Black Market Kidneys Premire

We had the BMK screening today. Scotty Schultz and Catherine were the only ones from the cast and crew to show up. So kudos to you to. Debra Sussman was the only one who had an excuse cause she's currently appearing in a play.

The Artimoviches showed up, once again showing up like a heavy metal hurricane. They came to the first and best screening, sat right up front. I could hear them making comments about the movie, like how real the guts in the opening credit sequence looked, and they'd chuckle when they saw how we changed the geography of the house around. It's for people like them that we made this movie for. During each screening I was pacing the back room, wearing a rut into the carpet.

Things went well. We had a great turn out for our first screening, and no advertising.

BMK Production Day 5

We were finally able to get back into the house to film.

Things went well, much better than the other times we filmed in Le Carpathian.

We got some really great takes and are thankful once again that it worked out we were able to get Debra Sussman because she's much better than the other actresses.

We stayed around for a long time after filming just talking, so it's late. I'm tired. And going to bed.

BMK Production Day 4

We went back to Le Carpathian to finish filming. The power isn't back on, but it's been off for over a month and there was no sign of it coming back on, so we decided to go ahead and see what we could do. The moment we got there, Mike said the power is going to be turned back on tomorrow. We tried filming some stuff, but ran out of light and decided to come back in some other time and do it right since the power is coming back on.

Musings

Wrote (Name Deleted) today letting her know she's been fired. Almost wish I could've said it to her face like Donald Trump.

She wrote a nasty e-mail back outlining the "contingencies" she wanted us to put in the "contract". She wanted to stipulate how long we have for post-production on BMK. I don't think so. This is our movie, not hers. She didn't write it, she didn't direct it, and she sure as hell didn't put any money in to it. So she sure isn't oing to tell us how lng we have to work on it.

Another of her "contingencies" from a previous e-mail, is that she wanted it put in the "contract" how long we would be able to show/sell the film. Again, I don't think so!

Luckily we had our secret weapon, i. e. Debra Sussman, or we'd ahve been stuck with a crappy movie we hated, that we could oly show for a period of time determined by someone who should have no say in the matter. Who does this bitch think she is?

If Debra hadn't done it, though, we would have gotten someone else. No way we're letting someone else control out movie, that's our whole reason for sticking to independent films, so that we have total and absolute control over every aspect of the film.

Black Market Kidneys Production Day 3

Today was our third day of production on Black Market Kidneys. We did the Claudia reshoots with Debra Sussman at Lucky's Pub in Eustis, FL. We had made tentative plans to shoot the house scenes today, too, in order to get the movie completed on time, but Mike said that the power is out. It went quite well today, much better than our last time filming the bar scenes. We only had Jess Crawley and Trent Stover as extras, so pretty much have to use the main two shot. I'm glad we ended up with Debbie, though, she's a much better actress and brings more to the role than the other two actresses we had cast in the role could have done. We got everything done in about an hour. Then spent another hour catching up with Debbie in the parking lot.

The Release Form Issue Resolved

Yesterday I sent an e-mail to (Name Deleted) explaining how it's just a release form we want her to sign, not a contract. And I put my foot down, telling her that if we didn't have a signed digital copy of the release form by noon today, we would be forced to drop her and just recast the movie with someone else.

She wrote back wanting me to contact her acting coach. Hmmm, on Satuday she said he was her manager. He's leaving town today so I had to contact him yesterday. Yeah right. If she's going to consult her "manager" on this, shouldn't she have consulted with him before taking the part? She doesn't even have the release form anymore, so there's no chance she'll be able to get a signe copy to us on time. Good for us because we put together a rough cut of the movie and she really, really sucks, and brings the entire movie down and makes it seem amateurish.

Found Debra Sussman's number, our friend from back in our community theater days, and had Jason call her to see if she'd be willing to help us out. I originally wrote the role of Claudia for her anyway, but didn't think she would do it. Turns out, though, she's glad to help us, and is willing to take over Claudia so we can have a good crappy little movie, instead of a shitty crappy little movie.

BMK Problems Update 2

Heard back from (name deleted) today. She said she's "not comfortable with giving up her rights"

What rights? Does she think she somehow owns this movie? Did she write it? Did she direct it? Did she put money in to it? Did she do anything but act terribly and be a major pain in our asses? No! All we did was ask her to sign a simple release form I got from the good folks at IFC.com, that says she agrees to let us use her image and voice as it pertains to Black Market Kidneys. And she writes back talking about contracts.

I had no choice but to go Medieval on her buttocks.

Here is my response to her e-mail:

First of all, it is not a contract. You are not giving up any rights to yourself or your image. It is simply a release form allowing us to use your likeness for Black Market Kidneys and only Black Market Kidneys and its publicity. There is no contractual aspect of the release form nor is it implied.

Everyone else in the film has signed it and have not expressed any concerns with it. I received the release form from the Independent Film Channel. They require all films submitted to them to include the release form I gave you; it is not something that I came up with on my own.

I will need a digital copy of the signed release form e-mailed to me no later than noon, Friday September 14^th 2007. I need to receive the original release form, signed by you, in the mail no later than Wednesday, September 19 2007.

If I do not receive the digital copy at the requested time I will assume that you are no longer interested in appearing in this production and will re-shoot the Claudia scenes with someone else."

BMK Problems Update

So, I sent an e-mail to (name deleted) today asking if she's made a decision about signing the release form yet. I got a response that she gave it to her acting coach last night and won't be seeing him again until tomorrow.

Ok, two problems with this. 1st of all, couldn't she call him to find out? And secondly, "acting coach" Hmmm, I could have sworn on Saturday she said he was her manager. I have witnesses b-otch!

BMk Production Day 2

Today was our second day of production on Black Market Kidneys. And what a pooch screw it was, too. We started with close ups of Mick (Owen Higdon) to get him loosened up, while we waited for everyone else to arrive. ONce Sarai and our extras arrived we began filming the main scenes. The scene with Sarai wasn't scripted. After looking at the other stuff we'd shot, Jason and I decided we needed more to Ava's story. So we decided to open the movie with Ava getting picked up by the killer. Although, we see it from the Claudia's POV so the audience won't know who it is. We knew from before that (Name Deleted) is incapable of improvising, so we had Trent double for her, we'll just mess with the voice track later. It turned out well. Then (Name Deleted) showed up and everything went to shit again. It started when our 1st A. D., Catherine, told me (Name Deleted) wouldn't sign the release form. We'd meant to get everyone to sign them at the house, but since we weren't able to get in until late and were in our groove by the time (Name Deleted) showed up, so it was the last thing on our minds. But I made sure to get Catherine to have everyone sign them today. (Name Deleted) was acting like it was a contract (it's not) and wouldn't sign until she had her manager look it over. It's just a release form giving us permission to use her voice and likeness in relation to the showing, distribution, filming and advertising of Black Market Kidneys. She's making a big deal over nothing. If she's so worried about it, she should have consulted with him prior to taking the part. If she doesn't sign it, then we don't have a movie and all of their time will be wasted. Needless to say, I was not in the best of moods and in no way wanted to speak or look at her. But being the director and playing a character who has to talk to her for the entire sequence, I had no choice. Since there's nothing in the form (Name Deleted) should have an issue signing, Jason and I decided to go ahead and film. I wanted to get all of (Name Deleted) scenes out of the way, so we could get her out; because she brought down the atmosphere of the entire set, but of course, she kept screwing up, so we had to do take after take to get something we could use. We took a break and Joe called me over to the table he was sitting at with Mike, Countess, and Trent. They asked me what was up with (Name Deleted) They didn't know about the release form thing and still thought she was a bitch, just from the way she acted and her attitude. And here I thought it was just me. Joe also said that it seemed like she was trying to tell us what to do. We finally got her out of there and finished off all that we needed. What an aggravating day!

At Last We Have Found a Bar for Mick's Pub

At Last, We Have Found A Bar For Mick's Pub!
Current mood: stoked
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

I was talking to Mike Artimovich about the trouble we've been having finding a bar for the Mick's Pub location. He was telling a friend of his, who is an actor, about it. His friend, Trent, told Mike that he knows some people who own a bar, Lucky's Pub, in Eustis and that they'd probably let us film there. Mike gave me Trent's number; I called him the other day and we set up to meet with him at Lucky's today. It was agreed that we would meet him outside, then go inside to meet with Kansas, the owner. When we pulled up, there was a guy standing outside on his cell phone. Never having met Trent before, I wasn't sure if this was him or not. We waited until he got off the phone then asked if he was who we suspected him to be. He was. After introducing ourselves, we followed Trent inside, where we met Kansas, the woman who owns the pub. She was nice and didn't ask what was in it for her or concerned with anything like the other bar owners we have spoken with. Kansas had only one question, "Where do I sign?"

Black Market Kidneys Production Day 1

We began production today on our first "professional" film, Black Market Kidneys. Jason and I had to pick some stuff up, so we left early and arrived at the house way before we were scheduled. Eventually our cast and crew began to arrive. Mike, one of the guys who built the house we're filming in, said he's out of town and would get someone to open the house up. It turned out to be his father and brother, who showed up an hour late because they had to pick someone up from the airport. Mike's brother, Joe, was driving and walked up first. He's tall, with a beefy build like a linebacker, His look is completed by a closely cropped mohawk. He reminds me of a cross between a bulldog and a grizzly bear. Their father, John, is shorter, but has the stocky build of a retired pro wrestler, and the grizzled look of a weathered sea captain. They swirled through the house like a hurricane, opening doors and turning on lights. Then, just as quickly, they were gone, leaving no destruction in their wake, no sign that they'd even been there. While Catherine worked on getting the white make up on Sarai, the rest of us worked on filming the scenes in the house with Ben (me) alone. This took awhile, but Catherine had not finished the make up. It wasn't her fault, but the fault of cheap liquid make up and having to cover an entire body on her own, so the rest of us pitched in. Some sight that must have been: four guys and a girl, circled around a woman in nothing but a bra and panties, hurriedly trying to apply make up. Once Sarai was sufficiently covered in make up, we moved down to the basement to film Ava's scenes. Once we put Sarai in the tub of ice, the make up began to come off. Other than that, things went smoothly and we got into our groove. Then (Name Deleted) showed up and everything went to hell. The look on her face as she followed me down to the basement said it all, "What did I get myself in to?" Gone was the friendly woman at the auditions; she'd been replaced with a cold and bitter non-person. One would think she'd be impressed by the house. She really ground filming down to a crawl with her bad acting. She would mess up takes by forgetting a line and or not doing an action correctly after I showed her exactly how I wanted it done. We trudged through it though, and got Sarai's stuff done so we could get her out of there, then we moved upstairs to film my scenes with (Name Deleted), and things really got bad. In the basement, Claudia has only about one line, but upstairs she has to actually carry on a conversation. Again she'd botch lines and every take her acting sucked. And she wouldn't carry on the character after her line was finished. After she delivered the line, like immediately after, she expected us to say cut. We can't do that cause we need the frames for editing, otherwise it'll cut too close to the line and either cut off part of it or make the cut choppy when putting it together with a reverse for Ben's lines. But as soon as she completed the last sentence, she would freeze, murdering the moment. We didn't finish with her until around midnight and we started with her around 6:30 pm, even earlier with Sarai. So Jason and I had been there a long, long time. And we had to go back and reshoot some of the scenes with me on the second floor room so the light would match up with what we shot with (Name Deleted). I was pissed because it took longer that it should have and the bitch is messing up our movie!

Production Emergency

We were all set to begin production on Black Market Kidneys tonight at Le Carpathian. Then I get an e-mail this morning from (name deleted) saying she has to drop out of the movie because she just found out she got a paying gig as a back up dancer for some Brazilian rap star the world has never heard of and probably never will.

There are a few issues with this, other than the obvious one of her dropping out the day we were set to film.

First of all, she didn't just find out about it. Thanks to the wonders of MySpace Comments, I was able to discover that (Name Deleted) knew about it a week ago. And secondly, the show isn't until the end of September, and we'll be done long before then, so there is now conflict whatsoever. Now we have to go crawling to (Name Deleted) and hope she'll take the part after we turned her down. I did it nicely, though, saying we liked her talent her audition, but didn't want to waste her talent on this small of a film.

Replacement

Called (Name Deleted), she's on board to play Claudia. So, now instead of filming at Le Carpathian two nights, it's going to be consolidated into one. It will be a long night, but at least now we'll be able to have Claudia and Ava on screen at the same time instead of having to fake it in editing.

We spent the afternoon driving around Lake County looking for bars to double as the Mick's Pub location. It was a bust, though.

black market kidneys Auditions

We had auditions for Black Market Kidneys today. Even though we only have the house location secured, we decided to go ahead and cast the thing. It didn't go that bad for our first auditions ever.

There were only four people who showed up that we were actually considering casting. The other two we had show up was our make up artist/1st A. D. Catherine, and a guy we have on hold to see whether or not Owen is going to do the movie.


Our cast for BMK is:

(name deleted) - Claudia

David Brown - Ben

Sarai B. Goley - Ava

Scotty Schultz - Barney the Barfly

Owen Higdon - Mick the Bartender

Black Market Kidneys Location Scouting

We've been trying to get the short film I wrote, Black Market Kidneys, in to production for a while now. The main hold up has been finding the two locations we need: a house and a bar. I had put an ad on MySpace earlier this year, but only got two responses, neither of which would have worked for various reasons. We put it aside when there was a family emergency.

I recently put another ad on MySpace and got a response from a guy named Mike, who built a house with his father and brother in Howey. We stopped by to meet with him today and look over the house. It's better than we ever could have hoped for. It's two storied, huge, and has a secret passage down to the basement which we are so going to use. It's a great place and is going to make our movie look really good.