Wrapped!

Halloween Wrap Day

We finished at the Waupaca County Jail at 9.03pm on Halloween.

The Dreamer has now finished, I have to admit I am pleased, both Ted (Producer) and Anit Bashar (1st AD) have pulled in almost 17 hour days, our production beards are looking healthy but we are not. Looking back on the last 3 weeks I feel confident that we achieved everything I wanted, there were many times I could have strangled an actor or crew member but held out til the end, stress can get the better of you in certain situations but we cut our way through.

We held a great wrap party in a local bar in Waupaca, WI (A popular hang out for the cast and crew during production) while Ted, Gwendolyn(Christy Dawson) and I raced home to make punkins before the night came to an end.

A long journey back to LA via our car, should be a lot of fun.

Cold Nights

Night shoots are also the worst, with the weather on our side we are now on schedule and on budget. In fact that is a lye, Ted saved me $6,000 on his first day here so we are in fact under budget.

The shoot tonight starts from 4am to 4pm, horrible, Wisconsin in the winter! Ek! The police have been absolutely amazing, tonight they gave us 3 squad cars and an ambulance. The scene starts off with a jib shot raising from the 'Do not cross' sign, we track up to James Symington (A great actor) and Gwendolyn Garver, the lead. As soon as the police leave it's straight into a scene with Bobbi Jean Bache and Kristian Capalik, the co-stars.

Hockey

The 7am calls are the worst, this means Ted and I are up at 5am to go over the daily call sheet one last time. We arrive at the Expo Center (Ice Hockey Rink) for the large crowd scenes and Hockey game, the Ice Dogs have arrived (The Ice Hockey team doubling as the High School Team) directing 150 extras and 20 Ice Hockey players is a complete nightmare but we managed to get everything we wanted, some of the shot on the ice were compromised but other than that, a great success.

We will be back here tomorrow to shoot the locker room scenes.

Update

It's raining here in Waupaca, WI. Tomorrow we are due to shoot a large ice hockey game in 8 hours. I am tired and utterly exhausted. The Producer and I are pulling in 15 hour days.

Tomorrow is Day 12 of our 18 day shoot. We are currently on schedule and I'm very happy with what we've got. For the most part, the weather has cooperated, until last night (10/21) when it rained and we had to reschedule half of our exterior shots. We did, however, manage to get the shot of the ambulance, 2 sheriff's cars and a police car.

The town has been really cooperative. We were on the front page of the Waupaca County Post, and tomorrow the neighboring paper, The Post Crescent from Appleton, WI will be coming to do an article.

We are pleased to have wrapped at the following locations:
The Lochner's House
Simpson's Restaurant
The Kirk's
The Hankey's
The Waupaca Public Library
The Hospital in Oshkosh, WI
The Moe's Barn

We are excited to continue filming at the Expo Center in Waupaca as well as both the Middle School and High School, along with the Waupaca County Jail and Sheriff's office.

I am very satisfied with the quality and look that the HD-F900 is giving us! We have a great cast and crew and it is hard to believe that filming is coming to an end.

Douglas Elford-Argent
Director
11:43pm

Beer or Pizza?

Last night was crazy, this was the one evening shoot I was really dreading. Ted the Producer skillfully arranged many extras for the 'exterior barn party scene' everybody arrived on time but we 'as a crew' were not ready, lights were not set and my shot list was changing by the minute.

Just as we were ready the extras began to grow tired, and Ted and I looked at one another for about 3 seconds. The 'kids' wanted to go out and drink, even though they were 16 or 17 they became very bored with the speed of shooting a movie. 'Should we buy these guys some beer or pizza to make them stay?' maybe not...we thought!

The evening went smoothly and I can't thank the extras that stayed through the cold night, just for us.

Kids

Today was a little crazy, we were filming at the Kirk's House on Washington Street/Main, a very famous house for which the Bates Motel was based on, I was excited and nervous also. We were using younger actors from 10-11 years. This was my first chance at directing 'kids' we open up with a 24 foot tracking shot revealing the 4 'younger' versions of the leads and co-stars. As time went by we lost day light and missed the scene between Daniel Koester and Kristian Capalik, this resulted to a moody director and a frustrated AD. Luckily Ted (Producer) organized a pick up shoot at the Hankey House exterior, not all was lost!

Hospital

During the shoot yesturday Ted received a phone call from the local hospital, they confirmed that our loaction tomorrow was not available due to lack of beds. Like usual I started to panic but Ted and On (AD) got in touch with another hosiptal in Oshkosh and raced to photograph the site for me. Racing home they called and informed me it was a fantastic location, the whole West Wing would be ours. Sometimes things happen for a reason, my mum use to tell me this when I was kid, and I strongly believe it to be true.

The day went smoothly, some of the scenes I hoped for I didn't get but covered it enough for Wendy to work some of her magic during editing. The production value looks great and the feeling of the scenes worked out in the end.

First Day

Today was our first day, I sit here with a glass of red wine and check over what we missed, Ted Willett (Producer) and On (1st AD) work on tomorrows schedule. This seems to be the routine, since both flew in a week ago, we wake up at 9am and make a ton of calls, some calls seem to be follow ups, either somebody hasn't got back to us or has a major problem with dialing our number.

Emails have saved us a lot but the towns size and shear welcome has been the key, Waupaca WI sit only 5500 people and with it's small 2 1/2 mile sq size helps for the company moves or actor pick ups, the actors are staying in a small motel off of Fulton Street, something simular to the Bates Motel.

Tomorrow we are back in the Hankey house for the second of a three day shoot.