July 10th – 6:30-11:00 am EST
The first day of shooting was a huuuge success. We got a great cast, a capable and swift crew, and Greg is using them all very well. I think we’re off to a rocking start.
The day began at 6:30. We had to be on the set at 8:00, and we all needed to shower. There was Greg, Wil, myself, and Sephera Giron, the actress playing Ruby, my character’s wife. Also, Tamar and Kaelin needed to get off to their day gigs, work and day care. So organizing the shower parade was in itself quite the accomplishment.
Greg, Wil and I left the house at 7:40, got to the set just before 8, and found a couple of people waiting for us, including Sherrie, a make-up person hired by Brooke to make sure the HD format isn’t as cruel as it usually is. Tall, with grey/white curly hair, a thin frame, tanned all over, she looks like one of those Sedona earth mother types, but she’s kind, fiercely engaging, and bragged about a severed green limb in her trunk, so she and I became fast friends. Greg opened the door, and one by one, the cast and crew began to arrive.
I realized with mounting horror that I had left my shoes back at Greg’s. I wasn’t going to be in the first shot, but the second shot would require shoes, not the sneakers I was wearing. I tried to call Sephera at Greg’s house, but there was no answer. With guilt gnawing at my intestinal lining, I told Greg. He turned away, grabbed Michael O’Hear, the AD (also the guy playing Roman) and dispatched us to the house. Unfortunately, Michael had no clue how to get to Greg’s place. He wrote it down haltingly on a piece of paper. (A quick aside—no one in Buffalo seems to know how to get around in Buffalo. Greg got lost a couple of times the day before—it’s his friggin’ home town!) Michael and I got in his car, and drove out. I paid careful attention to where we were going, how to get there, etc. Michael’s a nice guy and all, but perhaps the slowest driver on the planet. We were going down this road, a main thoroughfare with a 40 mph speed limit. We didn’t crack 25, never got out of 2nd gear. It wasn’t the traffic—Michael drives with extraordinary caution. The conversation was great, as the man knows theatre and horror. I just wish his gas pedal foot knew acceleration.
When I got to Greg’s, I couldn’t find my shoes. Eeek! So I grabbed some flip flops and sandals and headed back. Forty minutes later, they were just finishing squeezing off the first shot, with lovely Sandra playing Lizzie. (Last one cast, first one shot—it’s always the way.) I was in time. Greg okayed the sandals, and my character is more beat-nicky than ever.
The first scene between Brooke Lewis and I was quick. It had to be. We were shooting day for night, and the sun was creeping out over the building, reducing our shadowy stage by inches every minute. Brooke was awesome. Just the right mixture of tramp and child. Me, I don’t know. I felt stilted and awful next to her. I didn’t want to do the bad-guy bombastic thing, and I basically played the action of winning her trust. Be kind, engaging, then call her on her shit, and let her make her own mind up. We could have done it a couple more times, but we were losing non-light. Hopefully, Brooke and the writing will make it fly.
Tags: Horror, Low-budget filming, Slime City
