Our Day 38 was by far one of our smoothest shoots to date.  We were very lucky to be allowed to shoot at Hunt's camera store in Melrose, which aside from being a very easy commute for us, is also a perfect location.  I had procrastinated contacting them for, like, ever.  Twice I had been in the store and gotten the manager's name (once on Rajah's insistence), yet still I procrastinated because I was always focusing on bigger shoots.  Anyway, I talked to the manager who very generously accepted our request and, as we later found out, whose wife was one of Stacey's favorite teachers in high school.  Very small world.

It was a 3-hour shoot--so the plan was for everybody to get there at 8 and be out by 11 when the store opened on Sunday.  We had a busy week leading up to the 3-hour shoot, with Jim & I location scouting for the dinner date scene in Beverly & Newburyport on Wednesday night, the camera store scene rehearsal with Mark and Stacey on Friday night, and then a follow-up/final decision location scouting trip to Newburyport on Saturday night with me, Stacey, Mark, Jim, Michael, and Maura (fyi, we've made our choice, and it's gonna be great).  Oh, also on Saturday, Stacey & I did some rewrites for the Space Invaders scene(s), and on Sunday night more of the same plus some dinner date rewriting.  So though we only had the camera rolling from 8-11 on Sunday, it was a very busy Jonesy week.

I was extremely glad we did the rehearsal for the camera store scene on Friday because Stacey, Mark and I were able to block it all out, see what worked and didn't, and even practice it with Frank's Rubiks cube playing the part of film cannisters.  It was very believable.  I wonder if Mark ever solved that cube...  In any event I felt really prepared for Sunday, thankfully we had Maura spend the night to make her morning commute much nicer, and we also had the assistance of Max, Michael and a surprise visit from Lou (!)  I panicked that we weren't going to have any crew since Stacey & Mark are often my back-up helpers and Rajah wasn't available, but they were the stars that day, and I didn't want them lifting one of their pretty little fingers (even though they did).  But without the M's and the Bert, it could have been a stressful shoot, so my big thanks to them.

OK, now I've written a thousand paragraphs and the shoot hasn't even begun yet, but frankly there's not a lot to say.  It was honestly one of my favorite shoots to date--I thought Stacey & Mark gave really great performances, I was so happy with the shots we got, the location was perfect, the extras and costumes were authentic, the crew worked quickly, and I was relaxed the whole time.  Who could ask for anything better?  We were inspired as soon as we got there to do a shot using the security camera monitor, but had to wait until one of the Hunt's employees came back from Dunkin' Donuts to set it up (he and another employee came early to assist and be in the background).  So we threw ourselves right into the heart of the scene with the main dialogue between Suzanne and Todd.

Maura did an excellent job on camera that day and we started with a 2-shot (with huge snazzy photos in the background) that I thought played out extremely well.  More and more I find myself doing the 2-shots or wide shots just for safety, and knowing that we might not use them for more than a second, but I was really happy with the performances that Stacey & Mark gave in it and can envision us actually sticking with the shot for a little while.  It does help to see the two of them connect--Todd talking like an insensitive but chipper boob, and Suzanne cutting him down with sarcasm and eye daggers.  We also got a good blooper on the first take with Mark not very adeptly catching the film cannisters.

We moved on to the closer shots of Todd & Suzanne, that went very well, although I wasn't happy with the lighting on Stacey's eyes for her shot.  But where were we to find a reflector screen to bounce some light?  About thirty feet away.  There are many perks to shooting in a camera store and this was one.  I think the screen helped, although I'm not sure how much, but it did give Max some additional screen time every moment he decided to let his body enter frame just for fun.  He's such an attention hooker.  We finished the single shots and I was very happy with the performances by Stacey & Mark--I always kind of thought of the scene as mildly throwaway (it's there to break things up, suggest later plot points, etc.), but having shot the scene I'm really proud of what we did and think it's very strong.

Then we got to do the money shot.  I believe it was Maura who suggested that we see if the security camera monitor could be turned on, to begin the scene, and indeed it could.  We moved the camera all the way back, got the background in soft focus, and the camera and monitor in sharp focus to show Suzanne looking into it before moving into her first position.  Stacey came up with the blocking of having Suzanne look into it to fix her hair, which was way better than my idea.  So I had her start the scene way out of frame by the front door of the store, which means the scene begins with a tight shot of the security camera monitor and seeing Suzanne approach on it, she (perfectly) looks at the cameras for a second, looks into the camera (eerily foreshadowing), fixes her hair looking into the monitor, and walks over to the other camera area.  It is one of the most exciting shots to me that we've done because it looks awesome, it was super creative and collaborative, and when I saw it play out I was shocked at how identical it is to a very important recurring shot we have near the end of the film.  Huge props to Maura, Stacey, & me for that one.

As usual, it was quickly nearing the end of the shoot, so we did some super fast set-ups for the final section of the film.  And I mean super fast, because other Hunt's employees were beginning to arrive, and we really needed to finish.  The team worked crazy efficiently, and we got single shots of Stacey and Mark, a 2-shot of them, and cutaways in no time whatsover, with extremely good extra work by the Hunt's employees in the background, and effortless movements of the camera, mic, monitor, etc. by Bert & the M's.  We finished, packed up, and were out of there about ten minutes before the store opened.  And, no, we didn't steal anything.

So, in summation, it's too bad and slightly ironic that we don't have many photos from the shoot at the camera store, but given that our top photographers were acting as D.P. (Maura) and Todd (Mark) and Suzanne (Stacey), give us a break alright.  That being said, I loved the camera store shoot, and am so glad the actors did such a great job, we got so many terrific shots, the crew helped us get out early, and Hunt's provided us with the perfect backdrop for the day.