John Q. Phats Entertainment

So, I have to do some pick up shots for Do Nice Guys Finish Last.  I hate pick up shots with every fiber of my being.  If pick up shots were a person and I had the last two bullets on earth, I would shoot pick up shots in the face twice.  A pick up shot is after you’ve finished shooting, you find in editing that you have to go back and re shoot something or get some extra footage that you missed.  They suck.  There’s a big buzz when you’re done shooting.  It’s like “Yes!  We’re done!”  When you’re done shooting pick up shots, it’s like “I can’t believe I had to do that bullshit again.”  And most of the time, it’s like 2 shots.  So you set up, go through the motions with the actors, set up the lights, get the cameras ready, and then shoot for 10 minutes.  So, I have to do that for one scene.  We had a little malfunction and pretty much all of the footage from that scene is trashed.  After looking at the dialogue in that scene though, I’ve decided to change it.  It wasn’t really working anyway.  So I suppose this is a chance to make an improvement on a weak point in the script.  I’m running the edits by Gabe to see what he thinks and he’s shot down every single one of my rewrites.  He would make a good producer.  If he could only add “besides, that would be too expensive” at the end of his shoot downs, he would be all set.  It’s tough sometimes not to get defensive when someone tells you something you’ve created sucks.  If I start to feel that, I just say “Hmmmm” and give myself a minute.  Then I ask questions like “Well, why does it suck?  What would make it better?”  It just takes me a minute to remind myself that they are trying to help me and ultimately, this will make my short film better.  No matter how negatively people come at me, I always just try to hear their opinion.  It doesn’t help me to be defensive, however getting their opinion helps me a lot.  Big time companies are way more interested in why their customers left then why their customers stayed.  They want to know what happened, why you left, and how they could have kept you.  Just like I want to know why you hated my short film and what I could have done differently to make you like it.  That way I can take that in to account on my next short film.  I often stray from my original point.  What was I talking about?  O yeah, pick up shot blow and somehow, this is all Chris’s fault……  Stupid Chris.

Gabe was able to work on Stuck a little bit and make it better.  I’m starting to get the ball rolling on Nice Guys Finish Last.  I’m going to try and get together with Chris and Caine sometime this week to film something for you guys.  But no more of this split screen shit.  Seriously, I’m tired of editing like that, I’m also tired of Chris moving the God damned beer right before the last freaking shot.
Gabe says that my audio sounds like a porno.  I’m glad he sees the direction I’m going with this.  When it comes to audio, I have absolutely no clue what the hell I’m doing.  I put the thingy on the end of the thingy, plug it in to the thingy, and then hang the thingy over the scene and pray that it works.  The main problem is, is that I’m picking up more then the audio from the actor or actors on screen.  I’m getting a lot of background noise.  I think I record with the levels to high. 
“Yeah, fuck it, red bars means it’s working……Right?”
Anyway, it needs some work.  I’ll probably film some tests this weekend.

So, we are reshooting the split screen stuff that I screwed in the face.  In order for this method to work, everything has to stay the same.  The props can’t move and the camera can’t move.  So, we are getting ready for the LAST shot and Chris casually sits down, grabs the beer on the table that he’s not supposed to move and just sort of holds it just for the hell of it.  I see what he’s doing and yell “Chis!  You’re not supposed to move that beer!”  He realizes what he’s done, looks at it, and then quickly puts it back.  Only at that point it was too late. 
Caine went in to denial:
“No!  That won’t matter!  It’s fine!”
Chris tried to fix it:
“We can look at the old footage and line it up!  It’s fine!”
I just put my face in to my hands and said the one thing that is appropriate for every screw up on the planet:
“Fuck!  God damn it Chris!”
Then they all accepted it. 
Caine said:
“No…..we…….can………Shit.”
Chris Said:
“I swear to God we can fix it!  We just have to line it up!  We can………..Shit.”
Then I said:
“…….Alright, lets do the first scene…….  Again……..  Thanks to Chris!”
All in all though it actually worked to our advantage.  I had gone through the adjustments and everything by that point and everyone knew what they were supposed to do.  So we pretty much shot the entire thing all over again in roughly 30 minutes.  Pretty much every shot was done in one take.  Plus now I have something to hold over Chris’s head for the rest of his God damned life.  Even though, I think the takes after the fuck up were better then the other ones, it’s still something I can get on his case about.