May 6, 2008
intermission?
My external hard drive is being repaired, which is why no posts have been made recently. Apologies. Will be back soon...
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April 9, 2008
Part 7 - The Bear
Matt Said:
I believe this was the first completed sequence of the entire movie and it’s probably my favorite scene. Miniature Monsters is close. Maybe I’ll change my mind once I write a blog for that song.
Several scenes in the screenplay were never shot because they were impossible.
-One involved Strategic Air Command mistaking the can that flies into orbit with a nuclear missile, resulting in the accidental destruction of New York City.
-The Musician—dressed in bomb squad attire—attempts to disarm a bomb at an elementary school. He has to choose between two different colored wires to cut. Just before the clock hits zero, The Bartender shoots the correct wire—disarming the bomb.
-In an homage (rip-off) of The Empire Strikes Back, The Musician wakes up hanging upside down from the ceiling of an ice cave. He tries to free his feet but they are firmly frozen into the ceiling. He spots his gun sticking out of the snow just out of reach. He closes his eyes, meditates, and telepathically ‘forces’ the gun into his hand. Just in time to shoot the arm off an approaching ice monster.
-There was also a sequence where The Musician learned how to do rope tricks but none of us knew how to do rope tricks.
At least we got The Bartender shooting the can into orbit then shooting the star. I wasn’t sure how we would do those scenes. I assumed we could animate it. And we did! God bless you, Photoshop.
While shooting the train training sequence, we noticed a police cruiser sitting along the tracks a ways away from us. We weren’t sure what they were doing but we had strong suspicions that they didn’t appreciate our guns nor our climbing on the parked train. So, we moved a few feet away from the train and shot some scenes without the guns visible. Soon, another police car showed up. They had received a report of someone climbing on the train. I told the officer we had been ‘near’ the train but not on it. I don’t think he believed me but he didn’t pursue the issue. He just told us we couldn’t be by the tracks. So, we shot the rest of the scenes in the parking lot near the tracks. As for that other police car, turns out a previous officer had been called to the scene and he tried to drive along the tracks but it was too muddy and the police car got stuck. A tow truck eventually came and dragged the police cruiser out. Oops. We would have another, minor encounter with the Chicago police during the shooting of Miniature Monsters.
Since we’re on the subject, I never got written permission from any of the businesses or locations we used for shooting. Alcala’s, Ragstock, CTA, Metra, Random Cemetery, Club Foot, Craig: don’t sue me, please.
As a side note: Every time I see Craig reading those library books, I break into a cold sweat—wondering if I returned them. I did. I think. Pretty sure.
Matt Weber Writer/Director
Craig Said:
The Tree Wipe!! We had two shots of the graveyard that I was trying to cut together effectively for a while. One was a tracking shot of tombstones ending on a tree and the other began on a different tree and ended on Amelia and I. I eventually got the idea to go frame by frame and cut along the edge of the tree from the first shot into the second. Thus, the tree wipe was born. I got the idea after watching Pan’s Labyrinth. They do it all the time. It’s impossible for a tree to not wipe in that movie. Someday I’ll tell my grandchildren of this technique, since by then we will have exhausted all of our natural resources and they will never see a moving image outside of a flipbook.
In case anyone is wondering, and I’m sure you’re not, here’s the original copy of my writing during the Charles Bronson/note taking scene:
This song was probably the most fun to film and edit. A real crowd pleaser. After sitting through all that boring drivel, finally, a training montage!
Many of the scenes were filmed on different days but they were all exciting and not too difficult to pull off, except maybe the cans flying. We filmed most of this early in the production when I still wasn’t convinced we were actually going to finish the movie. Maybe that lightened the burden. Who knows? It’s still not my favorite part of the movie, though. That would have to go to Miniature Monsters. But that commentary, my friends, is for another day….
Craig Benzine Actor/Editor/Guitarist
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March 19, 2008
Part 6 - Crescent Moon
Matt said:
The weather had turned pretty warm once we got to this scene so, in order to preserve continuity, everyone had to continue wearing winter clothing. It must’ve been at least 60 degrees that night. Maybe seventy. Craig didn’t have to worry about it too much since his character never wore a jacket anyway. But, if you look closely at the edges of the alley, you’ll see some greenery.
Although we used a little during the opening scene, this is the first time in the movie where we see significant amounts of blood. Ryan and I spent a whole night mixing food dye and corn syrup (both light and dark) until we can up with a scientific method for the perfect blood recipe. I don’t recall what it is now but we wrote it down somewhere and I assume Ryan has it locked away in a safe deposit box somewhere.
I drew each little gun flash in photoshop and sent them to Craig who manipulated them to look like flames shooting out of a barrel with Final Cut. I’ll allow him to elaborate on that process.
There’re a lot of behind-the-scenes photos of this scene at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjosefweber/show/
STUDY QUESTION:
I appear in this scene. Can you guess which character I play?
Matt Weber Writer/Director
Craig said:
Our goal was always to get a big, friendly guy who everyone would love and have his death be the catalyst for the ensuing conflict. I think parker was a fantastic choice and he did a fantastic job. During our big screening of this movie months later we dropped the ball and neglected to inform Parker. So he missed the screening! We’re jerks. Sorry, Parker.
I’m a scruffy lookin’ nerf herder in this movie, but particularly in this scene. I went a long time without getting a haircut because I was afraid it would get too short for the movie. Whenever I look at this scene I wish I had cut my hair a little shorter. I think it looks longer than the rest of the movie.
Hey, was Amelia sick or tired or something during this scene? We filmed it really late at night for some reason. I think it was due to availability. I remember Amelia was napping in the car and I think she was angry about something. The rest of us were probably drinking.
As for the music, this was probably the most satisfying experience in the “studio” and the most satisfying guitar part to play. Zaid had a main guitar part that we jammed with for a while. Eventually, it got real loud and intense and we came up with every part in that one jam session. It was exciting. I think the track turned out well, but it doesn’t match that first live experience we had. I don’t think it can come across in a recording. Perhaps, Zaid, we should play that song live, ahem, hint.
As for editing, I edited half of this on a bus ride to Wisconsin. I spilled beer, cheese, and Brett Favre memorabilia all over my laptop.
As for the gunshot effects, I’ll never reveal my secrets. NEVER! ….except for monetary payment or sexual favors…..or friendship.
Craig Benzine Actor/Editor/Guitarist
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March 5, 2008
Part 5 - Isn't it Me
Matt said:
From the beginning, this song worried me. I wanted to resist making this a sappy moment in the movie but the song almost demanded something bittersweet and melancholy. So, I wrote this stoic reunion to go along with the song.
In the original draft, not much happens; The Musician sits next to Jenny. They ignore each other. The Musician gets the clarinet and brings it back to her. She puts it together and plays. THE END. Not much content for entire song and both Craig and I were worried that there wouldn’t be enough footage to fill an entire song and it would be boring. One night, Craig and I got finely tuned at Club Foot (the location of this very scene) and began rattling off ideas for this scene. I don’t remember them all. I think we discussed more flashback material but Craig eventually came up with what we’ve since dubbed “MultiCraig.” Why not have a bunch of different Craig’s in the bar? One could be dressed as the cowboy, another as broken nose trainee. All of the Musician’s costume changes would be represented. I knew we could pull it off because Craig had done “MultiCraig” in his videoblog, Wheezy Waiter (http://www.wheezywaiter.com). Craig was an expert at “MultiCraig.”
Thus, a barely coherent conversation turned into movie history.
I admit it’s gimmicky and we did it mainly to fill up time but I think it livens up a particularly dead scene. People have asked what the scene means and I have to say that I don’t really know. I have a few theories:
A.) The sight of his long lost love not only breaks the Musician’s heart, it also shatters his psyche into three distinct personalities: The Cowboy, The Musician, and The Broken Nose which is sort of a transitional personality between The Cowboy and The Musician.
B.) They are The Musician’s past and future. His past represented by the The Musician playing the guitar and his future by The Cowboy and The Broken Nose.
C.) They are ghosts. BOO!
D.) (This is a theory put forward by tentilone in a youtube comment) A confusing chapter, but I'll take a shot. Beginning with the theft of the musician's balls, it seems the girl still holds some hypnotic power over him. At which point his past, present, and future all hover around her. She is his focal point. Only when he returns her clarinet, does he enable his future to move forward while he enojys the present in her company.
E.) If you think of the entire movie as The Musician’s deathbed flashback, then this is just some weird hallucination—a misremembering of events or a jumbling of memories.
Maybe it doesn’t make any sense but you know what David Byrne always says: Burning down the house!
Matt Weber Writer/Director
Craig said:
Hey, Matt! I have another theory. This is the way I always thought of this scene, and I’m the editor, so my thoughts are right. Think of this scene in terms of Jenny’s (the girl’s) point of view. If we step into her psyche (which I recommend doing barefoot) and we slosh around in there for a while, we’ll discover it makes perfect sense, and then we’ll need to take a bath.
From this scene we can derive that Jenny knows, or at least thinks she knows, what’s going to happen. She can see the Musician for his past, present, and future. She knows the road she’s going down is a dangerous one and bringing the Musician back into her world could have dire consequences. She knows the Musician too well, and can predict that he won’t back down from a fight. Equally, she can picture him out on the road playing on a lonely stage, as he did before his arrival. This is all a good, albeit confusing, way to get into the mind of Jenny.
Also, in the original idea, I believe we were going to have the cowboy bleeding. I don’t know why we dropped that. Probably for logistical reasons. And using blood is intensely frustrating.
Look for the tracking-in shot revealing the clarinet. One of my favorites. The shot, not the clarinet.
Also, I hate this song cuz I had nuthin’ to do with the recording of it.
Craig Benzine Actor/Editor/Guitarist
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February 20, 2008
Part 4 - Ozark Cousins
Matt said:
The flashback sequence between The Musician and Jenny where they teach each other how
to play their respective instruments was the last scene we shot. I wanted it to be summer or at least greener than most of the rest of the movie. Craig also had to shave his beard.
A lot of people have interpreted the falling out between The Musician and Jenny as stemming from her horrible drum playing. I have to admit that’s the way it seems. Jenny plays the drum, The Musician covers his ears, cut, and he’s heading for the hills. I never meant it to be that way. There’s supposed to be a significant jump in time between that scene and The Musician leaving. What actually went down was left up to the imagination of the viewer. I didn’t expect people to think it had anything to do with the previous scene. The real reason he left is explained toward the end of this song when The Musician goes to the bathroom in the bar and he looks at all the newspaper clippings the Bar-back has collected. He abandoned Jenny to be a rock star. That’s why she’s mad and flicks him off. That’s a convoluted way to tell a story but it seemed right at the time. After all, the movie begins at the end. The bar fight begins with The Rowdiest retelling the story to The Outlaw. Why not put the explanation for their break up way after you show them break up? Answer: because people will think they broke up because Jenny was a bad drummer. That’s fine, I guess. Bad drumming is pretty unforgivable. But that’s the only flaw in the entire movie. THE ONLY FLAW. Ahem.
There’s an alternate version of that drumming scene where Ryan (the DP) replaces Virginia. So, instead of waking up with a girl, The Musician wakes up with a MAN! You can’t buy humor more sublime. It’s hilarious and only available on the future Special Edition DVD.
That shot when The Musician enters the bar really bothers me because of how clear that Pabst sign is. We should’ve put something over it. It makes it look like a commercial. Unless Pabst wants this to be a commercial. You can send the money directly to me, thank you very much.
Matt Weber, Writer/Director
Craig said:
The opening shot of the flash back shows kids playing with an open fire hydrant. We learned there was a good probability of getting sprayed. They apparently spray passers by all the time. The difference was we were carrying expensive movie equipment on our way to the last shoot of the entire production. Needless to say, I was a frightened little girl. However, in the end it made for a good opening shot.
Throughout the production I continued to grow my beard so I would look like Grizzly Adams coming back from my long travels in the wilderness. It grew to a nice size, but alas, I had to shave it all off for the flashback scene. This coincides with the beard shaving of my alter ego, the Wheezy Waiter. watch Beard Science.
We knew after cutting together the flashback it would seem to some as though Jenny’s drum playing is what caused the musician to leave. To those people: You’re shallow. Come on! Can’t you think abstractly? Do you think that would ever be a reason? All right. It’s not your fault. It’s ours. I always felt there should be one or two more scenes in there to make the flashback more of a gradual change in the relationship. But we only had so much time, and going down that route could have lead to copious amounts of cheese and overacting, especially with no dialogue. Still, an extra shot or two between the drumming and the car may have helped. To compensate, I put in a long additive dissolve to give a feeling of time passing. Because everyone knows when two events are superimposed that means they do not correlate, or something.
In the bar scene after the flashback, we did many takes of Parker setting me down on the chair, followed by whiskey drinking. Two things. The whiskey was apple juice. I drank more apple juice than I have in my life. I’ve probably drank that much whiskey in one sitting, and let me tell ya, I choose whiskey. Two, Parker patting my back hurt like hell. Again, frightened little girl.
Two things to look for in the bathroom scene. Oddly, a plastic statue of the Virgin Mary. And the best line in the movie. “Writer rights wrongs, songs.” Good work, Matt. (on the quote, not the statue. That’s just weird.)
“Ozark Cousins” is my favorite song on the album. But this part of the movie is boring exposition. Is the action coming up soon? What’s next? Oh shit, not “Isn’t Me”.
Craig Benzine Actor/Editor/Guitarist
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February 6, 2008
Part 3-Cocaine City Teeth
Matt said:
After a cowboy lying in the sand and a guy driving around the city we finally get some action. A lot of stuff happens—a lot of information to convey without any words.
If you look closely during the clothing store scene, you can see our fearless and insurmountable crew posing as thrift store shoppers. There’s Brad Heck in the faux leather jacket, front and center. He’s a great cinematographer in his own right and an all around talented, handsome and funny guy. I think that’s Tim Ferrin to the left. This video has pretty low resolution so it’s hard to tell. It could be me. I’m out there somewhere. The cinematographer, Ryan Wolff, is way in the back wearing a trucker cap and holding his hands on his hips. Who’s running the camera? Maybe Craig. Hard to tell. Like most nights, we were drinking.
The inclusion of the deer poncho when The Musician enters the store wasn’t my idea. Either Ryan or Craig suggested it and I wasn’t sure if I liked it so we shot The Musician entering without the poncho and once with. I was afraid it would be too distracting. The character was supposed to be on a mission to reclaim his long lost love. I didn’t think he should stop and do some clothes shopping. But the poncho’s only on screen for a few moments and I don’t think most people even notice it. The poncho cameo is an easter egg for all those die hard fans who watch Ozark Cousins over and over. Now you never have to wonder where he got that poncho.
In the poker scene, Pabst Blue Ribbon makes the first of many appearances. I made it a rule that all beer in the movie would be portrayed by Pabst. It was inexpensive and readily available. For no reason in particular, I wanted the beer to be consistent throughout the movie. Like, the characters had their differences but the beer was something they all could agree on. So as to avoid any potential lawsuits, we tried not to shoot the label too clearly. We also didn’t want people to think the movie was sponsored by Pabst. (But if any Pabst executives are reading this, we’re not above corporate shilling.)
I had fun making the smashed bullets that get pulled out of the drink in the bar fight scene. I used a bunch of Sculpey clay, molded a bunch of different types of smashed bullets, and baked them. After baking, the clay becomes as hard as plastic. Fun stuff. In the script, I described the bullets as ‘bisecting’ each other and I tried to sculpt that but it never looked convincing enough to me. They turned into little grey crucifixes. I tried making realistically exploded/flattened bullets but they ended up looking like swatted bugs or tattered sombreros. I eventually landed upon the twisted bullet idea. It’s the most ridiculous design. Cartoonish. But I thought it was funny and it seemed to get the idea across most effectively.
Matt Weber, Writer/Director
Craig said:
Incidentally, of all the scenes in this song, the store, the poker game, and the bar, the only one during which we weren’t drinking was the bar. In fact, during the store scene I remember getting quite drunk. Conveniently, the employees had a fridge in which we were able to stock our beer. Warm beer does not a compelling movie make. At one point, weeks after filming the store scene, I had the idea of having Zaid’s character (the bad guy, or outlaw, if you will) exit through the store on his way to the gun battle at the end of the film to provide continuity. It would also be an odd image seeing such a deadly entity weave through the aisles of a Ragstock. Alas, we weren’t allowed back into the store because we forgot to clean up all the beer cans we left lying around.
This scene also features the only time I get to be behind the camera. It’s a brief overhead wide shot of the whole store with members of the crew browsing the products. It’s near the beginning. Look for it, and forever marvel!
What can I say about the poker game except the obvious, I love the lighting. It’s the best looking scene in the movie, dark, minimal, and appropriate. It comes back later in “Miniature Monsters”. Kudos to Ryan (the director of photography) for supplying his lighting expertise. I laughed a lot while editing this scene because of the reactions of Steve Reidell (stv slv to all you hood internet fans). He’s the other guy playing poker. That night’s shoot lasted many hours and there is a great deal of unused footage of Steve’s reactions. It was hard to avoid over doing it. Same goes for Zaid’s reactions. A lot of smoking shots. It all looked beautiful. However, when editing a narrative I think advancing the story should be the number one priority. There is a danger of wallowing in the visual for visuals sake alone, from which I hear a certain recent Spartan war movie suffers. I think my editing style is more about pacing than anything else. I don’t want anyone to be bored. Which is especially a challenge with a silent movie.
The other scene in question is the headache that is the Bar Fight. All the bar scenes, and especially this one, are what worried us the most throughout production. Finding the bar, and scheduling the times to use it were worrisome tasks. But this scene in particular worried me because it involved Amelia shooting a bullet into another bullet in midair. I didn’t think we’d be able to convey this very easily. We even shot some footage with the intent of adding computer animation later to make sure we got the point across. But after cutting the scene together and showing it to a few people, I guess we did it simply with editing. I think Matt’s fine clay work with the interlocking bullets helped immensely. Eat your heart out, Pixar!
As for recording guitar for the song, I ventured into new, wonderful territory. Two words, Slide Guitar!
Craig, Actor/Editor/Guitarist
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January 30, 2008
Part 2 - Basghetti Western
Matt said:
The traveling sequence, the return of The Musician, was one of the first sequences I laid to paper besides the opening scene. I initially wanted the world to be in perpetual twilight, like the city lay near the poles. I had the ridiculous idea we could shoot the entire movie at dawn or dusk. In twenty minute increments. I’m glad we scrapped that idea. Otherwise, we’d still be shooting.
Most of this was shot on the first day of shooting. We filled up two 60 minute tapes—most of which turned out to be unusable because of a dirty lens. The dirty lens wasn’t as big a tragedy as we first thought it was. We had so much footage, we never needed any of it. Why did we shoot two hours of footage for a four minute song? Lack of discipline maybe. It’s always good to get a lot of coverage but I venture to guess that we didn’t use 90% of the footage we shot that day. I think we were excited about the camera. Everything looked so good on it, why not shoot everything? We ended up running out of daylight and we didn’t get everything we needed. Most importantly, the breakdown scene was too dark and we never got the motel scene nor The Musician sleeping in the car. Thank God, we got two hours of Craig driving around the city.
Also: It was pretty cold on the beach so I lent Craig my gloves. He promptly lost them. Thanks. Thanks a lot, Craig.
A lot of people have asked me, “Where’d you get that deer?” Go to Irving Park and Cumberland. You’ll see a big forest preserve. Go inside and you’ll practically trip over a deer. They’re like pigeons. They flock around the park looking for hand-outs. It was a challenge getting them out of the shot. I didn’t want Craig to be feeding a ton of deer because it would look like we were in a petting zoo or a game farm. Those deer were disgusting. Eating out of the trash. Following you like hungry cannibals. They were like a bunch of junkies, addicted to wonder bread and garbage. Easy pickings, though because those deer never learned to fear humans. I’ve got a fridge full of venison if anyone’s interested.
Matt Weber Writer/Director
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Craig said:
This very linear sequence was pieced together from many different days and locations. After I finished editing it, it took a while for the whole thing to flow in my mind. Watching it now I almost forgot that the shot of me getting out of the car and the shot of me checking under the hood are in completely different places on completely different days. Movie magic!
We actually shot alternate versions of much on this stuff on the first day, but realized it was crap (due to dirt on the lens and bad “artistic” choices). In particular, we scrapped our first attempts at my waking up, the car breakdown scene, and the gas station. We even went back and re-shot some of the interstate driving, and we had A LOT of driving footage. Actually, we re-shot the gas station but while editing I realized the original was better so I used that one.
We all thought the last shot, the very long one of me walking left to right at the beach, was amazing. I was so excited to see it on tape. The lens turned out to be covered in dirt. Luckily, Ryan showed me a little photoshop trick and I cleaned up the shot. Most of the shot is a doctored still image, except for the section I’m walking in. You can tell it looks a little too still if you pay attention. So don’t.
The first day was one of the only days, if not, the only day we took up more than one tape. After looking at it, most of it was unnecessary or unusable. The first day! We had so much ahead of us. I felt quite intimidated and frustrated by the task ahead. Luckily, we got better.
The third or fourth day of shooting was the opening sequence at the forest preserve. My character was supposed to wear that damned blue shirt all the time so I couldn’t use a coat. I had a lot of layers on underneath. This was the first time in my life that I can remember being frightened of a deer. They were everywhere at this preserve so we decided to get some random cut away shots of them. Ryan pointed the camera at one, and on cue it turned and stared. Then it walked closer, and closer, and closer, until Matt told me to take my coat off and walk up to it. So I hesitantly stepped up to it, worried that I was going to get hoofed to death, until it ran away.
After all that work and worry, I think we made a good road video. I would say that of every sequence in the movie, this is the least necessary as far as the plot is concerned. But I think it could stand alone as a music video better than any of the others, because it doesn’t rely on anything that happens before it or after. Maybe that’s why we had such a hard time with this song. It had the least amount of structure leading up to the shoot.
Craig, Actor/Editor/Guitarist
p.s. Matt, I have no memory of losing your gloves.
Zaid said:
This was the first song that we recorded. I was pretty excited to get
working, Craig and I hadn't worked together since making the DPC
album. I remember having a lot of fun messing with the guitar tones,
playing with the space echo, and basically fucking around. This is
where, to me, the time you spend on any one part can take forever but
its okay, It's a great thing. I think steve plays two bass lines,
awesome because he does both parts on an 8 string bass at the same
time. When i think about the song i like the rawness it has in
contrast with new moon. Taking a subtle step between landscapes to
laying it all out. I asked Amelia how she thought of the backing
vocal. apparently it's inspired by tribal Indian wailing.
I think we did the drums for this song first as well, but maybe not.
Todd and i got together for a couple weekends and laid down all the
drums before recording anything else, so things blur a little.
Zaid Maxwell, Vocals/Composer/Actor
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Part 1 - New Moon
Matt said:
I believe this is the only song I had any influence over whatsoever. The original title Zaid had given it referenced some sort of music terminology. I liked it but it seemed out of place so I suggested he change it to ‘New Moon’ to bring it in line with the other moon songs. We already had a ‘crescent moon’ and a ‘full moon’ so it seemed only right to have a ‘new moon.’
I didn’t want to have any influence over the music. I wasn’t part of the band, and, although I secretly wanted to be in the band, I thought it would be best if the writer were an outsider. I wanted the music to dictate the action. That’s the way most music videos work. In movies, it’s usually the other way around. The music or score slaves to the image. But, I didn’t want to make a music video. Nobody wanted that. We wanted a movie. It had to tell a story with or without the music. So, it was more like a silent movie based upon the Ozark Cousins album.
The image of a cowboy waking up with a bullet wound was the very first thing Craig, Zaid, and Amelia described when they told me the idea for an album-length movie. The band, Ozark Cousins, sounded sort of countryish with flairs of spaghetti western so a western-style movie seemed a reasonable fit. I left the opening pretty much unchanged. It was my favorite thing about their idea. It was a good image. Something I could cling to while I tried piece together the entire story. At the time, we didn’t really know what it meant. At least I didn’t know how it would fit in with the storyline of two cowboys—one bad, one good—fighting over a woman. Was he dead? Was this the afterlife? Who knows? Who cares? I tried to preserve that ambiguity when I wrote the screenplay.
So, the first image we thought of became the first scene in the movie. I don’t know if that owes more to an uncompromising vision or a persistent stubbornness.
-Matt Weber, director/writer
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Craig said:
Musically, this is one of two songs I had nothing to do with on the album, the other being track 5, "Isn't it Me." It was, however, the song that inspired me to say to Zaid and Amelia, "We should make this into a movie," thereby eleminating virtually all of my weekends in the first half of 2007 due to filming and editing. Something about the ambient "windy" sounds in this track gave me a picture of a dusty old western town. I could see tumbleweeds.
Anyway, we proceeded to map out a plot for a movie on a piece of cardboard (I still have it) that we thought we might make. I still had many doubts we would actually go through with it at that point. The plot involved a man returning to town and having to win back his girl. But there were many differences in this original plot. Matt's script was better. This opening, though, was something Zaid, Amelia, and I more or less planning from the onset.
As far as shooting, it was actually quite cold that day and this was at the end of a long shoot involving the climax of the film. I mainly just wanted to get the hell outta there. The fake blood was really annoying because it was sticky and I had no idea whether or not the blood was all over the clothes underneath my costume. It wasn't. Compared to the rest of the day's shoot, this was easy. At least I got to lay down.
This was the first song I edited in it's entirety, mainly because it was the first song filmed in it's entirety. We had pieces of many songs, but this one was done right away. I had a hard time filling out the entire track because we didn't shoot much for this scene. You see pretty much every angle we shot for this. But I ended up holding on shots for long periods of time and I think it makes it work better anyway. When I finished I just remember being very excited by how awesome the footage looked and how well the emptiness of the scene (one lonely man on a beach) matched the ominous mood of the music. I couldn't wait to see how it would all turn out. Oh yeah, and the Title font was just put in as a place holder until we came up with something better and more elaborate. I don't even remember if it was me who put it there. May have been Ryan or Matt. We eventually decided it was perfect. Others can debate that if they want.
-Craig Benzine, actor/editor/guitarist
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Zaid said:
This track started off as some piano thing I was playing around with. I think the working title was "Etude in Cm". Amelia eventually played piano on the recorded version and Matt suggested renaming it "new moon" to go with the other instrumental tracks. On this record most the synth work was done with an old arp odyssey. It really gets put to good use here. The contrast of the heavy bass and those distant howls really create a spacious lonely mood.
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