Scene
Ext: The Welkenford Access area, a scenic area along the Bourbeous river

So last week was all about prep work, and making all of our problems go away logistically, which involved a lot of effort, and a lot of shouting matches, and a lot of serious discussion.  I’m glad the cast isn’t privy to some of the behind the scenes stuff, because there really is a lot more drama behind the camera than in front of it.  So after some serious discussions and some hard decisions, and some very, very, very late nights (some ending past 4:00 am) we finally got all of our shit together to proceed.

Sunday rolls around, and while we had some folks show up late, and some extras that didn’t show at all (hey, it happens, and it’s not like I’m known for punctuality, so I ain’t throwing any stones), but we finally got moving again.  After the way the shooting day ended everyone seemed a bit deflated (more on that below).  But coming back to the house, and getting everything unpacked at around 1:00 am, we started pulling footage… and what we got was sublime.  There’s one scene we didn’t get to film all of, and one scene that will require a reshoot but 75% of what we shot was looking damn fine.  We are officially past the half way part.

And then there’s the trooper of the day.  A tiny girl of 19 named Chelsea.  Who showed up to be an extra (again!), and sat in makeup for an hour, so that she could stand in a freezing cold river,  go completely under water,  for one shot of her looking up directly into the camera.  The very definition of dedication.  I’m still amazed that she did it, not once, not twice, but five times.

So we set up for the first night shot, which was just two characters, and the performance was absolutely brilliant, until the fucking light died… GRRRRRR.  Issue #1 to deal with this week… reliable portable lighting…

We decided to skip to the next scene.  Which would be the last group scene with everyone in it.

Apparently there’s not much to do in Sullivan MO, because we’ve now run into drunks while shooting three separate occasions.  And I don’t mean guys going down to the river to enjoy a beer.  I mean sloppy, piss your pants, barely able to stand up drunk.  The first shooting day in Sullivan we ran into the first three, and they didn’t cause any problems… just wanted to see what we were up to.  I thought it was just a fluke.  This past Sunday, we ran into one drunk guy driving his jeep.  Though I’ll grant he was okay and didn’t cause any trouble, but I wouldn’t have asked him for a ride. He stuck around to see what we were up to, and wished us well when he left.

Then, of course, there was the hoosier in his piece of shit duelly who threw a hissy fit because we didn’t get a car moved fast enough for his liking.  He apparently is the kind of douche nozzle who thought it would be fun to go get a few of his inbred friends to come back, and then proceed to blare shitkicker music, and generally be a total fucktard by making absolutely sure we weren’t going to get any more shooting done.  T went over and had a brief discussion, they agreed to be quiet, which lead to Mike yelling “Quiet on the set.”, and they got quiet, then decided to start throwing rocks in the water…

We had three people in makeup, and were ready to shoot a blood bath of a scene.  But there was no shooting the lead in… So, we called it a day.

As soon as we started packing up, he left, but not before his buddy had a chance to spray some of the cast and I with gravel from his super bitchin’ Ford pickup truck.

Ah… the glamour of movie making….

I’m sure he spent today patting himself on the back, and joking with his friends about how cool he is, and how he went down to the river and fucked up the shooting of a movie.

But the footage we did get was all worth it (I hope the cast agrees when they get to see it all put together).  There are some great moments in there and it all looks great.  We have a replacement second camera person in Maria who has a great eye.  And we’re nearly back on schedule, but more importantly we have all of our big issues solved behind the camera, so while I knew this portion of the film was going to be a logistics nightmare, we can relax a little bit knowing that all of those issues have been addressed.  Now it’s just a matter of getting the rest in the can.

So for everything that went wrong, there was a lot that went right, and we’re slowly but surely getting this thing wrapped up.  All in all, a good bad day.  Or a bad good day… either way… I guess what really amazes me is to think this was only our fourth shooting day for this segment, though I’m sure the cast and crew feel like it’s been an eternity.