Bowling Alley! (almost)

I am very happy to report that things are certainly coming together with the bowling alley. Today I talked with the owner of Tuttle's for about an hour; we chatted about various production details, the times and dates of shooting, plus stepping back and looking at the film as a business standpoint for the bowling alley: Would this hurt business or cause customers to look at the alley in a different light?  It's a valid question for business owners, and ultimately the answer is no. The idea is that nothing is shown in a positive or negative light, but rather a neutral and truthful light.

Why do I want Tuttles? It's a biased reason I suppose. I've been going to this alley for years; back when it was Hopkins Bowl too. I've bowled at other alleys, but nowhere has felt right to me. Whether it was the atmosphere, the people, and even being as picky as saying the lanes at other places don't feel right. And to get even pickier, I can't bowl at a place where the lobby and the lanes are on the same level. It's odd, but there has to be a step or two down from the lobby to the bowling floor.

Soon I will know if we can for sure shoot at Tuttles. The owner has to talk to someone else, then we'll need to come up with a schedule. The schedule might be trickier than I originally thought. There is a fairly heavy bar scene that needs to be shot at night, but because we can't shoot during the rush of operating hours, we'll be shooting that particular scene late Saturday night/ Sunday morning from 1am to maybe 3am or 4am. The details have yet to be worked out, but that's how it will roll.

Another thing that we'll work on is a bowling alley logo. We won't show the Tuttles logo, so I'll need to come up with a new name and have someone work on a logo (possibly Jenn or Corey or someone else interested). Burke's Lanes? Something. But we talked about having the logo on the flat-screen television monitors above the lanes for a short amount of time if I'm doing a wide shot. The owner said we could work that out. It's one of those small details that someone may or may not notice, but it will certainly add to the realism of this location we're using.

A lot has changed over the years at this alley, but that only adds to the film. The characters from a very young age bowled here, and even as adults, they still don't go anywhere else, even if the alley has mostly transformed into a more family friendly environment. I like that. I like it a lot.

One of the three entrances to the building. Front desk is right next to those bowling balls.

Entrance to the bar to the right of the frame.

Looking in to the bar from the doors.

 One idea that I have, that the owner seems to think could work out, is to have Rudy and his band come in on a Saturday night and play one hour worth of music in front of a live audience. I want to get the acoustics of the music in the room to exactly match scenes that we'll be shooting at the bar. Plus I think it would be fun to do. Of course we're just in the idea phase of the music; it's not top priority right at the moment.

So far it's all going well. I hope to report more good news in the coming days!

Too Many Things, Too Many Things, Too Many Things.

What kind of film am I making? I often don't know how to answer this question. That and "What is it about"? I can't answer that either. I can give a general overview of the so-called-synopsis, but I can't tell you what it's about. Because if I did that, it would a) ruin the discovery of your work of finding the "meaning", and b) it would mean that I know what it's all really about. It's a mixture of both. Of course, I wrote the damn thing, so I know what I want it to be, right? Right and wrong. I know what I don't want Nicotine to be. It's probably because of my negativity toward independent films made by skinny-jean wearin' twenty-something year old hipster "filmmakers"; the mumble-core movement of ultra-shoe string budgeted dramedies about the poor deadends of after college life and the random pretentious nothingness found in their conversations as they look for meaning. 

Why do I show so much resistance to that well defined culture of films and filmmakers? It's not who I want to be. It's not a thing where I try be different for the sake of distancing myself from that, then in doing so I suddenly conform to something else. It's because I don't like that kind of stuff. It's too easy* to make that I think, it's too easy to find a group of friends and make a movie; what with the kind of cheap equipment and editing software people have at their disposal. Anyone can make a movie now.

Of course we're shooting on the Canon 60D DSLR, which could put me into a whole new category. I was very hesitant with going the DSLR route, to be honest, but ultimately the price and versatility of the camera convinced me to do it. Of course there are small drawbacks. One early-on drawback became something very interesting to me. When I read a filmmaking book in Junior High there was a section about how you should never use the zoom function on your camcorder because it takes the "film look" away and tells your audience that it's video. This seemed stupid to me, and then I started using the zoom function on my dad's camcorder. Why was this terrible? Shortly after I saw Robert Altman's Short Cuts for the first time,  I fell in love with that function. It's technical manipulation no doubt, but suddenly the empty would-be still frame turns into something more mysterious. What's the drawback I speak of? The zoom is manual on the 60D, versus automatically adjusted like on my previous camera, the XL1s. This was annoying at first, but because I love the feel and weight of films from the 70's, the zoom function, being mostly manual, had a much more human touch to it. You could feel the operator slowly zooming on something; for moments at a time it would be smooth, then stop for a split second, then maybe move in faster, then come to slow finish. It was rough, something that I know I want with Nicotine. 

What do I want Nicotine to be? I've spent a lot of time on what it won't be, that I can't properly answer what I want it to be without sounding like a pompous ass. But honestly now, I want Nicotine to be a story about the abruptness of bullshit, I want it to be about how anyone can manifest a behavior that isn't necessarily at their surface. We're all capable of anything really, but we're each defined by the choices we make in life, so much to the point where to do something out of the norm might feel and seem very odd, so we hold back. This might seem like a poor excuse to not have parameters for who the individual characters are in my film, but it's not. I guess this is why I can't give a solid answer for this question, because I have too many ideas for what I want to be, that I can't figure out what it is. Well, we haven't started shooting yet. When we do, and when it's finished, and when you see it, then we can figure out what it is. 

*To say making a film is "too easy" is oversimplifying it and not giving credit to the filmmakers that work very hard to make what they are passionate about. While I dislike certain films and genres, it doesn't mean that I don't respect the process. I do, and I congratulate anyone that gives life to an idea they have. It takes a lot out of you, mentally and physically. 

Burke + Wardrobe

Tonight was the first time Jeff and Earl met each-other. Earl is playing Charles Burke, the eccentric owner of the bowling alley. And by eccentric, I really mean it. It will probably be the most wild and uncomfortably comedic part of the entire story of Nicotine. Uncomfortable because in developing Burke with Earl, his entire through-line comes from a sad place that's ultimately masked by the theatrics that he uses when with Paul (and other customers probably too).

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Tonight Jeff asked me about wardrobe for Paul. I had mentioned my vision of vintage 60's/70's polyester several weeks back, and this evening we didn't flesh out any specific ideas, but I talked about what I didn't want to do. I explained that the clothing isn't going to necessarily represent something subconsciously, like it did in my first feature, Enola, where the main character for part of the film wore a dress shirt with vertical black lines down it; representing entrapment in one's own body, a mental prisoner (of course, if anyone has seen the film, it might make more sense).

The clothing for the most part in Nicotine will be straight forward, with no deep underlying mystery, aside from personal taste. For Paul you can say that the influence from gangster films came into account when shopping for clothing. Without a doubt those films had something to do with my writing Nicotine, which can be an odd thing to confess. It's not a gangster film, but the main characters argue and talk at each-other with a very matter of fact, quick, no bull-shit style, that you'll feel the influence -- and if the clothing is done properly, the reason behind it will be a subtle thing, and not over the top.

François Périer, from Melville's Le Cercle Rouge

Godfather Part II

*whispers* Godfather Part III

Casino

 Also, big collars. I love them. Look at those collars. Awesome.

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In the morning I will be calling Tuttles to talk with the owner. I'm quite optimistic about us using the bowling alley. While there are still smaller locations to lock down, as soon as we get this bowling alley, I will feel much better. It also means we can really start shooting this thing.  That's all for tonight. Dead tired.

Slow Moving

I guess it hasn't been too long since I last made a post . All aspects of production are going slow, but work is getting done, and that's the important part. All the small delays and unpredictability that has occurred is what I expected, considering everyone involved in this production has a job and life in the "real world". Some time in the coming weeks I will post a blog called, "Meet the Cast", just so you know exactly who's who among the small, but controlled chaos that is Nicotine.

Over the last few days I've met with various actors to play the roles of John, Courtney and Elizabeth. At times it's tough to pinpoint exactly who should play the character, sometimes it's not. It's one part of the filmmaking process that is exhilarating, but equally terrifying. The choices all come from the gut, which I'm learning to use more often than not. Everyone I've met with understands acting; those small tiny idiosyncratic moments that ultimately add up to give dimension and originality to a character. When I tell actors that every character is important, I am giving absolute truth. Part of Paul's underlying view on life and what happens in his future is based off of a belief that every detail, every small accident that happened was not an accident. Yet, don't look for the story to be about that. There are moments in life that can be seen as coincidences, or perhaps they're not? Every "writer" writes from personal beliefs, and this is all me. I will never be able to back it up with any solid proof, but that's the frustratingly fun part of it, because it doesn't come from a religious place or a near death experience, it just comes from the gut. Besides, I prefer the unexplainable far more than scientific proof. It opens your mind -- which is almost a contradiction to believing there is a purpose behind all movements we make on this earth -- but it allows creativity to flow and for one to be more involved with the particular subject of conversation.

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Yesterday was a good day. Rudy, Jeff and myself ran through a scene that involves some intense back and forth dialog. We started with just working on the scene that takes place in the office -- Scene 31, Pages 37 - 43 -- but then shifted gears and started from the very beginning of the entire sequence; all the way from the elevator, walking down the hall and entering the apartment and eventually landing in the office. 

Rudy and Jeff need little direction, which is refreshing in some sense. I'm sort of there to answer questions and offer suggestions and give feedback for sure, but it's sometimes better to see what instinctually comes out. I'm also working with actors that like to withhold information from me, just so the entire moment to moment action is never dull, always fresh. The negative side, and it's all my fault, is that I become so giddy watching the actors at work, that I'm sitting back in my chair with my hands covering my giant smile. This all happens out of the sheer excitement of seeing this scene come to life, plus Rudy and Jeff really frightened me during the rehearsal. I thought they were literally going to kill each-other. 

Tonight we'll work on the scenes between Paul and Burke. Earl, who will play Burke, the bowling alley owner, has come up with a great history for why Burke is the way he is. This is what I love about actors.