Wow. That was so cooked.
I will never be the same again.
A Never-Ending Production
I think it took us about 10 hours straight to film the CCR. We filmed from 4:30pm to 2am. On a school night. I still needed to take them home and take a shower afterwards, so I really ended up falling asleep at around 3:30am - 4am. I am currently writing this on two hours of sleep. I knew it would take a long time when I wrote the script, but I didn't expect it to take THAT long. I was more-so anticipating to wrap things up by 10pm or something. That just ended up not going to plan, for a multitude of reasons. I am just going to explain the overall process from the beginning.
Slight Change of Course
I wrote the script for the CCR over the weekend in order to adequately prepare myself for this great filming excursion. I had written it with two main characters in mind: Texas Jacobs and the interviewer. I would play Jacobs and my friend Jayden would play the interviewer. I outlined how I wanted it to go on my previous blog post, so check it out if you want a little more context. At school the day we were going to film, one of my other friends, Santiago, asked if he could tag along. He wanted to hang out with us while we filmed, and I said sure. I said he could voice one of the officers that catches Jacobs after the third question. Little did I know, this decision would alter the course of the entire project.
The Car Scene
To keep things simple, I severely underestimated how hard it would be to remember my long answers and deliver them while driving at the same time. I already have a past of not being able to remember my lines, and the CCR showcased that weakness for everyone to see. We spent like 3 hours driving around my neighborhood aimlessly while I tried to deliver the lines. I cannot stress this enough, it was SO difficult for me. I was really trying my best, too. I must have some sort of short-term memory loss or something, because once I would finally memorize one part, I would immediately forget another. It was like my memory had a maximum storage capacity and it was at its limit, making me replace one line for another because I couldn't fit them all. We decided to break up my answer into many different cuts so I could remember each one and say them individually. This will result in a bunch of jump cutting, but there was literally no other way we could do this, the way my memory is.
It got so bad that we ended up having Jayden film other parts of the car during some of the longer answers so I didn't have to drive and could read off the script at the same time. After taking this long, we realized the sun was going down and we only got ONE question done. I needed this all filmed in one day, because there were no other days that Jayden could really film. (He is INSANELY overloaded with work at the moment, and even had to skip school one day earlier this week just to do his homework all day.) Also, I forgot to mention that Santiago was sitting in the back of the car the whole time we filmed this part, and it took so long he fell asleep. Let's just say morale was beginning to dwindle and stress was setting in, and we only filmed the first quarter of it.
Taking our options into account, we decided to change the story so after the first question and hitting the pedestrian, we would abandon the car and run into a house nearby. This way, I would not have to drive again while answering questions and we wouldn't have to worry about daytime continuity issues inside. This is where the project really began to deviate from the script. These interlude parts took way less time to do, because I was not stressing over delivering my actual CCR answers perfectly.
Breaking In
Now that we were in this random house, we had to think of something that would fit the story. I still wanted to have the court scene at the end, and ended up thinking of something really funny that would involve Santiago. We decided that we would walk into a random room to hide, but there was someone in that room already. He (played by Santiago) would be playing guitar to himself, and freak out when he saw us. Then, he would realize that I was Texas Jacobs, his favorite musician, and he had my collector's edition banjo. After Jacobs realizes he is in his biggest fan's house, he seizes this opportunity to ask if they could stay there. Blinded by excitement, the fan lets him stay. This is where we would segway to the next question, where the fan pulls out a clipboard with pre-written questions that he could ask.
This part of the answer was the worst part of the whole project. Yet again, my memory kept failing me, and I was taking way too long trying to remember the different parts of the answer. It was to the point where I was trying to memorize it so hard, that the words didn't even sound real anymore, and more just a collection of syllables. The stress was really starting to get to me at this point, because my friends' parents were beginning to call and ask them when they were coming home. We weren't even halfway done yet. I stressed out so much that I ended up taking 30 minutes to memorize two sentences. It was that bad. Also on top of EVRYTHING, we had construction going on in our house, since we were renovating one of our bathrooms. There were many times where a take would have to be cut because of construction noises. I felt my friends growing more annoyed with each failed take, and we were all exhausted, so something needed to change.
My sister (who played the pedestrian) ended up coming to help out. She acted as moral support and an acting coach, helping me approach my lines in a different way. Instead of trying to memorize each word individually, I would try to memorize the main idea of each section. After approaching it with this new mindset, we ended up finally being able to film the rest of the answers. We then noticed that it was 9:30pm, and realized we had a choice to make: somehow film the rest of it tonight, or try and schedule the rest of the filming on another day. Jayden simply couldn't do the latter, due to how much work he has, and so we opted for the first option. My mom ordered pizza and we quickly drove to the gas station for some monster energies to stay awake for the rest of this production. This was a much needed break, and I think was what we all needed at this point.
The Court Scene
Once this much needed break was over, I realized my parents needed to sleep soon. I had my dad casted as the judge, and my mom casted as the attorney. At this pace, we couldn't finish the third question in time for them to sleep well, so we decided to film the court scene next. We needed to figure out what they would wear for this, and my mom luckily had a bunch of stuff in her closet that we could use. We also realized we didn't have a gavel, so made a makeshift one out of a cup, spatula, and aluminum foil. The court scene basically went as scripted, and took around two hours to film, taking everything into account. Also, by this time my friend Santiago realized he had a bunch of assignments due that night. There were only a few minutes until midnight, and he knew he couldn't get them in on time. This further added to the insane guilt I was already feeling.
Interrogation
The final scene we had to film needed to answer the third question. We already had an idea on how to shoot this scene, so let me explain it.
After answering the fan's question, he would get a phone call. The caller is a police officer, telling him that someone just got hit outside his house. With this, Jacobs and the interviewer realize that must mean the fan is also a police officer. While we are all in the room, the suspect description is explained, exactly describing us. The officer connects the dots, and that is where the first video ends.
The second video begins with us in his garage ready to be interrogated. The officer says something along the lines of being good cop or bad cop, and then asks me the third question. After I answer it, he is satisfied, having fulfilled his fantasy interview of Texas Jacobs. Then, sirens are heard near, and the cop tells us we would see him again in court. He also gives a hint at the judge known as the "one-minute judge". This will be made clearer when you finally see the completed CCR.
The actual filming of this scene was not nearly as bad as the others. I finally focused up and practiced the technique I learned from my sister earlier. This part didn't take super long to film, and with it being completed, we realized we were finally, at long last, done with production. After celebrating, we took a selfie to commemorate this beautiful moment, and realized it was about 2am.
After this, my friends and I were still a little energized from the monster energies we drank, and talked for half an hour before finally driving to their houses dropping them off. Once I got back, I took a shower and went to bed, and that was it. I wouldn't say that was sleep, more of a power nap before school.
Me before filming the CCR vs. after filming the CCR:
Before I end this post, I would like to thank Jayden, Santiago, my sister, my mom, and my dad for their support and making this possible. I genuinely couldn't have done it without them. Now, I need to edit...
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