Inspiration: My First Film Shoot

October 26, 1999: I was really pumped in the morning.  My mom had left for the day, placing trust and freedom in me to film the house any way I wanted.  The moment she left I started setting up lights and thinking through my shooting schedule for the afternoon.  I put on a scene from Fargo to give me inspiration, as well as the Jackson Pollock tapes I'd rented.  It was a beautiful day out -- perfect for catching flying water on camera.

The premise:  A middle-aged man is sitting in front of his TV, utterly inspired by life for whatever reason (mid-life crisis, early retirement, you name it).  He's flipping through channels like there's no tomorrow.  A documentary on Jackson Pollock comes on, and he's mesmerised by the technique of this painter he's never seen before.  His wife starts screaming for him to do something around the house -- water the lawn at least.  He starts watering and gradually begins to do so in the drip method of Pollock.  He starts flicking and wagging the hose in all directions, to the interest and fear of passers-by.  

I picked up Will first and we draped a cover over the skylight to better control our interior lighting.  While doing that John, our actor for the middle-aged man, arrived, followed by Woody, who helped out with the camera and Christine the sound person -- all from my junior college class.  We decided to shoot outdoors first.  Fortunately, two weeks ago when I realized I couldn't find another house to shoot, I was able to let my lawn go dry since then, to make it look as neglected as possible.  After slowly setting up outside we were ready to shoot John as the gardener possessed.  The shots of him first holding the hose flaccidly, then an airplane flying overhead triggers his memory of Pollock.  Thankfully I get a lot of airplanes flying over my house.  

Then as inspiration awakens him we took the camera everywhere: high angle, low angle, zooms in and out, profiles from every side, grass-level shots, shots from the roof, and a 180 degree handheld arc shot that was easily the most difficult of all.  Woody was a sport by driving his car past the lawn -- we did another difficult shot, zooming in from a shot of the lawn to a close up of him in the car as he drives by in disbelief at what he sees.  Then, with much thanks from Christina and her theory that strangers help women more likely than men, we got a neighboring mother and her two kids to come out and play amazed passers-by on the sidewalk.  The kids were great -- I couldn't have paid for better actors, with the way they hollered at John, wanting to play in the water.  Good luck like that is what can make a whole shoot successful -- at least that's my feeling after one experience.

By the time we finished outdoors, the lawn was soaking wet, with two weeks' worth of water.  John was remarkably dry except for his socks.  John's wife Donna arrived, as did our instructor Jim, and we moved indoors to shoot the rest.  It was just John in front of the TV and Donna pacing in the background complaining.  We shot John mostly frontal and O/S as he flipped through channels.  We did a 2 minute take of him flipping through, and it was fascinating watching John do it because he'd linger on some stations for at least 10-15 seconds: a wildlife program, a movie with Jane Fonda... Donna was great as the unhappy wife.  She had a monotone delivery, so I asked her to up her pitch and get angry -- it may be a little over the top, but it will work just fine.  We got her face in one high angle shot that makes her extremely intimidating.  Won't want to show that to her friends.  

I think I've found my calling.  That's how I felt after the shoot: like a king.  It's really blessed when you think you have a cool idea, and a great group of people who have good suggestions and defer to you at the same time.  I got a rush from the 5 hours I spent, unlike anything I've done in a long time.  Things that come close to this are being with my girlfriend, teaching in China, giving my thesis defense, and writing a story I really care about.  I hope I get to do this again, soon, very soon.

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