Blak Is The New Black

Aside from being the birthday of sweet lady liberty, last weekend was the start and finish of photography on a new spec spot; this one for Coca-Cola Blak. If you’ve never heard of it, don’t feel left out – Blak’s only been on the market for a few weeks and their slogan “Coke effervescence and coffee essence” doesn’t exactly make a huge impression. For that reason – and because roommate/freakishly talented cinematographer Andrew Waruszewski had a 35mm camera package ready to go – I decided to do what I could to give them a little help in the marketing department.

With the clock ticking on getting the camera package back to the rental house, I was facing a time crunch that didn’t allow for the casting sessions, location scouting and storyboarding that went into my last spec, THE SILVER BULLET , not to mention pretty much everything I’ve done since film school. All we had was the concept – a sleepy 20-something getting a surprise during her morning routine – and a camera. No actor, no crew and certainly no location.

Notice I put special emphasis on the location. While I know this would conceivably be the least of my worries, anyone who’s ever spent time in this city can attest that it’s filled with apartments that are remarkable only by virtue of just how unremarkable they really are. And while stark white walls and a total lack of character are arguably fine for day to day living, they’re pretty much useless for shooting unless your movie takes place in an IRA torture cell, or in the Matrix.

There are, fortunately, those diamonds in the rough that have history, character and warmth written all over them. The ones with hardwood floors, tile countertops and wood fireplaces instead of carpeting that looks suspiciously like trampled asbestos, linoleum counters covered with coffee stains that form deeply unsettling rorschachs and units that – while advertised as having fireplaces – are actually places that have been set on fire. One of these dynamite homesteads is inhabited by Joel and Lynn Schroeder, who proved themselves fitting residents of the Miracle Mile by offering up their place for a day’s worth of shooting. Andy, meanwhile, proved to be a one-stop-shop for cast and crew, giving me a lead on a great young actress while he put together a crack team for behind the camera.

The shoot went from 8:30AM to 4:30PM, with the bulk of that time being spent trying to light and shoot the Mary Lou Retton of kitchens – adorable and full of energy but also incredibly small and with lots of tight corners (admittedly, I have no idea how that last part relates to America’s sweetheart). Highlights included basically destroying a prop coffee maker (if you’re buying a coffee maker at the Target in Culver City Target, I would advise you to avoid the red and black one in an open box), doing our best to stop the greyhound greased up with toxic medicine from making an astonishingly fast getaway, and wrapping on my first-ever 35 shoot. The experience reminded me that video is awesome but film is film, and that very film is heading in for processing tonight – check back for production updates and sneak peeks as we march into post.

Huge props to Andrew, Jeanine, Joel, Lynn, Timber, Todd, Dave, Nicole and the new Prius for helping out with the production. Hopefully what we end up with will be as great as the refreshing combination of Coke effervescence and coffee essence, together at last…