JANUARY 7, 2006
Day 7
St. Clair, MO

I decided to rewrite the scenes planned for today. Originally, everything took place in the woods around an abandoned German bunker.

I decided to change this for two reasons :

1. A lot of shit happens happens in the woods in this movie.

2. We would have to build a bunker.

Now, building a bunker is hard work. Really, really hard work. I know this because we spent most of the late Summer, Fall, and Winter building a hilltop bunker for the big battle scene in the movie. Granted, the hilltop set is actually two bunkers, a field gun emplacement, a mortar pit, and a bunch of trenches, so one lousy bunker shouldn’t be too much to handle… but it’s still an enormous pain in the ass.

Therefore, I rewrote the scene.

Now the entire thing takes place in a field by a railroad embankment. Except for a train rolling through one of our takes, the day was pretty much a success.

After we wrap, The crew and cast who will be staying at the rental house decide to head into town for the dining experience that is Joe Bacardi’s Ristorante.

What a mistake.

The dirty, tired, and hungry people of the RHINELAND production team threw the hoosier regulars for a loop. The food was lousy, the service sucked, and the atmosphere was decidedly uncomfortable.

Since tomorrow is supposed to be the first vehicle day (a jeep) Butch spends most of the meal on the phone trying to contact the jeep guy. No luck.

Back at the house, we break out a copy of Axis and Allies.

SIDE NOTE : A&A
AXIS and ALLIES : The game of world conquest in WW2.
I love this game. I have probably played it at least 200 times in the past 17 years.
It is hands-down my favorite game of all time. I think I own 12 different versions of it.
No, not 12 copies, 12 VERSIONS. The Pacific, Europe, D-day, World at War, etc etc
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After the game wrapped up, everyone went to sleep - a strict no drinking ban was sort of enforced, to avoid any repeats of the Hell Night in the cabin. I slowly drifted off as my air mattress deflated beneath me, worried because we still had no word from the jeep guy.


January 8, 2006
Day 8
St. Clair, MO

As one might expect, sleeping on the floor doesn’t do much for one’s back. The alarm, followed by a loud, explosive fart from the production designer, heralds the start of a new day.

First things first : No jeep. Son of a bitch!

When he is finally contacted, jeep guy has of course forgotten all about the shoot. Not that it matters, because it turns out he couldn’t get it started anyway. We’ll have to reschedule.

Instead, we are doing two different scenes. One takes place just after the climax of the story, and the other someplace in the middle.

The first scene we do for the day is in the woods. As we’re loading up the Pinzgauer production transport, one of the actors starts bitching about the lack of room, and how we should have prepared better for said lack.

Forget the fact that I’ve been scrambling all morning to reschedule things because the vehicle guy flaked out; What I really should have been concerned about was the level of actor legroom comfort in the transport truck.

This pissed me off so much that I decided to hike the two miles or so to the set in order to cool off.

Once we got rolling, we knocked out the woods stuff in short order, then moved onto some foxhole scenes in a field involving a number of extras along with the main cast.

For this particular shooting segment, we drew a small audience of locals.


SIDE NOTE: HAVING AN AUDIENCE
People who don’t make movies think that making movies is fun and exciting.

This is true for about 2% of the time. The other 98% it’s a nerve-wracking pain in the ass. If you’re ever working on a project with a set that’s open to the public, expect to draw an audience.
Be polite to them first and then try to ignore them, because they’ll eventually drift away after take 17 of your actor putting on his shoes.
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The day ended on time and pretty well, all things considered. The only downside was no jeep.


JANUARY 14 2006
Day 9
Desoto, MO

Today is the first real explosion day. It’s a mine clearing sequence.

When we got to the set, the ground was frozen solid.

Good, because the actors have to lay down on a dirt road.

Bad, because we have to dig a hole for an anti-tank mine in the dirt road.

Nature decides to compromise for us. The day warms up enough to turn the road into a muddy shit-hole, yet stays cold enough to keep everybody alert by freezing off appendages.

Besides explosions, we’re also doing blood effects. Earlier in the week, our FX guy made a big deal about me giving him a couple of jackets so that he could prep them for chest wounds, which I dutifully did.

Unfortunately, when he began prepping the actors who get hit by mortar fire, he only does their face and neck.

I look at the clean, freshly torn-up jackets, to the bloody actor faces, to the FX guy.

ME : How come there’s no blood on the jackets?

FX GUY : Oh, because they’re just getting head wounds.

ME : Then why did you need to tear up two perfectly good jackets?

FX GUY : Oh. Uh, why? Did you want something besides head wounds?

(sound of my hand clapping to my forehead)

ME : Yes! Chest wounds! You talked all about chest wounds! WE talked all about chest wounds! Nobody said anything about head wounds!

FX GUY : Oh. But they look alright, don’t they?

ME : Garglblargh! Just pour some blood on ‘em!

Despite all of the hi-jinx, we have a good shoot, and once again a small audience shows up. This time however, we’re blowing shit up, and well, that’s pretty exciting.

One of the audience members is an actual WW2 veteran, and he actually fought in the Rhineland campaign. I asked him if this looked anything like how it really was, and he said ” A little bit, but there were a lot more dead bodies where I was.”

We spent another night in the old cabin, with the stove glowing white-hot. Around midnight, four drunks riding four-wheelers woke us up, wanting to “party”, but since we had to get up in a couple of hours, we politely told them no.