Monday, April 21 – Day 6

Quote of the Day:

“Waiting for the turkey necks to fly in!”

 

It’s rain. It’s hail. It’s sun. The weird Portland spring weather continues, but we’re on schedule and rolling at ‘Jane’s’ house.

 

Three new members of the cast today.  Alexander Blaise has arrived from New York to play ‘Jane’s’ husband ‘Herve’. Susan Logeias’s husband, Olivier, is delighted to have another native Frenchman around – when Alex improvs a few lines, Olivier grins at jokes we Americans can never get.

 

Elijah Nelson is ‘Jane’s’ son ‘Theo’ and even looks a bit like Alex. Elijah wasn’t at the table read the first week because he was in LA at the Backlot Film Festival at Sony Studios for the premiere of Train Master, a feature that he has the lead role in.  Ellery Abel is also here as ‘Audrey’. It’s her first feature, and she catches onto the drill quickly.

 

Has there ever been a film set where you hear “Waiting on the turkey necks!”? ‘Jane’ cracks a few nasty things in the sink. The art department runs around with hand sanitizer….

 

Shooting jargon for the day: Hollywood the flag – hold the square piece of black fabric without putting it on a stand.

 

Reality check on the set. “Whose potholder is this? Susan’s? Art Department?” Susan stuffed it in a drawer – must have been hers.  Sometimes on location it’s hard to tell what’s real and what came from the truck.

 

We’ve survived today’s monsoon.

 

 

Tuesday April 22 – Day 7

Quote of the Day:

“What day is it today, anyway?

 

It’s easy to lose track of things like days and housework and bills to be paid when you’re on a 6-day week set. According to our PA Erin Van Dyke, people seem mildly put out that it’s only Tuesday. 

 

We shoot ‘Cindy’s’ life-changing run through ‘Jane’s’ back yard. It’s a moment that requires the utmost professionalism from the crew, and they come through without a blink.

 

Alex and Susan reduce the crew to tears, or at least lumps in the throat.

 

After barely raining today, it decides to turn into a monsoon as we wrap the location. Everything out of the house and into the trucks.

 

Wednesday April 23 – Day 8

Quote of the Day:

“I knew there was a reason I ate that second Krispy Kreme…”

 

Darren’s car jump-started the moho and we’re at our new location - ‘Michele’s’ house. Happily for the crew, we’re at the Lawson’s house and Bruce is there to consult and give us some help when we need it.  He’s also taking the time to give pointers to the PA’s and younger members of the crew. They’re rapt; there’s no better film school than on the set with a real pro like Bruce.

 

No rain to speak of, but the first shoot is outside in the middle of a windstorm.  Morgan breaks out the fuzzy wind-reducing sock for the boom mic; it looks a bit like an overgrown Tribble. Tyler and the sound cart are under a pop-up just in case it does rain, and we have to hold it down so we don’t turn into Dorothy heading off to Oz as we roll.

 

‘Brad’s’ planting flowers and Ryan keeps not hugging Sherilyn, holding his hand out like it’s got germs.  Mr. Gallant doesn’t want to get her wardrobe dirty.  Sam says hug her anyway. Wardrobe gets to deal with muddy fingerprints.

 

The little monitor on the sound cart isn’t being used so we can link the camera image into a monitor for Sam and Kay (and whoever else is around video village) can watch the shot. Instead, there’s non-stop tetris. We’re back in the 80’s!

 

New cast – Jill Andre is playing ‘Michele’s’ mother ‘Gracie.’ She even looks like Sherilyn a bit – same hair, same height, same strength in their faces and bodies.  And what a wonderful, fascinating woman Jill is.  She started in theater in New York, went to Los Angeles to do film and TV and raise her children, then back to New York theater, and recently back to LA. She jumps right into her first scene – every woman’s disapproving mother. The women on the set get chills thinking about our own mother-daughter relationships.

 

‘Michele’s’ daughter ‘Sara’, played by Holly Matthews, gets caught stealing grapes between takes. What a cutie.  ‘Michele’s’ son ‘Kevin’, played by Connor Daliposon, starts improving lines with Jill, completely unintimidated by her resume, and cracks us all up.

 

 

Thursday April 24 – Day 9

Quote of the Day:

“Hurry and shoot! We have a break in the sun!”

 

A nice day today as we’re back at ‘Michele’s’ for fun with the three friends, and a poignant moment between ‘Michele’ and ‘Brad.’ A lot of us wish we had committed relationships like that one. Again, tears all around. A beautiful two-shot.

 

We do have a lighting problem, however. The sun keeps popping out and ruining the setup. Only in Portland…

 

Jargon joke – Most of us have seen what’s called ‘color bars’ at the beginning of an old film or tv show. It’s used for calibrating the colors on a monitor. And with it, there’s a high squealing sound called a ‘reference tone’ that’s used to set audio levels. Today, as we’re setting up lights, the reference tone squeals out. We all turn to look at Tyler. He grins, holds up his phone. “Sound guy’s ring tones.” We tell him to turn it off!

 

After no PAs when we started, we now have more than we know what to do with.  No matter; the kids are getting lessons on how to use an electronic slate and other equipment they’ve never seen before. 

 

 

Friday April 25 – Day 10

Quote of the Day:

“This is rock star acting!”

 

We’ve half-way through the shoot! This is one tight, professional unit, and the whole production feels like anything but what we usually think of as run-and-gun ‘indy.’ Yet, as Kay says, the film is coming together to show us something we haven’t seen before about how women really are. And it looks gorgeous. This is independent filmmaking at its craziest best. 

 

We’re at the hospital today. Inside. Of course, the rain has stopped and the hospital room heats up about 30 degrees more than the hospital hall.  Lots of water for Jill, who spends the day in bed looking, well, ill. We fill a plastic bag with ice for her, which she plops her wrists on – she says that’s the best, quickest way to cool off.

 

Incredibly powerful scenes today. All the women are, again, thinking of our own lives. Much tissue is passed around the set. Sam is giddy at the level of performance, and the rest of us feel honored to be in Jill’s presence.

 

Wonderful extras today playing doctors and nurses and patients – John Hugill and Tori Padelford among them. We’re lucky Portland’s full of wonderful actors who are willing to jump in even for the smallest of parts.

 

The Art Department is getting into the extras mode, donning green scrubs and name tags, and diagnosing X-rays in the hallway, and making chaos as well as realistic sets.

 

More than a few amazing dolly shots today, with some difficult focus pulls – moving ‘Michele’ in and out of the hospital room, following ‘Michele’ on a dead run across a dark parking lot, and the final shot of the day, which is a whole other story…

 

We’ve got a steadicam shot planned for the martini (last shot) but when he fired it up, there was a wonderful/awful smell of electrical systems burning.  The transformer apparently blew, and suddenly, we’re laying dolly tracks on a sloping, curving driveway.

 

The production staff runs out for a dozen pizzas since it’s so late and craft service has gone home. The crew’s grabbing pepperoni on the fly.

 

What am amazing architectural structureDirk, Phil, Brad, Joe and PAs Steve and Tami create to hold the camera dolly. And that’s not all – the camera itself is barely off the ground since the shot is of ‘Michele’s’ feet hitting the driveway and running into the hospital. As we roll, Jerry’s backing up and pulling focus on a long lead, Brian’s moving crab-wise to frame and hold the shot, and Sam’s following to watch the monitor. And everybody’s moving fast. Three beautiful takes later, it’s in the can.

 

Jackie Blain, Associate Producer