“I’m realizing that all dinner parties are just like this: you’re always acting. Too bad you can’t tape your notes to the wall like we did.”

            - actor Kevin Chamberlin

Watstein knew that he wanted to direct a story about Hollywood, so he asked the actors what kind of Hollywood types they found interesting, and they built the characters together.

The film is entirely improvised, based on extensive character back stories. Each of the actors had an objective for every other actor, and for each act, meaning each actor had eighteen objectives. This required the actors to constantly push and engage one another.

There were no second takes.

Notes for each of the characters were posted in a “safe room.” When actors wanted to remind themselves of their objective, they went to the safe room to prepare. Watstein and Lyne ducked around the house, trying to stay out of the view of cameras.

The shoot was madness; actors bumped into cameras, cameras bumped into cameras, food was cooked and burned, glasses were broken, and vodka martinis flowed freely. The mix of vodka, beer, coffee and character notes kept the actors on an emotional roller coaster. At the end of the night, they all sat down, exhausted and ready to go home. There was only one problem: the climax had not been shot. Luckily, as the sun was coming up, they shot exactly the scene they needed, and wrapped.

More facts about the making of Loudmouth Soup:

There was no crew; the producer and director were the only ones at the location besides the cast, cameramen, and sound technician.

Filming started at 6:30pm and ended at 2:30am.  Cameras only stopped to change tapes and batteries.

When actors came to the door of the party, they were miked before they entered.  Once they rang the bell, there was no turning back.  Once they arrived, many actors met other actors on camera for the first time.  If their characters had not met, neither had the actors.

Each cameraman followed one actor throughout the night.  Wherever the actor went, the camera would follow - including the safe room.

All cameras had prepared focal lengths for each act.  This ensured that as long as cameramen stayed an equal distance from their actor, shots would match in size.  Watstein instructed the cameramen to shoot the cocktail hour phase of the movie at wide angles (as the characters were meeting and getting to know one another), then move in closer to medium shots for the dinner sequence (allowing the audience to get involved more with the characters), and then even closer for the post-dinner scenes (as the characters exposed themselves). 

The entire house, inside and out, was lit consistently, so the cameras did not need to change exposures when they moved around the house.