Trailer -- day two
Topic: Trailer

THE SHOOT

Today was an interesting, fun filled day.

It started with me waking up in the actress' cabin. Four actresses in the same room with a male writer can only equal one thing ... a good night's sleep for all.

Well, as good as I could get in less than four hours. And I woke up pretty damn cold, since all my stuff was in another cabin. But I did get to see a girl in only a towel, which has the unique effect of warming up just about anyone.

But enough fun ... we had work to do.

Our big scene for today was the opening of the script, where a girl is being chased by the killer. Our actress, Ellie (victim/Steph), was more than ready to don ripped clothes and be splattered with blood. She really seemed to be enjoying herself. And she learned not to lick her lips, lest she get a nasty taste in her mouth.

We went down the road from the cabins and spent about an hour or so getting everything set up (BTW, when I say *I*, that usually consists of everyone else on the crew, because I mainly talked to various people and watched the monitor as much as I could). Although I was a kind of pseudo Script Supervisor, the trailer didn't really need one.

That's when we ran into a bit of a snag. Two guys showed up and one of them told us that we couldn't shoot there because it was his property. Barb explained that she and the Inland Empire Film Commission had tried to locate this guy for two weeks to secure permission. If only the IEFC had thought about placing a camera next to a tree for a couple hours ... that seemed to get the guy running.

Barb ran off to obtain some emergency insurance forms, so we continued preparing to shoot. The guys left. No big deal. But after we got off ONE SHOT, they returned, forced us to walk onto the road, and made us wait. The only thing more dangerous than a dick with no power is a dick with the smallest amount of power, because he'll swing that sucker around like he's John Holmes. Not really sure if that makes sense, but I'm sure you get the jist.

Instead of dealing with the hassle -- and because we didn't want Barb to pop a nerve -- Rob and company moved the set to an area about 20 yards from the cabin, property that we obviously could use.

The result was amazing. Ellie did a fantastic job. She dove onto the ground and crawled across the dirt, despite getting splinters and a temporary rash. This was her first role and she was great.

SIDELINE: I must take time here to focus on our Steadicam operator, Cedric. This was the first time Rob had been able to have Steadicam and the effect is amazing. Cedric gave Starway a fantastic deal on his services and he was indispensible. He made the shots look so effortless. And the rig he was using ... amazing. When a low shot was needed, he simply spun the camera horizontally by 180 degrees and then VERTICALLY by 180 degrees. The results are nothing short of breathtaking.

I helped out as much as possible. The HD camera that we were using included a small wireless monitor that you could walk around with. I held that from time to time, sometimes just carrying it, but often holding it as Rob looked on. It was only standard definition, so it wasn't nearly as good as the Apple cinema display, but it worked.

The next scenes went pretty fast. A few shots of the kids walking away from their broken down SUV. Different angles, some dialogue. We had the roads blocked by two policemen, but we only had them until 1:30pm, and when it came to crunch time, Rob got off a series of shots very quickly ... back to position, rolling, action, cut, change angle, give direction, rolling, action, cut. And we made lunch. Great job, Rob. Cast. And crew.

It was after this first part of the day that I got my first lesson in set etiquette. One of the most important things is never to leave set without informing someone in the know. If actors or crew go missing, it could spell big trouble, especially in the middle of nowhere. But when one of the actors asked if I'd like to walk to the general store, I jumped at the chance. We weren't shooting anything else until the sun went down, which was about two hours away. Besides, the general store was "right down the road."

Yeah ... 20 minutes right down the road.

So Barb was not happy. When we returned, everything was fine ... no one knew we had been gone, but when it got back to Barb, it had to be dealt with. I was the first. Later, she would tell Andrew (David) that she felt as if she'd taken it all out on me, but I never felt that way at all. In fact, she eased my guilt by explaining that it was understandable that I wouldn't know much about set etiquette. I apologized, she accepted, and Andrew ended up taking full responsibility. But I should have known better. Barb handled it very professionally and was 100% in the right. I believe that she thought she was being an ogre, but she was extremely nice (yet firm) about it. James Cameron would have buried all of us up to our necks to make sure it didn't happen again.

This is where my role is quite unique. I teeter between the actors and crew. Rob and his crew are in a bubble around the set when they're working. Beyond this bubble, there is a whole other world going on, whether it's on the production side with Barb or the acting side with its various happenings. Sometimes, it is hard to make that transition from the outside to the inside, because I don't want to get in the way. But once I'm there, I'm in for good.

While we were waiting to shoot, I hung out with a few of the actors and actresses. I've always heard that women can be much cruder than men, and boy, that is damn accurate. The stars of this were Alexis (Robin) and Ellie (victim/Steph). Alexis has no filter ... she will say anything she's thinking if she's comfortable around someone. It's part of her charm, and her wickedly beautiful smile automatically eases any uncomfortableness the receiver of such comments might feel. Ellie seems truly like the girl next door. Easy to talk to, sweet as pie ... but she's got a streak of crudeness, too. And don't get me wrong ... this is not a bad thing at all.

Andrew tried to tell a joke, but kept stopping because the women would show up. We never did get to hear the joke. He almost made it through the whole thing once, I think, but we never got to hear the punchline. But he did make it up later with a great story (more on that later).

Okay, back to filming...

Rob filmed Jared (Kevin) and Johnny (Casey) running away from The Terror. At one point, Johnny was so adamant about doing a good job that he fell and hit his face on a rock. Just a scratch and he got right back up again. I wasn't involved at all because they were shooting on a narrow road, with Rob sitting in the back of a truck driving away from them. So I helped Andrew keep an eye out on a couple of generators, the sparks of which can, in theory, catch something on fire. When I would see Rob next, he would tell me that I had missed his first meltdown, which really just consisted of too much noise while he was trying to shoot. But when he yelled "QUIET!," even the crickets stopped rubbing their legs.

While I was helping Andrew, I got the question again ... what was it like seeing my words being made into scenes for the first time? And again, I wasn't ecstatic ... but that's when it hit me.

It felt natural. It honestly felt like this had happened a thousand times. Like I had been on set before and that this was just another day of my life. So although it's a huge deal, it felt comfortable (as Rob said later) ... just as natural for me as it was for Rob being behind that camera.

Then I was asked if it felt strange that someone else is interpreting my work. I hadn't given it much thought ... I'm the writer, Rob is the director. This, too, dawned on me suddenly. Rob has given me every confidence in myself as a writer when it comes to creating something that he will enjoy. When questioned if he felt okay with reading the second draft for the first time during our table read, he had said that he was okay with it because he trusted me. So, in turn, I trusted him as a director to bring the vision to life. Although it might not always have been the same as what I had envisioned, he was either spot on or damn close. So I honestly never really thought about it, because I trusted him as much as he trusted me.

We ended up running ahead of schedule, so we were able to shoot the other Kevin and Robin scene. Again, both did a great job. A lot of intensity and it should be great for their reel.

AFTERMATH

We ended just after 9pm, our wrap time, so we were right on schedule as of the second day. I hung out with Rob and Barb for a while, then had to walk -- by myself -- to one of the far cabins to get my blanket. That walk was creepy ... just me and a flashlight ... and a noise in the bushes with every step. As it turned out, everyone was asleep so I had to head back to the actors' cabin. This time, there was room because one of them had (platonically) shacked up with the girls, so I slept there.