Darrin is on the phone with someone every 15 minutes. He is trying to tie down several items with several people every fifteen minutes or so. We went to Starbucks to get some juice to get us going. Darrin picked up some Chinese Tea for use on the set. It was nice knowing the neighborhood. I had walked the streets before. I recognized where Dana lives and I now know where John Tasse lives.

Technically speaking, we are trying to get as much information as we can on as many systems as we can. Darrin's phone line is down. Neither of us can get to the net to make communications possible between the systems. I explained to Darrin that I need to know when I have access to a phone line and power. The more often we have them, the longer the batteries will last. We are listening to the Ed Woods soundtrack.

Day One

First walkthroughs with Assassin (Cung Le) killer, Derrick Wu (Jason Yee), Steve Maing the cameraman, Alan (stunt coordinator), Darrin and me for opening scene in gambling den. There was some discussion about slashing versus stabbing movements. Jay wants wide arcing slashing movement in the first long shot.

Jay, Joe, Darrin, Buddha aka Carl Williams (Mike Nurse), female lead Gina (Yuisa Perez), Detective Suarez (Joe Kelsey), Buddha's man (Hector) walked through scene where Derek and Gina is released. Buddha apologizes and offers $100K and partnership in a multi million dollar business. Derek refuses. We need to kill guy with briefcase of money.

Wrapped up for most people at 2215. Did several walkthrough scene where assassin tries to kill Buddha in Ray's Gym stairwell scene 127-128. Several shots were filmed. We discussed getting a VHS copy of what's been shot as soon as we can.

Remaining crew broke up at 2330. Stopped at Nan Ling for General Gao chicken and white rice.

SD801023 is of Cung and Joe reviewing action sequence in gambling den.

USB Zip disk ...printed a picture from it. Shot some pictures from the fifth floor storage area on Lansdowne. Shot through dirty windows. Dana and Darrin said I could get up on that roof to get some good shots. I am going to come back with my 35mm.

We actually got an early start. We left Darrin's place at 1145, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. We picked up the provisions from Jason's mom. We had to go pick up ice and water. We arrived at 1362 Babson for the first shoot at 1400.

It started snowing around 1600. It was nice to see it. By the end of the day, we had about 4 inches of snow.

Once that was done, we setup and shot Detectives Suarez (Joe Kelsey) and Detective Harris (Doug Marsden) and an extra investigating the murder scene. The girl that was using my camera was shooting like crazy and not even trying to get anything as far as I know. We shall see.

I took several pictures of the guys lying around as dead bodies. I felt bad for them. They were there for a couple of hours at least. Jeff's hands were blue gray. Alan was freezing.

We had to retrieve all of the pictures because I only have 16MB of compact flash. My memory won't be here until Tuesday.

The first scene we shot is of the henchmen in the gambling den getting killed. Several people ended up being quite late because they could not find the location. The garage was quite cold.

I woke up at noon when Darrin got up. I got up myself at 1400. I arrived the Karma Club set at 1515. I took the T down to the set. Dana did get the package with my memory card and cables. Picture one is of art department touching up Jay's tattoo.

First scene (working out in elevator) was shot at 1620. Second scene setup began at 1630.

I got my call at 1700. On break until 1800. Got my notes caught up. Grabbed a leather jacket from wardrobe for my scene. Found a Dale Earnhardt lighter in the pocket.

Emails for pictures of scene to Kenny (other muscle) kennycrn@hotmail.com from fight scene 

Blackbrucelee@aol.com - Thomas Braxton

I tried reading both CF cards from today and neither would read on Dana's PC. Don't know what the problem is. I was able to view all of the pictures on Dana's TV. All shots look good. I cleared out a couple of the bad ones and rotated a few others. I installed Adobe PhotoDeluxe on Dana's PC. It has a decent autofix function.

Tried to read 64MB CF card on MP800. There was no problem (other than speed). Hooked up camera directly to PC and that seems to work best. I am importing the 53 images at 0215.

We broke for dinner at 1900.

We finally got back to shooting at 2030. We shot the rest of the fight club scene at 2300. Close-ups were included.

I hooked up with Dana through John Tasse around 2330. Popped back over to Karma to get my stuff. It was locked up in the van. Dana was gone. Had to call Dana on Brieana's cell phone.

I took the T from Kenmore to Government Centre and walked to the school.

Jason was not pleased with Buddha's shots. Darrin called Buddha to have him come down so we could re-shoot the pictures. Met Josh Young. He is going to be killed in the limo scene. Took several shots. Jay was still not pleased. After about 6 shots, we got what Jay wanted. We are waiting for Brandon to get the last B&W shots so I can go to Kinko's to get everything printed.

Darrin needed to get the APS film roll developed because it had the "happier times" shot of Derek and Gina. I walked down to Ritz Camera for 1-hour developing. I dropped the film off at 1310. Supposed to be done between 1410-1430. I walked back to the school to wait for Brandon. As of 1415, no Brandon. I walked back down to Ritz camera and picked up the pictures. Cost was $13.64

Brandon showed up at 1530. I got about a half dozen shots. Unfortunately, it is not lunch time, so I will have to get the pictures printed sometime after lunch.

We left the school at 1630. Vin and I stopped by Dana's so I could copy the 3 images (Brandon, Buddha & Josh) to the zip drive. We then went to Kinko's to print 3 copies of the 3 pictures. Total cost was $20.37; computer time 14 minutes.

Yuisa Perez - yuisa@musicamador.com

Brandon - papavo615@aol.com

Jason completed filming his jail scene at 1810. Final preparations on the dark room scene continued in earnest at this point. Jason did not like the direction the room was set up. He head them rearrange everything. While that was going on, the camera crew was setting up for the overhead shots. That took quite a while. Those scenes finished filming at 2045.

Camera and lighting set up in the dark room began at 2100.

Called and talked to Linda for about 15 minutes. She said she was feeling ill, but she is feeling better now. She said we got quite a bit of rain the last 24 hours with more rain forecast throughout the weekend.

Jason was the first American to medal at the First World Full-Contact Championships held in Beijing in 1991. Jason holds the true title of "All Around Champion" being the only American to win national championships in full-contact fighting, forms, and weapons. In 1993 Jason was inducted into Inside Kung-fu Magazine's Hall of Fame. This 2 time U.S. Team member is the 1994 W.K.F. Super-middle weight champion.

By 1500 when we left, the weather had turned completely nasty. Raining hard, blustery winds. Rain is coming down in sheets and it's in the 40s. My umbrella was turned inside out by the strong winds. We arrived on set a little before 1600. I am psyched that we are shooting inside today.

We shot multiple takes of the second scene (Derek breaks down) starting at 2115. Finished up with second scene at 2145 and began going through the next scene at 2145. We broke for lunch at 2230. We started back from lunch break at 2330.

It seemed like the first shots after lunch went quite well. Once things were setup, we went through several shootings of several scenes very quickly. Things slowed down a bit around 0130-0200. Tempers were getting a little frayed. Other than Cung, nothing was sustained or major, but people were making snide remarks and were obviously tired.

Jason cracked the whole set up when going through a rehearsal when we were shooting the close-ups for the fight in Ray's gym scene. He had Gina behind him and said "You run out when I run out" instead of "You run out when I attack". He went on for a second before he realized what he had said and everyone was cracking up by then.

We wrapped up at 0345. We got through a lot of good fight sequences tonight. Cung was pitching a fit about having to wait around so much. He bitched from about midnight on. There was quite a group standing in the immediate and a lot of bystanders heard the whole thing. They should have taken it to another room. That was not the time or the place for that conversation.

Darrin had to drive the crew truck. I had to drive the van when we left. We had had to give a jump start to Steve Maing. We left at 0445. We drove out the bonded location by the big dig at 0500 or later. We took some pictures while we were there.

There are quite a few people here today. Camera Shack crew on hand. Not as many people total as the Karma Club location, but close. We finally went through the first scene at Ray's Gym at 2030. Fourth and final take started at 2100.

Today we are supposed to shoot 6 scenes that take place in Ray's Gym. Jason Yee, Cung Le, Michael Nurse (Buddha), Master Yao Li (Yang) and Yuisa Perez (Gina) are the main cast in the scenes today. There are supposed to be 4 extras for bodyguards as well. Robert Patton-Spruill (Squeeze/Body Count) is on the set at the start of the day today as is Steve Fromkin (producer), 2nd Assistant Director Paula Bird.

We were stuck in heavy traffic. We arrived on set at 1745. Vin got me back to Darrin's at 1830. Darrin called and needs shots of dark room scene. Started emailing the pictures at 1930. I sent them to Li Yao: liyaowen@aol.com. 56K is slow. Pictures are 1.3 to 1.8 MB

Shots 1-8 are of various members of the crew setting up for the day.Shots 9-12 are of Cung Le, Alan (stunt coordinator) and Yao Li walking through fight sequence.

Sound guys showed up at 1700. As of 1830, setting up continues.

We left Doug's around noon. We got a good night's sleep before hitting the road. The trip was nice. I enjoyed riding in the truck and seeing what all Dana had done to the truck.

Me, Dana, and Brieana went to Brooklyn and Manhattan so I could get some good pictures. I shot almost 100 shots. Love the camera. It took some great shots. We shot several shots from Dana's truck while on the move. They came out pretty good.

I had to load my 35mm camera and shot another roll on the Manhattan side. I got a few good shots of a Chrysler 300M in Manhattan. Took some pictures along Fifth Avenue. Got a lot of good shots in Brooklyn including a Chrysler New Yorker in NY. My Canon AE1 35mm SLR camera would not close correctly. I am concerned that several shots we ruined. We shall see what comes out.

If I recall correctly, I got up around 1630. Dana drove me to return the S100 to Ritz Camera at the Cambridge mall. We tried to return it at the store on Boylston but they were closed when we got there at 1930.

We picked up some 4X6 photo paper from Best Buy. We printed a few things on Dana's printer. He needs a better printer. It is only 720 DPI.

Dana and Brieana took me down to Weggie's Pub at 162 Lincoln in Chinatown. They had finished shooting the interior scenes when we got there. They started setting up for the exterior shots immediately. All seemed to go reasonably well on set today.

Shot all EOD pictures on 35mm. Did manage to get a few EOD shots with PDC700. Got quite a few shots with it on the trip home. I am surprised how well the images came out since I took them while I was driving without using the viewfinder. We had to drive in rush hour traffic again. I left Darrin's around 0700. I went to bed after copying images to Dana's PC around 1000.

Slept until 1630. Filled a total of 2 1/2 250MB Zip disks with pictures. May need another. Printed a few on Dana's computer. He has a 720DPI printer. Told him he could get a 1440DPI for $100.

Emails for pictures of scene to Kenny (other muscle) kennycrn@hotmail.com from fight scene ; picture was d:\eod second day of shooting - Karma Club\Fight club scene 35. 

Emails for pictures of scene to Thomas Braxton blackbrucelee@aol.com from fight scene ; picture was d:\eod second day of shooting - Karma Club\Braxton Cung & Alan 53.jpg. I could not send them via hotmail because they were bigger than 1MB.

Fixed Dana's dialing properties so we could get online. Ran into Danny in IM. Nice talking to him. Wished him a belated birthday. He is having computer problems with Dick's computer.

I took a couple of pictures of "The Parting Stone - 1744 - P Dudley". 

The first concrete evidence we can find of the post road's passage out of downtown is in Roxbury, at the corner of Centre and Roxbury streets in Eliot Square. Planted into the sidewalk and against the wall of a car repair shop stands the "Parting Stone," erected in 1744 by Paul Dudley, who, according to Stephen Jenkins's 1913 book, The Old Boston Post Road, was then chief justice of the province. The etched words are still clearly visible. The stone marks the division of the post road into two branches: One takes you toward Cambridge and Watertown on the original post road that goes to Worcester. The other branches south toward Dedham and on to Rhode Island (a later strand that reconnected with the original path at New Haven).

We are shooting today at The Modern on Lansdowne. We left the house at around 0530. We arrived at the set at 0600. Steve Fronken, Tara, and Vincent were on set. By 0700, most of the crew were on set doing work for the first couple of scenes to be shot today. We found out that the Red Sox game is not until 1800 tonight. We should definitely be out of here by then.

My NiMh batteries are showing no charge. I do not know how many pictures I will get today. I took the batteries from the 35mm flash. The PDC700 still will not work. It is not a temperature issue since we are inside today. I am not sure what the problem is, but I will definitely have to look into it.

I got some new Duracell AA batteries from Dana. The camera worked fine. I suspect the problem may be the short charging of the batteries.

Ed Howe gave me his business card. He asked that I send him any art department related images. I told him I would take care of it when I get back to Florida. His email address is edhowe@edofilms.com.