Perfect Location

After yesterday’s post, I was remembering some of the film classes I took from B-Movie director Irv Berwick many years ago. One story he told the class was that while directing “The Monster of Piedras Blancas,” they were allowed to shoot around the lighthouse, but there were strict rules about not shooting inside it. The city even had a security guard posted so they wouldn’t go inside. Over a couple days, one of the crew guys got friendly with the guard and took him out for a few beers… quickly the crew slipped into the Lighthouse and got a wonderful ending shot of the two romantic leads kissing. After directing some of my own low budget movies I realize how important it is to get that good shot, no matter what.

I wrote about “Bittersweet Lies” yesterday too… and I think I picked up a little bit from Mr. Berwick’s experiences. I had a friend who worked with the City Parks Department. She said she could get a good rate for us to rent the park’s recreation rooms, but the City was a real stickler about having permits for any kind of movie shoot. The park facilities were perfect – institutional-looking… grates on the windows… drab green walls with a piano in there… I just had to use it! What I did was to rent the facility and tell the City I was having a family reunion. That weekend, during the shoot, one of the City employees came around to check up on us. I was right in the middle of shooting an intense group therapy scene and when he came in and asked “Hey, what are you doing in here?” I was speechless. Usually I’m ready for the “You got any Insurance?” or “Where’s your permit?” questions… but this took me by surprise.

What saved us was that one of the actresses – Hannah Lee – was playing the part of a burned out, spacey stoner named Cydonia. She was perfectly in character as she said, “We’re having some fellowship. It’s really beautiful. Please, join us. Can we get you something to eat?” Well, his eyes widened, I guess thinking we were some kind of freaky cult ready to pass out the Kool-Aid, and he got out of there really fast.

I later found out that some groups were renting the city facilities and holding some kind of Amway-type meetings there where they took money from people… so the city was extra cautious and suspicious. Then… We needed to rent the facilities one more weekend, and then another… by this time they were really suspicious! I told them each time that we had such a nice family reunion, we decided to have a few more! I ended up having six “family reunions” in one month!

“Bittersweet Lies” was an intense, but rewarding shoot. I hadn’t worked with an ensemble cast like that for awhile. I’ve since lost touch with many of the actors, but Aasha Davis, who played Allie, played a starring role on the TV hit “House” last season. The star of “Bittersweet Lies” – Hilary Bettis - who played Brooke (the bitter girl who was a compulsive liar), has gone on to write and produce her own short movie aimed at the Festival Circuit, with a good-sized budget in New York. I sent her some sample proposals when she started this to get investors and I guess she raised a pretty healthy budget for her movie. She hasn’t offered to fly me out to play a part in it yet (hint, hint, if you’re reading this now, Hilary) but I’ll keep my phone on at all times! I have been immersed in filmmaking, and then marketing the movies… but I do miss acting at times.