Dogs Of Chinatown

Woke up and showered again. Ahh…

All of today was shooting at Solaris restaurant. The place is so nice. I gotta take Tyler there when she comes Friday. Did some dialog scenes, the extras came, and then came the fight scene against Matt Sumner…

Oh boy what a fight. We had 2 stunt tables. One’s solid, the other one breaks away. It starts out with me capping some guys, and I get the gun knocked out of my hand. I get thrown onto the solid table (front suicide) and land on a bunch of dinner plates (made of plaster) that break. There are people at the table too, and they freak out when I land and everyone runs out of the restaurant. There were times where I had to lay there a while so Micah could get focus or set up lighting for the mass exodus, and during this the five of us at the table must have made fifty jokes. “Excuse me, there’s a man in my food” or “there’s hair in my food” or “Now it turns into a zombie movie” or “Now it turns into food porn.” We milked it.

Jumped at Matt, took him down and shook the gun away, did some more exchanges, and he kicks me into an HK spin and I land it on the breakaway table. Shit flies everywhere. It was awesome.

I crack two plaster plates over Matt’s head, and Matt kicks me over the broken table, except I nail the end of it and that see-saws my body over 180 degrees sideways. Sweet.

I get up, Matt runs and does a double legged flying front kick at me, which launches me up and backward onto the hard table, I land on the edge and roll off onto my stomach on the ground.

It was so fun, and the place was messy as all hell at the end. Matt was awesome and I hope we can work together again some day. He’s got a lot of experience doing this stuff too, and he could find the camera to make the hits connect and his pacing was great. Scene should turn out pretty well. Only a few bruises too! And I got to get away before they started cleaning up.

Seriously that place was so messy.

Submitted by: Eric Jacobus

Spent the whole day at the kung fu school doing dialog scenes, training scenes, and fight scenes. Did a couple new stunts. One where I fly over a wall, land on some kicking bags, and HK spin off them, and another where I jump back and land on some pilates balls. Blue ones. Yes blue balls. I bounced off one and landed on another, fell to the ground, and finished the scene hugging it.

Did a lengthy fight scene in the evening against Brian. The guy’s really good, but runs into the natural hurdles of any skilled martial artist who hasn’t done many film fight scenes: he has to untrain himself. He did great though. Usually it only took a couple takes to get the distancing and blocking down, and it looked good. I tried out some new moves, like a jump twist kick where I land on my back, and we did a 20-second long take of grappling that looked REALLY GOOD. Not some boring “realistic” crap, but we were trying to beat the shit out of each other, and knew where to grab and flip. Cut my lip open a little, and my wrist is killing me, but overall it was wicked.

Oh yeah, Brian and I had a little fun at our own expense. He got toasted..

Came back to Micah’s in Greensboro and I’m gonna sleep now. Tomorrow’s the restaurant fight, which should be wild.

Submitted by: Eric Jacobus

We started shooting Dogs of Chinatown on Thursday September 13th. Day one of shooting was one of those easy days of production. Micah and Eric ran around Greensboro and took care of the scenes where other actors were not needed. A good time for Micah and Eric to get to know one another both professionally and personally. A good day of shooting and some great footage recorded.

Most of the beginning of the day was in front of the green screen where Huyen runs in after I do some action. The background’s gonna be this church, which should be pretty rocking.

Ate at a vegetarian place called Boba House (sounds so generic being from the Bay Area where there’s more boba than gasoline). I got soup. Fucking soup. Everyone else ordered complicated dishes, and those all came right away. When they were almost done, my pot o’ broth came and I stuck my head in it so I could inhale it into my empty hole of a stomach. It was good though.

Also met a really cool guy named Rudy. He reminds me of Pete. He’s from Taiwan and teaches film and he’s a slick dude (Pete you’re slick too, but also funny. Rudy’s stoic).

Shot a scene at a bar with Brian where we sit and talk. Blew a circuit, but got everything done.

Shot a scene at Micah’s place where I meet Huyen. We kept pouring water on ourselves because it was supposed to be raining earlier in the scene, but the thousand-watt lights kept drying up the water. Talked to the Tyler on the phone and had a great discussion involving high school (since I wanna make a high school film with Pete), and then drove with Micah out to his dad’s place in Raleigh. He has 2 cute cats, both tabbies, one big one that sits around, and a small one with a quarter of her tail missing.

Submitted by: Eric Jacobus

Went out to an abandoned metal scrapyard … with no metal, and shot a scene with Patrick. Guy was awesome, from New Jersey. I got to point a gun around like a little kid, all the while watching the road and hiding whenever a cop drove by. Everyone kept telling me to chill out. Not easy when I’ve had 6 squad cars surround me just from someone calling 911 about a gun in public. When Micah and I went to do our scene, we got rained out.

Went back to Micah’s place and did scenes where I walk into my place after the restaurant fight. Spent a lot of time doing a shot of the gun going into a cabinet, and then, the moment everyone’s waiting for, I had my solo shower scene… in slow-mo. Don’t get too excited; I was wearing shorts and a chastity belt.

These guys won’t stop watching that scene. Seriously.

I think after that we watched Contour. But maybe not. I think I have my days mixed up. Anyway, I got drunk and watched Contour with 8 other people, which was so much fun. I sat next to another guy, another Eric actually, and we laughed at all the stupid shit I put in it for these occasions in particular. Andy, the behind the scenes guy, and his wife came and they’re awesome. Andy’s super chill and I dig talking to him. His wife talked about her job as a, what would you call it, a waxer? She waxes people. Great stories. Micah showed off the downward-pointing arrow he shaved into his chest and she commented on the quality of shaving he did, which apparently wasn’t very good.

Went out to a club and danced. Met Brian who plays my teacher in the film. Awesome dude because we can be sarcastic children if any situation calls for it, and eventually he was a drunk dude. Micah and I battled some girls by teaming up on a pole dance. I only wish Ed and Tyler could’ve been there. Someone tried to pick a fight with Micah, and Brian kept punching and kicking me for no good reason. Then a lady tried to convince me I was gay, which led to great conversations. I’m glad I learned Ed’s dance moves. To the T.

That night after we walked back to Micah’s, the three of us talked about crackers, hats, and then crackers again.

Submitted by: Eric Jacobus

Woke up at 10am after a weird dream involving Tyler (and oddly enough she had a similar one about me) and we head over to the studio, which is basically a video store converted into a green screen room. The only videos they have there are Asian flicks. The rest of the crew shows up and I meet another guy with my name. So while I’m eating some Honey Nut Cheerios we decide that he should be Honey Nut and I’ll be Cheerios. Once they find out I’m from San Francisco the jokes start rollin, which is awesome because these guys could really care less if I were gay, straight, or a mutant.

Did some shooting against a green screen where I just convey emotion and point a gun at my mouth. Pretty easy stuff. Had lunch at a good Mexican place and talked about movies. Did some shooting with Micah in a park. This whole experience reminds me of shooting Undercut. We’re just grabbing whatever shots we think are cool (as well as whatever he story boarded) and half the time it’s just me and the director. I dig it.

Then we go back to Micah’s place and do the scene where I come home bloodied and dirtied from a brawl at an Italian restaurant. They poured ketchup all over me, which smelled like ass, and shot me doing some walking shots. Then they had me strip down to shorts and do a shower scene. Many gay jokes ensued, and most of them were pretty good.

Tonight I’m gonna read more of this book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman“. It’s research for the next feature, which I’m calling “Contour 2” right now, but I don’t think I’ll even call it Contour anything. Maybe we can call it something along the lines of “Hitman Economics 101” or of that sort.

And Tyler, my girlfriend is coming down here in a week. I’m totally stoked.

Submitted by: Eric Jacobus

Arrived in Raleigh on time, and Micah grabbed me from the airport. Upon exiting he paid for his parking fare in advance, only to lose the stub so that we could leave the lot. Apparently the poor guy’s been planning this feature AND moving to a new place, so his head is everywhere. Micah’s a great guy and on the trip to his place I find out that North Carolina, especially Greensboro, is pretty progressive. So I’m not gonna hear another tirade about how the ‘fags’ should be thrown in the river like I did on my previous trip. These guys are welcoming, chill, and like to make movies. I’m immediately feeling good about everything.

Submitted by: Eric Jacobus