WORKING WITH NEIL LISK

What a great blessing, having the opportunity to work and collaborate with an exceptional person like Neil Lisk. When ever he was on board each step of production benefited from his talent, professionalism, and heart.

Before a shooting schedule was even made Neil would have notes and ideas about tone, style, and ways to translate deeper meanings and themes cinematically. Once the locations were locked he would take pictures of each and every one, creating a detailed shot list. He’d then present a list of options, inclusive of what ‘glory’ shots could actually be afforded, always finding ways of transforming very little resources into what would appear to be much bigger productions on screen, even to the point of spending his own money on renting gear he thought would ad value to what the audience would see.

During production Neil dominated, first to arrive, last to leave, doing what ever it took, no matter how trivial, to keep things going. With very little time and even less money Neil was the ‘go to’ guy for making decisions when there was no time to hash things out. He could see the entire scope of a scene in his head, instinctively knowing how to get the coverage needed while never having an issue with the line. Very active in blocking, Neil would carefully watch actors run through their actions, figuring out all the necessary set ups. When time was at an absolute minimum, Neil would come up with a way of shooting entire scenes in just a master, while still keeping it visually interesting. When framing, Neil would spend as much time as necessary looking into the monitor with the production designer, moving props around until the picture looked absolutely perfect. Camera movement was another thing Neil was a stickler for, but only as it served the story. Every push, pull, or dolly move had to actually mean something.

Neil’s technological knowledge was without question, as was his ability to do multiple jobs at once. He brought a certain respect to the set, never making a final decision until it was sanctioned by the director, keeping criticisms and opinions only for those who needed to hear them. He was the first to admit he was wrong, never complained or had an ‘attitude’, even when doing something he didn’t totally agree with. Actors loved how Neil would always give them encouragement and space. His energy and professionalism being contagious. 

Once principal photography was wrapped Neil would continue working, sitting through rough cuts, providing notes and advice during the entire editing process. Always a cheerleader during horrible early string outs, Neil was usually the one who’d find a solution for scenes that didn’t quite play out like they were on the page. “There’s a great little movie in here mate, don’t give up”. He’d sit through every color timing session, offering insight as well as an incredible eye. We’d think we have picture lock and then... eight more pages of notes from Neil Lisk.

Neil wasn’t perfect, he could be too logical, by the book, and occasionally drive people crazy with his perfectionism. But over all, Neil Lisk's about as close to perfect as a person could be.

DAY 17

Last day for shooting actual scenes.... WE HOPE

First round of actors arrive at said location(where we’re ganging two scenes at one place, the Real Deal way). After taking a good think about the lighting options(or lack of) the Set General decides it’s best to shoot the first scene at night rather than dusk.

And so into the car the General goes to shoot some plates for another scene set at dusk.

Upon the his Generals return, Lord and Lady Deal arrive with all the props, inclusive of a VERY heavy pay phone, which has gotta be lugged up a long-high-STEEP set of stairs.

Said fake heavy prop pay phone gets moved around and around until the perfect spot is found for all proper coverage with the least amount of set ups.... in this case two. An actor who’s in the next scene arrives and is immediately put to work holding a bounce card. 

Another actor, coming later for this one set up ‘we might need it’ scene texts. He’s still on another set, running late.

The prop pay phone scene gets wrapped and the crew moves ahead in time and across town, actually about ten feet for the next scene. We’ve been at this location before, and being a house under construction, it looks quite a bit ‘different’. No problem, it’s night, we keep the shots tight, a perfect match... ish.

The actor on the other set texts again. Dude’s gonna be REALLY late. The Set General’s gotta catch an early plane the next morn for Alaska. So a decision is made to punt on the one set up ‘we might need it’ scene.

The actor texts back... ‘what do you mean by punt?’

The martini is wrapped and it’s all hands on deck to strike, including dragging that damn heavy prop pay phone back down those looooong STEEP stairs.

Last people standing are the Deals and General. The Real Deal can’t find one of his sandbags, so a call goes into Suzan Jones, who brought most of the gear. The multitasking wonder pulls over. Yes, she does have the sandbag. 

And so it ends.... oh how we will miss you principal photography

P.S. as a result of Suzan doing make up, sound, and grip work, the only pics we got for this round ‘o shooting was a few taken with some cheap cell phone.

DAY 16

This is a long one. 

The Set General’s lair is the starting point for our brave little convoy, heading up to Wrightwood, where we’ll be spending the day and(and night) shooting in and around town.

But there’s a lot more goin’ on than just driving up to said location. The General has the camera out and begins shooting actors in the van, getting some plates too.

It looks like it’s about to rain at ANY moment. Typical, for this production.

We arrive at the comfy mountain abode of Suzan, Kelly, Zeke, and Dekland Jones. Multitasker Suzan has homemade cinnamon rolls a waitin’. Kelly is gathering gear. Zeke correctly explains how we should shoot the first scene. Dekland is dressed as a space man. Another actor arrives and away we go to the first location.

An ice cream/candy store, where production must keep stopping sos customers can get their treats. The freezers keep making lotsa noise, so we gotsta keep shutting ‘em down. Zeke and Dekland get yet ANOTHER gig, extras, but keep going CRAZY cuz they’re not supposed to be licking their ice cream cones. The camera battery runs dry. The Set General asks for another. The little extra battery has only 15 minutes of juice. Said battery was supposed to be FULLY CHARGED ‘allegedly’. 

Lunch at a local pizza place, where some weird local dude keeps bugging us.

Back to the Jones, where big battery immediately goes onto the charger. But not for long, cuz we is off again for mas shooting, only with very little battery power unfortunately. The Set General gets all up in the actors grills, shoot-shoot-shooting all the way to the next location.

Off a dirt road we’re back to fighting sun and battery life, needing to get everything in just 14 minutes of camera time. It’s windy too, windy and COLD... most of the people in this little production ain’t properly prepared for this kinda weather. Yet everything still manages to get done, with extra special attention constantly being paid to how much juice is left on the battery.

An actor splits for home and everyone else squeezes into the van in search of a few good spots to shoot the final establishing shots, with only about 4 minutes of battery power. Back to the usual, fighting weather, sunlight, and battery time. But as per usual, everything some how manages to get done.

After missing a turn or two, we’re back to the Jones, it’s getting dark, an actor slips on a mound of snow, the battery goes back on the charger. 

A night scene in the van, which is supposed to be parked some where in LA. only we’re parked on a mountain road in Wrightwood, it’s FREEZING and STARTING TO SNOW. Kelly and the General yank out C-stands, flags, Christmas lights, what ever they can to create a place we’re actually not. The camera gets plugged directly into an outlet. It’s still FREEZING. Not many set ups as little snow flakes fall on the crew’s heads.

Back to the warmth of the Jones mountain home to shoot three short scenes, requiring no coverage. First, a simulated television screen, consisting of the General waving his hand over one of Kelly’s lights. Second, some furniture is moved so it ‘appears’ like we’re in another room. Last, on to the bathroom, getting yet another ‘different’ looking location.

Are we done yet? No

While they’re here. Gotta do some wild lines with the actors...

A looooooong drive home.

Are we done yet? HELL NO!

One of the actors still has to run through some streets that aren’t in a little mountain town.

And so ends seventeen hours of movie making fury.

DAY 15

NO RAIN!!!... Finally!!

Everyone’s back at the Set Generals, once again using two cameras. Camera number two this time belonging to Mr. Kelly Jones, who’s arrived from another gig with lots of movie making goodies. Only thing we don’t have is extra people. Case in point being the other half of the love story Suzan Jones, doing sound, operating a camera, holding a bounce card, and rocking the van ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!!

Green screen scenes get wrapped and everyone breaks for lunch. 

Till we all meet again down town, where much to everyones relief Lord and Lady Deal are waiting.

First up. Reshooting a scene from day 3 where the tone wasn’t quite right. Kelly has broken out even more of his toys, but this has gotta be quick. The location we’re shootin’ at also doubles as an alternative church on weekends. Sos weees gosta be beating all that alternative church traffic. But that’s not our only problem... ain’t gonna be much more sun, leaving very little time to shoot a NEW scene, which hasta now be done with very little coverage. 

Bam-bam-BAM

Audio-less scenes at dusk.

Van gets driven back to the Set Generals, sos da General can get picked up, to:

Drive the van back down town for even more audio-less shooting.

The end of ANOTHER long day/night.

DAY 14

The plan is to meet early at the Set General’s for shooting green screen in the General’s driveway. There’s just one problem:

It’s pouring rain..... POURING RAIN!!!!

Everyone goes from having a call to being on call.

Communication keeps going back and forth.. “is it raining over there?”.... “how about now?”... “how about over there?”

Mid-morning/early afternoon the decision is made to just chance it. Raz is there first, informing everyone that some of the streets around the General’s are now completely flooded. Everyone arrives ready to start shooting. ONLY:

It’s raining again... but not quite as much. So the General and Raz build a ‘rain protector’ for the camera. Raz has brought his too, so we’ll be getting lots more coverage.

The WHOLE Jones family make the one and a half hour drive. Zeke and Dekland push the van to create the ‘illusion’ it’s actually driving. Kelly mans one of the cameras. Suzan does make up, sound, and set photography. Raz is still there manning the other camera. The Set General’s going between DPing, babysitting his daughter, and heating up pizza for lunch.

Shoot, shoot, SHOOT till it’s too dark. Then on to another day.

photos by Suzan Jones

DAY 13

First day back after the dreadful down time starts at six in the morning in the lovely hamlet of Palmdale. Everyone meets at a local Burger King, which soon doubles as a production office/make up trailer. Lady Deal has made all us movie banditos maps of todays first location on a deep desert highway. The exact number of cars needed from of our fleet is figured and away we go.

The Set General as per usual picks the spot to stop and shoot, which we do. But there’s a problem.

We need the road to be empty in both directions and THE CARS KEEP A COMIN’. There’s lots of starting, stopping, and WAITING! The only scene where the road doesn’t have to be completely empty is one where one character is pointing a gun at another character. So STILL gotta stop and pretend like we’re just hangin’ each time a car, truck, or SUV goes by. And then:

A STATE TROOPER STARTS DRIVING UP... we’re done... DONE!!!

Aren’t we?

The General gives the uniformed driver a little ‘dude I know you’re gonna shut us down’ wave. The Trooper waves back and keeps right on driving. COOL!!! We finish up with no more worries. Cept for the worry of time, cuz as per usual... we are behind.

Half the posse wraps, more actors are waiting at a predetermined location, and we have a HARD OUT. So gotta move.

The players for round two all meet up and head over to a location our little production was rained out of three weeks ago. The Set General finds the exact same spot we were last time, and then:

In a moment of inspiration everyone’s favorite General hops a fence, climbs a steep hill with the camera, and gets a super killer establishing shot. We press to the finish line, fighting passing traffic, a pedestrian who looks like Big foot, but mostly TIME. Hard outs suck, but we ain’t got no studio $... now do we.

photos by Suzan Jones

DAY 12

Alas, the rest of this shoot must now be finished without the brave and powerful full time help of the Real Deal, in demand dude got a good paying gig. Yet, the mighty Deal hath still pledged to help when ever he can.

It’s freaking POURING RAIN when everyone meets at the location PRAYING for a little blue so we can shoot. Three actors will be wrapped(actually two won’t, but this won’t found out till later). It’s cold, the rain continues, and there’s no were to hang except under this adobe porch. A coffee and gas run is taken by Kelly Jones, where being in deep valley, takes like, forever to find any petrol, it’s now POURING so hard one gets soaked to the bone just going from Kelly’s car into Jack in the Box. Then, on the way back, ANOTHER PROBLEM:

The Kelly mobile as run over something, that or some pan-like thing fallen off the bottom of his ride. Either way Kelly’s transpo won’t move with that pan-like thing stuck to the bottom of it. The Set General does what he can in the POURING rain, SOAKING the General. Kelly joins him, getting soaked too. Said ride finally makes it’s way to under a small part of the balcony for a closer look. We’ve also been let into a dry area to chill.

Still POURING we got a crew and some actors, but can’t shoot a damn thing. But can so SOMETHING, Suzan Jones needs ta snap a few pics to be used in the movie later. The actors for that show up in the still POURING rain and a little photo shoot commences.

Three hours later, nothing’s been shot, and then:

A patch of blue. IT’S FINALLY STOPPED RAINING!!!!!

The van is quickly parked, green screen set up, actors in. We proceed, shooting each scene one side and side at a time, fighting bursts of light rain all the way. It gets done and everyone’s off till we meet again later at the next location.

The Jones’ head to the Set Generals where a hot lunch, proper English tea, and wonderful conversation ensues. Until:

Everyone meets back up at the next location. Lord and Lady Deal are there for this round, much to everyone’s joy. City streets can be seen from the windows where we’re shooting the first part of the scene. The rain has given them a ‘wet down’ look, greatly enhancing the production value. We move downstairs for the next part, where Lady Deal, White Gold, and Suzan Jones are all extras. Suzan wears a hat so as not be recognized as another character in the flick.

Camera rolls, actors act, we wrap.... little knowing DISASTER is about to strike... which shall be saved for another post.

photos by Suzan Jones

DAY 11

LA is exited at FIVE IN THE FREAKING MORNING to set up our base camp/location deep in canyon country, the actor driving the van/prop/location has ONLY gotten two hours sleep. TWO HOURS SLEEP, and then:

The freaking van/prop/location’s engine light goes off. The van has to be pulled over. A frantic call goes into Kid Friendly, who says ‘proceed’. Proceed we do, only now the van is driving like ka-ka. Base camp is way up a hill, which the van is not able to really chug up. We stop again. Call the Real Deal, who already at the base camp shows up with the Set General. We try again, BARELY making it to base camp. After some consultation, it’s determined the van is just low on gas and the problems on the hill actually had to do with gas moving around in the tank. WE HOPE!

Once settled Lord and Lady Deal go to scout another location. Everyone else heads down the road to get gas for the van. The van gets gassed up and everything seems fine. THANK GOD!

Stop number one, first scene of the day, just happens to be by a big transformer(great for sound, NOT) and a rehab center, where the sound of people rehabbing is heard, loudly(great for sound, NOT). But we don’t have any studio $ or any $ for that matter, so proceed. The Set General uses a lighter to simulate heat coming off the ground, because it’s supposed to be quite hot, but is actually quite cold.

We shoot the next scene, still near the transformer(great for sound, NOT), simulate an actor pissing with a water bottle, shoot a train, and then go back up the road.

The next scene is much longer, so gets broken into three parts, and then:

It starts RAINING!!!!! We somehow manage to get through the first part of the scene, fighting-fighting-FIGHTING rain all the way, but can’t go on with the second part, cuz: 

WE GET RAINED OUT and gotta go back to base camp/location :(

COSTCO SANDWICHES

Another scene with animals, fish, in a tank. The actor in this one, who’s been affecting his voice for his character, is bending down, unfortunately making him not able to affect his voice properly. It takes ten takes to figure this out. 

We get to the last scene of the night, an indoor/outdoor one, BUT: 

IT’S STILL FREAKING RAINING!!! But we don’t have any studio $ or any $ for that matter, so proceed. The Set General stands out in the rain set generaling. One half of the love story is doing sound as the other half is acting. The Set General’s impulsively commands an actress to slam the door, almost wreaking an expensive audio cord, making half of the love story explode, the other half is still acting. The sound of the rain hitting the gutters is ALL OVER the dialog. MORE to deal with in post. But we don’t have any studio $ or any $ for that matter, so proceed.

We finish, it’s late, and now the actor who’s STILL had only two hours of sleep has to drive the van/prop/location all the way back to LA for another day.

DAY 10

THE MOTHER OF ALL SCENES

Everyone’s back at 10AM with an open ended release time and nine pages of up to twelve characters to shoot. Another crack at last night’s completely changed on the spot scene would be nice. Can all this get done? Can any of it get done?

First off, blocking. The mother of all scenes is split into two parts. The General starts doing his thing with the actors... it’s not working. WAY too stagey. Time to pow wow. What’s the right ‘feel’? Looking around, the actors and crew have all formed little ‘clicks’, talking amongst themselves. That’s it! That’s the feel. 

LETS BLOCK

The Set General creates a shot list in his head and away we go. The mother of all scenes is actually something like a bit of a Mozart opera, kind of. Four characters become eight, eight becomes ten, ten becomes eleven, eleven becomes twelve. The first part ends with eleven, so LOTS of coverage needs to be shot. It happens... well, some of it does.

Team Deal brings pizza. Most all of the cast is already there, so a pic with all of them is taken. Then with the crew too.

BACK TO WORK

Part one of the mother of all scenes gets finished, time to block part two. The characters have pretty much settled into their spots so there’s not quite as much blocking, but still need LOTS of coverage.

Gotta get through the first part of the second half of the mother of all scenes first. It’s lack luster, everyone’s fried. But this is the climax! It’s gotta be great. The difference between a pretty good flick and an amazing one. Where’s the energy gonna come from? WHERE?

The ROCK ‘N ROLL MISSILE? Who’s been waiting ALL DAY for his big moment. 

The Missile, along with the eye of the missile’s energy starts bringing everyone’s energy back. But it’s STILL not enough, not enough UNTIL:

Danger has a giggle fit. DANGER, the actor who NEVER shows any emotion, he’s usually just hanging in his car, texting chicks with kickin’ bodies. Danger’s giggle fit becomes contagious and soon EVERYONE is laughing. Energy picks back up again(it’s also like, one in the morning), we get the power to push through and finally finish the mother of all scenes.

Another pow wow, will we be able to go back and reshoot the scene from last night? It’s about two in the morning and STILL have another short scene to shoot outside. The Set General has to get up early the next day, we’re already about 17 hours in. 

The Real Deal asks if everyone can help load out as we shoot the scene outside. It’s all we can do. EVERYONE helps tear down. After a long day and night... the mother of all scenes is in the can.

photos by Suzan Jones

DAY 9

EVERYONE shows up at 6AM, including our new best friend Tom FINALLY A CONTINUITY PERSON. Well, everyone BUT:

An actor, who’s stuck on the road with a flat tire. Another actor is sent to go find him, right as the lost actors PHONE GOES DEAD. What a way to start the day :(

Another actor is missing too. Actually, he’s just been sitting in his car, but has forgot a VERY important part of his wardrobe. Wasn’t this problem supposed to be solved after the last wardrobe mishap? Not with a tiny crew, who all has at least ten different jobs to keep track of. Dude now has to drive back to his pad in rush hour traffic. MEANWHILE:

The actor who went out to find the other actor CAN’T FIND HIM ANYWHERE! So much for an early start.

What to do?? Shoot some new inserts of the flyer we shot with an actress that was replaced with another one. We do that, walk out on the street to think, and then:

The actor with the flat tire rushes up all out of breath. HE WALKED ALL THE WAY TO THE SET. The actor still looking for him is called back. Meanwhile the actor with the forgotten wardrobe is STILL stuck in traffic. What now?

Reshoot part of another scene at this location that didn’t quite work the first time. 

The actor who forgot his wardrobe arrives. Time to get down to business. Shooting a long scene, involving six characters. The Set General works out all the blocking, but three different colors of maker tape continues to confuse the actors. The scene is broken down into four parts and we shoot, doing the first part of the scene last. A free style band jam that exhausts all the actors, after take after take of jumping around, riffing like crazy.

YAK SHOWS UP WITH POLLO LOCO

We move into the other part of the set, which TEAM DEAL has been dressing all day, it’s a site to behold.

But as per usual we are WAY behind... one scene is knocked out before moving outside to shoot dusk for dawn. Tom’s still there cuing actors. A short scene with only two set ups, then it’s back inside.

We’ve got a hard out, so gotta move. Another scene is shot before going on to the last one of the day.

We rehearse/block the scene, realizing we got a BIG PROBLEM. The scene just ISN’T WORKING. A pow wow ensues as the clock continues ticking. We try one thing/then another. It’s still not feeling right, but gotta shoot. A few more tweaks, it’s feeling a bit better. But gotta go. The hard out is about half hour away and we still got about five set ups to shoot of a scene that’s just been re-written on the spot. Is what it is, so away we go.

We’re still shooting as the next group of people using this location begin filing in:

Right as we’re shooting THE LAP DANCE SEQUENCE. Yep, to all these fine folks it looks like we’re MAKING A PORN!

Team Deal continues putting ‘hot set’ signs all over our section of the location, right as we finish at the last possible second and split.

Tomorrow. THE MOTHER OF ALL SCENES

photos by Suzan Jones

DAY 8

The Set General is feeling much better today. Thank God! We load in, and THEN: 

Everyone parked on the street in front of the location gets marked by the parking patrol as per the two hour parking limit. There’s ten hour metered parking across the street, so one of the actors goes to the local laundromat and gets a bunch of quarters.

Superwoman Suzan Jones sets up her computer and starts working of photos, a kitchen is prepped for the first scene, a bedroom starts getting blacked out, the backyard becomes a staging area.

The Real Deal checks everything off and so begins the first set up of the first scene. OR IS IT? The hum of the refrigerator is screwing up the sound and unplugging it becomes a real pain in the ass. Done. We continue blocking, blocking, blocking till the scene feels right. We shoot. We move:

On to the blacked out bedroom, where our seven year old first AD is controlling the lights and wrangling talent. It’s a small space, but the Set General as per usual figures out all the set ups and away we shoot.

THAI FOOD, except for those who still can’t eat it cuz of a BAD case of food poisoning.

Then..... disaster strikes :(

A text comes in - one of the actresses set to work the day after tomorrow has to bail on the movie. SHIT!!! NO time to recast.... OR IS THERE? Looks like superwoman Suzan Jones, who’s already doing about ten jobs, gets another one ACTING. Suzan, you are cast on the spot.

Back to the bedroom another issue rears it’s perplexing head. Do we shoot the last segment like it is in the script? Being in two locations, or just combine everything in the bedroom where we already are? A friendly debate ensues between the Real Deal and the Set General. Deal wants the production value of another set. The location we’re in looks great and doesn’t require much dressing. But the Set General points out how it’s only two lines, will take some time to light, everyone is tired, and we have a 6AM call time tomorrow.... Score one for RD, we decide to shoot in two rooms. THEN:

Disaster AGAIN.

One of the actors can’t make the 6AM call time.

More discussion and just a bit of panicking... well, more panicking for some than others. The General stoically remains concerned with lighting, we’ll solve that problem later... which we finally do as per the General’s suggestion of deciding to shoot dusk for dawn.

The last shot gets wrapped, and it’s time to tear down, load up, get very little sleep, and begin all this all over again.... and then, something wonderful:

Like an angel from heaven Cousin Nick appears out of thin air to help tear down and load up. Nick’s all business. We get out faster than expected, living to fight another day.

photos by Suzan Jones