Saturday, August 14, 2010

The Beach.

While we were at the cabin, it was discussed how exactly we were going to shoot the scenes of Zimbabwe and Noah at home (these scenes start the movie, we leave their home and go to the cabin where the story really starts). It was brought up that they should live at the beach since we had to shoot a beach scene anyway and we had the ability of acquiring a house in Los Osos, California. I thought this was a good idea.

Let me explain some history. The movie was written for the beach; Zimbabwe and Noah lived in Shafter, CA (doubling for the fictional New Granada, California) and they get a hold of a beach house to throw a New Years Party at. Eventually, we lost the beach house and I had to alter the script, so now they went to a cabin in the forest for their party, that's the way I shot it. After I shot that, the cabin became available again so we decided to shoot Zimbabwe and Noah living there instead of Shafter.

And that's what we shot this Wednesday to Friday.

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010.

At about noon, we shot "The First Date". This scene is a flashback showing Levi (Riley Martin) and Vivian's (Marleen Lindsey) first date while Zimbabwe (Andrew Folsom) pretends to be a hired French chef, complete with a faux accent.


Levi answering the door for his date, Vivian.


When they find out that they're both
lactose intolerant, they fall in love.

After, we shot the scene in which Zimbabwe learns that Levi will be attending their New Years party and since I didn't think of what Zimbabwe would be doing during this conversation, I freaked out but thought holding a #1 DAD mug while serving himself some tequila would be funny, and I was right.

Look how funny that is!

Thursday, August 12th, 2010.

When we woke up and we shot another flashback. An homage (I hate that fucking word) to my favorite Cow and Chicken episode: Alive! In this, Noah gets stuck on the roof for two weeks and considers suicide. It was frightening being on the tiny roof of the two story house for so long, but the shots were great.

Noah on the roof.

Next, we went to the beach in Morro Bay. It was freezing but everyone had to suck it up and do some actin'. This scene is the required romantic scene. Noah, the ladies man, tries flirting with two girls and ends up falling on his face and breaking his nose while Levi and Zimbabwe cut in and Levi meets Vivian, which leads to the movie's plot. I was scared we were going to get shit for shooting without permits or anything, nothing happened but it was so cold that if the camera wasn't on someone, they ran to get their sweaters.

The boys. Riley, Andrew and Matt
playing Levi, Zimbabwe and Noah.


From left to right: Devon Ford, John Meneses, Niki Nix,
Riley Martin, Andrew Folsom and Matt Wolfe.


The lovely ladies: Marleen and Niki as Vivian and Heather.

Then we got to shoot the scene that involved Niki Nix's second role in the movie: a stripper named Morticia. I finally got to use the matching red and blue beanies I bought for Zimbabwe and Noah a couple of months ago, and a silly American flag bandanna for Levi's face.

HIS NAME IS WONDERFUL: Jesus is Lord.

Next, it was a small scene set on the balcony of the house while the boys spied on a girl undressing.

I don't know why, but this shot is fucking hilarious.

Some friends from Bakersfield showed up and we decided that the next shot we do would be the last for the night. In the script, it's labeled "Seeing Blair Again", the title of a track by Thomas Newman that he did for the soundtrack for 1987 film "Less than Zero", because I was planning to use this track under the scene. Shooting it, I realized this would not probably happen because the scene ended up being funnier than I thought.

Noah hands Zimbabwe a Corona while
he watches Levi leave with Vivian.


Friday, August 13th, 2010.
At nine, I woke Matt up and we did a re-shoot of a scene in which Noah talks to himself in the mirror as himself picking up girls at a bar and as Kelly, a fictional female version of himself being courted by Noah. Eventually, there was five of us there and three of us were throwing out more lines for 'Kelly' to say. This scene took about two hours to do and one single take took 30 minutes.

After, Andrew and I sat in a bathroom for 30 minutes in a scene where Zimbabwe, high, gets freaked out.

This shot is super fucking cool. Good job, Omar.

Then, Andrew running around town in his underwear. I ended up doing this entire sequence in three shots. There wasn't a lot of passer by's laughing as I thought there was going to be.

On the coast.

After Andrew and I got back to the house (we were the only ones there shooting the running scenes), we started packing and getting ready to leave. After the cars were packed, and the house was locked up we shot the last scene: Noah attempting suicide.

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