Letting Josh #2 Down

I totally don’t have time to help him. He did say some of my ideas/feedback were amazing. That made me feel cool. Josh #1 is gonna help with music for Madre and Tell-Tale. Groovy. He’s one of the most talented people on the planet.

Tell-Tale Heart teaser is finished

The sound is a bit too quiet in the middle…

My Childhood

When I was a kid, my favorite magazines were Famous Monsters and Fangoria. I loved seeing the pictures – not just because they were gory or scary but because I couldn’t see the movies and the pix were the closest I could get. So, for all you kids who aren’t old enough to see R-rated movies …

Chris was as good as I thought he’d be. Outrageous and dangerous off-camera, but on-camera he was an absolute professional.

And my favorite shot … from under the floorboards…

Sound Effects

The best part of filming today was the audio while he’s hiding the body parts in the crawlspace! Most of the movie will have voice-over narration and the story is told via flashback. However, I have to find a way to use the sounds of the trapdoor opening and closing, the carpet being removed and replaced. It’s easily the creepiest stuff I’ve ever heard. I’m making a trailer just for fun and the only audio will be those sounds and, of course, a heartbeat.

Tell-Tale Shooting Day One

We’re done. Taping and not being able to edit drives me crazy. It’s a long wait to just capture it Monday morning. I suddenly remembered today I’m supposed to be editing the Christmas program for the church. I really need to get that done. It won’t require much work but I want to get it back to them. This next week I really need to get to work early every day and stay late so I can start to get some real work done on Madre. I want to get the teaser trailer done for Tell-Tale. And I’d like to get the church thing started and finished this week so they can have it next week.

Chris is crazy. For real. Absolutely crazy.

I thought filming from the crawlspace would be too hot but it wasn’t. I was sweating before and after that but, praise God, being in the crawlspace wasn’t bad at all. Except when Chris was screwing around while I was down there in the dark waiting for him.

Nikki left early in the morning to run errands. While she was gone I cleaned the bathroom and cleaned the ten tons of crap out from underneath the stairs. Chris arrived and we went to go get the stuff for make-up, ingredients for blood, etc. I left a note for Nikki just in case saying, “I promise I’ll clean up when we’re done.” I left the baggie of tarragon (left over from the Madre shoot) on the counter. She came and left again while we were gone and left me a return note: “Yes, please clean up, Spielberg and what is in that baggie on the counter?”

After we’d shot upstairs and were getting ready to shoot under the stairs, Nikki went upstairs to see not only the bathroom drenched in blood but the bathroom door off it’s hinges and set aside.

“Oh. My. God. Jaaaaaaay!” was all we heard, followed by a pause, then, “I have to go PEE!”

Y&T

Yesterday we filmed a couple “scenes” for a movie at work so I have the camera at home. Chris is here (home) reading The Tell-Tale Heart and we’re about to go get ingredients for blood, sheets to bloody up, and some latex. We’ll film those aforementioned 2-4 scenes today.

Shopping list:

• white corn/karo syrup
• latex
• brush (for applying liquid latex)
• red & green food coloring
• black cherry kool-aid

New Tell-Tale Star

James isn’t available this weekend, so the killer will be played by Chris Lewandowski. I think he can be dark & funny in the same way James would have been. I’m confident that over the next couple months I’ll have the camera enough to finish this one because I’ll be making a lot of movies at work.

Inertia, momentum, etc.

I might be able to get one, two or a few shots for The Tell-Tale Heart done this weekend if my “star” is available. There are a couple scenes and other shots of him by himself we could get done. They don’t require any rehearsal… unlike the murder scenes and final freakout with the cops. Two quick shots (though I’ve learned recently, however, that one or two “quick shots” aren’t as quick as one would think):

1. You chopping up the body
2. You hiding it in the floorboards.

Chopping Up The Body:
I’ll have him leaning over into my bathtub. The shower curtain will be blocking what he’s doing. It’ll look like, to the casual observer, he’s fixing something or washing something in the tub. He’ll then turn toward (not facing or looking at) the camera and place a bloody saw on the floor, showing a little blood on his shirt and he’ll be wearing yellow rubber gloves that will also have blood on them. That’s all the “gore” that’s in the movie.

Hiding the Body Parts:
Below is the “movie poster” featuring the trap door the body parts will go in. To the left is the storage space under my stairs where I will be with the camera, taping him putting some rolled up bed sheets (perhaps with some “blood stains” on them) into the crawlspace. If I can fit in the crawlspace with the camera or at least make it steady & safe (clean) down there by itself, I’d love a shot from that angle of him putting a piece or two in there and then closing the trap door.

Other shots he can do by himself with no rehearsal:

3. Sit on my porch and wave to the Old Man who is off screen
4. I’ll be on the porch and you can answer the door (for the cops who are knocking on it)

Tell-Tale Plans

I’ve got my “star” reading the short story – though he was already familiar with it … I want him “fluent” in it. I’m going to do this a “scene” at a time. There are three locations: my house, the other half of the duplex which will be called “tracy’s house,” and Dan’s house. Dan’s house is actually a house. The other “houses” are halves of the duplex I live in. I guess another “location” is the front yard of the duplex. So … four “locations” to shoot in … that’s how I’ll divide up the shooting schedule. I need to figure out when another full moon is … I’m still irritated about not being able to see the moon last time.

Movie Posters

I recently read Robert Rodriguez’ great book, Rebel Without A Crew. The first thing he did when he finished shooting El Mariachi was to cut the trailer so that whenever he was exhausted or overwhelmed, he could watch it and re-inspire himself. In another book I read – either Digital Filmmaking or Everything They Don’t Teach You In Film School (the other two in my trinity of film books), the author said that the first thing you should do is TELL people you’re making a movie. Then you kind of have to start so you don’t look stupid. In keeping with all that, I made the two images below and sent them to a bunch of friends.

I like this one even better. Above is my real floor and this is a real trap door I discovered in my house. As soon as Madre is done, I’ll put all the work for Tell-Tale that I’ve already done up here. One project at a time is more than enough!

Mood Swings

I called in sick today for the second day in a row. My wife called me from the school she’s teaching at today and asked if I was still sick or if I was just depressed. I said both. All I did this morning was lay in bed, watching Maria Full of Grace listening to the commentary (which is what I did yesterday when I was too sick to do anything else) thinking … this is falling apart … no one has called me … I’m a failure … I’m never going to make movies …

But, my wife did what she does which is talk me up (the opposite of talking someone down)  and tell me to go for a run, call someone, etc.

As I checked my email and voice mail for the umpteenth time, I listened to the archive message from Kathleen, the teacher at Western High School. I’ve really started to feel lately that I’m bugging people about the movie. The lady who is playing the Mom even said “What have I gotten myself into?” which is about as bad as my wife saying the same thing on our honeymoon. Me showing someone my script and me showing my wife my … other gifts … are about the same thing and all I want to hear is “this is incredible!” and so on.

So I called Kathleen. “Hello?” she answered, sounding irritated. I pressed on, my wife always sounds irritated when she answers the phone, too. I tell her who I am and she’s like “OH! Hi! Hold on!” and apparently switches over to get rid of the person on the other line. FYI, ladies: THAT is how you talk to a man. I thought maybe no one was interested but as it turns out, she’s got 4-5 young men interested in the two main parts (I said I wouldn’t turn anyone away and I’d use the rest for extras … or, I’ll write parts for them, too) and two guys who could play the priest.

Wow. I am going to ask her if she’s got some girls and a woman, too, just in case!Once I’ve got all this taken care of, I can go back to finishing the TV show debut!

This will all get me so psyched. It will renew my excitement for The Tell-Tale Heart. And… based on conversations with Nikki (my wife), I’ve come up with some cool ideas for that. At first, she was driving me crazy saying it was “vile and disgusting” but … it really got me thinking creatively and very out of the box with it. Though, last night, we watched “Three,” a “christian” horror/thriller and it drove me crazy that she didn’t find that or Law & Order or CSI and all that “vile and disgusting.”

Maybe I can do Tell-Tale in Spanish and in Mexicantown. Wow… wouldn’t it rock if I had two films that night? If I could get both done in time? But if I did that, it would just be the Poe story … not my current vision … well… perhaps if my actors that I meet through Kathleen are right for Tell-tale … she did mention on of them was older … though I’d need to make him look really old …

Okay, that’s enough rambling for now.

Full moon, new moon, no moon

I carried the camera all the way home last night just to film the full moon over my house for The Tell-Tale Heart and it (the moon) was nowhere to be found. Stupid moon.

Locations!

Tomorrow I’ll confirm with Enrique I can film some non-interview shots Friday evening during the Mexico futbol finals.

James seems possibly like he could be interested, I think, in being a part of Tell-Tale.  I scoped out the other half of the duplex and the owner is willing to let me move some furniture around, let my actors be in her house, etc. I’m very excited. Hopefully, the actors will be willing to drive out to Westland. Now I just need to make sure who is playing the NARRATOR. If not James, then I need to start rehearsing at least that scene.

Pressure

I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself to get all this stuff done and done quickly. I’m sure it doesn’t need to be done this way. Part of it is I have to squeeze in tasks when I have time which is very rare. Last night, the kids were at their grand-mother’s so I thought …

I Can’t Find My Notes

I’ve been taking, and translating, notes for months and I can’t find them. I’ll look again tonight. At least I can remember them, so worst case scenario is I re-write and re-translate them.

My lost Tell-Tale and Poe notes are gone forever, though.

My Current Projects

Tonight, I spoke with one of the owners of La Casita, a market and taqueria in Westland, MI about interviewing him, his employees and customers for my upcoming local community access cable TV show. Finally, some progress on that front! I’ve been making notes for weeks (at least).

I think I’ll call the show Cubicle with a View.

Also, I finally have all my parts cast for my short film, The Tell-Tale Heart.