DEUCE OF SPADES HOTROD FILM UPDATES - photos from the Saugus and dry lake shoots

good stuff

 

Put the last finishing touches on my 50's jail cell set this morning. Got the guards uniforms, the jailbird clothes and a few more props, including one hell of a dreadful looking mattress for the little metal bunk. If this doesn't look like a cell, I don't know what does . I even painted rust on the pipes, as well as rubbed every ounce of gunk from my oil pan and engine onto the walls, to make them look more "seasoned"..

Oh yeahhhhhh....

 

I'm so happy to see this project progressing so well, since some people were quick to bash the idea in the beginning. Faith deserves all the support we can give, just as a reward for her dedication to a project.

 

Looking good Faith. Its all coming togethor as planned.

 

Faith,

Regarding Props and upcoming scenes. Maybe you could make a list to post on the HAMB of what you need for the next shoot and give the location times, etc. You might be surprised what people can come up with. There are quit a few people here on the HAMB who have been or are in the film industry who have stuff laying around.
Just a suggestion.........

 

Good idea... If I need more props I'll do that. Right now I am good on props. I only have one last scene to film and I am all done with the flashbacks.

For that scene we need a room that could pass as a 1955 hospital waiting room. It needs not be large. A hallway would work too. It needs to be able to pass as a 55 room or hallway though, so can't have modern stuff / look. Would need it for an entire day at the end of this month on a sunday. Must have persmission from owner. Must be free to use. Will give Special Thanks credits in the film, of course .

Anyone??

 

Filmed all day today, on my home built Lincoln height jail cell set. It looks so damn good I wanted to share a few low res photos of today's daylies



Enjoy!


Below: Things are not looking so good for Johnny.






He gets nailed, and he gets nailed gooood: "They wanted to make an exemple. They gave him everything he deserved, and then some"

 

There's an old 30's hospital just about 4 blocks north of Pasadena High School that was operating last in 2003 as St. Lukes Hospital. It's currently empty, waiting for redevelopement. I would contact the Pasadena City Hall Filming dept for use. The front entrance and lobby would be perfect, nothing has changed since the early 50's.

Also used during : "Kill Bill" - 2632 East Washington Blvd. (formerly St. Luke's Hospital)

 

Great job Faith,,looks great..and trust me guys,,,This is going to be a great one,,for sure

 

Wow... the walls really did turn out good!!!

~Jason

 

Worth a shot, but if the location belongs to eth city, and since I am not a film student, they will ask for the full fee, and I have ZERO money right now. They might ask for as much as $1000 to $5000 for one day. I don't even have the first $500 of it. But of course, I'll never know for sure until I ask ... And asking is FREE hehehehe...

 

Spent another full day filming inside the "jail". Today we filmed one phenomenal beating. It was very violent and we sure had a blast filming it. The two stunts I had helping me today are both good friends of mine and they did a great job. They both transformed into 50's prison guards beautifully. My friend Paul, who is actually English, did a great job at playing a really tough bastard and I was pleased to see his yelling did not have any accent to it. Johnny really gets beat up to a pulp in the scene so I guess this film will be no flick chick.

PS: There go my ratings LOL... Parental Guidance for violence, foul language and sexual situations. Oh and add to that way too much speeding, too

 

yeah man, nothing like wiping all the gunk from your hotrod's engine onto a wall to make it look "seasonned".

That's called: Recycling.

 

Hope you stocked up on the GoJo with Pumace, man.

I can't believe it's a box in your garage! Ah, the magic of movies...

Also, about needing money for the location - what if you "borrowed" a film student for a couple of days - long enough to flash an ID and a smile and get you in to film?

~Jason

 

People do that all the time... I have to see what I can find in term of location, but I think I will be filming my last flashback scene in my garage again, simply transforming my jail set into a hospital waiting room set. It is so darn convenient.... A simple coat of paint should do it. It kinda bums me to have to paint on top of my hotrod goop masterpiece, cause right now the jail cell walls look so awesome, aged, seasonned, grungy... but I guess there is more goop (a lot more goop) where the previous load of goop came from anyways, so... I am sure the Deuce of Spades will be generous in contributing with his oil and dirt mix to the set again . I am heading back to El MIrage friday, so more dirt in store hehehehehe...

Right now my hotrod looks FILTHY. It really looks like it's been driven the shit out of. Just the way I love it. No trailer queen here!

 

Why don,t you ask a local high school maybe that has a film course, let them help

 

Really looking good Faith.

For the questioner about the dragstrip era, my pals and I raced at Saugus on Saturday nights in the Fall of 1956.

(Faith, phone fixed, letter mailed.)

 

Your garage is getting a lot of action!

~Jason

 

After reading all the money making suggestions, it seems as tho Faith (being down to her last cent!) needs pure MONEY NOW!!! As each day goes by, without funds, she can't perform to make the final scenes. I made my own donation (wish it could have been more!), but if all HAMBers collectively donated 25 bucks, it would put her in "Fat city", to finish up in style!----I have read that the total HAMB membership is now in excess of 65000 X 25 bucks = 1,625000. All of us car people would benefit enormously with puffed up chests to be a small part of Faith's dream!! I for one am not worrying about getting a free DVD or anything else, just seeing this come together is great enough!!--------How about the rest of you gearheads?????----Don

 

OK, I'm in - how do I make out my $25 donation check and where do I send it?

 

Don, thank you for much for believing and supporting this endeavour. I was touched. I am very grateful.

In the last 6 months I have received only $200 in donations. My last scene alone (the jail scene) ended up costing me about $800 to film. You do the math. It's very hard. I think if everyone donated as little as $5 it would be enough and surely $5 would not cause too much financial hardship on anyone... but it woudl make all the difference in the world to me. There is a part of me that HATES asking for money cause the film is a labor of love and not about making money. I hate to even bring up money issues. However, the reality of it is that each shoot costs money, and that once you are out of money you have to STOP FILMING. Not much of a choice there. I really want to finish this film, more than anything in the world.

So far God has always provided so I remain hopeful that somehow, donations will start coming in, just enough to keep the camera rolling for the next few months.

All contributors, no matter how small the amount, will have their names listed in the film final credit roll, under the "Special thanks to" section. I am grateful for your help.

Here is a glimpse at how rough it has been for all of us making this movie with no funds: (see my next post)

 

we have no money for motels so lead actor Tim McReynolds (JOHNNY CALLAWAY) was forced to sleep on a cott under the stars, anytime we filmed on location, which was 50% of our shoots.





Because we didn't have enough funds to get a crew, he also oftentimes had to double as a grip, hauling heavy gear, holding the boom, fixing the lights etc etc...

here: Booming Fresno in a night scene:




here, doing lighting in between his takes:





Here exhaustion sets in and Tim is actually sleeping sitting down, while on a shoot.




This is actor Jordan Warren, who plays Tommy, the Saugus flagman and Johnny's buddy (see the jalopy race teaser). here he is litterally sleeping in this folding chair, it is really COLD outside and he is both freezing and exhausted. We have no conmfort what so ever.




Meanwhile, this is what the rest of the people on the set that night, looked like:




here, I am forced to romage through a dumpser in the middle of the desert to find props. And forced to clean them up myself.




Here, actress PeggieSue Honneyman Scott in wardrobe, is helping by holding the boom and my water while I block the scene. All my actors kept pitchin in to help make each shoot happen. They were really hard core about the film.






here it is my turn to fade out, as I have been working for 3 nights straight, with very little sleep and almost no food. And I can't say that the Deuce is the most comfortable bed .




I could go on and on but I think that you get the point...

 

Whoa! That's a really big freakin' wrench behind you (by the broom inside that garage)!

.

~Jason

 

Yeah Jason, it's true what they say: Size matters .

This is George Callaway's shop, where he builds his dry lake race cars. Lots of goodies in there . Big goodies. hehe.

The temperature was about 110F while I was getting this wheel ready and painted for that night's shoot.

Finding props for the flashbacks was very challenging. And costly. For the sake of being period correct I had to oftentime rent props. I was very very lucky that many of my friends have collections of 40's and 50's artifacts so I could simply borrow the props. But many times the needed items were nowhere to be found so I had to go to this one Los Angeles Vintage prop house and although they felt for me as a tiny indie maker and tried to always lower their prices for me, it was still very costly. Ex: Last scene I have to film is a 50's period correct hospital waiting room. After looking for over 6 months I was able to locate a set of seats / bench that look like a doctor's or hospital waiting room seats. I JUST found that a week ago, barely 2 weeks prior to my shoot. A miracle in itself. The cost to rent those three seats for one shoot is going to be $125.

Ouch.

 

And THAT'S one HELL of a tool.

Whenever me and the kids go to Harbor Freight or a similar shop, we always play "That's a BIG FREAKIN TOOL!" About eight months ago (the girls had just turned three), we were walking along, and they found an identical, albeit slightly smaller wrench. It was bigger than they were, and WAY heavier. They got real excited and ran over to it, pointing it out - "I FOUND it, daddy! I found the BIGGEST TOOL, EVER!!!!"

Needless to say, they won that day.

Now it looks like it's YOU that has the biggest tool! You should totally throw it in your trunk and adopt it as part of your "save your own ass kit". Think of the traction you'd get with THAT hunk of steel above your differential!

~Jason

 

You've probably posted this in another thread, but do you have a PayPal that we could send donations to? Sure would make it easy for those of us THRILLED to see this film getting close to it's debut!

Victoria and I are in for $20. Who else can help?

 

Great work, great dedication, great film - can't wait to see more - I'm in for $25 ....

 

Why not hit up some of the antique furniture dealers around LA. Im sure they would be cheaper than the prop houses, and you could mention their stores name in the credits.

 

Just sent a few beans.. Looks like it's gonna be a winner!
Good luck Faith!

 

I thought by now, a little inspiration for 25 buck donation from each of us HAMB'ers would be greatly responded to for Faith's adventure, I understand the current financial downward trend across the USA, but, she is NOT asking for a government "Bailout",----Just some green backs to ensure a fitting finish to her low buck film that shows every promise to be a huge success!!----I mean, 25 bucks ain't gonna break the bank---Will It????----At 75, I'm watching my moola too, but "eeegads" gang, we spend that much for one lunch + tip every day, nowadays!!!!---Com'on lets see some GREAT RESPONSE for Faith !!!!----------------Don