only 10 days away...
are we in good shape? hard to say, but at the risk of jinxing myself I'll say yes. Still have to figure out how to mobilize our extras and the dozens of friends who have offered their help. It would be much easier if I had a sense of how our shooting schedule would play out, but like Leland said yesterday, there's no way we can tell, none of us have ever really done anything like this, trying to shoot 35 pages a day! Most films will get 5 pages a day at most! But aha, this is the world of digital video we're talking about. Bang, bang bang. And now that Leland has pushed the idea of multiple camera coverage, we no longer have to worry about getting everything perfect in one take. We can just pick up from any point where we flubbed, and we can cut to a different shot to cover it up -- so we can just push forward through each scene. Still this sounds great in theory, but will it really play out so well?

Actually I've been editing an industrial video for my company, which I shot last month on DV -- and for that I did 30 pages (30 minutes of finished film) in two 8 hour days, getting multiple coverage on ONE camera. This time I just need a little more than twice that much material to shoot, with days twice as long... but this time I'll have THREE cameras to take care of my coverage, which may cut the time back down to size. 70 pages in two12 hour days, is it doable? Can't anybody tell me??? Could it be that I may have a better sense than anyone else?

Anyway Leland and I met for another 3 hours yesterday, tried planning out our shots but by scene 7 he felt we needed to see the actors in position to really see the shot. At least we have that possibility -- I've set the rehearsal schedules and we're having our inital readthrough on Monday at the location, so Leland can come in and test out all the shots we've come up with. He's not entirely confident that what we've plotted out will hold up onscreen, but we'll know for sure Monday. He's now thinking of including a FOURTH camera (a lipstick minicamera to put in front of the guard on the desk)... I'm okay with that SO LONG AS IT SERVES AN INTEGRAL PURPOSE TO VISUALIZING THE STORY (sorry, don't mean to raise my voice -- I'm just reinforcing this for myself really). Especially if it means even more footage to log and edit.

For Saturday I've set up an informal audition session for our invited extras so that we can meet them and see what we can do with them. Leland is so doubtful about the likelihood that we can stick to a schedule that he suggests we have our extras stay throughout the whole shoot! I'd love for that to be possible but the reality is a) we're not paying any of these people; b) we only need each of them for one scene, two tops. There's got to be a way to make our timeline manageable, to get a fair estimate of where we'll be timewise after each scene...

I'm looking forward to getting my main actors together. They've been checking this journal and have been very encouraging. Kevin Jackson, who will play the lead, finished his theatrical run in LA last week and apparently is now in the desert recharging his batteries -- I'm picking him up from the airport Saturday. Last Friday I caught Dave T. Koenig (who will play the supervisor) in Shades of Male -- and he showed me a much darker side to his persona that I had only caught a whiff of in the audition... this is great, because his character has a bit of a sordid past and now I can really see Dave playing to that.

Karin has been poking fun at me because for the past week, whenever we talk, I start worrying about craft service. I don't know why, I just start worrying about who's going to buy the snacks and beverages, set up the craft table, etc. To my relief, my wife has agreed to go buy the stuff at Costco and I think we have someone assigned to set it up while Julie takes care of props as I'm hoping she will for both days. She's finally graduating from seminary tomorrow, and hopefully she'll have a job not too long after...

I talked to Craig last night and he started throwing questions at me as is customary of AD's to do. Here, I'll even copy some of them:

"What would be the start times for the two days? Ladder(Camera), Props(ID badges, telephone)? How many PA's will we have for each day? Can we assign them to specific departments or will we have to float them? We will need an on-set PA to do lock-ups, etc.. Will we have an interior space to stage actors and set-up craft service table? Think inclement weather....What is the parking situation on the street? Permits? Will there be multiple cameras/operators? What kind of day would you like to make? 12hrs.? 16hrs.? Do you have the list for entire cast?"

I'll take the Fifth.

I think that since last Sunday or Monday, I have been in a Zone. Last week I was a real stress case but this week nothing really seems to faze me. Part of it is that when I talk to Will, Karin, Leland or Craig I get a sense of satisfaction, a sense of Yes, this can be done. My people are in place, my tasks are laid out before me, and I just need to bang through them, hopefully with my vision guiding the way.

Now watch as God pulls the rug from under me for what I just said, ever so cockily.

Okay, gotta go... someone's at the door...maybe it's God?