Day 5 on Cowboy Café was our last day at The Diner, and boy do I have some great pictures for you.  One of the last shots of the night was when Van Cleef (“The Bad”) gets shot.  Our special effects guy, Brian, did a FANTASTIC job.  All hands were on deck for that shot as everyone was super excited to see the special effect and also because it was a one shot (no pun intended) gag.  We had to get it right the first time because it would’ve taken tons of time to reset, especially since almost every surface in the entire diner was covered in blood by the end of it.

Notice the blue tarp on the ceiling trying to prevent blood from getting everywhere.  The blinds on the windows were ours, so it didn’t matter if blood got on them.  Interestingly enough, most of the fake blood that Brian uses is soap based, so it’s easily cleanable from clothes and surfaces.

And here’s Van Cleef right after he got shot.  There was a squib in his shirt that looked like a gunshot, and then Brian used a CO2 pump to shoot fake blood all over the wall as an exit wound.  It looks shockingly realistic on film   Definitely my favorite shot in the movie (also, no pun intended).

So much fake blood!

The aftermath of Van Cleef’s death.  Everyone frantically trying to clean blood of the ceiling, floors, booths, etc.

Even the script was covered in blood.

After we shot Van Cleef’s death, we shot Cowboy getting shot in the arm.  Brian made this fake skin patch to put under Cowboy’s shirt to look like a bullet hole that you could ooze blood out of.  Unfortunately we didn’t end up using it because Steve didn’t have Cowboy rip his shirt open.  Still, very cool.  Brian even airbrushed little blue veins into the skin.

Cowboy Dan was covered in blood when the take ended.

Even his boots were soaked in blood…

And pretty much everywhere on the floor…

And the counters…

I forced everyone to take a big group shot.  Represented we have (approximately from left to right): Colin Hammel (Van Cleef), Sandra Roberts (Extra), Zack McGeehan (DP), Alisha Barrett (Jeana), Dimitri Kouri (AD / Sound), Trevor Taylor (1st AC), Dave Roberts (Extra), Mike Moote (Sound), Steve Ohl (Director / Writer), Brian Mahoney (special effects), Max (Billy), Dan Merriman (Cowboy), Kevin Anton (Grip / Sound), Tina Zito (Production Designer), Olivia Kimmel (2nd AD), and Chris Herbert (Grip / Electric).  Go Cowboy Café!

We took a few grey card portraits of important cast and crew members (since it’s an 18% Production, after all):

Chris grey cards as Brian cleans up flesh and blood in the background

Cowboy Dan does some grey carding

Notice his blood soaked hand… “Killing comes with being a cowboy”

The view from the monitor on the Alexa

Finally, I took some pictures of Kevin’s sound log.  He drew a lot of little comics for me, which will make my job as an editor all the more fun.

I’m not really sure what brought this on…

Apparently Tina drew the cupcake, Kevin added the cannon, and Tina added the face.  Oh, the things film students do during downtime on set.

That’s a wrap on Day 5!  More pictures from Day 6 to come!