Checking In

There are eighty-two scenes in Made Crooked. We've logged and captured the first ten. I could jump in and start cutting anytime. I am taking the weekend off - going to Bend with my family to see Beck today and spending the remainder of the weekend in bed and going for quiet walks and meals.
I'm hoping to clear a few more nagging tasks off of my agenda before I sit down and get to work.
One of the things I'm trying to remind myself of is the idea that editing film is storytelling. Too often it is easy to look at editing as a technical issue. I get anxious to complete my previous ideas and work, rather than to continue the discovery process of making films. I'm pretty good at letting go of what I've written when directing. It's time to get some practice letting go of what I've directed in the edit suite.

I shaved my beard. Nice to feel my face again. It gives me an excuse not to rush into shooting our pickup scenes.

As I experience life after filming this one, it seems that my subconscious was at work on some crazy deep levels. I'm not getting too crazy in my assessments of it all, but it's there.

Considering,
nc

The Cutting

And away we go. We took a couple of days off after last weekend to rest and give ourselves a little time to recover before looking at the footage. We invited Peter Bauer to sit in as we wanted him to have the opportunity to bail on his producer's duties if he thought the footage was garbage.
Because there were no slates or clappers, the cameras roll on and on, reframing and finding focus, much like a documentary. There is a lot of tape to watch, a good deal of it unwatchable. It's tempting to try to watch it all for usable moments. It's more like mining for gold. It requires a patient eye. Patience is a worthy exercise.
I got to tell you --There's GOLD in them thar tapes!
Peter loved what we showed him. He's on board to help us finish shooting our pickups and addtional scenes. It will be interesting to preserve our improvisational spirit with a more intentional approach.

Back to the footage for a moment - it looks like everyone is having fun, even when we're crying. Everyone appears to be in their bodies responding to what's happening. Things are happening, there's a story being told on various levels. Rose looks so beautiful in a couple of her scenes. Her physical beauty is clarified by the wonderful presence in her work. David looks relaxed and engaged in his struggles as David Wheeler. Joey is alive and allows himself to go for the ride of being Joey Wheeler- he turns his pain into a rebelious hilarity. Tara is present and responsive to the moment, bringing beauty and tenderness to the screen. Travis is quietly eager to listen and participate verbally, emotionally and physically. I don't know what to say about myself at this point other than I allowed myself to think I looked handsome at one point. I'm having fun, that's for sure.

The acting is quite visible at times - a certain tension waiting to listen or speak, hesitant physical actions. Not hack acting, but not great acting either. I think it works. I find it charming. We're actors. Not great actors, but not bad actors. We each have our moments where we're lifted up to our characters. When we're tentative about it, that's honest, too.

More Fassbinder than Cassavetes. I don't want to say one is better than the other, but I will say this -- I love making movies and in terms of sheer volume Fassbinder is the clear winner. He died at 38 yet made over 40 films in the fifteen years before his death. Some were fast and dirty, more than one is a masterpiece.

We didn't make a masterpiece. But we made a film. In a weekend. We told a story with our bodies, minds and hearts. And that's pretty fucking cool.

Believe,
nc

Credits

Rose Stuart - Rose Sherman
David Millstone - David Wheeler
Joey Boyd - Joey Wheeler
Tara Piccolo - Tara Wheeler
Neal A. Corl - Neal
Travis Huntington - Travis

Jordan Karr-Morse - Director of Photography
David McMurry - Okie Cam
Efrem Peter - Light and Sound
Travis Huntington - Director's Assistant

Peter Bauer - Assitant Producer
Eric Gorski - Visual Effects and Production Assistant
Neil Kopp - Executive Producer

Neal A. Corl - Writer, Director, Producer, Production Designer

Special Thanks
Nicola Corl
Heath Lourwood
Greg P Schmitt
Joel Stirnkorb
Gearhead Grip + Electric
Pacific Grip & Lighting
DTC Grip & Electric

This list and my gratitude will grow as we move into post

Principal Photography Wrapped

My plan worked. Three days of shooting resulted in the better part of a feature film.
More later.
I'm tired.

nc

Countdown to Crooked

Been busy prepping this thing. Schedule, shot list, shot design, rewrites, crewing.
It's an odd hybrid of intentional filmmaking, improvisational ensemble work and documentary. It hasn't been easy letting those invovled to understand it is not a free-for-all yet can not be entirely plotted, composed and planned. I certainly want to go about it with a very loose approach, yet I know that without limitations and structure it will be a mess. Creating that structure is the task at hand as we go into the weekend. It's a fine line of control and expectations.
I've had some hard lessons this week. Heath and I had a confrontation regarding exactly that issue of planning. The clash was ugly, but we've recovered and decided mutually that this project was no longer something he wanted to pursue. He is a very good actor and would have brought a lot to the screen. A great replacement returned to town and contacted me within an hour of the unfortunate spat with Heath. Travis is not the actor that Heath is, but he is a goofy bastard that brings an element of raw unpredictability. Certainly, a very different energy. Another benefit of Travis is his experience behind the camera and his willingness to be hands-on with gear and other production needs.
Peter Bauer and Eric Gorski are prepping the 100 tapes and the script/schedule. My approach to sides and the script is innovative and not something I have ever heard of anybody trying before. Sort of a mini cue card system. The actors are not going to get a script. Rather I am cutting the script up scene by scene and handing little peices of dialogue to the actors as we go.
What else?
Nicola is doing the grocery shopping.
I am going to try to get some rest for a bit later today. Ha!

nc

Jitters

Rolling into the final week of preparation for the film. I can't do all that needs to be done. There's only one way to make this thing work -- let it go. By design it has to be what it is. Freaking out is not going to help.
It is really fucking hard to embrace the unknown.
Super tough to let the work inform.
I finished writing David's brokeback Mountain rip-off story. I added a brutal racist coda.
Being in one place and not having to get everyone on a schedule is very supportive and requires less work than the usual production.
I have to work out wardrobe and trust that people will come up with something workable. I'm sure they're all going to wear clothes.
I am letting go of much of the cutaway stuff from the stories within the story - so many costume changes for Heath and I.
We'll have to go up to the lodge and steal exteriors, rent it again or come up with some crafty compositing. Who knows.
Jordan and I have some fun ideas for that stuff.
Should be interesting.

I have to buy 75 tapes for principal photography.
75 hours of footage is a Tetrabyte of Hard Drive memory.

That's three solid days of footage to sort through, log, capture and select.
Going to have to get into FCP multicam.

nc

Email from David

> I'm jealous of my wealth, which is enormous. I'd sooner give you
> $1,000 than loan you $100. I'm letting Rose hang around because I
> don't want her to get a chunk of my fortune, though she costs me to
> keep, in the style to which she has no doubt become accustomed. I'm
> worried about my son's future though I haven't done anything to
> direct it. I'm liberal, but wish he were not gay. My daughter
> puzzles me, but she charms me, too. I see her put on of a Brooklyn
> dialect as a means of cutting out her own space in the world,
> something my son may be trying to do by being gay, but in him, this
> irritates me.
>
> Good.
>
> I'm having trouble with the relationship of my jealousy of my wealth
> to keeping Rose around--it just seems so much cheaper to toss her off
> with a couple million bucks, if I'm worth so much.
PRIVATE INFO EDITED
>
> Okay. Intellectually, I get that this may not be how other people
> frame it. I have a family history which puts liberal values and
> personal generosity at the center of an ethos of helping others and
> making the world better. PRIVATE INFO EDITED
>
> My grandfather could never understand WASPish parsimony or greed.
> The corporate scandals of the last five years disgust him (hmm--this
> is useful, actually.)
>
> Okay.
>
> Expose myself rather than hide in 'getting it right.'
>
> So.
>
> When would I have rather cut my own arm off rather than give my
> rightful inheritance to an interloper?
>
EDITED
>
> Why?
>
> Something is coming in on me as I type.... Strong feeling, but no
> images yet. I'll try to stay with it.
>
> About this being "your movie:" I'm still stuck in wanting to get it
> right. I feel the urge to close down. Grrrrr. I'll try to stick
> with the fear rather than evade it, expose myself.
>
> David!

MY RESPONSE:

David

I like what you're thinking. Now let the bits about Joey and Tara go.
Relate to them as your classmates. I know many parents of teenagers
that feel as if they don't know them. Let go of your ideal that you would
be a different parent. Indulge your selfishness. Let yourself be charmed by Tara but seduced by her physical attractiveness as well. Look at her, check her out. What has your baby girl become?
Allow yourself to not relate to them. To scoff, quietly and openly, at
their immaturity and lack of life experience.

One feature of this retreat is to let go of too much intellectual
preparation By limiting the info given to actors as well as limiting the
time in which to get it right.
What can you reveal about yourself in this role?
That you wouldn't want your son to be gay?
Not my first choice.
That a nineteen year old girl turns you on?
Tara is sexy.
That you want to punish opportunism?
Goddamn, entitled users!
That you're afraid of yourself?
I sure am.

Thank you for letting me know your conflict with parsimonious waspish ways.
I'm going to give you an adjustment. None of your wealth is liquid.
You've blown all of your liquid assets on wild e(go)ose chases. (a big
stretch, i know)
You may never have to work a day in your life, but you can't do what you
want with your money.
College will be paid. Your kids have their own separate trusts and are
not relying on your inheritance. Credit card bills from your fiance's
shopping sprees will be paid. None of your property is in your name.
Cash withdrawals are limited.

Think of the pre-nup as protecting you from looking foolish rather than
from giving any money to Rose. Without it she would realize that you have
little as soon as you married. That might prompt her exit. However the pre-nup
may be a gambit to keep your status in her eyes. She may not agree to not get anything, but she'll live the life without knowing there was nothing to get in the first place. It's risky. That's precisely why you haven't presented it to her yet.

Let's keep it simple. How about this: Stay away from Rose. Ignore her.
Let her take care of house cleaning and cooking. Evade any questions of
setting a wedding date. Assume she's fucking around, as you are. Fucking
your house guests right under your nose is another story, of course.

Thanks again for your work on this,
nc

All In

So we set up a place, lit it, mic'ed it and got down to it tonight. Everyone is really excited.
I asked Jordan how the performances looked. There were none, he said. Just people talking and interacting. Aha.
That's what the director ordered. Except I didn't order it. I allowed it. Brings meditation to mind.
Setting up a structure in which to explore, moment to moment.
I have the suspicion that I am on to something profound beyond getting a film out of this.
I'm really learning something about letting go. Since I'm not so good at letting go of the reins, it actually requires more energy than taking hold of them. I suspect that will change with continued practice. Makes sense why I'm resistant to letting go however -- it doesn't come easy.

We missed Rose tonight.

Tara made it and I was happy to see the energy she brought to the group.

Neal

Group Rehearsal

Tonight we all meet under the same roof to tell stories and let the cameras roll.
I think we'll start by going round and stating our expectations of the weekend. Interupting with amens and ahems as the impulses come. I would like to see one camera on the speaker and the other catching reactions. With both cameras reframing as we go. Sound wise, I want to hear the overlaps. At least in our test tonight. I love the sound in McCabe and Mrs Miller.
After we've gotten our expectations aired, I would like to go round and read from fairy tales. I'll ask them to put it into their own words. I am going to make up cards with a line of dialogue on each to offer to someone to interupt the speaker with that line and see how that plays out.
I'll also be working on Heath's and my presence. How I will direct from within the circle/scene.

Discovery.
I want Jordan to post something here. I'll put a little urging on him today.

nc

Tara

Tara is one of the actors going on the retreat. She missed class a week ago. When I saw her last night, I was reminded as to how little I know her. She's a bit of wild card for me regarding the weekend.
I like the work she does and I like her enthusiasm. She seems to have a chip on her shoulder under her pleasant demeanor.
I'm confused by her devotion to her job as I am with any actor that stays with a service industry job that offers little schedule flexibility.
Scheduling is one of my biggest frustrations with actors. So often I have offered actors the chance to work only to be met with a lot scheduling conflicts. Because I am all too willing to put making films or theater ahead of everything, I find it confusing to say the least.
My task is to give last night's interaction with Tara some thought in relation to the circumstances I have in mind for her (character).
Getting to know Rose was very helpful. I will try to make a similiar effort with Tara.

viva,
nc