While we were still shooting the scene, more noise started coming, but this time from behind the house. Brett's backyard is overlooked by some other properties. This time I went to make it go away. It sounded like a Mexican beer party. I climbed up on a thing and peeked over the dividing wall. It seemed to be a group of Hispanic gentlemen doing some sort of construction carpentry, but they were behind another wall and I couldn't get anyone's attention. I stayed there for a few minutes, listening helplessly as they continued working loudly and carrying on, wondering how the hell I could walk around to that property from where I was. I didn't know. Eventually, I just walked back inside the house, having done nothing to stop the noise. No one asked me what happened and everyone assumed I had done something to make it quiet. Marco nodded at me and I nodded back and we just started shooting. It worked. The noise was not so bad after that, out of sheer chance and no intervention from me whatsoever.
I don't bring a computer to set because I have my iPhone 3GS, which is currently the most advanced discontinued iPhone. Early in the day, I fired up the Facebook mobile app and went to the invite list for the Facebook event of our shoot on Sunday that needs extras. I thought I should invite some people I knew to try to get as many extras as possible. After combing through the entirety of my 246-friend network and checking off the appropriate candidates, I hit OK the app told me it couldn't send out my invites, and I should just try again later. If I've gotten anything out of the Facebook mobile app, it's to appreciate the time I have left in this world.
Then we did scene 34. 34 is a rough scene. It was so rough in fact that Brett had Sheldon and I leave the room to minimize the crew. I chilled out back transcribing a deleted scene from the original Perfect 46 script while they shot the one angle. Then Brett and Whit came out and Whit told us a great secret about how actors achieve believable chemistry onscreen. He then told an amazing story about a previous movie of his. After that, they went back in and got the other angle while I continued transcribing. Brett was super depressed after shooting 34. Not because it was bad, but because it was so emotionally draining to watch. Brett's heart is continually breaking as we shoot this film, and some of it has to do with the fact that his 4-year-old daughter Phoebe keeps sending him videos on his phone telling him she misses him.
Then we ate Chipotle. Everyone likes Chipotle. Eating the Chipotle was making some of the cast and crew ask questions like, who invented tortilla chips, and who invented guacamole? But they didn't get Kat's order. It just wasn't even on the receipt. Must've been a computer glitch when everyone was putting their orders in the laptop.
After lunch we shot 28. At some point during the shooting of 28, Brett noticed we never scheduled 29. 29 would have been doable earlier in the day. Now we would have to do 29 on a different day. Mike then asked me to look through the entire script and make sure there were no other unscheduled scenes. I did. Didn't find any. Hopefully I'm not bad at finding unscheduled scenes. Like, hopefully I'm not a dumb guy, and the whole schedule thing works out in terms of scheduling the scenes that need to be shot for this movie. I wonder if this happens for big productions. Like, what's the biggest movie where a scene just didn't get scheduled and no one noticed? Here's the top 5 times this may have happened:
5. "Oh my god, do we not have the double murder flashback? We'll just have the doctor explain it at the end." - Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho
4. "Oh my god, do we not have the Qui-Gon Jinn ghost visit? We'll just have Yoda casually describe it." - George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith
3. "Oh my god, do we not have the John Connor speech? We'll just have Kyle Reese recite it and say Connor made him memorize it." - James Cameron, Terminator
2. "Oh my god, do we not have the Sean Connery cameo? We'll just have Indy look at a black-and-white picture of him and say he's dead." - Steven Spielberg, Crystal Skull
1. "Oh my god, do we not have Brolin's death scene? Oh well, who gives a fuck." - Coen Bros, No Country For Old Men
After 28, we did 17 at the dinner table. Ayaka prepared a gorgeous meal of salad and pasta with sauce. Ayaka's prop meals are better than the real meals I prepare for myself to eat. Cheryl did a great job making it look like she was eating without actually having to eat a big amount over the course of the many takes. Whit ate about half his plate as he selectively puncuated certain lines with the eating of a penne. This was a change from Waterhole Cove 1, where any time we shot meal scenes, the actors would just really eat the full prop meals, sometimes on top of the actual meal they had had earlier that evening. As a half-vegan calorie counter, I can certainly appreciate what actors have to deal with when they need to eat on camera. I'm of the mind that I will pretty much do anything to destroy or humiliate myself for the good of a scene, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I am not asked to act in a lot of things.
At the end of the night, I had gotten everyone to secretly sign Reid's card without him knowing, thanks to the fact that he spent most of the day working on logging dailies like a sucker. Aside from me, Reid was the last to leave, and when he said goodbye, it was technically already his birthday. None of us said happy birthday to him. He didn't suspect a thing!
Today was Saturday, Day 5. Before going to set, Brett had me make a Mike meme.
This meme was the toast of Facebook. Then we kicked it off with scene 46. I don't think we did anything special to mark the fact that we were shooting scene 46 of The Perfect 46. But of course, this scene is like the linchpin of the bullshit that engulfs Jesse's life. Or at least it's one of three linchpins. I would say the three linchpins in this movie are 34, 46, and 56. If you're reading this and don't know what I'm talking about, email Brett and ask how you can buy a beautifully bound copy of the shooting script.
Then Don arrived and we shot 65 and 66. Brett was stoked to be working with Don, and Don was great to work with. He even signed Reid's birthday card, despite having no idea who Reid was. The only issues while shooting 66 was that every vehicle in the world descended on the house while we were rolling. It sounded like drag racers, hot rods, and possibly a Tumbler (which makes sense because Christopher Nolan lives nearby). And more planes flew over Brett's house during the shooting of 66 than Pearl Harbor. But we think we got enough sound during the many takes to possibly use as reference for when we ADR the entire thing in post. Although I can't say for sure.
After that, we had Counter. Counter is good for a film shoot because they have burgers that represent lots of different food lifestyles. But they didn't get Wey's order. It just wasn't even on the receipt. Must've been another computer glitch when everyone was putting their orders in the laptop. What's up with online forms constantly fucking the camera department? They're also a little pricey. But they have yummy fries.
During the tail end of lunch, we got the great idea to have Marco force Reid to do some bullshit on his computer so we could set up his cake that Brett had gotten that morning. Then I sent an all clear text signaling for Marco to order Reid to get his ass in the living room.
When he came out, we all sang happy birthday and gave him his card. He seemed pretty touched. As we had cake, I tried to get a party atmosphere going by cranking the Tears for Fears Pandora station on my iPhone 3GS, but it was met with indifference, and in some cases, evasion. When the station played I Ran (So Far Away), Kat noted that she liked 80s music and was trying to get into it. Brett condemned her for having been born in 1989, but then Kat fired back by having Brett explain his perplexing love of Cars 2. What followed was a spellbinding oration extolling the wonders of the Carsiverse, culminating in Kat receiving her first ever explanation of the singularity. This was so good, it kept me from having more than one piece of cake. Which was nice, because you don't want a lot of cake when you're counting calories. The only problem is when I'm eating the cake, I have a thought in my head saying, "Well, it's illogical to eat this cake now because I have to abide my daily calorie budget," and then a bigger thought bursts in and says "I have a logic override that says we're going to eat many pieces of cake now because frosting."
Then we did 69. I initially thought we were saving 69 to the end, but someone decided we should go straight to 69, so when Kat asked me what we were doing, I had to tell her 69. 69 was maybe the easiest thing we did today. I wish every scene was as simple as 69. But I can see how it would eventually get pretty boring.
We finished off with 67 and 68, or possibly just 67, because 67 and 68 were the same god damn scene. This was done M.O.S., which was perfect, because the house directly behind us picked this night to have a pool party or something in which they played Star Trek super loud on an inflatable projector screen in their backyard. As Whit paced around the bare Darden house lamenting the ruins of his failed life and questioning his will to go on, he was scored by Michael Giacchino music, punching fights, and Captain Kirk jokes. I don't want to imagine a universe where we tried to shoot a dialogue scene during Backyard Star Trek-O-Rama 2013.
I got home at a reasonable hour, but then I stayed up late writing this blog. I have to pick up Brett and Mike in 4.5 hours. Uh oh.
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