Scene
Multiple Int: A kitchen, an office, the interior of a truck

A furious night of activity and no sleep.

We knew we were going to be a crew member short, so everyone was in full scramble mode.  We had issues with the trailer, as the one we had has an old electrical hookup and we had to have an adapter.  Let the quest begin!  So after feverishly searching every auto parts store in the area until they all closed, we were left with the problem of how to get 4 canoes, and props and wardrobe, and cast, and crew all to our location without a trailer.  It just isn’t possible.

I swear, Summer is cursed…

And then, at 10:15 we got the call that changed everything.  Another cast member that we had to replace, or loose shooting Sunday, and next weekend too.  Not doable.  More decisions to be made.  Thankfully we hadn’t started shooting, and we don’t have to decide whether or not to throw the footage out, and start over.  There’s nothing worse than having to start over.  Inertia is a bitch.

Thankfully, we really did cast 2 deep, and Colby is more than happy to step up with next to no notice.  Maybe… possibly…

A call to U-Haul.  Scramble, scramble, scramble.  And finally an answer.  The closest trailer…. North of Hannibal.

A desperate drive to Foristell. A no name hole in the wall auto parts place.  Holy Shit… they have the adapter…. and we have the trailer…. and it’s 10:00 AM.  FUCK!

Two hours drive time gets us there at noon, and one of our cast members has a prior commitment for early in the evening.  An hour for first setup… and we’re at 1:00…. 3.5 hours of shooting time….. Four hours of driving for 3.5 hours of filming, which will be edited down to about 7 minutes.  Maybe as much as 9.  Cursed I Say!

So all of us exhausted finally have the conversation.  Our first day of shooting Summer is a bust.  Call the cast!  STOP!  We’ll explain later.  Phone calls x 8.  Yee ha!

Movie making is about more than pointing a camera, and then putting people up on a screen.  It’s about problem solving,  and everything is a problem.  The crew already knows this.  There’s nothing glamorous about sweating your ass off for 13 hours, or bug bites, or poison ivy, or eating a meal in 5 minutes in between shots or being so exhausted you fall asleep sitting up in a restaurant booth waiting for breakfast after shooting all night long.  This is what it takes to make a movie.  Well, this movie.  And  I appreciate my cast and crew more and more every day we shoot, and even some of the days we don’t.

I’m on hour 21 with no sleep.  Mike’s behind me strumming away on Robert’s prop guitar, sipping coffee.  Everything went wrong.  We called the shoot off for today.  And everything’s alright… until tomorrow.