Bullet List shoot - Day 1 review, Agents on the Jetty.

Standing at warehouse stationery, waiting for Thursday's scripts to print off, I was nervous. It had been a while since I've done a shoot, The doubting began, do I know what I'm doing? Will my camera battery last? Will it rain?. The guy's  have faith in me. I look at my phone. 15 minutes late. Great start Matt.

I pick up Steve from his place and we roar down the motorway, it begins to spit and drizzle a little on the way. "Come on god", I mutter, "don't troll me now". We get to the spot and meet Toutai for the first time, He's pretty cool, pretty much like our conversation on the phone the night before, he's passionate about acting and belives in the project. He gets in my car and we drive to the first location of our planned 3 part shoot.

We shoot at the jetty near mission bay. Just me in my grey hoody with my cheap ass camera, and the two boys in their jackets and sunnies. The wind is trying to freeze us and the clouds hang overhead omniously. But this suits the shoot fine. Great color tones :) Fighting the wind I try to hold the camera steady as I shoot the 2 agents discussing the case with the beautiful Auckland skyline in the backdrop. The wind swirls around the performers as they make their way through their lines. Definately going to need ADR. The phone has a windcut mechanism, but I find out later when I get home it doesn't make much difference. I'll definately need to invest in a mic of some sort and a portable powerkit. I should have chosen a cheaper hobby.

 

The second location is nearby, and we roll through that one without any hitches and the last one we wing it. I remembered when I shot Timefish back in the day for SAE I shot it on top of one of the carparking rooftops. This time however I drove to one in which I had worked for as a mascot a couple of years ago and the backdrop below is simply priceless. 

Location, Location, Location. But I admit, we found it quite funny rolling through a carpark looking for a park slowly with a hearty samoan in the back, a tall maori dude sitting in shotgun and a rough looking white guy driving a beat up old car. That could have been a short film in itself :)

Wrapping at the end of the day felt good, finally had some footage in the can after talking about getting this shit started for so long, made a new ally, and practiced doing something I loved for a change. Driving home afterwards I felt happy, lighter as if a weight had been lifted. Feeling Good!

Now on for Day two, finding everyone available on certain days when certain locations are free has been tough but I will be using my talent of words to help make shit happen now I know that this acting thing is definitely what I want. I will be doing a course in a couple of weeks time but more on that once I have done it, follow this blog and you'll be the first to know :)

Prepping for Bullet List. Day 1.

I have confidence! If nothing else, this dream of being an action film maker/actor is all I have. I have had a good week at work getting my targets and some closed sales and had great compliments from customers, you're the man! This boy, he's number one! Can I buy you a coffee? All sorts. Feels good but my heart rumbles at this day job knowing deep inside it's not what I want to be doing with every fibre of my being, the only thing holding me back is me and the decisions I make, so no more indecision's because even that is a choice unto itself. I choose to make it happen, now.

So after much procrastinating/time budget issues and fear of failure I have finally set in motion The Bullet List. All week I have been thinking about this project, when it is done and finished I can use it to make an IMDb profile, cut into a show reel and fund-raise for my first feature, I can see the road and where it will lead me but first I have to START it ;)

 I'm still a little iffy on the Bullet list script as I'm sure I could have done better but I'm done waiting and if I keep tinkering it'll never be finished. It's better to have a prototype than an idea on paper. I don't want to be THAT guy, the OCD and  perfectionist type. I love to create, to get out there and do it, so here goes....

Tomorrow will be Day one of the shoot. From looking at my schedule I have 18-25 days (extra days depend on the fight scenes if they stretch out or not.)

 I have casted Toutai in the role of Dean, SIS Super chief and good friend Steve Heke as my opposite, Special agent Johnson. The day will be made of three set ups, at three different locations that feature conversations between the two. I thought it would be easier on all of us if we tackled the dialog/drama stuff before we head to the action scenes as I want the action scenes to be special and I want to sort out some cheap tables and stuff to break when we shoot them.

It will be shot out of sequence obviously to take advantage of the cast's availability and at the moment this will be all of 'Dean's' Scenes. I will post some screen shots when I have them next post.

I'm so excited/nervous. I'm pretty worried as I'm only using my JVC camera. (below) and I only have to one battery at the moment (trying to track down some extra's) so hoping it holds out for me, it almost ran out when I was shooting No Way out some months back and had to rush the last scenes, no rushing this time, It's going to be done right!

 Also this week I bought the matrix trilogy as my wife hadn't seen it yet, since I quote jokes from it all the time. Watching it again I realized how much it had inspired me first time round, the philosophy, the action, the fleshed out characters and the excitement at new possibilities. This is definitely how I wanted my films to be. Awesome!

Don't lie, we've all tried it ;)

Shooting Day One starts tomorrow. Here we go!