bloggie blog

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been here, but today I blog once again from Calabasas. This is my house in Look in the Mirror. In this picture, see me blogging earlier this morning near Allie, who plays my daughter in the movie.

Without Allie, we just went for a drive in my Audi convertible, to get a shot of me on the phone. It failed. Why? Because the RED camera has unreliable, short-lasting batteries. They never talk about that in the glowing reviews, do they? Aargh.

Hello, all ye followers of Look in the Mirror. Yesterday’s shoot was at Tony’s apartment on Hayworth Avenue. Tony and his cacti are pictured here.

The shoot involved a lot of down time, then suddenly I was shooting a close-up with me and the redheads (Rebecca and cactus).

My eighth day of shooting (see explanation about where day seven went) took place in Manhattan Beach over Memorial Day weekend. It’s the second time I’ve been down there, and I gotta say: it’s a lovely place. The beach is nice and the homes inland have a great style to them.

We shot a scene from Look in the Mirror where Lonnie and I pull over for a bite on the way to my big golf weekend. The generous people at Ocean View Cafe let us use their patio. The weather was ideal … when we started. And then the sun started to go down. Right after we wrapped, I began to shiver uncontrollably.

Again, it was a pleasure to work with Rebecca and a good crew. Thanks, everybody! About a half dozen days of filming remain, but this may be the only shot in right out there in public (not my favorite thing). DP Sam responded to questions from passers-by about what we were filming with, “A mayonnaise commercial.” A great answer, I thought! One girl told us that she’d done a ketchup commercial. Now all we need is the mustard….

Somewhere along the way, I got confused while writing on this blog about my shoot dates for the indie film Look in the Mirror. I realized I was confused when I looked at the headlines for past entries. I’ve had seven days on set, but only six days of headlines. I suppose it’s because I often post about the day before instead of the day of. But besides the day count, the locations got messed up, too. Oh well. You’ll figure it out.

So. The second and last day of shooting at the Culver Hotel was another long, glorious day of shooting. A day with trials and tribulations,¹ but also a day with a definite sense of accomplishment. Many pages of dialog, my friends, many pages.

The day went well in large part because of the pleasure it is to work with good people. I’m grateful for the professionalism displayed by Michael Jones and Rebecca Rainboldt (pictured here), and also all the crew members (not pictured here). I’ll be seeing them again tomorrow Sunday in a diner — and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve had four days off. Four days wherein I very much needed to step away from acting as much as I could, including this here blog, but now I’m licking my chops in anticipation of being on set again tomorrow. And also since it’s a diner, I’m licking my chops thinking about pork chops and applesauce. “Porshops and apple shaush.” Quick. Who said it?

You can see me blogging in costume this morning in the picture, with my MacBook desktop showing an endearing picture of a lovely little Bostonian.

It turns out that Culver Hotel is an interesting, older building centrally located in Culver City. It’s the one taller building, hard to miss. Built in 1924, with odd angles throughout because of its wedge shape (inspired by the Flatiron?). I like it. Rebecca and I had some good scenes, it wasn’t a horribly long day either because we lost our light and went home at a decent hour.

At one point, I stood back and watched the monitor for a scene from Look in the Mirror with only Rebecca looking out the window. With the HD camera, an interesting hotel room and a beautiful woman with a great profile, it was lovely and compelling to look at. Good stuff!

Monday’s Look in the Mirror schedule: several hours shooting scenes at the hotel with the lovely Lonnie, played by Rebecca, a day of scenes exclusively with one acting partner. Sunday at the office was the same, a day of scenes with just one other actor, but this time it was with Ed Ford (previously pictured) who plays Mr. Hinkle. Sunday was a long day! It ended for me with lots of second-wind energy, and hard work getting some good scenes, but it was a late night again! Ed was exhausted, but I was rarin’ to go.

We also felt that earthquake, you know, the one that everybody Tweeted about. At first, I thought somebody was working on the roof of the building right above us, but then the building kept moving a little so I made my way to a doorway. The building’s on some sort of rocker/roller system, it turns out. Good times, but just a brief moment then on with the show.

Saturday I was back on set for Look in the Mirror. This time we’re at an office on a stretch of Wilshire Blvd just east of the Miracle Mile. I’ll be there all day today Sunday.

But for Saturday, I just had one scene. So I showed up, chatted, got into makeup and wardrobe, sat around while previous scene finished up, waited while camera was set up, looked around for leftover food, worried a lot about elevators that were in the shot and sometimes didn’t cooperate. Then finally I did a little bit of acting, and left.

The scene was with Rebecca Rainboldt, the first I’ve shot with her — with many more to come. Funny how my scenes with her are so very central to the movie, but in the first five days of shooting, I’ve just had one very brief interchange with her.

Also: I’m counting my days on set at this point, in terms of the titles of my blog posts. There has been shooting without me. I’m on set about two-thirds of the time.

30-35, Intense, Smart, Sexy, Parental, Cool dad, Plumber, Outdoorsman, Loyal, Cowboy, Creepy coach, Blue collar, Mischievous, Dad, Dark, Cynical, 33-40, Blue collar, Dad, Handsome, Rugged, Doctor, Man you want to marry, Sad, Rugged, Southern boy, Midwestern, Dad, Sam Shepard, Dirty Harry, Rough, Bad, Easy Rider, Farmer, Edgy, Handsome, Dad, Worker, Blue collar, 35-45, Could play a cool thug, Humorous, Cute, Kinky, Rugged, Blue collar, also white collar, CEO, Lumberjack, Dad, Principal, Professor that fools around with students, Could have a drug problem, Rugged, Confident, Western, Country, Blue collar, Dark secret, Loving, Dad, Trustworthy, Works with hands, Played football and stayed in same small town, Pedophile, Stalker, Gay, Nice guy, Awkward, Video gaming adult, Silent killer, 27-33, Farmer, Suspect (murder), Professor, Pediatrician, Dentist, Trouble, Husband, Dad, Young dad, Crazy, Dangerous, Mid 30s, White collar, Trusting yet up to something, Doctor, Outdoorsy, Late 30s early 40s, Hip, Rugged, Cool dad, Really cool uncle, Worldly, Always planning, All-American, Texan, 35-40, Best friend, Serious, Friendly, Doctor, Nice, Funny, Texas, Intelligent, Artist, Gay or straight, Charisma, Laid back, Comfortable in skin, Serial killer, Quick-witted, Early-mid 30s, OCD, Dangerous, Artist, Creepy, Seductive, Mean, Intelligent, Goofy, Good or bad father, Athletic, Determined, Lawyer, Doctor, Leading man, Serious, Romantic, Educated, Dad, Late 30s to early 40s, Intelligent, Professor, 30s, Husband, Intense, Stalker, 35-40, all-American, Dad, Office guy, Wears a suit well, Corporate, Smart, Manipulative, Bad guy, Best friend turned bad, Urban, Cool dad, Northern California feel, Discerning, Friendly, Approachable, Smart, All-American, Nice, Young dad, Teacher, Secretly gay, Farmer, Late 30s, Rugged, Handsome, Professor, Best friend, Witty, Spontaneous, Sweet, 35-40

After three progressively longer days of shooting in Calabasas, I’m on a break from Look in the Mirror, and will be back on set next week.

This chunk of shooting ended very late, and on quite a high. We wrapped at 2:00 am after many takes of a long scene.

In film and TV work, you end up doing lots of little takes, or longer takes that get edited into little moments. But every now and then, there are long, uninterrupted scenes. Some are quite famous, like the opening scene of A Touch of Evil. There’s an amazing, long scene in the middle of Factotum with Matt Dillon and Lili Taylor.

In plays, on the other hand, you always end up working towards something that lasts for many minutes without interruption. Once you start, there’s no turning back. So when you shoot a long scene, it feels like a play. Except it’s not. The environment and rehearsal process are so completely different on set. In other words, you make a scene that’s only a few minutes long, barely a fraction of the final act of Streetcar on stage, and you feel great for accomplishing something remarkable.

I hope what we did at 2:00 am was remarkable. Take after take was required. A mistake in dialog or lighting or anything at all could ruin it because you can’t just edit it out. No cut-aways to save us. Well, it could be done in post-prodution, but it would very much change the nature of the viewing experience. So, after the last “Cut,” and “We got it,” I was feeling very up, not at all tired anymore. Good stuff.

This morning, unlike previous blog entries, I write after having shot a scene. It was a scene where Guy unexpectedly runs into his colleague Mr. Hinkle at the pool party. Hinkle is played by Ed Ford, pictured. I’ve got Ed figured out, now. You ask him how’s he doing and he says, “Terrible,” with a big smile, just to see if you’re listening. Also, he makes dirty jokes. I like Ed!

Today is the 3rd and final day at the Calabasas house. Our supportive and generous homeowners, Larry and Sheri (or Shlarry as they are sometimes called), have been putting up with a lot. Today, it’s just Sheri, actually. Guess Larry had to work. On a Monday. Go figure.

I hope to include soon a picture of Larry’s socks, because I am wearing them in the movie and Shlarry got married in those socks!

Juicy inside scoop: Last night, it was challenging for me on set. I had to blow up to a piece of tape. I have spent so much effort recently on doing good acting that is small, real and right into my scene partner’s eyes. This big, angry scene to a non-person was so different and felt very hard to do. We got a good take, but we ran late and I got a little grumpy. Oy — the inner diva is emerging. Run for your lives.