The horror/comedy film, STEAMED!, co-written by Beverly Bonner and Dan Fiorella, is making the rounds on the film festival circuit. How did it come together?
Finally, filming began! Beverly assembled a crew, hired background actors, called in some favors and friends and was up and running. She filmed a lot in her neighborhood in New Jersey, using her own apartment for many of the scenes. The one day of filming that I actually attended was in the Broadway Comedy Club. It was the opening scene. She had decided early on that her character would be a struggling stand-up comic (like herself), and after a draft or two, the noir voice-over narration evolved into an opening with her preforming her set onstage, doing her act before a sparse and disinterested crowd. It made perfect sense, she had an arrangement with the club and was able to use their basement room, their secondary stage, as a set. I told her I'd be there. So, she asked me if I wanted to be in it. I could be the club manager! I agreed. I once was invited to be part of the on camera cast for "Where's the Party" and I turned that down because I had to "go home." I was a wimp even then. A chance to be on TV and I walked away because I wouldn't take a day off from work. Not again.
I knew I'd be going there from work, so I tried to dress appropriately, my business casual. The entire role was walking up to Beverly after her set and leaving her pay on the bar, some singles and some coins. It was a funny bit, I thought, getting paid in loose change. I sensed I was going to be responsible for my own loose change, so I stopped to eat lunch at McDonalds and made sure I had singles and change.
They filmed her doing the stand-up bit then did various pick-ups of the sparse crowd ignoring her. I filmed a bit where I was disgustedly counting the few people there and shaking my head. That didn't make it in. The whole thing was filmed as video in a device smaller than a palmcorder (remember those?). It was fascinating to watch...to an extent. I've heard many stories about how tedious and repetitive a film set could be and I get it now. Doing the same bit over and over. Waiting for the camera and lights to be set up and adjusted. They could play it back immediately and determine if they got the shot. If that day as a actor proved anything it proved I'm a writer. My repertoire was basically headshakes and shrugs and the occasional hand gesture. And as a writer, I got to see how much my...er, our script, changed in the process of filming. I wrote it was a bored crowd. They came up with bits of business they wanted to give each bored member of the audience. Even the character I was playing wasn't in the original drafts. I kept thinking about author Peter Benchley, the author of "Jaws," who got to play a cameo in the movie, a character that didn't exist in his book in a scene that he never wrote. Not that I'm comparing myself to Peter Benchley. Much.
Weirdly, my strongest memory of the day was while I was waiting for that various people to show up, I was trying to get online to buy tickets for "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" as a Christmas present for my wife.
They continued working on it and changing it. My broccoli montage was altered to include an appearance by "Basket Case" director Frank Henenlotter, who had remained friends with Beverly, so I couldn't complain about that so much. Beverly was updating me on filming, the broccoli puppet they were working on. How she got a composer to do the score for her. What the editor was able to do to shape it. All remarkable.
It was all coming together. Beverly was pleased...
They filmed her doing the stand-up bit then did various pick-ups of the sparse crowd ignoring her. I filmed a bit where I was disgustedly counting the few people there and shaking my head. That didn't make it in. The whole thing was filmed as video in a device smaller than a palmcorder (remember those?). It was fascinating to watch...to an extent. I've heard many stories about how tedious and repetitive a film set could be and I get it now. Doing the same bit over and over. Waiting for the camera and lights to be set up and adjusted. They could play it back immediately and determine if they got the shot. If that day as a actor proved anything it proved I'm a writer. My repertoire was basically headshakes and shrugs and the occasional hand gesture. And as a writer, I got to see how much my...er, our script, changed in the process of filming. I wrote it was a bored crowd. They came up with bits of business they wanted to give each bored member of the audience. Even the character I was playing wasn't in the original drafts. I kept thinking about author Peter Benchley, the author of "Jaws," who got to play a cameo in the movie, a character that didn't exist in his book in a scene that he never wrote. Not that I'm comparing myself to Peter Benchley. Much.
Weirdly, my strongest memory of the day was while I was waiting for that various people to show up, I was trying to get online to buy tickets for "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" as a Christmas present for my wife.
They continued working on it and changing it. My broccoli montage was altered to include an appearance by "Basket Case" director Frank Henenlotter, who had remained friends with Beverly, so I couldn't complain about that so much. Beverly was updating me on filming, the broccoli puppet they were working on. How she got a composer to do the score for her. What the editor was able to do to shape it. All remarkable.
It was all coming together. Beverly was pleased...
Subject: EDITING STEAMED
OMG, Jacob came over this afternoon and showed me the rough footage to STEAMED and the film unedited is FABULOUS!!! Hats off to Jacob's keen creative eye and congrats to all of you, the production staff and actors, Dan, my writing partner, I am soooooooo.... excited, I love it! I was able to look at it as if I was just an unconnected objective viewer and I am crying with happiness, we have something different and wonderful here and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I think it is going to be a feather in everyone's carer. It's hilarious, weird, scary, different and definitely has the film noir, Alfred Hitchcock, feel to it.
Bev
They worked on it some more, got it scored until she finally felt they had a version of the movie ready to screen. She was going to have a world premiere/fund raiser to clear away some debt and get enough to move forward. And she sent out a flyer for the event...
With this we had reached a point where I was going to have to push back. In a passive-aggressive, non-confrontational way...
Next time: Dan pushes back. Kinda.
