Nov
12
2006
Planes,
Hi blog readers. Me here. Darrell. “Mr. B Camera.” As regular readers of Poagao’s many blogs, you all know that he was pretty much tied up all last weekend gigging with his jug band, the Muddy Basin Ramblers. So, with the deadline for principle photography just around the corner, I was asked to step in and take the reigns and shoot a quick scene and a couple of inserts for scenes already completed. The negotiations went something like this.
DEAN
Hey, Darrell. I noticed your camera looks like TC’s Camera.
DARRELL
Yeah. So what?
DEAN
Can we use it this weekend? TC is busy.
DARRELL
Okay.
So that was that. The planning began.
The first scene we were to shoot has a long history dating back to when the script was first written. It’s a conversation between our hero, Barns, and his sidekick, Milo. Initially, the scene was to take place in the first class section of a large passenger jet. Great idea! Show a bit of scale, class, and budget. The problem was, as you can imagine, after 2 years of shooting, our film is already overloaded with class, scale and budget, so we decided to get gritty and set the scene on a train. Taiwan’s high speed train. Yeah, baby! Just like Mission Impossible 1. You know the part that really sucked? We were going to do it right! So, where do we find one of these ‘high speed trains?’
Evidently not in Taiwan. Not yet, anyway. We would have to wait to undo the damage that was MI:1. We still needed a cool location. What to do, what to do?
MAURICE
Let’s film the scene in a toilet.
DEAN
What? Are you kidding?
(Scoffs)
Wait a second! (a light bulb appears above his head)
(Scoffs)
Wait a second! (a light bulb appears above his head)
There’s something…Yes, I have an idea…
Let’s film it in a toilet.
MAURICE
That’s a great idea!
MAURICE and DEAN hug. They call Darrell on his cell.
So we were all off to the toilet.
When we arrived, we checked it out and began blocking and staging. Basically, we had to decide where Dean and Maurice should be and where the camera would be to catch their performances. As an added touch, I decided to add a little more quality and production value by using my one and only NT$400 DV tape and not use a regular NT$100 tape like TC uses. As the ‘B camera guy’, I feel I owe it to the audience. The toilet was tight and we didn’t have much room to move, but basically no one was hurt and we got our scene in the can.
Up next was our date with Noah, our sniper. We placed him in various sniping positions. For example, in the shade, in the sun, up close, and far away. SPOILER: He needed to get shot and die convincingly, so we worked on his character a bit.
NOAH
How should I die?
DARRELL
Okay. Here is your motivation. Think back to high school. Were you ever not invited to a party that you really wanted to go to?
NOAH reflects. His eyes glisten with tears.
DARRELL
Roll Tape! Roll Tape. And… Action.
What a death!
Next up was Dolly. We met her in Daan Park around 4:00 in the afternoon and I was getting a little worried because the sun was setting and there was no direct sunlight. I’m a big fan of light in movies and I wasn’t sure how things were going to look. After we found a suitable location and got set up, I could see that we had plenty of light and the quality of the light was actually very flattering. No harsh shadows or blown out high lights. I think you’ll agree the images are very nice! What a camera!
And that’s a rap!
