There are plenty of people out there who think they know what's going on with the set of the movie, and I have yet to read one who isn't lying and making things up from whole cloth. But over the next few weeks I will link pieces written by people who ACTUALLY visited the set, hung out with the actors, talked to the crew, etc. Some will be friends of mine, some will be reporters (a few places are sending people, and some have already come and gone), and some will be people who were there when I wasn't even on set.
I am printing the first one below. Like the guy said, I don't know him, and I barely even know what he does for a living--I let him come onto set because we have a mutual friend who vouched for him (I don't even think Tynan knows I checked him out with this person). My buddy said he was a good guy, and that was enough for me. I do remember him coming to set but I hardly remember talking to him at all--it was this day that he showed up and like he said I was super busy--and I don't remember being as nice to the guy as he says I was, but whatever, this is his account of his visit to the set of I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL:
"I wandered onto the total chaos of the movie set. People were running around everywhere adjusting things and looking for people. Tucker walked by me without even noticing that I was there, focused on yelling at someone in front of him.
"Hey... I'm Tynan."
"Oh hey - good to meet you. Come on in."
I followed him as he breezed into the building. The inside was even more packed with people. Everyone was doing something.
For the next hour or two I watched as they filmed one of the final scenes in the movie. It was an awesome sight.
Maybe I caught him on an off day, but Tucker wasn't an asshole at all. When his attention wasn't required somewhere on set, which was about half the time, he'd stand next to me and explain what was going on. Since all of this stuff was new to him too he was able to explain it all clearly in layman terms.
Here are some of the interesting things I learned, some of which may be applicable to all movies, and some of which may be unique to Tucker's movie. I have no frame of reference, so take all that with a grain of salt.
-Very little is shot in any given day. They were shooting ONE scene all day. They just keep redoing it from different angles, focusing on different people, with slightly different timing, with an moving camera instead of the main actor, etc.
-Scenes are shot totally out of order, based on availability of actors, locations, and a number of other factors.
-I now understand why acting is hard. In the scene you are reacting to past events that you've never actually shot, AND you have to do it the same way with the right emotions fifty times in a day. It's not all glitz and glamor - these guys are working.
-There is insane attention being paid to every detail. One woman was taking pictures of everyone's hair so that if they needed to reshoot a scene later the hair would be exactly the same. Another person's job was to watch the scenes as they were filmed and watch for continuity.
-The atmosphere was way more collaborative than expected. Most decisions had several people offering input, including actors.
-There was a lot of genuine camaraderie on the set. Not the forced I'm-working-with-you-so-I'll-be-polite sort of thing, but more of a I'm-going-to-smash-this-prop-cake-in-your-face-when-we-wrap sort of vibe. In fact, Tucker seemed more concerned that the cake smash was caught on camera than many other aspects of the movie.
-This may have been influenced by what I'd read beforehand, but I definitely felt like everyone there was really thrilled to be working on the project and was proud of the job they were doing. Even a couple extras I talked to seemed to take a lot of pride in the whole thing. Maybe this happens on all movies, but I suspect it doesn't.
I had a great time visiting the set and have nothing but good things to say about Tucker, Jeff the AP, and everyone else I met.
They were filming one of the last scenes of the movie when I was there, even though it was the third day of filming. I can't talk about the content of the scene, but it leads up to what is probably the last scene of the movie. The buildup seems very typical Hollywood, but I have a hunch that it's actually going to be something totally unexpected.
I was tempted to ask, but why ruin the surprise? I'll see the movie as soon as it comes out."
Entire piece posted here, on his blog.
Digg it · del.icio.us · StumbleUpon · Fark It · Print Friendly
