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This thing was a disaster from the beginning.
August 2003: I originally wrote the screenplay with the lesbian scenario, then realized before even showing it to anyone that Sara the actress was a very religious conservative Christian (good luck getting good gigs in Hollywood with THAT background, girl!) and probably wouldn't be too keen to the lesbian thing, even though it obviously wasn't explicit (didn't even require kissing). So I cut that scene out, and presented it to everyone.
Later in August 2002: Initially after reading it, everybody thought it was funny as hell and said, let's make it! But Dan the director (as opposed to Daniel the actor) didn't seem to be moving very fast to put that idea in motion. So I put the lesbian scene back in, and started sending it out that way.
Fastforward all the way to May 2003: After dragging his feet for 8 months, Dan the director returns to town and asks me for the script (I give him the lesbian version) and funding (I give him a few hundred bucks). He goes about hiring supporting talent and setting up locations.
July 2003: Dan shoots all of the girls' scenes (that is, the girls-only scenes) in one day. The shoot looks very professional. I'm impressed. However, that's also when I learn that he hired an actress even more conservative than Sara to play her best friend, and she absolutely refused to do the lesbian scene, though Sara probably would have reluctantly done so if not for this girl persuading her to "stick to her morals." So the lesbian scene is tossed out. To even things up so both characters have the same number of scenarios, Dan tosses out Dan's video game scene in the restaurant! What the hell?
Rest of July: I have no idea how this happened, but Dan starts dragging his feet again and shoots nothing else after the first week of July.
During the interim: Daniel the actor and Sara both get REAL jobs for the summer and are suddenly not quite as available as they once were. Both get stubborn together and refuse to take any time off their new jobs to shoot the rest of the film. Dan the director gets pissed and tells me to MAKE them work. After a few tense days, we reach a compromise that requires a ridiculous late night schedule for most shoots that will lead to no good -- I also have toss out more money to pay Sara for working on days that she would have been at her real job otherwise.
Also during the interim: Due to issue above, the restaurants Dan the director had secured for the shoots become a problem because we had agreed to shoot during non- peak times (or before open) and now we had mostly late night shoots scheduled! The restaurant owners even yelled at us! Dan also discovered he had to get a permit from the city to shoot in a mall parking lot, and they made him go through so much red tape just for a damn permit that he finally decided to do it "renegade director" style (anyone remember "Cecile B. Demented"?).
August 2003: With only two weeks left in town before he and Sara have to go back to college, Dan decides to finish the movie -- that means essentially 10 days worth of shooting in 14 days. NOBODY is happy. Oh, well.
Early August 2003: All of the guys-only scenes are shot quickly without a hitch. The restaurant scenes, however, become a big nightmare because:
1) Night 1, the supporting actor (whose scenes are done but he's also a PA in this cheap production) shows up on set exceedingly drunk. It becomes MY responsibility as executive producer to get rid of him. It was not a pretty picture. He caused so much delay that he set the shooting schedule back a half of a day.
2) Night 2, Sara shows up with the world's worst headache after having worked hard at her real job all day long. And all her scenes that night are happy, chirpy ones! I spend two hours trying to get her in a good mood, but eventually Dan the director surrenders and delays those scenes a week.
3) Day 3, a monsoon (right out of "La Mancha"!) shows up and screws us all up. More delays.
4) Night 4 -- nearly our entire production staff besides the actors, director and cinematographer decide not to show up for various reasons, and I can't stick around due to important work the next morning. More delays.
5) Night 5 -- Dan and the cinematographer (also the 3rd ranking executive producer behind myself and Dan) get into a huge fight that nobody understands over the production schedule. They refuse to talk on set anymore. Obviously, that's a problem! Somehow, they still manage to shoot a couple of things.
6) Night 6 -- For some reason, the location for shooting the master bedroom scene falls apart. That shoot is cancelled -- and that's the one major scene left to film to this date.
On the plus side, Sara is generally a very shy person that doesn't date a lot and we all had a hoot watching her film the kissing scene!
Late August 2003 -- Dan the director and Sara go back to college -- both say they will be back to finish it sometime in October.
September 2003 -- "You've Got Hell" wins 2nd place in the contest -- everyone is elated and eager to finish the film so we can say we have an "award-winning film"!
Mid-October 2003 -- Dan the director declares that he's got too many other projects going on and won't be able to finish "Hell" until he and Sara return to town for Christmas break. Cinematographer is pissed even more at Dan, executive director Presley is annoyed and Daniel the actor just doesn't seem to care anymore (in fact, his last day at the theater is today and he appears to be taking the more serious computer sciences route rather than the entertainment biz route).
Late October 2003 -- Presley prepares for the inevitable: EVEN MORE FAILURE.
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