Braving Rapids has a shooting schedule of 16 days and tomorrow will be day 13. As I type this sitting at my makeshift desk in the RV everyone is about 1/2 a mile away on a trail bordering a creek in a park called South Fork. It's a park we've used before and has nice little pockets of grass and trees with majestic mountains in the background. Erich has an eye for such cinematic shots and South Fork offers these vistas away from the noisy park where they have set up the day's shoot. I stay in the RV/office while people come and go for costume changes, snacks, breaks in the A/C and to the public restrooms nearby. I'm connected to the movie set by a walkie talkie where I hear "that's a cut" "rolling" "that's a take" and every 15 - 20 minutes Erich asks me something or tells me to get a prop ready or to send someone back to set.
Yesterday we filmed at a house on the Provo River with some shots inside and some outside in the driveway and then the family dinner on the deck. I wasn't in the trailer all day because we had the yard, deck and house to roam around in. I set dressed the corner of the family room with Native American art and decorated it to look like a Native river guide lived there. Luckily, the house has a fishing lodge look and it proved to be an amazing find for the film. Dave the owner had been called away for a few days to fight a fire in Arizona and gave us full use of the house and property so I'm trying to think of something really cool to buy him to say thanks. Maybe a hammock for his deck overlooking the river. The whole day was spend just milling around the yard and house. My job is to put everything back where it was before we started changing the décor and with the help of "before" photos, that's what I did as they filmed the final scene on the deck. This is where the puppy is brought back to the family after finding out it's not a purebred wolf. Oops, I gave away the ending!
I set dressed the deck, complete with dinner on everyone's plates so if you ever wonder why the actors aren't really looking like they're eating in movies, I can tell you it's because that food sits out for hours and it's dangerous to eat it after all that time. Also, there were bugs flying into the potatoes and also the cast had just finished a sirloin tip meal that I ordered from Sizzler. Every day I have a meal coming at the 5 hour mark and we sit down to eat then head back to set after 30 minutes. Tomorrow is Hawaiian food. Luau pork and macaroni salad among other things.
When I think how strange this all felt at the beginning, how useless I felt sometimes not knowing set etiquette or terminology and how lonely I was without my kids and dog and our new cat, I am so thankful I settled into this and started having fun. I'm the office producer and today I found out we can film in the local elementary school for my scene on the last day as a teacher. I even have a few lines as I hand off disturbing art work to the mom of the little girl, Grace. Lines I wrote. (you have to know I bumped up my part in the last rewrite.) Ha ha ha.
We have Friday and Saturday off this week and if it's anything like last week's day off, I'll be busy with production stuff. I need to return barely used props like a basket, a print of a medicine woman, some blankets, etc. Hey, we are a low budget film and every $70 is important. Could mean the difference between getting those Crumbl cookies for a treat or not!
I'd like to think our cast is happy, our crew is satisfied and we are all excited to make this movie. Our executive producer visited set on a stiflingly hot day but he and his wife were thoroughly charmed by our little Seyka and I took a bunch of photos of them with her. She's a sweetheart and I got the best compliment from Tawnii today when she said Seyka probably knows me the best, next to Tawnii on this crew. She sees me as the fun aunt who gets down on the carpet back at the Air BnB to play. I have little cuts on my hands to prove how much fun we've had!
Here she is on her last shot tonight where the wolf cub gets carried by the bad guy as he dognaps and kidnaps them. Tawnii is holding Seyka, Erich is giving her direction and the actors are listening.
It's been a couple of late nights and I'm looking forward to hitting the hay tonight for a good 6 hours sleep before I take that actor back to the airport tomorrow. He's from Seattle so it only seems fitting I drive him. That and the fact I have the coolest rental car--a seafoam Jeep Wrangler.
I'm a support person and I'm good with that. This movie is my baby and I want to make sure to fill in gaps and make actors happy and help out in any way I can to make the final product the best it can be. Also, everyone is so nice. If I had to guess I'd say I'm the worst one of the bunch in terms of swearing and snarky-ness.
That's it for now. I hope you enjoy!
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