Tonight was a wonderful night. Attic Studios in LIC is a great place!

Best of all: I finally am witness to our film, along with 50 some other NY’er’s friends, families, peers, random’s. The movie looks great and sounds great and I am so proud of everyone, it was so great seeing us all back together again and it is truly sad not having three members of our team there tonight, however you were there in photographs and definitely there in the heart of this film.

For me watching the film brought back memories of making it and for the first 20 minutes it was hard to disconnect from that. Seeing shots and remembering that I shot that, or lit that, or silk’d that, seeing my actual fingerprint on the scene (not on the lens tho) and being proud of all our work from the DVGenius, to Mike’s opening shot of him in the car, to Redfield’s excellently complimentary score, Chad’s guitar pieces, Sumi’s location management, James uber natural acting , and Gabi’s location finds everyone did an amazing job. I want to list out what everyone did and I could but they all know they did amazing, amazing, work with resources and time, and did it with no, to little sleep and it makes me proud to be a part of that team. There is no I in team but it does have the letters for meat, whatever that means.

The biggest moment for me was a small one, where Brigitte and Mike enter the car (woody) and it took less then 10 seconds on screen with a line of dialog between them and my thoughts quickly jumped to the technical aspect of getting two people to enter a car and talk to each other and how seamless it looks but what happens off screen is: lighting, sound positioning, ND filters on the car windows, silk, focus, setting up the composition, costume, makeup, continuity, etc, etc and  this is just for a quick in between scene that runs all of 1/4 of a page, at this moment; I was just sitting there dumbfounded at how we actually were able to accomplish all this in 4 weeks. In actuality it is no small feat and maybe even a miracle that we came out of this with all our limbs in tact. Following this out of body experience I jumped back into the story to enjoy it, and I did, more then I ever anticipated when I set out on this trip July 31st. I really think we made something beautiful, and when we will be tweaking some aspects of the film “fine-tuning” and this film will be great.

I think as a crew and cast there will be so many small moments that we can watch and just be amazed at, I think we all may laugh at a certain line that the public might never see, but overall the room was quite receptive to our film, they laughed and cried with us, and at the end of the day we told them a story, and that is the miracle. The miracle of telling someone a story, to be honest enough to let them laugh and cry, that is why I do this, to impact someone and hopefully they will remember a moment in this story and let it make an impact on their life outside of the Attic Studios.

I enjoyed the Q & A, people asked great questions, we thanked Matt Young for syncing all the sound with out you we would have been making a 5 week feature.

To all who attended thank you.

To all who will attend Sat Night, thank you too

xoxo

Clint

Eat, Sleep, Make a Movie.

PS I am uploading a video to the You Tube of mambo # 5 post screening celebrations so check back!

As most know I had to miss the final fun filled week to star in a feature length horror film based out of NYC, (while I left SLC 6 days ago yesterday was my first day off) because of this I am missing out on tonight the best of all nights when all of the team (sans Sumi and I) crowd into a hopefully crowded theatre in SLC to screen our baby. (Do we have a title yet?)

I am so proud of our team, I have witnessed a couple quick edits of rough cuts sent out for music okays, etc etc, and I am so impressed with what we have all done, so on tonight I would like to talk about some of the “issues” we had to overcome in order to finish this film. These issues do not include 13+ people in close quarters, time limits, not having a locked down ending until the end, running low on coffee, or water, or sleep, just some of the things that are now “fun” to look back on.

1. During the filming of a camera test politely labeled “We Built this Incest” one of our own and my personal favorite James Fauvell was approached on the street for fitting the description of a Park City Burgler. [See http://fourweekfeature.com/2010/08/fitting-the-type/]

2. I wished to right a blog about this incident but the moment passed but i was pulled over for going 40 in a 20 in the town of Park City, luckily I begged my way out of a ticket. (I kid you not about my politeness and the absolute look of beaten puppy I had on my face when I was pulled over.) Fortunately the Officer did in fact let me off with a warning and I never sped in Park City again. However to be fair the road I was on changes speed 8 times in under 4 miles and I was within a stone’s throw of the 40 mph sign. (granted I can throw a stone quite far)

Please Admire the Cop behind me.

3. Finding a Family Car. Much of this movie is spent in a car, so much that it almost becomes a 6th character, so finding the perfect car was more the just for driving the family it needed to help tell the story, it needed to have something about it that as soon as you saw it as an audience member you could connect with it. We eventually found Woody and woody was and is an amazing car and I couldn’t be happier with it. I like it much more then using either production vehicle (we originally did shoot one seen with a 2006 Ford Explorer look for it in the deleted scenes).

4. Not one. But Two. Flat Tires! While driving up to what we hoped to be a purple lake that ended up looking blue on camera we had to drive over 9 miles on a dirt road that separates the Salt Lakes. The view on the road is amazing and eventually we reached our destination and found the spot that our team scouted the day before I joined them in Park City, only to find the lake that looks purple on a cloudy day looks Blue on a sunny day. This was not the best time to get a flat tire on Woody or the best location, after searching for a spare and a key I found that we did not have the necessary tools to change the tire and proceeded to call for help and after dealing with triple A for over an hour on the phone, I was finally receiving a tow truck at our own expense! (I hate you triple A)

Change me once shame on me.

One hour after our tire was changed we finished the shoot and packed up to head back, we were no more then a mile down the road when another tire decided it too wanted to give way under the strain of back country driving. At this point we had no spare to fit the car and no tow truck would come out to help via triple A (see why I hate them) So at close to 10 o clock at night all the way out in Toelle Utah we had to leave our car, we put a white flag and a note and more then one prayer that everything would turn out okay. Luckily thr next morning I was able to make contact with a tow truck driver who did it for half the price of the first tow truck, and repaired the one tire and replaced the second, all for less then the price of the first tire change through triple A’s tow service.

5. Uncle “Larry”. Uncle “Larry” (name changed) was a supposed part owner of a location we were using. The location was run by a very sweet couple and I have nothing but amazing things to say about them and their staff. But with less then a scene left to shoot in the lobby of a location we were interrupted by “Larry” he spoke with Keith very sternly and asked us all what we were doing.

Larry:

What are you doing in my place?

Keith:

Making a movie.

Larry:

I said you couldn’t be here.

Keith:

I’m sorry, I thought I was okayed to shoot.

Larry:

You’re not.

Keith:

We just have one thing left.

Larry:

How long?

It was at this point that the conversation turned to intimidation but everyone knew but Keith.

Keith:

Two hours.

Larry:

Excuse me?

Keith:

Two hours.

Larry:

Excuse me?

Keith:

I’m sorry, Two hours.

Larry:

Make it a short two hours.

Keith:

Ok

Larry:

I hope not bad comes out of this.

Keith:

Okay sir.

At this point “Larry” walked out got into his backhoe and drove away.

We looked around and then got to work finishing up the scene and neutralizing the space before leaving, Uncle “Larry” never ended up returning but we finsihed the scene in record time and weren’t chased out at gunpoint. My apologies to the lovely family who let us shoot for any inconvenience.

Later we spoke to Keith about the situation and he was totally so into directing he didn’t realize the excuse me convo was actually “Larry’s” way of threatening him.

6. Weather, actually weather was overall great except on our last day of shooting we had a big drop in weather and the rain came making us muddy, and tired, and cold but we paged forward and finished the film through the night and into the morning working over twenty hours straight on coffee, adrenaline, and our love for the film.

There are more I hope people could include on my list of six but these are what I encountered personally. We came we saw we conquered. I just got off the phone with James, Brigitte, Gabi, Chad, and Mike Lavoie and it looks like the theatre is packed for the screening I am so proud of everyone and can’t wait for the screening in NYC!

Love:

Clint

Eat, Sleep, Make a Movie.

PS: my title I put in the mix is: “And, We Built this Family.” (I like long titles)

I’m back in NYC via a red-eye flight from SLC to JFK– which means two things: HELLO HUMIDITY and I’ll be missing the SLC screening of the 4WF film tonight, along with Clint. :\  But I could not be more excited for us and for the rest of the team who will get to see the oohs and ahhs first hand!!  So let’s turn this up and get ready:

I can’t promise you as much cleavage and glow paint as the music video at our screening, but tonight really is gonna be a good night.

love/peace/it’s showtime,
Sumi