Survivor's Club: All Tied Up

There are a lot of days when we film in bad weather - days so hot your eyeballs feel like they're frying, days so cold your hands might fall off, and rain pouring so hard you could almost drown on set. Each month we'll remember one of those horrible weather days and celebrate the survivors who braved the elements in order to film.  Why would we want to remember those days?  Because going through hell on set has a way of bringing everyone closer together when they can say they survived mother nature AND filming on a Yibble set.

ALL TIED UP

Taking 'Uncomfortable' to a Whole New Level

(aka Yibble Really Is a Sadist)

Many productions have scenes where certain characters get chained up, tied down, or handcuffed, and the actors are the ones who have to suffer through it.  Just getting handcuffed for a scene isn’t enough to make it into the Survivor’s Club though – you have be handcuffed, tied up, or otherwise immobilized for at least a full hour and sometimes two or three. You have to truly suffer to make it into this club.  Wait…why would you want to? Well, for some reason these people did.

Pandora’s Box had a few scenes where people got tied up – not unusual in an action-adventure 24 episode TV show. Jacob MacLeod had to be tied up for two scenes while filming Episode 19 of Pandora’s Box, but unlike most people on this list he was tied up for two hours and wasn’t filming for most of that time. He was wrapped up pretty tightly in the same thick, scratchy rope for the first scene.  Then I made him stay tied up while we filmed another scene and part of a third scene.  When I was finally ready to film with him again we only needed him tied up for literally one shot before his character got out of the ropes.  So, he really didn’t need to spend that whole time tied up. I’m just a sadist.  At least he got to sit on a chair though.

Jacob was tied up again for a different scene in the same episode, this time with Virginia McCreary. This scene wasn’t as hard on either of them since it was barely an hour and I don’t think the ropes were very tight. However they were sitting on a cold, hard, dirt floor in a cellar and had to shove each other around while being tied up with ye old scratchy rope.  Being tied up with someone else is a different level of discomfort than being tied up with yourself. At least I assume so. I’ve never had to be tied up on set either way.

As previously mentioned in the Production Diary for Fortunate Ones: Forever, Kate Weber and Drew Thomas had to be tied up, back to back while sitting on a cold stone basement floor for almost two hours. It was smoother rope this time, and they each had a hand free so it could have been worse. Again, though, being tied up back-to-back and sitting on a hard floor in the exact same position for two hours can cause spinal injuries and butt numbness.  But they were troupers and survived, although I think Drew’s back got messed up for a while.

The Gift Bearer also had several scenes were people got tied up. In the first two episodes the Silverstone sisters are captured by the townspeople of (not) Salem and are tied up waiting for the dawn when they will be burned at the stake. Christine Komiskey, Morgan Thomas, and Brittany Ann Whalen had to spend at least an hour, if not more, tied up together for a long scene – and yes they were tied with the same thick, scratchy rope.  Unlike the others who were tied up with it two of the three of them had short sleeves, so it probably hurt more.  I have no idea how more or less comfortable it is to be tied up in triplicate though.

Christine Komiskey and Morgan Thomas had to be tied up again in The Gift Bearer, this time in an attic at Fort De Chartres for Episode 4.  I think they were tied up for about an hour while we filmed, and they had to sit in uncomfortable costumes in a hot attic tied up with Scratchy McScratchy-Rope.  Christine had to pull a small dagger out of her bosom using her teeth while tied up so that was pretty impressive.

One of the most painful experiences with being tied up had to be when Brittany was tied up during a different scene (on the same filming day) for Episode 2.  Yes, ye olde scratchy rope was involved, but this time she wasn’t just tied with her hands behind or beside her.  She was tied up with you arms outstretched and her legs and feet were tied up to. Tied in what looks like a very uncomfortable position, she had to strain and fight against the ropes around her wrists which probably left marks.  The worst part was that she was tied up like this for at least two hours. Man, her arms had to hurt after all that time. Oh and when she finally did get untied, she ended up falling face down because the rope at her feet didn’t get untied right.

I guess Brittany has a habit of getting tied up – or at least bound - on set because she ended up being handcuffed for several hours on a later shoot, this time for the short film C2.  The two main characters, played by Brittany Ann Whalen and Syndi Eller, get handcuffed together by the trickster they’re hunting and spend several hours that way.  Perhaps it’s not as bad as being tied up, but it lasted a lot longer (almost 4 hours I think, or maybe more) and moving around, fighting, and flailing with metal handcuffs on left bloody scratches and bruises on their wrists. They ended up breaking two pairs of handcuffs, which also probably hurt considering they broke one pair when they both tumbled over a fallen log.  Well, Brittany fell down but since they were handcuffed together she took Syndi with her. Ouch.

Edward Stasheff mixed things up a bit when he directed Mind Games.  In one of the last scenes the antagonist of the film - who is a dangerous psychopath – is restrained by both handcuffs AND actual chains with his arms above his head. Chris Lamb had to sit in that position for over an hour and I can only imagine how uncomfortable that was. Although I think the copious amounts of medical tape wrapped around his bare torso was probably far worse then the handcuffs and chains.

Although Brittany Ann Whalen is the winner of the “Most Often Tied Up” award, the award for “Tied Up for the Longest Amount of Time” award goes to Russell Martin.  His character, Xavier, spends the second half of Episode 11, the first scene of Episode 13, and all of Episode 12 tied up AND handcuffed to an uncomfortable plastic chair where he is tortured for several hours. He was also gagged with a shiny sash for a little while.

Russell, like his character, spent several hours being tortured with my favorite thick, scratchy rope, metal handcuffs, covered in bruise make-up and fake blood sitting under a hot light for…um…how many hours was it again?  Five? Six?  It was a LONG time.  He was tied up filming though scene until at least 2am. Oh, and he had to fall down in the chair while tied up, then lay on the floor – still tied to the chair – for at least an hour. Poor, poor Russell, but he was such a trouper about it all, a true professional.

Thank you to everyone who has suffered through being chained up, tied down, bound and gagged for hours on set! Here’s some aspirin, some bandaids, a soft pillow, and a healing lotion to help with the scratches from that damn rope.  Now go take a well-deserved nap.

Just for fun here’s some bloopers of people who are tied up:

Production Diary - Fortunate Ones: Forever

Once a month I’m going to talk about a specific production, what it was like to film it, and what was involved in making it happen.  This month I’m going to talk about Fortunate Ones: Forever.

Fortunate Ones is a series of short films with one common theme – the main characters wishes for or wants something, then suddenly they get it and realize it’s not what they really wanted after all, which usually results in a dramatic twist in their life.  

Usually I can tell you exactly how and when I thought up the idea for the script, but honestly I don’t remember for this one.  I was trying to think up ideas for stories that worked with the premise of Fortunate Ones and the script just sort of…happened.  The only thing I remember about writing it was giggling over the interactions of the two people tied up.  I think the story emerged from the idea of what two strangers tied up together who don’t seem to care about their situation would do. Then I had to have a reason for them to be so calm, which is why one is hung-over and the other is still high.

I knew that I would have Drew Thomas and Kate Weber available to film and I wanted to give them leading roles.  While I was writing the script I kept picturing the two of them saying the lines as Ray and Samantha.  I was not disappointed in their performance since it pretty much matched the image in my head while I was writing. 

I didn’t have anyone specific in mind when I was writing the dialogue between Devon and Kiera. However, I did want to see Morgan Thomas play Kiera because Morgan rarely gets the chance to play a villain.  Devon was originally supposed to be a guy.  Male actors are often in short supply and the only one available was Drew who already had a part. At some point, possibly the day we filmed it, we decided to have Brittany Ann Whalen play Devon and make them lesbian vampires.  It worked out so much better that way in my opinion. Brittany and Morgan have known each other and acted together for well over a decade and they have great chemistry on screen so they were a natural choice to play the pair.

This movie was shot during a weekend of filming multiple productions, so it was sort of sandwiched in between two other film shoots.  In the morning we filmed another Fortunate Ones script (Faerie Tale) and in the late afternoon and evening we filmed more of The Gift Bearer: Time After Time. 

After lunch at Taco Bell we read through the script at the Weber Residence then set up in the basement.  It was a ridiculously hot weekend, so the two-three hours we spent filming in Kate’s parents air-conditioned basement was almost heavenly.  I was originally going to film it in the cellar at the MacLeod Farm, but that didn’t work out – and everyone was glad it didn’t!  Sweet and wonderful air-conditioning, oh how we love thee!

We also had something rare on the set – an audio engineer!  We very rarely have a boom mic, let alone a boom operator, on set.  Bill Chrapcynski specializes in audio engineering and was willing to record sound for us for this movie and other productions.  He’s also a very talented musician who allows us to use his music copyright free, so this is a shameless plug to go listen to (and maybe buy) his music – Binary Souls/Other Dimensions.

The assistant director, Christine Komiskey, had fun tying up Kate and Drew and I think that took almost as long as filming their lines. Fun fact: tying people up is not as easy as it looks – especially when you’re tying more than one person together and trying make it look like they can’t possibly escape. They only had to be firmly tied up on the side that faced the camera, however, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

“I didn't know how lenses work,” Kate remembers, “and didn't know I was in frame and kept picking up my supposedly-tied hand to scratch my nose.”  I probably should have told her when she was in frame and when she wasn’t. My bad. I’m clearly an experienced director.

We mostly filmed in order, since there is only one scene really it makes sense. The only things we filmed out of sequence were the lines and action by the door since we had to have a different set up for that.  The filming went fairly quickly because Drew and Kate are awesome. “Kate and I did most of our lines in one take,” Drew remembers. “I screwed up a few times.”  Kate actually reprimanded me at one point for trying to feed her the lines, reminding me that she already knew them.  I never know what to do when people actually memorize their lines. I’m just not used to it.

Brittany and Morgan took a few more takes, but that’s because we were having too much fun joking around about how the two characters needed to communicate better before taking their relationship to this whole new level, and coming up with new possible shows like Lesbian Vampire Pirates VS Gay Zombie Ninjas. 

What really slowed down filming and resulted in multiple takes were all the technical problems. Brittany had two pairs of vampire teeth (or was it only one?). We didn't have any of the stuff to hold the teeth in place though, so Morgan tried to shove them in and hold them there long enough to get a shot of her showing them off.  It wasn't easy.  Other things happened on the set too. Drew recalls one such incident, “I do remember my phone went off while we were tied up and Kate says to me ‘dude! Your pants are vibrating!’”

A phone ringing while filming is not unheard of, or even unexpected, and props act up all the time.  The real problem was the background noises.  The acoustics in the basement was like an echo chamber for the noises upstairs.  We could loudly hear every footstep, which sounded both creepy and ominous. We could also hear everything flowing through the pipes, so whenever someone flushed the toilet or turned on a faucet we could hear it and the water rushing through the pipes loud and clear. This resulted in many giggles and comments about how often vampires use the bathroom.

Despite the laughter and good times there were some serious moments, particularly for filming the last shot of the movie. Morgan was incredibly dynamic and creepy as hell and Brittany had the innocent being seduced act down pat.  When Kiera leads Devon over to the victims and they kneel down together to slaughter the strangers I could feel the tension in the room. “I remember when Morgan grabbed me I started shaking uncontrollably,” remembers Drew. “Dunno how that happened but it did.”

After we filmed all the lines in the main room, we untied Kate and Drew and then set up to shoot the lines by the door.  Again, Morgan and Brittany’s performances were amazing.  Brittany’s screaming for help was especially realistic, and Drew recalls. “I went upstairs for a phone call and I heard Brittany screaming “HELP!!” I ran downstairs not realizing “oh crap they’re shooting...”.

The filming itself was over in less than two hours, which might just be a record for fasted shoot.  It’s a good thing it didn’t last much longer because poor Kate and Drew were not comfortable being tied up on the floor for so long, and I know the effects lasted longer then the two hours of filming. “I remember my back was stiff afterwards,” says Drew, “but it was worth it.”

Thank you to everyone who helped make this movie possible!  It was a blast and a half (and it was a good excuse to be in air-conditioning for awhile!)

Relationships 101 – Maria & Mordecai

Usually I post a character profile on the second Monday of the month, but this month we’re celebrating love and romance on the SFF blog so let’s talk about a relationship instead of a specific character.  

By far the most popular romantic couple out of all the characters in the Sine Fine Film repertoire (according to a highly unscientific facebook poll where less than ten people voted) is Cat and De Carlo from Pandora’s Box.  They're an amazing couple with a complicated relationship. However, I already did a post about their relationship, so I ran a second poll without them in it.

The second favorite romantic pairing is Maria and Mordecai from The Curse/Eidolon.  

They are played by the amazing Morgan Thomas and the awesome Mike D (The Curse) and Adam Herricks (Eidolon).

Maria Sanchez and Mordecai have an interesting evolution in their relationship. Originally the two characters were never supposed to be together.  I had intended for Mordecai to end up with Zandra, the lead character in The Curse. However, since the show was cut short there wasn’t much of a relationship beyond “he likes her, she hates him” between the two.

Although they meet repeatedly – and by “meet” I mean “occupy the same space” – it’s a long time before they actually talk to each other.  The first time they met was when Maria ended up in the Dream World after being tricked by Namtaru.  Mordecai noticed her, but she didn’t really notice him.  Three years later she ended up in the Dream World again, this time trying to save Zandra.  Mordecai was following Zandra and saw Maria with her.  Mordecai noticed Maria on both occasions, but Maria was totally unaware of his presence.

Later on when Zandra’s curse allows Mordecai’s ghost to manifest in the cave where he is buried, he again sees Maria but she can’t see him since she can’t see ghosts.  They don’t have any interactions (although he does make fun of them because Cory is talking to the air thinking it's him). Mordecai is obsessed with Zandra at that point because he’s convinced she is his soul mate and can resurrect him from the dead, so he doesn't really notice Maria.

Although she knows who Mordecai is from Zandra talking about him, and she saw his perfectly preserved corpse in the cave, Maria never interacted with him.  The first time she actually saw him alive and moving was when he was revealed to be the university’s benefactor who was sponsoring archeological digs that Zandra would be allowed to work on.  He introduces himself to Maria and Cory in a scene that was never filmed. 

The first time they have an actual conversation is due to a stupid bet that Zandra makes with Mordecai in the final episode of The Curse.  As a compromise to their general conflict Zandra and Mordecai decide to play a game and the winner gets a specific prize. If Mordecai wins Zandra will marry him.  If Zandra wins Mordecai will leave her alone forever. 

They find an impartial judge who decides to make the game a treasure hunt and hides several clues around campus.  To make things fair each player has their knowledge and memory of the campus temporarily erased (since Zandra knows it way better than Mordecai).  

Each player gets a helper who knows the campus and can guide them around and help them out.  Zandra gets to team up with her best friend Cory, which leaves Maria to pair up with Mordecai. Even though Mordecai had barely noticed Maria up to this point and even though Maria has a pretty poor opinion of him thus far the two still agree to team up.

The interactions that occur in this episode between the two characters, and the chemistry between the two actors, is the whole reason there’s even a possibility of having these two characters hooking up.  Whatever impressions they have of each other change completely by the end. Mordecai respects Maria’s opinion and he listens to her suggestions and insight.  Maria is open minded enough to realize there’s more to Mordecai then she thought and that even though he may be misguided and hedonistic, but he’s definitely not evil.

They make a good team and since they’re the two smartest people in the show they naturally find and figure out all the clues first.  However, Maria convinces Mordecai that if he gets Zandra by winning the game she will hate and resent him so much that he’ll be miserable.  If he loses the game on purpose he’ll have to leave Zandra alone forever.  

The stakes are too high and Zandra is sore a loser so the game was lost from the beginning. Even if he wins, he still loses.  Maria insists that eventually Zandra will realize he let her win and will be so mad she’ll demand a rematch.  We find out at the beginning of Eidolon that she never does figure it out and Mordecai bitterly accepts his promise to leave her alone.

Even if the two get along well and become friends, that doesn’t mean sparks are flying. So where did the idea come from to pair them up?  Well, there’s a scene in the library where the two of them are hunting for the next clue.  While they’re looking they have the following conversation:

It’s the way Morgan says the line “please, I have no interest in you” that makes you think she actually does.  As Shakespeare would say: the lady doth protest too much.  Also, at the end of the episode Maria tells Zandra that Mordecai is too good for her. That leaves little doubt in my mind that she has developed a crush on him.

I considered having the Maria and Mordecai casually date just to piss off Zandra and make her jealous.  I could totally see them flirting outrageously around her to make her irritated.  Even back then I realized those two would make a good pairing. If the series had continued with a second season I probably would have written in a relationship between them.

Zandra’s character never really evolved like she was supposed to and she’s such a bitch I can’t imagine anyone actually wanting to date her.  In truth Mordecai falls in love with her because he believes her to be his soul mate, and only his soul mate can perform the resurrection spell.  It’s a terrible reason for someone to be in love with someone else and it’s clear Mordecai was more in love with the idea of being in love and having a wife then he was actually in love with Zandra.  Did that make sense?

Twenty years later Maria and Mordecai meet again at Zandra’s funeral. Mordecai is bitter and Maria is annoyed.  It isn’t until six months later after Zandra’s daughter, Zelda (who is now Maria’s ward) gets cursed that Maria seeks out Mordecai and asks for his help.  Mordecai is now the star of a popular TV show that he also writes and produces and Maria has to pretend to be a fan in order to meet with him. After she flashes him to get his attention they finally get a chance to be alone and talk.

Their reunion is short and although it starts out friendly enough it ends in an argument with Mordecai refusing to help her and they go their separate ways. Maria continues trying to get Zelda’s curse removed. Mordecai goes back to home and proceeds to drown his sorrow over Zandra with an alcoholic binge that last days if not weeks.  After a stern talking to from his agent he decides to take a vacation.

This is a crucial moment for him because he actively decides to forget about Zandra and turns his attention to Maria.  He’s lonely and because he leads a double life he can’t be himself around anyone who doesn’t already know who and what he is – a thousand year old sorcerer.  Maria is really the only one left like that. Their previous interactions were brief but left a lasting impact on both of them.  Mordecai decides to spend his vacation helping Maria.  He does not expect anything to happen between them, but he wants to get to know her better and holds onto the hope that a romance could bloom between them.

Romance is the last thing on Maria’s mind and is shocked when Mordecai offers to help.  He quickly settles into her life and her house (sharing the place with the rabid fan girl Terri).  Maria and Mordecai have many conversations with sexually charged banter and quickly form a deep friendship, though neither truly understands how many layers their relationship has until later.

Eventually both of them are tricked by Namtaru, trapped in his lair, and proceed to get very drunk together.  They laugh, they argue, they kiss, and the next thing they know they’re naked in bed together after having just had mind-blowing sex. It was something they both needed and it makes them confront and accept their feelings for each other. In other words, it’s the beginning of a beautiful romance…until his body gets possessed by an evil god and she shoots him in the head. That brings their relationship to a screeching halt.

A whole bunch of stuff happens that’s too confusing to get into but basically they both discover that Maria is actually Mordecai’s soul mate, not Zandra, which means she can perform the resurrection spell and bring him back to life.  Once back he tries to kill her in order to save his soul from Namtaru and ends up killing her father figure instead.  Mordecai becomes the god of Dreams and Maria tries to jump off a cliff. Seriously, Maria has had a lot of terrible stuff happen to her over the years, and the events of Eidolon put her through the ringer.

So how the hell do these two end up together after something like that?

Well, it turns out there’s a rule in the Sorcerer’s World that a sorcerer has to either marry or kill the person who performs the resurrection spell.  That’s why he wanted to marry Zandra – so that he didn’t have to kill her.  He thought that he was punished by having his powers taken away after he refused to kill her, but the law was never actually enforced because Zandra wasn’t his soul mate and the spell that was performed was never completed.  Wow. Confusing.

However, when the spell is performed by his real soul mate the rule is enforced.  He has to either marry Maria or kill her.  Around this time Maria discovers she’s pregnant.  Maria doesn’t want to have anything to do with Mordecai, but Mordecai doesn’t want to kill her, let alone kill their child, because he’s in love with her.  She still loves him despite everything that’s happened (and after being locked in a hotel room for a week together) they talk things out and agree to get married.

Their relationship is kinda messed up, but it all works out in the end.  I think the reason why they’re the second favorite pairing in SFF is because they start out as friends, which a lot of couples don’t, and go through a lot together, falling in love along the way.  It’s a much more natural and believable romance then most of the others in the various SFF universes.

Also, I have a tendency to pair up characters that don’t really mesh and would never get together unless they were forced.  The relationship between Atlanta and Drake in the Gift Bearer is a great example of that, and honestly so is the relationship between Mordecai and Zandra. 

Mordecai and Maria, however, compliment each other quite well.  Maria is a very serious person over all with a dry sense of humor and Mordecai is pretty much the opposite.  He can take things seriously, he just tends not to – except of course when it comes to love.  They are both people who are determined to achieve their goals and once they decided on something they rarely change their mind.  Mordecai brightens Maria’s dark world with teasing jokes and easy conversation.  Maria adds balance and purpose to Mordecai’s hedonistic lifestyle. 

He was always sexy, funny, and smart whenever someone was around, but was secretly a depressed alcoholic at home.  Maria was a well respected professor and archaeologist, but didn’t really have a life outside her work until Zelda came along and got cursed.  Both of them are lonely and want to be with someone who can understand the crazy supernatural world they come from and have to deal with.  They really are a perfect match for each other. 

 

Eidolon ends with their wedding, but I wrote a story that takes place ten years after the end of the show.  In the story we learn that Maria and Mordecai are still happily married and have three children.