The Roomies - Production Blog

Productioneering

2010-03-28T23:39:00.000-07:00

Hi! How are things? Hopefully they are great. The things. All of 'em.
You know what I've learned about myself in the last couple years? I'm not really terrific at regular updates. This is something some of you may have caught on to already. Most of the times I think to myself, "Hey, Jared, why don't you go update that production blog for 'The Roomies'? After all, you've been productioning. I'm sure there's something worth bloggering about," those thoughts are followed by me thinking, "Nah. I think I'll go boil some water." And then I do that instead.
Well, boiling water doesn't get production blogs written. Getting drunk and writing production blogs gets production blogs written. The first part probably shouldn't be a factor but TOO BAD.

On a completely unrelated note, surprised to be surprised that the cheapest wine with a foot on the label would actually taste like actual feet. I mean, you'd figure, right?
Anyway, you know how the production blog's really pretty much been a post-production blog with a little pre-production at the beginning? Well, we're right back around to productioneering so there's that for whoever wants it. See, we've shown the rough cuts to a few small test audiences and the good news is that people tend to dig it. Bad news is that the issues people did have with it are things I think could've best been solved in the screenwriting stage. Fortunately after discussing said issues with co-producer/lead actor Quinn Allan, it occurred to me pretty quickly how we could address that with not a lot of extra footage. It also gives us the opportunity to throw some more of our buddies into the film, so hey, score on that one.
Fun fact for filmmakers/screenwriters: rewrite! Rewrite until your goddamn hands bleed! I've been watching this thing over and over for months and months and I'm still bashing my head in for not catching issues way back in the screenwriting process. I like what we've got and there's always that strange magic that comes out of the production process that results in things you'd never anticipated before you started shooting, but there're still too many moments that I'll always have to live with knowing they could've been so much better if I'd just spent more time rewriting the damn script. I was in a hurry to finish because I was dead-set on shooting in a location that'd be unavailable after June '09, but still, you know. Damn it.

Regardless, as I said, there was quite a bit of that magic you never anticipate happening along the way. It's my favorite thing about filmmaking, when you have a plan and you're working the plan and then something comes up out of nowhere that's way better than your plan. One of my favorite lines in the movie didn't exist until a minute before we shot it. One of my favorite performances is from an actress who replaced another who disappeared at the last minute (turns out the missing actress is still alive and well after all, at least on Twitter, for all of us who were freaking out about her well-being). And I'm actually kinda stoked that we'll be shooting this extra footage now; I'm not sure I'd have ever written it out this way, but now that we've been forced to get creative I think it's going to turn out better than it might've otherwise.
Other cool things: our illustrious sound editor, Alexandra Fehrman, came up to Portland to visit and we got to chat about the film and all that jazz. She's a friend of Quinn's that I met once way back in weirder times and it was fun hanging out with her again. I'm really excited about hearing her work on this and am also really tired of waiting for me to finish the final picture lock so I can send it to her. Too bad we're shooting more footage and have to put the sound edit off that much longer. Way to go us for trying to make the movie better. Futz.
Hey! So you know what else is futzing great? The soundtrack to this futzing movie is what! Man, I don't know what I'm more excited about. This soundtrack is turning into the best mix-CD I could ever give a buddy. I can't really go into detail until I've got all the paperwork locked down, but holy crap, I'm pretty happy with it. I need to give special credit to Andrew Parish for contributing a ton to the score and soundtrack and just being ridiculously sweet on the electrics. Also stoked to have some buddies from previous Mongrel productions contributing some tunes, so as soon as I can say, I will say away. It's funny how much this movie revolves around music, it really wasn't something we thought too much about beforehand but it's been great to see it go in that direction.

So, things are coming along. Working on a website for the movie, scheduling the extra footage, refining the edit and adding to the soundtrack. That's what we're up to. How about you? How're you? Good, I hope.
Or better.

Sounds good to me.

2009-11-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

Back in production mode as of late, albeit music rather than pheelm. The Entropy All-Stars sessions are yielding some fun stuff. Really looking forward to sharing the finished tracks when they exist. Really looking forward to the finished tracks existing. Really looking forward a good deal of the time, I suppose.

For a movie about a record store clerk, a band and their manager, you'd figure there'd probably be quite a lot of music involved. You'd've figured right and you'd still've figured only half of it. Thankfully it turns out most of the people we are and know are musicians so we've got a ridiculous amount of support to meet our equally ridiculous musical needs. Andy Parish and Louie Ochoa, two great friends who've contributed music and a hell of a lot more to past Mongrel productions are both on board to contribute some music and what's already come in is unreal. (Not "unreal" like the finished Entropy All-Stars tracks, which are currently just not real, but in the preferable fashion).

The tentative soundtrack line-up is such a wild assortment of great indie bands and it's still coming together. We might end up with too much stuff to fit on a one-disc soundtrack. Until everything's locked down I'll have to refrain from gushing, but I am pretty confident we're getting some motherf****** didgeridoo on this mother******, so there's something we can all celebrate together.

Also something we can celebrate together: The Official The Roomies Web Site!

Go on, check it out. I'll wait here.

Oh good, you're back. Yeah, it's just that picture and a link back here. But in time it'll grow and before you know it, why, there might even be two links back here. Three even!

Uhf, now that I've gotten your hopes up, I better get to work on that. See you around next time I feel guilty about not updating the production blog.

Wrap Party Wrapped

2009-10-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

Things progress. What things? All things. These things. The Roomies things.

Got up, moved, settled into a new place closer to town. Not that it's any good excuse for neglecting the site at all, but it's mine and I've learned to deal.

There was a wrap party. That was neat. It was overwhelming seeing so many of the cast and crew again in real life instead of just on the screen. We had the party over at Uptown Billiards, one of the nicer and well-hidden bars in Portland and also the location of a major scene in the movie. Big thanks to Carly for organizing and making it a real party. Drinks were imbibed, pool was played, blackmail-worthy pictures were taken, the Silk Specter made a brief appearance and the very first double-secret teaser for The Roomies was shown in surprisingly grand fashion.

See, when we were at Uptown Billiards for the shoot, none of us remembered them having a TV. Carly (who originally introduced us to the place) got in touch with the management and they said there was a TV and DVD player we could use to screen footage. After arriving at the bar the first thing I did was look around for the TV. Didn't see one. I talked to the folks at the bar and they told me there was a big screen right over the billiards area where our party was being held. They took the DVD to play it once the neighboring wedding party cleared out. I went back to our party, looked around again and finally found a TV hanging in the corner, so small and high up I'd never noticed it before. Oh well, I figured, we'll all have to squint but the Widows' song the teaser's cut to is the best part anyway.

So the wedding party finally clears out and I go to the bartenders to see about cueing up the teaser. They get it started and I get another drink. By the time I turn around, this huge screen has already rolled down from the ceiling and a projector's kicked on. When they'd said "big screen" I had no idea that was what they meant. The thing took up a good-sized part of the good-sized wall. I can't imagine where else we could have gotten as slick of a presentation in addition to booze and billiards.

People seemed to dig the teaser but I'm inclined to guess the crowd was somewhat biased. Stay tuned for word on when you'll get to see it and judge for yourself.

(And if you missed the party for whatever reason then I owe you a wrap party. You can pick it up whenever. If you missed it because you had nothing to do with The Roomies, however, then you're going to have to get your wrap party fix somewhere else, buddy.)

Before then and since then, just editing and working. The day-job has become far more involved so it doesn't leave a lot of time for much else. The rough cut's coming along, looking to be ten or fifteen minutes longer than I want it to be but once I've got the montages all trimmed down and set to the soundtrack it should be just about right.

We've also started to make further progress on the soundtrack. The first recording session with Gilberto for the final Entropy All-Stars tracks was today and that went pretty well. We'll probably have the vocals and guitar down for everything in one or two more goes. It's been great hanging out with Gilberto again after all this time also.

Well, better get back to work. Should be getting the photos from the wrap party developed soon, maybe some of those'll wind up here at some point. Is that a threat? We'll see next time.

Hallelujah

2009-08-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

    We did it.

    It's done.

    The Roomies is wrapped.

"Seek, and ye shall find."

    The embarrassingly long and grueling quest to secure a church for our last scene finally found its happy ending at the First Unitarian Church of Portland. All of the difficulty of course came out of my complete ignorance as to how to go about the whole thing. I'll refrain from detailing my churchly misadventures so as to avoid offending the innocent and humiliating myself even further, but suffice it to say that Unitarians are just the chillest. If we'd only hit them up first the whole bit would've just been a happy little stroll across Pleasant Lane to Gumdrop Valley. The folks at First Unitarian couldn't've been more kind and helpful. Bonus, the place actually had the more traditional look I'd imagined when I wrote the scene (unlike most of the churches I scouted that all had that auditorium pep-rally thing going on).

    (It's important to note that the church that Matt is attending in the film is actually meant to be a non-denominational Christian church. All the different branches of Christianity confused and frightened poor Matt so he just picked a church without any words in its name that he'd need to look up. So that's how he decided to join the nearest of the city's eight Christ Community Churches.)

    (And no, you're right, that's probably not going to come across at all in the film. But you and I will know and we will keep the secret alive in our hearts.)

    Tangents into preemptive exposition aside, the shoot itself went pretty well. Tracy Conklin, our film's pastor, devised a remarkably inspired sermon based off a couple bible passages we discussed that tied into Matt's story. It even impressed a woman who worked with the church and was cool enough to come help fill the pews. Due to scheduling conflicts we had to set our shooting date only a few days in advance so we didn't have a lot of time to rustle up extras. Thankfully just enough folks were able to make it, every one of them was rad and the whole night was a great way to wrap the movie.

    I'm hugely grateful to everybody who took part in this film for all their hard work and time. All the cast and crew and everybody who helped the production along the way, everybody's been too awesome for words. And although we are still working out the details for the wrap party so we can all get together and celebrate in style, I think we deserve to celebrate a little right here and now.

    And if there's anything more celebratory than animated gifs, I don't care to hear about it.

Matt finds himself.

Milo vs. bubbles

This link leads to Mona Reels music.
Listen to it while watching this gif and voilà, it's like you're backstage at your very own personal Mona Reels concert.
    Wow, that was fun. Maybe I should just release the entire movie in animated gif form.

    Every scene, reduced to three or four frames in a jerky loop forever.

    What a great idea. I am sure it will be loved by all.

Oh baby.
    Anyway.

    Still a ways to go. Stay tuned...

Friends and family, reluctant or otherwise.

2009-07-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

    No man is an island.

    Unless that man is a land mass smaller than a continent and entirely surrounded by water.

    Or merely resembles that somewhat.

    Matt Rua does not resemble that somewhat at all. He is very rarely surrounded entirely by water.

    Here are some people who might attest to that:

It's not that Joanna wants Matt to fail. She just knows he's got a knack for it.

    Joanna is Matt's half-sister from their father's first ill-fated marriage (they've all been ill-fated). From the start she was a child prodigy, excelling at whatever she tried. She breezed through any subject, any sport, any activity at all that she came across. In other words, she was the most obnoxious big sister a humble underachiever like Matt could ever have. They grew up as bitter enemies and gradually came to respectfully ignore each other through high school. This only changed after they discovered their mutual appreciation for smoking copious amounts of pot. Now they're the only members of their family that trust or even like each other. Go figure.

Cori's just trying to be friendly.

    Cori is proud to be the kind of person who can get along with just about anybody. Too bad for her that both the Rua siblings are allergic to exactly that kind of person. She's been rooming with Joanna for a year and a half and can't understand why the sweeter she acts, the meaner Joanna seems to get. Her brother's even worse, yet she still harbors a little crush on him in spite of it. Thankfully for Cori, most people tend to like people who like people. Why should she beat herself up over a couple misanthropes?

Reggie doesn't need any more problems. He's already got employees.

    Reggie's been running Homeland Records for seven years now and it seems like every new employee's worse than the last one. He's sure there have got to be some worthwhile people out there in the world. Why won't they come in and apply for a job? Instead he's stuck with know-nothing-do-nothing schmucks like Matt. The best thing he can say for him is that he's not the most worthless guy at Homeland Records.

It's not easy being Milo.

    Milo is the most worthless guy at Homeland Records. Reggie attributes this to chronic laziness. This actually couldn't be less true. Milo suffers from such extreme dyslexia that any combination of more than two letters gets him violently motion sick. It takes every ounce of willpower he has to beat back nausea and decode each word he reads. He's too embarrassed to reveal this to Reggie, which is unfortunate, as the only task Reggie is willing to trust him with is alphabetizing the records.

Brittany's not quite like the other girls at church.

    Matt doesn't know much about church. He just knows he was no good when he wasn't going. Maybe going will help. Brittany's the first person to reach out to him there, even going so far as giving out her number. He's sure she's just being friendly though, and who knows? At least she'll be a good influence on him, right?

    So them's Matt's peeps. Now you're all acquainted.

    Back on this end of reality, we're still working on getting the last location we need to shoot, which has unfortunately been a very lengthy process with a few disappointments along the way. We've got a pretty good prospect now and everything sounds promising but it still needs to get approved by a lot of people before we know. Once we do know I am going to throw a one-man dance party starring me for an audience of me. So that's something I'm looking forward to.

    In the meantime, editing proceeds as editing does. I get as much done as I can in between typing pages and pages of "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY." That eats up more time than you'd think.

    Well, back to it.

En-tro-py

2009-07-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

    Spent the last couple of weeks capturing footage and whittling away at second unit photography. The actual production is feeling less and less real, re-living it through the footage in spurts. Digitizing footage from the ending we shot last month then riding a bus from Gresham to Portland and back to shoot footage from the beginning of the film and coming home to last month's ending again, that kind of thing. Somewhat disorienting, this weird limbo state between production and post. Granted, I am an easily-disoriented fellow.
    Speaking of easily-disoriented fellows, I'd like to introduce you to this band.

Rey is giving you diamonds. And you're spilling them in the water.

    Rey Dazzle is the last remaining founding member of The Entropy All-Stars. Rey Dazzle is sound and fury, signifying everything. Rey Dazzle is the heart, soul and guiding brilliance behind The Entropy All-Stars experience while the rest of the band acts as the ligaments and various tissues. Rey Dazzle is the end of ending, the impossible dream. He is also the lead vocalist and guitarist.

Leland has lots of ideas.

    Leland Barnes is the newest member of the Entropy All-Stars. His primary qualification was his willingness to buy and learn how to play a bass guitar. That and he was down for letting them use his new apartment for a practice space. He also provides backing vocals at Rey's insistance although he'd rather not draw attention to it, if you don't mind.

Skiz needs adult supervision.

    There are very few things you can trust Skiz Noonan with alone. Among these things is the production of gnarly electronic music. If he gets anything else electronic in his hands though it might get messy. Rey has taken Skiz under his wing as his faithful ward, to nurture his talents and make sure he doesn't hurt himself unless it's for his amusement.

Sasha can tolerate a whole lot for love.

    Sasha Venkman has been Rey and The Entropy All-Star's primary emotional and financial support for years and years. Sometimes it feels like forever. At least she got out of managing the band once Leland's friend Chase volunteered for the gig. Her hands are full enough managing Rey.

Gala's got a new movie she wants to show you.

    Gala Gershwin's the official un-official videographer of The Entropy All-Stars. Although she prefers to focus on her own experimental films, Gala's been called in to record every Entropy All-Stars show since she met the band through her brief and somewhat confounding tryst with Skiz. It's developed into a mutually beneficial relationship, with the band serving as cast and audience for her films while she documents their steady journey to... whatever. And hey, it's nice to feel needed.

    So them's The Entropy All-Stars. You'll be hearing more from them later. What do you figure they sound like?
    I figure they sound like something alright.
    Just like.
    Stay tuned. I've run out of excuses to not tell you things and there are all these things now.

Meet the Crew

2009-06-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

    Making movies isn't for everybody. Making no-budget independent features is for even fewer. I don't mean to shatter any illusions here but, as it turns out, making movies is kinda hard. Most people don't like thirteen-hour days full of hard work, emotional turmoil and only the vaguest notions of what the over-all plan is with hardly anything to sustain themselves but goldfish and pop and no other compensation save for the hope of a decent flick coming out of it someday, somehow.
    Apparently some people dig the crap out of it though. Here's some of 'em in alphabetical order:

    Before things got rolling, Quinn figured since he'd be playing the lead in a feature-length movie then maybe he'd be able to just focus on acting for once. Oh for the days of such naivety. Here he is wondering why the co-producer also has to record sound.

    Wes is always in a good mood. Either that or his bad moods are way more chill than everybody else's good moods. Or maybe he just has the one mood. If I was gonna pick one mood and stick with it, I'd go with what he's having. Either way, he shoots some pretty video. Here he is using the power of his mind to keep Katie out of focus.

    Beth used up her vacation hours to take off work and fly herself up to Portland to help make this movie. Her experience, work ethic and common sense were invaluable in shaping our routine and keeping us on track long enough to be able manage without her. Here she is maybe pretending to be the ghost from The Frighteners.

    Katie jumped into Beth's shoes after she had to head back to work and managed to keep pace awesomely. No easy task since the AD job on this shoot is basically all the jobs that nobody else is doing. You'd be surprised how many come up. Here she is applying Ben's forehead to his face.

    Who do you know who would bike over an hour in the rain to work on a movie for the whole day and then bike back in the dark and come back and do it again over and over for no money and admittedly not-fantastic catering? Probably nobody, unless you know Steve. He is a little too awesome but he carries it well. Here he is with his new favorite record.

    And here's me, making sure my beard doesn't escape. Again.

    So, that's us alright. On Sunday we wrapped our last two big dialogue scenes and we're down to just a few scenes with no audio. It's weird being this close to done with shooting. It's kinda weird being anything if you really think about it. I'd rather not though.
    Maybe next time we'll meet The Entropy All-Stars.

Meet the Roomies

2009-06-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

    Well, we shot The Roomies. Most of it at least.
    Apologies for the production blog becoming a post-production blog, we've been too busy doing things to sit down and write about doing things. Now that we've finally got a few days off before the next block of shooting coming up this weekend I figure we ought to reflect on how it's all going.
    When we left off I was still trying to figure out how to schedule a feature-length movie. Now it's mostly shot. How'd all that happen? We've been at it since May 10th, shortly after Beth's arrival. Beth's the kind of organized mind that we've rarely had around a Mongrel production. She brought a massive production binder with every page in its own sheet protector. Oh how I laughed at the sheet protectors until the first few pages came tumbling out my own binder. It's not so funny now that my production binder has been reduced to production debris.
    Which reminds me, do you know how many receipts you wind up with when you make a movie? Enough to devour Robert De Niro like at the end of Brazil, that's how many. Maybe even enough to devour him today. We'll have to try to avoid Robert De Niro just in case, 'cause that'd be a shame.
    We've got thirteen scenes to go, looking to be finished in the next two weeks. It's weird knowing we'll never be going back to the apartment location again. I got sad shooting some of the empty rooms after everything was moved out. But we've gotten to the point where we're starting to see what kind of movie we've got and, well, it's something else.
    Figure I'll update this as we wrap up production and get into the editing. Go over all the going-ons as we build up to the release of The Roomies in theaters and internets near you. When? How? Keep reading, maybe there'll be clues.
    Let's start off by introducing our cast of characters residing in apartment 409.

Matt's turning his life around. Whether he likes it or not.

Quinn is also co-producing this project and contributing to the soundtrack. Incidentally he's gotten heavily into Buddhism over the course of this production, so in between us shooting him grappling with the Bible he's off re-reading the Heart Sutra. So good for Quinn.

Chase knows what he's doing. He's management material.

Geno's been a riot as Chase and is also one of the most supportive people on the production. Without any hesitation he's willing to throw himself into character (or at a character if the scene calls for it). First time I saw him in person was just before his audition; he was talking to Quinn at the door and they were so animated that it looked like they'd known each other for years. Weird stuff like that happened frequently and really simplified casting.

Leland is carrying this place. If he goes...

It was creepy to meet Ben because he looked damn near exactly how I saw Leland in my head. He's one of the most fun people to watch improvise, he's just so quick. He and Quinn have apparently seen all the same stuff and tend to fill the space between takes with Family Guy reenactments and movie quotes. Throughout the production we've been impersonating Ben impersonating Christian Bale ever since he did it on the first day of shooting.

Irene should know better. She was supposed to be smart.

We instantly dug Katie when she came in to audition and she's always one of the most fun and focused people on the shoot. Shortly after our illustrious AD Beth had to return to California to work we wound up asking Katie to step into her shoes and she agreed to it enthusiastically. She's been doing a great job behind as well as in front of the camera and has put up with our crap admirably and adorably.

Evelyn gets what she wants. God help you if she doesn't.

Carly Carcione was the first person we auditioned for the movie. As soon as she introduced herself I had a weird certainty that she was going to be in the movie. Halfway through discussing the project, she also had an eerily intense feeling of deja vu, which Quinn and I both immediately interpreted as significant. She's been the most surprising through rehearsals to watch develop her character. She also shares one of the best near-kisses ever in a scene with Quinn. They know which one I'm talking about.

    So, that's all for now, but check back soon as we sweep the dust out from the site and get things rolling again. Stay tuned for an introduction to our crew, further members of the cast, video clips, music, some other stuff, etc. as we count down to the secret release date of The Roomies.

The Story So Far

2009-04-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

    At some point February ended and we decided it was time to make The Roomies. It's a story I've been working on for awhile and only recently found the right perspective for after dissecting it enough times with Quinn Allan in the months since we moved to Portland. It's about a guy trying to turn his life around and futzing it up. At some point I'll have to figure out an equally concise and way, way better logline. I'm not looking forward to that point; it is my least favorite point.
    The script came along fairly well, all things considered. I had planned to finish it before April, which was a nice thought at least. Quinn pitched the project to our friend Beth Good and she volunteered to fly up for a couple weeks to serve as our assistant director/script supervisor/probably a bunch more stuff by the end of this. Her first official act was to set another deadline for me to finish the script by. Let's just say I grazed it and we'll leave it at that.
    Quinn wrote up a casting notice, sent it to his agent at Actors in Action and posted it to Craigslist after a few minor speedbumps. Our post was flagged within an hour twice in a row with nary a hint as to why the crap. We guessed that it could have been because we included a link to our site (this site) so that people could see we had half a clue what we were doing or perhaps because it was exceedingly lengthy and overly-long and wordy with too many words. Although the possibility that we were being sabotaged by ourselves from the future to prevent us from meeting the terrible fate that awaits at the end of this production was floated (as it usually is).
    We had a slew of applicants from both Actors in Action and Craigslist and still wound up finding parts for nearly everybody. For every character we had somebody perfect for them come in. Yesterday night was the first night we had nearly the whole cast and crew together for a table read, which went pretty well. Everybody seems enthusiastic and I really dig the people we've got involved. It's felt charmed so far, but you never know. One of the actors might flip out and eat one of the other actors. We'd be out an actor unless they were swallowed whole but even then it'd be awkward.
    Currently we are hashing out the shooting schedule and location scouting. The shooting schedule's the most vital thing and also a pain in the ass. That's the fun times I've got waiting for me after this post is posted. For locations we still need a record store, two bars and a church, but location scout Jennifer Slay and Quinn are focusing on that bit and we've already got some good prospects.
    So, that's about it so far. Basically.

Now you're caught up.

We're shooting The Roomies in May.

-Jared Yanez