Erzulie is on Set!
Miraculously, we have all landed on our set in Holden, Louisiana. The past few months have been a blur. It is like we blacked out and found ourselves here. So much prep. So much lost sleep. And now we are ready to loose even more sleep to get this beast of a project, Erzulie made.
Here is what we did during our week 1 of onsite prep on the John Schneider’s Studio. It was not a doozy.
Transcript
Christine Chen 00:16
All right, we are live. I think we can. I think I can look here; I think. Yeah. And then we can I. I don't hear, fully look here. Okay. Okay, well, today is the get Reelisms podcast. We are missing a cohost, because he worked the entire day prepping for our film that we're shooting tomorrow. Yay. As you can see, there are some other people. So, we're not alone. They're the ones that are still working. Still working. But we are in the production office. And still committed to getting to give you guys the get Reelisms podcast experience. So, to start off, I'm Christine Chen. I am the one of the CO hosts and Adam Chase Rani is probably hating his life right now because I'm him do so much art and septic green. Yeah, the whole day. So, he's taking a much-needed day, deserved break.
Payton Brewer 01:04
And I'm Payton Brewer, I am a special guest host. Special guest for tonight.
Payton Brewer 01:08
So, Payton is a co producer on Erzulie. And we're I really wanted to do this because it's the end of our prep week. And tomorrow is our day one of our feature film.
Payton Brewer 01:17
Can you believe it?
Christine Chen 01:18
It's no. There's been so many ups and downs leading to this moment that it feels really unreal.
Payton Brewer 01:25
Try to say hey.
Payton Brewer 01:25
Try to say hey. So also, we may be pulled in doing random production stuff at any possible moment, compared literally in a production office and ready to go.
Payton Brewer 01:33
I'll try and keep this relatively short. Yeah, but I guess.
Payton Brewer 02:00
I wanted to kind of talk through what has happened is this week, we had a full prep week. And you know, on site, some of us came a lot earlier, I came on the 21st of April. Yes. That is what month it is, of April, and it was just making sure that everybody gets in nice and safely. And so, it was full day it was you know, making sure that there were enough beds and pillows and sheets and made everybody's bed that I could. And then ever then the team started to trickle in. Or we had department heads come in.
Payton Brewer 03:24
I Got on the 24th
Christine Chen 03:26
Most some people you are you're in 2014. Right, Karly, Karly, some of our AD teams came in on the 24th. And we just started just prepping there's a think like a week is a lot of time, but it's not. It's not. We have it's very rare to be able to be on set and on the onsite and be able to rehearse and block and pre light and everything. And I knew we had to do this because we are we have a very, very, very difficult schedule in shooting a lot of stuff within 11 days. So, it was originally supposed to be 10. But then I looked at it. I was like that's not possible. So, 11 days, and yeah, so day one was just trying to remember what happened this whole week. Yeah, we got people settled in. Did a lot of tours, so many tours? So many tours like this is the barn again.
Payton Brewer 04:33
And all fairness it's a very confusing property and a very confusing layout. So, it required numerous.
Christine Chen 04:40
Numerous, numerous tours, but it's like, I mean, we're on the job if people know we're on the John Schneider studio, which is in Holden Louisiana, which is about 40 minutes from Baton Rouge. I thought it was a lot closer if it's actually, yeah, 45 minutes and in the middle of were feeling and there's lots of interesting location things we discovered and rules and stuff like that to help make sure that our stay here is respectful of someone's property home was John Schneider lives here. And he's very cool. And we want to make sure that he's happy that we're here and don't destroy his home. Yeah. So, day two, we had some, our lead, some of our actors actually came in, and it was coordinating our first round of makeup tests and wardrobe tests.
Payton Brewer 05:39
So donated meals which was huge for ours. production. We had so many local restaurants who were you know, just so generous and kind and we had two donations a day for the entire prep week.
Payton Brewer 05:54
Which is amazing. We literally could not have gotten through prep week without these donations. Exactly. We've had what, was it all garden Olive?
Payton Brewer 06:02
Olive Garden, Strew, Jersey May, all American. Papa's grill, Alpacha and so many others they can't pick up right now.
Christine Chen 06:19
It's been absolutely incredible. And same thing with the donations that we've been receiving through Amazon through our gift registry list. Every little thing is like so it's a direct impact to our film set. Striker got his Reese's Pieces which means he's very happy our DP got his Funions and Coke Zero and some people got some candy and, and all sorts of stuff. So, toilet paper towels son, we've been using off like it's perfumed the point it is, it's the mosquitoes here. Unreal. And so, so yeah, we've been opening those, organizing snacks. So that was a two talent that showed up. You know, I started blocking them and then day was it after that day two some of the crew started to show it's been a trickle of crew coming in. But our departments definitely had one of the hardest prep weeks. Yeah, I would feel/
Payton Brewer 07:35
They got here on the 24th
Christine Chen 07:37
Yeah, they've had to set dress, like massive set dress.
Payton Brewer 07:42
Yeah. And it sounds like just a few tweaks here. It's like completely peeling off, you know, decor from walls and rooms and then completely redress.
Christine Chen 07:52
Yeah, there's a new place, which is nuts.
Payton Brewer 07:55
And it includes like, outside memorabilia inside memorabilia. I mean, there's a huge almost reconstruction going on of each of these buildings. So, our hats
Christine Chen 08:06
Are off to them to ours. Yeah,
Payton Brewer 08:08
They have been busting their butts.
Christine Chen 08:10
It's funny because, you know, Camile and I wrote this, I really didn't think oh, wow, this is a really heavy art film. Um, and I was very wrong. There's so much art in it. There's, we have a billboard. We create all those southern photos we recreate that from scratch. It I think is just how massive of a set dress. So
Payton Brewer 08:31
We have so much so many product placements from local businesses that you know, we're blessed and lucky enough to get to feature and that doesn't include props. This is also a prop heavy film. So um, whenever they're done with dressing, they go straight to props and you know, they never stop. I think Kelly was up until midnight last night dressing miss Shirley.
Christine Chen 08:53
She is cranky. Yeah. She's totally mad at me. Um, yeah, no, what are some of the cities of Gainesville has been an incredible supporter of our film, from the wardrobe, a lot of the talent, they're wearing some of that the local designs and stuff of the local businesses there. And some of the furniture props have been donated from lots of businesses in Gainesville as well. In fact, tomorrow we're showcasing lavender. So, what was the business?
Payton Brewer 09:31
Yeah, so it's um, lavender Ridge, farms and cafe and it's like the cutest little lavender farm out in Gainesville where you get to pick your own lavender and they sell like organic bug spray and soap, lotion and margarita mix and like all this next step
Christine Chen 09:49
So tomorrow it'll be it's actually a key prop in our film, but the lead actor goes to buy some sunscreen bug spray, so she goes and there's a big stand full of a lot of new companies. Thank you so much. Yes. So, we spend the whole day tomorrow at the Visitor Center, which takes place at Miss Shirley's here on John Schneider studios. They had to do a paint reset of that I'm covering because it's, it's actually a, the way I wrote it was very much based on what the existing property looks like. And this surely is a gift shop slash Visitor Center for Josh Striders. But it's for the Dukes of Hazzard so their entire shop is full of Dukes of Hazzard, Dr. Schneider memorabilia and other things. So, we had to transform that into a mermaid Visitor Center.
Payton Brewer 10:53
But it's a beautiful building, the structure of it is great, and it has so much natural light and these really cool old windows, I think it's gonna play really well on the screen. And I'm super excited to like, actually be able to see that.
Christine Chen 11:05
Yeah, so I'm excited. It's a I've been able to prep with everybody. I've been able to rehearse everybody, Mike, the team has been incredible. I've been they've done just over and beyond, gone over and beyond just allowing me to be able to direct. And that means that everything behind the scenes, they're trying to keep you under the wraps. And I'm like, everything is great. And they're like, you don't even know.
Payton Brewer 11:38
Yeah, she comes in and she's so happy and especially Stryker taking the burden.
Christine Chen 11:52
So yeah, so its coordinating schedules, coordinating rehearsal time coordinating sets. This is a super stunt, heavy film and stunts I never.
Payton Brewer 12:05
Did you just decide like, okay, all the art, all the props, all the science, special location, all the lights, and only night shoot. Was that the plan?
Christine Chen 12:14
That was not the plan. My plan was, hey, we're gonna make a simple film in a film set that I've already done stuff at before. The hard part is going to be the mermaid and everything else is going to be simple. But no, I made an ensemble we made an ensemble film. So, there's gonna be like a million eyeline still is like freaking out about/
Payton Brewer 12:37
I understand, that is such a hard thing.
Christine Chen 12:39
Yeah, there's like so many stunts I've never done or knew that we could do. So that was all really scary to me, like, oh, can we actually do this safely. There's lots of what you would think that I would be able to learn from my previous mistakes. But I did the same, the Fun unemployment I did a film that had a lot of water in it. And I was like, I'm never going to do anything with water. Well, this has a shit ton of water.
Payton Brewer 13:06
Yeah. We are we doing water tomorrow or the next day.
Christine Chen 13:11
We're doing water the next day. So, day two, so our brains are actually in day two right now. Less so in day one because we are day ones actually are easiest, not as stressful day. Yeah, so it's a one location controlled and enclosed and everything. So, day two, this one we're gonna get off to the river.
Payton Brewer 13:40
Yeah, it should be great because it just rained a lot. And there's actually another storm coming in. So hopefully by then it'll go down.
Christine Chen 13:50
Oh, God. Um, yeah. So where if we can get if we can get through this first week alive.
Payton Brewer 14:01
We'll be golden.
Christine Chen 14:02
We are going to be so great. Yeah, for it. This is by far the most difficult week. And there's overnights and there's stunts like our last three days of this whole week are just stunts. All sorts of stunts.
Payton Brewer 14:21
I'm actually really happy that we're doing it first.
Christine Chen 14:24
Yeah, because we're fresh.
Payton Brewer 14:26
It is like ripping off a band aid and then from that point we'll be able to just like breath.
Christine Chen 14:31
we're gonna be in a tiny ass cabin like there's it's already pre dressed like so
Payton Brewer 14:37
And has been further a week. So, and the cool thing is like our actors, our leads actually get to live in that dressed for them. So, it's a really great prep for them to get super comfortable in that space. And I think it'll translate well.
Christine Chen 14:53
I'm excited I am. I mean, this is a this is a dream come true. And I keep getting cheesy about it. But like this is the process of getting here was so difficult. Yeah, it's hard. But so many people work their asses off and believed in us. And so, this is why we're able to be here.
Payton Brewer 15:18
We had so many like, moments where it's like, all the momentum. Yeah, you know, and like where we thought like, oh, this is it, we're gonna have to like, push your Oh, this is too big of a problem. Yeah. And, you know, things just kept working out in our favor.
Christine Chen 15:35
Yeah, we got really lucky. I mean, obviously, we worked very hard to create those opportunities, but like, Dude, I mean, it was like, we're funded, no, we're not. We're, oh, we only have this much. Now. funded. no funding, no funding. April 1, deadline. funded shit. And it was like, but we only have half the funding how and like, our budget is like, 30,000 over like, what are we gonna do it? It was it was creatively working through our problems; I think was the biggest thing. Yeah. Um, so forever, for anybody trying to make their film their features and stuff. I think that's the biggest thing suggestion is creatively work through your problems. For example, we noticed that we weren't getting as much traction on our crowdfunding campaign, I understand. I'm thinking like, hey, give me money. You know, and I, this is a probably a terrible and analogy, analogy, but it's like, somebody is asking for money sometimes I don't feel comfortable giving them money, but I'm okay. Giving them a banana, you know, so. So that's when we came up with the registry. Like here are this is where your money is going into directly. Yeah. And we made it funny. And Dr. Cru was a huge success, dot some talent. You know, I was thought of like, animal adoptions and stuff because the crew and cast the animals. And, yeah, that took off. And that helped us get our what we needed for PPE. It helped us get us, it was crafty. Like that's $5,000, at least that we saved, yeah, close to 8000 that we were able to save.
Payton Brewer 17:24
Well, and it's crazy, because I remember that night, she called me and she was like, um, we got to do something like our crowdfunding is not doing what we anticipated. You know,
Christine Chen 17:36
What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Yeah.
Payton Brewer 17:38
And I was like, this probably won't work. But if we could create an Amazon registry, like it might help people might be into that. And it just took 24 hours, I put, like, 50 items on, and within 24 hours, there was only like five items left. And we were like, Oh my god. It is working.
Payton Brewer 18:00
Oh my god. Yes. So no, it was nuts. how that how that ended up.
Payton Brewer 18:07
And once I stepped back from it and looked at it objectively, it's like, oh, I understand. Because it's so much easier to be like, oh, I'll just add like some candy in my cart for them.
Christine Chen 18:15
Yeah, it's only $10. And like, I was thinking is like, it's easier for me to tell my parents, hey, we need food for our set than to be like, can you help me make a movie? Like that's too big of a concept to understand. And, and sadly, when it comes to art, and it's a fun venture to people. And when you're happy when you're having fun? You shouldn't be paid for it. Yes, like the weird.
Payton Brewer 18:43
Well, I think another thing is like, which is totally understandable if you pull up a crowdfunding page, and you need $500,000. And you think I can't make it? If yeah, if I donate $10, it's not going to help them at all, and it'll make me feel bad. I'd rather donate 1000. And then this way, it's like, oh, they needed toilet paper. I didn't know they needed that. Let me buy them all their toilet paper. A
Payton Brewer 19:09
Yeah, no, it was awesome. Yeah, now, we can't thank you guys enough for those who have been able to.
Payton Brewer 19:17
And please keep an eye out. Because we have, we still have a long way to send you lots of PTS, and thank you videos and all sorts of stuff, because we just want you to know how much we appreciate it. Even if it was you know, $2 to $2,000. It all makes the biggest difference to us.
Christine Chen 19:39
Yeah. It's like this is the closest I have besides been on set. You know, besides coming here or working or whatnot, this is probably the close like the most direct impact that you will be able to have on Earth. We're not a million-dollar film thing whether it's like, you know, it's just this is we are counting pennies. And so, it's just everything that is being bought we're using immediately and relying on it. So, we can't thank you guys enough. We our film has a lot of great aunts and uncles and grandparents and grandparents.
Payton Brewer 20:21
And the other thing to mention not to push it too much. But just because our Indiegogo ended, it doesn't mean our registries ending.
Christine Chen 20:29
We still need things; paper gets used and all this stuff. So please, please, please, still continue to help us out. And we really hope you just say, just watch the progress. I think the progress is the most. The process for me, for filmmaking, it's the most exciting part about making a film than the actual film itself, because it's the collaboration of so many people who are good at their jobs that come together and make a concept better.
Payton Brewer 21:02
And the anticipation of getting to see what the like, what the end result is of the thing that you wrote, from the page to the screen.
Christine Chen 21:12
It's, it's. it's out of how to describe it, like everybody should try it or do a startup or something where you can take just a seed of an idea and put a team behind money behind and start a momentum and like spit out a baby of a product, film, whatever. It's a very magical fulfilling experience.
Payton Brewer 21:37
Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, if there's anything that you guys want to specifically see, while we're on set, please let us know we want to make that happen for you. We want you all to feel as involved as possible, because we wouldn't be here without you. That's just the truth. So, anything we can do to make you feel like.
Christine Chen 21:55
Put your questions in, in this in the list below. Erzuliefilm is our handle on everything. So, feel free to like to ask us like what's the like? Anything really? If you have a question about a specific, specific crew or caste or like, what, what, what's your process.
Payton Brewer 22:18
Or you want to know what your donation is being used for that day? If you just want to say like, hey, you guys said there was a river? Can you take me to the river?
Christine Chen 22:26
We will take you to the river. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this is the this is the fun process. The behind the scenes, the I spend lots of time watching YouTube, behind the scenes, I find that to be the most magical, like knowing the magician's secrets, you know. Yeah, well, we will keep it keeping it short and sweet today. Yes. Because we have an early day tomorrow. Um, yeah, early calls, it wasn't terrible calls. It was a really good one. I hate early call times. So tomorrow. Okay, now we have super late call times, because it's so many night shoots. Yeah. But tomorrow our call time. Breakfast is at 730. Pre calls at 730. So, some people have 7am Call times. This is the first Well, I have a 8 am call time.
Payton Brewer 23:22
It's amazing. I have a 6:30.
Christine Chen 23:27
Oh, God. So yeah, I get to be a director. They were kind enough to still let me have a walkie so I will use it. I will not abuse this.
Payton Brewer 23:41
She will abuse it, two days. And you guys will see that she's on the walkie more than 1000 years that we all have a bet.
Christine Chen 23:50
Oh, no.
Payton Brewer 23:53
I bet it's like half a day.
Christine Chen 23:54
Oh, it's I mean, I Ad usually if you haven't figured that out or been following the podcast and I'm always supposed to be on the walkie so it's very strange for me not to be on one. So, we'll see. It's like it'd be like a chase. What's happening FOMO everything going right? people happy? Who's talking shit? Yeah. But um, thank you guys again and please continue to support us and continue to look up for updates at Erzuliefilm.com or any of our handles Erzuliefilm.