I
needed to replace the scratch music tracks in the club sequence.
I had used "Groove Is In The Heart" and Madonna's
"Lucky Star" just as temp tracks to give the scenes
some background ambient. There was no way I was going to pay
for the rights to use some major hit songs. My opinions were
to go back to MP3.com and
spend a couple of miserable days just listening to dance music
that I could use on-the-cheap or come up with something on
my own.
Eric
Barao was a guy I know who went to Berkeley College of
Music and has written stuff in an assortment of styles. He
easily churned a couple of dance/techno tracks out with a
piece of software called "Re-Birth". I felt that
the songs should have some sort of vocal track to give it
more dynamic, so I asked Phil
Rectra and Juliet Bowler
to come by on April 26th so I could exploit their larynxes.
(Note: the incredible irony here would be the fact that Phil
is IN the club scene, yet we would hear him singing in the
background. Hardy-Har-Har!)
I insisted that since this is to be dance music, it must have
the most inane lyrics possible. I had done a cheap knock-off
of "Groove Is In The Heart" for a music track and
Juliet had racked her brain earlier in the week to come up
with some pure tripe, but we still needed some more lyrics
for the second tune. We figured since it was Phil who would
be singing, why not have him sing about something he's "passionate"
about...like "Petunia", his Rubber
Ass! (We all had some up with that pet name a while ago.)
Johnny joined in and we all came up with some pretty wacky
shit on the background of this vinyl piece of anatomy. Phil
sang it with his best Tom Jones voice and we all had a good
laugh. I'm sure Eric Barao thinks we trashed his tune with
our stupid vocals.
I
had sent all the past footage out to Cinepost to be transferred
about a week ago, and a couple of days later I got a call
from the telecine guy asking if I had under-cranked my footage.
(Shot fewer frames per second than usual. This would cause
the footage to play back in fast motion. Great if you are
trying to mimic the Keystone cops...sucks if you weren't.)
For about a day there I was shitting my pants. One of the
causes of having your camera shoot fewer frames is having
the camera motor slowly die on you. The Eclair ACL was notorious
for having it's original motor burn out if you attempt to
shoot 400' loads. (Which is what I have been doing of course.)
When I spoke to the guy who transferred the footage and asked
him WHICH footage looked like it was under-cranked, he said
that the dog I filmed appears to be moving faster than normal.
It then occurred to me; I bet he's never seen a spaz of a
mop of a dog like Mei-Li, the hyperactive Shih-Tzu. When I
got the footage back I found that I was right. Everything
sunk-up fine and remarkably, almost everything was in focus.
Woo hoo!
I've been booked at my corporate gig almost every day for
the past few weeks. This has been wonderful for my checkbook,
but lousy for being able to finish this project. It's almost
turned into a joke when I get hired down there. I'm the only
freelance person who grumbles when they want to give me more
days and money. They keep asking me, "so how'z the movie
coming along?" I go, "it's NOT....cause I'm HERE!"
Golden freelance rule: never turn down work.
Golden indie filmmaker rule:
never turn down money.
Golden shower rule: always
stand over plastic.
Note:
I'm not sure if the last one is indeed a rule, but I only
feel it should be true.
Absolutely true story: After a day in the corporate office,
I was walking through downtown Boston and was waiting at a
stop light to cross a street. This woman looks over to me
and goes, "Aren't you Eric Bickernicks? Didn't you direct
the film "alt.sex?" Just for a split second I felt
as famous as Quinten Tarentino. If I had a camera I would've
filmed someone cutting some else's ear off. I go, "yea....?"
She says, "I was in the club scene you shot at that nightclub.
I was one of the people that was asked to come in off the
street and be in your film." She then told me how cool
it was for someone to attempt to do something like this, etc.
etc. etc. We walked for a couple of blocks and I reminded
her that she's invited to everything and anything related
to the film. How often is this supposed to happen in your
life?
On
May 11th, we snuck back into the Wonderbar and shot some additional
reaction shots of Johnny and redid a couple of bits that were
initially out of focus. We were able to give a copy of the
Boston Globe Magazine article
to Neil the manager and the owner who happened to be there
that day. The Wonderbar was mentioned in the article and everyone
on the staff was able to read it and give us some positive
feedback. It felt like it gave us some legitimacy for being
there, instead of the assholes who were holding up the production
of their pizzas.
After the shoot we went to the Coolidge
Corner Cinema and checked out their video
projection cinema. It's a small theatre that seats 45.
It's rigged just to present video on a very large screen,
but it has seating just like in a real theatre. (They sorta
tilt back and have little cup holders. Candy stuck on the
floor. The works.) I'm thinking of showing a work in progress
to select members of the cast and crew in this nice little
venue. It'll probably cost me 300 bucks to rent it out on
a Saturday night, but I think it'll be worth it. I stood there
looking at the screen and thinking, "yea..I can see it
up there...with 45 of my newest friends. We'll have a ball.
Who the fuck cares if the rest of the world sees it. WE'LL
have a fun time and it'll be worth it."
Eric recording |
Juliet sings |
3 guys & basket |
