15 days left!

We kicked major ass last week. Really heavy week with the biggest fight scene of the film and we knocked out four days of work in two+ days. And got into some stuff from later in the film, including a car stunt, which went very nicely, I might add. Three short nights, too. I love those.

Finished the damn barn fight scene. It was crazy because the set was built in the middle of a field and the dust was really fine and kept getting kicked up into the air with the slightest movement. I tried to stay away from wearing a freaking mask but after getting home and cleaning the darkest snot I’ve ever seen out of my nose, I figured that this shit getting into my lungs was not a good thing.

The Hong Kong crew is kind of funny, though. 90% of them smoke like chimneys but they cover their noses at the slightest smoke or exhaust in the air, so they donned the masks immediately. But I had to join them in the mask-ness after my charcoal booger experience.

Moved two scenes to the barn location, too. We were supposed to shoot these last week but decided to shoot them in sequence after the barn fight. I’m glad we waited. There’s no way we could’ve guessed the continuity of their clothes. They were a lot dirtier than we thought they were going to be. Especially Tim, who got dragged around for a whole day or so.

The actors were great, though. So were the stunt doubles. Ada (Amy’s double) hurt her shoulder so we stopped after a few takes near the end, but other than that and Tiger’s knee (old injury), the fight scene went off without too much pain. But I wasn’t the one in there getting my ass kicked, either. Amy took an elbow to the neck which sounded bad, but she went right back into it and made it work.

Started off with a few takes on the doubles and then moved into the actors. Tiger is a stunt man so it worked out really well that we didn’t have to double him in any way. He had more work than anyone but it was fantastic to be able to always go to him in the shots even with the doubles.

Saw that scene today after Johnny did a rough cut on it and it looks really nice. The hits are hard and the action is tight, and that’s after just one quick pass. He worked all weekend to finish this pretty difficult scene so that we could give the orders for the barn set to be torn down. I think we have everything so they’ll begin removing that sucker tomorrow. Shame, though, it’s a nice little storage building for sure. But like Art Director Gloria said, we didn’t really have permission to build it there so it’s probably a good idea to tear it down.

Almost 4 am on Monday morning. Just got back from playing WII with the boys. I’m bedding down soon.

Big week this week. All the Pale Figures attacking the car stuff, which are the craziest scenes for sure. I’ve been dreading these scenes for weeks now but they don’t seem to overwhelming to me now. We may even have a few short nights in there. My plan is to shoot Tim and Amy and get them out of there as quickly as possible and then concentrate on the Pale Figures. Should be fun. I think I have the Pale Figure thing figured out now, how to show enough but still keep it looking mysterious. They’re looking terrific.

So WEEK 4 begins! Check out the FLICKR for new photos I added tonight. No time for new YOUTUBE stuff, but I’ve added Tim Chiou’s FLICKR page below and to SEVENTHMOON.COM. He has some great stuff of life in Hong Kong and on the set shit.

Peace and wish us luck as we get over the hump of the mid-way point. It’s all downhill from here, boys and girls!

-ed

HAXAN YOUTUBE DIRECTOR’S FLICKR PRODUCER’S FLICKR ACTOR’S FLICKR