Director's Diary
Director's note: I have skipped 8 diary entries that I will get back to as soon as possible. It has been a crazy crazy month. Very hard work. Here is an account of our most recent weekend. Hope you enjoy!
Day 19
Feb 23rd, 2001
We are in Santa Cruz. On the road. Yesterday and last night we caravanned down here in little clumps. We are staying at the comfort inn and it appears that this will be an awesome weekend.
Everyone is psyched to be together, on the road, and in a motel. Okay, so they are not so super stoked when I woke them this morning at 5:30am for a 6:00am call. But hey! We are on the road and we are shooting a movie and we have a big fucking day ahead of us, so let's get going!
So we get going over to the infamous Saturn Café. The Saturn has a big history in my life. Amy and I met there. Mike and I met there. Although I never worked there, I was an honorary employee for many years. Much of my most creative output was sparked by my experiences with the Saturn. So, needless to say, I am very happy we are shooting there. Tristan and Abigail, the owners, have been very kind to us. Not only are they letting us film our scene and closing off a big section of the restaurant, but they will be feeding us lunch as well. Oh, they are awesome.
So we film. It goes very smoothly. I have the cast looking beautiful. Post rock star makeup and clothing has them shining like a beacon of my past. Most of the crew has put on glitter and eye makeup on as well. We are looking so goddamn good. We film the scene and it goes faster then I expected. By noonish we are done and lunch gets served. Even though we have been working for six hours, our day has just begun. We now will have a few hours off to nap, etc. Then we will meet again around 6pm on the Santa Cruz wharf to film the scene from the night before.
Everyone remains in good spirits as we head back to the motel and crash out for the afternoon. I fall asleep thinking about the insanity that my life in Santa Cruz was. The psychotic energy that seemed to envelope my group of friends in the year or two before I left. I loved and love Santa Cruz, but there is energy here. Palpable twisted energy that I sense is lurking just around the corner. As sleep takes me away, I am left wondering if we will escape unaffected.
{NOPE}
So I gather the troops in the late afternoon and we head to the wharf. I am unprepared for this shoot. Because of random different problems, we are shooting this scene in the third location that I originally chose. So I have blocked the scene for two other places and I have to reblock it for this area. I am not happy about it, but after a little while, I get it down and it is starting to look really good to me. Night falls, and we shoot.
Tonight it is cold as hell. Really chilly and we are out in the cold for many hours. After about four hours I start realizing that I have made an error with my scheduling. People are unhappy. It is getting later and later and we are not really close to being done. Oh, shit. Finally someone on the crew has a meltdown. Just loses it for a moment or two. After a second, everything is alright, but I know that we cannot finish the scene without more meltdowns. Mercifully, it starts to rain. I make a snap decision…."It's a wrap!" We clean up tensely and head back to the hotel. Oy….We are supposed to shoot a kids soccer game tomorrow with about 10-12 kids and the forecast says heavy rain. What the hell am I gonna do? I go to sleep pensive and stressed. Hmmm. I thought this trip was going to be all about fun.