Liars and Lunatics :: Film Blog

Today is the one year anniversary of the beginning of principal photography for Liars and Lunatics. And this scene is the very first thing we shot.

Let’s see, that would be Scene 24…

“EXT. Hospital Gardens — Day”

We were getting a bit behind schedule. We had to contend with a nest of wild parakeets making a bunch of noise that morning. And then the sun decided to come up over the edge of the building a little faster than we had anticipated.

So, instead of going to the close-ups, we decided to move inside and go to our next scene. It was a bit of a rough start, but the rest of the day went well. We eventually came back to do the close-ups. Can’t remember now whether it was later on that same day or if we stuck it in on the next day.

{{ photo :: James and Frolick walking in the Hospital Gardens. }}

Have you ever watched a movie and wondered how long it took to get the scene right?

The big Hollywood films seem to have all the time and money in the world (compared to us lowly independent filmmakers). Which means, they can spend a whole day on one short scene…

Here are some examples of Hollywood flicks and some of their excessive use of takes:

• In the movie Jezebel (1938, starring Bette Davis and Henry Fonda) there is a scene early on when southern belle Julie (Davis) uses her riding crop to hitch up her skirt. The footage that was used came finally on the 45th take!
• Apparently the production manager of The Parallax View (1974, starring Warren Beatty) kept the slate used in the film for display in his office; it was marked “Take 98 – Warren stirs soup.”

Wow! How come we never had the luxury for doing 98 takes of someone stirring his soup?! Oh, yeah. We had only 12 days to shoot principal photography!

As we recall, on our film shoot for Liars and Lunatics, we managed an average of two to four takes. Sometimes less, sometimes a few more. Looking back at our continuity reports, it seems that we never went over nine takes for a single camera angle. (Turns out that the nine takes was for a two-shot of James and Paige in the empty courtroom in Scene 97… See above photo).

{{ photo :: Scene 96. James and Paige (Joseph Halsey and Maya Serhan) talk in the empty courtroom. }}

(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. }}

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. }}

You know what? We really are affected by the media, aren’t we?

Take us Moon Brothers for example. After all the recent non-stop coverage over the Don Imus incident, we are actually planning to add an Imus-style rant to our film Liars and Lunatics.

Well, in any case, the whole premise of our film—an evangelist admitting himself into a mental asylum—is kind of shocking, isn’t it? Something that you might hear on his radio program (er… former radio program).

Will this addition make it into the movie? Who knows? We’re testing it out.

Hmmm… Maybe Don Imus would like to try out for the role of the radio commentator?

{{ photo :: James Jamisin (played by Joseph A. Halsey) in a straitjacket. }}