Thursday, September 14, 2006

2 Days to Go!

Sitting in the intimate Lakewood Theatre, listening to Sufjan Stevens, is a good place to collect one's thoughts. In all, today was perhaps the most definitive day of pre-production. We had a conference call with our second large possible investor today at noon. He's a great guy, and will hopefully go on to help us out with some MAJOR film festival connections, but for now is not going to invest in the film. Bummer, but not the end of the world by any count.

The Lakewood Theatre is now the OFFICIAL SPOKESPOLE for "Ciao."

What this final call did was solidify our shooting strategy. We now know exactly what we have to work with, and are moving forward at that level. Does this mean we have to cut corners? A little, but it won't show on screen. What it means most is that we're going to put a lot more of the film on our credit cards, and it's going to take me uncomfortably close to the black hole of an empty bank account.

As a pre-game morale boosting pep rally, Yen surprised us all with Sufjan Stevens tickets. Here is the man himself, Sufjan.

I haggled the hell out of the local rental shop today, and basically got them to meet my budget, so we'll have the toys we need. An HVX200 with camera support and monitors, plus a 1-ton grip & lighting package and a few goodies here and there when needed. The best part is that the gear is all from a professional house, MPS, which means we get tech support in case anything goes wrong. The level of support they provide is incredibly reassuring, and Mark and Brad are good guys who tend to support low-budget operations like ours. Joe Lumas in the camera department is a knowledgable guy and really knows how to get us set up.

James is in full swing; today he got 2 PAs on board, but no word yet from our mysterious gaffer from Oklahoma. I sure hope he contacts us again. On another note, David is REALLY coming through for us. He's agreed to put both the firewire drives we need AND the rental deposit for MPS on his credit card. Thanks David, we LITERALLY couldn't do it without you.

Friends for Life, Filmmakers 'til Death (clockwise from left): James Johnston - 1st AD, David Lowery - Editor, Yen Tan - Director and Jim McMahon - Producer.

It's been a day, and I'm beat down from not sleeping last night. I'm gonna hit the sack and wake up early. Michael Roy, our DP and my good friend, arrives tomorrow, and we're going to hit up as many locations as possible in what could be the fastest tech scout ever seen! So much to do, and only 2 days to go!!!

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