Day 3 of the marathon, and we were all exhausted.  I decided it was high time to eat something, so I had a bite or two of the lemon poppyseed cake that Amy had donated.  Tragically, it tasted like lamb shanks.  And surprisingly, lamb shank cake is not delicious in the morning.

Backing up a bit to Day 2, I totally forgot to mention the last sequence we did as part of Dinner Party Part I--although it's kind of amazing I remember any of it at this point.  We had everyone--Leila, Kevin, Mark, Michael, Jim, Stacey, and Tony gathered around the dinner table while Amy as Ally gave an awesome speech.  She did a superb job and it was an effortless scene to shoot (probably why I forgot it).  Stupid Costco advertised that there were 8 lamb shank servings, but each serving was like half a shank, so we had to rotate the food depending on the camera angle.  That was pretty funny in hindsight.  I'm pretty sure Lou had to rotate the cherry tomatoes in the salad bowls too, to make sure they looked pretty depending on who was in the shot.  There was also a suggestion to have Todd cough out his line rather than the way I had imagined it, so we let him do it that way too.  But of course, I'm a genius and my way is right, and I only ever entertain other people's ideas to humor them (and because so many times they're good).

So...back to Day 3.  It was Sunday, so we all went to an early Mass and then got ready to shoot.  That morning Jim & Leila left, and we began shooting the Paul/Ally scene that occurs early in the film where she tries to sneak shampoo back into the house.  Stacey set up the shots for that scene, while Mark & I ducked behind the counter and watched.  It was a nice break and I very much enjoyed the scene as it played out.  Also, as usual, Stacey and I had slightly different reads on how the characters would be in the scene, and I'm really glad we got both versions.  I thought Tony & Amy did a great job, and it's really fun to see the dynamic between those two characters blossoming (as they also will in the tennis scene), because I think it does a lot to mess with the audience's expectations. 

We shot the second half of the scene in the dining room, now 100% shank free, (yes I'm trying to see how many times I can use the word "shank"), and I thoroughly enjoyed both setting up the shots--which is rare for me--and watching the scene play out.  Mike was a huge help with both the lighting and the framing, and that continued when we got to shoot the floor shot of the purse/shampoo/shoe close-ups.  Mike & I love us some floor shots.

At that point we probably took a break or something, and then got ready for the Will scene.  If there's one scene we shot this week that I feel was most poorly managed by me, it was this one.  The scene as written is far, far better than what we had in the original script, but it was rewritten so recently, that we never took any time to rehearse it.  I hate when we spend so much time setting up the lighting and shots and then rush all the actors into performing.  So the scene started out rough, largely because it was a lot of dialogue between Suzanne & Ally that they had never really gotten a chance to play with, and it wasn't coming out exactly as I wanted, but I didn't have any suggestions on how to fix it.  By my count, this was my third director implosion on the whole Joneses shoot, which percentage-wise is not bad.  When I can't figure out how to make things better, I sort of shut down and become even less helpful than I should be.  Making matters worse, Stacey & I practiced the scene on the way down on Friday, and I knew how good every line could be...but in the moment I kind of lost it.

So we took a break, and came back to it and everything was a hundred times better.  I should always use my parallel parking theory of directing when faced with something that's not clicking: instead of constanly readjusting little things to fit into a tight space, just pull the car out completely and start over, from a fresh angle.  It sounds dumb, but it really works.  Things went SO smoothly after that, and I LOVE the dialogue in the first half of the scene.  I especially love Stacey's re-imagining of the line "she called me a whore at the Ice Capades," which for some reason is ten times funnier than "she called me a wench at the Ice Capades."  I also thought the interplay between Mitch, Ally & Suzanne in this scene was so great--Mitch and Suzanne are all business with the will, and Ally keeps trying to make it a moral issue.

Then for the second half, Amy did an outstanding job with her confession, to the point that she was shaking when delivering the lines, and Jim was extremely generous as an actor in trying to make sure everyone was quiet and allowed the room to do the scene appropriately.  I asked him to do a different version of Mitch (less caring, more menacing) which played out very nicely and I have a feeling may be the version we use.  I have to give huge credit to all three of the actors for this scene; I didn't make it easy for them, and they did excellent work until I got back on the horse.

Then I did a shot or two and readied myself for the evening shoot.  It was the kitchen parts of the Dinner Party sequence--again, my favorite sequence in the movie, and it ended up being probably the most fun we had the whole week.

It's almost too difficult to describe every detail of why it worked so well, and was so much fun, but I can give a few that I recall.  To begin with, these scenes have been perfect since the very first time we rehearsed them--Tony, Jim, Amy & Stacey are just AWESOME to watch when they all get to really tear into each other.  We rehearsed the blocking over and over before shooting each scene, and after watching the first one, I was inspired to shoot it all as one take, panning back and forth with each character that crosses through the kitchen.  It made it feel very chaotic, cramped, and flowed so nicely.  I loved it and I loved doing it.

When we got to do the second and third scenes, it was just even better than I would have imagined.  Ally trying to be peacemaker, Mitch and Suzanne yelling at each other, Paul sticking up for his wife--these four gave such thoroughly great performances, that all I felt I had to do was capture it all on camera.  And we were all so into watching it, and the tension kept building, that I'm pretty sure we created a ton of bloopers as the giggles started to come out in full force.  And Jim's line reading of "Hey, I Think We Already Paid Enough for That Blanket!" had us all cracking up.  It was such a joy to make those scenes.

Then we drank some more and Mark and Jim tried on the wig--Jim looking either like Garth from Wayne's World or, as Rajah recently suggested, one of the Lone Gunmen from X-Files.

Drink of the night: Sambuca

Food of the night: Pizza

Song of the night:  The jingle for boobiesonmyface.com

Catchphrase of the night:  "Blanket!"

Bedtime:  4:00 AM