Dec. 27th, 1998
In a few days we begin shooting at the Foster's home. It is my hope that through this journal you will gain insight into what it was like making my first movie. A documentary nonetheless! Right now I think it will be titled 2K or not 2K, Y is the Question. My mom kind of likes the idea but it does sound a little hokey. Maybe too long as well. A lot of good movies have short titles, like Sling Blade, Stand by Me, and Critters. There are some with long titles but none that I can remember right now. More soon!
April 6th, 1999
We've been so busy I totally forgot about this journal but I definitely want to still do it. Shooting's been going great. Everyone's pretty tired but the family is really doing well with the ever-present camera. As of yesterday, we had approximately 2200 hours of footage. Most of it looks pretty good but we'll see! Ha Ha. The Cameraman's getting some footage of Cate sleeping right now so I get a little break. I suppose I should try for some shut-eye.
April 7th, 1999
Cate has asked that we don't tape here while she's sleeping and that seems fine I guess. Not much else new since yesterday. See ya.
October 18th, 1999
Crap! Crap! Crap! I suck so bad. My mom asked me how the journal was going back in July and I didn't even remember her asking about it until this morning...at which time I also remembered I hadn't written in it for about 6 months. Kinda hard to fill you in on the process without writing in this everyday...uh...Buddy got hurt pretty badly so that was something cool we got on tape. That was back in July I think. We didn't actually get it all on tape cuz the Cameraman couldn't find the door handle or something and then by the time he got out of the car we ran out of tape and then the ambulance showed up just as we were up and running again, so......................you get the idea. So far, making this movie has been pretty easy I guess. I KNOW the editing is gonna go smoothly because we've got a lot of great footage to work with - about 6400 hours across 987 tapes. I haven't been logging any of it, because we've been "into" the process, but I'm sure I'll be able to remember where most of the good shots are.
October 20th, 1999
The last two days I've been trading places with the Cameraman for the graveyard shift but it makes me really tired. I think having a production assistant would be really helpful but you can't have it all I guess. I'm starting to think there's some real tension between Carl Foster and his son Chris. I hope I'm wrong. Daryl, my soundman, has been a real trooper through this whole thing. I don't know when he sleeps but he must I guess. I think sometimes when we're sleeping he's asleep too but, I'm not real sure.
December 1st, 1999
It's been almost a year since we started shooting at the Fosters and I can't believe it's almost over. When I started I had kind of a Y2K title for the movie because I thought that's what it would be about but it's really just about a family and how the dynamics change when one member thinks the world is going to end and so he builds a bomb shelter and tells everyone they're going to move into it. That's why I'm changing the title to Living with the Fosters. My mom likes the name but Daryl and the Cameraman think it sounds like a stupid sitcom name. Screw them. I've got over 8000 hours of footage now and I think that's more than most movies have to work with so that's pretty cool. More footage than any sitcom ever had I bet!
Note: Cheers surpassed the 8000 hour mark during the filming of it's 373rd episode due in large part to Woody Harrelson's insistence that they film every rehearsal.
February 20, 2000
Sorry for the delay but things have been really busy. We just finished shooting the last interviews with the family so that puts us close to 9000 hours of footage. I'm going to take a nap for the next four or five days but then we'll start editing and see how it goes. See you at the movies!
Note: With the addition of the interview footage, Atis made good on his claim to have "more footage than any sitcom ever had."
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