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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