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JOHN ADAMS BLOG

AUGUST 13, 2006
"REVELATIONS" DIRECTOR BLOG, PART IV


The second day on set, I was having a huge problem trying to explain this particular visual effect. I had everybody standing around me, trying to watch and I had three other chefs in the kitchen trying to explain at the same time. We finally got it; Jaison Stritch and I explained it and that was it.

Then, everybody went to work and it's pouring rain outside and people were sloshing through the mud ... when it's supposed to be like a summer night with clear skies and stars. I mean, it was all this stuff at the same time. So, I'm sitting there in a chair after I blocked the scene and I'm just watching everybody work ... and I felt tears coming to my eyes.

Suddenly, it was like Robert Petrovicz appeared over my shoulder, like Obi Wan, going: "You cannot cry, Luke." So, I sucked the tears back in my eyes went on back to work.

In hindsight, one of the greatest moments in working on my particular episode was the fairground scene where we get introduced to Young Purdy, though at the time we don't know who he is. The day before was a situation where everything was just fantastic. The sky was clear. We were in this big hay field and it was like: "They're going to mow it and we're going to do all this stuff, have all this stuff worked out." I explained how I wanted this big crane shot and it'll come down and it'll do all this great stuff. Fantastic. Everything's good.

So, we come the next day to actually shoot it and, again, the words of James Head rang loudly in my ear: "Every day, something will go wrong." Well, there was a miscommunication between Transportation and the background performers, and Transportation did not get the trailers to the set by the time we got there ... and I had over 100 extras that all needed to change. (The place where they had to change only holds ten or fifteen people at a time.)

So, we get there and we waited. Everybody is set up, but I don't have anybody to shoot! So, I'm waiting for probably an hour and a half and it's in the wintertime, so I'm losing light really quickly. I heard somebody say – I think John Mavrogeorge, my first AD – we were supposed to be done with this scene at 8:30 pm. We didn't get our first shot of the entire setup until 8:17 pm!

And, in the midst of all this, while they're doing all their changing and everything, in this freshly cut hay field, it's been raining the entire time. Now, you have this wet, soggy hay and, you know, hay is not grass where it covers the entire ground and soaks it up; it's all mud down there. So, it's mud and hay, and it's supposed to be sunshine, and it's raining. It's not drizzling, it's raining. When everything seems to come down on me, I tend to get a bit more rational. Calmer. I was just standing there and I was like: "Wow." And I'm looking at my A.D. and my script supervisor and it was like, "How are we going to do this?"

What we wound up doing is some guerrilla film shooting. When we finally got about 80 extras out, it was: "We've got to go. We've got to shoot!" So, we get the first shot with the big crane, and Lou Gruzelier came off the platform with the steadicam. We couldn't say "cut" and then set everything up and get the DP over and do another light check and move the lights and all that stuff. So, what ultimately we did was I'd say: "Okay and ... action!" They would do their thing and shoot it and, then, everybody would grab something, pick it up, move it over ten feet and drop it. "Action!" again. We just shot the entire scene like that. There's actually a piece of footage from the B camera shooting a wide shot and you see the A camera pass through the frame with the steadicam, because that's the only way we could've gotten the shot.

We shot, I don't know, three pages of material in, maybe, twenty minutes. And, the moment I got ready to say "Action!" ... literally, it stopped raining and the clouds opened up and the sun was actually shining the entire time. The moment I went: "Okay, I think that's it. We're moving on." ... it started raining again. I swear it was just like that! It was absolutely fantastic. Everybody working together to get that shot, to get that scene done will always be indelibly imprinted on my mind.

To direct the other actors was a bit intimidating. But Michael Hall was easy to work with. He took direction really well. What I recognized is that – like with everything else – it's more about cooperation. Michael would do a take that was absolutely fantastic and, if there was something that I thought maybe a piece of it wasn't emphasized well enough, I'd make a small note to him and he would take it and run with it. Same with David Ogden Stiers: very cooperative ... although it contradicted what they told me they were going to do. They told me they were going to sabotage my episode ... and I really believed them! David Ogden Stiers jokingly told me he was going to give me a hard time, but he was a sweetheart to work with. So was Michael Hall.

And then my guest stars bent over backwards: Eric Johnson as Young Purdy; Joseph May and Beau Starr as the younger and older Nolan; and Sarah-Jane Redmond who played Purdy's daughter. Sarah was great, absolutely just ridiculous in her abilities to carry out what it was we both saw as the story behind what was going on. They were all absolutely fantastic in helping me to fulfill the vision of what I saw for the episode.

I think, as well, the fact I'm an actor, I enjoyed that part the most, watching the performances and giving actor notes. That was my favorite part of the entire process: sit and watch the actors do their thing and then to go, "Ooh ooh! Don't forget on this part. Blah blah blah." And they'd go "Oh, yeah!" That was probably the most fun, the funnest, bestest time in the world.

It was probably about Day 9 of my episode and I remember thinking: "I am so tired." Through prep and all the way through that last day of shooting, I was getting up at probably about 5:30 am every morning. That's when my day would start and it would end about 10:30 pm or 11 o'clock every night ... for almost 3 weeks. I was so tired, so stressed, I literally, by the third or fourth day of shooting, wasn't nervous anymore. I didn't care if the tie was red or blue. "Look, let's just shoot it! Why aren't we shooting yet? Let's go!" And you really kind of feel your oats, as it were. You don't necessarily think you know everything, but because you get thrown in there, all of a sudden you're like: "Okay, I don't know everything. I don't even know a fraction of what there is to know about directing. But what I do know, I'm comfortable with. Let's go! Let's get it done."

Around Day 9, I was like, "Yeah, I'm going to need a break – a long break – before I ever do this again." Then, about three days after I was done, I was like: "Let's do that again! That was so much fun, I want to go right now! I can direct something right now! You, Pizza Man, pick that pizza up and take it over there. Action! And ... cut! Very good. Here's your money." I wanted to direct everybody and everything. "You, bird, do on my car right now – Action and go! Cut! Brilliant and print! Just had the car washed, but way to go, pigeon!"

I'm just excited about directing again and I want to direct. I really want to direct. I'm actually looking into some things right now, talking to some people. I might get the chance to direct some other episodes. And I'm officially in the same union as some of the greatest filmmakers of all time, you know? I'm officially in the same union as Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington ... and, like Ron, Tom and Denzel on both sides, I've been on both sides of the camera.

I am a hyphenate! It's wonderful. It's absolutely incredible. I love directing and I look forward to doing it again.



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