That 4
Friends Movie
Day 03 - Monday
Today, I’m just too sleepy to be alive. So we
struggle to get awake and get dressed (a running joke – we both brought
the exact number of clothes for the exact number of days we’re on the
road, and every day of deciding which shirt to wear with which pair of
shorts was another day closer to the last day of total mismatched shirt
and shorts).
So I barely finish breakfast, and I’m in the van
with the new 1st AD (and former 2nd AD) Michael, DP John, Alfredo,
Alice and Todd. We’re off to figure out how to set up shots on
yet another hill. In this scene, a gray-haired woman easily rides
past our out of shape riders. The way they’re discussing the
set-up, it sounds like the gray-haired woman is passing them from the
opposite direction. John thinks it sounds like that too, and
asks, “Is she coming from the other direction?” I say, “Yeah,
she’s still on last year’s race.” And he falls apart laughing,
the first time in my career I’ve gotten such a reaction from a
DP.
So Jane and Richard arrive and do their run-through
of the scene, a magnificent opportunity of scenery chewing where Jane
finally grabs Richard’s shoulders and cries out “Damn it, Jim, I’m a
doctor not a magician!” and we laugh.
And there’s this new young blond guy walking around
and I finally walk up to him, introduce myself and ask him just who he
is. He says he’s what Michael used to be. I stand there for
a moment, and realize, “You’re the new 2nd A.D.?” He says yes,
very distracted. I say, “Oh!” and walk away.
So we shoot the scene and at last I’ve got someone,
PA Gabriel, to grab Polaroids of where the bikes get thrown and the
helmets land so we can match the coverage shots. I encourage him
to shout out “Freeze! Polaroids!” and take pictures before everyone
starts clearing the scene, which is the basic routine. This is
the first opportunity for this typical action to take place, and after
the first “That’s a print!” Gabriel runs out to take the
picture. Everyone’s confused, and I yell “Freeze!” Alfredo
turns and looks at me with horror, what went wrong on the take?
And I call out, “Polaroids! For continuity!” and I realize at
this point everyone on set is looking at little ol’ me and I toss out,
“you know.” And the crew laughs at my total surrender.
Then we make our big company move to terrifying
Ragged Point, up in Big Sur. It seems that on the way to this
cliff overlooking the rocky ocean waves is where a tractor trailer
truck fell off the road and crashed in a deep ravine, so we have to be
even more careful than usual. So we drive and drive, passing Seal
Beach. It’s fabulous. On the east side of the road, we’ve
got fields and cows. On the west side, tons of sea lions snoozing
on the beach. It’s like right side - western, left side - beach
movie.
So we arrive to the top, where lunch in Styrofoam
plates and cups are being set on tables at the windiest point in the
world. I set down my stuff to sit with Film Loader Karen, but
return to find Thomas has moved my stuff to sit there. Perfect
opportunity for me to sit there, I think, so I say, “Thomas moved my
stuff!” and I sit next to him. He’s talking to Karen, but I don’t
really notice. Then he turns to me and tries to start a
conversation, and we got to talk a little movies. Then the wind
kicked up again, and his napkin went flying. Then his Styrofoam
cup slid vertically toward me and I one-handed it. He said,
“Thanks.” He got up to leave and another gust sent a Styrofoam
salad bowl with creamy salad dressing residue at his shorts, which hit
him despite his valiant effort backswing out of its path.
Wardrobe was on her feet, and cleaning it before it would require a
clothing change.
I decide to duck out to the bathroom before we start
filming, but we’re just enough in harm’s way for me to not be able to
walk down the mountain road to the hotel – I have to wait for a
van. So I try to get a van, but everything’s nuts and this new
2nd AD guy is giving me empty promises and walking away. After 10
wasted minutes of me not getting to slip away, I’m starting to get a
little angry, assuring them I will not have the cameras waiting on the
script supervisor because she "just now decided" to go to the restroom,
so somehow Assistant Production Coordinator Keri drives me to the hotel
and she is so not impressed with the new guy, it’s funny. “I
mean, who is this guy?” she asks me. I tell her he’s the new 2nd
AD. She remarks it would be nice if they had announced that to
everyone at breakfast. I’m amazed and say, “All those travel
arrangement announcements, and they didn’t introduce the crew to the
new 2nd AD? Alfredo said they would, but we went scouting.”
She assured me they didn’t, and suddenly Steve’s empty promises start
making sense.
I get up to the real location, a small area on a
cliff next to the road, and Steve’s voice is crying over Michael’s
walkie that NOBODY is listening to him. I tell Michael that
NOBODY knows he’s the new second and leave them with it. DP John
then tells me the set-up: the camera is on the edge of the cliff
pointing inward at the road, it pans left to right following Thomas and
Jane riding down the hill, then continues moving in a full 180 degree
turn to Harry standing on the edge of the cliff. A truck here and
there moves in, unloads bikes and
equipment, then clears out of the tiny area.
The actors arrive and it becomes time for my
terrifying Polaroid moments (my poor camera, so beaten up from previous
productions, takes lousy pictures when it feels like taking any
pictures at all). So I grab Thomas, nervous as all get-out since
I’ve all ready established myself as an idiot Polaroid photographer to
Harry (his Polaroidized glare at me confirming any doubts) and not
wanting to do that with Thomas. So, of course, he’s standing
there
in front of me and I call “Flashing” and nothing happens. So I
say a bad word, grabbing a new pack of film, mutter to Thomas to not
tell my dad I just said that, reload and take the picture. I
thank him and get ready to run away, but he asks me to take a picture
of him with this beautiful scenery for him to keep, he rarely gets a
momento from his films. So, thrilled, I oblige him, but nervously
explain my Polaroid takes lousy pictures and, after snapping a Polaroid
for him, take a couple of disposable camera pics for him. As I
walk away, he asks me, “How many pictures were left?” I say,
“What?” He points at the discarded Polaroid pack and says, “There
was film in there. How many were left? Give it to
me.” And I try to tell him no it’s empty, but pick up the pack
and see there is indeed more film. So I hand him the pack and
quietly plead, “Don’t tell Production,” and walk away. A few
moments later, he calls after me, “Hey, Marilyn! Five!” He
holds up his spread-fingered hand to demonstrate and mouths “F-I-V-E!”
So this big 180 degree turning camera shot on a tiny
area next to a cliff involves all present crew and crew stuff to hide
behind a big rock, which we do for a take or two. We’re scrunched
down on the ground and as we watch Harry on the monitor. Then
Thomas and Jane are
removed for other shots elsewhere (I hear), and we’ve got Harry and
Richard for their big scene on the 4 foot edge of the cliff, between
the big rock we’re hiding beside and the 100 yard drop to the rocky
ocean. I look for the monitor, assuming I’ll be safely on the
road side of the rock, but, no, I’m on the cliff side, with the camera
crew, actors, director, gaffer and, of course, the writer, who just
really needed to be
there.
During the breaks, I take my Polaroids. Harry
jokingly posed like “Iron Man” and dropped his arms right before I
snapped the picture, forcing me to say, “Pity! You almost posed
for me!” He smiled and said, “`Pity!’ I like that. No
one says that anymore.” Richard inspects the poor picture I’ve
got of him and complains, “I look fat with chicken legs.” I tell
him, “It’s the wind billowing up your jacket. In my pictures, I
look like I’ve got a convenience store under my coat,” which made him
smile when he walked away (another smile point for the Marilyn!).
The day finally wrapped, and I get to ride back with
Assistant Production Coordinator Keri, who is hilariously still
complaining about the new 2nd AD, although she concedes they have
worked out most of their differences while we were up on the cliff and
he’s not so bad so far. “Where’s Bob?” she started up again.
“They should say something! He’s like the uncle nobody talks
about who went out for milk and never came back!” I compare it to
a soap opera, where Bob is now a young dark-haired handsome guy and
Michael has become blond.
We return to our hotel room, where I have tons of
paperwork to do, but I still opt to flip on the WB on TV for the season
finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
It’s on for a whopping 15 minutes before Gina enters with her line of
money-requesting crew people. People, cleared, knock knock, more
people, cleared, knock knock knock. I nearly turn it off so I can
enjoy the exciting conclusion at home where I’ve set my VCR, but I opt
to stick with it.
Bedtime.
That 4
Friends Movie
Production
Journals - On the Set
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