Trailer -- day seven
Topic: Trailer

Location #1: city street, Downtown Los Angeles
Location #2: Michael Caruso's loft, basement, Downtown Los Angeles
Location #3: rooftop, Downtown Los Angeles

It's days like these that I believe that Rob and I, had we won Project Greenlight, would have been fired. Because to anyone tuning into today's filming would have been bored to tears ... no drama, no catastrophes, no one bad mouthing someone else. We would have given Miramax or Dimension Films a damn good film, but a very unexciting show for Bravo (by reality show standards). And after last Sunday's fiasco, we needed today.

Taking a nod from Bowfinger, we had Sean (our Eddie Murphy, if you can believe that) running across the streets of L.A. to get a good shot. Rob kept having him wait ... wait ... wait ... "CROSS NOW!" At which point, Sean would book across the street. Half the time, he was smiling when he would do it, knowing how it must look to people watching us. We got some great shots, despite me inadvertently stepping in front of the camera (it wasn't rolling, luckily), and the scenery is absolutely fantastic.

Once we were done on the street, we moved to the basement. Yes, that dusty basement. It didn't seem quite as bad today, probably in part to not spending the entire day down there. We were done there to get some extra dialogue from Winston (Ian) and the torture scene between Winston and Hadrian (played by Terry Reed, his only day on set).

Today was exciting for me because I got to play writer. Ian had a long monologue to get out, so we worked together to trim it down as much as possible while still conveying the same information in a clear manner. We had just figured it out when Ian was called to set, so while he was getting dressed, I dictated everything to Michael Caruso as he typed it out (and he's quite the little typist, by the way). That was my first real writing crunch on a set. It feels good to be needed. And right after that, I pulled some dialogue from the script (sent through e-mail by my lovely wife) for Hadrian. I had to apologize to Terry because I kept trading the dialogue on him.

I missed the entire Winston dialogue scene, but I was there for the best part -- the torture scene. It's hard to describe. I'll have pictures up soon that will show the makeup and what the scene looked like, but what I can't show in pictures is Terry's intensity and Ian's odd ability to really look like he's been tortured. After his first scream, everyone was taken aback and by the end, we were all applauding. I swear, this trailer is going to have so many good scenes.

Everyone's excepting me to mention the injury on set -- our one little problem of the entire day -- and since I apparently have so many fans, who am I to disappoint? Michael and Sean were taking part in a hand to hand fight, which called for Michael to scratch Sean's face ... not really, but to act it out. During one take, Michael scratched Sean very lightly and it made him bleed underneath the skin. Michael must have apologized a dozen times, but I think Sean may have actually liked the look. Hey, stuff like this is bound to happen. Injuries occur on movie sets all the time, even if a project is able to pay for a high priced fight coordinator. Broken bones, scratches, bruises ... it's rather normal. Michael has no reason to feel bad whatsoever. Just remember, Sean, when you're asking about it, the first rule is that you don't talk about it.

That ended the night for me. With a 3:00 call time and an 11:30 wrap, that was my earliest day. A core group was heading to the roof across the street (so I won't have any pictures of that), but the number had to be kept to a minimum. Although I do like to be there as much as possible, the production comes first. Plus, I get to sleep a little longer.

And with that ... good night.