Two days off was amazing. I feel totally refreshed!

On Sunday we scouted FJ’s loft, which is perfect for what we need. HOO-RAY! Such a relief. And just to make sure you don’t think DP Ivan is a mean dude after the blowup story I wrote about the other day, here’s a picture of him holding one of the kitties that live across from FJ’s place.

On Monday we scouted a diner that Bobaloo recommended. He appeared in a music video for some band that shot there, and as we frantically searched for diners that weren’t $5000 a day, he remembered that location. I grabbed Director Kittredge, we drove down near USC and there it was - a perfect diner. We talked with the manager who was more than willing to let us shoot there, as long as we paid the extravagance sum of $40.

Yes, $40. For an entire day of shooting. I couldn’t believe it, and in fact felt almost guilty about the price. I mean, I like a deal as much as the next person (my Jewish boyfriend has beaten that into me), but $40? We told her that we would have the crew eat there, so we could throw some business their way. “Okay, but if the bill is less than $40, you won’t have to pay…” STOP IT!!!! Finding a location this welcoming for this cheap? I’m sure we’re on Punk’d.

Now we just have one location left - an office that can stand in for our porn production office from 1995. We’ve already shot part of the scenes in the UPS location, so we need something to match. And we need it for tomorrow. Morning. Yikes.

Today we’re shooting a ton of driving stuff, as well as some exteriors. We decided to use Director Kittredge’s apartment’s exterior as one location, and the streets nearby for all the others. So we’re back in his apartment.

We need Sunny LA to match another shot, and of course today it’s super gray and rainy. Fuck. We’ve used up our cover set, so we have no choice but to shoot today. We figure out we can shoot everything we’d planned except one shot, which we’ll have to pick that up on a future day of inserts and pickups. My compulsive need for clean lines, things in their place, and completely shot out scenes rebels against this notion, but logic wins. Stupid logic.

We’re using Dave Cobb’s car again, so today starts with me driving out to the valley, picking up the car (and transferring all the craft service from one trunk to another), then dropping off the SAG payroll information, THEN hitting my bank to deposit the check for the 2nd place win at the Indianapolis GLBT film fest for Socket (four months later). So I’ve worked for two hours before our 11 A.M call.

We steal all of the exterior shots. We ain’t got permits, cuz that’s how I roll. And to permit all of our locations would cost another $1,000 or so, which we can’t afford. No coppers show up - the only real danger is all the dog poo in the grass around Director Kittredge’s block.

Next up is the continuation of a scene we shot way back on Day 3 in the UPS location. Two main characters enter a stairwell, descend into the darkness, the reemerge in a new location - basically some dream logic going on. We shot the first part - opening the door to the stairway, entering the stairway - at UPS, but we had to push the actual “in the stairway” shot. We never picked it up at that location, so last night I came up with the idea of shooting it in Director Kittredge’s front stairway. It’s inclosed, and with the right lighting you’ll never know that it isn’t some creepy dream stairway.

In the script there is a scene where two characters are parked in a lookout spot on Mullholland Dr. Actually shooting up there would be tough, mainly because we’d need a generator for the lights (costly) and we’d have to permit the location because the residents would call the cops on us the second they spotted the camera.

So the solution is to set up a green screen in Director Kittredge’s garage, shoot the scene, then composite the skyline in later.

In the middle of our day, after wracking my brain, I remembered a location nearby that I’d scouted for Socket. I took a quick trip around the block to get the phone number off the front door, then called the guy. I asked him if there was any possible way we could shoot in the space tomorrow. “Actually, it is available tomorrow, and you’ll get the last minute booking discount of $100 off the price, so it will only cost you $120 total.” Holy shit! It’s raining location deals! We’re set for tomorrow!

The only real downside today is I tried to get away with not shopping for craft service because of the small crew - oops! We had a ton of some foods available - basically anything that would keep over the weekend, like packaged donuts, candy, breakfast bars, soda and water, etc. And since we were starting at 11 A.M. I didn’t feel like we needed coffee (which we never finish anyway). But we tear thru the stuff we have pretty fast and by the time lunch rolls around every one is starving.

I’ll make it up to everyone tomorrow. We’re ordering off the menu at the restaurant for lunch, so turkey reubens for everyone!!