Finishing “The Tech”

Tuesday Nov 25, 2008

I visited the guys up north to finish shooting some scenes for “The Tech,” Chelsea Steffensen’s new SP short. We hadn’t shot anything since March when we finished the end fight (photos below), so it was time we got back on it. First thing we did was get some dialog shots with Nathan on the phone, and we figured we’d just shoot the other end of the conversation (Gavin’s end) once we met up with Gavin the following night. We were shooting outside the downtown mall, and right when the take finished, a swat team member walked out the door right behind them carrying an automatic rifle. “Can I help you guys?” “Nn-no just doing a student film…” “Okay cool.” And he walked away….

Then we went over to a bar down the street. Jeremiah knew the owner, so we walked in and set up some lights to do a quick dialog where I annoy Nathan about backgammon and eat a whole apple core.

Back to Chelsea’s to do some dialog while Chelsea plays a crummy Playstation game (anyone remember Toshinden?), followed by him leaving and then arriving at his house, only to find his pink underwear not hanging on the line any longer.

Wednesday Nov 26, 2008

Met at Chelsea’s house and got dressed up as an old biker bum with long hair, a beard, and a handkerchief that read “CIA” on the front. We went out to the Civic (long-time viewers should be pretty familiar with this location, the brightest and easiest location in Redding) and started doing a comedic fight between me and Jeremiah. Apparently there was an “Elmo” show coming up that evening, so workers were getting the place all set up. We hooked up lights to some available outlets outside, and at one point Jeremiah even opened a door and told someone inside, “I’m gonna hook up some lights.” The guy didn’t even look at him, just asked, “What’s the wattage?” “250.” “Okay.” Guess they thought we were workers too… or they just didn’t care. We shot some of the scene and finished it just in case we couldn’t come back. I went home to eat.

Later that evening we had Gavin. First we went outside to do a funny stealth scene where he slows his breathing down, followed by the other end of Nathan’s phone conversation while Gavin’s in the bathroom. Went back out to the Civic and saw that the workers were breaking down the “Elmo” show, so we tried to shoot somewhere else, but they shut the lights off. We went back and the workers were gone, so we finished the fight between the biker bum and Jeremiah. Gavin jumps into the action and does something hilarious.

Finished up by shooting Nathan getting into the car but not being able to start it, which almost finishes off the movie. Should be done soon, TRT is 12-15 minutes.