Sunday, June 8, 2008

Sundays Are Just Made For Links.

Ah, links...the blogger's best friend. I'm gonna get an entire post this morning without actually doing any work of my own. Other folks have already done the hard part; I'm just pointing the way. So, here we go.

Jeri's put up Chapter Three of Charlotte Misner. It's really good. I think we might be on to something. Also, she did some hugely extensive research and provides a bunch of links on SmugPuppies, including having done a Vulcan Mind Meld with Jim. (Unlike my linking which is just stuff that fell in my lap, Jeri actually had to look around a bunch to find her links.) If you're participating in writing Charlotte Misner, you're going to find this research invaluable. If you're not involved, you'll still find this info interesting. Go ahead. Go on over there and give Jeri some love.

Also, I linked The Super Sub-Tropical Log a couple of days ago and mentioned that one reason I was pointing you there is that the blogger and her husband are friends that I've worked with a couple of times (and look forward to doing so again).

On this one, I'm going to give you a little bit of background. The Locations Dept. and the Art Dept. are not always...um...on the same page. I'm sure they have a different perspective, but I'll give you mine. First, they accept a location, saying, "Yes! This is perfect. We won't have to do a thing. You could practically just show up and shoot it like it is right now." Two days later, you get a memo from the Art Director telling you that they need 5 days to prep the location. The work that needs to be done?

  • Remove all furniture and decoration (except that really funky crystal skunk on the mantle.)
  • Re-paint living room, two bedrooms and kitchen.
  • Make the kitchen appliances and cabinets look old.
  • Replace the front door and all lighting fixtures.
  • Spatter blood on living room carpet and walls for "crime scene".
This is what an Art Dept. means by barely having to do anything to be ready to shoot.

Also, the first time you show a Production Designer and Director a location, they will invariably have a bunch of questions you're not likely to have any answers to yet.

"Can we use squibs (bullet hits) on that door?"
"Can we close this street for three days?"
"Can we replace all of the parking meters with ones from the 50's?"


Of course, I'll have to answer these questions eventually, but the first time I show them the location (before they've even signed off on using it), is when I get to find out what the questions are. My answer, for the moment is, "I'll let you know." And I'm sure to add, at least a couple of times, "Make sure you have a Plan B in mind." Now, this is not what a Director or Production Designer wants to hear. Sorry, but I don't like to make promises until I know I can deliver.

Well, the result of this is that I sometimes come off as prickly. I sometimes don't have the best relationship with the Art Dept. OK, sometimes, we fucking hate each other. I honestly don't remember our first scouts together, but Sub-TropicalGal and her husband...didn't have a good first impression. Happily, we ended up having the same set of sensibilities and got along great. So, without further ado, I give you the trailer for Pistol Whipped. (The title says Marker, which was the working title.) There's lots of good car crashy stuff and beating the crap out of each other stuff, but the important thing is the lingering slo-mo shot of my headstone getting shot to shit right before the end. Every place you see on the screen, I provided. Every bit of decoration, stuff that gets broken, shot, or blown up, handled by the actors or driven into by a car was put there by Sub-TropicalGal and her husband (and their minions).

Hey! This sure turned into a long post for one that was just gonna be a couple of links.

11 comments:

Janiece said...

Is it just me, or is Steven Segal now chubby as well as untalented?

But cool locations! Cool Art!

Jim Wright said...

Bad Segal movie = nobody can act.
Good Segal movie = everybody can act except Segal.

:)

Cool, Nathan, thanks.

Eric said...

We can support you without seeing this right?

:-)

The cool thing was I barely noticed the chubby martial-arts guy in the foreground because I kept watching the backgrounds. Now, if I see this preview in the theater, I'll have to tell my friends, "Yeah, but I kinda sorta know-at-a-distance the guy who did the locations for this!"

MWT said...

Took me a few rewinds to find the Gendzier headstone. The Carroll one was much more prominent.

Nathan said...

Eric,

1. this was a straight to DVD picture, so no trailers in the theater.

2. I don't get anything more or less regardless of how well or poorly a movie does. Don't watch to your heart's content.


MWT.


Goddam Director of Photography not framing my name in the center!

kimby said...

I watched the clip before i read the whole post...and looked twice at that headstone. Pretty cool!

Shawn Powers said...

Kimby,

Me too -- I noticed the name, then rewound to make sure. Then read the post. :)

Anonymous said...

I came here from Elana's "Girl On Girl Action" blog (not what some who are reading this comment may think), and thought I recognized New Mexico locations (one of those has to be the Railyards). Am I right?

Nathan said...

Nah Chris,

It's all Connecticut. Anything you're thinking might be "railyards" is probably one of the Bridgeport locations.

Anonymous said...

Bummer, I was hoping you were in my neck of the woods.

Nathan said...

I did work on a fairly stupid show called Nice Package which shot for a week in Santa Fe and a week in Taos. I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've been in NM.