On To Whom It May Concern.

I met Phil, writer-director for this feature project, on Friday at the office where he was discussing with David. Your typical red-haired, high-strung, impatient, Irish guy. His family is supposedly wealthy with couple of restaurants, including Naked Lunch, in Manhattan. (Yeah, your typical director-is-PA-with-rich-uncle musing applies here.) David call timed me at 8 am at Chelsea Hotel before going to far-off location in Brooklyn. I got there but the situation was not hopeful for the day. Actually it was the omen that the day was not off to good start. Good thing I didn't bet on this year's Super Bowl because I would've lost for sure, because I would've bet on Raiders. Who knew? Lady of Fate is funny that way. Apparently the camera they were hoping to use from One Roll production broke down yesterday. I knew they had a problem with lens, but now something in the camera broke. Here we are, call time 8 am at remote Brooklyn street, with child actors and crews standing by without a camera on Super Bowl Sunday. Who would wanna work on this particular day anyway? Not the camera, who worked overtime, like the crew, in harsh cold weather. For next FIVE hours, it was a race to acquire camera to make the day "happen." Here we go again. If I was the producer, I would've called it off, cut the loss, and bid for another day. Yet they didn't see it that way. The indie movement, or spirit, is to forge ahead, to the infinity, no, the impossibility and beyond. It works, but when you want to create a picture as closely to your creative vision, I say back away, and look for the alternatives. If you are to compromise for one thing, compromise for the sake of film vision, not just to make it. Film doesn't happen by chance, or by dumb luck, as my former 16mm instructor would say. It requires careful planning more than resilient execution.

I rode in Phil's banged-up pick-up truck with Paul who came from LA. I thought Paul was the DP by the way he talked and his past works, but Richie came in with Millie with the camera later to be the DP for the feature again. Richie didn't sleep for 36 hours. I hoped they were paying him enough. Interestingly, they brought Steadycam guy, Andrew, who was from London. He was a good chap, shouldering heavy Steadycam arm for long day to come. He was glad that he was carrying lighter 16mm SR-3 cam instead of his usual 35mm or HD cams. Arnie(?) came with his friend's beat-up car with some lighting kits. I was shocked that we didn't have any e & g at all. No truck, no grip, no electric, no gaffer--maybe Arnie was, but I remember him being AC, rather than being the gaffer. Everything seemed falling apart, but no one really cared. I couldn't believe THIS was a feature project?! My first feature experience came just like that. I saw my promised Key PA credit came and went like a wind and it became more concern of getting paid rather than doing a solid job. There wasn't much to do anyway with lack of gears and craft service table.

Gene and V--that's her name for sure, an artist couple from LA came to support Phil. We talked and ate lunch at Pizzaria place where we were supposed to shoot, but never realized. I was damn glad that I ate big sandwich before the production started because that's the only hearty meal I ate for the day. There was no lunch, no craft service, and cheapo plain pizzas were the dinner. Yuck! But, the hunger got best of me and had FIVE slices of pizzas before I regreted. Sandwiches came in later that looked tempting and fresh. The diet cokes left from yesterday were brought in. Some water. Nothing else. The WORST craft service you can imagine because there was none. I felt bad for the cast and the crew that I couldn't offer them any craft service as a Key PA. Since everyone was concerned of acquiring the camera first and foremost, craft service was not a priority at all. Fortunately, the crew didn't rebel. Sure, I could buy something to satisfy my thirst and hunger now that I was getting paid, but it wasn't just right on the set.

The first shot was around 3 pm. It was a cloudy day, but it set the mood for the scene alright. We shot at near by church first with a steadycam. There was a wild fire that attracted a helicopter and couple of firetrucks that would've hindered sound guys, but the situation got under control quickly. When I saw that blazing fire from far, I began to believe in jinx and figured, this project wouldn't get any dumb luck.

Phil was over-directing and production high. He was always standing next to the steadycam monitor attached at the bottom, directing child actors with verbal cues that walked all over sound capture. It became apparent to everyone that our director was very controlling. We soon moved to a pond near by park/yard with tall foxtails--I haven't seem them for long time. Most of the foxtails were taller than human heights that created a sense of desolateness. The location was nice and quite, but I wasn't sure why we were shooting here because the storyboard dictated the scene happened close to civilization, not near deserted pond. It became apparent that the director was making up shots as we went along. Although the storyboard artist worked up very nice screens, for pittance mentioned Paul, but they became useless fast like any other plans we might had for the day.

The sun was setting quickly, but we were capturing shots even though the darkness swiftly swept across the land. I thought we would be wrapping up after the sunset since we had no light truck with us, but I was wrong. We returned to our holding area, an Irish Lodge/Pub and lit up with two lights brought by Arnie. Hmph. It was 6pm and the crew watched Super Bowl that featured Matrix & the Hulk trailers while the director worked the shots. We worked few more shots, one complicated shot involving smoking that I got dizzy with smoke filling up the room. It became apparent that none of the shots we did today would matter: they wouldn't cut, they wouldn't look right, they wouldn't sound right, either. The whole day was basically wasted from my point of view. The film doesn't have all the necessary funding, to my understanding. But the crew were professionals to work with any given limited situations like this because the producers were pro who employed them for other projects. We wrapped quickly around 9pm and each group grabed a cab home. People didn't get paid on the spot because the production company and the account for this feature was yet created. David asked create an invoice and collect the check on Tuesday. (I went but unable to meet him up on Tuesday night. He urged me not to panic for the money, $10000 of it, is there to pay people. I wasn't in panic over $100 despite my financial difficulty. But I was increasingly doubtful about the whole scheme of things.)

Whitey said film production is like sex; more you get, you get better at it. Well, Sunday felt like a bad one-night stand without gratifying payoff. I guess I'm not in a position to ask for the best sex, rather in a position to experience all the good things as well as bad things. It was just my luck. The producers are reevaluating this project as days go by. I somehow feel that this project won't get off ground more than its very first day... That's bad because it would've employed me for next 30 days.

I realized I now have to approach film production like a regular job. I would still meet interesting people, work on creative projects, and have gratifying experinece, but they wouldn't come regularly as I expected. It's a risk I took when I chose this career, and I'm ready to handle it.