The Travails of the Astounding!

Almost a week now since days one and two of the 18 day Fat Tuesday shoot.




I can barely sleep. I feel a restless wreck during the day. Reading Sin City helps. Working at the bar helps. Creating meticulous shot lists with Mike helps. Chewing gum relieves the mania. I'm still so green, I can do better, I can express myself more clearly. We can get better shots. I can manage time better. I think about all of this when I'm not working on it. When the buzzer sounds it's all checklists and checks. When the lights dim, it's back to the circus. And since it's a twice a week shoot for the next two months, I gotta think about something else, soon. Now. Whenever. Maybe sometime during the fall.


For right now, it's long hot sticky nights. The type where you spend hours staring at the yellow glow of your ceiling. The type where you blast music and thank god you live in a house where you can do that and not upset neighbors cause this is the closest thing to therapy your wallet will allow. I guess things are going pretty well. Hell, I know it. I'm having the time of my life. I'm working with a hilarious screenplay, written by my buddy and DP. I've got rousties who work effectively for long unpaid hours and don't bitch. Having Heather Diehl as our Production Manager has worked out tons better than I had expected. She fills in the holes that Mike and I could go long term twitchy attending to. She works two steps ahead, while Mike and I are thinking three. She makes the phone calls and sends the emails that are the equivalent to waiting room paper filing. And I fucking hate paper work. Production Managers, what a brilliant concept. Glad it only took us our second feature to figure it out. Or else I'd really be crazy. Crazy as a fox. Crazy as Sisak & Quinn in love.
Well, not that kind of crazy. But it looks like a good crazy. Good enough that I might be tempted to try it out sometime.

Anyway, day one and two of the shooting went well as I've said. Weve got a great mixture of professional theatrical thespians, and camera friendly friends. If Mike and I just point the camera in the right direction we'll have a good flick. If we time and light it right, we just might have something great. Diana Lynn who took some wonderful stills for Tyrants has already taken a dozen priceless gems from our 20 plus hours of shooting. Whenever I meet up with her I'll share some of those with you. Til then, you'll have to make do with my clumsily rushed point and shoots. You'll live. So will I. Maybe even happily? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.


And so, the day after day two marked six months tending bar at Zooty's. To celebrate the occasion that I just realized existed, I got everyone on the production team drunk except for Danny, who stays sober as soil during operating hours. Even ole Mr. Kelly was in rare form, for the first time since I started working there he had a bottle other than Iron City!! AND he made it a Budweiser! Here are some pics of that as well. Most of these poor souls are twisted on Jimmy's Mango Mojito recipe which took me 5 tries to perfect, and another ten to get really comfortable with. I can now make em from scratch. Mike Scotto however, who only started drinking at midnight, who had his two Jack and Diets bought for him, who disproved the theory that he couldn't get any drunker than he had been not one month ago, had such a smashing time that on the way home he decided he preferred Pizza Amiers gravely sidewalk to a lumpy uncomfortably soft bed. Jim and I convinced him to reconsider.





Walking Through Walls from the album "Meaningless" by Jon Brion