So we’ve had our dinner break - Gayray and I escaped to Mel’s Diner for one and a half blissful hours of chit chat and rootbeer. Now it’s time to start shooting outside.

The first order of business is convincing the manager of the parking lot where we’re all parked, and will be shooting, that we did indeed have a deal with the person who was managing the lot during the day. I’m still not sure what the deal is with this lot, but apparently it’s monthly only during the weekdays, but valet during the weeknights, but hourly during the weekend days - some strange combo. But my expert negotiating skills kick in, and we convince the dude to let us continue parking/shooting in the area. Funny thing is, by the end of the night all of the lot attendants will be over watching us shoot, and even helping us with the lights that are on timers.

All of the Group members have gathered, and our first shots are of Handsome Leading Man approaching the back door to the Los Angeles Repertory, now doubling for the door to the Group’s lair. We shoot this tight so, hopefully, you won’t notice that all of the exterior scenes we’re shooting tonight are all within 20 yards of each other.

Next is the Group exitiing the same door, the end of two different scenes. We’re all supposed to be juiced up on electric currrent and ready for a night on the town, so it’s all up up up energy despite the fact that we’re on hour thirteen of our day (that started at 7:00 AM). We shoot one version, being careful not to actually shut the door because we’ll be locked out of the building and have to interrupt classes to get back in. Version One down, everyone runs back to the costume rack and changes wardrobe right there in the middle of the parking lot (I’m sure the parking attendants loved that) and then it’s back into the stairwell for Version Two. Two takes, and we’re out.

We move on to the scene where the teenage girl is killed by Handsome Leading Man. The teenage girl is played by Sweet Young Blonde Actress who also appeared in the last horror flick I produced, Butcher House. This girl is a doll, and a great sport. She was a bright spot in a very tough shoot, and I’m really happy to have her in Socket. After she arrives on set, gets a big hug, puts on her wardrobe and comes over to our location, she turns to me and says, “What do I say?” “Wait, what?” “I never got a script, so I don’t know what I’m doing in this scene…” Holy shit, she never got a script. SYBA agreed to be in the film on my description of what her character was going to do alone. Somehow in all the hustle and bustle after that she never got a script. So now I have to pull her aside while the crew is all waiting and go over the scene with her. Thank goodness she’s a quick study - she memorizes the few lines after reading it once. I tell her to go ahead and improvise, which she does, which in turn improves what she has to say. We shoot the scene three times, everyone is happy, and we move on.

Down the alley is where the prostitute character will be killed by Handsome Leading Man. The prostitute is played by Hottie Who Is Also a Good Actress who just happened to be in Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror. (If you haven’t figured it out yet, or haven’t read previous entries, I’m insanely loyal and use the same people over and over). HWIAaGA is a great sport - she tends to be cast as prostitutes and hot lesbians, but her talent deserves better. So I cast her as a prostitute. The real reason is all the parts that she could have played in the flick were already earmarked for people I’ve known for years, but I really wanted to work with her. This scene goes really well except for one small, hopefully not noticable detail - in her rush to get to the set, HWIAaGA grabbed two unmatching black boots. Heel difference - about 1.5 inches. So our hooker stayed put for the most part.

And finally, it was time to shoot the death of the homeless man. Italian Character Actor, who is a super sweetheart for coming in so late at night, is all painted up to look creepy and homeless. He doesn’t even flinch when we make him lie down on gross boxes next to a grosser dumpster. The only real tricky thing to deal with is a wardrobe malfunction - when ICA awakens to find Handsome Leading Man standing over him, he is so startled his shoe flies off. This happens in the master, so we need to match his shoe flight in all the subsequent shots. Strange that such a small thing has the potential to be a giant continuity nightmare.

And then, seventeen hours after we began, our day ends. My last job of the night is to literally turn off the lights…of the parking lot…at the power box near the entrance. I drive home, oddly not exhausted.

Elated.

Twenty-plus pages today. A new personal record.

I feel like I’m fighting the nicest war, where everyone gets along and the enemy is just time.

See you tomorrow…

Back at Los Angeles Repertory on Hollywood Blvd. 7:00 AM. We have an enormous amount to do today. We have to finish shooting the Group scenes; then move on to the entrance to “Volt”, the club we’ve created for the movie; then move on to the club itself, then on to the bathroom of the club - all of this before our hard out at 6pm.

THEN we have to move to the alley behind LA Rep, where we’ll shoot a prostitute being killed, a teenage girl being killed, and a homeless guy being killed. The catch is, all of these deaths take place in different locations in the film, so we have to angle everything so you can’t tell we’re shooting it all in one place. Oops! The secret is out!

Today is Gayray’s, aka Gary Cotti, first day onset. It would have been weird to shoot my first feature without him around, considering we’ve worked on about five projects together in the last 8 months, but he was doing the AIDS Ride for our first week. Now he’s here, and his first job is to take over for the missing sound mixer, Danny Power. But let’s be honest, Gayray will be all over this set. He’s probably the best person I’ve ever worked with on set, and many peeps should hire his ass.

The Group scenes are tough for several reasons - We have actor conflicts that will necessitate shooting around them in the scenes, we’ve already shot one angle of all the scenes and now have to go back and shoot the reverses, and time. These scenes actually pretty well today - all the Group actors are on the ball and being mega good sports

We move on to the entrance to the club scenes, which are actually in a long staircase indoors. Playing the Bouncer, “Sam” is our Busty Brazilian Set Dresser. Her job is to keep the riff raff out of the club, but somehow My Writer Friend from San Antonio manages to slip by AND get a kiss from her. Yes, that’s right, My Writer Friend from San Antonio flew out to LA from San Antonio just to help with Socket! I’m thrilled to have him here, if for no other reason than he’s cool. But during his stay so far he’s helped with the art department dressing sets, taken a bunch of on set photos (which has caused the cast and crew to say, “Oh, YOU’RE the set photographer” much to his horror) and now he’s an extra in line for our club. I can’t tell you how flattered I am that someone would want to fly across the country on their own dime just to help me with my movie, and I’m really really grateful.

This club entrance scene is typical of the process for today - we position the camera and lights for one angle. The cast goes thru their blocking and lines for one scene. Then they change wardrobe for a scene that takes place in the same location later in the script. We shoot that scene from this angle. Then we move the camera and lights while the cast changes back into their first wardrobe and reshoot the first scene from this new angle. Back and forth, all day long.

Now we’re up for the club scenes. The first up has Handsome Leading Man and Swarthy Young Leading Man approaching the bar and dealing with a bartender full of attitude…of course played by Goth Makeup and Special FX Artist. We’ve worked on two other films together, and he’s been giving me good natured guilt about putting all the other crew members in the films but not him. So now not only is he in the film, but he has a line! Which he delivers perfectly take after take.

And now that dancing! Vegan Producer John has managed to round up a handful of extras to dance in our club scenes. It didn’t look good only 24 hours ago - we had like four. But now all the extras have brought friends and we can “fill” our club with bodies and camera angles. Basically all we need are shots of the main cast (including me) dancing the night away in this club. So with my iBook producing the tiniest of sounds, we all huddle up on the floor and start dancing. Holy shit, it’s hot in here! And I mean temperature. Dancing in this room with hot lights and no air conditioning, I think I’m going to faint. And I feel like a jackass. I mean, I’m more than okay with my dancing abilities, but when it’s FOR REAL, and preserved on mini-DV, I get all self conscious.

The first song we use is the insanely catchy Nth Degree by Morningwood, which I listen to every day on the way to the set to get me in the mood. Unfortunately, my iBook puts out the equivalent of an old transistor radio for audio, so we’re dancing to what sounds like a piano being tuned.

And finally, we move on to the club bathroom. Now, by “finally” I just mean finally INSIDE. We have a hard out of 6pm inside this location, but we still have a handful of scenes to shoot outside as well.

All of the scenes in the club bathroom consist of varying degrees of “juicing up” for our two leads. Not a lot of room for coverage, and one scene is pages and pages of dialogue. We have about 30 minutes to shoot all the scenes here before we get kicked out. This is one of those situations where we role on the rehearsal, just to see what we get. Of course, with Handsome Leading Man and Swarthy Young Lead, we get great takes right off the bat. With unbroken takes and quick wardrobe changes, we bang out the scenes in the club bathroom in just under 30 minutes.

And now, time for a two hour dinner as we wait for the sun to go down so we can shoot outside….

TO BE CONTINUED…

Today is the first day in the Los Angeles Repertory Theater location. These rehearsal studios and the immediate surrounding area, with art direction and camera angles, will become seven locations over the next two days.

This is also the first day with The Group, the rest of the cast of characters addicted to electric current. The cast is an amalgam of people I’ve known for years (My Oldest Friend in the World), worked with before (Australian Comedienne and Actress, Phillipino Actor from Butcher House), known but never worked with (Latin Actor Who I Met While Getting a Massage), met for the first time at auditions (Sassy Black Actress, Sassy White Actress)…and me.

I’m playing a small part in the film as one of the group members. This seemed like a good idea years ago when I wrote the part for myself, months ago when we decided to actually make the film, and even Day Three before I actually put myself in front of the camera.

Having cut the first scene I filmed as an actor midst filming (Day Four), I’ve seriously considered taking myself out of the film for logistical reasons. At this point I’m enough peanut butter for one sandwich being used for four sandwiches - spread way too thin. So over the weekend I think seriously about taking myself out and finding another actor to play the role. For about an hour. Then I say “Fuck it” and decide to figure it out.

Before we shoot the Group scenes, however, we have two hospital scenes to finish. When we scouted the LA Rep for this film, I realized that we could change their lounge area into a doctor’s lounge with a little paint and set dressing. This would save us time at Entertainium, a much more expensive location than LA Rep. The manager of the location said we could paint as long as we restored the room to it’s original condition. In this case, that would mean awful off-white walls instead of our nice, two-toned tan and white fresh paint job. Ah, well. So the night before (technically our day off), me, Vegan Producer, Vegan Production Designer, Diminutive Art Director and Awesome Redheaded Ithaca Intern paint the space and turn it into an extention of Entertainium’s hospital set.

As we set up for the morning, getting all the last minute details into place, I get a sinking feeling about our sound mixer. My Original Sound Mixer took the Socket gig, then announced a week before production that he had a different gig the second week of our shoot - was that a problem? Uh, yeah dude. That’s a problem. I asked him to find me a replacement, which he did almost immediately. His name was Danny Power (not a fake name, remember it for all time), and yes, OSM trusted him implicitly.

As we moved from our first week of shooting, I started to hear rumblings that Danny Power (say it three times, DannyPower, DannyPower, DannyPower) might not be the most experienced sound mixer. Was it his semi-desperate plea for other paying work on the film during the first week because he hadn’t had a job in weeks? Or maybe it was one of the crew asking “Are you sure this Danny Power guy is any good? I don’t think he has any onset experience…” Or maybe it was when he came to the set on Day Five to meet me looking like a complete heroin addict, dragging some heroin addict girlfriend behind him.

But I trusted OSM and his Danny Power decision. At the time. Mainly because I didn’t have time to find someone else.

So Day Six rolls around, as does our call time of 8:00 AM. No Danny Power. 8:30 AM. No Danny Power. I call Danny Power’s cell phone - no answer. I call Danny Power’s home phone - no answer. I call OSM’s cell phone and leave a message, asking if he’s heard anything. I start calling around looking for a replacement. No luck, but the telephone game has started, so hopefully someone will be free.

Finally we have to roll, and like a gift from heaven , who is not only our camera rental house, but my Behind the Scenes, DVD Extras producer, says he’ll mix sound for us. And he does, jumping in and handling it like a pro all day. Had he not jumped in, we would have fallen way behind, and probably had to add an extra day onto this location, costing us more money. The only big bummer about this is that today is a day with tons of cast members working, and now we have no BTS footage from it.

About two hours into our shoot day the phone rings - Danny Power has finally returned my call. “I’m so sorry, my exgirlfriend got in an accident in Santa Rosa and I went there and I didn’t have my cell phone or my computer or contact sheets, and I’m really really sorry -” I cut him off. “I’m sorry you had to go thru all that, but I’ve replaced you for the week.” “Oh, dude, I totally understand. I’m just sorry that - ” “I’m on set, I need to get back to work. Thanks for calling.” And I hang up on him.

Fuck Danny Power and his ridiculous excuse. DO NOT HIRE DANNY POWER FOR YOUR FILM.

Like I said, if we’re friends at the end of the day, I’m insanely loyal. If we’re not, you’ll never work for me again.

We shoot the two remaining hospital scenes, and I suddenly realize that Recently Transplanted Chicago Actress is now wrapped for picture. Everyone gives her a round of applause, I give her a big hug. It has been a joy to have her on set, and I’m sad to see her go, as are the rest of the cast and crew.

Now it’s on to the Group scenes. The problem is the Group scenes are heavy with coverage and eyeline issues and different camera positions and I’m not even sure how I’m going to shoot them. The only image I have in my head is Swarthy Young Leading Man’s character appearing from the shadows with the rest of the group appearing behind him. Very spooky, vampire-like. But the rest of it? Camera pans from person to person? Dolly track? Pivot cam in the middle of the circle?

We finally decide on setting up the camera for one angle, lighting the room so the walls all fade away, moving the actors into the light one by one, shooting all their lines and reactions for all the scenes in the Group, then moving on to the next character. It seems very factory-like, but when you consider movies are always shot in nonsequential pieces, it makes sense.

One nice thing about today is My Oldest Friend in the World, who is playing “Joanna” in Socket. MOFinW and I are two of the founders of The Factory Theater back in Chicago, and together we cranked out a plethora of big fat pop culture theatrical hits for 5 years before we both moved out of the city. (The theater is still going strong almost fifteen years later - check out The Factory Theater’s website.)

We basically share a brain, and even though we’ve had our rocky patches over the years, she’s someone I’m thrilled to have as a friend. And now, once again, I’m having a mind fuck as I direct her in a movie. Who knew back then?

Today was a short day - 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, necessitated by the location. We need to be wrapped at 6:00 PM so they can hold acting classes in the studios. So while we work hard and move quickly, at the end of the day I’ve only shot about half of what I wanted to shoot. Every other day we move something to the next day, which puts us behind. But we always manage to catch up before we move on to a new location. Today I’m officially worried - our page count today puts us the furthest behind we’ve been all shoot. We’re still in the Group’s loft space, and we’re supposed to have moved on to the club entrance, then the club bathroom. Yikes.

I’m not going to panic…much. We move fast, I know what I want, and we’ve always left a location with everything we need.

Fingers crossed.

After yesterday’s insane schedule, we still have to be back at Entertainium at 8:00 AM because of a “hard out” from the facility at 7:00 PM. Ugh.

More hospital scenes today, the main ones being the revelation of the prongs and sockets in the wrists of the doctors, and the operating room scene where the main character played by Handsome Leading Man jump starts a heart in an open chest just by touching it.

For the revelation of the prongs we decide to shoot the entire scene in shadow - our Awesome Director of Photography blasts the actors with light, projecting a clean shadow on the wall. It looks really good, a nice visual touch to the flick. The only problem is directing the actors from the monitor that I watch. I’m only seeing their shadow obviously, so when something doesn’t look right, my saying “Rotate your wrist and hold the scissors counterclockwise” means nothing to them. I’m tired, so I forget that they can’t read my mind.

We also shoot the scene “live” so we can see the actors. Goth Makeup and Special FX Artist has figured out a really cool way to create the prongs for the actors (basically he’s been buying super cheap nightlights and yanking out the prongs and then gluing them to our wrists), as well as a prosthetic arm that we’ll shoot in closeup for shots of the prongs actually unfolding out of the flesh. (The prongs retract when necessary for the characters to keep their secret).

So we shoot HLM and Swarthy Young Leading Man unwrapping their bandages, revealing the sockets and prongs, then inserting said prongs into said sockets and experiencing ecstacy. It’s all saturated color and pools of light and it looks really great. HLM and SYLM are really selling the emotion of the scene, and I have one of those “Hey, I wrote that!” moments. Fingers crossed that all of this fake science will play once we cut it all together….

The operation scene is one I’ve been dreading from the moment I decided to direct this movie. I wrote it when I figured someone else would direct, and now I’m forced to figure out how to put together a scene about something I know nothing about. Eek! Thankfully Goth Makeup and Special FX Artist has not only an open body for the operating table, but he’s molded a beating heart as well! Yay! And the ADoP helps out by lighting the scene in such a way that you can’t really see what surgical procedures are happening on the table.

I block the scene, which includes not only Recently Transplanted Chicago Actress and Handsome Leading Man, but Lead Actress from Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror in a small role as a cardiologist. After we finished GBBOT, I approached LAfGBBOT, HLM and Hot Blonde Actress about reading Socket and possibly being in the film. I always play these things professionally - I never offer the role until I hear/see someone read, even if they are my best friends (hence having My Oldest Friend in the World read for the part of “Joanna”, which we’ll talk about later…).

So LAfGBBOT took a look at the “Dr. Andersen” character (she’s the head of the intern program at the hospital), a nice lead. I worked with her and HLM on the material before their auditions. And I really didn’t call that many women in for “Dr. Andersen” because I really thought she could do it. LAfGBBOT came in and read, and she was good.

Then Recently Transplanted Chicago Actress came in to read “Carol”, one of the lesbians. And she was good. But I really wanted an African-American for the role. And Beautiful Black Actress really nailed it. And in the middle of auditions, Vegan Producer says “I think RTCA would make a great ‘Dr. Andersen’…” And it just clicked. I had RTCA read the role, and she was amazing.

So now I was left with the task of telling a good friend who I’d basically handed the role to a day earlier that I wasn’t casting her. That really, really sucked. Big credit goes to LAfGBBOT for graciously letting me off the hook when I called - her professionalism in the situation was admirable and appreciated. And she couldn’t have been nicer when I asked if she’d be willing to play a smaller role in the film - she told me she’d be thrilled to participate in any way she could.

Now we’re back to Day Five and both RTCA and LAfGBBOT are in the dressing room together. And all I hear is laughter. Both of these women are so grownup that it doesn’t matter that there was all this role shenanigans before today. Here they are, cracking each other up in the dressing room as if there were no backstory other than both of them being on the same set at the same time. And I’m reminded that once again, I have an eye for casting. Not just the talent, but the attitude. My philosophy has always been (and I’ll give Mick Napier of the Annoyance Theater in Chicago credit for planting this seed) I’d rather work with someone that’s nice than someone who is talented. Now, I’m lucky that the nice people I cast are also hands down awesomely talented. But if they aren’t nice, then they’ll never work for me.

These crazy 14-hour days on set are too long for any sort of bullshit. Yes, we all get tired. Yes, we snap at each other. But at the end of the day, we’re friends. And if we’re not, then we’ll never work together again.

This is the end of the first week of filming. We’re exactly halfway there. Is there a limit to how grateful you can be? To how many days you can be amazed by others? To how often your expectations are met and exceeded?

I’ll let you know when I find out.

Until then

I remain

Glowing.

Today starts ass early at 6 AM for a 8 AM crew call. Our location for the next two days is Entertainium Studios, a standing set studio for lowbudget movies, porn, and heterosexual sex parties. As Vegan John Producer said, “When it’s all gays, it’s an orgy, when it’s straight people it’s a ‘party’.” This three story firetrap has every set imaginable, all dressed, all ready to shoot in. It’s super cheap, which fit right into our budget. (Honestly, Entertainium Studios deserves an entry all to itself…)

For some reason I fly thru traffic and arrive at Entertainium (or “Entertianium” as the sign out front reads…or “Entertanium” as their website used to read….) at 7:10 AM. Ugh. So I lay my seat back and take a quick nap.

Tap, tap, tap on my windshield wakes me up and bring me face to face with Recently Transplanted Chicago Actress. I’ve known RTCA for ages, all the way back to our days in the trenches of Chicago theater. We did shows like Cannibal Cheerleaders on Crack (for about 2 years, believe it or not) and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (six months?) together. She’s an amazing actress, and a great person. RTCA is the first person I met who referred to acting as work, as in “What are you doing tonight?” “I’m going to work…” I was really struck by that when I first heard it. I guess up until that point I’d always thought of acting as…not a job? I mean, I considered it my career, but I think on some level I didn’t think something so enjoyable could be a “job”. She treated acting as her career (which is was and still is - she’s probably the first person I met who made her living soley from acting), and that inspired me to do the same.

RTCA’s first scene to be shot was located outside Entertainium, which was doubling as the front entrance to a hospital. RTCA plays a doctor who is in charge of all the interns at the hospital, as well as being good friends with the lead played by Handsome Leading Man. We gathered all the equipment outside, placed an extra in the background, ran a rehearsal, and started shooting. It was at that moment that I realized “Oh, my God. I’m directing RTCA in a movie. MY movie!” Who would have thought all those years ago when RTCA waltzed into my Chicago living room, hair in a pony tail, braless, McDonald’s bag in hand, that 12 years later we’d be working on a film in Hollywood together?

Today was also the day that Gay Standup Comedian shot his scenes in Socket. He plays an intern that gets chewed out by Handsome Leading Man and sort of defended by RTCA. He did a great job, and it was a trip to see my worlds colliding with him and RTCA sharing the screen together. AND he got me an venti iced decaf mocca at hour 11 when I needed it most. He totally rocks, and I’m psyched that I got to give him an experience on a movie set that he hadn’t had before.

Swarthy Young Leading Man shot his monologue today - the one that is the first carrot dangled to convince Handsome Leading Man’s character to join him in The Group of fellow electricity addicts. This was one of the moments that I was having a hard time deciding on - should he deliver it to the other character? Into space? Low key? Energized? In the end, he delivered it in perfectly measured tones into space. I’m gonna lay a nice drone under it in post, and I challenge anyone watching to not be drawn in.

Beautiful Black Actress shot her break down scene today. This takes place in the hospital waiting room just after she’s been in a horrible car accident, resulting in Hot Blonde Actress’s comatose state. Just to set the scene, we shot this in the production break room - Vegan Production Designer took one corner and transformed it into the waiting room. So while BBA is losing her shit, take after take, crying her eyes out, the entire crew is sitting just 10 feet away eating their Red Vines and pretzel rods. Man, she pulled it out and it looks great.

Handsome Leading Man shot his break down scene today as well - this is the scene where he is driven by his addiction to electric current to murder a good friend. I’m just gonna say this - I wrote the lines, I read them time and again, I mapped out the scene in my head, and yet when HLM performed this scene, I cried. Right there behind the monitor. He broke my heart.

Today was to be my first day on set as an actor. I’m playing a supporting part in the movie, one of the addicts. The scene I was to be in today (among others to be shot later) is actually the last scene in the movie. And it was the last scene we shot this day - at hour 13. Everyone is fucking wiped. And yet we move forward with little to no complaints. I love these people.

So the scene is the end of the movie, and it involves a hospital room and high emotion and weird scifi things and it just sucked. Not because of the acting (at least from the other actors), not because of how it was shot. Because of the melodramatic writing. And it took me seeing/hearing it play out on set to realize that if I ended my movie with this scene, there would be laughter as the credits rolled.

So I cut it. Right there. On set. After we’d done who knows how many takes. I just couldn’t stand the sound of my hokey dialogue, so I stopped everything, cleared most of the actors, and just dictated a new ending right there on the spot. We shot it, I love it, we broke for the night.

Fourteen hours. Eighteen pages.

The cast and crew are fucking dolls for working as hard as they do.

Who the Hell do I think I am?

Back on set tomorrow at 8 AM is who I am….

Call time - noon. Partially to avoid the horrible traffic surrounding the location, partially to give the company a long enough turnaround to be fresh for the day.

First task of the day - watch more dailies. These look great, and my mood is once again up up up about this endeavor.

Today should be fairly easy - we have a break up scene between Handsome Leading Man and Swarthy Young Leading Man (which we’ll shoot first), Handsome Leading Man’s side of a phone conversation (for which SYLM will hang out and deliver his lines off camera), and then a bunch of stuff with HLM alone in his character’s house. My goal is to be done by 6pm.

The break up scene goes really well. In rehearsal I pushed Handsome Leading Man toward being really mean to Swarthy Young Leading Man - HLM’s character doesn’t want to break up with SYLM, but he feels like he must, so my thought was he should be so mean as to drive SYLM away. I pushed SYLM toward anger as well, at being dumped. It worked in rehearsal, and that was fine.

But when we started shooting it on set, HLM subtly changed the tone of his delivery, giving his character a sadness thru the “mean” layer, which added another layer to the scene. SYLM responded with genuine shock and confusion. I was taken aback as I watched it unfold on the monitor - I was drawn into the scene as a viewer, leaving my role as screenwriter/director behind and just living thru the characters. These guys nailed it, moreso than had they followed my original direction.

It was a moment of realization for me - I wrote this script with a lot of preconceived notions in mind about how it should look, sound, play out. And I think when I finally, mentally wrapped my brain around Holy shit, I’m going to actually direct this thing, I committed to approaching the script just those ways.

But my most successful theatrical endeavors to date have all been collaborations - working with the actors to flesh out scenes, cut lines that don’t work, etc. I love the process of working with someone, as opposed to someone working for me. And in those cases the final product was something beyond me - it was something that had matured and left the nest, off to be bigger than me or any one person involved. Mission accomplished.

I remembered this during rehearsals, where SYLM and HLM created backstory for their characters that I hadn’t even considered - and once I heard them, I loved. We worked together to flesh out scenes, moments, lines. I cut lines that I loved during the writing of Socket but sounded too melodramatic or writery when spoken aloud. It’s part of the process I truly adore.

But when i got on set, I think I forgot that for a moment in my absolute terror at being in charge of 25 people and responsible for a finished piece of art that honored their contributions. It wasn’t until this scene, the first moment in our shoot that dealt with raw emotion that didn’t involve sex, that I remembered that great art lives beyond the expectations of the creator. I’m not saying Socket is great art, but I need to remember to give it every opportunity to become great.

After the break up scene, we moved on to the phone conversation. As I remember how we shot it, I feel I should mention my DP (director of photography), Awesome Director of Photography, who is a godsend on this movie. To move as fast as we do on set and still get a movie worth releasing, every person has to be on their game. And while having great actors who are ready to go at a moment’s notice is of utmost importance, sometimes I think having a fast DP is almost more important. ADoP moves fast, has great ideas, and is so excited and easy going, I’m not sure how I lucked into him. When I was interviewing DPs for the gig, he was the one guy who 1.) read the entire script, 2.) had specific ideas of how to shoot specific scenes and 3.) got my specific references about how Solaris, The Shining and the films of Cronenberg were shot.

The phone scene finished, now it was time to shoot a bunch of scenes involving HLM alone in the house. Sounds easy, but the continuity was a bitch. It was all about whether or not the house was pre-character’s biological conversion, or post. We dirtied the house, we cleaned the house, we dirtied the house again. Every angle, back and forth. At this point, big ups to Diminutive Art Director and Vegan Production Designer (who is part of The Vegans, aka the other producers) for taking Network Exec Who Got Me a Hosting Job’s house and making it look like someone actually lived there. I kid, I kid! (You know I love you, NEWGMaHJ). As we shoot in an order that makes sense from a “get this movie done in 10 days” standpoint, but not from a “if we had money and time” standpoint, they hustle their asses off, transforming rooms in minutes.

It feels appropriate that the last scene on the last day at NEWGMaHJ’s house would involve nudity. HLM had to run in the front door, panicked at a murder he’s just unwittingly committed, and yank off his bloody clothes and race upstairs. This was done in the foyer of NEWGMaHJ’s house which is pretty much all open windows without shades. I’m sure the neighbors across the street enjoyed the show.

At the end of the day (8pm, just two hours over my estimate, but still four hours short of a twelve-hour day) we shot about 6 pages, which would have been more had we been allowed to count the pages that involved the “other half” of scenes we’d shot the two days before. For some reason you’re not allowed to count those, which feels like a total gyp, honestly.

As we leave, ADoP says, “You know this is gonna get picked up. It looks great, the actors are all great, and the premise is amazing.”

I replayed this over and over in my head as I drove to Matty’s house. Wow. Someone else thinks we have a movie. No need for my car. I’m flying home.

Back at T’s house, who has requested an acronym, so we’ll call him Network Exec Who Got Me a Hosting Job. The first thing we do is watch dailies from Day One, which puts me in a great mood. Holy shit, we have a movie!

We finished all the bedroom scenes yesterday, so today we’re working around actor schedules instead. Because this is an indie paying nothing in $$$, but MILLIONS in experience and good karma, production often has to work around actors’ schedules.

Now, being the dictatarian that I am, I’m all “If you take the role, YOU WILL BE AVAILABLE EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY”. This tactic rarely works, so I fall back on “Once you tell me your conflicts, YOU CANNOT CHANGE THEM!” This works more often than not.

So Beautiful Black Actress, who is playing “Carol”, has conflicts - she is assisting Rising Teenage Actress while she shoots her big studio movie. This means BBA has to finagle time out of her busy driving and errand running work schedule to be in my little gay scifi indie flick. I’m willing to work around her schedule because she’s talented mus grande, but that means that we have to shoot all of her scenes at Network Exec Who Got Me a Hosting Job’s house in one day. Eek!

When you shoot a flick there are tons of things to consider when trying to move quickly. Will a lighting change take longer than a set change? Will a special makeup effect application take longer than a wardrobe change? It’s all math, which of course makes my brain bleed. Today that math has a big, fat sword on a thread dangling over it - If we screw up and not make our day, we’ll lose Beautiful Black Actress for this location and lose any unshot scenes. Considering that every word of my script is fucking gold, that would be super uncool.

Let me just take another moment to compliment my actors. In the weeks before shooting, we rehearsed most of their scenes. This means that I don’t have to get all directory with them once we get to location - they know their lines and intentions and and and and, so all we have to do is block for lighting and camera. THANK GOD. Because if we had someone screwing up their lines take after take, I’d be forced to shoot them and then turn the gun on myself. These kids are all pros, and I pat myself on the back for plucking them from obscurity and vaulting them to stardom.

We breeze thru most of our scenes until a dinner scene involving BBA, Hot Blonde Actress (who was in Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror), Handsome Leading Man (also in GBBOT, and mentioned in Day One by name) and Swarthy Young Leading Man (also mentioned by name in Day One). Time is running out - this is BBA’s last scene, but we also have nighttime exteriors to shoot that our film permit stipulates must be done by 10:00 PM.

Four people around a table - a virtual nightmare of eyelines. Thank Jebus the scene is written to take place AFTER dinner, so there isn’t any fake food eating (a huge pet peeve of mine in films). But setting up the lights, the shots, the art direction, the makeup, the audio with the clock ticking ticking TICKING was driving me a bit nuts. Yes, there was barking at the crew. But just a small bark. Seriously.

And then we were done. I’m still a bit nervous about the scene - I haven’t had time to watch the dailies for that scene, so there’s still a big question mark over it all. I know the performances are all great, and I saw it all play out in the monitor, so I shouldn’t be worrying, right? RIGHT? But am I rushing their performances as I push production forward? I want SOCKET to play out languidly, contemplatively, not zero-to-sixty. Hopefully more dailies will reassure me….

Our final scene is an exterior, dialogue heavy scene with HLM and SYLM that must be done by 10 PM. We start setting up at 9 PM. Can you feel my heart trying to leap out of my throat? To add pressure, I have this thing about unbroken takes with no coverage. I like to see scenes that play out in real time without cutting back and forth between the actors. And now I’m a director, so by golly I can create said unbroken takes. So what better scene to lay this on than an exterior, dialogue heavy scene that MUST be done by 10 PM and is being set up at 9 PM?

I realize now that this is the same situation as last night with Victor, heretofore referred to as Latin Actor Who I Met While Getting a Massage, and his scene. HAVE I LEARNED NOTHING??

Tonight, Take One - framing issues
Take Two - line problems
Take Three - did that work? Hmmm..
Take Four - NAILED.

We made our day again! Eleven plus pages, and under 12 hours!

Stay tuned for Day Three - The Last Day at Network Exec Who Got Me a Hosting Job’s house!

DAY ONE

Today went off without a hitch – well, one hitch actually. More on that later.

So, first day for a first time director – to say I’ve been overwhelmed with preparation on SOCKET would be the cover story of No Shit, Sherlock magazine. I barely slept the night before, my mind racing with everything that could possibly go wrong on the first day. Here’s a hint to first time directors – DON’T PRODUCE YOUR DIRECTORIAL DEBUT MOVIE. Now, I’ve produced my share of movies and TV shows, and I’ve written a shitload of stuff as well. And on low budget stuff sometimes you don’t have a choice – you have to multitask. But seriously, not having to do all the preproduction on SOCKET probably would have extended my life span by about ten years. Although honestly, I’m such a control freak I’d probably want to do all that stuff even if it wasn’t my job. And even more honestly, I kind of enjoy it in a strange, Midwestern work ethic sort of way.

So even thought this is my first directorial effort, I have a few legs up on this endeavor. 1.) I’ve directed a metric ton of theater, so I know how to talk to actors, B.) I’ve produced films, so I know the drill about what goes down on set and third, I’m just vain enough to think I can do it.

We eased into this shoot – there aren’t tons of people on the crew, and today we only had a couple cast members. Most of the scenes were either sex scenes or dialogue scenes we could bang out in a master/two shot. We had twelve hours to shoot 12 pages, which is three times the work load of any normally budgeted film. Early on I decided to move one page to Day Three, so here we were with 11 pages – a breeze!

We shot all the major sex scenes today. I felt like a protective dad – I wanted to make sure the boys were comfortable, and they were. They handled all the nudity like pros. My goal is to have sex scenes and realistic, casual nudity in SOCKET. Unlike movies where girls finish having sex then pull the covers up, or guys slide out of bed and pull up their pants without standing up, I want to have it be real – you get naked, you don’t turn away, you have sex on top of the covers, etc. And thankfully my actors, Matt and Derek, were all about the nudity. It was strange having all the bedroom scenes back to back – everytime we rolled it was about the guys getting naked and getting into bed, and that lasted all day.

It’s weird to direct Matt and Derek in the sex scenes. “Okay, you’re the top, now you penetrate him…” etc. But then my actors surprised me with their commitment to making it look real. I’m so fucking lucky to have these guys in my film. Even beyond being good sports about being balls out in front of the crew, they are diving headfirst into the script, asking all the right questions and bringing up aspects of the characters that, even though I hadn’t thought of them, fit perfectly in the world of SOCKET.

When I wrote this script, I wrote a part inspired by a friend named Victor – a sweet latin dude I’ve known for awhile. He actually helped us out on A BEAR’S STORY ages ago, after I met him at my favorite massage therapy place, Brooks here in LA, and found out he was an actor/filmmaker like the rest of us. I wrote the part of a working class latin guy who has been drawn into this cult of electricity, and named him “Victor” for reference. Victor is an actor, and I guess I always thought he would end up in the movie, but when casting rolled around I had Executive Producers (The Vegans) to answer to as well, so I made him audition. Victor had no idea I’d written the role for him, but did make a point of asking if I’d thought of him when I did. I sort of hedged and said “It was just a coincidence” but he probably saw thru that.

So we cast Victor after a great audition, and I never changed the name of the character.

Today we shot the first of Victor’s scenes. I called him in way too early – in fact, I’d made him cancel a massage appointment for that day because I wanted to shoot everything in my friend T’s upstairs bedroom in one day. T is letting us use his house for free – like any good friend or masochist would do – and I want to make it as painless as possible. So I had Victor there at 4pm, which left him bored and sleeping in the front yard. By the time he got there, I wished I could join him – I was fucking beat from moving, moving, moving all day on set.

Onset we realized that the Costume Designer only had a limited selection of name tags for the work shirt Victor was supposed to wear. Meaning, no “Victor”. So we let him pick his new character name from the nametags, and he picked “Alex.”

So I called Victor in, and it turned out that he’d rescheduled his massage for 9pm. The day moved forward in such a way that his scene was last – and we started setting up for it at 8pm. We had 30 minutes total to shoot a dialogue scene with three actors. We decided to shoot it in one unbroken shot.

Take one – line fuck ups
Take two – sound issues.
Take three – PERFECT. And at 8:30 EXACTLY. I gave Victor a big kiss and sent him on his way. We had made our day – eleven pages in twelve hours!

The one major issue today was, of course, mishandling of personal property of my friend T. Our art department needed some extra set dressing, and grabbed some appropriate items out of his closet. The day ends, and T’s stuff hasn’t been put back carefully – meaning wadded up and tossed in a pile, resulting in fucked up stuff that shouldn’t have even been used in the first place. No good deed goes unpunished, and I felt horrible – a bummer capper to a great day.

Got home, fed the kitties, ate some dinner with Matty, came home and fell asleep at my computer.

Stay tuned for Day Two!

Check out advance word on SOCKET at

Fangoria.com - http://fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=6185

and

CampBlood.org - http://campblood.org/News/News.htm (make sure to scroll down!)