More MORGAN'S CAKE scenes (even cast friend/painter M. Louise Stanley (<https://mlouisestanley.com>)as Morgan's mom--Watch the FREE movie here: <https://vimeo.com/168153085>.

<https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075FHS8KB>. "THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CAKE, Production Secrets of a $15,000 Sundance Feature."–– "A Delight." Janet Maslin, THE NEW YORK TIMES.

(Excerpted from book, THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CAKE––Production Secrets of a $15,000 IMPROV Sundance Feature").

Improvisational Plot Points

Around 1:30PM in the afternoon we left Point Richmond by caravan, driving in two cars to the painting studio of artist Lulu Stanley, who had valiantly agreed to play Morgan’s mother. I’m sure Lulu must still wonder why she had the guts to offer herself as an actor, since her whole life revolved around creating her own amazing artworks – not movies. But she had definitely saved me by agreeing. I hoped that I could somehow tie in the content of one of her paintings to some developing scene we were shooting.

M. Louise Stanley and Morgan Schmidt-Feng, in a pivotal scene from MORGAN'S CAKE.

Before the shot had begun, Lulu had asked me the pointed question of how she should relate to Morgan, to having a teenage son, since in real life she had no kids of her own. What was their relationship? How should she feel? Finally I figured out how to answer her important question.

I told Lulu to relate to Morgan as if he were the child she might have had with an earlier boyfriend, one she currently felt great anger towards. Oh...she said. Wow, she added. OK.

Before shooting Morgan and his screen mother together, I did a scene between Lulu and Lee Chapman, as if the Point Richmond painter had just dropped in for a visit. Because I’d told Lulu “don't talk much and keep working,” Lulu barely looked up from her painting activity as lee chatted on about her own painting, describing it in detail (following my voice command, Describe your painting...more details...). She continued on with comments about Lulu’s work-in-progress then began to carefully breech the subject of her son. Lulu hardly said a word (as per my earlier instructions). As Lee continued to prompt her to get in touch with Morgan (“I gave Morgan your message...and ah...he almost didn’t respond”), Lulu hemmed and hawed, not really answering.

After a few repetitions of Lulu’s non-response I gave the voice command, Say you don’t really want to see him! (of course I cut this and other voice commands out of the 16mm sound track, just like you can do with basically any NLE software/Final Cut Pro you use for editting your DV).

In answer to being told her son is in trouble, Lulu says she won’t help, and without making eye contact, keeps working on her painting. I followed that shot up with Lulu pedaling on her exercise bike (another “nothing shot” that added texture to her character).

NOTE: As per my film attorney Peter Buchanan's good advice, I was trying to have characters appear in a movie more than once, so that the audience could get to know them, become more involved with who they are and where the story was going. Peter wanted the audience to experience more empathy with my characters than some of my other films had allowed. So think about adding to the quilt of your story, with character's re-appearances.

After Lee left, it was Morgan’s turn for a mother/son scene. But when I spotted him asleep on the couch, I had my doubts. He had been performing double-duty in the evenings, working as a Sear’s delivery man, while answering to my moviemaking needs in the day. Now it took half a minute to rouse him and I wasn’t sure he could even stand up, literally. But Morgan was a trooper – and we proceeded with the next scene.

I set up the tripod, leveled it, and adjusted the camera for a static shot facing the wall where Lulu was working on a large acrylic painting. I decided to shoot Morgan and Lulu from the back, as she painted. That way I could use her painting based on a Greek myth as some sort of illustration in the movie. I centered the shot on the painting itself and then had the actors take their positions inside that framing.

Again, Lulu was unsure about how to act (and who could blame her...with no script and no practice or rehearsal of any kind for this weird moviemaking activity?). But I continued to reassure her that things would be OK, giving compliments on her great job so far, explaining that this would be fine too. All she needed to do, I told her, was to listen to Morgan and respond to what he said. And again, I gave her the option of mentally escaping into her activity of painting, just moving her brush and not speaking if she didn’t know what to say (...waiting for my voice command).

Morgan, in his low-energy state, seemed a little depressed, which was appropriate for the content of the scene. Remember, I had explained to Lulu that Morgan was the unwanted kid from her last bad relationship. Basically I fed off Morgan’s hang-dog look and her reluctance to really “act.” Their real-life parameters added some good emotional weight to the unscripted scene-to-be.

After Lulu dropped the bombshell that she was moving to New York City for the sake of her art career, Morgan acted really depressed by the news. Even from behind the camera I was surprised that he seemed to be taking it so hard. Was he acting...or...(?). Somehow it seemed that he had channeled all his real-life fears of separation, past family-breakup (my divorce from his real mother) into the scene. At any rate, his response was powerful and completely real. After hearing a few of Lulu’s excuses, about not being able to sell her work or get shows, he listed his own litany of teenage afflictions, then cornered her with an adult-like overview.

Morgan: I mean we all got problems...but it doesn’t mean we need to runat the first sight of problems.

I mean, sometimes you just gotta stick in there.

Maybe you should’ve stuck in there when we used to live together...I really feel, you know, bad about that.

At that point, Lulu kept pretty clammed up. She seemed to be closing down for real, which surprised me. Perhaps she felt, as I did, that Morgan was talking, through his character, to me behind the camera. After all, I had left him in real life, disconnected from his family unit. I guess it took the moviemaking process for him to safely air these deep feelings. I have no doubt that he used the vehicle of the filming to exorcise some demons.

The scene was bottoming out in its own heavy emotionality and I realized I needed to kick some life back in and signal an end to the mother-son interaction. With a quickly spoken voice command I told Lulu, Tell him to romp around like the gorilla in the movie. I was referring to the 1960’s movie, MORGAN, for which Morgan had been named, in which the lead character, David Warner, dons a gorilla suit and frolics around the city.

Lulu: Well, you can’t psych yourself up so much, you know.

You’ve got to...sometimes you’ve just got to...jump around like that gorilla in the movie.

Morgan romps…

Even though he’d heard me give Lulu the voice command, Morgan seemed deeply affected by her off-the-wall “gorilla” advice. What he, as a non-actor, was able to do here was exist completely in the moment. He responded to exactly what he heard and gave a legitimate response to the words of his acting partner. Before the scene ended, Morgan agreed that maybe romping like a gorilla would work to relieve his stress (“For all I know it’s a good idea”). As he left, he mumbled that he hoped she had good luck with the move to New York, and that he loved her. She said no loving words back, only “OK” as he made his exit.

NOTE: With no script to memorize, characters have to listen more carefully during scenes, since they have no idea what will be said next. One of the important dynamics of improvisational moviemaking is that dialogue between non- actors can operate like fusion, where just the heat of conversation creates wonderful moments of emotional truth (can take your movie from good to great).

How effective was the “Artist Mother and Son” scene, you ask? Well, my ex-wife, the real mother of Morgan, asked me to please not use any of our other kids in my future movies. Apparently a friend of hers had come up to her after the Berkeley premier of Morgan’s Cake, expressing disgust that she would even consider moving to New York City and deserting her teenage son when it was obvious he needed her so desperately.

See M. Louise Stanley and Morgan Schmidt-Feng, in a pivotal scene from movie MORGAN'S CAKE (87 min.). Click on underlined title to see FULL/FREE movie.

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