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Pete Jones - Action
Jeff Balis was fired for all of twelve hours and, in my opinion, it was twelve hours too long. I think I have extensively spoken about how important it was to have Jeff on the set, but I will mention it one more time. Creatively, the movie could not have been executed well without Jeff.
I think what this episode best illustrates is the fact that directing a movie is not just working with the actors and creating shots. My experience directing "Stolen Summer" was more about managing personalities and trying to keep everyone on the same page as it was making sure we captured the essence of the script.
Jeff's firing could not have happened at a worse time for me because when I looked at the 25 day shoot, I had highlighted the fire day as the most important visually. My biggest insecurity as a director was whether or not I could tell a story visually and the fire scene, one half page in the script, would be an all day shoot. It is the scene where Pete first meets Danny and the plot moves forward from there. And instead of working on my shots in my hotel room and attempting to get some rest, I stayed up all night talking with Jeff and Pat and writing a letter to Chris stating my complete opposition to the firing of Jeff. Yeah, yeah, don't cry for me Argentina, but as a director there are so many battles during the shooting of a movie, sometimes it is easy to lose one's focus.
For those of you who have wondered why there are so many stupid action films made in Hollywood, I finally figured it out while shooting the fire scene. It's exhilarating, especially in a movie where the characters and the dialogue are most important. Pyrotechnics create massive fires and blow things up while stuntmen try to avoid getting seriously injured. It's pure adrenaline.
I don't think I will ever care to be an action writer, but for those of you that want to have fun on the set, make sure you create at least one action scene. It's the most fun day on the set.
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