That 4
Friends Movie
Day 23 - Saturday night
Finally, locations has secured a hospital for us and
we have a scene written for it and, as it’s the second to last day of
filming and this is the second to last big climatic scene, and here we
are. So I arrive, looking for Make-up Stella (addicted and I look
particularly washed out today). She’s not here yet, but the
actors are inside with Alfredo rehearsing, which means they’re
re-writing the scene. Thomas arrived late, so he walked in with
me
and we discover the others are not only re-writing the scene, they’re
re-writing the concept.
All this time, the big climax of the script is
Richard’s character confession of an act he committed.
Originally, this confession was in the mission scene, but they decided
to hold it until the big hospital scene. Now Richard’s saying the
movie we’ve shot doesn’t naturally lead to this bit of dramatic
twist. The story should move beyond the past and look to the
future, focusing on the existing characters. But Jane would still
like to leave in her bit with Richard's character because she really
liked it for her character, and, boy, Richard really wants to lose that
because he doesn’t think it makes sense, which Harry points out is
perfect, because it makes sense to Jane’s character and not to
Richard’s. But Thomas is even more concerned about the dramatic
structure and leaving this scene to only be about Jane's character
being
angry about a reveal that the audience all ready knows about isn't
enough new information to satisfy the audience. Richard contends
that this a small, character movie and it all works.
So Todd walks in and Harry, smiling, tells him to
walk away, leave, leave, really, he means it, you don’t want to be here
for this. Todd hovers, then leaves. More discussion, like
well that question better be addressed in tomorrow night’s scene, the
big final scene, because it’s the final scene that hasn’t been written
yet and it is the last night we’re filming, and Jane comments unless,
of
course, we just keep filming and filming and Todd and Alice walk in,
pleading for at least a read-through. The actors say they can’t
because there isn’t anything to read yet. I’m really dying to
find Stella and get made up. They decide to leave for trailers
and work out the details later.
I go straight to Stella, who thank God is just
sitting alone in her room, and tell her I’m desperate for her.
She lures me in with a single phrase, “Come in,” and I’m back in the
chair (this time, made fun of by the production office people, with a
few camera clicks and giggles heard while my eyes were closed and
Stella was doing the eye liner thing). Oh, and Jennifer tells me
that I’ve got another guest in training courtesy of my former teacher
(Lonnie said it would be okay), and I’m pissed because it’s the second
to last night and I’m feeling really empty and I don’t feel like
playing nurse to students of someone who didn’t have the courtesy to
ask me. I’m looking depressed. Alfredo notices and hugs me
and kisses me.
So I go sit with the camera truck people with my
traditional egg, American cheese and salsa burrito, and meet a new boom
guy. Previous boom guy told me that he thought he was from the
University of Florida, so I immediately did not approve of him (it's a
pledge we take at the University of Georgia), but he assured me he was
from Florida State. So we talked football and trashed Notre Dame,
and I went on my merry way, where I get the gist of the new scene
(blocking from Thomas, dialog from Richard).
Eventually we get ready for the big hospital scene,
and Harry, perfectly clean with a small bloody bandage on his forehead,
sits on the hospital bed in the tiny hospital room. And I pull
Alfredo to the side and say he looks awfully darn
clean for someone who looked like he was hit by a truck in the previous
scene. Harry agrees and also thinks the tiny bandage doesn’t
really justify all the blood that was all over him in the previous
scene. Alfredo assures him, “No, no, no, no, my love, a head
wound, you bleed a lot. There is a lot of blood.” Harry
tries to be convinced, but he nods with unconvincing concern, saying he
just doesn’t want the movie to stop dead in its tracks with the
audience saying, Whoa, where did all the blood come from? Alfredo
assures him there is a lot of blood with a head wound, trust him, but
he does want a bigger bandage on Harry’s forehead and it needs to be
clean, no blood seepage. Stella and Enya are all ready working on
a bruised scratch Alfredo wants on Harry’s elbow and knee. I want
to know about his clothes. I’m thinking the hospital possibly
would have taken off his bloodied shirt, especially since he’s
HIV-positive. Would they know? Would he have told
them? Richard, now in the fray with medic Maureen, producers and
a few others, said he definitely would have told them. He didn’t
know about the clothes, though. Marcy and Tracy said they had a
hospital gown on hand. Maureen said since he wasn’t staying
overnight, it was possible they would have left him in his
clothes. But Alfredo does not want the earrings in or the
bracelets on, and someone cries out that the doctors wouldn’t take them
out and Alice says it’s a continuity thing – the audience will miss
them. I say he’s checking out and has had time to put everything
back in at this point, period. And I’m brandishing my Polaroids
for every question, showing the dirt and blood from the previous scene
and the bandage we established him wearing for the closing scene.
Harry looks at the bandage picture and we’re all cool on putting a
bigger bandage on him, and Marcy has a bag of stage dirt with her to
dust him with. When Gabriel walks in holding the giant jug of
sticky prop blood, Harry points laughing and tells him to get away from
him with that awful orange juice. So I step aside and watch Harry
tired and surrounded by all these nit-pickers, started by one
question. I
turn around and AD Michael is walking in circles and rubbing his
temples with his walkie. The crew is waiting.
So we set up, the last looks, and we’re still not
shooting. Jane walks in her own circles and stops, announcing
pleasantly, “We’re like a fishbowl – we expand – whatever time there
is, we’ll take it.” Michael can’t believe we haven’t popped off
the first shot of the night yet, and he scheduled a short night.
More arranging and re-arranging. Are we ready? Jane
announces, “If anyone here any reason why this scene should not be
shot, please speak now or forev -- .” Let’s go!
So we go, sound rolls, camera rolls, action, Jane
and Richard say their dialog, and Harry enters, saying his new line,
“Boy,
you’d never believe how much blood comes out of your head,” and I
nearly laugh out loud and risk ruining the shot.
Coverage, coverage, coverage and lunch.
Harry’s sitting by himself, soon joined by Richard
and Jane, and I step up and ask if I can sit with the actors tonight
and
they say sure. So they talk business, working-out (Alfredo
suggests lifting maximum weight and working your way down without
stopping, Jane says she doesn’t lift weights no matter what the TV Guide interview said, Harry
comments that two minutes into hitting the bag his arms are dead), and
movies. Finally the conversation turns interesting, with talk of
the big fight in Vegas a few hours earlier – word was Tyson bit his
ear! Twice! And lost his purse! Harry’s into this
discussion, Alfredo explains to Jane that Tyson lost $30 million and
how
could he bite his ear in a fight? I turn to Harry and ask who
Tyson was fighting? Harry beams and says “Holyfield!” I
grin, pleased. Richard asks if didn’t Holyfield knock Tyson out
in the first round the first time, and I say “the eleventh” before
Harry can, which surprised Harry. Richard is enraptured
discussing When We Were Kings
and tells a story about Ali wearing out Foreman and winning. I
tell them about working on a movie during the first Tyson/Holyfield
fight and everybody giving me a hard time about how easy Tyson was
going to beat Holyfield, and I was like, “Hmmm, a convicted rapist
versus a guy from my home state. Which to choose, which to
choose?” Harry brightens up and asks, “Are you from
Georgia? Really?” I smile back and ask him if he didn’t
know that. He asks where I went to school. “University of
Georgia,” I tell him. He asks if that’s in Athens, I say yeah,
with R.E.M. and the B-52s, and he repeats nodding with a smile the
B-52s, and just as I’m enthralled, Gregg butts into the conversation
and I’ve lost Harry.
More lunch discussion involved Richard’s annoyance
with Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet,
even though he didn’t see it (he couldn’t agree more when I told him
about my friends’ Kaye and Peter’s take on the frozen tundra not
preventing Ophelia from finding fresh flowers or drowning in a frozen
river), and how brilliant other productions were, especially one where
Ophelia was wearing tons and tons of heavy cloaks and distributing
steel spikes and calling them flowers, so naturally the water soaked in
and pulled her down. Yes, he saw Ralph Fiennes’ performance and
he was the best person in the production, but he couldn’t nail all the
soliloquies. He thought Kevin Kline was the best American actor
doing Hamlet – maybe missing
the emotion, but he knew how to read it. And he saw David
Hyde-Pierce as Lauretes and he was b-r-i-l-l-l-i-a-n-t.
The actors split, and I join Marcy’s circle just as
she’s telling them about Local Hero,
to my amazement, since it's my favorite movie and I seldom hear it come
up in conversation. We’re back, and Marcy and I walk together,
quoting lines and trading our favorite scenes.
Back to work, it’s Thomas’s turn for coverage with
Harry and Richard. During the rehearsal, when Thomas throws the
bag of ice cream to Harry and turns and walks away, Harry says,
“Thanks, Mean Joe,” and the crew erupts in laughter. More
coverage, more waiting, and Richard is off to the side, making a loud
coughing noise. He follows it with an innocent, “Who did that?”
While all this is going on and unbeknownest to the
crew, I'm told later, film-runner Rob has approached stand-in David and
whispered to him, “I found the door to the basement.” David
turned to Rob and said, “Let’s go!” So they go and explore the
abandoned hospital basement. David said it was really spooky
looking, all kinds of creepy stuff hanging from the ceiling, accented
by their single flashlight beam. David dared Rob to open a scary
door and Rob refused. So David s-l-o-w-l-y turned the handle
and…opened…the door…and… SCREAMED! Which made Rob scream and
David laughed and laughed.
That 4
Friends Movie
Production
Journals - On the Set
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