Friends With Benefits

Honing, honing, honing... I have these bursts where I can't stay away from editing and then days when I'd just rather sleep than think about it anymore. It is really coming together, though. I have put it in front of a few more people whose opinions I trust - Namely Eric, again, and now Stacie Jones-Gentzler, a local Producer/WonderWoman with Black Ink Films. Got some good feedback from them and made some more adjustments. Eric is especially great with this because he, good friend that he is, sat down and watched the whole thing with remote in hand, pausing and taking notes down to the details of FRAMES (split seconds) that he thought I should add or subtract to tighten things up. Out of probably a dozen very specific suggestions, I took his advice on all but two of them. Stacie's notes had mostly to do with sound, which I am still working on. I am glad that I have taken on that demon by myself, I have learned a lot, though probably the hard way. If a real sound engineer looked at the way I have jury-rigged some of the sound to fix problems, they would likely wonder what the hell I am doing. But, on the cheap, because I am pretty much COMPLETELY out of cash, I have found ways to patch things together so they are at least not completely jarring to the ear. Also I have three of the actors coming in on Monday to loop a few scenes that are virtually unsalvageable without doing so (God bless them!).

Collaboration is such an important part of the process, and one I really enjoy. Learning something new every day is one of my favorite things about filmmaking. I don't think any of the things Stacie or Eric told me needed to be fixed surprised me, and certainly none offended me. Especially the tiny details that Eric picked up on - these scenes bugged me but I wasn't sure how (or if) I could fix them. Sometimes you are so close to something it is hard to put your finger on the problem. You have to trust other people, and fresh eyes.

Not to say you should bend to everyone's whim. Eric, Sean, Michelle, have all made a lot of suggestions I have implemented. And each have made several that I said, no, we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. These are three people with VERY different tastes. You can't please everyone, and never should try to. You'll just water everything down.

On Saturday, Valentine's Day, I crammed 15 people into my living room to watch an updated version of Smalltimore, though i have a newer version still nearly completed. I cooked dinner, champagne & truffle mushroom risotto, that turned out pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Several people brought other accoutrements, including my friend Elizabeth bringing homemade chocolate chip cookies (so fresh that the chips were still gooey!) and my friend/star Cheryl bringing homemade and hand-decorated heart-shaped sugar cookies. She told me she noticed a big glop of red icing on the back of her underfoot cat in the midst of this little project. Have I mentioned that Cheryl is my own Lucille Ball? She just cracks me up.

It was really nice to have my living room carpeted (literally) wall-to-wall with my friends, watching the movie. Of course, they are a partially- biased audience, but the laughs and the silences still help me to judge where it needs further tweaking.

Other cast members who were guests were Phil Calvert (Thom), Kyle Holtgren (David), and Kelly Coston (Mel). Phil has been my friend for several years, and Kyle was more of a friend-of-a-friend before being cast in the movie, but is my own friend now. Cheryl and Kelly I hadn't known before all this, but as they were leaving after our very fun night together, I said to them, this is one of the things that really makes me happy - that we can do these things, that we are friends, to whatever degree, now. There are so many people I can say that about who worked on Smalltimore, Michelle, Regina, loads of people, certainly all of the cast I am on good terms with. And that means something to me, as I told Cheryl and Kelly on their way out. It makes me feel like I did something right. I am sure there are times they were frustrated with me, and sometimes me with them, on the set, but we have a mutual respect and just enjoy each other's company, I think. Maybe I am wrong, maybe they are just sucking up to me to be in my next movie :) . But (a) I don't think so, and (b), if that is the case, that is a big fat compliment as well.

Kelly Coston, as Melanie

Kelly Coston so totally rocked out the character of Melanie that I had completely forgotten the sheer hell I had put her through before she got the role. She was quick to remind me at the reception following the screening of the rough cut, however.

I met Kelly last March, on the set of a short titled, "The Mystery Date," written and directed by Arlette Fletcher, who is the President of the Baltimore chapter of Women in Film & Video. Kelly was a Production Assistant and I was the Script Supervisor. She was very easy to work with, and a hard worker, but really I just had so much FUN with her and she kept me laughing all day. She is smart and sassy and has a very quick wit.

"The Mystery Date" was only a three day shoot, and on the third day I thought I had found my Mel in Kelly. Near the end of a very long day, there was a scene between a father and his young daughter where they are having a sad conversation and the father is crying. The actor couldn't seem to tear up, so I closed the set to give them more privacy, and the PAs and I went in the next room. From where we were, we could still hear them (and them us) so I was trying to keep everyone quiet. Kelly kept making me laugh, so I stared at the floor. We listened while the actor tried like hell to cry (I don't think he quite pulled it off, though). Finally I lifted my gaze to Kelly, and she looked very upset. I saw a single tear run down her cheek, and I thought, wow, this scene is really getting to her! She met my eyes, looked so sad, then pointed to her tear and broke into an ear-to-ear grin, like, "See, I can do that!" It was all I could do not to burst out laughing. I could have strangled her. But I was impressed.

I think the thing about Kelly is is that she is very hard on herself and gets herself worked up and nervous. At the first audition, she was good but a little rigid. There was another actress at the first round who really blew me away. So I called them both to the second round.

That was a long, tough day, and they both did very well. Now I had a real dilemma. I didn't know who to choose. On top of their skills, they were both gorgeous, but had very different looks. I was starting to skew towards the other actress, but down the stretch, something happened. I think the other actress lost her confidence, and the last few scenes there was a noticeable fade in her enthusiasm. Kelly still wasn't as loose as she was when I first met her but she was strong and consistent. It was still a hard decision, but now Kelly was in the lead.

After the callbacks, I still had a third actress to audition for the role of Gracie, so I called in a few of the other actors (including Kelly) to help her play out the scenes. That actress was not a good fit for Gracie, but what I saw of her, she would have done well as Melanie. So now I was leaning towards her. I really wanted Kelly for Mel from the beginning, but she just stiffens a little when she is competing for a role, and I didn't know her well enough to know if she was going to be able to loosen up.

I was honest with Kelly and it looked like I was going to give it to the other actress, who poor Kelly had helped me audition for the Gracie role! I felt terrible but I had to do what I thought was best for the film. Kelly wrote me and said it was cool, she had a little conversation with God about it and God wanted her to have this role, and it would all work out, I'd see.

It turns out that the other actress' day job was in turmoil and she couldn't have committed for the two-week shoot anyway. I emailed Kelly back that God was right, and the role was hers if she still wanted it. She just about leapt through my computer screen to accept.

And of course it turned out that she really WAS the exact right person for it. She and Cheryl got along in real life exactly as they do on the screen, instant BFFs. She cracks on Orlando and Johnny in real life just as Mel does to their characters, Tony and Bentley. So much attitude! Melanie hates the character Angela, who is played by the very sweet Tiffany Ariany. Kelly would be so mean to Tiff during the scenes, I almost felt kind of bad. (Later she admitted that at the beginning, she was still kind of mad at me, and "used" that to amp up her attitude in those scenes. It worked.) Now Kelly was relaxed and back to her sharp, funny, confident self that I had originally met. We had SO much fun shopping for wardrobe, that was an absolute blast, and she did not mind at all that everything I put her in showed massive amounts of cleavage. "I didn't use to have any of that," she'd say, and flash her thousand-watt smile. "They were a present from the kids!"

Kelly was always well-prepared and never had a bad day on the set. She is one that I really miss seeing. Half the time I would end up calling her Mel instead of Kelly (and still do), so we fused that into Melly. She truly is a complete package. The character of Mel ends up having a broader range than maybe any of the other characters, and Kelly was totally believable whether she was verbally castrating Tony, being blindsided with bad news, having to make life-altering decisions, being disappointed in a friend, or simply gazing lovingly at her man. Also, she is an editor's dream: I NEVER have to cut around her, she is consistent on every single take. Roll that all together with her fantastic attitude, teeth that most people would kill for, and what more could a Director ask for? Did I mention she is built like a brick house?