The 11th Hour- Story of The Making Of "The Targets" pt. 2

...I bit my tongue. I couldn’t believe this guy was the director of the movie we’d been discussing for at least a month. Mark brightly clapped (made up name) Herman on the back and said “he’s the man.”

I kept thinking “there is no way the crew is going to have any confidence in this project if Herman is sitting behind monitor.” That is to say, he makes it out alive. Film shoots are a boxing match, and stressful.

Not that I claim to know shit, but it was apocryphal. Herman was a disaster. And Mark didn’t see it. I recall asking Mark “has he…um..directed anything?” Mark replied “no, he’s a acting coach, between his coaching and you and I dealing with the visuals we’ll be good.” Oh Christ. In other words, we have the youngest most inexperienced cinematographer working with the oldest inexperienced director. Did Mark believe it would offset in the middle somewhere? I didn’t think that then, I went along with it, eager to work on any movie. We’d caught Herman at the tail end of a play he’d been rehearsing at his theater. He seemed disinterested in us. Like the scene in “Major League” where James Gammon gets a call from the Cleveland Indians. He was more interested in the shipment of whitewalls coming in for the tire shop he now ran.

On one occasion I was doing makeup and wardrobe testing at Panavision in Woodland Hills, CA. Herman didn’t show up. As he got lost or more than likely too tired to show up. It isn’t a director’s duty to show for these things, but I’ve never seen one that didn’t want to take part. He’d review later, I suppose.

I didn’t press the issue of Herman directing anymore. I figure Mark may have some allegiance to him, in the same odd loyalty he had towards me (unearned trust, by the way). My gaffer frequently joked of his concussions being the cause of these bizarre moments. Again, as long as we weren’t too far off the script, we’d be okay. And quite frankly, the script wasn’t bad. It was a typical action movie, mostly culled from 90’s style action. Girl gets kidnapped who happens to be the daughter of a high profile dignitary. A specialist is enlisted to find her, they fall for each other blada-blada-blada.

I look back now at the insanity we were attempting. I actually suggested we take a crane on top of a downtown L.A. building and have the stunt be where we repel with the actor down the side of a building. To this, Lizette, our trusty production manager just stared at me with wide-eyes like I was nuts. “Yeah, what’s the problem?” I said, with a sniff.  The “problem” is the logistics of such a menial part of the script would be millions of dollars alone. Safety concerns, locking off streets, construction of platforms, insurance, permits, police, fire, etc…that is if the film commission didn’t laugh at us and give us the thumbs up. Studio movies=no problem. Us=big problem. My ignorance for trading spectacle for common sense knew no bounds. My biggest concern was making it look like a billion dollar movie for what amounted (even at that time) a single star’s salary. Mark, to his credit, supported all my nonsense. Good or bad, he didn’t mind I suggested these ridiculous things “we could always scale back.”

After we did the makeup/wardrobe test, I also decided to do a shutter test. Ever since “Saving Private Ryan” there was a revitalized technique of  adjusting shutter for action. This gave the impression of a “strobed” look. The sequence made things look more violent and the image much more sharp. It was unique, and at this time, underused. I’d done it once for short film. It required much more lights though, because as you close down a shutter angle you need more light to get exposure on film. The more you close the gap, the more light you need. We’d tested this in Panavision in Hollywood, where our cameras would be rented out of.

After all the tests were shot, we’d sent it through Deluxe Laboratory (which unfortunately closed shop a year ago after 100 years of service…blame the union). They made prints from the negative and we’d scheduled a screening. We saw the wardrobe, hair and makeup and lighting test for complexion. Jaymee was the actress she was beautiful. Just glowed. This is her today:

During the tests, I recall her pronunciation of the name “Mark,” came out as “Mok.” I leaned into Mark and asked “...that doesn’t bother you?” He was fine with it. I shrugged. That’s life.

Herman, our director, showed up to the screening room at Deluxe. They threaded the film and we watched the footage. One roll at a time. Roughly 15 reels. This was going to take all day. We did a push, pull, under and over exposure, different films stocks. I saw what the film would do with the print stock we’d be using. Meanwhile, Herman was just…well, if he’d been awake (yes, he fell asleep), he would’ve been overwhelmed. When he was awake, he had no clue what he was looking at. I explained that he should be looking for what combination he liked the most. He, of course, couldn’t make a decision. Mark stepped in and made the executive decisions. I silently watched the images pass by…taking notes…this was a lot to deal with…I looked down at my pencil and realized I'd been going over the same line over and over again...I'd taken to sketching out the platform and crane for which we were going to repel down the side of a building...