Doug's Production Diary 14

Monday, May 30, 2005

This is a first for us today: an all-day shoot. We're talking 13 hours or so. Not continuous shooting, but still...

Dan and I got up at 8:00 and set to work getting our location set: our apartment. Basically, this entailed cleaning it but also moving a few things around too. By 10:30 a.m. we had our cast for the day assembled: Me, Brett, and Christian. Our crew, Tony and Dan, as well.

We did just about all the apartment stuff, except when Buddy is apparently "dead." The sound is great, because we have thick walls and turned everything off, so I don't think we'll need to re-do audio much for this stuff.

The lights get pretty warm on everyone, but I think the heat inspired some great performances!
We were able to manipulate the sun to have it move over my eyes to "wake me up" by having Dan stand out on the balcony and use a poster board to shield the light, then slowly move it so the light traveled over my eyes.

The waking scene took a bit due to all the movement involved, to preserve continuity. But worth it totally: Tony said the footage looks great!

I had to spit water at Christian about ten times. We shot from multiple angles, a few of which were unexpectedly cool due to happenstance, like having the psychedelic light in the background, right behind my head. The last take was the best: a close-up of Christian where I REALLY soaked him. We broke for lunch then and finished up little things for the scenes before taking a few hours off so friends and family could be visited. Dan slept. Brett and I hacked to keep awake and alert.

Our night shooting went well. John McGuire was all nervous and self-conscious, something I found quite unexpected. At first he was also quite critical of our script until we spun the magic for him. He quickly resolved to our way of thinking.

We got a good chuck of shooting done at night. Picked up from where Jimmy hangs the phone up to our scattering from view in Room 15 following Lance's revelation.

All told, it was a long 13-hour day of film stuff, but spirits were high so it was never a problem. Christian pointed out that he, Brett, and I are gelling very well, playing off each other, and giving great performances on-screen.

Who could ask for more than that?!