Sunsets, Burke and 1st Day "Outtake"

Right away this morning I received a call from Harold, the actor playing Peter. He told me the wonderful news that Sunsets in Wayzata may possibly let us shoot a short scene out on their patio. He talked with a manager and the owner about us coming in, and they seemed more than thrilled about this idea. I hope this happens. I love the location, the style, everything. I've wanted to shoot something here for about ten years.

Photo via Sunsets Facebook Page

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Tonight was brief, but myself, Jeff and Earl accomplished a lot and worked more on Burke, and the Paul and Burke relationship. Burke is the most eccentric and flamboyant character in the whole production, so we've been slowly chipping away at who he is and why he is the way he is. While I don't produce character biographies anymore, like I attempted to do years ago, I shared my thoughts with Earl on possible scenarios that may explain Burke's happy-go-lucky behavior. Right now we're finding a balance between too much and too little, and during the last scene run-through tonight, I believe we found it. I don't want to say we nailed it, because to re-create everything exactly on the set as you did while rehearsing, will be next to impossible. We've found the spirit of the scenes, and that's important.

Rehearsals give the actors an opportunity to run the lines, but from a character blocking standpoint, that's an area we'll need to save for when we're about to shoot. I'm a big believer in actors receiving some amount of in-the-moment inner power from being in the room while shooting. The lighting, the atmosphere in general, the temp outside, time of day (and the time of day that it's supposed to be) all has to do with performance, and when we're just sitting on a couch or even just standing in my apartment, it's all great, but it's not fully developed until we can be in the real location.

Aside from running the scenes, we talked about the type of advertisement Burke might be running on tv to promote his bowling alley. We also decided that the slogan for Burke's Lanes would be "Why Aren't You On A League?" That's the comedy element of the entire storyline. His commercials would a 'bad local commercial' type of thing. VHS, maybe in-camera-editing, bad video toaster wipes from the early 90's, bad fonts, and Burke wearing a tacky suit with a bowling pin tie. Earl might find someone to produce this. It's nothing I will do because I am too busy with balancing work and this film. I hardly have time for my "real world" job as it is. I wish I could get a raise and vacation time. I think after almost 10 years of being a super loyal and passionate employee, I deserve something. That will never happen.

The below video is an example of the style I'm going for. It doesn't make sense for how up to date the bowling alley will be in the film, but it could be Burke's refusal to give up his first big ad. If anything, the bowling ad could be on in the background during another scene elsewhere. We could get away with it. They still run those old Pizza Hut commercials all the time. 

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Below is an "Outtake" from the first day of shooting: Scene 6, Take 3. A cellphone vibrated a few times off camera. At 1:30 you can hear the vibration. New obvious lesson: In addition to unplugging appliances and turning off the air, we gotta turn off phones too. I'm posting this so you can hear Jeff and the character of Paul for a short scene. I'm also posting this because while the phone did go off, the scene wasn't ruined, we all had a good chuckle about it. Jeff did a few more takes and that was that. Great stuff.





We now have an extended amount of time off from the film due to the fact that I will be working this entire weekend. I will get more fun stuff done tomorrow!