Mark, Maura, Jim, Stacey & I started out Day 26 with a trip to the Optimist Cafe for some breakfast and some serious script discussions.  It was the first time in five days that Stacey and I had left the house, and was probably a good thing.  The rewriting was very inspired, and we came up with some super excellent changes that would make all the difference in the world to our grand finale.  It will be hard describing them without giving away key plot points, but suffice to say we were all very happy (and full of eggs) on our trip home.

What did we shoot that day?  Honestly, Wednesday and Thursday are all one big blur to me right now, but I shall do my best to remember.

I do know that we blocked out the entire Finale, scene by scene, room by room, and it was SO worth it.  It gave Stacey & Jim ample time to practice one of the trickiest segments of the movie, and I wish we did every scene that way.  We definitely shot something during the day, but I cannot for the life of me recall what.  Maybe Jim just sang to us for hours on end.  I also know that we had taken photographs of every potential shot, but now I feel like that happened Tuesday night.  Hmm.

Oh!  I thought of a few things.  Jim walking into the kitchen and looking at the calendar.  Stellar.  Also Jim walking into the bedroom and looking under the bed.  Equally gripping.  Jim "suggested" a shot that involved having him face his bottom to the camera, and we all agreed with him out of politeness that, yes, that would be a great "creative" choice.  Clearly, he was trying to show off.  His shot actually made more sense than mine, so...congratulations Jim's ass.  You're having the best week ever.

Rajah arrived after his daytime event, the sun set, and we were very ready to begin shooting the finale.  The finale overall, in my opinion, is one of if not the best sequence we've shot to date, and it was a complete thrill to watch it played out for us over and over.  You so rarely get to shoot a sequence in order, and for building the dramatic tension, keeping the actors in the moment, making continuity a non-issue, etc. etc. it is so ideal. 

The sequence started in the TV room, perfectly quiet and understated, but it's where the argument between Mitch & Suzanne began to unfold.  We shot the whole sequence handheld with minimal lighting adjustments, because we wanted the acting and the story to take complete center stage.  The way the anger built in this first part was electrifying, and culminated in Mitch & Suzanne storming out towards the dining room. 

I believe it was Jim's or Rajah's idea to have that next part occur by the sliding glass door instead of the front door, which I thought was stupid until I saw it.  But since I'm writing the blog--I'm pretty sure it was my idea, and it was definitely the correct one.  The violent anger coming from Stacey as Suzanne was scary, and Jim as Mitch matched it beat-for-beat as he lost his composure and got sucked into her argument.  It was downright awesome to watch these two work, and Maura, Mark and I just tried to stay out of the way.  Rajah was right there with them every step of the way.  I will admit every time Jim slammed the sliding glass door I worried about the neighbors, but I breathed a sigh of relief when that part was done because I could fully enjoy it then.

Then their argument moved to the kitchen, which is probably the part I find the most memorable because every time Mitch dropped the C-bomb, and Suzanne slammed down the butcher knife and yelled back, it was VERY uncomfortably real and perfect.  This sequence was really like watching a great play, and I can't give enough kudos to Jim & Stacey for their work, other than to say that their performances in the film will speak for themselves.  So dynamic, so honest, so scarily Mitch & Suzanne.  I think we jumped every time that knife hit the cutting board.  And once, only once, the knife broke.  But we kept on going.

The next part followed them to the front room for a brief exchange that was also excellent, building even more to the climax, and this scene (like the rest of the movie, in my opinion) works so well because it incrementally pushes the viewer towards the next emotional beat.  We tried so hard with performances, and especially the writing and last minute rewriting of the script to shape as many parts of this movie as we could that would nudge the audience forward and hopefully justify every time the violence increases, avoiding any unrealistic leaps.  I know we can do a lot of that in editing, but from watching so many of the scenes we shot our marathon week, and especially this final sequence, I think the actors nailed it completely.

So at this point, we did a reality check to see if we were really going to be able to do the last part of the finale also that night, or whether Jim, Stacey, and me and the Bad News Bears were spent at this point.  We kind of were, and agreed (after a weird quasi-argument where I think we were essentially all arguing the same thing, but different ways) to shoot easy stuff for the rest of the night and pick up the next day.  We also made the bold and critical move to block out the windows in the bedroom to allow us to shoot the sex scene during the day and not spend our last night scrambling.  Blocking out the windows with garbage bags, by the way, was one of the two phrases I grimaced at whenever it was suggested (the other being how we didn't have any exterior locations yet for the film).  Those of you who've heard our tales from our first feature, "Naughty or Nice," know that we spent a good six months putting garbage bags up on windows, and I just didn't want to invite that kind of trouble or memory again.  But it was the smartest move to have done it.

So we finished up for the night with several shots of Jim running up and down the stairs in two different outfits and two different angles.  Then Rajah and I walked around and got shots of the empty TV room, the empty kitchen, the empty dining room, the empty front room, and close-up shots of objects in each of them.  This was also TONS more fun than I thought it would be.  Rajah is the "ECU on Object" King, and I am amazed to see the level of detail and excitement he puts into each of these shots.  It is infectious, and I found myself very into it, while all the others began drinking without us.  What's great about Rajah too is he gets so involved that he literally can't stop until it's perfect, and so I feel useful in just pressing the button on the camera to make sure we at least record some of the "almost perfect shots" for coverage and, you know, ideally to be used in the movie. 

When we finally stopped and enjoyed our drinks we were tired and energized at the same time.  I would definitely say that while the dinner party was the most fun sequence of the film to shoot, the finale sequence was the one of which I am most proud to have been a part.  It was a phenomenal day.  And, yes, still kind of a blur.

Drink of the night:  Coconut-flavored rum

Food of the night:  Pizza and coconut flavors

Catchphrase of the night:  "I'm not mad at that lighting"

Music of the night:  The "Jimmy & Rajah" song 

Bedtime:  2:00 AM