Sorry for the wait everyone. This shooting schedule has been very time consuming! Lots of 2 A.M.s!
I'll try to crank out all of the blogs I've missed in the next few days so keep your eyes peeled!...Why would someone peel their eyes? That sounds like a SAW movie? (deep gravelly voice) "You have led a life of vegetarianism...you have peeled the skin back off millions of screaming carrots...now to survive you must use this potato peeler...."
So the shoot started out fun for me since I had to drive about 20 miles to get there and it was in the ritzy, very high-end community of Coto DeCaza. I had to pass through a security gate where a guard quizzed me on who I was going to see and why I was going in...even though my name was already on the guest list! I was told by one of our producers, Nancy, that I needed to remember the Direc
tors last name, Cunanne, and the street, Coffee Tree.
"Who are you here to see?" says the 50 something guard who held himself with a very inflated sense of purpose.
"I'm here on the Cunanne shoot". I flashed him a smile as I said "My name is Steele, Jesse Steele." Yes, I in fact said that (I'm a horse's ass I know :)
"Ok, I see your name on the list here, What is the name of the street?"
"Tree...Park?" shit! I had forgotten 50 % of the most important info of the day...
"Park Way? Park Haven? Park Place? Parking..son's?"
All of my guesses where returned to me with a dubious head shake of a temporarily empowered individual.
"Obviously, I don't remember? Was I even close?
"Nope not even close.... I'll let you thru this once" he said with the same tone as a young boy granting temporary reprieve to a defenseless ant from his magnifying glass.
"Good thing it's a one day shoot huh buddy?"
I gave him the smile again and bolted past as he opened the gate...
It was currently raining and the fog was intense to say the least -- which wa
s amazingly appropriate since this shoot is supposed to be shot in the Milky Way, at Orion's House. Every one of these houses costs more than Oprah could afford!..Well, Oprah’s Production Assistant anyway. Amazing drive to say the least. I roll up to the location and am pretty excited to shoot in such a crazy, big, lavish house......so, of course, Stephen tells me as I get out of the car “all of tonight’s shoots will take place on the front steps or on the side of the garage."... typical. :/
I meet the
actors playing Orion and Orion Jr. (Paul and Chris) and we begin running lines. This was a pretty line heavy scene for all of us. Orion Jr. was the only one completely off book and comfortable with the dialogue. In my defense I have the majority of the lines on all 89 pages of the script so I think I get some leeway on how well I have my lines down, thank you very much. Plus, it only takes about 5 or 6 times running the lines with the script in front of me for me to memorize it -- so it never really is a worry of mine.
So after about 20 minutes the director calls for me to do an entrance and an exit scene. As you can see in the pics they have quite a few steps. “Take 2...Take 3...Take 4...hehe.... Take 5..hahah... Take 15...chuckle chuckle ...OK we were just messing with you, Jesse. Let's take it for real this time guys....”
Oh well, I needed the exercise anyway. So the shot took 1 take (surprise, surprise).
Next we shoot the scene with Sandman meeting Orion. So my motivation here is the same
as a run of the mill blue collar Mailman meeting say, George Lucas. This is the man that runs the stars and provides them light to show the world every night. (On a side note, NO to those of you that want to ask, I did not immediately punch him in the face for Jar Jar Binks. ;)
It starts raining again but lightly, so the director decides to push forward on this but to use 2 cameras instead so we can get more coverage faster (Jargon speak: Coverage is the term used pertaining to all the different shots and angles of the same scene.) So we start and it goes smoothly. The only major hang up we had was that Orion, a bigger man, was directed to take off his tight coverall jumpsuit he was working in as we are speaking. Well it was definitely a two-man job. We had to figure out how to get me to assist him in holding his tools and helping him take his clothes off without this looking like the start of a porno. Solution? The director let him leave it on.
Orion Jr. is basically the same character as the artsy gay son of Christopher Walken in Wedding Crashers. Only not over the top. Very reserved and non-caring about what his actions do to the rest of the world. He is a young man that has this job (lighting the sky) forced on him at a young age and he hates his family for it and wants to leave...and does.
Our scene together starts with me seeing him climb out the window. We decide to s
hoot the dialogue later and just shoot me following him down the stairs. It begins to rain harder. The crew breaks for pizza. I get to check out the inside of this house and it was amazing! They had their own putting green in the backyard wrapping around the "Cement Pond" and grotto style Jacuzzi. Inside was sort of Persian looking. Or at least what I would consider Persian looking anyway. Lots of gold colored things and reds and browns. ( I didn't take any pics sorry, didn't want to be rude) There was a huge winding staircase up to the 2nd floor as you walk in the front door. Pretty slick if you ask me!
Well, we resume shooting but at this point it is midnight and there are only frantic yelling scenes left. The producers and director have a discussion “in private" about how we should reschedule the rest of this shoot until November sometime, since the family inside needed to go to bed. The producers won and we wrapped for the evening.
It was very cool and I can't wait to meet up with Orion and Orion Jr. again. Especially since the only guy off book at the beginning of the evening was Orion Jr. who didn't get to recite one line! :)
Paul and Chris (Orion and Orion Jr.) were great as were the crew and the family who let us invade their house! It was a very fun shoot and I'm excited to do the follow up shoot there. Except now I will remember the name..."Coffee Tree".
Thanks for reading about Shoot 3 and coming up in the next blog -- We visit a pawn shop and an antique store to square off with the Boogieman and Father Time!!
He who built his house on the rock was a wise man, for he that built his house on the sand will be hit up every weekend from some distant relative or high school chum asking to throw his beach party there.... - Unknown
I'll try to crank out all of the blogs I've missed in the next few days so keep your eyes peeled!...Why would someone peel their eyes? That sounds like a SAW movie? (deep gravelly voice) "You have led a life of vegetarianism...you have peeled the skin back off millions of screaming carrots...now to survive you must use this potato peeler...."
So the shoot started out fun for me since I had to drive about 20 miles to get there and it was in the ritzy, very high-end community of Coto DeCaza. I had to pass through a security gate where a guard quizzed me on who I was going to see and why I was going in...even though my name was already on the guest list! I was told by one of our producers, Nancy, that I needed to remember the Direc
tors last name, Cunanne, and the street, Coffee Tree."Who are you here to see?" says the 50 something guard who held himself with a very inflated sense of purpose.
"I'm here on the Cunanne shoot". I flashed him a smile as I said "My name is Steele, Jesse Steele." Yes, I in fact said that (I'm a horse's ass I know :)
"Ok, I see your name on the list here, What is the name of the street?"
"Tree...Park?" shit! I had forgotten 50 % of the most important info of the day...
"Park Way? Park Haven? Park Place? Parking..son's?"
All of my guesses where returned to me with a dubious head shake of a temporarily empowered individual.
"Obviously, I don't remember? Was I even close?
"Nope not even close.... I'll let you thru this once" he said with the same tone as a young boy granting temporary reprieve to a defenseless ant from his magnifying glass.
"Good thing it's a one day shoot huh buddy?"
I gave him the smile again and bolted past as he opened the gate...
It was currently raining and the fog was intense to say the least -- which wa
s amazingly appropriate since this shoot is supposed to be shot in the Milky Way, at Orion's House. Every one of these houses costs more than Oprah could afford!..Well, Oprah’s Production Assistant anyway. Amazing drive to say the least. I roll up to the location and am pretty excited to shoot in such a crazy, big, lavish house......so, of course, Stephen tells me as I get out of the car “all of tonight’s shoots will take place on the front steps or on the side of the garage."... typical. :/I meet the
actors playing Orion and Orion Jr. (Paul and Chris) and we begin running lines. This was a pretty line heavy scene for all of us. Orion Jr. was the only one completely off book and comfortable with the dialogue. In my defense I have the majority of the lines on all 89 pages of the script so I think I get some leeway on how well I have my lines down, thank you very much. Plus, it only takes about 5 or 6 times running the lines with the script in front of me for me to memorize it -- so it never really is a worry of mine.So after about 20 minutes the director calls for me to do an entrance and an exit scene. As you can see in the pics they have quite a few steps. “Take 2...Take 3...Take 4...hehe.... Take 5..hahah... Take 15...chuckle chuckle ...OK we were just messing with you, Jesse. Let's take it for real this time guys....”
Oh well, I needed the exercise anyway. So the shot took 1 take (surprise, surprise).
Next we shoot the scene with Sandman meeting Orion. So my motivation here is the same
as a run of the mill blue collar Mailman meeting say, George Lucas. This is the man that runs the stars and provides them light to show the world every night. (On a side note, NO to those of you that want to ask, I did not immediately punch him in the face for Jar Jar Binks. ;)It starts raining again but lightly, so the director decides to push forward on this but to use 2 cameras instead so we can get more coverage faster (Jargon speak: Coverage is the term used pertaining to all the different shots and angles of the same scene.) So we start and it goes smoothly. The only major hang up we had was that Orion, a bigger man, was directed to take off his tight coverall jumpsuit he was working in as we are speaking. Well it was definitely a two-man job. We had to figure out how to get me to assist him in holding his tools and helping him take his clothes off without this looking like the start of a porno. Solution? The director let him leave it on.
Orion Jr. is basically the same character as the artsy gay son of Christopher Walken in Wedding Crashers. Only not over the top. Very reserved and non-caring about what his actions do to the rest of the world. He is a young man that has this job (lighting the sky) forced on him at a young age and he hates his family for it and wants to leave...and does.
Our scene together starts with me seeing him climb out the window. We decide to s
hoot the dialogue later and just shoot me following him down the stairs. It begins to rain harder. The crew breaks for pizza. I get to check out the inside of this house and it was amazing! They had their own putting green in the backyard wrapping around the "Cement Pond" and grotto style Jacuzzi. Inside was sort of Persian looking. Or at least what I would consider Persian looking anyway. Lots of gold colored things and reds and browns. ( I didn't take any pics sorry, didn't want to be rude) There was a huge winding staircase up to the 2nd floor as you walk in the front door. Pretty slick if you ask me!Well, we resume shooting but at this point it is midnight and there are only frantic yelling scenes left. The producers and director have a discussion “in private" about how we should reschedule the rest of this shoot until November sometime, since the family inside needed to go to bed. The producers won and we wrapped for the evening.
It was very cool and I can't wait to meet up with Orion and Orion Jr. again. Especially since the only guy off book at the beginning of the evening was Orion Jr. who didn't get to recite one line! :)
Paul and Chris (Orion and Orion Jr.) were great as were the crew and the family who let us invade their house! It was a very fun shoot and I'm excited to do the follow up shoot there. Except now I will remember the name..."Coffee Tree".
Thanks for reading about Shoot 3 and coming up in the next blog -- We visit a pawn shop and an antique store to square off with the Boogieman and Father Time!!
He who built his house on the rock was a wise man, for he that built his house on the sand will be hit up every weekend from some distant relative or high school chum asking to throw his beach party there.... - Unknown
Cheers,
Jesse Steele
So glad you're doing this blog, Jesse. It's great fun to follow.
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Coffee Tree
Coffee Tree
Coffee Tree.....
Yup I agree with Cathie, fun to follow! I'm all caught up now. By the way I love the way your write. I think the experience of reading it would be enhanced by several cups of coffee though.
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