Day of Trouble making.

So after a much needed 2 day hiatus in the schedule, we returned to filming tonight, as the sun literally started to peak through the thick cloud coverage that had been in the sky all weekend.

Dan, John and I were waiting for Steve and Todd, getting some odds and ends taken care of (clock shots) when Steve text'd me asking if we could put off shooting until tomorrow because he didn't have any hot water to shave with and he was "a little drunk." If he wasn't leaving Port Huron in 5 days, I would've said yes, but as it is, I told him to get his drunk-ass down there.

By the time he arrived it was too late to get some exterior shots with the flowers. At the start of the night I said "let's get 5 of the 20 shots left tonight." We'll be able to get at least 9 of them tomorrow when we do the kitchen scene and then the rest of the Swede. That'll give us 6 shots to get between Wednesday and Friday.

Eventually we decided to pack up the equipment and go on a guerrilla-style trip in the car. We first went back to the public housing building to shoot some exterior stuff, just to have a building to establish where the bedroom scene with the Swede takes place. Steve had just finished his second take (running along the sidewalk, through the parking lot, up to the doors) when some crotchity old hag told us they were going to call the cops on us. Here's Steve explaining:

After that, we decided to go to the Raven and get one of the flower delivery interior scenes. Looking at it now, I think I might want to redo it and light the back of the room more. I'm not sure. Alana from the Raven played the girl getting the flowers, Debra Sample (because the card was for Samples and the Beck song "Debra"). Either way, after 20 takes we had a few good ones to choose from and it was time to move on.

Since we were just down the street from the Harrington Inn, we decided to go and see if that'd work for the building for him to go in. That was what I wanted originally, and the more we talked about it, the more it seemed that it wasn't really the kind of building that you would find a bedroom like the Swede's. But we shot it anyway, just to have it in case I decided later that it'd work and if we couldn't find anything better.

It was while we were sitting along the sidewalk across the street from the Harrington Inn, trying to think of where we could find some stairs, when the cop showed up. The hag from the public housing building did call the cops on us. We played it cool, explained to him that we were shooting a film and he was like "yeah, just don't scare them, they're old people and don't handle fear well" or something not quite so blunt. The cop suggested we check around Pine Grove Park, and I think he thought we were talking about exterior stairs, but we headed that way anyway, when we saw the Port Huron Hospital parking garage, with 4 fliights of stairs, illuminated like the Holy Grail over that castle with all the loose religious chicks in Monty Python. We parked and investigated. All the doors were locked, but as we walked around, we realized that the entrance where cars go in, A) was open and B) was not being stationed by a lot attendant, so we just went in through the garage, shot 3 quick takes of Steve running up the stairs, and got the hell out of there. 10:30 and we had 3 scenes down.

As we were walking out of the parking garage I mentioned that we should call a cab and just have Steve get in, and film it from a ways away, when Cousin John brought to our attention that we were standing across the street from the cab depot. What the hell? we thought, and went over and asked them if they'd just let us shoot that. Sure enough, a nice Penny West, swung around and picked Steve up, let him get in, and drove around. 4 shots done.

We decided to go back to the B&B, see if we could find Kayte, who lives across the street and who'se hallway we wanted to use as the Swede's. We had to ask her neighbors if we could plug in a light and Todd explained we were shooting a moving in the hallway, to which we heard the lady ask "why would you want to make a movie about our hallway?" Anyway, we got the scene, in two different lighting setups. I can't decided which I like more, probably the darker one (yes they're an homage to Orson Welles/Stanley Kubrick. Bite me).

We got that done, and that was our 5th scene of the night. Afterwards, we went back to the B&B and setup the lighting for the Swede's bedroom scene tomorrow night, and planned how to shoot that. Todd's got lighting ideas for the kitchen, and we'll have 2 hours to get it done in. No or never. Long day tomorrow, but should be a blast. Wednesday we won't have to film until 6ish, so I can sleep in all day. Should be fun. We'll see.