The Best of Myspace

I’m an avid fan of Myspace, an online community where you connect with friends and acquaintances, send messages, promote your show or band or whatever, and generally just waste a lot of time.

I started blogging on Myspace about my experiences on THE AIR I BREATHE months ago during pre-production, just to let my friends know what was going on in my life, both professionally and personally. Soon after arriving in Mexico City, it seemed like a good idea to start blogging in a much more public manner, via the official website.

Now, I’m only doing the one blog, but those old Myspace blogs are fun and I thought everyone might be interested in some excerpts, glimpses of the pre-production of the film and my first few experiences in Mexico City. So for your reading pleasure, here’s The Best of the Myspace Blogs:

1/16/06

Last night, a week and a half before shooting was to begin, I had a dream. The crew of THE AIR I BREATHE was gathered outside by a big campfire, and I was hanging out with a Brendan Fraser, just chatting. Suddenly, Sarah Michelle Gellar runs up to us and says to Brendan, “Let’s go practice our lines!” And the two of them ran off to rehearse. I so wanted to go with them, to hear the words spoken aloud, but it wasn't my place. So I hung by the fire, nervous, excited...and then I woke up. I’m dreaming about AIR every night…

1/24/06

Holy hell. I’m flying out Thursday. That’s two days if you’re counting.

Yesterday, I decided to learn Spanish. I gave myself the drive to Santa Monica and back. That’s enough time right? So there I am, screaming down the 10, listening to the CD adventures of Linda from Snack Track as she arrives in the Madrid airport and gets a crash course in how to speak Spanish, when I get a call from our 1st Assistant Director in Mexico City, needing a lot of work from me…and I’m a WAYS from my computer. A quick haircut and a good back-crackin’ later, and I’m back to the Valley to try and navigate the insanely fun world of script revisions.

Every time I leave my apartment, someone calls and puts me to work. Every meal with friends, I’m ducking out the door to try and catch up with Jieho for a few precious minutes. I am very much in pre-production, all these miles away. And yet, at least I get to sleep in my bed at night. Jieho’s in Mexico City, so far away, so exhausted, everyone needing him every second of the day.

I’ll be there soon, at Jieho's side, in the thick of it. I can’t wait. Oh man, I can’t wait…

1/27/06

The night before we leave, I realize I really didn't know how to pack for going away for 6 weeks to make a movie. I figured it out, but it took all night. I didn’t sleep a wink and Christopher Pratt (executive producer and me and Jieho’s manager) picked me up before 7 AM. We met one of our producers, a gorgeous Cuban beauty named Darlene, at the airport and hopped on our flight. Christopher was passed out before the plane took off. I slept a solid thirty minutes. Just too excited.

Mexico City is huge and crowded and actually kinda amazing. Our hotel is very cool. Got a quick nap before heading over to the incredible house of one of our producers for a little pre-movie celebration. Met a lot of the crew, including our great DP Walt Lloyd. Caught up with Jieho, exhausted from a day of camera tests and such.

I got a welcome hug from Brendan Fraser, who’s just the nicest guy in the world.

Talked about power-ballads and sushi with Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is very sweet and looks FANTASTIC.

Drank tequila and red-wine and enjoyed listening to a 10-piece mariachi band in the LIVING ROOM.

As the party winded down, our producer whisked a few of us off for a feverish all-night odyssey into the Mexico City nightlife. Packed clubs filled with cigarette smoke (ack), more tequila, being escorted past every velvet rope...and remember, I had maybe 90 minutes of sleep in 2 days. I staggered in around 6 in the morning, then passed out.

1/28/06

What does happiness look like?

It’s different for everyone, I imagine. But for me it’s simple.

THE AIR I BREATHE is broken up into four vignettes, each named after an emotion, each emotion represented by a single character that may or may not embody those traits upon first glance.

When Jieho originally invited me to co-write the script with him, he was planning on shooting the film in Korea, so of course I imagined all four "emotion" characters as Korean. After Jieho decided to make the film in the U.S. (or Mexico City…close enough), I had different images of what all the characters looked like, except for the character of Happiness, a spiritually bereft banker who makes a fatal mistake and must risk everything to save himself. No matter what, I always saw Happiness as Korean. In my mind, it was so hard to put a new face to a character who was so many things: lonely, desperate, ultimately transcendent. And he has a lot of scenes alone, a true test of any actor.

But now, after the first day of shooting on my first film as a professional screenwriter, I can honestly tell you exactly what Happiness looks like.

Imagine Forest Whitaker, currently wowing the planet on FX’s THE SHIELD, striding onto our set for the first day of shooting, pulling on the rumpled brown trench coat I always saw in my mind, and racing through the front doors of a bank. Now I can’t tell you what happens inside that bank, but when he comes out…

He IS Happiness.

1/29/06

This morning we started with STUNTS! Forest worked for a while, running, jumping, falling…it is amazing to watch him work. He always throws himself into the scene, body and soul, and afterwards, treats us all to a warm grin. He’s having a blast and it shows.

Jieho asked me to bring my little DV camera to document the making of the film, so I spend most of my time trying to find interesting angles to shoot the action without getting in the way. I’m not good at this at all, but I’m learning. Today, I shot a quick interview with Forest where I asked him about riding a moped in the film. Not normal interview kinda stuff, but I’m just trying to have fun, maybe show the human side of making movies that you don’t normally get to see.

Jieho shot our first full dialogue scene today, a fateful meeting between Sorrow and a small but important supporting character. It’s one of my favorite scenes, and finally getting to watch Sarah work was a blast. We were in a downtown intersection, the streets blocked off, and people started to gather, straining for a glimpse of the stars. At one point, Sarah was prepping for a shot, and I looked over and saw Emile Hirsch (onset for a fitting) chatting with Forest, and I thought, Holy hell, there’s a movie here. With stars. And I co-wrote it. Unbelievable…

2/4/06

It's pretty early here in Mexico City as we enter week two of production. We're staggering five and six day weeks so it's hard to remember what day it is. I'm mostly sure that today is Saturday. It's pretty cold right now, but I know it'll get warm later.

The first week went great, and Jieho's showing a confidence and skill that's blowing everyone away. We started off with four producers crowded around the monitors, making sure things were going well. Today, there will be one or two. The machine is rolling and Jieho and his extremely capable Assistant Director and Director of Photography are on fire.

I'm in the producer's trailer right now, and no one's around. It's very quiet, a little lonely. I miss Christopher and Darlene (who are both back in Los Angeles on business). We share a van in the morning, and while they're away, I ride by myself with our driver Miguel.

Soon I will drift over to the set, settle in a director's chair near the monitors with a head set and today's script pages photocopied into a pocket-sized packet.

I'm pretty tired. My inner clock is all messed up right now. The other day, I mentioned to our A.D. Paul that being on location for the first time feels like being the new kid at summer camp when all the other kids have been coming for years. Everyone knows how to do it, what to eat, when to sleep. I'm figuring it out though, and doing okay.

Off to the set in a bit. I just got today's pages. For some reason, they're not pocket-sized today. Oh well. Not everything's perfect in Mexico City, but it's damn close.

2/08/06

Today, we shot the hostess bar scenes at an elegant gentlemen's club. You know what that means, right? Yes, scantily clad exotic dancers. The funny thing is: imagine a wide shot where two of the main characters enter the club, dancers on the stage behind them. You need to see the girls dancing, but you also need to hear the characters’ dialogue. So the way the crew accomplishes this is they crank up the music so that the dancers get the rhythm, then they cut the music, call action, and as the actors do their lines, the girls keep dancing...in total silence. It's kinda unsettling.

We ended the day with Brendan kicking the crap out of couple of stunt men in the club's kitchen. It was our first real fight scene, and I got to watch the stunt supervisor work with Brendan, Jieho overseeing and adding his thoughts. When they finally rolled cameras, it was just stunning. Brendan kicks ass. Truly.

2/18/06

And there you have have it, the mysterious yet revelatory Myspace blogs. Hopefully, you enjoyed them. Today’s an off day, so I’m writing in my hotel room, listening to Cracker, and wrestling with a fearsomely slow Internet connection.

My cousin’s getting married today and I’m missing it. I’ve already missed the birthdays of three of my best friends. Another one next week.

But how can I complain? Tomorrow, we begin week four.

And off we go…