Jeremy LaLonde's Blog Entry - February 8th 2007

This week has completely gotten away from me. So the film is wrapped and just today I began the task of editing (more on that later). So now it’s time to fill you in on the shoot.

Day Zero

We got a deal with Spin Gallery where we shot the loft scenes and they let us come in the day before and turn the place into the loft. Meaghan Lynch has done an amazing job along with Britt and Robert to create Hoff’s world. This film wouldn’t look how it’s going to look without her. She and her team put so much thought and effort into even the tiniest of details and I have to say it’s completely changed the way I think about my own filmmaking. I can’t imagine ever making a film again without a production designer.

So Zach Melnick, my closest friend, and his lady, another close friend of mine, Yvonne Drebert, arrived in town from Sudbury. Zach is my DOP/Camera OP and Yvonne is his second in command. Upon arrival Zach asked me if I wanted to shoot in 24 or 30fps. A question I had not really thought about. And because I’m an editor by trade my mind instantly goes to post and what I’m finishing on. I’m finishing on beta for Bravo, and I can’t see us ever really having to do a film print, so my mind automatically goes to 30. Also not having the time to check it out, I can’t recall is the Avid Media Composer at work that I am editing on has the capabilities. So out of fear I choose 30fps. We finish setting up and finish the evening with some greek food on the Danforth in my hood and crash for the next day.

Day One

We get to set at the exact moment we’re allowed in and the room is a buzz. It’s 9am, which isn’t that early for a film shoot, and the set is still being finalized. Actors aren’t being called for at least an hour and so I have time to go over the schedule with Zach and my AD for the day. I decided to start the schedule with the interview sequences since it’s an easy set-up and a good way to start the day, and my first shooting experience with Mr. Andrew Pifko. While on the subject I should mention that we kept the heat off in the loft for most of the day and Hoff’s (Pifko’s character) doesn’t wear the warmest of clothes, so he was a trooper for certain. Mixed in with the scripted sequences I wrote out a list of other questions for Dave Tompa, who plays the Director, to ask. The two played off each other well and we’ve got some really great stuff that we probably won’t have time for in the film, however it’ll make for some fun stuff on the www.hoffwoodburn.com website. Right now it’s just a teaser site but keep checking back in the next few months.

So I should talk about sound. Location sound is never usually ideal, you’re dealing with a lot of elements and a lot of things that are out of your control. Spin Gallery is just off of Queen Street. Which equals street-cars. They go by about every twelve minutes, which helps to know, except they travel in both directions, so technically they go by every 6-12 minutes. Having not checked through the footage thoroughly I’m still optimistic. However later on in the evening it got worse, not because of the streetcar – no no, because of the evil man sport. When we booked the location we knew that the bar ‘The Social’ was down stairs, we also knew it was Sunday and that their crowd was minimal on Sundays. We had no way of knowing that they would be renting the place to a Superbowl party. Talk about shitty luck. Either way, they were nice enough to keep it down from time to time. Although I have a sneaking suspicion we might be visiting an ADR booth at some point in post. Poor Ms. Mary Krohnert had to deal with the majority of that. I wonder if I should talk about Mary now, might as well. Mary is a star. What makes Mary so great is that when given the choice she always chooses truth over beauty in her acting moments. I think it’s only a matter of time before she explodes with the right role in the right film. Timing timing timing.

So we made our day on Saturday and tore down most of the set before leaving. Mr. Melnick shot the hell out of the loft and I can’t wait to start playing with the footage.

Day Two

Later call time today. We were only shooting about a page and a half compared to the previous day’s 3 1/2 pages. And we were expecting about 30+ extras. Still not sure how many we ended up with. I should check with Mr. Grani.

Emily (my lovely fiancé) and I arrived to set early. Meaghan was still working on the painting for the final scene and so we worked through a few different versions finally coming to the right one. I don’t want to ruin the ending for those not “ in the know”, but it makes me giggle.

The shoot went well. Poor Zach had two locations in this film and both covered with white walls. I think he’s done wonderful despite his limitations.

The scene where Hoff reveals his new work to a crowd is the scene that I was worried about the most, mainly because I’ve seen it play out about a dozen different ways, and so I shot it in a way that I can play around with different ideas in the editing room. Another plus of being your own editor, in my opinion anyway.

The gallery ended up looking great, all the work that our art department has put into everything from the paintings to the Hoff merchandise (posters, t-shirts, buttons, programs, etc…) just add to it all.

It was sad to finish at the end of the day. I like being on set and all the craziness it ensues.

Days After…

So now it’s been a few days since we wrapped and I couldn’t quite bring in the footage on the XD-CAM deck at work like I hoped because it is an SD(standard def) deck, and we shot in HD. Luckily Zach came through Toronto today and I was able to steal the camera. An Avid software update later and we’re ready to go. That’s part of the problem shooting with the newest and greatest technology, not everyone’s caught up. But alas. We are well.

I’m tired now but I can’t finish this entry without giving a big Thank You to everyone that helped us, especially the man I consider to be our fearless leader, our producer Anthony Grani. It’s been great so far and with Arts council grants applications looming, two short films to finish, and many projects at work it looks to be a busy month… more to come….

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