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06/26/2007: "On the Set of 'Upload'"

6/5/07

BEHIND THE SCENES

THE FINEST DINNER I NEVER ATE
ON THE SET by CHARLES LONBERGER


I had the finest dinner I never ate when I arrived on the set of SexZ's latest epic, Upload, and was set down to a plate of very cold spaghetti and somewhat stale bread while the cameras rolled and bald, buff Derrick Pierce and the statuesque blonde, Trina Michaels, shared some bitchy dialogue.

The film is the latest opus from director Eli Cross, and is a massive undertaking. As the intense director pointed out to me, with this production he is charged with "making 350K look like 2 million." It is a huge project, one that shifts the emphasis drastically from the intimate, excellent, Perfect Creatures of earlier this year, over towards filmmaking as production management. It is a challenge that is, he confided, "difficult to manage," one which leaves him with "far too much to do all the time." He was happily right on schedule and had had, at the time of my visit, only one day that had run overtime. The reason for that was that the scene – film noir in flavor – had "far too many elements" in it, due to the demands its extreme stylization placed on make up, hair and lighting.

Cross was keen to keep the film down to a manageable running time ("I'm not looking to make Upload – The Miniseries," he winked.). In fact, he firmly said, "I'll cut sex scenes if I have to and be brutal with the editing," which he insisted was the most "influential" aspect of the filmmaking process, reiterating, as he has said before, that the editor is the equal of the director in importance in the creation of a movie.

In the case of Upload, he might have added CGI, as he has a staff of effects artists on this film, which features one scene conceived entirely on computer.

Of paramount importance to this film was Cross' ever-present Kylie Ireland, who assumed the Herculean role of production designer on it. The visually adept director delegated the look of this film to Ireland due to the magnitude of its scale. By entrusting her with the art direction, and thus how the scenes look, it freed him to concern himself with "movement motivation."

"She has a much better sense of the visuals than I," he admitted. "So much of this film revolves around the Tech, and it required a visual design for how the terminals look as they work together. She designed hand held concepts of how these futuristic networks – a Grid, inspired by Minority Report – would look and came up with hand held extensions for it," he sighed. He confessed his appreciation for her contribution. "With her, I don't have to worry about it," he said. "I don't have to just rely upon myself for creative inspiration, and she gives me something real to work with," although, as her Life Partner, "It's trying not to bring your work home with you. Sometimes…," he smiled, "a simple professional conversation can make it hard to personally communicate."

Nonetheless, on set, Ireland was stealthily quiet as she attended to a magnitude of production aspects with a focused, serious-mindedness.

Cross is the consummate Actor's Director, and he cast this film very, very carefully, making the Outlook Award winning actress Hillary Scott audition three times for the role of Tesla. Scott won acclaim in the director's Corruption, wherein she played the role of Natasha, which, as Cross was quick to point out, was an "entirely different animal." Natasha was "the definition of victim," a "dark force mired in grief she didn't entirely understand." Tesla, in contrast, is much more like the real life actress herself. "She's smart and sharp and fierce," he observed, "a force of light, not a victim and intently focused on her own happy endings." He summed it up by praising her "hard work ethic" and her "ability to show me different aspects" of her character. Yet, in contrast to this was the almost flippant requirement when casting the lead role of Cassandra. He chose Eva Angelina because she was the type who would enjoy "kicking men's asses and having her own kicked."

This film represents an important breakthrough of a different sort for actors Pierce and Michaels. Pierce, an established SAG actor who will also have a chance to spotlight his martial arts skills in Upload, is a trained actor who ironically is more familiar to the public for his tattoos and sexual performance skills, and will here have a chance to out his thespianism, while Michaels, a stunning sub mostly known as the Blonde in countless Blacks on Blondes productions, will have an opportunity to profile her substantial and admirable acting abilities, which we had a chance to observe up close and over dinner.

In a different way, the production also expanded the enigmatic actress Julie Night's filmmaking experience. Having worked her way through BTS on her climb up the ladder to the Director's chair, she paid her dues as the PA this day, doing the "grunt" work and lugging heavy containers with her sinewy frame up and down many flights of stairs. After sharing some peaceful private time with this living, breathing mystery, she returned to her role of worker ant.

As for Cross himself, he "tried really, really hard not to focus" on himself. "I make the movie I am making, work really hard on it, and do not worry" about critical perspective in the process. Clear, communicative and sympathetic with his actors, supported by his muse and crew, Cross gave us a seminar in filmmaking as a collective art, a ringmaster who didn't have to crack the whip, though everyone knew it was there.

As for me, I enjoyed my dinner with a saucy blonde, even if we didn't take a single bite.