I get a lot of questions about the process and thought I would include some of my rare journal notes, random thoughts, rants, comments, etc in this section. If you have a question or comment, email me, Daniel Millican. From time to time, I may have a pinch hitter fill in.

What I call the 6 Phases of Filmmaking:

And also...

 

PRE-PRODUCTION

Go to Steve Krieger article

Go to Emma Nicolas article

Go to Rob Hazelwood article

Time to work the phones. Susan Kirr was coming off another movie so I needed to wait 2 extra weeks to begin. She is invaluable as a seasoned Line Producer and Production Manager and was worth the wait. In the meantime, Betty Buckley worked on a budget and breakdown and I headed down to Austin to begin location scouting.

I called a lot of the department heads from my last film "The Keyman" and was pleased that JP Patin (Dir of Photo), Doug Leonard (Production Designer), Janet Lucas Lawler (Costumes), Steve Krieger (SFX), Scott Roland (Stunt Coordinator) and several others were ready, willing and able.

Principal Casting had been started during development with Lindsay Chag in Los Angeles. At the start of pre-production, we had Sean Patrick Flanery and Joey Lauren Adams on board. We had made an offer to Mimi Rogers and it was finalized at the beginning of pre-production. Now we needed to find some of the others. (Also see Jill Millican and Jeff Rodger's comments concerning the casting process).

One of the characters we were needing to fill was the former Navy SEAL, Scott Sherwin. I came to learn of one actor/martial artist through my five year old's karate instructor, Rob Hazelwood. Through the writing of the script, I had been becoming more and more familiar with Kenpo and told our Stunts Coordinator that I wanted real Kenpo for the fight scenes.

ROB HAZELWOOD: My involvement with "A Promise Kept" began before I knew it. I am a Kenpo Karate instructor with my own school in the Dallas/Ft Worth area of Texas. I met Dan thru his son Joseph who was one of my Little Dragon students who are 4 & 5 years old. We had talked about film making and video for some time just in a casual way as parents and teachers often interact while waiting for their children to finish class. One day, Dan told me he was making a new film about child predators and he wanted to include martial arts in the film. He particularly wanted to use American Kenpo Karate as it is very real and practical, and not like the normal Tae Kwon Do/ Chuck Norris type TV Karate that is usually seen in movies. Dan asked me if I would help him "get it right" I was more than happy to be involved. Dan made it clear to me and the stunt coordinator that he wanted to use Kenpo in the film, which was really important to me as I knew the SC had done about 200 Walker shows and thought he might be somewhat resistant to this idea from an unknown "expert" But there was no conflict here at all, and Scott was really eager to see what Kenpo was all about.

 

Susan worked on getting everything else going in Austin. One new addition was seasoned Asst Director Joey Stewart from Dallas. I was immediately impressed with him. The 1st AD is one of the toughest jobs in making a film and here was someone who could mix organization, people skills, and craking whips all together quietly, confidantly, and expertly. One of the first meetings was with him, Steve Krieger and Scott Roland to go over preliminary SFX and Stunts.

STEVE KRIEGER: When Dan called and asked me to coordinate his special effects for “A Promise Kept”, I was pleased to sign on. They had sent a script for me to read, and we were sitting in the first production meeting where we discuss all of the technical aspects of the filming. We had gotten to the section where John Cutter is murdered on the courthouse steps. I was concerned that this gag really needed to be done on a stuntman, and Dan was concerned because using a stuntman for the shot of Cutter getting killed would seriously limit the shots Dan could get for the film. For the shooting to go smoothly, we needed an actor who could do his own stunts. I was instantly interested... I have done some acting in the past, but only comedy and improv, so this was going to be a challenge for me. I asked Dan if I could read for the part of Cutter, and he agreed. I drove to Austin a couple of weeks later and read a scene with Dan and the casting director, Jeff Rogers. Five minutes later, Dan came up to me and said that I had gotten the part.

I have to interrupt for a moment to make sure people understand it wasn't that easy! When Steve first asked me if he could audition for the role, I hesitated and said "okay, but don't get your hopes up." And I meant it. So then over the next few weeks we auditioned lots of people for the role of John Cutter. Steve lives in Dallas-Ft.Worth and we were auditioning in Austin, so we asked him to send in a tape (which he sent regular mail and it took over a week to come and I had almost given up!)

My local Casting Director Jeff Rodgers had narrowed it down to a few for Cutter and since we hadn't gotten Steve's tape, he wasn't one of them. Finally Steve's tape arrived. I saw some very good stuff. I was surprised and impressed. Usually this scenario doesn't play out this way. Jeff wasn't so easily convinced. As a matter of fact he was really pushing for another actor. So we had Steve come down and audition for the role and Jeff could see him live. We had already had second audtions for everyone else.

When Steve came into the room, Jeff commented later that he looked real different than the audtion tape. Regardless, after the reading, Steve had convinced Jeff and my mind was already made up. Now back to Steve...

STEVE KRIEGER: I was excited, but suddenly realized that my workload for the film had more than doubled… The first day for John Cutter on film was the park scene where Cutter takes a little girl named Brianna into the woods and attacks her. Talk about a trial by fire… The crew was very helpful, and the cast was supportive, although I don’t think any of them knew this was my first experience playing a bad guy. After we shot the scene of Cutter and Brianna in the woods, it was time to shoot a fight scene where the vigilante rescues the little girl. We shot the fight for about 9 hours, and the next day, despite all the help I got from the Stunt Coordinator Scott Roland , I was very, very sore. A couple of weeks later, I did a fight scene with Brian MacNamara. I told him that I wanted the fight to look really brutal and that he shouldn’t pull any punches with me, and he said the same. What we got was some really intense action scenes where a lot of the grunting and grimacing were very real. The day after the fight with Brian was the day we were supposed to shoot the murder on the courthouse steps. It was about 35 degrees and raining. It was a big day because all of the action that day surrounded John Cutter and his killing. I had rigged the bulletproof vests in advance, so all we had to do was strap them on and wire them up. As an effects coordinator, I have done hundreds of bullet hits on hundreds of actors, including myself. In this case, however, I was detonating 10 hits on myself, five in front and five in back, all at once. When the charges went off, it was like being kicked by a horse in the chest and back at the same time, but was not really painful. We decided to do it twice, and after making some adjustments, we got a much better result on take two, which is usually the case. Although the big murder scene was over, the hardest part of my day was still in front of me, as I would have to lay in the 30 degree rain playing a dead body for three more scenes. It was one of the tougher things I‘ve had to do, because the clothing I was wearing was thin and made of cotton and soaked. When wrap was called that day, it was a really, really sweet sound. Dan actually played another of the child molesters in the movie, and we had a discussion about how playing such a despicable character made us feel. We shared the same reaction, that it was very difficult to visit such a dark place inside of us. It definitely broadened my respect for actors who have to play such roles on an ongoing basis. Dan says he is working on the script for his next movie, and that he will probably have a part for me. I’d follow him anywhere. Anywhere warm, that is.

Pre-production went extremely smooth. Early on, Joy Herring and I and also Teresa Medley started combing through Austin and the surrounding area for some of the more challenging locations that we would need. Through Joy, we found a fabulous mansion, a great park, and an empty office building to serve as a policestation. The Locations Department, headed by Diego Prange, was able to get a bit of a headstart which I feel is imperative for your production value on a low budget movie. We weren't building sets-- we have to find them.

In the meantime, more and more crew were interviewed and added on and the casting process continued. Jeff (the Casting Director) had his biggest challenge in finding a little girl to play the important role of Cassie. I had written in the script that she was 7 years old and blond. Joey Stewart, our 1st AD, informed me that it would help scheduling immensely if I could find a 9 year old. There's a big jump in the number of hours a child can work when they have their 9th birthday. I told Jeff he could look for someone a little older. I needed a girl that was cute and had natural acting ability. After a bunch of auditions, I realized Jeff was only looking for blonds, because that was what I had written. "Sheesh," I told him, "Don't take me so literally." One thing about filmmaking... all the crew people have that script you wrote and if you say it's a blue four door sedan, then that is what they go look for. If all you needed was a four door sedan, it can make their jobs a little easier.

Hi! I’m Emma Nicolas and I’m 8. I played the part of Cassie Simms in the film “A Promise Kept.” My mom got an email about an open call for a blond cute girl about my age. Well, I’m not blond but I was really ready to get a part. I hadn’t worked since June because mom said it was time for a little break – but by this time (Nov 02) I was really ready to work! My agent sent my picture but they were not interested in me. But, good parts are few here in Texas, so mom said she would take me to the open call. We said, “If they’re going for a look, I won’t get the job; but if they want an actress, maybe I have a shot.” When we got there, there were A LOT of cute blond girls (probably very talented, too) in the waiting room!!! Ugh! But I wanted it badly so I didn’t get discouraged. Then, my turn came and I met the casting director, Jeff Rodgers, and his two assistants, Leona and Kendra. I asked if I could do my monologue and they said ok. I guess they liked it – because they came out and told my mom that they wanted me at call-backs the next day. I was soooooo happy! They called and said they would email a script and we would see the director at noon the next day. Well… I hardly slept that night! Mom let me read some of the script before I left for school and I fell in love with the character, Cassie. She is strong. Mom picked me up at lunch time. I was quite sleepy at this point. I went and read my scene with the director, Dan. I thought he didn’t like me at all - he didn't speak to me too much. Mom said it could be anything and don't get down. She said maybe I was too tired and that maybe we should ask them to consider me for a smaller part, too. Oh man… I didn’t want to do that but finally said ok.

I'll interrupt again for a little more backstory. Emma's audtion was good. If I remember correctly, I was more impressed with a tape of the 1st audtion that Jeff did than when I actually saw her, but Emma topped my list of local actoresses. The issue during this time was whether this other up and coming child star that now lived in LA would be interested. Jeff communicated with that girls parents and agent, but the timing wasn't working out-- the girl had some important auditions coming up for some huge Hollywood movies. So, after chasing that for a week or so, I decided I wanted to have one last look at Emma before locking it down.

Then the day we got out for Thanksgiving break they called to see me one last time – at 5:00 that day! I just knew they would offer me another role, not Cassie. When we finally got there, I read again with Dan and then he told me to wait outside with mom. I really thought I didn’t get it, but I hoped!!! Then they came out, Jeff and Dan and Kendra and met my mom. She told Dan how much she liked the script and I said how much I liked the part of Cassie. He said, “Do you really like that part?” I said yes and then he said (and I’ll never forget this) “We’re good!” Oh my goodness, I started crying and they told me to save my tears for the movie. They were so nice to me and introduced me around to others on the crew and I got measured by the wardrobe person, Loretta, who I love! From then on, I never had so much fun. The crew was so sweet and they even let me have one of my teachers from my school on set to teach me while I wasn’t working. And I got to take some karate lessons which I am going to continue now that I have more time. Everyone worked hard and sometimes it was so cold, but I loved every minute of it! Even when I got sick one day – I still loved coming to work! Even mom really enjoyed the set – she usually gets so bored. Everyone seemed so happy to be there and the people in charge were relaxed and focused! What a great experience – thanks to all who helped make it happen – esp Dan The Movie Man! I learned a lesson to never give up because you never know when it will be your turn!

During pre-production, the Director is constantly meeting with all the department heads-- sometimes individually, sometimes in big meetings. I go out on location scouts. I sit in on audition call backs. I go over budget with the Line Producer. I look at costume ideas for all the various characters. I examine art ideas for dressing up the locations chosen. We go over props. And through all this, I re-write the script-- sometimes to make the story stronger; sometimes to make it easier on production; sometimes to take advantage of a really cool location. During Promise, I had two major revisions before we shot our first scene. Joey Stewart, the 1st AD, takes the revisions and updates his schedule and breakdown. New script revisions could mean a different location or different props or even different characters. Right now, revisions are cheap-- it's all on the word processor. With a few keystrokes I can add thousands of dollars of expenses-- or take away thousands of dollars of expenses. The overriding question to always ask-- does it move the story along or take away?

And as always, I drive every decision I make through three filters-- How will it affect the investment for the investors? Will it help get the message of the film out? Will it enable me to do it again? These simple rules for me, help build the foundation for my decision making process.

Some days were crazy. Locations would be an hour outside of Austin and take up most of the day to scout. We would squeeze in quick crew interviews between auditions and other meetings. I remember meeting Key Grip Atom Vyvial and Sound Mixer Mack Melson in quick moments.

As pre-production continues, counting down to the first day of shooting, things get extremely hectic. But on this shoot, Susan Kirr and her staff kept everything running extremely well. We only had one major crises in the last few days concerning a location, but working together with Diego Prange, we were able to overcome the problem.

So Saturday, December 7, most of the lead actors flew in from LA. We picked up Sean, Joey Lauren Adams, Brian McNamara and Tom Wright (Mimi Rogers and Jeff Speakman weren't due for a couple of days). They were all on the same flight. We went back to the production offices to finish out wardrobe fittings and paperwork. That night I took them all to dinner. These were a funny bunch of guys. Tom Wright especially kept us in stitches with his anecdotes.

The next morning was supposed to be golf for Brian, Tom and myself. But rain enabled us to sleep in. We really needed it anyway.

The last rite of pre-production was the Kick-Off party held at Molly Murray's house (our accountant). She did a fabulous job and everyone got to talk to each other. It was nice of all the LA actors to come. I could tell that it was going to be an easier shoot than others-- these guys didn't take themselves too serious. Egos can often get in the way, but it looked like we weren't going to be wasting time and effort in that arena.

Then the final night before. One tradition Susan Kirr and I have is a dinner with the lead actors. So we took Sean, Joey, Brian, and Tom out that Sunday night. If anyone ever wants to have a great time, hang out with Tom Wright. He regaled us with story after funny story throughout the night. I remember in one story he was going to go in and audition for a Jamacan role. An actor coming out mentioned that they didn't want an American playing somebody from Jamaca... they wanted an actual Jamacan. So Tom marched in for his audition playing as if he was right off the boat from Kingston mon. He got the role. Only on the last day did he let the director know that he was from Jersey. The director never talked to him again.

Go to Shooting!

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