Monday, October 01, 2007

On the Set: Day 10 - THAT'S A WRAP!

It's really hard for me to grasp that today, we wrapped on production. After spending nearly a year preparing for this, and having thousands of things going on in my mind at once, my brain seems to be having a difficult time accepting that this shoot is in the can. Yet here I am, home, reflecting on our final day.

We were in the comic book store early today, thanks to the owners Thomas and Vinny. Now I can reveal that their shop is Golden Memories Comics and Toys, a fun little store in Selden Long Island. However, in the movie, the shop is called Purgatory Comics (which you guys already know).

The first scene we did in the store was a scene that Tim dubbed "The Beast." It's a huge scene with a lot of drama, and it's about 7 pages of script. Once we slayed the beast, the day was a little more relaxed. There were a lot of things to coordinate as the day went on, yet somehow things kept falling into place. We had a cameo today by my longtime dear friend Laura O'Connor, some cameos from some new friends (as in, I just met them today), and we were all treated to Angela's delicious homemade chili.

I'm not an overly religious man, but sometimes I wonder if something, somewhere was looking over this production. Nearly every snag we hit seemed to turn into some type of blessing in disguise . . . and there were just so many points where the pieces of the puzzle would fall so neatly into place that you would swear this was all meant to be. It's late and I'm getting all philosophical here. I just feel like a lot of things over the past few months were meant to go exactly the way they've been going.

What's the next step? I'm gonna play with the footage, but I'm not really going to dive into editing until at least the weekend. I need a little rest first, and I need to sleep in really late this Saturday for the first time in what feels like months. Then I'd love to get back to working on the movie's website, and also cut a teaser trailer. In the meantime, I've been collecting music for the soundtrack. Angela's about to go on vacation so we can't do production stills or an official wrap party until she returns.

Keep checking on this blog as I'll be sure to constantly update it on the status of the project. Plus I want to go back and share a lot of thoughts of what kind of things I learned as a first time director. And hopefully some of my damn cast will post more of their thoughts too (hint hint guys). We're only getting started over here. But I want to thank my outstanding crew of Mike, Garreth, Abe, and Dan, and also my dedicated cast that did this all for the love of it and never complained once. Meeting these new friends alone made it all worth it.

I am soooooo glad I get to go to bed tonight without worrying about tomorrow's call sheet.


10 comments:

calfwoman said...

I KNEW you could do it. congrats.

Aunt g

Brian "Arkle" Webber said...

10 days? Really? Damn dude, I wish I could knock out my novles that fast. I've been working on And Here's To You for almost 4 years now.

Anonymous said...

SMOOTH SAILING NOW ITS IN THE CAN! I WILL MISS RONK, CREW, CAST, RALPHIE YOUR THE BEST, CAN A SLASHER, HORROR FILM BE FAR BEHIND????????? LOVE KISSES RESPECT, LETS GET THIS PROMOED, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL ON ME TO HELP IN THIS MATTER, I TRAVEL THE COUNTRY DOING AND GOING TO CONS BEST EVER bob (pw)

Anonymous said...

what's next? the movie sounds cool. when will the public be able to see it?

Ralph said...

Probably not until next year, but I've got all sorts of fun ideas in mind for teasers, skits, and other viral campaigns. Stay tuned...

Anonymous said...

hmmmm viral campaign! Sounds very interesting! I'M BACK ANYMOUSE!

Anonymous said...

I think we all take away different things from what has been a turbulent if saucy principle photography. Why, Ralphy learned to be assertive as a weather-toughened helmsman whence green maestros will be challenged by all the members of the lowly crew. C Alf Woman learned that there's more to Alf then a medium sized brown alien who eats cats. Angela -- who could forget her stunned face when she learned how many were in a dozen. Then there was Bob giving out mad charlie horses all the evening hours... straight from the paper carton. And the rest you wonderful smiling faces.

Zung said...

remember that time we made a feature length movie?

Sam said...

Serious congratulations. Can't wait to see this one.

Anonymous said...

See you did it and on time, now delve on what you have reaped, ands so shall ye sow, garbage huh, running out of things to say and you?