January 11, 2016
Wow! I can’t believe I’ve reached 20 of these journal entries. I’ve talked to some other students about how many they’ve made. They’ve barely reached five!
As I look back on all of the work I have done recently, I have just realized that I am technically still on stage one, pre- production. It astounds me how long this portion takes, just for a measly 5 days worth of production. I have a deeper respect for the filmmakers of features where this part could takes months to a year. I cannot say that it hasn’t been enjoyable, some of the areas. Some days while writing the many drafts of Liquid Lightning, I felt as if I was on the creative top of the world. Others, I was more in the depths of despair. It hasn’t helped that I have also been working with an incredibly demanding schedule.
Today Jack and I had a productive meeting going through the script and looking at props, those we needed to buy and others we could find or borrow. We have compiled a list on Amazon of the things we need to buy. We have nine items:
Nikon Spare Batteries or Battery Pack
Microphone Adapter
Air Hockey Equipment
Alligator Wires
Welding Goggles
Antenna x2
Stethoscope
Tongs
January 12, 2016
Now that I think about the story, I realize that we have an unavoidable allusions to drugs. Liquid Lightning alludes to crack and the story is about the dangers of drug use. Angus picked up on it when I was explaining the story to him at lunch today. Thomas begin to call it Electrocrack. Jack, Angus, and I laughed. We kind of liked the name, but I was a little tentative about renaming the entire story with a crack reference in it. It may send up red flags and also I like the alliteration of Liquid Lightning. However, it is a bit too long to say “Liquid Lightning” so I wouldn’t be surprised if the name changed to Electrocrack.
With the crack idea that in mind, I have another idea to begin the story that would make it better (because I think the beginning is the weakest part.) Basically, Monty doesn’t create Liquid Lightning, but buys it online as a “study supplement.” I’m going to write the new version right quick and pitch it to Jack.
The meeting went well today. Only Ayla and Gabe did not show up, but Ayla had to be home early and Gabe had an art project to work on.
We spent most of the meeting talking about scheduling. After a bit of talking and drawing people back in (we got off track a couple of times, I thank Carter for helping me out) we decided on five shooting days. Sunday and Monday (January 16-17) would be from 2:00-7:00pm and 8:30am-5:00pm respectively. For school days, we picked two Wednesdays (January 20 and 27) both after school until 6:15. We also picked January 30 for our final day, but we didn’t schedule a particular time because it will depend on the prior filming days.
After we completed that task, the cast and crew wrote on a blank sheet the food they wanted on set. Finally, I passed around a sheet with the job roles on them. People initialed their names next to what job they wanted. I created an official list here (Gabe said he wanted to be director of photography before the meeting):
Camera Op/ Director of Photography. Gabe Boortz
Production Assistant/ Taskmaster. Jack Brock
Slate/ Script Supervisor. Alyssa Horace
Boom Op. Mayah Kirson
Sound Engineer. Derek Walker
Props Master/ Make- Up/ Wardrobe. Jada Miles
Gaffer. Thomas Russell
Documentarian. Ayla McGinnis
Monty. Carter White
Maddox. Patrick Russell
January 13, 2016
Jack didn’t like the new version. We talked about it today after school. My main problem with Draft 4 (the previous) was that Monty creates revolutionary technology pretty much overnight and then tests it on himself. I like my latest version Draft 5, that addressed this issue and added a bit more humor to it.
Jack didn’t like Draft 5 because he couldn’t believe the Liquid Lightning being bought online. He reasoned that there would be other people who must have taken it. and asked why Liquid Lightning was not a nation-wide epidemic.
We argued for a few minutes, going back and forth about which was more believable. I eventually saw that it really came down to how we would like to see the character Monty. Jack’s version (Draft 4) was more of a flawed genius while mine (Draft 5) was a wacky and obsessed valedictorian to-be. We resolved our differences by keeping the inventing the Liquid Lightning idea, but making it more of a long term project (as in he didn’t start creating it when the story began.)
We then took the rest of our meeting time in the library to lay the groundwork for Draft 6. Monty has been working on the Liquid Lightning for some time now and he decides that it’s ready overnight. We were able to cut out deadspace weekend scenes (when Monty was creating or charging the Liquid; found in both drafts), meaning we cut about three pages out of the script!
Ultimately, I think the changes were worth it. I think it will really tighten the pacing of the story. I completed Draft 6 at home (All I had to do was change the first nine scenes of Draft 4, it was pretty much the same) and I sent it out the cast and crew as the FINAL screenplay.
I also ordered the equipment we discussed a few days ago. I’m glad we didn’t order them before because it turns out, Ayla has welding goggles and Patrick and Thomas have a stethoscope. Saving money! They should arrive by Friday.
January 16, 2016
Now that the script was officially locked (again), I have been using the past couple of days to break the scenes down by shot. I have only done them for scenes 2-10, 14-19, 21, and 24-25 a.k.a. the ones that don’t involve school.
I’m taking Saturday to prepare for the shoot. That means:
Write shot list in Excel
Catalog equipment and props
Charge batteries
Create wardrobe list
Create call sheets based off of schedule
Tell crew members what they need to bring
Test equipment
Build the defibrillators
Gather props
Tell Carter and Patrick what clothes they need to bring for the day
Figure out how you are going to buy food
Pack equipment into necessary bags. Put tile tracker on them.
Pack props into boxes. Mark the boxes with the props they have inside.
Print scripts, take sheets, shot list, and other necessary paper production items (shooting checklist and what to do on set [room tone]) and put them into the black binder.
Pack laptop and charger
Pack suitcase
I’m planning to have a sleepover with Jack on Sunday to prepare his house for the next day (and also because my parents can’t take me to Decatur on Monday.)
As of writing this journal, the things that I’ve ordered haven’t arrived yet. I hope they come later today or we may be a little screwed. Regardless, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but the exciting thing is, we begin filming tomorrow. The time has finally come!