And it so began on 03 25 2018. Actually it began before that, but I like opening with drama. It was a cold Sunday filled with BIG hopes, and not only the first shot for the film "Mercy's House," but the BIGGEST one at that. We were shooting down on A street in Tacoma WA at a place called Court House Square, that oddly enough had an old court house inside. The building itself is a very big old, somewhat imposing hump of ornamental concrete and steel, that would probably scare the jeebers out of some one who was fresh from Smurfsville.
We would be filming the quintessential scene in which the main character (Mercy) is sentenced. This was to be the scene where that special kind of crazy that Dr. Pavlov would manically spew, would first be seen. With the anticipation of a courtroom full of extras, this would also be the scene where "living room" filmmakers would become public filmmakers. (as well as grow hair, and other things... etc.)
Unfortunately we had some real big unknowables going into the shoot, which quite frankly caused an untold number of stress goblins to begin dancing on the wings of my airplane.
1) I hadn't been able to get the cast into the shoot location for rehearsal. The same for blocking, camera set up and testing, etc, or for even that good old feeling of familiarity before entering the jaws of the shark.
2) The unknowable amount of extras that we would wind up with. It could have been anywhere from five to three hundred. The amount of extras would greatly impact how we would be shooting the scenes. Would it turn into a quaint courthouse? or would it be a grand courthouse? Oh yes, the goblins were dancing and the little biplane was wavering.
Lets go back.
I had held two rehearsals before the big day, thank you to the incredible people at Sanford and Sons Antiques and the Knights of Pythias in Tacoma. I love you guys.
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| Rehearsal 03 18 2018 Joe, Bill Read Jr, Ira Katz and Sean Gill-Macdonald |
