Film I shot in Hollywood Video

[Scott Spears]

Sorry for the shameless plug, but a film I shot in LA is coming out and should be in Hollywood Video this week. It's called "Reflex Action" and as the title implies it's a action flick. I'm proud of a lot of the work I did in it, but would always like a crack at a couple of things. It wasn't shot on Super-8, but I thought I mention it.

For it's scope, it was made on a small budget on 16mm with a tiny crew (sometimes me, an assistant camera person, the director and a sound op) it's an ok little movie. Check it out.

Scott

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[seekaee]

Sounds cool. I?ll definitely keep an eye out for it next week.




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[Matt Pacini]

hey, that's cool Scott.
Tell us about the distribution arrangement.
Was this an Asylum/First Rites thing?

More details would be cool, like the budget, how long it took to shoot, any amusing anecdotes (there are always things that happen on film shoots that are amusing!), and stuff like that.
I'm sure anyone here would be interested in all that, as well as the technical issues; what film stock you used, and in what situations, lighting, etc.

Matt Pacini

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[Scott Spears]

<<Tell us about the distribution arrangement.
as this an Asylum/First Rites thing?>

No. It went through a regular distributor. I don't know a lot about them, the director found them.

<<More details would be cool, like the budget,>>

I don't know the final budget, but I would have to guess around $80,000.

<<how long it took to shoot,>>

This the fun part. The shoot took four years. I was hired on the film before I moved to LA. The director had a outline and a 52 page script for the major dialogue and main plotline, but still had to work out details and the main villian. He did all that over a 40 days shoot over four years. It worked for him, but I thought I would go crazy a few times.

<<Any amusing anecdotes (there are always things that happen on film shoots that are amusing!), and stuff like that.>>

There are many stories like spending over 15 days underground in mines, or shooting with a 102 degree fever or watching actors age four years and have their hair cut for other films and finding ways to shoot around it. The most painful shoot was our day with our "name actor" Richard Lynch (he's a craggy faced, white haired villian), it's 126 degrees in the desert and the battery connector on my Arri SR when wacky. I drank nearly a case of water and moving a c-stand without gloves was a painful experience. When my connector crapped out, I just about threw my camera into the desert I was so frustrated. Luckily, my 1st AC had his Eclair ACL along, so we switched over to it.

<<I'm sure anyone here would be interested in all that, as well as the technical issues; what film stock you used, and in what situations, lighting, etc.>>
We shot 16mm, mainly with my Arri SR I. Exteriors were Kodak 7245 (50D) a nice, fine grained stock and 7293 (200T) and 7287 (320T) for the mine interiors and a bit of 7298 (500T). The 500T gets too graing for my tastes. I can't imagine shooting on Super-8, the grain must look like a blizzard.
Lighting wise, I had a basic tungsten package with nothing over a 2K. Probably about 14K of lights. My big guns were Mighty Moles, open faced 2Ks, mainly used for big night exteriors. Then for most medium to small interiors, I had opened face 1Ks, 1K Baby Fresnels, a 600 watt tweenie and a couple of 200 watt midgets. I had to keep things simple because me and the AC were the lighting crew most of the time. Outside, I used a lot of shiney boards for fill. It helped keep the contrast down with the 7245.

That's the basics.

Scott



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[Matt Pacini]

Wow, I thought I had the record, with 5 years for Lost Tribes!

That's amazing. Did you make enough on this gig to make it worth it?
I know what you mean about people's appearance changing.
Especially the girls.
They always are screwing with their look; changing their hair color, style, loosing weight, gaining weight. It's a nightmare shooting over long times like that.

How did you light the mines?
What kind of generator did you use?
Did it make tons of noise?
Did you have to do any looping because of it?

Matt Pacini

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