Doug's Production Diary 25





Sunday, July 17, 2005

Tonight was a long-anticipated scene: the sad tale of Charlette Marone (at Giovanna's Restaurant). This was a night shoot, after 9:00 p.m. so a lot of waiting around to do the scene.
Christian and Foley came over early to rehearse their lines and it sounded like they had them down pretty well. They had practiced on their own a few times this past week which I was thoroughly impressed with. We all knew this was a big and important scene and really wanted to nail it.

By the time we got to Giovanna's, they were just closing up, so we came in with all our gear. Once left to our own devices, we set to work getting the place in order.

Marty Fischlin showed up and we put him to task rounding up some extras, which would ultimately prove fruitless. So we had him, Mike Piazza, and Mike's girlfriend Heather. Not much...a little disheartening, but we'll do the best we can.

We took this scene in chunks and our approach was a bit different. First up, we shot Christian and Michelle's segment. For this part we shot the whole segment from one principal angle, then went back and did various other shots to round out the scene. Michelle was very nervous at first, playing Brenda, but overcame that soon enough and did very well.

Christian, on the other hand, was phenomenal! Cracked us all up with his junkie impersonation. Further, he had ALL his lines down to a tee. We also utilized Foley and our few extras here for the background.

Next up, we focused on Foley as Chuck, who sat a table and bantered with his guests. This went well and Foley looked great in his wig and moustache. His "Knuckle Time!" delivery was also killer.

Moving along, we shot Chuck and Brenda's segment where-in Foley stole the show with a little improvised catchphrase ("What.") As in "What are you gonna do about it?"

And finally, Jones and Chuck went at it. This part was fantastic. Christian really did a convincing job and Foley impressed me with his portrayal of a person whose story confused even me a little (and I wrote it!).

Other than the standard sorts of shots, we did get a nice dolly-like effect using Jordan's skateboard on the marble bar, and in particular the "Knuckle Time!" shot with Jones flipping out in the background were my favorites.

In addition to all of that, we squeezed in the part where Chuck is stopped on the way to his car by Doug.

We did a nice pan with Chuck until Doug came into frame. And another facing Doug with a great lens flare from a background street lamp. Both angles came out great.

Missed out on the crossing-the-street tracking shot...maybe we'll work around that?

Overall a very fun, and very productive, shoot.