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Part Three

16 September, 2001-

Thanks to Jason, we had the "Jiggaly puff" song. It was a relaxed shoot. I am happy thing are going well. Lisa's daughter, Jessica, dropped by the set and she helped out by tossing the handcuffs to Jason that he uses to handcuff her mother.

We had intended to shoot with Richard, but he is juggling three different projects as well as the movie and he has a shoot up in New York this week.

All in all, it has been hectic for us here like the rest of the country, but it is good to keep the faith and to keep working.

Have to post some pics from the last few shoots. Still, I have to keep the story and all plot points underwraps. Mostly we have been shooting in order. As for the story, it is no secret that Anna Blanchard (Lisa McKay) is kidnapped. As to what happens to her and whether she survives or not is one thing.

I may shoot two different endings and see which one I like. Let's just say, there is a lot of bodies at the end of the movie.

Hollywood has been ultra-sensitive to the attacks and had delayed the entire Fall season. Ironically, a lot of shows coming up deal with terrorists and incidentally the character played by Richard is a bit of a zealot who was planning a revolution, but instead becomes a kidnapper. It would be difficult to change that now. Especially since his motivation is why the group is together in the first place.

Sadly, art reflects life. People get wrapped up in their convictions and take violent means to go about them. Yet, I don't think "I Dare You to Kill Her" or the new shows coming up on TV, including the acclaimed "24" with Kiefer Sutherland glamorizes these people.

So, we go on. The movie goes well.

05 October 2001

When I was a little kid, I use to stay up all night. It gave me some sort of thrill that I was "alive" when the rest of the world wasn't. Well, I still stay up all night from time to time. It makes you see the world differently.

While the movie is moving ahead, we have run into the scheduling problem. Some actors are more avialable than others. There isn't much more to go, which makes it really frustrating. On the other side of things, this shall be the last feature till the Company gets real budgets. I am convinced that we could be cranking out people if we had enough to pay cast and crew and take them away from their day jobs every now and then.

With me, this is my "day" job. I was telling someone that I can do this stuff 24/7 thanks to my finances. While that is all fine. It does make me overdo things at times. Hence staying up all night. I was actually working in Photoshop on some photos I took for one of my new talent with We Know Talent.

In about 2 hours, I have to shoot a short with Jiyan and Sora Kim Johnson. Which brings me to the odd news. Jiyan is going out to California. I will try to squeeze in some shooting with him this week before he leaves, and after he is gone, there are a few key scenes I can shoot without him. I hate to drag him back here to finish this up. Still, he is the lead. The movie is full of good performances and it has been a different set of headaches moreso than "Blood Kiss."

The good news is "Blood Kiss" is going to be shown here soon. November 8th, it plays at the Ohio Independent Film Festival and Market. Unfortunately at 9am. Which means I'll have to stay up all night for that one too.

09 October 2001

Me and my staff have been juggling the productions and the Digital Studio campaign. So far, it goes well.

I recently shot an added scene to the movie with Jessica, Lisa Mckay (a.ka. Anna's daughter). She came to the set wearing an FBI sweatshirt and it gave me an idea for a brief scene with her and Tai.

And Tai (Jiyan Wei) is going out to the coast. He will be back in a month or so to finish up his scenes. He's been great on the movie.

There isn't that much to go and I am going to post some pics along with this new update, but I will be sparse on the comments cause I don't want to give away too much of the story.

While Jiyan is gone, I will be doing some shooting with the secondary characters in the movie. And I may have to do a rewrite with one of the leads who seems to be MIA for right now. So, there may be some big changes in the storyline for "I Dare You to Kill Her."

This is the main problem with long shoots. Me and the staff decided that we would work on no more movies till next year, when the projected funding for the Digital studio comes throught. That way, we can shoot and finish up the movie.

I believe some of the problem stems from people not realizing this is hard work. Still, I feel if one is passionate about movies then they see it through. And so far, most of the people on "Dare You," have been wonderful. Even though I kid with Jiyan about leaving, I know he will come back and finish up the shoot.

09 October 2001 - Part 2

02 November 2001

What a hellish few weeks. Got behind with the schedule and my actors, who are great people are off doing other wokrs, so it has been hard to pull everyone together. Add to that, we have to get Jiyan back for a few days of shooting. He's in sunny San Diego.

I have been going over some of the footage and I want to place some new pics on the site or build a new Flash site for the movie, but we'll see if I have the time. I might consider getting an editor to help out on this one.

08 November 2001

Can't talk long. I am going to the Cleveland premiere of "Blood Kiss." This ideal of juggling different movies at once was fine in the beginning, but now it is getting to be a bit overwhelming. I have to bring some more people aboard the company.

Oh, well, shot the scene "The Other Bruce" a few days ago. It was totally different than the script, but it went really well. I managed to get Kim Hendrickson into the movie. And Ted Kung, who had auditioned so many months ago and was patient about being in the movie came through quite nicely. I wish I had more for him to do.

I have to remember to give Jason a credit for choreographing the action. I will place some photos from the scene on-line later this evening. I have to run off to the fest now.

For More of the Production Journal, see

Part Three