Cold. Northern California damp cold.

 

Everyone arrives on schedule shortly after dawn. The mission: shoot the film in the next 10 hours.

 

Setup for the opening tracking shot goes smoothly. Everything is rosy. Until the first shot. Jeff goes to review the footage (thank you, thank you, thank you, for checking, Jeff!). Blank blue. No recorded image.  

 

After some tense minutes, we conclude that the recording head needs cleaning. Luckily, I have a head-cleaning tape in the house, so we don’t have to wait until a camera shop opens on a Sunday. Success! Back to work, half-hour behind schedule.

 

The remainder of the day is busy, but smooth. Cast and crew work together well, lending hands to help wherever needed. A great hour break for chinese takeout and some unwinding before the afternoon push to finish before dark. It would be hard to find a better group of people to work with.  

 

In the end, we wrap the shoot on schedule. All required shots are on tape. Great performances. None of us were hit by cars. Mission accomplished.  

 

Well, almost. Time for post-production.