Luzi the clown; Chaplin on a cold
country road

At film festivals like TIFF, they spend a fortune doing promo trailers for the fest that usually run prior to each film program.

Chris decided that BIFF needed something like that to promote the fest – in any case, he wanted to make it for the festival and present it to them as a gift, to be used or not, archived as they see fit.

They love the silent clowns at BIFF, so once he decided that was to be the basis for the short, there was no one better to ask than our own resident clown Phil Luzi.

He is such an adept physical performer that on the day of the shoot, during the bit where he fell when running at the car, the only thing you can hear on the soundtrack is me killing myself laughing. The bit was executed by Phil so gracefully that I had assumed he had done it purposefully.

It was in fact down to his ability to integrate several of the Little Tramp’s moves at once while propelling himself down an icy road – his footwear couldn’t cope with the ice, so that is actually Phil falling at the car.

But he incorporated it so beautifully into the bit by taking a second before popping back to his feet and continuing on that I believed he had been in control while watching him live.

Many thanks also to everyone who helped us, on short notice, put this mad little confection together; Craig Allen and The Richmond Studio, Emily Andrews, Sharon Coates, Jessica Hinkson and Jordan Kanner.

Because it is a promo and runs without credits, we’d like to give credit here:

This is an Ardent Pictures production, written and directed by Christopher Comrie, Produced by Christopher Comrie and Samantha Swan

Featuring

Phil Luzi as Chaplin

Jordan Kanner as the Sundance driver

Emily Andrews as the Telluride driver

Christopher Comrie as the Toronto driver

and

Jessica Hinkson as the Beloit driver

Watch it now on the BIFF site Video Page!

We truly spent every minute pushing to get scenes done, including a re-shoot of a scene with Juan and picking up B roll of scenery, scorpions, crabs, etc….

The two actors from New York and Texas were shooting up until right before they caught morning flights home! Well, one thing that’s true about us is that we do NOT stop until we are done. (I urge all indie and or guerilla filmmakers to have the same attitude. Too easy for the work to not get done or to fall apart if you don’t have that attitude.)

I was pushing to change our return tickets so we we could head to Xalapa Mexico for our friends’ anniversary party… but we can’t get a flight change. Just now, sitting here, I do not even see how we can manage a day trip in a car to see them tomorrow.
I’m having trouble accepting that I might not see Luis and Antonio before leaving, so tomorrow I want to see if it’s still possible and perhaps we can talk through computer later…

Oh. Suddenly very aware I really do NOT want to leave. Yep. No desire whatsoever.
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Although not completely true, it is almost true that we shot in sequence… very helpful in the playing out of the story.

My last scenes on this last day were with Rob as Pete and Oliver as Enrique, and are in fact the last scenes of the film.

Here is a production still of Pete and Kate’s embrace.
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I love that still and the whole look of the scene.  The no-budget filmmaking gods were really pulling for us on this day.  When I arrived at the location around 5 pm to shoot this, the penultimate scene of the movie (put another way, when I walked from the deck of our casa to the front step of our casita), the 3 square feet I wanted to shoot in were unusually charged with energy.

I called Rob over to stand in for himself as I set up the shots.  Rob is an excellent stand-in, and never fails to look almost exactly like himself.  The scene is the culmination of Pete and Kate and Eddie’s story, and is fraught with desperate passion, and while some truths are spoken plainly, much darker realities remain just below the surface yet in plain view for the audience.  I felt the scene was very well written, and required only simplicity and truth in the shooting and performance.  I suppose if I’d had millions of dollars to spend instead of the $500 I had left in the budget to get home, I might have used a crane shot to establish, and, oh, circled the actors on a dolly a la Vertigo, and had big dark special effects clouds rolling in from the ocean.  Yeah, that would have been great.

What was provided for me was much more subtle and interesting.  I moved Rob into a very specific spot under some palms.  The knife-like shadows of the palms slithered frantically over his face and body in the insistent wind, and rustled audibly in the mic under the dialogue.  The sun was low and made half of Rob golden and threw the other half in shadow.  I blocked Katie’s entrance into the closeup so that as they kissed their faces were alternately suffused with light then swallowed in shadow.  I deliberately crossed the axis several times because of the chaotic emotions in the scene.  Then as their faces finally part in a storm of light, and Kate delivers a single word offscreen which destroys Pete, I let the camera iris Pete into darkness again, except for two points of sunset light in his eyes.  As God is my Gaffer, it was perfect. 

I caught Pete’s final walk away into a frozen isolated position on the beach in the last rays of dusk.  And that was a wrap for Rob on the picture.

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Getting to the internet’s a bit of a hassle as we couldn’t get it at the house, but if possible, I’d like to be able to get a final translation of the van scene from Luis for tomorrow at some point (shooting Saturday)… mainly eager to have it from Luis in order to work the material with Oliver as well, because of the value I place on the different translations.
The van scene is actually broken into different parts; a lengthier part with the Eddie, Deysi, Asunción and Alejandro characters with dialogue — and a part without dialogue in which the driver of the van passes out at the wheel and the van drives out of control.

The speediness of production must seem pushy to those not right inside it.

Yasir Rodarte shot a funny scene with us the other day and he was very good, charming and funny. This is a scene set off hours at the palapa bar with Asunción, Alejandro and Enrique. They talk trash about their boss — the formidable Concepción León Mora, as Señora Bustamante — that she wants to be the only Mexicana in Tourism with a gringo caretaker, and each reveal something in their feelings for Eddie and Kate whom they work with as well.

I wasn’t actually needed on set — no last minute revisions required of me as a writer and I was not in the scene as an actor — but went to watch because I wanted to see Yasir in action, as it was his first day with us as Alejandro. At one point I seemed to make him nervous of all things because he kept looking at me and flubbing his line — so I quickly left so as not to distract him.

We shot at the Cuzama cenotes the other day. Interesting, as we tried to get the above ground and below ground footage shot in this incredible location, as well as give every one a chance to swim in the beautiful sweet water.

We shot horses that took us between cenotes in carts along the old hennequen trails, a ground level skirmish between the Torontonian and the Texan, and a 50 foot jump from into a hole in the ground to the underground river below. (Yes it was a 50 foot jump, but we cheated it so the actor only had to jump about 25 feet.)

He lost his wardrobe mirrored Aviator shades underground.

Damn it. Now production has to spring for a new pair.
(Postscript: found a pair at the market in Progreso for 50 pesos.)
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That first trip to Mexico was with my father and its his birthday today. He was — and still is for that matter — my best friend, my hero as well as my dad. He was a great artist as a painter and my inspiration to this day. Today especially I wish he was here to see the incredible journey of making this independent feature. I wish, in fact, that he was anywhere, because apart from anything else he was the coolest guy I’ve ever known, and the world was just a more interesting place with him in it.

Going to raise a glass to you tonight da.
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(Postscript: it turned into another very long day. By the time we were able to sit down for a drink, most everybody had gone to bed or just fell asleep. Robbie and Phil and Emma, eyes falling out of their heads with exhaustion, had a shot with me in his honour anyway. Very sweet and much appreciated.

El Hoyo — The Hole — is a cool casual net cafe-restaurant-bar in Mérida Centro. It is the kind of place an old friend of my dad would refer to as bohemian and louche. I think I love it for these reasons and because I refer to my own old fixer-upper house as The Pit, so no wonder I love The Hole.

Not only did Luis and Antonio introduce us to this place, they also gave us Yasir, who we met for the first time here. (He is truly a delight and sweet and funny and a wonderful performer, very light on his feet). And when we come into the city from the pueblo, El Hoyo is now Command Central! Everyone here acts like they know us now, which of course we love.

Shot with Conchi today and she was GREAT. Chris said Wow the Mexican actors are giving the Canadians a spanking!
Ha. He does like to keep us all on our toes…

Excited to be here tonight. We’re shooting the scene where the Canadians have just arrived, and after not finding the missing Eddie in Cancun, their search is directed to Mérida. They wander the streets during Carnavale, watch as they lose Dave to being seduced into dancing in the street, and go to the address of Alejandro, last with Eddie. He isn’t there, but when a woman, Ramona,  sees them she offers assistance.

Off Eddie’s photo, Ramona asks Pete to follow her… he loses Dave and Zoe in trying to keep up with her, and let’s just say it all ends in a skirmish involving a frying pan…

Now the wonderful Ariadna Medina, another local actress who will play Ramona, is getting ready with that frying pan… Poor brave Rob Fulton!

(Postscript: Braver than we thought. I watched from across the street as the police watched Ariadna lead Rob down dark streets in her heavy make up, with her sassy-assed walk and like all great low-rent, no-budget producers who have gone before me I thought: Oh God, they’re going to think she’s a hooker. Luckily I was wrong, they were just average beat cops interested in la mordida, and letting us know they were in charge — Ariadna charmed them completely, leaning into their car, smoking, referring to it all as a student lark, waving it off… they settled for telling us we could finish that shot, that was it, then move on. So we did, but it was of course the hero shot of the night.

Which we had to get in one take. Sigh.)
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We have a scene with our villain swigging from the bottle where I refer to his cousin Jack in reference to the drink. Because it turns in to a physical fight scene, we don’t want the actor to have to worry about cheating the label away from camera for the scene… our prop bottle is the litre size. I hope we don’t have to scan a real one for reference as our net/scanning etc access is limited here….

but basically we’re just looking for a B&W label for a litre JD bottle. We’ll print our own labels on the laser printer and apply it to the prop bottle. If he can do it, we want it to cost him the least time or headache… some slightly modified version based on the real label or some invented generic looking cheap tacky booze label, whatever!

This will be a challenging scene to shoot, though everything is going very well so far. It will be a very physical scene, shooting at night on the beach, and it will be just the actors in the scene (myself and Sean, playing Eddie), our director Chris, and Laura assisting.

Luckily both Sean and myself are physical actors with stage combat experience, and Chris will give us all the time necessary to work out the physical work for camera. I know from our partnership in this kind of work, he would never rush us.

Actually, it is our desire to pay attention to detail in the performances and the physical work that has led to the discussion regarding the label on the bottle. The characters in the scene are drinkers, and liquor plays a significant part in who they are and in the sexuality and the violence in their lives… we don’t want the bottle in this scene to be used as a significant prop and then be unable to use any shot that features the label due to a lack of legal clearance. Any and all no-to-low budget productions need to take such considerations into account.

(Postscript: Ultimately we let go of the label concern. The bottle never got featured in a way that any label was really visible and we cut ALL of the dialogue from the scene as originally written so it became almost purely physical. The dynamic between us was made very clear physically… dialogue was not really necessary. A page of it got reduced to I’m sorry and physical action. More telling.)
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Erika Ancona

Sent Luis an email that we shoot the first interior Asunción-Señora Bustamente scene tomorrow and the first scene in which they appear together alone — personally I can’t wait!

Technically, it won’t be complicated. It will be shot in a very large bedroom — lots of physical space in which to maneuver, lots of natural light. It is physical for Erika Ancona who plays Asunción, in as much as she moves about the king sized bed, making it up, etc.

The real content of the scene of course contains the information that Asunción, who is employed as a maid in the guest house, being talked to by her employer Señora Bustamente, is actually the Señora’s niece.

The Señora is having a sentimental moment and is suddenly willing to talk to Asunción like family, because no guests are around. Asunción is having none of it and is not interested in being warned off Eddie, our increasingly dangerous Texan, or in being told she should have given up her illegitimate daughter for adoption, especially by U.S. couples who only come to Mexico to adopt.

Between all that and her aunt’s comments about dark skin, the politics of the scene are interesting, and I look forward to seeing how Erika Ancona and Concepcíon Léon Mora handle the material. They are both powerful and dignified actresses.
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Concepcíon Léon Mora in a still from the scene

Especially like discussing the nuance of Luis’ translation with Oliver. Looking good.
Thinking about what it’s like for Luis to be working with us from a distance.

I wonder, if you have a background in academia, if you are not an actor or a screenwriter, is script translation boring?
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We also sent Craig some extra copy we thought he might like for the posters.

SPRING BREAK PARTY should have the subtitle/slogan
The Sand Is Hot And The Girls Are Hotter

With a small press quote somewhere for fun if there’s room:
“A… Movie” the New York Screed and
“I Never Wanted It To End” OneLonelyGuy.Blog.Com

I would like the Cancun Nights title to read SPRING BREAK PARTY IV: Cancun Nights
and should have the subtitle/slogan
No Lotion Required
and if there’s room, for fun, the press quotes “As Good As The First Three” and “Astonishing Consistency” LA Tremor.

SPRING BREAK PARTY II should have the subtitle/slogan They’re Bustin Out! OR School’s Out! And press quotes for fun if there’s room could be:
“An A+ In Fun!” The Tuscaloosa Dabbler

Anyway hope this is fun for Craig, who is not only in the snowy cold up North, but recovering from knee surgery. Told him to only put in the press quotes if he thinks they look good and there is room. Recovering workaholic!
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