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Day 1 is in the can! Actually it was quite literally in the can, as we shot the first 3 hours in a tight urinal/stall area. The good people of the Beverly Athletic Club allowed us to use their space for what I'm sure was initially pitched by me as "a few hours," which translated into shooting from about 3:30 - midnight, but netted us about 6 minutes of the film that has already been shot. Not too shabby for Day 1.

Here are some things I learned:

• old naked guys like walking around the men's locker room at length (pardon the pun), whether there is a film crew in there or not. They also like having conversations with you while their special parts are hanging over your shoulder. Towels? Who needs towels?!
• despite having a camera, two enormous lights, a boom mic, six crew members, and two actors huddled around a urinal and stall, this does not dissuade people from walking into the center of it and making either a #1 or (what I like to call) a B.M. in the middle of your scene. While it added to the authenticity, it really wasn't the most glamorous way to start our shoot.
• Having somebody who knows what they're doing with the camera (Rajah) is completely invigorating, and we already have some amazing shots that Stacey & I were getting giddy about as we watched the footage. Kudos to Rajah for some really excellent work throughout the shoot.
• Apple juice + water = fake pee pee. Organic apple juice + water = some sort of urinary condition.
• Our two new cast/crew hybrid machines (Adam Lopez and Frank Tarara) are both awesome to have on set, and did a terrific job lighting and recording the sound for the whole marathon day.
• If you can't give your actors real steroids in between scenes (stupid Olympic regulations!) then a creative big-shirt/tight-shirt variation really works to give some authenticity to some sudden muscle bulges.
• When Mark DiSanzo talks, we should listen. As script supervisor at least two important catches he made for the day were a "green glove on the opposite hand" detail, and pointing out that when you can see that only 30 lbs. are being lifted in the shot, it might not be too impressive for our post-steroid hulkster.
• I love dolly tracks. I just love them.
• Tony Wright and Jim Shalkoski, Jr. are great actors and as Stacey pointed out later, "it's really nice that we'll be able to pick the 'best' takes this time instead of moments from our last film where we had to pick the 'least horrible' take.
• Extras are a magical thing. Big props to Lou "Koko B. Ware" Ottaviani for doing all kinds of extra management to make the gym scenes really come alive.
• Tony's choice to chew gum in the post-steroid scene was PERFECT. And Jim's "very dicky" take as Mitch lead to a wonderful performance. The whole night showcased the Paul/Mitch friendship-competition excellently.

I can already see that we have a first-rate cast, and a production crew that are already figuring out how to keep everything going as creatively and efficiently as possible. I could speak at length about each of our roles more, but suffice to say that I now know exponentially more about how to play to each of our strengths. I thank Stacey, Lou, Mark, Rajah, Frank, Adam, Tony, and Jim for making Day 1 as fun and successful as it was. Oh, also I thank myself because I'm awesome.

Today's special shout-out is to Mark DiSanzo who has been dedicated to this film since he read the script several years ago, and has proven to be a key force in the pre-production, now the production, as well as leading the way to bring The Joneses info to the general public. Also when he and Stacey gang up on me, it makes me cry inside. Because they're right.