Mutiny on the Bar Set – Project Greenlight, Episode 6by carpesomediem
"It's the first day, John has actually begun the work with rehearsal," Joel says. They begin to block and also seek direction from John. It seems everyone is working together to make things great.
They're working on Scene 33, where Beer Guy gets thrown up on by the monster. "He wants it to be organize," Mike tells some of the crew, when it comes to why John doesn't rehearsal.
Some crew are making the "vomit" from scratch for the scene, which is shot on him after the heroine and bartender jump out of the way. "Help me out, man, I can't see!" he yells during the scene for part of it as he's trying to deal with being thrown up on by the monster. "I have no hope for those movie," Mike laughs. "It worked really well," Judah, Beer Guy's actor, said about the scene.
Chris Moore comes to visit the set to watch. "Nobody's in trouble," he jokes, coming to watch the footage in the HP trailer with no music or sound effects, yet. "I was into it, it moved fast, it was kinda cool. I got lost in a couple of places in the geography of the bar," he notes. "We've got ourselves a movie here, boy," Stephen admits, excited. "I think the casting is great, I think the set is great," Chris beams.
They move to Scene 74, where Beer Guy freaks out from the vomit. "You tell me to leave it alone!" he yells. He's freaking out by the after-effects of the throw up. The script adviser is there and needs to make some changes as it happens. Apparently, she's a friend of John's family, so he feels comfortable working with her and trusting her on the set. They shoot the scene again, as Beer Guy says "alien" instead of "monster," and they need to fix that. They laugh at the scene, because it's so hilarious how he freaks out, and the set is very jolly today with John's opening up and input. "I think it became clearer to John that these people are looking for him to guide him," Nike notes.
They shoot a lot more scenes, and John and his Photography Director, Tom, appear to be doing much better. "Hopefully, people will be more secure with John as director of this film," Mike says. The page counts on the script in regards to what is being filmed isn't being followed and now they've changed how the process works to do it opposite the way it normally is done. "There are differently very professional issues underlining this conflict," Joel says of the argument going on. "I just think they don't like each other."
They're on day nine of shooting and working on getting another scene done. "We need to start shooting something right away," the Director of Photography says. "There's always going to be a battle," Mike says of putting John and Tom together. "I was guessing. It was almost trial by error." Mike comes to talk to them about the previous day, "Today feels like we're back to the old grind." Joel says, "It's seems almost frothy." Nike understands how John works, but unfortunately, nobody else knows how to work with him properly through communications. "The trailer's already crashed, it's just happening in slow motion," he explains. "We should have this worked out."
That night they have a meeting in the HP trailer about what happened. Tom notes that there's too much going on by the time the shot is set up, and it ends up confusing John to the point that things slow down, which can't keep happening. "It's very strange scenario to have a Script Supervisor have that much influence over a Director," Stephen brings up. "I think we have bigger problems with Script Supervisor," Mike admits, "If it continues to be a problem, we'll take care of it."
That day during makeup Beer Guy is getting all done up for his scene where he eventually gets his eyeball plucked out. John gives him a bit of direction for it. They go to shoot it, and the first time it happens, he gets poked in the eye which defuses the scene with laughter. They go for it again, pulling out the fake eyeball slowly while Beer Guy reacts by shaking. Then, they go to shoot after the eyeball gets plucked out when the blood begins shooting out and sprays one of the girls. "She demonstrated this really neat scream," John says, "It was great." They shoot the scene, but she thought there was more blood than she thought, and she froze. "She just kept taking it in the face," Gary, the monster maker, jokes. "Obviously, there was a little miscommunication there," John laughs.
The actress gets really angry, and she heads off to her trailer, because she thinks John set her up with the blood. "So, we're not going to do it again?" Jenny asks. "Well, I want to do it the right way." She's very upset about it. "I wasn't even acting." John explains the scene. "It's just so unrealistic." John says he wanted to use that one, and he called the set to see if they had moved on, knowing they probably did. He sighs, apologizes, and says he might want to recreate the scream elsewhere to put in later.
They move on to the next scene in the bar when a character drops a glass. Stephen was hit in the head with a peanut by Jim, and some of them keep throwing them around the scene. Harri flipped out about it when she was hit with a peanut. "Stop throwing peanuts at me!" she had yelled. "Nobody was [trying to throw peanuts at her]," Stephen noted.
The prop master didn't know they needed a glass, then, when they had a glass that didn't match. "I'll just make a note," Harri says, "That it wasn't right." Stephen chastises her, because apparently she wasn't aware of what was going on, with the continuity. "You should've known it was a different glass." She brings up the peanut throwing as a way to get back at him during the argument. Stephen then ignores her when they're getting ready to shoot the next scene, and he asks, "Are you sure of this?"
Mike confronts John about Harri. "The dynamic's not working, and I think Harri will be the first one to tell you it's not been working the last ten days," Mike explains. "We just felt we'd like to try somebody different." John talks about feeling upset by being told this. "I just wanted to let you know." He thinks finding a new Script Supervisor would be better than changing other aspects of the crew.
Harris is brought outside by Mike, and he fires her. "It's just a personality dynamic that isn't working," he tells her. "There's nobody. Damned if I do, damned if I don't," she says, "I feel set-up. I keep thinking what could I have done differently." Mike relates that firing someone is a hard thing to do. She blames Stephen for her being fired, and she feels he probably was the one that nudged for her to be fired, even though that wasn't the case at all.
She goes to talk to John after talking to Mike. "I really felt I needed to talk to John." John and her hold hands, and she's on his side, which is typical. "I wish we would've talked it out first," he says, "The whole level of consultation with me just doesn't go on." Harri patronizes him, telling him everything should be his way, even though it can't be his way. "There's always this side of me that none of this would ever come up," John says, "So I just wouldn't have to deal with. I think I wish I would've never gotten anyone else involved." They say goodbye and part ways for the evening.
They start their fourteenth day of shooting bright and early at 5:30 A.M. with John's dead meeting him on set for the day. He thought he was suppose to be there an hour earlier, so, they get to talk for awhile before everyone else comes in. "Today is day 14, and it's a pretty ambitious day," John notes. The new Scrip Supervisor, Arthur, comes in and introduces himself to John.
John's dad was upset that people were being loud and doing their business. Stephen gets everyone to be quiet so that his dad can rehearse. "They want everyone to act in their little square," he explains, "I don't come from that at all. In fact, I hate that." John's dad thinks the director and actor are the only ones that count. He gets upset that someone tries to interrupt him for advice on the shot, and he tells him it's a horrible thing to see happening to him. They both get very upset at one another. Clu, John's dad, tells Stephen to stop interfering. He begins cursing at him, and he's so angry at Stephen for "disrespecting" John even though he's just doing his job.
Clu goes to explain to Stephen how everything should run. "It can be very upsetting if you take it personally," Stephen explains, listening to his dad and nodding along with it. "I'm just trying to help him," Clu says, "John's entire crew is based on Stephen's attitude. His attitude is one of interference." John wants to change a shot, so, it's taking even longer to get the entire shot set up correctly now that he changed how the lighting works. They begin to work on it and Stephen tries to get in a few words, but he's ignored and calls Tom "Mr. Smarty Pants" for his attitude.
"We kind of start pushing through," Stephen tells Joel about trying to make the day, even though they aren't going to do it. "They're still trying to find a working relationship," Joel says. "We need to find a way to simplify this scene to make our day," Stephen tells John on he set, but he ignores him. They have six hours to wrap, and they are far behind in their day. Ben and Joel came in to ask about the day. They have four more shots to go. John begins to change things again, and he's whispering it now, because he doesn't want everyone to get upset about it. "We have to keep this simple," Tom tells him, "Or else we aren't going to make the day."
"This is the furthest back we've been on a shooting day," Joel says, knowing they aren't going to make their day. "Everybody's scared we aren't going to make it," Tom notes the mood of the set. "Evidently everybody's pretty ticked off at me," John rolls his eyes. "How are we going to make our day?" Tom asks at a small meeting. "We just need to shoot this scene the way it's going to be any good," John tells them. "I think everybody's job should be to help the director to get what he needs, but I understand it's their job to help the producers get what he needs."
"It didn't matter what I wanted to do," he gave in, "I'll just sit this one out." He tells them, "Three directors, that's fine. Just handle it. Just do whatever you want to do," he tells them for the scene and how they want to simplify it. They try to get him to give input, but he refuses to actually care about the scene. "I'm not in this to have everybody else direct the movie, even if it's a better movie. I'm in it for myself, even if it sinks the ship."
Everyone else begins to try and set up the shot, they try to get John into the scene, but he just sits there and sips his drink. He confronts Stephen about the way that he shot the scene, because they shot it John's way after telling him they couldn't, and so he gets even more recluse. He watches, his head to the side, just drinking his drink as everybody else directs his movie. "Day 14, mutiny. Day 15, who knows?" John says.
John and his girlfriend drive home that night. "I was pretty much wiped out," he tells her. "You had a battle and you lost," she responds, angrily. "It's a job, John. That's what it is. It's not your film, it's a job." He continues to beat himself up during the drive home, and she gets more upset, and tells him otherwise. "Sometimes you're going to fight, and sometimes you're going to lose," she adds.
At dinner at the diner, Clu asks if he was fired on set today. He says, "Sorta." They talk about the "offensive" against him. "I do not like the way they are treating my son. He's a hired hand. He's not a filmmaker," Clu says. "I'm just embarrassed he sees some of the stuff on the set with me," John replies. "I think I can make a good movie. I just need people to trust me."
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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