This weekend marked the end of our “weekends only” schedule for Dry Bones.   We’re 80% finished with principal photography. Debbie Rochon arrives on Friday for a five day stretch that will conclude the shoot. Those five days will also include the majority of special make-up effects for the film, so they’ll be our hardest five days. After that, all that will remain to be done will be the biggest special effect in the film, which we’ll get approximately one month from now. So far, this has been the easiest shoot of my life, and designing the shots has felt effortless. I consider it a minor miracle that we’ve pulled together the cast and crew we have. It’s all coming together nicely, and I can’t wait for you all to see it.

On Saturday, we started out with two scenes featuring Michael O’Hear (as Drew) and two of our regular locals: Bob Bozek (the second Mayor of Slime City, who takes a bullet in the head in Slime City Massacre, and who plays another mayor in Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast), and Alex McBryde (Pimp “Bless” in SCM). This time around, Bob played a crafty locksmith, and Alex essayed “Popper,” sort of a contemporary Renfield type who misses his succubus. Both guys delivered the goods, and I added a small tag to Alex’s scene featuring a cool dolly shot. I loved having them around. Kaelin loved having them around too – she loves having everyone on the film around – and I had to laugh when I saw her throwing Carmine Capobianco’s head from Model Hunger into the air and catching it. I’m proud to say I’ve provided her with a unique childhood…

Next we shot a scene in which Michael digs a mass grave in my backyard to bury the three “husks” the succubus has left around his house. I dug the hole the day before and my back was a little tender. Age! Michael had to sing the title song while pretending to dig; it’s one of his big scenes. I sent Sam up onto the flat roof over my kitchen with the dolly for an establishing shot, then two closer dolly shots on the ground for the main coverage. Later, Sam also climbed onto the peaked roof over my front door for another high angle shot of Michael removing a mirror from his car. I forgot to lock the cats in the basement, so Starbuck made his annual escape outside, but returned as soon as he got hungry. I admit to experiencing some concern for the orange annoyance.

After lunch we made a company move to Paul McGinnis’s house. Paul plays Tom, the hero’s sloppy best friend, and he’s one of the producers on the film. He’s also been one of the key crew members, holding the boom for the majority of the time. Paul is another veteran of Snow Shark, and I’m pleased that Dry Bones is his first big role in a film. Trust me, you will see more from him. Paul’s house served as the house of his character, but we started with three scenes in his basement (serving as Drew’s basement). I’m pleased that all three scenes in that basement look different, something I’ve been striving to do with all the scenes in my house too.

Next we shot a scene of Michael on his laptop; the dolly swoops in on him, and it’s one of my favorite shots so far. In the scene, Michael is supposed to be watching a YouTube video of a character named Joe Sarno (named after a sexploitation director) delivering exposition on succubi. We were originally going to shoot that YouTube video, starring Canadian actor Jason Tannis (Blood for Irena), on Sunday; instead, I asked my friend Dave Goodfellow, who produced Irena, to shoot it in his home library in Ontario. For all I know, they shot their portion of the scene at the same time we shot ours. A big thank you to Dave and Jason for lightening our schedule here.

We shot another scene on a dolly with Michael which we faked day for night, but had to wait for it to get dark to get the remaining scene between Michael and Paul. This was Paul’s last dialogue scene, and he and Michael both did a great job. Chris Rados did some nice lighting, too. At thirteen and a half hours this was our longest day yet, but that’s a typical day on most indie films (on Battledogs, we generally had fourteen hour days, and on Model Hunger fifteen hours was normal).   Because another location I wanted for Sunday fell through, Paul agreed to let us shoot those scenes on his back porch, so we left our equipment there overnight. At this point, I’m so tired of shooting in my house that I was glad to spend a big chunk of the weekend away, so special thanks to Paul.

Sunday was a half day. We shot two scenes between Michael and Matt Reese, an old friend of mine from New York City who drove in from Ohio. I’ve wanted to use Matt in a film for years – he had a silent cameo in Naked Fear – so I’m glad this worked out, he and Michael played off each other well. Other than the unwanted presence of several busy queen bees and noise from lawnmowers, the scene went off without a hitch. It was great seeing Matt again.

With those scenes out of the way, we packed up and returned to my house, where we ate lunch (fed the whole crew for only $50) and set up our final shots of the day. There is a big scene near the two thirds mark of the film featuring most of the actresses in the film. We’ve been shooting most of the actresses piecemeal, and Tammy Reger’s bit was the last of those self-contained pieces. The spine of the scene, featuring Michael, Debbie, John Renna and Kathy Murphy, is still to come. This scene also features the big effect I mentioned earlier, and is probably the most complicated I’ve ever attempted.

I’m always happy to follow a heavy day with a short one, but that won’t be possible next week, so I have a lot of planning to do. In addition to Debbie, David Marancik and Tommy Sweeney are coming to town. My central air is broken, so I’m hoping we won’t have to contend with uncomfortable temperatures.  Home stretch, baby!

Back to our regular “full” Saturday and Sunday schedule. This weekend was unusual for a few different reasons. First, we had a different cast: Kevin VanHentenryck, star of Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case trilogy, came to Buffalo to play the brutish Bart; Kim Piazza played his abused wife Linda; Mark Goodfellow, son of my friends David and Trudi Goodfellow, played Andy, who grows up to be the main character, Drew (Michael O’Hear); and my daughter Kaelin portrayed Becky, Andy’s sister, who grows up to be Rebecca (Kathy Murphy). This “mini-cast within the cast” is not unlike what the one feaytured in the Slime City Massacre flashbacks.

Kevin and I are obviously from the same 80s era, and worked together briefly during his memorable cameo in Brain Damage. It was great to have him around, he’s friendly and easy going and really made Bart breathe…and bellow…and scream. People will cheer his confrontation with the succubus. Not only were we working with different actors, but two of them were kids, and Kim did a great job bonding with Kaelin and Mark as their “mother” (Bart isn’t so likeable…). Both kids fared well, and I’m a proud papa. Kim was something of a revelation; a theatre friend of Michael’s, and one of his casting choices, she really impressed me - I’m glad her character has two more significant scenes besides this prologue, because I know she’ll make an impact in the film.

Friday actually felt like the day before the first day of production (on any production), with countless last minute details to take care of, including shopping for props and art direction needs, and following up on communications, and more often than not, non-communications – a 13 hour prep day. I sat in Kaelin’s room with the script and figured out my coverage, wondering how I could make the prologue distinctive from the rest of the film (since the main bedroom still looks like a kid’s room 35 years later). It occurred to me to stick a lava lamp in the scene and use that as a primary light source. I wanted to do this in Naked Fear back in 1995 but it didn’t work out then. I posted on Facebook that morning that I needed a lava lamp, and by afternoon I had one (thank you, Scotty Lebracht!).

Saturday started with a flurry of activity as Shannon Kramp costume fitted our new thespians and made alterations where necessary. It was strange shooting an entire day without Michael as Drew on; he’s on screen for 75% of the film, and on days when we shoot other people he usually still winds up with one bit, as on Sunday. With the exception of that scene, everything we filmed over the weekend was either part of the film’s prologue, set in 1979 (as evidenced by Mark perusing my copy of FANGORIA #1); a flashback to 1979; or a spin on those 1979 scenes.

None of our usual gaffers - Chris Rados, Scotty Franklin, Kash Costner – were available, so Chris Santucci, my DP on Slime City Massacre, did me a solid and came in for a day, and it was great working with him again. The lava lamp lighting scheme looked really cool. Throughout the film, the succubus pulls people under Andy/Drew’s bed to dispose of them. For Amelie McKendry’s and Paul McGinnis’s scenes, two of us squeezed between the wall and the bed and pulled on their wrists/ankles. For Kevin, we used a tow line, which worked great – he flew under that bed and liked it.

I’m happy to report that Arick Szymecki’s silicone succubus gloves were finally ready and looked great. Tamar has doubled for the succubus (which will be one of Debbie Rochon’s three parts in the film) since shooting began, and she finally got to wear the real deal. These gloves were worth the wait. I wanted to show more of the succubus’s arms than just the hands, so Rod Durick summoned a stocking which he and Arick pulled over the end of the glove and Tamar’s arm and stippled it, which worked well.

We shot at least eight pages’ worth of the screenplay and I was pleased with everything we got.   Mark’s father is a photo journalist for FANGO, so we also got some really nice stills. It was nice having the family Goodfellow around for the weekend, and David is shooting a faux “YouTube” clip for the film next weekend with actor Jason Tannis, who appeared in Blood for Irina, directed by Chris Alexander (and which David produced), and a short film which we screened at Buffalo Screams its first year.

Sunday was an easy day because we got so much done on Saturday. On Sundays we have a 9:00 am set call instead of 8:00 am as we do on Saturdays. I wanted to get everyone out by 3:00 pm to enjoy Mother’s Day. Chris Rados was our gaffer, fresh off wrapping The Romans, and we finally got to use his slider for the camera! We shot a small portion of the climax, in which Michael is as bloody as Bruce Campbell in The Evil Dead, with excellent make-up by Arick. Somehow I got movie blood drops on the crotch of my shorts…

We also shot a monologue Kim delivers to Mark, and another bit with Kim comprising a small portion of what I believe will be the best sequence in the film…and wrapped around 1:15. Picture wraps for Kevin, Kim, and Mark (Kaelin wrapped on Saturday). My friend Ted Haynes swung by and donated an excellent lunch to the production, which should also keep my family eating for several days. Rod, Kash and Renna all swung by. A great weekend, I have to say – very productive (we shot 10% of the film in a day and a half) and laid back, the way I like it. It’s a little hard to believe we’re two thirds finished with this production: we have one more “regular” weekend, then a five day stretch with Debbie Rochon, and then we’re done. Special props to our tight little crew, among them Paul McGinnis and Sam Qualiana.

Today was the tenth day of production for Dry Bones, which I wrote and am co-producing and co-directing with Michael O'Hear, who stars.  We didn't shoot last weekend or yesterday because of convention appearances, so it felt good to get back into the groove.  We began by shooting a police interrogation scene with Michael and John Renna.  I've written many such scenes in my novels, but haven't directed one before, and as a diehard fan of Homicide: Life on the Streets, I looked forward to it.   This scene runs over four pages in my screenplay.

Because we're a guerrilla production, meaning we have no location insurance, it was impossible for us to get an actual interrogation room, like we did on Battledogs.  Scotty Franklin, one of our gaffers, came through for us: he has an office at the Pierce-Arrow Arts Center, which is being developed as a film production facility.  Scott's space has an office for him to conduct business within a larger space where he stores lighting equipment.  I wish we'd taken stills, but we've gotten bad at that.  The smaller office actually has a window in one wall, so we were able to dolly past it, looking inside,  The walls were industrial cinder block, with a radiator and a water pipe, painted black with red trim - totally convincing as a police room, and yet oddly stylish.  He cleared out the room for the day so we could move in a table and two chairs.

Considering we're using an unusual camera/audio setup - a T2i HD still camera combined with an audio mixer taped to our boom pole - we've had remarkably few technical problems on this shoot - until today.  We lost 60 - 90- minutes due to various technical issues which turned out to be errors on our part (we got rusty during our time off!), and maybe an hour to a lighting setup which proved challenging.  But once we got up and running we rocked - Michael and John were spot on and I got all of the coverage I wanted.  For a rare treat, we had lunch in the outdoor portion of a bar across the street.  I never knew a meatloaf sandwich could be so good.

After packing up, most of us returned to my house.  As I explained once before in this blog, when you travel from one location to another on a movie it's called a company movie.  At my house, we devoted our remaining time to shooting scenes and portions of scenes which we were unable to get when I scheduled them.  First up we shot the last scene of the movie, which takes place in my front yard and driveway.  The scene was staged as a single shot involving a dolly move, double framing, and a pan.  It took six takes, but we got it.  When I originally scheduled this scene, the weather was cold, gray and windy - we could have shot it, but it wouldn't have read as the happy ending we wanted.  Today the sun was out and trees were in bloom, and the symbolism worked great.

The next scene was also set outside.  We have a montage sequence early in the film in which Michael's character maintains "his" house and yard.  An earlier draft of the script called for him to mow part of my lawn, but when we shot most of this sequence, my backyard was a swamp so we skipped it.  I decided to get it today because I thought the yellow dandelions would look great, and I wanted to establish my backyard for a later scene with darker overtones.  I framed a shot, but Sam Qualiana offered to improve it by getting down on the grass while Michael mowed straight to the camera - a "money shot."

Inside, we shot a scene in which Michael carries a can of red paint past Paul McGinnis, who is painting a living room wall.  A simple bit of action taking 2/8 of a script page.  I staged a dolly shot in which Michael exits a hall with a can of red paint, and Sam dollied across the room, revealing Paul as Michael passed him; then Paul turns in the direction Michael just exited and delivers a line.   It was a nice shot.  I went all of SLIME CITY without a single dolly move, and Sam wasn't able to use his only dolly shot on SNOW SHARK: ANCIENT SNOW BEAST because the second camera operator screwed up the camera settings; this was our fourth dolly shot today, and we have many in the film.

Our final shot of the day - "the martini" - was an insert for Paul's character's death scene.  We shot the bulk of the scene already, but our "succubus hands"  weren't ready.  Today - for the second time - Tamar wore the monster gloves, doubling for Debbie Rochon.  The shots went off without a hitch and we wrapped for the day.  We're just past halfway through shoot days, and just under halfway through the script.  Next weekend, we have an entirely different cast for two days, when we shoot the prologue for the film: Kevin VanHentenryck from the Basket Case films; Kim Piazza, who will be playing Kevin's wife; Mark Goodfellow, who will be playing his son; and Kaelin Lamberson, making her screen debut as his daughter.

For Day 7 of Dry Bones, I scheduled two thirds of the scenes set in a bar frequented by Drew (Michael O’Hear); the final third will be shot when Debbie Rochon arrives in May. Bar scenes can be tough to shoot because you need to find a bar that’s closed in the day, and in this economy most stay open. You shouldn't shoot in bars when they're open, even if they're slow, because the noise is too great.  It takes an hour to load in and an hour to pack up and load out of any "away" location, plus you need an hour for lunch, so that’s three hours’ worth of down time going in. We had a couple of decent options, but neither panned out, so at the last minute I asked “Mick O’Donald” if he could arrange for us to shoot in the bar at the Medina Theatre, where we screened Slime City Massacre and Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast a few months ago, and he and the theaters owner, Joe Cardone, came through for us. Picture a movie theater balcony overlooking a bar which faces a dance floor and a movie theater screen. The challenge was to make the space look smaller, and we got some great angles looking down on the bar and one with the camera far enough back on the dance floor so we could see the entire bar.

In the first scene, Drew meets up with his best friend Tom (Paul McGinnis); in the second, he meets a love interest, Rachel (Amelie Mckendry); and in the third, he has conversations with Tom and his date Cindy/Mindy (Jessica Zwolak) and with Rachel and her most recent pickup Mickey (Tim O’Hearn). In all three scenes, he interacts with the bartender, Gary. At the last minute we cast Daniel Arrasjid, whom my family recently saw as Long John Silver in a stage production of Treasure Island, in which which Paul appeared. The fun thing about this day was that all of the scenes were comedic in nature, so the focus was really on the acting. For the last scene, the master shot followed Michael into the bar, past Paul and Jessica, over to Amelie and Tim, then back over to Paul and Jessica with Daniel crossing the frame. The bar was a 40 minute drive from my house, but everything went pretty smoothly inside and the actors were spot on. We’re shooting so much of the film in my house that it’s always nice to get away.

For Day 8, we started at a location in Niagara Falls affiliated with Michael’s job. The two scenes we shot featured Tammy Reger (from SLUGS!) as Dr. Lawless, Drew’s psychiatrist, in her office. Each scene covers one half of the dialogue in telephone conversations between Drew and his shrink. These are easy to do, and we burned through them, but again we had to load in and load out, then drive back to my house; this is called a company move.

At my house we shot a number of exterior scenes. In the first, Michael covered his half of the dialogue for one of the telephone conversations while sitting in his car. After he hangs up his cell phone, Carl the cop (John Renna) surprises him and they have a conversation. All of the shots in this scene played nicely. Then we had another scene of Drew talking on the phone while driving; for this one, Sam Qualiana sat beside Michael while Michael drove around the block saying his lines; another nice looking shot. Next we shot montage shots of Drew cleaning up: carrying garbage outside and opening the garage door to reveal another huge mess. I actually had to throw some junk in there because I’m one of the few people in Buffalo who actually parks in his garage.

Finally we did some pickup shots of Rachel’s murder scene. We shot the bulk of the coverage previously, but needed to get two shots of succubus/monster hands grabbing her. For these shots Tamar wore gloves fabricated by Rod Durick and Stacey Book, based on Arick Szymecki’s sculpts for some silicone gloves which Debbie Rochon will wear. These were Amelie’s last shots in the shoot, and when we were done I called it an early day rather than look for other pickups we need to get of Michael; everyone left by 4 pm, an hour ahead of schedule. It was a fairly easy weekend, but a rewarding one. We made our days and came out a little bit ahead of schedule.

A few words about our crew: Sam Qualiana wants to act, but may find himself in demand as a DP after this film is released. We’re fortunate enough to have three talented people working as gaffers and grips: Kash Costner, Scotty Franklin and Chris Rados. Scotty and Chris have provided us with much needed equipment. All three guys know what they’re doing. Sometimes we have all three on set, sometimes two, and sometimes only one; there are other films being shot in the area, so they’re schedules are based on availability. We’re recording audio into a mixer which goes directly into the T2i we’re shooting on, so we don’t have a mixer per se. Paul McGinnis usually booms when he isn’t acting, and when he is one of the guys takes over (I boomed for a day as well). Our costume designer Shannon Kramp, and our effects people (Rod Durick, Arick Szymecki, and Stacey Book) primarily work off set and make appearances when needed.

So far the shoot has been a pleasure, and we're almost halfway done.

DRY BONES Days 5 & 6

Shooting on weekends only is weird. On the one hand, you have five days to prepare for each two days of filming; on the other, your body has to get used to getting tired all over. This was our third weekend of filming, at the second entirely in my house. My daughter – recuperated from the flu and strep – and our cats are now accustomed to having the equivalent of a special forces team in our home.  

It was sunny on Saturday, when we shot some exteriors out front and on my back deck, so it was nice to get out of the confined rooms for a few hours. Among the scenes we filmed in my living room was one between Michael O’Hear and John Renna. Michael is the lead: Drew, a troubled man who returns home thirty-five years after being traumatized by a monster under his bed. John plays his police chief brother in law, who’s upset because Drew’s sister has divorced him. In the scene, Drew believes Carl has paid him a visit to discuss all of the people who have been disappearing, but Carl is more upset about his divorce and breaks down. It’s a comical scene, but John was able to summon real tears for three takes. We were in stitches and mesmerized at the same time.

Throughout the film, the bodies of people who are sucked under the bed by the succubus turn up as emaciated husks. In one scene, Drew discovers the husk of a woman he picked up in a bar. Snap! Crackle! Pop! The husks roll up like sleeping bags. Our effects gurus, Rod Durick and Arick Szymecki worked around the clock (I think three times around the clock) to deliver our first husk. Drew rolls the husk up with trembling fingers. It’s a surreal moment, and Michael played it for all the pathos it was worth. We pushed a similar scene involving two additional husks to Sunday, but otherwise we made our day, and over the course of the weekend we picked up some shots we missed last weekend, so we’re all caught up except for a couple of pickups.

On Sunday, we shot the scene where Drew finds two additional husks, and this time when he rolls them up he sings the title song. I was pleased with the result. That was his only scene, which we shot at the end of the day. The rest of the day was spent on a sequence in which Paul McGinnis, as Tom, brings home Cindy/Mindy (a running gag), played by Jessica Zwolak, and they encounter the succubus. Tom is Drew’s best friend, a slob type who provides a lot of comic relief. All of his scenes with Cindy/Mindy were played for laughs, including his demise, for which we swapped out my bed with an elevated platforms so it was easier for Sam Qualiana to shoot Tom getting sucked under the bed. In a twist, Drew actually pulls himself out from under the bed, which leads to a bigger payoff. We made our day again.

The only drag about shooting in my house is the two hours of cleaning up after we’ve wrapped, but that’s primarily on Sunday since we’ve been leaving stuff up Saturday. On Sunday we moved out of my daughter’s small, confined room and into my larger bedroom…which was somehow more confined and harder to shoot in. We spent most of the day in there, and I think we were all glad we wrapped on that particular location. I held the boom pole for most of Sunday, something I haven’t done since I WAS A TEENAGE ZOMBIE back in 1984. Boom poles have gotten a lot nicer.

We’re almost one third of the way through the shoot, which is hard to believe, but we’ve got some weekends off coming up because I have some convention appearances. Debbie Rochon has joined the cast as the female lead.

For our second weekend of filming I scheduled a heavier day for Saturday, by which I mean a standard twelve hours, so we could do a shorter Sunday and everyone could have Easter dinner with their families if that mattered to them.  We already pushed the shoot for St. Paddy's Day, and i didn't want to slow our momentum.  Special thanks to Scotty Franklin for helping out with lighting on Saturday, and Chris Rados and John Renna for jumping in on their day off from The Romans on Sunday.

Saturday marked the first day that Paul McGinnis, John Renna, and Amelie McKendry appeared on camera for the project. Everyone was excellent, and Renna looked great in his cop uniform. We shot our first exteriors, first with Renna in the daytime and then various shots of Michael, Amelie, and the house at night. We also did our first dolly shots for the film, using a homemade dolly and PVC track which had been sitting in Rod Durick’s backyard for a year (or was it two?). Dolly shots are fun and add production value. Our DP Sam Qualiana’s been getting some nice shots lit by Kash Costner, and Paul McGinnis has been recording audio when he’s not on camera.

For a scene in which Paul wakes Michael up by throwing a rock through the bedroom window, we raised my daughter’s bedroom window and removed the screen, and I climbed an extension ladder and threw a rock through the blinds. Nailed it in one take, and the scene should be funny. I didn’t fall and break my neck, but I did endure Rod’s jokes about my ass. Rod provided custom made stick-on “Dry Bones” graffiti so we don’t have to paint my living room wall ten times.

Our first big effect came when Michael’s character rolls over in bed and discovers that his bar pickup has been reduced to an emaciated corpse. Specifically, he grasps her breast, which my script describes as a “rasin tit.” It was funny seeing Rod walk in with the corpse, which is on top of my entertainment unit now. That night Rod assembled the platform that our key bed will sit on; the platform elevates the bed so the succubus can pull her victims under it without anyone suffering scrapes, bruises, or unplanned belly reduction.

Sometime on Saturday Kaelin got sick, and I don’t think I got more than an hour’s sleep.

Sunday morning we shot a funny scene between Michael and Paul outside, then moved on to delayed shots of the succubus grabbing Amelie so Amelie could make her flight.

We moved downstairs and did a couple of non-effects scenes on the dolly, one with Michael and Paul and one just with Michael. I cut some scenes from the day’s schedule to get everyone out at a decent hour as promised, so we didn’t make our day, which means we’ll have to simplify scenes down the road so we can squeeze in what we missed. That’s showbiz, and the show always goes on.