Click for photos!

Casket Royale was the site of our afternoon shoot on Day 2, and I have to thank Alex and all the great people there for being not only hospitable and flexible, but also offering a great many creative suggestions along the way. FYI they are called "caskets," not "coffins." I will re-watch "Six Feet Under" with a whole new appreciation.

So while our skeleton crew (not real skeletons, as Lou likes to imagine) drove around New Hampshire suburbia, the rest of the group (Stacey, Mark, Frank, Adam, and Justin) set up the lights and dolly tracks amid the rows of coff--caskets. Christine MacFadyen waited patiently to play her part as Janelle, while Josh (our extra for the day) familiarized himself with his surroundings. Rajah, Amy, Jim, Mike and I joined them just in time for pizza, and then we were off and running.

Stacey suggested we start the scene with the characters already at the caskets, and I agreed. We set up the dolly tracks to get some great establishing shots, and Christine, Jim, and Amy jumped right into the scene terrifically. After a bit of time, Rajah came up with a great idea for an additional dolly shot that I, as I like to do, lied and told him we'd shoot at the end "time permitting." Which is synonymous with "never going to happen." Mike boomed the whole affair, and because child labor is a wonderfully cheap option we employed Alex's kids to change the slate, strike things from the set, and otherwise help us out. In exchange they became The Joneses first audience, eating candy and watching scenes from beneath the caskets. They were really great to have around, and I'm very glad they were there for one of our non R-rated scenes.

We all took a brief break when two customers arrived to pick out a casket. That was very surreal, and I think we all did an excellent job quickly and respectfully leaving the room so that they could have a quiet moment. We've been surrounded by a lot more death early on in this shoot than I would have hoped, but it's a dark comedy so I suppose it's appropriate.

The second section of the scene took place by the Paragon Jewel, which was lit glowingly by Justin and Adam, and set dressed by Stacey and Lou. The scene was really wonderful--all three actors did a wonderful job--and Amy & I watched the end of each take for Stacey's giddiness at Christine's delivery of the last line, "Very special." Mitch, Ally, and Janelle were spot on, and I think this is going to be a great scene, not just because of the total commitment that Josh made in the background, dusting off those caskets.

It proved to be a great shoot and, exhausted, we all headed home for some very needed rest before the next full day. My thanks to all for their work that day, and I just hope that nobody else has to die, except when we need them to.