surging with adrenaline
In four days, we roll camera on the first sequence of WHERE IN THE HELL, the art-house buddy comedy/dystopian road movie I've been writing and prepping to direct for the past year.
I've been prepping to direct this feature for the past year, but truly I've been prepping to direct a feature, my first feature, for more like fifteen years, ever since I dropped out of NYC theater to enroll in film school in LA. I'm surging with adrenaline, but also—I feel prepared.
I had a great rehearsal with my actors yesterday, pacing through the blocking in Elysian Park, wiping dew and bird poop off a picnic table that stood in for our car.
Got a great set of notes from our exec producer. (Not the exec producer/lawyer, but the one who first encouraged me to write the script.) (We have two exec producers!!) I'm still tweaking, but happily. Revising the script to SHOOT IT feels glorious after all the time I've spent nebulously "developing" scripts, revising and re-revising to make some grant deadline or send to some exec who's not attached who may or may not ever get back to me.
Got word just now, R exclaiming from the other room, we have power in the busted, burned out, perfect vintage motel we're renting for our primary location. No need to source a generator, which would have been a bummer for sound.
R ordered walkies, and a portable solar charger, and N95s in bulk.
There's lots more to do, but we're doing it. WE'RE MAKING THIS MOVIE.
--
This month in tacos: To celebrate our 13th anniversary, R and I went for a swanky outdoor patio taco experience at Damian, in the Arts District, and it might be my new top fave swanky taco experience. I think it is. To start, the Dungeness crab gordita is a perfect little crab sandwich, like a small arepa (gluten free), featuring the best crab I've ever had, kissed with meyer lemon and served with an avocado shiso salsa on the side. All the salsas come on the side, and they are all so good we insisted on multiple plastic ramekins to take them home with our leftovers. The duck al pastor also comes with pineapple butter that you are instructed to slather on your excellent house-made tortillas before you build your duck pastor tacos. Slather it, y'all. And then the pescado a la braza, a crispy, tender, flavorful whole fish, which comes with a spicy, thai-inspired slaw, to be layered onto your fish tacos. I cannot explain how mindblowing those fish tacos are. We almost didn't order the fish. We were leaning toward the carne asada, but our server insisted and thank gah. The pescado a la braza is the star.
This month in movies: I've been watching indies for shooting inspiration. Classics I'd never seen, like Before Sunrise and Y Tu Mamá También. Old favorites like Lynne Ramsey's Morvern Callar. Film friends, just watch the first five minutes of Morvern Callar. The shooooooting.
This month in fashion: Dear my over-40s, may I recommend reader sunglasses? I recently bought Look Optic's Liam in clear, and I FEEL COOL IN THEM. Also, I'm about to be spending 12-hour days outside, squinting at a hand-held monitor, gazing up at actors and down at my script in the bright sun, and am very much looking forward to not doing the dumb switching back and forth from sunglasses to readers.
xoxo,
Laramie
Please forward this to someone who's about to shoot her first feature! Or someone who might need sunnie readers. If you're seeing The Laramie Report for the first time, you can subscribe here to get it every month. As always, here's your trusty taco map.
I've been prepping to direct this feature for the past year, but truly I've been prepping to direct a feature, my first feature, for more like fifteen years, ever since I dropped out of NYC theater to enroll in film school in LA. I'm surging with adrenaline, but also—I feel prepared.
I had a great rehearsal with my actors yesterday, pacing through the blocking in Elysian Park, wiping dew and bird poop off a picnic table that stood in for our car.
Got a great set of notes from our exec producer. (Not the exec producer/lawyer, but the one who first encouraged me to write the script.) (We have two exec producers!!) I'm still tweaking, but happily. Revising the script to SHOOT IT feels glorious after all the time I've spent nebulously "developing" scripts, revising and re-revising to make some grant deadline or send to some exec who's not attached who may or may not ever get back to me.
Got word just now, R exclaiming from the other room, we have power in the busted, burned out, perfect vintage motel we're renting for our primary location. No need to source a generator, which would have been a bummer for sound.
R ordered walkies, and a portable solar charger, and N95s in bulk.
There's lots more to do, but we're doing it. WE'RE MAKING THIS MOVIE.
--
This month in tacos: To celebrate our 13th anniversary, R and I went for a swanky outdoor patio taco experience at Damian, in the Arts District, and it might be my new top fave swanky taco experience. I think it is. To start, the Dungeness crab gordita is a perfect little crab sandwich, like a small arepa (gluten free), featuring the best crab I've ever had, kissed with meyer lemon and served with an avocado shiso salsa on the side. All the salsas come on the side, and they are all so good we insisted on multiple plastic ramekins to take them home with our leftovers. The duck al pastor also comes with pineapple butter that you are instructed to slather on your excellent house-made tortillas before you build your duck pastor tacos. Slather it, y'all. And then the pescado a la braza, a crispy, tender, flavorful whole fish, which comes with a spicy, thai-inspired slaw, to be layered onto your fish tacos. I cannot explain how mindblowing those fish tacos are. We almost didn't order the fish. We were leaning toward the carne asada, but our server insisted and thank gah. The pescado a la braza is the star.
This month in movies: I've been watching indies for shooting inspiration. Classics I'd never seen, like Before Sunrise and Y Tu Mamá También. Old favorites like Lynne Ramsey's Morvern Callar. Film friends, just watch the first five minutes of Morvern Callar. The shooooooting.
This month in fashion: Dear my over-40s, may I recommend reader sunglasses? I recently bought Look Optic's Liam in clear, and I FEEL COOL IN THEM. Also, I'm about to be spending 12-hour days outside, squinting at a hand-held monitor, gazing up at actors and down at my script in the bright sun, and am very much looking forward to not doing the dumb switching back and forth from sunglasses to readers.
xoxo,
Laramie
Please forward this to someone who's about to shoot her first feature! Or someone who might need sunnie readers. If you're seeing The Laramie Report for the first time, you can subscribe here to get it every month. As always, here's your trusty taco map.
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