Half a Dress, Full Panic: What Happens When Marisa Tomei's Dress Goes Missing on Your Broke-Ass Musical

Jessica Tuck, Larry Poindexter, Laura Leighton and Chris Jacobs in ANGELS, BABY!

by Jeff Fisher

Let me tell you about the time I put a musical on my credit cards, almost had to shoot the finale topless, cast Sydney from "Melrose Place," gave my mom her big showbiz moment, and somehow lived to tell the tale.

This is the story of "Angels, Baby!" - the short film that taught me there's no such thing as short film jail.

WHEN ONE RISK LEADS TO ANOTHER

I had just made my first short film, a 30-minute romantic comedy called "Garage Sale." Here's how that happened: I was working as an assistant at ICM, and I'd gotten my friends' script bought by a producer. I loved their writing, and since they knew I wasn't getting a commission, they generously asked what they could do for me. I asked if they might have an idea for a short film and they wrote “Garage Sale.”

That became the first short I made with the help of MasterCard.

By the way, my friends Cormac and Marianne Wibberley are those sensational writers --they went on to write "National Treasure" and "Charlie's Angels," among other things.

"Garage Sale" did well on the festival circuit and even won a few awards. But I was still answering phones as an assistant and figured I had to take another risk to break through.

SOAP OPERAS, BONG HITS AND STEVEN SPIELBERG

Okay, this is going to sound weird, but stay with me.

I was a huge fan of the soap opera "One Life to Live" when I was in college. Embarrassing fact: My friend Jack and I used to watch together. We had a game where we'd take a bong hit every time the character Tina whined. Needless to say, we'd get pretty high.

Anyway, the producers of "One Life to Live" apparently got snubbed at the Daytime Emmy Awards, so they made an episode where they had their own awards show called The Daisy Awards. The show had a storyline where Jessica Tuck's character Megan was also the star of a soap opera called "Fraternity Row” and she sang a banging musical number on the fictional awards show.

I know, this is getting complicated.

But here's what matters: Jessica Tuck was AWESOME in this musical number. It was fun, campy, and clever. I daydreamed about working with her and getting to do something musical.

Around the same time, Steven Spielberg had just made "Always," a remake of the 1943 movie "A Guy Named Joe" about a guy who comes back as a ghost to help his wife find a new husband. Spielberg was doing interviews about the movie and mentioned the idea of having a guardian angel - that sometimes when he was on set and wasn't sure where to put the camera, he'd get a creative impulse, and he liked to think maybe a great director from the past like Frank Capra was on his shoulder giving him advice.

I loved that idea.

MAKING THE DREAM REAL

By this time, I had moved on to becoming an assistant at Columbia Pictures Television. I wrote a short called "Angels, Baby!" about two guardian angels who have to match a shy couple at a Los Angeles bar. I wrote it with Jessica Tuck in mind for one of the angels, incorporated songs by George Gershwin and Frank Loesser, and connected the dots to a casting director who liked the script enough to start casting it.

I wrote Jessica Tuck a letter, sent it to her agent, and I was over the moon when she agreed to come in and meet about the project.  And said YES!

THE REALITY CHECK AND THE TWITCH

Then I started to find out what it actually takes to make a musical.

I had to find a musical director - someone with Broadway or showtune chops who could do the orchestrations of the songs. On top of that, I found out I had to pre-record and mix the songs and get studio time.

It was about this time I developed a twitch.

This was going to be a lot.

A DETOUR ABOUT MY MOM

Here's some additional and unrequested context: My mom had always wanted to be an actress. She had gone to the same high school as actress Anne Baxter, who went on to star in "All About Eve" opposite Bette Davis.

Family legend has it that there was an audition in the city for a role that my Mom didn't go to - she was too scared to miss a Geometry test or something. Anne went and must have booked something, because all through my childhood, I heard tales of how my Mom could have been a huge star if she'd gone to that audition.

Who knows if it's true, but Mom stayed pretty, uh, theatrical, so it's possible.

Anyway, I tried to put my Mom in anything I did to help soothe the pain of not ditching that Geometry exam. It made me happy. Plus, she had somehow talked her boyfriend into easing my pain with MasterCard and Visa and putting some money into the short.

So I wrote a part for a singing cowgirl into the script for my Mom. I was more nervous to shoot that than the big musical number that was the short’s finale.

Also, I had found the nerve to reach out to Travis Payne, a hot choreographer who, by some miracle, read the script and said yes - he'd do my little short.

Jessica's dress will become a major player in this story. Here's the booth, which is about all we could afford to light that first day of shooting.

When Sydney from "Melrose Place" Enters the Chat

The casting breakdown went out for this short, and I started getting real interest. I couldn't believe it. Hollywood has some talented actors who can actually sing and dance, and the idea of doing it must have charmed them.

Paula Abdul was even interested. It was nuts!

But then the casting director got a call that said Laura Leighton might be interested.

You have to understand - this was the late '90s, and my friends and I were OBSESSED with "Melrose Place." And Laura played Sydney, who was my favorite character on the show.

I WAS DYING.

So we had a phone call - and she said yes! Sydney from "Melrose Place" was going to sing and dance in my movie. I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT.

We got great actors in Larry Poindexter and Chris Jacobs to play the other roles, and we were off to the races.

THE LOGISTICS OF CONTROLLED CHAOS

We did the pre-records with our main actors, but my mom was going to have to record live while we were shooting. Oy!

Also, we were shooting at this club in a bit of a sketchy area called Club Fais Do Do. It was a cool space, but we had to be out by the time the club opened each night at 6pm. And it wasn’t someplace I was dying to be after dark.

We had two and a half days to shoot.

I only had enough money to pay for a smaller lighting package the first few days, so we had enough lights to light the booth, then the bar, until finally on the last day we could light up the whole club for the big musical number.

This is where it gets wiggy.

There was a guy my awesome friend and Director of Photography Dino Parks knew (Dino went on to DP "Yellowstone" and so many great projects and is still one of my favorite people). This guy was going to show up with his truck, which had a crane, the lights we needed, and a Steadicam rig. All the bells and whistles.

I was to give this guy cash on the morning of, and we could use the gear for that half day.

I was VERY NERVOUS this dude wasn't going to show.

But I ended up having a problem I NEVER SAW COMING.

Dino Parks, my friend Alan Steinman (our first AD) and me.

THE HALF DRESS

The dance numbers were rehearsed. Travis and his great assistant Stacey were there. The pre-records were done. And the guy with the truck showed up!

It was all going to happen.

My friend, the crazy-talented costume designer Daniel Orlandi, had let us borrow these awesome dresses for the shoot. They were actually part of Marisa Tomei's wardrobe from the movie "Only You." One was the white dress that angel Jessica wore, and the other was the dress that goes from modest to sexy when Laura has to sing the big end number after her Guardian Angel gives her magical courage.

But we didn't have doubles of the clothes, so every night we'd drive the wardrobe to Holloway Cleaners in West Hollywood and have them cleaned overnight and pick them up before heading to set.

The last day arrives. The whole place is lit. The actors get into wardrobe.

Here's the problem: only HALF of Jessica's dress was there.

She only had the bottom. I didn't even think the dress had two pieces? Seriously?

There was no way we could shoot this thing without the top (that would be a very different movie)!

One of my best friends, Sandra - a New York fashionista who had flown out to help with wardrobe - drove at lightning speed in my car WAY across town to West Hollywood to the cleaners to find the other half of the dress.

They insisted it wasn't there.

She didn't give up (thank God) and found it folded like a pocket square on its own hanger WAY in the back. The dress had come across in the machine and they thought the top was...a hankerchief.

In the meantime, we'd shot EVERYTHING we could that didn't involve Jessica, including the little button where the Angels get a trip to the Four Seasons Nirvana for matching the couple. We had to put her in a white T-shirt as a "vacation look."

Jessica's "vacation look" with Larry. We were running out of things to shoot while Sandra was at the Dry Cleaners.

THE HAPPY ENDING

Sandra got back. We shot the number. It looked great!

Laura, Jessica, Chris, Larry, the dancers - they all killed it!

And even my Mom's number came out awesome! By the way, I was still more nervous to shoot that than the big dance number.  But she was SO happy, and it's still one of my happiest memories.

The crazy thing is, Laura Leighton and her husband Doug Savant ended up becoming lifelong friends. And by the way, Jessica Tuck was even cooler and more talented in person. A fantastic human who made the perfect angel.

Chris and Laura even nailed the swing dancing. You can see Jessica's dress is stitched back together on the right of frame.

THE PAYOFF

"Angels, Baby!" ended up winning a bunch of festival awards, and it helped me get my first post-assistant gig on a reality show for Disney called "Bug Juice," which helped me connect the dots to my first directing gig on an MTV show called "Sorority Life."

Here's the deal: all these years later, I STILL LOVE THIS SHORT.

I took a stab at writing a pilot about matchmaking angels based on the short and got a great producer and two sensational showrunners attached. We're currently going out with the script, which is called "My Ex-Boyfriend from Hell." I'll never give up on this story.

Sandra, me and Laura at one of our first festival screenings of the movie.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT RISK

Looking back, I think the reason I was more nervous about my mom's singing cowgirl number than the big finale with professional dancers and a "Melrose Place" star was because the personal and professional were colliding in a way that made the stakes feel enormous.

There was "can I pull off a musical?" AND "what if this doesn't go well for Mom?" That's a pretty potent pressure cooker.

But it taught me that if you keep the faith, it can come out even better than you hoped.

MY ADVICE TO YOU

Here's what I want every emerging filmmaker to know: there is no bad short film jail.

You're not going to get arrested if your short or movie doesn't come out perfect!

JUST MAKE IT!

There is never going to be a shortage of people telling you that you can't or that you shouldn't, OR a shortage of voices in your head telling you the same thing.

If it's your passion, ACT ON IT!

What's the worst thing that can happen? You have to shoot the finale topless?

Guess what - you'll live!

The credit cards eventually got paid off. The twitch went away. The memories of my mom singing on set, of Sandra racing across town to save the day, of Laura and Jessica bringing their A-game to a scrappy little short - those are priceless.

So go max out those credit cards (responsibly). Make your musical. Cast your dream actors. Give your mom her moment.

There's no short film jail waiting for you on the other side.  Just your next big break.

If you'd like to check out ANGELS, BABY! you can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/205431967

Me and my Mom after we shot her big number.

Doug Savant, Laura and me. Very grateful to still have these great people in my life.

Jeff Fisher is a director and writer whose credits include Paramount Pictures' "The Stranger in My Home" and "The Image of You," Hallmark's highest-rated film of the year "My Christmas Love," and reality hits spanning from "The Simple Life" to "Keeping Up With The Kardashians." Visit www.jefffisherdirector.com to see his work and www.reeltalkwithjeff.com for more industry insights.