Get well, Patrick Payne

Out of sight don't mean out of mind.

Love,
J & T

More Shawn Parker pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're going to start editing the film in earnest next week. The music's coming along, provided by superproducer Mark 1. I'm getting back into my normal life. Cut off the minifro and everything. Anyhow, life's good. Here's some more photos, via Jay Davis.

The morning after: Erika (Grace Tejano) and Shawn (Jason Gilmore)


Erika (Grace Tejano) & Shawn (Jason Gilmore)


Meredith (Stephanie Lange) throws Shawn a curveball.


Tricia (Ayana Nataki) & Robin (Jaimyon Parker)


Shawn (JG) & Donnita (Trenekia Danielle)


Tryin' to impress this chick.


Donnita at dinner (Trenekia Danielle)


The scene of the crime, lol. (w/sound mixer James Ridgely & DP Rob Neal)


Rob Neal (Director of Photography & Editor) He's a Toledo dude, too. And yes, that is the camera we shot on.


Independent filmmaking at its finest.


What happened to Donnita? Go see the movie.

Do I really need a permit to shoot on my own property?

(and other things overheard on the shoot of HOW SHAWN PARKER FELL IN LOVE)

Saturday 6amish Mood: happy and nervous

Early Saturday morning. Six o'clock or so. I'm hyphy. Crunk. Excited. The first day of the rest of my life. But yet, I'm nervous, apprehensive. Wondering if this is all going to work. There are several unanswered questions: 1) We haven't firmly established if my sound mixer and my small DV cam will work together. 2) I don't know if any of my extras will actually show up for the scenes that I need them in. 3) I don't even know if I'm up to the task of acting, directing and doing 34 other things throughout the course of an 25-page shoot schedule over two days. (Yes, that's what I said.) But everything is set in motion. By hook or by crook, I've got my cast (although a small percentage of cats who sent headshots and said they were coming to the audition actually came -- hence my unexpected appointment as the male lead), my cinematographer and editor (one in the same, my editor Rob Neal also became my DP after a host of DPs found a way to ignore my e-mails and general requests), my sound mixer, complete with equipment, my locations (except for one, which has been agreed to, but makes me nervous). We're ready to go.

We convene upon the first scene, both in the script and of the shoot. Shawn has just finished getting it on with a trophy wife, then she disses him, then her nine year old son wanders into the room, looking for his parents. Shawn disses the kid, but not before he answers his cell phone and tells another woman that he's at the hospital giving blood. And this is, like, the first three pages of the script. I gave us two hours to shoot the scene at my wife's cousin's friend's condo in Ladera Heights. Everyone showed up on time, which amazed me. But then my worst fear was confirmed, as it took us just over an hour to get the sound together. My DV cam is tiny, it took us awhile to figure out whether it was better to go through an adaptor or run the sound straight through a cable to the camera. I was getting nervous as the clock ticked. Director, keep morale up! I kept rehearsing with the trophy chick, Erika (the alluring Grace Tejano) and her son (Jarrod Silcock).


(all film stills by Jay Davis)

Once we got our technical difficulties together, the scene was relatively effortless. A lot of this was because Grace and I had rehearsed a lot. We packed up our things, about a half hour behind schedule and bounced to the next location.

Saturday 11amish Mood: Confident

We're shooting the scene where Shawn gets fired from his high paying corporate job at an office at the Normandie Church of Christ in L.A. Rob finds a basketball in the parking lot and soon, me, him, my sound mixer Jim Ridgley and still photographer Jay Davis are shooting around and reminiscing on our younger, leaner days. (This is particularly sad since me, Rob and Jay are all still in our 20s.) This is one beauty of film crews -- that people from different walks of life can bond over making a film -- that most unnatural of processes. My wife (who doubled as lead actress, set decorator, caterer and 24 other things) shows up with Subway sandwiches and drinks. Willard's office is perfect, just hot (the recurring theme of the day) and after we adjust some things in his office to make it look more corporate, we're ready to roll. I'm in this scene with the gifted Stephanie Lange, who plays one of thiose corporate chicks who is so evil she can smile while she's firing you. The very first take, Stephanie was cheesing so hard, I burst out laughing right after I called cut. We did the reverse over the shoulder shots, nothing too spectatular, and I sense that my small crew is gaining a small bit of respect for my acting chops. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

Saturday -- 2:30ish Mood: It's dark and Inglewood is hot.

The longest, most drawn out section of the shoot took place at my cousin Quake's apartment, which he was gracious enough to let us borrow for the day. Mostly because a) we have scenes that involved suicide attempts, arguments and physical altercations, some of which I never had the chance to storyboard; b) the temperature inside his apartment that day was 213 degrees; c) some of his neighbors are hella loud; and d) Jason Gilmore likes to bite off more than he can chew.



We have to be gone by 5:30 because I have extras who are supposed to be meeting me at my house for the big club scene we're shooting tonight in my guest room. By 5:30, we feel halfway done. Light is a constant problem. I start getting into one take mode, where I'm trying to do everything in the first presentable take. Rob and Jim keep talking me out of it. We don't leave till, like, 7 something. On the last scene, we get into a minor altercation with the next door neighbors who go out of their way be as loud as possible when we polite ask them for five minutes of silence so we can shoot the last scene. I'm feeling like Terrence Howard in Hustle & Flow, like, do I gotta go give these niggas some weed or something? They persist and thankfully, miraculously, their noise doesn't pick up on our footage.

It takes us forever to unpack because we brought so much stuff to feminize my bachelor cousin's apartment. On our way out, the knuckleheads next door try to block my sound mixer's car in the middle of the street. WHY ARE YOU BEING A HATER?!?!?!?!? I'm thinking my phone's going to be blown up with constant friends/associates because they showed up at my crib and I wasn't there. But, despite my steady stream of e-mails, phone calls, and MySpace bulletins, I only get one call.



Saturday 8ish Mood: Tired and Wishing It Was Over

I arrive at my house exhausted. Still I have to shoot the club scene, where my character and my wife's character meet for the first time, as introduced by mutual friends Robin (Jaimyon Parker) andTricia (Ayana Nataki). Everybody's jovial except me. Outtakes show Jaimyon and Rob trying to cheer me up and me hitting them back with one word answers. I'm trying to direct all the set ups and stay in character and direct the extras. I recruit Jay and my next door neighbor, Mike McCarty to be extras. Rob pushes my set up against the wall and suddenly, the need for 7-10 extras becomes unnecessary. Dude is a genius. It all works out well in the end at 11pm. But not before I get a call from Quake saying that I locked his girl out of his apartment and since he's out of town, I need to take care of that. (She later got in without my assistance, but I didn't find this out until she called me back at 7 the next morning.)

Sunday 2amish Mood: Restless

Can't sleep. Puzzling over everything that happened Saturday. I can't believe I'm shooting a film. Nervous about the scene at the tuxedo shop on Sunday morning because the store's manager was so flippant with her yes. It made me nervous that she never called me back when she said she would or that I had to remind her who I was and what I wanted each time I called. Then, in the middle of the night, my phone rings. It's my cousin George. His girl is trippin'. He wants to come over and crash. Sure, I think, I can't sleep anyway.

We talk for awhile and then I leave him on the couch in our living room. We wake up the next morning, have a makeshift communion (as we would've normally, all being regular churchgoers) and I recruit him and his son to be extras for the tux scene. The one that all my other so-called friends found a way out of and that I'm wondering if we'll be able to get into anyway.

Sunday 7:30amish Mood: Sleepy but strangely energized

We shoot a conversation scene on a lovely row of shrubbery on Kareem Court right across the street from the Forum. Once again, we are right underneath LAX's flight path and there are joggers all around but we get it done in more than enough time. We run over to Rogers Park to see if we can quickly shoot a scene that I planned to shoot last. But it's some loud brothers over there playing tennis. This morning, it seems everyone in Inglewood is at Rogers Park. We decide, instead, to shoot the scene on a backlot inside my gated community -- one that serves as a parking lot and also looks like one.

Sunday 11amish Mood: Overeager

I'm right. The tux shop was supposed to let us in at 11 to shoot for an hour before they opened at 12. But they're not here. So we sit in front of the store for almost an hour. Me, Rob, Jim, Wifey, my cousin and his son, and Ed Cotter, a marvelous actor who's playing the tuxedo store owner. At 11:55, an employee opens up, claiming to know nothing of our shoot. This doesn't surprise me. But she tells us we can shoot for twenty minutes. My crew and cast jumps into place like gangbusters. We shoot around a couple of early customers who seem respectful of what we're doing. The manager arrives at ten after. It's clear that she completely forgot about us. We knock out the last (chronological) scene of the film and are out of the door by 12:40.

Sunday 1pmish Mood: Celebratory

After the tux scene, I consider the rest of the day child's play. We have some scenes in my living room & dining room and the final scene in the back lot. The living and dining room scenes go well. My composer Mark 1 drops by to do a cameo as a waiter in a makeshift restaurant scene with me and Jaimyon. Wifey picks up Taco Bell. It's awkward to passionately kiss your wife in front of a film crew as two scenes required. Rob's like, "You need to get more into it." Got me feeling like Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut or something. It's crazy. But we make it good. My friend Tabitha stops by with a cooler full of water, snacks and candy. Today is going much smoother than yesterday.

Sunday 6pmish Mood: Persecuted

So we're down to the last scene. It's simple. Me and wifey walking down the street, passing cars and engaging in a verbal tug of war. Jim mikes us up because I chose to shoot in a slow zoom to make up for our non-existent dolly/steadicam. We're interrupted, often, by airplanes, but then, 20 minutes by a woman sitting on a nearby porch, who asks what we're doing. We tell her we're shooting a film and ask if we're disturbing her. She says no. Adds that she's just being nosey. Okay. Her husband comes outside, watches us for another 20-25 minutes. Finally, when we're almost done, he walks up on us, out of nowhere.

"Do you have a permit to shoot here?"
"No. But I live here."

He goes on to tell me that he's the president of the same intracommunity organization that turned me down when I sent them a letter back at the beginning of May requesting to use our community clubhouse to film a couple scenes. (I didn't know they had rejected me officially, because they never responded to my letter. A secretary who was at the meeting told me over the phone that they had rejected me, but her reasons were vague. Still, even though a written request is supposed to be met with a written reply, I found other locations for those scenes. To me, this was a separate issue: I didn't think I need to ask permission to shoot land on a camcorder that I partially own.)

"I mean, we're almost done. What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to leave."



And I'm thinking, leave? Where am I going to go? Four units down to my house. Then, he jumped on the phone like he was calling the cops or something, get out of here. For the most part, we had everything we needed. We were just going to grab a couple of closeups for insurance. But Boss Hogg was so meanspirited with his hateration that I realized it wouldn't be worth my time. Unimportant people need to cling to whatever little status they can cling to. So we walked home, amazed/frustrated that we'd shot all over L.A. with nary a problem and that cats was hating on me in the place where I rest at. But that's the way goes. One monkey didn't stop a show. The film is in the can.

And it looks good.

Mood: Proud.

RIP Billy Preston 1946-2006

I know everyone's waiting to see what I have to say about my film shoot from this past weekend (in short, it was crazy, but outstanding) but I had to take a little time out upon news of the passing of Billy Preston this morning. For those who don't know, Mr. Preston was a musical giant. An acclaimed singer and pianist, he played behind Ray Charles, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles (amongst others) before launching his own solo career which produced such hits as "Will It Go Round in Circles", "Outa-Space", "Nothing From Nothing" and "With You I'm Born Again" featuring Syreeta.

While working on a story about Sly Stone in the summer of 2000, I befriended Sly's sister Rose, who put me in touch with Mr. Preston. One warm summer day, I drove to his home in Ladera Heights, where he introduced me to his family, then held court with me for nearly an hour on his upbringing, his troubles and most importantly, his love and respect for music and the phenomenal talents he has been blessed to play with.

The piece was slated to run in a national magazine but a new editor took over and ixnayed the previously agreed to set up. So I held it. My only regret is that I wasn't really into the Beatles when I met him and, for that alone (especially now that I've seen the Let It Be movie), I could've asked him so many more questions.

So here's the interview, in its entirety.

Black music is losing.

Elevate.

JG: You had such a prodigious childhood and you were playing at a young age, but overall, what was your childhood like?
BP: Overall, it was a very nice childhood. I’m from a very musical family, a Christian family and my mother played piano and my older sister also played. There was always a piano in the house. My sister started playing when she was three and I did too.

JG: Who were your first big influences?
BP: Wow… Ray Charles, of course. Ray Charles and the reason is that his music was gospel, it had this gospel vibe. And I really related to him. I used to put my choir robe on and pantomime to his music. So he became my idol then. And then, of course, a lot of the gospel musicians that were big at the time: Curtis Dublin, Herbert Picard, Reverend James Cleveland and a lot of the piano players that were playing in those days were a great influence to me. I grew up with Andrae Crouch, who was also a musician, we were in a group together called C.O.G.I.C. We used to always listen to the records and learn.

JG: I once read an article on Sly Stone where you were once quoted as having said that you met him at a party where you were listening to Ray Charles. Tell us a little bit about your friendship with Sly Stone.
BP: Well, Sly’s like a brother. He’s like…. We’ve always considered ourselves 50% of each other. Because when we play together, it’s just magic. It’s just a wonderful experience. Sly is just… Sly! You know, he’s a character. We both had dreams at the time to form a group. It was at the time that the Beatles were big and we said, we’re gonna have four cats. We’re gonna be the black Beatles, except we’re gonna call ourselves The Sons of Ray. It was gonna be me, Sly, Larry Graham and Freddie (Stone). At the time, I was on Capitol Records and I was working with Ray and I told Ray about Sly and he got excited that we were going to form a group and name it after him. So I got Ray to produce the session. But it so happened that Sly was late, he showed up to the session late and I was so hurt because here we’ve got Ray Charles waiting on Sly! I think Sly was a little scared to be in the presence of Ray. We did do the session but nothing came of it. After that, Sly went on back and formed the Family Stone and he called me to come up there and work on his project.

JG: That was you playing the electric piano on “Family Affair?” I love that.
BP: Yeah, that was me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

JG: Have you seen Sly lately?
BP: No. Not too many people have seen Sly lately. I want to see him. I hope that he gets it together to the point he’ll come back and we’ll get to play some more. I talk to Rose (Stone). I haven’t spoken to Freddie recently, I’ve tried to call him a couple times. You know, he’s a pastor now. I’m happy for him. But I haven’t seen Sly. I always ask Rose how he’s doing. He seems to be okay, but he’s not… there’s something happening with him, I don’t know.

JG: How well did you know another musical idol of mine, Donny Hathaway? I know that he redid a couple of your songs. [1971’s “Little Girl” and 1973’s “Lord Help Me”]
BP: Yeah, he did the heck out of them. I didn’t really know Donny that well. We met in New York and hung out a few times. I really didn’t spend a lot of time with Donny. Donny was kind of a different, really strange person.

JG: How so?
BP: I think he was really introverted. So he wasn’t really an open type cat. We sat one time and we talked but we didn’t hang out or anything. But he was a genius, really something else.

JG: So what are you working on now, that we can look forward to?
BP: I’m getting ready to do a pop album. I’ve been doing a lot of gospel, that’s my roots. Me and my sister started a gospel label. We’re working on different projects there. I have Lucinda Tatum, who’s a great narrator and we did a project a few years ago called Words and Music, so we’re working on her next album. My sister’s kids have a group too. I also work at church with my sister, she’s the minister of music at Brookins AME. I play the organ at the church. It’s a joy because all these years, we’ve worked at different churches, but we’ve never worked together at the same church.

JG: Do you think there’s anything about you that’s been misunderstood?
BP: Yeah, but it’s all a growing process and you live and learn. You make mistakes and you just get up, you don’t stay down. You just have to regroup and start over or do whatever’s necessary. I’m grateful for the experience of whatever I’ve had to go through. I’ve gotten stronger by all of it. And I thank God that my gift is still there and my mind and my spirit. So it’s okay.

JG: How were you able to maintain in light of your more serious legal issues? [In the 1980s and 90s, Preston was convicted of insurance fraud and battled drug and alcohol addiction.]
BP: Well, through God. Through my spiritual experience. Really getting back to my purpose, what God put me here for. It really grounded me. It separated me from everything, so it had to ground me. I had nothing but myself and the Lord to deal with, so that really did me good.

JG: Did you have any points where you felt like, “Well, maybe this is it? I can’t go back.”
BP: Well, I don’t want to go back. There’s nothing I want to go back to. It’s always about what’s ahead. What’s past is past. I’m not trying to recapture the past and go back and do the things I did before. Even though I still sing the same songs forever. But I’m reaching for the future. I don’t live in the past.

JG: Okay, I just need to know where in the world did you come up with “Outa-Space”?
BP: Yes. (laughs) There was a new instrument that had just come out, the clavinet. I rented it for the session. And I was just playing it, I put a wah-wah pedal on it. I was just playing around. And I just came up with this little groove. Just automatically, the band caught on to it. We took one take of it and that’s the record.

JG: Wow.
BP: It was just one take, man. It was magic. That’s what happened with “Space Race”, the synthesizer had just come out. I rented it for the session and we came up with this little tune and it was a classic. The world of music is just so exciting right now because of the technology and the new instruments they’re making now. I’ve got a guy in there now, wiring up some stuff for me. Music is just a wonderful thing and there’s always something new to look forward to.

JG: How did you get cool with The Beatles?
BP: I met the Beatles in 1962. I was on tour with Little Richard. It was supposed to be a gospel tour but it turned out to be rock and roll. I went with him and played rock and roll for the first time. The Beatles were a supporting act on the show. So we became friends then, and then we started hanging out. They asked me about America. I didn’t see them again until I was on tour with Ray Charles in England and George Harrison came to the show. He sent a message for me to come by the studio the next day. I went by and they were all there recording and everything, so they said, “C’mon and play.” So I sat in and they asked me to come back and help them finish their album. I did three albums with them: The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be. That was a great experience, they treated me like a member of the family. We became like brothers. It opened a new avenue for me because it was the first time that I ever got to sing on a record, the first time I ever got to co-produce a record. So, it was a great experience.

JG: How close do you think you came to actually being a member of the group?
BP: I was. I was actually a member. Had they stayed together, I probably would’ve been out there with them. But they had stopped touring at that time. The last time we performed together was on the roof of Apple. I was kind of upset about it. (laughs) It would’ve been really nice. But by my being there with them, I understood all the hassles that they were going through, you know, with their business and money missing. And it seemed like, “God, if the Beatles aren’t being treated right, then what hope could I have?” They were kind enough to let me out of the contract because they were having so many problems.

JG: I saw a quote that Andy Summers of the Police said about Miles Davis, where he said that you could basically trace the history of black music through following Miles’ career. As I was looking at your career, I was thinking that someone could say the same thing about you. Out of all those people that you’ve played with, who awed you the most?
BP: Who awed me the most? I don’t know. A lot of people admire me and that’s a great thing. I’ve admired Ray Charles and, in fact, you mentioned Miles Davis, I met him once at a press conference and he came in and took me out to his car and played me a track called “Billy Preston.” I was blown away! That was a great honor for him to do that. I don’t know, it’s guess it’s a mutual admiration society amongst artists and musicians. We all appreciate each other for what we do. It’s not a competitive thing. It’s just appreciating each other.