There's really only two more days left??

Update 10:23 PM - We're finishing up scenes here at Melinda's house. After tonight, we will be done with scenes here....just a few last scenes to shoot tomorrow and then production wraps for Love, Concord. To say that's a bittersweet moment is a big understatement, really.

During snack/dinner time tonight, Kurtis, our 1st AD, serenaded us all with a rousing rendition of the song from "An American Tail"...and the rest of us are fervently planning our wrap party/karaoke jam at some Bay Area location to be determined. That should be fun.

So that's pretty much where we are, just a couple minor scenes to finish tonight and then just one more day/evening of shooting and we're done. Wow.

I did manage to interview Jorge today...I hadn't interviewed him yet, and it was perfect timing, coming right after the KPIX news segment and their interview with him the other day.

This pretty much sums up what's going on right now, as we are almost finished for the night.

There will be more posting tomorrow, so stay tuned as we finish what has been an amazing few weeks, in my opinion.

--Adrian

1:25 PM - *sniff*.

Yes, today marks Day 14 of production on Love, Concord. We only have one more day of filming left tomorrow (barring any last-minute makeups).

This has really been a wonderful few weeks for me...the cast and crew of the movie have all been so much fun to be around all day every day. After we're done shooting this week, and we won't be meeting up every day in the morning, it's going to feel pretty strange.

Anyway, yesterday we finished at around 1:45 in the morning, after shooting some scenes in the parking lot of the diner we visited waaaay back on Day 1. Today's call time isn't until 5 pm, so I don't really know what to do with all this free time. I posted more pictures on the Facebook page from our shoots the past week and a half, so check those out if you haven't already.

I'll try to get a post out later tonight when we're finished for the day.

It's been a fun ride so far, and it's sad to think that it's ending soon, but at the same time it's great to see the shooting schedule mostly working out as planned. That's a relief to everyone, of course.

Until next time...

--Adrian

Thanks to all the new fans!

We have to take some time out here and thank each and every one of you who "liked" the movie on our Facebook page and/or read this blog as much as you can!

The folks over at Claycord helped us out tremendously with that article on Sunday morning, as our Facebook fan numbers skyrocketed in mere hours after the post went up. The comments keep coming in on that article, too. I posted about the Claycord article Sunday afternoon from the hotel where we were filming the prom scene, and things have progressed nicely since then, statistics-wise. More and more people seem to be finding out about what we're doing, which is nice to see. :)

KPIX CBS 5's piece on the movie that ran on the news last night was a great help, too. Ann Notarangelo and her husband John did a marvelous job, and it was really neat to see ourselves on the big screen TV.

Day 13 has been going well so far, it's been a less eventful/more light kind of a shooting schedule so far. Maybe we won't end at 2 AM tonight, maybe we will. I hope not, though.

We were just on the news!! and Live Blogging continued...

1:22 AM - Yep, still here...but we're almost done for the day! We just wrapped Kevin Copps (Melinda's dad), and we're finishing up a minor scene...I'm so tired I'm surprised my fingers are hitting the right keys...but soon we'll be done and can all get home and "recharge the batteries" before we reconvene tomorrow for Day 13.

To any new readers and fans of Love, Concord - thanks for the support! If you saw the CBS 5 report on the movie and made your way over here for updates, we appreciate it immensely...stay tuned for more posts every day (throughout the day, if possible) right up until we wrap production later in this week.

Tomorrow's a very busy day, so come on back to this page tomorrow for more detailed tidbits of what we're doing with ourselves.

--Adrian

12:12 AM - We're still here at Melinda's house shooting a very important scene in the film...and I think we still have one or two more scenes to finish tonight....so sleep will have to wait. The call time tomorrow is 1:30 PM, and I plan to sleep in rather than wake up early like I did today.

The set is still pretty much buzzing about the news coverage from earlier, as it's really great to see the local community and press take notice about the film. It must mean we're doing something right!

6:50 PM - KPIX CBS 5 just ran a feature on us on the 6 o'clock news! We're all really excited about it...Ann Notarangelo and her husband John were with us in the morning and just now at Melinda's house...check out the video on the CBS 5 website and spread the word!! :)

--adrian

http://cbs5.com/video/?id=66842

Live-Blogging: Day 12

Here we are again, on set at Melinda's House, for another day of filming. Thankfully, the house has magnificent air-conditioning, which is much more comfortable than the 90 degree weather outside.

We're filming some pretty intense and sensitive scenes today, so it's a closed set for most of us. Only Gus, Kosei, and the camera & sound guys are involved right now, the rest of us are in the kitchen staying away from the commotion so as to allow the actors to get in the "zone".

Later today, the CBS 5 news people are coming back! We're changing locations, and a news crew is going to visit the set at around 6 pm to report LIVE from our location. So yeah, we're all pretty excited about that. When I arrived at our location today around 1 pm, the CBS van was parked outside and a reporter was interviewing Jorge...she had already interviewed Angelina and Gus, so they're going to have a lot of good footage for the piece.

If you are in the Bay Area, please tune in to CBS 5 tonight at 6 pm, as their piece on Love, Concord is set to be broadcast during that time slot.

It's really exciting to see all this attention for the movie. It's great that people are noticing our commotion everywhere we go, as well as the fact that Love, Concord truly will be making history once it is completed. That was one of Gus's motivations for creating this movie, and it's really cool to see the public and press appreciate it as they are right now.

I'll be back later with some more on-set tidbits, I have to charge my computer a bit first....

--Adrian

So apparently we were on the news....

UPDATE @ 11:24 AM...I just received word that a news crew is coming out today to interview Gus and some of the crew, as well as film some of the set as we are working! We're all really excited for this, as it will help spread the word about the movie even more! The Facebook page has been growing in numbers frequently the past couple of days, and I can only see this helping that even more! I gotta go find a good shirt to wear, since we will be on television and all.... :)

CBS5 ran a short news piece about Love, Concord on the 10 PM and 11 PM news broadcasts last night...but I missed it. Had I known it was going to air, I would have been glued to the TV...I've tried to find the video online but it doesn't seem to be up yet. Needless to say, we're all very excited about that kind of coverage and hope the clip becomes available online soon.

We finished the prom scenes last night, and officially wrapped Blake Rosier ("Peter") and Logan Svenson ("Caitlin") for the film...which is bittersweet. When you start wrapping actors, that indicates that things are almost coming to a close...which they are, as this IS the last week, of course. :(

Anyway, we have a later start today (1 pm) before shooting more scenes at Melinda's House...so I should go and continue resting up before it's time to go. I'll be back later in the day...

--Adrian

Live Blogging is....Live!

6:30 PM Wow. BIG things just happened.

A CBS news van was parked outside of the hotel we are filming at today, and a cameraman came onto the set and shot some footage with a big video camera...apparently CBS might run a piece on Love, Concord and what it means for the city...it's pretty exciting to see this kind of buzz forming about the movie!

Also, Claycord.com just posted an article about our production this morning...and it already has fifty or so comments in just a few hours. I guess the "first movie ever set in Concord" aspect of the film is making people pay attention!

Read the article here.

I'll update more about this soon if there are any other developments.

5:11 PM I just finished some really nice chicken/mashed potatoes/vegetables, courtesy of Sandra...we're running a bit behind (due to the complicated nature of these types of scenes) but things are still going well. Jimmy's been hounding me about live blogging and how I haven't posted in 3 hours or something but I've mostly tuned him out. Hopefully he'll calm down a bit. (haha jk lol).

The scenes are going well, but they've been time-consuming. Complex scenes like these involve many different angles and close-ups and such, so it's been pretty interesting to watch each specific angle/close-up set up in the room. The extras have done a great job so far too, as the fake quiet dancing has been pretty convincing.

Zach just walked by me screeching like a pterodactyl....from anyone else in life that would probably be a bit frightening and off-putting, but since it's "Xachary" it hardly surprises/bothers me at all.

Alex just asked Kosei "do I look consistent??", which made me chuckle a little bit. Oh, film set humor.

I'll be back in a bit....

2:18 PM Whoa....this hotel has free wi-fi (complete with a little ticking clock intimidatingly counting down until 22 hours from now when my free window expires)....so this is a blog posted from the movie set.

We've been here since 9 AM...it's now 2 pm, and the Prom scenes are going well...the extras are doing a great job silently dancing to muted music while dialogue scenes are filmed. I was a bit bummed when I got here today that I couldn't be an extra (since my suit is down in LA) but I can't dance for real, let alone fake dance to silent music. That takes some serious skills.

Today's going smoothly so far, the scenes are looking great...we're filming some important scenes in the movie...so I should go and continue my behind-the-scenes stuff. I'll check back in a bit later.

--Adrian

Week 3 commences shortly....

Here I am, up at 7: am on a Sunday morning, all for Love, Concord. While my body is mad at me for being awake so early, in the long run it's worth it.

Today we're shooting some big important prom scenes that will probably take all day to shoot. Of course, with any prom you need flashy formal wear and fancy makeup jobs, so we have to take time out to thank Stephanie from Selix for providing us with the dapper outfits for our cast in the movie. You can thank her personally by renting/buying a suit/tux from the Selix store across the street from Sunvalley Mall in Pleasant Hill. The complete set of contact info is

951 CONTRA COSTA BLVD.PLEASANT HILL, CA 94523

EMAIL -PLEASANTHILL@SELIX.COM

PHONE - (925) 798-2214

We also need to thank Gabi Ballew for doing the hairstyles for our prom guests today, as that's a lot of work and in the end we're extremely grateful for her help. Thanks Gabi!

That's all I have to say right now, but I'm excited to see Day 11 of production start in a couple of hours! It's been a great ride so far, and I can't wait to see how it all ends up. Until tonight...

--Adrian

Week 2 is over...really???!!

I have to admit, these two weeks have absolutely flown by. When we wrapped yesterday at around 5 ish, it hit me that this project is basically two-thirds of the way finished. That's crazy. It seems like a couple days ago that I met the cast and crew and began documenting the production of Love, Concord...and yet, yesterday was day 10 of 15 of shooting. Wow.

We began the day filming scenes at a movie theater in Concord...it was pretty neat being in a movie theater in the morning before it opens. We shot some scenes there and then switched locations to Gerry's House down the street in Concord...after a few hours of scenes just involving Gerry in front of his house, the day was over, and Week 2 was finished.

Sunday is the big huge Prom scene, which will be fun, since it's going to be a long shoot with a lot of different scenes and angles and people involved...we start bright and early at 9 am, and I anticipate us going through most of the day and into the night.

Reflecting on these past 2 weeks, every day that I'm on set I am more grateful for being able to be a part of this process. It's really been a lot of fun, and a lot of learning has gone on as well.

For the Prom scene, we have to give a shout-out to Stephanie from Selix (across the street from Sunvalley Mall) for providing us with some important costumes for the scenes...without her generosity and willingness to help us out things might have been more of a challenge....so thanks, Stephanie!

I'm going to go enjoy my two days off, and I'll do another post Sunday night after the Prom scene fun is over. Enjoy the weekend!!

--Adrian

Another day in the can

I didn’t want to start tonight’s post with another “Today, we…”, so I guess this works. Earlier today we filmed a scene that makes me proud to say I'm involved with this project. I can’t wait to see it in the final version of the movie, as it was really something that I’m extremely fortunate to have been able to witness.

Besides that stunning moment, we also filmed scenes involving Gerry, Melinda and Melinda’s father Mike. We began at noon today, a much-welcomed break from the early morning wakeups we’ve had lately, and finished around midnight (so another 12-hour day). This house had an incredible backyard, with a grotto-like pool with a built-in cave. It’s the kind of backyard/pool set up that I want someday, in my dreams. During our down time I basically stared into the backyard, imagining this kind of awesomeness in my own place of living. Sigh. Maybe one day…

Okay, back to reality. Today marked the 9^th day of Production on Love, Concord, and as we’ve pointed out to each other, we’re basically more than halfway through our time together. So far this has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I feel like each post I say things like “to see everyone work together so smoothly has been incredible...” but each day just makes that more true. Tomorrow we shoot at two different locations, which will be fun, including Gerry’s House for more interior scenes. I’m leaving halfway through the morning to pick up my girlfriend from the airport…I’m going to bring her and her sister to the set to get an idea of how this all works and what it’s been like to be involved with a movie set day in and day out for the past two weeks.

I need to make some more copies of the movie fliers I designed for Love, Concord, since we have more scenes to be shot in public locations, which means more people walking by with curious looks on their faces. So far the fliers have been a hit, which is nice to see.

There was a moment where we thought we’d have to do some re-shoots this Friday and Saturday, normally our days off, but thankfully we don’t have to this weekend, so we can all enjoy the customary two day break before shooting some huge climactic scenes on Sunday.

I just got home and I’m dead tired…and I have to get up in about six hours for another jam-packed day on the set of Love, Concord....so goodnight, readers.

Until next time…

--Adrian

We keep on rollin'....

I'd say we're hitting our stride these past couple days. After Sunday's 13-hour marathon, we spent yesterday filming more school scenes (providing me with another chance to steal the show as an extra), and then switched locations to "Caitlin's House" to film some important night scenes as well. Yesterday also marked the third and final day that Bryan Navarro would be on set with us...Bryan, as has been mentioned here before, was the lead Gaelvision President and all-around go-to guy since he began at Saint Mary's College in the 2006-2007 school year. Because of his impressive resume and the fact that he traveled to the NCAA March Madness tournament to cover the SMC men's basketball team, Bryan was able to get a job with a news affiliate in Medford, Oregon as an on-camera news reporter. His busy schedule only let him work on Love, Concord this Sunday through last night. He did manage to get himself in the movie in some scenes at the school, so keep your eyes peeled for his role once the film is done.

We at Love, Concord wish Bryan the best of luck, and hope that he does SMC proud in Oregon...but that should be easy for him.

Speaking of busy schedules, we were forced to re-cast the role of "Alex", Melinda's friend. Vince Rodriguez, former SMC student and theater actor, was set to play the role, but his new involvement with CAL SHAKES, the California Shakespeare Theatre, made his schedule too busy to be able to juggle both acting gigs. It's too bad Vince didn't work out, but we wish him the best of luck with CAL SHAKES. Luckily, we were able to re-cast the role with a great actor out of San Francisco named Alex Rodriguez.

Alex is a natural for the role (besides sharing the character's name), as he's done a great job capturing the essence of the character in the scenes we've shot so far.

Alex has a lot of experience with theatre, having played parts in Rent, Pirates of Penzance, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and A Chorus Line, among many others. We're thrilled to have him on board the movie.

Today is Day 9 of Production, and call time is at noon...thankfully, that provided us all with a great chance to catch up on some of the sleep we've been sacrificing the past week or so.

That's what's new right now, I'll post up some pictures in the next few days...I was clumsy enough to drop my camera on the ground, breaking the lens, so I'll have to use my less-awesome camera for the near future as I see what my options are to fix my good one...but I'll post the pictures I've taken so far this week sometime soon.

Thanks for reading once again,a nd see you soon!

--Adrian

A week's worth of filming done....

Today was the 7th day of filming, so we've been at it for an entire week of filming...yeah, that feels pretty good.

Today we filmed scenes at a Bay Area high school that provided some pretty scenic views and peaceful atmosphere...we began filming at around 930 am and finished (after returning to Concord High for an outdoor shot) at around 8:15 pm, making this one of our earliest finishes thus far on the production schedule.

Personally, this could not come at a better time, as I'm pretty darn tired. The tail end of last week took its toll on me (the 7 or 8 am call times combined with minimal sleep) and I'm still feeling the repercussions. My zombie-like state on set made me think about how tired Jorge, Angelina, Blake and Zach must feel, having to tape scenes or be on set for most of the day every day, and yet they all go about their duties without whining like I am here about being tired or hot or anything. That's pretty neat, and it obviously has helped make the production run so smoothly thus far.

As I keep saying, the crew has also been on the top of its game these past few days, getting the shots and technical stuff out of the way and dealing with issues in such a manner that no one loses his or her temper. Without that, this would not be nearly as enjoyable for everyone as it seems to be for us so far. Today was one of the least stressful days (at least I perceived it to be that way) of the shoot so far.

I also wormed my way into another scene-stealing (haha) performance as an extra....I can't wait to see my goofy self in the background of the scene once the film is done.

Yesterday, I had the idea of creating little postcard-type fliers advertising the film...in my mind, that's a lot better to hand out to curious passers-by or onlookers than just saying "yeah the movie's called Love, Concord, check it out". I ran it by Mary and Kristin, and they said go for it, so I will have them at the ready for our shoot on Thursday at another public location, in case any rubberneckers show up. It's free publicity and something tangible to hand to them, so I think it's a great idea. :)

That's all I have for now, as we have another early call time tomorrow at the school....I'm having a blast so far with this great cast & crew, and I look forward to each day beginning.

Onward!

--Adrian

13-hour shooting days are grueling....

...but totally worth it.

Today, the first day of the 2nd week of Production on Love, Concord, began at 11 am (ish). I just got back to my house ten minutes ago. You do the math. Granted, today's location was LESS THAN TWO MINUTES from my house, but we were still on-set all day. Being at one location (out in the public, mind you) for an entire day means constantly dealing with passers by who see the cameras, boom mic, and other on-set techno gadgets and become forced to scream "what's this movie for???!!" or "Can I be in the movie?" or, if they're feeling particularly offended by our presence, to lay on the horn while driving by or intentionally disrupting our activities in some other way. That's just part of what goes along with filming in public.

Besides those annoyances (which are still tolerable since it at least means people are interested in what we are doing with our cameras and noise and big powerful light rigs), today was great. A lot of crucial scenes were filmed and there weren't really any hiccups or huge delays. Everyone arrived on set on time and we overcame the obstacles that were thrown at us with ease.

I think that goes to show the cohesion of this production team. The actors have been remarkable so far, what with their patience and dedication to their work. The crew has been on top of the proverbial ball since day one, and as we delve deeper into the second week, I look forward to seeing how things progress even further. As it is now, I'd say the cast and crew have a very tight connection (the actors, in particular, having a great chemistry together that translates extremely well on-screen).

I took a ton of pictures today, but as usual, I'm too tired to post them all up and we have an early call time tomorrow at a location NOT two minutes from my house =/.

So, I bid you adieu. Stay tuned tomorrow for another update at the end of the day! :)

--Adrian

At long last, the first week of production is OVER!

As I write this, I can barely keep my eyes open. I glance at the clock and it's barely 10 PM. That's what happens when you spend 13 hours on location for a movie shoot.

Today concluded the first week of production for Love, Concord, and thankfully we all get two days off before resuming work on Sunday. Today we shot a slew of scenes at Concord High School...the shots involved a lot of people and took a long time to be completed, due to having to deal with the sounds and things that take place on a high school campus on a sunny June afternoon.

Our day began at 7:30 (which was mere hours after we wrapped last night at around midnight), and there was really only a short lunch break in between the action all day. People who volunteered their entire afternoon to be extras showed up at around 3 pm and were at the mercy of Gus and his crew for the rest of the day. Those scenes wrapped at around 8:15 ish, and before you could even process that the day was over, everyone scattered to their respective houses/apartments/friends' houses for some highly-sought downtime.

I took a bunch of pictures (as usual) and they'll be up sometime tomorrow. As for now, I gotta go relax and not stare at computer screens/cameras/noisy things for a while.

Goodnight, faithful fans. :)

Day 4 is done....

Today was a lot less stressful than yesterday...I attempted live-blogging from my phone but of course that didn't work.

We filmed scenes at two prominent Concord parks today (one with a great scenic view overlooking the city)...it was a later start (11:30), but the day wrapped at around midnight. Tomorrow starts bright and early at 7:30 am, so we all will probably not get a lot of sleep tonight.

Things are rolling along nicely. Personally, it's extremely interesting to see how cohesive the process is when everyone works together. Everyone involved on set has his or her own specific responsibilities and things to do. Often, we all have to work together to make things happen, and that has probably been the aspect of production that has really affected me the most so far.

Zach has continued playing the ukulele during downtime, and has become pretty skilled at the same four chords...he can basically make a song about anything at any point and set it to the very same 4-chord progression each time, but they're always funny (at least to me and Jimmy). I don't know if it's the exhaustion that sets in after being on set for about twelve hours or any real comedic skill that Zach has, but whatever the reason, it's quite entertaining.

Okay, I should get some rest before tomorrow's early wake-up. G'night!

That's a wrap on Day 3!

Today was pretty long, and I'm kinda tired, so bear with me. Today we filmed some more interior scenes in "Gerry's house", which of course was in Concord, and then moved on to "Tony's house" for some other scenes...but that was not without incident.

There was a memory card scare in the late morning that almost forced us to have to re-shoot Miguel's scenes (which would have been a terrible thing because his flight to Los Angeles was scheduled for tonight). Thankfully, after much Internet finagling by Jimmy, that situation was remedied and we didn't have to re-shoot his scenes. When the news came back that we didn't have to drastically alter our day, everyone was extremely relieved...that would have been a disaster, and Miguel would have to postpone his flight to LA.

Once we switched locations, the issues didn't go away...but rather than go through a play-by-play, I'll just say that there is a time and a place for Speedos and airhorns.

I attempted to conduct my interview with Miguel, since today was his last day. We got through about seven or eight minutes before our signals crossed with Dan (sound guy)'s audio and we had to stop. There wasn't really an opportunity to finish the interview, but luckily Miguel lives in LA as well, and he said he'd be willing to get together if need be once I'm back down South and we could get more interview footage.

Miguel left for the airport around 7:30, and it was somewhat sad that today was his last day...Gus made sure to take some cast & crew pictures with Miguel before the day ended.

I took more photos but wasn't able to live blog as the house we were at in the morning did not have wireless internet and the second location was in a street...so hence, all you get now is this post at night. I'll upload the pictures soon, I promise. :)

Day 4 is tomorrow, and thankfully it's a later start at 11:30 am....which means we all get to sleep in a bit (or at least a bit later than usual, hopefully).

Until tomorrow night.....adios!

--Adrian

Live-Blogging from Day 2....

9:47 pm - We are now on the last shot of the day...after that's finished, Day 2 will be in the books! Day 3 begins tomorrow bright and early again...I'm not sure if there will be live-blogging capabilities there, but if there will, you best believe I will be posting all day again.

This will be my last post of tonight, so...until tomorrow morning (hopefully)....adios and thanks for reading!

8:55 pm - So the outdoor shot was just filmed...but not without a carful of giggling girls who drove by and squealed with glee when they saw a movie being filmed in the front yard...they screamed "OMG WHAT'S THIS??!!" and also "Can we be in your movie??!!" None of us really paid attention, so they finally drove off but not before circling back around again for another drive-by.

Jimmy Freeman, data wrangler extraordinaire, has been sitting at his little makeshift desk in the living room doing the quick edits from yesterday and today...and from what I've seen it all looks amazing. These cameras take great video footage, and I think this movie is going to look really incredible on the big screen. I hope it's not my movie-making naiveté showing, but this looks really impressive so far.

8:20 pm - BIG (well, small) things just took place...here we were, arranging for an outdoor shoot, when all of a sudden a friend of someone who lives here showed up with...this:

Just TRY to not get all fuzzy inside when you look at this little guy (or girl?). Aww.

8:08 pm - they're moving things outside for an exterior shot...sounds like an opportunity for some footage!

7:12 pm - Wow it's already 7? It feels like 4 pm....I haven't personally done a lot of my behind-the-scenes stuff today that doesn't involve a computer. I had planned to interview Miguel since he's leaving after tomorrow, but the location we are filming at today is too small to really get a quiet enough place to conduct the interview. So we're going to do it tomorrow morning since we are filming at a larger place with more quiet nooks. Today has gone pretty quickly, so far.

5:51 PM - They just finished a scene with Gerry (Jorge Diaz) and Miguel (Miguel Angel) in the living room. The A/C was turned off again for sound reasons, and it's sweltering in this house...but that's a reality when you shoot in June.

It's 4:26 pm, and we just had some lunch...pasta and bread provided by Sandra, Gus's wife...they're still filming some interior scenes at "Gerry's house", and we're holed up here in the living room, blogging (obviously) and doing other tech-savvy things such as starting a Twitter account for the movie...which you can follow by clicking here!

Stay tuned for more posts in a couple of hours or so....

Day 2 is here....but first, a look back on Day 1....

Here are some choice pictures from yesterday's first day of shooting! I somehow got that picture of the slate for the very first scene we shot...looks pretty cool, especially since I was across the entire room when I took it!

THIS bad boy is the camera they have entrusted to me for this project....an XL-2, I believe they call it. This camera is worth more than my life, basically, so I feel both nervous and excited to have the chance to use it....I'm just afraid that if I look at it wrong it will shatter to pieces....

I also started filming my behind-the-scenes mumbo jumbo yesterday without being on the right audio input setting, so some of what I shot was recorded without audio. Yay!

These are some of my oh-so-important notes that I scrawled down in my notebook from the beginning of the day onward....as the day went on I relaxed my intensity with the note-taking, but then made up for the downtime as the night progressed.

An outside shot of Digger's at the very end of the day...at this point everyone was probably a little tired but stayed focused long enough to finish what we had to do.

And finally, here's a picture of Blake Rosier practicing his guitar chops in the parking lot during the hour or so he wasn't needed yesterday....look at the determination on his face! He played some NeverShoutNever, as well as "Hallelujah" (with Zack "Xachary" Garcia on ukulele)...and it was pretty good.


So we're here at the location for Day 2...I have a pretty sweet unsecured wireless internet thing going on, so I'll probably be back in a bit with more posts...live-blogging is fun!

Until then, my children.....

--Adrian

Day 1 is in the books!

After a long first day of shooting, Love, Concord is finally off and running!

Today was the first official day of production for the film, and we shot at Digger's Diner in, where else, Concord. The owners and staff of the diner were amazing in allowing us to stuff all our technical equipment and ourselves in the restaurant for about twelve hours. After everything was set up and ready to go, we began shooting some of the super-important diner scenes for the film.

This took a while, as several scenes were re-shot from different angles and done over a few times for continuity reasons....personally speaking, it was pretty remarkable to see things going as well as they did. I haven't ever been involved with a production that uses the services of so many different people. It was really interesting to see how everyone works together and does their part just right and just efficiently enough to accomplish the right shots and scenes.

Towards the end of the day, I was feeling really tired (having gotten up excruciatingly early the previous two days for World Cup action), but I got that last-minute boost of adrenaline when I was an extra in a couple important scenes. That was awesome, and I can't wait to see myself in the movie when it is completed.

On the technical side, I took a lot of footage today with my XL-2 camera, chronicling the start of Day 1 and filming some behind-the-scenes stuff, including a guitar/ukelele jam between actors Blake Rosier and Zachary Garcia in the parking lot, which was more than entertaining. I wish a jam session had been written into the film....

but I digress. I also got a few moments with Gus towards the beginning and ending of the day, in which he wrapped up his thoughts on Day 1 (which included a lot of excitement on his part, finally seeing his dream production come to fruition as it did).

I left the diner around midnight, and I'm extremely tired. I can't imagine how tired the actual crew members must be...but we all have an early day tomorrow, as Day 2 is set to begin bright and early at 9:30.

I have a bunch of pictures from today that I plan to post on this blog later in the week...as it is tonight it's a miracle this post was made as coherently as it is (I hope)....I have to catch some sleep, but I'll be back tomorrow with more diatribes and anecdotes from the set of your new favorite movie, Love Concord.

Until then....

--Adrian

On the eve of Day 1 of filming....

Hello there faithful followers.

Today I conducted some brief preliminary interviews with the man himself (Gus) and Angelina Leon. These interviews were also used as an opportunity to test out the fancy camera that has been entrusted to me to use for the duration of this project.

In these 9 or 10-minute interviews, both Gus and Angelina provided me (and the cassette tape) with some insight as to their feelings about Love, Concord and their expectations for the movie. Gus also went a bit in depth about the context of the formation of the script and concept of Love, Concord. Angelina's interview was mostly about why she decided to become involved with the project.

Tomorrow is Day 1 of filming, with about two more weeks worth of production on the schedule, and I'm excited to see things start.

After a day of lugging around heavy camera equipment with my one good arm, I'm ready to relax for a bit.

Stay tuned for some posts from Day 1 of filming....June 13, 2010 is (almost) here!

--Adrian

Hiii Everybody!

Yes, that was my lame impression of Dr. Nick from The Simpsons. I tried.

Anyway, hello, loyal Opificer Movie Blog readers. I'm Adrian, and I'll be running things here for the next few weeks while Gus helms the directorial chair throughout the greater Bay Area shooting Love, Concord. I'll be chiming in daily (that's the goal) with news and notes regarding the production, chronicling each day's shoot and any other loose ends and whatnot that may arise.

As Gus mentioned in one of his previous entries, I am going to turn my involvement with the production into a thesis project for my MA in Journalism program at California State University, Northridge. The aim of my project is to produce a short video documentary highlighting Love, Concord's production, paying special attention to the context of the film, the people involved, and (hopefully) see what it all means in terms of Latino-American independent filmmaking in Concord, a city that is not well-represented in cinematic history.

Of course, that's the goal, but I do realize that things may change over the course of the next few weeks. That's why I plan to be on-set every day for shoots, rigorously taking notes and videos of on-set activities...as well as interviewing various crew members before/after production wraps for the day.

I just picked up my camera equipment from Gaelvision (with a tip of the cap to Bryan Navarro, Grace Bosque and of course Gus himself), and will be ready to go come Sunday.

So keep your eyes peeled to this blog and the Love, Concord Facebook page for further posts and things of interest.

Onward!

Happy Birthday Opificer Movie Blog

Hello readers!

Last week I was so caught up in all my movie preporations that I forgot to mention the blog is officially one year old! So happy Birthday Opificer-Movie Blog! They grow so fast these kids ;)

Updates:

My two lead actors Jorge Diaz and Angelina Leon are officially here in the Bay Area for the production. Having them both here really makes it feel real to me that we're actually shooting this thing! We have a lot of preparation to do, but already we've gotten a lot done and they're both really excited to start working with their fellow cast mates.

Table Read

On Saturday morning I'm doing a table read with my cast. This will be the one time the entire cast will be under one roof to read the script from beginning to end. This is often done in the TV world and occasionally in the feature film world. For me it's helpful to hear and see how the story will be given it's respective voices. It's also a last chance way to tighten up any rough dialogue before shooting. And lastly I think it's helpful for the cast to meet one another prior to shooting so they can build report with one another.

Extras Needed!

On week one we have a big scene that needs extras. We're trying to create a high school basketball game and we need a crowd. The day of the shoot for this scene is June 17th and the location is Concord High school's gymnasium. The rough call time for extras is 3pm but we'll post updates on the Face Book fan page. Again any and all people are invited to come to this scene filming.

Another big extras scene we need help with is June 27th. As mentioned before, for this scene we're recreating a prom so we're looking for teenagers and 20 somethings. We also need guys to come in black or navy suits. And girls need to come in dresses and semi made up (some prom dresses will be made available the day of on a first come first serve basis). This scene will be shot at the Concord Crowne Plaza Hotel Ballroom. Times are not set yet so stay posted to the blog or Face Book page. If you have any questions contact me at gguardado@gmail.com.

Passing the Baton

Well folks this is the last blog update I'm going to be doing until we wrap production in July. Again, stay tuned to the blog as Adrian Garro will be reporting from the set with stories, interviews, possibly even video!

Well, it's been an amazing year and I want to thank all you readers out there for the constant encouragement in chasing my dream. See you on the other side!

Forwad!!!

-Gustavo

Almost There....

Hello readers!

First off LA vs Boston for the NBA finals....BORING! Ok had to get that off my chest. Lets start!

Updates:

Lock and Loading!

We're almost there folks. This Sunday marks one week until day one of production for Love, Concord! I can't believe how fast these last two months have felt. I'm both excited and a little nervous about it. Not about my cast or crew, more about the logistics of the production as we have a very tight schedule to go along with our very tight budget! But most of the important things have been locked down and our first week of the productions is about 90% planned thanks in part to the amazing team I have in Virginia, Kristin, Jimmy, Jon, Kurtis, and Sandra. You guys more than anyone have gotten us this far. Great job!

New Blog Writer

So as I'm super busy planning things I don't have much time to write a lengthy article this week. And I certainly won't have time during production, but I've been steadily working with one of my former students to insure the blog posts go on especially during the exciting part of production. Therefore it gives me great pleasure to announce Adrian Garro (SMC class of 2007) will take over blog duties starting very soon.

Adrian has proven to me literally since day one of my teaching career that he is very passionate about all forms of media. We also have an uncanny affinity for the A's, music, and pop culture in general. Therefore, when told me he wanted to help out with the production in some capacity but wasn't sure how a light bulb went off in my mind. Knowing that Adrian is getting his Masters in journalism at Cal State Northridge I figured his best talents could be put to use taking over this blog. I talked to him about it and he informed me he needed a thesis project anyways, so after working his mojo at his college he was given clearance to write for the film blog as his thesis project. I'm very excited to hand over the reins of the blog to Adrian as I know he'll do an amazing job. So stay tuned for his first post of what will be many throughout the three week production phase of Love, Concord. Welcome aboard Mr. Garro!

Well that does it for me this week. Got's loads to do! Next week will be my last update until after production ends. So until then....

Forward!

-Gustavo