Week 2 of Productions

WOW! I am exhausted. We have had 2 days of shooting for The Rose and it has been grueling. Yesterday, we shot at Grazie for the bar scenes. First off, Grazie has been so incredible throughout the entire process. They are extremely kind and very welcoming to us. They let us use all of the bar and any objects that we needed. Also, the woman who was in charge stayed until the end of our shoot, we were there until 1 AM. She was awesome. But... it was extremely frustrating of a shoot. We definitely should have been out of there 2 hours before we did. First off, my actor never showed. I don't know what happened, but he never showed. We waited for an hour, but thankfully we were waiting for some jack asses at the bar to leave. The restaurant closed at 10 but people were staying there until 11. So we couldn't get moving until then. So, I have an entire room full of actors, extras, and crew waiting and getting impatient. But, although people were on edge, people were still very accepting to the fact that we had no control over the problem. Overall, the process of the shoot went extremely well though. Once we got going, we got our shots and finished ASAP. We ended up with some really awesome shots. Also, I am actually happy that Phil never showed, because Drew, the person that filled in for him, is doing an amazing job. Through the 2 shoots that we've had, he has been spectacular. He is a born natural. Not to mention Keetin, our seductress, is doing a phenomenal job as well. I am extremely pleased with how my talent is performing.

Today, the 2nd day of shooting has been extremely taxing. We started setting up the studio at 2:30, when class ended. We got the studio set by 3:30 and were ready to shoot. All of the scene went smoothly. The first shot that we did took 20 min and about 20 different takes. We had a huge jib, a lighter that didnt work, and matches that wouldnt light. The combination of all of those, results in disaster! But, we got the shot that we wanted. After using 20 min of time, we needed to fly by with the rest of the shoot, and we did. The real tough part of today was shooting at Sarah's apartment. We had a bunch of complex set ups that needed to be figured out because of placements of lights, and camera movements, and blocking, and everything. The first shot took extremely long because of a small space and lighting issues. Also, we ran out of time to shoot at the location, so we only got about 50% of the things that we needed to get done. However, because we took our time on the lighting and everything, the shots should look pretty amazing. Some of the highlights of the shoot was using chromakey green (green screen green) liquid, putting a light above a fan to get the blades' shadows, having a real ruger (modeled after a luger) on set, seeing Ben have to climb up and down a 8 or 9 foot ledge to set up lights, and other things.

Like I said before, I am very pleased and happy with how my crew is performing. They are putting up with my snippiness and aggravation when things are taking longer than expected. And although everyone is on edge, there haven't been any fights. Lastly, Carrie was a great PA with driving around to all corners of Bloomington picking up last minute props that we needed or forgot or returning to the lab to check out more equipment, and did anything that we asked. Jacob is doing a SPECTACULAR job running the camera. The shots are exactly what I envisioned and he couldnt be doing a better job. Plus he's dealing with me the most when I get aggravated. Ben is a great gaffer. He has a good eye at what I want and when I tell him to do something, he gets it done and the way that I want it. I would name off everyone in my crew and say how great they are but you get the jist of it. They are doing a great job. But after shooting from 2:30-12:30, I must retire from the computer and go to sleep. I am extremely excited for the film and if you are reading this, you should be too.