Blue Suits, Blue Nuns and Brandy

It’s an EMF Meter…

It was another busy weekend for the Razorwalkers.  As I mentioned last time, Kelton Miller has taken over the role of Kyle Samuels, so Friday night we needed to reshoot some scenes that were shot with the previous actor.

38/41 INT. ALTERNATE - 2ND FLOOR HALLWAY - SECLUDED MANSION - NIGHT 38/41

So once again, we converged on the location where we shoot green screen footage and set everything up for Kelton’s first experience inside Project Doorway.  Tim Sowell was filming these scenes with Kelton.  I’m not sure how many times Tim has filmed these scenes, but by now he can probably recite his lines in his sleep.

Living in a green world

Things went so smoothly that we shot all of the scenes we needed, plus all of the various pickup shots that Darrin had done in the past. Thinking about it now, this is quite surprising. Two scenes were filmed in their entirety from at least three different perspectives, plus pickups, and some additional footage that we hadn’t had time to shoot in the past.  I think we’re all getting better at this stuff, and Kelton and Tim were great together.

Before we started to film, Darrin asked me to provide a height reference for Tim

In the past, I would stand in the back of the room and provide a reference for the actors to focus their eyes on since they were supposed to be looking at me anyway.  I did the same this time for the straight on takes, but when Darrin was filming the scene from a different angle to focus on each actor individually, I couldn’t provide the same reference myself so we used a small piece of duct tape as a reference point.  Apparently, this worked so well that Tim actually preferred the tape to me, so even when I could provide the reference, we continued to use the tape.  Sigh…  Hey, I wonder if he was mad about that little height reference joke?

My stand in. Tim prefers this to looking at me, so…

Overall, the shoot was great and before we knew it, we were heading home to rest up for the next morning, when we were scheduled to shoot two scenes back at last week’s “sitting room” location.  Thanks to Jeff Leinbach for attending Friday’s shoot to lend a hand as part of the crew.  My old friend Katrina was there too, and we also got to meet Gabriel, another member of the Archer family.  Fun times!  

Setting up the opening scene

I’m Coming Jenny…

1  EXT. SECLUDED MANSION - NIGHT 1

At 10:30 the next morning  I arrived on set to appear in one scene and then to work as crew for another.  The first scene of the day was the actual opening scene of the film, featuring Raoul Anderson, Brooke Silvius and myself. I actually won’t be seen though, because in my blue suit I will be made invisible.  (Thanks Dan!) Yes, I was in the blue suit again…I don’t love it, but Darrin seems to enjoy making me wear it.  My part of the scene was filmed with Brooke, who was appearing in her very first Razorwalkers scene.  It was pretty exciting and she really did well.  Acting seems easy from afar, but when you find yourself in front of a camera and you’re seconds away from someone saying “Action!”, it’s pretty nerve wracking.  She ran up and down the stairs and around the house to make herself breathless and frantic.  It was very cool.  I prepared for my part by standing there in my blue suit, not enjoying myself.  

When the time came, Darrin said “Action” and brooke did her part, running and trying to hide, and then I came along and pulled her up by her hair, shook her and threw her down again.  She tried to crawl away, but escaping just wasn’t in the cards for her…poor girl!  This scene is going to look so cool on screen.

The proper placement of the Brandy is critical

After Brooke and I finished, I was able to shed my blue skin and help Darrin shoot Raoul’s portion of the same scene.  This was short and quite simple to shoot, but Raoul’s delivery was excellent and once again, I think this opening scene is going to look fantastic.  It was a very good start to the day.

The Dining Room Set

…ask her to make it out to her biggest fan…Roberto…OK?

14   INT. DINING ROOM - SECLUDED MANSION - NIGHT   14

The second scene of the day was the dining room scene that we’d planned to shoot last weekend and didn’t have time to complete.  Darrin and I prepared the set, while Kat cooked and set up the meal.  Andrea Robison, who will also act in the film, took over make-up duties (thanks Andrea – great job!) and since Darrin was going to be acting in this scene, James McCullough and I would be doing the actual filming.  But while we were setting up for the dining room scene scene, James went to his music studio with Brooke to record some of her dialog.  There was a LOT going on!

Andrea making up Darrin…and he’s smiling!

In the middle of the typical chaos of everyone getting ready to shoot a scene, there was a knock at the door, and there stood a pizza delivery guy.  His name was Michael, (and still is as far as I know) and he was a very cool guy.  He was kind enough to let us take his photo and mention him here in this blog…and for that, he has a funny story to tell.  When he walked in he said he had no idea that something like this was going on.  We reassured him that we were shooting a legitimate film!  I’m just glad I wasn’t still wearing the blue suit.

Michael…with pizza!

Once everything was settled, we actually got down to shooting the scene.  As usual, filming wide shots and individual closeups required the actors to run through the entire scene many times.  Diana, Darrin, Tim, Kelton and Jeff all did a great job and the shoot went very smoothly, despite the glasses being filled with real wine and brandy!  Darrin even shot some additional footage of David Hurlbert after we finished.

Jeff Leinbach IS Goodman…

As always, thanks Kat for taking photos to help me with this blog…everyone who enjoys seeing these photos should know that Kat often takes many of them while she’s doing any number of other things on set.  Thanks also to James for once again allowing us to descend on his home and film for several hours…and for helping us do it!!