Day One – April 15

8:00 am crew call, and we’re off!

The first day of our 18-day shoot and the studio is swarming. Consultant and key grip/AD extraordinaire Bruce Lawson supervises fitting a camera rig on the side of one of our picture cars so Sam and Brian can shoot some beauty shots of Portland. It’s one of those days that shows off how beautifully we do clouds in the Rose City.

8:40 – the car pulls out for the first shots. Only 40 minutes from crew call.

10:20 – the three lead actresses are wired for sound and head out for shots of Portland from their point of view while they drive. Tyler Stephens, sound mixer, has stuffed himself into the back of the station wagon, invoking the spirit of Steve Martin as he tries to “get small.”

After lunch, we make a mini-company move into the Ladd Addition for the opening titles sequence. The weather’s changing every five minutes, but we’re cheered on by Scout, the 4-month-old Golden Retriever and her owner. The puppy happily trots off with a water bottle from the set – her very own souvenir!

Back at the studio, Spencer Conway’s here playing the smarmiest of smarmy casting directors. The guy looks like Christopher Reeve’s Superman, but he’s also channeling Steve Martin. Seems to be a theme. Spencer’s improving some of his lines, and the cast and crew have to fight to keep from cracking up during the takes. Lots of applause and cheers as he works – and when a crew gets that involved, you know you’ve got something special.

Day One ends only a few minutes late. Not only are we off, we’re off to a great start.

Day Two – April 16

7:30 crew call.

Local acting teacher Michael Mendelson’s playing Jane’s acting teacher in a brief scene, and putting her ‘acting class’ through physical warm-ups. Push, wave, make funny faces, be a tree, throw your hand away. Wonderful half-circle dolly shot catches Jane’s latest hot flash, and her absolute inability to stay in synch with the rest of the students.

David Ogden Stiers is in the house. What an absolutely charming man. Here he is on a low-budget indie in Portland, and he’s treating everybody with respect and kindness, and cracking more bad jokes than I’ve heard since I left Los Angeles. AND he’s wearing a hat with a ponytail attached, chewing scenery with great enthusiasm, and just making everybody feel at home.

10:30 – we’re lit and rolling. By 11:00, Betty’s flinging a whip and pulling over a prop light with a resounding “Oh shit!”

Lunch – Producer Roland Sarrazen thanks the cast and crew for turning into a family, and hands out NDY hats and t-shirts. Cheers all around.

Only casualty of the day – a bulb in one of the lights blows and there’s the whiff of burning fabric. Electrical has it fixed in three minutes flat, and we never missed a beat.

Mr. Stiers has to leave at 4:00 to get to Corvalis to rehearse a play. I can’t believe his generosity. Or his good humor.

Day Three – April 17

8:36 – first shot where ‘Diane’ tells ‘Jane’ she should think about bust pads…

John Klein has rigged the trapeze/fabric swing that ‘Diane’ uses to fly into the movie-within-a-movie. John’s an IATSE rigger, mostly for the theater, who helped make Susan Logeais’s backyard trapeze safe. Ours is this stretchy purple fabric that ‘Jane’ barely hangs onto as she swings in… and takes out ‘Michele.’ ‘William’ likes the girl-on-girl action, and extras Karen and Patricia M ad-lib a look that rocks the house.

This crew is full of professionals. At the end of a long take, Tyler suddenly explodes in a coughing fit he’s been holding in for three minutes. Then again, he IS the sound guy.

‘Jane, Michele and Cindy’ do their song-and-dance number. It looks like one of those nightmare American Idol auditions.

‘William’ teaches ‘Jane’ how to look sexy on a trapeze. Dear heavens…

Day Four – April 18

7:30 crew call.

There’s a weird vibe in the air. Unlevel floors, mysterious falling flats, a series of blown circuits. Those of us who’ve been through production before recognize it as a day that always happens on every shoot – the day the gremlins take over. A lesser crew would let it undo them, but this one is soldiering on through and getting great stuff anyway.

The press and local dignitaries arrive just before lunch to watch us work. Members of local radio, the mayor’s office, the Oregon Film Commission, and county officials adorn the set.

Mr. Stiers in flying on the fabric trapeze. Ringling Brothers’ flyers have nothing to worry about…

Long day. Mr. Stiers is gracious enough to return for a fourth day so we’re back at the studio tomorrow to finish up.

There’s smoke! But this time, it’s not a blown bulb but the art department’s smoke-making machine. Okay, so it’s nasty to breathe – the shots of the women coming through the smoke into the fantasy part of the movie-within-a-movie look amazing!

Day Five – April 19

9:30 crew call.

It’s supposed to be snowing. Happily, the sun’s out instead. This has been one strange spring in Portland in terms of the weather. Let’s hope it stays good.

David Kress, our supervising producer, has been by and watched some of the dailies, and says he thinks we’ve got a movie! So much for worries about a first-time film director and young director of photography.

‘Jane’ is a menace on the trapeze/fabric. She flies in, knocks over a flat, and it looks like Bert is toast. It’s John from the art department’s turn to ‘get small’ as he wrangles the flat off-camera.

Mr. Stiers is wrapped! He tells producer Roland Sarrazen this is one of his top three filming experiences ever. We’re blown away. I don’t know what we all expected, given his experience and on-camera persona, but he is a genuinely lovely and funny man, absolutely committed to Oregon filmmaking and to the Newport Arts Center which he helped start. We’re all sorry to see him go.

Company move to Susan’s house to begin three days of shooting there. It starts to rain (of course) but then the sun comes out and we’re waiting on the light to fail for our night shot. Tick, tick, tick…

Finally. ‘Cindy’ walks up ‘Jane’s’ front path, in tears, looking for help from a friend. Half the crew is in tears, moved both by her performance and, I suspect, our own memories of relationships going bad.

We’re wrapped until Monday.

What an amazing week. Beautiful footage. Incredible work by everybody. My jaded old production self is tingling with happiness.

Written by:

Jackie Blain, Associate Producer