Travis Betz and Sarah Lassez discuss character

When I was writing the script to The Dead Inside, there were moments in which I needed to span time without actual dialog between the characters. To do this is actually quite simple. You write a montage. A series of smaller scenes that promote a length of time and help push the story forward. I knew while writing these select scenes that they were perfect for the final experience of the movie, but were going to suck my ass to shoot. What I love most about the production side of movie making is watching a juicy scene unfold right in front of me. The shot looking beautiful as the actors give just the right performance. This can sometimes lead to a motion of me rowing a little “air boat” with my arms, which is really just excited energy forcing me to flap about like a crazy person or I’ll explode where I stand. The first half of this weekends shoot was void of this happy and invisble boat. I had tied it to the dock the weekend before but it must have come loose and drifted away because there was little to no air rowing at first. Close up shots like, breaking eggs, stirring batter, choosing dresses from closets, putting on jewelry…wider shots of vacuuming, watching television and making the bed…while necessary they just don’t invoke the same passion as a hearty scene or musical number.  It’s a tedious process and I could not have been happier when it was over late Saturday night. It was then we finally got to see some real composition and acting come together. It was then that just the right wind blew and my little boat rocked itself back to shore.

Creepy things are on the rise for our lovers

Sunday was by far my favorite of the weekend. We started out with a few smaller scenes before we delved into one of my favorite musical numbers of the movie. One scene we shot required another actor…the ONLY other actor in the entire film and he is shot from a distance and out the window. I had asked a neighbor in my apartment building if he would be interested in doing it for us and he was happy to help, but when I knocked on his door a half hour before the shoot he was not there. So, like any good indie director (and egomaniac) I threw on the wardrobe and put myself in the film. It’s always nice to step out from behind the camera for a few minutes and do something different. I had fun in a Hitchcock sort of way. After the scenes we set up for the musical number DOOMSDAY! We had toe-tapping good time with the number as I chose to shoot it LO style. Spotlit actors in a black void. The song has a tango-y duel-like  drama to it, so I think the tone we set was perfect. I’m getting a little itchy trigger finger to edit it right away, but I am trying to put the film together in as much of an order as I can. The footage looks great though.

Dustin Fasching laments through song as his girlfriend deteriorates

Out of 10 original songs, we are down to just 3 left to shoot. We’ve come so far, and even though there are still weeks ahead of us, it feels like things are starting to wrap up. I was going through the behind the scenes footage last night, clearing room off the camera, and watched over our first weekend of shooting. It was almost surreal. I felt like we were all children having their very first slice of pizza. We had no idea it was going to taste so good, but some unknowning being somewhere and at some point in time decided that bread, tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni equaled oral orgasm. Now here we are with almost half the pie gone. We’re starting to get full, but refuse to stop eating cause it’s so tasty! That’s my metaphore for the week.

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Sometimes I look like this on set

As I was driving to Taco Bell last night around 12:30am, I couldn’t help but think that driving delirious was eerily similar to driving drunk. The only real difference is that one is legal. We had wrapped about forty minutes prior, but should have shot for another hour. I decided the rest of the shots would have to wait when we filmed an entire scene (three times) in which I never once caught that my sound man (Aaron Gaffey) was taking up a portion of the right frame. I made peace with the fact we were in no shape to continue on and called it a night.

Pennywise from Stephen King's, IT. Started off scary, ended up a spider. Sigh.

It was a long, as well as physically and emotionally exhausting weekend on the ghostly set. In every production there’s gotta be at least one day that makes chewing on tin foil seem like your favorite thing to do. Friday was that day for us. Friday’s beast stepped through the door with balls the size of ____ (insert large fruit joke here). He was ready to shoot the shit of of things. The day started with a full on musical number that I thought would look cool completely done on a steadycam. With movement galore I set out to de-virginize myself with the hand-held stabilizer. It was harder than I anticipated and soon my arm was reminding me that I really didn’t have a lot of muscle mass. Shots took much longer than I had hoped and we ended up taking a generous amount of takes due to focus and movement issues. Because of that we were quickly losing daylight (which was important since we were shooting at the windows and we have no way of mimicing daylight through them due to the fact we are on the 3rd floor). So by the time we finished the number the sun was going down and the light had change considerably. While I am confident the shoot will cut together, there will be a lot of work in post to match the lighting from shot to shot. But whatever. We got it done and it will be swell. So we decided to move forward with the day. We had two scenes to shoot, and scenes require sound. Any movie-goer will tell you that sound is good in scenes. Go ahead, ask any movie-goer. So we set up for the first shot…but wait! The sound recorder isn’t working. It’s picking up nothing. Just white noise. Lovely. Gaffey fiddle’s with it for almost an hour. Tech support is also no help and stops talking to us because he’s “driving in the middle of a thunderstorm”. We’re at a loss with no real options but to cancel the rest of the shoot and hope that we can get the issue resolved by morning.

Audry 2 from Frank Oz's, Little Shop of Horrors. Best singing space plant monster ever.

Saturday’s beast slammed out of the gate, grabbed Friday’s beast by the shoulders and decapitated it with a single upper-cut. It then generously gorged itself on Fridays blood before taking a monster size shit down its neck-hole. My hero. Sound was back up and running (faulty XLR cable) and everyone was on top of their game. We started the day with another musical number. This time things went smoothly. We even got to play with some blood which is always a joy. After the song we moved in to one of the scariest scenes in the movie. I was nervous going into this scene because it really had to be handled right. The end result had to be terrifying and I had no clue what to expect. Just a few shots in and my mind was breathing a sigh of relief. It was looking amazing, and one of the shots even made me jump! The day ended later than usual as the scene was meaty, but we rocked it.

Pumpkinhead from Stan Winstons, Pumpkinhead. Bad-ass, revenge laced monster.

Sunday’s beast walked through door with a sleepy confidence and shook Saturday’s beastly claw. “I’ll take over from here” it snorted. The shoot the night before left everyone in a bit of a foggy state, but it worked perfectly for the tone of the first scene we shot. After that, energy returned and we set up for one of the more emotionally draining scenes in the movie. Lots a tears and dark truths revealed. The actors both had to really bring their A game to this scene and that can be a very nerve-racking thing for a director. There’s a careful balance of making sure they are able to get into the right mindset and knock out a great performance while also trying to make the scene technically awesome. The more shots you compose the more time passes and the more the actors lose the intensity. So it’s a tricky dance, but one that is well worth the results when done right. That being said, we succeeded. I got my shots and the actors brought what they had and even a added a few extra spices I didn’t know was in their rack. Nice work lady and gent! After we chewed the scenery on that lovely scene I decided that since we still had some time we would try to get some fallen brothers we’d left behind in the madness of previous shooting days. We quickly knocked out a bedroom scene and then moved into the office…and this is where this blog began and the shoot came to a crashing end. Everyone was drained. The shoot had to stop.

Here I now sit. Monday morning at my desk job. I’m oddly considering a second cup of coffee, which is very uncommon for me. I sit here pondering a question, and that question is this; what unknown universe am I living in, where my days off are spent at work?

Much love

Travis

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