Day 21 Shooting- Ho Hum Night (cue snoring)

So as bad luck would have it Mike flew in at a time where everyone was sick or missing in action.  I barely had anything scheduled (filming wise) and here I thought we were going to shoot Jarrett’s big scene where he does his vampire sales pitch, but he got a phone call a couple days prior and told me it was a family emergency.  I assumed the worst after we just had that talk about his dad.

Christiane forgot that I asked her to pick up Mike at the airport with me, so I called Mike just as he was falling asleep and apologised and explained about the fuck up.  He would have to take a shuttle from the airport.  The good news was that I managed to get all my days off, so I could hang out with him the entire time.  Mike arrived around noon and we were both behind on sleep, but we were just stoked on seeing each other again, so we hung out and walked over to Cactus burrito for some munches and crunches.

Over the next few days we went to the batting cages with Alex and Spencer, watched Beowulf in 3d, played an epic game of poker, jammed on Guitar Hero, hung out with Turen, took the bus to Westwood and got our In and Out fix, followed by Diddy Resses, watched several movies at home including, Little Children, Aguire The Wrath Of God, Killer Tomatoes In France and Grizzly Man.  Then that one night where we had an actual shoot with Stu and Michelle- we filmed over at Christiane’s pad in Los Feliz.  Andy gave Mike and myself a ride, but he couldn’t stick around for the shoot.

Rearranged furniture to fit the bedroom more appropriately and started tinkering with lights, setting one outside their window so I could attempt a "moon" light affect.  Mike monitored the light occasionally, in case something caught on fire.  Michelle waited patiently in her robe, chatting with Christiane and Stu cracked jokes like usual.  Sometimes his joking starts to irritate me because I’m trying to focus and he’ll come right up to me asking a serious question, the I’ll answer him and then he’ll respond with a pun or something that confuses me.  Then he’ll get the hint and disappear.

Christiane has TWO cats and Stu’s allergies caught up with him quick that night.  By the end of the night he was in a constant state of almost sneezing- it showed on his face.

This is a scene where Stu comes to bed feeling sick because earlier in the flick he was bitten by a vampire he was trying to arrest.  He starts to crave blood, almost does his own son in and tries to slice his wrists when he knows its only going to get worse.  Suiide fails and he retreats to bed where his sleepy wife remarks how cold he is.  He tells her he’s getting sick and she assures him she’ll take care of him in the morning.

SImple simple scene, but I covered it with EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE- it was ridiculous.  I’m afraid a simple scene like this is going to come off boring and stupid, so I tried many things- high angles, low angles, lighting tricks, close-ups, reflections, curtain blowing in the wind (Mike moving the curtain below camera) and a whole lot of inserts. Stu actually fell asleep at the end and during the last take you could hear him snore.  Michelle said something like, "Wake up you!" and tagged him in the side with her elbow, which was really unecessary.

"What the fuck," Stu grunted because it was a hard jab and for the first time that night the tone shifted into something unpleasant, but luckily we were done shooting anyway.

I forgot to bring the gun and police tape so we couldn’t shoot the beginning of the dream sequence.

Christiane was surprised we were finished early- she was reading a book quietly the whole time.  Her boyfriend Doug came home and I always feel uncomfortable around the guy, but I made sure to thank him in my sheepish way. 

I haven’t shot in another two weeks.  I met Jarrett in a bar who had got back from his trip and he told me his father passed away.  Jarrett is okay though, but I don’t think it has fully hit him yet.  His father was battling a disease called Lupus since Jarrett was born, but he also had an infection on his lungs that finished him off.

I’m just happy I got to have Thanksgiving with Jarrett’s family that one year- still the best food I ever had (figures since they’re all cooks and run a bakery) and I also had the pleasure of collaborating with Jarrett’s father on The Sun Never Sweats theme song.  We wrote back and forth about the lyrics and then Rocky finally sent the cd with the perfect demo- it ended up in the show.  I listened to ithe full version the other night and marveled that this was the last piece of music that Rocky probably wrote.  It was clearly a tribute to The Doors and his voice is extremely haunting in a few passages- even though the lyrics are ridiculous.

It rained yesterday and based on that Alex left a voicemail that she checked the weather reports and tomorrow it was going to rain too, so she didn’t want to film, being sick and all…"but I’ll still do it if you want me to"

I hate that fucking offer.  Yeah, I’ll still do it, but you’ll feel like a prick because you’re making me suffer.  She says that every time.  I don’t even know if she cares about this fucking project, she’s more committed to theater and she keeps jumping on more shows, so how will she ever feel decent when she’s constantly tackling a bunch of things and stressing out about her stupid boyfriend (finally out of the picture, thank goodness)  Instead of a civilized goodbye the guy screams at her and she tries to talk to him and she gets smacked with his skateboard.

Anyway, I guess he had his good points…buried underneath his nut sack- where I couldn’t see it.

Next Friday is the big party scene- so I have that.  Another week and I should finally have Rob and JArrett’s vampire pitch scene which has been re-shuffled for the last two months.  Bonnie is nervous about her part- I got to talk to her about it some more- I ran into her and Tim while I was working (they were coming out of Marot at The Wedding) and she asked me, "So tell me about this character more"

I felt uncomfortable and stupid.  "Right now?  I really shouldn’t, I don’t want to hold you up and I’m sort of working"

It would be dumb though, directing my actor while I’m in my stupid Arclight uniform, plus maybe a manager would catch me not working. 

Rachael has warmed up to me again- too much though, I’m afraid we’re going to repeat the same circle.  I better back off a bit.

Some new friends have moved onto the other Arclight in Sherman Oaks, so now I want to go over there and visit.  Been giving out many dvd’s again- in additon to making a new compilation since I’ve had all this down time.

anyway…