Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary from when we actually began the production of 'Turning Point.' It's really crazy how fast a year can go by and how much can happen and at the same time so little can change.
One year ago we were packing up and driving down to San Diego. We had a caravan of two cars. I put Bailey, myself, Tyler, Swen and Bingham all in one car so we could hopefully bond a little more on the car ride down. I really wanted the group to be friends and have trust in one another.
Bailey's car happened to be infested with ants at the time because there's an ants nest near our apartment's parking space. I don't remember who exactly came up with the idea at first, I'm guessing it was either Swen or Bailey, but we decided we could bond over the communal sharing of eating ants. Needless to say, it was an event that brought the group together in laughter and silliness, even if one nameless person did not partake.
We arrived to Matt Bailey's parents home in Encinitas where our main location for the weekend was located around 3-4pm. We all scarfed down some Little Caesar's Hot-n-Ready pizzas and we were back on the road to begin shooting our first scenes.
The first shots we did of the film were the San Diego shots of the characters driving on the freeway and through downtown San Diego. It was fun because Swen was driving Bailey's car with Sean and Chase in the car for sound, as well as Blake and Keaton tagging along. Bailey and myself were in the car with Tyler, who is driving Chase's Jeep, and Bingham in the passenger's seat. Tyler was, and just so happens to remain, one of the worst driver's operating a vehicle on the road. I really should have tested this skill during the auditioning process. My mistake.
Anyways, whenever we needed to get footage of Swen driving behind us, in what was supposed to be his character's car, everybody else would have to duck out of view. Quite an amusing and amazing feat hiding Sean, Chase, Keaton and Blake in Bailey's tiny 1980's Honda Civic hatchback.
We made it to San Diego right at golden hour (the time the sun is setting which gives beautiful light for photography purposes). We luckily found the "tent area" of downtown SD where lots of homeless people gather. It was necessary to capture this location for the screenplay and I was happy we found the area before we lost light.
Then it was time to shoot our first scene! We mic up Swen and out we go to drive around. Low and behold Swen is a bit nervous and I'm feeling nervous about the project. Hooray. It was the first scene and he finally loosened up. We got the shot but funny to say, it never ended up in the final cut. It lasted a long time in the rough cut until it was pointed out to me that it was really unnecessary. So boom! Out it went. I think I should always have an unnecessary scene and shoot it first with future projects. Helps wear off the rust and get everybody's gears into motion.
We were supposed to get camera coverage of Ashton and Tyler right after Swen's shot but the sun was already gone. Alright, production rescheduling within the first hour of filming! That's filmmaking.
So we pack up all of our equipment and begin heading to our next location. We're going to shoot a scene in a parking lot and in a bathroom. This production is all being shot guerilla style and we decide it's too busy out to shoot this scene. Okay, reschedule and wait till later. What do we do now?
Boom! Let's shoot Tyler getting upset about his car overheating. Off we go, Tyler, Ashton, Bailey, Sean and I. Five people in a Jeep, trying to film a scene on a freeway going 75mph. Sounds safe enough.
Tyler operating the vehicle. This vehicle belonging to Chase. It's my responsibility if anything bad happens. I'm terrified.
We drove down the freeway a few miles and then turned back. The scene is only about 5-10 seconds on screen but I had Tyler do it countless times. Tyler's too nice of a guy to show anger. So what do I do? I push him to the point of frustration and anger so I can get the performance I need. I succeed. I'm such a good person. Sean later tells me I might have pushed him too hard. I disagree.
We meet up with the rest of the crew. We send Bailey, Tyler, Swen and Ashton into the bathroom. It's a shot of the boys brushing their teeth. Bailey comes back and I love the footage. Man, what a piece of cake. I should always just send everybody away to do as I say and then have them come back with material I approve of. If only it were so easy.
Next we shoot the boys saying goodnight as they prepare to sleep in their cars. We have good old Swensy's meandering around in his underpants and a bunch of young dudes standing around him with a camera. I'll leave this up to your imagination of what I assumed was being assumed of our production.
To make the memory of this mentioned scene all the better, Sean decided it was also a perfect location to urinate.
Car. Parking lot. People around? No big deal.
Sean urinates but obviously doesn't notify any of us of the event. Chase notices moisture under his car. Chase being paranoid as it is, is now terrified his engine is melting down. I have no idea where Sean is to tell anybody what is going on but Blake gets on the ground to inspect this unusual substance.
Blake sticks his hand in pee. Later finds out it's pee. He barely knows any of us. Shrugs it off like no big deal. My man crush on Blakey has instantly formed. That's what you call true friendship.
Okay, next location and last scene of the night. It's close to 11pm and we are scheduled to begin shooting at 6am the next morning. We find the location that Bailey knows of, and it just so happens to be a convenience store where a shot from a Blink 182 music video took place. Neat. This must mean we're a real production.
Tyler completely cheeseballs the first take and I'm ready to shoot myself in the face as my production once again implodes before my eyes.
"Tyler, why? Why would you say your line that way?"
"I dunno."
PFFT!!! The sound of my head exploding.
"How about we do it like this?"
"Okay."
Yay! We did it. Time to go to bed. Drive back to Bailey's house. Everybody passes out as I review footage. Documentation of stated event below.
Off to sleepytown we go. Next morning we wake up to a breakfast Sean has lovingly prepared. Thank you, Sean! I obviously don't eat because my stomach is in knots and the last thought on my mind is food. I wake up Keaton to an amusing spectacle.
"Keaton, wake up."
Keaton rapidly jumps up while twirling in a circle. He's ready to go. Some sort of miraculous Michael Jackson/wizard move.
We eat and away we go. We are all beginning our descent into sleep deprivation on our way to the beach so everything in the world is the funniest thing in the history of the world. We follow Bailey on the way to the beach and their car is packed with people. I don't remember who's in there but Sean is sitting in the back seat with a trucker hat and we find it amusing beyond belief. It appears as if we're following a car of illegal immigrants on their way to work.
Why is that funny? I have no idea. Why is it still funny? I have no idea. But it is. Deal with it.
So we begin shooting our scenes. We were blessed with the most incredible light during the beach location. And fortunately we showed up right at time. Not even moments after we finished this scene, it was already swarming with people. Not exactly the best scenario for a scene that is supposed to take place at a desolate beach. Bing Bang Blao! Time to shoot our next location of a desolate downtown area. Boom! Moving on!
We arrive at another parking lot to shoot a scene and I receive a call from Kesia. She's in San Diego. She has already checked into her hotel room and she's ready. Nice. Early and ready to go.
We finish shooting our scene and head back to Bailey's parents home. Kesia meets with us for a wonderful lunch Sean has prepared. I don't eat, once again. Too busy being occupied with worry.
The rest of the day is smooth sailing. We had difficulty with one scene that takes place at the front door due to light reasons, etc. but we figured it out.
Things are always slower than hoped for during production so we run a little later than I hope into the night. I am beyond exhausted and I can't think straight. I make a call to shoot one of our scenes the following night. I'm still happy I made that choice. It would've been a shame to have blown this particular scene and rush it.
There's a scene in the final film where the boys are saying goodnight to Kesia's character. The exhaustion on their faces is perfect. It was the last scene we filmed on this particular night. I'm going to pull the rug underneath the actors feet but it wasn't just amazing acting in that scene. They are all beat. Dead tired. And I love it!
So we go to bed late and wake up early yet again. I wake up before everybody because I'm a bottle of nerves. Terrified that the project is all going to crumble at my feet. It's really hard to have a project in your mind for multiple years and then watch it come to fruition in front of your eyes. The fear of it collapsing is unbearable.
In my fear, I decide to take a shower. Hoping to wash some of it away. I remember sitting in the shower (yes, sitting, I said it, don't judge me, it's comfortable) and I'm having an anxiety attack. I feel like I have the flu. I'm weak and feel like I need to throw up. In retrospect I'm sure that the main cause of this, more than stress, was sleep deprivation and lack of food.
Everybody wakes up and it's time to shoot again. This weekend was really memorable because we were one big team. We had a lot of steam going and nobody was dropping the ball. Unfortunately, later in production we didn't have as much momentum because shooting became much more sporadic due to people's schedules. But for this one glorious weekend we were victorious!
I don't remember much happening on this day. We pretty much knocked out all of the house scenes that day. We were on fire. We shot late into the night. We were exhausted but it was oh-so good.
Our final day in San Diego was scheduled to be a more mellow one. Just pickup shots for any scenes that didn't go as planned.
We started the day shooting a scene at Bailey's former high school. It took place in the theater and the theater class happened to be present. I spoke with the students. They all seemed excited. The teacher is enthusiastic.
We film our actors watching a fictitious movie on a fictitious screen. Talk some more to the students. Class ends. I thank the teacher and she seems pissed. Hmm... Okay, thank you. Goodbye.
After we leave the school Sean says to me, "I can't believe you said that."
"What?"
"When you were explaining the scene you were talking about how the mom character was playing around with her son's friend."
Oops. My bad. I later see the footage and can definitely see how that was interpreted wrong. I also realize that high school kids look a lot younger than what I remember them looking like when I was in high school.
All around, fun times.
We have lunch and the afternoon is pretty slow. We have to reshoot a scene because Tyler and Swen wore the wrong outfits the previous day. The scene turns into pulling teeth. I still have no idea what happened during this event but it was awkward to say the least. Both Swen and Tyler sucked. They can both vouch for the fact that I saved them with editing.
I believe we shot a scene in which I did something like 21 takes of Swen prior to this scene so that may have been what dropped the ball for everybody.
Swen was distraught to say the least. Perfect scenario and mind-frame for his major scene in the film. After two takes and me making Swen feel like shit he nails his performance on the third take.
Off to our six page patio scene. For the love of all that is holy and mighty, I learned so much during the next eight to nine hours. You want a real film school education? Shoot a six page scene and watch what unfolds in front of your eyes and you will learn so much. Maybe it was oh-so much more euphoric and spiritually enlightening because of my sleep deprivation but it was amazing watching this scene unfold and all the directions it could have gone.
We started off shooting Bingham's coverage first. He amazingly nailed it first try. We decide to give him one more take for safety. Boom! We're on fire.
Okay, let's shoot Tyler's coverage. The light's set up for him.
"Hey, Ryan. I need to get back to LA," says Kesia.
I'm not in the right frame of mind and can't comprehend that she's communicating that she can't stay all night but I panic and think she's saying she has to leave immediately.
I'm pretty sure everybody else perceives the same interpretation as I have and it's an instant buzzkill for the set. We get two takes on Kesia and then shoot the other angle of coverage where she is seen and off she goes.
Everybody's spirits seem a bit dampened. What should we do? Keep on going I guess. I decide to sit in Kesia's seat and read her lines. Since everybody is a bit down I start pushing their happiness back into place by reading Kesia's lines very, very peppy. It's time to shoot.
This is one of two moments that I'm more than proud to say that I casted Tyler. Tyler is a bit of an odd fellow to say the least. During this particular moment he was on his A-Game. If he can be like this at all moments in his career he will be a major acting force. Unfortunately Tyler sometimes has a hard time focusing.
Tyler blows my mind in one take. It's so good I don't even want to bother with a second take. Coming from me, this is a miracle. Knowing me, we probably did one more just for 'safety.' But I can't remember for certain.
Next we shoot Swen's big scene. I think we did it two and a half times or something. Can't remember for certain but we got his coverage. We were now running probably 3 hours behind my expected finish time and it's around 3 in the morning.
So this scene has already taken multiple twists and turns in the way it has unfolded. Even though I feel I have some good performances I feel I need an extra push. I sit Blake down and tell him my situation and he comes in and brings it! I'm so proud of him.
For a moment, I did not think we were going to be able to get his coverage. After we finished Swen, one of the most bizarre weather occurrences happened. An incredibly strong and warm wind, from what I remember, rushed in. I think it may have knocked over some of our lights and it was strong enough to knock the next door neighbor's patio umbrella into the pool. We were tired and started to pack up thinking we wouldn't be able to get Blake's coverage. It seemed like a big storm was about to come in.
Fortunately, it was just a fluke and the weather was back to normal. Bingham was tired and cranky, from what I was told, but I did not even notice, as I watched Blake come out take after take and surprise me with his incredible energy and personality. The kid's got charisma. He was really the glue that sealed the scene in the end.
We packed up our hurricane destruction of a mess in Bailey's parents house and within half an hour we were out of there. Back on the road and heading home to LA.
I passed out in the backseat of Chase's Jeep, coincidentally right next to some leaking oil or some sort of gas fumes. A little while later I wake up to world famous LA traffic and I don't remember what was so funny but Chase, Keaton and myself are in tears with laughter. I really don't remember what was so funny. But whatever it was, it was really, really, really funny.
Chase was going to pull a prank that would've been funny beyond belief but we decided against it. Bingham can be a bit uptight at times and Chase was going to pretend to pull off the freeway and we were all going to scream at the top of our lungs. We decided it would be too rude of an awakening for Bingham to handle. At times, I think Ashton thought of me as a mean guy, but there are several moments such as this, where he doesn't realize I was on his side.
We all get home and we are exhausted. It's record breaking heat in LA and it's miserable. I can't sleep. I'm backing up footage on a separate hard drive. Luckily enough my soon to be love reads a book to me over Skype and I pass out. Coincidentally, myself and this mentioned lady are celebrating our nine month anniversary on the 25th of this month.
Celebrate good times.
C'mon.
Like I said, lots has changed in my life and at the same time not much has changed at all. This is one memorable weekend that I will always hold dear in my heart.
There are so many memorable moments from this production. Countless run ins with the police. We even had the Burbank Police helicopter circling over us with its spotlight at one point. We drove out to the desert and camped. We drove all the way to San Francisco and spent the night near Hearst Castle.
I hope everybody cherishes these fond memories in the same way I do.
We are all eagerly waiting to hear back from some of the top festivals in the US, in hopes of our film finding its audience. So currently it's almost as if now of this ever took place. The film has been finished since April but we won't start hearing from festivals until December. Hopefully luck is on our side and we hear some positive things in the near future. Either way, this was an experience that I would not change for the world.
The amount of knowledge, friendships, relationships and memories that were created because of this project are priceless and I will cherish them forever.
The film was a turning point for both it's characters and everybody involved.
Sincerely,
-Ryan Moser.
