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Joined: 2006-12-19 00:00

Last Online: DEC 27 2007 10:48AM

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'The Match' chronicles the unfolding story of a student-run newsmagazine at an upscale, private high-school. Conflicts emerge between the students and the faculty and boil over when a controversial poetry reading triggers a campus-wide war over freedome of speech, and of the press.

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saskiawb
Friend Since: December 19, 2006
Last Online: 8:54 am, August 08, 2007

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SCENE 37 Dec 19, 2006 08:50AM

Sunday, October 29, 2006 The pilot epsiode (including 'next week on the Match') is 52 scenes. Some of those are a single shot, others are 3 pages long. Of the 52 scenes, 51 were shot in Richmond this summer. The remaing scene is a critical one, scene 47, wherein we learn why Mr. Thompson left his law practice. The challenge - shoot outside an NYC courthouse, arguably one of the most famous halls of justice in the world, and shoot the scene in post 9-11 NYC when city security is at its height, without getting a permit. No big deal, right? People do it all the time. Still, the idea of the cops showing up and confiscating our camera halfway through the shoot,gives me nightmares. It keeps me up most of the night before we attempt our little guerilla filmmaking black-op mission. Our plan was simple: rehearse ahead of time, hide the camera, and pretend the cast and crew don't know each other. So we'll act out the scene without revealing the camera to get a master shot, and then (and this moment is critical,) we'll break cover, reveal the boom pole to the world and run the scene five times in a row without stopping to get all the coverage we need. Hopefully we'll be gone before the cops can mobilize. After all, if you 're just pointing a video camera at some people on some courthouse steps, you can get away with calling yourself a tourist (and our cameraman had a CA driver's license). But once you pull the boom pole out, you acknowledge that you sort of know what you're doing, and you darn well know you're supposed to have a permit. These are the things I lose sleep over. We're supposed to shoot Saturday morning - the forecast is heavy rain - I call the actors and Gladys and Brian on Friday night and tell them we're on stand by for Sunday, our back up day. Shannon and I go to a Halloween party Friday night and don't feel guilty about staying out late. Saturday afternoon, the forecast looks good, I call everyone and tell them we're a go. We're to meet at the Starbucks on the corner of Court and Joralemon at 8 a.m. It's daylight savings time - hopefully no one will show up at 7 a.m. by accident. At 7:15, I wake up, shower, put on my costume. Shannon helps me lug the equipment a few blocks to Starbucks. The phone rings. It's Heather: she slept through her alarm, she's coming as fast as she can. At Starbucks Shannon orders a Grande Vanilla Latte and a pumpkin scone - I don't fel like eating - I have OJ. I'm getting nervous. The phone rings. It's Tara and Jeremy. They're running a few minutes behind, they're coming as fast as they can. Outside the neighborhood is waking up. More people = more potential bystanders = trouble. The phone rings. It's Gladys and Brian. Thye're waiting for a train, they'll be there as soon as they can. Now everyone is late (we would have been late, too, if we didn't live right around the corner) and the only one we haven't heard from yet is Tony. I assume we'll have to do the scene without him. Heather shows up first, then Gladys and Brian, then Tony, who apologizes, the 4/5 train wasn't running. Tara and Jeremy arrive - they look great - all the actors do - they've chosen perfect costumes. The team is ready. Gladys and Brian and I scope out the set. It's still a pretty quiet morning, but a police van is parked fifty feet from where we want to shoot. We try to recon nonchalantly and mostly succeed. I point out where we'll be, just between the 4th and 5th column on the courthouse steps. Brian nods. We run back to Starbucks to tell the others we're ready. The group heads over, the actors take their places on the steps. Brian pretends he's a tourist and Gladys signals us to go. Shannon watches the cops like a hawk. It's still not totally obvious what we're doing, so we act out the scene and get the master shot. I walk over to confer with Gladys and Brian. Master shot's in the can, I look at Gladys. "Well?" "Let's do it," Gladys says, with the air of someone who knows she must jump off a cliff, and doesn't see any sense in waiting. We pull out the boom and we all run up the stairs, camera and mics blazing. It occurs to me in this moment that I have a number of responsibilities: 1) I wrote the scene - if it sucks, it's on me. 2) I am in the scene - if the acting sucks, it's on me. 3) I directed the scene. Gladys and I work closely on the scenes where I appear, since she can see what's happening (and she knows what she's going to need when she sits down in the editing room) but I blocked it, I instructed the actors, so if the story isn't coming across, it's on me. 4) I am producing, so if the cops give us a hard time, or take our tape, or take our camera, or get any of the actors in trouble, or they shut us down, then I've wasted the morning of all these generous people who have decided to get up early on a cold, blustery Sunday morning and help me tell my story. I try to forget all this is happneing and just be present, just be there, just be in the scene.

WRAPPED Dec 19, 2006 08:50AM

Monday, August 21, 2006 The last night we had a wrap party hosted by Amy and Dan Ludwin (their daughter Caroline was one of our extras). We watched dailies, cackled like kids at every single little brilliant thing we had shot (warning: the dailies always look great). We stayed up until 6:00 a.m., someone barfed in the sink and Greg wrote the Ludwins a hilarious thank you note that I never saw. I’m sure we kept them up way past their bedtimes. For most of the world is was a school night. For us the work was DONE. Highlights: Chris Ceraso’s wonderful turn as the Headmaster. Elaine Bromka as the hilariously uptight music teacher. Kyle Masteller and the toke 'em up posse Michael "I'd be happy to direct you" Schreiber Bob's performance art Greg and Brooke's love/hate relationship All of Julie's Eve Ensler moments Emily fainting Annah's banana Kurt's gas can Dawn's 'Kick Me' sign The actors take a funny script (it better be funny, or tightly drawn, or SHORT, otherwise why are you wasting all these people’s time?) – the actors take it and make it better – they, what else – give it life. That's a rule: trust your people. Work with people who are great at what they do and create an environment where they can give you everything they've got. The production, to be efficient, requires intolerably long hours. Do everything you can to fill those hours with trust. You want your people taking risks. Keep them laughing between takes. Care for them. They are surrounded by people who do not nourish them. Care for your people and they will give you their best.

THE SHOOT Dec 19, 2006 08:49AM

Saturday, August 19, 2006 Organize, organize, organize. Rehearse every scene before you shoot it. Direct the entire movie on paper. Know what every shot is going to look like a month before you shoot. If you are infinitely prepared you will be ready to take advantage of the wonderful improvisations your artists will come up with. We had two or three fabulous contributions come up each day – I can’t tell you what they are without spoiling the movie – but I can tell you they emerged because we were ahead of schedule and had time to shoot a few extra lines here and there when they raised their glorious heads. Good ideas can come from anywhere. Our sound guy provided the funniest improv’ed line of the film. Two of our extras came up with a shot idea that was as good as any we had storyboarded. I subscribe to Robert Rodriguez’s populist approach to filmmaking. The days of the film auteur in the black turtleneck and beret are behind us. The Panasonic DVX100A is everyone’s friend. Final Cut Pro is easy to learn. For less than a few thousand dollars, anyone can do it now. Can you do it well? is the question.

THE SHOOT Dec 19, 2006 08:48AM

Friday, August 18, 2006 A rule: if you’re going to produce a movie, get an AD or two who are absolutely first rate. Gladys and Katie did a lot of worrying so that I wouldn’t have to. Elizabeth (Mom) also did her fair share, getting people from the airport, taking people to the airport, arranging for all of the housing of our 15 New York actors including a number of highly accomplished 30-year veterans. Our goal was to provide them with an experience and a working environment that did not waste their time, that was top notch given our budget restraints. The meals that were provided were very good, the beds were soft and the pillows had chocolates on them their first night. I figure, you put Godiva on someone’s pillow, they know you’re trying to take care of them. So Mom sorted that stuff out months ahead of time. I talked to Collegiate probably five months before we set foot on the campus. We talked to SAG probably two months out – they require all their paperwork to be done 30 days in advance of shooting. Katie and Gladys made sure the location was ready to go. Alfred and Jim would light it. When the lights were in place we’d bring in the actors and block and rehearse (we’d rehearsed everything in New York a few weeks prior, so everyone knew what they were doing in the scene, why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish). Alfred would watch the rehearsal and figure out where the camera should be. Jim would tweak lights, Glen would find the best, least obtrusive way to record sound. That's another rule: if you're going to make a movie, find a great crew.

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saskiawb
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Last Online: 8:54 am, August 08, 2007

2 Comments about TheMatch

paulette
Dec 19, 2006 11:09AM

Hi

How's it going? Thanks for your shooting tips. It must have been handy having your mom help out. I'll read the big section another time.

P

saskiawb
Dec 19, 2006 10:01AM

seems very interesting... love to see stills...

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