On the Set: Day 2

So much worth going over. I should finally acknowledge my spectacular crew by name. On sound (sitting on the left in this picture) is Abe Dolinger, sitting at the camera is my DP Mike LaVoie, pulling Mike is Dan Boyar, and kneeling down with a lovable smile is Garreth Manwaring, who is our AC.

Yesterday Mike and I scouted a few locations together, including the comic book store and a bar out in Riverhead. This bar is owned by the brother of a friend of mine (a girl who's dating my old buddy). We drive all the way to the bar, and as soon as the owner arrives, he gives me a "oh, didn't my sister call you?" See last Tuesday, the bar was to hold a banquet event, but it got rained out so the event was bumped to today...our film day. Only thing is, no one bothered to tell me. And no one would've told me if Mike and I hadn't driven to the bar the day before the shoot.

This left us less than 24 hours to find a new bar or cancel the shoot.

Our film's lead Angela not only found us a bar by that night, but it was also a bar that's much closer to us, and it's also much much better than the one in Riverhead. This morning we shot at Union Square in Holbrook. HUGE thanks to Mike, the bar's owner, for saving our shoot and my ass.

Because we found a local bar, and because we got to shoot earlier, we were able to squeeze an extra scene into the day. But first, after the bar, we drove to another park to do a scene with Angela and Vinny. I'll say it again: outdoor shoots suck. Especially on Long Island. Especially when the sun's on the way down.

Last it was off to the motel room that we'll be shooting at again tomorrow. We unloaded and decided to shoot a quick scene with Angela and Vinny. The motel room is friggin' tiny. And kind of shady. It fits the character of Peter Whales who lives there, but it will make for a tough shoot tomorrow. Tonight was a short scene but it actually looked really good in the end. I can't wait for you guys to see some stills from these shoots.

It's tough to throw such vague summaries up here when there are already so many good stories to tell. I'll say this though: I'm exhausted. I know that I'm not doing as much physical work as my crew, but the emotional exhaustion is heavy. There's a lot riding on this, a lot of money going into this, and a lot of pride on the line. When things get rough, and they do, the instinct to run is through the roof, but you can't because you're too deep in. So you keep truckin' forward, hoping that what you're making might actually be a good end product. And all the while, your personal life goes through such extremes...involving so many emotions...that you don't even know how to act or what to do with yourself. I'm just kinda reflecting out loud here...I guess my point is that you can never prepare for the emotional toll that something like this will bring on. I wish I could write the pages of reality like I can with my stories.