SSV - A Carmel Drug Story - Diary

[Edward T. Nista]

Day 1

Filmed four or five segments today with my new XL2, the canon XL2 manual is total crap, the buttons in black mean that those modes are useable with the information they give you and the white buttons mean's it doesn't work. that was good to learn after 20 minutes of looking around.

Needed to do a white balance. First you have to push the button next to the "White Balance" button to bring out the lighting adjustment switch and turn it to the #1. This will allow you to customize your lighting. I pressed the "white balance" button about fifty times before figuring this one out even though the diagram said press the "white balance" button what it really meant was press the lighting adjustment switch so it pops out, because the "white blance" button definitely doesn't pop out. Had i pressed it any more it really might have popped out though /cry.

After white balance concluded. You can tell just by holding the button down if you look in the viewfinder you can see it changing hue and then nothing happens for awhile you release the button and you're all set.

I then did a zebra and put zebra at 90. What the manual doesn't tell you is that you have to press the exposure lock button EXP. LOCK just by the lens release button. nowhere is there any mention about this button or the need to press it. obviously i'm a noob at this stuff, but i searched the forums for zebra information and i couldn't find a thing so hopefully my initial tackling of the XL2 will help someone else out. Pressing this button was like eating a cake and having it too...or something like that. I had been chaning settings around in zebra for days and read that 90 was a good minimum ire to shoot for, not really sure why, but i thought i'd give it a try. Oddly though after adjusting the iris with the up/down buttons sometimes after going back to the menu to turn off zebra the lines would appear again in areas i had just removed by lowering the decreasing the iris.

Iris = size of lens, i.e. how much light gets in to the 3 ccds?
i have no idea what the differences is between the different IRE settings for Zebra, i'm sure its been said before, though so i'll try and look it up.

As i think i mentioned, i shot 4-5 segments i have one left that i think i can shoot without any actors so we'll see how that goes. I did some high angle shots from a distance to give the viewpoint of someone looking down at a display as they enter our store.

the SLC for this piece is "Uh...if there's no more Sunday New York Times out front then you're out?" It's a Carmel Drug Story.

Any tips on shooting the front of my store at 9:00 in the evening to try to give off the effect of an object looking at the store and then jumping out of the back of a truck onto the ground and walking in. The front of the store is well lit so i imagine the contrast is going to be great. I want to get as close to the human eye's vision as possible.

Am321can Graffiti Project Films - Carmel/Monterey California.

[Glenn Davidson]

Thank God for Carmel Drug. Last month, I was at the La Playa Hotel on a production and cut my hand pretty bad with a Leatherman during set-up. I called the front desk and they told us Carmel Drug was open till 9. I improvised a bandage out of gaffers tape to stop the bleeding and headed out. I walked in the store with my hand deep in my pullover pocket and bought a bag full of various large bandages. Thanks...you saved me a trip the the ER for stitches. All the other stores were closed...but the Carmel Drug guys were rocking! Good Luck with your project.

[Dale Guthormsen]

Ed,

thanks for this post. I get my xl2 this week and any information like that is of great value???
I printed up the manual to have a good run through it before the camera gets here. It is not a very good manual for such a complex camera. I have a gl2 and several things in that manual did not seem clear to me. It was the gl2 list that helped me through some simple solutions that did not seem so simple back then!!!

any other davice will be grand.

By the way, I used to go to mosslanding alot back in the early 70's What a great place the california cost is!!! My sister lived in santa Cruz. You live in a great spot, even if there more people than I care for!!!!

[Edward T. Nista]

GLEN i think i remember you coming in you wanted to buy some band aids but i told you some butterfly stitched bandaids might be better, could be someone else i suppose, but boy that would be funny small world hehe. that was like 2 weeks ago.

what were you filming at La Playa? Were you there for the Women in Film Production Symposium? that might have been awhile ago i couldn't attend cause i had to work, but i also feel like i wouldn't be ready for such a meeting i'd rather get a lot of leg work done on personal stuff before approaching someone with a lot of experience, i'd rather have a real question and something interesting to show for myself.

Keeping up with my diary of this shoot - I'm realizing what a difficult job it can be as a director especially independently. I think hollywood people with their union rules and everything have it easy. For instance i've heard that certain people are absolutely not allowed to talk to the director or they'll get a fine. I just got this camera and people who know i have it already want me to film there crappy movie about how they steal their friends wallet and go running down the street and slip and get caught. I'm like guys, come on there isn't even a story there and if you're really interested in doing that thand write me a script and a storyboard. And they're always too lazy or unwilling. People just don't understand how tough it is and i'm slowly realizing myself how tough it is, setting up shots, adjusting the tripod, adjusting the lighting. In my movie there's a scene where a woman knocks over a shelf of cigarettes so last night it took me about an hour to do three shots cause everytime i knocked over the cigarette rack i had to clean it back up again lol. I wanted lots of cigarettes to be spinning around on the floor so i couldn't just drop some cartons on the floor heh.

It's like you geta vision of how you want things to work and then someone else sees what you're doing and they want to do it they're way and that doesn't bother me, but it's just agitating when i'm trying to work under a schedule here and i've been planning this shoot for the last couple months and now that i've finally got my camera (ebay baby some guys who wanted to get into pRon movies lol, sucker had never been opened before and all the plastic stuff was still sealed it really is a beaut considering i paid 3000 for it, but honestly guys there are so many scams out there guys who pay for adds on google and in froogle a lot of these cheap packagae deals well they're almost all scams and i found out from a random epinions.com online retailer check i did and found out that 90% of these guys packages are fake. so watch out what you get, i got the camera COD'd and i was allowed to check it out before paying, so i guess i just got really lucky) ...and now that i've finally got my camera and can start shooting i need to actually get people to do it hehe. I'm going to have to post a casting call sheet up somewhere, anyone have a template for a casting call sheet? i mean like a real one. I'm trying to learn the proper ways to do everything.

thanks for reading, my dinner break is over time to get back to managing this drug store! bye!

[Edward T. Nista]

Yeah Dale i really want to take it on a drive up highway 1 to Mavericks and see if i can't get some decent footage of the surfers and i'm going to start filming local surfers just to work on my editing skills. I can't remember is i said this but i was telling someone that the new Adobe Studio Premium looks like a pretty sweet software suite! hehe gots to save up some more money though, that camera, tripod (manfrotto - big heavy sucker), fluid head (gitzo3203 something like that), and camera bag put me back for about 4 grand heh so yeah luckily i'm rent free for another few months at least.

-Ted.

[Glenn Davidson]

Yeah, those buttter-fly bandages did the trick. Good advice. I was taping a different conference at the La Playa, not the Women in Film. It is pretty funny that your are the one that helped me. I can relate to your description of the amount of hours involved in production. Is is extremly time consuming to get equipment to a location, set it up, adjust it, get the shot then strike and reset. (Especially with one hand bandaged) At least we have a certain freedom when we do it all ourselves. Regarding your casting call, there were a couple salewomen in the Coach Outlet next door that were talking about doing some sort of acting. Low cost, high quality video seems to have created a new era for independant film makers and actors. Keep us informed about your project.

[Edward T. Nista]

This message was sent to my actors this morning.
Again here is the story in short:

Two kids are at the front counter reading a magazine (I might have to just do this part myself) and a newsaper. They look and dress like teenagers with jeans, hoodies, and hats. A woman walks in she kind of ignores them, they ingore her. The woman has a large purse, a dark plain top (purple, black, or blue if Layla has any otherwise anything with no writing on it), and jeans. She walks past them, and down an aisle where she thinks she might find what she’s looking for, her face always appears wide eyed, but with eyebrows down with in an almost angry nervousness. We’ll see what we can do when we get there. She scans the shelves behind the counter, and then she knocks over a whole row of cigarettes. She doesn’t even think about picking them up and jumps over them lightly and continues on her search. Camera cuts back to Justin and Sean (or just me or whoever we’ve got). Offcamera we here an expletive (possibly in a foreign language, Kay Katso! – "WTF" in Italian) Walks in store after rummaging through papers, “A jue childeRn gat any New Yok Times in the back or something, I see you dun got any out front…it’s Sunday, what kind of store is this, you don’t carry the New York Times.”

Conversation continues, Cal’s pissed and curses in another language, it’s a curse like he just got stung by a bee. Clerk says, “Sorry, man Snakes on a plane.” (i.e. shit happens, heard that on the radio last night, lol, thank you nights with alice cooper).

Woman enters scene as Cal exits the store pissed off.

Woman approaches counter very flustered, annoyed, (I might make her run around the block, to get some color in her cheeks hehe). “What kind of store is this if you don’t sell any……” clerk “Tampons are on the right wall ma’am.” Woman follows his point and sees, camera is POV Tampons. Zooms out to show store.

She goes checks it out wonders why they don’t have scented comes back buys a box, leaves half of them on the counter and exits, cut back to kids staring at box and out the door, and back again at the new york times, they both have a good laugh. (maybe one of them says oh you think that’s funny and reache under the table and pulls out two more opened boxes of tampons that customers have left.

DONE

I can’t thank you guys more, please let me know what kind of snacks, food, etc you like and I’ll try to cater that, I might go get some sushi for everyone. Cal, invite whoever you want. I’m going to try and get a hold of some of the local kids I know, but I think there’s an 11 oclock curfew in carmel, and the popo’s pretty strict I hear so I’m kind of doubting it.

[Edward T. Nista]

Last night was the first time I ever found myself in the directors seat. I told my crew, Layla and Calhoun (Cal) to come over to my house at 9:30. They showed up at 9:45 which was perfectly okay, i gave them a quick tour and the we headed up to the drug store. I kicked the kids working out five minutes early and they were quite willing to let me take over. Until they saw the navy seal Cal walk in with my large size manfroot & his Bosnian Babe of a wife holding my XL2 Camera Bag. We closed the doors and then i started setting up the scene.

Setting up the scene. Sadly the nightshift tries to get everything closed up and ready for shut down an hour before it needs to. So i had to go in the back and carry out 100 newspapers and fill the racks up again out front at 10:00 at night.

The Tampon section was also a little sparse and i had to go in the back and fill that out again. This is stuff that the night crew is supposed to be doing, but management can't afford to fire or hire anyone. so we're lost instead.

I had to prep the cigarettes for a deluxe style knocking over the shelf.

I'm going to have to finish this in the morning i am daead tired.

[Edward T. Nista]

“A Carmel Drug Story” Treatment

SLC:“Ugh, if you guys don’t have any more New York Times out front than you’re out?" It’s A Carmel Drug Story.

Writer/Producer: Edward T. Nista (Ted)

Working Title: “Drug Story”

Format: DV

Total Running Time: about 2 minutes

Genre: Comedy

Audience: Everyone

Objective:
Tell a couple funny and common carmel drug stories that happen everyday.

FADE IN

Beginning:
Set up the scene with a couple commmon Carmel Drug Store items so that we know where we are, set the camera between a couple things to get this feeling or pull away from a character close up to a full fiew of the store.

Story:
Two employees on same side of store, one reading a magazine face down on counter other reading newspaper in stool, neither can see the store. A woman comes in and starts looking for something. An object falls, Justin looks up. “Can I help you find something.” The woman mumbles something. She scans the Shampoo section. She scans the shave section. A man comes in and says, “If you don’t have anymore Sunday New York Times out front than I guess you’re out?” “Sir, its eight o’clock at night, we usually sell out of the New York times at noon.” “So you’re out?” “yeah”, “know where I can get one?” “at this hour? Nowhere.” “Will you have more tomorrow?” “No, tomorrow is Monday, we’ll have the Monday New York times tomorrow.” Man goes back out and scours the racks one more time looking behind newspapers and leaves in a fit. Sean walks to front of the store to watch him go.

Ending:
Woman comes back to counter in an awful mood. “Well I don’t understand, how you’re a drug store, but you don’t have what I’m looking for, but its really quite ridiculous.” Justin points to the right wall and yawns while saying “Tampons are on the right wall.”

FADE OUT

[Edward T. Nista]

INT DRUG STORE NIGHT

Justin and Sean are bored and ‘working’. Justin is reading the New York Times and Sean is browsing a magazine. They are on either side of a cash register.

A woman enters the store mumbling something to herself. She’s clearly looking for something.

SEAN
Hello.

Woman walks passed Sean and Justin ignoring them. Woman is searching for something, but she doesn’t know where it is. Asking where, is a last resort.

She walks behind the left display and searches there. She scans the shelves. In her haste, Woman knocks over a few cartons of cigarettes. Sean looks over and sees the mess, but just rolls his eyes and goes back to his magazine.

Justin is still reading the newspaper. He barely hears someone say:

MAN
Oh, for Chrissakes!

At the entrance to the store there is an old man raking through the newspaper racks on the left side of the entrance.

Man enters drug store mumbling under his breath.

Justin has the paper stretched out in front of him in the air and hears a very loud voice ask:

MAN
If there’s no more New York Times out front, then you’re out?

JUSTIN
Yup.

MAN
Know anyplace else I can find one?

Justin looks down to his side at a stack of New York Times.

JUSTIN
Not at this hour.

MAN
Will you have any in tomorrow?

JUSTIN
Tomorrow’s Monday. We’ll have the Monday New York Times tomorrow.

MAN
Damn!

Man exits and fumbles around with the newspaper rack again, knocking some papers over and not bothering to pick any of his mess up.

As Man exits store, Woman rounds the corner arms in air acting like all hell is about to break lose.

Woman comes to the front counter and starts to ask something:
WOMAN
Whut kind of drug store is this? You don’t even have any feminine prod-.

SEAN
Have you tried the right wall lady?

Sean points to the feminine section of the store. The woman leaves them and goes to the side of the counter peering over the ledge.

WOMAN
Can I go back there, or do you have to get them for me?

SEAN
You can step back there.

Woman steps in front of the display in awe and then gets excited. Her face soon starts to question.

WOMAN
Um. Wait. D’you guys have the scented ones?

Sean and Justin stare at each other in shock.

WOMAN
Oh nevermind they’re down here. Okay I’m all set.

She comes back to the counter and lets Justin ring her up.

JUSTIN
That’s $7.00

Justin makes to get her a bag for her Tampons.

WOMAN
You know what I don’t actually need a bag, in fact I don’t even need all of those, so here…

Woman opens box of tampons takes out a bunch and puts them in her purse and gives the open box back to Justin.

WOMAN
Save those for the next person who needs them.

Woman finally exits as Justin and Sean try to figure out what they’re going to do with a half-empty box of Tampons.

FADE OUT

[Edward T. Nista]

CARMEL DRUG STORY BIG LIST

Cinema/Video: Film Production Breakdown List

Costumes: Sean – Sneakers, Jeans, Black Hoody, Black Hat, Coat. Justin – Sneakers, Jeans, Obtuse belt, White Hoody. Woman – Tight Top, Jeans, Large Purse, Shoes. Old Man – Off-white sweater, Khaki pants, brown shoes, brown belt, dark coat, large glasses.


Make-up: Boys – Dark powder and pencils. Woman – lipstick, bright powder. Old Man - Gray/white pencil lines, make-up base.


Camera & Support Equipment:
Digital Video Camcorder, Battery, Extra Battery, 2x Mini DV Tape, Tripod, White Balance Foam Board, Canon EOS500 Still Camera.


Lighting & Support Equipment:
Light Stand, 2 C-Stands, 4 Light Bulbs, 1 Reflector Card, 3 Extension cords 25ft minimum.


Miscellaneous Items & Props:
1 Magazine, 1 New York Times, 3 Cartons of Cigarettes, 2 San Francisco Chronicles, Stack of 10 New York Times, Box of Tampax.


Sound Equipment:
Shotgun Microphone, Digital Audio Recorder.


Stunts: Woman knocks over shelf of Cigarettes.


Actors: Justin, Sean, Woman, Old Man.


Crew: Producer/Director, DP, Make-up artist & Wardrobe, 3 Assistants, Continuity.

Transportation:
You are expected to arrive an hour before you are needed on set to make sure your costume and make-up are acceptable,


Location: Carmel Drug Store, North Side of Ocean 3 Stores West of San Carlos Street, Large Green Awning, Small trashcan and newspaper rack out front.


Food: Drinks and Light Snacks will be provided as in Chips, Waters, Sodas.


Supplies: Velcro tape, Pencils and Pens, Legal Pad, Individualized copies of the Pre-Production Packet.

[Edward T. Nista]

Am321can Graffiti Project, an Independent Film Company in Monterey opened for business a few days ago, we've got a private phpbb up at http://1.myfreebulletinboard.com/agpfilms/ and that will help us coordinate shoots and review projects our members are interested in working on. Our first project will be a skit from Catcher in the Rye filmed on a restaurant set being used currently for a short film for class to be shot on Wednesday, we will take it over on thursday and try to accomplish a restaurant scene with two people talking to each other. In this case it is Sally and Holden and it ends with "You know what Sally you give me a royal pain in the ass if you want to know the truth".

I captured most of Carmel Drug Story tape one from my xl2, and only ran into a couple instances of dropped frames from when i asked my buddy Cal to take control and film me. XL2s have this great feature that counts off for ten seconds when you press record, i think that no actual needed footage should be getting shot during that time, to let the timecode on the tape be laid. I've started some stuff at 5 seconds but i'm just going to keep it at 10 from now on, it just ensures better results. A couple of those takes with dropped frames that are completely unuseable had better end parts, but i just can't cut from that, i think it would look crappy.

Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro 7.0 (whatever that means) but i can't wait to get the education version of Adobe Studio. I'll start a post here and ask what you guys are using.