Day 1-Directing Richard Riehle

I’m gonna shout it to the world. Richard Riehle is THE most fantastic actor to work with. For those of you who don’t know him by name, he’s one of those guys where you go, “Oh yeah, I love him, he’s in everything!”

This is my first feature film and I was lucky enough to have the honor of scoring such a seasoned pro through my hard working producers. From day 1, Richard showed up on set with a smile on his face and a hello for everybody. He never complained about the ULB rate, that he didn’t have the luxury of a trailer, he knew his lines to a t (with improv on top),  and he was generous to his fellow actors. He also addressed me and my co-director Brandon in such a respectful way that it hit me on day 1, “Oh crap. I AM the director of this thing”. He made me want to be the best director I could be and I was honored to have him and his talents to cut my teeth on for the next 17 days.

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Richard Riehle ‘Stan Janson’ is comforted by his ‘Secretary’ Rumi Murakami.

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Day 1 – the Offices

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Shaina Vorspan prepares to go to the boss’s office. Eric Clabeaux on sound.

Producing an indie feature is never an easy feat. As is often the case, stretching the dollar as far as it can go can be the most difficult aspect. In the studio world, a script is given to the production department and they go line by line in the budget filling in all the blanks with dollars allotted for every item from producer gifts to location reps, and arrive at a budget number. But in the indie world its called reverse budgeting – where you start with a budget number and work backwards – filling in the blanks according to what you can get for free, and what you actually have to pay for – oh the whoas of #lowbudgetfilmmaking!

It goes without saying we could not afford a location rep, or even a full days’ rental of a bar, or an office space, or even a full second camera package! But #wherethereisawill! Day one of our schedule started at an office in Van Nuys and ended at another in North Hollywood.  Luckily the second location had already been found by one of our directors @KasiABrown – an oxygen tank refill office no less #brilliant so we had the one location left to find… within a 10 minute drive… with adequate parking for our truck, crew, and a bus full of cast… and who would accept less than $100/ hour.  So the hunt began.  We tried looking online, or posting an ad on Craigslist #freaks #desperate, or calling around, so finally I just starting driving around.  I was on the hunt for run-down commercial areas and properties with dirty windows, or run down offices that looked like the place hadn’t been touched in months. After assembling this list, I arranged meetings with the managers to view the properties and eventually found a location. The final location? *drumroll* – a property rental company’s main offices! It was perfect! It had all the props, the mise en scene, a separate room for hair/ make-up, and the space for our scenes to unfold.

Also I should note that we had an excellent Day One thanks to our wonderful crew and cast that kept the creativity flowing and our energy as high as Colorado Girl Scouts.

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Walter has been Kidnapped

A day after we finished shooting our film we discovered that a real life yorkie named “Walter” was kidnapped. The similarities to the situation of our film are eery. Walter is 11, deaf and is somewhere in the Hollywood. Walter’s mom was instructed to post missing dog flyers, then the kidnapper would return the dog and accept the “reward”. If you see this little guy with someone other than its owner please contact helpfindwalter@gmail.com.

An email from the owner:

We don’t know much about the guy who took him, except that he has an Armenian accent, and is very familiar with an area near our house that’s referred to as “Little Armenia” (between Wilton & Normandie, and Franklin & Sunset. My guess is he lives somewhere in that vicinity.
Walter is tagged, but they may have removed his collar. He is also microchipped. He’s deaf so won’t hear you if you call, but if he sees you he’ll come to you.

 

Here’s the KTLA news segment.

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UPDATE 5/19/13 :
Walter has been returned to his owner! The kidnapper dumped him off on Los Feliz boulevard and a good samaritan returned him.

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Production Begins Today!

Today is our first day of shooting our feature film. It’s been a long journey and we are very excited to begin. We’ve assembled a great crew and awesome cast. We’re going to be shooting some office scenes today with Mark Teich We decided to start the week with days that we are not acting in so we can just be directors and get used to it.

Pictured below are Kasi and Charles (1st AD).

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Casting for Gone Doggy Gone in Full Swing

Laila auditions actors

Laila vets actors

Remember how the character of Becky Connor on Roseanne was played by Lecy Goranson and then inexplicably replaced by Sarah Chalke without so much as a mention. Remember how that made you feel? Well, we’re not going to do that to you. Here at Gone Doggy Gone, we are going to tell you what happened to the cast that originally was to play three of our lead characters, so you can understand why they are on the Indiegogo video we produced back in September of 2012, but not appearing in our movie. Allison Summers who was to play Jill moved to Atlanta to pursue a different career and became unavailable to us. Kim Kenny (Kat) also got another job that conflicted with the amount of days we would need her and Matt Lowe (Dan) moved on to pursue other interests in the time that lapsed in acquiring our funding. While we are sad to see our friends in comedy go, we understand that this is the nature of independent film. People come and go when funding isn’t in place for a lengthy duration.

We are now auditioning actors to fill those roles as well as day players. It has been awesome witnessing all of the talent there is out there and we look forward to working with some amazing actors.

 

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The Inspiration behind ‘Gone Doggy Gone’

People often ask us what the inspiration is behind our film, Gone Doggy Gone.  Well, let me tell you. I had a dog walker named Jill who considered Laila to be one of her best friends. She would come and pick her up and then at the end of the day would report that she had smuggled her into the grocery store, taken her to the movies, to visit her friends and even to her waxing appointments. She also began to return Laila later and later, because she was having so much fun with her. And I began to worry. One day, I expressed this concern to Brandon and he said, “What if Jill just kept your dog”?… I really considered that and so did he and an idea was born. What if… someone kidnapped your dog?

The Inspiration for ‘Gone Doggy Gone’ from Buzzworm on Vimeo.

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