Production Diary: The Pickups
Posted by Jeremiah on August 22nd, 2007 @ 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

So we begin our week of pickups tomorrow. Josh and I are heading up to Rome, Georgia this afternoon. It’s definitely a stressful thing to have to coordinate all the actors’ schedules with our own and the key crew members. Once we locked all of those people, we still had to fill the other crew positions… which proved to be difficult.

But I think we’re ready to shoot. This time we’re aiming for a lower page count per day. One of the many lessons learned the hard way during the first round of production. Hopefully, on Friday August 31st, we will roll camera for the last time on Dangerous Calling. (With the exception of some exteriors and drivebys. We’ll call that 2nd Unit.)

I’ll try to post on Saturday about the first three days of the pickups.

Crew Needed!
Posted by Jeremiah on August 17th, 2007 @ 05:30 PM | Comments (0)

We need to fill some crew positions for the upcoming pickups.  We shoot August 23rd thru 31st in Rome, Georgia.  No pay but we provide food.  Lodging will be provided for those who don’t live in Rome.  Send us an email if you are interested.  Daws Brothers film sets are always a lot of fun to be on.

us@dawsbrothers.com

Top Ten
Posted by Josh on August 15th, 2007 @ 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

Ok.  I’ll bite.  Ask me tomorrow and you’ll probably have a totally different list, but here goes.  At the moment my top ten is…….

1. Jaws - one of the only perfect movies ever made.
2. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington - Capra at his best.
3. Casablanca - love it.
4. Empire Strikes Back - Agree.  the best of the SW films.
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. It’s a Wonderful Life - this’ll be at the top of my list by Christmas
7. The Searchers - John Ford’s best film and the best western ever made.
8. Back to the Future - another perfect film.
9. Citizen Kane - Rosebud.
10. The Best Years Of Our Lives - If you haven’t seen it you need to.

Honorable mention: Shawshank, E.T., LOTR Trilogy.  The only one on Jer’s list that I wouldn’t agree with is The Bridge Over River Kwai.  I’ve never been able to get into it.  I guess I need to try again.  We usually agree on movies.

Post-Production Diary: Bored, so I made a top ten list…
Posted by Jeremiah on August 14th, 2007 @ 10:26 PM | Comments (2)

We’ve been out of town but finally got back to work yesterday and have gotten a lot of work done on the edit. We meet this Friday with a post house in Atlanta to see if they can help us with sound, color correction, etc… I’m sure they can help… but can we afford them? We’ll see.

I was bored and poking around on my Netflix. Apparently you can make top 10 lists so I figured I would post mine for the world to see. These are my favorite films of all time. Not necessarily the best films in my opinion but the ones I grew up on. I’ll generally watch at least one of these films every month.

Jer’s Top Ten:

1) Back to the Future - (Was my favorite as a kid and still is. Brings a smile to my face every time.)

2) It’s a Wonderful Life - (Greatest film ever made. I’ll beat you up if you disagree.)

3) Jaws - (Spielberg’s Best. I love every second of this movie.)

4) Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back - (The best of all the Star Wars films. The final saber fight is classic.)

5) The Goonies - (Do I have to say anything about The Goonies?)

6) Casablanca - (The second greatest film ever made.)

7) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - (Yeah it’s dark, but that is why it rocks. And Short Round is awesome.)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - (Third greatest film ever made. Jimmy Stewart is amazing in this film.)

9) The Bridge on the River Kwai - (I can’t explain why — I just love it.)

10) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition - (And by Fellowship, I mean all three.)

Some honorable mentions were - Back to the Future II, Raiders, ET, Cast Away, Truman Show, The Abyss, Field of Dreams… just to name a few.

Obviously, a person’s top ten list can change at any time. This is just mine at the moment.

Maybe we can get Josh to post his. I’m sure his are a little different from mine.

The Coolest Thing Ever!
Posted by Jeremiah on August 12th, 2007 @ 01:17 PM | Comments (0)

I was at Wal-mart today picking up a box of Raisin Bran cereal and a box of Trix Cereal. (I love cereal.) I noticed that Trix is now the ball shape again rather than the fruit shapes. But it says its a new shape. We kids of the 80’s know the truth. Trix used to be ball shaped.

But that’s not the coolest thing ever.

I went to the toy aisle to peruse the Pirates, Transformers, and Ninja Turtles toys. I glanced over at the Star Wars display and found it — the coolest thing ever.

Star Wars Force Action Extending Lightsaber

That’s right. Spring action lightsabers. HOLY COW. I grabbed an awesome Obi-Wan Kenobi saber and RAN to the checkout line. Before I got in the car, I had it out and was swinging it around the Wal-mart parking lot.

This is the thing that as a kid, you pray they would invent. No more having to flick your wrist to extend the blade. Now, you just press a button and out pops the blade.

RUN to your nearest toy store and buy this awesome gift that George Lucas has bestowed on the world. It’s only $20. Well worth it. The handle is a little bulky and the sound FX are pretty lame but it does have a light. Now all we need it to do is collapse by pressing a button. That would rock.

God Bless the good people at Hasbro Toys for giving us this wonderful toy.

Jeremiah’s take on the Escape… and other L.A. things.
Posted by Jeremiah on August 11th, 2007 @ 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Josh’s post gave a good overview of what we experienced in Los Angeles. It was a great trip and I enjoyed meeting all the bloggers and the people from Ford and their PR company, Hill and Knowlton. The marketing world is fascinating to me and I definitely would love to work with a marketing company directing commercials if the opportunity ever presented itself.

I enjoyed driving the Ford Escape very much. It was a definite improvement to my ‘97 Honda Civic. For years I drove a Dodge Caravan so it was nice to be up and off the ground again. Driving the winding roads of Hollywood was a lot of fun as was driving up to the Santa Monica mountains to see the Disney Ranch. The car handled well. Ford did a good job of convincing me that they actually do make good vehicles. My only experience with Ford was my parents’ Ford Aerostar that we had when I was a kid. It broke down ALL the time. But at the time, I’m sure it was 6 or 7 years old. Driving the Escape definitely made me feel better about Ford.

Meeting Adrianna Costa was very cool. She was really nice and very encouraging of our dreams. I told her about our film and what we hoped to do and she told us to keep going. I can’t believe I sat beside her for like 2 hours while we ate dinner.

That’s one thing about LA or maybe just fancy restaurants (both places I don’t go to much) is that the meals take FOREVER to eat. We could count on at least 2 hours in a restaurant while out there.

As Josh said, Will and Jason were very nice and we spent a long time talking with them. Zack also was really cool. I don’t think he should have been kicked off last week.

At the Disney Ranch, we met the producer behind the Ford commercials that they show during the American Idol results show. He was a very nice guy and knew his stuff. We told him we really enjoyed those commercials and that we usually TIVO past everything on the result show except those commercials. He seemed genuinely touched. It’s interesting that even though he’s probably one of the most successful commercial producers out there right now, he still appreciated a compliment by two “nobodies.” I guess Praise is Praise. Doesn’t matter who it comes from.

We also met a really nice PA who was working on the commercial. He had a tatoo of Boba Fett’s insignia. I can’t remember his name though. I like PAs. I worked as a PA on a really awful indie film in Florida. It was 3 weeks of pure hell. But I learned a lot. I remember the worst thing was trying to get the hang of yelling “QUIET” and “ROLLING”. It’s harder than you think. I also hated it that PAs weren’t allowed to sit down… ever. Apparently the producers or director would fire you if you did that (maybe it was just this shoot I was working on.) Also, we couldn’t let anyone see us eating, both Craft Services or catering. We had to eat after everyone and really quick. Even today, I still can’t relax on my own film set and just eat because I was so afraid of getting caught eating on that film.

As for LA, I wouldn’t mind living there if I was already working in the industry and making a decent salary. I’m not ready to go out there and starve, live in a tiny apartment in a bad area of town, and work at Starbucks while trying to “make it” in the industry. For now, we’re content with making our films here and writing our scripts and then mailing them out to the West Coast. But who knows what the future holds.

Escaping Boredom in LA
Posted by Josh on August 6th, 2007 @ 09:03 PM | Comments (3)

A few weeks ago we got an email from a PR agency inviting us out to LA to see a taping of the reality show, On The Lot, courtesy of The Ford Motor Company. It sounded too good to be true, and I was wondering what the catch was. Turns out there really was no catch. We just got back from LA and had a great time.

We flew out on Tuesday and arrived in LA around 11am. A representative from Ford met us at the airport and took us to the Roosevelt Hotel right in the heart of Hollywood. This is where the very first Academy Awards were held. It had just recently been remodeled to have a very modern look, but it still had a very old Hollywood feel to it. The rooms were
really nice.

After we checked in and made sure our stuff made it to our rooms (they took our bags for us,) we went up to the roof for lunch and a presentation from Ford. We met the other bloggers. I was surprised to find that not all the bloggers were film bloggers. There were comedy bloggers, shopping bloggers, fashion bloggers, adventure bloggers, etc. I think they said there were about 17 bloggers chosen from all over America and Canada. Everyone was really cool and fun to talk to. We all expressed some skepticism of what our time in LA was going to be like. Lunch was deli sandwiches. The view was incredible offering great views of the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory, and Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

After lunch, we met the team from Ford and their PR agency. They gave a short presentation on the Ford Escape and Escape Hybrid. They talked about their marketing campaign and the associated website http://www.boredomhurts.com. Then they showed us some video clips from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and short films created by a
fictitious contestant 51 that almost made it onto the On The Lot show. It’s really an elaborate marketing campaign associated with the On The Lot website. The videos are a little cheesy and but in a good way.

After the presentation, we were divided into pairs (Jeremiah and I stuck together the whole time) and given the keys to a Ford Escape. We then drove about 20 minutes to the CBS Studios where On The Lot is taped. We were greeted by two guys that work for Mark Burnett and handle product integration. They gave us a behind the scenes tour. We saw their production offices, David Hasslehoff’s dressing room (his show tapes there too), John Ratzenberg hanging out in Mark Burnett’s office, the set and backstage area. Then we met the Executive Producer. No, not Spielberg. The one that actually runs the show. He gave us a tour through their video control trailer. Wow. I thought our church had an impressive control room. Not anymore. This thing was amazing. A video geeks heaven.

After the tour we were seated in the theater and Mark Burnett stopped by to say hi. A few people were able to ask him some questions. He was really impressive and seems to have handled his tremendous success very well. Someone asked him about being named one of Hollywood’s 25 mavericks. He very humbly said that he learned a long time ago to treat
a kick in the balls like a pat on the back and vice versa. They’re both momentary. He said you’ll self destruct if you start caring about what people think. Good advice.

At this point a comedian came out to warm up the crowd and we had to say goodbye to Mr. Burnett. The comedian wasn’t that funny, but he did his best to get the crowd going. He explained how the show would work and a few minutes later it started. It’s a live taping so if you saw it on TV you know what happened. A few things of note:

• It’s hard to hear what the host and judges were saying. I guess they keep the volume low for recording purposes, but I really need to watch it on Tivo because I couldn’t hear a thing.
• Jerry O’Connell was on the show sitting in the audience, but they actually just whisked him out right before they cut to him and then he left.
• Adrianna Costa, the host, is really that attractive.
• During commercial breaks, the warm up guy would do movie trivia or little games with audience members to keep the crowd going.

When the show ended, they took us up on stage and then brought each of the judges by to meet us and talk to us for a second. I got to ask guest judge Gary Ross (Seabiscuit & Dave) for his advice to first time directors. He told us to keep doing it. He said they may laugh at you now, but in twenty years everything will be different. He said not to define success by what Hollywood says it is. Easy advice to dispense from someone who has achieved that type of success.

Penny Marshall was next. She was… very interesting. Kinda scary. She talked about how no studios would make A League of Their Own today because it doesn’t appeal to foreign markets. She made some good points, but was really out there.

Carrie Fisher was up after her. She was the most talkative of all. She asked us about blogging and the difference between Myspace and Facebook. Someone of course asked her about Princess Leia. I felt sorry for her. She has to get that every single day of her life. She
said she hates going to conventions. She calls them celebrity lap dances. After a few minutes of talking about Leia, I asked her about writing to change the subject. She said she was working on a couple projects and then they escorted her away.

After that we met Adrianna. She was really nice and friendly. She
asked where everyone was from and thought it was cool that we were from
Atlanta since she used to work for CNN Headline News and lived there.
That’s all I’ll say about Adrianna since my wife reads this.

From there we were taken to the bungalows where the contestants are staying. They had cocktails there and we were able to meet each of the contestants. They were all really nice, but I especially enjoyed talking with Jason and Will. They were all just regular guys that just
a few weeks ago were the typical filmmakers hauling their equipment in their car and begging their friends to help them make a short film. Now they’re working with full Hollywood crews and only have to worry about how they’re going to direct the film. Must be nice.

We went to dinner at a hot LA restaurant with the contestants, the producer, Adrianna (she sat next to Jeremiah!), and the product integration guys. We got to talk with the contestants even more. Jason was really interested in our feature and asked a lot of questions and I got to ask Zach what it was like to work with the Dad from Family Matters. He said he was really nice. We learned a lot of behind the scenes secrets that we’re not supposed to share, so I won’t, but it was really interesting.

We got to spend a couple of hours with the contestants. It was a lot of fun talking with them. After dinner everyone, including the contestants, went back to the hotel for cocktails at the pool. We skipped that and went to bed because we were still on Atlanta time and it was around 2:30am (our time.) I was amazed at how much time we were getting with the contestants. Especially considering one of them was being eliminated the next morning. It’s crazy to think that at this very moment one of them is sitting in a hotel room locked off from the rest of the world until the show airs tomorrow night.

Wow this post is long. I’ll be more concise.

The next day we went to a Ford commercial shoot at the Disney Ranch. This was a dream come true for us. We’re huge Disney geeks and it was pretty amazing to be at the place where they shot a lot of the old Disney movies and TV shows.

After that was more time in the Escape. We had a sort of photo scavenger hut that took us to several LA landmarks. Here’s where we went:

Overlooking LA from Mullholland Drive

Rodeo Drive. Don’t ask.

Pink’s hot dog stand. Supposedly famous.

It was fun driving the Escape through the winding roads of the Hollywood hills. It’s a great little SUV. The handling was great and the ride was comfortable. It had an audio input jack for our iPod and a pretty cool control panel and navigation system. This was my first experience with a hybrid and I must say I’m very impressed. It got great gas mileage and, let’s face it, hybrid is just cooler these days. It was neat to pull up to a stop sign and just hear total silence (it runs on electric while under 25mph.) Okay. Commercial over. All of that is true though. It’s a great car.

After the road rally it was back the hotel and then dinner. We had a great time and are very grateful to Ford for flying us out there. The trip really made me want to work on Hollywood sized films. I can’t wait until we’re doing that and get to work out there. I guess we better
hurry up and finish our film first.

(Jeremiah will post a few more details later this week.)