10/20/08 00:16
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From January
10/20/08 00:12 Filed in: NECROSIS
Here are some "Blogs" that I am posting from the
production days of Necrosis. They start back in
January. Sorry about the late posting, I have been very
busy with the production and post-production of
Necrosis, that these bogs kind of took a back burner.
Jason
--------------------
January 2008
1-17-2008:
Today, I spent the entire day loading our trailer with grip and lighting equipment for the Tahoe shoot. Peter Gregg, our gaffer met Robert Ryan and I at McNulty Neilson company for our 2 ton grip package that we modified for our snowy shoot. Gregg was awesome…… he tested every light, fixed problems with c-stands, HMI lenses that weren’t on right, etc, etc. The guy was on fire. Non-stop energy. I knew I had hired the right guy when the owner of the lighting rental company asked me for Peter’s contact info, stating that he was going to steal him from me as soon as our shoot was over.
1-18-08:
Last night I kissed my daughter goodbye and tried to get some sleep…. Good luck there!
Man what a drive….. Robert and I got up at 0400 hours. My dad, Dennis Stephens, our production driver had his new FJ cruiser with a 5X8 foot enclosed trailer attached full of costumes, a generator, etc etc… met us at my house in Camarillo, California. I had a borrowed suburban with our grip trailer attached. From there we drove out to Woodland Hills California (30 miles away.) where we picked up our Assistant Director, Dennis Devine and Boom Operator, Steve Jarvis. The special make-up effects artist Greg McDougall and Make-up girl Jen Fregozo met us in Woodland Hills. From there we started our 504 mile journey caravanning to Lake Tahoe.
Now, I have driven to Tahoe 3 other times in the past year (flown out twice) for pre-production stuff….. the other drives took 8 or so hours….. up to 10 if there was traffic. But things sure go a little more slowly when you are pulling 4000 pounds of equipment in a trailer and you’ve got a group of cars following. 13 hours later we arrive. The video Greg and Jen made of the drive up tell the tale…maybe it will make the dvd extras….. quite funny.
The rest of the crew are finding their way to the location by various means…. The cast gets to fly up….. except for Tiffany. Tiffany doesn’t like to fly. She drives everywhere. Her husband and her made the drive a day early. They met with Robert and Christine Reynoso (Two of the Executive Producers) who are helping out as on-location production coordinators. My brother, Damion Stephens, one of the production supervisors, drove himself up as well. The Director of Photography, Deanna Esmaeel also went up a few days early, to scout the location and get acclimated to the weather.
We all hope everyone else actually shows up. They do. And we have a nice meal…. At the Sorensen’s Resort, where the cast and some of the crew are staying for this adventure in film making.
1-19-08: Production Day 1
Now there is something you have to understand….. Necrosis is heavily snow based. We hoped to get a couple of days of snow in the two weeks we were there. John Dobroth (Executive Producer) has been calling in weather reports for the past two weeks… all I’ve heard is that there isn’t going to be any snow. “What are we going to do if it doesn’t snow?”
I have to constantly remind John that we only need a couple of days where it snows and it doesn’t have to snow very hard. Our shooting schedule is weather based….. if it’s snowing we head outside and film what we need. If its not we film indoors. The entire script is broken down like that.
The last weather forecast we get is that it may snow Sunday night and a few scattered snow flurries on Monday…… then Sunny and Nice for the 10 day forecast. John worries….. it’s not going to snow enough. He asks me if we should contact the ski resorts and see how much it would cost to make snow. NO WAY we have that kind of money. He doesn’t yet understand the dynamics of our location and how isolated it truly is.
So we wake to a beautiful sunny day. We start shuttling equipment to the cabin using a snow mobile pulling a sled. This takes our 8 man crew almost 7 hours to complete. And this is non-stop working.
I have plans to shoot tonight…. We HAVE to film something!
We get set and start lighting a room. The plan is a simple one….. we shoot a bedroom scene with Robert and Tiffany.
Simple lighting set up. Two actors. This well give our crew a chance to get a rythm. Some of us have worked together on many projects….. some of us have never worked together. This is a good test and learning opportunity before the heavy filming days start.
Everything is set. Actors are in. Make-up on….. Hmmmm. We need to throw some light outside for background.
Peter Gregg trudges out in the snow to set an HMI light….. just a simple 1200 watts. No biggie…..He hits the light and we blow a fuse and the set goes dark. I mean dark. We try to get this monster generator (that powers the entire cabin and location) started for hours…. With absolutely no luck. The crew starts to worry. I start to worry. But I cant lead on that anything is wrong. Luckily I have a small generator that I borrowed from a friend. It’s enough to power a couple of lights. We hook it up, re-run lines all over the cabin and shoot a few pages of the script. 3 minutes in the can.
The majority of the crew and Tiffany head back to the resort…. Robert, Dennis, Steve, and I stay at the location (as promised to the owner). The temp drops to 6 degrees. We have no power. With no power, we have no running water, no heat, no CB to communicate….. no nothing. We have to fill the fireplace with massive amounts of logs to generate enough heat for the place. I really can’t afford to have the pipes freeze in this place…. Especially on the first night.
We don’t sleep. We can’t. Every hour or so we have to throw another log in the fireplace…. It’s cold. We sleep in thermals, in sleeping bags, in the living room by the fireplace. Just like camping….. only with a lot more stress.
1-20-08: Production Day 2
We put a call in from the main road to have the generator looked at. Our actors call time is 10 AM. We have no running water (for toilets, etc) no heat on the stove for food, no heat in the cabin.
After a few hours, it’s determined that a main fuse is blown and someone will have to go to Sacramento to get it, on Monday. They don’t carry these at the local home depot.
I send my Dad into the nearest town to buy another portable generator and gas cans. We have to shoot 6 pages today to stay on schedule. We are pushed back already and because of SAG rules, call times can’t be within 12 hours of each other or we will have to pay heavy fines. Fines we can’t afford.
We set-up, we shoot. We handle the problems. It starts to snow. Another 6 minutes of film is in the can. The frozen and hungry crew stays for another frozen night. It snows all night. I think I sleep an hour….. but that maybe stretching it.
1-21-08: Production Day 3
It is still snowing. By mid-day the generator is partially operational. It sure is nice to be able to flush a toilet. We still have no power to the stove….but the microwave works so we can actually heat up food. I have eaten 6 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so far.
We get more footage in the can….. but we are informed that the snow may not let up….. for days. We should expect one to three feet a night.
At the end of the filming day We break open the script. It’s time to make some modifications for our weather. There’s some things we just can’t do.
By this time, Robert and I realize that the crew is getting worn pretty quick. We tell Robert Reynoso on the last cast pick-up transfer (via an open aired snow-cat) that we need to get some real food to the cabin. The crew members are getting crabby with the limited microwavable and cold sandwiches that we can whip up. Rob says he’ll handle it. We go over the script, check footage, etc. We have running water now, but I haven’t shaved with my disposable razor in 4 days and it freakin hurts too much to drag the blade across my face. I realize I will have a beard by the end of this shoot. I will become a snow mountain man. I may go crazy and hunt down my cast and crew by the end of this.
Jason
--------------------
January 2008
1-17-2008:
Today, I spent the entire day loading our trailer with grip and lighting equipment for the Tahoe shoot. Peter Gregg, our gaffer met Robert Ryan and I at McNulty Neilson company for our 2 ton grip package that we modified for our snowy shoot. Gregg was awesome…… he tested every light, fixed problems with c-stands, HMI lenses that weren’t on right, etc, etc. The guy was on fire. Non-stop energy. I knew I had hired the right guy when the owner of the lighting rental company asked me for Peter’s contact info, stating that he was going to steal him from me as soon as our shoot was over.
1-18-08:
Last night I kissed my daughter goodbye and tried to get some sleep…. Good luck there!
Man what a drive….. Robert and I got up at 0400 hours. My dad, Dennis Stephens, our production driver had his new FJ cruiser with a 5X8 foot enclosed trailer attached full of costumes, a generator, etc etc… met us at my house in Camarillo, California. I had a borrowed suburban with our grip trailer attached. From there we drove out to Woodland Hills California (30 miles away.) where we picked up our Assistant Director, Dennis Devine and Boom Operator, Steve Jarvis. The special make-up effects artist Greg McDougall and Make-up girl Jen Fregozo met us in Woodland Hills. From there we started our 504 mile journey caravanning to Lake Tahoe.
Now, I have driven to Tahoe 3 other times in the past year (flown out twice) for pre-production stuff….. the other drives took 8 or so hours….. up to 10 if there was traffic. But things sure go a little more slowly when you are pulling 4000 pounds of equipment in a trailer and you’ve got a group of cars following. 13 hours later we arrive. The video Greg and Jen made of the drive up tell the tale…maybe it will make the dvd extras….. quite funny.
The rest of the crew are finding their way to the location by various means…. The cast gets to fly up….. except for Tiffany. Tiffany doesn’t like to fly. She drives everywhere. Her husband and her made the drive a day early. They met with Robert and Christine Reynoso (Two of the Executive Producers) who are helping out as on-location production coordinators. My brother, Damion Stephens, one of the production supervisors, drove himself up as well. The Director of Photography, Deanna Esmaeel also went up a few days early, to scout the location and get acclimated to the weather.
We all hope everyone else actually shows up. They do. And we have a nice meal…. At the Sorensen’s Resort, where the cast and some of the crew are staying for this adventure in film making.
1-19-08: Production Day 1
Now there is something you have to understand….. Necrosis is heavily snow based. We hoped to get a couple of days of snow in the two weeks we were there. John Dobroth (Executive Producer) has been calling in weather reports for the past two weeks… all I’ve heard is that there isn’t going to be any snow. “What are we going to do if it doesn’t snow?”
I have to constantly remind John that we only need a couple of days where it snows and it doesn’t have to snow very hard. Our shooting schedule is weather based….. if it’s snowing we head outside and film what we need. If its not we film indoors. The entire script is broken down like that.
The last weather forecast we get is that it may snow Sunday night and a few scattered snow flurries on Monday…… then Sunny and Nice for the 10 day forecast. John worries….. it’s not going to snow enough. He asks me if we should contact the ski resorts and see how much it would cost to make snow. NO WAY we have that kind of money. He doesn’t yet understand the dynamics of our location and how isolated it truly is.
So we wake to a beautiful sunny day. We start shuttling equipment to the cabin using a snow mobile pulling a sled. This takes our 8 man crew almost 7 hours to complete. And this is non-stop working.
I have plans to shoot tonight…. We HAVE to film something!
We get set and start lighting a room. The plan is a simple one….. we shoot a bedroom scene with Robert and Tiffany.
Simple lighting set up. Two actors. This well give our crew a chance to get a rythm. Some of us have worked together on many projects….. some of us have never worked together. This is a good test and learning opportunity before the heavy filming days start.
Everything is set. Actors are in. Make-up on….. Hmmmm. We need to throw some light outside for background.
Peter Gregg trudges out in the snow to set an HMI light….. just a simple 1200 watts. No biggie…..He hits the light and we blow a fuse and the set goes dark. I mean dark. We try to get this monster generator (that powers the entire cabin and location) started for hours…. With absolutely no luck. The crew starts to worry. I start to worry. But I cant lead on that anything is wrong. Luckily I have a small generator that I borrowed from a friend. It’s enough to power a couple of lights. We hook it up, re-run lines all over the cabin and shoot a few pages of the script. 3 minutes in the can.
The majority of the crew and Tiffany head back to the resort…. Robert, Dennis, Steve, and I stay at the location (as promised to the owner). The temp drops to 6 degrees. We have no power. With no power, we have no running water, no heat, no CB to communicate….. no nothing. We have to fill the fireplace with massive amounts of logs to generate enough heat for the place. I really can’t afford to have the pipes freeze in this place…. Especially on the first night.
We don’t sleep. We can’t. Every hour or so we have to throw another log in the fireplace…. It’s cold. We sleep in thermals, in sleeping bags, in the living room by the fireplace. Just like camping….. only with a lot more stress.
1-20-08: Production Day 2
We put a call in from the main road to have the generator looked at. Our actors call time is 10 AM. We have no running water (for toilets, etc) no heat on the stove for food, no heat in the cabin.
After a few hours, it’s determined that a main fuse is blown and someone will have to go to Sacramento to get it, on Monday. They don’t carry these at the local home depot.
I send my Dad into the nearest town to buy another portable generator and gas cans. We have to shoot 6 pages today to stay on schedule. We are pushed back already and because of SAG rules, call times can’t be within 12 hours of each other or we will have to pay heavy fines. Fines we can’t afford.
We set-up, we shoot. We handle the problems. It starts to snow. Another 6 minutes of film is in the can. The frozen and hungry crew stays for another frozen night. It snows all night. I think I sleep an hour….. but that maybe stretching it.
1-21-08: Production Day 3
It is still snowing. By mid-day the generator is partially operational. It sure is nice to be able to flush a toilet. We still have no power to the stove….but the microwave works so we can actually heat up food. I have eaten 6 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so far.
We get more footage in the can….. but we are informed that the snow may not let up….. for days. We should expect one to three feet a night.
At the end of the filming day We break open the script. It’s time to make some modifications for our weather. There’s some things we just can’t do.
By this time, Robert and I realize that the crew is getting worn pretty quick. We tell Robert Reynoso on the last cast pick-up transfer (via an open aired snow-cat) that we need to get some real food to the cabin. The crew members are getting crabby with the limited microwavable and cold sandwiches that we can whip up. Rob says he’ll handle it. We go over the script, check footage, etc. We have running water now, but I haven’t shaved with my disposable razor in 4 days and it freakin hurts too much to drag the blade across my face. I realize I will have a beard by the end of this shoot. I will become a snow mountain man. I may go crazy and hunt down my cast and crew by the end of this.