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 Day 42 was another plagued day, I'll admit it, way before it even started. The shoot was originally supposed to happen in January, but our location wasn't ready so we moved on to other shoots. By the time it was going to be OK to shoot it in February, the location fell through entirely, and we spent months trying to see if we'd be able to get back in to shoot it, to no avail.
Finally about a month ago we settled on a new location that would work. We would just have to rewrite and tweak some things in the script. We also had to find a time that would work best for our actors, D.P. and crew, and settled on a Thursday afternoon in late June. But as the weekend before the shoot approached, that location fell through too. Stacey & I went into emergency mode and asked her Dad & Cheryl if we could use one of their rooms, and they very generously accepted. We went right to work redesigning and stripping the room of all non-essentials, rewrote the script to fit it, and Stacey created tons of tiny details to fit into what had gone from a kitchen, to a guest room, to a contemporary beach-themed guest room. We were good to go! I was very nervous about the day, not just because so many things had gone wrong leading up to it, but also we had a crazy, crazy schedule to accommodate everyone's needs for the day which meant several actors would be performing with empty chairs, and then we'd cut it all together later. We had a (too small for my liking) window of time between about 4 and 5 where we had to shoot all four of the main actors and Susan Wornick reprising her role as the host Maxine. On the drive over to the location to shoot, however, Susan let us know that a big story broke and she wasn't going to be able to make it. Because there was a big tire recall, and because she's been covering the story for a long time, she wasn't going to be able to come, and of course we understood. But now we were stuck. This was Amy's last day before leaving for California for good--and we had to shoot. I suggested to Stacey that we could shoot Susan's stuff separately, but we both knew that would look terrible since the whole point is seeing the host sign-off with the two couples (as well as standing there with them as they "swap keys"). Stacey said let's have co-hosts! So Plan B was in full effect. We called Cindy Houle, a neighbor of Cheryl's who had graciously agreed to play a dialogue-less soundperson for 10 seconds and asked if she minded being upgraded to a full speaking part and co-host of the show-within-the-movie "Space Invaders." She was up for it--and we were back in business! It would seem like everything was all set, but we did battle a lot of other elements throughout the day. Rain that kept threatening to burst. Miscommunications about start times for actors. Traffic. Dried-out markers. Poor Stan had to stop mowing every five minutes because we kept rushing into shooting. It was a tragedy of errors, but in the end we got everything we needed. I have to give huge thanks to Stacey for organizing the whole shoot (and chunk board) well in advance, and the ideas that helped us keep going. And to Stan & Cheryl for not only feeding us a wonderful smorgasbord of nachos (to which I hear Jim may be addicted) and sausages, peppers & onions, corn-on-the-cob, and ice cream treats, but also to opening their doors for us and letting us completely use their house and interrupt their lives for the day. We are extremely thankful! As far as the footage we got, I'm very happy with it. Dan arrived and he and Stacey did a great job doing their scene with the paint, and his interview segment. They were very, very funny. Amy arrived early, thankfully, and we started right in with her close-ups reacting to the new room, and then ran back outside to shoot Cindy's (brand-new-to-her) line to be cut with Dan's. She did an excellent job. Then she left for awhile and we had a lull before our next arrival--Jim--in which we shot Stan & Maura as the cameraman & soundperson, respectively. Then Jim did his close-ups, and we woke Amy up for their two-shots, all of which worked out great. I really can't wait to edit together these opening scenes of the movie, because I think all 4 of the actors, as well as Susan & Cindy as co-hosts, did really good work. Now it was getting close to 5 and we had a half-hour left with Cindy. We quickly went through her close-ups, which was only hard because it was a lot of lines that she was seeing for the first time, but she was a real trooper. Tony arrived and got in costume, we shot the end to that sequence, and moved outside for the key swap. We were very rushed, I'll admit, but I think we got everything we'll need. We went back upstairs and finished up some shots with the foursome, and then we all had an emotional moment when we wrapped Amy as Ally for good. Thank God we had champagne on hand (whatever Suzanne hadn't polished off in the previous takes!) Not only was it sad to say goodbye to Amy, but it's also hard to let go of these characters that Stacey & I have been living with for 4 or 5 years. I'll continue truncating (just as we did for the shoot). We did Tony's parts of the paint scene, which were terrific, coffee break, dinner break (delicious!), and then upstairs to shoot Paul & Suzanne cheesy moments of finishing the room. Just like the Mitch & Ally ones, these are some of the MOST fun things to shoot, and they had us dying laughing--especially when Tony & Stacey stand back-to-back with super-over-the-top smiles. It's so nice to see these characters have fun, and it's going to be even more manipulative where we put them in the film! We finished up with shots of Mitch sad in the guest room with a cool mirror shot, and then an even cooler shot down in Paul's office of Mitch planting the lab results. That looked amazing. Also...my new favorite joke is when I tell Rajah something that he isn't particularly fond of he now smiles widely and says "I totally disagree!" as he gives me a high-five. I urge you to try this in your own life. It is simply genius. And now that I've given him credit for it, I will forevermore say it was my idea. So there you have it. A painful day with a long history, but I'm pretty sure everything we got was really very good. Huge thanks to Cheryl, Stan, Cindy, the cast, the crew, the academy, and Stacey for helping me hold it together (and occasional on-line shoe shopping).
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