DAY 6 on BRAVING RAPIDS

 

Blog Day 6

Yesterday the cast and some crew had the day off. Most crew. All crew if you don’t count the production team as crew. Erich, Melanie and I worked, me in the office feverishly still trying to get a permit to film at the park where we’ve been filming, Erich at the river with the river guide to find a location, Melanie on costumes and rehearsing with her co-star who flew in at 2 pm. She was probably running around doing a lot more but the point is that the producers don’t get days off.

I worked in my “office”, returned purchases to Walmart, Target, Michael’s etc and moved myself over to the Air B&B where the puppy is staying with her owner. Such a raw deal to have to go stay with an 8-week old fuzzy puppy in a 2 bedroom basement apartment! (I’m kidding) I thought about going to Barbie, the movie last night, but I was tired. I ended up staying up playing with the puppy until 11!

Today we are at the park where lots of the filming will take place and have stayed on schedule, getting some great shots of the family coming down the trail with a wolf cub and meeting the “bad guys”. Aside from no internet in the park and no cell service and me not being able to contact people about the production without going to the center of the park and walking around until I have a bar, todays shoot is going well. It’s the first day for our bad guy, Mickiech, who’s an actor and filmmaker in Seattle and the first day of filming in front of the camera for Melanie as his downtrodden wife. Their stint in the makeup chair this morning was to dirty them up, make their hair look greasy and spray that hair product for touching up roots in the shade of brown all over their shoes and clothes and faces. Our leading lady, Megan takes the longest in the makeup chair but considering it’s a film about a river rafting trip, even her time getting ready is minimal.

It's lunch break as I type this. I order lunch the day before for 16-20 people and hope everyone likes what I order. Today is teriyaki chicken, macaroni salad, coleslaw, steak and veggies from a Hawaiian place called Rumbi Island Grill and it was good! It’s also my job to let everyone know when the 30 minute break is over. One of our favorite lunches was El Pollo Loco with chicken pieces, rice, beans, tortillas etc.

Although I was thinking of going home for a week once I got stuff underway here, I now know how foolish that idea was. I’m needed in person, on set for the full shoot. The only reason I felt I needed to go home was to touch base with the kids, the pets and to make sure no one was suffering while Mom followed her dream. But my kids are so amazing and are making everything work, including keeping our dog away from our new cat. I didn’t foresee I’d be much help once things got rolling but I’m told I am crucial so I’m here until August 17^th.  I am the office person in the trailer, a coveted position. I sneak over to the set to watch the real fun go down and marvel at what is being done off in the woods. The shots, the lighting, the sound, the actors, the emotion. It’s all still overwhelming.

More later…