Nigel Dick - Director

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DOUG-LESS

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Just landed in Vancouver in the pouring rain after a bumpy ride from Reno where it was clear blue skies and super dry air – the scourge of all our singers. The scene in the kitchen this morning was quite unique – a long line of large water bottles quickly being snaffled up as the guys wrote their names on them and started drinking hard – everyone’s been getting sore throats. Each morning Halim, the general factotum of Sierra Sonics, has been preparing a wondrous potion from honey and lemons for those with throats like the bottom of a plumber’s tool-box.

It’s been quite an experience and I’m sad that this part of the movie came to such a sudden end. Veit’s song, the 2gether anthem, has turned out particularly well and it’s been a wonderful lesson for an amateur musicican such as myself to watch the different styles of the three production teams at work. We have been truly blessed by their talent.

We had a run through of the script last night – lots of laughs but the cold realisation dawned on Maggie and myself that the script is too long and pages will have to go. (Maggie is the astute girl from MTV who’s hired us all by the way). However all is not lost: a side effect of the whole process is that Chad, Mickey, QT and Jerry have enjoyed a unique bonding experience which will stand them in good stead before the weeks ahead – if only we had a Doug that everyone was happy with…

CALCULUS

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Josh and Brian, song-writers and producers, have finished their work in Reno. The vocals to “You + Me = Us”, the 2gether anthem that is the “Bohemian Rhapsody” of Boy Band songs, are complete and they are flying home tomorrow to complete the mixes back East. Meanwhile Anthony continues to mix the eleven versions of “Say It Don’t Spray It” that the film will require – we’ll see it develope from a scratch track coming out of a cheesy casio into a full blown dance epic. Can’t wait to shoot that one.

Tomorrow Veit starts on the vocals for 2gether. It’s going to be a real thrill for me as I co-wrote the song. Today he had me down on my hands and knees re-writing the second verse and changing the chorus.

11-02I’m hanging with 2gether at their first ever performance in the studio in Reno.
Kevin Farley has still to be cast as Doug.

RENO

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We’ve all made our way to Reno, Nevada to record the songs that will appear in the movie and with Michael flying in from Vancouver, Evan from NYC and Noah and Alex from LA this is the first time that 2gether actually hang together. We’re working in an old Victorian house with a recording studio inside (www.sierrasonics.com) – this quiet suburban house has had Eminem, Ozzy, Dr Dre and Captain & Tennille record here. As you will all find out the Captain and Tennille link is particularly apt.

BUSS

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Casting all day yesterday. We saw our first Bob Buss’s. Buss is the svengali who invents 2gether – part Brian Epstein part Mr Magoo. He’s a wonderful character who does a kind of reverse King Lear: we find him at his lowest ebb and by the end of the tale he has re-discovered himself and is back on top of his game, and remarkably, despite the setbacks, he carries no trace of bitterness. He reminds me of Dale Griffith, the John Candy character in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and I wonder what Buss’s life was like before we first meet him. I describe him to all the hopefuls as being terrifed of a 9 to 5 job because he has no idea what he would do between 5 and 9 and wonder for a moment if I’m not describing myself. Some of the actors who read for us bring lumps to the throat when they tackle Buss’s phone call to Jerry when all seems lost: a testament to the actors commitment and the Gunn’s writing. At one point I realise that I am describing Buss in terms of my old boss Robbo – a man of such intense belief in his acts that he would press on through insurmountable problems with unbelievable determination regardless of the cost both to himself and to those who worked with him, never revealing his fear once whether he was stony broke or flush with cash. If I can’t bring Buss alive on screen then I will definitely have to consider going back to cab-driving as a career.

CHILLIWACK

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Started the day off scouting in Chilliwack with Abraham, the super sleuth location scout. Chilliwack, pronounced Chillouwack, is 50 miles out of Vancouver on the road East so you might all ask, as did my producer, why Chilliwack? Well, a) Chilliwack has the look I’ve beeen searching for and b) you just have to shoot in a place with a name like Chilliwack don’t you? Chilliwack’s own guide book (“Chilliwack – Discover Our Heart”) claims it has “everything you need for a terrific holiday vacation – from heart stopping excitement to peace and quiet.” No mention of a good cardio unit in town though – much needed after that “heart stopping excitement”! The famous people in town include a glass fusionist and a paper sculpturist. And be aware that “beneath this mild mannered community beats the heart of super, National British Columbia”! Oh yeah, the booklet also encourages you to experience the “Cycle our Dykes tour!” More info at www.tourismchilliwack.com

More importantly for us Chilliwack is the home of Joe, owner of a dog called Kaiser and proprietor of the Traders Inn a fine piece of roadside real estate that has just what I’ve been looking for – the cheesiest motel room in B.C. Perfect!

10-28

Outside the motel in Chiliwack

Chilliwack has welcomed us with open arms and it seems to love strangers from lands afar: Joe is from Poland, Norma (proprietor of the Golden West Motel) is from County Durham and the folks who cooked our excellent lunch at Burger-land (one of the many stops 2gether will make on their way to Florida) come from Seoul. Chilliwack, I’m thinking, will be a blast!

DREAMS

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Four weeks to blastoff and though I feel quite relaxed about the whole thing it’s obviously getting to me. Woke up in the middle of the night and found I’d been having a nightmare about different ways of covering the numerous drive-by’s the movie will feature. Initially I was furious with myself – I mean, this is second unit stuff – you need to get some sleep! But then common sense kicked in and there I was at 3am scribbling notes regarding angles, lenses and focal lengths furiously on the pad I keep by my bed for such moments of ‘genius.’ The benefits of such nocturnal sessions aside isn’t it amazing what power our conscious has in that it can override what we’re really thinking (bloody hell – how am I going to shoot this thing?) with what we’d like to be thinking (I can do this – everything’s going to be allright)?

Back in Vancouver: Josh played us the demo version of the Woah! song down the phone. (Woah! is the band who are 2gether’s bete noire). It’s catchy and hysterical at the same time and is all about wanking which is a subject I could write about at great length. And on that note…

THE REAL SHOOT: DAYS ONE, TWO AND THREE: VARIOUS TESTEMONIALS AT TRUCK STOPS AND FAST-FOOD JOINTS, A COUPLE OF SLEAZY MOTELS AND JERRY GOES BACK TO BOSTON TO SEE ERIN IN HER VIDEO STORE…

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The dailies look great, I’m still on the job and I’ve fulfilled that ambition to shoot in Chilliwack. The people were very kind to us and generous with their parking lots and gas stations. The weather however has been less kind. Despite working on film sets for 15 years I’ve never witnessed a crew so prepared for the wet. In the last week I’ve learnt lots of interesting new ways of keeping gear dry and for the first time ever have seen the first AC (a fine focus-puller named Robert) warming up the camera at the first available opportunity so that it’s not covered in condensation when we need it. I’ve seen more rain during a shoot in the last three days than I have in my entire film-making career to date…and of course the sun was out all weekend!

Mr Buss has exceeded my wildest dreams. He is the possesor of fine thespian instincts and I feel like a violin student who has a rare Stradivarius on loan for a month…I could just play and play. And the guys? They are a blast and my heart is filled with joy when I see them on set every morning. They are truly turning into a band and I can see a fine future ahead for them – Backstreet Boys and N Sync watch out! After work last night they all retired to the Karaoke Bar at the hotel and stunned the locals with their fine vocal stylings…Mickey said that Chad put on a particularly fine show. QT, who of course was discovered in a Karaoke bar, was unable to make a showing because he had school-work to do.

11-24Buss and his shy one

We finally got to meet Erin today and I swear that Doug, Chad, QT and Mickey were as excited about meeting her as Jerry was. Of course Jerry was the lucky one and got to kiss her on film. Of course I had to shoot the scene about eight times so he had to kiss her over and over…wish I had his job! Erin is very cool and wore the distinctive Video Station hat with aplomb and shouted at the passing traffic just like I asked her to. Wonder what her thoughts about todays events are as she slips into sleep? Is she thinking about Jerry? Will they get back 2gether? Watch this space.

CASTING

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We’ve been casting all day and I think maybe we have our band. Making a movie is a bit like abseiling over the edge of a vertiginous cliff using a chain which you are making link by link as you lower yourself downwards. Each link in the chain is one of the decisions you must make every minute of the process and it only takes one of those links to fail to send you tumbling into the void with no hope of ever scaling your way back up the cliff. But, even though you are aware of the tremendous pressure hanging on each decision, you must enter into a zen-like state of freedom where you must have the courage to go with your gut, stick with your decisions and make them work. As Judy, my acting teacher would always tell us, “To succeed you must be prepared to fail spectacularly.”

The decisions we make to decide who will be in 2gether are five crucial links in the chain that will make the movie a success. It’s terrifying but at the same time I know that today I spent time with some wonderful characters who made me laugh till it hurt and that’s enough to send me to bed with a happy heart.

THE MAKING OF 2GETHER

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I’ve just flown back from Vancouver where I’m going to be shooting a comedy in November & December for MTV – It’s a romp through the world of Boy Bands and will be called “2gether.” It’s been a wonderful day. I woke up in a swanky hotel in downtown Vancouver and started meeting people at 8am. I’ve met two DP’s, three costume designers, a couple of AD’s, some production designers and maybe 20 actors. The sun shone all day long in Vancouver and on the way to the airport my driver told me that I shouldn’t expect weather like this over the next two months! But my spirits are high and it’s going to take more than a little snow and rain to piss me off.

I snickered as I read Bill Bryson’s new tome on the plane and watched with amusement as the man opposite me, who must have been 50 years old, opened his bag and produced three teddy bears (the middle one was pink!) and had them sit and watch him throughout the whole flight. As the plane finally touched down in LA and bumped onto the runway he spoke to the pink one, patted it on the head, and reassured it (her?) that everything was OK. I expect the next months will bring me a few rough landings of my own. Perhaps if I dress up in a pink teddy-bear suit there’ll be somebody to pat me on the head when things look dicey….