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Day 12. We regained our composure from the last night of shooting, and took everything a lot more seriously. Although the night began with Jim insisting to Stacey and me that in order for the coffeemaker to work we had to follow the instructions on it which said "Open Head," so he proceeded to pry open our jaws while it brewed. He's a strange one.

Actually the night began at a local establishment with some burgers and beers, which after Friday night's shoot and some of us having to work during the day Saturday (e.g. me), it really just made us all a lil' sleepy.

Thankfully we had full attendance by the talent (Jim & Stacey) and the not-so-talent (Lou, me, Rajah, Frank, Mark, Kevin T. and our new friend Mike). Mike talked our ear off all night, but we still managed to get a lot done.

We started off strong in the bathroom downstairs, with a scene where Mitch is shaving, notices Ally's beauty products (with a shameless product placement for the nice folks at Alterna), and then he thinks or something. It's really hard to light a bathroom. And whoever broke the soapdish is on my list; thankfully my resourceful wife immediately found a replacement which we will be restoring to the room this coming weekend. Jim did an excellent job shaving and acting at the same time, despite many who thought it couldn't be done.

Then we moved to the bedroom, where "Cribs" has taught us is where the magic happens. It was a scene with Mitch reading catalogs. Some of which were green. Beyond that there was very little magic, except the magic that emanates when Jim's acting eyes ignite, or when his acting tooth aches. And I'm pretty sure both happened.

We stayed in the bedroom for the next scene which had some kick-ass lighting to look like the moon, which Frank almost destroyed, but then he did something to redeem himself that I don't remember. I do recall that Mark suggested we show Mitch turning the TV on, which you could see reflected in the window. That scene looked really, really good, and it was definitely a joint effort pulling it off, with Rajah's moody shot, and lighting assistance by Lou, Mike, Kevin, and (reluctantly I'll admit) Frank. Oh, and Jim forgot the outfit he absolutely had to bring to do this shot and the next, so many thanks to Stacey & Maura for making a last minute run to the local Marshalls to pick out a reasonable facsimile. [Note to future directors of Jim Shalkoski, Jr., trying to e-mail him important things to remember for a shoot: he does not like to read the first line of an e-mail, so make sure you start your message with a lot of extra fluff. It makes him feel important when he gets to skip things.]

Then we spent like the next eight days trying to light a room in total darkness save for the reflection of a TV screen. This had many complications. The TV doesn't come on automatically, so we couldn't actually have it come on in any of the shots. Also our visual effect of the TV flickering was way harder than it would seem. We tried no gels, shaking gels, gels in blues, reds, oranges, waving gels, I believe we had some shimmying gels, and finally Frank's patented single-blue-double-blue gel combination. That's what worked. I had Mike ready to plug and unplug the light in on Jim's cue, and then I got testy and yelled at everybody while Lou came up with the bright (pardon the pun) idea of having the light on a switch. Lou: you go, girl! Anyway, it came out looking very cool, but was very painful to me as my eyeballs turned into hourglasses.

Next was a very, very excellent shot of Jim demagnetizing credit cards shot from under the glass table. It looked phenomenal--and a bit like he was about to do some blow--and whether Rajah's shot or mine is used, it's going to come out great. And it'll be mine because it's far superior and I write the blogs. Jim did one take as uber-agressive, and one as a sort of mad magnet scientist, and I'm not sure which was funnier. But either way will be great.

Finally, our night wrapped up with a very intimate scene between Mitch & Suzanne that called for one of our most dramatic lighting set-ups and intricate choreography we've done to date. I absolutely love the shot, the lighting is extraordinary (in my opinion), and Jim and Stacey did just outstanding jobs in a scene that required every subtle note and movement to be perfect. We pushed it farther than it is in the script, and I know it was the right choice, and when we took it a different way it totally felt false. Suffice to say that I am so proud of the performances Jim & Stacey gave in this EXTREMELY important scene, and I truly believe we did those performances justice by shooting the whole scene to look so beautiful, moody, lonely, passionate, sad...you name the adjectives and I think we nailed them.

All in all, it was a great night. I really am feeling like we're getting better and better with every shoot. It was a tiring weekend, though, and even now (on Monday) some of us are still exhausted. We need sleep. Or to Open Head, drink some coffee, and start again in four more days...