Sunday, January 30, 2005

Here’s another daily recap from the shoot.

DAY NINE (Thursday, October 14)

Locations:  Beach, Anna Maria Island, Florida; ‘Spanish Fort’, Egmont Key State park, Florida

After getting to bed about 4:00 AM the night before, Thursday starts at a hazy and blurry 9:00 AM to shoot one quick scene of Carol (Mary Kraft) and Jody (Cynthia Evans) discovering a Skunk Ape victim in the surf.  It’s a minimalist crew call-- me, Evan as DP, Bill Burton operating the camera, Art Department-ers Lisa and Scott creating the dead body, and the sounds guys--  all of us working on no sleep.   We don’t have an Assistant Director or Assistant Camera, so we forget to grab the slate.  I stand in front of the actresses and clap my hands at the start of each take, hoping I can sync this later.  Our deadline is 11:00 AM since Mary has to be back in Atlanta by 7:30 PM to be on stage at Dad’s Garage Theater.  Our goal is three shots:  the actresses walk ‘n’ talk down the beach and we pan with ‘em and let them exit frame; the actresses then walk into a medium shot and react to the bloody, mangled body; and lastly the dead body cutaway.  We get two takes of the walk ‘n’ talk and three of the MS with reactions and Mary is gone (see journal 8 for the rest of that adventure).  The reaction shot is priceless, the classic shock and shuttering of seeing something horrific, one of those things that makes me giggle despite myself.  Our Production Assistant Juston Rindlesbach grabs some quick shots of Cynthia and Mary on the beach rehearsing their reactions and they are the best production still of the shoot.  Thank you Juston for these and all the great stills in this journal.
Sep 12, 2004

Sep 27, 2004

Oct 2, 2004

Oct 10, 2004

Oct 13, 2004

Oct 18, 2004

Oct 24, 2004

Oct 30, 2004

Nov 7, 2004

Nov 14, 2004

Nov 21, 2004

Nov 28, 2004

Dec 5, 2004

Dec 12, 2004

Dec 19, 2004

 Jan 2, 2005

Jan 9, 2005

Jan 16, 2005

Jan 30, 2005

Fer 6, 2005

Feb 13, 2005

Feb 20, 2005

Feb 27, 2005

Apr 17, 2005

Apr 24, 2005

May 29, 2005

Jun 19, 2005

Jul 24, 2005

Aug 21, 2005

Sep 4, 2005

 Sep 16, 2005

Oct 2, 2005

Oct 16, 2005

Oct 27, 2005

Dec 16, 2005

Mar 26, 2006

Apr 6, 2006

Apr 23, 2006

May 17, 2006

Jun 3, 2006

Jun 18, 2006

Jul 9, 2006

Sep 7, 2006

Mar 4, 2007

Aug 2007

Oct 2007

Latest Journal Entry
Our minimalist crew shooting Cynthia and Mary's early morning scene.
Art Director Lisa Yeiser adds fake blood to the dead body. It looks better on film. And if it doesn't, that's just party of the film's homage to cheap monster movies of the '60s.
Jody (Cynthia Evans) and Carol (Mary Kraft) react to their gruesome discovery.
The majority of the rest of our day is spent traveling to and from our most beautiful location, The Battery at Egmont Key State park, an island out in the middle of Tampa Bay.  To get there we have to drive to St. Pete, then catch a chartered boat-- over 2 hours travel time each way.  Like the rest of our week, we have perfect weather and shoot some beautiful, dramatic film.  Arma buys water shoes for the crew since we have to pull the big pontoon boat onto the shore to get to the battery.  The local ranger generously lets us use his 4-wheeler to cart our production gear.  We have a hard out of 11:00 PM, so we hustle through our shots list,  but get everything we planned to shoot and load up the boat.  Since we couldn’t bring a catering spread out to Egmont Key, we treat the crew to the only open restaurant we can find at 1:30 AM, Waffle House.
Crew on the roof of the "Spanish Fort".
Camera Operator Bill Burton and Director Jay Edwards shooting the Skunk Ape.
Jay Edwards directing the Skunk Ape.
Ned Hastings is the Sunk Ape.
Scientist John Patterson rushes to the fort...
...for a showdown with Sheriff Brag (not boom operator Thomas Ward).