Wait, what am I talking about?
Today's intention is to record some behind the scenes tidbits about PP3. To document Easter eggs. To reminisce on the moments when ad-libbing proved better than script; when inspiration delivered the perfect soundtrack to a given scene; at how hard it was to gather certain actors (cough, Melanie, cough). Basically this is a dumping ground for things I want to remember related to the 8-month journey that was Pizza Protection 3, the Final Slice.
The earliest memory I have of thinking PP3 could come to life was when I heard the song "Run Boy Run" by Woodkid. This song motivated me on the treadmill and I thought, "Man this would work well for some sort of overly dramatic chase scene." I had considered for PP2 a different sniper scene where instead of shooting me in the church, Alex shot me while I was trying to get away on bike. Ever since then I had been thinking about bike related scenes. How to film them, how best to deploy them, how cool it would be to watch them unfold from the sky with a drone. This was as far as I had thought when we debuted PP2 on December 10, 2022 for the YM/YW Christmas party. The debut was well received and I remember the Koefed kids asking about a sequel and Petra requesting to be a villain in the next movie. I spoke to Alex that night and bammo, the movie "The Fugitive" jumped into my head. Two months later, February 18, 2023, I sent Alex a text that I was writing the script.
The very first scene we filmed was the bathroom scene with Alex and his dad. This was filmed at the Marchant's new house where they were hosting a home-welcoming bbq. I never guessed then that this movie would span two thirds of the year and have a 60-minute run time. We filmed Brandon's part in one take.
There were two things I needed to do for PP3 that I hadn't for the first two films. 1) Have girls in it. 2) Have closed captioning to make up for the hard to hear parts. On the girl front, one hope I have to admit I had for this movie - I have never before played the role of matchmaker, but I sensed a mutual attraction between Alex and Melanie and thought that perhaps this movie could be the means of bringing them together. I quickly cast her in the role of romantic interest. The role of Melanie in a way became the key element of the whole movie, the primary driver behind all of Alex's actions. So imagine my sadness when I found out Melanie had a real-life boyfriend. My matchmaking attempts fail. Melanie would later tell me it was rather awkward when her mom forced her boyfriend to watch the show.
After filming Brandon's scene our next scene was Tyler K as mayor holding a press conference. That same night we got the amazing moment where Alex knocks out Cody and shimmy's through the clerk's office doorway. Each little clip like this (the shimmy, Brandon's incredible face when calling out Alex for listening to inappropriate music) was a push of the snowball that would eventually become a snowman. Each little clip got me excited and motivated to do more.
Then the movie nearly died before it even started. We came somewhat close to moving to Logan but it all fell apart. The day I announced to the Young Men that I was staying put I wanted to show the Leonardo DiCaprio clip from Wolf of Wall Street where he yells out, "I aint going effing anywhere". It was a hyped 5th Sunday to say the least.
The next big break came when Ellie had an end of year dance party at Riverton Park. The studio bought 40 something boxes of Little Caesars and with much sheepishness I asked the organizer if I could take a bunch of the empty boxes home for my movie. With boxes in hand I could film a significant scene: Ellie, Bron, and Sonia getting mugged for the pizza. I instantly thought of the jeeps the kids got for Christmas as a hilarious means of pizza delivery. The kids enthusiasm was yet another shot in the arm. I enjoyed coming up with the security camera views more than I should have, I don't know why.
Our next biggest accomplishment -- and the toughest to date -- was organizing the scene where the kids bike chased Alex. How many parents did I text? For the longest time I thought I would hijack an activities day week from the primary but the moment I asked them happened to be the same moment they had just pushed pause on activity days for the summer. Ultimately one random morning I started texting families and more and more people were available. By chance we picked up Mia Anderson and Jace Evans along the way. We ended up with an incredible crew, but until I'm dead I will be sad that I couldn't talk Bron into joining. He was super emotional that day and just wouldn't participate no matter how hard I tried. I think what happened is that he felt bad that the day prior he was the "slowest" when I was practicing filming him and Ellie chasing Alex. Really, you were slow compared to a 17-year old and a 7-year old who has been biking since before you were born?
Ellie was proud of the speed she demonstrated on the day of filming. She trailed only the "bigger" kids and led all the remaining children, some of whom were older than her. I remain astonished that Sage Christensen had such a tiny bike. All the kids demanded popsicles as movie payment which makes sense when you realize it was like 100 degrees. We got so lucky with timing - as we were wrapping up on the hill behind the church a bunch of sprinklers turned on. I stood in the firing range and handed the bikes one by one over the fence to Alex. This part of filming was a blast. I loved trying to bike with one hand, filming with the other, while not looking at where I was riding at all. Later, during the premier, I received much praise for these action shots. As we finished there also happened to be a fire truck siren going off in the background which panicked me into fearing I had lost a kid. Carolyn Anderson and Jace's mom Rachel also had the same concern and drove by us as the kids were heading home to make sure nobody had died in the filming.
After the monumental effort of arranging scenes with all these kids, I was 95% certain we would take this movie all the way to the finish line. But it wasn't until Alex held true to his promise to jump off a bridge like Harrison Ford did off the dam in "Fugitive" that I became 100% committed to the cause.
For months Alex had talked about jumping off a bridge. At first I thought we would get a blow up doll and throw it off of the bridge down the street from our house by the Roy Hardy Park and that would be our "action scene". But Alex kept saying that there was a spot Matthew and Cody and Melanie had jumped from that was safe and perfect. So one Tuesday night, with the weather looking scary, with insane wind, and crucially, with no bishop -- thereby encouraging me further to conduct this dangerous behavior -- myself, Alex, the Kofoed brothers and Jacob Hart drove into the wilderness. The hike ended up being WAY longer than anticipated and we didn't end up home until 9 or so. Jacob had to call his wife more than once to negotiate staying out later. We filmed a few good chase scenes including the speedwalking part of the chase. If I could take one scene back it might be this one cause I know we could've done better on the speedwalking. Still, as is, it drew big laughs at the premiere.
We made it to the bridge and much to our dismay it was populated with teenage girls. Look, it's embarrassing working on a movie. You have to act and you have to do it in front of people. That becomes more embarrassing when you have to do it in front of your peers, and especially when it is in front of female peers, especially when it is in front of female peers in revealing swimsuits, especially when it is without your bros but instead your young men leaders and a deacon and a teacher. Even I felt uncomfortable for poor Alex. This refiners fire turned us to steel however. Months later when we filmed the fight scene at the splashpad in front of dozens of families, we weren't even phased. Nothing would be as trying as this.
I was the one who had to ask them if they could vacate the bridge for a while so we could shoot a couple scenes. Never have I felt like a bigger idiot. But they complied! Alex and Sawyer buried their feelings enough to deliver an excellent performance. Alex didn't just jump. He freaking trust-fell into a backflip. And he did it twice. I've never been prouder. More impressed. It was a perfect shot. The weather which had looked so threatening churned out a perfect sunset backdrop. From that moment on I knew I would give everything I had to that movie. It would be perfect, or at least as perfect as I could make it. I never hesitated again on reaching out to people, making time, making props, etc. We were from that point all in. If Alex could do this, I could do the rest.
Funny note: I committed our group of 5 to complete silence so that the "surprise" would be unspoiled come premiere day. This led to a confession from Tyler Kofoed who admitted to me later that he had told his mom about the scene. I laughed - I meant don't tell any of the young men or young women or leaders. Moms are fine.
One unfortunate happening in all this - my drone stopped working right around this time. It had crashed into the ground near my parents house when we were filming the cowboy movie and it never recovered. I wanted it for the bike scene and the bridge jump scene. Alas.
Let's now list some rapid fire favorite occurrences.
The earliest memory I have of thinking PP3 could come to life was when I heard the song "Run Boy Run" by Woodkid. This song motivated me on the treadmill and I thought, "Man this would work well for some sort of overly dramatic chase scene." I had considered for PP2 a different sniper scene where instead of shooting me in the church, Alex shot me while I was trying to get away on bike. Ever since then I had been thinking about bike related scenes. How to film them, how best to deploy them, how cool it would be to watch them unfold from the sky with a drone. This was as far as I had thought when we debuted PP2 on December 10, 2022 for the YM/YW Christmas party. The debut was well received and I remember the Koefed kids asking about a sequel and Petra requesting to be a villain in the next movie. I spoke to Alex that night and bammo, the movie "The Fugitive" jumped into my head. Two months later, February 18, 2023, I sent Alex a text that I was writing the script.
The very first scene we filmed was the bathroom scene with Alex and his dad. This was filmed at the Marchant's new house where they were hosting a home-welcoming bbq. I never guessed then that this movie would span two thirds of the year and have a 60-minute run time. We filmed Brandon's part in one take.
There were two things I needed to do for PP3 that I hadn't for the first two films. 1) Have girls in it. 2) Have closed captioning to make up for the hard to hear parts. On the girl front, one hope I have to admit I had for this movie - I have never before played the role of matchmaker, but I sensed a mutual attraction between Alex and Melanie and thought that perhaps this movie could be the means of bringing them together. I quickly cast her in the role of romantic interest. The role of Melanie in a way became the key element of the whole movie, the primary driver behind all of Alex's actions. So imagine my sadness when I found out Melanie had a real-life boyfriend. My matchmaking attempts fail. Melanie would later tell me it was rather awkward when her mom forced her boyfriend to watch the show.
After filming Brandon's scene our next scene was Tyler K as mayor holding a press conference. That same night we got the amazing moment where Alex knocks out Cody and shimmy's through the clerk's office doorway. Each little clip like this (the shimmy, Brandon's incredible face when calling out Alex for listening to inappropriate music) was a push of the snowball that would eventually become a snowman. Each little clip got me excited and motivated to do more.
Then the movie nearly died before it even started. We came somewhat close to moving to Logan but it all fell apart. The day I announced to the Young Men that I was staying put I wanted to show the Leonardo DiCaprio clip from Wolf of Wall Street where he yells out, "I aint going effing anywhere". It was a hyped 5th Sunday to say the least.
The next big break came when Ellie had an end of year dance party at Riverton Park. The studio bought 40 something boxes of Little Caesars and with much sheepishness I asked the organizer if I could take a bunch of the empty boxes home for my movie. With boxes in hand I could film a significant scene: Ellie, Bron, and Sonia getting mugged for the pizza. I instantly thought of the jeeps the kids got for Christmas as a hilarious means of pizza delivery. The kids enthusiasm was yet another shot in the arm. I enjoyed coming up with the security camera views more than I should have, I don't know why.
Our next biggest accomplishment -- and the toughest to date -- was organizing the scene where the kids bike chased Alex. How many parents did I text? For the longest time I thought I would hijack an activities day week from the primary but the moment I asked them happened to be the same moment they had just pushed pause on activity days for the summer. Ultimately one random morning I started texting families and more and more people were available. By chance we picked up Mia Anderson and Jace Evans along the way. We ended up with an incredible crew, but until I'm dead I will be sad that I couldn't talk Bron into joining. He was super emotional that day and just wouldn't participate no matter how hard I tried. I think what happened is that he felt bad that the day prior he was the "slowest" when I was practicing filming him and Ellie chasing Alex. Really, you were slow compared to a 17-year old and a 7-year old who has been biking since before you were born?
Ellie was proud of the speed she demonstrated on the day of filming. She trailed only the "bigger" kids and led all the remaining children, some of whom were older than her. I remain astonished that Sage Christensen had such a tiny bike. All the kids demanded popsicles as movie payment which makes sense when you realize it was like 100 degrees. We got so lucky with timing - as we were wrapping up on the hill behind the church a bunch of sprinklers turned on. I stood in the firing range and handed the bikes one by one over the fence to Alex. This part of filming was a blast. I loved trying to bike with one hand, filming with the other, while not looking at where I was riding at all. Later, during the premier, I received much praise for these action shots. As we finished there also happened to be a fire truck siren going off in the background which panicked me into fearing I had lost a kid. Carolyn Anderson and Jace's mom Rachel also had the same concern and drove by us as the kids were heading home to make sure nobody had died in the filming.
After the monumental effort of arranging scenes with all these kids, I was 95% certain we would take this movie all the way to the finish line. But it wasn't until Alex held true to his promise to jump off a bridge like Harrison Ford did off the dam in "Fugitive" that I became 100% committed to the cause.
For months Alex had talked about jumping off a bridge. At first I thought we would get a blow up doll and throw it off of the bridge down the street from our house by the Roy Hardy Park and that would be our "action scene". But Alex kept saying that there was a spot Matthew and Cody and Melanie had jumped from that was safe and perfect. So one Tuesday night, with the weather looking scary, with insane wind, and crucially, with no bishop -- thereby encouraging me further to conduct this dangerous behavior -- myself, Alex, the Kofoed brothers and Jacob Hart drove into the wilderness. The hike ended up being WAY longer than anticipated and we didn't end up home until 9 or so. Jacob had to call his wife more than once to negotiate staying out later. We filmed a few good chase scenes including the speedwalking part of the chase. If I could take one scene back it might be this one cause I know we could've done better on the speedwalking. Still, as is, it drew big laughs at the premiere.
We made it to the bridge and much to our dismay it was populated with teenage girls. Look, it's embarrassing working on a movie. You have to act and you have to do it in front of people. That becomes more embarrassing when you have to do it in front of your peers, and especially when it is in front of female peers, especially when it is in front of female peers in revealing swimsuits, especially when it is without your bros but instead your young men leaders and a deacon and a teacher. Even I felt uncomfortable for poor Alex. This refiners fire turned us to steel however. Months later when we filmed the fight scene at the splashpad in front of dozens of families, we weren't even phased. Nothing would be as trying as this.
I was the one who had to ask them if they could vacate the bridge for a while so we could shoot a couple scenes. Never have I felt like a bigger idiot. But they complied! Alex and Sawyer buried their feelings enough to deliver an excellent performance. Alex didn't just jump. He freaking trust-fell into a backflip. And he did it twice. I've never been prouder. More impressed. It was a perfect shot. The weather which had looked so threatening churned out a perfect sunset backdrop. From that moment on I knew I would give everything I had to that movie. It would be perfect, or at least as perfect as I could make it. I never hesitated again on reaching out to people, making time, making props, etc. We were from that point all in. If Alex could do this, I could do the rest.
Funny note: I committed our group of 5 to complete silence so that the "surprise" would be unspoiled come premiere day. This led to a confession from Tyler Kofoed who admitted to me later that he had told his mom about the scene. I laughed - I meant don't tell any of the young men or young women or leaders. Moms are fine.
One unfortunate happening in all this - my drone stopped working right around this time. It had crashed into the ground near my parents house when we were filming the cowboy movie and it never recovered. I wanted it for the bike scene and the bridge jump scene. Alas.
Let's now list some rapid fire favorite occurrences.
Favorite out take? Mine would be when we were filming Alex under the church and he squeezed the mayo bottle and it farted. Alex tells me one of his favorite was when he cut the lock off the bike outside the church and he slipped when trying to jump over the wall to get the wire cutters.
OH DUH. Of course the unexpected explosion of the soda at the end of the film is probably the funniest outtake. Incredibly Alex got cut on that dumb cap of the drink. Some people at the premier thought that we had intentionally shaken the drink so it would explode on him. Nope. Which reminds me, what an incredible performance by Alex to be able to get sprayed by a drink and keep on rolling in character.
What scene required the most takes? Alex confronting me in the Bishop's office. We must have tried that 7 or 8 times. We could not keep a straight face during that scene. Plus at least twice I tried to "eat" that screw but missed when I tried to throw it in my mouth.
A close second would be when Alex and Melanie were doing the scene near the end of the movie when Alex pulls up his Saturday appropriate playlist and it is all conference talks. Alex was making the funniest noises of disgust and shame during that scene and the three of us couldn't handle it.
Funnest Easter egg? For me it would be the fact that in both PP2 and PP3 there is a scene where Bron is seen dead sprawled out on the ground and in both films his shoes are on the wrong feet.
Deep cut Easter egg? Going back to the beginning of my Young Mens days we often pretended to film a show called "Wood vs Wild" starring Taylor Wood. It is a mild Easter egg that we worked a commercial of that show into PP3, but the deeper cut comes when Bishop says, "I hate that show, the producer is trash." The producer of Wood vs Wild was his own son, CJ Bauman.
OH DUH. Of course the unexpected explosion of the soda at the end of the film is probably the funniest outtake. Incredibly Alex got cut on that dumb cap of the drink. Some people at the premier thought that we had intentionally shaken the drink so it would explode on him. Nope. Which reminds me, what an incredible performance by Alex to be able to get sprayed by a drink and keep on rolling in character.
What scene required the most takes? Alex confronting me in the Bishop's office. We must have tried that 7 or 8 times. We could not keep a straight face during that scene. Plus at least twice I tried to "eat" that screw but missed when I tried to throw it in my mouth.
A close second would be when Alex and Melanie were doing the scene near the end of the movie when Alex pulls up his Saturday appropriate playlist and it is all conference talks. Alex was making the funniest noises of disgust and shame during that scene and the three of us couldn't handle it.
Funnest Easter egg? For me it would be the fact that in both PP2 and PP3 there is a scene where Bron is seen dead sprawled out on the ground and in both films his shoes are on the wrong feet.
Deep cut Easter egg? Going back to the beginning of my Young Mens days we often pretended to film a show called "Wood vs Wild" starring Taylor Wood. It is a mild Easter egg that we worked a commercial of that show into PP3, but the deeper cut comes when Bishop says, "I hate that show, the producer is trash." The producer of Wood vs Wild was his own son, CJ Bauman.
Best scene nobody saw? In the church hallway, when Alex finds the taped silhouette of a dead Bron and pounds his chest and looks to the sky, the original scene actually had him doing the sign of the cross. I wanted to leave it in but felt the candy cigarettes were already pushing boundaries so they got the boot.
Moment that exemplified how old I am? When filming in the library with Tyler Koefed, at the point when he calls to arms the Child Army, he fails to correctly operate the rotary phone. Rather than pick up the receiver and then dial the number, he first dials the number, then picks up the receiver.
An evidence of divine timing helping the movie? I decided we needed a wanted poster of Alex pretty early on in the film process. It just so happened that a week or two prior Alex and his family were doing some shopping and he had taken a photo of himself in military garb looking like a villain. Bammo, perfect picture for the wanted poster.
Moment that exemplified how old I am? When filming in the library with Tyler Koefed, at the point when he calls to arms the Child Army, he fails to correctly operate the rotary phone. Rather than pick up the receiver and then dial the number, he first dials the number, then picks up the receiver.
An evidence of divine timing helping the movie? I decided we needed a wanted poster of Alex pretty early on in the film process. It just so happened that a week or two prior Alex and his family were doing some shopping and he had taken a photo of himself in military garb looking like a villain. Bammo, perfect picture for the wanted poster.
An evidence of non-diving timing not helping the movie? As we were leaving Bear Lake I stopped on the road leading of town by the forgotten cone because there was a giant tree with a bunch of caution tape surrounding it. I thought, "this is my chance!" to steal some tape that I need for a scene in the movie. Just as I was working up the guts to steal some of this tape, the very person who had put the tape up on the tree walked by and started interrogating me. Fortunately I put on my fakest face and convinced him that I was just curious about why the tree was surrounded with tape. I don't think he was buying it because he asked me like three times, but my friendliness knew no bounds as I listened to him explain that he carves animals out of trees and he needed to rope this tree off because kids had been climbing all over it. And now as I type I realize I've misclassified this by calling it a case of non-divine timing. Had this fellow walked by one minute later I would have been caught in the act of theft.
The Sunday before the premier I put together a fake video of Trump hyping up PP3 which led to an incredible moment when Tyler Dahl texted, "Who is that?", to which I responded, "Just a guy who is in Home Alone 2."
Let's talk about the premiere. What a day in my life this was. The relief society room filled. There was a permanent electricity throughout. All the hard work culminated in a crowd roaring experience that made me feel like a legit celebrity. Tyler Dahl had no reaction that night because I think he was too stunned to speak. TD, myself and Alex all dressed up and posed with fans on the "red carpet". The church sponsored $100 in Marcos Pizza. Attendees included entire families of Hansens, Metcalfs and Bleazards. Matt Symes and Mike Byg were there as new members of the bishopric, as were most of the YW leaders (Masha, Anna Dahl, no Carrie Morris which was surprising considering her husband's cameo was well received). Jacob Hart was there, the Koefed kids, Lainey, Natalie Dahl, maybe Ellie Tessem? We had Will and Melanie from the Anderson front, though no Cody or Mia unfortunately. We also had their dad Brian who called me a young Martin Scorsese. The crowd cheered at the title screen. They loved the showdown between Will and Alex. The security footage was a hit. Alex in the cave was a big crowd pleaser. The moment Andrew hit on him was a roarer.
I think the biggest reactions must have been when Alex jumped off the bridge and when Petra was revealed as my Russian friend. Melanie was literally standing on her chair in anticipation of Alex jumping. I think Angela almost croaked when she saw her son backflipping off a bridge. But the crowd exploded when Petra arrived on the scene and knocked out Alex. They exploded again when they saw the scene of Alex being dragged down the church hallway.The cameos were well received also. Ty Bleazard was particularly impressed that we had signed Craig Allen to a deal. Adam's arrival was cheered. Unfortunately, and shockingly to me, the cigarette scenes were total and complete flops. Apparently I failed to explain to the kids that these were candy cigarettes. This was the only downside to an otherwise perfect night.
The next day Alex texted me that he was a celeb at school. Melanie was showing the movie to her comrades and people kept stopping him to talk about the movie. When I tell you this made my entire Christmas season I mean IT MADE MY ENTIRE CHRISTMAS SEASON. I knew we had something good when I was compiling footage but I really knew we had something good when Alex texted me "THIS IS CINEMA" about the screener, but I really really really knew we had something when high school seniors were passing clips around on the last day of school before Christmas break.
I understand now why Michael Jordan kept coming back. After the premiere I was on such such such such such a high that I immediately wanted to recapture that feeling. I envisioned us doing it all again, better, longer, funnier. But I doubt I ever will produce something like this again. I'm unlikely to ever again have an Alex who will generate so many great ideas and go along with anything I say (who else would roll with the crazy pizza vision scene? anyone?).
I pause now to remind myself how insane it is to think PP1 was shot, edited, and completed in one night. PP2 was show over two days, and took a few weeks to edit. PP3 ... wow. I don't want to count the hours because a part of me will be embarrassed but I believe every hour was worth it. PP3 was my favorite project of 2023 and something I will always remember very fondly. I worked on this thing at home, at work, in Saint George, at my parents, in Disneyland, on location ... Jackie and I went to see Mission Impossible with Alex, Andrew and Emily for research ... was this the greatest project of my life?
Alex's cousin would think so. This little guy loved the movie so much that he reenacted different scenes from it and cried when Alex was shot off the bridge. It has been my goal to get him some "merch" from the film. Maybe a signed wanted poster of Alex? Maybe some of his own handcuffs, signed by the cast and crew?
What a time.
12/7/2022 - New York Times publishes advance praise for PP2 (see below image)
12/10/2022 - PP2 airs in the church gym. First rumblings of a third film begin.
2/18/2023 - I text Alex that I've been working on the PP3 script.
3/13/2023 - First scene filmed with Alex and Brandon.
12/7/2023 - Final scene filmed with Bron.
12/20/2023 - Pizza Protection 3 premiers. It picks up over 100 views in the first 24 hours.
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