Production Diary: The Final 8 Days
4 September 2007 in Blog | Comments enabled

I’ve had a long weekend to rest up and I’m ready to fill you all in on how the last week of production went. (I actually spent this weekend logging the footage and started work on a trailer. So I didn’t rest too much. But I was anxious.)

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 -

We drove up to Armuchee, Georgia on Wednesday and prepared the two sets we were shooting at on Thursday. Both were at Floyd Springs Baptist Church where my dad was pastor while I was in High School. We were shooting in the pastor’s office which meant we had to rearrange it. That took a couple of hours. We also were shooting in the Fellowship hall. We had already shot in there but for some reason we lost footage during one of the transfers from P2 card to hard drive. This was even more of a frustration because that scene required 50 extras.

Call time was 7AM. We began shooting a major dialogue scene on Thursday morning involving 5 actors. We were fortunate to have lost this footage because the first time we shot this scene, Josh and I were not prepared and we rushed it. I don’t think it would have cut together. This time, we patterned our coverage from a scene in Scorcese’s The Aviator. (Great movie, by the way.)

I had heard that on Jaws, Spielberg was watching a couple of classic movies every night and making notes on how he wanted to mimic scenes. Each day he’d shoot his own scenes using shots he loved. So that’s how we justify stealing from Mr. Scorcese. If Spielberg can do it, then we can to. And really I think that’s a perfect way to learn to direct. We have learned so much just by mimicking other directors. As you do it, you learn why the great directors made those choices.

As I said, this scene required 50 extras. We had about 15. But we made it work. Extras are extremely hard to get in small towns. A lot of them were friends of the family.

One toy we had during these last 8 days was a dolly with a boom arm… like you see in the making of documentaries. This thing was super cool. I wish we had it on the first 3 weeks. While shooting in that fellowship hall, we never used sticks. We just wheeled the dolly around. It made setup so much quicker.

After finishing in the fellowship hall, we headed over to the pastor’s office around 2:00pm and spent the rest of the day in there. It was tough because it was cramped. We continued using the Dolly in there (I’m not sure why.) I guess everyone liked having a dolly around. This thing can move it’s wheels any way you want. It can even “crab” walk sideways.

We ended up wrapping around 6:30ish that evening. Dinner was provided in the kitchen at the church and then everyone packed up the truck as we put the pastor’s office back together.

That night we stayed with Larry and Moni Owen again. Their house is so nice to stay in. Very refreshing after a long day of filmmaking.

Friday, August 24th, 2007

Call was 7am at Northside Church in Rome, Georgia. The night before, I had to help get the genny to the location plus fill it up with gas. So I didn’t get in bed till late. We were a little shorthanded this time so Josh and I had to pitch in.

We were shooting a men’s conference and again, we needed 50 or so extras. We only had 7. But we made it work. We had a couple of guys change shirts and such. During one big wide shot, it just so happened that a group of men were meeting and about to go to lunch. So our producer asked them if they would be extras. So in the big wide, we had about 20 guys. That was very fortunate.

I hate having hard outs for actors. One of our actors had to leave at 1pm so we had to rush to finish his scenes. But I think it was a good thing because it gave us plenty of time to film scene 151… the last scene of the film. We spent the afternoon prepping Northside Church’s youth room. In the movie, it’s a dedication scene. Stephen Caudill gives this great speech and then a band plays. We got to use the dolly a lot in that scene and it looks great. I’m so pleased with it. And my younger brother, Jon, has a cameo as the bass player in the band.

Around 6:30 that night, it started lightning and we had to rush to get the last shot before we had to shut down the genny. Apparently, you can’t run a genny in a lighting storm. No one knows what will happen but they say it’s really bad.

That night we packed up and drove home.

Saturday, August 25th, 2007 -

We spent Saturday shooting our picture car driving by churches and country settings. It took all day. It’s the little things that take FOREVER! But I got to play with an iPhone all day. It belonged to our DP.

We’ve had a crisis going on during this production. It began when we typed the words “INT. CHICKEN HOUSE - DAY.” Our only contact with a chicken house wouldn’t let us shoot our climax in her chicken house because she had chickens in them. So we needed an empty chicken house. We’ve been looking for one since May.

As of Saturday, the 25th, we still didn’t have one. We finally got a lead on one and that day, while Josh and Chris shot the car driving, I went up to Ellijay to look at it. When I got there, I knew we had found it. It was perfect.

And it was just in time. We were scheduled to shoot there on Monday.

Sunday was a day off. It was kind of cool because Floyd Springs Baptist Church asked my dad to preach there that day. So I went to hear him preach. After church, we had the chore of getting the grip truck and genny to Ellijay. We had planned to shoot the chicken house stuff in Rome so the crew left it all in Rome. Fortunately, two men that attend Floyd Springs Baptist volunteered to drive the trucks.

Monday, August 27th, 2007 -

I cannot tell you anything that we filmed on Monday. But just so you know, it is amazing.

And also, the floor of a chicken house is GROSS. By the end of this day, everyone was filthy. Especially our actors. I have to specifically thank Carrie Walrond, Stephen Caudill, Jackie Prucha, and Brandon O’Dell for volunteering to be our lifesize G.I. Joe action figures and letting us completely punish them all summer. They’ve done things I wouldn’t do myself. Rolling around on the floor of a chicken house has to be the worst of it.

We were scheduled to shoot the exteriors of the chicken house back in Rome but we didn’t finish the interiors. So we had to stay another half day.

Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 -

We finished up in the chicken house and had a company move in the middle of the day to Rome. It was an hour and a half drive. We made it there around 4pm and started shooting at 5pm. We actually shot 2 scenes before it got dark. Normally, I would say a company move in the middle of the day would be a disaster but this time, it worked out quite well.

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 -

This was the nastiest day to be on set during the entire production of Dangerous Calling. We were shooting all day at the end of the chicken house where all the fans blew the grossest concoction of feathers and dust all over us. Combine that with dead baby chickens we were using in a scene (already dead - we didn’t kill them) and it causes naseau. Which is exatly what our A.C. Alex Faulk had. Combine his puking with everything mentioned above and it makes a very uncomfortable situation. I can still smell those chickens. Needless to say, I doubt any of the cast or crew will eat chicken in the near future.

Because we went over on Monday, we had to delete a scene and rewrite another to be shorter. And actually the movie is better because of it. I have been amazed time and time again at the things we think are disasters and then turn out to be for the best. You’d think I’d learn not to freak out.

We wrapped around 6pm. The ladies of Floyd Springs Baptist made us the most amazing Mexican meal I’ve ever had. Thank you ladies!!!

Thursday, August 30th, 2007 -

We were back in Ellijay and had to shoot back in the bedroom of the lodge. We had to shoot Brandon O’Dell out because he had to be in Atlanta by 2pm. He has a pretty major role in the new Frank Darabont film, The Mist, and was recording ADR. (Check out the new trailer. It looks really cool.)

After lunch, we had to shoot a pickup shot and had to recreate the lighting in a scene. It took two hours for one insert shot but it looks like we shot it on the same day we shot everything else in that scene. Chris Campbell did a great job.

After the pickup shot, we mounted a hostess tray to our picture car and shot a scene while driving. The footage looks amazing.

Friday, August 31st, 2007 -

We finished our shoot in Covington, Georgia… the birthplace of our desire to make films. We shot at a church across the street from where we saw our first film set. It was a house that we happened upon in the late 80’s. They were filming a scene from In the Heat of the Night. Tibbs’ wife had just been raped and she came running out of the house screaming her head off. At first we thought something was wrong. But then we saw the 50 people standing around watching her.

And here we were, on the set of our own production nearly 20 years later… right across the street. I wish I had the Delorean and could time travel back to that day and see little Josh and Jer. That makes me smile.

That last day was a little sad but it was also a huge weight coming off. We had shot 151 scenes. That is a huge accomplishment and we are both very proud. On the second day of production, I honestly thought we’d never make it. But we did. I said all along that if we finish this movie, it will be a miracle. And it was.

How else can you explain this -

Four highly experienced actors giving us 4 weeks of their summer with no pay

A crew of 20 people working on our film for free

An empty chicken house

A church allowing us to shoot a film on it’s property that contains killing and gore

A very expensive lodge in Ellijay letting us shoot a movie there for free

Several people in Rome and Ellijay giving us food and lodging for free

Two parents who completely support their kids who were willing to be location manager, PA, Janitor, caterers, Craft services, set Mom and Dad, etc…

I just want to thank everyone who had a part in the production of Dangerous Calling. We couldn’t have made this film without the contributions of over 100 people giving of their time, money, and possessions.

THAT’S A PICTURE WRAP!!!