Scene
Ext: The Reiker Ford Access Point

And at last, we come to the end with most of our Summer cast. James, Nichole, Ben, Elyse, and Derek have all finished their shots for this segment of the film. We now just have one scene and one shot left, and after that I don’t ever want to see another fucking canoe for as long as I live. I don’t want to be near anything with water, and I don’t think I’ll ever feel the desire to swim again. I’m pretty sure the rest of the cast feels the same way.

The last shot we have is a night scene, so as long as it’s warm enough that you can’t see people breathing, we’ll be done with one more shooting evening, and then… we’re off to Hannibal to start shooting fall.

This weekend was a lot of shuffling to get the last bits done. James and Nichole’s final shot in the segment involved driving for an hour and 25 minutes to location, to set up for 40 minutes, to shoot about 1 minute of footage. One take is all we had, and thankfully, one take was all we needed. They were in the water, and out, and up the hill to change in seconds. We should have brought a stop watch. Troopers from start to finish. Never a scheduling issue.  Always know their lines.  Terrific performances from start to finish. These are the kind of people you want to work with.

It makes me a little sad that we only have one more scene to shoot with them for the third segment.

After Saturdays long prep but short shoot, we headed out on Sunday in the afternoon to shoot the last few shots with the rest of the cast. And Elyse, our youngest cast member for this segment, shined like crazy. We did a reshoot of her death scene, and then she got herself cleaned up… and we’ve discovered that her hair is either steel or fiberglass, because there is no way to actually mess it up. I think it’s made of the same stuff that they use to make Tempurpedic beds, because no matter what you do with it, it somehow remembers exactly where it was, and it just naturally falls right back into place. I’m sure she’s probably the most hated girl in her school. That girl who has porcelain skin, with no blemishes, and perfect hair.

So after that quick reshoot, she washes her hair with bottled water, combs it out, puts her headband back on… and viola…like it never happened.

After all that, she patiently waited. And waited. And waited. And waited, for us to shoot a very quick scene, of her throwing up. Now, we’ve all seen people get sick a million times. And when someone throws up in your house, it’s very different than what you tend to see in the movies. It’s the typical, mouth full of mush, cough, cough spit. I wanted this shot to look real. So there she is, sitting in the canoe, in shorts and a t-shirt and it’s cold… like 35 degrees cold. And we do the first take.  Okay.  Eh.  Then a little directing, and Elyse is ready to go again. “Try to cover your mouth, and then throw up through your fingers….”

The best part of the take. Elyse, holding her finger up to say “one second” while she daintily takes her finger and wipes the corner of her mouth before diving right into this great spew of vomit… I tell you, there are days when I love this gig.

One  shot with the extras (okay, three, but who’s counting….), who have been patiently waiting in makeup for their moment, and we’re packing up to head home.

The only thing funnier and more fun than the evening of shooting. The ride home… more on that later.