Scene
Ext: A calm river with a large picturesque sandstone rockface.

The only thing that matches how sore I am today, is how absolutely happy I am.

Not only did we shoot everything we wanted to get done on Sunday, we actually managed to get everything we missed on Saturday too.  The entire cast brought their A-game, and all my worries about the speedy recasting and “is this going to work” went right out the window…

I’m glowing with a sense of relief and awe.  They each brought a full sense of every character to the table, and that’s really what this segment of the film needed.  I didn’t want ciphers or one dimensional characters, and every single cast member really put heart and soul into their roles.  You can tell that each of them really thought about who their character was, and there was some improv additions that really showed the attention to detail all of them put in.  You can’t appreciate just how much work they put in until you meet the real person, and then see the person they become when you yell “ACTION!”

Sure we had our share of problems:

Running late in the morning, though we started at 4:00 AM.  Not being able to turn the trailer with the canoes around on a one lane gravel road.  Getting started later than I wanted.  Rain.  My horrible sense of direction. Almost hitting a fucking turkey on the road.  (You can’t make this shit up!  I have 3 lovely witnesses!) The drunk guys who wandered to where we were shooting, and decided to stick around for a few hours.

And despite all that, we managed to get it all done, and get caught up to boot.  Sullivan Missouri is postcard perfect, and it was worth every minute of the drive.

More on all this later.  I’m so damn sore from crawling on the ground with a camera I can barely move.