We had a great week, albeit a freezing cold one. I heard on the weekend that Monday was supposed to be cold -- which sucked because we spent the entire day shooting outside. Thank goodness for propane heaters and Hot Shots in my gloves!
But Monday was no match for Tuesday, where I found myself wearing three pairs of pants and as many shirts, hoping to survive the wicked lows. Fortunately the day wrapped up inside.... although the wrap up took much longer than expected. As previously mentioned, we are all out of money for OT hours (one hour = about $4000), and so we HAD to wrap by 7:30. At 7:15, there was a problem with the lighting. By the time the problem was fixed, our actor playing young Donovan - who has been trying to imitate DG's low, raspy-ish whisper - started losing his voice. We finally wrapped at about 9:20, which means more money being taken out of our post-production piggy bank.
It's at moments like this where you can't help but notice the rubbing of foreheads, the frowns, and occasionally the quick tempers. I cannot emphasize enough how stressful movie-making is - especially on a teeny budget like ours. Where big budget movies shoot one page in a 12 hour day, we average around seven.
On Wednesday, several friends n' family members came to set to be a part of our A.A. scene. Jay n' Cheryl, Ray, Lara, and Tim got to sit in our little circle with Donovan, Kit, Ray, and Unshaven Man (who was performed our producer TC, after Jim joked last spring that he read the line so well, he should play the part).
Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience of being on set, which was nice -- because as I've mentioned before, I know others have found it slow and boring (even if they didn't admit it - tired expressions don't lie). Considering it takes about 10 - 15 minutes for public n' private blockings, 20 - 30 minutes to set up the lights and position the camera, a few minutes for scene rehearsal, a few more minutes for touch-ups to make-up, hair, wardrobe, n' props, and THEN the scene gets shot, and then after that it gets shot again, and again, and again with all the same time-consuming changes to camera angles, lighting, rehearsals and touch-ups in between... yeah, I suppose the process can seem a little slow-moving. But the reality is that everyone is actually working at full speed.
Thursday was a very ambitious day (aren't they all?) with many extras for our hospital and Manhattan Project scenes. And the snow! Oh, the snow! Thank gawd we weren't shooting anything outside! We shot our cemetery scene the day before - but if we had it scheduled for Thursday, we would've been screwed. Still, the snow was enough to screw us for Friday, which required some quick rearranging to coordinate with the weather forecast. (Coordinate with the weather... that almost sounds like an oxymoron... but hopefully it'll work.) Now Friday's big outdoor stunt will be shot on Monday, and Monday's scene will be shot on Sunday, which meant that Thursday night was our Friday night, and so we got today off!
But that wasn't the only problem we got struck with on Thursday. We wanted an insert shot of a truck. Alas, when the driver started up the truck to bring it to set, it caught on fire. Seriously! (You want to see some stressed out producers....? ;) Boy, it seems that our production started with fire and is now ending with fire. What kind of omen is that!?
Luckily this quick shot was much more of a "nice to have" than a "need to have", so it wasn't the end of the world to leave it out. Plus, we managed to wrap up just in time, shortly after 2:00 a.m. Had we included the truck scene, we would've gone into OT that we really cannot afford. Blessing in disguise. (Also a blessing in disguise that the truck didn't catch fire with one of our actors in there! Holy shit! Can you imagine!? Ha!)
Anyhow, after our late, late night, Jim n' I spent today sleeping in, lounging and trying to plan a little getaway after production wraps next week. TC suggested that we find a cabin somewhere, and go there to decompress before editing begins. Sounds like a fabulous (and completely necessary) idea to me!
I know some of you are thinking, "Screw a cabin - go to Mexico, Hawaii, *insert warm, tropical place here*!" But we have cats, a budget, and no summer clothes (they're all in Kelowna), so a cabin, B&B or Boutique Hotel it shall be -- if we can find a good one that is. We're thinking somewhere like Victoria, one of the smaller islands, or even North Van for all that matter. Just not downtown. We want to go somewhere peaceful. That being said, if you know of any pet-friendly, peaceful places nearby - we're open to suggestions! We emailed and called one place in Vic, where they have a stunning n' affordable ocean-side suite, but they have yet to get back to us. And really, time is of the essence right now, as we'd like to leave on the 2nd or 3rd.
With only two days left of shooting, and our wrap party downtown on Tuesday, it's hard to believe that life on set is already coming to an end. While Jim is definitely anticipating the break, to me it feels more bittersweet, like the end of summer camp. I've gotten to know so many cool people, who I look forward to chatting with every day. Not to say that we can't all still keep in touch, but it's never really the same, y'know? However, if a move to Vancouver is somewhere in our future, it's nice to know that I'll already have a few friends to call up, and won't be starting a new social life from scratch.
(Re: The possibility of a move - because I know I can't just drop a bomb like that n' not address it - I'll add that we have no answers as to when that may or may not happen. All I can really say is that we recognize that Kelowna has certainly served it's purpose in this last chapter of our lives, and that career-wise moving is the smart thing to do. Some new networking opportunities are already beginning to arise, and those are things we'll never find in K-town. We've always assumed that we'd move elsewhere after our film was released - but then what sorts of opportunities would we be missing out on while all our Vancouver film connections are still warm? Anyway, it's something to chew on...)
Well, it's almost 10:30 p.m. and Jim is still napping. Poor guy. He obviously needs the sleep. Even so, I think I'll wake him up for a bit, just so his sleeping pattern isn't screwed up. Okay, okay... I'm gonna wake him for my own selfish reasons. I know I only have to wait a couple more days before I can have him all back to myself - still, I want to hang out with him tonight like we had planned. Snuggle under the blanket, pour a glass of wine and watch (at least part of) the movie we rented, just like old times. :)
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