BEHIND THE SCENES: A DAY TO REMEMBER

This entry was posted on 1/12/2007 3:23 AM and is filed under Production.

What my people accomplished in one day would have taken a week or more for any other production company anywhere else in the world to equal. And that's no empty boast, we rocked our way through more than 70 complex setups in just six hours of daylight that involved automatic gunfire, practical effects, stunts and choreographed action in every shot. We fired thousands of blanks out of everything from automatic rifles to shotguns and handguns. We fired hundreds of  blood hits and dust hits and even a high fall with lots of Actors in the action that covered all of the Downtown Presidio on a quiet winter Sunday in the heart of beautiful Downtown Tucson, Arizona.

Neither me nor my Producer Gabriele Andres got more than a few hour long naps any night of the week before filming, weighing and measuring the risk levels of each stunt and scrutinizing the safety margins of each setup, coordinating with the City, the Police, Fire, and Parks Departments. We spent a lot of time critically picking apart our plans until we were sure we had not overlooked anything that might pose an unforseen risk to our people or our production. We even called upon SOUTHWEST AMBULANCE for their professional services to have their E.M.T.'s Jason Sullivan and Megan Humphries standing by with their ambulance on set if anything did go wrong even after eliminating every human error imaginable. We took nothing for granted when it came to the safety of our people.

The night before filming, I went to bed at 11PM because I had to wake up at 2AM to load the production truck but I woke up at midnight and did one last weapons check for obstructions in the barrels then made sure each of the three thousand blanks were in fact a blank, one more time. By the time I got to the staging area before dawn at 5AM with my Producer Gabriele Andres, we were both fully awake with some great early morning coffee provided by Downtown's famous NOT JUST JAVA at the landmark Great America Tower on Stone Avenue and Church. We put on our game faces, said a prayer for the safety of our people and got to work setting up for the biggest filming day of our lives. No one was nervous or even stressed, everyone had this great, confident calm because we were all intently focused on doing our jobs to the best of our abilities with two goals: To walk away at the end of the day with none of our people injuried and to film a great action sequence.

Here is an except of the day plan handed out to our Team Leaders:

"Confidence in our Cast and Crew is HIGH. Remind your Action Teams that everyone on our production was hand selected for their abilities, dependability and dedicated teamwork, they are Tucson‘s best and brightest who can get a job this big done. We’ve successfully done everything we shall be doing today before, except today, everything will be on a larger stage, and in public view.

The eyes of news crews and V.I.P.s may be upon us so let’s look sharp and set the standard for motion picture production in Arizona.

On the following four pages, the game plan is laid out. Familiarize yourself with it, ask any questions you may have and let’s go get this big day done right."

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, we accomplished all of our goals and went home with huge grins on our faces because we did what no one else could have done without the teamwork and confidence everyone has in each other on this production. Once again, it was a great priviledge to direct this highly skilled and professional Cast and Crew who rose above and beyond anyone's best expectations for a "local" production. One thing about this show, everyone has learned a lot of new filmmaking techniques and has learned a lot about themselves, especially me.

It would have been enough for me to say that no production company in Tucson ever accomplished anything like this before but the full truth of the matter is that no production company in Hollywood or anywhere else on the planet for that matter, has ever done anything like this before in just six hours. But none of this happened by accident. Prior to filming, we had four site surveys where we planned everything out with our Team Leaders and our Team Leaders had their own site surveys with their Teams over two weeks of preparation so we could hit the ground with a detailed plan of action to accomplish the impossible while the city slept - until we woke up everyone within a five mile radius of Downtown with what must have sounded like World War Two being fought out in the streets. I love the sound of automatic gunfire in the morning, it was awesome! A day to remember and a day in the independent filmmaking world that no one will ever forget.

My most profound thanks, admiration and respect go to my Cast and Crew for making this day happen. This production is as huge as it is because everyone on Crew are multi-talented, they have everything it takes to produce a feature film under the most trying conditions imaginable that few else could handle without throwing their hands up in frustration for lack of a budget. They make everything work. Starting with my Producer Gabriele Andres who is my right arm with a background in P.R. as well as motion picture producing; and my Assistant Director Paul Adkins, my other right arm with a background in armoring and stunts; and my other Assistant Director Justin Mashouf, my right arm with a background in cinematography and directing; my Makeup FX Supervisor Frank Guerra, my other right arm with a background in prosthetics and hair (yes, I do have more right arms than Vishnu); Lead FX Makeup Artist Danny Hernandez pulls off each miracle I need to happen; My Stunt Coordinator Robert Linden, the founder of the Arizona Desert Stunt Team, is without a doubt, the Black Bruce Lee with a background in martial arts and he's a solid actor so he can stand in for many other actors; His partner, Stuntman Gerren Ard is the Big Man with a background in wrestling and SFX computer graphics; Stuntman John Lushbaugh handles everything from pyrotechnics to high falls; His brother, Stuntman Keith Lushbaugh is his right arm, flying through the air or crashing through fire with the same exacting focus - few stuntmen in Hollywood could keep up with them; the Star of our movie, Santiago Craig never shrinks from the challenges of the role, and I've demanded a lot from him as both an Actor and a friend, taking calculated risks that few actors would dare take. I'll save the remaining Cast and Crew acknowledements for the wrap party because the entire Cast and Crew really went above and beyond on this show and deserve to be acknowledged in public instead of just this blog.

NBC television affiliate KVOA News with Reporter Ed Tribbel and Renee Lavine on camera, and also; ABC television affiliate KGUN with Reporter Shelby Baker and Alfonso Sahagun on camera were there to broadcast the action for the Sunday evening news.

Below are some behind the scenes photographs of this day to remember:

Producer Gabriele Andres doubles as the still photographer but she got too busy after this point to take any more photographs but the day was not over yet, we filmed the majority of the automatic firefight sequence after this point.

By the day's end, we had fired thousands of blanks and hundreds of dust and blood hits to film the most ambitious downtown gunfight sequence using real automatic weapons since Michael Mann's "Heat" on digital video without any budget to speak of in Tucson, Arizona in just six hours of daylight with nothing but ingenuity, guts and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

It's a day to remember because no other Cast and Crew anywhere has ever achieved so much adrenaline pumping action on film or tape in just one day outside of movies that cost tens of millions of dollars that took weeks to achieve the same results. My people have proven that they are without doubt, Tucson's best and brightest.

 

1/13/2007 8:46 PM Robert Linden wrote:
This day will deffinetely be forever a great memory for me and i hope that there will be other great memories working with such great people.......Thank you James and Gabi

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