Drive All Night: MAKING MY DEBUT FEATURE FILM
Drive All Night is an ambitious, stylized drama that is equal parts fairy tale romance and neo-noir thriller. The film follows Dave, a swing shift taxi driver working in the city whose night takes an unexpected turn when he picks up Cara, a mysterious young woman with a dark secret and uncanny knowledge of retro arcade games. He drives her around the city without quite knowing her motives and accompanies her on a number of seemingly random excursions - from getting drinks and playing arcade games, to picking up a mysterious duffel bag and breaking into a theater. Unbeknownst to the pair, Lenny, a deadly hit-man sent by the head of a crime syndicate to investigate a string of recent odd occurrences is hot on their trail. Every place he visits takes him one step closer but will he be able to catch them before it is too late? Things gets increasingly more surreal as they go further into the night. What will happen when the night ends?
Writing the Script
A taxi driver driving through the city at night - the idea is really simple and it’s all rooted in that one image. I came up with this story in the spring of 2016 and finished a first draft by the end of that year. Many drafts and rewrites later, I produced a draft that I was happy with - one that I felt was well-rounded, challenging, and new. Though the initial idea and premise are quite simple, I wanted to develop a complex and layered narrative that became increasingly more dream-like and surreal as the story developed. The two central themes that I explore in the film are reality vs unreality and personal change - can we outrun the past and find / become better or are we bound by destiny? As the story unfold and we venture later into the night Dave - and by extension the audience - is faced with strange experiences and images that challenges what is real and what is fantasy. Things become less clear and the visuals become more vibrant and dream-like. My goal is to take the audience down the rabbit hole on a trip through wonderland and hopefully have them come out the other side both baffled and entertained.
The TIMING was Perfect
I cut my teeth writing plays and have written for the stage over the past decade, collaborating with different theater companies across the country. A lot of my earlier works I self produced and directed, premiering them at student and fringe festivals but a few years later I found that my plays were being picked up and by different theaters and festivals and I no longer had to direct or produce if I didn’t wish to (In fact, I haven’t directed or produced my own play since 2014). I had always wanted to write and direct a feature film - a real feature with real actors, professional crew, cool sets, and someone bringing me coffee every 55 minutes, not “for fun” project I do with friends but a real feature film. There were many times in the past that I almost did just that but I’m glad I decided to wait because the timing could not have been more perfect. First, I needed to become a more better writer and a more disciplined / mature artist and second I needed to write this particular version of this script. If I had done it earlier I might not have gotten the same funding and support I got on this film, which means I might not have gotten the actors and crew members that I did. A lot of the locations I shot at also didn’t exist until recently (RedWall Studios, SuperGood Kitchen, and MiniBoss) - the timing was so perfect that City Lights theater was doing a production of Cabaret and I got to use the set as for the jazz club scenes.
CASTING THE FILM
Finding the right cast was paramount to the success of the film. I chose to go the SAG-AFTRA route because while it entails more paperwork and greater costs I wanted to have the access to the best actors I can find. The film is covered under SAG’s ULB (Ultra Low Budget) contract for productions under 250,000 dollars which was perfect because it allowed me to use SAG actors along with non union talent. I held auditions in both Los Angeles and San Francisco and assembled a cast of both LA and SF talent.
One of the first actors I cast was Lexy Hammonds (Crazy Love, Ri Luo Qi Ci) who plays Cara, the female lead in the film. I had auditioned quite a lot of actors for the part - and a lot of them were great - but I didn’t quite find someone with right for the part. Cara needed to be more than a pretty face, she needed to have the right combination of seduction, danger, quirkiness, and fun. I had seen Lexy in another film a few years back and decided to reach out to her. We talked for a while and saw eye to eye on a lot of aspects of the film and who Cara is and cast her soon after.
Yutaka Takeuchi (The Defenders, USS Indianapolis, East Side Sushi) is someone I was a fan of and had seen in multi roles, I didn’t think I could get him at first since he was a bit higher profile but things worked out and after the first phone call with him (which was a two hour conversation), I knew I had the right lead. Sarah Dumont (Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Don Jon) who plays Morgan was another higher profile actor whose work I was a fan of. After reaching out to her management I was able to speak with her about the film and the role over the phone and we had a good talk and I cast her afterwards. Both Yutaka and Sarah brought experience and nuance to either respective roles. Yutaka captured both the tough stoicism and lovelorn “holding on in quiet desperation” of Dave, the quiet leading man shrouded in mystery and Sarah the playful, kind, intelligent waitress whom Dave admires and who serves as a grounding force in the film.
Johnny Gilligan (Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Through the Ashes) who plays Lenny is a Bay Area-based actor that I cast less than a month away from the shoot due to scheduling differences with the actor I had originally cast in the role. He not only had the look but gave a stunning and stylish performance as the insomniac hit man with a chip on his shoulder. Will Springhorn Jr. is probably my (and a lot of other people’s) favorite theater actors in the Bay Area and was cast in my film pretty early on. Midnight Judy the alleged vampire, jazz club singer was a tricky role to cast and Natalia Berger pulled it off perfectly - with a perfect blend of red hot seduction and mystery. Vonn Scott Bair who plays Boss reminds me of Kingpin from Spiderman whom I had modeled the character after so naturally I cast him in the role. James J. Der Jr., Mia Jomor, JJ Ryder, and Ali Jahangiri, round out the supporting cast. Overall this is hands down one of the most talented group of actors I’ve had the pleasure of working with and can’t wait to show everyone the final product.
HIRING THE CREW
Teamwork makes the dream work. Originally Drive All Night was meant to be a smaller film with a considerably smaller budget but things went in my favor, the right people got excited about the film, and I ended up with extra funding which allowed me to cast higher profile actors and do more in terms of production. Even with the additional funding this was still a low budget film and there were a lot of challenges and obstacles we had to navigate and find creative solutions for given our budget, time, and resources. What we aimed to accomplish was incredibly ambitious and we would not have been able to do it without the best of the best. Problems earlier on which caused a few key team members to drop from the film so I brought on Stephanie Whigham as a production manager and gave Robert D. Thomas Assistant Director duties in addition to composing the score. Marius Layus was my Line Producer from the beginning and Jose Bernardo Herrera was hired on to provide production assistance. Sam Chou is the Executive Producer and played a big role in making this film happen.
After watching 30+ reels from both Bay Area and Los Angeles DPs (narrowing the choice down to three), I went with Los Angeles-based Director of Photography, William Hellmuth. We had a good conversation over the phone and shared a similar vision for how the film should look and feel. He liked the script and I was impressed with his work, particularly the way in which he worked with darkness and non traditional coloring. We decide to shoot on an Arri Alexa XT paired with Sigma Cine Zoom lenses and light the film with Litepanels Gemini LED lights. The Geminis were instrumental to helping us achieve the look we wanted and easy enough to operate with a smaller crew. I had William hiring a camera and lighting crew which consisted of 1st AC Katherine Carpenter, 2nd AC Christine Kelly, Gaffer Mark Lopez, Key Grip Hunter Rodgers, and Grip Guillermo Areizaga. Joining them was Wayne Cheng on Sound, Carina Garcia on Hair and Make-Up, and Selah Pena on Wardrobe. Additional crew included 2nd Unit / Additional Photography Director of Photography David Orr, Gaffer / Grip Emily Wohlford, Grip Dominic Cirigliano, Production Assistant JJ Ryder, and Projections operator Grayson Dere.
SHOOTING THE FILM
Principle Photography took place August 2019 and we shot in various locations around San Jose and San Francisco. Most of the cast and crew were from Southern California (Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego) but I thought it would be cool to shoot my debut feature film in San Jose were I grew up though it was more expensive due to travel costs and housing. We created quite an ambitious shooting schedule which required us to shoot between 8 to 13 pages a day meaning we had to move very quickly and were limited to how many takes I could get of each shot and how many different set ups we could do. Even with these constraints, we were able to get almost everything I wanted (thanks to my excellent cast and crew). Most of the film takes place at night so we had several overnight shoots on location, including two nights at SuperGood Kitchen and one at MiniBoss bar in downtown San Jose. Several scenes including the motel room scenes, red room dream sequence, performance art, and bits of the jazz club (dressing room and backstage) were shot at RedWall Studios and the Jazz club interior was filmed at City Lights Theater on their Cabaret set.
The majority of the driving scenes were filmed using video projections and and moving lights inside of large dark studio space large enough to fit a car, several large projection screens, and an entire film crew. We used CrossFit Kindred (I had started CrossFit the past year) as the studio space and filmed there for two days. Filming in a studio via projections was not only cheaper and safer but allowed more control over various elements (lighting, sound, camera angles, not having to pull over and find a place to use the restroom in the middle of the night).
Additional photography took place through November 2019 and were shot by Bay Area-based Director of Photography David Orr and a super small skeleton crew. I had went over budget and had to raise additional funding at that point and bringing back the original crew was unfortunately too costly. We shot the pick ups - a lot of which were city exterior and in-car-driving shots on the RED Gemini 5k with Sigma Zoom lenses which allowed for better low light capabilities and let us shoot wider to crop in (to get rid of the camera shake for those car scenes). We also shot some daytime scenes and a liquor store scene that I had decided to cut from principle photography due to time constraints. I had a really great time working with David and his crew and I was really happy with the shots we were able to get.
POST PRODUCTION
Drive All Night went into post production January 2020 with Guillermo Areizaga and myself doing the editing. After seven months of cutting and re-cutting scenes, we finally picture locked the film and are currently scoring, sound designing, and color grading the film. Robert Thomas and I decided the score should should like 80’s inspired synthwave but with a dark edge a la Carpenter Brut and Perturbator. We also listened to a lot of Cliff Martinez and video game soundtracks (Half Life, Borderlands). Wayne Cheng who recorded the sound is also doing the sound design and Dan Edwards will be color grading the film. My goal is to go on a festival run starting early 2021 and I’m really excited to share this ambitious film with audiences and sell it so I can have the opportunity to start on my next project ( which if things go right, will be INSANE!!!).
