February 8th, 1999

Who is this? Just another actress who'd like to be in movies.
Sometimes they send pictures.
No. Again, nothing to do with HH. I apologize.
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I know, I know. This is a lot of technical stuff that probably is boring to you if you don't make films. But I am going to put this up exactly the way it was, so you're just gonna have to suck it up for a little while.

Don't worry, in the next blog I'm going to tell something about HH that I have only told some close friends, something that was never put in the original HH log online. How's that for a tease?

And yes, we shot HH on FILM. It's this ancient thing you may have heard of. If you don't know what it is you'll have to go to the museum to see it because it's very hard to find now.

You may get the gist of how hard this was when you read everything I was doing. Yes, all the preproduction from shooting script to booking hotels and flights, ordering film.

Everything.

It's a TON of work, when all you should really be doing is concentrating on how best to CREATE the picture. (which directing is a small part of)

February 8th, 1999

The script breakdown is about the most important thing you can do for yourself before the movie. A good P.A.(Production Assistant) can do that for you if you have one.

I didn't.

Make a chart or copy the one I've provided. Go in and fill out a separate chart for EVERY scene in your movie. Every scene. If you've got a flashback in a scene, that's another scene. A scene in your script is defined as a change in locale or a change in time if there's no change in locale.

The problem you're going to have on your no-budget shoot is continuity. You're going to be shooting a scene one day, but not get it done. You'll come back in a couple of days and continue.

That day comes, but wait! What was everyone wearing? Was that cut on the left cheek or right cheek?

If I had a continuity person, they'd have been taking polaroids. Of course, I had no such person. I told Rick to make a notation on his copy of the script in every scene of what outfit he was wearing so if we shot a sequential scene, we could page back and see what outfit he had on. The drawback for Rick was that he would have to have his entire wardrobe in his car.

I'd have killed for problems that minor.

I booked a flight for my DP and AC, and called a million hotels to see if they had any deals for 21 day stays. A few did, but nothing to make you shout about. Lowest I found was $1100, which I figured I could swing.

Kodak is giving me the run-around about getting an account with them. I thought I could get some sort of deal on film, but they then say they don't do that. They transfer my call to some lady who tells me she has a bunch of film that NFL Films didn't use that I can buy cheap.

It's not the ASA we're looking for and it's not on spools, so we'd have to roll it all. I call Gil in Arizona who says it's not a good idea. I call Kodak back and say no thanks.