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Me and my peeps arrived at the temple at noon on Sunday, which would have been the ideal time to shoot had there not been a bat mitzvah going on at the time. The good people at the Beth Israel in Malden were very accomodating and we appreciate them opening their doors to us for our day's shoot. The timing turned out to be a bit of a wrinkle, however, as we had to stop and start every time somebody entered or exited the temple. Which was approximately every two minutes.

The Bjort Babysitting Club again was doing great business and we had another child onlooker all day (I never did find out where his parents were) who was entranced with the moviemaking process. Experience is showing us that The Joneses will be a perfect film for kids to enjoy, except for all of the adult themes, violence, bad language, macabre jokes, sexuality, dialogue, and story. But we do have a camera that rolls along a track, and who could blame anyone for enjoying that?

Our shoot on the temple steps, though very cold and interrupted, went very smoothly, and from what I could see through the viewfinder, Rajah got some AMAZING shots. We've got everything in this scene, people! We've got your dynamic establishing dolly shot. We've got a rack focus from Suzanne (Princess Leia #1) to Ally (Princess Leia #2). And we've got one shot of Mitch with the New England autumn foliage in the background, and members of the congregation conversing on the corner in the distance that looks so good, it ought to be in a movie. And it will be.

Yet again, the performances were terrific, and I have to give big props to Jim, Amy, and Stacey (in Suzanne's first appearance!), for making these characters really come to life. They all did such a good job, and I am proud to have them in our film.

Extra credit needs to go to our crew who are becoming a fine-tuned machine: Rajah, as mentioned, set up some beautiful shots; Mike got excellent sound (and we got to use the fuzzy wind hat!); Justin captured the sun wherever it went, and it went many, many places; Lou made friends and enemies by keeping people from walking into the shot; and Mark documented it all. And he brought cookies.

We all headed out: to get warm, catch a plane, nab a few hours rest, and/or eat french fries covered in cheese and bacon. But our marathon weekend of shooting was not done yet...