Written 6/28 - posted 6/29 Where it begins so shall it end. I'm sitting here at the Foster Brothers coffee at Cleveland Park waiting to meet Anne, typing this on the folding keyboard for my handspring and realizing that this is exactly where and how I first started writing the screenplay for Washington Interns Gone Bad. It's been about 5 months of crazy ups and downs, but it still feels like it was almost just yesterday that I cranked out a screenplay on a whim with this notion that "hey, I think I'm going to make a movie." Just today, I shot the very last scene with any cast members involved. While there are still a couple of cutaways that need to be shot, we are finally wrapped with this shoot. So while it took three calendar months to shoot, counting the actual days spent shooting, we really only shot this sucker in about two weeks. Considering that everyone involved has day jobs and other committments, I am quite amazed. Also amazing is the way that everyone involved really came together, most of us with little to no experience, and learned together as we worked. While at times this shoot showed me levels of stress which I had not thought humanly possible, I have learned so much. While I tried to prepare for this project by reading up on the subject of no budget digital filmmaking, I really leaned the most from just doing it. Reading books throughout the shoot gave a bunch of pointers on things which I had already figured out from my own mistakes, and the footage definitely got better as the shoot went on and we learned the ins and outs of continuity and how it all needs to go together in the editing stage. There really is no teacher like experience. So, it's time to thank people, and not just a general thanks to everyone, but very specific thanks to each and every individual. First and foremost I'd like to thank my dear fiance, Anne Stebbins, who really is the best partner that I could have ever dreamed of having. Not only has she stood by me throughout all of this even when it put tremendous strains on our relationship, she has really put a great deal of herself into this film by doing the work of 10 people. Before we even started showing the screenplay to people, she edited with a fine toothed comb to make the dialogue flow more naturally when spoken, as well as making the women characters not be so obviously written by a guy. And she brought much of that intuition and style with her to the set while assistant directing. As if that wasn't enough, she was in charge of wardrobe and makeup, AND keeping continuity on wardrobe and makeup. But wait, there's more... She also coproduced, doing lots of the nitty gritty details end of putting together our schedules and really working out the logistics of our shoots. And she also played shrink to everyone involved, especially me. Anne, thank you so much not just for believing in me from the start but for hanging in there through the best and worst times of this shoot. You gave so much of yourself and because we're a couple, I think sometimes I took that for granted. But the work that you did was incredible and vital and without you, this would look like a cheesy video some high school kids put together. I cannot wait to be married to you, one year from today. In terms of getting the ball rolling on this project, this thing went from a just finished screenplay to a project in preproduction over the course of an afternoon that I spent with Elizabeth Croydon. I knew her a little bit through Adam Kroloff, and I had her in mind from the getgo to play the character of Elizabeth. I always imagined her performance as I wrote her lines. So you can imagine my nervousness when I invited her over to read the screenplay. Originally she had a couple of hours to kill, but wound up staying all day and into the night, loving the script and coming up with very viable ideas. That afternoon, we put the wheels in motion and over the course of the next week we were casting. And what could I say about Elizabeth's performance but "wow?" The first thing we shot with her would have made Divine blush, and much of what she did was her own idea. She really dove into her character head first like a true method actor, and that was not a particularly happy thing for her. We also had only one month to shoot all of her scenes, so in addition to working our insane shooting schedule, she was producing and emcee-ing a political event, giving an Aikido demonstration at the Department of Transportation, doing parody news reporting at the World Bank protests, doing karaoke with congressmen and preparing for a cross country move which she made just days after shooting her last scene. I could just go on and on, but we have a lot of people to get through... One of the first people who Elizabeth brought into this project was her housemate, Karen Zamperini. To say that Karen was the glue that held this project together would be an understatement. As a producer who has no leverage of money like a producer of a film with a budget would have, she was incredibly effective in keeping things on track thoughout the shoot, dealing with every kind of personality type known to man, including my own scattered and all over the map typical mental state. She and Anne together made as much order as possible from complete chaos and really got down to the brass tacks of the logistics of keeping this production running. I cannot begin to stress how important that is to a project, and that was one of the things that I assumed would just work itself out on it's own while I was kicking around the idea of making a movie. Now I cannot even think of taking on another project like this without Karen. While everyone attached to this film worked in every different crew capacity, the actual shooting crew was pretty much just myself and our Director of Photography, John Griffiths. I met John a couple of years ago through a couple of different mutual friends, and then was reacquainted recently and we talked about doing movies. at that point I was still just really wanting to make one but was lacking any idea. So John was brought on board pretty early on and we figured out what we would need and what we had to work with. Of course, in those early stages we had no idea of how everything you take as a given in the planning stages can become a variable while you're actually shooting, and John was great with rolling with these changes and coming up with contingency plans while I was still freaking out over each SNAFU (though I think I got a bit better once I realized that there is no such thing as a situation normal in no budget guerilla filmmaking). I've been told that the combination of a rookie director and a rookie DP is not a good idea, but I think John and I made a great team. We have very similar tastes and influences which makes it extremely easy to work together while learning together. I've known Adam Kroloff for almost 2 years. I met him through another friend and he invited me to play bass in his band which was great fun. We disbanded when he moved to Pittsburg with his fiance, Sarah Link (who will be getting her own shout out below...). While I had always known that he was a trained actor, I'd never seen him in action and I almost didn't bother having him read for the part of our sleazy congressman because I figured he would be too busy getting ready to move and get married. I am so glad that he expressed interest because I don't know anyone who could have possibly made that role funnier. The man is a genius of slapstick who reminds me so much of John Ritter's Three's Company days that it's scary. He also has known Elizabeth since childhood so they have amazing onscreen chemistry. I met Sarah Link online, at alt.music.ween specifically. We both lived in DC and decided to meet up to go see a Stephen Malkmus show, and then a Ween show of course. She came to see me and Adam play one night and Adam insisted I give him her number. I instead had them both over for a movie at my house. Not long after, they were engaged. Due to some communication mixups on my part (yes, back on the whole recurring thing about me being a spaz), Sarah almost didn't get involved with the project. But luckilly, between preparing for a move and a wedding, she was able to come in and design and put together our office sets, not once but twice. These were the only sets that we really needed to create, everything else was shot either on location or in somebody's house. Sarah turned a frumpy little nonprofit organization's office into what could have been the office of a low level congressman. Sarah, I'm sorry about the mixups at the beginning. Your work was another one of those things that made the difference between this being a cheap piece of shit production and low budget indy film. Thanks for bearing with my spasticity. Marisa Torrieri and Ian Leahy play our protagonist duo, Becky and Scottie. I'd known Marisa from the open mic scene and Elizabeth knew Ian also through the open mic scene. Neither had ever done any acting before, and both took to it very naturally. Both were able to give great performances between their own hectic schedules and they play a very believable couple. Both are also going to be contributing songs to the soundtrack. Thanks for giving it your all in the face of complete chaos. You were excellent onscreen lovers! Besides the main cast already listed, we had some brilliant performances from our supporting cast as well. Kevin Shehan and Jenny Raviv as the republican prettyboy and bimbo had only met the day that we shot their scenes, but they became an instant comedy team. They're great improvisers and they never even knew it. Kiko and Susanah Alvarez were great as rumblers, getting to kill each other comedically. Every last extra at the party scene, Sarah, Marky, Beth and David did a great job improvising. It really added great things to that scene. And Tom Howell and Judy Appleseed played the perfect parents for Becky. Chris Otten was great as the pie weilding anarchist. Our newscasters, Kevin McIntire and Ariel Ashwell were such perfect news anchors. Reverend Billy from the Church of Stop Shopping came through for us at the very last minute to perform Becky and Scottie's wedding scene in the midst of a huge World Bank Protest, and Ken Roseman transformed into Briattania the Cheerleader for a bit shot in that scene as well. Adam Eidinger also took time out from running his progressive PR firm to shoot a cameo. Zoe and Jill gave some of the funniest reaction shots at our press conference scene. Forest Lindon gave the perfect mix of professionalism and sleaze as the lobbyist, and Ann Brandstadter jumped in at the very last minute to play a waitress in that same scene which really added a bit more realism to it. Rounding out the cast, as if being the uber producer extraordinaire wasn't enough, Karen Zamperini played not one but TWO parts! And we're not talking about just dialogue, either. She got to kick some ass and wear some killer costumes. On the business end of things, Matt Patner has been a huge help. He made sure that everything was legal and helped us create a production company and continues to advise us on the business end. Having an entertainment lawyer who is also an entertainer (Matt plays bass for Sumac and is currently writing a solo album which I hope to get to play on) is a huge bonus. Tom Howell also needs a shoutout for his help early on with lighting and for sharing his years of experience in video and film with us. Jenny Carden needs a big thanks for coming by and documenting our last major shoot. She got some great behind the scenes footage and gave some excellent interviews and this footage will definitely get some use. Jenny Raviv needs her own shoutout for bringing her professional PR skills to the publicizing of this film. James O'Brien, owner of the Staccato Lounge bent over backwards to make his business available for us to shoot in. We didn't wind up shooting the scene which we intended to shoot in there, but we made sure to shoot some montage footage in there because it is a beautiful room. Alisa Gravitz, executive director of Co-op America, possibly the best nonprofit in the world (full disclosure: also the nonprofit for whom I work) came through for us in a big way with allowing us to use the office as a set for two weekends, and the folks who were in the office during the days we were shooting (Jacqueline, Denise and Kitty) deserve credit for being able to work around a movie set. The roommates at 942 Westminster also need a big thanks for putting up with having a film shot in their house. Robin Bell deserves thanks for debuting our trailer at Visions I hope I didn't leave anyone out. Just in case, thanks to anyone I may have left out. This was truly a colaborative work and each individual gave a great deal of themselves to this project. I can't wait until it's all edited and we can all sit down and watch it together!

Poor dead John Entwistle Dammit, two of my favorite bassists dead in the same month. One of my first bass teachers told me to pay close attention to John Entwistle and he's been a huge influence on my playing. I'm bummed.

Finally, the "under god" line of the pledge of aligience has been ruled unconstitutional. I've been saying that for years! Big surprise, George Bush isn't happy about this ruling, and neither are the freepers. I was thrilled even before hearing about their reactions though! In your faces, rightwingnuts!!!

Wow, I can't help but like the new Rosie O'Donnell. It's a shame she waited so long to open up all these cans of whoopass.

OK, today is the last major shoot! Our cast are not due to arrive until around 5pm, but there was a major party at our set last night so I'm on my way over there in a few to help clean up after a party that I didn't even go to. The party I did go to instead was a lot of fun. It was nicely low key and two of our cast members were there and I had a great time chatting up the film with folks. After the shoot I get to come home to my dear fiance who I haven't seen in a week, so there's double excitement today.

Almost a week after starting to edit our first scene and after many tweaks on it, I think I have it pretty well down. Having only edited montage style footage before, putting together dialogue scenes with multiple takes and points of view is a different beast entirely, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Continuity seems to be happening more by luck than due to any sort of planning for it. The toughest part is cutting lines that I absolutely LOVE in order to make things flow better, but it's all about the flow and so far, the first edited 7 minutes are flowing well, kicking ass and taking names. So this weekend is finally the LAST of the major shooting!!! We are going to have a marathon shoot on Saturday evening and then a quickie on Sun morning and then after that all we have is one more quick 4 line scene and some pickup shots and then we're finally all the way in the can and ready to rock on postproduction and publicity.

This is what the golf course in Washington Interns Gone Bad would be like if we were going to have a full golf scene.

How stupid is this guy? HHhhhhmmmmm, will my kids think I'm cool if I incriminate myself in front of TV cameras? Just chalk it up to midlife crisis!

This weekend, we took the concept of guerilla filmmaking to new levels when we set up the ultimate backyard ghetto studio. We had to do some greenscreen work for some newscaster footage, and not being able to use a professional studio, we did the next best thing... we set one up in the backyard! In a studio, the screen has to be lit seperately from the talent, but there's nothing that lights a screen better than our own sun, so we were able to use our little thrown together lighting rig (2 utility lights and a white cardboard box as a bounce card) to keep the shadows off of our newscasters' faces. So we attached our homemade screen (a lagre piece of posterboard painted with chroma green) to the fence with some gaffers tape and some bricks along the bottom. Then we set our mic on top of an old beer keg, held the lights by hand, and shot. In the footage, all you see is the newscasters' faces in front of very even green color. In the pictures that I'll be posting as soon as they're developed, you'll see the funniest looking studio setup in the world. Viva la revolucion cinematico! Afterwards, John and I went back to my house and edited our first scene together. It's a party scene with a mixture of 4 different master shots and a bunch of coverage, plus lots of incredible improv and a dolly shot that we did by attaching the tripod to a bike and wheeling it down the sidewalk. Given what we had to work with, I'm thrilled with the rough cut that we put together. It really re-invigorated me for the eventual finnished product! The continuity geeks are going to have fun with it, too. We're doing our best in those regards, but it's not like we have a budget or anything.

O.J. Simpson, step aside, this is the realTrial of the Century!

Why is it that when my hometown area makes the news it's always something like this? My schoolbus went down this road.

Ted Nugent Somebody needs to hunt and eat his holier than thou rightwingnut ass.

OK, today's shoot went quite well. We were in Malcolm X Park and we had a bit of an audience. Once the cast actually worked together with the lines, it all went very easilly and everything clicked nicely into place. This seems like the way it always is. Before we roll there can be all sorts of tension, but once the camera is on, things fall into place. So now we're one major scene closer to being done. Only one more big scene and a few scattered little ones and we'll be ready to start putting all the pieces together.

Too funny!!! China takes an Onion article at face value. I've seen it happen before, but never on such a large scale.

Good news for filmmakers everywhere! This sets a precedent that will keep me from getting sued the next time some interns go bad!

Well, the weekend is here and we have another couple of scenes to shoot. So far, so good, even though we should have been done weeks ago. Despite my frustration with the time and the fact that it's sometimes difficult to do this when people don't take me seriously just because this is my first time making a film and it's a learning experience, I'm thrilled with what we have already shot and I can't wait until we're all done with this. So tonight I'll be relaxing and preparing mentally to try to direct actors who aren't thrilled with the tone of the scene we'll be shooting. Wish me luck. The end of the shoot is in sight and it'll all be so much easier once we're in post production and we have something to start showing people.

BUMMER! We have lost another Ramone :(

Sacre bleu, the French SUCK! As if immediately surrendering to every Tom, Dick and Adolf who come along and invade them, those baguette eating, nasal talking, fascist voting frogs are blaming filmmakers for the actions of their stupid fans. This is what America would be like if Tipper Gore was president. If their left wing politicians are such a bunch of whining little censors, is it any surprise that 18% voted for a fascist? So to the French censors, I say "mange moi!"

whooohoooo! Back to shooting again. This month is the home stretch of the shoot and I can't wait until we're done and ready to get into the nitty gritty editing and other fun post production stuff. Tonight we shot our quick cutaway on the Metro plus some other quickies and a voiceover. Tomorrow we're doing 3 scenes here at my apartment which should be fun, then 2 major scenes this weekend. This weekend I got to go visit my family in NY. Despite having to relive my parents' divorce 20 years after the fact, it was a blast. My dad and stepmom gave me a great book on film festivals that has me all pumped to put this movie into a bunch of them.