Summer Series Part 1: "The Warrior Effect"

Now presenting part 1 in a saga-type series about...what else...my summer.

The Warrior Effect.

I was first approached about helping out on this film back in April. When the lead actress told me about it, there really wasnt much detail other than it would be a small, low-budget film made with people she knew. So i said sure, and didnt hear anything for some time. Summer finally came and with it, the first "production meeting" there were 5 of us who met in this guys apartment in West LA and all sat around in a semi-awkward AA style meeting. At this point, i still had NO idea about the story or to what capacity my involvement would be. So we left the meeting having really only accomplishing the act of meeting each other and saying that more details were coming. I have to say, I was pretty optimistic at that point and was really looking foward to reading the script. I got the script in a couple days and was taken aback at the complexity of what was required with the locations/actions. So i decided it would be good to meet with the producer and director to iron out some details. I drove back to this guys place and we had went over my concerns. It was a little daunting for me to find myself in an apartment with two guys i had just met for the first time ever, only about 6 days earlier. this was my first time on a film shoot with people i had never worked with before. normally its been school related, but this was completely new. And yet, i felt like we were on the same page. I was the youngest of the 3, with the oldest being exaclty twice my age, and yet, it didnt seem to be a factor. So i left having had most of my questions answered and looked forward to the first meeting of the cast in a couple days.

They had set up the read-through at the actresses house. it was my first time going there, but it would soon become apparent to me that her house would turn into my second home over the next 3 weeks. The cast arrived and the read-through began. at this point, i still didnt have an official job description, and so i was merely introduced as "someone helping us out with the film". as expected, the cast was a little nervous and hesitant, but we managed to get through it just fine. i later found out that certain individuals had travelled all the way from places like Bakersfield and San Diego to meet up. All in all, i would say it was a productive day, and gave us all an idea of where we were headed.

The read through had taken place on Sunday and our first day of production was scheduled for Tuesday at a nearby house. The scenes were supposed to be simple interior house scenes between the main character and her grandmother, and then later between the main character and her sensei (yes, shes a martial artist). so i arrived several hours before shooting was supposed to start to help set up camera and lighting. eventually, the members of the cast showed up as well as the second director. and i dont mean assistant director, i mean we had 2 directors. instant. disaster. everything the first director had spent several hours setting up was quickly disassembled and moved by the second director. what should have been a simple scene ended up taking about twice as long as it needed too. feelings were hurt and you could tell that tensions were elevating. this was day 1. this kind of stuff doesnt normally happen until the end of shooting. at that point, i started having my first feelings of uncertainty. finally, after 7 loooong and sometimes frustrating hours, we finally wrapped. we had to give the residents their house back. fortunately, they were extended family of the main actress so they were ok with us being there so long. but regardless, i felt bad. as i drove home that night, i vowed to put that less than stellar day behind me and prayed that things would pick up in the coming days.

The next day of shooting was 3 days later at a school. this was our first day with multiple actors and several extras, but thankfully we were only going to be in a single classroom all day. however, that meant that things were going to get hot. quickly. which they did. as soon as "cut" was yelled, fans would go on from every direction trying to keep the actors cool. it took us awhile to set up the lighting in the room and we were finally underway. Compared to the shooting of the first day, this was ten times easier and in all ways less painful. primarily because we were dealing with only 1 camera, and 1 director. the scenes were shot and we were able to get everyone out of there quickly. im not sure what it was about this day, but i walked away having my confidence restored and felt better about the whole undertaking.

i forget how long of a turn around we had to our next day of shooting, but i was glad that we were moving forward and apparently making progress. our next shoot took place at an honest to goodness dojo. part of the story involved a girl waking up to find herself in a martial arts training facility, so locations people thought this would be a good place to shoot it. however, other people also insisted that we use green screen, which none of us had really any experience with. that would come back to haunt us... the scene was relatively straight-foward. just a fight between two people. all in all it took about 4-5 hours for the whole process. again we were only 1 director and that caused things to go along smoother, except for the fact that the director's ideas were not what the parents of the lead actress thought they should be. this caused much frustration on the parents part as they felt as though we were wasting time getting "artsy" shots that ultimately wouldnt be necessary. coupled with the fact that the second fighter was in his 70's and would get tired out quickly, we couldnt really afford to do as many takes as the director wanted. a semi loud argument took place causing production to stand still for a few minutes while people voiced their opinions. luckily, this was towards the end of the shoot and we had taken enough footage already to call it quits. awkward moment. very very awkward. for pretty much the entire production, whenever an arguement or fight would take place, i always found myself in the middle not trying to pick sides, but rather being able to see things from both perspectives. i was sort of the "complain to" guy. what made things hard was when they would ask me what I thought, and I'd have to try and give a neutral answer. that night, on the drive home, i hoped things would get better. unfortunately, it kinda went downhill from there.

our next big scene, and basically the last one we shot, was an extreior of the school. this day was nothing but problems. for starters, our extras that we were told would be there, never showed up. one of our key actresses had never been informed about the shoot, and was replaced, even thought she showed up much later in the day. everything was pretty much shot on the fly, with no real masterplan to go off of. lacking in the extra deparment, two boys were asked to participate, not knowing that the boys were actually deliquints and were only at the location becuase of community service. we were back with 2 directors and at times 2 cameras. the sun was especially hot that day and constant shade for the actors was required between takes. i scored myself a niiiiice sunburn on my arms. we were in a place where the position of the sun greatly effected the look and color of the film, and so the longer we took to shoot, the more adjustments we had to make to color and light. a scene from earlier in the day was re-shot when the actress arrived and that caused all kinds of continuity issues, but at that present moment, all anyone cared about was getting it done.

that was it for a couple more days...the sheer fact of it was, things were so disorganized that we didnt know when we would shoot again. we were basically at the mercy of people's schedules, not the other way around. actors werent clearing their schedules for us...we were clearing it for them. things were coming together at the last possible second, and on a film shoot, thats the LAST thing you want to happen. stuff is supposed to be planned out weeks, if not months, in advance and theres no reason to still be putting together a characters costumes the night before the shoot. so....i still came over to the house everyday, but found that nothing was moving forward. finally, i decided that i'd give editing a shot and so i set to work editing the footage we had into something managable. unfortunately, there really wasnt anything actually good enough to make a solid scene. everything we shot in the dojo was messed because of the green screen. everything from the exterior school scene didnt match up lighting-wise, and it only got worse...i sat there realizing that nothing we had was worth showing anyone. it dawned on me then that this might actually be a project that i wasnt going to be proud to say that i worked on. at that moment, we were looking at two options: A) continue with what we had and turn out a crappy project (which no one wanted) or B) re-shoot the things we'd shot and set out with a more organized approach (ie. shot lists, storyboards, PLANNING) and make it RIGHT the first time. fortunately for me, i wasnt the only one having these same feelings and concerns. after several long meetings with the directors and producers, including the final one that went on til 2am....the decision was made to stop production and just have everyone go home for awhile. i embraced the decision with mixed emotion. i was happy that we were finally going to stop moving ahead with the poor filming that was going on, but i was also a bit sad to have to go back home to my "normal" life. in a way, i felt like this movie gave me an escape from reality and even though it turned out so poorly, i felt happy that i was still making a movie.

this whole experience taught me a lot about hollywood and the strength of a person's word. the expression "talk is cheap" could not have rung more true to me during this whole ordeal. nothing against the people involved...i loved everyone dearly. but there was too much talk going in, and not enough product to back it up. evidenced enough in the fact that the project still remains untouched and for that matter, un-discussed since we hung it up in June. everyone has gone on with their lives and presumably, we may never see or hear of the Warrior Effect ever again.