weekend fifteen: 3 tapes and cold nipples

Apparently in between filming, working the day job, walking the dog, loading tapes, drinking with friends, making lunches, buying and decorating a Christmas tree, Thanksgiving, dealing with the family, paying rent, buying presents, flying in a helicopter, doing laundry, and anything else that gets slopped across my over-filled plate of responsibilities I have missed a severe change in weather (or completely lost track of time). I admit that we could have started this "film" thing a little earlier in the year. I know that it's going to take some time working mainly on weekends when our actors and actresses are available. I'm rough-cutting scenes as we go along to save some precious time. I'm breaking down the logistics of shoots on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays so that we can shoot on those following weekends. I've been busy. I am a little concerned to find that when we started shooting Divine Manipulation of the Threads we had waded through quite a dripping-warm Summer. The suit coats, button-up shirts, and ties seemed a little foolish for such over-heated sweatbox environments. There were some days that boasted a temperature of 103 degrees. However, now that Summer has passed, we've skipped Fall and shot into Winter like a bullet train from Osaka... I might be one of the only characters that doesn't freeze to death on set due to the orignal layers of "man clothes" (and it is motherf-ing cold lately).
On Friday we shot at The Peanut Shoppe downtown. They close at 5pm and were gracious enough to stick around to allow us to shoot at that location after I escaped from work. Now, we did kind of run over our allotted time for the shoot. We got out of there fairly early for an evening but I think that we might have inadvertently stayed a little too long. Don't get me wrong, the location is great... smack in the middle of Main St. Memphis... neons, signs, mirrors, textures, colors galore... They've got all varieties of nuts, candies, popcorn, etc. I would like to invite all of you to stop by and purchase some warm nuts (start the jokes now... because our shoot at the Peanut Shoppe was one big "nut joke"). We simply kept the owners there a little longer than anticipated. So, I would like to personally thank the owners of the shop. We really had fun, we captured some great material and couldn't have done it without you. I'll be stopping back by soon for some Walnuts... spiced walnuts if you've got 'em.
Jen froze a little bit during the exterior shoot. When we started shooting the "date night" scene months earlier, she was wearing a low-cut violet tank top, blue jeans, and open toed shoes. If you were out on Friday night, you might imagine how the free flowing wind would have felt against the stark-white contrast of skin. I could have cut glass with my nipples, so I'm pretty sure she could have killed a rhino. We pressed on through the blustery evening, catching a few more exterior shots before I had to troubleshoot the one decision that I had been avoiding all night. We could no longer shoot outside in the wind (for audio purposes) or the cold (for skin discoloration) that evening. So, with the wind picking up too much, it was too cold for the cast and crew to use their fingers, and I had to figure out a method of improv script rewriting to move the next shoot inside. We figured something out and managed to stay warm for the remainder of the evening. Until we went out drinking.
Thank you to Arnold, Dayna, Brad, Anthony, Christine, Joe, The folks at The Peanut Shoppe, the lobby of 99 Towers, and especially Jen Weatherford. You held it together, made it happen, and rocked the house that rocks the house. You're all helping make dreams come true.... in really cold f-ing circumstances.
Sunday evening brought me back to Anthony's house to load tapes. The holidays helped me get behind on loading material "into the machine." I had three full tapes to go through, load, and prepare to edit. Some of it will be a blast, some of it will be challenging (as we still manage to make tiny mistakes along the way --- that's what the "no budget" thing is all about, troubleshooting). I'm starting to realize why some people say that you can't do certain things without money. You can do them, it's just easier with money... and warmer...
I'm reminded of a thread that I forgot to add a few weeks back that spilled out of Anthony's mouth: "I will never make a f#cking movie with no money again." With all good luck, I hope he's right. This will be a hillarious film, done on no budget, and it's going to turn people's heads. Hopefully the coming weekend will be warm. Mother Nature could really stick me in the ass. Maybe Fall will make a pugalistic comeback.
-B