sold some shots, as well as killed off some characters. We worked really long and hard in the sun today, so we treated ourselves to a barbeque when the sun went down. Chris showed me an amazing song he wrote that we’re gonna fit into the movie. great stuff. Seth didn’t have to light the set today, so he took some production stills with his digital SLR camera. I can’t explain how good every-single-shot came out. That guy really has an amazing eye and his sense of framing and color just inspire me. We had a minor file transfer problem, that got resolved and we only lost one shot that we should be able to replace tomorrow.I’m beat and tired and belly-full. Goodnight

I can already smell the smog of the bay.

Seth took this great shot of Red in the final showdown.

The Crew just maxing in between scenes

The Showdown

Since we’re out here in the desert, I don’t have much of an internet connection (I’m Dial up Networking) so I have to lump a couple of days into one.

Day 12
Call time: 6:00am
Martini shot: 8:30pm

Day 12 was filled with day shooting on the highway and a night shoot filled of graves dug for various body parts. The desert has given us a little more of a relaxed schedule due to everyone being in one place. We’ve been cooked dinner by the wonderful Sibley’s that rented us the house and run the Palms bar on Amboy rd. just outside of 29 Palms.

Day 13
Call Time: 7:00am
Martini shot: 6:30pm

Today started out a little rough. Our special FX guy, Red Dog, suffered a near inflamed car on the way to our desert home this morning and our 7:00am call became a 10:00 call and we pushed a few shots to tomorrow’s shot list. We all caravanned an hour and a half to a road near Baker. On the way we were stopped for a half hour by a 3 car collision that warranted a helicopter lift from a nearby depot. It didn’t look good at all. We got to our destination and shots some of the best looking scenes we’ve logged yet. We got another rad blood gag from Red Dog, and had a couple of freezing actors in wife beaters in 32 degree weather with a 30 mile an hour wind sheer. They’re soldiers.
We were cooked an amazing pasta with green salad and garlic bread by the Sibley’s and had a few drinks and a champagne jam. Tulin killed it on guitar, and Chris threw down on the assorted harps and vocal treatment. The Sibley’s and Thom Merrik really were the perfect jam partners for the evening.

I’m tired and it’s 1:10am and we’ve got an 8:00am call for pancakes……. can’t wait.As Always, here a a couple of stills from the days shoots:

Ron gets the feel for the 357 Mag.

Walter freezes his ass off after a killer blood gag by Red Dog and a water down

The Sibley’s & Thom Merrick host us a jam session at the Palms. (I’m right guitar)

Travel to the Desert via Orange County

After wrapping in Long Beach, a small crew went to Vegas to shoot a few exterior shots. We had the night off.

The following day Anderson, Chris, and I made our way to the desert to meet up with them. We had to stop by Orange County to pick up the picture truck for the desert shoots. We then took the 10 east to the 62 towards Joshua Tree to the desert house the entire cast and crew will be staying in for the duration of the shoot. It’s beautiful and calm and feels like home at the same time. Take a look for yourselves:

We got the next day off and a had us a nice time of hiking, and exploring, and horsing around. We also had us a champagne jam.
We went location scouting to the Palms down the road. Chris and I found an old abandoned tour bus so we thought it was photo op heaven:

Here are a couple shots I took on our day off:

John and Alex set up a monitoring station for playback

This is the amazing view from the inside of the house. It’s very surreal

We start back shooting on day 12.

Call time: 6:00am
Martini shot: 10:15am
Location: Convenience store @ Santa Fe & Williow in Long Beach

Back to long beach for a quick convenience store robbery. Paulo made his debut as the convenience store clerk, and Seth found some gloves and a beanie for $1.40. Deal of the century, if you ask this dude. They quickly became fingerless as we wrapped the day, and packed up by 11:00am. This wraps our shooting in LA and Long Beach. John, Alex, Ron, and Seth will head to Vegas for a couple of exterior shots of Red and Tim driving, and the rest of us will take the remainder of today and tomorrow off. We’ll all meet up in the Mojave on Friday to start what should be the most kick ass part of this whole project. We’ll all be staying together in one house, and brining our appetites for acoustical champagne jams! We’re being put up and catered which should make myself and the rest of the crew happy. I might post a little something on my days off, or maybe i’ll try and see some friends i’ve been trying to hook up with.

I did, however, manage to remember my camera today so I’ll leave you with a couple of production stills:

Ron decides that Chris is in his way and had to knock him over. These guys can really take a fall.

Chris tries on the menacing scowl mask to ready himself for a good ‘ol fashioned robbery.

Call time: 3:00am
Martini shot: 5:30pm
Location: Gabe’s Sports Bar on National & Sepulveda, The Magnolia Cafe in Long Beach

We wrapped at 11:00pm last night an had a 3:00am call at the 1st location that we shot at today, Gabe’s Sports Bar on . I opted to hang at the bar and ingest some scotch rather than get one hour of sleep and ruin my cycle. The bar shoot turned out good but I forgot my camera so I didn’t get any production stills. Everyone was dead tired but we captured a really good fight scene between Keith’s character, William, and Sam’s character, Tough Guy. I got drenched in a bathroom, don’t ask.
We then headed down to Long Beach again to shot a scene in the Magnolia Cafe on Redondo & 6th. Alecia made her debut in the film and Seth got his cameo, and went two for two on the stuffed croissant. I opted for the blueberry pancakes with boysenberry syrup. Ron pulled the helicopter spin and took a fall.
We wrapped at 5:30pm and decided to head on over to the Pike for some grub and a few drinks to wait out that disgusting LA traffic. We ended up seeing a great bluegrass band called Wreak ‘n Sew. We hooted and hollered and got home by midnight. Just in time to catch some shut eye for our 6:00am call tomorrow.

I’ll leave you with a funny video from yesterday’s shoot:

Call time: 1:00am
Martini shot: 11:00pm
Location: The M-Bar & the Brentwood Theatre

Today we actually got to get some more sleep that was much needed. I’ll have to keep this short because it’s now 11:30pm and we’ve got a 2:30am call time at our next location. I’m gonna head on over to the bar and get my second wind with a couple of scotch and sodas. We started out at the M-Bar on Fountain and Vine st. I spent most of the time driving actors to and from, which put me in traffic for half the day. Not the radest way to start the day. We moseyed on over to the Brentwood Theatre that’s on the VA hospital campus. That thing spans alot of area. It’s nice to see something big in LA.We got to use Anderson’s dolly setup for the casino security guard scene. Bill made his cameo, so I ended up running the boom and live sound rig. Good times. Bill’s arms must be massively toned. I bet he’d clean up in the UFC.Ron and Chris got physical, Juan showed up today to lend a hand, JD and Romeo got dressed up in security guard costumes, Keith actually scared me with a line of dialog, and Seth and I threw around the pigskin.
I can already taste the scotch.

Ron’s talking to the man in the mirror

Tim wants Ron to see it his way

Call time: 3:00am
Martini shot: 8:45pm
Location: Long Beach Pier, 15th and Canal st.

Today got started with a little confusion. We just happened schedule call time an hour after the whole day light savings shenanigans. This led to some alarms not going off, thus starting out the day an hour behind. We cut a couple of shots, but because we got what we needed in less. We got to use the awesome jib again on the beach and got sand on pretty much all of the equipment. We had a break in the middle of the day that allowed us to grab some food and beer, and stop off at Bill’s house to take naps and hang with his rad cat, Gus. Checked out the killer home theatre and sawed a few logs.
We rigged up the camera on the classic Cutlass we’re using, and got some cool looking driving scenes. Ron pulled out a skeet-skirt at just the right time, and Chris had to fake throw up on himself a handful of times.
It was such an early call that I failed to remember to bring my camera and had to borrow Anderson’s to get some production stills. As luck would have it, the card reader I have doesn’t read his 1GB Memory Stick Pro so sorry, no pictures today. I’ll make up for it tomorrow. Seth bic’d his head on the day off. I want to take pictures of him and photoshop all different hair styles. I think it’d be fun.

Yesterday as I was driving down Santa Monica to grab a cheesesteak with Seth and John I happened to catch this guy sandblasting a rad mural of the sea. It made me feel bad.

Call time: 7:00am
Martini Shot: 12:00pm
Location: Rancho Palace Verdes

Today was an easy day for me. We had to shoot one scene and I was cut for the rest of the day while a few crew members went to a hotel to shoot in the evening. I’ve got tomorrow off so I won’t be posting, but relaxing. Good news. I need to catch up on some sleep and try and see a couple of friends that i’ve been meaning to see.We got to use Anderson’s custom jib again and it turned out really good when we used it outside. Bora came and wrapped, and we saw a bit of Taso. The location had a great view of San Pedro and Long Beach in the distance (when the smog lifts). Next call time is Sunday at 5am (which will actually be 4am due to the spring forward). See you then.

A few shots from today:

[ Javascript required to view QuickTime movie, please turn it on and refresh this page ]