DAY 8

The Set General is feeling much better today. Thank God! We load in, and THEN: 

Everyone parked on the street in front of the location gets marked by the parking patrol as per the two hour parking limit. There’s ten hour metered parking across the street, so one of the actors goes to the local laundromat and gets a bunch of quarters.

Superwoman Suzan Jones sets up her computer and starts working of photos, a kitchen is prepped for the first scene, a bedroom starts getting blacked out, the backyard becomes a staging area.

The Real Deal checks everything off and so begins the first set up of the first scene. OR IS IT? The hum of the refrigerator is screwing up the sound and unplugging it becomes a real pain in the ass. Done. We continue blocking, blocking, blocking till the scene feels right. We shoot. We move:

On to the blacked out bedroom, where our seven year old first AD is controlling the lights and wrangling talent. It’s a small space, but the Set General as per usual figures out all the set ups and away we shoot.

THAI FOOD, except for those who still can’t eat it cuz of a BAD case of food poisoning.

Then..... disaster strikes :(

A text comes in - one of the actresses set to work the day after tomorrow has to bail on the movie. SHIT!!! NO time to recast.... OR IS THERE? Looks like superwoman Suzan Jones, who’s already doing about ten jobs, gets another one ACTING. Suzan, you are cast on the spot.

Back to the bedroom another issue rears it’s perplexing head. Do we shoot the last segment like it is in the script? Being in two locations, or just combine everything in the bedroom where we already are? A friendly debate ensues between the Real Deal and the Set General. Deal wants the production value of another set. The location we’re in looks great and doesn’t require much dressing. But the Set General points out how it’s only two lines, will take some time to light, everyone is tired, and we have a 6AM call time tomorrow.... Score one for RD, we decide to shoot in two rooms. THEN:

Disaster AGAIN.

One of the actors can’t make the 6AM call time.

More discussion and just a bit of panicking... well, more panicking for some than others. The General stoically remains concerned with lighting, we’ll solve that problem later... which we finally do as per the General’s suggestion of deciding to shoot dusk for dawn.

The last shot gets wrapped, and it’s time to tear down, load up, get very little sleep, and begin all this all over again.... and then, something wonderful:

Like an angel from heaven Cousin Nick appears out of thin air to help tear down and load up. Nick’s all business. We get out faster than expected, living to fight another day.

photos by Suzan Jones