Back at last...

Well I've been home for a day now and have returned to a very happy family. I'm suffering a tinge of reverse culture shock that I'm sure will evaporate quickly. The oddly different world of Sofia, Bulgaria became my reality after spending 50 days there and when you can just hop on a flight and be back half way around the world in less than a day, the crashing of routines, time zones and languages get a bit mixed up.

Proof of point... I'm sitting here at 5:30AM wide awake and have been up for 2 hours!

I'll sign off this post for a few days until I get a handle on what's next schedule wise. Cutting, of course, I just don't know when.

Thanks for checking in.

Trippin' home

When David and I walked into the business lounge at Munich, the automatic door had not quite opened and we both said simultaneously: Dora!

Dora was on set props and, amongst other things, ran the automatic door in the doctors lab. Thanks Dora! Here she is with that pesky hostage.

Here's the new crop!

I'm posting this from home... an easy flight from Munich with my randomly chosen seat mate Rachael Bilson (from "The OC" - on her way home from Rome shooting Jumpers)... Back to Hollywood at last!

Shoot day #20

Finally done! And with a bang. We shot from 9:30PM and David and I left at around 12:15PM the next day to catch a flight to Munich, then LAX. What a whirlwind. It was definitely not a satisfying exit after working with the crew for 3 weeks and most of the keys for more like 7. I left my apartment for the last time on the way to set.


On the other hand, when I told Riquel that I'd be home a day early, she shrieked with happiness. Cool.

Obviously we picture wrapped any actors that were working with us, namely David, Todd and yours truely (as the hostage).



And, as promised... Upon completion of my directing (at least the production part)... I chopped my pony tail.

Shoot day #19

One day to go! We shot all night again in the doctor's lab... we're getting close.

To show that, we picture wrapped another actor... Tomas - the evil doctor.

And I was greeted to this sight in front of my place yesterday morning.

Shoot day #18

Two days to go! Now I'm counting how many left instead of how many in. I also found out that in fact I can return on Thursday instead of Friday. I won't get back until 7PM or so but at least it's a small slice of Thanksgiving preserved. Riquel was thrilled.

We had a last minute cancelation by an actor who we promptly replaced with Bill Cusak (John and Joan are shooting the sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank in town) and I had his girlfriend, Lafern, sit in the scene as an extra. Serendipity at it's finest.

And we picture wrapped Pollyanna.

Sunday (night) off

Another twised day on nights schedule. I slept most of the day and at 9PM we all got together for one last time. Melissa and Michael are headed back tomorrow and I have 3 more days of shooting and I supposedly have a flight back on Friday.

Here's the gang at dinner.

And a little after dinner fun at "Briliant".

Shoot day #17

I am all out of whack now... Today I'm going to bed at a whopping 9:30AM. At least I'll be heading towards adjusting to Pacific Time a couple of days early.

We were on stage again today and got it all in 12 hours, even though everyone (including me) seemed to be working in slow motion. Working nights, especially when on stage really throws things off. We shot the tent interiors and the final happy "hospital" scene last night and even picked up an extra green screen that I wanted to help set the Iraq location. We also got the firt signs of nearing the end (even though I still have 15% of the film yet to shoot). Melissa, Mike and Michael all picture wrapped.

Shoot day #16

Boy... I'm way out of sync. I must have missed a day or at least a half day in there somewhere when we shifted to nights. Whatever, it's 8:20AM and I just got back to my apartment after spending the night on the stages at UFO and am soon headed to bed.

I assumed that shooting on "stage" ment that we were in for cozy warmth and the easy life. I assumed wrong. Because of stage conjestion, we shot the green screen helicopter interiors outside... in the freezing cold!

All in all though, we got the night and only went over by an hour... not bad from my perspective.

Shoot day #15

Whew! Another long day! We started at 2:30PM and wrapped at 6AM. We were at the metro tunnel entrance again and had our final exterior day. There's forest around the set so we called in a couple of the actors that were not scheduled for today and shot scenes that we had missed days before.

The woods looked great in the artificial light.

And after shooting her day stuff, Polly ran off to the ballet before comming back for her night work. Sheesh... a life?

It's 6:50 AM now and instead of going to work like we have for the last 2 1/2 weeks... I'm going to bed!

Shoot day #14

Well.. we started nights today and my posts will be pushed a bit. Our call time was 5PM and we actually ended a bit early tonight so that we can get a little bit of an early start tomorrow to pick up some forest shots at the doctors lab location. It's 3:45AM here in beautiful Sofia.

Tonights location was at the quarry, just up the hill from this lovely steel plant.

And an overview of the set at "lunch" (around midnight).

Shoot day #13

Shoot day 13 was a looong day! Back for a second day at the Chechen Village location. We shot for 14 hours (2 hours of overtime!) and got 63 setups. Some kind of record I hear.

We started at 6:30AM.

Vasco set off a beautiful fireball and Ivo and I prepared to shoot it from a tower.


And the toll it takes on a director shooting 63 setups in a day.

Shoot day #12

Today was the first of two at the abandoned Chechen Village. As we are getting quite used to... the day started with rain, followed by a bit of sunshine, then snow (!) and more sun before a "premature" sunset. All in all though, we feel like we did OK. We're back tomorrow to finish off today and hopefully get whatever else we were supposed to.

Here's a bunch of local kids that took an interest in our "show" and a few movie stars. The one on the left reminded me of myself (I was a bit older) standing transfixed at the sidelines watching a crew shoot the James Bond film "View to a Kill" in San Francisco.

Some custom "grafitti" that translates in Russian to "beware".

And me talking to the girls who called on their way to school...

Good morning to you... Good evening to me!

Working Sunday

Well I didn't quite get the day off I would have liked... I spent the morning generating overlay mattes for some of the video playback footage that will appear on monitors in the doctors lab. High quality stuff if I do say so myself!

I also met up with Ivo (DP) and Bobi to take a tour of the Iraqui hearding camp location. They don't have much in the way of desert here in Bulgaria so a local quarry will have to do. The scene is at night so we should (read: have to) get away with it.

My evening will be spent reviewing dailies and making lists of connecting scene that I still need to shoot. Joy!

Shoot day #11

Uuhhh... 6 day shooting weeks are not the easiest thing I've ever encountered. We were at the american base camp today in full sun. We got clogged up waiting for all kinds of issues and I excercised a little directorial freedom and switched a scene from morning to pre dawn. This allowed us to shoot 2 hours past sunset and actually probably helped make the movie a little better because everything won't look exactly the same. Luckily the DP had a decent lighting package on board.

Here's Marty and Mike chilling (literally,,, it was below freezing) waiting to shoot.

And the polution enhanced sunset we got to enjoy.

Shoot day #10

Half way! As of today we are half way through our shooting schedule. Of course, my script supervisor pointed out that we have only shot 30 pages of the script... glass half empty? I don't think so. We also experienced our first taste of overtime. We ended with a scene that plays in the back of the Russian transport truck that was lit and allowed us to shoot past dark. It was only an hour but it was great not to get cut off like we have been. Weather wise, we had a bit of drizzle early on, but luckily it stayed cloudy (even lighting) and dry for the rest of the day.

We were in the field where the Delta team finds a bunch of dead goats and here's Dora after gooping them up.

I also got a glimpse of the Army camp where we start the film. The scene starts with one of the gang colapsing a latrine at the edge of camp. Hilarity ensues. The set is just over the hill from where today's work was.

And not to leave anyone out of the stunt double parade... Here's David with his. Clearly a perfect match! And to end with a peek at our brand of movie magic. This was the set up for a "driving" shot, Ivo concentrating first on David and ending with Pollyanna.

Shoot day #9

Melissa finally met her demise today. Inexorably attacked by hoards of ravenous bats. Bats of the rubber variety... to be augmented later by their ultra dangerous CG brethren.

We spent our second day at the rebel camp, otherwise known as the entrance to the doctors lab. This exterior will serve as the transit to and from the interior set that will be shot next week on stages at UFOs studios. It's also the final day of work in and around the city's once thick forest (now bare from fallen leaves). We had another sunny mild day but didn't mind as the location is more open and easily supports a bright and different look. Supposedly we're in for some rain tomorrow at the "sheep field" set. I can't wait!

At the end of the day, Pollyanna met her doppelganger stunt "double". Spitting image huh?

Shoot day #8

Today we moved to the set that plays the outside of the doctor's lab. After starting the day with my now traditonal reading of sides in my trailer we were greeted with bright sun and 60 degree weather (props and AD department seen enjoying below). Great! another different look and weather type for the eerie Belzan forest. We probably lost 2 hours waiting for smoke and other lighting adjustments. This on top of an already shortened late fall day. In the end though we got most of what we were trying for, including the tail of a scene that we missed last week. Hopefully it will cut!


Finally a glimpse of the otherwise consistently photogenic Melissa's bat attacked legs.

Tomorrow we're back to the lab again and finally we won't have to spend time discussing politics and wondering how the elections are going to turn out.

Shoot day #7

The snow capped Mt. Vitosha finally peeked out of the clouds at sunset today.

We had a relatively successful day today, getting most of what we planned. The only thing we missed was a pickup from two days ago that it looks like we'll be able to fit into tomorrow. Here's David after a terrible day at the office.

And me.