red hands PRODUCTION Diary

Got a call last night from Kim Bastyr, our excellent producer. She’s in Chicago and has been having trouble getting touch with the lady who owns the location where we want to do our shooting later this month. We need to nail down this location, both for production concerns and because Jacob Sunday, the fantastic actor who’s playing the Agent (our male lead), has to change a plane ticket – he’s going to be flying down from Washington state. I’m going to call the lady this afternoon and if I can’t make contact that way I’ll do some field recon, drive out there and try to talk to her in person because I have good intel that she likes to oversee the running of this establishment’s lounge. Should be fun.

Off The Map -- that’s what this production is all about. We’re physically shooting outside the LA green zone so as not to get screwed by greedy locations and municipalities. Everyone in Hollywood wants to suck the bloated cash cow that modern cinema’s become; everyone’s savvy to the tit. Case in point: Glendale. Kim and I went to this crack-whore motel, complete with glass pipes and crusty panties stashed in the palm bushes out front, and politely asked the elderly Korean owners if we could shoot a few exteriors there. They demanded 3 grand a day, because they’ve had commercials and God only knows what else shot there before, and they knew they could get it. Even after we explained that on this particular shoot the ENTIRE budget we are working with is capped at 5 grand. Amazing. BTW, if you want to help out and help us raise the rest of our budget, or just offer your services for collaboration and group love please contact me here or at pacificvagrant@gmail.com.

This afternoon I’m going to see the full version of Che. It was shot with the new RED HD camera. It’ll be inspiring to see what they come up with. BTW, here are some movies that inspired the script of RED HANDS: Blood Simple, Blue Velvet, Choose Me, Angel Heart, Betty Blue, Paris Texas. Some music: This Mortal Coil (Filigree and Shadow), Tom Waits (Rain Dogs), Pylon (Volume), Wilco (So Misunderstood), Talking Heads (Slippery People), Jesus Lizard (everything).