The Jon Stokes Blog

My producing team has negotiated all fifteen of our actor contracts as “most favored nations.” This means that our smallest actor gets exactly the same deal as our biggest actor.
I can’t imagine how this works in our favor, but it seems we’ve just been muscled into it. Our actors have signed four contracts [...]

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11:00pm. I had to tell all the actors to go home. If I kept them I’d have to pay them overtime and serve them another meal, and I don’t have any more money. We didn’t finish the movie. And nothing for the day is usable.
I tell everyone they did a great [...]

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Four minutes before I yell action to start the movie, one of the producers pulls me aside in a panic. I tell him, whatever it is, don’t tell me now. I’m about to direct. Tell me in six hours.
Producer: We need to shut down the movie tomorrow.
Me: What now?
Producer: We need another [...]

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Peter Marr (The Last Hurrah Producer) is one of the best people I know in Los Angeles.  A great guy and a hilarious person, Peter has encouraged me with my writing for many years.  Years ago, when I was thinking about giving up on comedy writing, Peter helped convince me to stick it through.  He [...]

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It’s so exciting to come on set every day and find two new truckloads of equipment. For some reason, the big moment for me was when the generator arrived. Then it felt like a movie. Granted, I was reluctant to spend the $1,000 for the generator cost. But since Chuck needs [...]

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This is the strategy Chuck (Cinematographer) and I have come up with.
We are going to shoot the entire movie once a day, for seven days in a row.
Monday: Entire Lighting Set up. Sound Testing. Full Dress Rehearsal.
Tuesday: Lighting improvements. Sound Testing. Full Dress Rehearsal.
[...]

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The homeowner left us with clear instructions:
“If my friend Sam shows up at the house and I’m not home - no matter how much he begs you - do NOT let him inside.”
“How come?”
“Because he will steal all my alcohol.”
The past few days, Sam never showed up and I didn’t think much of it. [...]

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Today we had a small miracle.
The actors and I blocked the whole script Monday and Tuesday, and today we needed to run the entire movie. This was our last chance before Saturday to solidify the blocking in everyone’s minds.
I have a number of actors who will only agree to come to a few select rehearsals. [...]

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I spent the day in back-to-back meetings with wardrobe, set design, sound and camera. Super fun. However, when I emerged from the living room/office at 5:55 pm for our first full cast rehearsal I was in for a shock.
All of the producers were gone.
No unit production manager, none of our three producers, no [...]

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Today the crew shot the entire movie as a test run.
We only had about six producers and crew people to fill the roles of fifteen actors, so it was like a three ring circus. Watching Phil Napolitano play a leading woman is pretty hilarious. And Peter Marr (Producer) performing three parts simultaneously had [...]

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