Last Night...

Last night's shooting went very well...all things considered. One of our lead actresses was sick and unable to be on set. If that wasn't enough one of our supporting cast members (who had some lines) became ill while on set so we had an interesting start to our evening. We had to shoot "around" where our actress would have been. We always had to frame our shots so some one was blocking where she would have been sitting had she been there. We'll have to come back and do some pick-ups so that when the scene is edited, it'll look like she was there all the time and we just chose not to show her all the time. It's complicated.

I had three Monsters last night, they're essential on night shoots. We had burgers, fries and coleslaw for "lunch", and fish and fries for "dinner". Due to rain we had today off, but we're back tomorrow working from three to three again.

I got a few pictures which are below. Most were taken while it was still light outside. I'll take more tomorrow.

The courtyard where most of the wedding scene will take place.

These stickers tell the DP what kind on filter is in the mattebox.

Amy Sanderfur, our B camera operator.

The slate and camera log sheets.

The hard drive.

The operator's view.

Monster...handy on day shoots, vital on night shoots.

Grip Village

The Producer, Andy Dean.

The DP, 1st AD, and A camera operator having a chat.

The Last Week...

Well, my weekend is almost over and the last week of the shoot is beginning. As I mentioned in my last post, the rest of our shooting days will actually be nights. We will be working from 5:00 p.m. one day to 5:00 a.m. the next day. It's a little strange because when you're working days, you arrive on set and leave the set on the same day. When you're shooting at night, you arrive on, say, a Monday afternoon, and leave on Tuesday morning. It kind of throws your perception of time off a little. It also means you have to reset your body clock. Tonight (Sunday) I'm going to stay up till at least an hour after midnight so I'll get to bed much later than usual. As a result, I'll wake up much later and my body will be ready to go for a regular day.

A Picture...

First Night Shoot...

Yesterday was our first night shoot. We started the day at three o'clock in the afternoon and wrapped for the day at three o'clock in the morning. I prepared for this by staying up very late Thursday so I would sleep in Friday. I woke up around eleven thirty Friday morning so my body was rested up for another twelve hour day.

Shooting at night is actually a lot of fun. It's a completely different atmosphere. Since it's dark outside, everything we're shooting has to be lit so it's almost more of a party feeling on set. Smaller lights here and there, the big 18K (18,000 watt light) suspended from the crane about forty feet in the air...it's a whole different ballgame. I'll take some pictures Monday and you can all see for yourselves how cool it looks.

It cools down quite a bit at night, so everyone brought something warm to put on once the sun went over the horizon. Thanks to the cool weather, the bugs weren't nearly as bad as we were expecting them to be. We're in the middle of a swamp/bayou and we are literally surrounded by water, so if we do get some warm nights, it's going to get ugly.

Monday, we are going to shoot the wedding scene that takes place near the end of the story. It's going to be the toughest scene in the entire movie to light and shoot. There will be about 50 extras, plus the cast and crew so the logistics involved are going to be much greater than in the past. Hopefully everyone will be in a good mood and things will go smoothly. If things go well, it will probably be the most beautiful scene (from a camera and lighting perspective) in the entire series.

Okay...those of you who are wondering what a shower curtain is are about to be enlightened. It is a very thin piece of light diffusing material that is placed in front of a light to help soften the light.

Next Quiz: What's a wild wall?

Another Good Day...

We had another good day today. We were able to finish all our scenes for today and we had time to shoot some inserts. Just in case ya'll don't know what inserts are, they are shots of people or objects in the scene that can be inserted into the finished scene to help complete it, better convey the message of the scene, or give the viewer some sort of inside information about the plot. Anyway, tomorrow is our last scheduled day of shooting from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Starting Friday we'll be shooting through the night (from 3:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.) which means it'll be much cooler (maybe a little cold), there'll be a lot of mosquitoes, everyone will be a little crabby about halfway through the night, and I'll have to drink a lot of Red Bull. Ah, well, such is the price.

Another fun question: What's a shower curtain?

FYI: The answer is not a piece of plastic that prevents water from flooding your bathroom floor while you take a warm relaxing shower after a hard day's work.

A Great Day...

Today was a really good day! We finished everything we were supposed to shoot today and had some extra time to shoot inserts. (Do any of you know what inserts are?) The weather here is starting to cool off a little which makes working outside a whole lot more enjoyable. I'm still having a lot of fun.

Almost...

Today, we almost got lucky. There was a 50% chance of rain today and the sky was clear till about 3:00 p.m. when it started to drizzle. At 5:15 p.m. we decided to wrap for the day since any chance of the rain clearing was gone. We had two long scenes to finish today and we got about halfway through the first scene. Progress is progress so I can't complain to much. It is supposed to be sunny this weekend so we'll probably end up playing some catch up.