Day 40 was brought to us by the extremely helpful Town of Saugus, who had previously allowed us to shoot in the town center.  The Town Manager, Andrew Bisignani, as well as the chief of police, James McKay, were very generous in giving us access to our choice of rooms in the Saugus Police Station and made it one of our quickest most efficient shoots to date.

We had our smallest crew to date (me, Maura, & Mark), and we worked hard and quick to make it go effortlessly that night.  We had a reunion with Mr. Tom Mariano (yes--that one!) and, you know, Jim.  We did a quick pack-up of the car and drove the five minutes to the station to begin the shoot.

We were also very lucky to have Sgt. Mike Stewart as our detail and tour guide for the night, and his excitement about the movie and the performances and shots he saw--as well as our inclusion of him as an extra--was contagious.  He was really great to have around.  Maybe I'll start having him come to all the shoots.  Instead of the rest of the lame-o's I'm stuck with.  My apologies to those non-lame-o members of the crew: you know who you are.

Mark & Maura busted out some really good lighting, even though my first instinct was we didn't need much.  Dumb instinct.  Our white balancing left something to be desired (like white balancing), but we made it all work well. 

As the scene got underway, the actors did a great job with their parts.  Tom not only supplied his generous amount of bloopers, but he also did really well at connecting with the part as the interrogating officer and he suggested that it would be more intimidating and natural if he stood very close to Mitch.  That worked out great, and you could tell both performances were even better because of it.  Jim, as always, was able to do the Mitch-blow-up great and I really like that the scene plays out with him getting so angry--like a caged animal--and how easily he dismisses Ally's intentions.  I was also struck by his nuanced take on a line that I forgot was a lie but his very subtle read on it was note-perfect.  We also did a take or two at the end with Tom's detective being more soft-spoken and I really, really enjoyed that too.  Good work, boyz!  It's also amazing how much authenticity we gained by having Det. Stewart walking in the background--it was awesome!

Then when we moved downstairs, Maura got the perfect shot of Jim waiting on the bench: his face in sharp focus, with Tom approaching in soft focus, racking slightly to his gun and badge as it enters the frame.  There was one take that was just the perfect rack.  And then Maura decided to turn the camera on.  Despite there being an awful lot of Tom crotch shots (more than I prefer) for the night, our shots were very good that night.  Also we had a great extra, Jack, who as usual I called something else once or twice, but then once I got his name down, we were golden.  Det. Stewart was so excited about our cool shot, that he called another officer over to watch how neat it looked.  Basically we rule.

We were done ahead of schedule, we had a good time, and we got very good footage--thanks again to the 2 crew members, the 2 actors, the 2 extras, the 2 Town of Saugus benefactors, and the me (of which there is only one, thank the Lord).