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It's been a month since Halloween, in which time The Joneses cast & crew broke for Christmas, New Years, and apparently decided to get even more awesome during the hiatus. Last weekend we had an impromptu rehearsal session with Jim, Stacey, Amy, & Tony, and a crew meeting with Lou, Rajah, Mike, and Mark. Also we got new lights, a monitor, and a dry erase board (just as low-tech as it sounds). I am so glad we got a chance to have last weekend to rehearse and have the crew meeting, because we brought our A game this weekend!

So Friday night, we showed up at Tom's Dad's house (I am no longer allowed to call it a compound) which is probably the most beautiful house ever invented. We are so lucky to be able to use it as the Foster house, and I can't wait for everybody to see it in the film. God willing we will find an appropriate match for the Dixon house. Already waiting for us was Tom, our ever-exuberant cohort, and three new production assistants who were great help that night: Laura, Megin, and Kim. It was actually kind of overwhelming our first day back to have such a huge location, all new toys (see above) and probably more crew than we'd ever need for one night. Still, we appreciated the help and the night went quite excellently.

By some stroke of fate, it seems that everyone that was there that night also had had a really terrible day, and I hope we were a bright spot for their Friday. Stacey was very well prepared to direct and Jim & Amy came with jammies and acting chops, not necessarily in that order. We also had a spinner bike loaned to us by the good people at StarTrac. And Frank. Which was more valuable? Tough to say.

The first scene we shot was Jim as Mitch drinking and moving laundry from the bed to the bike, while Amy as Ally read and most likely had many, many thoughts about her feet. I don't remember exactly how the whole "foot skirmish of '08" ended, but we can only hope that no lives were lost (and that our boys come home safely). I have no idea what I'm talking about. But Jim and Amy were great in the scene and there was not a single line forgotten!

The second scene was excellent--Ally on exercise bike, listening to her iPod, while Mitch bursts in and spouts off about the Valentine's decorations that the neighbors are putting up. Special props on the prop of the Halloween trophy to Stacey, and the ludicrous discussion we had on set trying to decide where and how to place it best. But we got through it with some great P.O.V shots, a close-up of the bike, and some highly entertaining performances by Jim & Amy.

For the last scene of the night, we got to move upstairs to the living room, where Ally waits for Mitch to arrive home from the bar, and confronts him. It was such a good scene, and I know Stacey was very, very happy with the ways Amy & Jim performed in it. It's so much fun to see the Mitch & Ally marriage unfold for us, week after week--after years of being in our heads and on the page--we are exceedingly lucky to have talented people like Jim and Amy bringing them to life, as well as a crew that works HARD to get us ridiculously good footage week after week--Lou, Rajah, Mark, Mike, Frank, and Maura helped get the job done right as usual, and we were equally grateful to add Tom and our new helpers Laura, Megin, and Kim who we hope can assist us in the future.

So we all decided to get a few hours sleep before returning a few hours later...