Day Two

Today was our biggest day of shooting in terms of sheer number of pages to cover in the script. We managed to knock out six pages. It was a lot of realestate to cover, but we plowed through it and got it done. Everyone was extemely patient as we covered the scene. It looked great. Doug did a great job of capturing a naturalistic look that felt right for the interior of the Home Cafe.

One of the main reasons we chose this location was the look. The interior styling in the place probaly hasn't changed in 20 years or more. It offered all the things we needed in a location including close proximity to other locations, great windows, easy access and a cafe that was only a cafe. Many small towns in Montana have cafes, but they tend to be combinations of cafes, bars and other businesses all rolled into one. We wanted a cafe that was just a cafe as to not confuse the viewers as to where we were or what kind of place it was.

Highlights of the day include: amazing performances by Nathan and James, Jodie Harwood on set today playing the role of the waitress (she was great), and Pete Fromm's kids, Nolan and Aidan, on set helping out both on and off camera as stand-ins, hand models and body doubles for Nathan.
My mom has been on the shoot. She's our official Set Teacher. She's been hanging out with Nathan, keeping an eye on him and reading books with him between takes and set-ups. I think she is having fun. She's always wanted to come hang out and see how the crew works. She might have gotten her fill after this job!
We pack up in this morning and roll to our next location and to our next basecamp in Lincoln, Montana. Lincoln is famous for being the home town of the Unibomber. I doubt we'll see any hooded madmen on this trip.
Another great day of shooting went down. We tackle all the driving stuff tomorrow. That will be fun. Thanks To Christine McBride for the on-set photos!

Day One Complete

We did it. We pushed through hot sun, semi-trucks and smoke and ash to complete day one of our shoot. We had a beautiful morning of sun and clear skies. By about 3 o'clock, a huge smoke plume poured into Pendroy the tail of a dragon. At first the smoke hung together in the plume, then it dissipated as if a blanket drifted over the small town. Ash rained down on us as we moved as fast as we could to get the last shots we had planned out. The quality of the light was highly affected and yielded this unworldly amber glow to everything. It actually could work really well with in the story.We always thought that Pendroy would be ideal for shooting with no noise or traffic. Well, it was quiet, but when a truck or car was coming, you'd know for miles before they showed up. Its so quiet, the smallest unnatural sound like a vehicle stands out on the sound landscape. In addition to the sound of vehicles, we also had to just deal with cars and trucks coming and going. At least everyone was very nice out there.James and Nathan really out did themselves today. Between a long-ish day, hot temps and just the fact that it was the first day, it was a hard day. They proved their skills as talented actors. They bonded well and had a great energy on screen. It was a pleasure to work with them. Most importantly, we got some great stuff today. I love the look we've made and the performances were great. We're on the right track so far in telling this story right.Our crew really hit the ground running today. Every department is running smoothly. The only thing not really running smoothly is Dusty. He's going to get a new starter tomorrow. The old one finally up and quit. That is going to be a problem if we don't get him running properly. Tomorrow, we shoot in the cafe. Its a big day with about 6 pages of script to cover. It'll be a long day, but at least Dusty has the day off to get that starter fixed.

The smoke will hopefully dissipate for us in the coming days. Our last two days are the days of most concern where I really want no smoke and big beautiful landscapes. I glued to the weather reports at night. I'm trying to make a prediction about the smoke which will impact where we shoot. We have a back up location where the smoke might be less of an issue, but the location is just not as cool as my first pick in Helmville. I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the smoke.
If you haven't already checked out Mike Prevette's Flickr site, than go see it. He's got a great collection of images going from the shoot including these two up above and below. Thanks Mike!

We Shoot Tomorrow!

Today was a good day. Everyone got here for our final prep day. No one got lost (not really), no one got bumped from their flights(OK, just a little), no one had mechanicals preventing them from showing up and we all made it to Conrad in one piece. The gang's all here and we'll start shooting tomorrow.

The day started with several of us eating breakfast at the Home Cafe. Not only is the cafe one of our shooting locations, but it is also our go to spot for Breakfast. Great bunch of people down there at the Home Cafe. They've been taking good care of us.

Nathan Gamble was first into wardrobe fittings this morning. He was so fired up and ready to get to work. His great attitude is a shot in the arm. He's already blending in well with the crew.

James LeGros arrived today. His original flight plan had him coming in last night, but delays out of LAX kept him from us until this afternoon. He was eager to get after it and get things done. He's super easy going and totally on board. I think he's already been slinging the jabs at Pete Fromm already. So he's fitting in well, too. Rose, Pete's wife, would be proud of James.

While the crew did final tech scouting and prep work, Nathan, James and I worked through a rehearsal and visited our location in Pendroy. It feels like we're all on the same page.

Jason, our production designer, was out working on prop phones today. One of the central props is a broken handset from a phone booth. Jason worked on crafting those. Funny the little things you have to do for a shoot.



You gotta check out Mike Prevette's photos from today. He's our camera assistant and focus puller, but he's also an accomplished photographer, editor and cinematographer in his own right. He's a great asset on our crew. His photos are cool.

So here we go... We shoot Tomorrow! I can't wait to get the first shot off tomorrow. What a fun ride this will be!

Here's some more action from today:

Two Days and Counting

We are looking at just two full days left before we start shooting Dry Rain. I think I've been working on this thing for at least a year and a half. Needless to say, I'm ready to get going! The crew starts arriving tomorrow, our cast comes in tomorrow, we have a final pre-production day on Monday and we hit the ground running on Tuesday.

Our only concern right now is the oppressive smoke that is choking the sky in Montana. I got out here on Thursday the volume of smoke was depressing. You could hardly see a mile down the road. We've got a contingency plan in place if it gets bad on our production days, but we hope we won't have to do anything drastic. The smoke has been pretty scarce the last couple of days. The winds and temperatures have been on our side. I just hope it stays that way. We'll be glued to the weather reports the next week.

Matt checking out the weather and smoke

Here's this NOAA site that I'll be checking regularily. Of real importance is the wind direction. If it starts blowing west, we could be in a world of hurt. There are a bunch of fires burning west of Helmville. The westerly wind would blow smoke right at us.

Yesterday, Brian and I went out and found some alternative locations. We got lucky to run into the rancher that owned the land adjacent to where we want to shoot. He's a friendly guy that was willing to let us use his land for parking and a basecamp. We were lucky he drove up as we stood around wondering where we'd start to look for the rancer. Good timing.

Pendroy, Montana

Doug and I found Pendroy by luck. We were at the end of our location scouting rope. We'd put a couple thousand miles on the car already on the trip and we still didn't have our little town. On our way home on the last day of the trip, we made a last ditch effort to find something. We did a big loop starting in Great Falls, heading North to Carter and Fort Benton, up to the Highline and as far East as Kremlin and as far West as Shelby. Nothing. There was plenty of cool stuff out there, but no little town with the wheat fields coming up to the edge of the road. A town with no curbs. It was harder to find than we thought.

We stopped in Dupuyer, had a beer and stared vacantly at the wall behind the bar. We were stumped with no good options. It was late in the day and time to start heading west and get to Seattle. The road took us south before we could turn right and follow the same path as the return trip of Lewis and Clark. It was only May, so we did have time to find the right town. It just felt daunting.

On that south bound leg, we passed a sign that optimistically pointed us to Pendroy. We took them up on their offer and visited the little town. A handful of buildings, no curbs, run down store fronts, two remaining businesses still open and a post office. We found it. Every where you look and you see fields. Here was our town.

I've been back to Pendroy several times since we picked it as our location for the first few scenes. We met Debbie, the post mistress first. She introduced us to Joann, the local insurance agent. Between the two of them, we had all the access we needed, except for the bar owners. We met them next.



The Rose Room stands out in the little town. It use to be the local bank when the railroad still ran all the way out to Pendroy. There's no railroad any more and the bank gave up, too. The Rose Room is really all there's left for commerce in town, except for the farmers and the mechanic. Bob is the mechanic and he's married to Dorene. She owns the Rose Room. See, it really is a small town.

Dusty got some love

When Dusty came to us, he had been long forgotten about in an alley in Seattle's Greenwood Neighborhood, wedged between the neighbor's overgrown bamboo and the crazy jazz musicians little house. When I saw the pictures of him on Craig's list, I knew he'd be perfect.

Well, we got him home and he just didn't run like he should. I had hoped for a car that could spin the tires and kick up some dust. Dusty was only making dust out his tail pipe.

In comes a friend of mine, Christo Corzatte, with loads of mechanic experience. He immediately diagnosed the problem and jumped in to fix the problem. The diagnosis on Dusty wasn't great, but Christo figured he could get him to run for the shoot. He called me when he had completed the tune up. I think his words were something like "I think your actor can fully realize his part and rise to the challenge." Dusty was back!

I took him for a test drive on Saturday. After he was all warmed up, I stuck my foot in it...the tires spun, the dirt flew and I was a happy man.

Another challenge to the whole film making process checked off our list. Total cost for the picture car: $500 Value in seeing the musician get his cash for an old clunker: Priceless!

Deer 2 Doug 0

Of all the years I've been driving in Montana, I've never hit a deer or any other large mammal. I've hit some squirrels and I've hit some birds, but never anything larger. I haven't even been in a vehicle as a passenger in a car vs. deer accident. My brother Ben, amazingly enough, has never hit any large mammals in Montana, or for that matter, any where else in the world. I don't know how we've managed to prevent that from happening. I've probably jinxed us.

My Uncle Stan had a job for years that had him driving to every corner of Montana. He put crazy miles on his cars in those years. (Ben and I have guessed at about 60,000 miles a year. I'll have to confirm that...) Not once in all that time, did he hit a deer. That is amazing. Even though he never had "deer on the grill," Stan did develop a philosophy about hitting animals. After watching another motorist in front of him swerve to miss a couple of elk then go into the ditch and roll, Stan figured it was best to keep the vehicle going straight down the road. In the event of an immanent collision with a large four legged critter (or even a small one) never, ever swerve to miss it. Chances are, you will hit it straight on, but you won't go in the ditch. Going straight keeps you in control and keeps the vehicle moving properly down the road. I've always adhered to that advice, in my head. Never had to use it, luckily.

On our last trip to Montana to tech scout locations and discuss camera angles, Doug Hostetter and I had lots of time to talk as we drove from one location to the next. Our talks in the car are always productive, mostly. We tend to laugh a lot and talk about our time working for a small time production company in Montana, among other things film related. This trip, I mentioned to him my Uncle Stan's Anti-Swerve Philosophy. Doug cracked up, but figured it was a good idea, but not first with out some convincing. We debated the subject for miles and I managed to set him straight. I had no idea he was going to use the philosophy on this trip!

Doug's truck before the collision.

We left Missoula on Tuesday evening arriving at our first location to take in the strange light filtering through the smoke from the Rock Creek Fire A.K.A. the 124 fire. The rays of sun filtered through the smoke creating this magical and mysterious light that was orange. Interesting, but alarming since we'd be shooting in that very spot. Hope the smoke clears! We then got to two other locations and headed to Lincoln to sack out in a little hotel. (And yes, we got two beds, just to silence the rumors.)

Wednesday, we finally got on the road after a comical search for espresso. The lone espresso stand in Lincoln was closed. We drank "gourmet" coffee from the gas station and a fresh donut to dunk. Being a coffee snob from Seattle is hard in the smaller towns of Montana. I'm sure they'll just laugh at us when we go back to shoot, packing our own coffee and french presses.

Our first stop for the day was Pendroy to walk through shots and check in with our local contacts. Everyone in Pendroy is super nice, helpful and willing to work with us. Very refreshing from a locations stand point. Next stop was Conrad to scout the Home Cafe, the location for the cafe scene. Scott is the owner of the cafe. He has the same eager personality as everyone in Pendroy. My next stop was to talk with the police and city hall to get the okay to hold parking spots on Main Street and to block the sidewalk with gear on the shoot day. You gotta love one stop shopping. I hit city hall and in 10 minutes, talked with everyone that cared to know about our production. With all that complete, we started back for Missoula.

Doug in the Home Cafe, Conrad, Montana

We were making good time. The sun was setting behind a cloud of smoke making the westward travel pretty easy. Temperatures were getting back to normal in the evening and we were enjoying the drive. We had one side trip to make back to one of the locations to confirm drive time and mileage from Conrad. Just as we rounded a bend, out of the left bank came a deer. She tried leaping over the road, but Doug's truck caught her hind quarters. Pieces of the truck flew like shrapnel from a grenade. The loud thump was, well, loud. Doug didn't even have time to swear.

Through all of this, Doug remained calm and stayed his course, adhering smartly to Uncle Stan's advice. The truck didn't fare too well and neither did the poor deer. We pulled over immediately to look over the damage. Bent metal, broken plastic, a missing marker light, a head light pointing wildly out of true and some deer fur lodged into the cracked grill were all we had. Not bad, but I figured at least $2500-3000 worth of damage. Dang.

So that is one for the Deer. Doug's other incident with a moving car and a deer happend last year on a rainy night on I-90 west of Spokane. Doug plowed right into that sucker, but it hardly made a dent. Luckily, in both cases, Doug was OK and walked away with just a good story to tell.

The word from the auto body joint is that Doug's truck will cost about $3500 bucks to fix. I made a pretty good guess. Good thing Doug has good insurance.

Now, I'm not sure how he's gonna get those points back from the deer...