Day 43 began with us knowing that it was the day to wrap Tony.  But the fates would not allow it.

Rajah Jones (archaeologist/cinematographist) brought his street surf board, which we all enjoyed.  Stacey & I did an enormous amount of prep the night before with our hooker-y Valentine's Day backdrops which were created by stringing Christmas lights around Target garment racks and then wrapped around those were about 100 strings of dirt cheap foil heart thingies we bought with Maura back on Feb. 15th.  They took forever to make!  Also we got the awesome donation of 2 Open House signs and 2 enormous For Sale signs from our realtor, Steve Amaral.  And we were excited to have our extra special players--Heejean, Brendon, Rob, Diana, Owen, and Irene to play some important roles for the day.

We started quickly.  It was me, Mark, Stacey, Maura, Jim, Max, Lou and Rajah there at noon.  We started setting up the darkroom (I thought the bathroom would be a good place for it, but I was dead wrong--the basement turned out perfect for it).  Meanwhile, Maura & I shot a pick-up shot of Stacey in the yard for the yard sale scene that I had neglected to get a few months ago.  Rajah refused to have anything to do with it because he said the lighting wouldn't match.  The man is insane and I totally disagreed.  We got it.  It's great.

Tony arrived and we drove off immediately to the Byfield post office to shoot the scene with Paul filling out change-of-address forms for his neighbors.  We shot it two different ways--one as one long take from inside the car (Stacey's idea), and one with a series of shots that Mark & Rajah came up with.  We did not however do Jim's plan of doing a series of 18 simple shots, but his plan made me laugh a lot. 

We got back to the house and shot the darkroom scene.  Man, did that ever look ridiculously good!  It's amazing what you can do with two kitty litter trays, some clothespins, some kitchen tongs, a regular flood light, a black sheet, and a red gel.  Instant movie magic.  It just looked outstanding!  Big props to the whole team for making that come together so smoothly and awesomely.

Then we were joined by the other gang, so we set up over at the neighbor's house.  We started in immediately with a great shot of Heejean & Brendon reading (they're very slow readers) the open house sign, and with Rob, Diana & Owen by the front door, much to Mitch's dismay.  We did a few different shots for coverage of the montage scene, and it looks really great.  I'm especially glad we panned with Mitch as he dumped the signs in one take--I really like the way that plays.  Everyone did a very good job in the scene, except Owen because he just kept blowing every line.  I don't care that he's an infant: he needs to be a professional if he's going to make it in the biz.

After that we were ready for our scene with Irene, Brendon & Heejean which I can't say much about, plot-wise, except that it's either an important scene or will be only on the DVD.  I hope that makes them feel special and not, you know, completely unnecessary.  :)  They did a great job too, and I am very thankful that they were all able to pick up the lines and fall right into the scene with very little practice.  Indeed the funniest thing that happened was that the neighbors (who know we're going to be using their house, in a general way, but didn't know we'd be there at that time) arrived home to see two cars parked in their driveway, a smattering of people by their garage, and For Sale signs planted in the ground.  Just as every homeowner wants to see.  They thought it was hilarious, so that was great.

Also, Stacey played with a baby frog.

Then Maura & I donned the Space Invaders outfits and we took all of about four minutes to shoot some B roll in the Shalkoski attic, which is being renovated, and was our location for a second Space Invaders episode.  Our backs were awesome actors.

Finally, as we waited for Tony to return and darkness to set in some more, we all had some pizzas and beers on the front lawn.  Then--and you're never gonna believe the nerve of him--Tony arrived and BROUGHT MORE BEERS.  Can you believe that?!  What is wrong with that guy.  Of course we all yelled at him. 

The darkness began overwhelming the sky much more than it usually does at 6:00 in the summer, largely because supposedly we were going to get huge rainstorms.  I refused to believe it and tried to will it away.  I decided blind optimism and a complete dissociation from reality would be the best way to combat the guaranteed twister that was inches from us.  And then it was obvious.  Seconds before the downpour we each grabbed a piece of equipment and ran inside.

Once inside, Stacey got a call from her family that her grandmother (who is fine now) was in the hospital, and so we wanted to be there.  It seemed everything was pointing to delaying our final scene for the day, so we all made a hasty getaway, knowing we had gotten 6 out of 7 scenes done, all shot and performed very well, and it was a very good day overall.  Except now that rat fink Tony has to see us one more day.