ProductionJournalsontheset

Production Journals - On the Set

    Again, this isn't intended as a kiss-and-tell thing (with "kiss" being way figurative), more as entertaining, maybe educational, stories from Hollywood from one person's perspective. Some names are changed, some names aren't, most conversations are as close as I could remember them at the time, and some stories are left out entirely.

    My primary set job was script supervisor. In a nutshell it's the person who keeps track of continuity, coordinates with the camera and sound departments what scenes and takes are to be labeled and if they're going to print, and makes all the necessary notes for the editor, who wasn't at the shoot and needs to know what's going on with - and where to - find all those bits of film and sound and actor takes and director preferences. When they need you, you're the most important person on the set. When they don't need you, you're in the way. Which is probably the way most crewmembers feel.

    The other job was production assistant, craft services, any set job that helped pay the rent.

AFI student films
The early days.

Godmoney
I would say as low-budget independent as you could go, but, sadly, I later discovered that wasn't necessarily true. A "f***in' awesome" crew of youngsters that made me painfully aware how old and school marmish I was in comparison - but they were as nice about it as they could be. My first feature credit. Unpaid. Not the last (unpaid, that is).

Big Fall
My first experience with 2nd Unit filming on an action movie. Lots of running, car chases and explosions. Ehhhhhxcellent.

Channel Zero
This one was so low budget, I don't even know if I'll be able to find my notes. We shot in the writer/director/editor's house. Every shot.

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
Finally, a credit that people would actually recognize when they asked the inevitable, "Have you done anything I've heard of?" The sequel to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers hit movie. My first experience shooting 2nd Unit with a Japanese director and stuntmen.

The Maker
    Pay-the-rent bit pieces of production assistant work on a Matthew Modine/Mary Louise Parker movie that featured a young up-and-coming Irish actor.

TROOPS
    The most famous film I worked on (at least by my personal standards when I was in L.A.) is TROOPS -- a parody of Star Wars and COPS, most definitely seen by George Lucas. And yet... Alas, my credit was "Maryln Johnson" (first name misspelled, last name out of the blue -- that's what happens when you work for free and the filmmakers don't have a signed form to reference when doing closing credits in the middle of the night). Happily, writer/director Kevin Rubio rectified the sitch (for the most part) when he posted my journal with my correct name on his TROOPS site pages. Unhappily, those days are gone - that page, along with a lot of his pages, were dropped over the years. But you can still find the movie out there, and the journal entry's here.

That 4 Friends Movie
    My first real film with name actors, so I was terrified of screwing up and losing my job. This is a pretty detailed day-to-day soap opera of working on a real independent film set, so to keep it as true to a film set as possible, I've altered names, including the title of the movie (it's not available on DVD, occasionally runs in some film festivals and on cable), to make it even less kiss-and-tell-y.

Foreign Correspondents
    My extremely "CENSORED" journal during the making of Foreign Correspondents is featured on Mark Tapio Kines' official movie site. (He didn't want too many plot points given away.) You can also actually see (rent -- or BUY on this site) the movie. The movie stars Melanie Lynskey, now known to many as Rose, the psycho neighbor in love with Charlie Sheen, on Two and a Half Men, and Wil Wheaton.

Coyote Rain (released as On the Border)
    A bank robbery drama filmed on location in the Texas desert near El Paso. My director's favorite comment was, "Continuity is for (expletive)."

Unbowed
    A historical drama about Native American Indians integrated into a black college in the late 19th century, by a production company created to give women and minorities a way to break into the business. The director was focused primarily on the actors and their acting. You do the math.

Kidnapping of Chris Burden
    A short featuring Robert Wagner. My first experience having an editor on the set - I referred to it as "The Poet and the War Correspondent."

Sam and Leon
    A short film about friendship between a Japanese American soldier and the Jewish concentration camp survivor he rescued. A production highlighted by the first DP I'd take a bullet for.

The Set Effect
    Surfer movie, dude. Totally.



Tales o' Hollywood

The Marilyn Website home