On the Set of Holly Randall's First Production 'Hopeless'

MALIBU, Calif.—If the scrubby hills around the remote location house look familiar, it's because they've been standing in for Korea for decades, most recently in the M*A*S*H movie and TV show. Today, on the second day of a two-day shoot, Holly Randall is producing Hopeless here for her own company. It’s a vignette featuring Casey Calvert as a woman dealing with a recent breakup and Lumi Ray as the friend who helps her get over it. Randall is relishing the independence of working for herself: "I've been in the industry a long time and I've worked for various companies for a long time. And even though I'm super appreciative of all the things that I've done, I've always kind of felt—a lot of people feel this—they're kind of stifled by the corporate we-need-these-shots-we-need-this-we-need-that kind of bullshit. Jeff [director Jeffrey John Hart] has been my Director of Photography for quite a few years. We have worked really well together. We get these scripts, and we execute them, and we just talked about 'What if we produce something? As low-budget as possible?'—We're both funding this out of our own pockets.—'And just shoot something beautiful and see how that goes.' I'm just producing this. He co-wrote it, he's directing it, he's shooting it. He's basically doing everything—although I'm shooting the photos, nobody else is going to shoot the photos on my set. And I told him, 'I'm just going to give you this opportunity to fulfill your vision because I think you can create something magical.' He did the first day guerilla style, at Venice Beach and Santa Monica on the pier. Just run-and-gun, small crew, hand-held camera. Really beautiful stuff. "This is a labor of love. We don't expect to make money on this." Kyle McQueen co-wrote and edited the film, with Amber Guerra co-producing and managing art direction for Randall and Hart. "We're kind of fucking with the audience a little bit," Hart tells me. "There are some scenes where it looks like they're going to have sex, but they don't." This tease is illustrated by a night dialogue scene which will play right after yesterday's beach sequence: Ray sets Calvert up with blankets on her living room couch, presenting Calvert with a sock monkey that resonates with her. There's some remember-when chat and a comradely kiss—and then Ray heads off to bed, leaving Calvert to snuggle in, hugging the sock monkey. A pause to re-light for morning, and Calvert is awakened from a dream by Ray calling from the kitchen "Do you want some juice?" and repeating it, louder and more intensely, until Calvert sits bolt upright on the couch. This leads to a montage in the kitchen as Ray makes breakfast and Calvert watches and helps. "Ideally very sensual, very pretty," Hart says. "We're going to make the room very bright. I've shot so many scenes with not-pretty lighting. This is the first time I've had full control to shoot what I want. Casey and Lumi are camera-aware, as long as I stay with them and not miss anything, they'll run that show." In the kitchen scene, Ray, who used to be a chef, shows impressive knife skills as she chops up a garlic clove to toss into the omelette cooking in the pan. The two are getting flirtatious now, touching and giggling. There are three scenes to go now, the sex scene and the dream sequence that comes right before Calvert wakes up, before the last shot of the day: the opening shot of the piece, it's a hand-held 90-second single shot that starts from far behind Calvert sitting on a bench with her boyfriend as he breaks up with her, circles around to catch her reaction, and then circles back to show the sun setting in the distance. Sunset is at 7:05 and there's no room for error. The sex scene is staged in a small bedroom, flooded with light from floor-to-ceiling windows. Calvert and Ray chat on the bed as I walk in with Randall with her stills camera, then I walk right out again. This is going to be tight as it is, I'll watch from the monitors. Techs walk in and out, I notice a neat coil of hemp rope on a table. Probably won't be used here. Editor Kyle is watching on the monitor and taking notes. "I'm used to editing two cameras, but that's more mechanical," he tells me. The scene starts with a tight shot of their clasped hands as they approach the bed. Ray gently pushes Calvert down onto the bed, straddles her as they both chuckle. Ray leans down to kiss her, one hand teasing her through her pants, then moving up to pull down Calvert's tank top, kissing her breast, looking in her eyes for reaction, moving her hand back down, carefully, no rush. Pulls at her shorts. Calvert raises her hips. Go ahead. Encouraged, Ray starts to kiss, then lick Calvert's engorged labia. Director Hart widens out to show Calvert's face as she grabs her breast. When Ray pulls back to finger-tease, Calvert looks disappointed... until Ray bears down, her head bobbing as she pleasures Calvert. They giggle and Ray moves up for the kiss, pulling her own pants off and creeping up to straddle Calvert's face. Calvert, her face hidden, reaches up to caress Ray as the camera goes up to Ray's face, then back down. The action is covered but powerful here, with gasps and moans substituting for explicitness. Calvert licks a finger and teases Ray's pussy, as the camera tilts up to catch her reaction. Calvert scoots out from under and kisses her way down Ray's back to nose into her from behind, as Hart catches her reaction. An intake of breath, an "Oh, God!" as she gazes forward sightlessly. Water break. Randall grabs a C-light as the action begins again with a tight shot of Ray's hand grabbing a pillow, moving out to show Calvert still nosing into her from behind, then Ray flips over and Calvert moves up for the kiss. Calvert starts kissing her way down to Ray's breast, then moves up to her neck as Ray cradles her head. Ray puts Calvert on all fours, rimming her while thumbing her pussy, watching for reaction. Calvert bucks her hips to match with Ray's movements, and the camera moves to Calvert's face before heading back to the action, moving between the pleasuring and the reactions. When Ray lies on her back to let Calvert reciprocate, Calvert, in character, tentatively kisses Ray's labia as Ray holds her head, whimpering encouragingly. When Calvert starts kissing up to Ray's raised knee, Ray encourages her back down again. Cut. While Ray and Calvert relax, Hart and Kyle confer on what they need to finish the scene. The action resumes in the same position, on Ray's hand grabbing the sheet as the shot moves up her arm to her face in pleasure. Calvert moves up to kiss Ray, then leans back on her as Ray wets a finger to reach around and massage Calvert's clit. The shot moves to their faces, Ray concentrating, Calvert lost in pleasure. Ray pushes her over the edge... and then a kiss. Fade to out-of-focus. There are only two scenes left to shoot now, one featuring Ray in Calvert's dream, a surreal orange-lit fantasy where she poses with a pitcher of orange juice, eventually sensually pouring it down her front and leering into camera, yelling "Do you want some juice?!??" to sync with her wake-up call from earlier, and then the long-take unbroken shot with Calvert and the boyfriend breaking up as the sun sets. The sun will set in 90 minutes. There's no time to lose.