Today is our last day of principal photography, so I’m going to try and blog as we shoot, rather than recap later based on my notes.

Call today was 9:00 A.M., which is officially a “forced call”, meaning the cast and crew get less than 12 hours for turnaround. I hate doing this, but thankfully we’ve only had forced calls twice on this shoot. Amazing, considering how much work we’ve done over the last 15 days.

We’re starting with some quick stuff of Matthew Montgomery in his bedroom. Each shot is 1/8 of a page, so they should be quick. For those that don’t know, when you calculate the amount of work you have for each day, you break the script pages down into 1/8 segments. I’m not sure how this became the official mileage marker for production, but I’m sure it has to do with some average calculated over the years. However, this can be misleading - the old joke goes “We’re only shooting 1/8 of a page today, so it should be a short day.” “What is the scene description?” “EXT. FIELD - DAY: An army of a thousand warriors races over the hill and battles the enemy”.

11:30 PM - Finished the bedroom stuff, now moving on to the bathroom. We’re shooting a shower scene, and a “What the Hell is that?” scene (the character finds something “mysterious” in the bathroom). We’ll shoot the dry shot first…

12:30 PM - Finished the bathroom stuff. Now we’re moving the entire apartment and all the film equipment to one end of the space so we can shoot a tracking shot of the characters entering and seeing the space for the first time. Rasool is back in her second role as the “Realtor”, leading Matthew and Walter thru the space. Rasool and Matthew are onscreen together for the first time since the Socket shoot.

This is tough because we can’t move the equipment to the hallway, so we’re crammed into one side. I send a few of the crew up to the roof to relieve the occupancy and collective body heat.

Because this is supposed to be a sunny loft, we pull back the huge blackout curtains, close the windows (for sound) and let the baking sunlight flood in. “Turn on the air!” As we move all the furniture someone asks, “Is that blowing hot air?” Sure enough, someone accidentally set the thermostat to “Heat”, raising the tempature another 10 degrees.

1:30 PM - We’re getting our first shot off. Once we cover this angle we’ll need to move everything across the loft to the other side so we can get the reverse.

2:00 PM - I fucking lose my mind. Our keys are not listening to each other, talking over each other, and we’re not moving forward, just like last night. I’m furious. I blow up at them. There will be blood.

2:05 PM - It gets much quieter, and work gets done.

3:00 PM - We’re at lunch. I chat with Director Kittredge about what went down. “I totally agree with you, but don’t call me a ‘whiny baby’ in front of the actors…” And he’s right. I feel like it was justified to put the smackdown on them, but I shouldn’t involve the director in a confrontation in front of the crew.

I call Matty and tell him what happened. As much as I’m willing to go off when needed, I always feel like shit afterwards. (I know some of my loyal readers will find this hard to believe.) We talk and he gives me good advice on how to handle the aftermath, which I’m happy for. At the end of the day, I’d like to work with most of this crew again, so I don’t want them to think I’m a crazy, mean producer. And I don’t want to end this shoot, which despite all the problems has been a great experience, on a downer.

3:30 PM - Back to work, we’ve moved the entire loft to the other side. We seem to be moving forward and working more efficiently.

4:00 PM - Rasool is picture wrapped. Big round of applause. Fan favorite Hawt Top Jon Gale is here to play his second role, “Mover”. We’re moving MUCH more efficiently, and everyone’s mood seems to be upbeat. We place a camera up on the shelf above FJ’s closet to get the crazy “security cam” angle.

5:10 PM - Jon Gale is picture wrapped. Big round of applause.

We move on to a very complicated series of shots involving Matthew, Walter (in “I just got beat up” makeup) and Key Grip Jeremy as “The Figure”. I’m nervous - we’re actually doing well time-wise, and this scene has the potential to put us REALLY behind.

6:30 PM - We’ve shot our first shot in the scene. Director Kittredge has broken down the scene into tiny takes, which we need, but as always each new moment is a camera and light repo. A nailbiter for a producer watching the clock. We have to shoot all of Walter’s coverage first because he has to leave for work by 9:00 PM.

8:45 PM - Our desperate circumstances drive me to an unthinkable act. “10-200″ (aka onset radio code for “taking a poo”. “10-100″ is taking a pee) in the one bathroom in the loft, which is also being used as our makeup room. We’re all trapped in the loft - all 20 of us - so right outside the door is a crowd of people. I’d almost rather die than let people know my bathroom business in real time (except for Matty, he has boyfriend “privilege”), but if I don’t I’m going to explode. For two days I’ve held it for 12+ hours, but today my body is rebelling. I wish I could yell at it like the crew and make it obey. Alas…

9:00 PM - Walter Delmar is picture wrapped. Big round of applause. We start shooting Matthew’s coverage, which involves Key Grip Jeremy attacking him and (presumably) killing him. Matthew has to work himself into hysteria over and over, which must be incredibly hard after being on the set for 12 hours.

We’re officially in overtime now, with three more scenes to finish after this one. Call Dominoes for our third 2nd meal of the shoot. More pizza, even though we’re still finishing the leftovers from last night. Director Kittredge has predicted midnight. I’m hoping 11:00 PM.

10:15 PM - Director Kittredge is camera operating for a long jib shot. After three long takes, and reviewing the footage, we discover that a certain effect/lens/something called “ground glass” wasn’t ….on? Something? We have to do it again. Most of the room is in darkness for lighting purposes, and everyone is dead quiet. We’re all waiting for our second wind to kick in while we digest our pizza.

10:30 PM - I shoot my third 2nd unit shot while they set up for something in the main room. A door being unlocked, once fast, once slow.

10:45 PM - Matthew is picture wrapped…sort of. We have a couple scenes we need to shoot in a month or so. Big round of applause.

12:08 AM - Pete Scherer is in for his two scenes tonight. About two pages of dialogue and a fight scene. The set is the loft, but cleared out with just a chair, tv monitor and video camera as set dressing. For some reason putting this together takes longer than clearing the room.

We’ve just shot the two pages of dialogue, and now we have to shoot the fight. A complicated fight.

12:39 AM - Finished one angle of the fight, shooting it with two cameras. Repoing to 2nd angle. Matty calls, he’s going to bed.

1:03 AM - The fight isn’t working. Key Grip Jeremy is too big to be beaten by Pete. There’s no fight choreographer, so the fight itself looks sort of lame. I pull Director Kittredge aside and we discuss a new end of this scene - the fight is cut, there is new, simpler business which will cut perfectly (we hope) with the scene that follows.

I’m reminded of Socket when we were trying to shoot the ending of the film at 1:00 AM in the morning. I hated what we were shooting, so I stopped, rewrote it, and shot it.

1:14 AM - Wrap. Crew photo. Load out. We’re all still friends.