Monday, September 6, 2010

Earthkiller notes.

My feeling with Earthkiller is that we want big diagonal wipes when we cut from scene to scene when we've moved forward in time. That's my feeling at least.

I'm very happy with the way our dialog scenes are coming. We had a scene a couple days ago which ran for a number of pages between Raze (Lucy Rayner) and Tennyson (Tom Rowen) and I was worried that maybe I was being too precious with the dialog because I wanted to keep all of it. So we worked the scene 'till we could fit it all in. But no, I wasn't being precious -- we needed all their points (because they were all exposition). And at the same time each point of exposition said something about the characters. And it all worked really nicely. Am very happy with it. Did I mention how happy with it I was?

Yesterday's scene with Greg Oliver Bodine was groovy too. This was the big scene where you find out what's really been going on in the story. You know the scene I'm talking about. We (meaning Greg) did a nip and tuck of a couple bits of dialog and it was all smooved out. It's a four-minute scene with a "half - man" (see "Save the Cat") and it's compelling, which is really the point of each scene isn't it?

The great thing about Robin Kurtz is that her sense of her physicality is so good that she really makes this android character work. It's one of the hardest possible roles -- as an android she's somewhere between human and not. But ultimately she has human responses to things. So that's kind of a difficult balancing act and she's doing a great job at it.

Nobody can keep a straight face.
The only thing which is going badly is my buying enough for craft services. I've been doing a crappity job of that so far. On set we've had just enough seltzer and water in bottles. I got some baby carrots. Some cereal bars. But Joe and Libby totally outdid me by getting a whole bunch of those little fruit cups you put in your lunch box. Jeez. More than that, they brought drink shakers, orange juice, cranberry juice, and what looked to me like a half-gallon bottle of Chopin vodka. Mmm... shaken. Not stirred.

Me? Today I bought $64 worth of (mostly) soda.

And today is by far the coolest day for shooting we've had yet. We have some zombies on set today. and at least one big ol' monster.

Yesterday I forgot to shoot camera POV of walking up and down the corridor we were in. I have to keep reminding myself to do that. But at least I got more stills.

I'm wondering if we really do need a "save the cat" scene for Helen. At one point early in the picture she's looking for an emergency escape pod. I'm thinking that maybe she finds the last one, starts it up, and then hears/sees something and finds a little kid -- whom she then shoves in the escape pod before it takes off. That's what I'm thinking. Where is this little kid? Where is this escape pod?

6 comments:

Daddy D said...

You wonder if you "need" a STC scene? Shame, Drew. Shame.

What would Blake say?

I didn't read your frakkin' book and it's sequels to have you ere now so wildly!

Andrew Bellware said...

But but but... the question has always been whether she already saves a cat with Mina. I don't think she really does. Mina's a big decision for her but I don't think it's really a "STC".

DAVID FREY said...

Sorry about the confusion about this weekend, hope it didn't cause you too much trouble.

Mina is definitely a saved cat and I dig when the cat comes back to save the hero. It reminds me of when Short Round saves Indiana Jones in Temple of Doom. It brings everything full circle.

Andrew Bellware said...

That's what I've been thinking up 'till now. I'm just not exactly sure...

DAVID FREY said...

what's changed your mind?

Andrew Bellware said...

Just thinkin' about the story and the way the structure works out.