Tuesday, July 8th, 2008: Worst. Day. Ever.

I should mention first, that for now, we have a title for this project. I was toying with the idea of calling this picture “Desolation Row,” after the Bob Dylan song from Highway 61 Revisited. Well, it turns out that the day we started shooting, or the day before, Bill went ahead and called it Desolation Row. We now have a title we can call this instead of “Untitled Backlot Rebels Noir Project.” It definitely sounds nicer.

So today is our first day off from our tumultuous three day shoot that went something like 12 hrs, 14hrs, then 17hrs. Yes, the third day was 17 hours, I did my math wrong when I got home after the 17 hour day because brain not work right then.

So today is our first day off. Bill and I have to go to Toronto to return the tripod we rented, and we’re supposed to be there by noon. I wake up at 10-ish, and I drag my ass all day, and just when I’m about to leave for Bills at 10:30 I get a phone call from FedEx, telling me that they’ll fax or email me a form to sign and fax back to them so my tripod can clear customs. I don’t have a fax machine so I’m wondering how I’m supposed to email back my signature.

I get the form, fill it out the best I can after wondering what some of it means for a bit, then scan it into the computer to email back to them. I realize then that I didn’t fill out all of it, so I decide to phone them to see if I can just go to Mississauga and fill out the form there, where someone there can tell me what this shit means, and just pick it up since I’ll be in Toronto anyway. They say I would fill out the form and then wait for it to clear customs before I can take it. So I fill out the form the best I can, send it off to them, then head over to Bills. Late again.

I get to Bills and find that he’s dragging ass as well. We eventually leave and traffic is easy on the way to Toronto. On the way we talk about the production and other things. We’re late as we drop off the tripod, but they don’t seem to care. Maybe they don’t get them back too often, I’m not sure why they would tell me a certain time, then not ask for my name or care that it’s about an hour or two late. Good for me though, I don’t have to drop some more coin. We run into a little traffic on the way back. Nothing exciting happened on this trip.

Bill drops me off and I decide to run over to Costco to grab my new prescription, then get a coffee on the way back, and then with coffee in hand, start putting the footage into my computer and take a gander at it, and hopefully put up some screen shots.

I bounce over to Costco and drop off my ‘scrip where I’m told it will be about 25 minutes. Since I left my brand new sunglasses on the roof of Bills truck on Sunday’s shoot with Keith, and we drove off, offering a gift to the city of Niagara Falls, I decide to walk over to Zellers and peep their shades. Their shades are around twenty bucks so I head into Chapters without sunglasses.

While I’m at Chapters, I grab a couple of Elmore Leonard novels and proceed to head out. I toy with getting the one Ed McBain book I don’t have, but decide that two books is enough for today. While I’m walking up to the cash, I break out in a sweat and start shaking uncontrollably like a crack head coming down from a fix. I head over to the Bulk Barn and scoop out two dollars worth of Peanut M&M’s and try paying the cashier with the change in my hand, but the hand holding the change is shaking violently, as well as the hand trying to grab the change and my legs are shaking so bad they’re barely keeping me standing.

I don’t know what the cashier must’ve thought about this sight, especially when I told her “I need to eat these right now!” She must’ve thought “All the freaks come to Bulk Barn.”

I start eating the M&M’s and instantly feel better. I head over to Costco, pick up my ‘scrip, grab my coffee and come home.

I plug my camera into my computer, pop in the first days tape, and this is where my weird day just gets fucking bad.

I start putting the footage into my computer and I’m seeing a lot of stuff I don’t like. In fact, I’m seeing a lot of stuff I down right fucking hate. I really don’t want to see this stuff I’m seeing, and I manage to get through the entire first tape.

It’s a technical issue that’s the problem here, not any of the performances. In fact, I’m quite happy with the performances that are here, it’s just something else that’s irking the hell out of me.

Yesterday, I started thinking my camera was on the fritz during our first shoot in the morning. Somehow, some of my settings got reset, but most of them didn’t. This technical issue that I discovered today, Bill and I had discovered earlier, so this issue in conjunction with the mysterious changing of settings had me thinking my camera was on the way out. At the time, I was pretty sure someone sabotaged my camera more than I thought it was a technical mishap the camera did to itself, but the technical issue was there, so I wasn’t quite sure. I also didn’t pay much attention to the technical issue at the time it was brought to Bills and my attention.

Today I notice it on the footage, and I am not at all impressed. I figure out why it happened, and it was my own fault. It was my own stupidity for not being as thorough as I normally am. I’m really kicking myself in the ass now.

However, since the technical issue was not the fault of the camera, it was human error, I’m more convinced now than ever that someone sabotaged the camera during the morning of the 3rd shoot day we had. I think my camera is fine because why would only three settings change and no others?

Sue gets home as I pop in the second tape and I decide it best to go drink the coffee she brought me and do the crossword to try and get my mind off this and think of what to do. As we do our crosswords and talk about the footage and what happened, she gets a phone call. It’s Chevonn and it turns out that Sue is an hour late for the rehearsal. I guess Sue kind of needs to be there because she’s the maid of honor. Her and I bomb out of the house and head off to the rehearsal as we’re told everyone’s waiting for her.

We get there and some people have already left, and the rehearsal is clearly over. People are munching down on snacks and having some drinks. It’s just like prom for me; I skip the boring part and come just to the party.

This turns out not to be good for me though, because I’d rather have seen the rehearsal for the wedding I’m taping. Oh well, Chevonn says she’ll email me the itinerary tomorrow and that should be fine.

We come back home and I capture some more of the second tape, then decide to call Bill to let him know why the issue we found earlier happened. We also talk about how that relates to the cameras settings being changed, and now he’s convinced there’s a saboteur. For some reason I love making people believe shit. He says he’ll pop by briefly after work to check out the footage so he can see what I’m talking about.

He comes by around 1am as I’m capturing, and he thinks the issue is worse than I do. I thought I found a workaround, but it’s not good enough. I say that I’ll capture everything and he can come by before work possibly and look at it. Right now, he can’t think, so he’ll decide tomorrow as to what he wants to do.

So I’m not going to say what the issue is, or what I would like to do about it as I still have to talk to Bill, Steve, and Alicia about it. Then we’ll have to talk to other people about it and see what they want to do.

Oh, I’m also missing the tape that had most of the 3rd day of shooting on it. I’m hoping it was just misplaced by Alicia or Bill and not taken by the saboteur.

Yeah, it was a really good day.