BEHIND THE SCENES: THE LAST DAY

This entry was posted on 2/14/2007 4:29 PM and is filed under production.

This was our last day of Principal Photography, Sunday the 11th of February 2007 at Tucson's Presidio in the heart of Downtown. Sure, we still have to schedule three more days of pickups and plate shots but this was our last full day of operations.

The whole day went as smoothly as always with everyone and everything coordinated from call time to wrap. The energy and confidence level ran high among all of our people who know their jobs and are as comfortable filming a large scope, stunt-filled shootout like this as any experienced action picture company in Hollywood. I spent twenty years in Los Angeles but geography has nothing to do with talent and dedication. My people are more expert in producing action scenes than 80% of the movies I worked on in L.A. where "guns" just petrified everyone from the Producers on down who didn't know the difference between an assault rifle and a semiautomatic carbine. That's why I have high hopes for the future of filmmaking in Tucson. Worldclass talent and expertise are here.

I got to the staging area at ARTFARE AREA 51 a little late after going to Home Depot for more yellow "caution" tape to seal off the plaza. When I walked into the staging area, I saw all of our Cast and Crew in one place, enjoying their morning coffee together with our Makeup Department processing everyone through prosthetics. I stopped to listen to the buzz in the building and looked everyone over because I had worked with such a singular focus on completing the huge movie we had started, I knew this was my last chance to witness the spectacle of so many people mobilized to bring my story to life. I never really get the chance to take it all in and enjoy the experience, I'm too consumed by a million details trying to get all of my scene coverage while racing against the clock. But this morning I made a point of taking a few moments to hit the record button on my long term memory to have something to look back upon to remember the making of this movie for the rest of my life.

This would be my last day to enjoy the privilege of leading all these wonderful people as their Director through Principal Photography. Making it all the way to the end of Production without letting my people down while doing everything possible to make sure no one got hurt for the past seven months is both a relief and a reason for giving sincere thanks for all of the Divine Intervention that has protected my people all along. I do thank God for protecting everyone, especially my Stunt People. I worry about their safety the most because they put themselves into greater jeopardy with every stunt they do, with the law of averages threatening to catch up to them at an unexpected moment. All I had to do to make Production a complete success was bring everyone back to the staging area at the end of the last day without a scratch and go home with my scene coverage. And that's exactly what I did with a little help from Above. Don't let anyone fool you, every movie production produces injuries. Terrible accidents can still happen despite every precaution you take, so limiting the injuries to one paper cut per movie is the best anyone can hope for and work toward. So far, I had managed to protect both my people as well as protect the interests of my Investors; all I had to do was make it through this last day.

We had many of Tucson's feature film Directors come down on our last day for their heavily armed cameos that included Feature Director Angelo Lopes of BADASS FILMS, Feature Director Scott Hellon of POINT OF VIEW PRODUCTIONS and Feature Director Alfonso Sahagun of TORMENTA DE SONORA PRODUCTIONS. I'm glad they had a lot of fun shooting at our Star Santiago Craig who has acted in their films as well. We also had the ARIZONA MIL-SIM OPERATIONS GROUP (AMSOG) playing running and gunning Diseased, firing hundreds of blank rounds. We also had Mr. Michael Carson, the Public Information Officer from the City Manager's Office come by to observe our production as well as Officers of the Tucson Police Department.

One really great thing about filming in Downtown Tucson is having the cooperation of the Tucson Police Department who, as a Law Enforcement Agency, understand the issues involved with mounting a production like ours and they find a way to make it all work, even with a plurality of other Downtown events happening at the same time. All of the City Agencies were fantastic to work with, helping to make Tucson one of the finest places in the world for motion picture production.

SOUTHWEST AMBULANCE also participated, providing us with an immediate medical response team standing-by if anything were to go wrong. Emergency Medical Technicians Jason Sullivan and Megan Humphries were on set again, watching over us. At the end of the day, their services were gratefully not required for any injuries but they didn't sit idle - we had them firing weapons for insert shots after all of the stunts were done so they could have some fun too, filming the largest downtown shootout ever attempted in Tucson.

What goes on in the Director's head before a big day like this? Personally, I had a pie chart constantly visualized in my mind over a clock face with my shot list penciled into my mental pie chart. I always have a shot list but rarely ever look at it, it's always in my head. I'm editing the [out of sequence] scene coverage in my head as I shoot it. That's where being dyslexic and an Editor become a real asset, when you can mentally plunk down shots into your own internal editing timeline.

Getting started went a bit slower than usual but since this was our last day, there was no hurry because it's not like I had to worry about my people; I was completely confident that they would get the job done. Once we got on location at the Presidio, everyone amped it up and performed with guns blazing - literally. From the first burst the Actors fired, gunsmoke filled the air of the Presidio, leaving a surreal haze over the plaza for the rest of the day.

Supervising Armorer and Assistant Director Paul Adkins had multiple blank firing weapons on set, blazing through several magazines at a time that left the barrels smoking with on-camera magazine changes to produce sustained and dynamic fire-fight scenes with all of the intensity of the combat photography filmed during the Tet Offensive in 1968 Saigon.

Makeup FX Supervisor Frank Guerra and Lead FX Makeup Artist Danny Hernandez pulled out all the stops this last day with FX Makeup Artist Matthew "Bones" Copley working like a devil to help put our entire Cast through prosthetics.

Stunt Coordinator Robert Linden had setup his Stunt Dojo the moment the staging area was opened to train everyone who would be taking a fall how to fall hard with a gun in their hands without getting injured. Robert's right arm, Stuntman Gerren Ard helped teach and drill the Actors on the crash mat until they were good-to-go on set. Because Robert and Gerren had invested so much effort and attention toward the falls, no one was injured despite all of the gunfire and apparent chaos in front of the camera. Their leadership skills were our best insurance policy against disaster throughout this production.

At the day's end, I could find my first moment to breathe and look over the smiling faces of all the people on set. Everyone seemed to have a huge grin on their face because they had so much fun rapid firing weapons Downtown. I saw so many people who had been in our Cast from the start, seven months ago to this day who have earned the complete respect of everyone else on set. Even the new people who joined us along the way had earned our respect, day after day, enjoying being a part of this production. Grooming people for greater responsibilities and seeing them meet big challenges was a big part of what made this project so rewarding for me, personally - and motivating. I mean, how could I ever drop the ball or give anything less than everything when I have all of these determined and professional people looking to me for getting us through this ambitious project from beginning to end? No one let me down so there was no way I would let them down.

Once we wrapped, my Producer Gabriele Andres patted me on the back and said, "We did it. We completed Principal Photography!". Assistant Director and Supervising Armorer Paul Adkins grinned at me, saying, "We fired off every single blank round we had in the inventory today". I told them that I thought Makeup had expended the last of their prosthetics too, that's why everything looked so rich on camera. My Team Leaders, Gabi, Paul, Justin Mashouf, Frank, Danny and Robert Linden all brought their expertise onto this project and rose to the challenge of making this big feature film without a budget. I had thrust my Team Leaders into positions of great responsibility without any idea of how much I would demand of them and they all excelled like champions. They aren't mere "professionals", my Team Leaders are miracle workers who have more than earned their respective titles they carried throughout the making of this motion picture. No Director could have been any more fortunate than to be backed up by my dependable and powerful people. There aren't words to describe the respect and admiration they have earned with me.

I'm glad I could afford the luxury of taking a few moments out to appreciate everything for what it was - and it was more than I ever thought possible. But like the saying goes, "luck follows effort". Except on this production, we had a lot more than just luck on our side; we had momentum. We had trust in each other and we were close enough to stay coordinated on everything. We also had God, the universe, fate, whatever you want to call Divine Intervention working on our behalf to make the impossible possible and provide us with everything we needed to complete this very ambitious project together from the first day to this last day of filming Mary Shelley's THE LAST MAN:.

Below are some behind the scenes photos from the last day:

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