OCTOBER
Happy Birthday wendago.com. I have kept an online journal for 10 years. I say “journal” cuz when I got started “blog” and “blogger” were relatively unknown. I started this so that one day I could look back and behold the journey. So let’s continue the catch up and bring us to October of 2010.
But first…
ALIEN is one of those movies that made me what I am. LOOK at this trailer. My heart pounds yet it gives NOTHING away! The trailer grabs and leaves you wanting more. I WANT to see it. Today, our trailers give away SO much you FEEL like you can decide whether or not you will like a movie based on the trailer alone.
All the way back to campfire ghost stories you want to build to the JUMP. Or the big surprise. Now days the surprises are in the trailer. It’s just lazy marketing.
So, on with October, a month distracted with Audience Preview.
Focus groups are a part of the Hollywood process. While there are debates over their legitimacy, they are and likely always will be a part of the movie making process. After a studio screening a focus group spokesperson will keep several audience members and ask them questions about their experience. Normally by morning focus group answers as well as the audience questionares are analyzed by massive computers that are seven or eight gigabytes away from going sentient and creating terminators or fembots.
Patrick and team spent all day at the theatre prepping the preview. I was there but was mostly just stumbling around in the way. They had to make sure the sound levels were right. Make sure the base was thunderous. And then, of course, 3D added a whole new layer of possible screw up. Patrick ran the movie then ran it again, then we were ready for the big show. A few walked at at the initial gore. To me that was a win. The remaining crowd laughed and cheered at all the right places.
Questionares were handed out. The focus group was asked questions and it was decided we would meet at Summit once all the numbers from the preview were crunched and discuss further.
Big meeting. Focus group leader was on speaker phone to go over his statistics from the focus group. He announced, “Let’s be honest, this movie will only appeal to the lowest common denominator.” Wow.
The biggest issue seemed to be the visual FX (could we finish them on time?). And Summit suggested the movie to open on Milton escaping from Hell.
Now remember we had written Drive Angry so that the whole “he escaped from hell” thing would be a secret. Like Bruce is a ghost. Darth is a father. That Crying Game girl ain’t no girl. If you build it Kevin Costner’s daddy will play ball with you. In fact, even in the finished product, we never came right out and said Milton’s from hell. The idea was to think he had busted out of prison only to learn at the midpoint that he’d escaped from hell. This was the story we sold. It’s also the story we shot. We always figured the audience would get it. But Summit, being in charge of American Distribution and Marketing, believed without hell this was just another “old man revenge movie”. For Comic Con they had created a trailer with a voiceover and big white lettering that said, “HE BUSTED OUT OF HELL”. So the cat had already been let out of the bag, so to speak. Therefore it was decided that we would create an opening that revealed Milton escaping from hell.
This had its challenges. For one, Nic was on another movie. We could not get him back. Two, we didn’t have time to physically shoot it anyway. Three, it would have to be created in a computer by an FX team that already didn’t have enough time to finish the movie.
First off, I’m not against the idea of busting out of hell. Patrick and I debated it before we even started writing. But we had decided to keep it a secret. We could have gone the other way. But revealing it wasn’t in this current design. And design is a big deal. Believe it or not, we try not to just slap a movie together. If we knew we were going to reveal hell from frame one then we would have written it differently. We would have shot it differently. Would have delivered a grand set piece of Nic Cage escaping hell. But in the 11th hour all we could do was with CGI. So we did CGI as best we could.
Millennium also wanted more action in the end. So more FX were added to an FX team that already didn’t have enough time. They also wanted to add more jeopardy with the baby. So a day of baby pick-up shots was added to the schedule.
As soon as the meeting was over, Patrick and I started writing variations of voiceover for Fichtner to Account. We also created pages and pages of ADR lines. And while Patrick fought the good fight on Drive Angry…
…I flew to NY to meet with Team Weinstein, FJ DeSanto (pictured above) and assorted others.
I had never been to NY. After the Weinstein meeting I walked down to ground zero as it’s not too far from their office. It was emotional. I took pictures of the construction but I will not post them.
On the flight back I created a Milton wrap sheet for the bust out of hell opening but it was never used.
On the 15th we closed our Hellraiser deal.
This meant the “verbal” agreement was done. This meant TWC could announce that we were joining forces if they so desired. We made a good deal and we were very excited about our story. They came to us for a remake. We were not the first. We have seen outline after outline that went before us. Some were pretty good. Some were dismal. What we pitched was something off the grid. Waaay outside the box (yes, HR fans, that pun was intended). BUT, I don’t want to tell you anything about our story. I don’t want to say the remake or reboot or sequel. I don’t want to say Pinhead or Doug Bradley. I WANT YOU TO BE SURPRISED!
I will likely fail in my want. But I’m going to remain hopeful. Because I’ve always thought Weinstein marketing was smart and strong.
Meanwhile Patrick landed in Shreveport for a day of pick-up shots with the baby.
The 18th was my ADR. Or Frank’s ADR. This consisted of recording dialog that didn’t record well on the day. It also consisted of “Wild Lines”. Dialog that can play while the character’s back is to camera. Dialog to fill in gaps or blanks. You record sounds. Grunts and orgasms. And then you replace all your wordy dirds with “freak” and “bonehead” and “dummy” for the TV version.
On the same day, the Hellraiser story broke which meant everyone found out Patrick and I were doing it. No one seemed too destroyed by it. While a couple of fan boys threatened suicide, most were excited.
Mel celebrated her birth. We went out to dinner and drank adult drinks.
The Drive Angry release got pushed two weeks in fear of Beiber.
For the annual Halloween party at a neighbor’s house I carved the Jason mask. I won second place and a big cookie. Izzie ate the cookie.