07/12: Firehouse Grill

This is the biggest week of all. We're shooting every day from the 11th through the 17th. Sunday night we gathered for filmmaking at the Firehouse Grill in Fairfax at 1130pm. We didn't leave until 9am on Monday. I had gone down to Asheville, NC on Friday night, and I drove all day Sunday to get back in time for a production meeting at 4 to meet with the actors and go over wardrobe. I fell asleep on the set at around 8 in the morning.

Sunday night's shoot was a bar scene.

This is Pete fixing the lighting for the scene. There are just three people in the scene, but you can see how many people are on set, standing around just off-camera, in reality. Think about that the next time you see a scene in a movie that seemingly only has one or two people. Just millimeters out of the frame of the scene a sound grip is holding a microphone boom to pick up the actor's voices, for example. Then there is the director, looking at the monitor of the film, and director of photography behind his camera, the production designer, all of the assistants, wardrobe, make-up, a still photographer, the list goes on and on!

The film is set in a small town that has one central bar, and there are a few scenes with different characters that take place there. My friend JP got to come down from Delaware and play one of the bartenders for a few scenes!

I even got to be an extra, at about 5 in the morning, sitting at a table with our still photographer Jason, holding a bottle of beer and looking engrossed in conversation with him and texting on my cell phone as I would in a bar like that. That was probably the most fun that night, everyone being extras to fill up the bar, sitting at different tables. Between takes I would shoot spitballs at the table of interns with a drink straw and we debated who had the coolest table. We  made up stories about the seats left unsat that had a watered-down drink sitting there as a prop regardless. "Shaquina is still in the bathroom! GOSH."

I had to do a lot of make-up for our actors, too, which to tell you the truth is not my favorite thing in the world though I'm alright at it. I had to make two main actors look tired and strung out and make our leading lady look lovely, which was easy because she's very attractive. I made Percy and Ian look sweaty and our Creepy Old Guy look more schmarmy by swabbing KY Warming Lube on their foreheads and his chest, a nice little piece of trivia for you future "11" fans.

On the outside of the bar looking in...

Today I have to go to a plant nursery and pick up Irises for Shelly's scenes. In my research for this film I've found the Iris is the flower marked for death, Iris being the Greek Goddess who was responsible for taking women's souls across the river. Shelly is our main female actor, and she has terminal cancer. In each key scene with her, I will have Irises somewhere in the background.

We have a big shooting schedule for today, we leave Fairfax at noon for Fredricksburg and Colonial Beach for several outdoor shots. Unfortunately, Hurricane Dennis will make it rain up here later this week, so we have to push our external shots up to now. I had to drive up to Newark, DE at midnight to get some shirts I had embroidered with the logo from Price's manure farm, as he is in more scenes, and have to drive back early in the morning to rendesvous with my production crew.

I'll post more soon!