Shooting at Top Design, a design studio that is owned by a friend of Vegan Production Designer Doug.

One of the first things we shot today was a scene that we’d pushed from last week involving Bret Wolfe. This is a continuation of the tracking shot we did in the UPS location - We started with the two characters walking thru the porn production office with all the stuff happening in the background, then the characters turn a corner and we pick them up in a different part of the production facility, which is actually this location clear across town.

Part of the shot involves Bret arriving in a robe, presumably from shooting a scene. We did two takes - one, the LOGO version, with the robe closed, then the “Uncut Director’s Cut” version with the robe open and Bret nude underneath. Bret is a sport and had not qualms about the nudity, except that it was cold in the location. He’s also about a foot and a half shorter than Pete Scherer, the actor playing one of the leads, so shooting the over-the-shoulder shots for the scene was tough. If the camera was positioned wrong, it would look like a scene from Lord of the Rings between Viggo and one of the hobbits.

Next we shot a scene involving the porn producer character, played by Steve Callahan, and some “porn newbies” auditioning for him. To get these featured roles cast, both of which required full frontal nudity and a sex scene with another dude, took multiple casting calls. We were set to shoot this scene a week ago, but one of the actors dropped out. Rescheduling meant we had to lose the other actor as well, so I was back at square one for naked guys. After putting out ads last night on Craig’s List, I had a bunch of responses. I had them all meet me at the set (Director Kitredge’s house) one at a time the night before so I could suss out their reliability and whether or not they looked like wannabe porn stars. Of the lot, I had two who weren’t scared off by the street-side interview (we couldn’t go into the apartment because cameras were rolling), so I booked them both.

Then just as I was leaving the location I got an email from an honest-to-goodness porn star, Enrique Currero. A friend had forwarded the Craig’s List ad to him, and he was hot to do something outside of porn. Apparently he’s worked in independent film before, and thought the project sounded cool. After chatting with him on the phone, I booked him as well - My thought was normally you have a high flake rate, so I’d book three and fingers crossed at least two would show.

Next morning - wouldn’t ya know it, all three showed! So now instead of a couple, we had a big gay three-way auditioning for the porn producer. Enrique arrived with his manager/boyfriend “To make sure this is legit…” He is actually very sweet, and beautiful in person. Director Kittredge and I figured out how they should be positioned - one fucking another one doggy style while he makes out with the third - and then left it to the three men to decide who was what position. Enrique told us, “I should be top, to fit with my image…” and the guy who wanted to be the bottom was more than happy with that arrangement.

All three were very comfortable with being naked, and excelled at bad porn acting. This is one of the very few humorous scenes in the film, and as far as I can tell these guys nailed it. Speaking of nailing, yes, I looked and yes, Enrique has what it takes to make a very good top.

Fighting light today - have exteriors that require it, and our therapist’s office is all windows. Rasool Jahan, “Carol” in Socket is working today shooting one of her two roles (the “Therapist”.) It’s great to have her on set again. This girl needs to work more, so somebody put her in more movies. We originally cast Georgia Jean (also of Socket and Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror) in this role, but a series of circumstances conspired to make her drop out - mainly a car accident and a move to another state. I was bummed, as was , but double casting Rasool made sense for the film, so the transition was painless.

I’ve raged against other folks who have bailed in the past, but Georgia Jean’s circumstances are legit and unavoidable, rather than “I’d just rather do something else,” so she gets a pass. We had another actor miss a day because his mother died, and yet another actor may miss his day because his father is ill. Both completely understandable, but it makes me wonder why misfortune is in the air these days.

I’m hitting a wall, as are many people. Today during a long take I leaned my chin on my hand, then woke up to “Cut!” I’d totally fallen asleep at the production table. We just had a day off, but it was only our second in 11 days of shooting. We’ve made the decision not to shoot Sunday and Monday, and two days off in a row sounds like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one.

We shot with Dave Cobb’s car today/tonight, making this the second time the Sebring has appeared in one of my films, the first being Nine Lives. When I picked it up he asked “What scene are you shooting?” “It’s a car accident where the character slams into a truck full of Jarts, then careens over a cliff, rolls down a hill and lands in the LaBrea Tar Pits…”

The one thing that has changed since I used this car last is the driver’s side door is broken - you have to use the outside handle to get out. Since we had a shot of the character pulling up to the driveway, then getting out in one unbroken take, the 1rst AD Mike had to scoot up to the door, out of frame, and open the door for the actor to make it look like he could actually get out of the car.

Tomorrow we scout FJ’s apartment as a replacement for the loft we lost last week - fingers crossed it will work!