Day 6 of filming started off at Jame's (willingham) house. It was a great location for the two scenes we needed to film.That on top of the heat of the day...it was quite the scorcher in Wellington so we were thankful that everyone showed up and didn't blow the shoot off to hit the beach instead. I know i kept looking at the waves longingly from the deck!! We started at 12pm with new actors to the short: some friends from work turned actors: James Bennet as one of the detectives and Hugo Dominguez as the other detective and the nurse character by Jess who was studying acting at the local wellington academy. So that was cool plus we brought in Kate again for her role and then everyone else just pitched in like James Willingham was on the Boom, George was operating the main camera and good ol Norm was doing special effects as well as camera .We wanted to add a little environment haze with some fog but the fog became overpowering in some shots. Good to know for future scenes...less is more! Plus it was hard not to crack up over the fog machine spewing spurts of fog sporadically. Always during key serious moments so that had the crew cracking up. Also the fog was more so for the first scene but the second scene it was probably 75% cigarette smoke then fog. It got sooo smokey in there it was like we brought the bars and nightclubs to us! I think poor Kate went thru about one pack and a half...the guys started helping after a bit...like Hugo would take some drags for his character too and it became part of the shot as well. Nothing like some good props...but then again they had to do it again and again and again. So before long we had to go on a cigarette run! What troopers...no sunny day, heat or lung cancer would make these guys budge. So focused and dedicated...awesome! It was a great shoot and is all definitely coming together
After a full day of shooting on Saturday it was tough to imagine we were still on and had to be ready to do it all over again for Sunday. Well not all over the next shoot. It was another big group effort and so filming went pretty smoothly more or less. We even had James Bennett one of the previs guys came over and lent us his cat Baxter for this small part in the short. Baxter really is a cool cat and worked out great its no wonder thats James' baby. He is so cool and walks around like a small jungle cat! Really its like he knows hes a star!
So sunday wasn't as long thank goodness . We were able to get the shots we needed and get it all done before the sun went down. It was great!
Now on to editing ...
Saturday started off with a lot of work. Rocky stayed home while i went all over town getting the last of the essentials for todays shoot plus some snacks for the guys. We definitely had a full house with Norm setting up in the downstairs room for effects and then the living room being like a relax area when we broke for dinner. It was a great day though and thankfully it was pretty successful. I was getting the clothes ready pressing James' clothes and Shanes shirt. Plus going to and from the market getting the ingredients we would need for some effects that Norm said we should have on hand for Sunday's shoot. Why not set up for that today right...made sense. It was tough for poor J since he arrived at 11am to get ready but wasn't needed on set till 6pm. Well thats how it goes sometimes. He was a great sport. Norm was nice enough to show up for the effects and dropping off some camera and film equipment Rocky could use before he left. It was great to have Aruun and Eric, James' roommates helping out with sound and whatever else plus Eric brought his camera and took some cool pics too. Its definitely a group effort and we were all busy trying to get the sequence done and be in a good place for Sundays shoot. Saturday we all were pretty exhausted and Rocky of course stayed up till about 1am editing the days footage. It turned out really cool and we were excited for Sunday to get under way as well.
There were a lot of good takes and lots of painful ones from the looks of it but i'm glad all in all it was very successful and Rocky was able to put together a great edit and most especially walk away with no broken bones! oh boy! Its really starting to shape up with most of the opening out of the way. Just a few more shots here and there to sum it up and on to the next. Tomorrow or Friday we will try to do the rest of Kates scene where she is picked up by someone from the road after fleeing Rocky. And then this weekend is all the guys at the house for what we hope will be the final scene. We shall see.
Saturday we went to Karaka Bay to a mountainside we scouted out and hiked for the shoot with Norm, Marc, and Kate. Kate will be in the opening of the shot as she is running through the trees trying to get away from someone. Marc and Norm were nice enough to come and help Rocky with the camera. We got to the mountainside by 230-300pm and it was a bit overcast but perfect for being out. The hike up the mountain was unexpected for poor Norm and Marc but they were troopers. Once we got to the location Rocky was able to block out the shots with Kate and Norm as far as camera direction and what she would be doing. Since it was still bright out and the guys were all up for it we decided to do as much of the shooting for the opening scene that we could. We planned to meet back at 6pm and begin filming. Filming went great and there were as always a few scares here and there as is normal with Rocky productions but all in all it went great and we got some great footage. We chased the light and by 900pm we started the dark descend down the mountain back to our cars and call it a night. Sunday would be a whole new day for doing the rest of the shots not to mention the test shoots under the house with the other guys, J, George and James. Check out the photos.
