This is a lengthy post that Ken directed me to. It’s copied from Brian McLaughlin’s (Executive Producer) website. It’s a summation of Red71 from his perspective; very insightful.
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Red 71. This was a great film experience with wonderful people. I’m tempted to say it was my best film experience so far, but maybe that’s just because it was the most recent. I have had many excellent experiences and Red 71 ranks near the top. This will be a long blog, so hang on.
A big reason I enjoyed the film so much was working with director Patrick Roddy. Patrick has been a friend for the past year or two. We have worked together on film-related activities, but never on actually shooting a film. He is a very nice guy and also very knowledgeable and competent. He also has a strong track record in filmmaking, having produced six previous films, one of which he directed. All but one of those films has been sold for distribution, and the remaining film – Robbing Peter – was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards. He is also a producer in residence in Media Arts at the University of Arizona. I have helped in his classes several times. Even if I didn’t know Patrick personally, I would have been eager to work with such a talented and experienced filmmaker. During the shoot, he proved to be as likable and easy-going as he always is. Everyone was happy to work with him.
A demonstration of how willing people are to work with Patrick is that several people who worked on his last film, Mercy, came to Tucson from LA (Louisiana) just to work with him again. These wonderful people were:
Screenwriter Ken Henderson – sharp guy, sharp wit, nice as anyone, mentions Spike in his blog
Co-producer Scott Waldrop – probably the coolest of the group, dry wit, good soul
Art director and actor Carol Anne Gayle – everyone loves her like a mom and friend
Still photographer and actor Hilary Gayle – beautiful person in every way, talented, smart, funny, powerful actor
Actor Josh Marcantel – terrific actor who was everyone’s favorite performer, terrific person also (lives in NYC)
Friend (uncredited) Chuck Turner – quiet, but cool and fun, Notre Dame fan (actually from Tennessee)
(The lead from Mercy, Gary Shannon, was also going to join us, but had to be replaced at the last minute, due to an injury before coming to Tucson.)
These were all wonderful people whose presence made the project so much more enjoyable. I can’t express enough how tremendous these folks were.
Another positive aspect of this film is that I was not only acting in it – in a good role – but also producing (or executive producing). This, of course, made me feel a lot more connected with the film. I was on the set everyday, whether I was acting or not, and was somehow involved in most facets of the movie. I also recruited almost all of the extras and a couple of the principle cast (or at least recommended them to Patrick). Because this blog is about my acting life, I won’t go into the producing side much, except to say that was very fulfilling and enjoyable (and stressful and a lot of work).
Patrick specifically wanted a multi-cultural cast and also actors with interesting looks (as well as talent), including the extras. I previously mentioned the Tucson actors with roles in the film. There were many very qualified actors considered, but there just weren’t enough roles to give all the deserving talent. The Tucson extras included many of my friends from the film world: Dominique Borrego, LeeAnne Savage, Debra Rollinson, Courtney Davis, Wendy Whitacre, Julie DeConcini (from gymnastics), Heather Whited, Heather Miel, Rob Lushbaugh (his brothers, John and Keith, were in The Decoy), Jon Grasse, Bruce Caffrey, Bruce Bayly, Juan Aguirre, Tony Yeatropoulos (I hadn’t met him before), Al Graham, “Reb” Moorehead, Larry Lain, Lance Segal, Stan Babola, Jerry Woods, Richard Roddy (Patrick’s father), and a wonderful older Thai woman, Jam Hill. A couple other friends, Sooyeon Lee and Santiago, had also agreed to be extras, but we didn’t need them in the end.
Two actors from L.A. (Los Angeles) were in the film. Michelle Belegrin played the femme fatale. She is best known for modeling and the MyNetworkTV show Desire. She was very nice and everyone liked working with her and was impressed by her acting, although I teased her about being a diva, which she really wasn’t. No, really. Angus Scrimm played the coroner. He is a veteran actor, mostly from the horror genre and best known as The Tall Man in Phantasm.
So a little more about the film. Red 71 is a neo-noir set in the desert. It is based on a 1932 short story by Paul Cain. Like many noirs the main character is a private detective trying to solve a murder in which he is a suspect, as is the woman he loves. In the process of solving the case, the hero must decide whether to uncover the terrible truth or pin the crime on someone else in order to save the woman he loves. Red 71 will be a mix of Twin Peaks and Sin City. The storyline is a classic example of hard boiled detective fiction. What will make the project unique is Patrick’s “take” on the story. Red 71 will have a lot of the visual characteristics and some of the surreal nature that was so successful in Mercy. This was scheduled to be a 12-day shoot. Twelve days is amazingly fast for a feature film, seven script pages a day. But, Patrick shot Mercy in less than that (I think), so I wasn’t (too) worried. As it turned out, Patrick was a very efficient director, only shooting a few takes per shot. He finished almost every day an hour or two ahead of schedule, without rushing. Very good.
In case you’re wondering, according to Ken, the screenwriter, the title of the movie and short story comes from Red, signifying blood and death, and Club 71, the name of the club which is the setting of much of the story. During the Prohibition, clubs used their street addresses as the name of the club, therefore the “71.”
I played Nick, one of the henchmen of one of the bad guys. (Actually, just about everyone in this film is a bad guy.) Nick ends up being the fall guy for a few murders, and is too dull to realize it until it is too late. I had five days of shooting – the first, second, fourth, fifth, and eleventh. The big climactic scene was shot on days four and five, which gave us enough time to “find” our characters during earlier days of shooting (not that we weren’t prepared already on the earlier days).
Leading into the first day of filming, my sleep pattern was not the most conducive to being well rested. Two hours after getting home from a long, busy four days at Notre Dame, I left for Flagstaff, to bring Collin back to college for the summer session. Spike and I turned around after midnight for the drive home, arriving at 5:30 AM. About 24 hours after waking up in the morning in South Bend, I was finally getting back to bed. Following a few hours of sleep, I went to the location of the film and was on the set until after midnight. I went to bed at about 3, after e-mail and stuff. Patrick called me on the morning of Day 2 at 9:00 AM to ask me to coordinate a couple things. At the end of Day 2, I finally got a full night’s sleep, for a change. Ugh.
In the 45 days since I last cut my hair, it has grown to be about an inch long. It is a big change for me, and I can’t wait to cut it. Patrick also asked that I dye it from the salt-and-pepper to black, which I was happy to do. Photos by Hilary may be the only record of this look, although I may ask Russ Johnson to do some headshots (to make him happy).
But, back to Day 1. On my first day of shooting, it took me a couple takes to get into Nick. I strayed into “Wally” (of The Decoy) a little at first. Nick is a little slow on the uptake, but he’s not as dopey as Wally. Patrick talked to me quietly about not overplaying the dumb look, and I think I was fine from there. I had to be a little affectionate with my “girlfriend,” Thelma, played by Melissa Aguirre, which hadn’t been clear (to me) in the script, so I hadn’t prepared for that. I had to combine tough with slow with affectionate, on the fly. I hope it turned out well. Extras in Club 71 included my friend LeeAnne, in what would have been her first film foray, if Patrick had decided to use her. Unfortunately, he decided eight extras were enough, and he cut loose three people, including LeeAnne.
On the second day, I felt more into Nick, including on the affectionate close-ups. I think his insecurity peeked through his toughness. His stance and mannerisms emerged more. His bravado came across as that. At least this is how I felt. Who knows how it looked on camera? Hilary took a great photo of me pointing a gun at Shane’s (Nathan’s) head. I’ll post it in the photo section of this web site whenever she sends it to me. Julie from gymnastics was one of the extras today. It was the first time I saw her in an acting context, and I was impressed. Even as an extra, she seemed to be realistic and in character. She had told me before that she could act. I guess she was right.
Day 4 was probably the most important day of shooting. It was the climactic scene. Seven actors were involved, all with crucial performances. One of the actors, Ted Parks, was playing a second role – filling in at the last minute for the injured Gary Shannon. This role was the brother of Ted’s other role. With a hairstyle and wardrobe change and different speech patterns and mannerisms, he really pulled it off. Jonathan Northover also impressed everyone with his natural style – nothing new for Jonathan, who always does well. I enjoyed acting with him, as I generally do. This is in spite of the fact that he punched me in the stomach over and over. Fair enough, though, because I smacked Josh in the face with a pistol just as many times.
Nick went through a big arc tonight – from cockily hoping to impress the boss with his meager accomplishment and toughness to finding himself somehow blamed for the murders and unsure how it happened. I had a variety of emotions to portray – arrogance, yearning for acceptance and approval, doubt, confusion, violent anger, embarrassment, pain, humiliation, disbelief, shock, growing fear, and terror. I think I pulled it off. Patrick and others seemed happy with what I gave them. Ken even called my performance “fantastic.” Like I said, he’s a nice guy.
On Day 5, I had to perform Day 4 all over, but in my close-ups. On Day 4, I had a few two-shots (Jonathan and me, Nathan and me, and Josh and me), but the one-shots are where all the focus is on a single actor and he damn well better get it right. Ironically, this is where we often forget the lines that we have already performed dozens of times in other shots. That didn’t happen to me, but what I was faced with was having recently read Michael Caine’s Acting in Film, in which he advises that the closer the shot, the smaller the actions should be, including facial actions and expressions. He also points out that, in the close-up, the audience will be able to tell if the actor is genuinely feeling the emotion, or just acting. These two pointers from one of the greatest actors ever served to add pressure to me in my close-up shot. As I was going through each of the shots and each of the takes, while Nick was thinking his thoughts about the situation, Brian was monitoring his delivery – focusing on subtlety and authenticity. When it was time to be terrified – knowing that the audience would recognize if I was faking it – I was remembering what it was like to rock climb and be on a two-inch wide foothold 500 feet above the ground, or going off the platform in a bungee jump, or leaving the airplane in a skydive. I really did feel the fear, a real chill. I look forward to seeing if the authenticity comes across on screen.
Years from now, I may look back on these reflections of my acting process embarrassed that I would think them, much less write them on-line. For now, though, this is how I felt.
After wrapping on Day 5, which was an early night, many of us went to Cushing Street Bar and Restaurant to let off steam and bond for a few hours. It was a great time. We were even treated to a flamenco demonstration by Melissa, which was very cool.
I had several days off before my final day of acting, which would be easy, because I only have to play Nick’s corpse in the coroner’s office. In between, we spent one day at Cowtown Keeylocko, owned and built by Ed Keeylocko. It is kinda like a western town, but not quite, and it was built by Ed himself, when he wasn’t cattle ranching. Ed and the other locals were all extremely nice to us. It was the highlight of the shoot. Justin – an accomplished stunt man and actor – had to fall off his barstool onto his back, for a few takes. The bar “floor” was soft dirt, but everyone was still amazed. I (jokingly, sort of) waved it off as nothing compared to how many times he had me fall backwards over a log onto rocky ground covered only by a one-inch mat in The Decoy. Poor Wally.
On Day 11, I had to get up at 7:09 – that’s before 8:00!!! AM! I drove to Phoenix to pick up body parts for our morgue scene from my buddy, SFX god Michael Peterson. Of course, the day I have to go to Phoenix, we had an early start – noon – so I had to make the trip three hours earlier than I would have on any other day. It was worth it, though, to get this severed foot. It looked and felt so real, that it was freaking everyone out – except Angus, who, I’m sure, has seen more than his share of body parts. In one of his scenes, he carried around the foot and absentmindedly left it on a table. It was a funny scene. I liked the interconnection of veteran horror talent (Angus) and young horror talent (Michael). I think Michael will enjoy receiving a photo of Angus holding Michael’s foot.
Angus was a pleasure to talk with and very fun to watch work. He brought a dry, macabre humor to his scenes, and even voluntarily ate the peanut butter and sardine sandwiches! As a bit of black humor, the director had Angus looking around for his misplaced sandwich, only to find it on the slab, next to my dead body. He’s a nice guy, in his early 80s. He has a strong Thai community connection, which gave us something extra to discuss. He also worked for Capitol Records for 20+ years in the building my grandfather designed, or so family lore has it, although maybe he was only a member of the design team. (I found another architect receiving credit through my Google search.)
The final day of shooting was mostly quick shots of Nathan and Bear, driving or getting in and out of the car. This was the only time I saw the exterior of Club 71. It was perfect! Just an small, old shack that had been a used car store a long time ago. Now, a bum is apparently living in it. It was scheduled to be demolished around the start of shooting, but Patrick found the owner and got him to postpone the demolition until after the shoot. Good for the bum. The very last shot was Nathan almost running over Bear – the Pig Man, Shane’s alter ego. After a couple takes of that shot at about 10:15 PM on Day 12, Patrick announced, “That’s a wrap!” It was a good feeling.
The wrap party was excellent. Everyone was so happy to be celebrating completion of such a well done project. Patrick had been jokingly (I think) complaining that we already had a party (a week earlier) and didn’t need another one and that shooting would run late and not be done in time, blah, blah, blah. Yet, he ended up having the best time of anyone. Maybe 30 of the cast and crew were there, plus another 10 or so film friends who added to our enjoyment. Patrick stayed out until 1:30, which, for him, was amazing. Vicky, the other producer not only stayed until closing (2:00), but also went to eat with a handful of us, which kept her out until about 4:00! Ha ha, I will turn her into a filmmaker yet!
I had not realized how much stress I was feeling from the filming. At the party, I suddenly felt the exhaustion hit me. Ugh! Still, it was completely worthwhile. We are all fully expecting Red 71 to be an excellent film. Stay tuned.
