We slept in and had breakfast at the Broadway Cafe. We drove around a bit and ended up in Suguaro National Park. Christy took a few hundred pictures. We drove back in and took a nap.

Patrick called a couple of times during the day. He was struggling to get the screening cut finished and sounded pretty harried. There wasn't anything I could do to help him. I found myself wishing Scott was here again.

At 7:15pm I found myself buying popcorn and a soda for a movie I wrote. Surreal. Patrick and Jennifer arrived and everything just fell into place. The theater was packed, 240 people RSVP's. I greeted most of the cast and crew and met quite a few new people.

Brian and Patrick spoke before the screening and then the movie started.

Red 71 was beautiful. There were still some issues with sound, but it was amazing. I was very happy with the editorial choices. What a great film. It was my turn to "grin like a jackass eating briars". Can't wait to see it again and to screen it for the LAFG festival.

The after party was at a local bar and around forty people showed up. I spend some time with Jeremy Womack and Jack James. I'm going to try and meet with them tomorrow to discuss The Foundry. I also chatted with Rick Padilla, a professor in Patrick's department and Brian Mulligan.

Christy and I left around 11:30 and stopped at the In and Out Burger for the best burgers ever.

What a great day.

Flew to Tucson today. Trip was pretty uneventful. Christy grinned "like a jackass eatin' briars" most of the way. Our final landing in Tucson was pretty rough. We hit hard and bounced down the runway. Turns out the pilot was a woman. Christy made the first comment about that.

We rented a car and drove in to the Lofts on 4th Avenue. We're staying in unit No. 1. This is the same one that Carol Anne and Hilary stayed in. The apartments are just as wonderful as I recall. And just as inexpensive.

We went to dinner at On The Border and had some very reasonable Mexican food. After dinner we went by the grocery to buy necessities - pop tarts and orange juice.

Patrick came over around 9 and we chatted at length about a new project for next summer. I also pitched my two spec projects The Pressman and Zombie Noir. Patrick liked The Pressman, but he loved Zombie Noir.

He left around ten to meet with the sound designer. They are still working on sound.

Screening tomorrow.

The crew and cast premier for Red 71 is Thursday in Tucson. Christy and I fly out tomorrow to attend. This will be the first time we've ever flown anywhere together and she's very excited.

I wish Scott was coming to the premier. He attended a screening of Mercy last Sunday at the Hollywood Film Festival with Patrick. He had a great time. Angus Scrimm was in the audience.

Sweet.

Attended the September film group meeting.

Scott took a call from Patrick during the meeting. Patrick and Andy put in 42 hours of editing over the weekend. He's close to picture lock on Red 71. He'll be sending it John Higgins (decoy) to do color correction.

He also talked about the soundtrack. The Friends of Dean Martinez were in Tucson and Patrick got a chance to speak with them in person. It turns out that the Retrograde album is going to be unavailable for use in the film, but whoever he spoke with turned him on to some other songs in some of their earlier work.

Can't wait to see this film.

Patrick sent Scott a DVD of the assembly cut. Scott routed that to me and I've watched it three times in the last two days.

I've put together several pages of comments, but overall I really liked the cut. I did question the direction that Patrick is going, but I'm not too worried. The assembly for Mercy was a lot worse than this and it turned into an amazing film.

Attended the first film group meeting since the shoot. I showed the group 50 of the 400 photos I took on the set. They didn't seem too bored. Of course, I could be mistaken.

Scott wore a tshirt with a huge Red 71 logo on it.

Sigh.

Red 71 Cast and Crew highlights.

I will add to this as I get more names or as my memory improves. I'll try to add pictures, but no promises.

Please note that I am guessing at the crew credits.

Nathan Ginn: Shane

Michelle Belegrin: Lorain

Ted Parks: Charley/Peter

Brian Mulligan: Nick
Brian was also the Executive Producer.

Thelma: Melissa Aguire: Thelam

Hillary Gayle: McLean
Hillary was also the set photographer.

Justin Kreinbrink: Del

Josh Marcantel: Freddy

Howard Allen: Jack

Carol Anne Gayle: Barfly
Carol Anne was also Art Director.

Greg Sweet: Sheriff

Angus Scrimm: Coroner

Jon Proudstar: Gill

Ed Keeylocko: Murphy

Jonathon Northover: Geno

Eddie ??: Kasper

Jamarlin Fowler: Whitey

Nick "Bear" ???: Pig Man

Dominique Borrego: Extra

LeeAnne Savage: Extra

Debra Rollinson: Extra

Courtney Davis: Extra

Wendy Whitacre: Extra

Julie DeConcini: Extra

Heather Whited: Extra

Heather Miel: Extra

Rob Lushbaugh: Extra

Jon Grasse: Extra

Bruce Caffrey: Extra

Bruce Bayly: Extra

Juan Aguirre: Extra

Tony Yeatropoulos: Extra

Al Graham: Extra

“Reb” Moorehead: Extra

Larry Lain: Extra

Lance Segal: Extra

Stan Babola: Extra

Jerry Woods: Extra

Richard Roddy (Patrick’s father): Extra

Jam Hill: Mama San

Patrick Roddy: Director

Ken Henderson: Written by

Vicky Westover: Producer

Scott Waldrop: Co-producer

Mike Joyner

Jeremy Womac: Assistant to the Art Director

Wyatt ???: Production Assistant

Tobie ???: Production Assistant

Sheldon ???: Production Assistant

Joey ???: Production Assistant

Chuck Turner (uncredited)

Woke up at 10 on Saturday. Not enough sleep, but we needed to get on the road.

Went over to Scott's apartment and woke him up. He sounded terrible. With great glee, I told him that if he was going to hoot with the owls, he had to be ready to soar with the eagles the next day.

He said something rude in reply.

I took Scott to the bank and ran Chuck to the airport while Scott packed. We got the vehicle packed, checked out of the apartments and made it to Patrick's around 1230.

Patrick was ready to take the caddy back so we said our goodbyes. He actually hugged me. Pretty cool.

We got some gas and hit the road.

The trip was freaking long and almost all of it was spent in Texas. We drove straight through and by we I mean me. Scott kept me entertained and awake, but he finally dozed a bit after 2AM. He was very cranky when he woke up.

We stopped at a Waffle House in Baytown at around 6AM and had a terrible breakfast. How do you screw up a Waffle House breakfast?

As bad as it was, it gave me enought oomph to make it on in.

Dropped Scott off around 815 and got home around 830. By the time I got unloaded, showered and into bed it was nearly 10.

I remember the 10 seconds or so before I dropped into a coma thinking - I wrote something that got turned into a movie. Red 71.

I might of smiled at that moment. Or I may have just started snoring.

Last day of shooting. All we have left are some exteriors related to the caddy. No dialog and only Nathan and Bear in the shots.

Scott, Chuck and I went to breakfast at the Grill and then went on a souvenir hunt. We found some great stuff at the Tucson Visistors Center and a couple of shops near it. We got back to the apartment around one.

Scott and Chuck went with Patrick and the actors into the desert and I took the opportunity to stay home. I took not one, but two naps and watched some television. I caught up on my journal entries and snacked.

After 8 I started packing for the trip. Pretty depressing.

It was a rough day.

The shoot wrapped around 1030pm and we got to the wrap party around 11. The party was at this great bar on Fourth Avenue called The Shanty. They had Guiness on draft and a very large collection of single malt scotch.

We had a good turnout. Cast, crew, friends and family probably totalled between 30 and 40 folks. I chatted with several folks, drank some Guiness and had one very delicious Glenfiddich on the rocks.

Scott and Chuck both drank a LOT more than I did.

We closed the bar down and at two and eight of us made our way back to the Grill for greasy food. Got home at 4AM. Scott was the life of the party. He cut up and made fun of everybody. He ordered a hamburger and ate none of it. Silly Scott.

I'm going to miss Tucson, the shoot, the cast and crew - all of it. Hopefully, I can get some sleep before we start the long road home.

I woke up today with a slamming headache. My sinuses finally figured out how to deal with the dry, dusty air and clogged up overnight.

We had an early call today and went to the Scottish Rites temple to shoot the morgue scenes. The building is very old and has these narrow staircases and old fashioned bomb shelter signs. We used their large kitchen and its wonderful stainless steel tables to lay out the corpses of Charley, Del and Nick.

Their were a few new folks on set today. The first was Jon Proudstar. He played the role of deputy Gill. When he wasn't on camera he was funny as hell. Native American, long blue-black hair in a tail - he looked great in policeman's blues.

I also met Angus Scrimm. He flew in last night and attended a screening of Phantasm at the Loft Cinema. He stayed around after and answered questions and signed autographs until nearly 11PM.

81 years old. He looked great. He moved with this incredible grace. I'd written a scene where he makes a sardine and peanut butter sandwich, but I didn't include him eating it. In every take he took a bite - and not a little one. He said the audience would expect it. Amazing.

The sheriff was played by Greg Sweet. He looked and sounded a lot like Dale Dye. Did a great job. He'd come by the set before, but I hadn't met him. We chatted for a bit and he said Josh looked like weird Al Yankovic.

We wrapped the morgue pretty early and had a break before shooting the scenes at the Sheriff's office. Scott and Chuck headed out early and I took a nap.

I got to the set during the dinner break and met with Howard Allen for a while. Howard read Borderland and gave me some great feedback. I took notes and will try to get to a new draft later this summer.

Angus shot his scenes and Vicky hustled him off to catch his flight. We also finished all of Josh Marcantel's scenes and he caught the red eye back to NYC. I'm really going to miss him and I know Scott is too. It was great having him around and his performances were awesome. He also told some very funny, and disgusting momma jokes. It was a challenge to keep up.

One of the highlights of the evening was when Patrick called us all together and presented the cast and crew with a snack basket my wife had sent. I was really proud of her. The snacks were great and disappeared pretty quickly. I showed Nathan the Life Saver gummies and he was still chewing when it was time to shoot him again.

After the shoot, we went to the In-N-Out and picked up a couple of sacks of burgers. Scott, Chuck, Hillary and Carol Ann all sprawled in my aparment and grunted like pigs as we ate those wonderful burgers. It was a good time.

The last day of shooting for Red 71 is tomorrow followed by the wrap party. Sad to think this is almost over.