10PM shooting Chaointe

So its 10pm and now we are still setting up but we are getting closer to shooting. Tatiana and I are going through different wardrobe options. In retrospect I should have done the dress shopping thing I did with Shannon, I just didnt have the time. I think the look we came up with was good. I didnt want to go with an over the top banshee but more of a believable normal woman. We ended up spending about 3 hours on the opening scene. There was a lot of movement the barista moves from behind the counter to the front of the counter takes an order and then walks away, Anthony then notices the banshee stands up and walks over to her. This sequence took 3 hours mainly due to all of the movement. Oh we also shot the end as well where Anthonly leaves and the banshee follows half way. So once we were done with that they were sitting in the booth. This went fairly smoothly.

I did learn something really important for me. I have to say action and cut. In pre-production Eric asked me if I cared who said it, and I said nope dont care which I didnt. I know it all depends on the director. My man Terry Gilliam doesnt do his actions or cuts unless he is going to crazy town. So I dont have an ego and dont really care. However, now I do care. Mainly because I found out I just feel so totally disconnected from the scene if I dont. So now I have my own wierd thing.

Note for anyone not sure about the action
the AD or Director should yell
"Sound Ready"
Sound man"sound ready"
"Talent ready"
Talent "talent ready"
Camera ready
Camera Operator"Camera ready, Camera rolling"
"Slate in"
"Action"
A this point if the camera bumps the camera man can yell cut if the an airplane flies overhead the sound guy can yell cut and if the director sees or hears something he does not like he/ she can yell cut. Actors should not yell cut. I had an actor yelling cut in the middle of all of thier best takes. In editing this was making me want to burn all the material it was madening.

So we went through the big chunk of dialogue fairly quickly. It was tough because each segment of script each phrase could have had direction and mood given for it but we just did not have the time. Not giving direction sometimes is the best direction you can give. If you have 2 hours and have to get through a big chunck of dialogue that has a confusing amount of emotions letting your actors no they can just flow with it may discourage them but in the end you will discourage them less then if you give them all kinds of confusing motivation that they have to try and remember along with really wordy dialogue. The actors I worked with on this I'm sure were more then capable of me throwing a ton of different moods and emotions but with 2 hours and it bieng 2 in the morning I went with just explore what comes natural, rather then doing what I like which is breaking every sentance down. I think if I did that we would have been shooting until 10 in the morning meaning it would have not been finished. So minimual direction is something else learned from this set. Oh and I got a chance to work with fake blood.