Day five, JAMFEST! Well, not really, but everyone seemed to get into it. It's interesting to see what happens when you let a bunch of teenagers around so many instruments. Here everyone gets into the act as I start playing the recently acquired "Friend In You" song from Bart. Noted, we'd just had two days off and being refreshed everyone was ready to get back into it.
	It took a while to for Rick to light the stage and the small audience that was in the scene. This, of course, gave a lot of time for people to talk, mill around, and generally have a good time together.
	Stephanie was not scheduled for any shots in this scene, so she came dressed down and comfortable until we needed her later for a pickup. Here we get her stately look with glasses. Shelbi tries Jason's guitar, checking with Jacob, "Is this right? Like this?"
	Okay, now let's try out the drums. I'm guessing Shebi was trying to do the Bart thing, learn every instrument and learn them well.
	Christian and Stephanie have fun with their dueling action. By this time everyone had heard "Friend In You" a few times and had it down, even if they couldn't play.
	It seems that most of those behind the scenes were musically inclined. Myself (Shawn), Rick and Dana are all drummers. Here Christian plays a tune as Shelbi sings along. I think it was during this time that I said, "Hey, she can sing." And that's what got me thinking about having her do "Day's Like These" for the end credits. The part of "Kate" and "Nicole" being bad singers was already in the script, so when we shot it later on we had to make them sound bad when they were pretty good singers.
	Things wind down with the setup as Christian works on the guitar.
	A shot from the back if the auditorium. I like this one because it gives you a good idea of what was involved in the lighting of the stage.
	One of the primary scenes being shot this day is the Mr. Seavers audition. It was shot in the cafeteria/stage area of the school. From left to right; Bon McBee "Mr. Seavers Nephew", Meriah Churchill "Mr. Seavers Secretary", Dan Hallberg "Mr. Seavers", and Shelbi. They take time out between shots to goof around with the microphone.
	Rick tracks the light. This was one of my favorite lighting setups. He used pools of light on the floor going all of the way to the back of the room giving depth.
	Okay, we're almost ready to shoot. They look so enthused. We ran most of our power through the kitchen in the background of this shot. We had to keep the door open for the cables, but had to block outside light from coming in directly on the actors. Rick threw up a C-Stand and a sound blanket. It worked.
	In this part of the scene we opened with a dolly shot of the four actors. To do this we laid down track. It also helped because we had a lot of one and two shots. Simply moving the dolly made it easy.
	A lone Bon McBee. This was his close-up, moving his head to the music. Dana runs camera as I bury my head in the monitor shade to watch. The song "Friend In You" blares in the background.
	I take a moment to explain a little more of what I want out of the scene. Almost every day the tone was jovial. This was good since most days went real long. Day five was no exception.
	Shelbi shows off her "actors" kiss on Stephanie. She actually doesn't kiss, her thumbs are in the way. It looks real enough. The first time she did it we were all taken by surprise. Then it was like, "Do it again...." When she did we snapped away.
	My beloved Assistant Producer. Actually Stephanie helped me in many ways behind the scenes. While I drove the motor home those first few days to the site she should drive my Jeep along with the U-Haul trailer that contained all of the props (including the motor cycle). We communicated by radio.
	As mentioned before, everyone wanted to sit in the "directors" chairs so we put names on them. Stephanie shows off her chair.
	Even the big boys got their winks in. Here Stan isn't really asleep, just resting his eyes.
	The motorhome sat right outside of the auditorium. To the right is the breezeway where we started shooting a week earlier. Most of our school locations were centralized out of this area. Outside of the motorhome we kept snacks and lots of water.
	Lunchtime. For the most part we had catered box lunches everyday. Sorry, no prime rib line. But the crew did eat well. That's one piece of advise someone gave me, when most of your actors and crew are volunteers, feed them well. A few thousand was pluged into the food budget.
	Before shooting everyday and at mealtimes I prayed. Out dependence on God to bring us through each day was very important.
	Everyone in the shot, now! Here are (LtoR) Rick, Danny, the head of Stephanie, Chris, Jacob and Tyson.
	Right after lunch we quickly shot a pickup scene I forgot on the first day. It cut together nicely in editing, even if it was a week later. Rick tried hard to get the continuity right and I think it worked. Chris stands in the background to help keep the light in place as someone else goes to get sandbags.
	Like the week before, it was still very hot outside. Dana attaches a visor over the lens to help with lens flare.
	The thing about Rick's lighting was that you almost never knew it was really there. If you see the shot in the movie, the girls are lit as they go into the building, but you can't tell there is a large HMI light to the left. He used gels extensively to adjust for color. This process fascinated me. He would even mix colors to get what he wanted.
	Our handy dandy grips. Michael, who doubled as "Sean" sits as Danny reads, waiting for the scene to be over to break down and get back inside.
	Shelbi stands with her props. If I remember right we didn't shoot this scene before since the props got left in the trunk of the MG after it was taken back to it's owners that night. Sara and I ran over to get them on our days off. Believe me, it wasn't really a relaxing break. They were more like off set days. Off to the right in this pictures is my twin brother, Kyle who made it to set that day to observe.
	We're just about ready to go. Rick checks the lighting one last time, Stan adjusts his audio pack. For such a simple shot (which was definitely needed) a lot went into it. It was funny in some ways, because I'd be tell Rick about these simple shots we needed and he would just raise his eyebrows. I would say one hour, tops. And he would come back with three. Most of the time he was right.
	Michael strikes a "Sean" pose. I'm guessing it's just when he hears that Phil wants the girls in the band as backup singers.
	Let's go! Let's go! Christian picks up the last of the cables as we move back inside.
	Triple action. Here Chris, Christian and Michael get in on the action.
	As Rick continues to readjust lights the 'band' continues to practice their lip syncing abilities. We just couldn't seems to get Stephanie and Shelbi off the stage. I've had a lot of people since the premiere ask me if the guys really performed the songs. So, it was convincing enough. Good job guys!
	Getting there. Stan tries out his audio level. We really didn't need good sound here, just a reference track, but Stan took his job seriously and did a good job getting me the audio.
	The band performs. Then entire part of the scene was shot with the jib. It was much easier to get angles for Dana on the different band members. Plus we were able to do this shot, that I thought was cool, when "Jason" says "Ready boys?!?" It looks from below and the lights above cause lens refraction.
	Do that again. Jacob has his one line in the scene done over a few times for audio purposes.
	Dana could look so concentrated when he operated the jib. I tried to operate the thing a few times and you had to operate the tilt and pan control of the mount with the right hand and the zoom control with the other. Then... you had to move the jib arm with both hands in some way without changing any of other other controls. A sort of advanced rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time thing.
	That down/up shot of "Jason." When you are doing a low budget movie you get real creative as far as props go. Most of the band/sound equipment came from a small church my wife, Sara, and I were attending. This was literally their main sound system, drum set, and acoustic guitar.
	Stan takes a rest while Tyson, Chris and I go over part of the script. The only part you can see of Chris is his shoe with the "Nike" swoosh. Where's Waldo?
	The scene we were setting up for is when Phil and Tyson talk about "Jason's" where- abouts. Rick had to do a slight re-light and Stan prepares the mic placement. The trick is to get the mic as close to the actors as possible, but just outside of frame. Not as easy as it sounds.
	Danny and I pose for Christian.
	Not really sure what is going on here. Tyson and I confer about something.
	Michael had to act happy in a phony way and it came across well. It was meant to get a chuckle in a stressful moment of the movie.
	Mr. Director sits with his headphones strapped to his head watching the monitor. I liked the directors chair because I could easily jump out of it to go and talk with the actors if needed.
	The motorcycle sits on the stage. To get it there was easier said than done. It took several guys to get it up a set of stairs and to the back-stage doors. It took several takes to get the push in right. The battery had gone dead so it was a matter of Rick pushing "Jason" and "Phil" into frame. The motorcycle sounds were added in post. One continuity error here was that when a motorcycle operates the headlight is always on. When the roll in, it isn't.
	The guys get ready for another take of the band performance.
	I always liked this shot of Tommy and Chris. It has a sort of artistic/photographicness to it. Good job Christian.
	We didn't have any sort of countdown on the CD as to when the song started, so the guys had to be ready and were normally off by a half second when it kicked in. The way I fixed this in post was to add in a close-up of a drumstick hitting the snare drum, which was a pickup shot from another drummer.
	Tommy sits alone in the back as we get his close-ups for the scene.
	One word -- CONTINUITY. Most of the time I stayed on top of it, but this was not one of them, and consequently I couldn't really use any of the footage of Chris in the audition scene. It was sad because there was a lot good shots here, single and entire band stuff. I've heard people say that most don't pickup on small continuity things, but I do and they grate on me. See Day 21 for further explanation. Think shirt color.
	Another creative shot by Christian. A note on Chris's playing. The first band sequence Bart came in and helped Chris how to fake playing the keyboards. I think this helped because he did a good job making it look real.
	They guys jam.
	Don't ask why, but I snapped a couple of pictures after everything was in the can and we were about ready to break down.
	I think perhaps I wanted to possibly use it for some artwork on the video sleeve or something.