"The Beginning of a Disaster" – Project Greenlight, Episode 5
Posted on Fri 15 Apr 2005 (2062 reads)
Last week, after casting arguments and other pitfalls, we found John staying up late into the night the day before his first official filming of Feast. Against the advise of all those involved, he roamed the set with his girlfriend, anticipating the next day's events and looking forward to showing his skills behind the camera to those waiting to see whether or not he can do it or not. If you'll keep in mind from last week, John hasn't had the chance to rehearse with his cast, because a bomb scare cleared the set during their only opportunity to get together. On the first day of production, John wakes up early. "Everything's been leading to this day," he says. "I'm going to learn everything the first day. Kind of like the first day of school." He contemplates whether or not the script can be shot in twenty-five days. "All eyes turn to John Gulager," Mike explains. It's close to 15 minutes to the first shot of the day. "I did feel the weight of how much work it's going to be," John says. Joel comes to shake John's hand. "We're up against this unreasonable schedule," Chris explains, "My fear is he isn't use to working on deadlines." Ben, the Line Producer, is the one who keeps track of what work needs to be done each day. "One of the things that is nerve-wracking for the first day is knowing you are the guy they [cast] is looking to as a leader," Joel continues. Stephen, the Assistant Director, makes sure the cast arrives and the day's work gets finished. Diane, John's girlfriend, is in the first shot. They are shooting a scene where Harley Mom is going to rob the bar. John is talking about wanting to shoot a scene involving drugs, but unfortunately, they don't have time to put a crack pipe into the scene. "It's not something you want to drop on production on day one," Joel says, "Make sure we can just swap it in." Joel warns John not to mess up any shots on purpose just to get his way. He's very worried that John won't want to change scenes, and he won't listen to direction and assistance. Right now, they still don't have a hero character, and they're still pursuing Mark Wahlberg. They have a backup choice, Eric Dane, but Joel isn't behind him at all. They have to shoot the part in less than 24 hours. Mike says, "We needed a hero four days ago." They are making costumes on a dummy body, because they need to have everything ready to go when they find someone. They begin shooting the scene with John's girlfriend dropping a gun on the bathroom floor; it's perfect, and they move on. "Diane, good!" he hollers. Back to finding a hero, Michelle relates that Eric is upset that he found out that Mark Wahlberg is being sought after and now he doesn't want to be in the role. Michelle screwed up and thought she was supposed to offer the role to Eric, which she wasn't supposed to do, yet. He was their backup, and now they don't even have that. "We have no one," Mike sighs. Now, shooting again in the bar, various scenes and they cut for lunch. They go back and forth on whether or not they are ahead or behind. "It's surreal," Marcus smiles. "It's his vision now," Patrick says. "Things change every time," Joel explains, "If you don't have the writers on hand, you could be shooting yourself into a big, big disaster." Mike calls Michelle back and confirms that Mark Wahlberg will not do Feast. Mike looks dejected and defeated. He says he'll call her back once they get a game plan. "Once the D.P. sets up a shot, even the tiniest of change the entire shot," Joel tells the cameras as he notes that John wants to continue to change shots after they are set up. Josh Duhamel, from Las Vegas is pursued depending on his schedule, as to whether or not he will star in the movie; his people said if he does do it, he will be on set tomorrow no matter what, so, now it's just a waiting game. "Josh is worth the wait," Mike says, but he finds out that he can't do it because of his commitment to the NBC show. "This is a business, people are busy." Mike is now going back to Eric Dane. "We want to officially honor our offer to Eric and get him out tomorrow," Mike tells his manager. They are still worried he might not join the cast, because they waited too long to officially ask him. The day wraps, and they make it through their schedule for the day. "We inked Eric Dane to be hero," Mike says. "We're all just a little bit nervous," Joel notes. "We made our day, where we lost time was getting all the way out to the camera set," Ben explains. He also explains how to speak up better in order to fix camera shots after the fact. "I think it's good, and I'm glad we made the day," John notes. "I don't know what everybody's problem is," he continues, not quite sure why everyone is so concerned, but he just doesn't know better. "John made it through his first day," Joel says, "But today will be his hardest task." Today is a technical day, dealing with blood and other special effects, as well as dealing with Eric Dane as hero. "After all the back and forth that went on yesterday, we are very lucky to have Eric Dane as hero," Mike relates. Dane was previously on Gideon's Crossing, and this is the real first feature film he's starred in during his career. "We're making a monster movie here," Eric says. They shoot a scene where hero inspires confidence in the rest of the characters, and he talks directly to the cast. Meanwhile, Chris comes to visit the set of Feast. "He can really direct," Joel tells him. "My first vibe is that everyone is having a great time. John's really confident," Chris observes. "You had to come today, I was doing good yesterday," John jokes with Chris. "It was good that he came and that he was feeling cheery." Next comes the first technical shot, it has to work on its first try, in order to get Honey Pie cleaned up for another shot. She will have blood poured all over her during the shot. Gary is very important for the process Joel explains and then they begin the shot. Honey Pie gets blood sprayed all over her while trying to deflect it, and now she's covered in a whole vat of blood. However, the blood's begun to burn her eyes, and she has to have them flushed with water, but she's a trooper and heads back to wardrobe to get cleaned up. She hugs John before she leaves. "We finally got into the messy stuff," John jokes. "I wanted to go very fun, very commercial, over the top," Chris jokes, blood on his face, too, as they pose for pictures and other promotional shots, "I think in general, John has made a good director. He's taken all the hard parts in stride." John says, "I just hope it all comes together." Chris heads off for the day, praising John's work. Jules Sylvester brings maggots to the set for a scene. He discusses how to take care of the maggots and what it takes to deal with them. Beer Guy comes out to see them and he slowly decomposes through the whole movie, so, eventually the maggots begin to consume him. Today, they are shooting some of the decomposing scenes for throughout the movie. First and foremost, the scene today is being shot so that Beer Guy would shoot a maggot out of his nose to hit the camera lens and startle the audience. However, many are very skeptical, because John never plans these things; he just announces them and expects them to work. This shot could take away. "Anything John brings up that's new to the team, it slows down the day," Mike says, "Whatever he announces, it slows down Tom, the D.P." Joel notes they don't connect at all and it's going to cause tension on the set, because they don't work well together, and neither trusts the other to do a great job. "The maggot scene really screws up today," Mike says as they call for lunch. Mike discusses Tom to John and the relationship between the two. "It's just not [working]," he says. Later that day, around 3:30 P.M., Tom and John begin to argue about the next shot. John tries to work with John, but unfortunately, he keeps changing the shots which is frustrating for everybody involved. "People think you just move the camera, but it doesn’t work that way," Tom explains. There's a lot more involved to setting up the shot, and as such, when changes are made it takes a lot of time. "When the director comes in, you have to direct your photographer," Ben says. "When changing the shots, everyone gets really upset at me," John notes, he just doesn't get that they are eating time away from the day's goals. "When he trusts somebody, he can communicate," Ben says. "You can see it as, this guy doesn't know what he wants. That's not John. John knows exactly what he wants, he just can't get it out." John talks about getting his feelings hurt, because nobody wants to trust him on set, because he just doesn't get that they are working on the schedule. Krista Allen, who's playing Tuffy, doesn't know her direction, because John isn't talking to her about it properly. "It was a different process than I'm used to," she says. "We're also seeing he's having difficulty conveying his vision to the actors," Joel notes, which is worrying him, because they already see the break down between him and the crew. "I'm not comfortable with any human interaction," John says. "That never happens," Joel says when Navi has to ask what's going on while something is being shot. John begins to tell her what to do, and the shot breaks down unlike anything anybody has ever seen on a movie set. However, Mike's getting worried that the other actors who have to be in the background of many of the shots, and they get bored standing around. One actor who had to take hours of makeup complains that he had to go through the whole process, and they might not get to his shot, because they are behind for the day. With seven minutes left for the day's filming, they're still shooting a seen with Navi in the bar, and they manage to get through it and they wrap for the day. "People are starting to resent when they come in and don't get to work," Ben says. "It was apparent to talk about the gross inefficiencies. We did a great job and we also did a piss poor job." He lists his concerns that they didn't use half their cast for the day and wasted five grand for the day when they don't shoot that many cast members. "That's incredibly poor management. We shouldn't be leaving the set not knowing what we're shooting in the morning," he continues. John merely nods his head. "I had to kind of lay down the law." "We're becoming very frustrated," Joel notes. He talks to Diane about the situation and how John is doing. She tells him that he feels that he's being artistically shunned and that it's become very personal. "I don't think they really trust him, yet," she says. "I don't think they like his way of shooting." Joel says, "Diane confirmed my worst fears. This could become an issue that compromises the movie." At eight in the morning the following day, Joel sets forth the goals of keeping John focused and getting through his schedule. "We can't do all the wide shots this way," Tom explains, "We don't have the time." Mike says John has to shoot much faster than he is doing now. They're about half an hour for a setup. "We have people asking questions they should be asking at the beginning of a shot," Ben says, "Not the middle of it." They begin to fight amongst each other, they push one another and they're just trying to get through the day even if that means not shooting the best of every shot, regardless of John's so-called incomplete vision. Krista is complaining that it took her nine hours to shoot her last scene, the day before, and she won't deal with that again. Some of the other cast members talk about being "non-important extras" as well as just talking about getting up so early and not doing anything all day. "You can't just leave actors sitting around," Mike says. "It's very expensive," Joel says, "They get paid for every second they are sitting on set, even if they don't work." Stephen brings them out and talks to the cast and gives them a pep talk. "We're not dealing with something straight forward." The cast talks about the mood on the set. "A lot of times we're coming in and we're literally not sure what scenes we're getting done," Beer Guy notes. Stephen advises them to just ask questions as specifically as they can as soon as they come in that way they can get to work. Jim, Joel, Tom and Mike all sit down to discuss the problems. "Look, guys, we have to get control of this," Tom says. "This is really pathetic," Joel notes. "It's almost chaos there," Jim notes. They note that Eileen has been there all day, and this is the second day she hasn’t been shot, yet, again. "Only John knows how he's putting this movie together in his head, and this causes problems during the day," Tom explains. "We've still got half of our days work ahead of us. We'll finish three to four hours after we should've finished for the day." John thought he would have more time for the day, but unfortunately, he still doesn't understand how the process of filming works, and he doesn't want to work with anybody. Tom and Mike take a walk. "I'm already tired of the drama," Tom says angrily. "It's up to Joel and Mike to lay down the law," he says. They are still shooting a scene with Diane, and they have until 8:15 P.M. to finish for the day, even though they are still way behind for the day's tasks. The shot just wasn't working, they shoot it again, and now they have the wrap for the day. "I was frustrated as well. I want a team in sync," Mike scratches his head. "I don't know why we don't have it." They all sit down in the trailer and talk about the project. "The big thing was we didn't make our day," Stephen notes. "It looks like a basic lack of communication between all the departments," Tom says. "There's no set up for where it fits," Joel explains, "We don’t have any storyboards." John says, "It's a sad day in Gulagerville." He doesn't say much at all, he just floats around in his own world. "Without a rehearsal, nobody knows what's going on," Joel says. "Everything needs to be blocked and rehearsed with department heads," Tom explains. "I do think John can get this done and get this done fast," Stephen has the confidence in it. He has to change in days though if he wants to accomplish all this. Kirk, the editor, comes down to show some scenes that have been put together. This is the first time John has every scene something like this, and he looks very unhappy by the work that's been done. "I thought the pacing was very slow," he says, just laying his head on the sofa. Kirk asks him his thoughts, "We need to make it a little more exciting," John responds. "I just fell into a funk." He decides to go home, "I just felt I set everything in a bad direction. I'm going to have to find a way to fix it." Diane and John head to their car. "John is not enjoying this opportunity. He feels humiliated and embarrassed," she notes. "Nobody wants you to shut down," she tells him outside their car on the set before they head home. "You can do it." He says he gets scared that he's going to fail, and that he's going to let everyone down. "I just feel my style is not cohesive right now. I'm full of self-doubt." Carpesomediem is an aspiring freelance writer from Lancaster, Pa. who enjoys music, movies and writing about the way the world works; you can contact her at carpesomediem@realityshack.com to talk about this week's episode or anything at all.

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