The Last Day of Shooting

 Well folks, we did it. We got through our 17 day shooting schedule like the rock stars we all are and made a movie. The actors are done after today, as are camera, lighting, sound and PA's. The production moves to what's called POST and compiling all the footage to put together to tell this story and make this movie, begins.

Amy Luu, who plays the lead, Grace.

I am not part of Post Production. I fly back to Washington State tomorrow as a grateful writer, a proud producer, and a better human being, I hope. 

The last few days have been interesting. We cut filming early on Sunday for loads of different reasons. The park was packed, noisy, filming became difficult and Erich decided that we'd take Monday off as planned and come back fresh on Tuesday to film all the scenes we didn't get at the beginning of filming. The puppy was returning from Idaho and everyone was excited to see Seyka again. And Tawnii. And JiWon who plays the wolf sanctuary volunteer. We started at 7 am on Tuesday and worked hard until lunch at 12 which was Indian food. We had a vegan on set and I was regretful that our last buffet included nothing she could eat. And I'd ordered a cake that said "It's a Wrap!" Tuesday was a wrap for lots of cast so we did some little speeches and thank you's. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to Seyka because she will never be this little puppy again except in our movie. Selfish me. 

                                                            Erich, Seyka and Tawnii

Today, Wednesday, we're filming at Battle Creek Falls a gorgeous wild waterfall where the mom, Marka, releases her husband's ashes. It's an emotional scene with our actress, Megan, and the River Guide/paramour Nick who sympathizes with her. The hike to the waterfall was straight up hill, sweaty but worth it. Everyone is returning now from the mountain as I type this and they're setting up for the middle child's scene where he's hiking on the trail. Then the scene where Marka and Nick start to fall in love. As I said in previous posts, these scenes are shot out of sequence and those last two have already kissed and agreed to give their relationship a go.

                                         Maren (makeup) and Megan (mom) getting a lip touchup

When we get those scenes finished on the call schedule for today, it'll be lunch (deli sandwiches and salads at this trailhead park) and we'll move to the elementary school where I play the teacher telling the mom that Grace is drawing disturbing scenes of her as a baby being left in dangerous places by her birthmother. I'm excited to say my 4 lines! And wear makeup after a month of looking like a river rat, hiker. 

Inserted photo of me after makeup!

Classroom where we shot the scene at Orem Elementary.

Erich, Neil and Jarron, the awesome threesome!

The main cast minus bit part players, me, Tawnii and JeWon

The last month in Utah has been incredible, I've learned so much about making a movie and it's hard to put it all in words so I thought if I synopsized a few Indie movie tips, that might be better. 

________________

-Lunch is  important. Spend the extra money to feed cast and crew well. Buy treats. Surprise them. Eat last or first as producer.

-Your call time is not an estimate. Arrive early. The director will love you for it.

-Don't be precious on set, asking for special consideration. No one will love you for it. Or appreciate that you did it.

-RV's with A/C is essential. Internet too. Power too. Have a hot spot on your phone. And a remote charger thing.

- Vodka and Febreeze spritzer will take out stinky costume smells between days. Our AD spritzes the costumes nightly.

- Crafty snacks are important too. Nuts, jerky snacks, chips, fruit, granola bars, dried fruit, etc. Switch up the drinks that are immersed in ice all day. Kids like Gatorade, Adults like Prime and Diet Coke. Lots of water! Keep those bottles coming, all day, everyday.

- Pop up tents, folding chairs, tables, coffee machine, bug spray, sunscreen spray, ziplocs, ice, ice, ice, walkie talkies, serving spoons (caterers forget!), clipboards, neck fans, baby wipes, WD 40, blankets for those night shoots when actors have to pretend they aren't cold in front of the camera, batteries (AA and AAA), paper plates, plastic cutlery, and towels if actors are getting wet.

These tips are suited for a hot summer, outside shoot. I'm sure if we were filming in the snow, things would be different, but just substitute hot chocolate where Gatorade is.

_______________________

Next set I'm on, I would make sure I have a printer. I spent some time at Office Depot (which wasn't all that close) scanning, printing, emailing. Had we been fortunate enough to get permits when we applied and not two months after, the printer might not have been necessary but the Forest Service one took over a month to get action and even then, the ranger in charge of Battle Creek Falls didn't sign until the morning we filmed there! 10 minutes before we started hiking up. 

                                                          Picnic Food on a Hot Day

                                                          Indian Food on our last full day

Tonight will be packing up all my stuff, cleaning the RV a bit, helping organize props if Erich needs and waiting until my flight to go home. It's been an incredible experience and I'm thankful I didn't miss being part of the cast and crew of Braving Rapids this last month. 

I learned so much.

Thanks for reading!

Kim

Day 12 is almost DONE

Braving Rapids has a shooting schedule of 16 days and tomorrow will be day 13.  As I type this sitting at my makeshift desk in the RV everyone is about 1/2 a mile away on a trail bordering a creek in a park called South Fork. It's a park we've used before and has nice little pockets of grass and trees with majestic mountains in the background. Erich has an eye for such cinematic shots and South Fork offers these vistas away from the noisy park where they have set up the day's shoot. I stay in the RV/office while people come and go for costume changes, snacks, breaks in the A/C and to the public restrooms nearby. I'm connected to the movie set by a walkie talkie where I hear "that's a cut" "rolling" "that's a take" and every 15 - 20 minutes Erich asks me something or tells me to get a prop ready or to send someone back to set. 

Yesterday we filmed at a house on the Provo River with some shots inside and some outside in the driveway and then the family dinner on the deck. I wasn't in the trailer all day because we had the yard, deck and house to roam around in. I set dressed the corner of the family room with Native American art and decorated it to look like a Native river guide lived there. Luckily, the house has a fishing lodge look and it proved to be an amazing find for the film. Dave the owner had been called away for a few days to fight a fire in Arizona and gave us full use of the house and property so I'm trying to think of something really cool to buy him to say thanks. Maybe a hammock for his deck overlooking the river. The whole day was spend just milling around the yard and house. My job is to put everything back where it was before we started changing the décor and with the help of "before" photos, that's what I did as they filmed the final scene on the deck. This is where the puppy is brought back to the family after finding out it's not a purebred wolf. Oops, I gave away the ending!

I set dressed the deck, complete with dinner on everyone's plates so if you ever wonder why the actors aren't really looking like they're eating in movies, I can tell you it's because that food sits out for hours and it's dangerous to eat it after all that time. Also, there were bugs flying into the potatoes and also the cast had just finished a sirloin tip meal that I ordered from Sizzler. Every day I have a meal coming at the 5 hour mark and we sit down to eat then head back to set after 30 minutes. Tomorrow is Hawaiian food. Luau pork and macaroni salad among other things.

When I think how strange this all felt at the beginning, how useless I felt sometimes not knowing set etiquette or terminology and how lonely I was without my kids and dog and our new cat, I am so thankful I settled into this and started having fun. I'm the office producer and today I found out we can film in the local elementary school for my scene on the last day as a teacher. I even have a few lines as I hand off disturbing art work to the mom of the little girl, Grace. Lines I wrote. (you have to know I bumped up my part in the last rewrite.) Ha ha ha.

We have Friday and Saturday off this week and if it's anything like last week's day off, I'll be busy with production stuff. I need to return barely used props like a basket, a print of a medicine woman, some blankets, etc. Hey, we are a low budget film and every $70 is important. Could mean the difference between getting those Crumbl cookies for a treat or not!

I'd like to think our cast is happy, our crew is satisfied and we are all excited to make this movie. Our executive producer visited set on a stiflingly hot day but he and his wife were thoroughly charmed by our little Seyka and I took a bunch of photos of them with her. She's a sweetheart and I got the best compliment from Tawnii today when she said Seyka probably knows me the best, next to Tawnii on this crew. She sees me as the fun aunt who gets down on the carpet back at the Air BnB to play. I have little cuts on my hands to prove how much fun we've had! 

Here she is on her last shot tonight where the wolf cub gets carried by the bad guy as he dognaps and kidnaps them. Tawnii is holding Seyka, Erich is giving her direction and the actors are listening.

It's been a couple of late nights and I'm looking forward to hitting the hay tonight for a good 6 hours sleep before I take that actor back to the airport tomorrow. He's from Seattle so it only seems fitting I drive him. That and the fact I have the coolest rental car--a seafoam Jeep Wrangler. 

I'm a support person and I'm good with that. This movie is my baby and I want to make sure to fill in gaps and make actors happy and help out in any way I can to make the final product the best it can be. Also, everyone is so nice. If I had to guess I'd say I'm the worst one of the bunch in terms of swearing and snarky-ness.

That's it for now. I hope you enjoy!

DAY 9 in the CAN - Bye River!

 We are all finished shooting footage on the river and I'm sad. That was definitely my happy place but I think our director/filmmaker would say it was his stressful place!

Today is an off day for most. I'm knee deep in paperwork having just finished the application to film at a waterfall on forest service land which took a month to get (the application) and three hours to fill out!

Next, I'm off to scout for Native art to stage Nick's house on Monday. We found a fantastic place belonging to a nice man named Dave, that overlooks the river we've been filming on. His deck hangs almost over the river and we figure our handsome river guide, Nick, would own such a house. 

Yesterday's filming was really productive with our dedicated cast and crew working very hard all day. Seyka, the puppy, is becoming the best little actress, next to Amy who plays Grace in the movie. Seyka had a gorgeous scene where Grace carries her across an abandoned train track over the river and some video I saw of this scene last night brought tears to my eyes it was so beautifully filmed. 

Follow this blog and I'll keep uploading more photos but in the meantime, we found a bus that had appropriate lettering at the rafting launch parking lot yesterday and ran in to take a crew shot!

Rafting, Rafting, Rafting on the River

 Day 9 in the Provo River Canyon!

Things are busy on set and with no internet in these remote parks, my job at the "desk" has had some challenges. Today, I learned about a thing called a Hot Spot and realized that my phone has such a thing. I hope it isn't $100 a minute because I'm using it today for hours, changing permits, extending Air B&B reservations and managing a few things on the paperwork side of making a movie. 

Yesterday and today, we've been out on the Provo River in rafts, shooting from a production raft that follows the actor rafts. It's been sunny and gorgeous. I got to go down the river yesterday in the production raft with the puppy and her owner, Tawnii, the sound guy, camera man, second camera, the grip guy, sound guy, and the director. Oh, and the river guide Preston. Along with his brother, Taylor, they've been managing our raft rentals and our guiding necessities and have allowed us to get on the river to film footage of the 2 rafts actually navigating the river! We hadn't imagined doing this a month ago but it's worked out great with our guides helping enormously, finding pockets in the river where we don't have fly fishermen in the background or other rafters hooting and hollering as they drift by us. Some people see the camera and photo bomb as they drift past, making faces and shouting, "What're you filming?" Our sound guy always says "A mayonnaise commercial". 

The river is about 50 degrees and is the next thing to melted ice so I'm not pining to get out there and swim like I thought I would be when we got to the actual river.

Also, yesterday, the puppy, Seyka, got wet and did her scenes where they pull her into the raft from the water. She wasn't swimming (she's never tried it) but our actress held her and dunked her bottom half at the side of the tethered raft then lifted her into the raft. Seyka was a rock star/movie star, sitting quietly on Amy's lap for all the takes and scenes. 

When her Mommy/handler had to keep wetting her down, she took it like a champ and even shivered a bit on camera. Then when they called CUT, she went and played at the river's edge like the puppy she is. It's safe to say EVERYONE in the cast and crew is in love with this puppy! 

It's amazing to me how a film is shot and how the cast and crew do so many takes of the same scene. Over and over and over from different angles, with the camera on Jake, then Chance, then Marka, then the puppy, then Grace etc. I tried to be nice and quiet and take videos on my phone which I'm unable to upload to this blog. Grrrrr. 😒

Today, they are back at it and I'm land locked in the "office" which is a table in the RV we rented. We have A/C, lots of snacks, a pot of coffee on and I have a hot spot because I learned how to do that!

I'm off now to pick up lunch in town which is 20 minutes away, along a beautiful winding highway similar to the road from Sammamish to North Bend in scenery. I do this run every day for food, to get to set and back again and one day I went back to the Air B&B to the internet to send some documents to Erich because I didn't have internet and he needed some excel spread sheets. 

We are now such a cohesive unit, having fun, but focusing on making the best movie we can. From the makeup person to assistants to the little actors' moms, to the producers and actors, we are a nice group of considerate people and apparently that isn't always the norm on a film set but Erich insists on kindness. He's set a nice tone with everyone and I hope to never be on a film set where people yell at each other. 

Off to town for pulled pork, smoked chicken, and picnic salads.

Peace Out

Kim

DAY 6 on BRAVING RAPIDS

 

Blog Day 6

Yesterday the cast and some crew had the day off. Most crew. All crew if you don’t count the production team as crew. Erich, Melanie and I worked, me in the office feverishly still trying to get a permit to film at the park where we’ve been filming, Erich at the river with the river guide to find a location, Melanie on costumes and rehearsing with her co-star who flew in at 2 pm. She was probably running around doing a lot more but the point is that the producers don’t get days off.

I worked in my “office”, returned purchases to Walmart, Target, Michael’s etc and moved myself over to the Air B&B where the puppy is staying with her owner. Such a raw deal to have to go stay with an 8-week old fuzzy puppy in a 2 bedroom basement apartment! (I’m kidding) I thought about going to Barbie, the movie last night, but I was tired. I ended up staying up playing with the puppy until 11!

Today we are at the park where lots of the filming will take place and have stayed on schedule, getting some great shots of the family coming down the trail with a wolf cub and meeting the “bad guys”. Aside from no internet in the park and no cell service and me not being able to contact people about the production without going to the center of the park and walking around until I have a bar, todays shoot is going well. It’s the first day for our bad guy, Mickiech, who’s an actor and filmmaker in Seattle and the first day of filming in front of the camera for Melanie as his downtrodden wife. Their stint in the makeup chair this morning was to dirty them up, make their hair look greasy and spray that hair product for touching up roots in the shade of brown all over their shoes and clothes and faces. Our leading lady, Megan takes the longest in the makeup chair but considering it’s a film about a river rafting trip, even her time getting ready is minimal.

It's lunch break as I type this. I order lunch the day before for 16-20 people and hope everyone likes what I order. Today is teriyaki chicken, macaroni salad, coleslaw, steak and veggies from a Hawaiian place called Rumbi Island Grill and it was good! It’s also my job to let everyone know when the 30 minute break is over. One of our favorite lunches was El Pollo Loco with chicken pieces, rice, beans, tortillas etc.

Although I was thinking of going home for a week once I got stuff underway here, I now know how foolish that idea was. I’m needed in person, on set for the full shoot. The only reason I felt I needed to go home was to touch base with the kids, the pets and to make sure no one was suffering while Mom followed her dream. But my kids are so amazing and are making everything work, including keeping our dog away from our new cat. I didn’t foresee I’d be much help once things got rolling but I’m told I am crucial so I’m here until August 17^th.  I am the office person in the trailer, a coveted position. I sneak over to the set to watch the real fun go down and marvel at what is being done off in the woods. The shots, the lighting, the sound, the actors, the emotion. It’s all still overwhelming.

More later…