Crazy shoot

In the land of A to Z we usually have a start time of 1 PM or sometimes it's an early one at 11 AM but in the case of yesterday's scene from It's Complicated, we had a call time of 5:00 PM with a definite go by 5:45 ... well, that was the plan anyway.  The time was selected because I was working around the schedule of Devon Collins who has been doing a juggling act with several clients.  This, by the way, thrills me.  I love it when my peeps are working so no complaints here. The two actors, Mike and Tom were right on time at 5 PM.  Devon was scheduled to be there around 5:30 which would allow for last minute touch ups to wardrobe and running the script.  Here's where we make sure we know what we're about to say.

At around 6, I got a bit worried, no Dev.  Hmm, so I texted to see what was happening and he said they were just getting into their cars in Kent!  Oh my, that's about an hour away.  I promised Tom he could leave by 7 PM and it was looking like Dev wouldn't arrive until 7. He had been on a shoot that he was sure would be done by 4:30 but they added some last minute locations.  These things happen a lot in this biz so I totally get it.  Meanwhile, I asked Tom what's the latest he could stay and he said 7:15.  Tom was the first to say that he might not be able to do this shoot because of a prior commitment but with my promise of him being out in plenty of time, he agreed to do it. I felt awful!

We began shooting at 7:17.  By 7:25, Tom was wrapped.  Did we get all we needed?  Not really.  Devon had the great idea of asking Tom for his sweater for the rest of the shoot. Tom very nicely left it behind and it was lucky too because I had to put it on and act as a stand in and Mike had to put it on for the same reason later too.  This was creativity at it's best.  Then we shot the second half of the scene. All in all, we began at 7:17 and by 8:24 we had already been packing up for 10 minutes.  I'm not exaggerating.  To say that I think we got all necessary takes would not be true.  To say that we hit it out of the park would not be my choice of words either.  I'm thrilled that it was a light hearted scene but there are some things that I didn't get to capture.  I had some directing notes that I gave that were never realized and I really wanted that extra variety for choices during the edit.

Onto the edit ... well, the plan was to edit last night and then that got switched to today at 3 PM and then I received a Facebook message saying today is bad so how about Tuesday.  My only desire was to get it done before Monday so one would think a single day wouldn't mean much except this is FEBRUARY and we have TWO MORE to shoot and this must FINISH on February 14.  Yes, I am emphatic.  It's one of two deadlines that are NOT negotiable.  SO, ... oops sorry, don't mean to shout, I do understand the conflicts of course. I do understand that people are busy. I do understand.  I understand.  I'm understanding.  Let's break that up under stand.  To stand in my mind is  to be tall, proud, strong like a mighty oak.  To be under is to be down, beneath, low.  So I understand ... yes, I do.

I better get my understanding butt into the editing suite soon and figure out the last two shoots so I don't have to over stand and get cheeky at the end of my project.  We can do it, people.  We can.  Only three more to air and two shoots to go ... come on ... do it for Meryl Streep or better yet, do it for Nancy T!