Well, dear readers, our second day of the LA shoot was quite fun because we had the delectable Kerry O’Malley with us, playing the mom of our character Sami Sherman. When you have a superb actress like Kerry, everyone has to step up and be on their A game and everyone did. We were ahead the entire day – we did three of Kerry’s scenes for episode nine, had lunch, and then went outside and shot a scene with the lead character’s friends – in the last two episodes of season one, our Sami character is home in LA visiting her parents and friends. It was so hot out – here I thought summer was over – must have been ninety degrees. The friends scene went very well and had quite a bit of coverage. And then, because we wrapped at least ninety minutes early, we were then able to do all of the the mom/daughter Face Time calls, which is a big load off. Those calls were all shot on their iPhones, with each in a separate room but close enough to hear each other. It all worked really well. There’s one of those calls in each of the first eight episodes and the same goes for Cindy Williams’ grandma character. Sami had to do a funny driving scene, pulling out of the driveway to go see her friends – I think she really enjoyed that. We wrapped at five-thirty, and I was home before six.
Once home, I had a ton of e-mails to catch up on, then I ordered two tacos from the local jernt I like. They came and I ate them (very good), then I had telephonic calls, some work on the computer, and finally I started a motion picture, entitled Under Suspicion – not the Gene Hackman movie – this one was from the early 1990s and starred Liam Neeson. The first scene takes place in 1957. Nothing takes you out of the film faster than setting it in 1957 but having a visible theater poster for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, a play not written or done until 1967. Then we jump ahead two years. So far, it’s quite confusing and I’m not sure I’ll stick with it. I got about thirty minutes in. I do like the actor Kenneth Cranham, who, just a few years later in the late 1990s, starred in the Broadway production of An Inspector Calls, playing the titular Inspector. He was absolutely superb in that production directed by Stephen Daldry. I also caught up on the Darrell Brooks trial and he’s still a jerk and still up to his sovereign citizen antics – the judge is quite over him and is not playing his stupid games. What she can’t stop is his excruciatingly slow cross examination, where he’ll literally sit at his table reading notes for ten minutes while everyone sits and waits – and when he finally asks a question, it’s one he’s asked of every single witness.
I only got about six hours of sleep, was up at seven-thirty and on my way at eight-forty and arrived at the location twenty minutes later.
Today, we’ve pushed our call time until ten, with Cindy arriving at eleven. While she gets into makeup, Kerry and Sami will run lines with her. Then we begin shooting at noon. We have three indoor scenes to do and they all take place with everyone sitting on the couch – no blocking. Once we get those three in the can, as it were, then we go outside and do a very quick one-page scene on the tennis court. I’m pretty sure we won’t get to Cindy’s song, so we’ll see if she can do it the following day and if not, we’ll get her in sometime next week and we’ll shoot it then along with the Face Time calls. We can shoot until six or even six-thirty, but I’m hoping it goes quickly and easily. Afterwards, I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, we’re at a green screen studio for four or five hours, basically doing the duet we have to do and if Cindy’s with us, her song. Thursday, we’re at Vitello’s from nine to noon, and Friday I rest. Here’s a photograph of Kerry O’Malley getting ready to shoot her closeup in the first scene of the day yesterday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight-thirty and out the door by nine-thirty. I’ll arrive at ten and the cameraman and I will plan out the shots and find our best angle for the three couch scenes. Then we’ll go outside to the tennis court and figure out how to shoot that. And then it’s home, James, and I’ll watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What’s the most extraordinary play you’ve seen in a production whose physical elements blew you away. For me, it probably was that Daldry production of An Inspector Calls – an astonishingly weird and moody production that included non-stop rain, some Bernard Herrmann music played by a string quartet if memory serves – and a set that was so crazy but which somehow worked – Bob Crowley did the set. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, always pleased when everyone is on their A game.