It’s the first day off — six straight days of shooting — and I finally have a moment to reflect. Overall, I am very pleased so far. We only had one major foul-up with any consequences — a simple miscommunication landed us a little behind schedule. We’re not extremely behind schedule, but a little behind schedule. We may have to put in one or two overtime days. I’m not worried about how this will change our budget (at this point, the budget is just an abstraction to me — there’ll always be semen to sell) — but gosh darnit a 12 hour day is kinda long enough!
Anyway, I must take a moment to sing the praises of our DP Raoul Germain — the guy is just a lagoon of calm in what should be a typhoon of chaos. Maybe it is because he is from LA, but the man just doesn’t know how to get frustrated. It is remarkable. Also, our fantastic cast: Rob Gomes had to go from faking an orgasm in one shot to then queitly weeping in the next. That ain’t easy to do. Especially in cramped quarters with people barking at you nonstop. The luminous Leslie Kendall is a joy to work with, especially because there is no Woody Allen quote she can’t follow-up on. The other star of the show is Young Matt Patches, originally hired as “extra guy on set,” this 19 year old kid has become Kerry’s and my right arm. He is a fantastic AD/Script Supervisor and far more on top of things than we are. We’ve had to make some last minute schedule changes in the heat of battle (mostly due to the aforementioned fuck-up) and we’ve basically turned to this guy and said, “Whaddya suggest we shoot now?” Was I this organized when I was his age?
One quick anecdote. It is 6:30 AM and I am driving (yes, me — driving!) from Kerry’s apartment to get to the set. We have these giant flags and silks roped to the top of my mother’s car. We need to get there quickly, but I don’t want to go too quickly because if I do these massive objects — basically humongous parachutes — will fly off the roof and kill people and Kerry and I would end up on the cover of the New York Daily News. I turn on the radio, which had been tuned to WQXR. And they are playing. . .the William Tell Overture!!! Maybe you just had to be there, but I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in weeks.
On to photos:
