What? You think I didn’t realize it was Tuesday, and I needed to do a blog post?  Having hit our 500th reader (in just 20 days no less) how could I not.  So to the folks out there following this, a big hello and thanks!

Scene
Int: A 100 year old barn, surrounded on three sides by trees, nearly completely isolating it.

When things don’t go right… like this past weekend… I tend to look backwards, and occasionally need my rose colored glasses smacked off my head.  Fortunately there are multiple volunteers for the job.  So as I stand in the middle of the nondistinct kitchen, upset with all the shit that kept us from filming this past weekend, and as I start to wax on poetically about filming the first segment of the movie, I can almost hear the whoosh of 4 hands swinging back, cocking in preparation to knock those  rose colored shades off.

It’s a weird thing.  When you’re out there in the 100 degree heat, and the humidity is 70%, and you’re in a giant barn ( that took a month longer to find than you expected)  with no air conditioning, it sucks every bit as much as it sounds.  The only thing that sucks more is when it starts to cool down at night, and then, when it hits the dew point, everything is soaked. You forget about being up for nearly 24 hours straight, or not getting a chance to eat one day or the three weeks it took to clean the barn out and get it ready for filming. The 25 bails of loose hay that had to be removed.  The poison ivy.  The damned gopher that would make fresh new holes that  needed to be filled in every week inside the barn.  Walking across that field 30+ times.

As The Mike would say,: “I love shooting, I just hate all the bullshit you have to do before you start filming.”, which I think sums it up perfectly.

Don’t get me wrong.  The crew isn’t a bunch of crabby people.  (I’m crabby, but only on Thursdays.)  When they see the rough edits, they all agree, all the bullshit was worth the effort.  They, like me, would just like one shoot to happen that didn’t have all the headaches.  I hold out segment three of the film like a carrot.  Reminding them that it’s one location, and indoors, with air-conditioning.  Weather won’t matter.  Heat won’t matter.  It will be a nice leisurely shoot.  This is right before I remind them that the big challenge, segment four and the fun that the winter shoots will be.  (I can almost hear the hands whooshing)

And let’s not forget the funny moments… like Dennis going into the gas station, and forgetting to take his prop gun out of his holster.  Or Trinka, at the same gas station a week later with a giant black eye make-up and wanting to see how real it looked, so she decided to act like a battered woman.  Chris’ coffee cup confession, and Joe who can fall asleep sitting up, but you don’t have to worry about it until promptly at 3:00 am.  All of them were a blast to have on set.  The behind the scenes footage is priceless!  They had the tough job.  Helping set the tone and the pace, and I really think that’s the key to this movie.

When you’re reviewing the footage, and editing it all together you seem to forget just how much bullshit was involved in getting that footage, and all that’s left is the sunny after glow.  The people making this with me care, and it shows.

So a big shout out  to Trinka, who really did give it her all every time she showed up on set, and Joe and Dennis and Chris who spent all those nights out in that field, hoping to hear that magic phrase “Moving On!” take after take after take.  And especially to Stan.  Who spent two hours getting put into makeup each time before we shot, and then put on quite possibly the stinkiest wardrobe in the history of film.  I know you guys haven’t seen the footage yet, and I hope when you do that you’ll agree with everyone else that is was worth it.

So for now, as much as I want to be out shooting the rest of segment two, I’ll be content to finish editing part one, and hoping everything goes right this coming weekend.