‘Act Naturally’ Plays Chicago United Fest, Plus More Behind the Scenes

In Act Naturally / Camera Talk / Production Notes / Screenings / Tech Talk

Aside from Kate’s valuable contribution to the production staff, she has a great cameo in one of my favorite parts of the movie. When the sisters turn on the television at the resort they are greeted to an infomercial of sorts. We dubbed this the “Training video” and it was a blast to make. In a choreographed moment in the weight room, Katie had the task of doing leg lifts right as JP moved forward to spot Josh’s naked bench press thereby hiding his penis from the lens. Admittedly, this is the one section where we resorted to the Austin Powers humor that I mentioned previously. It was one of a few tactics that we applied to separate it from the rest. Making Kristi (Susan May Pratt) self-conscious in front of the camera as she goes over Bear Lake’s best features/attributes also helped.

To simulate the conditions that a semi-professional crew would’ve employed, we gave her giant cue cards and placed her in front of a 20′ x 20′ green screen in the rec room of ODR. We wanted the piece to look amateur and have that style be humorous. From not pulling a perfect key off of Susan’s green screen to framing shots with too much headroom, there is a fine line to walk tonally. A big inspiration is the commercial from Ivan Reitman’s 1984 classic, Ghostbusters. To get people excited about the film, I often show this 3 minute clip.

When we filmed the scene with Rusty (Rob Roy Fitzgerald) on day 2 of principal, we hadn’t locked in the exact home of Leah Collins yet. We didn’t want to paint ourselves into a corner, so we ran through a bunch of potential cities in her dialogue. Initially, the girls were from Chicago because that’s where JP lived while writing the early drafts. While shooting the exteriors of Charlie’s house (in Marina Del Ray on July 24, 2008), we framed shots in a manner that would leave us with as many geographic options possible. Because a palm tree or two snuck into frame, Florida seemed like our best bet graphically and luck would give us some cool exteriors when I returned in February of 2010 for my second music video in Dade County. Due to some scheduling anomalies, I had a morning to walk to some Causeways and grab some very Miami-looking establishing shots.

More good fortune had me practically standing in the “back seat” of a Mercedes Benz convertible flying down the Florida Turnpike and cruising around some suburban areas around town to complete the illusion that we started our production in the Sunshine State. My safety was certainly in danger as the driver occasionally forgot that I was in a precarious position and drove a little faster than common sense would advise. The conditions were perfect with one exception: no Letus35 adaptor. Continuity wasn’t a major factor because they were all wide shots and there is typically deep focus in such set-ups on any sized acquisition format. My pleasure in having original shots (instead of stock footage) outweighed my concern over having perfectly matching cameras/lenses. Had I shot the footage during my previous trip to Miami, then we would’ve dealt with matching the Sony EX-3, which looks quite differently. This video used the Panasonic HPX-300, which yields a similar look to the HVX-200. My only complaint is that the image here is a little too crisp and sharp compared to the Letus footage. There is a texture and diffusion that comes from the spinning ground glass and extra optical layers of the adaptor.
–
As I mentioned in the first post, I had very limited grip/electric gear. This bothers me most when watching an early scene in front of the resort where the sisters meet Cory (Alan Cox) and Kristi for the first time. Scheduling Alan’s scenes was extremely difficult as he was concurrently playing David Frost for the touring production of “Frost/Nixon.” It is 64 miles each way from the Ahmanson Theatre downtown to ODR and takes anywhere from an hour and fifteen minutes to several hours with traffic. Because of this conflict, we had to shoot the scene at two distinct times of day and matching the two would have been impossible without an army of 18Ks to blast the background for Susan’s coverage or tons of water for a giant wet down for Alan’s. This was one of the few moments that I desperately needed a big gun HMI to make the quality of light match.

Because we initially shot in March, the angle of the sun was favorable enough that I wasn’t going to submit my small and overworked crew to the tortures of large overhead frames. That all went out the window when we returned to ODR on July 21, 2009 for 4 days of exterior re-shoots and pick-ups. Shooting with a a 12′ x 12′ frame skinned with 1/2 Soft Frost helped match our vernal footage to the harsh Southland summer sun. Unfortunately, the grounds and surrounding hills were no lunger that lush green from the particularly rainy winter, but that was something we’d worry about in post. We re-shot a good chunk of the third act on this visit and almost did some serious damage to our 1st assistant director’s car in the process. Jaime Stocker parked right on set because much of the gear was in her vehicle. It got a little windy in the afternoon and the giant frame almost sailed into her car. I knew there is a reason I don’t typically order such big rags without the proper gear to safety them and enough grips to efficiently do so, but these were dire circumstances. Thankfully, nothing happened other than some strong words exchanged between a few crew members.

When returning in December of 2009, we brought the 12′ x 12′ once again to test our luck and because we weren’t shooting in the windy part of the ranch (yeah, we had spent so much time there cumulatively at this point that we had this knowledge). We returned to the Ranch one final time in the name of “Act Naturally” on February 18, 2010 to get some more transitional cut-aways of the cabins/resort and finally shoot my video interview. Here’s a quick tip to the filmmakers out there: you can’t possibly have enough interesting b-roll with which to work. I took this lesson to the extreme while in Maine shooting Lucas McNelly’s feature film, “Up Country,” later that year. My efforts running around grabbing as many shots of trees, leaves, signs, and hiking paths that I possibly could in between takes and during breaks in shooting resulted in an unexpected 2nd Unit Director credit.

The pick-ups weren’t without their own share of drama. According to my calendar, I left for ODR at 9:30pm on December 2, 2009 and at 9:57am the next morning I received an email and several panicked texts from my mother as I was setting up a shot. Bad news: I probably have Swine Flue (H1N1) and should be feeling the effects very soon. Not only had I unknowingly exposed the entire crew and Ranch, but I had a long day’s work ahead of me and an early start the following morning. They say that the flu hits you hard and quickly and that’s no joke. By late afternoon, I was rapidly falling apart. The only fuel keeping me going: Theraflu and a determination to finish the movie.

I’ll never forget how miserable I felt with the camera on my shoulder as the clock struck 9:30pm on our last shot. I barely had enough strength to steady the camera before rushing up to my cabin for a few hours of sleep. We had a super early call time (I believe it was 6am), as we rolled our first shot at 7:04am. We had left the 12′ x 12′ frame already built and on stands, so all we had to do was re-skin it with China Silk and we were pretty much ready to rock. We took advantage of the extended magic hour thanks to the canyon’s shade and the ambiance was so low that I could use a 2′ x 4-bank Kino as an eye light. It was a huge struggle physically, but I’m quite pleased with the revamped scene between Trevor and Leah.

When you look at the number of years that elapsed between our first few days shooting (July ’08) and the date of our first major public screening (March ’11), you may have trouble understanding what took us so long. I just listened to a great podcast with Jeff Goldsmith and Mark Bell where they discuss a multitude of topics relating to the relationship between (independent) filmmakers and journalists. They repeated a statement that I’ve heard many times before: independents might not have much money, but they have lots of time. There are no studio release dates to rush you through post and compromise the quality of your film. If it takes 3 years to whip your film into shape, then why not take it?

Knowing when to walk away from a film and declare it finished is always difficult for creatives, but at a certain point, yes, it has to be done. Are there still things that I’d like to change? Of course. Nevertheless, I’m very pleased with where the movie currently stands and have no plans to modify it. However, I must admit that nobody external has attempted to censor or change the film. If a distributor or regime like the MPAA were to impose notes, then it is safe to say that what we have in our possession is the director’s cut.

Post Views: 10,613

10.6K Views

Author

Dustin Pearlman Dustin Pearlman is a plant-based Cinematographer. Aside from film, he's passionate about the environment, music, and cycling. He's a member of IATSE Local 600 and lives in Los Angeles with his mini-schnauzer Iris.