The other day,
when our driver, Gustavo (Daniel has graduated to Transportation coordinator)
was getting extremely lost while driving us to set, I just tried to get comfortable
in our truly uncomfortable van and not get angry. Sure, it's slightly upsetting
when the director, producer and director of photography are driving through
some dark backroads of Mexico City, while an entire crew and cast waits for
us impatiently at location. Sure this could get me mad. But here in Mexico City,
while making a movie, getting lost on the way to set is the least of the production
headaches.
Lunches seem
to be held whenever the caterer gets around to it. That's not to say the food
isn't good. It's actually very good. The chef's noted for her cornflake encrusted
fried chicken with two kinds of cheese in the middle. It's better than you would
think. I'm getting so fat, it's kinda scary. Remember those thin photos of Francis
Coppola when he was a young guy? Remember what he looks like now? Think cornflake
encrusted fried chicken with two kinds of cheese. But my point is not the fattiness
of the food or your loyal note-taker, instead it is the fact that catering seems
to operate on it's own clock. Lunch could be at one. Or one thirty. Or two.
Catering seems to be running on it's own internal
clock. But believe me I'll take the catering's tardiness over the Parking Production
assistant's stupidity any day of the week. The Parking Pa.'s here seem to think
someone parking their car infront of our location and promising, just promising
to move it in the morning is a way to guarantee that the car will actually be
gone when we need to film. Of course this does not happen. Instead you get about
fifteen very fat grips basically lifting the parked car and moving it around
the block. The Mexican crews may operate in their own special style, but they
are very, very strong.
Actually the
crew themselves are great. Sarah, our Director of Photography, and I were slightly
nervous at their reaction to a woman in charge and giving orders. (There is
exactly one female DP in Mexico film history, and she promptly got married to
the first American actor she worked with and moved to LA.) The crew not only
respects Sarah, but they seem to go out of their way to please her. They are
talented, professional and very nice and extraordinarily fast. We did 19 set
ups our first day, 26 our second. 13 interior setups our third day. In NY we'd
still be eating breakfast. The only problem seems to be that they keep calling
Sarah, Senor. As in, "Can you move that HMI to the left?" "Si,
Senor." It's not that they're being mean, it's just that these big fat
talented fifty year old Mexican grips and electric's have never, ever worked
for a woman. Every one of them is named Jesus or Enrique or Morocco(?!). They
are like five of each of them on this show. It makes remembering people's names
very easy. I say "Buenos dias, Jesus" and I have a one in three shot
of getting it right.
In America between
every take, the assistant Director yells "Last Looks" which is code
for the make-up and wardrobe departments to come over and bother the actor while
they remove indiscernible pieces of lint from their jackets, and reapply make-up
to their already too made-up faces. This happens between every take. On every
set up. It takes about two minutes. Do the math. 15 set ups, 5 takes = 75 "Last
looks" At two minutes a pop that = 150 minutes. I'm no math major but that comes
out to be roughly two and a half hours! Two and a half hours of a twelve hour
day!! I mean, that is insane. This "last
looks" thing has always annoyed me to no end. It's a total waste of time,
total buzz kill and annoys the shit out of the actors who are trying to get
ready to play their parts. On Oxygen I actually tried to ban last looks, but
nearly caused a crew revolt from the make up and wardrobe departments in the
process. Well, there's no problem here. Last looks? Forget it. They've never even heard
of it. Sarah says she's ready to film and presto, film is going through the
camera. It took us three days to realize why we were going so fast, to realize
that last looks, like eating lunch on time, just does not exist here in Mexico
City.
As for the film
itself, I try to be modest in this humble journal, but things are going extremely
well. Sarah and I worked long and hard trying to come up with a shooting style
and visual look for this film. In the past we've had to compromise, but with
the help of an amazingly productive preproduction and a very fast crew who does
not bother de-linting between takes, we have been able to get every shot we
planned, plus more all in 11 hour hours. This film is going to look amazing.
Directing actors
who do not speak English is a bit like directing children. Basically miserable.
Thankfully Alexandra, our supervising producer, is helpful in translations,
but it usually takes three or four tries before the actors actually get what
I mean. So a simple bit of stage direction like "Stop here and turn right,"
becomes an exercise in patience as it is translated to "Stop and turn,
right?" so the actor misses his mark and turns left. Also it has taken
some energy to make sure the bit actors realize that this is not Telemundo and
that their can keep their Crispen Glover overacting mannerisms to a minimum.
But like working with children, they are many rewards--Mostly I don't have to
spend a lot of time in time in actor/director small talk. No "funny"
stories about their guest starring bit on "Charles in Charge" and
how they were very, very close to Ed Norton's part in "Primal Fear."
All in all, the past three days have basically been about camera and great faces
and I think I'm going to have a helluva opening sequence. The real work begins
on monday when Stacy Edwards starts and the Telemundo acting stuff better go
out the window fast or I'm going to find myself working at a taco stand near
the Paseo De La Reforma for fifty pesos a day.
Stacy arrived
on Friday night. We sent Antonio, one of the Zavalla brothers to pick her up
at the airport. This way I figured,
she'd think everyone in the production was as charming, handsome and suave as
he was. Little does she know that we're all cheese eating cretins scowling the
night for the cheapest tequila and stripper joints. Actually Jesse, our second
unit director seems to be becoming an expert on the seedier side of Mexico City.
He's already been to several strip clubs, had lap dancers from half the working
girls in Mexico and somehow managed to find some hookers who charge 30 pesos
a "dance." Thirty pesos for those of you out of the loop on the exchange
rate, is three dollars American. Jesse has promised me he will not sleep with
any of them without a full Dustin Hoffman Outbreak outfit on. Between Jesse's
troll for the dirtiest filthiness, Alexandra's love for Bullfights and cockfights
(we go next weekend) and my love of all things beautiful and bleak, I see a
tour book coming out of this trip and I'm not talking Fodors.
Stacy Edwards
and I rehearsed with Jorge Robles who plays Pedro, the Mexican lead, last night
after I finished filming. Hearing them read together made me so very happy.
The chemistry I was looking for was there. Stacy has the depth and humanity
needed for the part. Jorge is charming. It's all up to me to not screw this
up. I'm heading to rehearsals on my day off right now. My stomach is holding
up. I'm sleeping all right. I have not partied with Victor in days. Wish me
luck...
Ricardo