The day started with me almost dying. Seriously, a tow truck with one of those giant metal trash dumpsters on its (what... tow?)... back portion pulled right out in front of me. Literally like 10 feet in front of me. And the dumpster fell off the back and came speeding toward my little car. No idea how I avoided it, just kind of yelled and swerved, but I made it some how. Harrowing way to start the movie.
But, in any case, we were off! We scheduled a very light day to start with, because many of us hadn’t worked together before, and we’d never worked together as a full crew before, so we thought it best to go easy the first day so we could get used to working together. We were at Biola University using their news desk set and their sound stage, where we shot two green screen scenes.
We got started way behind because one of our crew members didn’t show, and we had to have them before we could get going. In fact, they never did show, and none of us could get a hold of them (we actually never did hear from them, so here’s hoping they’re ok). So, yeah, that made things difficult, but it’s film, and we adapt. Luckily we were able to find someone to take that job for the day on Biola’s campus. So, we finally got rolling.
The first thing we shot was on the green screen with Paul Denniston, an extremely talented actor who’s very funny to boot, and his quick turn as the deputy surgeon general was as serious and funny as I could have asked him for. Always a lot of fun to work with Paul anyway (he was the lead in Abducted, my last film).
The second scene we shot was a green screen scene, and I think it came out really well. This was Matt Lutz (our lead)’ first scene, and while you think you have a pretty good idea of what you have in an actor, you never really know until you get out there working with them. And I was very pleased with Matt’s performance that day... I knew he could sing, and I knew he could handle drama... but what I wasn’t entirely positive about what how well he handles comedy. Very well, it turns out. He added several little comedic touches to that scene that will really help it play even funnier (which is great, as it’s the intro to the film and Nathan’s character). It’s always nice to see those roles come to life... no matter what you do, the character on the page isn’t going to be a fully embodied, living breathing creature, until it’s inhabited by an actor. And a good actor takes it and makes it so much better than what you’d written. I think it’s pretty safe to say that was the case with all of the actors in the film, and I feel very privileged to have worked with all of them. Anyway, that scene turned out really well, and kudos as well is due to Melissa Disney, who played her part very well.
The last scene of the day was the newscast, which (briefly) featured Mylinda Royer (who did a fantastic job dying mid sentence... it’s going to turn out really funny), and of course, Mark Christopher Lawrence, currently known as Big Mike on Chuck. Mark’s a great, really funny guy, and he did us much honor by agreeing to come on to the film. Had a great time getting to talk to Mark a bit... he’s extremely friendly and very unassuming for someone who’s had as much success as he has. I can’t wait for you to see him in the film... he did a great job.
So yeah, the first day went extremely well, and was extremely short. Minus that early episode, we got everything done really quickly, and worked really well together as a team. We even wrapped out a couple hours early... which is practically unheard of (and didn’t really happen again, as you’ll soon see).
NEXT: Day Two! (bet you didn’t see that coming)
