night moves

it's almost midnight.

we're almost done with our first location.

but not yet.

and then we get to move.

to the next location.

to a bar. an actual bar. with drinking patrons.

downtown.

in the rain.

where 15 (drunk) extras wait for our arrival.

and then the cops arrived

actually, it was a sheriff's deputy.

he showed up on set looking for a guy on crew.

to give him paperwork. or maybe a warrant. not sure. but it didn't stop filming, which is all any of us care about.

fun morning.

grand central station

we set up an 'office' at every film location. it usually consists of three or four of us hunkered down at our laptops. we keep on working so the film can keep on filming, and we take whatever setup we can get.

so far, we've been on a picnic table under a tree, in an auditorium with the cast of 'hairspray' rehearsing behind us, in a board room flush with furniture from 1987, an empty store in a strip mall, the upstairs private dining room at a country club, and an out-of-business furniture showroom.

today, we're in a quiet, cool room with four large, round tables with white tablecloths and white chairs. it's called the 'terrace room' and as offices go, this one is pretty nice, except that, for some reason it's become the hot spot for activity.

it began this morning when the women's tennis team at the club decided to have their 'after match snack wrap' in this room since we were filming on their patio. they were sweet and talked about lots things like the olympics in beijing and salmonella poisoning. then one of the girls playing a stripper came in because she needed a good place to do her yoga. she stretched in a couple corners, but found the best place to be right inside the door. one of the grips decided to play some upbeat, jaunty songs on the piano. one of the actors fell asleep on a love seat, snoring loudly. i walked back in from lunch to find lights set up so that another actor could film an audition, but it took longer than he intended because the snoring kept interrupting him.

really, it's like any other office.

paranoia strikes deep in the heartland

i didn't sleep last night. i tried reading, watching tv (two and a half men), reading a book on kindle, taking a shower, closing my eyes, journaling, and crying.

the reason for my insomnia might be that i had too much sugar and no actual dinner.

or it might be that, as i was leaving the set, one member of the crew said something to me that made me terrified that the entire cast and crew hated me and i would never work again and that i had completely done something wrong that i would forever be blacklisted.

what, you ask, was the conversation that gave me such pain and anxiety? it was thus:

me: okay, i'm headin out. see you at 9 tomorrow.
crew member: 8.
me: 8? but the schedule -
crew member: you know what? get there when you want. whatever.

i left in tears.

this morning i approached this person and asked if there was an issue with my arrival time for the past two weeks. he looked a) confused at my approach, and b) terrified of the crazy in my eyes. he said he was just tired the night before and didn't even remember the conversation, but he certainly didn't mean anything.

so...

clearly, stress, lack of sleep, and an insane schedule has had no affect on me.

the inevitable

last night, amid the chaos of the continuity collapse and the world ending, the production designer approached me and asked if i had ever received photos of the lead actor as a child. i had not. nor did i realize that it was my responsibility more than sending out emails to him to ask.

so this morning, the director came to me and asked to talk and questioned i wasn't on top of this. i almost cried. i was frozen in a non-answer.

and then i attempted to fix the situation.

but seriously, it's inevitable. whenever fifty people are working insane hours for an insane amount of days on end, it's inevitable that something goes wrong. and it's inevitable that it's your fault at some point.

and this morning it was mine.

tension and fun

late last night, it was realized that a scene shot earlier in the day was completely out of sequence, costume-wise. which means we have to reshoot.

it was crazy. and quiet and angry whispering and grabbing of notebooks and exhausted 'thank you's' to the people still in the dark to the entire thing.

...funny thing - it upset the cast and crew more than the fact that a human being in the cast had to be rushed to the emergency room earlier that day.

she's a lady

the lady cop is back. wearing riding pants and boots.

?

at lunch

an actor went to the hospital. chest pain. maybe. emergency, or close to it. there's strange, quiet tension. don't know who knows about it and who doesn't.

but someone just came in and asked if we wanted anything from starbucks.

and i decided to write about it.

breffst

the actor's mother took pictures of the provided breakfast this morning to prove to everyone (who happened to be enjoying the same breakfast) that the meal sucked and was reason enough for them to leave and get food at the mac-donald's.

slam

i have hit a wall.

mid-production slump. and i can barely keep myself going.

yesterday i had the shortest work day in a month. it was only twelve hours.

...only a week and a half to go and then i will drop.

she be crazy

there's a 'lady cop' who keeps coming around. sometimes in uniform. sometimes not. today, i walked outside and found her passed out on the ground. twenty feet away from where we were filming.

um...

i'm on set today. at a table. laptop in front of me.

and because of the chance of rain, the 'office' has moved into the auditorium at the community center where we're shooting.

it just so happens that
this auditorium houses a theatre.
this theatre puts on shows.
these shows need to rehearse.
they're having rehearsal right now.
for a musical.
that musical is 'hairspray.'
and they like to sing.
behind us.
mere feet away.
with a piano.
and repeat their songs over.
and over again.
and again.
and again.


and again.

tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

tomorrow is the biggest day of the shoot - about 150 people including actors, crew, and background. we're on a site that only six of us have seen. we can't bring people by tonight for a walk-thru because there's an event going on. and somehow we have to make tomorrow go smoothly to keep up with the proposed schedule.

in theory, we have to be completely theoretical with the planning.

but right now, my only focus is getting through tomorrow. we have over two weeks left on this shoot, but just get me through tomorrow and life will be okay.

all our pain

i think this morning was an over-reaction by everyone involved. i'm embarrassed that i cried, but grateful that i was alone in the office and only one person witnessed it over the phone.

and i've somehow hit the wall where the idea of working or accomplishing anything seems like the most overwhelming task and really, all i want to do is nap. i've been working like mad, but somehow it now takes me ages to do anything.

only two and a half more weeks. and then, "we shall rest. i have faith, uncle, fervent, passionate faith. we shall rest. we shall rest. we shall hear the angels. we shall see heaven shining like a jewel. we shall see evil and all our pain disappear in the great pity that shall enfold the world. our life will be as peaceful and gentle and sweet as a caress. i have faith; i have faith. my poor, poor uncle vanya, you are crying! you have never known what it is to be happy, but wait, uncle vanya, wait! we shall rest. we shall rest. we shall rest." - uncle vanya

... i'm sunburnt.

and the tears started

this is a small film that has grown exponentially. the budget, though, has not grown, so many of us are wearing many many hats and trying to figure out how to a) keep the balls in the air, and b) mix metaphors well.

this morning, i am finding out that i'm not doing a stellar job as a location manager. very true. why? because i've never been a location manager before, am rarely on set when i'm in production, couldn't pick out a lens cap out of a box saucers, and am completely overwhelmed. one thing i have done well, or so i thought, was tell people that i have never been a location manager and don't know what to do, what questions to ask, or in any way have the answers needed when we bombard these sweet people who have no idea what's about to hit them.

long story short (story not included), i'm in stressed out hell for still not knowing what i'm supposed to be doing and just had a tearful fight over the phone with a crew member because i didn't have all the answers.

because i'm grown up and here and working hard and haven't slept in over a month and today i find out that i know nothing about something i never knew about.

completely unexpected

a TENNIS ball flew and hit the camera, breaking a filter and scratching the lens.

to catch you up

so much has happened in merely a few days...

-the lead actor didn't answer his door when the car was there to pick him up to take him to the airport - but then he did. he was in the shower.
-the actor and his mother ended up flying - i found this out when i emailed to ask about their eta and they said they were on standby in chicago and would be in town in about two hours
-the actor and his mother arrived sans cat
-a dog did arrive, though. one of the actors' girlfriends flew in for the night and brought her dachshund to set
-i had to drive an actor to whole foods and he kept asking me to smell the cheeses with him
-the costume designer approached me this morning to ask how easy it would be for him to "ease out of the film"
-we have a brand that is angry at us and the costume designer has their products throughout even though we don't have clearance to use it
-the actor and his mother have requested to change to a 'nice hotel' because of the 'bed-bug epidemic that's sweeping the east coast.'...we're not on the coast.
-the production designer had accepted the fact that the film did not have all the tennis rackets required for the TENNIS movie and called the director to tell him
-the director forgot to tell everyone that the reason people were cast was because they had their own tennis gear (problem solved)
-this morning, the script supervisor and the first ad and i all commiserated about being in tears and feeling crazy when we got home last night
-a puppy-like pa volunteered to make all the copies of the script for the reading, and we realized an hour before that the scripts were copied at an angle, missing pages, blurry, and out of order
-as of this morning (second day of shooting) we still had two roles not yet cast, which are in scenes to be shot today...know anyone who wants to play a stripper who doesn't speak?
-one actor informed us that he doesn't eat eggs. previously unknown. funny since it was the night before he had a scene where he had to eat a great deal of EGG fu yong. (yes, i emailed everyone in this scene and asked about allergies, food issues, etc. somehow the egg thing never came up)
-the actor's mother made the second ad put the umbrella on the call sheet so there was no issue about it actually getting to set
-i'm sitting about a hundred feet from set, inside in air conditioning. feel very nicely removed from it all
-i also became in charge of casting, as of two hours ago