Girls get cold

So, I was looking through photos from the night we did the convenience store scene in Lodi.

Goodness was it cold! Though, I've been told that night didn't compare to the late nights in Modesto. I'm usually reluctant to go along with gender stereotypes but I remember the girls were cold, and the boys were pretending it wasn't.

For instance, our two supporting characters, Alexandra and Mercedes, were real troupers. Desiree, although she did get to layer her clothes and wear a leather jacket, was outside most of the time, waiting for Paul to give her the cue. I think it was just a teeny bit windy. They never complained about how cold it was in their costumes; that the convenience store guy was supposed to make bottomless pots of coffee and hot chocolate but didn't; that we were awake way too long; or that they weren't making millions. Well, none of us has made millions. Yet.

I think what it really comes down to is this: We were genuinely happy to finally be making the film that had been in the planning stages for months.

Production Update

We're one week away from our first public screening. Check in with the blog next week for updates from St. Louis, Mississippi and Memphis. Ely and I will be finalizing some tracks for the score with Jimbo Mathus in his studio in Mississippi and we'll be taking a trip to the Delta Blues Museum and while in Memphis we'll visit the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt has come on board this week and will be blessing us with some music. Look him up on the Internet. We will be keeping the blog posted with more great information about Vishwa Bhatt. He is a wonderful world musician and an incredibly humble artist and man. We are very honored to have the musicians we have on the score.

We'll be doing the final edit on Empty Streets on August 27. Once we get the final music from Jimbo Mathus and Vishwa Bhatt the movie will be ready for full completion. Stay tuned to the blog, we might give away a few DVD copies to lucky readers that we see visit our blog a lot. We also got word about a few very special announcements in the near future!

Production Timeline

Author: Paul Booth (co-writer, co-producer, director)

Empty Streets was written in July of 2006 as a project to explore the loneliness and pain a friend of mine experienced after his time in the military. This film was made because of friendship, not politics.

The actual plot of the story reveals other social issues and presents human issues we all face. I'm not politicizing any aspect of Empty Streets and nor is the cast or crew. I wanted to tell a story about something I observed about my friend after not seeing him for 2 years. He'd changed for the worse and I didn't know why and he wasn't allowed to tell me why. It was painful.

The film was prepared from August 2006 to February 2007 and we shot the film for two weeks in February. After we shot the film, the treatment of veterans became a hot topic. The Walter Reed story broke and suddenly artists across the country began talking about it more and more.

It breaks our heart the amount of death that goes on each day in any war. This is about every veteran who ever felt lonely, from the Revolutionary War until now.

We dedicate this film to the spirits of those lost. And as humanitarians we tell our story with peace and love in our hearts. We see the human race as one.

At the end of the day we want our veterans treated better when they come home. We hope this film gets people thinking about an ignored issue. We put politics aside to make this movie and create this blog, and hope viewers can do the same. Thanks for your time.

Production Stills

Here are some various photos from behind the scenes of EMPTY STREETS.
Top: Paul talks on the phone with co-producer George Baker, at a bus stop off Crows Landing in Modesto.
Center: Convenience store rehearsal. Alexandra Nystrom, Ryan Litton and the mom of our other actress Mercedes Danekas.
Bottom (left to right): Director of Photography Kevin Hardiman, actor Anthony Haviland, Ely Kalilikane, and Paul Booth at the convenience store in Lodi.

Films/Directors that inspired EMPTY STREETS

author: Paul Booth

1) The 400 Blows, directed by Francois Truffaut
2) Midnight Cowboy, starring Dustin Hoffman
3) The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols
4) Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese
5) Raging Bull, directed by Martin Scorsese


6) Dazed and Confused, directed by Richard Linklater
7) Before Sunrise, directed by Richard Linklater
8) Paths of Glory, directed by Stanley Kubrick
9) The Last Picture Show, directed by Peter Bogdanovich
10) Noises Off, directed by Peter Bogdanovich
11) Born on the Fourth of July, directed by Oliver Stone
12) Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone
13) JFK directed by Oliver Stone
14) Coming Home directed by Hal Ashby
15) Bound for Glory direted by Hal Ashby
16) Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee
17) Magnolia, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
18) Annie Hall directed by Woody Allen
19) Say Anything, directed by Cameron Crowe
20) Fast times at Ridgemont High, written by Cameron Crowe
21) Easy Rider starring/Produced by Peter Fonda
22) Collateral directed by Michael Mann
23) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington directed by Frank Capra
24) About Schmidt directed by Alexander Payne
25) City Lights directed by Charlie Chaplin

Directors: Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Hal Ashby, Peter Bogdanovich, Akira Kurosawa, Alexander Payne, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sidney Lumet, Billy Wilder, John Ford, Cameron Crowe, Michael Mann, Richard Linklater, Mike Nichols, Stanley Kubrick, Frank Capra, Elia Kazan, The Coen Brothers, Francois Truffaut, John Huston, Robert Altman, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Ang Lee, Sean Penn, Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Andersen, Ken Burns, Fellini, Bergman, Godard and Charlie Chaplin.