The End

today we wrapped on principle shooting of John Basketball. it ended on a short day in owosso in a van. thanks to everyone who helped out with anything. all the cast and the crew and the locations. there were lots of great times had, i cant thank everyone enough.

WERE BACK!

today we had everyone back together for the first time in a while. even the sound guy showed up! just kidding dustin. wink nod wink. but it was great. we met at jerrys house. some people were late. one person didnt even know we were shooting today! but we left jerrys house for my old house (greers house in the film). it was weird being there and someone else living there. it was cold and the suit is starting to be the best costume on set for warmth. it was raining for a short while but no one really complained. dustin left at one point for class and then ran back before the next shot even started saying it was canceled.

we busted out the jib in a big way today. and had no problems with it. i dont think thats happened before. and it was complicated and on a dolly. and we got it in less than ten takes. so go team.

we left my house and got taco cart for lunch. it has become a staple. jordan always requests it and everyone else follows. from there it was only a few blocks to the quality inn where we shot motel interiors to sub in for a different motel that wanted to charge us lots of money to use it for a few hours. what a bunch of jerks. well this place had a pool! and we were able to get off my cannonball scene. i learned that i am a pretty weak swimmer and cant really tread water for more than 5 minutes without being completely exhausted.

it was really a nice day of shooting. we shoot again on thursday, i think its our last big day of shooting. kind of sad.

road trip in a juggalo van

ITS A ROAD TRIP!

today was a great day of shooting. really a lot of fun. we had some problems getting a van so i guess greer just went out and bought one that didnt work, then he put in a new radiator and made it awesome. it didnt break down and it had most of its seat belts.

the crew was as small as it can be today, no sound guy, no script supervisor just the cast, a grip and the director. we started in lansing and did a breakfast scene at theos and then went to the capital really quick. from there we went to a giant chicken statue thing. from the giant chicken statue we went to turkeyville, which was actually pretty awesome. they had ice cream and a play ground farm animals and the meanest goat ive ever seen. also make sure to check out the dead bird, hes a staple. next we went to a magic museum that was tons of fun, the guy did a card trick with me, he totally got me. then we went and played some putt putt and called it a day. we got a lot shot in only half a day. we shoot again next thursday and wrap all the van stuff. after that its just a hop skip and a jump till we are officially done. cant wait!

hey do you know about this?

heres how a general day of shooting goes. i get up, generaly early and go to jerrys house. im usually one of the first ones their but i have had my late days. if we're going to a different location we car pool as best we can after all the equipment is packed. then we unload the camera, tripod and steadycam and people start looking at there lines. if we have to set up things and dress the set we do that while someone sets up lights or the dolly or jib if its a crazy day. then we shoot for a while. jerry says cut and that was great a lot. caset claps the board and dustin does sound. at some point we stop and eat, sometimes its things like granola bars and sometimes its chicken salad. pizza once or twice. and then we get back to shooting, lights are set up and taken down, couches are moved and make up is applied. at some point we finish and have to put everything back the way it was and take down all the lights and put the equipment away. then usually people go to a bar or get food or back to jerrys house. and thats a typical shooting day minus complications.

im a few days behind so this is going to be a bit scattered. we had about a two and a half week break trying to get things scheduled for the last few shots. we still dont have everything on the books, and now people are back in school and have different schedules so its been hard to get everyone together. but we started up again in full swing, we shot with a dog! that was fun. and he even had a dog double that was way more hyper and wanted to run into the road. that was scary, we quickly went back to the other older regular dog.

we shot the jackson hurts his ear scene, which is also the janitor scene i guess. the janitor was great, even though he was a few hours late. it was the third time wed tried to shoot this scene, and our third janitor. but it went really well. mark had the joke of the day with his phone and a picture of matt leblanc. the fake blood looked really great, and father don was back again in full force. its great having him on set, hes a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from all the young actors we have. back at it later this week trying to shoot the van scenes. we've spent about a month just trying to find a van we can use. so hopefully we can get it out of the way.

Cool Day In A Hot Factory

today we shot at a giant board of water and light coal plant. it was really awesome. the people working there were super nice and helped us with everything. we all got to wear hard hats and safety goggles. Dustin is out of town so Tom took his place as sound guy for the day. it was probably for the best that there was no talking in the scene.

it was just a short shoot. we faked a tour and one of us got lost and then found again. it was a really fun day on set. the crew is hilarious and everyone gets a long super well. its such a great fun group of people.

tomorrow. body paint. ive been waiting months for this. its going to be ridiculous.

back in the saddle again

we resumed shooting today after a 6 day hiatus. my face has sense gotten unswollen and my eye unbrused. today was a big day. the scrimmage with the michigan militia. it was 8 pages long and it started at 830 in the am. we started right away in the car on the way there and then set up to be in oak park all day. i didnt have my camera charged so jackie sent me these nice cell phone pictures for the blog. way to go idaho.

pretty much the whole day was spent on the basketball court. the whole gang was there and gary butthole was introduced. you may know his brother barry. it was a long hot day in the sun, and i think only greer got sunburned. but that is normal. there were some problems with the jib. but that is also normal now. tom got to sit in an air conditioned building all day and donaldson took a nap. also it was a big joke on set today to have people kiss donaldson on the cheek. he was kissed seven times.

the other team was great. the militia are a really funny group of guys and they had some really funny improv. also they can ball. the scrimmage went well. shooting at the factory on friday. should be pretty awesome. did you know at this factory they will take a whole train car and flip it upside down to dump coal? did you also know that its all anyone who works there talks about?

Busy behind the eightball

So im about three days of shooting behind right now, so im just going to make it all up in one big blog entry.

day whatever. we shot in the church parking lot, i had a black eye and had to wear sunglasses to cover it. it was a pretty big scene between me and father don. mark boyd is a great actor and really cracked me up on set. jerry took a break and schooled mark roebuck and jjcomedy@gmail.com in behind the back handball. it rained and we had to stop for a few hours, but it dryed out eventually and we shot everything we set out to (almost)

day whatever plus 2. we had one of our few night shoots at bobs house. his cat is hilarious. it will hiss at you all day, but doesnt mind when you pet it. what a hoot. we shot greer eating a sandwich on the ground and it was one of the funniest things ive ever seen. mark roebuck spent the night all weekend. and we ended up shooting till about one that night. we coined the phrase dirt sandwiches and had a great dinner scene.

day whatever plus three. started at noon and went till midnight. a long day. starting in bobs upstairs and finishing in his downstairs. there were tiny delays here and there, and we kept mark a little later than we wanted to. but it was a blast. having a scene where we all had to be fake laughing we would mess with each other before each take. jackson and marcus had some really great scenes together. it feels good when the long days are done. that we really shot a lot.

as of right now we are at a stand still. i woke up today with a swollen face and have to get a root canal. so i cant shoot until the swelling goes down. hopefully sunday we start back up. jerry quoted to me today that we only have 6 more shooting days left. exciting stuff.

The Big Show

n


o
The macker has come and gone. it was an experience to say the least. The day started out with a nice long drive with the team to belding. when we got there the macker was already in full swing. our first game was right away and it was over extremely quickly. we didnt score one basket and we were still figuring out how to shoot the game with 5 cameras.

the second game was amazing. it went on for a good twenty minutes. and we actualy scored some baskets. marcus was the mvp of that game. there were no mvps in the first bout. greer was posting up the most ridiculous shots all day and screaming hoss sauce. the crowd was really behind us, we had a lot of people watching. it was weird to stay in character, but it wasnt that hard. just hiding laughing every now and then. we lost again. but we scored 4 points.

at one point this guy came on to try and practice while we were filming inbetween games. jerry shut him down pretty quick. it was fun to see.

We went back the next day. we were playing on the dream court. thats where they make this awesome looking court in the street, and little kids play on it. but jerry pulled some strings and we were in. jerrys family came to watch all the games, his brother even brought in the baby trucker. jerrys mom was feeding us the whole time and the people who worked at the gus macker were nothing but extremely nice the whole time.

before our last game we played a group of 14 year old girls for fun because their team didnt show up. we played hard, i got a black eye and rolled my ankle in the process. we also lost. and our next game was right after that, everyone was super tired and we soon realized playing those girls was not a good idea.

the last game was great, the court looked fantastic and the team played well. greer finally hit one of his ridiculous shots and jackson made a really nice jump shot. the macker went great, and we got everything that we needed to get there. it was choas, but in the best way.

dont call it a come back

jerrys storyboards are hilarious. they make no sense to me, but the end result is always spectacular.

the crew was small for the first half of the day. no sound needed. most of my clothes were not needed. i spent the first 4 hours in boxers getting ready. its for the very opening of the film. so now we have the beginning and the end. so were basically done. thats pretty much an inside joke. seeing as how when we started our end date was the first week of august. and as of right now were scheduled till the 18th. some days have been cancelled and unexpected things have happened, as they do with filming and life in general.

i had to do some push ups and sit ups on screen today. that was pretty embarrassing. also i had a pretty bad case of the giggles today. pretending to sleep seems to make me laugh uncontrollably for some reason.

i had to eat 2 different bowls of cereal on set today. i was really looking forward to it. but by the end i had had enough. casey made some really awesome fake mail that had addresses referencing our cats and dogs. really a fantastic prop.

me and greer had some great dialogue together. really funny stuff. and for lunch we had chicken salad with grapes. good stuff. today ended with a shower scene i had to do. it was pretty funny. fake crying is a good time. next we shoot the gus macker. pretty huge scene. its a weekend long shoot while staying in character and playing basketball while we guerilla shoot with multiple cameras against a real team.

also i made the logo for the jerseys this weekend. it turned out pretty awesome. its a stencil!

Aerosmith, two weeks.

a nice long day. 845 call time at jerrys. i picked tom up, its been a few weeks since me and tom have had our hip hop throwdowns on the way to set and it was nice to have it back. me and casey set up most of the set yesterday so there wasnt a lot to do right away. jerry took mark and jordan upstairs and shot them for a while. then we waited for mark boyd to show up.

while we waited we played a pretty awesome game of football in the front yard. jackie made an amazing catch into garbage cans and had a nice scrape on her arm. we moved onto the big breakup scene. jerry says my best scenes are the sad ones. i can pull off sad no problem. if only i could pull off highlights.

the day ended with some blood in the bathroom and it was pretty awesome. remember guys. aerosmith. two weeks.
tomorrow a lot of me and greer. weve begun shooting in the house so were not changing locations a ton right now. its making shooting pretty stable.

the end of all things.

yesterday our day was ruined by a funeral. another canceled day. but i didnt really get any pictures from today, so were going with these. please note that i am now posting pictures here that are not posted on facebook. this is called incentive.

today we shot me and greers ending. it was a sad somber scene. our end is now sealed. regardless of what happens this weekend. and i think we can pull it out. i really do. we did three different takes of our end. maybe the others will be on the dvd? each one is just different enough. thats all we shot today. lets just call tomorrow george clooney, because right now it is up in the air.