SET DAY!

in filmmaking •  7 years ago 

Later will come a post with photos once they're developed, but you know how long THAT takes.

... ;P Nah, but other people took the pictures, so I gotta wait for them to send them to me. Instead, here's a taste of what life was like hour-by-hour

6:25am the alarm goes off, but @stinawog told me she set two alarms, one for 6:25am, and one for 6:30, so I fall back asleep.
6:30am something bizarre is happening. It's like the world is comprised of a silly tune and mosquitoes. It takes me an entire minute to understand that the alarm is going off again. I can hear that Stina's in the shower, so I figure I should just sleep until she's out.
6:??am Stina says, "hey, you wanna get up now?" and I bound out of bed, take my shower, put jeans in my bag, and then begin searching the house for Sense and Sensibility.
7:15am I still haven't found it. I looked there. I moved all the stuff from there to over there. I even looked under there. Did I leave it there? Our ride is here! I guess I just can't bring it...oh, there it is, already in my bag.
7:36am We arrive at home base, which is the producer's apartment. I know she's not an early bird, but we figure, we're only 24 minutes early for call time, surely she'll want us to get coffee going. We ring the bell and wait for a few minutes. She has just awoken. I sorrowfully sympathize.
8isham everybody else starts arriving. I eat so many bagels and so much cream cheese. I carry things up stairs. I open doors for people. I greet and hug old friends. I cleverly introduce myself to new people. Everybody jokes about bananas and bees.
9:45isham Everybody leaves home base in my care. I read Sense and Sensibility and eat more bagels and lox. I tool around with Robinhood and Steemit and Gdax. I nap.
12:10pm The assistant MUA (make up artist) arrives. I let the caterer back in and put the stew on the stove. The caterer takes the aMUA to set.
12:45pm The MUA returns from set. She begins applying my fake beard. We chat about her new boyfriend and the fact that Jonathan Taylor Thomas is running for a SAG/AFTRA board position and how no one wants to work with actors who are mean to MUAs.
2pm Everybody returns for lunch. My new beard keeps getting in my mouth, so I don't eat. It's okay, I had a lot of bagels and cream cheese. The actor playing my niece goes to get her fangs fitted, and there is discussion about whether I'll come to set with the AD or the MUA. It is decided that I'll come with the MUA, but then the AD takes me.
3:45pm I'm on set. Sitting on a blanket on a gorgeous day in a park watching people pretending to have a picnic and put hair wraps in hair. It's all pretend except the day. The day is really gorgeous, and the sunlight hits the mountain face full on. Where's the hat? Send Brendan for the hat. I get the hat and transport it a whole 30 yards.
4:45pm It's still not my scene yet, but we've moved to another place, this one more wooded, and now they're pretending to throw rocks in a lake. The rocks are real. Stina picked them after I noticed them with my keen eye. The lake is not real. There are spiderwebs and leaves and fallen branches and, unfortunately, an in-n-out bag where the lake is supposed to be.
5:45pm the light is starting to change. I sign some paperwork. We're moving to the area where we'll shoot my scene, about a quarter mile up a steep trail. Everyone is sweating. The difference between gorgeous day and scorching day is a matter of degrees. Ha. No one is sure where the blanket is. Ann will get the blanket, and while she's down there, will make sure the water is coming up.
6:45pm I act. First I act the whole thing. Then I act a little piece. Then I act a different little piece. Sometimes the camera is on me, sometimes it isn't, but it doesn't matter. Sometimes I act the same little piece over and over again in a row. Sometimes I act it very differently each time. Sometimes I stick with the same-ish acting. Sometimes it's very technical: look this way, tilt your head more, don't blink, step a little to your left. Sometimes it's very artsy. When I get to do what I want, I make sure I love whomever I'm speaking to, even if I want to murder them. I'm often amused.
7:45pm I do all the same things, but this time, with a face full of fangs.
8:45pm It's gotten too dark to continue. All the airplanes that have gone overhead making us stop to wait for them have been replaced by hikers passing by. All the buzzing of bees has been replaced by crickets.

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!