Monday, September 24, 2007

On the Set: Day 6

Today was our second day shooting at the comic book store. We had to limit as much of the action to the back of the store as possible, which changed some of the original concepts but not too much. We got to do a dolly shot, which brought on a really cool dynamic-angle in the store's aisle. We also got to do one of the bigger scenes that we missed from yesterday.

We knocked out most of our goal for the day except for one important scene. Unfortunately we won't be able to get to that scene tomorrow because Tim is in it and he's not scheduled to report (he'll be homing playing Halo 3 instead...bastard). This forces me to schedule this lost scene onto next week's call sheets, which already look full. We'll get it done somehow. It's a big help that we're going to be allowed to shoot a little inside the store tomorrow before they officially open.

I must mention the brilliant Alex Adams, who had us all laughing with his scenes. Hilarious guy, and he was also good enough to take a trip with me to the Apple store down the road to buy a 1TB Hard drive. We also had a fun cameo today from Fred Nicotra, but I didn't really get to watch it because...well...I was busy driving to the Apple store down the road with Alex and buying a 1TB Hard drive.

Tomorrow's agenda: we shoot inside before the store opens and then get the hell out. We spend the rest of the scheduled day shooting scenes dealing with the exterior of the store, and we wrap. Challenges: Dan our lighting guy won't be able to make it, and we seem to have no replacement. Without Dan, and without our production assistants (Laura has classes and Carla is really sick), our crew will fall dangerously low.

Thoughts: During my trip with Alex to the Apple store to buy a 1TB hard drive, I was telling him about how a big portion of my time on this project has dealt with problem solving and crisis management. Knock on wood, it's been okay so far. It just sucks that I don't get to spend more of my mental energy basking in the glow of how awesome this whole thing is. The cast and crew are all great people who I'll miss when we're wrapped, and I only wish I could spend more time on the set enjoying how great they're all doing instead of trying to keep my brain six steps ahead. Plus they've all been patient with this first-time-director and they've helped me learn from this whole thing. I hope one day I get another shot at a feature and utilize my new knowledge of the whole process.


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