June 1st, 2008
It looks like we’ve nailed down Tuesday, April 17 to shoot the opening scenes for West Texas Vampires: The Awakening at The Blue Light in Lubbock, Texas. If your memory serves you right, you’ll know how to get there, because it’s where we held our casting call! If you came to the casting call, you are invited! If you signed up on this website, you’re invited! If you didn’t do anything but you still want to come, you are invited!
My plan is to shoot a bar full of people having a good time while the Charlie Shafter Band plays. I’ll be focusing on scenes with my five lead student actors - you may remember them from the teaser as “The Lubbock County Five!”
For those of you who are regulars at The Blue Light, it will be a weird night. We’ll be shooting footage of the same couple of songs over and over again. It might feel a bit…weird. We’ll also be directing the crowd quite a bit. So you’ll have to follow a lot of directions.
But hey. You get to be in a motion picture. How cool is that?
May 9th, 2008
Holy baby black buddha on a rusty tricycle, where do I even start?
I guess it would be good to point out that assistant director Dustin Six and I were both sleep-deprived to begin with. His wife had been in surgery just a day before shooting and I had been pulling all-nighters to manage work both on the film and work at my day job. So neither of us were in optimal condition to begin with. Keep that in mind as you read the following stories:
Yer In The Wrong Line, Dumbass
Going without sleep causes a lot of things to happen. One of the things that happens when you go without sleep is that instead of driving toward Post in the direction of Lake Allen Henry, which is where we were supposed to shoot, you drive down the interestate to Lamesa. We didn’t notice the difference between East 84 and South 27 until we arrived in Lamesa, at which point I asked quizzically, “Why are we in Lamesa?” Neither of us had a good answer for that question.
Pop Lock And Drop It
Another thing that happens when you go without sleep is that you tend to leave your video camera battery in the vehicle that you left in Lubbock when you decided to carpool to the lake for shooting. So you have to call your production office coordinator and ask her to drive to your assistant director’s house to check your vehicle for the battery.
When she reports that your battery is locked inside, then you have to call every locksmith in Lubbock and somehow explain that you need them to unlock a vehicle that does not “belong” to you because it is a “rental” because your assistant director’s “neighbor” backed into your “fender” and cause $1200 worth of “damage” and now your vehicle is in the “body shop” and you are in another “town” and your “friend” who is at your assistant director’s “house” can meet you there and pay you to open the “door” of the “rental” which she cannot prove that you are “renting” and haven’t completely “stolen” so she can retrieve your “battery” to take down to you in another “town” and no, I “swear” sir, I am not making any of this up.
Finally, after you’ve called everyone except Brock Lock & Key because their name reminds you too much of the song “Pop Lock And Drop It” that you can barely keep a straight face, you call them and they say, “sure, we’ll do it.” Your production office coordinator becomes a battery shuttle specialist and saves the day when she arrives on set with your extra battery.
Which of course, is completely discharged upon arrival.
Dallas Weather Sucks
So, one of the girls was scheduled to bring my explosives expert out at a certain time. That didn’t happen because her flight from Dallas was delayed. That meant by the time we got our actress safely wired up, we’d lost daylight. Which meant I had to film her scenes a lot tighter than I wanted to, faking daylight with a softbox in a window. Whee!
The Slowest Bullet Ever Fired
When the explosives guy finally arrived, in the interest of safety, he used a slow burning compound, which meant a good second of delay between throwing the switch and popping the squib. Translation - bullets that penetrate the chest a good solid second after they are fired. In what world is that even a reality? The Matrix, perhaps.
The Worst Shirt Ever Designed
Being the director, I have to make important calls every now and then. One of the calls I made was early on in the screenwriting process when I decided that Shenandoah’s character, the darkest of the Lubbock County Five, would have at one time been a bright, cheerful, sunny blonde. Isn’t that sweet?
So the call I made was that my actress would wear a skimpy top during her flashback scene, as she was decidedly more outgoing in the past. But how do you hide a metal plate, two wires, an explosive charge, and a condom full of fake blood behind a skimpy shirt without making it look like a tumor under there? And when you pop the charge, who’s to say the shirt isn’t going to flop around and reveal the plate?
When you only have one shirt, you only get one take. Two, if you’re willing to shoot again and flip the second shot in editing. Which I did. And will do. But dang.
Who’ll Stop The Rain
Driving back to Lubbock was miserable. It rained so hard the only way to navigate was to drive stakes in the ground to see where we’ve been. No, wait, that’s the Coronado legend. The only way for us to navigate was to follow the dim path of roadside reflectors.
Vehicular Misdelivery
When we finally made it back to Lubbock (after a windshield wiper worked it’s way loose and had to be removed in the pouring rain) I was supposed to bring Dustin’s truck back to him at the Blue Light. Did I leave Dustin’s house with his truck?
No, I did not. So we turned around and went back for it. It was one in the morning and I was deliriously sleepy.
Production Photos
Despite all the problems, we had a productive shoot - we got the scenes we needed in the time we had available to us. So from a purely results-based analysis, things went well. But they could have gone a lot…weller.
Here’s a few photos shot by Brit Given or Jami Van Winkle. (Isn’t that a cute name?)
May 1st, 2008
I’ve been having pretty much the worst time in the world getting emails sent out to you Vampire Fans. I think I’ve got a solution that’s working quite nicely. If you don’t mind, drop a comment using the link below to let me know that you got the email okay. Thanks!
Charlie
April 30th, 2008
I’m in the process of obtaining some camera gear and lights, and I’ll start shooting some smaller scenes as early as two weeks from now. I’m also looking for someone with a great big SUV (H3 or the like) that we can use for the film. Know anybody?
And lastly, if you know of any clothing designer who would like to donate wardrobe stuff to the film in exchange for recognition, let me know!
April 29th, 2008
Hey, vampire fans! I just started a little project over at www.sixgunstudios.com/forums where I hope to catalyze further production of West Texas Vampires and other films that I’d like to make (and hopefully films that you’d like to make) too.
Go sign up for the Sixgun Studios Forums. It’s free and fun and it will change your life forever.
