Two awesome shoots!

I just awoke after two days of shooting two very different scenes.  On Sunday we shot "One True Thing", a scene from a film about a woman dying with cancer.  A real pick me up you might say.  Still, in spite of the subject matter, it was an awesome shoot.  I got to work with Andy Gardner, Jennifer Enskat and Emilie Mingallon again.  This time, Emilie was my co-star and she did a wonderful job playing my distraught, overworked daughter.  We had another beautiful location and even though there was an entire family home, there were no real sound issues, just the perfect environment for shooting a very intense scene.  Emilie did a terrific job.  I think it will be moving to watch.

Then yesterday we shot a scene from "A Prairie Home Companion".  This is the scene where a couple of very bone chilling things were meant to happen.  One, I had to sing and Two, I forced my real daughter to act on camera with me!  Yes, I said forced and yes, I meant it. Here's the funny thing.  She was awesome!  The role called for her to be a disinterested, humorless young adult.  On the way to the location I decided to run lines with Cassie.  She was in the back seat and I gave her a cue.  Her response?  A finger wag and "no, no I don't do this running lines thing you actors do".  Of course that made me laugh very hard and continue running lines.  She knew every word and at one point she said, "can we turn this down?" I hurried and turned down the radio.  It was her saying one of her lines in the scene!  This had Jay rolling on the floor of my car.  Cassie's read was very realistic needless to say.  Throughout the shoot, she had some quotes that were truly unforgettable that I must share and that kept us all in stitches the entire time.

I asked her where she placed her notebook in the chair when she got up during the scene.  Cassie said, "how am I supposed to know?  I throw it on the chair every time, like it's gonna land in the same place!"  Ahh, she's the master of continuity.

When Jay was directing Cassie to be more annoyed upon getting up to turn down the intercom, she said, "it would be a lot easier if there really was an annoying noise that was bugging me"  Julie quickly added, "hence it's called acting!"

Then it was time for Cassie's close ups.  Jay said, "camera rolling" which of course means the word action is soon to follow.  Cassie was folding pieces of paper and messing with her hair and basically doing her own thing.  I thought it was so funny.  It was like having a non actor working on set.  She pointed out several times that she was so bored, hated this and would NEVER want to be an actor.  Ahh, I'm so proud.