Monday, July 14th, 2008: Shoot Day #6, The Gay Day

So yesterday we had off. It might be a good thing or a bad thing that we had it off, I don’t know. Yesterday I had a really bad day that peaked once in the early morning, then peaked again at about 4am today. It might be a good thing that we had it off because the fit hit the shan, and I didn’t have to be on set and could deal with it, or it could be a bad thing because maybe it would never have happened had I been on set.

I think it would have happened anyway. In fact, I know it would have. Wishful thinking on my part.

Anyways, I’m not going to get into the details of said really shitty day, and I’m not even going to say what it was at all actually. However, I’m sure anyone that had one of these days will know where I’m coming from when I say that it was one of those days where you would really rather not have been born than go through that day. In fact, you start thinking about it, because you see no way out of, or around, this day. It’s like there’s a cart full of shit floating up in the sky waiting for Biff from Back to the Future to crash into it, but instead it all gets dumped on you. Then Biff comes over and kicks you in the face. Then McFly calls you a loser.

I don’t know why Back to the Future just made a tremendous impact in my life.

So on with the production day. Wait a second. Before I go on to it, I would just like to take a moment to apologize to the cast and crew of this day because I was definitely not myself and didn’t seem to have much vigor for the production today. My apologies.

So now lets start the day. A day of scenes we haven’t “elaborately rehearsed” yet. The day actually began the night before when Alicia, AD extraordinaire, emailed everyone and said the call time was for 8am. I don’t do mornings well, but I figure after the start of my bad day in the early morning, I’m pretty tired and I’ll be able to get to sleep early to make the call time. Well, shit happened again until four in the morning, so I got about three hours of sleep until I had to be up at seven to get up and meet Alicia’s demands.

Lucky for me, I arrive as Alicia is arriving. Great girl that she is, she even filled the coffee order for everyone. The plan is to be at the Holiday Inn to shoot a hotel room scene at nine. We get there a bit after nine, set up, Justine gets put through makeup, as does Steve, who’s making a cameo along with Bill. We shoot this simple scene a couple of times, then we’re off. Kyle Greer also makes his return today.

Oh, we went a lot slower today because during my bad day yesterday, I thought it would be a good idea to punch a concrete wall. In hindsight, definitely a bad idea. You’d think I would’ve learned all the other times I punched the concrete wall. I really got to move my punching show upstairs where it’s drywall and not concrete. Now I’m a gimp who can’t even pull the legs apart on the tripod. I still try, but I have to call for help.

While we’re waiting at the hotel for Bill to come back to tell the main dude John that we’re bouncing, Justine starts talking to me about a script she’d like to get made, but can’t write herself. I tell her to fire it off my way and I’ll see if I can take a crack at it.

Now we’re off. Alicia and I head over to Home Depot to grab a new measuring tape for our camera. I want a nylon version that you wind up and is longer than the 16 ft one we have now. My bad day carrying over to today (it’s something you just can’t shake with 3 hours of sleep and no resolution to the problem), I don’t know where the measuring tapes are, but Alicia finds them. Great. More gay jokes to ensue.

In fact, this seems to be the gay day. All day long, continuing from Saturday, Alicia is firing gay jokes at my masculinity. A lot of them are actually quite clever so I’ll give her props for that. I don’t have the wherewithal to challenge anything she throws down, nor do I have the grey matter today to formulate a good response.

All I can manage to do is start firing off gay jokes about myself as well. Hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. This is actually getting a kick out of her, so I continue doing this all day, and she chimes in once in awhile. Whatever, I’ll do anything for a laugh. I mock anger as I let the self-deprecating jokes fly, which she eventually thinks is real anger on my part. Hell no. I dish it out, so I better damn well be able to take it. And I do take it, right in the pooper Alicia. Right in the pooper.

So, we all get back to Bills to unload some gear and go back out to Niagara Falls. Like I said, I’m dragging ass today, so our departure takes awhile. We’re about 2/3’s of the way there, when I realize that the V-16 system is in my car and we’re in Bills truck. Dammit. Alright, Steve’s car and Harry’s car will continue to the casino, and Bill and I will turn around and get the V-16. It was actually Bills insistence that we go back to get it; I was just too lethargic to really care at that point. But I’m so glad that Bill is my Director of Photography, and my friend. Kid is really something.

So eventually, we’re back to the Falls, we move out to our location, the V-16 system is set up and we start shooting. Only, I can’t get the shot. The ground goes on an incline, then goes flat, then another incline, then a slightly steeper incline. I’m supposed to be leading Steve, Bill, and Justine in the scene, except they’re always lower than I am, so by the end of the scene, I’m just getting the top of their heads. Also, it seems like that cart load of shit in the sky also had a friend by the name of Mr. Wind, who would pick up every time I said action. Not cool Mr. Wind, not cool at all.

We move down to another location, and I think we got the shot. Well, it’s not as nice as I would have liked it to be, but it’s a shot. Then we’re back to Bills house where Steve dresses the set again, and he’s off to spend some quality time with his wife, who he hasn’t seen much lately.

Back at Bills, it’s another dragging ass moment as we all chill and eat. Eventually, Harry brings it up to me that to film his arrival at the bus station, we would just need him, myself, and Bill. That’s a great idea I think, because while we’re gone, the others can set up the lights and shit for the last scene we’re supposed to film here today. We’re off, and for some reason, we bring Alicia along, leaving Greer and Baby Reilly alone with Justine to set up the lights and dolly. We’re all a little scared for Justine.

We get to the bus station, get our shots, except when I put the camera back on the Glidecam system, I forgot to turn the Brevis on again. Okay, so I turn the Brevis on, we get the shot, and we’re back off to Bills again.

Again, back at Bills, we drag ass. I think he should start calling his house, “Bills House of Dragging Ass,” because that’s what we seem to do there. Nah, I’m just playing. I’m not saying it’s because of the house, it’s definitely on me as to why we went so slow.

So we all get set up, and we start shooting the scene. Justine and Harry actually blow me away with their performances. This scene is pretty dry if the actors don’t get it, and they definitely got it, which is a huge relief. It was definitely stellar acting from both of them, and Harry continues to impress me every time out. After the first three days of “elaborate rehearsals,” I actually had high expectations for Justine, and she surpassed them today.

Also, my boy Bill is definitely coming into his own as a camera operator/ director of photography. He knew that we would need the same focal length on the lens for the reverse shot, and he was trying to find a solution to keep the same focal length. We came up with one, and then he started trying to match the lighting. I was very impressed with this moment, and he’s been impressing me a great deal during this production.

Bill’s always on the lookout for other angles, or complete other shots that he would like to do. I can’t remember him ever suggesting a bad one on this show. He’s always thinking of how to make the shot more interesting, and I’m definitely happy he’s doing this; especially on a day like today where I showed no real vigor.

Like I said, the boy would look at Hurricane Katrina and call it a pussy.

So we finish our day, got our pages, and now we’re off until Sunday. This makes me sad, as it’s such a long wait, but I can do Lot B prep during this time. Also, Alicia can see if her new schedule will coincide with everyone’s schedules. The plan is to add one or two more days to the production a week after we were supposed to wrap. She’ll send it out to everyone in the next day or so, and we’ll hope everyone’s cool with it.

All of us missed Joe as well, who wasn’t on set today. We need our Frank Dux fix.

Here are some screen shots.