Sunday, July 20th, 2008: Shoot Day #7

Today is going to be a busy day, just from the different locations we have to travel to. We’re supposed to start out at Bills and shoot the scene where the Landlord shows Grant and Dana the new place where they’re going to live.

Yesterday, I didn’t do much when I got home from the wedding, so today I’m going to put the Brevis back on the camera, sans new part that I was supposed to get, head over to Bills and start shooting.

The plan was to head over to Bills to pick up the super awesome dolly system, bring it back here in Bills truck, let my Dad customize it for the new wheels while I reattach the Brevis, then load all the shit back into Bills truck and head back.

I phone Leanne and tell her I’m on my way, when my Dad decides it would be easier to come with me, and grab the dolly in his SUV. Alright. So we’re off to grab the dolly system, and on the way back he treats me to a coffee. The way to my heart.

We get back and the old man starts hacking the dolly as I start putting the Brevis back on. As I start putting it back on I notice there’s some dust inside on the imaging element from when I put it back together on Friday. When I put it back together on Friday, I never bothered to make sure there wasn’t any dust inside, as I figured I would just be ripping it apart again to put the new piece in. Thanks again FedEx.

So I get it all hooked up to my camera, and start aligning it, when I notice the speck on the element. Great. I take the element out and start brushing it off with some kind of pen that I got from Henry’s. My laziness doesn’t come in handy, as the hard part of the brush starts rubbing onto the glass, causing some markings on it.

I rush upstairs to wash the element, get it all cleaned and air-dried, and notice the mark is still there. This isn’t the start of a new week after all it seems. I debate about canceling the shoot, thinking the piece is not usable, but throw it in my camera anyway. Turns out the mark isn’t noticeable. Maybe it is the start of a new week after all.

I phone Bill to let him know I’ll be a little late, throw my shit in the car, and head over. My own father doesn’t even have the patience for me as he’s already left to drop off the super awesome dolly system. I arrive to see Steve and his wife Cheryl doing the set dec; making the joint look like someone just left in the middle of the night without any of their shit. As they’re doing that, I set up the lights that we need for the scene, and have minimal conversation with Steve, Cheryl, and Lisa, who’s back to play the Landlord.

I get what I can setup, and head outside to have a smoke and cool off a bit. Bill gets back to his house, which confuses me as I thought he was upstairs the whole time. He went over to BestBuy to grab a terabyte for himself as he’ll probably need the room on his computer to edit the Serbian wedding.

I come back inside to see Steve and Cheryl both staring at a wet spot on the floor. I think to myself that it’s supposed to be a beer spill from the previous tenant as Steve and Cheryl both seem to be analyzing it; and that’s how detail oriented Steve is, that he would analyze the flow from a supposedly spilt beer. Turns out that I was wrong, and Bills dog Hunter just had an “accident.” We all have a good laugh.

Turns out my fears about the previous week extending were wrong, as once we start shooting, the shit gets rocked out. The new super awesome dolly system is heads and tails above the super awesome dolly system 1.0 model. 2.0 is definitely an improvement.

We rock out the scene and wrap Lisa for a second time. We’re trying to organize our trip to Burlington when she heads out amid the chaos, and eventually we’re off after I eventually get a hold of my mother and ask her to meet us there. We’re shooting at her office building, and she and her boss were nice enough to let us use the lunch room. We’re late as usual as Dave is supposed to meet us there for four. We get there and pull into the wrong parking lot and Bill puts his 4x4 to use and just drives over the curb into the correct spot.

My Mom is there waiting with Dave, who has just got back from vacation and is struck with food poisoning. Remember when I said coolest cast ever? This shit is more proof. There’s a rumor that it could’ve been alcohol poisoning, but whatever; dude’s still the shit.

We also have to watch out because if the door is open for longer than a certain amount of time, the alarm will go off. It’s either 7 seconds or 30 seconds, we’re not sure. It’s probably something we should’ve looked into though. We move in the gear, and head up to the second floor, the whole time joking around that it feels like we’re entering Cyberdyne systems from T2. It kicks ass that all these places are reminding me of other kick ass scenes from movies. Either that or I’m making a stretch and I’ve watched way too many movies.

Everything gets set up in the small little room that’s supposed to serve as the break room for a police station. Dave, food poisoning and all, rocks out the scene with Joe. I’m surprised and happy as hell to see that detail oriented Steve made up a wanted, and missing picture to hang up on the wall. It’s me and Alicia in the pictures, and it’s the easiest I’ve ever dropped 26 pounds in my life. I can’t remember who was who in the descriptions, but I think I was despondent, and Alicia was a stripper killed by Bill Reilly. This shit is pretty sweet sauce.

We finish the scene, pack up our gear, and head back to my place where my Dad has agreed to barbeque some grub for us as we wait for night fall before we head to the bus station to shoot the beginning and end of the flick.

During our down time, and as per usual on our sets, a pretty intense conversation comes out involving Saved By the Bell. The show was just so damn classic. Before, it was just pretty much me, Logan, and Bill handling this end of the conversation, but it’s so much nicer now having more people my age that grew up watching the same shit I grew up watching. To say the least, Saved by the Bell was an important staple in our lives. We can’t get past Rod Belding, the cooler Belding with an affinity for stewardesses, and Jeff, the pimp daddy manager of The Max.

After chowing down, and with the Saved by the Bell conversation hitting it’s peak, we’re off to the bus station to film. We start out by breaking out the Glidecam, then head inside for the rest of the night. Around 1am, Baby Reilly shows up and takes over the audio duties from Alicia. He’s digging on this shit, so I think it’s pretty cool because now Alicia can concentrate on the scenes we have to do and the make-up, and I can concentrate on my version of “directing.”

Joe is supposed to be dying during these scenes from a gut shot wound, and Alicia does a great job making him up to sell this effect. I’m looking at the guy and feeling sick, and I feel pretty bad for him. I have to keep reminding myself that he’s not really looking this way, he’s just made up this way.

We pack up the scene at around 4:30 or so and I think we ended up getting some cool shit in here, and the last shot of the film reminds me of a Kubrick type shot. I hope it cuts together nicely.

Bill hustles ass with Joe trying to get a poster for the flick as the rest of us pack up the gear. I have to remind Bill that Joe has class in Toronto at like, 10 tomorrow, so he stops shooting. Once Bill starts going with his camera, there’s no stopping him.

We get back to Bills and decide to just unload the cameras and leave everything else for tomorrow. It’s another late night, and I’m glad we don’t have a call time until three in the afternoon tomorrow. It’ll give me time to get the new part for the Brevis, hook it up, and sleep in a little.

Today’s shoot went really great with no significant problems. It seems like a new week has begun after all.

I'll have some screen shots up later.