After our short film 'Broken Warning' won the Hollywood California Planet Out film festival Tadeo & I decide that we should put aside out next film (‘My Project’) & start to work on a longer version of Broken Warning. From all the feedback he received out there we just had to do it. Everyone loved the film & wanted to see more. They wanted to get to know a little more about the characters. I went to work on the screenplay at once & by collaborating with Tadeo we came up with a great script that has plenty of character development, action, & a slightly different ending. It’s extremely truthful, emotional & bound to be a winner. We want this to be as true to life as it can be, without looking down on any race, gang, or religion. The following is a diary on the making of this film. Here you will see all the aspects on what went into making our film.
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The ‘Downlow’ Diary
(The Downlow Diary is maintained & written by Roger B Domian)
We decided to shoot the film during the spring/summer of 2002. I wrote the script's story to take place during the first week of July & ending on the 4th so the fireworks would mask the gunshots of the gang at the end of the film. Tadeo thought it was cool & it worked out great because the original ‘Broken Warning’ short was originally to take place during the summer.
Around this time Tadeo starts working at the Mello Yellow restaurant. From this time on he spends almost all his time working there. Between that, school, & this film this man is a workaholic!
The Director Of Photography this time would be Christopher R. Buzek who had shot our short film ‘Greasepaint’. The original 'Broken Warning' film was shot by Michele Grangenois.
We are also in talks to possibly shoot this on 35mm film stock with a Panavision camera. This of course if the finances are there.
Our composer from the first film, Gregory Martin, will also return with a new original score.
The name of the film will also change. Our extended version of 'Broken Warning' will now be called ‘Split Decisions’.
September 2001 – Tadeo & I spend the afternoon driving around scouting out locations. All except a store location was agreed upon. We also decided that it would be better to shoot the film with 16mm film stock.
October 2001 – While at work I decide to write out the entire shot list for the film. This is to help out Tadeo on his busy scheduled. In this list I break down each scene & plan out each camera setup to make the film shoot as easy as possible.
November 2001 – Auditions are held at Columbia College. It turned out to be an all day affair starting at 9am to 9:30pm. So many extremely talented Latino actors showed up & some of the actors were decided upon having a part right on the spot. Our second audition was set for sometime after the holidays, & a final cast call-back would follow that. Tadeo informs me that he has another idea for a title to the film. ‘On The Downlow’ a gangland term that means keeping a secret quiet. A cool idea since it deals with the two secrets that the main characters are hiding. We also agree that some of the gang dialogue can be changed around during shooting to make it more realistic sounding if needed. This came up after we found out that one of our actors had ‘some’ knowledge in an actual gang & filled us in on some aspects of how they should act & talk. I being the screenwriter agreed since I’ve never written gang talk before & just made sure that the main idea of the lines stays the way they are. Again all of us agreed. Tadeo receives my shot list. Things are moving along great.
November 22nd 2001 – Thanksgiving – Extremely yummy.
December 14th 2002 – Tadeo contacts me & tells me that we should tone down a certain aspect of the film (an underlying theme) for Scene 5 - ‘The Store’. I disagree claiming that this shows Isaac's calmness on his dealing with the way certain people think of certain situations. Isaac's emotions are slowly growing to a boiling point throughout this film & every little thing just piles on top. It’s shows another straw on the camel’s back that Isaac buries inside him that will eventually come out when he deals with Reaper at the end of the film. No final decision is made about the change & will probably be dealt with on the shooting day.
December 25th 2001 – Christmas – Ho ho ho we had no snow!
December 31st 2001 – Happy New Year - 'Burp!'
As we celebrated these days with our families I had no contact with Tadeo. He is extremely busy at the Restaurant.
January 2002 – Waiting to hear from Tadeo about setting up the next set of auditions. Tadeo vacations in Mexico. Time is ticking by.
February 9th 2002 - Tadeo gets a hold of me & arrangements were made to schedule the first day of shooting for March 28th; Scene 12 - ‘Angel at Work’. This will be shot at Cycle Tech Motorcycle shop on Harlem Ave. Well that’s what we’re planning to shoot it. We still have to get over there & make final arrangements & approval. Shouldn’t be a problem since our buddy Perry Flores works there every now & then & is friends with the owner. He also asked me to work out the storyboard for the scene. I agree since I’ve had the scene in my mind ever since I wrote it. This will be the first scene to be shot & the rest of the film will be shot in June & July. Plenty of time yet to prepare. Second auditions still haven’t been set.
February 20th 2002 - Tadeo calls me to let me know that our short film 'Broken Warning' has won another contest. I'm not sure which one but will post here when I find out. I haven't really spoken with him due to us both being really busy at work & on other things, so we just keep leaving each other messages. He also notifies me that 1) we should cut down on the swearing in the film & 2) that the store owner confrontation should be changed to just some kids in the store. I haven't talked this over with him yet but, the way I feel is what was finalized in the script should stay. In real life gangs swear, & swear a lot. I also believe that the store owner should be the one saying the insults mainly because he is older & the owner of the store thus giving Isaac a reason not to confront him & stay out of trouble. Also his insults are basically the 'everyman's' thoughts & comments, by having a group of kids or another person in the gang say them it just makes it too claustrophobic. This is an extremely leveled story & script, one that I hope will eventually make it to the screen. But things change. We will just have to see once I get together with him & work it out.
February 26th 2002 – Never let it be said that every production doesn’t start with a few problems. Some good news & some bad news on come out on this day. First I contacted the motorcycle shop Cycle Tech to make arrangements to film there in March. Joe the owner was great & agreed only if we could do it there on off days – Either a Wednesday or Sunday. We made plans to stop by there on Thursday to check out the shop & set up the shots with Tadeo & Chris (the DP). I called Tadeo & told him the good news & it was set. We would shoot on March 31. About an hour later Tadeo calls me to let me know that he talked to one of our stars, our lead from 'Broken Warning' Maximino Arciniega, to let him know of the filming date. That’s when Max told him he might not be able to do the film. Seems he’s heading to Hollywood in July to settle in & try out for a pilot to a new series. Either way he tells Tadeo that he’s going to stay out there & look for work. Tadeo freaked. What can we do now? We’re loosing one of our leads, our Angel! I told Tadeo to get together with him & see if he can work something out. I also told him to try to rearrange the shooting scheduled to work all of Max’s scenes first now knowing that he’ll be leaving us on the 15th of July. Our last resort will be to re-cast that part, although the chemistry between Max & our other lead Eddie Pina was perfect & finding a replacement would be hard. We will find out on Friday, which’s when Max told Tadeo he’d let him know. Until then…
February 28th 2002 - Played phone tag with Tadeo about getting together to check out the Cycle Tech location. Decided to meet with him at Pepe's Restaurant around 4pm. 5pm Tadeo never showed up. I had other things to do & had to leave. Found out that I missed Tadeo by about 10 minutes (he was stuck in traffic). We decided to go to the location sometime soon.
March 3rd 2002 – Well the final word arrived to our ears about Max Arciniega again reprising his roll of Angel in our film – He declined. According to Tadeo he just didn’t want to let us down. This week he will be flying out to California to audition for a pilot of a new series & he just doesn’t want to start our film & then have to drop out if he gets the call. He is also planning to stay out there & look for work & flying back to Chicago to be in our film would just be too costly. Frankly my wishes are with him & I do hope he gets the chance to work in Hollywood as an actor. The guy is really talented & we all wish him luck. But now the task begins on recasting his role. Trying to find the right guy with the right chemistry to act opposite Eddie will be a challenge. Second call back auditions are set to take place at Columbia College this Thursday.
March 5th 2002 – Received word from Tadeo that he visited our Cycle Tech location & he loves it. So much character. He spoke with the owner Joe who agreed that we could film there. We were set to start shooting there on March 31st but after I reminded him that Easter falls on that day we now have to reschedule. Tadeo also finalized arrangements with our ‘Hamburger Joint’ location. This will be shot at the Yellow Submarine on Archer Ave.
March 13th 2002 - Tadeo & our Chris go to visit our motorcycle location Cycle Tech to finalize shooting agreements. I did not attend but from what I heard from Tadeo is that Chris was extremely excited with the location. There are so many shot possibilities. He also asks that I work on another 'meeting' scene for our two main characters. As it is in the completed script they meet on an L train at various times & slowly become friends. Tadeo suggests that maybe they should meet while in a jail cell arrested for some small crimes. I go to work on it the next day.
March 14th 2002 - I complete a cool little scene of Angel & Isaac meeting in the jail cell & send it to Tadeo.
March 19th 2002 - Tadeo has the first production meeting with the producer Adrian Cortes, DP Chris, & soundman Dan Schiller. Again I do not attend due to work. He says that all is going well but very fast. We talk about our first shooting day at Cycle Tech, which is now scheduled for April 24th. He talks of possibly getting an elbow crane that would create a cool shot of the actors working in the shop. We have to see if we can get one.
March 20th 2002 – I’m informed of good news by Tadeo that we will be able to have video assist equipment for our first day of shooting. This is the sync up system where you can watch what the camera sees as it’s filming. We need this for most of the production & I hope we will have it. I also find out that we will be shooting the film on Super 16mm film stock.
March 30th 2002 - The second auditions take place at Columbia College. Only unfortunately I was unable to attend. When talking to Tadeo he said there was a good turnout & some new choices were made. We set a date to get together & talk about the script & film.
April 4th 2002 - Tadeo & I have our first real sit down meeting about the film. We go over the script & make a few little changes here & there. The big change concerned the ending location of the film. In the original script Isaac, one of leads, arrives at the gang leader’s place for a big Fourth of July party. Well Tadeo had found a place that would look fantastic if we could get it. This was an empty lot where a church used to stand. In fact the front of the church was still standing there! The rest of it was gutted. This location would add so much scope to the film with the gang members partying with a bon fire & shooting off fireworks as the film closes. The only thing now is to try & get permission to use this lot & that was going to take place when Tadeo calls the property managers in the morning. Also this day I was able to see some of the head shots of the actors who showed up at the recent audition. I instantly picked out the actor who would be playing our new Angel, Michael Cortez. But according to Tadeo he has not heard back from Eddie P. who was our Isaac in the original film & would be playing him in this one. So accordingly we made a replacement choice in case Eddie couldn’t do the film. We picked actor Tony Sancho. By looking at the headshots of both Tony & Michael they really did fit together & everything would probably turn out fine. By the way, neither Tony nor Michael knows that they have the parts yet.
April 10th 2002 - I talk to Tadeo from work & find out the bad news that we can’t get the old church site. Damn! But we don’t give up. We both decide that we should scout around for another abandon building or lot to film the ending. Shooting of that scene will be during the end of June, but on the 25th of April our motorcycle scene is quickly catching up. Rehearsals for that scene will be happening next week. We finalize a scene where Isaac is in the church after talking to the priest & decides to leave his gun before going to the party at Reaper’s. We also discuss about enhancing the ‘drop off’ scene. Tadeo wants to make it ‘more intense’. That’s fine with me. Today he also picked up our film stock. Things are really moving fast now & he tells me he’s starting to loose his mind. I kiddingly tell him that it’s only going to get worse. Again the subject is brought up about cutting some of the swearing dialogue in the film. He claims his instructor at Columbia College says it will be easier to get a PG rating. I tell him to look at any PG rated film now & to look at just what they leave in. Well, we’ll see what happens. As I said before, this is a film about gangs.
April 17th 2002 - Our first day of shooting is on the 24th of April, exactly one week from today & I receive a call from Tadeo informing me of some 'possible' bad news. Apparently our cameraman had an unexpected change of plans & cannot shoot that day. This also means that we will not have access to the AATON XTR Super 16mm camera we were going to be using - The camera he only has access to. We will have it for the rest of the shoot but with him unavailable we won't have it next week. Instead of rescheduling the day of filming, Tadeo told me that he will probably have to rent one, which is going to put a dent in the film's finances. We shall see what happens. Filming must go on!!
Easy Access Links to the Diary
The On The Downlow (Test Screening) Premiere
'On The Downlow' - Heading Home
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