That 4
Friends Movie
Day 20 - Wednesday night
New location: the second tent city, this one
filmed in a park in Sylmar. I had no problems getting there, but
that’s because I looked at the pretty lines on the map that said go
this way on the 210 and take this exit, etc. Apparently those
crew members reading the written directions from the East didn’t have
any problems either. The people coming from Hollywood, however,
were told on the map that they should go west instead of east and wound
up in Glendale, not far from where I started. I was informed of
this seconds after Marcy’s foot hit the pavement from her car and she
showed me how the map was wrong and how long she had been
driving. I was re-informed seconds after my foot hit the set and
Carrie Locations ran up to me and started apologizing, a victim of
everyone jumping on her for Locations Chris’ mistake (she said she was
the first
to inform him of the error and he was majorly bummed). She said
he was out on the freeway holding up a big sign that read “GO WEST!”
but the police made him leave. Much much later in the evening, he
stepped behind my chair looking drained and a group of us greeted him
for the first time all night. Silence. I turned back and
smiled, almost sing-songing, “I
didn’t get lost on the way here.” They laughed and he cried
“Thank you! Thank you! At last, somebody’s not mad at me!”
And again it’s tent city, where our hero tent is
huge and the surrounding tents are small. Peter asked, “Hey,
Michael, where are the dwarves?” AD Michael asked, “What
dwarves?” “The ones who live in the other tents.”
Our other concern was the wickedly powerful
sprinklers going off in the yard just beyond ours. Key Grip
George looked at Michael and said, “Those sprinklers are going off in
rotation and headed our way. Are you sure they’re not going off
here?” Michael deadpanned, “Well, if they do, it will be
okay.” George looked at him flatly and began to point out the
electric cables and various potential explosions. Michael rolled
his eyes and called Carrie over the radio and asked her for
the same assurance he got the night before, which she gave him.
George nodded, not the least comforted, and walked away.
More radio fun with Michael, he sat next to me
and radioed to the Transpo department, who couldn't possibly care less,
what scenes were coming up. "Jay, Alfredo's cutting scene
63A." Transpo Jay radioed back, “Copy on that, but I’ll need to
go through Tony. Tony, did you copy that?” Driver chief
Tony’s voice crackled over the radio, “Copy. Omit 63 Apple. But
we’re keeping 57?” “Confirm that on 57.” Jay’s voice
answered. “Copy that, I’m marking out 63 Apple.” Michael,
falling apart laughing, clicks on again, “Uh, it’s not 63 Apple.”
Jay responded, “Did you copy that Tony?” Tony answered, “I’ve got
my white-out.”
Tonight was the big night for Jane and Thomas’s love
scene. Originally it was no big deal, them waking up after the
event. Somehow, it turned into the actual event with them sitting
up and Jane keeping on her underwear shirt before we filmed the
post-deal dialog. Then came the rehearsal on the dialog, and once
again, Thomas wants to cut all this dialog because he’d never say all
this stupid Italian stallion stuff. I really noticed Jane’s
reaction since she mentioned the night before that a comedy actor can
make a lot of these cut lines work… Jane quietly says she likes the
dialog, then okay. Then “Can’t you just try it? Read it
once?” No, he won’t. A little more tug of war, and the
dialog gets changed. (Marcy pointed out later, “And then she’s
got to play a love scene with the guy.”).
So their 2-shot, then Thomas’s close-up, then Jane’s
close-up. She’s really uncomfortable and says she’s feeling
embarrassed now. Then Jane discovers that Harry and Richard, who
aren’t due on the set for an hour, are sitting off to the side in their
chairs and had watched the whole thing from Sound Peter’s
monitor. She dissolves into embarrassment, and Harry and Richard
are immediately supportive and teasing.
Now it’s Tracy’s turn for fun. I’m sitting
with her and she deadpans to Jane’s stand-in Teresa, “Teresa!
They’re calling for you on set. Give me your clothes.” Teresa
looks at her with horror, and Tracy laughs. Teresa shakes her
finger at her and walks away. Tracy smiles. “Let’s see if I
can go for two. Hey, David!” she calls to the other stand-in who
was not paying attention. “They need you on set.” He
leaps up and starts running to the set. “Take off your clothes,” she
instructed him. He almost reached for his shirt before he stopped
and looked at Tracy. I fell apart laughing, and Tracy
smiled. “I love it when I get two for that.”
Jane’s chatting with Harry and Richard and told them
about having to hurry from the Tonight
Show set this afternoon to be here in time, and they can’t
believe she didn’t tell them she was going to be on the show. She
says it’s no big deal, but Rupert Everett (I think) was following her
and Jay wanted her to stay so she could say funny stuff, which she
didn’t do really.
So now it’s time for the post-lovemaking scene with
dialog, and as it’s starting, we hear this loud plane, and Thomas asks
“Is that a plane?” and Peter says “Yes” and Alfredo calls to cut.
Michael turns back to Peter like, why didn’t you say something and
Peter says, “I gave the sign.” And Michael and I ask what the
sign is, and Peter gives a huge hand-in-elbow Screw you. Michael
followed with the same sign, but preceded by turning his arm a few
times before Screw you and said, “And this is for a helicopter.”
We finish and go home.
That 4
Friends Movie
Production
Journals - On the Set
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