The Chair (2014) s01e04 Episode Script

It's like a running theme that I keep procrastinating.
Can she do that tomorrow morning? When are you gonna be done with this? Lauren is Shane's right hand man.
So right now American Eagle is pushing back.
Is this movie happening? I found everybody in this movie except for the lead dude.
I gotta find my Scott.
It's hard.
It's hard to find the right guy.
Victor thinks that my girl is too beautiful to even be in the movie.
And I kinda see what he's saying.
Mm-hmm.
I'm gonna say something controversial.
The core creative team has a silent partner.
This is Victor Quinaz.
He is my husband and writing partner.
The original script was an ensemble teen comedy in the vein of "Dazed and Confused" or "Can't Hardly Wait.
" The script is not that raunchy.
It's an R-rated comedy.
Who the fuck is talking to people? "Cause I wanna fucking talk to them.
"Cause this is fucking over Anna, too, "cause people are gonna assume her movie is raunchy, which it's probably not.
It is a gender equality fight I'm having.
We'll figure it out.
I'm gonna play the other girls "cause I feel like playing women today.
I fucking love the night before Thanksgiving.
According to BuzzFeed it's the biggest small town party night of the year.
BuzzFeed has the best fags.
I know, right? It's okay, Jamie.
You'll fo' sho' learn to get better, mos' def.
That was great.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Nice to meet you guys.
- Thanks so much.
- Thanks for coming.
It's hard because I really, really like her look but she just couldn't get the comedy.
I think she she plays just too smart.
By the way can I just play all the girls? - I mean - Yeah, totally.
It's my favorite part.
Shane Dawson, as you might know, is well-known for playing women in drag.
Obviously it's a very cartoonish, out-there movie.
If I play some of the small bit parts, like the popular girl who says all crazy things The problem is my whole goal with this movie was to broaden my audience to not just the teenagers who get it But you will.
If we go for a "Superbad" tone, it's gonna be a little straight dude sitting in the theater, like, "Wait, what? Why is he in a wig?" - It's gonna be a little bit of a - Oh, I see what you mean.
But I think it's funny because, - I mean, I don't know.
- It's like the cameo.
It could be really It could be really funny.
So what would your idea be for me only to play a few funny side characters? You would either play all of Janie's friends or, like, one of them and beef that part up a little bit.
"I'm excited about fucking college guys, too.
" "No, no, no.
We're excited about, like, learning.
" "I'm excited about learning new techniques and fucking college guys, too.
" "It's like, no, that's not" Casting is just getting very interesting.
The challenge for any filmmaker is to create an entertaining story.
Finding an interesting character, finding an interesting dilemma.
Creating a story where you're actually invested in a romance or you're invested in a relationship.
And ultimately having them come out the other end having changed.
Whether it's entertaining because you're invested in the characters' journeys, whether it's entertaining because it's just funny every second along the way, it just has to be entertaining.
Are you already at a place where you feel like there's people you want to cast? I feel like there's no time to lose.
So I have everybody but Scott that I feel pretty great about.
Okay.
That's an impressive first day.
I know.
Done is good, man.
We've got Tori and her controlling psychotic friend Katie Grake and Heather, the depressed girl.
- Who is this one? - Tori.
Well, that's the character.
What's her name? Oh.
Rachel Keller.
Are you gonna change their looks a little bit? I mean, when the three of them are right here like that, they look kinda similar.
- Really? - You worried about that? I thought the same thing, honestly.
I saw the pictures, but it's different.
Like, let's see the headshots They don't actually look similar at all.
- It's so hard to judge off of.
- Yeah.
I guess what I'm wondering about Tori is it seems like there's an inherent funniness she's missing and I don't know if that's something that Tori needs or doesn't.
There's an inherent funniness? Her comedic takes, they weren't landing.
They weren't coming off of her like, they weren't rolling off.
And not to say that it wouldn't happen, it's not some people are just kind of funny, you know? I think she is one of those people.
You don't from that Not from what I saw there, no.
But I saw what I saw that she was a good actress.
She certainly feels real.
Casting on this movie is interesting because you're generally looking at unknowns, which is okay.
There's been a lot of great teen movies starting unknowns at the time who became stars, and to me that's the model.
But that doesn't mean that you don't try and go after people that that have a little bit more notoriety, that have a little bit more experience.
But the challenge for these movies specifically is that when you're talking about not a lot of money to offer and given the financing structure of these projects, we're not able to offer a real sort of back end.
It's really just about saying to them, "Hey, do you wanna work for no money with a director that you've never heard of who's never made a movie?" And the answer isn't usually yes.
There's also the fact that there's a documentary being made about the whole thing, which is a turnoff to some people.
You excited to see Victor? Yeah, I'm a little weirded out that I have to do it on camera.
Problem is "cause you're thinking about it and then you're not thinking about what we all should be thinking about.
- The movie.
- Right.
- Hey.
- Hi.
I want to talk to you about something for a second.
What's that? So I know you overheard a possibility of me playing one of the mean girls.
Yeah.
So, what are your thoughts? L I think it's a genius idea.
- Really? - I do.
That just come to you the other day? It came to me when we were auditioning "cause we just haven't been able - to find the perfect Lacey.
- Mm-hmm.
And then I'm always doing it with them when we're auditioning and everybody always laughs, and Lauren was just, "Why the fuck aren't you playing her?" I'm like, "'Cause this is a movie.
" That takes it up a level which might be good because once I'm in drag, you could do whatever you want because we already set the bar at drag - so like nothing is like off-limits.
- Exactly.
But filming-wise, we really need to make sure the shit looks over-the-top "Mean Girls.
" And we gotta focus on that "cause if I just come out in drag and it looks like super bad, it's not gonna work.
You know what I'm saying, "cause the other thing too is when I'm playing a girl, I have to be really lit.
No shadows "cause once there's a shadow, I look like a dude.
If we can get away with that, then we can get away with anything.
So like now I don't think I'm nervous, like, about the shit eating.
I'm not nervous about the big gags, the blood, 'cause we've already set the cartoon level.
Hillary, just because you've been on set - when I'm playing characters - Yeah? do you think it would be too random to have Aunt Hilda play the limo driver the party-bus driver? It would kinda take you out of it, I think.
- I mean, I love Aunt Hilda.
- Mm-hmm.
But that's like one of your more extreme characters, I think.
My major concern was Shane going into this is that he is acting in the movie.
It's a first time-director who's going to cast himself as the lead in his own movie, and he's also going to be playing some of these supporting characters in the film as well.
So to me what just happened is Shane is sort of saying, "Okay, I'm about a week out and I need some things I can really count on, and the thing I can really count on is myself, and I'm gonna put myself in a couple of these other characters.
" I think it also was he was doing a lot of rehearsal as Scott, and he realized Scott's not funny.
Now him dressed up as a girl, he's sort of saying I wanna make sure we have some of this Shane Dawson comedy.
I don't think it was sort of a defeatism thing.
I think he realized that's what he really wanted to go do.
This is the production office? - Yeah.
- This is amazing.
Charisma, yeah.
He doesn't pop.
- Hey, buddy! - Are we making a movie? - Hey.
- You mind movin'? - How are you doing? - Good.
What's up, buddy? It's hard to mix family and business together.
It is not an easy thing.
It is not recommended.
Victor and Anna, they're very devoted to their work.
So in order to be devoted to their marriage they had to combine those things together and that's how they've managed to not just make their artwork but their, you know, personal life as well.
What are you guys doing? Trying to break into Chris' computer so we can keep watching these auditions.
What do you think his password is? I typed in "I love Matt Damon.
" "I heart Matt Damon.
" I tried that.
And I tried "Ben" also and I tried "Matt and Ben.
" I feel really good about these guys "cause she's a star Pretty white cast.
She's Cuban.
I'm not gonna it's I'm sorry, it's about suburban Pennsylvania, like some stories Yeah, but suburban Pennsylvania looks different than it did.
I know, I would love to have a person of a different race, and she's Cuban.
What happened to Kelley, was her name? She lives in LA so I've just been Skyping with her.
She's really, really, really good.
Like, you're right, she's an amazing actress.
Her depression is entirely believable.
Why couldn't she be the most popular girl in high school? She feels incredibly introverted and depressed.
She's playing introverted and depressed.
But she should be playing depressed former extrovert.
I don't know how you would play that but okay.
You play it like her.
- I just thought it was really - Do you not like her? This headshot It strikes me as weird that your opinion is so strong on this - and you haven't even - do you wanna watch them both again? Well, what I would open up to Phillip said in the car, he said that she just gave such a good audition that she deserves something.
So maybe there's another role for her or somewhere else that we can include or But to me she seems so perfect.
- She is perfect.
- Then go with her.
I'm not I am not fighting you whatsoever on this.
- This is your - It just seems like you're very passionately against her but l can you tell me what you find No, no.
I'm not passionately against her.
I'm passionately for her.
There's that's the difference.
- You're passionately for her.
- But here's the thing.
If you see the movie there, that's your movie.
- Do that.
- I do.
I do.
So then that's done.
So then it's done.
It's Claire.
Welcome, Claire, and what's great about her is she's available.
She's here in Pittsburgh.
So I'm very excited because Cherami is on her way from the airport, and she's coming in, and I have met her before but this is gonna be the first time that we're really in a room toge This sounds so creepy.
Well, it's gonna be creepy.
We're gonna be in a room together, and I'm gonna be throwing up on her.
And then we're gonna rehearse and I hope that we have chemistry and that it goes well.
- Should I get flowers? - You should.
- Yay! - Yay, she's here! We just said, "When is she gonna be here?" Right now! I just said, "Should I have gotten flowers?" It's so good to see you.
And I said, "Yes, you should have gotten flowers," and then he didn't.
- Well, you know.
- Yay! How are you? We're so happy to see you.
- This is Nancy.
- Hi.
Nice to meet you.
She's our wonderful hair expert.
We'll do hair for you in the morning.
Oh, by the way, side note I don't think I told you this.
I really creepily looked you up on IMDB.
Your birthday is July 19th, right? - Yes.
- We have the same birthday! - We have the same birthday.
- Same date.
- Same year.
- Yes, same everything.
Same everything.
It's so weird.
- He freaked out.
- I fucking l No.
I did I looked at it, I was like, "Oh, my God, I can't say anything "cause that's weird.
" But just like that, I was like, "Oh, this is so nuts.
" I texted 10 people in a row and I was like, "I have the same" Well, somebody got really weird they were like, "Does he have the same middle name as you?" I was like - Wait, what's your middle name? - Leigh.
- Are you serious? - Oh, my God! Shut the fuck up! - Oh, my God! - Wait, are you serious? Yeah, my stage last name, Leigh, L-E-l-G-H is actually my middle name because my last name is too strange.
- His middle name is Leigh.
- Nuh-uh, are you serious? All right.
I'll pull out my ID.
Spelled differently, but it's the same name.
That is what? I thought you were saying that "cause you knew that.
That's why I was like, you know.
- Shane Lee.
- Oh, my God! This is weird.
Do you have a birthmark on your balls? No, I'm kidding.
- Oh, my God.
- That is nuts.
Yeah, that's so weird.
- What? - Take it in.
- We're twins.
- Wow! Is there anything of this that could be cut down? I know you love the specificity.
I love it, too.
I couldn't wait for Rick.
I mean, don't get me wrong, California is awesome.
Can't beat the weather.
But I can't wait for my dad's pumpkin pie, turkey, turkey sandwiches, turkey chili.
When we're sick of turkey, Italian subs Describing the Italian sub maybe.
and a chocolate milkshake.
Sorry, am I talking too much? - I'm just so excited to see you.
- The milkshake? You wanna cut that? You can put this in your director's book.
And literally you can mark it game.
Like, game here.
Like like, just riff.
But maybe in the meantime, we can cut it out so the actor doesn't feel so intimidated by it.
Yeah, yeah.
This line here where it says oh, this is actually perfect.
This would be great for the camera as well.
Really hamming it up.
What do you mean? I'm not hamming it up.
- I'm a little this, that's the problem.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is bad for this.
This is not good for this.
Oh, fuck, now you brought it up.
Now I'm fucking self-conscious.
Sorry.
I'm such an asshole.
I was just so passionate and so, like, whatever.
- No, I thought it was - No, no, no.
You're right.
I just mean it's like a presentation.
It's adorable.
- I'm getting another Guinness.
- Oh, but you're drunkie.
That's the point, isn't it? I mean, this is I have a little liquid courage to be on this TV show right now, yeah.
I hate liquid courage.
Elise, how long are you guys here for? This is what I'm saying.
I work on a reality show.
Let's just stage something for you really quickly to get you the fuck out of here.
We can have a fight.
We can say "divorce.
" We can toss around the "D" word.
Are you having trouble? Are you self-conscious? You don't want to do it.
Well, I also want to just like get this done.
I just wanna make sure that these I feel like Yeah, don't worry about us.
This is the most actual creative process they've ever gotten to film, so this is good.
If you guys are okay, okay.
Okay.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I would love another Guinness, please.
- Where are you sitting? - We're right there.
Here, I gotta move the cut-to.
The cut-to is on the wrong place.
But it needs to visually say that, oh, this girl's about to get on a bus.
It's house kitchen day, Heather comes into the kitchen with wet hair still in a sweatshirt.
You keep adding that she's in a sweatshirt.
We know.
She's pretty much in a sweatshirt until Greg's party.
This is so fun.
Page five.
I found Drew, like seven years ago on YouTube.
He was just this weird kid making videos in his room, I thought he was a girl.
I reached out and I said, "Oh, you're funny, you should be an actor.
" And he said, "No.
" And I kept watching and then when this whole project came about I said, "Oh, he's perfect for this character.
" One time a guy came up to me in Modesto, like downtown, and he just goes, "Excuse me, how much pain can one person handle?" And I was like, "Um a lot.
" He was like, "Thank you.
" And he walked away.
I would love for you guys to do an exercise.
Just because getting to know each other and all that sort of stuff.
Can you do and this is gonna be really uncomfortable for a minute do the entire scene and I want you to just stare at each other.
If you get really uncomfortable, like, that's when you stare at her harder.
Stare into her eyes.
I want you off the wall.
No relying on anything else.
And you can do it fast, just stare at each other the whole time, into her eyes, okay? Well, this is awful.
Yeah, well, would you rather be sexercising with your parents? Yeah, just the idea of my dad's spotting my mom makes me wanna throw up.
Oh, shit.
Pretend to laugh at me.
At your gay blazer or the fact that I can tell you're wearing man Spanx? No, I'm no Oh, my God.
You are still obsessed with her.
No.
I'm not obsessed.
Yes, you are.
I actually liked well, it's conflicting with a little bit of the things I was directing her with.
But this is playing around.
I get what you I get what you're I get what you mean about her being not shocked.
I was gonna say she's shocked because she went out to college and started a new life and she came back and he's still Listen, obviously parts of it are too fast, but I think it gets you out of your head and out your body and not thinking about acting and stuff like that.
You gotta reincorporate some of the other stuff.
Like when I first saw you do the read about like, "Oh, my God, you're still obsessed with her," you're not really that shocked about it.
You know what I mean? You've had these conversations before, and so this just gets you out of your body and out of your head.
Let's try where you stay in the laid back vibe.
Cool.
You should really just move on.
Yeah, I guess you're right.
Wow, I really pictured that going way worse.
But that went pretty well.
Psych.
She's totally gonna sit on my face later like That is actually what I was going for a little more in my head.
Didn't imagine that, though.
Taking you to a new level.
- I think that was great.
- That was great.
I think what I would want from you, I need you to find moments where you're not on the wall.
I would love to see you try the pussy posse and the grandparents thing.
I think what makes those lines really funny is that you're listing it like it's a grocery list.
You know what I mean? Right now, it's like, when l now, it's no, I have dying grandparents and I have a pussy posse.
Okay, I don't know if I agree with that, but it's fine.
Just, just try it.
We' don't have to try it now.
- Oh, okay - Don't fill his head with too much.
Stop it.
One of the things that I saw in the rehearsal process that concerned me was that there was a lot of direction being given to the actors.
And it wasn't just Shane giving a lot of direction but it was Lauren giving a lot of direction.
The concern is that how our actors are gonna take that, because typically, a producing partner would speak directly to the director, not to the actor, and I think that's the difference here is that Lauren is speaking directly to the actors.
Oh, you got an earlier flight out of Pittsburgh? You're heading to LA right now.
Okay.
I'm like a little stressed out about Scott, the character Scott.
I need someone.
You know what I mean? Oh, okay.
I love you.
Okay.
Let's go.
Where you headed? To go Skype with my possible Scott.
- Oh, good luck.
- My dreamboat.
- How awesome.
- I'm very excited.
I had a Skype audition last year for the first time.
And it was just when I started like on-camera stuff so it was That, that was overwhelming.
That was overwhelming.
But 'cause you just don't know where to look, - and you don't know what to do.
- It's so awkward.
But we We ended up casting a bunch of roles off of Skype so it's been Even when it was like really choppy, we still we could feel we were like, "I think that's the person.
" - I'm Phil.
- Hey, you're Phil.
I'm Toby.
Nice to meet you, Phil.
Nice to meet you, Toby.
So Phil is playing Phil.
Claire is Heather, the depressed - Ex-girlfriend.
- Half Asian beauty queen.
So Rachel Keller is playing Tori.
- That's her.
- That's her.
They're super talented, and l I just kinda feel like you guys are all stars, total stars, and it's so fun to like imagine making a movie with you.
So maybe we should just read through the scenes, right? I'll get out of that.
When she broke up with me in ninth grade, I swear it was actually you doing her dirty work.
I can neither confirm nor deny that fact.
Oh, okay, well, that is some fucked-up shit, poop-dick.
Yeah.
I haven't heard anyone say poop-dick yet.
He says it like it just rolled it off his tongue.
No problem.
Won't be the last time.
I don't know, my sister's engagement party is on Saturday and you see how attached my parents are.
I'm lucky we don't co-sleep.
Let me handle them.
I don't know.
Yay.
It's so good.
I'm not even adjusting.
Just do do the next one, this is so much fun, Toby.
You're charming.
You're charming.
This is gonna sound dumb but nobody returns my high fives there.
It's happened, like, three times.
No.
Yes.
It's highly disconcerting.
I, I don't wanna be unprofessional but can I just hire him now? Is this something I can do? - I'll talk to his agent.
- All right.
We want, we want to cast you, so we'll talk to your agent.
- We wanna hire you.
- Congratulations! We're you're gonna hang out with us a lot.
Yeah, I will kill you if you don't do this.
And I will murder your manager if he somehow tries to get in between us.
I'm so glad you exist, man.
I honestly did not know what I was gonna do if I didn't find you.
Yay! Come to Pittsburgh and play with us.
All right.
Sounds good, guys.
- Bye.
- See ya.
Oh, my God.
By 4:30 today my cast was complete, which is an incredible feeling.
The first rehearsals that we had for me really was just to get Michelle and Drew to meet because Drew is very anti-social and scared of people, scared of women.
I just wanted them to meet and have fun.
Shockingly, they actually just went right into the scene and nailed it.
The conversation was all me! Was it? Because it's pretty weird that your favorite things are all the same as mine.
Do you even like "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"? That was true! The fucking fat mom being lit on fire at the end killed me.
Okay.
Fine.
So what? What's the big deal? I wanted to give you a special time.
Is that a crime? No.
I mean, I got one chance to take you out on a date and I just wanted to make sure that it was I said no.
I think it's sweet you tried to impress me.
- You do? - Yeah.
Most people don't really care about what I like or what I think.
Oh, I'm so glad, you guys are good.
It's so different than making YouTube video, you know what I mean? Hiring actors from Craigslist, praying to God they're not high on meth.
This is this is a dream.
Josh is texting me we're going to AE in the morning.
Looks like that's 100% happening tomorrow morning at 10:00.
He said, "AE on for tomorrow.
I'm still waiting for final confirmation email, but we will need our costumes out of there.
" Not only did American Eagle come through as a location for Shane's film but they wound up providing apparel for both films.
I think being a Pittsburgh-based company is also important because we were really hanging in limbo for a while not knowing how all the pieces were gonna fall into place.
And it was companies like the CL Town Entertainment Project and Point Park University coming through as investors, all these different companies and institutions within Pittsburgh came together.
The money raising has become a bigger part of this little experiment than I expected it to be.
It's very tense situation financially.
And money matters.
It matters to people.
It matters to the people's paychecks, and it's also true on a documentary.
I know it's a little weird, we're gonna break the line and talk about the documentary, but I'm also paying for that.
It's not unusual for independent projects and new projects to have cash flow issues, but I promised both productions that all 600,000 of their discretionary budget would be in the bank before production started.
And I couldn't deliver on that promise.
So I can understand why there might be some growing distrust.
We find ourselves in a position where some of our expectations haven't been met just in the practical sense because there's still financing that needs to be raised for all of the projects and so control over the discretionary budget doesn't mean a whole lot when there's not actually a bank account or money in the bank.
Right now we have enough to start production and get going, and I feel pretty confident we'll get through shooting at all three projects.
I'm feeling like we're in a really good place before we start shooting principal photography.
Shane's so used to doing everything himself.
We got a lot of support and a lot of people around us.
I think Frank is great.
He's been really impressive.
Hillary, who's our production designer, I really, really just trust her so implicitly.
I'm really psyched about Phil.
I like the way he relates to people.
I can't even imagine what it would take to get him upset.
On the day it's like we shot a piece of corn through somebody's skull and killed them.
No, that's what we want to avoid saying.
Which is a great quality to have in an AD.
I'm feeling good.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
That one with me doing this thing? That's really funny.
I just have a feeling about this cast.
I feel like it's clicking.
I feel like everybody likes each other.
I feel like there's no divas.
There's some kind of magic.
A little bit of magic.
That way when we do all the nude scenes, we'll be comfortable with each other.
There's nude scenes.
What? Comfortable with each other.
What? I think it's good to have the cast get together for photo shoots or lunches or anything that's not all about, you know, basically acting 'cause I think we all need to get comfortable with each other because, you know, it really comes across onscreen.
When we genuinely care about each other, we're more connected.
So you start at ten, and you shake this, this, this, and then this.
And then you go all the way down to get to one so and it's fast.
Ready? And so Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Six, five, four, three, two, one! Six, five, four, three, two, one! Five, four, three, two, one! Four, three, two, one! Four, three, two, one! Three, two, one! Three, two, one! Two, one! Two, one! Two, one! Two, one! One, one, one, one! - Wooo! - God, I'm exhausted.
And I'm warm.
Are we warm? - Yeah.
- All right.
Okay.
I'm hot.
Corey is one of the producers of the whole project, both movies and the show.
I was like, "Who is this guy coming in and directing my actors?" He can stay.
Bring your energy level down at the beginning of this.
He's trying to make this really suave impression and it's just not gonna go right.
Like, just kind of try making it, to start with, more conversational.
You were just like, "Oh, what a coincidence, I just ran into you.
Like, I was just totally just standing here.
" That's what I should do? So less, like, shticky - Yeah.
- Just try it like that.
Because the shticky is gonna read without you doing anything because the camera is gonna be so tight on you a lot of the time.
- The shtick is just gonna happen.
- Okay.
Janie? Is that you? Joel.
What are you doing here? Nothing much, just visiting the old stomping ground, you know.
Might go reminisce with a former teach or two.
I hear you've turned into quite the pimp at Cornell.
- Oh, you found my tumblr? - No.
No.
Oh, well, you should.
I post a lot of blogs about my wild adventures, or as I title them, #assventures, so That sounds gay.
Ye yeah, I guess it does.
That's so good.
I think that went well.
Oh, my God.
That was good.
That was so good.
- Oh, my God.
- That was so good.
You know, you know why it feels because you did find that conversational piece.
And you know why it's gonna be easy to find it when you're on set, too? 'Cause you're gonna have a lot of people kind of surrounding you when you're shooting the scene, and it's almost gonna close you off into think of it as theater in the round, like, really intimate space where you're going to then play to the appropriate audience, which is gonna be right around you.
Corey came in, and he was like, "I think this is perfectly over the top and perfectly raunchy.
" He instantly I was like, "Oh, my God, we're on the same page.
" Every take that he's really liked has been the take that I really like which has been the same take the Lauren really liked.
So it's nice to have people around you who are excited.
I think the last week particularly of pre-production is like the roller coaster climbing, and each day you hear that click, click, click, click.
- Hello.
- How's it going? - Hi.
- I have an interview at 1:00.
You ever use walkie-talkies? Do you know walkie protocol? I've always been a big fan of that, like storyboarding and knowing what I want.
In the wide, let's see them we'll see them getting out of the car.
Do you think that we will pull the look off with the amount of money we have, or will we look like sad people trying to like do something that we need $10 million to do? Booms, mics, um plant mics.
He's our awesome assistant to director.
We have a production vehicle.
We're gonna have a cargo van on set, and I need someone who's willing to drive that.
Is there any possibility of Chad being able to light this for a day? I just want us to walk through hour by hour.
Our first scene of the day is gonna be at the small town airport which is Pittsburgh International Airport.
I like to come in with a positive attitude every day.
The rate is $100 a day per day for 12 hours.
The best thing for me about these scouts is that they are getting a sense of, like, how how much time it actually takes to get people into a van, even if they're moving quickly, how long it takes to get people into vans - and get to the next location.
- We are both very tired but this was where we shot-listed the movie.
These are our little drawings, and this is the shot list right now.
Remember that our contingency plan would be to swap Saturday and Wednesday, weather pending.
For various reasons when Anna and Meena were shot listing, they decided that the locations weren't gonna work.
Next day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, just to get a start.
Yeah, like I think it's a pretty like you know, it's a face off.
You can't run a movie successfully without good PAs.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
How do you feel about this situation? Oh, I act myself, so I have no problem.
As long as you communicate with people and you're upfront and then you stick to that, people are fine with it.
14 hours, that's just what this is.
You'll get paid until you're at 14 hours.
When we hit 14 hours, I will pay you double time, and that's fine.
That day is so packed that I would be kind of hesitant to put anything else on it.
- The Carrie Furnace day? - Yeah.
So we're about to go and shoot the senior portrait.
There you go.
No hands.
Oh, like a full carry.
I just never, ever thought I would make a movie - that looks like a movie.
- Me neither! Just to keep track of time, it's 3:55.
Thanks, bud.
I really, really want Meena and Anna's shot list against these - Yeah.
- And hour-by-hour it so that you know literally to the fucking minute - Yeah.
- How long you have.
'Cause these are all really ambitious days.
Anna is not going to want to cut anything, at all, ever.
But you guys have to be on the same page of, like, "Oh shit, we are 20 minutes behind.
That means once we go past this point, you lose this scene, and this is the scene that we're dropping, and how it's gonna work.
" So it is Friday morning, and today is the first day of test shoots.
We're during a scene in the car, mainly because I wanted to test that out because I wanna make sure that it looks real because we're doing it in a soundstage.
I wanna make sure that doesn't look like we're in a soundstage.
I mean, I've done everything up until this point to prepare, you know.
I have rehearsed with the actors, you know, we've picked out the right camera.
We picked out the right crew.
We've set up the right shots.
Hopefully, it's good enough that we can actually use it for the movie so it's not just, you know, test footage that we throw away.
Fuck, yeah.
Cool.
I'm really used to doing green screen just because it's cheap and it's easy and it's fast, which basically means we're gonna be having a bunch of sweaty PAs throwing lights around their heads outside the windows to make it look like we're moving.
We feel good.
We about ready to do one? All right, guys, let's get ourselves situated.
We're gonna go ahead and roll on one here.
Let's roll it up.
Everybody lock it down.
Everybody quiet.
May I have sound speed? May I have camera roll? Action! What is this? Some kind of bucket list? Sort of.
You just don't die in the end.
Good to know.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna, like, loosen you up a little bit.
Okay, fine.
Can we at least find something easier to do? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Look at number four.
No, not fucking happening.
No.
Mm-hmm.
And cut.
It's a cut! Cool.
- It was hilarious.
- It was good.
Do you want to take a look at that one maybe? Can we play back that last take? All right, I have a note, too, but watch it first.
Wait, does he not have headphones on right now? No.
Is there a reason we can't keep headphones with him at all times? This is a perfect day to work out this part, too, which is he cannot watch every take.
- It'll slow it down a lot.
- I know.
But that's between him and Lauren to kind of figure out that relationship.
- Absolutely.
- He has to trust her.
Absolutely.
That's kind of how they've been working.
She's been directing.
What do you think about that? I mean, they have a weird relationship.
That's how they run their I think their relationship works great with each other.
My concern is, does it confuse the actors? So we're gonna have the cable on Monday that will be able to sync audio and sound.
We're just gonna have to be ghetto about it right now.
Okay.
What I love about Shane and Lauren is they have such a shorthand and like Shane will be, "No, no, no, not that idea.
" And so my fear is two people directing don't always agree with each other and that's fine.
But if they're disagreeing, that kind of creates confusion, so I told him to have a little bit more fun with it.
You know, don't go crazy at all, but, you know, see what happens.
Okay.
And cut! - I like that one.
- You like that one? That was good.
I just want to do one more.
Sure, sure.
I'll just make a hand motion when I'm ready.
You guys, we're still dealing with a pacing issue at the top.
Can she just be holding the brownie? Does she have to go grab it? I could start here and then just bring it back.
Is that better? We could try that.
It's just lagging a little bit at the top.
- And I feel like - PS, there's gonna be music behind this whole montage.
It's not It's lagging a little bit at the top.
Well, it's the first shot is going to be the insert of smiley face and that's gonna cut to her doing that.
You won't need that if she's just holding it already or you see it.
- You just won't need it.
- All right.
I mean it's just you'll watch it.
Go watch both versions and tell me what you think.
So, I guess for this, just lift it up into the Talking to actors, Cherami said, "Hey, I just wanna make sure I'm giving you what you want 'cause a lot of people want different things.
" And I said, "Listen, I want this to feel real and to still be funny, and I think we found that balance.
" All right, fine, can we at least start with something to ease me into it? Yeah, sure, number four.
- Are you serious? - Yeah.
- I'm not gonna do that.
- Yes, you will.
- No, I'm not.
- Watch the road, please.
What? Thank you.
Why do you carry this with you? You know, I had a feeling that you will be very susceptible to peer pressure.
What did I know.
I'm so good.
Phil, Phil.
If that's what he means by broad then, yeah, that's fine.
That's totally fine.
Yeah, that's, that's great.
That was just adjustments.
What did Lauren say? Did she had thoughts? I liked it.
I thought it was great.
It was great.
What about all, like, the watching the road - Loved it.
- Funny? - Funny.
- Cool.
We looked at each other, and we were like, "I think that was it.
" And then, of course, Lauren runs over and says, "That was it.
" And it's nice to hear other people's ideas because maybe I'm not always right.
I mean, that's part of being a director is taking other people's advice, you know? Hey.
Hey, dudes, I didn't know you were in here, I'm so happy.
Look who's back.
Hmm, so I'm gonna have you guys actually simulating this, but I don't know How do you guys feel about these cameras? If you want the cameras gone, we can talk about that.
I mean, are we, like, on the ground, like, doing it? I think we should do it.
I think we should simulate some humping.
No, that's fine, I mean, yeah, I think maybe just for the first few times.
- Totally understand.
- Would that be okay? Yeah.
I just have to ask Anthony.
They hate this, of course, but I mean, I don't wanna ruffle any feathers, so No, I've been ruffling feathers the whole time.
I really want to be on their side, because like they want to tell our story and that's great, but I also want you guys to be comfortable.
And it's asking a lot for you to do this period.
So on camera it's even more so.
We actually can't have them stop right now.
But the compromise is that It's tough because it's like it's a directing moment.
Yeah, they need to catch the story of Anna in rehearsal and coaching.
So the camera is not gonna be on you.
But you will have a one angle over here.
Let's just go for it.
Is that okay? Just smack you guys on top of each other.
We're gonna shoot this There's gonna be a wide shot of you, Tobin, on top of her, making sweet sex to her.
Okay.
Okay, there's your bed.
- There's Heather's bed.
- Oh, so janky.
I love it.
- That's real.
- Okay.
And you guys are all memorized? We need to get home.
Yeah, "I can't wait for my dad's pumpkin pie.
" I can't wait for my dad's pumpkin pie.
You do it like if it's awkward, it's awkward and that's how it will be on the day and on this Should I try to take her like shirt off as she's coming around? No, I think once she situates then you're like, "Let's do this.
" We should stop.
We should stop.
What's that? No, you should cum.
Do you want to fuck me from behind? I feel horrible pushing him like that.
It's so good, though.
- Is she hurting you? - Not at all.
Okay.
See? Talk to you partner.
This is totally the turn that the scene needs.
I think it's important to note that I didn't rewrite Dan Schoffer's script I didn't rewrite the original source material just like for the heck of it.
I did so because I don't have an interest in telling a story that's inauthentic.
It felt very much like by-the-numbers Hollywood, which is not an insult because that stuff sells and that stuff makes people a great living, and people consume that, and it's awesome.
It's just a matter of to tell a story I wanted to tell, I did sort of have to completely divorce myself from the Schoffer script.
I started working on this script with Josh Shader September, October 2009.
Spring of 2011, MTV bought it not as a theatrical film.
They wanted to make it as a TV movie but they ended up not making it.
It was always a script that people liked.
People always responded.
They're like, "Oh, yeah, why don't they make more teen movies like this, where there's like real people but it's funny? It's got a John Hughes kind of vibe.
" And it was great for my career too, you know.
I did the couch-and-water L.
A.
Tour based off this script, which is, you know, when you go to all the production companies in town and you just take general meetings, and you sit on the couch, and they give you a bottle of water, ask you where you're from.
It's like a first date kind of thing.
Then along came Chris Moore with this crazy idea of "The Chair.
" I gave Chris the script and he finally got back to me and he said, "This is great.
I wanna do it.
How do you feel about being on camera?" And I said, "That's not gonna happen.
I don't wanna do that.
" And he said, "Well that's the price of admission.
" So a table read is when all the actors get together and they read the script out loud just to see what works, what doesn't, what's funny, what's uncomfortable.
This is not my first table read, but it's definitely the first table read where I knew we were going to make the movie.
That changes things because that makes you think, "Oh, if this don't work, I have two days to fix it.
" So there ain't no kind of way that we're getting the actors that we cast to do this table read, which is sad.
Budgetarily, we can't fly people in.
We won't have any of the actors, huh? No.
I mean, it's a tough one.
I wanna see it read.
I wanna hear it out loud.
We could still do it with stand-ins.
Yeah, we would have some actors, whoever Donna can sort of wrangle, but it's more about hearing the script top to bottom.
- Yeah.
One-night-only table read.
Interior, Heather's bedroom, day.
Scott Krasuski is on top of Heather Zurilli in her childhood twin bed.
Scott is completely naked.
Heather wears a large men's hooded Ohio State sweatshirt with no bottoms.
Scott walks briskly down the block, crosses the street, eyes focused up when wham! A beat-up Suburban pulls out of a parking lot and hits Scott.
Do I know you? We went to high school together.
And middle school.
And elementary.
- Tori the Whorey? - And we're back.
There's something nice about the idea of dying every day, of being born and born and born.
- The end.
- Yay! A note that Zach Quinto had was we just don't want to disparage Pittsburgh because I was looking for that 'cause that was a specific note with Quinto.
And we have not gotten notes from him yet.
Don't take offense.
Once he sends me a sheet of notes, I will take them.
Did not give notes, we're moving on.
But I'm updating him every day on everything that's happening.
I don't care.
I'm just saying.
But I had another question on this page.
And this just age-old development stuff, but it does come up a lot.
This is really when the movie starts, is when Tori hits Scott.
It's on page 27.
So I'm just throwing out there that's a long time before the movie starts.
If you don't have the audience engaged quickly in the movie, it can fuck with their experience basically with the rest of the film.
We've had it before on movies where we've actually just cut scenes when we've gone into the editing process.
That's my concern 'cause I've had it three or four times when you like it all, you like the jokes, and the information about the character is really important.
But the problem is, you sit there in the test audience and you think, fuck, you haven't you know, once Tori and Scott meet, everyone is gonna be happy.
I'm gonna be honest, I really like the fact and maybe it's because I'm so used to doing things that are so unconventional.
Like I really like the fact that when she hits him with the car, the whole audience is gonna be like, "What the fuck is going on?" And I like that.
There's a difference between conventional and me having experience and saying, "You're gonna be in the editing room, and you want the audience to like it.
" What he's saying about the cutting, it sucks when you find yourself in a position and you're like, "Fuck, I really do need to tighten this," and you don't have a great way to do it.
We're trying to prevent that from potentially happening.
And it could be that you just think about it and you say, "Okay, I can move this.
" Or, "I can do whatever," right? If that happens, and you leave it the way it is.
Like it doesn't really affect the next five weeks.
You're gonna shoot all those scenes.
I'm not suggesting cutting any of it.
My stuff has always been you don't know where it's going.
It's very jokey but it's very crazy, and then you hit him with a curveball.
And then by that point, you've earned all the heart.
I'm not scared of the first 27 pages.
It has a lot of the story.
I think that it's such a fast movie.
There is a story.
I don't think that's what he's saying.
I think he's saying it's not you're not tracking what is ultimately going to become Which is what I like.
I don't want it to be a romantic comedy.
Shane is accommodating to a young audience.
Hands down, there's no doubt about it.
The kind of humor that he is dealing with, the kind of boundaries that he's trying to push, they're going to be more geared towards a younger group of people.
It pleases today's audience.
Maybe it doesn't completely please an older audience because they're like, "Where's the story?" But definitely it's gonna please today's audience 110% because - Your audience.
- It's my audience.
And the fucking teenagers in this room were freaking out about it.
He's been making his comedy for a specific audience and he's catered to them and it's how he's been able to grow his brand.
Does that brand translate into a longer format story? I know it's what Shane has done in a lot of his YouTube content, but this isn't YouTube, and this is where we're talking about the differentiation between making a feature film and making an extended YouTube video.
Coming into this process, the script wasn't where I wanted it to be.
Something that I feel like I wanna say to you just because I keep it's just that the John Hughes and I feel like what you wanna say is like, "I want to, you know, basically make my mark like in the kind of same way John Hughes did.
" When you say John Hughes, like, I'm not even really I don't get John.
I think "Sixteen Candles," you're referencing is much broader comedically.
And actually that may confuse people because I don't because for me Yeah, this is not it's like a little quieter.
- It's real and it's about quiet - I agree.
- I also like being really funny.
- John Hughes is a confusing reference.
I think the most important thing is the tone like, you setting the tone.
So knowing what that is for you as a director I think will be really valuable.
You have a lot happening in every one of your scenes.
It could use some simplification.
What I'm actually saying is, like, when you think about these scenes when you think about what you're doing and when you're filming them Yeah.
If you know really what the main points are to make sure you're hitting always at least those marks.
Something like the kitchen scene where there's four people talking, - and there's a little jokes yeah.
- When you have a lot of dialog, try to make sure that you have enough time to protect yourself - when you're filming.
- Yeah, that's fast.
If you know that when you get to one of those scenes on that day, that it's like, "I'm not gonna be able to get this with the coverage I want, and we don't have enough time" Where "Hollidaysburg" is very different than Shane's movie is it's very dialogue-heavy.
Anna's movie, the characters have monologues a lot of the time.
From where the character starts to where they go in the scene, there are so many beats that need to be hit.
The attention to detail that she's looking for, in my opinion, is actually quite necessary, but how do we make that movie in 20 days? Back to tone just 'cause I think it's something we're talking about.
And you have to be really responsible to it is that you set yourself up with device of the narration which I think you can use to great effect in setting that tone.
It's a unique device and it's the device that sets the tone, and therefore you really have to work with her to find what you wanna capture and then make sure she carries it through.
And you can always change the voiceover later.
This is what my master plan, guys.
'Cause I learned a little something from "Breakup at a Wedding," and so I worked in all of these elements that I know that I can manipulate all the way up until Chris Moore makes me lock the movie.
What she did was was strip it of story.
She's telling the same story.
They have the same places that they end up.
But in between everything is gobbledygook.
You say gobbledygook, but I think she does want a movie that's just these characters kind of hanging out with each other.
And I think that kind of movie, to make that fun and entertaining to watch, is really fucking hard 'cause every scene has to be dripping and oozing with charm.
This is why the movie's gonna rely on how clear these actors are communicating, and a lot of it is with the subtext 'cause it's not there in the dialogue.
I just think she has a real problem with story.
And she's a director, and the director has to tell the story.
The transition between what's on the page to what ends up on the screen, it's never a one-to-one, you know.
It's always something new gets discovered and that to me is sort of the magic of filmmaking.
Stories have very important roles in culture, in life.
People who want to tell stories do it from some deep emotional place.
One of my favorite quotes, guy named George Stevens.
"You want to pitch them exactly what they can see and then you want to deliver them something they could never have imagined.
" I think it's the only medium where storytelling is visual first.
I mean, in television, it's a lot about narrative structure and character.
In theater, it's about an immediate experience.
And I think storytelling in film is a unique format.
It's something that directors grow into and evolve with in their own way.
I think it's one of the most interesting things about filmmaking and how different and that's what this whole thing is about how different two points of view can be.
I want people to see what goes into making all these decisions and what can happen, and I think the clearest way to see it is watch two people make the same decisions.
Shane went broad comedy.
Anna went more dramedy.
That's gonna affect your experience.
The competition, in some ways, is a structure in order to see those decisions get made next to each other.
I'm trying with "The Chair" to give people something to watch to become more educated about what goes in to making good stories.
That's probably why I like having a vote because the vote, yeah, some of it's gonna be taste and some of it's gonna be popularity, but some of it's gonna be like, "Who told the best story?" And I think that's gonna be polarizing 'cause I think people are gonna like Shane's version.
I think people are gonna like Anna's version.
Hey.
It's like 11:00 No, it's like 10:30.
I am one day away from the first day of shooting for the movie.
And I have to be down in the kitchen at 5:30 AM.
And I'm starting to feel sick.
Shit, I shouldn't have said it.
I just jinxed myself.
I'm super, super fucking excited.
Like, I think I might need a tranquilizer in order to get any rest at all.
If I get sick then I can't make the movie or I'll just make the movie highly medicated.
So it'll be funnier.
That's good.
I'm still gonna change the script most definitely.
It's not occurring to me as a script anymore.
I think it was so hard for me to stop thinking of it as a piece of writing.
It's not a writing.
It's a film.
So that's been a really interesting thing.
In fact, I think I just realized that as I was talking to you, camera.
On a serious note, I'm really excited.
I know I should be really nervous, and I should be freaking out.
I should be running around my hotel room slamming my head into the walls, but I'm just excited.
All the components of what this is are all of my favorite things in the whole world.
I've been waiting to do this my whole life, and I'm ready.
This concludes the bathroom portion of this documentary.
So here's to a great first day.