2nd day of Coming Down the Mountain

I woke up around 2pm because of the bustling activity in the living room. I later found out that my room shares chimney hole next to the living room that literally connects two rooms. I got up and met with the rest of the crew. I thought Ken Seng was a Chinese but he was actually an German decendent. Sengi-something. He was the DP but ended up doubling as a Gaffer during the entire production. He worked his way up from being a truck bitch for three years to where he's now. And he was just a year younger than me. He advised me not to pursue anymore Best Boy/Grip work unless I really want to. Dave Wightman was his AC from same film school. Dave and I went to same high school in Chicago! He was the oldest in our crew, acted more like a college kid though, and more experienced in the biz and any other. He usually works as a 2nd AC in big Hollywood features and told many stories about his experience and his admiration for Mel Gibson as the coolest star he had worked with. (Mel hates to be called as Mr. Gibson and will punch you if you ignore his warnings.) It was officialy the first day of the production, but the crew gathered to shoot at least a scene for the half-day. I met with our lead actor, Frank Taylor who struck me as W. Bush at first sight. However, he was soft-spoken, easy-going, very talented and experienced actor who knew the difficulties involved in filmmaking. He was a solid foundation for the young production team whenever things got shaky and a bit emotional for everyone involved.

The scene we shot was a driving scene with a camera mounted on the hood of a Dodge pickup truck we borrowed from a local. With piercing afternoon sunlight, I finally had the chance to experience Kentucky town and scenary. Colin, the co-producer and the screenwriter of this film, told me about the history and the architecture of the town that was essentially built by mining companies that long moved out. He did his senior thesis paper on the architectures around this town. It was his desire to capture the architectures and the town in the film, but I'm not sure if we got what he wanted due to our lack of time and resources. It was also interesting to see the relationship between the screenwriter-producer and the director, Jamie. Jamie was a Columbia film student, and also friends of the producers. He was first described to me as a man with ADA--short attention span, who was drunk with filmmaking process-which I call "production high." Although he was the director, he wasn't a powerful presence on the locations because Ken usually called "the shots." Ken catered to Jamie's every wishes, but it was Ken's call at the end in terms of production details and executions. Jamie directed actors and that's all I can say as the director on the set. It reminded me of the same relation between Ron and Pat in Lucidity production. Jamie was a big fan of Krzysztof Kieslowski's works, and I heard he wanted some shots just like in Red--one of my all time favorite film. Jamie was not certainly a MTV-style director. He liked long scenes with slow dolly moves in classic movies and he was an actors' director as he worked as an actor. His style will certainly benefit to tell this poigant story.

I was glad I didn't have to work with the grip trunk as it was mess from the long trip. Since we were mostly in locations, we took some grip gears and Kinos(Yes!) to shoot under beautiful summer sun. Ken did the tie-ins from the truck battery to draw power. I didn't know what tie-ins were, but now I know and I don't want to do it myself. I was little concerned that it won't be enough to draw power for 2500W HIMs. I was still wishing for better production equipments that meant more money. Basically, every crew worked harder, electric & grip especially, to make up for the lack of production fund.

I was little dull from the horrible trip yesterday and getting warmed up for the production after long period of time. I also had to get use to some of the terminologies used by Ken and Dave. I and Charlie basically became 2nd ACs for them in the end. Caroline made the fake blood for the steak--the key prop that will haunt us until the last day, to make it real on the screen. We shot for good 6 hours and had a nice late lunch cooked by a cafe run by our UPM's mother.

Keys gathered in the living room to discuss schedule for the following day, if not for the rest of the production. I knew the delay already begs for one additional production day, but couple of thousand dollars question is, how will the producers cope with the fact? I was little shocked that they didn't have any shot list. Mel was already bugged that she had to work with Josh for the shot lists on the first day on our road trip, but it didn't materialize because Josh was driving the truck. The long night meeting addressed many provisions already lacked in the production: lack of PAs, Gaffer, water, meals, equipments, etc. In this meeting, I got acquainted with Anna, our UPM who provided her house and the guest house for the crew and the talent. She's residing in London to study politics with an ambition to become a senator. We called her "southern belle" for she had cute southern accent I dig. Colin's little sister Leah was our Key PA who was the point "gal" for nearly anything that needed to be purchased and acquired. Because of lack of PAs, she was already overwhelmed by the production needs. She was trying to get her friends to help out, but it was nearly impossible when they were willing to pay pretty much nothing. I guess the glamour of filmmaking experience is not that strong anymore.

Dave did the dishes because no one would do it, taught Al to become a script sup, and filed camera reports for the rest of the evening. The camera dept is always the first and the last line in the filmmaking process. When the meeting got somewhat subdued, I hit the sack, and slept like a baby.