Bonjour!

We had a very eventful weekend this week.

With the New Year over we doubled our efforts and got back to work. This weekend we needed to shoot three things -- the first, a Height Disorder PSA that had been written almost two months prior that we hadn't had a chance to do, the second, a few pick-up shots with Stan Marley and the third, a short but hard scene that takes place immediately after the Uhaul explosion.

 Friday: One of the most painless shoots... ever. We blast a light on a living room wall in Justin/Dashiell/Daniela's house and blow it out -- giving the PSA that crisp, white-background look (we also color-corrected it a bit in post-production.) There, we set up the camera and shot all of their dialogue in an hour, maybe two (mostly due to the fact that Francesca couldn't stop laughing. God we're funny...) We then quickly shot Stan Marley's pickup shots and voila -- we're in bed by 2 and there are no problems.

Saturday: Saturday is editing day. And finish up PSA night. We spend most of it sleeping. Then we eat, edit, shoot some shots, eat some more and finish up by editing. Then sleeping. The PSA gets finished and you can see it on our front page and YouTube (please comment on either, rate, subscribe, yadayada.)

Sunday: This is the hard shoot. We have to go get the Uhaul while simultaneously trying to get some soot-related materials for the actors. Oh, and Justin can't REALLY drive -- and he's the only one who has a car. Why can't he drive? Quick anecdote:

--on Friday we're driving back to the house to shoot while Justin is ordering sushi on his cell phone. The conversation goes something like this:

 "...and an order of the Alaskan Roll, and the -- wait, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to call you back, I'm being pulled over."

And oh, was he ever.

So he gets pulled over and the policeman -- a very nice, effeminate man -- greets him. He mentions that there were like eight signs telling Justin he couldn't turn left but stubbornly, Justin did anyway -- he's Chase Cougar dammit, he can do anything he wants.

So, he takes his license to make sure everything's kosher. Except it isn't. As, somehow, Justin didn't realize it expired... two years ago. So, the cop comes back and says, "Justin, do you want to be arrested?" "What?" "Your license expired two years ago. I can take your car and arrest you, technically." "I was not aware of that." "Yeah... does anyone else have a license?"

So Dashiell gives him his. By the way, I must point out that Justin talks to authority figures like... well, imagine a giant talking curious cat. That's kind of like him. He's not nervous, he just goes, "Oh, gee gosh, really?" And they all just want to give him a hug.

So, the cops return with Dashiell's license -- which checks out -- and then one of them gets a more important call. So, giving Dashiell back his ID they quickly say, "Okay, switch drivers and get this taken care of..." and run off.

Here's the thing. Justin drives a stick shift and Dashiell hasn't driven one in months. So, he switches in and starts to go... then stalls halfway into the street as a giant truck pulls behind him and starts honking. The cops, at this moment, have done a u-turn and come back. So, the crosswalk looks like this -- a black car filled with screaming actors, "Dashiell, back, back, back, back, stop, now stop, Dashiell stop, stop." A giant truck honking at a stalled and/or seizuring car and a police car watching all of this.

Luckily, their call was either more important or they had a good sense of humor, since they didn't bother stopping us and we managed to get home without Dashiell destroying us.

...back to Sunday.

Sunday: So, we get to the shoot 30 minutes late. We're in the same spot -- a private park called The Presidio. We set up the lights and our actors are slightly irritable. Drew (Jimmy) has to leave his crying child to come at the last moment because he didn't get the email that we were shooting. We get ready. The lights are up... and... oh god, Park Police. Seriously, Park Police. Park Police says, "Do you have a permit?" We laugh. Who can afford that? And we get, unfortunetly, kicked out. We HAVE to shoot this scene though, so we go to Justin's house -- at this point, some of our actors want to slowly and quietly slit our throats.

We set up and desperately try to make the scene look similar to the other one (ideally it does.) It starts raining. It's freezing cold and ... well, I can't tell you the rest as I don't want to ruin the scene. But, I'll wrap this overly long email by saying -- it was a tough, freezing, awful shoot.

But hey, the dinner after was great -- cooked by Jennifer and his girl helpers (thanks Miss Daniela and Jenny for that).

And that.. that was our weekend.

-Yuri