So we finally synched all of our footage (audio with picture) and everything sounds pretty good. Michelle (my editor/script supervisor) and I put together some selects for a class screening. The reviews were mixed but I really don't think they're all that useful since we're at such an early stage. I am taking in the criticisms (for good or bad) and keeping them in mind as the editing rolls on.

I found out recently that I won a $2000 scholarship from the New York Women in Film and Television. I just got a call today from them inviting me to attend as a guest to theMUSE Awards, where they'll be honoring Tina Fey (from SNL) and Julianne Moore. I told them unless they call me on to stage and i get to make a speech...AND Tina Fey introduces me, I'm not going. Hahaha...i think i'll go. it should be fun...

So i've been taking care of some post-production producing details, like securing rights for music and things like that. I just found out that I have to pay $750 to use 30 seconds of "Never Gonna Give You Up" (the old sergio mendes song...I'm sure you've all heard it...in the grocery story or deli, which is where the song appears in the film). I think I'll have to pay it...it's sort of a key moment in the film. There goes almost half of my scholarship...

I got my film back from Technicolor today and took it over to be transferred to tape by Ed at Mind's Eye Media. I sat and watched part of one roll with him. I decided to go with just a flat lay just so I can have options later in terms of color correcting. We played with some bleached bypass looks which I am really digging. I may do a supervised color correcting session with him once I have a final cut. It's about $275/hr. The footage I saw looked pretty good. They were from the first day at the deli. I can't wait to see the rest of it. I should be getting it all back by next Thursday. BTW, Technicolor is like a giant maze. It's like a little film lab world onto itself. They have really good student rates though. It's kind of scary though, how corporate it all was and so much bureaucracy. I had one simple question about what kind of tape to use if i wanted to make an answer print and they had me talk to 2 different guys and go to another floor in the building. It was a little ridiculous.

Anyway, as I am slowly able to reflect on my first big shooting experience, I really do miss directing. As stressful as my shoot was, I look forward to directing again and hope that it's something I can do for the rest of my life...except with a real budget and a real crew.

I didn't even want to have a wrap party because of what happened the last day, but Jeff thought it would be fun to see everyone. Unfortunately, not "everyone" could make it. Only a handful of people made it. It was rather short noticed so I don't blame anyone for not showing up.



We had the party at Second on Second Restaurant and Karoke Bar. We found out quickly that we had some talented and not-so-talented singers amongst us.


And the MVP award goes to....Hideto Maruyama! For most consistent, most hardworking, and most eager team player!



Who are these people? Our best friends and "Collision" supporters Sarah and Lester!


Yes, it's cuz I was drunk that these picutres are so blurry (apparently I thought this setting on my digital camera looked _cool_!)


Excuse me while I drown my pain in this large lychee martini. The End.

Today is the last day of shooting. We're just doing pick-up shots today and then returns (truck, equipment, etc.) The plan is to have Gabe (the driver) meet Jeff and me at our house and drop off our stuff. Then we meet Ted at his studio/storage space and drop off his stuff. Then Ted and I will jump in his van and meet Justin and Tracy to shoot the pick-ups. Gabe and Jeff will return the generator to Home Depot then meet me up at City College to return the equipment and then the truck. So Ted and I are on our way to meet Justin and Tracy and Gabe stands at my car window and says, "Are you going to pay me?" I say, yes, after we finish shooting. At the end of the day. He starts to get antsy and asks, "why can't you pay me now?" Because I haven't had time to go to the freakin' bank and the day is not over. Jeff tries to explain that they will meet us at City College later to return the equipment. I think he thinks I'm going to ditch him. So we're shooting and I keep getting called by Jeff asking how we're doing. We got sort of a late start because there was a mix-up about where we were meeting Tracy. We are moving along though. We finish the 2nd location and I get a call from Jeff and he's telling me that I need to get there...now. I tell him I'm on the way to the bank. I had planned on going to the bank and then meeting Ted at Pizza Villa to do one quick pick-up shot, but then Jeff tells me that Gabe is threatening to call the cops, so I have to leave my crew and skip the last shot. I think Ted shoots it anyway. So I leave without even saying goodbye to Tracy on her last day and fly up to City College. When I get there, I am fuming! I contemplate throwing the money, crumpled one by one, at Gabe. But Jeff comes over and tells me to just give him the money and walk away and that the cops had already been there. Half of the equipment is already unloaded onto the sidewalk and Jeff tells me he has to go return the truck with Gabe because he is threatening to hijack it again. I am steaming pissed by now and yell that I've never been called a thief before, blah blah blah. Jeff tells me to calm down and says 6 cops have already been there. I yell back, "I don't give a fuck! Call the fuckin' cops again! What? And tell them I made you work a full day??" By now the construction workers are looking at me and the security guards are looking at me. Obviously they know something is going on. I find out later that my driver had gone around and told everyone in the parking lot his sob story so they're all looking at me like I'm a fuckin' swindler and thief. I start yelling, "Yeah, why don't you just throw the fuckin' equipment off the truck!" and I start to feebly carry all the equipment by myself. I know I can't manage so I just stand outside the building with all this equipment, not knowing what to do, as Jeff and Crybaby drive off in the van. I start calling michelle, ira, anyone at school I thought could help me. Luckily, Emily is in the building and says she will come down to help me. As we are pathetically attempting to haul all of the equipment in one handtruck and a push cart, one kid asks if we need help. I say yes, so he takes the HMI and says jokingly, "$10." I say, "Give me my fuckin' equipment back." He is taken off guard and shuts up and apologetically helps me with more stuff. Come on, people. What kind of society do we live in that you ask to help someone and then expect something in return. As in the words of my beloved boyfriend, "That's not the kind of society that I want to live in."

I had to call the owner of Los Mariachos Restaurant in Brooklyn this morning at 9AM and tell him that we won't be there until 11AM. He was pretty pissed off because we had asked him to open at 9AM for us. He told me he had to come all the way from staten island just to open for us. I apologized sincerely and explained that we had a night shoot the night before and didn't finish until 3AM. He didn't seem too sympathetic. The fact is I didn't even want to schedule the day shoot following the night shoot because i knew it would be hell on the crew, but we were supposed to shoot the restaurant scene last friday but the restaurant cancelled on us last minute saying they were busy on Fridays. It would have been nice to know before I made the schedule, so I tried to explain what happened and to try to shift some of the blame to them. I don't know if he understood what I was telling him, and kept drilling in the point that he had to personally get up early and was supposed to work in manhattan that day, so I tried to assuage the situation by offering to give him $50 for his time. He said he didn't want $50, but just seemed to want to tell me how inconvenienced it was and that he had done it as a favor, blah blah blah. I understood and I didn't know what else to tell him except that I was sorry. He asked me if I could do it another day and I said, no and explained how we had to switch _our_ schedule for him last week. I offered him $100 and he said "Fine." I don't think he was trying to gouge me for money, but isn't it funny how $100 can assuage someone's inconvenience and $50 doesn't? We also ended up spending about $200 in food, so they can't complain about losing business that day.



I loved this location a lot though. It was so damn colorful and festive. I have this image of putting this loud mariachi music in the background of the scene. The marvelous Venus made a second appearance in the film with her daughter Venus II. They were both great...little Venus was adorable and quite the whippersnapper!



We finished exactly on schedule, despite pushing the shoot back 3 hours and decided to shoot the Times Square scene, which was originally scheduled for yesterday, with just Justin, Ted, Tom, and me. My driver was in a bad mood today, as well as yesterday, and was complaining about driving the truck down there. I think it was because I had a confrontation with him in the restaurant. I asked him if he could just sit at one of the tables as an extra and he said, "I'll do it on one condition. You take care of me today." Meaning that i should pay him. I pulled him aside and told him that I had already given him half of the money I owed him in cash and that I haven't paid any other crew members and that he should stop sweating me for the money and that I would pay him at the end of the job. He disappeared after that to sulk in the truck. Both my AD and DP went to talk to him in his truck and I watched in the rearview off my DP's van as he yelled and then screeched off in the truck! My AD and DP then told me that he stormed off and said he was turning the truck back to the rental lot and so we ended up chasing him back to C&C Rental. Luckily, the lot is right near Times Square so I had a little "time out" with little Gabe and he agreed to go with us to Times Square. I should have just fired him right there and taken the keys, because more drama was to ensue...

I am physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted. I feel completely unprepared to shoot the scenes for today. If I could, I would have called in sick. It's the final scene in the script, where Elias freaks out and gets hits by a car. I had no idea how I was going to shoot this scene, but did recall seeing some police barricades at the location where I was shooting on 144th and Convent near City College. Luckily the barricades were still there and we set them up and decided to do a dolly shot of the crowd behind the barricades watching said accident. Unfortunately, we had no crowd! Luckily, it was sort of a high traffic area and we were able to recruit some extras from the street. We had a range of "actors"--from non-actors to "professional" actors who volunteered for the scene. One SAG actor flashed his SAG card at me and expected to be paid for working. Um, I'm not a SAG expert, but I really don't think that's how it works. I had a group of extras who just posed woodenly as the camera glided past them. I had to remind them that they could move. It was actually pretty funny. Luck really seemed to be on my side that night. I really wanted some flashing lights and sirens and sirens did happen to pass in the distance and we got a cop car to stop and flash its lights for the scene. We did have a few minor obstacles, mostly involving the local residents. One fussy woman demanded to see our permit and caused a commotion because she couldn't find a parking spot. She finally just moved on. Another local resident came down from his apartment and complained about the noise of the generator. I could see his point. The gennie was loud as hell, so I had the crew move the truck to another street, which didn't help our sound situation but it was better than having the police come shut us down. It was almost 12AM and our permit only allowed us to shoot until 12 and we were not close to being done.

The second scene of the day involved 2 teenagers pushing over Elias' cart. I had been stressed all day about the actors playing the teenagers because both had told me that they couldn't be there until after 10PM. We didn't end up shooting their scene until about 10:30, but just the stress of not having actors shoot up when they are called put me in a really bad mood. One of the actors kept forgetting his lines (he only had 2 lines) and my AD kept forgetting to cue them. That's when I lost it. I don't normally yell at people, but i did. We didn't wrap until 3AM and we have a day shoot in a restaurant the next day starting at 9AM. We rescheduled call for noon, but tomorrow is still going to be hell.

We returned to our 6th Ave./Spring St. location to shoot the bus stop scene. I was so happy that my friend Kelly could be in the scene. I had to cancel on her the first day of shooting because we changed the schedule around. Luckily things worked out with her schedule and she could do it. I hate changing schedules on people but that's just the nature of the filmmaking beast, so I apologize to anyone who had to re-arrange their schedules for me. I do appreciate your time. Today was also Franklin's last day. He was happy to be wrapped and I was happy to wrap him! I would just like to say that Franklin Ojeda-Smith was a true pleasure to work with and a truly talented actor.



This was a quick scene, but for the first shot we wanted a bus to stop at the bus stop. Even though the buses ran every 7 minutes, of course, the one time we wanted it to pass, it didn't! I think we must have waited a good 15-20 minutes. That lost time was valuable considering we were fighting daylight. i had made call late in the afternoon because we had a split day/night shoot that day.



For the night scene, we shot at my friend Doron's pizza and gelato shop in the village. It was a great little spot, but he got a little freaked out when he saw all the equipment outside. I reassured him that we weren't impeding business. Actually, I think we helped his businesss. People were sitting at the counter and watching the scene while they ate their pizzas and gelato. They all seemed to enjoy the show and wished me luck on the project.



This was Tracy's big stunt day! She had to crash into Zeke's cart and fall on the ground. She did it quite realistically and I was worried she had actually hurt herself. We also had to do a big bottle breaking scene today, in which Zeke breaks a Jack Daniels bottle inside a plastic bag. It was supposed to be a one-take shot, but we had to shoot the bottle breaking twice with a dummy bottle because the bag broke! I'm worried about continuity and realized there could be some issues after we finished shooting the scene. I didn't even notice at the time because I was just so damn tired. Yes, I am as tired as I look!

We started very early in the morning with Ted, Justin, Jeff, Tracy and I hitting the subway to do some guerilla style shooting on the train. We went down to the last stop on the R train in Brooklyn and jumped on a train that was being conducted by a friend of a friend. We got some shots of Tracy falling asleep on the train and decided to get off after about 4 stops when the train started piling up with passengers. We hopped on a train headed back to Bay Ridge and had Jeff make a cameo appearance as a subway musician playing the guitar. We initially had booked one of Jeff's musician friends who had promised to come dressed in a red suit and snake-skin boots, but unfortunately his car broke down in long island the night before. I was a bit nervous about shooting on the train because of a run-in with the law a few days earlier on the subway platforms for relieving myself on our fine MTA grounds. Luckily, no one said anything to us. The conductor of this train actually saw us shooting and just glanced at us and then walked off the train while we were being held at the last stop. We even got a cool shot from outside the window looking in.



Next we moved onto my friend Harry Mena's apartment in Sunset Park. I would have to say today was our biggest live show. We had neighborhood residents out on the sidewalk on all sides watching the spectacle. It was the scene of Marcus (played by Dan Sheynin) kicking Malia out of the apartment and throwing her stuff on the sidewalk and involved a lot of yelling, so it was sure to attract a crowd.




Ted really has a knack for making me laugh even under stressful situation. "Don't worry!!!!" (said in his classic Polish accent). We really had a lot of fun together. I was a little worried about the production design of the apartment. I did it all myself with my own stuff and stuff that was already in the apartment. I hope it looks believeable in the end.





One onlooker in Sunset Park was especially engaged in the scene we were shooting. She was a very vocal lesbian who started yelling "Fuck you, Marcus" (which were Malia's lines in the script) in between takes and telling "Marcus" (AKA Dan) that he was the reason why she had become a lesbian. You go, girl. It was actually pretty funny, but then she started to get a little belligerent and yelling racial slurs at Hide (our Japanese PA). She backed off before it got really out of control though. I guess I touched a nerve. It was cool though to connect with someone like that just with that short scene.



This day ended up costing me a lot of money for some reason. In between catering, paying for the use of the apartment and a certain crew member demanding money from me, I started to stress out about my financial situation. Will I have enough to finish this film and to pay my hard-working crew members? It's tough to think about people doing this just for the money when the project means so much more to you. When you are revealing your innermost secrets and feelings to the world and all they see are dollar signs.

After taking two days off, we were back at work in McCarren Park. It was also our first day without our AD, which I was nervous about and I wasn't sure what to tell the crew. I had hired a new AD, but he wasn't there at the meeting point at call, even though he lived in Williamsburg, where we were shooting. Our AD showed about an hour and half late and claimed he was "where he was suppposed to be." Yeah, about 1 and half hours later than the scheduled call time. Also, his cell phone wasn't working, which made things even more difficult.



We tried to set up as quickly as possible and begin the first scene which was the "love scene" against the wall. It was an extremely difficult scene, as the actors had to make out with each other. I felt a little uncomfortable directing it, but after a few takes the actors (and I) seemed to relax a bit. Again, kudos to my actors for being so professional and giving such great performances. I just want to mention how important rehearsing was for me and for the actors. I tried to hold rehearsals with just 2 actors at a time so that they could get comfortable with each other and really understand their relationships with each other. I think it really helped, especially for a scene like this.


We had the worst location possible for sound. There was construction going on on all sides of us. Leaf blowers behind us. Jackhammers to the right of us. I think there were even clown horns at some point! It was a soundman's nightmare! Plus we had a guy blowing dirt and debris at us from over the fence at the empty pool!





After lunch, we did the park bench scene which involved a hairless cat. The cat was on a leash, but refused to walk, so we ended up changing the scene so that the owner just carried her. The park started to fill up late in the afternoon and we were dealing with kids riding over cables on their razors and lots of noise. My friend Lester, who lives in the neighborhood, also stopped by to take a peek. It was nice to see him. Jeff joked with the crew and told them Lester was a producer and he was there to help us out. Everyone clapped. I took that to mean they felt we needed organization because our AD cut out. Maybe I'm reading too much into that. Maybe I felt we needed organization. Anyways, the sun started to come down and we got all of our coverage except only one establishing shot of the park, but hopefully it will cut okay in the editing room.

Today we shot most of the sidewalk table scenes with Zeke (played by Franklin Ojeda-Smith) on 6th Ave. near Spring St. It was Memorial Day, so there was not as much traffic, although we were right next to a bus stop, which ran about every 7 minutes. I didn't mind it, but I haven't heard the sound yet. We had several offers to buy our prop items on the table, which I took as a sign of good production design (In addition to being Producer, Director, and Writer, I also assumed the role of Production Designer)!



One major problem with shooting on the street is the bathroom situation. We had to solicit local delis and ask them to use their bathroom. Since we used to frequent one of the delis when Jeff used to live in the neighborhood, they were very accomodating. However, when the guys behind the counter switched shifts, a new guy who I didn't recognize told me I had to buy something first. I explained who I was and that we knew the owners and luckily one of the guys making sandwiches recognized me. The other Korean-owned deli, which was closer by, was not so friendly. They lied to me and told me they didn't have a bathroom (even though we did make several purchases from them). However, they let my pretty blonde AD into the bathroom. Speaking of my AD, I got the unfortunate news that she was leaving my production. Apparently my "line producer" (a snake by the name of Sinnel Sandoval) led her to believe that she would be working on something bigger than a student production. I thought it was pretty unfair of her to leave in the middle of the shoot, even if it was not what she expected, but I had nothing to hold her there. Again, back to lesson #3, contracts, contracts, contracts.



Both Franklin and Randy Clark (who played "Dom") were fantastic. They had such good chemistry which had been built during our rehearsals together. They were both great improv actors and stayed in character even between takes. It was fun to watch them work together! I love it when there is chemistry and camrarderie with cast members, as well as crew members. Oh, speaking of crew members, we recruited a new crew member today while shooting on 6th Ave. Although we had many on-lookers, Michelle (my script supervisor) and I noticed one young Japanese guy watching us for an extended period of time. Finally, in between set-ups, Jeff went over and talked to him. His name was Hide and he had just come over from Japan and was starting soon at the New York Film Academy. He was very eager to help, so we made him our new PA. He turned out to be the hardest working crew member on our team (we're thinking of making up an MVP trophy for him).



We also had our first night shoot today. The first night scene was at the same location and the other one was at the phone booth just across the street. We tried to rent a generator from Home Depot earlier that day, which they said they had, but when we got there they told us it was broken! Luckily, Home Depot sold generators and has a 90-day return policy (that's what's known in the business as "creative budgeting"). I think they were onto us though because they told us even before we bought it that in order to return it, the gas tank has to be completely dry.