ACTRESS FILM DEVELOPMENT UPDATE -- August 3rd, 2011 

I’m still writing the script based on the scout I took in April. I am scheduled to scout the Mojave CA locations on September 10th, and Tijuana sometime In September. From those trips I can finish the first draft of the screenplay and enter into Phase 2, which is casting the lead and doing the last Pacific Northwest scouting (Washington State and British Columbia) in October/November. 

The timing of the shooting depends on the funding of stage 2 which I will start probably in September. I’ve decided NOT to build the story around a summer-time shoot, I want to be able shoot the film at any time of the year, at whatever opportunity arrises with the actress and the money. That means I’ll have to adjust the end of the movie, where originally I intended to be based on the Actress hiking the 15 mile/24 km ONE WAY trip to the lighthouse at the northern tip of Vancouver Island. I don’t know the trail, but I’m assuming with a crew and equipment, that is a 2 day trip at least one way. (Did I mention the bears and wolves?) So she’s have to take a boat (I’m hoping) because that trail is only open about 4 months a year. That stuff I’ll figure out in the scout. 

The alternative is the end the film where the road stops, somewhere around Port Hardy. I love the idea of the lighthouse, for what is probably obvious symbolic and visual reasons. 

Thanks again for your support on the project, I’ll send you a copy of the script when the first draft is finished. 

Till then, I am always interested in casting ideas… who do you see in this part? I’d love your ideas. She should be a “known” actress, 28 to 40-ish, with superior acting technique and instincts. Naturally she needs to be at a point in her artistic life that doing a micro-budget makes sense for her.

 Yours, 

 J

Day 4 & 5 Wednesday & Thursday, Northern California Coast to LA (April 20 & 21, 2011)

To read previous scouting notes:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150207327664047

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150220343184047

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150246045679047

DAY 4

I had turned into a parking lot in Redwoods National Park at 11pm the night before and when I awoke, I looked at my watch and saw it was 11 am!  I had slept for 12 hours…

Three days of being alone and sleeping in the car has had an effect on me.  And the loneliness and dramatic scenery of this part of the country creates an almost gothic mood.  I decide to go on a little hike down to the beach. The trail was deserted with verdant green everywhere, and the weather overcast.  It had rained overnight.  I found the coast chocked with driftwood, and a small stream feeding into the ocean, large rocks offshore and fresh deer tracks in the soft mud.

I headed south, passed a giant Paul Bunyan and his ox, and drove on and on through the rain…. And on and on and on.  I thought that would get close or even beyond San Francisco today but that idea is fading.  It rained.  And rained and rained.

Eventually the rain let up and I came to The Humboldt Redwoods State Park and wandered into the Williams Grove of costal redwoods.  A car was just pulling out and I was completely alone in this park, where there here hundreds of giant trees, many over 1000 years old.  

If you have never been in a grove of giant redwoods, I strongly recommend that you move it to the top of the list of 100 things you have to do before you die.  It is absolutely life changing. There are two types of trees that are cousins to each other, the thinner, taller variety are the costal redwoods that I found myself in, their giant cousins, the Giant Sequoias are only found at altitude in the High Sierra, mainly in Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.  The Costal Redwoods start in central California and continue up the coast and are easier to find, although the old groves are the ones protected in parks.  The oldest of these trees can date to before Christ was born.  They are the oldest living things on earth.

 I really feel a sense of the sacred when I am in these groves.  Its a humbling and good experience, like a tuning fork for the soul. You can stare at and touch a living thing that contains not just centuries, but millennia.  A tree that has stood through the world wars and revolutions and discovery of the Americas and through the Enlightenment and Renaissance and Middle Ages and back to the Roman Empire.  And the more you know about these trees the more interesting they are.  They can survive any forrest fire, and in fact, need fires to open their tight seed cones in order to reproduce.  You see century after century of fire scars on the old trees.  They also spend the centuries essentially standing on their “toes.”  By this I mean that even though they are 100s of feet tall, their roots only go 6 feet or so into the ground.  In fact, it seems the only thing that can kill a giant redwood, besides man, is it losing it’s balance and falling over.  If that’s not an analogy for life, I don’t know what is. 

So, I was in this ancient grove all by myself, and dusk was settling in.  Almost on cue, a group of spotted owls began calling to one another.  It was the only sound in the forrest except for the gurgling of a nearby creek.  One flew silently from one tree to another. 

I wandered around the grove for awhile, taking photos and trying to think of ways to have a redwood grove fit into the movie.  There is already one tremendous scene set in a redwood grove, with Kim Novak and Jimmie Stewart shot in the John Muir grove near San Francisco in VERTIGO.  My scene would need to be a lot different.  I’m still pondering it.

As I look at the photos I took of the grove, I am reminded how difficult it is to photograph a redwood grove successfully, especially in a horizontal format.  The groves are also very dark, even on a sunny day, and the contrast can be brutal on film and digital.  And reproducing the right color of the bark is very difficult.  Maybe the painter is best at catching the feeling of these quiet, secret places.

After that it was back to driving.  Soon it was dark and before too long I gave in and got a motel room about 120 miles outside of San Francisco, abandoning my ultra low-budget cinema principles for a real bed, sheets & shower…. Aaahhhh! 

The next morning after breakfast I was back on the road, traveling through Mendocino county and he vineyards and wineries.  I stopped at a few wineries before lunch (again, the only person there) and bought a cheap bottle of red at one place that I still have yet to open.  After the rain, the weather today was glorious, and I took some photos of a vineyard with hills behind.  

Then suddenly it seemed, I was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and had stopped at the Place of Fine Arts and was taking photos with all the other tourists.  The sun was bright and the shadows crisp.

I wandered around the city for a little bit, but nothing was striking me.  San Francisco has a shell that you need to crack open to get to what’s inside.  It doesn’t wear its true character on its sleeve like many other places do.  I still don’t know if I will set a scene in the movie in SF, I feel like I should because the place is so cinematic, but nothing is coming so far.  I may need to spend some time there to break some ideas open.

I head south in the mid-afternoon, I had a long drive home and a plane to catch the next morning for a job in Spokane.  I had a lot to think about.

Day 2 MONDAY

I’ve been back in Los Angeles for more than a week, and the delirium has worn off a bit from my scout.  I felt like I was in a mini, air-conditioned rental car pod, flying through the countryside.  I had basically zero interactions with other humans, except for short calls to my kids, and I had been stuck in Los Angeles for so long, I felt a little like an imprisoned convict being reintroduced to the world.

There are several things that strike you as you drive along through giant open spaces hour after hour.  First, the odd habit that humans have of smashing themselves in small urban areas.  There is SO much of the world, especially here in the western US, that is open and underpopulated.  It’s farmland of course, or desert or state or federal land… but after hours and hours of that, it’s odd to think of the way we cram ourselves into cities and then try to ignore each other.  I was not in a city for 5 days, except for a few hours in Sam Francisco on Thursday, and it felt both comfortable and odd.

As is so often the case with me and schedule, I overestimated and tried to over-reach.  By the end of the 2nd day it was looking less and less likely I could make it up to Seattle on this trip, especially if I intended to digest any of the locations I was flying through.

When you are locked alone in a flying pod, your brain turns on itself.  I had time for plenty of self doubt and even more self examination & self blame,  and I kept tromping through it, believing there would be some clarity at the other side.  Or maybe I didn’t believe that, but I just believed in process and if the brain is churning, at least it is still alive.  It was exhausting, more so than the driving or loneliness, and when I finally gave up at the end of each day, I slept soundly, even though my bed was the very seat I had been driving in all day.

I’m sure in many ways, the Actress in the movie will be going through the very same emotions.  It’s finding out how to turn these things into a visual language that will make a good film that challenges me right now.  I have the freedom here to avoid cliches, and there are many regarding getting a character’s inner dialog onto the screen.  But I’m working on that.

To go back to Day Two: after I wrote the previous update, I continued north on Interstate 5 towards Mount Shasta and Oregon.  Because we seem to believe the world is just a collection of cities, the normal impression of California is that LA is Southern California and San Francisco is Northern California.  Now when you drive the distance between say, San Francisco and Portland, the truth becomes apparent.  It’s more accurate to say that the Bay Area and Sacramento is a “little” north of central California as it is a long, LONG way still to the Oregon border from there.  Plus there is a huge mountain range to pass through first. Just getting to those mountains after Sacramento seems to take forever. 

After a few hours driving from Willows the light was turning magical, and I stopped by the side of the interstate.  There was a storm in the distance and the farmland had rolling hills and livestock and lush spring grasses. The photos are somewhat eerie, but I’m not sure whether that is partly me projecting my mood into them.  There are two important views, each very wide angled, one pointing towards the storm to the northwest, the other pointing away from it, both full of lush swaths of spring grass, ranging in color from yellowish green to deep, dark green. 

Everything had a very painterly feel about it, and a real loneliness.  You could almost feel and smell the spring grass growing and reaching upward, and in the midst of this, the almost insignificant bands of asphalt that was the interstate, and the occasional blast of sound and air from trucks tearing through the fabric of the real place.  Everywhere I went on this trip, I kept feeling the “realness” of the natural world and how the asphalt and barbed wire and structures were like a temporary tattoo that the body was un-aware of.

PHOTO I-5

I worry that getting this lush springtime feel in the summer when I plan to shoot will be impossible, that the look will be completely different.  But I guess then it will have it’s own summer reality and that is what will be captured.

After lunch in Redding, I was up in the mountains and rolling along what is through an highway engineering marvel.  Sharp alpine valleys and a roaring Sacramento river cutting through it all.  Massive loads of freight pass along Interstate 5, thousands and thousands of trucks moving through an extremely rugged mountain range.  The railroad predates the highway by about three quarters of a century, and as you drive, you can peer down into the valleys towards the rushing river and see the tracks, way down at river level.  

I wanted to get down there, so I found an exit that took me down to the river and the tracks and even an old iron bridge still in use.  It was the Sims Bridge, and significantly, the very first major construction project of the New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), completed in 1933.  The CCC build many revered structures in the US during the Great Depression, facilities at national parks for example, campgrounds and even the river-walk in my hometown of San Antonio.  

There was a campground there, it was closed & completely empty (a common theme throughout my trip) and there was a nature walk that revealed the original CCC camp and before that, the site of a mining  & lumber camp complete with a steam railroad that went up the valley of a small creek that fed into the river.  It boggles the mind what these people did 150 years ago to make a buck, hauling the pieces of an entire railroad on the backs of mules over harrowing mountain trails deep into these mountains.  No power tools, gas engines, electronics of any kind.  Weeks to walk in and weeks to walk out.  Also there was an ancient native encampment here, but we all know what happened to them once the mining came. 

No humans anywhere.  The loneliness was achingly beautiful.  I can’t imaging it’s like this in the summer, but it made a big impression.

BRIDGE & RIVER

CAMPGROUND

The weather was perfect but the sun sets early in the mountains, so I took pictures of the bridge, river, camp and creek and left, I wanted to see Mount Shasta before it got dark.

I stopped at the old town of Edgewood, which had a very sad, lonely feel with almost all its commercial buildings empty.  It is/was a railroad town, with a small Amtrak station. The rail yards even had an old engine turntable (Thomas the Tank Engine fans, take note).  There was not a human to be seen, just the roar of a nearby creek with a waterfall.  

TRAIN TURNTABLE

The upper end of the town had a very old fashioned baseball park and a cute old tennis court with weeds growing up everywhere.  A father and 3 boys played baseball in the old field as the sun set.  Nearby, was the carcass of an old steam engine, the model of which only 7 others remain a sign said.

I started driving north again.

I had gotten a glimpse of Mt. Shasta on the way up the pass, but it was completely shrouded in clouds.

You may only know about Mount Shasta from the can of budget soda pop, “Shasta Cola”.  But it made a big impression to those who first saw it a century ago.  Poet Joaquin Miller said: 

"Lonely as God, and white as a winter moon, Mount Shasta starts up sudden and solitary from the heart of the great black forests of Northern California."

John Muir: "When I first caught sight of it over the braided folds of theSacramento Valley.  I was fifty miles away and afoot, alone and weary. Yet all my blood turned to wine, and I have not been weary since."  

(See Muir's STORY )

My experience has always been similar.  The mountain is so massive, and so far above the rest of the range, it is an absolute shock when suddenly, around a corner of over a ridge, the massive pure white mountain appears.  It’s like one is laboring on a trail, head down at the dirt and rocks suddenly looks up to see God standing there, staring at you.  It seems alive, somehow aware of your gaze and makes everything else utterly insignificant.  I couldn’t hold my tears back as I saw it this time, everything was sinking into darkness, but Shasta, high above everything else and completely covered in snow, was glowing in the sunlight that was speeding away across the pacific ocean.  You can’t look at it long, you can’t for some reason, you have to avert your eyes.

I stopped at the town of Mt. Shasta, which is just a collection of motels, and wandered until I could get a few photographs.  The mountain seemed impossible to photograph.  By that I mean to photograph in a way as to convey the emotional impact of seeing it in person.  Looking at the shots later, it is better than I thought at the time, but still not the same.

MT. SHASTA PHOTO

I turned my back on Shasta and headed north towards Oregon, and darkness.  

After a long time, I entered Oregon and drove on through the same mountains.  After spending an hour or so wandering through the delightful town of Ashton, I then drove till I couldn’t anymore (I was trying to make it to Tacoma at least) and crashed at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of Oregon.

Next: Day 3, the Oregon Coast and back into California.

I'm here at the Starbucks in Willows, California on the scout for the ACTRESS film....  to post and update and refuel. 

Wow! A very generous backer just pushed ACTRESS pre-production into reality!! Thanks Beth! 

But it's not to late to jump aboard.

 Only 5 more days to jump onboard and take advantage of the benefits offered for pledges. Location scout starts April 15th... I'll post the agenda soon, probably first stop will be sparse openness of Mojave CA.

If you are interested in seeing my last feature film, STILL BREATHING, starring Brendan Fraser, Joanna Going, Lou Rawls, Ann Magnuson and Celeste Holm, you can see it here:

http://vimeo.com/jfrobinson/stillbreathing

Here we go! 

It's the final week for raising the teenie-weenie pre-production fund to get ACTRESS of the gates.  ACTRESS is scheduled to shoot this summer, most likely in July & August to be ready for the major film festival submission deadlines in the fall.

To those of you that have pledged, thanks SO much!  To those of you who are considering it...  a measly $25 would really help!  The more backers... the more momentum we have.  And $50 gets you the limited edition DVD PLUS a signed poster.

My scouting trip is scheduled for April 16th to the 24th.  It will be a micro-budget solo trip (one rented Prius, a sleeping bag, video gear, lots of peanut butter and rice cakes) to scout locations and cast the minor supporting (real people) characters on the various locations from Mexico to Canada (see the map on the last update).  I'll be working the territory from San Francisco to British Columbia on this trip, leaving he other locations (Tijuana, Southern and Central California) for weekend trips from LA this spring.  Of course I'll be posting daily updates, with photos and video.

To avoid hotel costs, and since it is just me... I'll be turning the rented Prius into an RV (see video, courtesy of cresswellproductions-YouTube)

I'm really, really excited... the time has come that independent filmmakers can make films without the financial and commercial pressures that come with raising millions of dollars.  So as far as I am concerned, the more micro-budget the better... bring on the peanut butter sandwiches and showers in truck stops! (wait a minute... could that be taken the wrong way?)

Onward...

JFR

A huge thanks for all the backers that came in this week!  We are half-way to the pre-production funding, and the matching funds have not come in yet.  To those that are new or have not received your copy of STILL BREATHING, please send me your email address at jfrobinson@zappictures.com and I'll send the files via "YouSendIt.com" -- it's an easy way to download huge files.

Enclosed in this post if the location /road trip map that will provide the structure for the film.  It is a 3000 mile/4800km trip that starts in Tijuana Mexico at a photo shoot with the ACTRESS and end up with her doing the last of the 15 miles on foot through total Canadian wilderness, ending at the Cape Scott Lighthouse at the very far tip of North Vancouver Island, BC.  In between these points, the "chapters" of the film will be unfolding at various places along the way, where the main character dissolves into her imaginary characters playing out dramas in the midst of real people and situations.  Possible locations include Mojave, Bakersfield, San Francisco, Mount Shasta, the Oregon Coast, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver BC and various small communities along the way.  Oh yeah, just thought of this one... Napa Valley.  Maybe Yosemite too.  (I'll change the map before I post this)  We are "stealing" all the locations, with 2 to 4 man crew, no trucks, no lights... so I'm thinking big. Normally you could never shoot a feature film in a national park, or anywhere actually without lots of good ol' American greenbacks.

HAVE ANY OTHER WEST COAST LOCATION IDEAS? Reply with them here.

If you know of anyone who may enjoy being part of all of this ($1 min. pledge!) please forward this link:  http://kck.st/eWTmZD

Thanks so much to the backers that came in over the last 40 or so hours! As of midnight tonight LA time, a backer will match all the pledges since Thursday.

On another note, I've noted confusion about the small amount that I am seeking for the film, $999.  That amount is just for preproduction, scouting casting and legal costs (it's still not much) and the $15,000 for the film will be raised on Kickstarter.

The structure and form of this "scripted documentary" is very different, and I felt I needed to lock down the locations, some of the "real people" actors and finalize the hybrid script before I cast the lead role.  I'm looking for an established actress all film fans would know, and getting her and her agent to agree to do a film like this is going to be challenging.  So I need all the pre-production elements in place.  If all goes well I'll be doing that for a week in April, traveling and photographing locations, driving from Tijuana to British Columbia.  Of course the $999 won't cover even that, so I'll be covering the rest out of pocket and via various semi-illicit means as needed.  Of course I'll be posting photos and video of my process on Kickstarter and other social media.

If you have not tossed in a few bucks to ACTRESS ($1 minimum!!) please do here http://kck.st/eWTmZD as your pledge will be doubled if you do it before midnight tonight!

Thanks everyone who jumped in the first day!  This first pre-prodution round will be used for casting expenses, as we attach the lead actress to the project... plus a location/research/casting scout in mid-April, from Tijuana Mexico, where the main character initially becomes unhinged from her "real" life... up the California, Oregon and Washington coasts to British Columbia where the film will conclude.  We will be looking not only for locations but for non-actor characters that will be part of the story and interact with the actress' characters and fictional storylines.  I'll be posting updates and photos from this scouting trip.

Thanks again everyone...

JFR