Shooting Continues -- Day Five

Wanda the Wonderful, Dallas Shoot, Jan 10, 2010

I’m still here.  I was supposed to fly back to Denver today, but Carolyn, the continued bad Denver weather, and no charge to change my flight again, convinced me to hang around for another day.  Thank you again to my wonderful husband for putting up with my delayed return, again.

The morning started with Carolyn receiving a phone call from Patrick that Mr. Sam Funk had arrived from Wyoming, after spending a very short night in Denver.  Patrick dropped him off at Carolyn’s house before heading over to the set.  He brought lots of gear from Sam Hampton’s place in Wyoming.  Colin and Maceyla in wardrobe will love the pieces of authentic Wyoming that Funk’s brought along.   Thank you Sam and Janna for the real cowboy gear. 

The set is hopping today.  The 1:00 call time is a bit of a relief.  Arianne and Hannah (the makeup artist) worked until 3:00 am last night getting her hair ready for today’s scenes.  These last two days will all be shot in the Heritage Village Saloon.  Chris the Art Director has transformed the room into the Ritz Hotel, Thermopolis Wyoming, circa June 18, 1929.  Ben the gaffer is currently working on the lighting set up for the first scene.  There are a number of cowboy extras sitting around with Liza.  Liza is one of the dancing girl extras – she’s also a former student of Carolyn’s that’s helping with the editing – and she knows how to foxtrot.  She’s helped out for the past year with the film.  She’s been giving a few quick foxtrot lessons (along with another extra) to the other cowboys.  They’ve found a deck of cards and some poker chips and are currently playing a real game of cards. 

Mr. James McMurtry is now on set, and he’s brought along a wonderful guitar from the 1940s – a Stewart.  The first scenes we’re shooting are of Mr. McMurtry playing the guitar.  It’s as close to period as he’s got.  It sounds wonderful.  We’re now doing close-ups (or inserts) of his hands as he plays.  The saloon is full of crew and extras.  There are anywhere between 18 to 24 people in the room at any given moment.  We are all enjoying Mr. McMurtry’s fine playing in this intimate setting.  I’m trying to resist applauding when the camera cuts.  Mr. McMurtrey’s a pro – hitting his queue every time.   

I’ve successfully ruined one shot already.  I was shooting video and handed my camera to the camera’s assistant to take a picture.  The flash went off – a huge no no.    Ugh.  My apologies to the Director, Mr. McMurtrey, and the crew.  It won’t happen again.  

We’re now changing the lighting for the next scene.  The whole room configuration must be changed around – same scene, different angle.  The lighting crew has jelled and is working efficiently. 

Yesterday I commented on the unique gaffer speak.  One of the many gafferisms, is referring to a clothespin as a “C47.”  Sources say that this originated from the defense contracting industry.  Back in the 1940’s, the film industry made patriotic movies – and got paid by the federal government for doing so.  In order to be abundantly compensated for each film, studios called clothespins “C47s.”  Apparently, the Department of Defense would not pay for clothespins, but would pay for C47s.  C47 sounds unquestionably technical and essential.  C47 is thus a WWII defense contracting artifact.

I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s “At Home,” to unwind at night.  He says the expression “in the limelight” comes from . . . . [I’m too tired to refer back to the book – so I’ll do it later].

It’s now almost midnight.  The cast and crew are still diligently at work.  I’m not sure how many more shots are left to get tonight – but everyone is moving quickly.  The temperature’s dropped and the wind’s picked up.  There are a couple of shivering production assistants that must remain outside to keep people from barging into the set.  Bummer.

Well I’d thought we were almost done – but instead we just completely changed the set for a dolly shot – the last of the evening.  Getting a dolly shot means first clearing the set of all non-essentials, laying a track that must be hauled off of the lighting truck, properly configured, shimmed to level, then a smooth rolling dolly assembled and placed on top.  The camera and camera people all sit on the dolly with the grip pushing them back and forth on the track.  The result on film is a wonderful sense of motion.  We all pitched in to assist the gaffer and art department to quickly accomplish this and make the set correct.  It’s now 1:10 am, the talent and extras are back in place, they’ve learned the foxtrot, and are now dancing to Mr. McMurtry’s guitar.  Carolyn says we are now shooting MOS, when she’s free I’ll ask her what that means.     

Pizza’s were delivered and we’ve all had a slice or so in between shots.  It’s now 2:00 – the dolly shot went well, and now talent is foxtrotting without music to get the dialogue.  Our script supervisor went MIA several hours ago, and now we’re running out of pinch hitters to supervise script.  The shooting continues, well directed but not supervised.  The gaffers are packing up unessential items.  We just finished the martini shot – the last shot of the evening.  It’s a wrap – and a wrap for me, I’m heading out tomorrow.