Behind the Scenes: IN DOUBLE DUTCH

Last night, I saw the first cut of In Double Dutch, the 10 minute short I directed back in May. So far, the edited footage looks, and sounds, amazing—so I'm going to be ecstatic when the whole thing is completely finished. You know you've got a good film when you watch the raw footage without any of the bells and whistles—the black & white filter, the widescreen aspect ratio, the musical score, the beginning and end credits—and you still get drawn into the story. When the core of the story and the acting is strong, all the extras that "frame" it just make the chewy center taste even better. For any cast or crew reading this who worked on the film—a job bloody well done! (Pictured at left is Jim Munch, the best Key Grip/1st A.C./Gaffer/P.A. in the whole world in the history of time.)

Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a smokin' hot actress like Meaghan Sinclair. I mean, just look at her! As Letterman woud say, she's "easy on the eye":


As founder and co-owner of Sweet Embry, Meaghan did a lot to make In Double Dutch come together and I know she's going to be really happy with the results.

That's me with Sweet Embry co-owner and Firearms Supervisor Rob Thomas (at left) and Emmy-winner sound mixer Dave Losko from Audio Oasis.


Dave Losko is the best guy in town for production and post-production sound mixing and I make a point of saying so because not only is he the consummate pro with the best equipment to get the job done, he's also a really nice guy with a good sense of humor. If you're going to spend 50 shooting days with anyone, this is one guy you wouldn't mind spending it with.

We did have some fun on set. I made sure we did. Otherwise, why make a film at all?



Pictured here are Cesar Huitron, Ray Dussault, me, P.A. Krystal Kashuba, and Sean Boncoto. Cesar and Sean are partners in VOH Entertainment and did the DP work (check out those swanky cameras, yo!). Sean's also cutting the film. Ray, the founder/owner of Lai Khe films, was my 1st A.D. and is pictured here showing off his new manicure. I'm the guy in the blue shirt with the beige baseball cap with my name embroidered on it. (It was a gift from my ma. Promise.)



Stay tuned to find out when and where In Double Dutch's premiere will be. We're planning a sneak preview, too, so let me know if you want to come to it... Or you could stay in the know by adding In Double Dutch to your Myspace friends!

In Double Dutch

The last six to seven weeks have been preoccupied with pre-production prep for a short I'm directing tomorrow—In Double Dutch, by Meaghan Sinclair. In Double Dutch is a modern noir about a woman being questioned by a nosy cop and the nasty consequences that follow. We're shooting it in 2.85:1 anamorphic, which means it's going to look like Star Wars or The Matrix. With Audio Oasis' Dave Losko doing sound, the final product will look and sound about as pro as you can get without shooting in a studio and spending 40K. Did I forget to mention the actors have been rehearsing since late March? We're graaaaaaavy.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting our short film to get its crew so heavily populated but we've been fortunate to crew up some pretty great people with pre-production lasting so many weeks. I mean, just look at our roll call—

Rob Granados, Lead / Executive Producer / Producer
Meaghan Sinclair, Lead / Executive Producer / Producer
Charlie Holiday, Supporting
Ross Pruden, Director
Raymond Dussault, 1st A.D.
Sean Boncoto, D.P.
Dave Losko, Sound Production Mixer
Jim Munch, 1st A.C. / Key Grip
Cesar Huitron, 2nd Camera
Aimee Mann, Script Supervisor (Actually, that's Aimee CARR, not the singer from Till Tuesday.)
Rob Thomas, Firearms Supervisor
Michelle B., Makeup & Hair (Sadly, she was called away due to a family emergency).
Leslie Goodman, Makeup & Hair Asssitant
Steve Papineau, Behind the Scenes Videographer
Russell Young, Set Photographer
Everett Blix, Associate Producer
Krystal Kashuba, P.A.

I'm not even including our post-production crew, which will be another two or three people. Orson Welles was right—it is easier to be a writer or a painter!

Pictures of the shoot to be posted later this week.

Detective Warren has a few questions

Below is a short clip from Sweet Embry's short noir film In Double Dutch, which is currently being edited now. Don't you just love black & white? (If you listen, you can hear me calling cut at the end.)

And here is In Double Dutch's Myspace profile where we've posted a few screenshots...

3,000 Decisions

Brad Bird described his experience directing The Incredibles as a series of surreal daily meetings with animators where he'd make constant, and mundane, decisions: "How tall should this table be?" they'd ask him. "What color wood? Do you want any decorations on it? Oh, you want candles? How many candles? Are they halfway lit? What color are they?" And so on. For months. Then one day Brad gets to work one day and the film is almost entirely done. He said it was like "throwing tiny pebbles every day into this massive bottomless pit and then one day you look in the pit and it's suddenly full."


On Sunday, I directed In Double Dutch and I felt like Brad Bird: by end of day, I had made close to 2,800 to 3,000 decisions, and in any given minute, I had as many as 10-12 different people asking me how I wanted something done. With that kind of hectic pace, there's no time for sugar-coated etiquette—it's about how quickly information gets communicated: "How about we do this..." becomes "I want you here." It's not about being prickly, it's about economy of words under deadline. It's business. In fact, it's so easy for people to get their feathers ruffled using this dictatorial tone that I try very hard to build morale among cast and crew by creating a highly organized shoot, by respecting deadlines (well, as much as possible!), and choosing to work with playful people who know when to hunker down. Overall, I try very hard to make sure everyone enjoys each other's company during down time. Then, when say I want something, everyone knows the "please" is understood.


Yet no good shoot goes unpunished... our original location fell through less than 36 hours before we rolled the first take. Having already rented our equipment, it was too late to postpone the shoot. So I had to throw out all my carefully planned blocking diagrams and camera setups and improvise on a set I wasn't familiar with. Fortunately, 7 weeks of rehearsals and years of filmmaking experience worked in my favor... I'm confident we got all the shots we needed without ever crossing the line. Any pickup shots we still need are merely par for the course—no director I've worked with has ever shot everything they needed on the actual shoot day, and even if they did, the editor draws up a list of shots they need to complete their rough cut.


Losing a location so close to the shoot day also reminds me how important it is to have "reaction plans" prepared so you don't react in panic mode. For the same reason, stockbrokers are told to brainstorm every conceivable nightmare scenario ahead of time and then draw out a sensible plan of action—instead of acting out of fear in the moment, they simply grab their "reaction playbook" and work their way down the list of action items. For a filmmaker, the nightmare scenarios are, What happens if my sound guy gets into a car accident and all his equipment is destroyed? What do I do if someone trips over the tripod and drops the camera? Whom do I call if someone gets injured on set? Knowing in advance what to do if any of your cast or crew can't make it to set really helps offset a high blood pressure.


Video footage coming soon of the shoot. Stay tuned.

The Best Shot of The Day

Sunday's shoot of In Double Dutch had one extremely memorable shot: when one character shoots another character, the actor was going to use a blank in their gun to get a realistic effect. I told the actor we'd be doing a dry run first, without any live blank at all... just to help them block out the scene.

But I lied.

We told everyone, discretely, that her gun was actually "weapons hot"... that is, we told everyone except the actors. (We also had a tenacious firearms consultant who would not have agreed to this unless it had been safe. He observed everyone's movements, ready to intervene if anything were to go awry.)

Two cameras were trained on her final shooting position: one close, one medium. Her shocked expression and natural gun recoil were so real I can remember hearing a collective gasp in amazement from the crew.

We even have a clip of it from our videographer's camera:

All the behind the scenes footage was shot by Steve Papineau, whom you can actually see here holding the boom. Thanks, Steve!