The Shoot Continues

We are now a little over 10 days into the shoot and things are still going well. Yesterday, Innocent checked into his room and Rosamund flipped out over his proposal to Miss Mary Grey. Ashley Ahlquist seems to have a natural aptitude for comedy and was cracking me up. Today, Innocent and Mary met for the very first time (such is the filmmaking process). The weather has turned to a pleasant cool grey much beloved by Seattleites but anathema to the largely southern cast and crew here.

By the way, the American Chesterton Society blog has a couple of pictures from the shoot, as well as a brief report filed by Dale Ahlquist. I’m lovin’ wearing the clip-on bowties. Very Innocent.

Cast and crew continue to work well together. Our crew is a competent and efficient bunch who know how to make the production look handsome. They have extensive background in a lot of film production and have been doing this for years and years. My goal is to stay out of their way, remember my lines, and not bump into the furniture. Chuck, our DP, reminds me that the standard wisdom of the film trade is “Gone with the the Wind in the morning, Dukes of Hazzard in the afternoon” (meaning work speeds up as we realize the sun ain’t gonna be in the sky forever and we have to get through the shooting schedule).

The cast has been a joy to work with. Michael Moon is played by Eric Kaiser Johnson, you can see him here. He’s a very funny guy with a gift for accents and good comedic instincts. Andy Weir is our Arthur Inglewood. He’s a Chicago actor who also amuses me a great deal in his portrayal of Beacon House’s jittery and belittled wuss. They’ll all be here till the 21st. However, I stay on till the 30th, shooting various flashbacks with intimidating amounts of dialogue I have yet to even begin to memorize.

I’m only intermittently in touch with the outside world, due to cell phone ineptitude and a tendency to, well, not want to be all that engrossed in financial meltdowns, cultural decay, and the folly of our oligarchs and so forth. There’ll be plenty of time for it when I return from this one month sojourn in the world of make believe, but till then, I figure the world can get along without my two cents. Besides, who cares what actors think? When I put on my pundit hat again and start writing for a living once more, then everybody can resume exasperation at me for that, eh? 🙂

Today being Friday (the 13th, no less) I have to prevail upon Joey Odendahl, our fearless director, to take me out to a nice fish sandwich dinner somewhere. One of the curious geniuses of Catholic culture is that it creates guidelines for penance and then invents delicious ways to obey them. Fish on Friday is one of those most delicious things.

Oh! Here’s Joey! Looks like we are heading out! Ciao! I will look in later and try to post a few more things!