THE WRAP PARTY

This entry was posted on 12/21/2007 2:30 PM and is filed under production.

Doing a little computer maintenance tonight, I finally figured out which hard drive the photos from the wrap party were hiding! Back in April 2007, the cast and crew of Mary Shelley's THE LAST MAN reunited for the wrap party at Artfare The Muse.

I took off the necktie I'm wearing in the photos after our auditions at Artfare The Muse back in July of 2006 and told my Producer that I was going to wear it once again - at the wrap party.

Between those two events, it was working clothes only, wearing the same half dozen T-shirts and the same two pair of pants so I never had to stop for a moment to think about what to wear each day or give any thought about destroying them while getting down and dirty shooting the movie.

The night of the wrap party, I pulled that tie out of the closet and thought about what we had all been through and how much hard work was done since the last time I tied that Windsor knot. It was a simple act but a very symbolic one for me, personally. One actress recognized the tie from her audition and understood it without any explanation, she just pointed at it and smiled.

There's always a great deal of satisfaction having done your job well, and bringing your ship in with your mission accomplished. That's always a big relief. It was the end of an incredible journey for all of us. I really enjoyed leading all of these dependable and talented people through production and I knew I would miss that comraderie once post production began, when I would spend over half a year toiling in a small, dark room in complete isolation, working eighteen hours or more each day, every day. That was the only way it would get done without turning it into a three year ordeal. I tried not to think about that too much, it was the wrap party after all.

At the wrap party, I felt a great pride in each of my cast and crew people every moment. They set a new standard in efficiency, safety and quality of work that no one ever saw in Tucson ever before, filming at over 40 locations from the city to the desert. At the Presidio, they pulled off the impossible, running and gunning from sun up to sun down without a break to film the biggest stunt and practical effects scene anyone ever dared to stage in this city by far.

Making a movie with this much scope and production value on the budget of most trailers or short films is something that only a handful of people worldwide have ever accomplished. In Tucson, finding the right people made all the difference in the world. I could never make this movie in L.A., believe me, I tried for ten years, listening to one excuse after another why it couldn't be done. And there I was at the wrap party, with production behind me, and a huge job completed.

When we ran out of food, they kept coming back to work on the production. When we ran out of cold soda and coffee, they kept coming. When we ran out of cold water, they kept coming. When all we had left was determination, they kept coming until the job was done. That's what happens when a movie turns into a family.

That stands as a bold testament for everyone who worked on Mary Shelley's THE LAST MAN. I couldn't have had more pride in my people on the night of the wrap party, thank you for staying with me from the beginning to the end. Now that the movie is finshed, many of you got to see how all of the hard work and the performances all came together to tell a dynamic story that gains momentum with every scene. It's a beautiful movie because no one settled for merely "okay", you all gave your best, every day.

I hope you all enjoyed the wrap party as much as I did. There's one more party coming up in January, I hope to see you all again soon at the screening.

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