Liars and Lunatics :: Film Blog

We got up at about 5:00 am this morning… and made our way to Brooklyn in one of our lunar mobiles. Our goal was to capture some shots near the Brooklyn Bridge for our film Liars and Lunatics.

The roads were pretty quiet, considering normal New York City traffic. Definitely not deserted, but certainly not as many vehicles on the road. But hey, it was Memorial Day.

We’re not all that familiar with Brooklyn, so we bounced around on the cobblestone streets patched up with asphalt. We went down at least one one-way street… the wrong way…

We got the footage we needed in a park between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Saw a few early-morning risers walking their dogs or going for a stroll with a cup of coffee. Periodically we waited until a boat was going past on the river so we could get it in the shot.

Then we climbed back into the lunar mobile and headed north to Roosevelt Island. Got some more footage. Of the Chrysler Building. Of the United Nations Building. Of some more boats passing by on the water.

We’re tired. We’re ready to go to sleep. After all, we’ve been up since 5:00 am…

(May 31. Meant to put this photo in sooner….)

{{ photo :: Shooting early in the morning at the Manhattan Bridge… }}

Looking over all our pix for our feature film Liars and Lunatics. We noticed that our stills photographer took scores of pictures of the ballerina figurine. In fact, the ballerina probably has had a total of more photos taken than any of our actors in the film!

We counted. And out of the 1,000+ pix, about 20% of them are of the ballerina! That’s right… 1 out of every 5 photos features the ballerina figurine.

Okay, so some of the photos are pretty much the same, taken at slightly different angles. Others turned out slightly blurry. But the fact remains that the ballerina was one popular photo magnet.

Take a look…

And just in case, you want to see yet another angle on the ballerina, here she is… again!

(Continued from Part One…)

Months prior to filming the first footage of Liars and Lunatics, we began our search for for the perfect ballerina figurine. There was one problem. We hadn’t found anything that suited our purposes.

And then, a few days before principal photography began, there she was. A dark-haired ballerina! But with one drawback; there was only one figurine available.

One of the scenes in the screenplay called for us to smash the ballerina to pieces. With that in mind, we had intended to buy at least two identical figurines in order to get at least two takes. Oh well, we’d just have to be extra careful.

As it went, we scheduled the “smashing of the ballerina” to occur on the final day of shooting. But then we had second thoughts…

We discussed all sorts of scenarios: whether or not to drop it, throw it against the wall, smash it into a mirror. What if we didn’t like the take? We couldn’t go back and redo it since we only had the one ballerina. Maybe we shouldn’t smash her at all?

So…what happened to our ballerina? Sorry! You’ll have to watch the movie…

{{ Photo :: To smash, or not to smash the ballerina? That is the question. }}

You may have noticed photos of a ballerina figurine on some of our webpages for our film Liars and Lunatics. There’s a story behind that…

In the movie, the ballerina represents the James’ dead girlfriend, Paige. (It makes some sense when you realize that Paige is a dancer.)

After Paige’s death, the ballerina comes to act as an idol of sorts for James; something he won’t let go of. (Which, it seems, is one of the reasons why he finds himself in a mental asylum.)

Our screenplay called for the ballerina to be smashed to pieces in one of the scenes. So, in order to prepare for this, we searched high and low for the right ballerina. In fact, several versions of the same figurine so we could do multiple takes if we needed them.

The thing is, we had trouble finding any ballerina figurines.

And all the ballerinas we did come across had blond hair and looked like they were five years old. Well, since our Paige (played by Maya Serhan) didn’t have blond hair—and she’s considerably older than five!—we had to persist in our search for the perfect ballerina figurine.

To be continued…

{{ Photo :: Paige (played by Maya Serhan) looks down at the ballerina. }}

There was a bit of an ongoing joke regarding this word while we were on the set of the feature film Liars and Lunatics.

The reason? We always seemed to be rushing. Our director (Roberto Munoz) would call out some of his directions from the next room. There he sat, listening through a set of headphones and watching each take on a monitor. “Amazing!” “Beautiful!” “Wonderful!” were shouted out after a take as the cue to move on to the next camera set-up.

The further along we were in our shooting schedule, the more creative he got in his word-choice. Then, if he didn’t say anything, the actors would get nervous. “Didn’t that deserve a shout from the control room?”

It was more likely that Robert was trying to come up with a new adjective to call out: “Fabulous!”

{{ Photo :: Director Roberto Munoz watches the monitor, ready to shout out his directions. }}

We had a great group of background actors work on this film… We needed to fill our courtroom with an audience. We required patients, nurses, and doctors to walk the halls of our mental asylum. 

Here are just some of the faces that populate the world of the feature film Liars and Lunatics…

“Come On Down!”

In come the background actors to make our courtroom come alive. That’s our Second A.D. (Michael Kricfalusi — the big guy in the blue shirt) who’s ushering everyone in.  

How many times did we have to reposition everyone before we had what we wanted?

“Let’s Get this Last Shot”

Maya Serhan (Paige) is surrounded by a host of the background actors.

Wait a minute! Why is she so happy? This scene calls for Paige to look bored and uncomfortable…

“Writing their Masterpiece”

Our background actors often had to wait patiently for their next scene in the hospital hallways. And while they were waiting? They talked it up with their fellow background actors. And they were given paper and crayons to write…

It seemed that every time we had to film the asylum patients, they were supposed to be writing on pieces of paper with crayons (apparently pencils are too dangerous in an asylum).

But the question is, what were they writing? It’s anybody’s guess, but perhaps they were writing their grocery lists… or maybe they were working on their thesis… or could there be a Shakespeare among the group writing their next masterpiece?!

“Another Day at the Hospital”

The background actors prepare for another take in the hospital hallways. That’s right, they got their paper and crayons in hand…

Just waiting for the director to call “Action!”

“Wanted: Two patients and a nurse”

Our key costumer, Blaze Kelly Coyle, doubles as a nurse at Logous Psychiatric Hospital. She and two of our background actors walked up and down the front stairs at least ten times before we were happy with the take. 

Principal photography for our indie film, Liars and Lunatics, took place in August 2006. One of the most difficult scenes to shoot was one featuring Staples and James… filmed up on a rooftop patio. But because of nearby LaGuardia Airport, we were having trouble with the sound. It was also a very emotional scene.

It didn’t turn out as well as we’d hoped. So, the next day, we did the same scene again. This time in the Boiler Room on location of the “Hospital” scenes. We decided to use a yellow ladder we found there as a prop for James.

Later that day, we used the yellow ladder again… this time for Staples and Frolick. Although the script did not call for a ladder, we decided to use it in this scene because, as Allison Lane (Frolick) recalls: “We were having technical difficulties.”

The joke became, that if we encountered a problem, all we needed to do was bring out the yellow ladder!

{{ Photo above left :: Joseph Halsey (James) and Patrick Mitchell (Staples) try to concentrate on a very intense scene in the boiler room. }}

{{ Photo above right :: Joseph Halsey (James) and Allison Lane (Frolick) have a playful moment on the ladder. }}

Most blogs post daily. So, then, why don’t we?

Well, folks—in case you haven’t figured out the purpose of this blog—we’re actually in the middle of making a movie. Yes, we’re doing all the post-production editing… We’re doing our own publicity… our own research on film festivals… Oh, and we’ve also started a few other film projects on top of Liars and Lunatics!

We kinda subscribe to the Filmmaking School of Do-It-Yourself.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we’re writers. We write, we edit, we rewrite. Then we write some more. Then, finally, we post.

Sometimes we write a few days in advance and then post when we feel the entry is ready. Oh, there are days when we get inspired by something and manage to blog about it that same day.

Is there something you’d like us to blog about? Let us know.

{{ photo :: Everyone in the asylum wants to know what’s in the letter Mother Parrot (played Heidi Azaro) found. Is it new instructions from the Moon Brothers? }}